tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post1207189968056970448..comments2023-06-27T00:01:26.443+10:00Comments on What's with today, today?: fundamentalism and historical fictionCatiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-65406278488150552912009-05-29T09:41:00.227+10:002009-05-29T09:41:00.227+10:00It just happened to be sitting in my drafts for a ...It just happened to be sitting in my drafts for a week, and I didn't check the date. I might change that now..Catiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-25954057103508134922009-05-28T23:08:09.889+10:002009-05-28T23:08:09.889+10:00Yes, I know. You realise with your conscious mind ...Yes, I know. You realise with your conscious mind that half the people alive in Britain in the year 1000 must be your ancestor, (Actually I have just done the calculation: with no inbreeding, 30 generations back you have over a billion ancestors.) but it is still exciting to be able to trace a real live link with any of the people of that era, and especially with the big names. And anyway, how many people can actually trace their link with William the Conqueror, still more, how many can trace any connection to kings of Leinster etc? <br />It was fun.<br />D.<br /><br />and what's this - I see that you have overnight put up a new blog, allegedly written a week ago?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-14229842005210245832009-05-28T10:39:18.840+10:002009-05-28T10:39:18.840+10:00We are related to Irish kings? That's incredibly e...We are related to Irish kings? That's incredibly exciting :)<br /><br />I'm not sure I agree entirely, for instance I think Postmodernism gets a lot more flack than it deserves, it has good and bad points, but it is often made out to be responsible for all of society's flaws, often in a way that shows little knowledge of what postmodernism actually is. That said, it is a famously flexible and difficult to define term...Catiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-84406813274953521792009-05-27T23:55:35.225+10:002009-05-27T23:55:35.225+10:00Well, write to the paper, or to the journo in ques...Well, write to the paper, or to the journo in question, or do both. They need to ahve their faces rubbed in their own ignorance and bias. <br /><br />I think the point is that really we are in an era when there is an anti-Christian mood about. Pretending to rationalism, but actually anti-Christian. If you doubt, note that 10 or 20 years ago when we wanted an example of ignorant barbarity we were reminded of the Mohammedan burning of (you guessed it) the library of Alexandria. (Supposedly because no copy of the koran was found in it) I have now heard of any numbers of burnings of the library of Alexandria. They must have had some industrious librarians busy preparing fuel for centuries to provide for the serial conflagrations.<br /><br />Reading the paper is a way of getting serially depressed. That's why we only get it for the crossword. The current crop of journalists have been half educated on a diet of post modernists who really seem not to have known or cared about the objective or external truth of the things they write about. Under the influence of post modernist teaching, many don't believe that there is such a thing as objective truth. A belief system that has very serious consequences. <br /><br />I know that when I read about events of which I have specialist knowledge, the paper will often give a story that is badly awry. Residual effects of Marxist influence from the 60s? Maybe. Then the Marxists on campus and elsewhere were more interested in doing down the West by any means, and not too interested in the means themselves, which were , after all, justified by "the ends". So some pretty dodgy teaching, from which we are still suffering. (teaching a much more important profession than anything else.)<br /><br />Anyway, I digress, the point is that now we have the Christians cast as the book burners, and the Mohammedans as the preservers of knowledge (a very over-rated reputation in my view. The mediaeval Christian monks who copied and illuminated manuscripts from Byzantium to Ireland might have something to say about it. Ireland after all supplied teachers to the whole of Europe for a long period. <br /><br />Do I need to tell you this? No, of course not.) <br /><br />Speaking of things Mediaeval, you might be amused that I have now traced your ancestry all the way back through William the Conqueror. This is not a boast of how noble we are, but more a comment on how genetically advantageous it is to be a king. I was amused that the genealogist who provided the material had included some earlier lines back through an(I am sure fictitious) line of Irish kings to somewhere that must equate to about 500BC. What fun. I hope to have it all ready for you to read when I return in July.<br /><br />D.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-7241922069298167552009-05-21T15:42:25.725+10:002009-05-21T15:42:25.725+10:00Yes! So annoying when people are so dissmissive of...Yes! So annoying when people are so dissmissive of the Middle Ages, when 'Medieval' is used as a negative adjective, and I would hope for something better from someone making a historical film, maybe that's too much to ask though.<br /><br />A much maligned period. But personally I like medieval literature more than Classical or Renaissance as a general rule.Catiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-2084101133748845602009-05-21T09:35:15.406+10:002009-05-21T09:35:15.406+10:00Ugh! (Complete with a parting pot-shot at the midd...Ugh! (Complete with a parting pot-shot at the middle ages, of course.)<br /><br />Now, as an agnostic I'm coming at this from more of an 'outraged medievalist' perspective, but something about that final quote really irritated me. <br /><br />It annoys me when people who have little knowledge of what really went on in medieval times hold the middle ages up as a symbol of ignorant fundamentalist barbarity. All this talk about reconciling Classical philosophy and Christianity - that was what theologians and scholars were trying to do for most of the middle ages! They could see the value of Classical works, they preserved them and copied them and taught them.<br /><br />Just because most people in those times couldn't write doesn't mean that they didn't think and dream and wonder.Ronnihttp://dolorosa12.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.com