My wife read the first of John Christopher’s trilogy, The Prince in Waiting ~ Beyond the Burning Lands ~ The Sword of the Spirits
In the Guardian’s obituary, they report: “Youd had an unusual way of working. He did a quick first draft of the opening chapter, but for the remainder typed a ‘final’ version, with several carbon copies. When he had completed the book he would go back and redraft the first chapter.”
Colony Bay Productions, an independent acting group, is taking up the story of early America with a passion some well-known commentators might think no longer exists. Lead by James Riley, a reenactor of Patrick Henry and owner of Riley’s Farm, this group is producing an ambitious DVD series called Courage, New Hampshire. It’s goal is to tell the story leading up to our independence, season by season for the remainder of the decade. They started in the winter of 1770 with the story Sarah Pine, an unmarried, young woman who gave birth to a child she claims to be by a British soldier named Bob Wheedle. The story primarily introduces the characters and the small town of Courage. No appearances from Ben Franklin or Paul Revere. The Boston Massacre occurs during the time of this story (March 5, 1770) and is the only reference given to the history of the world beyond their border.
There are two episodes available today; the third is coming in several weeks. My wife and I watched the first one, “The Travail of Sarah Pine,” and loved it. The music by Rotem Moav is perfect. I love the authentic sound of the many references to the Bible in the dialogue. Costuming and setting all look beautiful and genuine, though at one point I thought they should have aged a man’s clothing to take the straight from the catalog look away.
There is a community theater aspect to Courage. Some of the acting isn’t as polished as I’d like, because in the end, viewers want to enjoy the story and not think about the last few lines sounding off a bit. Some of the actors are fairly new or untrained in their art, but many of the cast have experience with Shakespearean plays, movies and TV, and some famous people play a part here and there, like Andrew Breitbart in episode two.
I can’t discern a political agenda in this story, unless stories about colonial America without touching on select hot spots makes a story politically incorrect. I look forward to seeing the big historical names, if they ever get out to Courage or if the story ever goes to Boston. I see that episode three has a much lesser-known figure, a black soldier named Caesar, who fought in the continental army.
You can buy a DVD or steam the episodes through their site. If you like period drama, this is worth your time. I’ll let you know what I think of other episodes when I see them. (Thank you, Ori Pomerantz, for promoting this series to me and sending me this DVD.)
Finished another Dick Francis— Driving Force. Not among Francis’ best, in my opinion. It’s about a former jockey who runs a transport service for race horses. He discovers somebody’s been smuggling something under his trucks. This is one of those books where the hero could have probably saved himself a lot of unpleasantness if he’d just gone to the police with what he knew in the first place.
Viking news! Mel Gibson says he’s still working on his Viking movie, in spite of losing Leonardo DiCaprio (what a loss!) as the star a couple years ago. He’s working on the script with Randall Wallace (Braveheart). That all sounds good, except that he now tells us his attitude toward Vikings: They are “very unsympathetic characters and these guys will be bad.”
I know a guy who was actually approached to find reenactors to be extras in the early stages of this project. I contemplated trying to bring my outfit up to code, just to be part of it. I probably won’t lose any sleep about not participating now.
Sherlock Holmes, an ever-evolving icon, according to techgnotic. This article has a lots of artwork, from realistic drawings of the actors who have portrayed Holmes to comic-style caricatures.
Hannah Notess and Jeffrey Overstreet watched The Hunger Games and talked about it as a film, an adaptation of a novel, and a story in itself. They say it’s fast-paced, touches lightly on disturbing questions, and doesn’t give you time to think about them.
Notess states, “This is one of the biggest questions the book asks: What does it mean for such a violent spectacle to be broadcast in great detail, as entertainment?”
Overstreet says, “The Hunger Games concludes in a very interesting place, one that seems carefully contrived so that those who want a “happy ending” can see one, and those interested in darker possibilities can look closer and see those too.”
Notess also asks how much, if any, violence does God allow his followers to commit in order to survive. I think the answer in the context of The Hunger Games is different than a real world context. Christians will reasonably and honorable die, if necessary, when placed into a totally unjust, deadly entertainment venue. But if the question is whether to use force to defend your village from the viking hoard or to join the army to destroy the raiders from across the sea, then Christians may reasonably and honorably fight and kill. Perhaps Christians in the world of The Hunger Games should storm the Capitol by every possible means to stop the evil madness. What do you think?
In a Viking reenactment group on Facebook that I belong to, somebody asked an interesting question recently. “I know a guy who’d like to portray a Viking fool,” he said. “What do you people think about that?”
The response was unanimous (very much to my pleasure, since there’s precious little unanimity among Viking reenactors on anything). There’s no evidence for jesters in Viking culture, and the very idea is not one that fits with the Viking ethos.
I thought I’d meditate on the reasons tonight. It has to do with issues I’ve addressed before.
The Viking culture, steeped in its heathen virtues, set personal honor above all things. You could make jokes about your enemy all you wanted—as long as he wasn’t present. If you made a joke about him to his face, it meant you wanted a fight. No insult could be overlooked, if a man was to keep his social standing. “It was just a joke! Lighten up!” wouldn’t buy you any tolerance. A cutting word was no different from a blow.
Gradually, with the coming of Christianity, that changed. Honor culture lingered (the duel was still legal in places well into the 19th Century), but it came gradually to be accepted that a man did not demean himself if he admitted a fault (Canute the Great, only a second generation Christian, did penance for a man’s murder, which must have been hard for a fellow so close to Asa worship. I need to remember to examine that when he comes into the Erling books). Continue reading A foolish post
Jirka Väätäinen, a student at Arts University College at Bournemouth, United Kingdom, is working on beautiful, realistic photos of women who resemble Disney princesses like Snow White and Tiana. These are photo manipulations. I haven’t read how much of these are the result of Photoshop work (or a comparable program, if there is one) or photo preparation with the model, clothing, etc.
Yesterday was World Poetry Day (somewhere). You probably knew this already. I had to learn by reading blogs (so sad). Crooked Timber celebrates here. (via Books, Inq.)
This one’s a heartbreaker.
Yet another Nate Heller mystery from Max Allan Collins here. Flying Blind is all about the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. I’ve always steered clear of the Earhart business myself, because I don’t much care for stories where the girl dies (though I’ve written some, come to think of it). Most of what I know about the Earhart mystery came from an old episode of Unsolved Mysteries, and this book actually fitted in pretty well with the speculations on that show.
This story starts in 1935, when Chicago private eye Heller is hired by Earhart’s slimy husband, P. G. Putnam (of the P. G. Putnam and Sons publishing house), to be her bodyguard on a lecture tour. She’s been receiving threatening letters, Putnam says (although there’s some suspicion he created them himself, to garner publicity). Privately, he asks Heller to find out if Earhart is having an affair. Though he feels guilty about it because he despises Putnam and likes Earhart, Heller agrees to do the job. He ends up having an affair with her himself. Continue reading Flying Blind, by Max Allan Collins
Dale mentioned a dystopian novel I’ve wanted to get into, but I haven’t remembered it often enough to hunt down in a library or bookstore, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go