Inquisitions and Pirates III Spoilers
Hi everyone! :) I do apologize for the lack of recent updates, and for my ongoing tardiness in replying to emails (major apologies to Vicki and Sita!). This month has been sort of a mess, and for an obvious reason, I'm quite backed-up on everything I should be doing. On top of all that, I've been working later hours, and have been sick this entire holiday. I'm feeling a little better now. I hope to get caught up with everything. I beg for patience...and some French Maids to help with all the sword and armor polishing. ;D
Just a quick note on the season finale of Heroes. It was good, but I think the few episodes before that were better. All the goodies they gave us in those episodes made the finale somewhat anticlimactic. I'm pretty sure Peter isn't dead, but I really hope Nathan isn't either! It will be interesting to see what they do with Hiro in 17th Century Japan. Interesting, because I think they're dangerously close to being anachronistic. The show has not outright said who the specific Kensei is who Hiro admires so much and who's sword he now has. But all implications are that its the most famous and deadly Kensei of them all--Miyamoto Musashi. Well, its said that Hiro is in 1671 Japan or some similar date. Not only was Musashi dead already, but Japan had finally been unified. If they're trying to show Hiro as being in some dangerous and chaotic times, they're about fifty years too late! We'll have to see where they go with this.
Saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End yesterday. Spoilers follow, so go no further if you haven't seen it already. As was the case with the first two movies, I loved it! There was a lot of double-dealing and betraying going on, so it could be hard to follow at times. Also, half the time its hard to make out what the people are yelling during battle or sailing. My only real complaint is there are three "cheap" deaths of three important or semi-important characters. Two deaths occur entirely off-screen. The last death is the most disappointing one, even though we do get to see it. The character dies nobly, sacrificing themself for others. But I don't know...just wish that character had more to do (they were awesome in the second movie!) and it was more dramatic than a simple stab to the gut. That's my only real complaint, though.
I will say this movie is very daring. The opening is something very dark and very unlike a Disney movie! And towards the end, two of the characters' fates are resolved in an extremely unexpected way. Totally didn't see that coming. It took guts to do it that way; I can imagine many viewers will be disappointed by it, and it could entirely cut out a couple of the characters from any possible future movies they might make.
Jack the Monkey is in the movie more, and he's wonderfully cute and funny. Chow Yun Fat is underused. Keith Richards is in like three short scenes, and he's great! The funny thing is that he's entirely subdued, and nothing like Jack. His pirate outfit is among the best, too. Funniest part with him though is when Jack asks him how mom is doing. ;D I really like Cutler Becket as the villain. He's charming, vile, and cold. Given his last scene, you'd think he'd at least blink and get some splinters. I was kind of hoping his head would explode ala Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but his fate went down a different path than that. We learn about the full story of Capt. Davey Jones. He's still very mean, but he does have some emotion in there. Tea Dulma was sort of strange in this movie. Her character definitely changes. I almost want to say she's kind of bad. I think I was the only one in the theater, but I had a bawdy laugh when all those crabs came and went from her skirt! Way too many ropes around her, too. *ahem* All the crew have their good and funny moments. Jack is clumsy, daring, funny, and crazy as usual. When we last see him, it totally makes sense and fits his character. The movie is almost 3 hours long, so it takes some patience and comfort. Do stay after the credits, though. Its the most important of the after the credit scenes they've had in all the movies. I hope you all enjoy it like I did! :D
I finished reading Henry Kamen's "The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision" tonight. I highly recommend this book if you are at all interested in Spain, the time period, or the Inquisition. This book sheds a whole new light on Cervantes' Don Quixote and even on the reading I've been doing on the Reformation, Counter Reformation, the religious quandries in England and the Netherlands at the time, and the 30 Years War. Just as an example, without this book, I never would have understood the full weight of Sancho Panza's boast that while he may not be of noble birth, he can at least be proud of the fact that he is of "Old Christian" stock and has no "taint" of Converso or Morisco ancestry.
