Sinekli Bakkal

Truth always beats fiction, but this time, fiction beats fiction... or maybe I'm just so fine-tuned to the 1920's and -30's that this is bound to happen.

One of the main characters of my comic Goldenbird is a fledgling Catholic deacon and Venetian native called Falco Peregrini. Some weeks ago I made a goofy "what-if" drawing where he is dressed up like a Turkish (late Ottoman era) scribe, inspired by the popular song "Katibim". I just love to play dress-up with my characters...

Today I was googling around for references to the name "Peregrini", which is pretty rare as an alternative spelling for Pellegrini. And what do I find? Sinekli Bakkal, a Turkish novel from 1935, dealing with typical Modernist issues of emancipation, faith and Westernization. The main character is the Italian pianist Peregrini, an ex-priest (!) who has left the "cold spiritual climate" of the West. In late 19th century Istanbul, he learns to know Rabia, a hafiza (reciter of the Holy Quran), who shares his love for music and artistic beauty, as well as the preference for simple life and the common people under the oppressive regime of the Sultan.

The writer Halide Edib chose a very independent path for the protagonists of Sinekli Bakkal. Instead of going with the flow of cultural Westernization, so politically correct for Turkey during the Atatürk years, she chose to show "Easternization" as a path to personal fulfillment and freedom. Rabia is an independent and well-respected woman due to her artistic skills and learning; the unbeliever Peregrini converts to Islam, and they marry... happily ever after? I don't know - I haven't read the novel myself (goes on the never-ending list)....

Screencaps from the 1967 movie version, found on a Turkish forum. Rabia is played by Türkan Soray and Peregrini by Ediz Hun (the guy who looks like Omar Sharif!). Note the fez (outlawed in 1925).

There's a mixed bag of literary analyses and articles online:
Nationalist Theory in the Writings of Halide Edib (Duygu Köksal)
An Epic for Peace (Hülya Adak)
Das Patriarchat entlässt seine Töchter (11/10 2008, Neue Zürcher Zeitung)
Memoirs of Halide Edib (Google Books)

I haven't found a discussion of Halide Edib's choice of the name Peregrini yet, but I'd like to think that she had similar thoughts as I: Peregrinus means wanderer (or stranger) in Latin, and it is the source for the word pilgrim in many languages.

From the LIFE photo archive

Google has made the incredible photo archives of LIFE magazine digitally available to the general public. Many of the photos have never been published before and include works by celebrities like Alfred Eisenstaedt, less-known photographers like Hugo Jaeger (colour photos of the Third Reich, a creepy experience), and unknown illustrators. Here are some of my favourites in no particular order, perhaps they give an impression of my main interests :)

Helsinki; in front, the Russian Orthodox church, in the back, the Lutheran Helsinki Cathedral. I bet the photographer chose this angle because of the "red scare" during the general strike in Finland in 1949. An anecdote about Ronald Reagan tells that the President during a visit in Helsinki quipped, "I can see Russia from here!"
Date taken: August 08, 1949 * Photographer: Mark Kauffman

Ella Fitzgerald at "Mr. Kelly's" nightclub in Chicago, 1958. Photographer: Yale Joel

Jesuit novices contemplating their breviaries at Los Gatos Novitiate a.k.a. Sacred Heart Novitiate, San Jose, California. There are many more beautiful photographs from their vineyards and the varied work of the novices by Margaret Bourke-White. Date taken: October 1953


Carl Mydans, who also documented the Winter War from the Finnish side, took beautiful colour photographs of Venetian life in the 1940's.


This is adorable. A man is combing his girlfriend's hair in Italy, 1963. The photograph Paul Schutzer clearly enjoyed documenting Italian masculinity since there are many charming photographs of men doing nice things like dancing, mountain-climbing, relaxing or just goofing around. It is nice to rest one's eyes on those pictures after an overdose of full-colour Nazi and Fascist parades...
Tragically, Paul Schutzer was killed while covering the Six-Day War.


From peace to war, and to yet another war: This photo was taken in Khe Sanh, Vietnam, by Larry Burrows in 1968. The American soldier under siege is gently holding a native puppy. I hope they both got away alive; the photographer himself died while covering the invasion of Laos in 1971, when the helicopter he was flying in was shot down by North Vietnamese forces.

