A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
A look at history and popular culture
This is the first part of a three (...sigh. four) part ( IIa, IIb , III) discussion of an idea I am going to term (borrowing from one of its proponents) the 'universal warrior' - the idea that there is a transcendent sameness about either the warrior experience or warrior values which provides some sort … Continue reading Collections: The Universal Warrior, Part I: Soldiers, Warriors, and…
It's the first week of classes, so fireside this week. Next week, we'll dive into a short series looking at the question of the 'universal warrior,' the idea - too often repeated - that there is either a single consistent experience or personality true to all combatants to the present day. Also, for those who … Continue reading Fireside Friday, January 22, 2021
So this week I want to talk about how what I know a historian influences how I am interpreting what I am going to call the Capitol Insurrection that happened on Wednesday, January 6 instead of taking the week off as I had originally planned. Since that is a really heavy topic, I am also … Continue reading Miscellanea: Insurrections, Ancient and Modern (And Also Meet the Academicats)
This is the fourth part of a four part (I, II, III) look at the Dothraki from George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire and HBO's Game of Thrones. We're looking at, in particular, if Martin's claim that the Dothraki are “an amalgam of a number of steppe and plains cultures” can … Continue reading Collections: That Dothraki Horde, Part IV: Screamers and Howlers
Happy New Year! Good riddance 2020! Fireside this week. Next week, we'll be finishing up our look at the Dothraki of A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones by looking at how they are shown to fight and comparing that to the fighting patterns of actual historical horse-borne nomads. Of course, it's … Continue reading Fireside Friday: January 1, 2021