HUNDREDS of 18th century LOVE LETTERS found & read for first time!

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Buy Amara. This is a weekly news show where we'll discuss some of the weird, strange, and just downright odd things that have happened in the art and history fields.

I'm your host and personal curator, Amara Andrew. This week, we're going to be talking about a gargantuan new world record, I couldn't help myself, how to visit a museum butt-ass naked, a demon found hidden in a painting, and over a hundred 18th-century letters, love letters specifically, that were just now opened for the first time, and it's so exciting.

I love letters, so just get ready, because I have a lot to say. So anyway, that is what we're talking about this week, so, yeah, let's just get into it, I guess. Sorry I missed this past week.

It's been crazy, hectic, busy. I know I say that every week, but genuinely this week was just like filled with meetings, filled with filming with people, filled with talking with people, which is great. Like, I love it.

I've said before how I just feel very isolated because my profession, like I do videography, so it's very much like a solitary sort of pursuit, just most of my time. My favorite thing is actually getting to talk to people, and like work with people in the filming part of my job. I mean, I love the editing also.

My job. My business. But, I just really like being able to talk with people.

So, that's what this whole week has been filled with, which is really awesome. But also, I'm so sorry that I have neglected you this week, so please forgive me. I'm very sorry.

I still love you, so I hope you still love me. But, yeah, it's it's all very good stuff. My business is growing and expanding, which is great.

I'm very excited. We have a lot of travel coming up this year, so, basically, we're already booked through April, which is wild. But, yeah, I'm very excited.

So, it's just, I don't know, it's just new opportunities with really cool people and like just everyone's genuinely so lovely. So, I don't know. I'm not going to get too mushy.

Don't worry. So anyway, how are you? How has your two weeks been?

The last time we saw each other was Halloween. I can't believe that, or talked to each other, rather. I don't know why I'm doing this like it's like a phone call.

Hi, how are you? So, Halloween is like my absolute favorite holiday. This year was a little weird because we had to go back to had to.

We went back to my homeland, Arizona, for my best friend from high school's wedding. It was, I already talked about it, but it was just so cute. So, we went back there.

So that, then we went to San Diego after for like a work thing for me, and that threw off all of my Halloween plans, unfortunately. Like, obviously, I would much rather be there at the wedding and like celebrating love and everything. I'm such a hopeless romantic, and you'll learn that when we talk about love letters in just a little bit.

Yeah, so anyway, I was super happy to go to the wedding, but it just like it threw off all of my Halloween plans, because normally I like to do a bunch of different things. I have like movie marathons, I plan a whole Halloween party for Jeff and I. I just I love Halloween.

It is like my favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite holiday. All of the holidays, I could do without, but Halloween is like my absolute favorite one. So, I was a little bummed.

Also, I just didn't feel like celebrating as much this year, which is really weird. So, it was just like I needed chill time, so I didn't put a ton of effort into anything. I just I decorated, and that was basically it.

But, what was very funny is, this year, I wanted to record a video all about gluten-free Christmas teas. If you have no idea what the fuck a Christmas tea is, or a holiday tea, it's basically just high tea, so like afternoon tea. Afternoon tea was started, I think, in like the 1840s by Queen Victoria.

High tea is basically where you just drink tea. I love tea. I'm a huge tea fan, even though I'm drinking coffee right now.

But, high tea, so you just drink tea, and then you have like cute little teapots and tea stuff. I worked at a tea shop forever, so I'm just obsessed with tea. But then, you have like little you have little sandwiches and little desserts and things like that.

Traditional ones, it depends on if you have like an English or a French tea, but I digress. I'm not going to go too into the weeds. But, you have a variety of different things that you can eat, and they're like cute and tiny.

So, since Jeff and I are gluten-free, and I'm dairy-free, even though I had cheese this week, but that was my bad. That was not a good idea. But, we're gluten-free, so I'm always trying to look for the best gluten-free whatever.

This week, we actually had fucking amazing gluten-free pizza in Chicago. If you want to know where it is, I'll I'll let you know. Like, the crust is like all bubbly, or just look at my socials.

