This is an historical novel that recounts the famous rebellion mounted by Hereward the Wake and other dispossessed Saxon lords against William the Conqueror and his Norman forces around 1070-71. Charismatic and known to be a berserker (thought that’s not something that Brown dwells upon) Hereward, once an Earl of Britain, led a rebellion fro
m the fens of East Anglia, his base being upon the Isle of Ely, which could only be reached by crossing the treacherous marshes – a difficult route known to a select few.
Determined to crush this irritating foe, William sends his men against Hereward and his small band of loyal men. Against impossible odds, with nothing left to lose, Hereward and his Saxons fight the loathed Normans, their courage, skills as archers and strategists and the mazed fens their only defences.
Told from the perspective of Ranulf Redbeard, a survivor of the York massacre and a brave warrior, the plight of the last stand of the Saxons against the Normans is savage and moving. While the subtitle of the book claims it’s a novel about Hereward, this rebel, upon whom stories and legends are built, he deosn’t dominate the action or the emotional heart of the tale. On the contrary, he’s surprisingly narcissistic and uncharismatic and it’s hard to warm to him as a hero – even with his flaws. It’s Ranulf who shines in this tale and perhaps that was Brown’s intention.
Of the novel itself, it’s well-plotted and draws from history without overplaying the didacticism, but it does read like it needs a final edit in parts. There is a repetitiveness of words that’s a tiny bit irritating, but not enough to detract from reading pleasure. There is also a tendency to paint heroes and villains very much in black and white and I think this too has cast Hereward, who in this novel at least has his own demons to struggle with, not so much in interesting shades of grey as it does into the shadows.
Overall, however, I really enjoyed this book and will read Brown’s Housecarl, for sure.
inly, her kitchen. She also takes you along when she visits other people and we become privy to their lives and the role they’ll inevitably come to play in de Blasi’s. In her previous books, these encounters have been brief and tended to further our understanding of de Blasi and her relationship with her Venetian. This is where Antonia and her Daughters differs from de Blasi’s previous books. While the sense of the author and her warm and empathetic personality are evident, this story is very much as the title suggests: about an amazing 83 year old woman, Antonia, and her gorgeous daughters. It is also about the next generation of this family, very much a matriarchal one dominated by the tempestuous, intelligent and intense Antonia who feels, when she meets de Blasi, that she has found a worthy sparring partner. And believe me, Antonia doesn’t hold back. It’s testimony to de Blasi’s comprehension of human nature that she seeks to understand Antonia’s barbs, her attempts to challenge and embarrass an even undermine her as well as her overt xenophobia, not simply relate it to us. That she patiently allows this woman to open herself to her and thus us by a slow retelling of her history, is superbly and sympathetically done. It is also incredibly respectful and honest. The story unfolds in typical Italian fashion, over laden tables, groaning with delicious repasts that have been lovingly prepared by the females. Between meals, walks, arguments and other episodes, Antonia’s tale and that of generations of Italian women (and those of other cultures) is revealed. Like an onion being peeled, we gradually get to the core of what makes Antonia the feisty, formidable and utterly fascinating creature that she is. When the reveal comes, and the heart of the story/person is exposed, it is powerful, emotional, tragic and beautiful.
, I didn’t want to leave.
The focus also returns to Tyrion Lannister who, the last time we met had escaped King’s Landing having just murdered his father. Cersei has set a high price on his head and reaped the grisly consequences of that (as does, in a poignant way, Tyrion) and, despite all those who seek to bring the Imp to justice and/or kill him, it’s no surprise that Tyrion not only evades fatal capture but somehow both survives and even profits from the greed and calculations of others. He may be an exile, but Tyrion is still a master manipulator. Yet, as his story progresses, there’s also a humbling of his character, one who always possessed depths and shades that only the reader seems to be able to appreciate. Throughout Dances, these layers are revealed as he is brought lower than you would credit. There’s no place for Lannister pride when your stature is the butt of jokes, what looks you did possess have been ruined, and you’re enslaved, but Tyrion somehow manages to rise above all this. In Dances, his gentler side and spirit of survival comes to the fore alongside that rapier sharp tongue and wit which never fail to satisfy.
you to pick out your own earrings?”
