Classicists: We're Superior People, yo

I find this from an article by a classicist shriekingly funny:

“When classicists view a film set in antiquity for the first time, their reaction to the film is never the same as that of the non-classically trained audience. The viewing process bypasses the usual modes of passive reception and sensual spectatorship that apply to the viewing of most contemporary Hollywood films and becomes by default an intellectual endeavor. Because of the critical and pedagogical nature of their discipline, classicists approach the cinema with essentially the same mindset they apply to evaluating a colleague’s article or even a student’s term paper. Classicists are on the lookout for a variety of irregularities, scanning a broad spectrum of signals that do not belong to the vision of the classical world they have honed during decades of study, research, and teaching.”

Translation: when classicists go to a film they bitch about it to each other afterwards. Often (according to the same article) about such stirring things as whether Achilles could have been blond. Because classicists are deep thinkers.

The 300, or the the Spartans weren't gay even if they wore very little

I just saw this and I feel a bit like Father Ted in The Passion of St. Tibulus. I just know for a fact that the Spartans wore more clothing. (I feel the same way about Rome.) However did they manage during the winter? I guess they were too busy fighting wolves to feel the cold.

This is completely the version of Thermopylae I would have written as a seven year old. Who had watched Lord of the Rings 50 times. And was on heavy drugs.

While I appreciated the semi-nude men, I was mightily amused by the film's desperate attempts to insist that the Spartans weren't gay. No, they weren't: we get this message loud and clear by Leonidas' sex scene with his wife and the heavy insistence that he wasn't oiling himself, his sheen was all due to sweat, manly sweat. Right. There was also the interesting dig at the Athenians.

And it was so funny. When Faramir random Spartan wanted to stay part of the fight, I was sure he was going to insist that he had only had a flesh wound. And what was his accent?

( And in the 'their struggle will live forever' category I bring you...the Thermopylae Memorial Petrol Station. )

Oh and just to make it clear: this petrol station is on the site of the battle. Marathon has a much nicer monument and park but it isn't alongside of a motorway.