More Eroica Connections
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| Title: | More Eroica Connections |
| Creator: | Jean Lorrah |
| Date(s): | 1995 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | From Eroica With Love, Led Zeppelin |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
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More Eroica Connections is a 1995 essay by Jean Lorrah.
It was printed in Companions in Chaos #2.
It is a response to The Eroica Connection.
Some Topics Discussed
- The Eroica Connection was too tentative in its suppositions, and the author missed the explanation of Dorian's mysterious middle name
- lots of speculation and close reading, discussion about culture and translation, about balancing characteristics, such as Dorian’s attempted rape of Caesar Gabriel in the first episode, tarot cards, military and Germanic symbolism, and MUCH more
- basing characters on real people, using "[Clone (glossary term)|cameos]]" - a sort of fan casting
- Eroica and Robert Plant, how they are the same, how they are different
From the Essay
When I read Kay's article, my first reaction was that of a literary analyst — as an English teacher, that's how I make my living. Because of the Eroica connection, I had to check it out. Conveniently, MTV ran "Page and Plant UnLEDded," I did a bit of research, and I was immediately convinced (and incidentally discovered some incredible music). Kay was far too hesitant in her conviction. There is no doubt about it: such coincidence of names and appearances could never occur by accident. Yasuko Aoike obviously based Dorian/Eroica on Robert Plant, James-kun on Jimmy Page, and
Bonham and Jones on John Bonham and John Paul Jones.
If any of you reading this harbor the least doubt, rent or buy a copy of The Song Remains the Same —Warner Home Video 11389. Dorian's look is all there, including crazy camera angles thatmake Plant's legs look as if they go up to his armpits, the cloud of blond curls half-way down his back, the gesture that translates into Dorian's playing with his hair (Plant actually doesn't touch his hair, but look at the hand position and motion), and even the inspiration for Dorian's favorite winter coat with the huge fleece collar! I would venture to say that that film was aprimary inspiration for
the creation of the fictional Eroica series out of the real life musicians Aoike had already been using for cameo appearances in Eve's Sons.
Kay has proved all the theories [about the name Dorian Red Gloria] wrong — but unless she has learned more Japanese since writing her article, she doesn't know it. Here's how it works: Japanese is written in a syllabary, not an alphabet, with two sets of symbols. Hirigana are used for native Japanese words and Katakana for foreign names and words.[...]
The names "Led Zeppelin" and "Dorian Red Gloria" are not Japanese, so they are written in Katakana. Even when the words are English, it's not always easy to make out what they are by pronouncing the Kana syllables, because Japanese syllables do not match the Roman Alphabet used for European languages in anything approaching aone to one correspondence. I sounded out [characters that do not translate here] (re-tsu-do zu-e-tsu-pe-ri-n) in the illo in Kay’s article any number of times before I went, "Duh! It's what it says on the dirigible in English!" Now, let's look at the way Dorian introduces himself on formal occasions, when he gives his complete name along with the polite form of "I am": [characters that do not translate here] (do-ri-a-n re-tsu-do go-roo-ri-a). Notice something? [characters that do not translate here] (re-tsu-do) appears in both names, as the first word of "Led Zeppelin" and the middle word of "Dorian Red Gloria."
It's a bilingual pun! To get it, you have to know that Japanese [characters that do not translate here], transliterated "re," and the four other Japanese syllables beginning with the same consonant sound ([characters that do not translate here]) begin with a sound half-way between "r" and "1." It is a single phoneme in Japanese, not two different sounds as in English. Traditionally, all these syllables are transliterated with "r" as the first letter, and indeed, when they are used in words', the sound is closer to "r" than "1." When the individual
syllables are spoken, though (as when you name a letter of the alphabet. A), they are said with the "1" sound. And when the words are in Katakana, indicating that they are foreign terms, the reader must choose which sound fits the meaning. Obviously, we’ve all been choosing the wrong sound in Dorian's middle name. It has nothing to do with color; it is another clue to his origins. Dorian’s middle name isn't "Red." It's "Led."
Now, I have something else to add to Kay’s analysis. Some of you may know that I am a professional as well as a fannish writer. It is exactly as Kay says: my best writing has the fannish feel. (This article, for example, which utilizes the same skills as analyzing Chaucer or Shakespeare, but is much more fun.) Like Aoike, I constantly use influences from my current interests in my fiction. Were I ever to become famous enough to be analyzed by scholars, they would surely recognize my Star Trek period, my Blake’s 7 period, and possibly my Eroica period.
This sort of inspiration is normal I’m convinced that every artist does the same thing, consciously or unconsciously; it's just more fun to do it consciously. You base a character or two on people or characters you admire or respect — or even people who annoy you. If you are writing either a fannish or a pro story in someone else's universe (I've written Trek, B7, and Alien Nation fan stories, and four pro Trek novels for Pocket Books), obviously you want to get your characters as close to the originals as you possibly can. However, usually a professional writer is creating her own universe, so she starts by twisting the borrowed characters considerably more than Aoike does, so they are not immediately recognizable. Nevertheless, you begin with copycat characters.
Then a magical transformation takes place. The characters leave their models behind and take on a life of their own, with their own backstories, problems, talents, quirks, and challenges. The more important the character, the more he or she changes from the model; only cameo characters retain many characteristics of their originals.
... without a balancing force Eroica could not have survived as the hero even, or perhaps especially, of a girl’s comic. Fortunately, that balancing force appeared in the second episode. The question that occurred to me immediately upon reading Kay’s article on the inspiration for Eroica and his cohorte [sic] was, "Then who is Major Eberbach?" Surely such a powerful character had to have an equally powerful inspiration!
Remember what I said about borrowed characters taking on lives of their own when
transported into anew universe? Well, sometimes they take on more than one life. James-kun is obviously Jimmy Page. What is not so obvious at first glance, but becomes so when you research what aLed Zeppelin fan would have been viewing and reading in the mid-1970's (easy today as everything is being reprinted and re-released), is that Klaus Heinz von dem Eberbach is also inspired by Jimmy Page. James-kun shares his name, looks as small and delicate as he did then (despite his powerhouse performances), and incorporates his reputation for monetary tightness.
Plant and Page clearly create their own fannish tributes as well. If they didn't, there would be no reason for "The Winds of Thor" to be transformed to "The Winds of Pern" in the latest version of "No Quarter." Their songs are full of borrowed lines — and of course they have become some of the most borrowed from composers in rock history. Just the other day on our local news, the Generation-X anchorwoman introduced the weatherman with, "The winds of change are blowing cold." Did she have any idea whom she was misquoting?
I'd be curious to know whether Page and Plant are cognizant of Eroica. Could Dorian, Earl of Gloria, be the inspiration for the golden-tongued thief who "defies the order" in "Wonderful One"? Could Klaus Heinz von dem Eberbach be the model for the person who "feels," but "can never, no never, let it show"? Do these guys normally ever write about emotional repression? I would like to think there is cross-fertilization taking place, but Plant is afar more abstract writer than Aoike, so there’s not enough evidence to do more than speculate.
But isn’t the speculation fun?