Things Rosemary Sutcliff Did Not Make Up

[bunn]

In googling for something quite other, I found an old discussion of Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset (a book of which I am unreasonably fond), in which the commenters lay into the author for having written on a topic they found distasteful.  Incest.   Yes, they felt that including incest in an Arthurian story was something that rendered the whole book unreadable.  

 I assume they haven't read Malory.  Good grief.   I then became annoyed, and wished to share my annoyance with The Internet.   Then I had a long agonised internal debate with myself whether to use my 'history' tag for this post.  This was quite ludicrous. I am therefore tagging it 'loons' and including myself in the tag... 

Comments

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Not read Malory, certainly. Or T.H.White, come to that. And I read both in my early teens. I'm not fond of Sutcliffe, myself, but I love both Malory and White.

The sort of people who want warnings on books in the same way they insist on excessive warnings in fan fiction and want the 'n-word' removed from Huckleberry Finn/.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

"...and want the 'n-word' removed from Huckleberry Finn/."


Or indeed 'The Dambusters'.

[skordh.livejournal.com]

Sword at Sunset - yay!

Loons - bah!

Rant - fully justified.

[huinare.livejournal.com]

I then became annoyed, and wished to share my annoyance with The Internet. Then I had a long agonised internal debate with myself whether to use my 'history' tag for this post.

I sympathize on both counts.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

I'm more upset about the Twain, in that the purpose of the book is to highlight the treatment of Black slaves (and freedmen) in the Southern States, and that Jim is more intelligent and more courageous than the supposed hero of the book.

I can see the point of view of the film makers in respect of The Dam Busters remake. They're almost sure to muck around with history anyway (the original film did too, to a small extent, including exaggerating the impact of the raid) and that code word (and animal name) while historically accurate, is just going to cause trouble if left in - and would probably mean an 18 rating in this country and an R in the States, when they are all almost certainly aiming for a 12...

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

..........

*boggles*

Arthurian legend is incesty all over, except in the very earliest barebones mentions that are little more than name-dropping.

Perhaps they were only familiar with the Disney version or something.

[freddiejoey.livejournal.com]

Sword at Sunset is a perfect book of which to be fond. So include me in your unreasonable band. It's one of my favourites. Loons indeed.

Reminds me a bit of people who feel uncomfortable re Eagle of the Ninth because Cottia is only supposed to be 14 or something. Reality: 1400 or so years later Henry VII's mother Margaret Beaufort was married at 12 and gave birth at 13. In Roman times marriage at 14 was commonplace.

Now, I have ranted too. Apologies, but loons.....truly.....