I'll have a video out soon. Jesus, this is everywhere already. Sorry.

This is like my fourth cup of coffee, so I think that's why. So, I'm trying to make a video rounding up the best Christmas like gluten-free Christmas teas or holiday teas here in Chicago, just because it's kind of hard to find. So, literally like October 33rd, so 2 days after Halloween, we were at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, which is one of my favorite places, for Christmas tea.

Now, I've already been to their gluten-free tea, and it was really good. I'm not going to spoil anything from my review. But, it was just very weird being there right after Halloween.

Like, I was still I wore my Halloween sweater that I wore in the last episode of Buy Amara. My nails were still like orange and black, which I guess they're always black, but there's orange in them, so it was just very weird, and it didn't feel super Christmas-y yet. So, I don't know why the fuck I brought that up.

But anyway, there should be a video out soon. Christmas tea is hella expensive. I don't know why I just said hella.

I didn't want to say fucking. Somebody told me I swear way too much, which I'm trying to not let that get into my head, but just because that's just how I talk. Like, I don't even think about it.

But, I've become very aware of it, and I don't like that, so it just it's tripping me up a little bit. So, I'm going to try to not swear too much, but I'm going to swear the right amount for me, I guess. I don't know.

What is that? So yeah, so I have a whole video coming out about all that, so just, I guess, stay tuned. Oh, and then this Friday, so this is actually, to be truthful, the second time I'm recording this episode, because the first time I tried to record it on Friday, and everything was out of focus, because I had it focused on this lamp right here, and I was so fucking pissed off when I saw the footage afterward.

I was so upset, because also I was trying to record it, because we had an event to go to that night, so I was just like, "Oh, I can like be productive, and do all this." And it was just a waste of time, and I hate wasting time. That is my least favorite thing. I always try to have something, which I guess that tells you a lot about my personality.

Anyway, Friday night, we went to one of my clients. He rented out an entire movie theater to have a private screening of The Marvels. I was very excited to go.

I'm not really a big superhero movie person. I think I don't even know the last Avengers movie I saw. I think it was literally just The Avengers, or maybe Ant-Man or something.

I don't know. Jeff had me watch a couple, and I was like, "Yeah, I guess." It's just like, it's not really my thing. If it's your thing, that is awesome.

Like, keep doing you. Personally, not my jam. But, I really enjoyed the movie, The Marvels.

I actually I thought it was fun. There were some really stupid things in there, which I found very funny. I think we were literally the only two people laughing, because I found it so stupid and funny, so I guess that's not great if you're the only ones laughing.

I laugh at a lot of things. But, it was just very fun. There's a cute little I'm not spoiling anything, so don't worry.

But, there was just a cute little scene with some kitties that I absolutely loved, because we really like kitties and doggies. But, I digress. So, that was really cool.

There was they had like popcorn in the theater, and like drinks and stuff. It was just a really nice thing. So, kudos to you.

Oh, and the most fun part is we actually recorded a little intro like skit thing for the beginning of the movie. So, they played all the different trailers, and there were like a fuck ton, because this is supposed to be like the movie of the fall or whatever, whatever. I don't even know how to phrase it.

So, we recorded a fun little intro like for So, my client, they're the Clarity Group here in Chicago. Shout out. So, they we So, we recorded a fun little movie theater intro for them to like thank everybody, because it was a client appreciation event for them to thank their clients.

So, it was my client's client appreciation event for their clients. That makes sense. So, it was just a really fun thing, and when everybody, nobody had any idea that we had this planned.

So, my Jeff and I, we were trying to like record it when it came up, but every time we thought it was going to be it, it was another trailer, and I was like, "How many fucking trailers are you fitting in here, Jesus?" It seriously took like 40 minutes, and I was like, "Okay, I give up." But anyway, when it popped up, everybody like laughed and was cheering, so it was really cute.

That was like one of my favorite things. Also, trying to get to the theater, we got lost a couple different times. I'm going to try to publish my little vlog thing that I tried to do, but anyway, I digress.

Also, this is the part of the show called updates, where I normally update you on me and stories past. I don't have any updates on stories past, so I think we are just going to get straight into the show. I have just been fucking rambling, so I am so sorry.

Let's get to the show.

Sorry, I just looked you deep into your soul. Oh, my gourd. A new world record has been set.

I couldn't help myself. I just thought it would be funny. I love a good pun.

Oh, my god. Puns are my favorite thing. Anyway, or plays on words, plays on words, whatever.

Mis en place. On October 18th, a world record was set for the largest mosaic made of gourds, pumpkins, and squash. An assortment of Cucurbita, or whatever, Cucurbit.

I don't know exactly how to pronounce it, because I heard multiple different pronunciations. Cucurbita, it feels like that's like a Southern term for like, "She's such a Cucurbita." It sounds like a name. Anyway, I digress.

So anyway, October 18th, a world record was set for the largest mosaic made of gourds, squash, pumpkins, things like that. In a massive display, this specific little farm, which I'll talk about it in a second, they create like recreated Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas as he's ascending that like really cool, swirly kind of hill.

The artwork features over 10 or, rather, featured over 10,000 multicolored pumpkins and gourds across 2,000 sq ft of space. The farm, which is called Sunnyfields Farm, it's a family-run farm in Southampton in England, it looks adorable. I looked it up a little bit.

They specialize in like organic veggies and stuff like that, and they have like a whole little petting zoo, I think, and like farm animals, obviously. But, they're like a summer farm and a winter it's so cute. It's very cute.

So, if you're in Southampton at all, go take a look, I guess. I don't think I have any international listeners. I don't know, if you're international, let me know.

So, anyway, the farm, they worked with a 10-person staff over 5 hours to recreate the iconic image of Jack on the hill as he's like walking up. 5 hours actually didn't feel like a ton of time to me, so I don't know if that's a misprint, and it's supposed to be 50 hours or 15 or something like that. That feels extremely efficient.

I guess because it's not a super complex design. Like, it's very simple. It's just like literally the hill, and then the background, and then Jack, and it's very straightforward, but I just thought 5 hours sounded like not a ton of time.

So, the farm has a special mosaic every single year. This is part of what they traditionally do, and like I said, pumpkin, squash, gourds, all that fun stuff. In the past, they've actually had a pumpkin wearing a mask for COVID.

And then, they had a Paddington Bear, and they even made Cinderella's enchanted coach, Cinderella's. I'm having trouble. I like can't talk today for some reason, or ever.

They also do a giant annual pumpkin weigh-off. So, they're they're used to having world records set on their farm, but not typically done by them. They even said, quote, "We always see people get world records, but we didn't think we would get one ourselves," end quote.

But then, they realized that they actually could because of their display, so they just went for it. So now, they are the official this is like literally the end of the story. It's very straightforward.

I just thought it was fun. So, now they possess the official title for the largest Cucurbita mosaic. I can't say it without saying it like that, sorry.

So, Cucurbita also, fun fact, is squash, pumpkins, and gourds, so there you have it. That's basically it. Oh, I guess why Nightmare Before Christmas?

I mean, why not? It's a fucking sweet movie. But, it's because it's the 30th anniversary, because it was 1993, just like me.

So, it's the 30th anniversary for Nightmare Before Christmas, so I think that is why, that is the logic behind it. So anyway, congratulations on your world record. That is very cool, so now, let's get on to our next story.

Have you ever wanted Leaving that in. Have you ever wanted to visit a museum butt-ass naked? Like, think about it.

Think about the absolute, tremendous freedom you would feel walking through a museum gallery. Whatever kind of museum you want. It doesn't even have to be art-related.

Walking through the gallery, nude, in your primal prime. Just you, a pair of flip-flops, and all the art or all the objects you could look at. Just imagine that.

Well, you don't have to imagine anymore. You could actually partake in this. In partnership with the Catalonia Naturalist Club, Barcelona or, I'm sorry, Barcelona's Archeology Museum of Catalonia is now hosting tours for nudist visitors, which, if you go after them, do not touch anything.

Do not sit on anything. Do not even look the museum staff in the eyes, because they've probably seen a lot of things that you probably don't even want to have seen. I'm just teasing, that's like shaming nudists.

