Not exactly a poison primer

 kw: book reviews, nonfiction, poisons, poisoners, women, history, short biographies

After reading The League of Lady Poisoners: Illustrated True Stories of Dangerous Women, written and illustrated by Lisa Perrin, I've become a little leery of having tea with a new acquaintance. These days there are more toxins than ever before that are odorless and tasteless, and some have long-delayed effects.

This book is a Wild Card selection. Although I usually peruse the Science section and a few others, including Science Fiction and Short Stories, I'll often poke around other Nonfiction areas of the library to see what might be interesting. I couldn't pass this one up.

Poison is considered a woman's weapon, but more poisonings are actually committed by men. However, since by far the most murders are committed by men, it stands to reason that even a less-common method men use would outnumber the primary method women use to be rid of an abusive spouse, terrifying neighbor, or inconvenient relative.

Most of the women presented here can be counted as serial killers. Having succeeded in one murder, a person finds that a line has been crossed, and follow-on killings result, often to cover up the first. One of the earliest was Cleopatra, who poisoned one of her brothers, and who tested poisons' effects on prisoners. She eventually poisoned herself and her two handmaids (the asp story is a fabrication; death by snakebite is agonizing. She would have mixed a poison containing lots of opium, to die painlessly).

Much more recently, possibly the most prolific poisoner was "Jolly Jane" Toppan. She confessed to 34 killings, but it is likely the total number of her victims exceeds 100. She worked as a nurse, which gave her access to her favorite toxins. She was almost unique in her obsession with watching others die by poisoning. Others were prolific as providers of poisons to others, such as a midwife in Nagyrév, Hungary; in the early 1900's she supplied arsenic to abused women, who collectively were called the Angel-Makers in later news accounts. Forty men are known to have died, making this practically an epidemic in the village. There may have been more.

Modern forensic methods can detect almost all known toxins. Arsenic is easy to test for. Fortunately, so is Fentanyl, which is taking tens of thousands of lives yearly in the US, nearly all by overdose. It is not known (and hardly anyone is looking) how many Fentanyl deaths are more deliberate.

Although one section describes common poisons and common poisonous plants and animals, nobody will gain knowledge how to use poisons from this book. The author's aim is the stories of the women themselves, and the sociology of their surroundings. In many cases it is easy to conclude, "Yes, so-and-so deserved to be killed." All too frequently, however, a first killing led to others. Killing is the ultimate slippery slope.

The author is a gifted illustrator. I've included just one random bit of her art. The main color used throughout is a sickly green color, the classical hue of poison. Most of the stories are illustrated by a full-page portrait. These are large and detailed (the pages are 7"x10"), so reproducing one here would probably violate the principle of fair use.

You can see much more of her art at her website.

As good as the writing is, and as fascinating as the stories are, with time I expect the lingering dread to fade. I don't want to go through life fearing new acquaintances.

Women embracing monsterism

 kw: book reviews, speculative fiction, fantasy, anthologies, women, stereotypes

What would you call a woman who stands up for herself? We'd like to think, "hero" (or heroine), "victor", "winner". Isn't is much more likely that she'd be called "harpy", "bitch", "virago", "termagant"…depending on one's vocabulary? Rarely a word with a positive sense.

Virago Press began fifty years ago, but I only just learned of their existence. The volume in hand just now is Furies: Stories of the Wicked, Wild, and Untamed, introduced (edited?) by Sandi Toksvig. I find it curious that the subtitle of the book includes the word "wicked". Really? "Wild" and "untamed", great. I'd have preferred those latter two words to be paired with "dynamic" or "intense", or both. Particularly because, while a number of the characters can indeed be wicked, that's not the point.

A virago is an assertive woman. The word initially had a neutral connotation, but it's used negatively (if at all) these days. Depending upon the dictionary one uses, definitions of "virago" can be quite positive: "A strong, courageous woman"; "A female warrior". But it goes downhill rapidly. The opening sentence of the Wikipedia article on the subject is quite condescending: "A virago is a woman who demonstrates abundant masculine virtues."

The opening chapter, "Siren" by Margaret Atwood, consists of an address by that most musical of mavericks to various creatures assembled as the Liminal Beings Knitting Circle. It is at once hilarious and searching. The fourteen chapters that follow are primarily riffs on fourteen culturally negative words for a strong, or untameable, woman: Virago, Churail (from Pakistan), Termagant, Wench, Hussy, Vituperator, Harridan, Warrior, She-Devil, Muckraker, Spitfire, Fury, Tygress, and Dragon.

I'll make only the briefest of comments on a few of them, to avoid spoilers.

First, as a student of the Bible I am very familiar with the story of Deborah, the judge of Israel and prophet, from Judges 4 and 5. "Warrior" by Chubundu Onuzo elaborates on the Biblical account to show how Deborah arose to save Israel when all the male rulers had failed. In the Song of Deborah, the major part of Judges 5, she mocks them thus:

The rulers ceased in Israel, they ceased,
Until that I Deborah arose,
That I arose a mother in Israel.

By the way, the term "the Mother of Israel" is used a few times in the chapter. The quote from Deborah's song is the accurate rendition. She is saying she acted as any mother would to protect her children, and as Jael did in her turn, when she lured the Canaanite leader into her tent and assassinated him with a tent peg and a hammer.

Secondly, "Tygress" by Claire Konda expands a little on the theme "tiger mother". I'm familiar with the concept, from frequent contact with our many Chinese, Japanese and Korean friends. Twin girls that were our son's friends once told him and me that their mother was not satisfied with them receiving all "A" grades. They had to be at the absolute top of the class. My wife remembers her Japanese childhood, taking extra courses after school at a private tutoring organization. Not because her mother had pretensions of her daughter attaining to a higher class, but just because that was expected even at second-class schools.

And finally, the one story I didn't care for was "She-Devil" by Eleanor Crewes. It's in graphic novel style, much too enigmatic. It tries for Gothic horror and instead achieves banal dread. No question is answered, no conclusion reached.

Each story, with that one exception, brings a fresh take on an old word. An excellent collection.

Probably the real Pearl Hart

 kw: book reviews, nonfiction, outlaws, women, biographies

When you're one of a kind, and become a legend, speculation abounds. Wildcat: The Untold Story of Pearl Hart, the Wild West's Most Notorious Woman Bandit, by John Boessenecker, is my most recent wild card selection. The author, who really knows his research, has written a biography that is most likely the most truthful depiction of Pearl Hart's life we are ever to receive. Accounts ranging from mostly speculative to downright fallacious abound, and as of this writing, the Wikipedia Article "Pearl Hart", somewhat less than 50% factual, perpetuates one of many myths about her given name. Our author ought to get a Wikipedia account and correct it.

Lillie Naomi Davy was born April 19, 1871, the third of nine children of Anna and Albert Davy. She died in her daughter Millie's home in Los Angeles, on May 9, 1935, aged 64. She is interred in Whittier under her married name, Lillie Naomi Meyers. Earl Meyers, AKA Earl Nighthawk, was the last of her several husbands.

When she was 28, on May 29, 1899, a man calling himself Joe Boot and Lillie, now calling herself Pearl Hart, perhaps after the name of a deceased madam, robbed a stagecoach in Kane Spring Canyon, Arizona, along the Gila river near Riverside.

This photo shows a display in the Yuma Territorial Prison, where she spent two years of a five year sentence. Joe Boot was also incarcerated there for a time. The large picture of Pearl holding a rifle is reproduced on the cover of Wildcat.

The author stresses frequently that the horrific abuse Lillie and her siblings endured whenever Albert Davy was present (less than half the time, it seems), led them all to be untrustful of anyone except themselves. The older girls at least were probably also sexually abused. They treated sex as a commodity, and some of them, Lillie included, were prostitutes at various times. In Lillie's case it may have underlain her disdain for dressing or acting like a woman (except in the bedroom). She felt mens' clothing was more comfortable, and her command of profane language was legendary; at least a couple of her sisters could match her, curse for curse.