Paolo Garretto

More of a 30's guy than 20's, but nice to look at...
Paolo Garretto was an Italian artist who became famous for his stylized caricatures of famous people in the 1930's and 1940's. His career started in 1928, and he was published in the British Caricature of Today magazine and the Italian satirical magazine Pasquino. He was recruited by Vanity Fair as cover artist (the portrait to the right was taken for VF by Lusha Nelson). The New York Times tells in its obituary from 1991 about his life's trials:

When World War II broke out, Mr. Garretto, an Italian citizen living in the United States, was interned as an enemy alien and deported to Italy. He was approached by the Nazis to produce caricatures of President Roosevelt and other Allied leaders. When he refused, he was interned as a political prisoner in Hungary from 1942 until the end of the war.

Interestingly, Garretto did several rather nasty caricatures of Roosevelt while in the USA. As a cartoonist myself, I find the principle sound. As long as he was not allowed to lampoon Mussolini, why should he attack the president of a state that granted him the freedom to do so?
Here are some of Garretto's portraits of my 1920's favourites, more at cartantica.it


Comrades & mortal enemies, Trotsky and Stalin


Marinetti and Marconi, bringing in the machine age


Former subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kafka and von Stroheim


And finally my top picks, d'Annunzio and Atatürk! I love that bald owlish head and those lynx eyes.

La Mamma di Falco

Eugene de Blaas (1843-1931) - A Young Beauty (1882) Oil on panel.

I imagine Falco's mother would look something like this... a few years before he was born.

Eugene de Blaas was born in Rome of Austrian parents. The family moved to Venice, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when father Karl became a professor at the Venice Academy. Consequently, Eugene studied under his father and Venetian masters, and became an expert of the "Venetian genre" - meaning art aimed at the wealthy upper-class tourists flooding the city. Today, his art may be viewed as quaint and picturesque; he depicted idealized townsfolk and street life, preferably beautiful young women in various everyday activities. He became very popular, especially in Britain, and became a professor at the Academy like his father.

Cylinder Recordings

Originally published on historia.ainurin.net (2006/10/30)



The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the Department of Special Collections, Donald C. Davidson Library, University of California (Santa Barbara - phew, that's some name!) has made available an incredible amount of digital versions of cylinder recordings from the late 19th and the early 20th century. Browse through themes such as Jazz, Dance Bands, Swedish or Finnish or Japanese music, ethnic humor at the expense of Italians, Irish or Jews, and contemporary events such as the Great War or the Prohibition.

Thomas Alva Edison's invention, the phonograph cylinder (in wax and celluloid), was not easily defeated by the disc. Today, restoration is hard work, since celluloid deteriorates with age, and wax is notoriously fragile. Although Edison was not the only one to produce them, the age of cylinder recordings ended when the Edison Company left the recording business in 1929.

Goldenbird fans can enjoy the novelty jazz song that Mayann is singing on stage in chapter one: Jazz Baby, performed by Rachel Grant (a k a Gladys Rice) in 1919.
Afterwards, you may refresh your Italian with this basic lesson from the 1900's. It seems that it is rather difficult to catch a train directly to Milan. But it is a pretty language, no?

Headlines from 1920

The Goldenbird story tales place on the exact dates of June 19th-23rd. The story this far has reached June 21st. What happened in the world during those three days? The New York Times free archive gives us some funny and thought-provoking headlines of the summer of 1920.

1920, June 19th
Goldenbird: The gang gathers in the politically disputed, Italian/Slavic resort Ginestra. Falco is scheming, Mayann is busy with her rehearsals and swimming lessons, and Andy and Lou paint the town red in the evening.
Meanwhile, in the real world:
D'ANNUNZIO STATES TERMS. Tells Giolitti He Won't Yield Fiume Till Independence Is Granted. - We all should know d'Annunzio and his Fiume escapades by now...
ITALIAN PRISONERS KILLED. Albanian Attacks Follow Assassination of Essad Pasha. - Some Albanian forces blamed the assassination on "Italian intrigue" and took out their anger on 330 POW's.
AIRCRAFT BUILDERS' TASK; To Convince People Planes Are Safe "... The next generation will know more about airplanes and flying than we do today of the automobile..." - Modern technology revolutionized communications, but Lindbergh's cross of the Atlantic was still far in the future.
ROOSTER FOR DEMOCRATS. Illinois Woman Declares Mule Isn't the Right Party Emblem. - I thought it was a donkey? Certainly wouldn't improve the quality of dirty political puns.
SEAMEN RESENT GERMANS. British Delegate at Conference Clashes with Teuton. - The International Seamen's Conference in Genoa, Italy, was disturbed by quarrels between the former enemies. NYT was slightly biased as well: "... a German delegate, with red upstanding hair and red pointed beard, rose with an arrogant air and delivered his speech in loud tones."
ITALY ASKS ABOUT SUICIDE. Government Wants Facts from Palmer About Red's Imprisonment. - This famous case involved the alleged suicide of anarchist Andrea Salsedo. As a worker for the political newspaper Cronaca Sovversiva he had been taken in for interrogations without arrest or warrant by the Bureau of Investigations in February 25. There, he was urged to reveal names and details about his comrades. His widow claimed that he had been tortured before he threw himself from the 14th floor on May 3. His case inspired anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti to organize protests, which would incriminate them further in the famous "trial of the century" 1920-1927.

1920, June 20th
Goldenbird: Falco is chased by mountain warrior monks in the Slavic hinterland, while Mayann continues her flirt with the swimming teacher, and Lou realizes her and Andy's adventures have had serious consequences.
Meanwhile in the real world:
WARNS OF FUTURE SHORTAGE OF OIL; Director of Geological Survey Declares That Consumption Has Overtaken Output. - 80 years ahead of his time!
HARDING THE HARMONIZER, GENEROUS AND LIKABLE; Republican Presidential Nominee Began as Poor Boy, Became an Editor, Has Ideal Home Life, Is a Baptist and Believes in Good Causes, But Plays Draw Poker - Warren G. Harding would become the next (and for some time, reputedly the worst) US president soon.
NEW IMMIGRANT TYPE EXCELS PREDECESSOR; Ellis Island Finds Proof in Decreasing Numbers of Undesirable Arrivals. - Didn't stop the US authorities from enforcing racially discriminatory immigration laws for the next few decades.
HARLEM LIBRARIES DRAW THE CHILDREN; Two Branches Crowded with Eager Throngs of Enthusiastic Subscribers. SOME ATTRACTIVE EXHIBITS Clubs and a Large Variety of Books for Youthful Readers Lure Young of Many Races. - Happy news from a part of New York City that would soon be the cradle of a great Africa-American cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.
GERMANS DEPRESSED OVER THEIR FUTURE; Looking Forward with Anxiety to the Outcome of the Spa Conference. PRICES STILL MOUNTING Workers Like the Republic, but Business Circles See Only Hope in a Dictator. Deny Planning Revenge. Sans Souci Beauty Unimpaired. Labor Likes New Republic. Big Crowds at Theatres. - Germans may have been gloomy, but many of the Allies still thought they were recovering a bit too fast, and were maybe even enjoying themselves secretly!
ALAND EXCITEMENT GROWS. - Sweden and Finland were having an argument about the Åland islands, which eventually became the first international dispute that the League of Nations managed to solve peacefully.
SIBERIAN PARLEYS BROKEN OFF; New State and Japanese at Odds Over Scope of Negotiations. - The "new state", the Far Eastern Republic, ended as a Soviet puppet state.
LITTLE THINGS FOR SUMMER; Collars, Guimpes, Scarfs and Bags Become Important Adjuncts to the Wardrobe Belts and Sashes. "... FEMININE wardrobes acknowledge no limit in accessories. And this season, perhaps more than ever before, has contributed beautiful and truly artistic "little things" as parts of the prevailing styles. What can add more freshness or charm to the general appearance of a costume than a crisp new collar or a sash?" - What is a "guimpe"? This? As an accessory lover, I am intrigued.