I think it's awesome. If you are a nudist, more power to you. That is super cool.

I, personally, don't think I could do that, but you do you. The tour in question was a 90-minute session that included a conversation about nudity and art history, as well as in common conversation today, which we're actually going to talk a little bit more about that, because there are some politics involved in this. So, it's it's There's one specific reason why I want to bring it up, just because I find it hilarious.

So, like I said, 90-minute tour, which actually isn't that long. They viewed an exhibition of Luigi Spina's photos that depicted large Greek bronze sculptures that are in the buff. So, being nude also was mandatory on the tour.

And yes, if you are curious, the tour guide, who is normally not a nudist, had to be in the buff. I thought that was actually super commendable and respectful of them. I would not have done that, personally.

That's just not for me. But, the tour guide was a male, and he just said that he wanted to support the people who are in the museum in the way that they are viewing the art, which I thought was very sweet. I actually was like, "Oh, kudos to this guy." I really hope he gets a raise, or at least like a pat on the back or some free lunch or something like that, cuz, I don't know, it's going above and beyond the job duties, I will just say.

I wonder if he's going to put that on his resume now, cuz that would be amazing. Can conduct tours in the nude. It's a very specific skill set.

Anywho, so, what I was talking about with the politics of nudity, specifically in Catalonia, in this article that I read, the nudists are facing some issues with the Catalan government, since clothed beachgoers are starting to encroach on their territory, which really sucks, because you have specific beaches that are dedicated just to pure like nudity, and then you also have clothed beaches.

But, the reason why I wanted to bring this up, just because I wanted to make my stupid fucking joke, is because one of the nudists called it a textile invasion, and I just thought, "What an awesome name for a punk band." Like, an all nudist punk band, and you call it Textile Invasion. I mean, how fucking sweet of a name is that?

Anyway, but that is really a big issue, because it's like, "Well, no. We have this. This is our area to do exactly what we want to, and it's designed specifically for us, and then now we have people who are wearing swimsuits or any kind of fabric covering, and they're ruining the vibe of what we are setting up here, which is just a freedom of the body." I don't know.

I think nudism is very interesting, and I think it's very cool, and obviously it's extremely natural and like what we're supposed to be doing, but we're so far removed from that, just as a society as a whole, that the idea of being on a nudist beach, especially as a woman, is a little terrifying. So, anyway, if you would like to go on the tour, I think they're going to have I think this is going to be like an ongoing thing, possibly.

So, the price for the tour is only €7, and your clothes, which I think is a pretty good deal, honestly, if you are into nudism. And from the photos, it actually looked like it was a mixture of male and female, obviously, because when you're part of this group then you're more it's it's more trusting, I would say, versus just having the public just show up and do whatever.

Now, I did see though, here in the United States, that the Pittsburgh Mattress Factory, which, what the fuck? It's so Museum, rather, Pittsburgh Mattress Factory Museum, they also are holding their very own naked tour, and it actually happened on the 10th, so just a few days ago as of this recording. If you were interested at all, I think that also might be a recurring event, too.

So, you can check out their itinerary. I don't know if that's in conjunction with a specific nudist group here in the United States. It feels like a really bad idea to have nudists or just people who want to be nude, I don't even know if it's a group of nudists per se, but people who just want to be nude in a mattress factory.

It feels like a really bad idea, but that's just my own clothed opinion. That's my textiled opinion, so. Anyway, so yeah, if you want to be nude in a museum, you have two ways, both in Europe and here in the United States.

So, on to our next story.

An 18th-century demon that was deemed too real to be debuted in public was hidden away and has now been re-revealed. Re-revealed, revealed? I don't know, whatever.

The painting in question was being cleaned for the 300th birthday celebration of the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, who is the painter of this piece, and a hidden creature was revealed under layers and layers and layers of varnish. The painting is called The Death of Cardinal Beaufort, and it debuted in 1789. The painting depicts a moment in Shakespeare's play King Henry VI, Part 2, where Cardinal Beaufort dies, and that's Henry's great-uncle, the main character.

