A professor at the University of Cambridge in England doesn't have enough to do, so he's telling an audience at Syracuse University in New York why the movie 300 is wrong.
If that's not enough to get you to buy your plane ticket, Professor Cartledge will also let listeners know how the different movie versions of the ancient Spartans, including the 300 graphic novel on which the recent movie was based, can be related to modern world events.
I'd have to say that, were I interested in teaching a class about battle against the Persians at Thermopylae, I might have them compare the movie to more scholarly works or even the original Herodotus account. If they could find discrepancies, then I would know that they had some understanding of the historical record. My Old Testament professor did this with The Ten Commandments. I know another who did the same with a ridiculous 1999 TV movie about Noah that starred Jon Voight as Noah and F. Murray Abraham as Lot, Noah's former friend who got huffy when he lost his wife during the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and became the leader of a band of pirates that tried to attack the ark.
But to be such a grind as to fly around the world and whinge about this kind of stuff in lecture halls? Sheesh. Might as well blather about how Wonder Woman comics and Xena: The Warrior Princess more accurately reflect modern understandings of the role of women than they do the actual ancient Greek view of them (Note to Professor Cartledge: If you do that, buddy, I expect a royalty check).
As I said, apparently the University of Cambridge doesn't give its professors enough to do.
(H/T University Diaries)
3 comments:
In all actuality, Wonder Woman was more of a reflection on the female domination of women including bondage while Xena was about the growing lesbian power movement.
Talk about not enough to do...
Just trying to get you some real interesting ads on Google.
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