The end of the second volume of Two Suitcases is taking much longer than I would like. It’s not only that the holidays here in Cordes-sur-Ciel are surprisingly convivial, but also that the historical setting is difficult. I’m writing about the Anschluss, when Austria merges into Germany between March 11 and 13, 1938. The significance of the event requires extra detail, and I like to get the small things as historically accurate as I can. That means returning to my resources, including as many primary ones as possible.
My consistently favorite source is George Gedye, a left-leaning foreign correspondent who reported from the midst of the tumultuous events. He was an embedded reporter—before the term came into common usage.
Today I’m working on Friday, March 11, the day Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg capitulates to Hitler’s demands. Here’s part of a long article in the New York Times that Gedye submitted from Vienna.
It continues to amaze me how often my writing has strong parallels to the current political situation in the US. Sometimes it seems I can’t move ahead in the book until the current events catch up. That’s usually when I go deeper into the research again. Unless I’m interrupted.
—or there are friends visiting, or apèro waiting at a neighbor’s place—or someone knocking on my door with New Year’s greetings, or a holiday dinner party to go to—or a New Year’s Eve dance party, or a concert, or a solstice ceremony or an art opening… Phew. No wonder I’ve done so little writing.
I’m looking forward to the winter.
Eve Neuhaus 
At least, here in the states, Inauguration Day won’t come as a surprise; we already see it on our calendars, and folks are organizing in preparation for the bumpy road ahead. In San Luis Obispo, a resistance gathering on the Monterey Street side of the Courthouse will take place at 10:00 Saturday, the 18th, while on Thursday, the 16th, at 6:00 pm, a gathering specific to threats to immigrants and how to organize to address these threats will take place at Pacheco School.
Department of cognitive dissonance: Inauguration Day comes exactly on the holiday dedicated to the legacy of Dr. King! How will we “celebrate” this year? Borrowing from “A Christmas Carol,” when Marley’s ghost disrupts Scrooge’s sleep and ushers in a change in his thinking and feeling, I am trying to envision the ghost of Dr. King visiting Trump on the eve of his Inauguration and inspiring some sort of redemptive transformation, but I realize that chances for that being anything but fantastic fiction are infinitesimal! We’ll be too busy doubling the land area of the US by taking over Canada, Greenland, and part of Panama (He’s joking, right? Right?) because, well, because we feel insecure, so we need them to be ours…meanwhile, will he actually call out the US military to hunt domestically for people whose “papers are not in order?” This can’t be serious, right? Seen from a safe distance of 80+ years, Hitler looks like a parody creation–something out of a funhouse mirror. He can’t have been for real, can he? Can he? (The Robinson Jeffers poem “Skunks” comes to mind.)
For the first two weeks after the election, a lot of the people I know were simply flattened. Since then, I sense a gradual awakening to the demands of the moment. There is too much to lose if too many of us adopt a deer-in-the-headlights paralysis in the face of what is approaching. I see more and more people breaking out of that spell and preparing for action, even though there are all sorts of various ideas about what the appropriate action might be. I’d like to see that variety of visions of the way forward as healthy diversity, not as confusion. Anyway, thank you for plunging forward with the terrifying material you are trying to turn into a coherent narrative. Whether or not you can see if from where you are, you are helping us light our way!
It’s good to hear some concrete plans for resistance. I hope your vision of a diversity of visions working together in harmony comes true. Collaboration is key. I’m just starting to read Heather Marsh’s book, Binding Chaos : Mass Collaboration on a Global Scale, and I’m already very taken by her fresh thinking.
What irony that Inauguration Day and MLK Day should coincide. But there are so many bizarre pairings of realities now, no?
May your Scrooge vision manifest!
warm regards, Eve
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Yes, how weird that the Inauguration coincides with Martin Luther King Day. The Black Caucus of DA has a ZOOM meeting that day to discuss strategy to formulate meaningful opposition–but I think we Americans abroad should unite to show our dismay at the return of Trump with at least online photo ops–either individuals or in groups–with signs and placards.
If you watched the funeral of Jimmy Carter in the National Cathedral yesterday, you saw Trump being snubbed by Pence’s wife–who refused to stand up to shake hands (as her husband did) or even LOOK at Trump.
Reports say George W. Bush and his wife snubbed the Trumps too.
Meanwhile Donald had to sit there and listen to the praise heaped upon Jimmy Carter as a man of values and humanity–two of the many qualities 45 sorely lacks. I wondered if any of this would penetrate Trump’s skull and make him wish to do something worthwhile and good with the Presidency. A vain hope, no doubt, but how amazing he had to listen to 90 minutes of people recounting all the wonderful deeds and qualities of Jimmy Carter–who made a point of staying alive (to 100) in order to vote for Kamala Harris.
