Bartolomé De Las Casas fictional biography excerpt

[I recently did a course on the Faber Academy concerning research - and following the exercises they gave us, I decided to write a short scene that can be part of a bigger book. I chose 16th century friar and human rights activist Bartolomé de Las Casas, who campaigned against the ruthless barbarity committed by the Spaniards and Portuguese against the Native Americans.]

The two friars walked along the sandy beach, as the wind blew through the palm trees and cooled down heat from the sun. The sea was turquoise and animated. One or two palm trees on the left guarding a jungle, bowed down on them here and there.  A paradise indeed, which was slowly coming to a cruel end like the rest of Hispaniola.

“What is your take on all of this, Father?” Las Casas inquired.

“I do believe no stronger argument could be made against slavery other than an increase of signatures for your petition, Father. “ Del Rio said, wearily kicking the sand away from his feet as he walked. “But sadly, the people of Spain have seen the gold for themselves. As you yourself have?”

“Indeed I have. It is… a spectacular sight; there is no denying it. But I have seen the greed flicker in these men’s eyes, and once it settles, it spreads like a virus, laying down destruction in all of its paths. If temptation is there before you, should it be normal to lust after it like wild dogs?”

“It shouldn’t be. But you are simply one of few, Father. And the numbers on your petition aren’t looking good.”

“Then I shall make them better.” he spoke firmly while marching faster. “The king is in our favour. And he will make the people listen.”

Suddenly, a walloping cheer was heard from the jungle. The camp where Captain Pànfilo de Narvaez was settled had been silent since their arrival on the island. Del Rio turned to him and sighed with his eyebrows raised.

“Three days, now. I don’t suppose it would have taken them that long.”

Las Casas stood still for a few seconds, the terrible suspicions dawning in on him. He then marched fervently towards the ruckus, treading over the foreign bushes and brushing aside the branches. As the priests made their way further towards the camp, a screaming of such inhumane nature reached their ears, before a whip cracked. Any other sound was completely drowned out by the raucous cheers of Spaniards.

He felt an unprecedented anger catch hold of him as he began to run.  Sure enough, when they came to the clearing in the jungle, they saw Narvaez surrounded by his crewmembers and a few of the Castilian friars.

A pole had been shoved into the earth in the middle of the circle. The same ones used to plant the flags of Spain in other camps. Her hands were secured to the pole by a rope. The whip from the captain came down on her naked body like flash of lightening and once again, the cheering of the men diminished her screams. As she lifted up her head to let out another tortured cry, Las Casas ‘s horrified eyes trailed down to the bulge of her stomach.

“Barbarians!” he screamed as Narvaez brought the whip down on her again. “Del Rio, cut her free!”

Del Rio, sharp as ever, grabbed a dagger from the hilt of the nearest crewmember and rushed towards the pole. He cut through the ropes and held the girl his arms. Long bloody gashes covered the girl’s back and legs, which were soon shielded by Del Rio’s cloth.

“Have you gone mad?” Las Casas turned to Narvaez, who seemed rather indifferent at the interruption. “What malicious devil possessed you to do this?”

“She refused to work. So I punished her.” The captain shrugged.

“She’s pregnant, you unrelenting fool! Would you treat a Spanish woman in this manner?”

“The heathens cannot feel pain as we do. She is a slave and I will govern her and them as I please.”

“You promised!” Las Casas spluttered. The rest of the men all gathered around Las Casas, all of them now annoyed that this little man had interrupted their source of amusement. The friars, on the other hand, stayed in their place. Misery and apprehension etched out on their faces. They looked ashamed. One of them crossed himself, bowing his head down.

“You promised you would not mistreat any of the Indians you encountered. The king gave you specific orders not to do it!”

Narvaez looked all around at his men nonchalantly. His face was bearded with dark brown hair and his mouth perpetually rolled into a pout. His cruel eyes then turned to Las Casas.

 “The king is not here. I am the king around these parts. My rules, my say.”

“And what of the say of Our Lord? To treat his creatures with such unspeakable cruelty? To lie, and trick your way into promotion? And for what? For your gold?”

“I am the only God here!” snapped the captain before spitting in the direction of Del Rio and the Indian woman, huddled up between two trees.

“Heathen whores like that will submit to our ways or suffer the consequences! I have spared that girl with her life. She aught to be grateful. I mean after all, I’d rather take her in my bed alive and thrashing than dead and filthy.”

It was then that Las Casas lost his temper. He pointed his finger at the captain and cried: “Take that back! Take that back and repent! Or you will be damned to hell for all eternity!”

