(no subject)

Have finished The Fourth Crusade, which was -- like all the other Crusades, except moreso -- the biggest clusterfuck you can imagine. Oh, Constantinople, I am so sorry. I really did not mean to get this emotionally invested in the Byzantine Empire, of all the damned things.

I now hate Western Europe, by the way, though my love for Venice is pure and true. There was such a fundamental difference of opinion between the Byzantines and the Latins! This book is going on my list of non-fiction to rec, although I'm not sure how well it works without having some background knowledge of the Crusades and the Byzantine Empire. (It was one of my textbooks. What, you don't read your textbooks until after the class and the final are both over? I know, I fail at academia.) It is seeming less and less likely that my field is going to be primarily Western Europe; if I lean medieval/early modern, I will probably go for either Italy or the Byzantine Empire, and if I go ancient/classical...well, again, we end up with Rome or Greece, heh.

I wonder if I can put the sack of a city in Dust? It's possible -- I think we're emotionally invested enough in Cair Paravel, and we're going to spend a lot of time in Anvard -- but I'm not sure how likely we are to see a sack onscreen, given that the Calormenes are already in Cair Paravel. Maybe in an introduction/interlude. I am not sure what is happening in Cair Paravel, and Anvard is a different matter. (For clarification: there are a few things I am wedded to in the novel, and what happens with Archenland is, in theory, the climax of part two. Yeah, I don't know what else is happening. I am always open to shoving new things in given whatever historical era I happen to be studying at the moment!)