Anyway, the main punch of Kamen's book is that the Spanish Inquisition's bark was far bigger than its bite. So much about the Inquisition has been blown out of proportion. This is in large part due to the fact that it was Inquisition policy to not get in to public debate or defense about its actions. They also never made their records public. Thus, for the first four hundred years of so of the founding of the Spanish Inquisition, whenever someone attacked the Inquisition, they never fought back or defended themselves. The public view of the Spanish Inquisition for these four hundred years was largely based on anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic propaganda (in both cases, this was largely Dutch, English, and German). The Spanish Inquisition was only legally allowed to torture a person in three different ways: a water torture that made it hard to breathe and gave the person the feeling they were going to drown, a rope and pulley torture that dropped a person from the ceiling and could dislocate their arms, and rope torture that gave the person massive rope burns and applied squeezing pressure to different parts of the body. Other than those three (painful though they would be), the Inquisition was not legally allowed anything more. So when you see Protestant wood cuts and printings or Mel Brooks' "History of the World Part I" with their red hot iron pokers, iron maidens, flaying machines, and other such devices, its a major distortion of the facts. Inquisition prisons were not quite the hell-holes they were made out to be. They were, in fact, a step up from the royal prisons of Spain and the rest of Europe. There are several cases where a person in a royal prison would confess to a minor crime under the Inquisition's authority, just so they could be transferred to nicer prison! Kamen states that the majority of the books the Inquisition put on its Index of Banned Books had never even been seen in or imported to Spain, and even if they had been, an overwhelming majority of Spaniards would not be able to read them! Kamen also says that of the reliable records that we have, fewer than 10% of all the people the Inquisition arrested were ever tortured, and only about 2--3% were ever burned at the stake. One other author who is much in agreement with Kamen puts the best estimate for number of executions by the Spanish Inquisition from circa 1480--1820 as about 3,000 people. While that is certainly more than enough, it is a far cry from the exagerations of anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic propaganda from the time.
It is often vogue to blame all of Spain's ills and its decline from its Golden Age on the Inquisition. Kamen quotes a satirical note from Menendez Pelayo on pg. 318: "Why was there no industry in Spain? Because of the Inquisition. Why are we Spaniards lazy? Because of the Inquisition. Why are there bull-fights in Spain? Because of the Inquisition. Why do Spaniards take a siesta? Because of the Inquisition." I'll just end this with one last quote from Kamen, pg. 315: "For the Inquisition to have been as powerful as suggested, the fifty or so inquisitors in Spain would need to have had an extensive beauracracy, a reliable system of informers, regular income and the cooperation of the secular and ecclesiastical authorities. At no time did it have any of these."
Interesting, yes? I know that was long, and I am sorry. I think it was worth it, if you have the time and are bored. ;) My next read will be "The Adventrous Simplicissimus: Being the Description of the Life of the Strange Vagabond named Melchoir Sternfels von Fuchshaim" by H.J.C. von Grimmelshausen. Its a novel about the 30 Years War written by a man who actually fought in the war, and its a comedy! :D
Hope everyone has a great week. Take care! :)
Just a quick note on the season finale of Heroes. It was good, but I think the few episodes before that were better. All the goodies they gave us in those episodes made the finale somewhat anticlimactic. I'm pretty sure Peter isn't dead, but I really hope Nathan isn't either! It will be interesting to see what they do with Hiro in 17th Century Japan. Interesting, because I think they're dangerously close to being anachronistic. The show has not outright said who the specific Kensei is who Hiro admires so much and who's sword he now has. But all implications are that its the most famous and deadly Kensei of them all--Miyamoto Musashi. Well, its said that Hiro is in 1671 Japan or some similar date. Not only was Musashi dead already, but Japan had finally been unified. If they're trying to show Hiro as being in some dangerous and chaotic times, they're about fifty years too late! We'll have to see where they go with this.
Saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End yesterday. Spoilers follow, so go no further if you haven't seen it already. As was the case with the first two movies, I loved it! There was a lot of double-dealing and betraying going on, so it could be hard to follow at times. Also, half the time its hard to make out what the people are yelling during battle or sailing. My only real complaint is there are three "cheap" deaths of three important or semi-important characters. Two deaths occur entirely off-screen. The last death is the most disappointing one, even though we do get to see it. The character dies nobly, sacrificing themself for others. But I don't know...just wish that character had more to do (they were awesome in the second movie!) and it was more dramatic than a simple stab to the gut. That's my only real complaint, though.
I will say this movie is very daring. The opening is something very dark and very unlike a Disney movie! And towards the end, two of the characters' fates are resolved in an extremely unexpected way. Totally didn't see that coming. It took guts to do it that way; I can imagine many viewers will be disappointed by it, and it could entirely cut out a couple of the characters from any possible future movies they might make.
Jack the Monkey is in the movie more, and he's wonderfully cute and funny. Chow Yun Fat is underused. Keith Richards is in like three short scenes, and he's great! The funny thing is that he's entirely subdued, and nothing like Jack. His pirate outfit is among the best, too. Funniest part with him though is when Jack asks him how mom is doing. ;D I really like Cutler Becket as the villain. He's charming, vile, and cold. Given his last scene, you'd think he'd at least blink and get some splinters. I was kind of hoping his head would explode ala Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but his fate went down a different path than that. We learn about the full story of Capt. Davey Jones. He's still very mean, but he does have some emotion in there. Tea Dulma was sort of strange in this movie. Her character definitely changes. I almost want to say she's kind of bad. I think I was the only one in the theater, but I had a bawdy laugh when all those crabs came and went from her skirt! Way too many ropes around her, too. *ahem* All the crew have their good and funny moments. Jack is clumsy, daring, funny, and crazy as usual. When we last see him, it totally makes sense and fits his character. The movie is almost 3 hours long, so it takes some patience and comfort. Do stay after the credits, though. Its the most important of the after the credit scenes they've had in all the movies. I hope you all enjoy it like I did! :D
I finished reading Henry Kamen's "The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision" tonight. I highly recommend this book if you are at all interested in Spain, the time period, or the Inquisition. This book sheds a whole new light on Cervantes' Don Quixote and even on the reading I've been doing on the Reformation, Counter Reformation, the religious quandries in England and the Netherlands at the time, and the 30 Years War. Just as an example, without this book, I never would have understood the full weight of Sancho Panza's boast that while he may not be of noble birth, he can at least be proud of the fact that he is of "Old Christian" stock and has no "taint" of Converso or Morisco ancestry.
Anyway, the main punch of Kamen's book is that the Spanish Inquisition's bark was far bigger than its bite. So much about the Inquisition has been blown out of proportion. This is in large part due to the fact that it was Inquisition policy to not get in to public debate or defense about its actions. They also never made their records public. Thus, for the first four hundred years of so of the founding of the Spanish Inquisition, whenever someone attacked the Inquisition, they never fought back or defended themselves. The public view of the Spanish Inquisition for these four hundred years was largely based on anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic propaganda (in both cases, this was largely Dutch, English, and German). The Spanish Inquisition was only legally allowed to torture a person in three different ways: a water torture that made it hard to breathe and gave the person the feeling they were going to drown, a rope and pulley torture that dropped a person from the ceiling and could dislocate their arms, and rope torture that gave the person massive rope burns and applied squeezing pressure to different parts of the body. Other than those three (painful though they would be), the Inquisition was not legally allowed anything more. So when you see Protestant wood cuts and printings or Mel Brooks' "History of the World Part I" with their red hot iron pokers, iron maidens, flaying machines, and other such devices, its a major distortion of the facts. Inquisition prisons were not quite the hell-holes they were made out to be. They were, in fact, a step up from the royal prisons of Spain and the rest of Europe. There are several cases where a person in a royal prison would confess to a minor crime under the Inquisition's authority, just so they could be transferred to nicer prison! Kamen states that the majority of the books the Inquisition put on its Index of Banned Books had never even been seen in or imported to Spain, and even if they had been, an overwhelming majority of Spaniards would not be able to read them! Kamen also says that of the reliable records that we have, fewer than 10% of all the people the Inquisition arrested were ever tortured, and only about 2--3% were ever burned at the stake. One other author who is much in agreement with Kamen puts the best estimate for number of executions by the Spanish Inquisition from circa 1480--1820 as about 3,000 people. While that is certainly more than enough, it is a far cry from the exagerations of anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic propaganda from the time.
It is often vogue to blame all of Spain's ills and its decline from its Golden Age on the Inquisition. Kamen quotes a satirical note from Menendez Pelayo on pg. 318: "Why was there no industry in Spain? Because of the Inquisition. Why are we Spaniards lazy? Because of the Inquisition. Why are there bull-fights in Spain? Because of the Inquisition. Why do Spaniards take a siesta? Because of the Inquisition." I'll just end this with one last quote from Kamen, pg. 315: "For the Inquisition to have been as powerful as suggested, the fifty or so inquisitors in Spain would need to have had an extensive beauracracy, a reliable system of informers, regular income and the cooperation of the secular and ecclesiastical authorities. At no time did it have any of these."
Interesting, yes? I know that was long, and I am sorry. I think it was worth it, if you have the time and are bored. ;) My next read will be "The Adventrous Simplicissimus: Being the Description of the Life of the Strange Vagabond named Melchoir Sternfels von Fuchshaim" by H.J.C. von Grimmelshausen. Its a novel about the 30 Years War written by a man who actually fought in the war, and its a comedy! :D
Hope everyone has a great week. Take care! :)