I don't know how to relate to outlaw characters. Their stories are often fascinating, and this one is doubly so, because Pearl Hart was the only really "badman" among women of the time. While she lived a life of petty crime until her thirties, her life is defined by a single event that took no more than a couple of hours. It is sometimes called the last stagecoach robbery, but it isn't; that came more than 15 years later. It isn't even the only one in which a woman played a part, but it is the only one where she played a primary part, and it became the most notorious.

Who knows why people do what they do? Except for the youngest boy, who died at age 10, all of the Davy siblings spent various periods of time on the wrong side of the law. The parenting "skills" of their father must have had much to do with that, but it doesn't go very far to elucidate the nature-nurture divide. The book is deeply interesting, and equally puzzling. I appreciate the work John Boessenecker undertook to extract the real story of Pearl Hart from the mists of time and the maze of speculative accounts that surround her legend.

Women writers who can really write

kw: book reviews, science fiction, short stories, anthologies, women

Science fiction has always been experimental. While fiction in general is a frequent avenue to try out ideas, "mainstream" fiction just doesn't lend itself to truly outlandish thinking the way SciFi does. The wonderful collection The Future is Female, edited by Lisa Yaszek, contains stories written by 25 female writers, and though the editor emphasizes feminism as a theme, the point of the stories is seldom feminism as such. These writers present strong, talented women, frequently among equally strong, talented men, who are in the main not intimidated nor subjugated by them. For women writing prior to 1940 (the first three stories), that is no mean feat, because of the heavy patriarchy of Western society of the time. And…not all the protagonists are women. The last story, "Nine Lives" by Ursula K. Le Guin, is focused on the interactions of mainly male characters; it explores the way a multi-clone is accustomed to live, and how he fares when the rest of the clone (his clone-mates you could say) all die in a sudden accident.

The stories were written from 1928 to 1969. I don't know if there is a companion volume or two in the works that would feature later stories. I would find that of great interest.

One of my all-time favorite SciFi stories is included, "Ararat", by Zenna Henderson. Her "People" series feature women and men with special powers (actually, shipwrecked aliens who look entirely human) who live on an equal footing among themselves, but are in hiding from the rest of the human race because of prejudice against their seemingly magical abilities. This is a common enough theme, but Ms Henderson explored it in a way much more intimate and moving than any other writer.

Another story I love more than most is "All Cats are Gray" by Andrew North (a pseudonym for Andre Norton). Here a mysterious woman is able to see a nearly invisible monster because she is color blind. I hope that is not too much of a spoiler.

There is less for me to riff upon here, because I am mostly on the outside looking in through a window. My main insight into female experience is the little I've gleaned from nearly 45 years of marriage. My wife is foreign born and raised, so I have the extra handicap of seldom knowing whether her unique viewpoint is because she is female, or arises from a different culture I know only in part. So I leave you with the stories: get the book, enjoy the book, and particularly if you are male, learn from it!

Some leading ladies of science

kw: book reviews, nonfiction, short biographies, women, science

My parents knew who Hedy Lamarr was; she starred in more than 20 American films in the 1940s and 1950s, after being a film star in Europe beginning in 1930. They didn't know she held the patent for spread-spectrum radio, a critical technology for secure communications. I learned of it in the 1960s after her work was declassified.

