A Time Patrol agent has discovered that Ilaria di Gaetani of Anagni married Bartolommeo Conti de Segni and, in 1147, became the mother of the future Pope Gregory IX but Wanda Tamberly and Emil Volstrup arrive in Anagni in 1146 to learn that Lorenzo de Conti is engaged to Ilaria di Gaetani! The Patrol must prevent the marriage of Lorenzo and Ilaria.
The text periodically summarizes relevant history. Tamberly remembers that:
"By 1099 the First Crusade had gained its objectives, with a massacre of civilians that would have done Genghis Khan proud, and the conquerors settled in." (p. 384)
Crusaders were conquerors who committed massacres. I attended a public meeting in Preston where an imam described the liberation of Jerusalem from Crusaders to cheers from the audience.
Tamberly also reflects that local sexual mores are easy-going:
"Even gays, no matter the law says they should be hanged or burned." (p. 389)
More burning. How can anyone have thought that this was right?
15 comments:
Sean,
Some gays are defiantly reclaiming "queer."
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And I don't like that either. Simply say "homosexual," for Pete's sake!
Ad astra! Sean
Dang it. My first comment disappeared. In it I stated homosexuality was wrong and unnatural. In addition I wrote adult homosexuals over the age of 18 should not be penalized, only the NAMBLA types preying on boys.
I also expressed irritation over how "gay" has been corrupted from a word meaning merry, happy, cheerful to one somehow meaning "homosexual."
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul! And * I * recall reading of even worse massacres by Muslims, in books Bat Yeor's THE DECLINE OF EASTERN CHRISTIANITY UNDER ISLAM or Ibn Waraq's WHY I AM NOT A MUSLIM. Or the truly hideous genocide of the Christian Armenians by the Turks just over a century ago. Which does not, of course, justify atrocities by Christians. Homosexuality is wrong and unnatural. But I would not penalize adult homosexuals over the age of 18. Only the NAMBLA types who prey on boys. And I utterly abominate the corruption of the word "gay"! From originally meaning merry, happy, cheerful, it somehow came to mean homosexuality. Ad astra! Sean
(The disappeared comment.)
Kaor, Paul!
Thanks! Something is wrong, with so many comments disappearing.
Sean
Sean: "gay" had its current meaning as far back as the 1920's (possibly even earlier) in certain subcultures.
It started out as meaning simply "hedonistic" or "libertine" as a slang term (as opposed to dour, puritanical, or "straight") and then segued into meaning homosexual, especially via references to 'gay apparel' and so forth.
It was then used as a code, which enabled people to say "homosexual" without letting outsiders know what they were talking about -- important, since (at least for males) homosexual activity was a crime and a potential life-wrecker at the time.
"Queer" acquired the same sort of meaning at about the same time via the same subcultures.
It's analogous to the evolution of "jazz" to mean a style of music.
Originally in southern Negro subcultures (especially in New Orleans) the word was a slang term that meant "to have sex".
"Jazz music" was music played in brothels, specifically the ones in Storyville in New Orleans.
Then the syncopated -style- of music played there, an evolution of Ragtime, became "jazz".
"Jelly Roll" Morton spanned the transition in the meaning of the term, and also in the career path -- he started out as a musician in the Storyville brothels, and then became a more mainstream sensation.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Granting that meanings of words changes over time, I'm still irritated at how we have lost the original, and CORRECT meanings of "gay" and "queer." Some of the older books I have, such as the mysteries of Dorothy Sayers, still such words with the original meanings in mind.
So "Jazz music" originally had connotations meaning "brothel music" or "sex music."
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: sometimes slang makes it in mainstream terms -- look at how "cool" has persisted. Sometimes it doesn't. You won't find many people saying "Daddy-O" or "hepcat" any more.
Sean,
There has to be a distinction between correct and incorrect uses (plural) of a word. Otherwise, we would be unable to communicate. But uses change for reasons. "Nova," new. "Nova stella," new star. "Nova," exploding star. "Planet," moving heavenly body, including Sun and Moon but not (then) Earth. Also not including Uranus, Neptune or Pluto. (Pluto has been declassified as a planet in the modern sense.)
Paul.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Paul!
Mr. Stirling: True, what you said about slang, such as the long lasting use of "cool", meaning "good" or "great," more or less.
I also thought of how no one now uses "Bully!", which TR popularized in his time!
Paul: Of course I agree words can change meaning for many reasons. And "Nova" is still used, in and out of Latin, for meanings involving "new," not just for exploding stars.
As for Pluto, some are now demanding that it be reclassified as a proper planet, not just dwarf world.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: Bully was already fairly widespread in TR's social circle. He made it common beyond that.
In TR's time, the patrician-Knickerbocker group had fairly distinctive speech patterns.
Early in his ranching career, TR called out to his cowboys: "Hasten forward more swiftly there!"
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And till he proved otherwise, that patrician-Knickerbocker mode of speaking made TR seem impossibly sissified and dandified to those Dakota cowboys!
When TR first came to the town and got off the train, the locals thought it was amusing to switch the horse he'd hired (by telegraph) with a notorious local 'bucking bronco'.
TR got on, and the horse hightailed out of town, bucking and twisting frantically. Everyone was laughing -- until he showed up twenty minutes later still in the saddle, with the horse obeying his every command.
Incidentally, that shows what a 'rough sense of humor' is; getting thrown off a horse is no joke, and can easily result in broken bones or death.
(I was thrown off a galloping horse once; I didn't break anything, fortunately, but the bruises were spectacular. I distinctly remember the floating sensation for a second, and the words "Oh, s**t!" going through my head.)
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I rode horses for years and I sure as heck don't think I could have controlled a bucking bronco the way TR did!
Rough practical jokes CAN be nasty! Glad you survived your fall from a horse.
Ad astra! Sean
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