- Adbot
-
ADBOT LOVES YOU
|
|
|
#
¿
May 3, 2024 21:46
|
|
- VelociBacon
- Dec 8, 2009
-
|
Okay this is still here, so before it goes away I thought I'd give you an idea of the actual Casca books as a cis white guy since some people have expressed an interest in reading them.
First, women are one of three things in these books. Either a whore, a beautiful princess, or something approaching a man. Women are routinely raped, and in at least one memorable scene the woman is raped by a friend of our hero but initially resists, then start enjoying the rape. The whores are generally not judged harshly when they are individual characters, but are broadly dismissed as a class. They get killed a lot, too.
There is tons of violence, of course. There are many scenes of people dying in the rage of battle in horrible ways. Men and women's genitals are cut off and out, swords are thrust into mouths, heads are crushed, and so on. All described in loving detail.
Race is problematic. Black people are pretty much always described as savages who worship animal gods and eat human flesh. Asians are randomly violent except for the "good ones" who teach Casca martial arts or offer wise council to leaders. The books stay away from the modern USA, but still the 1st century Italian Casca manages to pass for an American during the Vietnam war. (Surely he learned English from the proto-British?)
Good guys always win and bad guys always die, except when the good guy loses his "woman" or the bad guy's bad-guy-ness is emphasized by how he kills innocent people Casca is sworn to protect.
Here's the good things.
The history is reasonably accurate, though there are common errors and some ignorant/racist stuff. Learn history elsewhere so you can spot the errors.
Casca generally despises all the gods and priests he finds in whatever land he is in. (Even being forced to live forever hasn't convinced this skeptic!) The good parts of the various religions are pointed out along with their bad parts, including Christianity. He generally finds all of them an impediment and destructive to their civilization.
Casca generally wants people to live peacefully. Whenever he's in a position of power (King of a German region, God of a central american culture, advisor to Genghis Khan) he does his best to create a peaceful culture who don't want to attack other people, just live and raise families in peace.
If you're an undergrad or a documentary-maker you'll find fruitful substance in Barry Sadler's novels. A soldier who was in Vietnam who hates war but writes about gruesome deaths and peaceful societies? Wunderbar!
Oh, and the pretty pictures everyone made were lovely. Leagues above mine.
I mean show me a white american vet in the 70s/80s who wouldn't predictably write with these problematic issues plaguing his work.
|
#
¿
Jun 2, 2017 10:34
|
|
- VelociBacon
- Dec 8, 2009
-
|
And it's incredible with the way your country (presuming you're from the US) treats its veterans that he was able to survive long enough to publish all these books.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 2, 2017 12:56
|
|
#
¿
May 29, 2017 14:15