At this point in the play, Henry cries, and I'm so sorry, I'm not going to say this in perfect Shakespearean iambic pentameter. I just am not, so I'm sorry if you're a Shakespeare buff. So, Henry cries, "O, beat away the busy meddling fiend that lays strong siege upon his this wretch's soul, and from his bosom purge this black despair," end quote.

See? Not too bad. But, we're going to be talking specifically about this meddling fiend.

So, Sir Joshua Reynolds, when he painted this piece, he literally physically manifested this demon, and actually put it over the body of Cardinal Beaufort. So, if you look at the piece, the cardinal is in bed. His face is really fucking weird looking, to be quite honest.

Like, not a great job, Sir Joshua Reynolds, but I digress. So, Cardinal Beaufort is in the process of passing away in the bed, and there are other figures in there. I'm not too familiar with this play, so I'm so sorry if you know it, that's cool, I don't.

So, there are other figures in there, and then you see this creepy little demon over the cardinal, and he's disgusting looking, which obviously it's a demon, it's supposed to be, but it has like super bulging eyes, a really heavy brow, honestly. But, just like it looks like a snake, because it has like these little fangs in the front and like a tiny little nose and a receding hairline, oh no.

But yeah, it's just it's really creepy and gross looking. So, actually, funny enough, Sir Joshua Reynolds received a lot of shit about this painting when he first premiered it because people were super not because it was like a gross demon, but because people were actually mad at him that he created a physical demon for this piece, which is very interesting.

Tons and tons of critics just shit all over him, honestly, which is kind of surprising, but they really hated that he literalized this part of the story. They wanted to keep the demon like in his head, so it was just more of a like show it in the emotion, or show it on the face, or show it in some other sort of romantic kind of way.

I could go down a whole fucking trajectory. This is my specific area that I studied. Not in England, but just 18th-century painting specifically is totally my area, but I'm not going to go too far into it, but more so trying to show it through expression and through various other things that you can read within the painting versus just literally having a demon.

Like, it feels too simplistic according to these critics. In an article from 1789 in The Times, a critic wrote, quote, "We rather apprehend that some fiend had been laying siege to Sir Joshua's taste," end quote. Ouch, that's really fucking mean.

A lot of critics are really fucking mean. Another critic also stated that Joshua Reynolds, Sir Joshua Reynolds, should only have included the demon if it had been listed as a character in the play. Even though he got a lot of shit for having this demon in there, Reynolds decided to keep it in there.

He just was like, "No, this is my artistic license, and I want to keep it in there," which I 100% support. In reproductions, though, this painting was reproduced in a variety of different ways, so like as like woodcuts and things like that, to put in pamphlets and whatever to promote the play. The demon was actually removed from these woodcuts, so it you saw the same exact scene just without the little demon in there.

And also, after Reynolds died, presumably, the demon eventually disappeared from the painting. So, layers and layers of varnish were applied to it. And if you think about it, too, at the time, which I always try to remind people, when you look at a painting and you're like, "How did it get so dirty?" Like, I know it's time and everything and like varnish blah.

We didn't have central heating, central air like we do now. You also didn't have electric stoves and ovens and shit like that. Like, you had fire.

Fire produces smoke. Smoke makes shit dirty. Fun fact, very simplistic explanation, but this smoke then covers the front of a painting.

So like, we've seen this, too, before with Rembrandt's The Night Watch. It's actually a daytime scene, but it was so smoky and varnished and like tons of layers of shit all over it, that it looked like it was a nighttime scene. So, that's basically what happened with this.

So, conservators, like I said, they were cleaning this for the 300th birthday celebration of Sir Joshua Reynolds. They found it extremely difficult to work with to conserve this, mainly because of the way that Reynolds worked. So, he had dark brown waxy mediums to paint the shadows, and then when he when he painted these on the section, they dried very slowly, so it actually caused shrinkage, so that is very difficult to work with.

But, they were able to eventually take it all off, and then they revealed this demon underneath, which would be like, "Holy shit, this is crazy." Like, it really does change the meaning of a painting when you find these little nuggets, and it's just so cool. I love when those things happen. Apparently also, there were six layers of varnish that were applied, so that gets very dark very quickly.