What other women of science did I learn of? Naturally, my mother had the books by Irene Joliot-Curie, so I knew of Madame Curie and her nearly-forgotten husband Pierre, and or Irene herself. Working only the memory banks here (Boy! Am I tempted to rely on Google…):

• Being a computer programmer for 40 years, it is a slam dunk that I'd know about Admiral Grace Hopper, a founder of the COBOL language, who is credited with changing our word for a machine error from "glitch" to "bug"…and pasted the wayward moth into her notebook.
• And of course, Ada Lovelace, who wrote the first computer program, for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, a machine that is a whole lot easier to emulate in software than to actually build of brass gears and ratchets.
• Being a DuPont-er, I knew of Stephanie Kwolek, inventor of Kevlar®. Wish I'd had the chance to meet her while she was still at the company.
• I have met Ellen Kullman, current CEO of DuPont, who began as a mechanical engineer.
• I read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, and later a few of her essays.
• I read of "jumping genes" in a popular article by Barbara McClintock, and later the monographs in which she reported her work.
• Emmy Noether, honored by Alfred Einstein for cracking the math needed for his general theory of relativity.
• Florence Nightingale, who used statistics to show that battlefield hospitals were a hundred times as deadly as enemy bullets, and reformed nursing practice as a result.
• Lise Meitner, a physicist on a par with Bohr and Heisenberg.
• Rosalind Franklin, who would be the discoverer of the Double Helix if she hadn't been undercut by her boss.
• Lynn Margulis, who first explained how complex eukaryotic cells developed from collaborations among simpler prokaryotic cells (known today as bacteria).
• Sylvia Earle, in my opinion the most innovative practicing oceanographer.
• Sally Ride, the first American woman astronaut.
• Teacher Christa McAuliffe, who died aboard the Challenger when it blew up.
• Primatologist Jane Goodall, whose most recent book will be reviewed here in a few days.
• Primatologist Dian Fossey, who did for gorillas what Goodall did for chimps.

That's 16, and I could probably dig deeper, but time won't allow. With the help of good library work, Rachel Swaby has gathered biographical material for 52 of the best women scientists for her book Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science—and the World. In her introduction she explains why she included only deceased women, so three people on my list above could not have appeared, though I wish she'd included Fossey. She also explains that the incredible fame of Marie Curie made it rather moot to include her, though she did include her daughter Irene.

Thus we learn of Alice Ball, who concocted the first practical, injectable serum of chaulmoogra oil to treat leprosy; Emilie de Chatelet (sorry I left off the accents), who translated Newton's Principia into French, and wrote a commentary about the same size; Annie Jump Cannon, who practically created the Henry Draper Catalog of Stellar Spectra by classifying nearly 400,000 stars, also pretty much creating the classification criteria as she went; and Marie Tharp, whose work resurrected the theory of continental drift that is now called Plate Tectonics. I guess I could add Tharp above as a 17^th; I read articles she wrote with Bruce Heezen in 1970.

It was enjoyable reading, but I think I'd have been more pleased were the book a third longer. Many of the mini-biographies are barely two pages, and the style would suit Joe Friday ("Just the facts, please."). It is a good beginning towards restoring a historical imbalance in science reporting. It wouldn't be a bad idea for a copy of this book to make its way into every middle school girl's backpack.

A French Woman's advice for the rest of us

kw: book reviews, nonfiction, self help, beauty, health, women

Did you ever wonder who is behind the Louis Vuitton brand? The former CEO of the luxury goods corporation, originally with Clicquot, is Mireille Guiliano, who has now taken up writing in what she calls Act 3.5. Her genre is self-help health and beauty for woman, her first book was French Women Don't Get Fat, and now her fourth is French Women Don't Get Facelifts: The Secret of Aging With Style & Attitude.

I had no idea what to expect when I began to read, but I figured it would be worth a peek into the author's mind, on the principle of Know Thine Enemy. I am not sure how to characterize the result: if one could say that my wife and I represent different planets (not necessarily Venus and Mars), here we have a voice from another galaxy.

Ms Guiliano deplores the term Aging Gracefully as a cop-out. She prefers her title phrase, Aging With Style and Attitude. Sort of a "Don't back down" or "Don't rain on my parade" approach to the passage of time. After a chapter on gravity, she tackles dress, skin and face care, grooming (both hair and skin), cosmetic use, exercise (she prefers it "invisible", not to break a sweat), and rest and play. Then we find three chapters on food and nutrition; her attitude towards supplements is, if you've been paying attention to this point, your diet needs no supplementation. Three more chapters wrap up matters not otherwise dealt with.

