Re: Apples and Oranges and Countries of Origin!

Posted by Gayle on October 06, 1998 at 14:24:18:

In Reply to: Re: Apples and Oranges and Countries of Origin! posted by MMMMarcia on October 06, 1998 at 13:01:44:

Marcia,

You wrote
I am constantly referring to poor Cora and Alice as English gentlewomen (because of their references to London, etc) when they are obviously of Scottish descent, as you pointed out earlier. I meant to apologize sooner, and forgot in the face of these other interesting discussions. But since they were daughters of a Scotsman who was in service to England, I hope I can be forgiven! Please??

What are you asking forgiveness for? How many people would have cared to dissect the patterns of Scottish culture and thought, let alone the complicated mixture of race and nationality that constituted the Munro family? Michael Mann cast them totally in the context of English gentlewomen, and you'll notice when I talk about the movie, that's exactly the way I think of them, too. There was no point to Mann getting into nationality distinctions - the assumption of English elite not only sufficed, it provided an automatically understood frame of reference for every movie-goer in the world. If you read the book, you deal with the nitty gritty, but the movie was smoother without all that stuff.

Gayle

Follow Ups:

• Re: Apples and Oranges and Countries of Origin! Pat 15:42:23 10/06/98 (1)
  • Re: Apples and Oranges and Countries of Origin! Gayle 08:31:40 10/07/98 (0)

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Comments:
: Marcia,

: You wrote
:  I am constantly referring to poor Cora and Alice as English gentlewomen (because of their references to London, etc) when they are obviously of Scottish descent, as you pointed out earlier.  I meant to apologize sooner, and forgot in the face of these other interesting discussions.  But since they were daughters of a Scotsman who was in service to England, I hope I can be forgiven! Please??

: What are you asking forgiveness for? How many people would have cared to dissect the patterns of Scottish culture and thought, let alone the complicated mixture of race and nationality that constituted the Munro family? Michael Mann cast them totally in the context of English gentlewomen, and you'll notice when I talk about the movie, that's exactly the way I think of them, too.  There was no point to Mann getting into nationality distinctions -  the assumption of English elite not only sufficed, it provided an automatically understood frame of reference for every movie-goer in the world. If you read the book, you deal with the nitty gritty, but the movie was smoother without all that stuff.

: Gayle


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