DCML digest, Vol 1 #649 - 12 msgs

[Dan Shane]

KRITON WROTE:

> This is exactly the kind of mess from which Greek law protects you.
> If you marry a widow, her daughter becomes your own daughter, and hence
> your father's grand-daughter, whom Greek law prohibits him from marrying,
> even though they are not related by blood.  Considering that Mark Twain's
> story (e.g., http://www.rit.edu/~cjh4090/text/FAMILY.txt) is supposed
> to have been taken from a suicide note, this is probably a good thing!

AND I REPLY:

I sincerely hope you are not going to use a piece of fiction written by Mark
Twain as evidence of a genuine tragic occurrence.  Twain was noted for
presenting many of his short works as if he were a reporter passing on a
true story.

The "suicide note" you link to is an example of taking a genuine (and legal
in the US) situation and stretching it to its absurd fictional climax.

As I related before, 2 of my brothers married 2 sisters.  In the US, they
are simply in-laws.  Apparently, in Greece they would all be considered
blood siblings.

My grandfather married his deceased wife's sister, who in Greece would
already have been considered his blood sister.

In neither case did anyone in the family see any of this as unusual or
unhealthy.  There would be no deformed children from such unions, and any
physical ties would have been solely in the imagination of critical
outsiders.

The Grecian customs that forbid marriage to in-laws probably serve their
purpose, but they aren't preventing disease or confusion.  Such laws can be
nothing more than hold-overs from past superstitions and fears.

And to keep this on topic (barely), Donald and Daisy's relationship is
internationally known, but of US origin.  To force any story writer in one
country to divorce himself of perfectly normal and regular customs for the
sake of another seems restrictive in the extreme.  It's true, "when in Rome,
I become a Roman" is a good policy for some practices, but I loathe the idea
of politically correcting absolutely everything that might be seen distastef
ully overseas.  Using that criteria, and considering how poorly nearly
everything that comes out of America except Jerry Lewis is received in
France, we would never be able to make another movie or author another comic
story.


Dan Shane
(danshane at bellsouth.net)