The writing is peppered with examples among her friends and acquaintances, of women not just "of a certain age" (from forty onward), but into their 70's to 90's, who live their lives a mere 60-year-old might envy. I was reminded of my grandmother, the original "Little Old Lady From Pasadena", who might have inspired the song "Go Granny Go", still getting stopped for speeding in her last year on Earth, and usually talking her way out of a ticket. Ms Guiliano closes with an honor roll of remarkable women, from Catherine Deneuve and Sophia Loren to Michelle Obama and Queen Elizabeth II.

I was amazed (perhaps I should not have been) at the list of self-care tasks she brings to a "normal" day or month. A woman following her suggestions needs a remarkable memory. I'd suggest that the first order of business is, "Pick the right parents". As an oil prospector might put it, "It is better to be lucky than good." Thus, my lovely wife uses no cosmetics, and in the last couple of decades, has declined attending the salon at all; she preferred teaching me to cut her hair into the longish bob she likes, which I do about monthly. She does have a couple of creams and moisturizers from Sesha and Nivea on hand, uses sunscreen on bright days, and that is it. She believes the best skin is clean skin. When I compare that with the string of daily tasks in the "Skin and Face" chapter of the book, I wonder when a French woman has time for anything else!

Gentlemen, here is the best beauty tip for the woman in your life, unless she is a rampant feminist (in which case, she probably already divorced you anyway): tell her she is lovely. Do so early and do it often. Uplift her spirits and it will uplift all else. Happiness begets loveliness. Oh, and to make her even happier? Do your share of the housework.

Reading the book didn't unlock the feminine mystique, but left me more mystified. That is OK. God didn't put men and women together to understand one another, but to love one another. Leave the understanding business to Him…and I am not sure He is much into that anyway.

Developing a voice others will hear

kw: book reviews, nonfiction, spirituality, women, environmentalism

A peek behind the scenes: I don't buy every book I review. Some, but not most. I haunt the new book sections of a few libraries. I look first at the Science Fiction section (inexplicably mingled with Fantasy in most libraries!), then at Science, then at everything else, but usually not biographies or "mainstream fiction". If I haven't found 3-5 books on a particular visit by that point, I peruse the new LP (large print) section.

I picked up When Women Were Birds: Fifty-Four Variations of Voice by Terry Tempest Williams because of the title, and because it was the first book I saw in the 500's (Science in DD system; it is classified 508: Natural History). While I would probably still have gotten it if it were in either 298 (Mormon Religion) or 305 (Women's Studies) where it belongs, perhaps that is less likely. At any rate, it was a very good read.

The author's mother died young, of cancer, as did many of her relatives, possibly because they lived downwind of the A-bomb test site in Nevada (I lived in the same area in the 1950s, and I have also had cancer, but I am a fortunate survivor). Her mother's legacy was a bookshelf of journals; Mormon women are instructed to keep a journal of family history. There was a journal for each year. Every page of every volume was blank.

The book is Ms Williams's autobiographical meditation on what her mother might have written. The 54 chapters are only loosely related to the 54 years of her mother's life; perhaps a bit more to the 54 years of her own age when she wrote. Not in time, but in substance. Assuming the subtitle was her choice alone (editors often arrogate that to themselves), we find a development of her own voice as influenced by the strong women in her family, her mother, both grandmothers, and a couple of aunts. In a key chapter toward the end, she learned to recruit other voices when she found her own voice being brushed aside.

"Voice" has several meanings. Perhaps someone reading this encountered it because to them the title meant gaining singing skills. To the author, "voice" is a political power. Persuasive voice. Voice of influence. The voice that gets things done. If possible, a voice with the power of the one that spoke "Let there be light." Because…then there was light. Thus a major theme of the book is to develop a voice of light in the midst of the voices of darkness and destruction. That is the environmental voice, in her case.