There were jeers and hoarse laughter from all of his men.

“You can’t tell me what to do, Father.” The captain said calmly. “You are a race traitor. The wickedness of the heathens has put a spell on you.”

“Satan has put a spell on you.” Las Casas retorted. “Your lust for gold has poisoned your heart and soul. Repent your actions or suffer holy judgment! “

“Ha! And what will you do about it, hm?”

Las Casas held his head up high and took a step towards Narvaez. The sneering murmurs of his crewmen intensified.

“I will tell the king of what you have done and said on this day. I don’t imagine he will take kindly your word being so profanely broken. And he will strip away all of your riches!”

He addressed Narvaez’s men to scream those last words. At this, they exploded into an angry rage and screamed and jeered at the Friar.

“Your greed has turned you away from the benevolence of our lord Jesus Christ and sent you to the devil. Repent at once!”

The men caved in on him, calling him a traitor and a fool. Narvaez’s face finally hardened.

“You are a damned fanatic!” he looked the priest up and down with disgust. “You have no power over a king! Your words serve and mean nothing. Without gold, there will be no ships, no expeditions and no conquests. Scream and whimper all you like, no one will listen.”

By then, the crewmembers were screaming into Las Casas’s face, pointing their dirty fingers, declaring death threats. The friar was so incensed that he continued to bellow along with them.

“You are no Christian! Under that charming mask lies the spawn of the Devil. You have no place in Heaven!”

“Get this lunatic out of my sight!”

And with that, the mob grabbed him and carried him away from the captain.  They would not harm a Christian friar, but he now knew it could change at any minute.

After a few minutes of being gripped tightly by the arms and moved about in dizzying directions, they stopped and pushed him headfirst into a puddle of mud, roaring with laughter. Las Casas felt the dampness of the water and bruising on his elbows.

One of the crewmembers, a tall, black bearded Castilian, scooped a handful of mud near the puddle and smeared the earthy substance all over the friar’s face. He kept his mouth and eyes shut, hearing the man chortle: “Now you have the same skin as the heathens!”.

What he felt was relief, rather than humiliation. If they had him whipped like the poor girl, it would not have faltered him. He smiled as Narvaez’s men marched back into the camp.

As Las Casas got up groggily, Del Rio appeared before him, his arm wrapped around the Indian girl; the linen cloth still enveloped around her bloodied body. She had her eyes closed, her head leaning towards her saviour in gratitude.

“Are you alright, Father?” Del Rio asked, looking rather remorseful.

“I’m alright, Del Rio.” Las Casas daubed his cloth into the muddy water and washed away the cake-like substance from his face.

“I’m so sorry.”

Las Casas laughed at this.

“What is there to be sorry about?” He gestured towards his filthy robes. “It is but earth - God’s fine earth. Why should I care if those miscreants want to rub it in my face? They think they can dehort me from my cause, but they have done the opposite. I have angered them by showing them their true colours. When ugliness is unmasked to the public, it is indubitably uncomfortable for them, but it’s what they deserve. And it is what the world must know about.”

Del Rio coiled his protective arm around the native woman gently and nodded.

“I hope it will be so, Father.”

My problems with Sherlock Season 4

The fans were consistently told by the cast and crew before the fourth season of Sherlock aired, that this was going to be the best one yet. But after seeing each episode twice, I can honestly say that this is the worst series they've done. And I'm not the only one who thinks so.
I understand that each season has to be different, and that's OK. We were also told that this season would be the darkest one yet. And that's OK too. What I'm not OK with the complete change in certain characters and the incoherence of the storylines and overall arc of the season.

Here are my problems with it:

The thing about Mary

The thing about Mary is that she’s a very interesting character. She started out as the nice new wife of John Watson and Sherlock likes her. Then when Sherlock caught her red handed trying to murder Magnusson, she ruthlessly shot him.

For John’s sake, he doesn’t turn her in and tricks her into confessing what she did.

Sherlock, weirdly, forgives her straight away, while John is absolutely furious and doesn’t speak to her for several months. He decides to forgive her on Christmas day and destroys the USB key containing her past.

In The Six Thatchers, she is integrated as part of the crime solving gang, after she gives birth to a daughter, Rosie.

This is where things start to go wrong. The cast and crew of Sherlock said that the last thing they wanted was for Mary to become a wedge between Sherlock and John. But in this episode, she ends up doing just that.

