Intro
Zhone Dark is a phonetic approximation of the correct pronunciation of the name of the French woman the English-speaking world calls Joan of Arc:
Jeanne d'Arc.[1]
I have approximately six years of post-secondary education -- also known as college -- and for one of those six years I was officially a History major. I won some kind of award for being a History major with excellent grades. I later acquired an Associate of Arts in Humanities.
I certainly can enjoy modern popular media depictions of historical events, but I'm keenly aware they tend to be phenomenally inaccurate, even in cases where people involved in the events are still alive and you could make it substantially accurate.
I thought the movie Cool Runnings -- the story of the first Jamaican bobsled team -- was great fun and someone told me it was highly super amazingly accurate, practically a documentary. Later, I learned it's something more like "inspired by" real world events.
I'm a fairly serious student of history, as was my history-enthusiast ex-husband. While watching The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, we were pulling history books off of shelves and looking up the details of the battles supposedly depicted.
History is not only written by the victors, it's typically written by men. When I regularly participated on Hacker News -- a serious discussion forum that is overwhelmingly male -- it was common for people to think my interpretation of the choices of female historical figures was simply weird.
Men couldn't relate to my view of female motives and thought processes as a woman who had spent a couple of decades as a homemaker. That was alien to how they viewed life.
Odds are good this will be history through the eyes of a woman and it will likely strongly focus on female historical figures.
But it is, as yet, unwritten and I don't see that description as manacles to chain me to anything in particular
Footnote
[1] Zhone Dark is still not accurate because English lacks the nasal pronunciation found in French of syllables containing a vowel and the letter N.
Vincent Cassel is a French actor playing a French character in the movie The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc. I will refer you to scenes with his character if you want to have a decent idea of how it's likely actually pronounced.
22 July 2026
Jeanne d'Arc.[1]
I have approximately six years of post-secondary education -- also known as college -- and for one of those six years I was officially a History major. I won some kind of award for being a History major with excellent grades. I later acquired an Associate of Arts in Humanities.
I certainly can enjoy modern popular media depictions of historical events, but I'm keenly aware they tend to be phenomenally inaccurate, even in cases where people involved in the events are still alive and you could make it substantially accurate.
I thought the movie Cool Runnings -- the story of the first Jamaican bobsled team -- was great fun and someone told me it was highly super amazingly accurate, practically a documentary. Later, I learned it's something more like "inspired by" real world events.
I'm a fairly serious student of history, as was my history-enthusiast ex-husband. While watching The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, we were pulling history books off of shelves and looking up the details of the battles supposedly depicted.
History is not only written by the victors, it's typically written by men. When I regularly participated on Hacker News -- a serious discussion forum that is overwhelmingly male -- it was common for people to think my interpretation of the choices of female historical figures was simply weird.
Men couldn't relate to my view of female motives and thought processes as a woman who had spent a couple of decades as a homemaker. That was alien to how they viewed life.
Odds are good this will be history through the eyes of a woman and it will likely strongly focus on female historical figures.
But it is, as yet, unwritten and I don't see that description as manacles to chain me to anything in particular
Footnote
[1] Zhone Dark is still not accurate because English lacks the nasal pronunciation found in French of syllables containing a vowel and the letter N.
Vincent Cassel is a French actor playing a French character in the movie The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc. I will refer you to scenes with his character if you want to have a decent idea of how it's likely actually pronounced.
22 July 2026
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