I find it interesting to read this right after Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac. Williams's writing is not as lyrical as Leopold's, but it is seen to be at least as effective. She did not persuade legislators directly, but by forming a coalition of voices more likely to be heard, at least one major piece of environmental legislation did get enacted, and another has been pending for a decade and may yet be passed.

Finally, I realized how she chose her title. She writes of songbirds scolding a raven that has seized a nestling. Ignoring them, it gulps down its prey. More and more small birds gather and scold. Then there is a sudden silence. And the small birds begin to sing, ignoring the raven. They rise above the incident, rise above the raven. They sing because they have voices to sing with. One nestling may have been lost, but others will survive, and life goes on. Regardless what voices there may be in the world, women who know who they are have voices of life.

Women who run the Universe

kw: book reviews, science fiction, anthologies, women

I read somewhere that as they age, men become more similar to women. Perhaps, and just perhaps, many more overly-macho men die younger, leaving the mild (meek or not) to inherit...along with a few crusty old SOBs who're too savage for the old Reaper to take easily.

Regardless, I find that I enjoy women's writing the most, the older I get. In many anthologies, I'll recognize one or two stories, seldom more. In A Woman's Liberation: A Choice of Futures By and About Women, I found I'd read more than half of them! Co-editors Connie Willis and Sheila Williams must have had an excruciating time choosing only ten longish short stories and novellas for this volume.

As always, the ideas are most important to me. In many cases, how the idea is presented is of equal importance. In my comments, the * prefix indicates a story I'd read before.

• Inertia by Nancy Kress – On the surface, a simple conflict between fear of change and embracing change. Underneath, can a disfiguring disease leading to the permanent interning of millions also make them able to cohere socially, while world "outside" crumbles into anarchy? My counter-idea: The fact of being different and outcast, as those in shtetls, gulags, internment camps (1940s Japanese in America), concentration camps, and POW prisons, powerfully affects the attitudes and tendencies of many toward altruism.
  
• *Even the Queen by Connie Willis – One of my all-time favorite stories. Menstruation is voluntary, a neo-nostalgic cult being the main volunteers. A table-full of strong women don't bother to debate the issue with a young idealist, but ignore her to swap stories. This wise yenta's technique takes the day.
  
• Fool's Errand by Sarah Zettel – A story of camoflage, love (the agapé kind), and transformation. It won't do to reveal what really happens to out-of-control AIs.
  
• *Rachel in Love by Pat Murphy – It takes an effort for me to suspend disbelief about a girl's mind being imprinted on a chimp brain. When I do, the basic premise is simple: who we are is what we think, not how we look. (There is a similar story by a male author, of a human-chimp hybrid, but I don't recall the title or author).
  
• *Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand by Vonda N. McIntyre – I love this story, but couldn't bear to read it again. The healer's snakes are medicinal, their 'venom' only heals, and human ignorance is seen to be more dangerous than any illness.
  
• The July Ward by S.N. Dyer – The side story of a physician avoiding gangland retribution aside, a doctor's undying memory of the first patient who dies of his or her a medical mistake is incarnated powerfully here. Trust only a doctor who is old enough to have outgrown youthful overconfidence—and that's a different age for each doctor!
  
• The Kidnapping of Baroness 5 by Katherine MacLean – Prion diseases are presently rare. But the prion protein's ability to "corrupt" its properly-working fellows warns us that it can only increase, possibly without limit. Project the trend into the future: the propagation of specially-resistant traits is critical if humans are to have a future.
  
• *Speech Sounds by Octavia E. Butler – I don't know what could cause nearly all adults to lose the power of speech. But a result would be persecution of those who retain it.
  
• *The Ship Who Mourned by Anne McCaffrey – I think I've read all of the "Ship Who" books and stories. This is my favorite. When we mourn, we may need others' tears to release our own.
  
• *A Woman's Liberation by Ursula K. Le Guin – In less than seventy pages, the author manages to expose nearly every bigotry to which we're subject, in a clear, actinic light no thoughtful reader can touch and stay unchanged.