1920, June 21st
Goldenbird: Falco is back in town. After a skirmish with a pointy-eared Russian anarchist and Dr Shapiro, he is ready to face the greatest challenge of them all: Mayann the red-hot jazz baby.
Meanwhile in the real world:
OVERALL PARADE IN PARIS. Poets and Actresses Devote the Day to the Wearing of Blue Jeans. - They didn't have the vote yet, but they had the threads...
COLLEGE MEN URGED TO LEAD; Dartmouth Students Told of America's Mission In the World. - While Wilson's plans for an active US foreign policy were torpedoed by a widespread isolationist opinion, the theoretical idea of a universal mission takes hold - "a mission given by God for the sake of humanity".
OIL PRODUCERS SAY PRICES MUST RISE; Further Advances Are Needed if Healthy Competition Is to Remain. DEMAND EXCEEDS SUPPLY. - It has returned to haunt us...
WELCOMED MEXICAN INVASION; Thousands of Families Crossing the Border to Till the Soil and Otherwise Build Up the Southwest 100,000 in the Northward Movement. Replacing the Drift to Cities. Entering the Sugar Beet Field. Qualities to Be Reckoned With Bilingual New Mexico. - More happy news, but we cannot escape the sad:
2 DEAD, MANY HURT IN CHICAGO RIOT; Sailor and White Civilian Killed and Colored Policeman Wounded by Negroes. AMERICAN FLAGS BURNED Police Reserves and Rifle Squad at Scene of Trouble Started by Parading Abyssinians. In the shadow of the horrific Red Summer of 1919, race riots continued to flare up locally in America. The mysterious "Abyssinians" of the article were a "return to Africa" movement inspired by Marcus Garvey, possibly "The Star Order of Ethiopia".

The Poet-Dictator and his Legionaries

The Poet-Dictator and his Legionaries, originally uploaded by punalippu.

From "Världen sedan 1914" by T. Vogel-Jørgensen (Swedish edition), Natur & Kultur 1939

No bucket jokes, please...

Un poco di carità

Not related to the 1920's - but still fun from a Goldenbird perspective. No less than THREE of my favourite Italians of all time, in the same film clip, all dressed up as monks, too!
Il monaco di Monza (1963) was an Italian comedy, apparently not a very memorable work from any angle except this novelty scene, inspired by the new trends in pop music. In order of appearance: Don Backy, Adriano Celentano, and later, the great Totò himself, uncharacteristically the voice of order and reason. "Basta! Basta!"

On the Antonio de Curtis (aka Totò) website, there are a lot of stills and some quotes about the movie. It was a parody of "La monaca di Monza", the story of a nun featured in the Italian classic novel The Betrothed (I promessi sposi). The story of the noblewoman turned nun and her secret love affair with a dangerous nobleman has been filmed at least 5 times (once for TV), turned into a play, a fumetto, and much more. (Here's some info about the real monastery in Monza.)

What a turn of events - from 17th century tragedy to 1960's silliness. (Italy in a nutshell?) Not to lose the thread, I end by recommending my favourite YouTube videos with the three gentlemen separately.
Don Backy sings "Poesia" in 1966
Adriano Celentano sings "Azzurro" and "Preghero" (Stand By Me) in the 1960's
Totò playing a rather d'Annunzian type in 1962

***

La Campana di San Giusto

The Italian bersagliere is flirting with Valona (Vlorë in Albania) and makes Trieste jealous. A cartoon from the First World War.

1915. Seductive Trieste is tempting the bersagliere, whose hands are tied by Italy's neutrality. But not for long...

To understand a bit about the world of Goldenbird, one needs to know a little bit (or a lot?) about Italy's adventures around the Adriatic Sea in the 1910's and 1920's. Italy was originally neutral, due to its agreements with Austria-Hungary and Germany, but joined the war on the side of France and Britain in 1915 in the hope of gaining some so-called irredenta - external territories inhabited by Italian-speakers and claimed by the nation. In the world of Goldenbird, Ginestra is one such town, situated somewhere between Trieste and the Istrian peninsula, a multi-ethnic relic of the former Empire with a mixed population of Italian- and Slavic-speakers (perhaps also some unevacuated Austrians and Hungarians, as well as Romanian workers, thrown in for good measure).
Sung by the immortal Caruso, this is the liberation song of the former Austro-Hungarian Free Imperial City of Trieste, annexed by Italy in 1920.

La Campana di San Giusto

Per le spiaggie, per le rive di Trieste
suona e chiama di San Giusto la Campana:
l'ora suona, l'ora suona non lontana
che più schiava non sarà.

Le ragazze di Trieste
cantan tutte con ardore:
O Italia, o Italia del mio cuore,
tu ci vieni a liberar!

Avrà baci, fiori e rose la marina,
la campana perderà la nota mesta;
su San Giusto sventolar vedremo a festa
il vessillo tricolor.

Le ragazze di Trieste...

