S2E8 Poetic Dissonance

Note: Enjoy the blooper at the start of the audio. Like we said, we do these live 😊Welcome to Mysteries to Die For.I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. This is a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you at the heart of mystery, murder, and mayhem. Some episodes will be my own stories, others will be classics that helped shape the mystery genre we know today. These are arrangements, which means instead of word-for-word readings, you get a performance meant to be heard. Jack and I perform these live, front to back, no breaks, no fakes, no retakes (unless it's really bad) This is Season 2. This season contains adaptations of stories published in the 1800s. These stories are some of the first considered to be mysteries. For that reason, this season is called The Originators.Today’s story is about obsession, social unrest, and the courage to stand. This is the Episode 8 Poetic Dissonance, an adaptation of Mademoiselle de Scuderi by E.T.A Hoffman. Tina: The story today is set in Paris, beginning in autumn of 1680. Paris was also the location for the first episode this season, The Thinking Man, the adaptation of Poe’s Murder’s in the Rue Morgue. As we said a few weeks ago, Paris is famous for, well, being Paris. People lived in the area since the 3rd century B.C. The star of today’s show is a 73-year old storyteller and poet, Madeleine de Scuderi, referenced throughout the story by the simple title Mademoiselle. She lived in a small house (by 18th Century French standards) on Rue Saint Honorée. Interestingly, The Thinking Man story referenced Saint Roch church, which is on Rue Sainte Honorée. A link to a map of Paris from 1652 is in the show notes, on our website, and on Facebook. It is amazing how 470 years later, you can still find the same streets on Google Maps. Because Mademoiselle attended King Louis XIV court, we’ll put our pin closer to the Louvre this time.This story is interesting far beyond the actual story. Published in 1819, this is considered the first detective story. No doubt it was cutting edge. Consider E.T.A. Hoffman’s detective was a 70-year old female and that he used historic people. The real Madeleine de Scuderi was born Nov 15, 1607 and died June 2, 1701 at the age of 93. She was a prolific writer and was part of the French renaissance. Among her friends was the poet Paul Scarron and his wife Francoise. After Paul’s death, Francoise climbed the hierarchy of society, eventually being known as Madam de Maintenon, lover and secret wife of Louis XIV.  I’m not a history buff, but reading about the craziness of France in the mid-1600s was unbelievable. Netflix, etc., has been making series out of English aristocracy – go check out the French. In the scandal The Affair of Poisons, heads rolled, literally, in the quest to seek justice for and put an end to people poisoning other to hurry along inheritance or even a slight. There are links to the Wikipedia page in the show notes and on the website.Goodreads ratings! Originally published in German, this story have over 2230 ratings with an average of 3.40. Many of the reviews were not in English. I just renewed my Babble subscription so maybe, eventually…anyway.Here’s an excerpt from a 5-star review: It was a wonderful story of murder set against the backdrop of the "affair of the poisons" in Paris. The atmosphere was very dark and claustrophobic. Everyone was paranoid and there was much fear of the police. The main character Mme de Scuderi was a great heroine, 73, sharp and compassionate, she was also a force to be reckoned with and even the King listened to her. The plot was interesting, dramatic with lots of twists and turns.Three star: “Mademoiselle de Scuderi” is honestly far from his most brilliant achievements. The Mademoiselle in question is an elderly poet with connections to French aristocracy and the Sun King himself, set out to unveil a series of brutal crimes committed in the streets of Paris at night. If this sounds like a period piece with large gowns, even larger wigs and a heavily powdered Miss Marple, the reason is that that is pretty much exactly what this is. (Note: Miss Marple was first published in Dec 1927, nearly 110-years after De Scuderi)Two star: Nothing special, although there is some interesting vocabulary in this book.Jack: Our original author today is E.T.A Hoffman. The E.T.A stands for Ernst Theodore Amadeus. He was born Ernest Theodor WILHELM Hoffman. Now there’s a pen name no one will figure out. If you are thinking “I’ve never heard of E.T.A Hoffman, you are wrong! He wrote the story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”, which was the basis for Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker.Hoffman was born in January 1776 and died in June 1822. Like many of the author’s we’ve featured, he did a lot of different things. He was considered a jurist – which is someone with expert knowledge in law, the field many of his family members worked in. He worked for his uncle, who was promoted from a local court to one in Berlin. He was an author, artist, and composer. He worked as a stage manager.Hoffman found himself in a little trouble when at his first job in Southern Prussia, caricatures of military officers were distributed at a ball. Everyone knew who did it. And they complained about it. But Hoffman had supporters so, to solve the problem, he was promoted to a new job…in another city. Hoffman saw this as being exiled- and he wasn’t wrong, but it gave him time to write and compose. So, there’s that.Hoffman died when he was 46. He’d published 10 instrumental scores, 13 works for the stage, 8 vocal pieces, and 14 books or collections. That doesn’t count the sketches and drawings. Imagine what he would have done if he lived another 45 years.Tina: We are nearly ready to begin our story. While Jack resets his microphone and warms up his fingers, I’ll explain why are we doing adaptations of these early stories instead of performing them as written. Two main reasons. The language from the 1800s is hard, even after it’s been translated to English.Second, the style and length of the stories were not created for listening, they were created for reading. With these adaptations, we keep the heart of the story, preserving the ground breaking narrative, but update the packaging for easier digester. Character names are in the show notes.If Season 1 did nothing else, it proved I can’t do accents. Maybe once the morgue has filled up with donations to our Body Bag Brigade I can take lessons. Until then, I’ve going to stick with my regular voice. This story is sent in Paris and the characters are, you guess it, French. I’ve changed the names to words I can say (pathetic but true).One final note, since Mademoiselle was a poet (and Hoffman, too) we’ve incorporated poetry into this episode, which Jack will accompany on a cajon. And so we are ready for Poetic Dissonance. I apologize in advance for my pathetic attempts at French. Jack, I’ll transform myself into a 17th century, elderly poet while you take us in.Episode MaterialsThere are several places where you can find the original. Gutenberg is one of them. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31439 Reference linksE.T.A Hoffman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._A._HoffmannThe real Madeleine de Scudary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_de_Scud%C3%A9ry  Map of Paris 1652: http://www.oldmapsofparis.com/map/1652Cast of charactersMademoiselle Madeleine de Scuderi: a 73-year old Parisian poet and our detective. She is a poet and storyteller in the court of Louis XIV.Louis XIV: King of France, also known as the Sun KingLa Reynie: Chief of the King’s specially appointed GuardDesgrais: Lieutentant of the Guard, a feared man in ParisHenry Duval: Trust lawyer and advisor to Louis XIVMadam de Maintenon: Louis XIV lover and dear friend of de ScuderiAnnette: Mademoiselle’s maidBaptiste: Mademoiselle’s butler, cook, and footmanRene Cardillac: Most famous jeweler in Paris. The Body.Oliver Brusson: Rene’s apprentice and accused of his murder.Helene Cardillac: Rene’s daughter and Oliver’s fiancée, considered a conspirator in her father’s death.Count de Marais: Present at the time Rene was fatally wounded. My two centsLet’s talk about this story. Does the logic work? Yes. I wondered how Cardillac knew of Mademoiselle’s statement to Louis XIV. Mademoiselle doesn’t know Cardillac until he is called to Madam’s home. This and the statement about refusing commissions for Madam lead me to the conclusion that Cardillac was not in Madam’s parlor to hear for himself. This is minor, it could have been repeated. It works that Cardillac knew where his victims would be and when. It’s somewhat coincidental that there was a secret passage out of his home – but what do I know. Maybe that was common in 17th century Paris.The timing works, although why didn’t Olivier visit Mademoiselle sooner? For all intents and purposes, she was his grandmother and his last living relative. That seems theatrical.Does...