Sherlock and John hardly interact, with the plot being more and more about Mary than about Sherlock and John’s relationship. Her past comes back to bite her, all the while Sherlock repeatedly states that she is under his protection as part of a “holy vow” to be there for her, John and the baby.

That vow breaks when he antagonizes an old lady named Vivian Norbury, and she shoots him, only for Mary to dive in front of the bullet, and dying of the wounds.

We all knew Mary was going to die. In the ACD books, she dies, but of unknown causes. What I didn’t expect was John would blame Sherlock for her death and cut all contact with him. The heroes lose, and nothing at Baker Street will ever be the same again.

The problem is, despite being dead, she still comes back through silly video tapes, sending Sherlock on a mission to “Save John Watson” by putting himself through drug hell, so that John can save him, thus saving himself.

It would have been so much easier had she been a full-on villain who was jealous of Sherlock and John’s relationship. Her relationship with John was the best thing that ever happened to her and didn’t want anyone coming in the way of that. Even Amanda Abbington, who plays Mary, says she still doesn’t know why she had to shoot Sherlock. Jealously would have been the perfect motivator, but apparently it isn’t. Thus it makes no sense.

The writers wanted so desperately for everyone to like Mary and become one of the “team” that they end up ruining the best relationship in the show.

The tragedy of John Watson

If there is one thing that was always true to the character of John Watson - is that he’s an incredibly loyal and brave man who would do anything for the ones he loves.

All of this changes in season 4. Despite having a new baby and enjoying domestic bliss with his wife and adventures with his best friend, he feels the need to start cheating on his wife with a woman he met on the bus. He’s obviously not happy with Mary. In his Last Vow, he seemed unhappy because he was missing Sherlock. But here, he had no reason whatsoever to start an affair. For the record he only texted her, but he thought about cheating, and that’s enough.

Then when Mary dies in his arms, he is utterly destroyed. Guilt, rage and sorrow seep out all at once. And he blames it all on Sherlock. The worst thing is that he wasn’t even there when Sherlock was egging Mrs Norbury on.

He sends Sherlock a letter, and we are never told what it actually contained.

Here's another writing tip - Chekhov's Gun.

Chekhov's writing tip about unnecessary information is the key to good writing:

"If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter, it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there."

And that's what happens a lot in this new series. I can't list all of them, but the letter is one of them. If they showed it and didn't bother to explain what was written, then why bother showing it?

John in The Lying Detective is a totally different person. He's still obviously upset by the death of Mary, and sees her everywhere. But he also drinks and  neglects his baby.

Sherlock is completely off his tits on drugs, to the point that he might kill himself. But John doesn't want to know. Until Mrs Hudson kidnaps Sherlock and brings him to his house.

I will say if there is one good change about this season, it's Mrs Hudson. She's a total baddass who take no shit from anyone,  and tells people a few home truths . 

Sherlock vows to take down creepy philanthropist Culverton Smith - after spending an evening talking to his daughter Faith. Smith likes to brag about killing people, and then drugging the people he bragged to, so that they forget everything.

In a morgue, Smith's "favorite room", Sherlock confronts Smith about his crimes, and about why Faith was so afraid of her father. When she comes in, however, she is not the same woman he met a couple of weeks ago - realizing she may have been a simple drug hallucination.

Completely devastated at once again failing badly, and suffering from drug withdrawal, he turns violent and brandishes a scalpel. John subdues him, and hits him, and hits him and hits him. He is left bleeding and crying on the floor, but assures security that John is entitled to do what he wants since he "killed his wife."

"Yes you did." John replies coldly.

This is the two of them at their very rock bottom. But the real tragedy of this is how little John cares about Sherlock at this point. 

The morgue scene is intertwined with John talking to Lestrade (criminally under-used in this season) about the incident. At one point he confesses that Sherlock killed Magnusson, and that "we should have known what to expect because of that."

What??? The first scene of TST involved the government covering up the murder so that no one else could know about it! And John, Sherlock's once most trusted friend is now telling a police officer that he killed a man. 

After the beating, he visits him in hospital, but instead of staying with him, he decides to once again cut him out of his life completely and offers him a parting gift: the walking stick last seen in A Study in Pink.

This is so far removed from the John Watson we know and love that he's hardly recognizable any more.

Although to be fair, and people seem to forget this, Sherlock has treated John pretty appallingly in the past. Not the least of which is disappearing for two years, pretending to be dead and show up out of the blue without an ounce of compassion. Or locking him in a lab and terrifying the crap out of him for an experiment in The Hounds of Baskerville. 

