I really liked The Other Bolyn Girl film, I suspect it's not super historically accurate but I did really like the actors. I really feel sorry for Anne, she was really vilified through history and I bet she was the victim of some horrible plot.
(1) Henry VIII wanted / needed to get rid of her (fast) when she had repeatedly disappointed his hope of producing a male heir,
(2) she wasn't exactly your stay-at-home-and-let-the-men-take-care-of business type of woman, which in and of itself made her highly suspect in her contemporaries' eyes (she was intelligent, highly educated, independently-minded AND a very nimble and skilled strategist), and
(3) she was the woman for whom Henry discarded Catherine of Aragon, whom many continued to see as his true queen whatever the divorce papers said, as well as being (neither quite correctly, nor wholly incorrectly) perceived as the cause for Henry's break with Rome and the whole ensuing religious strife, which would come to wreck England for the whole rest of the 16th century and even into James I's reign in the early 17th century.
I hate the "Other Boleyn Girl" movie for the same reasons as I hate the book. I find it shallow, all window dressing and not a shred of it is supported by historical evidence (very much to the contrary, actually, in many respects). The actors are great, I agree; their talents are just totally wasted on this thing.
If you want to see a truly great movie on Anne Boleyn, watch "Anne of the Thousand Days" ... or, in terms of a more recent production, the TV adaptation of Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall"! :)
I like your answer to #9 better than my own. You have slightly more optimism than I do.
I can't see all your images (at work behind firewalls) but I love that last one... I'd hang that in my library, if it had any wall space that wasn't covered in books. :)
The other images are just memes (and two of my shelfies, which you've already seen anyway), so you're not missing much. :)
I'm actually just about as pessimistic about current politics as I never thought I'd come to be ... ever. But, hey, if *any* books are going to be able to help at all, it would have to be these. Presuming, of course, that the people in question are readers in the first place, which I highly doubt however, particularly with regard to those whom I consider the greatest threats to world peace -- and the one may well have a lot to do with the other, too.
Agreed; although my feeling is that none of the contenders would be able to see the words on the page, or their meaning, through the thick fogs of their own egos. Perhaps if the books were used to hit them in the head, that would be more effective? ;)
You know what we'd need? A way to brain-feed our current and future leaders wisdom without their having the ability to opt out or do anything against it. (Then again, as in all sci-fi scenarios, forget it; this sort of scheme would probably get abused and go to hell before they'd even completed their oath of office ... or before anyone had been able to finish saying the *words* "oath of office". Sigh.)
Well, anyway, by way of a small ray of hope, the Austrian minister of the interior just announced that it wasn't the right-wing candidate after all who had won the Austrian presidential elections, but his opponent (who'd been supported by just about everybody else) ... by a margin of 31026 votes flat (or in percentage points, 50.3% vs. 49.7% of the votes cast). Man, that was close!! I've rarely been glued to my computer screen as tightly, and certainly never about anything related to Austria (no disrespect and all). I mean, just about 70 years after the end of WWII, and we're at *this* sort of impasse yet again??!!
I know, it's frightening at a really deep level of my soul (for lack of better description). Hopefully the new Austrian President can sway the Austrian people a bit closer to rational discourse. Australia has their elections next month and I have no idea who even has a chance, and I'm not sure it matters anyway since they elect a party here, so if the party decides the PM isn't making them happy, they just toss him aside and put someone else in sans election. AU has had two general elections since I've been here and 4 PMs and one of them was PM twice. Since I drank the kook-aid on US constitutional law, I have a hard time grasping this system (which is why I'm not an Aussie citizen yet).
But speaking of U.S... well, I can't even. I have never felt so hopeless about my own country as I do right now. Unless Bernie Sanders pulls out a miracle, no good can come out of this election year.
Yes, although if Sanders doesn't make it onto the ticket, I likely won't vote because I truly do not see a lesser of evils in either of the other two choices. It's been a baaaad two decades to be a republican.
Yes, the Republican Party really has been gradually disintegrating over the past couple of decades, hasn't it? As has the political establishment in many a (Western) country, though, which is part of what makes it so easy for these right-wing populist movements and candidates to gain supporters. Virtually all they need to do is portray themselves as "a breath of fresh air" that's going to "blow the cobwebs" out of the allegedly encrusted system, and just plain everybody who's been feeling disaffected for too long for their own liking will just flock to them in droves and never bother to take a closer look at what these parties and candidates actually stand for. Which is precisely the horse on which Hitler rode into power, and I find it very, very scary that it's still working so damned effectively after everything that the Nazis and WWII did to the world in pretty recent living memory.
The very nice ladies I knit with are all more conservative (a couple are FAR more conservative) than I am (they all self-ID as Republican) - but from recent comments (they loathe Donald Trump at least as much as they do Hillary Clinton, for the most part), I think many of them will not be voting at all.
