13th SYMPOSIUM COLLOQUIUM - COMMANDER BLAINE

Colloquium on Commander Nick Blaine, commander of the Republic of Gilead from its earliest years. At this, the 13th Symposium at Passamaquoddy, we take a moment to depart from the spectacular Ardua Hall Holograph find, to consider the related material below.

To note, Commander Blaine receives no explicit mention in 'The Testaments', as the trilogy is being deemed. That's why this morning's talk and Q&A is a departure from the week's main material.

The question at this morning's colloquium is simple, was Commander Nick Blaine 'Mayday'? Was he formally part of the fabled 'Resistance' to Gilead, an insurrection that took several forms, and called by several names in Gilead's tenure?

Full disclosure. This morning's information is based on Professor Maryanne Crescent Moon's scholarship. She could not be here this morning, as she has to see to a family matter in Nunavut

James Darcy Pieixoto.

'Mayday' itself is a controversial subject within Gilead Studies. I will get to that in a moment.

First off - full disclosure - for students taking this course for credit, this colloquium, unfortunately, will not count towards it. I apologize on behalf of the committee for the late notice about that. This morning's turnout confirms the obvious interest in Nick Blaine - but if 'course credit' is a concern for you, there are two other colloquia this morning on far more dull subjects that will count.

Ok. Was Nick Blaine 'Mayday'? I had warned Professor Crescent Moon about the danger of broaching that subject - any subject related to Blaine! -laughter- Scholars have discovered at their peril that any overtly objective inquiry into him, necessitates talking about his relationship with June Osborne, the presumed 'Handmaid' of 'The Handmaid Tapes', such tapes which had been the major find and topic of the 2195 Symposium.

Much is unknown about Nick Blaine. If this were literature rather than historical scholarship, he'd be referred to as a 'supporting character'. We mainly know of him, not because of himself, per se, but because of his relationship with a major protagonist. Perhaps THE major protagonist. One student of Professor Crescent Moon's put it this way - yes, there may be 'back-story' associated with Commander Blaine, but he is mainly known through his relationship with June Osborne - and not so that we can get to know him, but so that we can get to know her.

But today, we are dealing in history, not drama. Most notable about him taken separately, is his rise through the ranks of Gilead. To deny his historicity is to perhaps deny the historicity of any of the people introduced to us through 'The Handmaid's Tapes'. Professor Crescent Moon sees no need to. Moving forward, it is when one factors in the information about him in the Moss/Miller folios, number 2 through 5, that things get somewhat more murky.

It is accepted that while at the Waterford household, June Osborne and Nick Blaine were initially forced into a sexual relationship by Serena Joy Waterford. That liaison resulted in Nichole (Holly) Waterford's (Osborne's) birth, and set the stage for the events described in Moss/Miller's 2nd folio.

(Professor Crescent Moon puts aside for the moment, the possibility that Nichole Waterford's biological father was, in fact, Commander Fred Waterford - herself conceived during The Ceremony. Fred Waterford's virility was proven with Serena Joy's pregnancy. Crescent Moon puts that aside because her material here is Blaine's relationship to Mayday.)

So, while less certain about specifics about Commander Blaine following the 1st Moss/Miller folio, let me say a few things about Mayday in general.

MAYDAY - REALITY OR HOPE?

First, outside of the finds to do with 'The Handmaid's Tapes' and following, there is no 'independent' confirmation that such a movement actually existed within the enslaved of Gilead.

An organized resistance existed, that much is certain. The Martha Network was simply a matter of fact. The Underground Femaleroad, it existed. No doubt. Various Quakers cooperated with one another, but it is still unknown whether or not Quakers - as a larger entity - cooperated with one another in some sophisticated manner.

With regard to our own, trusted source material, Mayday (as a concept) was introduced to June Osborne when she had been Offred at a particicution. That introduction came from Dr. Emily Malek, when she had been enslaved as Ofglen next door. It also came with a warning that there was an Eye of God within the Waterford residence, something that Blaine himself confirmed to Osborne.

So, was Mayday real? Professor Crescent Moon and the rest of mainstream Gilead scholarship agrees, that Mayday was more of a way to organize one's seditious thoughts, than it was an 'organization' with sophisticated command and control. (The closest thing to a resistance movement with 'Command and Control' were the Marthas.)

In short, members of Mayday were whoever claimed the term at any one moment. One typical factor, though, was that whoever that person was at any one time - they found themselves cooperating/colluding with at least one other who themselves might also understand themselves that way.

WAS NICK BLAINE UNUSUAL?

The quick answer to that question is, 'no'. He was not.

By 'unusual', Professor Crescent Moon means: was it unusual for a Commander of the Faith in Gilead to have had 'Mayday' contacts? Or to even have been 'Mayday' himself?

No.

Consider his colleague, Commander Lawrence. Joseph Lawrence (acc. to Moss/Miller folios #2 and #3) had been allowing a Martha cell to be run from his own house. Was Lawrence 'Mayday'?

If the historicity of the Moss/Miller folios can be trusted, both Blaine as well as Lawrence could claim the moniker 'Mayday', principally through their relationship with the Martha known as Beth. Beth was so plugged into the black market run from the kitchen at Jezebels, that Commander Lawrence seconded her to work at his house. Presumably so that his wife, Eleanor Lawrence, would be closer to a much needed, black market in pharmaceuticals.

Beth's version of Mayday communicated through muffin and scones!

Considering Beth, she seemed to be aware of 'black market needs' emanating from all the Commanders' homes. Given that she operated out of Jezebels, the Commanders were predisposed to 'look the other way' while all sorts of illicit needs were taken care of. Monthly air-cargo shipments were sorted at Jezebels - as it was a central location, accessible to all Commanders.

Add to that, both Blaine and Lawrence seemed to have no problem 'getting a truck'. 'Getting trucks' seemed to be a euphemism for Mayday-like activity, even at the Commander level. Most certainly it was privileged Commanders enjoying the perks of their position while being able to enforce secrecy in their underlings so as to avoid exposure.

Which raises the question - if all Commanders engaged in variations of this sort of behaviour, who would they be exposed to?

In that sense, Gilead itself was in fact a Mayday-state. Mayday was less a movement emanating from enslaved people desperate for freedom, as it was the nature of that Republic which was, in fact, a kleptocracy. It was a society of Power Elites, a concept first noted by C. Wright Mills, the American sociologist at Columbia University in the middle 1900s.

Nick Blaine and Joseph Lawrence were not Mayday in that sense, except that to those caught up in Gilead's slavery economy, it must have looked that way.

NICK BLAINE AND SELF-INTEREST

There is also no evidence, not from the Moss/Miller folios, that Nick Blaine ever acted as-if Mayday, for anything other than reasons of self-interest. (With the exception of the event noted below.)

There are much needed caveats to that statement, that Professor Crescent Moon insists I not omit! Lest the Nick-o-philes in the audience rush the podium!

The first caveat comes from the comments above, about 'Nick Blaine' being essentially a supporting character from some other main protagonist's tale. This means that the view one might have about Nick Blaine is heavily dependant on the nature of the source material, rather than who he actually was.

Simply put, the main reason why the Moss/Miller folios seem to have Nick Blaine acting as-if Mayday, only in relation to June Osborne - is because June Osborne is, rightly or wrongly - is the main protagonist, through whom he's seen. Our source forces us to see how June Osborne saw him, and not much more. As such, June Osborne's experiences are the window through which we understand Gilead through Nick.

Nick Blaine is someone seen through someone else's window.

As the historical record now sits, there is little, if anything, which allows an unbiased historical professional to climb through that window, to see the untarnished Blaine.

The second caveat is that with relation to Rita Blue, Nick is reported not to have acted from self-interest. But from 'pity' for her, as she reminded him of the many men 'at the front' who had simply lost it.

The third caveat is that perhaps Nick Blaine's own ability to side-step Gilead had limits. His marriage to Eden was a point in fact - he was reported to have balked at the union, even refusing its consummation. He also had an inability to convince then-High Commander Pryce that he be removed from the Waterford home.

There are other examples.

Yet in relation to June Osborne, Nick Blaine exercised Mayday-like activity. He constantly arranged failed efforts to have her freed from Gilead. The first was during her pregnancy with Nichole, where for 92 days she had been 'on the run', often because of Blaine's own initiative a various points.

Later, presumably it was him and Rita Blue who had arranged for the truck, presumably through Beth at Jezebels, to spirit Osborne and baby-Nichole away. This was the truck which Commander Lawrence doubled-up on, in getting Dr. Emily Malek to freedom, after her attack on Aunt Lydia.

Lawrence's act could not be seen as coming from self-interest. Quite the contrary.

Blaine's could.

Following Osborne being caught at the Keyes-farm, Commander Blaine also, behind the scenes, had applied the brakes to the most severe punishment that June Osborne endured during her imprisonment under Lieutenant Stans 'care'. Of note, a Commander's presumed influence did not save either Beth or Sienna who were pushed to their deaths.

But Osborne's eventual freedom from even that, sent to the Magdalene Colonies - included one last tryst with Nick Blaine en route… all of that speaks to Blaine's self-interest.

Indeed, Blaine's own command-actions in relation to Chicago were unduly influenced by the knowledge that an escaped June Osborne had made it that far west. Blaine's intercepting of presumably classified information about Hannah Bankole (Agnes Mackenzie), and passing it to Osborne while the latter was in Canada, could be seen as his way of placating her. Again, presumably from self-interest.

While also masking from her a presumed second-marriage.

So, was Nick Blaine motivated by self-interest? With the caveat of him as a 'secondary character' in another main protagonist's narrative, the answer can only be 'yes'.

THE ONE UNQUESTIONED MAYDAY-LIKE ACT

The last caveat.

Before Nick Blaine had been elevated to Commander, he had accompanied Commander Fred and Mrs. Waterford as a Guardian on a trade mission to Canada, on a hoped for thaw in Canada/Gilead relations.

Blaine had unquestionably secreted into Canada the 'testimonies', the postcards from enslaved women which ended up blowing up that trade mission.

Professor Crescent Moon points to the route those postcards took - from Jezebels in New Gilead, to Little America in Toronto. From Ofrobert (Alma) at Loaves and Fishes, to Ruby (Moira Strand) at Jezebels, to Offred back at Loaves and Fishes, to the Waterford household hidden behind her bathtub, to the kitchen sink where Blaine stopped Offred from burning them, to Nick's carriage house above the garage where his wife, Eden, had seen them….

…. presumably in Nick's own luggage on the airplane to Toronto, then passed by Nick to Luke Bankole in a Toronto bar, called The Comrade.

Even though Nick Blaine had reported to Luke Bankole that he was passing those postcards, "for June", one can only note that in blowing up the Canadian trade mission, that that action was pure Mayday, however defined.

So there it sits.

Professor Crescent Moon intended the next half-hour for questions and comments. I will do my best to represent her, without speaking for her.