From chrisica@email.msn.com Mon Apr 1 06:39:25 2002 Received: from mailscan5.cac.washington.edu (mailscan5.cac.washington.edu [140.142.32.14]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.01) with SMTP id g31EdODN140022 for ; Mon, 1 Apr 2002 06:39:24 -0800 Received: FROM mxu2.u.washington.edu BY mailscan5.cac.washington.edu ; Mon Apr 01 06:39:24 2002 -0800 Received: from cpimssmtpu10.email.msn.com (cpimssmtpu10.email.msn.com [207.46.181.85]) by mxu2.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.01) with ESMTP id g31EdNZB015735 for ; Mon, 1 Apr 2002 06:39:23 -0800 Received: from chrisica ([67.192.244.235]) by cpimssmtpu10.email.msn.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.0.2195.4617); Mon, 1 Apr 2002 06:38:03 -0800 From: "Christopher Robbins" To: Subject: Alexander the Great (student) reduxduxduxdux Date: Mon, 1 Apr 2002 09:40:17 -0500 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2911.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 In-Reply-To: <343465051.20020401070348@idirect.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 01 Apr 2002 14:38:04.0093 (UTC) FILETIME=[D4BC9ED0:01C1D98A] dm writes (in part): >Start now and you might be able to cash in big time if you can turn out a book on Alexander the Great... HBO has announced that Alexander will be the subject of its next big history series... The series will be based on MARY RENAULT'S books about Alexander. That may mean the public will be in for a shock... (The last big HBO series was based on STEPHEN AMBROSE'S Band of Brothers.) ------------------------------- Is not Mary Renault a novelist? Author of _The Last of the Wine_, inter alia? Or is that the "shock"? Actually, _The Last of the Wine_ was a rather enjoyable read, IMHO. Classical content right to the brim too. Plus those great transliterations (that's a joke). But, um, still a novel. I did not see _Band of Brothers_, but I was of the impression it was documentary of sorts, one with known scenes recalled by veterans being recreated with present-day actors. This because Stephen Ambrose is an historian. Well, yes, a few lapses in attribution in a couple of works and a mild bit of plagiarism. I guess you have to give some slack when millions of dollars are pouring in and the whole family is on the payroll. Besides, look at Doris Kearns Goodwin! Perhaps it's not _Character Above All_ after all. HBO got the point, one supposes: there's flexibility in a "big history series", as with some historians themselves. But there could be an upside to a novelistic version of Alexander for a forum whose members are principally engaged (I think) in educating. A series that is ten hours long might have a few scenes of Alex and Ari in class together. Now that would be interesting. CRR .