.
xed bag this book was! As the sequel to the magnificent, The Forever King, I have to say, The Broken Sword is more than a little disappointing. Picking up a few years after the events in the first book, it continues the story of Arthur Blessing, Mr Taliesin – the Merlin – and Hal. Just like in the first book in the trilogy, there is an evil force embodied in a man, trying to claim the grail cup and destroy Arthur. And so the adventure continues – from the Middle East, to Europe and the UK and ultimately, New York.
Sexiness fails to raunch in music videos
May 22, 2012
This is the unedited version of my column that appeared in the Courier Mail, Wednesday 23rd May 20102.
Music mogul, 60-year old Mike Stock, who was part of Stock, Aitken and Waterman, the trio responsible for producing many hits in the 1980s and 90s, and for launching Kylie Minogue’s career, has publicly condemned the risqué and hypersexual performances of contemporary singers.
In the Mail Online, he accused music artists of using sex to sell when their talent fails. Stock describes the “new breed of rap and Lady GaGa types” as “sluttish.”
He worries that “young girls think they are someone worth emulating.”
Stock is not the first to make these kinds of claims. For years, experts from around the world have spoken of the harm the hyper-sexualisation of pop culture causes young girls and boys. The American Psychological Association even linking it to poor mental health and unhealthy sexual development.
Like Stock, and others, I’m so damn tired of all the pornographic, tasteless and trashy videos littering the current music scene. The use of the singular is pertinent here, because there seems to be only one scene with an interchangeable star.
The lyrics are occasionally good, the melody fine; it’s the visual accompaniment that’s so often boring, predictable and trashy.
Ever since Cher straddled that cannon in “Turn Back Time” and the Pussycat Dolls threw down the “hotness” gauntlet, female artists of varying talents have tried to out-pout, kiss, suck, lick, gyrate and dry-hump (cars, poles, men, women) each other in what passes for music video these days.
I say, enough already.
It’s so constructed and banal that it failed to “raunch” anything but tiresome sighs that such a good artist can be so unoriginal.
Likewise, Madonna, someone who has proven her talent as well as her cultural and social capital over and over, persists on demonstrating, through humdrum and, frankly, laughable moves and costumes, her “sexiness”.
A
ge has nothing to do with it really, there’s just something so unsexy and derivative about trying so hard. Rhianna, Ke$ha, Miley Cyrus, are the same.
We don’t want or expect singers to come overall Amish, after all, sexiness and music have long gone hand in hand, but the reductive displays, the fact we’ve seen it all before, makes it so dull and uninspiring.
What’s interesting is that while girls are reduced to “sexy” spectacles in music – whether they’re the principal artist or back-up dancers/props, boys like Justin Beiber and One Direction, for example, have other options.
Dannielle Miller, CEO of Enlighten Education writes in an excellent blog that, “In music video world, all too often the message is: when a young guy wants to show he is now a man, he can get a leather jacket and pout; but for a young woman to show she is grown up, she has to get it all off and grind.”
Miller uses Ricki-Lee’s latest video, “Do It Like That” as an example of what’s become the stock-standard aesthetic for female performers – running around in underwear.
Lingerie, faux nudity, impossibly high heels, torn stockings, and/or a corset have also become normalised. While we’re checking the boxes, there’s the young man/men to fawn over, the pole to grind, the car to stroke, as well as her own body. And don’t tell me this is “empowering”, “liberating” or simply the means by which young women express their sexuality.
I’m sick of the language of feminism being exploited and misused to excuse/defend what’s fundamentally a new sexism and women’s complicity in it. I will not be silenced as an out-of-touch wowser.
Women are no longer simply being seen as sex objects, we’re going out of our way to become them and encouraging our daughters to as well.
In her book, Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism, Natasha Walter writes, “When we talked about empowerment in the past, it was not a young woman in a thong gyrating around a pole that would spring to mind…”
I am woman see me whore…
The pornification of pop culture has codified and diminished sexiness, turned it into a parody, a Playboy delusion, and sold it back to us. Too many arestill buying it – copying the images and taking them into the world beyond.
We’ve been short changed.
Sexuality and its healthy expression are normal – stripping it of the possibility of intimacy, connection and emotion and adopting it as a public identity and calling it “liberating” or “empowering”, for either gender, is not.
Posted in General Social Commentary, Popular Culture | 2 Comments »