(no subject)

[bedlamsbard]

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!)

Comments

[aella_irene]

I absolutely agree that the Fourth Crusade was a tragedy, but fundamentally disagree with my teacher's proclamation that she agreed with Runciman that it was the worst crime in history. Yes, even worse than the Holocaust.

[bedlamsbard]

...yeah, no. It was a terrible, terribly tragedy, though, and Queller is great at describing the sack. So many books! So many statues! So many relics! ALL DESTROYED DAMN YOU CRUSADERS. *weeps*

[aella_irene]

The entire class just stared at her, then she looked thoughtful, and said, "I wish [Jewish member of the class] was here", and our heads nearly exploded.

*pats* You can write the sack of Tihany? Which wasn't so much a sack as a massive riot, now I think about it, but still. Sack of Meckelburg?

[bedlamsbard]

*twitches in horror* Man, I can't imagine any of my profs saying that.

I always get really emotional when important historical artifacts are destroyed. I was nearly in tears when we were reading/talking about how the pediments on the Parthenon were DESTROYED IN ORDER TO BUILD A CHURCH OMG and then the heads were hacked off on the metopes because they were too pagan ARGH. AND NOW WE WILL NEVER KNOW WHAT THE PEDIMENTS REALLY LOOKED LIKE. *weeps*

...I'm pretty sure I couldn't actually handle being a classicist; there's just too much missing. (Narnia and Star Wars fandom DID NOT HELP.)

[aella_irene]

She's greek. It was eleven weeks of "The Byzantines were awesome, and everyone else was evil! Especially the Turks!"

*pats back* Come to Britain, we have the Elgin Marbles!

[resolute]

Hmm. You could write the sack of an outlying city, a sack conducted by the Pevensies during their reign, with one or more of them trapped inside the city because they were spying? So you can get both the outside and inside view to the readers?

[bedlamsbard]

It's not really that I suddenly have a burning desire to sack a city, but I'm more trying to figure out how it might transfer to my 'verse somewhere down the line. Which becomes somewhat of a problem when there are only two major cities named (not counting Tashbaan), and I have to figure out how to get POV characters there or fit it into a prologue.

[dogstar]

I've sort of been expecting CP to be sacked and burned or something, to be honest. I don't know how else they're going to pry the Calormenes and sympathizers (not just the 'I have to feed my family' ones but the 'TRADE YAY!' ones) out....

[bedlamsbard]

Huh, what was I originally going to do? I know I had plans for Cair Paravel -- oh, wait, I remember. Now if only I could remember who was going to be the instigators...clearly I need to keep better notes. Or notes at all beyond character notes.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm sure Peter sacked one or more cities in the Golden Age. Heck .. I'm sure he sacked entire _countries_. Bloodthirsty lil sod. And the chances of the King of Evening being skulking about doing spy things are fairly high if you want Edmund's reaction on the inside. If you want vaguely middle eastern I'm sure you can do something around the Horses' boy ... that Calormen chap who wanted to marry Susan and the attack on the castle across the border in the end bit.

Incidentally .. are we ever going to see the Edmund vs. the dragon? I've been terribly curious about it.