Just to wrap up this story, the painting is now on view at Petworth House in West Sussex. So, if you want to go visit the little demon, you definitely can, celebrate Sir Joshua Reynolds' birthday, and yeah, just have fun with your little demon friend. On to our final story.

I want to start off this story with a little apology, because I love letters. I said it at the top of the episode. I'm saying it again.

This is going to be a very long section, so just I'm sorry. I'm going to try to keep it brief and just straight to the point for the story, but I love letters. I took a course in grad school all about the love letter, all about epistolary culture, and I absolutely fell in love with it.

I am a fucking sap. I love romantic shit, not like too much, like there's definitely a limit, but I love a physical love letter. Like, there's nothing better.

So, like, Vermeer, depicting all these different love letters and shit, or just letters in general, oh, my god. I love letters. It is what has informed my research forever.

I said I was into 18th-century stuff. 18th-century French culture specifically and Dutch, but also specifically studying paper and people's react interactions with paper, and reading, and all these different things. So, I just Oh, my god.

That's why this story, when as soon as I learned about it, I was like, "Holy fuck, I have to talk about this because it is 18th-century French love letters. This is perfect." I just I love letters. Oh, my god.

I've actually never received a physical love letter before. Like, yeah, you have like love texts and all that stupid bullshit, but there's just something so different about receiving a letter. So anyway, over a hundred letters from 18th-century France were found in an archive by a professor, completely sealed, never opened.

Actually, that's a lie. Two of them, I believe, in the article they said that they were opened, but they were opened at the time that they were sent, it's believed, to see what the contents of these are, which will make sense, more sense in a minute. But then, as soon as the people who opened it were like, "Oh, this doesn't really have anything in it," then it was just like, "Okay." Just never open them.

So anyway, a professor of European history at Pembroke College at Cambridge stumbled upon a box of letters at the UK's National Archives while doing research for his book. So, the professor's name, and apologies for mispronunciation, I'm very rusty on my French, Renaud Morieux. I'm just going to say Morieux for the rest of this, so apologies.

The letters were bundled together with ribbon, and the letters still had their red seal intact, which is so cool. I love it. I would have loved to I actually Okay.

I'm getting ahead of myself. So, Morieux asked if he could have the correspondence opened. He asked the archivist, like, "Hey, can I actually open these?" Which, of course, the archivist is going to say yes.

I worked as an archivist for That's This is why this story spoke so much to me, because I was also an archivist. I was a teenage archivist. No, actually, technically.

But, I was an archivist, and I actually had a researcher who found a letter from 1908, and he was like, "Hey, can I open this?" And I was like, "Fuck yeah, absolutely." Like, as an archivist, you're supposed to. So, if you're ever doing research in an archive and you want to open something, just ask the archivist, and they will open it for you.

Like, they have to, because otherwise what's the point of holding onto it? So, there you go. Special tip.

But he asked the archivist, and they were like, "Yeah, absolutely." It took a little bit, though, because there were literally over a hundred letters. Anyway, the researcher that I had open the letter for, I can only imagine what it would be like to have 18th-century love letters opened like this. But, opening that one letter from 1908, like it was such a nothing letter, at the end of the day, we found out through the contents of it, but it was such a cool feeling to open something that You have so many questions, too, because you're just like, "Why did this letter never make it to the person, but somehow it ended up here?

It was in somebody's things. They never whoever received this letter never opened it to see what was in it. They never got it to the original intended owner or receiver or whatever." there's just so many different questions that pop up in your mind, so it's a very cool feeling, though, to open this letter and just be like, "Wow, this is a piece of history.

Like, this has 1908 air trapped in it." Like, I know it doesn't, but it's just like in my mind, I just I romanticize it. So anyway, I told you I'm a romantic. So, these letters in question were written by family members to men who were serving aboard the French warship Galatée.

This ship was captured by the British in 1758 while sailing from Bordeaux to Quebec during the Seven Years' War. The crew there was imprisoned, and then the letters, which were sent port to port to port trying to find this ship, but then the letters never actually made it to the crew in question, just because they were taken by the British Admiralty.