Straw Hat Season

Street Scene: 1921 (From Shorpy, the 100-year-old photo blog.)
Falco is wearing a straw hat in Goldenbird #1. Back in the beginning of the century, it was the standard summer headgear of men, in Europe as well as in America. Just do a search in the New York Times archives on "straw hat season", and you will reveal the importance of a cultural institution, as well as the controversy that it could spark among well-behaved citizenry, especially if the holy limits of June 15th and September 15th. A sample of headlines follow...

KILLED IN STRAW HAT ROW.; Man Shoots Another Who Destroyed His Out-of-Season Headgear.
October 9, 1911, Monday [...more...]

FIRST STRAW HAT OUT; And Honeysuckle Blooms in Jersey, with Mercury at 70.
January 21, 1913, Tuesday
WASHINGTON, N.J., Jan. 20. -- It is straw-hat season here now. J. Clark Axford, a local business man, set the fashion by driving around town to-day with the Summer headgear adorning him. He was laughed at for the most part, but nobody could deny that there was nearly as much excuse for the light covering as in the middle of Summer. [...more...]

THE STRAW HAT SEASON IN ITALY.
To the Editor of The New York Times:
In pointing out that the Italians are a highly civilized nation, would it not be of weight to adduce the fact that in Italy men continue to wear straw hats as long as the weather justifies them? - LOUIS HOW. New York, Sept. 20, 1917. [source]

CITY HAS WILD NIGHT OF STRAW HAT RIOTS; Gangs of Young Hoodlums With Spiked Sticks Terrorize Whole Blocks. VICTIMS RUN THE GAUNTLET Youths Line Car Tracks and Snatch --Mob of 1,000 Dispersed on Amsterdam Avenue.
September 16, 1922, Saturday
Gangs of young hoodlums ran riot in various parts of the city last night, smashing unseasonable straw hats, and trampling them in the street. In some case, mobs of hundreds of boys and young men terrorized whole blocks. Complaints poured in upon the police from men whose hats were stolen and destroyed. But as soon as the police broke up the gangs in one district, the hoodlums resumed their activities elsewhere. [...more...]

Whew! And people complain about today's youth. Among other interesting tidbits of straw hat related information: the trimmings were often made with "glycerined ostrich". "Anomalies in Millinery" is a lovely headline, too. I must remember to use it somewhere.

Tonsure or not?

I have wrestled with the problem a longer time. Properly, Falco ought to be tonsured, having already received minor orders. The tonsure during the 19th and early 20th century was not larger than a host (some orders used the measurement 'three fingers wide'). According to Wikipedia, "failing to maintain tonsure was the equivalent of attempting to abandon one's clerical state, and in the 1917 Code of Canon Law, any cleric in minor orders (or simply tonsured) who did not resume the tonsure within a month after being warned by his Ordinary, lost the clerical state". The tonsura (or corona clericalis) was, however, not required for clerics serving in countries with a non-Catholic majority population. Perhaps this is Falco's convenient excuse - his order expects him to serve in various countries, also such that target Catholics for persecution.

I have encountered the tonsure in anti-Catholic literature as well as nostalgic Catholic art. In German writer Eugenie Marlitt's novel Die zweite Frau from 1874, a Catholic priest is making an unwelcome advance at the noble Lutheran heroine. The scene could be described as exploitative - the lady is horrified, but also attracted by the priest's abandon of moral control. The sing that makes her break out of his spell is the sight of his tonsure:

Er trat plötzlich unter einem leidenschaftlichen Zurückwerfen des Kopfes auf sie zu und breitete niedersinkend beide Arme aus, um die Kniee der jungen Frau flehend zu umfassen — das grüne Lampenlicht floß grell über das marmorartige Oval seines Gesichts, über den leblosen weißen Fleck inmitten der dunkellockigen Haarmassen — ihr war, als zeige ein unsichtbarer Finger auf diesen Fleck als auf ein Kainszeichen — sie floh, während ihre schönen Hände wild nach dem knieenden Manne stießen.

The novel was written during Chancellor Bismarck's Kulturkampf ("culture struggle") against the Catholic church in the Second Reich, and is a clear example of literary anti-Catholic propaganda. There are more interesting themes in the novel (the "second woman" of the title is either the heroine, who marries a seemingly loveless and superior nobleman, or the nobleman's brother's Oriental concubine, who is the focal point of a conspiracy where the priest plays the villain).