Smith shows up in the hospital room and proceeds to smother him to death. But all it took for John to realize he wasn't faking and that Smith was indeed a killer, was a video taped message from Mary. All of his antics, including picking on a bad guy, and "going to hell" was all part of Mary's "plan" to save "the man we both love": John Watson. 

Again it defeats the early incarnation of John believing in Sherlock even when the whole world was against him (see The Reichenbach Fall) and the fact that he needed his dead wife to tell him and Sherlock what to do is just dumb. 

He goes back to the hospital and restrains Smith just in time. Sherlock has recorded him confessing his crimes and he is thrown in jail.

At Baker Street, John apologizes of sorts by telling him that Mary's death was not his fault. Sherlock still hates himself for what happened.

John talks to Mary (the one he's been seeing in his head. So he's basically just talking to himself) and tearfully confesses he was not the man she thought he was. He then breaks down sobbing and Sherlock embraces him softly. 

"It's not OK. But it is what it is"

It's a truly lovely, emotional moment. But it doesn't last. 

At one point, and again this is another one of Chekhov's guns, Sherlock gets a text from Irene Adler. And John encourages him forcefully to take a chance with her and text her back. 

Here we go again with a character arc U Turn. John never liked Irene Adler because she was a dangerous sociopath (or was it jealousy?). Why is he telling him to go after a woman while at the same time saying she's no good for him?

John boldly states that a romantic entanglement with a woman would complete Sherlock as a human being. No it wouldn’t! He didn't have to before, in all the other adaptations, so why should he have to now?

All in all, I believe the sacrifice of John's good characteristics in exchange for angst was desperate and at worst, weak.

The problem of Eurus 

Eurus Holmes, the secret Holmes sibling, has more than a few problems. 

First of which: she was not something that was in the minds of Mofftiss from the beginning. She came about during the filming of His Last Vow. She was basically just a fun addition the writers decided to do at the last minute.

She reveals herself at the end TLD, to John. She disguised herself as three different people: the red haired girl who flirted with John on the bus. Faith Smith, who was not a hallucination as Sherlock thought. And John's German psychiatrist. The moment she divulges herself, she is shown to be both mad and dangerous. After having killed and stuffed John's other psychiatrist in a cupboard (and no one is bothering to look for her?) she shoots John in the face. 

With a dart gun, it's revealed in the final episode - named The Final Problem.

I can't even begin to start with how many problems this episode has.

But let's start with Eurus. First of all, she's not a believable character. She is without a doubt a female version of Hannibal Lecter. Her powers seem so far out there - in terms of manipulating people - getting inside their heads and controlling the whole prison in which she is interred - that they borderline on the supernatural. It would have made a lot more sense if it was sci-fi, but it's not. 

Here's another rule the writers blatantly missed. When you're telling a story and you're introducing that world to your audience: you have keep on going with that idea. If you stray too far away from what people loved about it in the first place, you'll end up losing your fans and audience. And that's exactly what happened here.

It feels less like a Sherlock Holmes inspired episode and more like a crappy retelling of Silence of the Lambs.

Critics said this episode was "the most sexist" the show. Indeed, apart from Mrs Hudson, all the women in the episode are portrayed as whiny and weepy females who's only characteristics serve as a mirror or a challenge for Sherlock. It seems Moftiss just don't know how to write women well.

But then again, neither do I, according to some. Despite me being a feminist and gay rights activist, my work has been criticized for being "anti-feminist" just because one of my main characters is a bit of a misogynist (he's a 17 year old kid with a troubled background).

Plus the ACD stories were written during Victorian times, so they were always going to be a bit on the rough side when it came to female characters. 

It is revealed that Redbeard, Sherlock's beloved dog was actually a little boy called Victor Trevor, Sherlock's best friend when they were kids. Eurus threw him in a well and left him to die because she felt left out of Sherlock's affection. 

It's a heartbreaking revelation, and unlike a lot of other stuff in this episode, it does make sense. As there are such things as repressed memories - when the memory is too traumatic. 

But the way Sherlock manages to get him and John out of his sister's dangerous traps is yet another let down.

All it took for him was to just simply give her a hug. And that’s it! The danger is over!

I understand that the message is “empathy wins”, but not at this price.

In conclusion – the whole thing falls apart for a very specific reason :Nobody cares about Eurus. She’s a new, thinly layered character that you simply can’t warm up to.

The absence of consequences

The writers explained that season 4’s theme would revolve around the consequences of what Sherlock and John had been doing.

