tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15231380.post6920231559797619201..comments2023-10-19T07:54:32.841-04:00Comments on Quod She: Relax: let the movies explain it all to youDr. Viragohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03960384082670286328noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15231380.post-16181399620503009022007-10-31T17:53:00.000-04:002007-10-31T17:53:00.000-04:00Could I ask you to forward the email (geek.history...Could I ask you to forward the email (geek.history at gmail.com)to me? It be a great subject for our newly formed Medieval club at my school (and since I've already declared we're seeing the flim if only to mock it..).History Geekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04253687974407447459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15231380.post-6116798887642931382007-10-28T10:50:00.000-04:002007-10-28T10:50:00.000-04:00PP & NK - You guys may be on to something. Though...PP & NK - You guys may be on to something. Though I think that western societies also tend to believe that their own time is scarier and more screwed up than in the past and they long nostalgically for a past that never was. I think both impulses -- the one you describe (thinking that everything's never been better and being easily shaken up by disaster) and the one I describe oscillate back and forth in every culture, sometimes in the same people. The cure for this (both cases)? Reading more old literature and history!! See, medievalists are good for society's problems! :)<BR/><BR/>Ancarett -- yay! Another 13th Warrior fan!<BR/><BR/>NK -- Your story about the AP request cracked. me. up. Please explain to the reporter that the poem itself wasn't aiming for historical accuracy. (Though maybe the filmmakers thought that should be their goal?) Or I dare you to say, with a straight face, "I don't know if dragons existed in 6th century Denmark. I'll have to look that up and get back to you." Te-hee!<BR/><BR/>RL - I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea that Beowulf makes sense of the fear by turning it into narrative!!! Awesome! I'm going to use that next time I teach it and credit it to a "a very smart friend of mine" (which is usually how I credit anything I read by an anon. blogger).Dr. Viragohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03960384082670286328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15231380.post-77214142172325422202007-10-28T09:59:00.000-04:002007-10-28T09:59:00.000-04:00What I'd like to know about the movie and "motivat...What I'd like to know about the movie and "motivation" is this: what the hell is going on with the Grendel's-mother-as-love-interest subplot!? (I mean, Angelina Jolie emerging from a dark pool notwithstanding...)<BR/><BR/>Why does there have to be some "love" reason for why Beowulf and G.'s mother have such antipathy? I always thought it scarier--in the poem--that G.'s mother is such a formidable foe in her own right. She is in many ways a more serious enemy than Grendel himself, because she is female, mother, raging. And the link between her and Beowulf is GRENDEL, her desire to avenge his death.<BR/><BR/>It's scary as hell to confront meaningless terror--the kind that just comes in the night and eats you. But maybe that's why Beowulf gets called upon in the first place. To make sense of that fear, and make it somehow narrative, and meaningful.the rebel lettristehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08369013300190217105noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15231380.post-74320163011617996322007-10-26T15:46:00.000-04:002007-10-26T15:46:00.000-04:00I agree with the Pastry Pirate, totally. I think w...I agree with the Pastry Pirate, totally. I think we feel like we have so much control over our environment that if something goes wrong there has to be a REASON. Whereas I'm sure for medieval people, it was much more about figuring out to deal with the bad stuff because that had no pretensions of having control over everything (that's what God was for).<BR/><BR/>My funny Beowulf-the-movie tidbit: the AP got in touch with my current uni (who got in touch with my chair, who got in touch with me), looking for an "expert" on Beowulf stuff to talk to. I told my chair, sure, so she forwarded me the e-mail.<BR/><BR/>They don't want someone who knows something about Anglo-Saxon England (and ideally Old English lit, and, you know, the poem itself) - they want someone who can talk about <I>sixth-century Denmark</I>. Who can, you know, say whether the movie got it right. /headdeskAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15231380.post-42832274028402734462007-10-26T15:17:00.000-04:002007-10-26T15:17:00.000-04:00Oh, The Thirteenth Warrior? I do love that movie s...Oh, <I>The Thirteenth Warrior</I>? I do love that movie so danged much!Ancaretthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12043235152175550207noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15231380.post-67347271333097766572007-10-26T11:37:00.000-04:002007-10-26T11:37:00.000-04:00you knew you couldn't post about 13th warrior and ...you knew you couldn't post about 13th warrior and *not* have me comment, right?<BR/><BR/>i think the whole "need to reason/rationalize" is a distinctly modern and largely western thing. when i think of some of the places i've travelled, in the 'stans, in the middle east, etc., people have an "inshallah" attitude (sometimes literally) to whether and why things happen, something that i have the sense was also true in the west back in the day.<BR/><BR/>i think it's because we coddled modern occidentals are so used to everything being hunky-dory: the train arrives on time, your drinking water isn't full of rusty chunks, your car starts in the morning, you don't wake up to find marauders at your door with machetes, etc. when something is *not* perfect and safe and easy, we as a society tend to get not only excessively upset about it, but also demand a reason why it happened. how could this happen??? that's just *my* armchair pop psychology. it's also why i think those walgreen's ads about "welcome to perfect" are insidious, but that's another matter.<BR/><BR/>mmmmm... 13th warrior... thanks for reminding me i need to watch it again, for like the 8,700th time. it never gets old!The Pastry Piratehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05503433773635525726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15231380.post-66730675599235112412007-10-26T11:16:00.000-04:002007-10-26T11:16:00.000-04:00Er, prejudging that is. And it's Zemeckis, isn't ...Er, prejudging that is. And it's Zemeckis, isn't it?Dr. Viragohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03960384082670286328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15231380.post-24113849293147401712007-10-26T11:15:00.000-04:002007-10-26T11:15:00.000-04:00Well, I'm prejuding the Zemekis film, and includin...Well, I'm prejuding the Zemekis film, and including Beowulf and Grendel. So, three movies. OK, not much of a race.<BR/><BR/>And on amateur psychology -- apparently some of my colleagues *encourage* that! Ack!Dr. Viragohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03960384082670286328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15231380.post-59817882218319376782007-10-26T11:02:00.000-04:002007-10-26T11:02:00.000-04:00This is currently still my favorite movie inspired...<I>This is currently still my favorite movie inspired in part by Beowulf's plot</I><BR/><BR/>Wait: how many films are you choosing from?<BR/><BR/>Agreed on motivation: motivation is just another way of saying relatability, and it's <I>boring.</I> Hilarious you should mention this, because I've just spent a morning trying to lead two classes away from amateur psychology and into literary analysis.Karl Steelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03353370018006849747noreply@blogger.com