I’m definitely up for posting pictures of as many of us with signs in as many places as possible.
Whoever snubs Trump is a great hero. It’s depressing to think of how he might wreak revenge on his opposition, though, and I don’t doubt he’ll start right in on day one.
What a fine man Jimmy Carter was! Tom is reading a biography of him now and is more and more impressed.
Thanks for keeping us up to date on your progress. Parallels are sobering.
They are. But facing up to the situation and a resisting in whatever way you can is better than pretending everything is fine.
How’s your southern California family doing?
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WOW Eve, I admire the thoroughness, time and research you’re putting into this project. Looking forward to reading part II and will suggest part 1 to my book group, where some of the members know you but not sure they know about your historic novel. Praying for California! Luv, Durga
It’s a huge job! But Kim very determined to finish it and do it right. A new edition of the first book – without a million typos – should be available any day now. I would be thrilled if your book club read it. Several groups in California have. Poor LA people!
I am in deep mourning. January 20th feels like a death to me. I will keep resisting, but in truth, I feel like I’ve been hit over the head with a mallet. The reality that so many of our countrymen are so selfish, or stupid, or just so horrifically uncaring and uninformed that they’d vote for this man is something I am struggling with and simply unable to bare at the moment. Thank you for your work, Eve. I’ll keep looking for you here and on Bluesky. I am grateful that others are also doing their best to keep on keeping on. We simply must. I purchased your book and look forward to reading it. Regards to Tom.
Yes, me too. And Tom. It’s so tragic that so many people fell for propaganda that brings out the worst in them. Enjoy Red Vienna and write it a review somewhere. It’s good to hear from you – you keep up the good work too!
A major local pushback is forming around Musk, who has taken no oath of office, been elected by nobody, and yet even before Trump takes office, is acting like a US co-dictator trying to dictate the political choices of other countries, etc. etc. In any event, the LOCAL resistance in the Central Coast is against his constantly accelerating launch schedule, his defiance of the Coastal Act, and to halt the continued placement of thousands upon thousands of satellites that can be used for surveillance, autonomous weapons targeting, and all sorts of other nefarious services to a deranged US administration, at the same time as the launches create hideous local impacts and the satellites create dangerous global impacts, especially as their orbits swiftly decay, on the ionosphere, the ozone layer, and on the healthy functioning of Earth’s biosphere. (BOYCOTT STARLINK!) This particular resistance is centered in Santa Barbara and Lompoc, but some of us in SLO County are getting involved; an administration that gives a megalomaniac like Musk unlimited (yet weirdly undefined) power requires us to address the feverish symptom (Musk’s doings) as well as the root (Trump and the people pulling his strings).
Glad that’s happening. I hope it makes a significant difference—though just being out there saying NO always makes some difference. May all these efforts together will cause a shift toward a more reflective and compassionate world.
An added dimension to standing against what is going on at Vandenberg is to try to disentangle our local governments from financially and rhetorically supporting the unelected pseudo-government of “REACH” which is pushing for increased launches, 20 more years of Diablo, more “aerospace and defense” industries, high tech which could mean massive energy-sucking, climate kiling server farms, etc.
While I appreciate the sentiment about conspicuously shunning Trump himself, I don’t advocate shunning our neighbors who voted for him. Cracks are beginning to form in the MAGA edifice, and conversations with these neighbors can widen those cracks and introduce new currents of thought. Some of the Trump voters associated Biden/Harris with high-tech dystopia (largely based on the covid response, and fears that it would lead not only to vaccine passports but on toward digital ID and currency and a Chinese-style social credit system) and are now coming to realize that Silicon Valley money that has historically backed the “blue” team is now pouring into Trump’s inauguration, while Zuckerberg is genuflecting at Mar a Lago–not to mention the likes of Musk and Thiel who were already solidly pushing the MAGA line. When I point out that the tech oligarchs are likely preparing to opportunistically profiteer from a surveilance state (for which SpaceX provides important and all-but-inescapable infrastructure) perhaps, at first, based on a pretext supported by most of the MAGA base (ferreting out immigrants without the right “papers”), but that once it is in place, it could be weaponized for any purpose by any administration red or blue, they begin to realize that maybe Trump is not their friend, or at least that he might be subjected to influences and pressures of which they do not approve. People with this background may become needed elements of the resistance, and should not be shunned, even if there are issues about which we agree to disagree.
Lincoln would tell us that a nation brought close to civil war by overheated election rhetoric, just like a nation recovering from a deadly hot civil war in his time, needs, with malice toward none, and with charity to all, to focus on binding the nation’s wounds.