(no subject)

[hathycol]

Okay. I've just watched Dead Man Walking and I cannot believe I'm saying this but I have some commentary on this based on several years of studying medieval history, amongst other things. I AM NOT SPOILING YOU BY SAYING THIS.

Right, so quite apart from the fact that They Keep Shooting Owen (Is Not Resulting In Fatalities) and WHY WON'T YOU DIE and other fairly hysterical responses, I'm a tiny bit confused for this episode.

Lecture time, kids. I wrote 'anthromorphic personification' in my exams last semester and as such I am totally qualified to comment.

Okay, so, er, alien stuff is the Black Death? I don't think that's the message I'm supposed to get from this. In fact, I've got rather angry with Torchwood referring to the Black Death and the bubonic plague indiscriminately before - last series, I think. The plague that we know as the Black Death was actually a period in time that hit Western Europe in 1347, with some rather dim sailers from Genoa. No one is quite sure what the disease was - was it actually bubonic or was it something else? Either way, it was rather nasty and bumped off about 60% of Western Europe, more in some countries, less in the colder ones as whatever it was didn't cope very well in cold temperatures. There's very little evidence of it in the Highlands of Scotland, for example.

ANYWAY THAT IS NOT THE POINT OF THIS STORY. I have no idea what specifically happened in Cardiff, per se - Parish of St James MY ARSE Cardiff existed at least a century earlier than that. However, I'm willing to bet it had a rather nasty death toll, like say everywhere else.

So we come onto the dea of Death stalking the earth. Now, we think of Death as TALKING LIKE THIS or as playing Twister with Bill and Tedchess in Swedish, or as a rather spooky figure. The idea of Death as we see it does date from the Black Death; all the artwork you see in chapels is dated from there. Rather than include horrific images of hell and all the things that will happen if you've been naughty down on earth, the artwork shifted to a more positive spin on Death. Yes, it scared people, but it reminded then that the end of world, or at least their personal world, could happen any minute. It quite often did.

In a bizarre and twisted way, it was comforting. Look, it said: here is Death. He leads you all by the hands to the dark land on the other side, and you're all the same in death.

And actually they got the image just right there; the creepy skeleton moving slowly and surely is the Death I recognise from medieval churches. That's what I saw when I saw Owen fighting with Death: the medieval danse macabre, where Death dances with you every day of your life, and only at the end do you see it. And that isn't a bad thing.

Of course, this is a TV program about aliens that come through time and space to Cardiff so I'm not entirely sure why I'm getting onto my academic high horse about this.

It was a good episode, though. Even though I do still loathe Owen and just wish he'd die a bit quicker.

I appreciate this rant does, in no way, make up for the work I haven't done. In a move of supreme irony, I actually have a book called 'Medieval Wales' to get through today, as well as my beaureaucracy from DocSoc. GOOD-O.

Comments

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

I think I needed that.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I like the bit about how Scotland wins at beating a plague, yes. *nods*

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

Scotland is always win. But, you know, mountainous and rugged so pretty tricky to pass on the plague, and cold enough to inhibit the plague. Although my housemate from Embra informs me she used to play in a park where one of the hills was actually a mass burial pit from the plague, so, you know, not that good.

In the zombie apocalypse, I suspect that it'll be decades before the Highlands and Islands works out what's happening.

[lone-hobbit.livejournal.com]

And actually they got the image just right there; the creepy skeleton moving slowly and surely is the Death I recognise from medieval churches. That's what I saw when I saw Owen fighting with Death: the medieval danse macabre, where Death dances with you every day of your life, and only at the end do you see it. And that isn't a bad thing.

Haha, that's funny. My reaction was the complete opposite and went something like...


*FACEPALM* HE'S IN A FISTFIGHT WITH A GIANT SKELETON?!?!


I guess the danse macabre would be a more ideal characterization.

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

I think maybe my brain is broken by history. *flails*