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Peter Ewart
Joined: 31 Aug 2005 |
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Location: Near Canterbury, Kent, England. |
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Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 10:24 am |
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Sawubona
Would he be "a shadowy figure" to you if you had never read Morris? It would appear that Adendorff was "rehabilitated" at least 15 years ago.
In the 40 years since Morris's work was published, much of his research has been superseded - some would say discredited. His mis-identification of certain units and personnel have been highlighted by the painstaking work of modern historians and some of the claims he made appear to have no source material to support them.
I'm an admirer of his prose and I would think, even today, most readers acknowledge the sheer scope and timeliness of his project, particularly in view of the circumstances in which he had to undertake his research (& I'm sure most current historians would also agree that matters are much easier in that way today). I'm not sure if TWOTS has yet reached the dreaded "not highly regarded" category, but there are certainly those who feel that Morris, in some places, placed the value of a good yarn above historical accuracy.
I agree that "The Tune that they Play" is an amusing little "period-piece" in its way - but "historically accurate" it is not, at least far as Isandlwana and those involved are concerned. For example, Dyson's father, far from being an unprincipled gun-runner in the Black Country, had been a distinguished army officer! Coming only a few years after TWOTS, I suspect (not surprisingly for the time) that the author of this novel leaned rather too heavily on Morris for the Isandlwana background.
Peter
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Sawubona
Joined: 09 Nov 2005 |
Posts: 1179 |
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2005 1:02 am |
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"Zulu" or "Zulu Dawn", which is the more "historically accurate"? Is "History" the stench of sweat when a gutter-swept private hasn't bathed in months or the cut of the cloth under the arms of his uniform (Oh my, is that a Valise Pattern tunic or a '88 Slade-Wallace he's wearing?) And when a man's guts are torn apart with dysentry, does it matter that the stripe on the pants he's desperately clawing away before he explosively "soils his breeks" is depicted as too wide in the movie or book? As Stanley Baker's hand shakes reloading his pistol in "Zulu", do we see an officer and a gentleman who's afraid that maybe he doesn't have what it takes to lead his hopelessly tiny command to salvation or an actor who can't exactly figure out why he's loading a 20th Century Webley (MK VI, I think) rather than an Adams or a Pryse? In the movie "Zulu", Bourne has got a '76 spike bayonet! Horror of horrors! As we all know of course, non-coms carried a bushed Enfield yataghan sword bayonet in '79. But maybe, after all, it isn't the bayonet that makes History, but the guts behind it. Just a thought.
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