The tonsure fell gradually out of use (except for a ceremonial cutting of hair during the ordination). As of 15 August 1972, first tonsure is no longer conferred, except for certain orders who retain the right. Some nice examples of tonsures can be spotted in the naivist painter Baldino's works.

More Fiume News

These are all from Finnish newspapers 1919-1921 - the conservative, Swedish-language Hufvudstadsbladet, and the social-democrat, Finnish-language Suomen Sosiali-Demokraatti. As witnesses of their time, they are as much mirrors of opinion and ideology as reports of actual events...



Hufvudstadsbladet (1919.05.03)
The Fiume Conflict.
Reflections on Compromise.
London, May 3rd. (Reuter to STT)
To the Reuter telegraphs from Paris: In well informed circles in Paris this morning, it is proposed that the Fiume Question will be solved in a way that will satisfy Italy, accordingly: The port will become a free commercial port with complete freedom of trade for all nations. The city itself will be transferred to Italy. It is reported that Italy would be willing to offer Yugoslavia certain territorial concessions in the Dalmatian hinterland, including the city of Knin at the railway line from Sebenico.

Suomen Sosialidemokraatti (1920.12.29 p.4)
Fiume conquered.
(See previous post for full text)

Suomen Sosiali-Demokraatti (1921.01.10 p.3)
D'Annunzio still in Fiume.
Paris, Jan. 10th. (STT)
The latest reports from Fiume confirm that d'Annunzio does not intend to leave the city until the elections of the foundational council of the Free State. Certain sources judge it likely that the council will elect d'Annunzio as regent.



Suomen Sosiali-Demokraatti (1921.02.23 p.5)
Reaction in Trieste.
[first paragraph is illegible in my copy]
The Rome correspondent of the Kristiania ”Social-Democrat” has sent his paper a special telegram, wherein he describes the actions of the reactionary forces in Trieste, actions that are aimed against the working class. He mentions, among other things, that the history of the city in question has never before known such activity of forces of darkness as can be observed currently. The official Italy has not given liberty to the workers of Trieste, it has oppressed them and continues the oppression most shamelessly. The militias of Italy systematically and daily persecute the leaders of the working class and rob them of their property. House searches have become daily phenomena, and armed police rummage and sniff through every corner of workers' apartments. Mass arrests, too, are now everyday occurrences. The workers' halls of Trieste, Pola, Fiume and other cities in Italy have been leveled to the ground. Communist and socialist newspapers are being persecuted not only by legal means, but also with illegal methods, such as destroying and burning their offices. The consequence of this reactionary policy has been that Italy within one year has become more hated than Austria after 60 years. After the Italian annexation, the local population has not been able to voice its opinion in elections. Several political and administrative elections have been prescribed, but the Italian government does not dare to organize them. And meanwhile Italy sustains an oppressive regime, that any country of the slightest level of civilization would be ashamed of.



Notes: In the original article, the "militias" are referred to as "suojeluskuntalaiset" - the Finnish term for the white Civil Guard that functioned as a paramilitary force in Finland from 1917 to 1944, in support of the bourgeois government and often in conflict with the various socialist movements. No doubt, the social democrat newspapers wanted to reinforce the idea that the forces of reaction were similar in every state.
Italy is compared to Austria as a reminder of the fact that Italy's territorial claims around the Adriatic sea were not founded on primeval right, but historical circumstances. The "irredenta" had belonged to the Austro-Hungarian empire before the war, and Italy's late alliance with the Entente was triggered by hopes that the areas with sizable Italian populations could be won. However, they had never been part of a political entity called "Italy" before. One could see the claims on Istria and Dalmatia as the final steps on the road of Italian national unification.
The mention of destruction of workers' halls is interesting. The Wikipedia article on Trieste mentions a Slovene community hall (Narodni Dom) burnt down by Italian nationalists in 1920. This could be interpreted as a conflict between nationalities (around 25% of the Trieste population were Slovenes). I wonder if other factors played a role, for example, were Slovenes more often of working-class background, and were socialist ideas more widespread among them? Which was more important, ethnic, ideological or social solidarity?

The Fiume Incident

The beginnings of Goldenbird the comic can be traced to a dark and rainy autumn in 2005, when I was working on my Ph.D. thesis in Helsinki, collecting source material at the cosy, neo-classicist National Library. As I was scrolling microfilmed newspapers from the fateful years of 1920 and 1921, some small notices caught my eye.

