Rome

[wombat1138]

Nearly done with several days of mainlining DVDs of the HBO/BBC Rome series. I def'ly think the second season (possibly starting from the end of the first) does a shark-jump of ignoring/rewriting actual history for the mere purposes of ridiculous melodrama. It's not as if Shakespeare or Graves were completely accurate about historical details either, but I suppose they've been grandfathered into artistic acceptability and they don't seem quite as histrionically ridiculous.

As I partially remarked to the wombat-consort last night, Rome's second season makes me envision a history of the Hundred Years' War in which the war was begun by Joan of Arc setting herself on fire to burn down London, in revenge for the Black Prince dumping her from their long-term arrangement of kinky sex.

(Bonus random historical snafu: while I was waking up this morning, the local call-in radio show's segment on Afghanistan had someone (thankfully a caller rather than a guest) praise the Marshall Plan's success in pacifying the violent tribalism of the shoguns [sic] and provincial warlords who had led Japan through WWII. Alas for the metaphorical structural integrity of both my head and my desk.)

Comments

[wombat1138.livejournal.com]

Who knows, maybe Philippa Gregory has already written that book :b

[jennifer3dtd.livejournal.com]

Noooooooooo don't give her any ideas!

(Although now I'm wondering which author would do the best job of your version of The Hundred Year's War. Hm... It'd almost have to be a trashy romance novel author. Can you imagine the cover for such a book? Joan of Arc in a ripped bodice. HA!!!!)

[wombat1138.livejournal.com]

Joan of Arc in a ripped bodice on fire :D