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ArchivesRe: Prepare the holy hand grenade!
in reply to a message by Selwyn
I love that movie! And the various humorous anachronisms aside, the medieval Python settings, with their simple-minded savagery and disgusting scummy peasantry, are probably much more accurate in depicting life in those times than most other movies.
I'm currently reading "Deus Lo Volt", a novelish chronicle of the events of the Crusades that contains mostly documented accounts of what went on. The degree and scale of the brutality by both Crusaders and Saracens is horrifying -- surely the 1100's were a time that would be as alien to most of us as the surface of Mars! It's a wonder humanity has made it this far (notice I didn't say "progressed").
I'm currently reading "Deus Lo Volt", a novelish chronicle of the events of the Crusades that contains mostly documented accounts of what went on. The degree and scale of the brutality by both Crusaders and Saracens is horrifying -- surely the 1100's were a time that would be as alien to most of us as the surface of Mars! It's a wonder humanity has made it this far (notice I didn't say "progressed").
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Replies
"It's a wonder humanity has made it this far.."
Humanity has made it? You romantic idealist you. Thank God for dogs and dolphins.
Humanity has made it? You romantic idealist you. Thank God for dogs and dolphins.
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Pope Urban II
As far as I remember it was pope Urban the II saying those words.
Yet, I am curious what take has the book you speak of on Saladin?
Sometimes he is seen as part of the normal leader mentality and other times I have heard him presented almost as a paradigm of chivalry.
As far as I remember it was pope Urban the II saying those words.
Yet, I am curious what take has the book you speak of on Saladin?
Sometimes he is seen as part of the normal leader mentality and other times I have heard him presented almost as a paradigm of chivalry.
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I've only read up to the end of the Second Crusade (mid-1100s) when Saladin was still at home poppin zits and fretting over whether Dad would let him borrow the mangonel to go to the prom.
However, as far as humanity and chivalry go, the earlier, more obscure Turkoman military leaders wouldn't be a tough act to follow. By comparison to them, even Saddam Hussein was Mother Teresa.
Remind me and I'll relate the author's take on Saladin in a week or so, assuming I can take the additional accounts of mass murder, beheading, cannibalism, Jew-burning, flailing, enslavement, pillage, starvation, and general mayhem that will be required to get that far in the book.
However, as far as humanity and chivalry go, the earlier, more obscure Turkoman military leaders wouldn't be a tough act to follow. By comparison to them, even Saddam Hussein was Mother Teresa.
Remind me and I'll relate the author's take on Saladin in a week or so, assuming I can take the additional accounts of mass murder, beheading, cannibalism, Jew-burning, flailing, enslavement, pillage, starvation, and general mayhem that will be required to get that far in the book.
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