Posts

Showing posts from March, 2006

More GE linky love with Roman ruins

Open up GE and take a trip to Segedunum . I like writing these little placemark blurbs--they force me to be concise, which is one of my weak points. Walking some or all of Hadrian's Wall is on my life's to-do list. What made me think about it this week was a cool travel article in the Atlantic Monthly about doing just that. The tourism industry surrounding the wall's remains is pretty robust, but from what I've read it also seems to be low-key and tasteful. Even the big museum and guest center at Segedunum (visible to the right of the ruins in the link above) seems like a cool place to spend a rainy English afternoon.

Period films and Good Queen Bess

I once had a medieval studies professor who required us to watch particular Hollywood movies as fodder for class discussion. We watched stuff like Ben-Hur and The Name of the Rose . He would open the class by asking us what we thought of the movie and would gradually segue into a lecture on the period in which the movie was set. As a teaching tool, it was genius; most people actually did watch the movies, and the resulting discussions--which the professor deftly managed to focus on the relevant historical topics as opposed to the fictional elements of the plot--were animated and interesting. Unfortunately, most other history profs I've met have turned their noses up at period movies when I've asked about them. The common complaints seem to be that the screenplays are rife with inaccuracies (certainly true) and that too many laypeople are content to consume them as documentaries (probably true). Fair enough. For my part, though, I'd rather see Jane or Dick watch King A