tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post2717567037410900920..comments2024-03-27T23:55:17.673-07:00Comments on Flogging Babel: Another Reason for Me to be HappyMichael Swanwickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18389836784776252022noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-67857329481074377822008-06-27T04:46:00.000-07:002008-06-27T04:46:00.000-07:00A very thoughtful posting, Rebecca, and I'm sorry ...A very thoughtful posting, Rebecca, and I'm sorry to not have the time to respond in a like manner. I'm about to saddle up my car and gallop off to Roanoke.<BR/><BR/>You're right that the women must have been ballsier than they're portrayed in the movie -- even so, they're a lot more assertive than native women (of whatever ethnicity) are usually allowed to be in movies.Michael Swanwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18389836784776252022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-25497166832220848392008-06-26T17:20:00.000-07:002008-06-26T17:20:00.000-07:00Saw it last night. The perfect date movie, judgin...Saw it last night. The perfect date movie, judging from the audience, for retired defense contractor employees.<BR/><BR/>The Mongol women probably had a higher status than the rest of women in most of the world at that time. The women would allow themselves to get raped to save their men; the men would get killed to save their women. The goal of the Pax Mongolia was that a virgin carrying a sack of gold could ride through the empire without coming to harm. Big strong empire looks like it was the mom and the wife's idea.<BR/><BR/>I thought the movie reflected some of either _300_ or the graphic novel. Don't know if there was time for Mongol to quote 300 considering the production schedules, but it sure looked like it.<BR/><BR/>Also, the Russians destroyed Genghis Khan's spirit lance in the 1960s to keep it from being used to rally Mongolian nationalism (it had been given to a monastery for safe keeping some hundreds of years earlier and had been around for over 600 years. Destroying the lance didn't seem to have stopped Mongolians from becoming independent, though.<BR/><BR/>The guy who played Temujin was just amazing. The women, judging from the history I'd read and from meeting a Chinese woman whose grandmother was a Mongol, were a bit colored by contemporary Russian/Euro sexism. Temujin's mom, who was kidnapped by his father, appearently allowed herself to be captured to save her then lover/husband. Before he rode off, she showed him her breasts to have something to remember her by, and distracted Temujin's dad from pursuing the other male.<BR/><BR/>The Mongols in general were rather much less nasty about the spare children than other cultures at the time or earlier. Think high arctic cultures and there are some parallels (Iceland, Inuit, etc.).<BR/><BR/>I'd rather be out riding than locked in a convent. While rape is nasty, getting killed is nasty, too, and being killed for getting raped is even nastier.<BR/><BR/>The really cool thing is that the actor who played Genghis Khan was so tremendously not a European.<BR/><BR/>Rebecca in AnnadaleRebeccahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02970460598359037559noreply@blogger.com