So, let's just take a quick minute also to think about the family members. So, you're sending these letters, you're sending them, some of them actually sent multiple copies to different ports, trying to reach their family members. Like, when you're separated from someone, I know it's kind of hard to think about in the modern context, but when you're separated from somebody, you are trying to receive literally any word from that person.

Like, you have no idea. Are they alive? Are they dead?

Are they okay? Are they sick? Are they Did they move on to a new family?

Like, what the fuck is going on? So, you're desperate to try to get any sort of word from anybody. So, that's why you're going to send out multiple different letters.

Like, I can only imagine the agony of the family sending out these different letters, like sending it out to your partner or something, and then just being like, "I literally haven't heard from you for months. Are you alive? Are you okay?

Like, what is going on?" I could not imagine that. There's something else, though, so romantic about having that separation that I could see people feeling even more inclined to share their I don't know. See, I'm not going to go too far down the road, because I could go very far with this.

So anyway, let's just get to the actual content of the letters. Morieux states that, quote, "These letters are about universal human experiences. They're not unique to France or the 18th century.

They reveal how we all cope with major life changes. When we are separated from loved ones by events beyond our control, like the pandemic or wars, we have to work out how to stay in touch, how to reassure, care for people, and keep the passion alive. Today, we have Zoom and WhatsApp.

In the 18th century, people only had letters, but what they wrote about feels very similar," end quote. That is such Like, love is one of those like all feelings and all human emotions do transcend any time period, any culture, things like that. It does have different context depending on the culture and time period, but for the most part, I mean, you know what love is.

Like, you can think about what love is, and I guess not rational love, but just like when you're totally passionate love and then having that separation. Like, just think about being separated from a loved one and just having that like, "I need to get to you. Like, I need to talk to you, and I need to see you," and just putting your I don't know.

I always like doing that whenever I read old correspondence or things like that, like trying to put myself in the position of the person who wrote it or who received it, because that will tell you a lot about the intention. And some of these letters also were written, some of them were written by the actual women, I guess I should just get into that, but about 59% of the letters were signed by women, with a majority of them being from the wives of sailors, which is actually a really high amount, I do want to point out, because I think it was I forget the exact year, but it was the early 1700s, only 27% of women could actually read and write.

So, that alone is amazing. Some of these women, though, did have scribes who wrote for them. Some of the letters, though, are a little spicy, a lot of them talked about making love, or not a lot, but a few of them talked about making love, and those were written by scribes, so I could only imagine talking about See, this is what makes it interesting, though, because when you're in love, you'll do anything.

Like, it doesn't matter, and you'll tell Joe Bob or Jean-Luc, like, "Hey, can you write this to my husband? Tell him how I want to bang him, basically." Like, trying to tell a stranger about your passion for your husband, I don't know. It still feels weird to me, but if that's literally the only way you can do it, then obviously you're going to do it.

So, I don't know why I brought that up, but I just thought it was interesting having, like, you're going to do whatever it takes, so I just I find that very romantic. I think that's why I love letters, because it's just like, "No, I'm going to get this to you, and you're going to know exactly how I feel." So, like I said, multiple copies of one letter were sent to different ports.

And also in some of the letters, the families of other crew members wrote in there, or the person who wrote the letter said, "Hey, could you say hi to Sally Bob's family?" Or, I'm just making up names, obviously. So, just to include a mention in one of their letters in case that person's letter never made it to the crew member, then it's like, "Well, at least they thought about you." So, Morieux, the professor who originally identified these letters, he spent months reading them, and then published his findings in a journal.

He was able to identify every member of the 181-man crew of this ship, and that he realized that the letters were addressed to a quarter of them. There's one specific saga that I wanted to talk about in these letters, which I found so fascinating. I want to know what the beginning was.

I want to know what the end was. We only have the middle part of the action, and I'm so curious what actually transpired afterward. But I think Morieux is also going to see if he can uncover that.

So, the saga in question, it spans over a few different letters that he read, where a mother, who he described, was admonishing her son, so like yelling at him basically through a letter, his name is Nicolas, for writing to his fiancée more than he was willing to write to her. This is what's amazing about reading historical things, is we have such modern like we think old things are not modern, or like we can't identify with old stuff.

