Hi Marina
You wrote:
> I don't know if you agree with me, but I think that the only
> trace of what European culture before Post-Industrial, or even Industrial
> age was like, can be now found only in fairy tales.
Perhaps so, although lots of people try to recreate it they only like to be
the knights in shining armour. The mud, the cold and the darkness are more
real but less romantic.
Have you read _A History of their Own_ by Bonnie Anderson and Judith
Zinsser? It's subtitled Women in Europe from prehistory to the present. I
found it fascinating. They suggest that life for peasant women didn't
change much from the 9th until the 20th century.
Fairy tales are one of my favourite sorts of literature. We, my children
and I, have particularly liked _Tatterhood_ which is published by the
feminist press.
All that stuff about
> knights in shiny armor, faire ladies, King Arthur, and so on. But people
are
> still curious sometimes, what had been going on there, before the steam
> engine was invented. Maybe that's also part of the reason why Umberto
Eco's
> The Name of the Rose, set in a 12th senury monastery, was such a success.
In the UK Ellis Peter's books about a detective monk (!) have been very
popular. Cetainly it's the historical and herbal healing details which make
them interesting although I don't know how accurate these are.
> Strangely for a fantasy, most of Tolkien's books have some sense of
> realism absent from traditional fairy tales, hero-rescuing-a-princess
> type or those hilarious Disney versions of the classics (like them
turning
> Little Mermaid into an action movie structured like one of the Hong Kong
> karate flicks we liked to watch in junior high).
But I just love the bad witch.
For example, when
> characters set to go somewhere, they don't just hop on a horse and enter
the
> gates of the destination point in the very next scene. They have to ride
or
> walk for weeks, in rain and cold weather, without nylon clothes or
> water-resistant shoes, sleep on the ground, and defend themselves from
> enemies with swords, which unlike guns, require facing the person at the
> close distance. Their castles are dark and cold, with no water or
> electricity, and the only medicine available is magic, which means in
> reality people were dying like flies. And the characters still have
> some energy and willingness to go through all that in order to fight some
> evil. I find it kind of romantic.
Yes, this is true. I like the walking very much although I think my
favourite bit is the pub in Bree and the Hey Diddle Diddle nursery rhyme
extension.
Talking about the reality of war etc, have you read _The Lions of
Al-Rassan_ by Guy Gavriel Kay? I cultivate a poor memory so I can read
things again and be (relatively) surprised and it's been a year since I
read it but I remember it being streets ahead of Tolkein on the reality in
fantasy front. I think I'll read it again and bring it up for discussion.
> When I read the first three books in my teens, my favorite character was
> Gandalf. He always knew better than anyone what was going on. He had to
> fight the most dangerous creatures, like Barlog, or Saruman. And when he
> got killed, they sent him back in a different image so he could later
sail
> West with Elves when his mission was complete.
I think I agree with Geoffrey, Sam is my favourite character. He's
provincial and practical and i like him a lot.
> Anyway, Tolkien's books have a lot of imperfections. Besides being
> sexist, I think it's also pretty racist. Besides, he often get carried
> away with making the language too much of "the-ancient-manuscript" style.
> However, some passages in the book were breath-takingly beautiful.
I agree with you. There is a lot of LotR that's worth reading. I just would
like not to have to read all the boring battle scenes coming up.
Unfortunately my son loves boring battle bits and would prefer the
(interesting to me) character interactions not to get in the way. I'd get
him the tape of the book but I'm told it runs to 18 cassettes!
Yvonne
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:06:53 PDT