Joan: A Novel of Joan of Arc
Katherine J. Chen
An inhuman Joan
In Part One of Joan: A Novel of Joan of Arc (comprising the first seven chapters), we meet ten-year-old Joan D'Arc in the village of Domrémy. Joan lives with her family, consisting of her abusive father Jacques, her limply pious mother Isabella, her beautiful older sister Catherine, her three brothers, and Joan's very own little dog, Salaud (Bastard). Her father Jacques is a big, strong, dishonest man who dominates Domrémy. He hates Joan, ostensibly because she made him lose a bet -- that his next child would be a son -- but probably really because she doesn't submit to him.
Joan lives in a France at war with England. Domrémy is loyal to Charles VII, the disputed Dauphin (heir) of King Charles VI of France. The next village, Maxey, is loyal to the Duke of Burgundy, who fights for England. War touches the lives of Domrémy. Because it touches them, the people of Domrémy know who each side fights for. They know the battles of the past, who won and who lost, and understand the strategic consequences of each battle, although it is unlikely they would use the phrase "strategic consequences".
When I say "Joan lives with her family", I am speaking loosely, since she sleeps at home only one or two nights a week, being almost constantly on the outs with Jacques. Joan is a little hooligan, always up for a fight or a prank. However, she is also Domrémy's little helper, known in the village as the one who will always help anyone with any task that needs doing. Joan is not in the least concerned with femininity (she leaves that to her beloved sister Catherine), but neither is she boyish. She is Joan -- 100% authentic, unadulterated Joan.
This is Joan at ten, a complex and very likeable character. We now begin Part Two. Seven years have passed, and Joan is now seventeen. Seventeen-year-old Joan is perfect. Katherine J. Chen would not agree with that assessment. She doesn't intend Joan to be perfect, and ten-year-old Joan certainly is not. But seventeen-year-old Joan is the perfect warrior. She is a giant, bigger than her father Jacques and no longer dominated by him. Anything she sets her hand to, she does well. This is particularly true for any martial pursuit.
What really tore it for me was when, on her way to meet the Dauphin, her escort tests her by asking her to shoot with a yew bow. Although she has never held a bow in her life, she draws the heavy bow with ease (this I could accept, since it has already been established that Joan is inhumanly large and strong), and puts an arrow in the bulls-eye of a distant target, improving on the shot of the King's archer, who shot before her and made what was regarded by all as a very good shot. Did Joan, just get lucky? No, because every subsequent shot she takes is also a bulls-eye.
This is not how anything works. No matter how great a genius you are, you do not start a new skill at perfection. We must either believe that Joan herself is a miracle or that her shots are miraculously guided by God. And subsequently Joan is miraculously good at every part of battle. She can fight with anything: bow, sword, artillery, her fists, and beat men who have been fighting battles for decades.
Now, the problem with perfect Joan is not that she is implausible. She IS implausible, but we are willing to accept that for the sake of a story. The problem with perfect Joan is that she is no fun at all. Perfection is not interesting.
In her Afterword, Chen writes of her Joan,
She is no mild or humble genius. She has a mouth on her. She is hot-tempered. Proud bordering on arrogant. Flawed but charismatic. Full of rage and capable of inflicting great destruction and death but also loving, introspective, hopeful for better days ahead. In other words, still very much human.
I am sorry, but No. Your Joan is not human.