It's the same shit, just packaged differently, exactly the same, and it's just it's so fascinating. So anyway, this is what the mother wrote, which I'm sure you can understand this feeling, cuz your mom has probably said this shit to you. "On the first day of the year, you have written to your fiancée.

I think more about you than you about me. In any case, I wish you a happy New Year filled with blessings of the Lord. I think I am for the tomb.

I have been ill for 3 weeks. Give my compliments to Varin," a shipmate of his. "It is only his wife who gives me your news," end quote.

Again, I'm not a mom. I do not plan to be a mom at all, so I cannot speak for being a mother. I have no idea, to be quite honest, so I'm sure that if you're a mom, you know the feeling of that, but I just think that is a lot to be putting on your son, who is literally at fucking war, and he's just wanting to talk I don't know.

I'm not going to get into it. Oh, my god, moms are going to be like, "Fuck you," but I think that's a lot to put on your son who's at war, just saying. And he wants to talk to his fiancée, because he doesn't want her running off with another man while he's away.

So anyway, I digress. I just really love the, "I am for the tomb. I have been ill for 3 weeks." I think I'm going to start saying that whenever I'm sick, just "I am for the tomb." Anyway, so that's the first part of this.

That's what started this. Nicolas's fiancée, Marianne, wrote him multiple times, though, asking him to write his mom to alleviate the tension. She was just like, "Hey, you're making this very uncomfortable for me.

Can you please write to your mom?" so, Nicolas finally did, and Marianne then wrote him, quote, "The black cloud has gone. A letter that your mother has received from you lightens the atmosphere," end quote. So, I'm glad he did, but then, his mom sent him another letter and complains yet again, quote, "In your letters, you never mention your father.

This hurts me greatly. Next time you write to me, please do not forget your father," end quote. I should clarify, this actually isn't Nicolas's father, like birth father.

It's his stepfather, because his father died, I think, presumably when he was young. So, at the time, it wasn't abnormal to call your stepparent just your parent. Like, they just filled that space, and then you just called them your parent.

But, obviously, it's like, "Well, no, you're some weird guy who's now married to my mom. I don't want to talk to you." Like, clearly, Nicolas didn't want anything to do with his father, his new father, so he just didn't want to, so I think I think this mom is asking for a lot from him. Just to be honest, but again, I'm not a mom, I have no idea.

You do you. Don't yell at me. I don't want to be a parent, so I don't really care.

So anyway, to wrap this story up, Morieux is interested in uncovering more info to see if he can find the letters that these men wrote when they were imprisoned. I hope he does, but you never know what you're going to be able to find. That is the fun thing about research, though, and I do want to point that out.

I guess I shouldn't have started my music, but here we are. So, with research, you literally like he was researching for a book, and it was just about war, and just about men at war, men at work, men at work. And his research was here, and then he ended up 400 miles over there.

But, that's the amazing thing about research. Like, if you've never done research before, I really feel like you should, because it's so fun. Like, I started off with doing love letters for my graduate thesis, and then I ended up sort of in a similar vein, but just like a little bit further away.

I went a very different way. But, it's just so fascinating. Just do research, you'll have fun, I promise.

I really love it, and let me know what you researched. Again, please moms, don't yell at me. I don't care, honestly, just you have your relationship with your child.

I just feel like thinking about the kid in war, he's trying to not fucking die, and then his mom's like, " excuse me?" And it's like I'm a little busy right now. But anyway, I digress, so please don't yell at me. So anyway, you don't have to like or subscribe to this shit show of a podcast.

Instead, if you like this episode, screenshot it. Oh, my god, I'm talking so long I got to the trumpet solo. Holy shit.

If you like this episode, instead screenshot it and then just share it on something and tag me. I'd love that. You can find all my socials and shit in the description somewhere.

I don't know. I'm everywhere, I'm omnipresent, you can find me. So anyway, I love you, I hope you have a great week.

I don't even know what day this is coming out, but anyway, I hope you have a great week, and this trumpet is really throwing me off, so I'm so sorry. I'm Amara Andrew, never stop creating.

I've never listened to that whole song before.