To start off, I looked at a JSTOR article from The American Historical Review that discusses both the movie Braveheart and the film Rob Roy, which I have not seen. The main idea I gleaned from author Elizabeth Ewan is that Braveheart has essentially no historical content. In short, she completely bashes the movie, eloquently summed up by her closing:
It is not easy to tell the story of individuals whose lives have taken on legendary proportions. But even if historical accuracy is sacrificed, surely one owes it to them to re-create the complexity of their lives and times and not make them into cardboard characters. Rob Roy attempts to do this, Braveheart does not (Ewan, 1221).One of the reasons Ewan dislikes characters' portrayals is the use of the image of the "noble savage." I first learned about this concept in high school, relating to portrayals of Native Americans, particularly in James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. (Side note: Alice is a dumb blonde, and Uncas and Cora should be married. Just marry them already, Cooper! I'm pretty sure I cried at the description of them at the end of the book. Anyway...) If you haven't heard the term "noble savage" before, this is a good illustration of the concept, as applied to Native Americans. Taken from the Wikipedia article Noble Savage, here is an excerpt from Essay on Man, by Alexander Pope:
Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor'd mindSees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;His soul proud Science never taught to strayFar as the solar walk or milky way;Yet simple Nature to his hope has giv'n,Behind the cloud-topp'd hill, a humbler heav'n;Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd,Some happier island in the wat'ry waste,Where slaves once more their native land behold,No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold!To be, contents his natural desire;He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire:But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,His faithful dog shall bear him company.
Ewan claims that Braveheart uses this image in describing the Scottish Lowlanders. Given that in one scene Mel Gibson's character Wallace specifically states that he is a savage, Ewan's opinion seems correct. In terms of savagery, however, I think the movie does a fairly good job of depicting the English king as a savage, although Ewan also states that he is a one-sided "cardboard" character (ibid.) Along with the depiction of "noble savage," there is also a theme of victimization. No English character is shown as a good human being. Ewan as well points this out, but I suggest you read her review if you are interested, because she does a much better job of explaining it than I could. I feel that some victimization is good for an epic movie, because then you get a stronger picture of good against evil, but throwing in some shades of grey makes for a more interesting, thought provoking movie. But Braveheart is almost entirely black and white. I, however, will gladly move to wherever they shot the film, because the scenery is incredible.
I'm going to make this entry fairly short, so I will finish with a news article I came across on my investigation. It is an op-ed piece from The Boston Globe by H.D.S. Greenway.
At the risk of sounding entirely ignorant, I did not know that Scotland was not an independent country. (See, this is why I'm educating myself!) I get very confused about the UK and which countries are part of it, and which use its currency, etc. Now I know: Scotland is still under British control. I would be curious to know how the Scottish people feel about this. Greenway says there is at least one politician pushing for independence, but the people are not necessarily in favor. I feel that unless there is a huge disturbance by the British, the stability of Scotland would prevent a successful bid for independence. But then again, I'm not living there.
This op-ed was published in 2009, so I do not know the current state of Scottish politics. Despite being on an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, perhaps the Scots will get caught up in the "Arab Spring"?
As for being on an island in the middle of the Atlantic, I had no idea they had so much contact with another island in the middle of the atlantic: Ireland. From the library, I took out several books on Scotland, including one that I was/am very excited to read, entitled Odyssey: Voices from Scotland's Recent Past, edited by Billy Kay. A combination of oral history, photographs, and sheet music for folk songs, this book is an amazing resource for looking into the lives of the Scots. I've only read about 5 of the 100 pages, but already it is crammed with many different voices all clambering to tell their stories. The first chapter discusses the migration of the Irish to Scotland for work, and I believe vice versa. I'm having a bit of difficulty determining when it is talking about Ireland and when Scotland, since they use place names, but when I pick up the book again I'm going to look up the places. A map would have been a useful addition to the book. I had no idea, however, that there was such a flow of people back and forth. The author even likens the ship travel to the slave trade because travelers were packed together almost as badly as were Africans on slave-ships. I'm very interested and very disturbed to continue reading this book. I also want to find recordings of the songs on YouTube if they exist.
I found several articles on the library website as well, but I have not finished looking through them. The first that I have begun is entitled "Understanding Women in Scotland," by Esther Breitenbach, Alice Brown and Fiona Myers. I am only a few pages in, but already it reads like a feminist rant. I'm not sure how to interpret this quite yet, since the article claims that Scotland has a history of misogyny as well as cultural norms that have virtually erased women from the Scottish story, but I do not know if this is true, or they are simply overreacting. If I had more knowledge of Scottish culture, I would be better able to tell. But I shall continue reading to see if these authors can back up their claims satisfactorily. Even if it is a biased article, it will still give me some insight into the culture of Scotland.
Along with finishing these two writings, I have two books on William Wallace to peruse, as well as an article entitled "Craft, Souvenirs and the Commodification of National Identity in 1970's Scotland." Since I have already spent one evening and some time this morning on Scotland, I am going to switch gears and investigate my crash course on electric circuits book. That should prove to be an entirely new kind of challenge. I will come back to Scotland soon, though, because I have so much to learn.
As for other topics to delve into, I watched a 10 minute news video on Senegalese women who tattoo their gums black for beauty reasons. Piercings, neck stretching, and tattoos are all very foreign to me, having been indoctrinated by Western beauty ideals, and they make me realize how little I know about Africa. It was quite an interesting video, even though I needed to look away when the woman was crying from pain. If you are interested, I found the video on Jezebel: http://jezebel.com/5972634/meet-the-women-who-tattoo-their-gums-black-for-a-more-beautiful-smile
I could not figure out what language the reporter and the women were speaking, so I looked up Senegal online and found out that French is the official language, but there are five other widely-spoken African languages. The website that I found also has some interesting information on greetings and customs: http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/senegal.html
Watching the video and looking at clothing, makeup, transportation, and housing gave me a lot of things to think about, but I will refrain from commenting on those until I do a bit more research; this post is already getting long enough.
Until next time, happy reading!
Works Cited
-- Braveheart by Bruce Davey; Mel Gibson; Alan Ladd,; Randall Wallace; Roy Roy by Michael Caton-Jones; Peter Broughan; Larry DeWady; Richard Jackson; Peter Proughan; Michael Caton-Jones; Alan Sharp
The American Historical Review , Vol. 100, No. 4 (Oct., 1995), pp. 1219-1221
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2168219
-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_savage
-- Greenway, H.D.S. "Scotland's Independence Day." The Boston Globe. March 3, 2009.
-- Kay, Billy, ed. Odyssey: Voices from Scotland's Recent Past. Polygon books: Edinburgh, Scotland. 1980.
-- "Understanding Women in Scotland"
-- Kay, Billy, ed. Odyssey: Voices from Scotland's Recent Past. Polygon books: Edinburgh, Scotland. 1980.
-- "Understanding Women in Scotland"
Feminist Review , No. 58, International Voices (Spring, 1998), pp. 44-65
Published by: Palgrave Macmillan Journals
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1395679
P.S. I'm getting rather lazy with my citations, so if they're in the wrong order or missing a period here or there, please forgive me. Normally I use MLA, and I can cite properly when I need to, but for now I'm focusing on a different type of learning.
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