I will be. I don't like Hillary much, but I'll be voting for her. Because Donald Trump is far, far worse. (I view voting as my right to complain. I always vote.) I voted for Sanders in the primary, back in February, while being perfectly aware that Clinton was going to carry this state. (She does so well in Democratic primaries in states no Democrat will carry in November!)
SC will not be in the Democratic column, this year or any year in the near future. Frankly, I'm shocked SC has gone Democratic even once in my lifetime (it went for Jimmy Carter - of neighboring Georgia - in 1976, when I was ten).
I blame the popularity of these populist Know-Nothings in part on how history is taught in our public schools - which is very badly.
I agree Susanna - I whole heartedly blame our educational system for where we're at now; this is the fruit of discarding the teaching of humanities as "not imperative". But I was afraid I'd go off on a whole different rant if I got myself started; luckily the cat is sprawled across my lap in such a way that my laptop is up near my neck, and it's hard to type. :D
I've voted off-party for the last two elections; if Sanders pulled off a miracle I'd vote off-party a third time, but I can't bring myself to vote for either of the other two. I despise them both and I can't bring myself to help either of them into that sacred office.
I know things must be bad back home because my dear mom, who is as conservative as it's possible to be, and loves, loves, loves talking politics, hasn't uttered one word about the elections in months. I'm curious what's going through her head, but I'm way to chicken to ask. :D
(1) Henry VIII wanted / needed to get rid of her (fast) when she had repeatedly disappointed his hope of producing a male heir,
(2) she wasn't exactly your stay-at-home-and-let-the-men-take-care-of business type of woman, which in and of itself made her highly suspect in her contemporaries' eyes (she was intelligent, highly educated, independently-minded AND a very nimble and skilled strategist), and
(3) she was the woman for whom Henry discarded Catherine of Aragon, whom many continued to see as his true queen whatever the divorce papers said, as well as being (neither quite correctly, nor wholly incorrectly) perceived as the cause for Henry's break with Rome and the whole ensuing religious strife, which would come to wreck England for the whole rest of the 16th century and even into James I's reign in the early 17th century.
I hate the "Other Boleyn Girl" movie for the same reasons as I hate the book. I find it shallow, all window dressing and not a shred of it is supported by historical evidence (very much to the contrary, actually, in many respects). The actors are great, I agree; their talents are just totally wasted on this thing.
If you want to see a truly great movie on Anne Boleyn, watch "Anne of the Thousand Days" ... or, in terms of a more recent production, the TV adaptation of Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall"! :)
I can't see all your images (at work behind firewalls) but I love that last one... I'd hang that in my library, if it had any wall space that wasn't covered in books. :)
I'm actually just about as pessimistic about current politics as I never thought I'd come to be ... ever. But, hey, if *any* books are going to be able to help at all, it would have to be these. Presuming, of course, that the people in question are readers in the first place, which I highly doubt however, particularly with regard to those whom I consider the greatest threats to world peace -- and the one may well have a lot to do with the other, too.
Well, anyway, by way of a small ray of hope, the Austrian minister of the interior just announced that it wasn't the right-wing candidate after all who had won the Austrian presidential elections, but his opponent (who'd been supported by just about everybody else) ... by a margin of 31026 votes flat (or in percentage points, 50.3% vs. 49.7% of the votes cast). Man, that was close!! I've rarely been glued to my computer screen as tightly, and certainly never about anything related to Austria (no disrespect and all). I mean, just about 70 years after the end of WWII, and we're at *this* sort of impasse yet again??!!
But speaking of U.S... well, I can't even. I have never felt so hopeless about my own country as I do right now. Unless Bernie Sanders pulls out a miracle, no good can come out of this election year.
I will be. I don't like Hillary much, but I'll be voting for her. Because Donald Trump is far, far worse. (I view voting as my right to complain. I always vote.) I voted for Sanders in the primary, back in February, while being perfectly aware that Clinton was going to carry this state. (She does so well in Democratic primaries in states no Democrat will carry in November!)
SC will not be in the Democratic column, this year or any year in the near future. Frankly, I'm shocked SC has gone Democratic even once in my lifetime (it went for Jimmy Carter - of neighboring Georgia - in 1976, when I was ten).
I blame the popularity of these populist Know-Nothings in part on how history is taught in our public schools - which is very badly.
I've voted off-party for the last two elections; if Sanders pulled off a miracle I'd vote off-party a third time, but I can't bring myself to vote for either of the other two. I despise them both and I can't bring myself to help either of them into that sacred office.
I know things must be bad back home because my dear mom, who is as conservative as it's possible to be, and loves, loves, loves talking politics, hasn't uttered one word about the elections in months. I'm curious what's going through her head, but I'm way to chicken to ask. :D
This is not only easily the strangest election cycle I can remember, it's the strangest my PARENTS can remember. They turn 80 this year.