Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Avast! Let 'em eat cake!

As someone at work mentioned, today is Talk Like a Pirate Day. Unfortunately, my cold seems to have destroyed my pirate-talking brain cells, so all I can do to observe the day is to place Cotton's Talking Parrot (courtesy of the merchandising folks at Pirates of the Caribbean) near my computer and let him watch while I type.

Thanks to hubby (who owns said parrot and who does have socks with little pirate flags on them), I saw this Chronicle of Higher Education article by Camille Paglia about Marie Antoinette, who has been much in the media lately. Paglia briefly discusses two historical novels about the queen, one by Carolly Erickson and the other by Sena Jeter Naslund. It's an interesting article, but I don't agree with Paglia's patronizing dismissal of the Naslund book as one that because of its "lavish settings and heightened emotions" will offer "pleasure and instruction to loyal readers of historical romances." It's hardly a historical romance, for one thing, nor is it full of descriptions of dresses and buildings, as this would imply. And it doesn't exonerate Marie Antoinette of all fault, as Paglia claims; though it's sympathetic to her, her shortcomings are quite apparent.

Parrot is saying it's time to get back to work, or I'm going to have to walk the plank.

No comments: