{"id":1618582,"date":"2022-08-22T08:01:31","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T12:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1618582"},"modified":"2022-08-22T08:01:37","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T12:01:37","slug":"attempts-to-make-joan-of-arc-nonbinary-show-she-cant-be-pigeonholed-into-postmodernism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/attempts-to-make-joan-of-arc-nonbinary-show-she-cant-be-pigeonholed-into-postmodernism\/","title":{"rendered":"Attempts To Make Joan Of Arc Nonbinary Show She Can\u2019t Be Pigeonholed Into Postmodernism"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fattempts-to-make-joan-of-arc-nonbinary-show-she-cant-be-pigeonholed-into-postmodernism%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1618582&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Shakespeare\u2019s rebuilt theater, London\u2019s Globe, will soon stage a production called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/london\/news\/the-globes-i-joan-is-the-most-controversial-play-of-the-year-and-its-not-even-on-yet-081622\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">I, Joan<\/a>,\u201d that portrays Joan of Arc as \u201cnonbinary,\u201d complete with progressive pronouns. This isn\u2019t a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-11105319\/Backlash-grows-against-Shakespeares-Globe-Theatre-new-play-depicting-Joan-Arc-non-binary.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">defeat for feminism<\/a> (though Joan has long been co-opted for causes she never would have endorsed). It\u2019s not even a meaningful moment in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/joan-of-arc-was-a-woman\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">transgender debate<\/a> (Joan, who was a woman, will be portrayed by a woman).<\/p>\n<p>Instead, it\u2019s just another victory of Joan over the spirit of the age. She has a way of doing that; she fascinates \u2014 and often converts \u2014 the leading skeptics of the time, precisely because her story cannot be pigeonholed into a convenient modern or postmodern category.<\/p>\n<p>A quick refresher: Joan was an uneducated farm girl, who at the age of about 13 began hearing voices. They told her she must lead an army to raise the siege of Orl\u00e9ans, and she must crown the French prince (the Dauphin) in the Reims Cathedral. She convinced a local official to send her to meet the Dauphin, and she then convinced him to send her to Orl\u00e9ans as part of a relief force. She rallied the French troops and brought off a victory that allowed the French to retake Reims \u2014 and to crown Charles VII.<\/p>\n<p>She was later captured by the Burgundians, then tried for heresy by the English (one of the charges was that she wore men\u2019s clothes during the military campaign). She was burned at the stake at the age of 19. A few years later, the Catholic Church overturned the verdict; she was canonized as a saint in 1920.<\/p>\n<h2>Mark Twain Was Devoted to Joan<\/h2>\n<p>But Joan didn\u2019t merely conquer \u2014 she converted. Two of the modern world\u2019s leading skeptics grappled with Joan\u2019s story \u2014 and were utterly defeated. Mark Twain was one of them.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.americamagazine.org\/arts-culture\/2018\/04\/12\/how-joan-arc-conquered-mark-twain\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twain was once approached by a fan<\/a>, a young man who declared his love for \u201cThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer\u201d and \u201cHuckleberry Finn.\u201d Twain responded he\u2019d rather the young man had said his \u201cRecollections of Joan of Arc.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That book, he said, is \u201cmy very best.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though it receives little attention now, Twain\u2019s \u201cPersonal Recollections of Joan of Arc\u201d stands out as the author\u2019s most deeply researched work. As he put it, \u201ctwelve years of preparation, and two years of writing\u2026 The others needed no preparation and got none.\u201d It was also the last novel of his career.<\/p>\n<p>Twain was \u2014 at best \u2014 a deist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy the time he\u2019s writing Recollections, he\u2019s not a believer,\u201d Twain scholar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theawl.com\/2012\/04\/the-riddle-of-mark-twains-passion-for-joan-of-arc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Susan K. Harris has said<\/a>. \u201cHe is anti-Catholic, and he doesn\u2019t like the French. So he writes a book about a French-Catholic martyr? Ostensibly, it doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s a fact. As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.americamagazine.org\/arts-culture\/2018\/04\/12\/how-joan-arc-conquered-mark-twain\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ted Gioia noted in America magazine<\/a>, \u201cTwain\u2019s enthusiasm is still alive in these pages. That is, after all, the most conspicuous quality in this entire novel: the author\u2019s devotion to Joan of Arc. It jumps off every page.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>George Bernard Shaw Also Wrestled with Her Story<\/h2>\n<p>Twain wasn\u2019t the only famous skeptic that fell under the Maid\u2019s spell. George Bernard Shaw also wrestled with Joan\u2019s story \u2014 and the result was his play, \u201cSaint Joan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Strangely, his play was published with a lengthy preface, in which he attempted to explain his fascination with Joan\u2019s history and her role in world affairs. He didn\u2019t quite know what to make of her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe lectured, talked down, and overruled statesmen and prelates,\u201d Shaw wrote. \u201cShe pooh-poohed the plans of generals, leading their troops to victory on plans of her own.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Was she mad? Shaw concludes that she wasn\u2019t; the \u201csoundness\u201d of her voices and visions prove this. Instead, he writes that \u201cher dramatic imagination played tricks with her senses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet \u201cSaint Joan\u201d shows that the Maid remained a riddle to Shaw, one he could neither solve nor set aside. As his great friend and intellectual sparring partner, G.K. Chesterton, wrote of him, \u201cThe whole force and triumph of Mr. Bernard Shaw lie in the fact that he is a thoroughly consistent man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Because he was consistent, he couldn\u2019t deny the miracle of the Maid of Orl\u00e9ans.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s why the Globe\u2019s new play is strikingly unremarkable. It\u2019s merely another attempt to fit the historic figure of Joan, the young, untutored girl from Domr\u00e9my, into a version of history that denies both miracles and common, observable facts. Our culture continues to grapple with questions such as \u201cwhat is a woman?\u201d Joan was sure of something far more important \u2014 what is a woman of God?<\/p>\n<p>Skeptics and revisionists come and go. Joan\u2019s banner still waves, unconquered and uncowed.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Roy Maynard is editor of the Texas Public Policy Foundation\u2019s The Cannon Online and is senior writer at the foundation. He was in the news industry for more than 30 years, most recently as senior editor of the Tyler Morning Telegraph.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shakespeare\u2019s rebuilt theater, London\u2019s Globe, will soon stage a production called \u201cI, Joan,\u201d that portrays Joan of Arc as \u201cnonbinary,\u201d complete with progressive pronouns. This isn\u2019t a defeat for feminism<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1283,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1618582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1618582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1283"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1618582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1618582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1618582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1618582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1618582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}