Wednesday, Jan 24, 2007
So I was watching the new TV spots for '300' and -- yeah, I'm willing to make concessions because the movie is meant to make Frank Miller's graphic novel come to life rather than be a true-to-history dramatization of the Battle of Thermopylae, but seriously. Xerxes with a body piercing fetish? Hoplites not wearing armour (okay, I'm fairly willing to accept the depiction as something akin to the use of the 'heroic nude' in artwork)? The Persians using ELEPHANTS? Sparta as being great lovers and defenders of democracy is also, in my opinion, makes me snicker (hello oligarchy and the institution of the Thirty Tyrants in Athens after the Peloponnesian Wars?), but eh, I'll let it go.
Now that said, I'll still watch it anyway and will probably dress-up in some kind of red cloak (I have neither the time nor money to do a full Spartan panoply right now) -- I doubt it will make me as ANGRY as 'Troy' did. Seriously, it's been years since that film came out and IT STILL MAKES ME ANGRY, especially when so called 'mythology fans' defend it as being fairly accurate (!!). Bah, have we been reading the same sources? But I won't get into that right now, because if I do, I will probably end-up writing several blog entries' worth of complaints.
On a different note -- I'm still chugging along on those 'Class of the Titans' academic/classical/pop cultural/etc. references, and after some of the discussions we had in CLST 311 (Greek and Roman Epic), I'm compelled to write an annotation likening Archie's bit at the end of 'Little Box of Horrors' as being very much like a Homeric aristeia. Really, if you compare it to the aristeias (aristeiae?) of the various characters in the 'Iliad', it follows the pattern quite well. What I'm wondering though, is whether there are any other moments in the series that scream aristeia -- certainly all of the other characters have their moments that I suppose can be classified as an aristeia on a smaller scale, but the 'Little Box of Horrors' ones is the only one that I find REALLY strongly fits the model. That, or it's just the best one, which would fit given that Achilles' aristeia is supposed to be the grandest of them all in the 'Iliad'.
Anyway -- let me know what you think in terms of who else in the series has a true aristeia that follows the models in Homer. I'm sure there has to be other people reading this who understand the structure of epic poetry better than I do (my area is still in mythology, not literary structure) who may be able to offer some INTELLIGENT ideas.
Now that said, I'll still watch it anyway and will probably dress-up in some kind of red cloak (I have neither the time nor money to do a full Spartan panoply right now) -- I doubt it will make me as ANGRY as 'Troy' did. Seriously, it's been years since that film came out and IT STILL MAKES ME ANGRY, especially when so called 'mythology fans' defend it as being fairly accurate (!!). Bah, have we been reading the same sources? But I won't get into that right now, because if I do, I will probably end-up writing several blog entries' worth of complaints.
On a different note -- I'm still chugging along on those 'Class of the Titans' academic/classical/pop cultural/etc. references, and after some of the discussions we had in CLST 311 (Greek and Roman Epic), I'm compelled to write an annotation likening Archie's bit at the end of 'Little Box of Horrors' as being very much like a Homeric aristeia. Really, if you compare it to the aristeias (aristeiae?) of the various characters in the 'Iliad', it follows the pattern quite well. What I'm wondering though, is whether there are any other moments in the series that scream aristeia -- certainly all of the other characters have their moments that I suppose can be classified as an aristeia on a smaller scale, but the 'Little Box of Horrors' ones is the only one that I find REALLY strongly fits the model. That, or it's just the best one, which would fit given that Achilles' aristeia is supposed to be the grandest of them all in the 'Iliad'.
Anyway -- let me know what you think in terms of who else in the series has a true aristeia that follows the models in Homer. I'm sure there has to be other people reading this who understand the structure of epic poetry better than I do (my area is still in mythology, not literary structure) who may be able to offer some INTELLIGENT ideas.