Fiume conquered.
D'Annunzio wounded.
Rome, Dec. 28th (Havas to S.T.T.) According to received information, general Caviglia with his troops has marched into Fiume.
Rome, Dec. 28th (Havas to S.T.T.) Quarnero's government confirms the report on D'Annunzio's injury. In the hall, where the war council was holding its meetings, a projectile exploded, a splitter of which dealt a head wound to D'Annunzio.
Suomen Sosialidemokraatti 29.12.1920 (p. 4)

Havas is a French press agency, STT is the leading Finnish equivalent. "Quarnero", also known as Carnaro or Kvarner, refers to the bay in the Adriatic where Fiume (today Rijeka) is located. After taking charge of the city, il comandante Gabriele d'Annunzio and his collaborators declared the "regency of Carnaro" - that means, they would stay in charge until the King of Italy would assume his "rightful" role as the city's ruler. The regency's most notable product was its constitution, the Carta del Carnaro, which mixed influences from Plato's ideal state, futurist aesthetics, anarcho-syndicalism, proto-fascist corporativism, and aristocratic romanticism...

To the left, the banner of the regency of Carnaro. Pretty, isn't it? The worm Ouroboros, the Great Bear, and the motto: QVIS CONTRA NOS? "Who is against us?" - something for semioticians to mull on. The snake that devours its own tail could mean the cycle of life. In alchemy, it signifies that All is One - or a mystical treasure that has to be destroyed to be known. It reminds me of an early quote by Bakunin: "the passion for destruction is also a creative passion". Or the dark side of 1789, 1848 and 1917: the revolution devours its own children, in effect, devours itself.

This little renegade state, which lived on piracy and high spirits from Sept. 19, 1919 to Dec. 24-30, 1920, sounded like the perfect setting for some light-hearted Jazz age adventure-mystery-comedy story, I thought. However - I did NOT want to be historically correct. As a Ph.D. candidate, I'm already a slave to the sources - as a cartoonist, I want to create a story that won't educate the reader about Fiume or d'Annunzio, but that will be cute and a little bit nerdy entertainment. But if you want to know more about the murky depths of Goldenbird's historical background, you're welcome to this blog!

I've written more about d'Annunzio on the Goldenbird blog, the biographical essay Per Non Dormire and the bibliographical overview Dannunziana.

Francisco Possenti

Although Mayann is Goldenbird's official leading lady, there is a certain gentleman who steals a lot of the attention. As a character, Falco Peregrini is not easy to write, since he is shaped by several experiences that must remain alien to me: early loss of parents, the minor seminary, military service at the Alpine front, prisoner of war in Austria, missionary work in Japan etc. Although he isn't based on any real-life person in the 1920's, I constantly discover real stories and ideas that support my work and teach me important lessons. One of these stories is the life of St Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, which I encountered today while searching for images of Pope Benedict XV (the things we do for procrastination...).

Francisco Possenti (1838-1862) was born in Assisi and grew up in Spoleto. As a young man, he was well-liked, fond of dancing, girls and hunting - but several tragic incidents in his family and a serious illness led him to religious life. He was educated by Jesuits and finally joined the Passionists. His monastic name was Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows. Having contracted tuberculosis, he continued on his spiritual path well aware of his imminent death. On February 27th, 1862, Gabriel passed away, only 24 years old. (Why must all the people featured on this blog die tragically?...) Several miraculous healings were attributed to him, and he was canonized in 1920 by Benedict XV, who promoted the young saint as an example for the modern youth. Gabriel was devoted to the Virgin Mary, as seen on the portrait. It is told that he died holding an image of her.

"Aveva occhi tondi, neri, assai vivaci e belli: sembravano due stelle."

This is the kind of role model that Falco has grown up with, although I suppose even his kindest superiors know that he himself is no saint material! St Gabriel's 41 resolutions are interesting reading if you want to compare Falco's strengths and weaknesses to the saintly ideal. It is evident that some resolutions are easier to keep than others...
Curiously, there is a society in the United States that tries to promote St Gabriel as a patron saint of handgunners. It seems that the reasons for this connection are pure legend. (Falco, with his affection for the Beretta 1915, would probably find it amusing, although disturbing - he is adamantly pro-life, after all.)