What consequences exactly?

In the very first scene of The Six Thatchers, as I mentioned before, the consequences of Sherlock shooting Magnusson in the head in front of dozens of policemen are completely erased with manipulated video footage. Even though Mycroft was willing to send him off to his own death a while back.

The only real consequences we get is the shooting of Mary after Sherlock goads Vivian Norbury on, and Sherlock’s drug abuse that leads to his meltdown in the morgue.

But other than that, there are no lasting repercussions to the actions of John or the Holmes family. No mention of any of the families of the victims Eurus killed (especially Victor Trevor, who was such a huge part of Sherlock’s life). No media backlash against Sherlock and John as there was in The Reichenbach Fall. No exploration of the trauma of the supporting characters – namely Molly.

In The Final Problem, Sherlock is forced by Eurus to trick Molly into saying “I love you.” to him, or else she’ll be blown up. She can’t because she really does love him, and demands that he say it first. He does, twice. The second time, it sounds a lot more genuine. But it’s never explained whether he truly does love her as she does him, or if he’s just saying it to save her life.

In the end, Eurus revealed that Molly was never in danger.  Sherlock is so distraught that he destroys a coffin with his bare hands.

It’s once again another cheap move to install terror into the scene. They could have at least had an extra scene with Sherlock and Molly reconciling, other than writer Steven Moffat just sneering “Oh she just gets over it!”

People don’t just get over stuff, Moffat! 

In conclusion, this is why the “happy” ending isn’t satisfactory. There doesn’t seem to be any real sacrifice. The flat on Baker-Street was destroyed by one of Eurus’s drones, but the boys quickly fix it again and happily continue to solve crimes, while Mary needlessly narrates how great her “Baker Street Boys “ are.

It doesn’t feel like a happy ending to me.  I feel cheated and taken advantaged of. 

If the show does return, I will watch it for Ben and Martin’s performances, but my expectations will be considerably lowered.

Moftiss was right. Ben and Martin do not need this show to boost their careers – because they are glowing perfectly well without it.  They’re both in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: with Martin playing Everett Ross, and Benedict is now Doctor Strange. Neither one of them have been as GOOD as they have been in season four. They just get better and better each time.

But if the show never comes back (I don’t think that’s the case) it’s a very, very poor send off.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara - Review

I’ve just finished reading A Little life by Hanya Yanagahara, and the tears cannot stop falling. I don’t think I’ve ever read something so profound, so heart-shattering, soul-breaking, brutally emotional and beautifully written.

I first heard about the novel from an interview with Benedict Cumberbatch, who praised it as a “wonderful, amazing book.” But I avoided buying it for two reasons. One was that it is the size of a brick, and second was the reviews: “The most depressing book you’ll ever read.”

To read something this long and apparently this depressing is a big commitment. But then I heard other people praise it: Literary agents, fellow writers and students of creative writing. So I went out and bought it.

And the reviews were not lying when they said how depressing and heart-breaking it was.

The story is about the friendship between four boys; Willem, Malcolm, JB and Jude. Willem is an aspiring actor, handsome and kind; Malcolm is a professional architect, JB is a painter, and Jude is a lawyer. The first chapter begins from the point of view of the first three, but gradually, it is made clear that Jude is the protagonist of the story – secretive, increasingly and irreparably broken,  and tormented by the unspeakable abuse he suffered as a child, his teenage years and his midlife. Though his adoptive parents, friends and boyfriend love him unconditionally, he still can’t refrain from cutting himself in order to feel alive.

I was sobbing, literally sobbing  at various parts of the book, thinking “Why, oh why did this happen? Why can’t these characters be happy? Why can’t you give them a break?”

It made me want to throw the damn book against the wall. But I admired what the author had done: created such an empathetic portrayal of life, and how life can define you or how you define it.  I also loved how the characters were both racially and sexually ambiguous and how it portrayed gay relationships with such tender and passionate love, as well as horrific circumstances, something you don’t usually see in the media or literature.

I don’t know whether or not to recommend it to people. It certainly is a magnificent, gorgeously written piece of work that deserves all the praise it gets. But despite being easy to read because of its structure and prose, it is by no means easy to get into its hard subject matters, such as child rape and prostitution, domestic violence, self abuse and relentless psychological suffering.

Still, I recommend it for being daring, making a 700 + page novel entertaining all the way through, taking its audience to a new level of empathy and caring for the characters, and hopefully in the their own lives as well.