Deare Sister

By Chris Wind

A collection of letters that might have been written by Mozart's mother (to her daughter), one of Milton's daughters (to the others), Rubens' model (to an aspiring successor), Plato's (female) (disguised) students (to each other), and others—assuming a feminist consciousness. What would they say?

A fictional approach to women’s history.

“You are clearly a writer of considerable talent, and your special ability to give expression to so many different characters, each in a uniquely appropriate style, makes your work fascinating and attractive ... . The pieces are often funny, sometimes sensitive, always creative. But they contain an enormous load of anger, and that is where I have problems ... . I know at least one feminist who would read your manuscript with delight (unfortunately she is not a publisher), who would roar with laughter in her sharing of your anger ... ” rejection letter from a small Canadian press

• Language: English
• Publisher: Magenta
• Release date: Oct 6, 2011
• ISBN: 9781926891071

Chris Wind

Visit my website (http://www.chriswind.net) for more info.This is what happens is her latest work: How is it that the girl who got the top marks in high school ends up, at fifty, scrubbing floors and cleaning toilets for minimum wage, living in a room above Vera’s Hairstyling, in a god-forsaken town called Powassan?"An incisive reflection on how social forces constrain women’s lives. ... Great for fans of Sylvia Plath, Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook." Booklife/Publishers' WeeklySoliloquies: The Lady Doth Indeed Protest is a collection of soliloquies delivered by Shakespeare's women, protesting the role given to them. The soliloquies formed the basis of a recent theatrical production, "Not Such Stuff", by Venus Theatre in Laurel, Maryland, and have also been used as audition pieces by many aspiring actresses. High school English teachers might also be interested in using the soliloquies in their Shakespeare units.Thus Saith Eve is the second in a series of ebooks featuring women from various traditions. In "Thus Saith Eve", women from The Bible deliver critiques of their stories -- as if they had a feminist consciousness.UnMythed is the third in the series. This collection of poems reveals the myths within the myths revealed: what might Pandora, Circe, Penelope, Eurydice, Persephone, the Gorgons, and others have thought and done if they had not been the creations of a chauvinist patriarchy? For poetry fans, especially feminist; of interest to scholars of Greek and Roman mythology; a good resource for English teachers who teach a Mythology unit.Deare Sister is the fourth in the series, a collection of letters that might have been written by by Lady Godiva, Milton's daughter, Rubens' model, Mozart's mother, Freud's wife, Plato's students, and others -- assuming a feminist consciousness. (What would they say?)Snow White Gets Her Say, the last in the series, is a collection of the classic fairy tales retold - what would have happened if Gretel, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and others had been strong and critical girls and women living today?The five ebook collections above appear in a single book (available in print as well as e-formats) titled Satellites Out of Orbit.dreaming of kaleidoscopes is a selected 'best of' collection of wind's poetry spanning about fifteen years from the poet's late teens in the 70s to her early thirties in the 90s.Paintings and Sculptures is a collection of feminist and socially conscious poetry, each piece describing a painting or a sculpture: some, a re-vision of a classic; others, an original work not yet realized. Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Dali, Botticelli, Monet, Rodin are among the artists whose work is re-imagined.Particivision and other stories is a collection of short stories presenting a socially conscious critique of various issues in our society by re-visioning significant attitudes and activities: watching tv, going to school, shopping, advertising, hunting, environmentalism, militarism, suicide, the news, competition, sex, religion, government. Social commentary and activism via fiction.Excerpts is a miscellaneous collection of early prose and poetry.***Actors looking for fresh, new audition pieces -- check out Soliloquies: The Lady Doth Indeed Protest (Shakespeareanesque soliloquies with a twist), Thus Saith Eve (monologues), Deare Sister, and Snow White Gets Her Say.Also, "Amelia's Nocturne" (see http://www.chriswind.com/for_ Amelia.htm) can be performed as a theatrical piece: a simple set consisting of a writing table with an inkwell and note paper, the music (live piano and voice in the corner) woven into the monologue.Painters and sculptors -- I've been looking for the longest time for artists to 'actualize' the paintings and sculptures in Paintings and Sculptures for exhibit...if anyone's interested, contact me!English teachers – consider using Soliloquies: The Lady Doth Indeed Protest for your Shakespeare unit and UnMythed for your myths unit.Women's history scholars -- you might be interested in Deare Sister.***chris wind has degrees in Literature, Education, and Philosophy.Her poetry has been published in Alpha, The Antigonish Review, Ariel, Atlantis, Bite, Bogg, Canadian Author and Bookman, Canadian Dimension, Canadian Woman Studies, Contemporary Verse 2, The Free Verse Anthology, Girlistic Magazine, grain, Interior Voice, Kola, Mamashee, The New Quarterly, Next Exit, Onionhead, Poetry Toronto, Prism International, Rampike, Shard, The University of Toronto Review, The Wascana Review, Whetstone, White Wall Review, Women's Education des femmes, and three anthologies (Clever Cats, ed. Ann Dubras; Going for Coffee, ed. Tom Wayman; Visions of Poesy, ed. Dennis Gould). “Luncheon on the Grass" was the motive poem for an exhibit by Brooks Bercovitch and Colton at the Galerie Schorer, Montreal (1998).Her prose has been read on CBC Radio and published in ACT, Alpha, American Atheist, The Antigonish Review, Canadian Woman Studies, event, Existere, (f.)Lip, Herizons, Herstoria, The Humanist, Humanist in Canada, Hysteria, The New Quarterly, Other Voices, Secular Nation, and Waves.Her theatrical works have been performed by Laurel Theater, Alumnae Theatre, Theatre Resource Center, Theatre Asylum, Buddies in Bad Times, and A Company of Sirens.chris wind has received thirteen Ontario Arts Council Writers’ Reserve grants based on publisher and theatre recommendation.chris wind was a panellist at the Canadian National Feminist Poetry Conference (Winnipeg, 1992), and featured in an article in The Montreal Gazette (1994).Lastly, chris wind is listed in “Who’s Who in Hell” (probably because of “Faith,” “The Great Jump-Off,” and Thus Saith Eve).

