Karen Blixen – Part 1

So far, I am in awe of this woman. The more I read, the more she gains in substance and the more I‘m astounded at her strength of character.

She built herself a BIG life. It helped of course that she came from money but all who come from money don’t have the heart or the personality that she displayed during the course of her life (quite the contrary actually, having tons of money is most often synonymous of selfishness, greed and lack of compassion it seems to me).

Karen Blixen, born Karen Dinesen on the 17th April 1885, is one of 5 children of a family of the danish bourgeoisie. She was allegedly her father’s favorite (that, to me, is already a red flag bound to be problematic in the long run…). Wilhelm Dinesen was an adventurous, curious, knowledgeable man but was also depressive/unstable and unreliable. He would leave for months at a time to travel the world, for war and/or adventure. He took his own life just before Karen’s 10th birthday leaving her with abandonment issues and pretty shitty expectations when it came to men, but also, paradoxically, very high standards when it came to men too. 

Karen grows up home schooled by her mother, Ingeborg Dinesen and several tutors. She was very disparaging of her mother and the education she received. She felt that she deserved better. And that being a girl shouldn’t deny her access to a higher education. Though to be fair, she was encouraged to read everything and anything, was taught French, English and History. And all in all, was very well educated for a girl at that time. She was even allowed to go study art in Copenhagen. 

Ingeborg, it seems to me, was the real pillar of the family, taking care of all her children in her husbands absence. Taking them on holidays all around Europe, to conferences, public debates and cultural events. She was a suffragette and even became the first female mayor of Danemark which has to say something as to her position on gender equality. It seems contradictory that she would groom her daughters to be knowledgeable wives or spinsters and not to stand on their own. Progressist to a point I guess.

The biggest thing KB held against her mother, I think, were her origins. 

Naively, I thought that when KB hated on the « bourgeoisie mentality » of her family, she was hating on the class system and I was ready to admire her even more for being a Marxist … Turns out KB was a self proclaimed snob. Oops

Her cousins on her father’s side were aristocrats and growing up, Karen got to spend holidays with them. She’d get a glimpse into a world of leisure and refinement but she was always made to feel an outsider.

I suspect that when Bror von Blixen, baron, came into her life and offered her marriage (just after she was rejected by his twin brother), even though he didn’t meet the standards aforementioned, his title weighed heavily in the balance of her decision.

Before she sets out for Africa, KB was a woman who already had a very strong sense of self and of who she wanted to be : Artist and Aristocrat and she did what she had to do to to get to where she wanted to go. Setting out to be the lead role in her own life at a time when women were expected to hold secondary roles at best, is, alone, a testament to her character. To this bright and intelligent woman longing to break free from societal chains and expectations, Bror was a ticket to adventure and nobility and at 28, that was enough. She was probably sick of waiting around for the/her full package. A man intelligent, ready to treat her as an equal, an enlightened conversationalist, humorous, athletic, adventurous and of aristocratic descent… In other words, a rarity ! So in order to become the eccentric aristocratic artist she saw herself as, she compromised.

She was ready to go and meet her destiny in Africa.

With some help from IA, have generated a realistic photograph of a young Karen Blixen, before her African Odyssey.

Have also painted Dusk, KB’s Scottish greyhound because they are beautiful dogs and greyhounds are something of a thing in my family :

Have read/watched so far :

• Karen Blixen , L’odyssée africaine de Jean-Noël Liaut
• Lionne
• Lettres d’Afrique de KB
• Out of Africa (the film)

To be read/watched :

• Lettres du Danemark
• The Dreamer – becoming Karen Blixen
• Tanne – Min soster Karen Blixen de Thomas Dinesen
• Karen et moi de Nathalie Skowronek