Book preview

DEARE SISTER

chris wind

Smashwords Edition

Published on Smashwords by:

Deare Sister

Copyright 1991, 2011 by chris wind

www.chriswind.net

Cover concept and design by chris wind

Formatting and layout design by Elizabeth Beeton

wind, chris

Deare Sister / chris wind

ISBN 978-1-926891-07-1

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal use only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

also by chris wind

Thus Saith Eve

UnMythed

Soliloquies: The Lady Doth Indeed Protest

Snow White Gets Her Say

Satellites Out of Orbit*

Particivision and other stories

Paintings and Sculptures

Excerpts

dreaming of kaleidoscopes

Deare Sister is available in print as part of chris wind’s Satellites Out of Orbit (2nd edition), titled Letters.

* Satellites Out of Orbit contains the four books listed above it as well as this book.

•

A performance version of The Portrait (a Mozartean piano score with vocalise to accompany delivery of the text as a monologue) is available from the author ([e-mail]).

Acknowledgements

The Experiment Herstoria Summer 2009

The Ride Canadian Woman Studies Spring 1988, vol.9 no.1

The Portrait The Antigonish Review Fall/Winter 1986, vol.65

The Dialogue was performed at Alumnae Theatre, Toronto, Ontario, February 1993.

An earlier version of Deare Sister appeared as Letters in the first edition of Satellites Out of Orbit.

CONTENTS

The Portrait

The Protest

The Ride

The Experiment

The Patent

The Model

The Stone

The Ring

The Grapes

The Dialogue

•

Appendix

This is fiction catalyzed by fact. It is not fiction supported by fact. What I mean by that is that the fiction is totally mine—I didn’t conjecture a reasonable fiction based on the facts: although the characters ‘writing’ the letters are real people, in no case did I uncover information implying that such a letter was written; in some cases, the person being written to wasn’t even known by the person writing (this is the case in The Patent—Catherine Greene and Catherine II existed at the same time but that’s it as far as I know); and in other cases, the person being written to doesn’t even exist (I made up Benetta, Properzia’s confidante in The Stone and Gawaina, Godiva’s confidante and sister in The Ride). In fact, I chose women who, for whatever reasons, probably didn’t write such a letter, or any letter, or anything at all for that matter. Or if they did, it hasn’t survived (at least, not in the easily accessible pre-internet mainstream). In this way then, I did not presume to speak for anyone who could and did speak for herself. These pieces are not so much what the characters really would’ve said but what I think they should’ve said. So in light of historical evidence, I may have misrepresented some of the characters. To those who are offended by perceived misrepresentation, my apologies. But since history is, in these cases, scanty, suspect of bias, and sometimes contradictory (see especially the notes for The Dialogue), it’s hard to know the extent of any misrepresentation. These women might’ve said what I want them to have said!

That said, even though the letters and sometimes the epistolary relationships are fiction, in all cases the event giving rise to the letter and most of the events mentioned therein are real.

There is an appendix at the end of the book containing brief notes about the women who ‘write’ the letters and the various people mentioned by her, followed by a list of references that I used. This serves to provide background information which sometimes enhances appreciation