tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post7255943166706870718..comments2023-11-29T07:39:34.401+00:00Comments on Carla Nayland Historical Fiction: Twilight of Avalon, by Anna Elliott. Book reviewCarlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-66916621938301925542009-07-03T10:48:08.668+01:002009-07-03T10:48:08.668+01:00Rick - Some of the philosophical arguments about B...Rick - Some of the philosophical arguments about Bad Medicine are rather over my head :-) I just read it as an interesting survey of the development of medicine.<br /><br />Rick, Gabriele - Each to their own, and all that. I like a bit more pace, personally, but I can also see how other readers will get absolutely swept up in Isolde and consider 400 pages far too short.Carlahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-26890045739502455182009-07-03T04:53:08.186+01:002009-07-03T04:53:08.186+01:00I followed the link, and the very odd thing is tha...I followed the link, and the very odd thing is that the book's 'radical' proposition corresponds to what I took as the conventional wisdom, that a premodern doctor not only wouldn't cure you, he would probably make you worse.<br /><br />Back to the book, it seems that the author's one serious weakness is beating the reader to death to make a point.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16932015378213238346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-29617589302032329412009-07-02T19:58:35.267+01:002009-07-02T19:58:35.267+01:00A lot of historical fiction these days featuring a...A lot of historical fiction these days featuring a female MC is about her journey. There is a readership for it, I'm sure, but I am not the target audience. ;)Gabriele Campbellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17205770868139083575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-706877571335316832009-07-02T19:31:13.753+01:002009-07-02T19:31:13.753+01:00Gabriele - it is rather on the slow side. I felt ...Gabriele - it is rather on the slow side. I felt the plot could have been covered in 200 pages rather than 400, but I think that's because the focus of the story is on Isolde's emotional journey rather than the events.Carlahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-87542872977502171762009-07-02T19:25:05.202+01:002009-07-02T19:25:05.202+01:00Anna - you're welcome.
Rick - I'm afraid ...Anna - you're welcome.<br /><br />Rick - I'm afraid that stereotype is largely deserved. Have a look for a book called <i>Bad Medicine</i> by David Wootton. If you can't get hold of the book itself, the information on his <a href="http://www.badmedicine.co.uk/main.asp" rel="nofollow">website</a> will give you a good start. <br /><br />In some limited applications, pre-modern medicine could be of genuine value. Where a medical condition had a single and readily identifiable cause, and where the technology required to correct said cause was available, application of common sense, logic and empirical observation could produce some effective treatments. <br /><br />For example, setting closed fractures, fixing dislocated joints, draining abscesses, routine hygiene like cleaning foreign objects and dirt out of a wound or applying a bandage and pressure to stop bleeding. You don't have to know about bacteria to observe that wounds full of dirt are inclined to fester, and to conclude that removing dirt might therefore be a Good Idea. It only requires application of common sense to know that a dislocated joint shouldn't look like that and to work out how to manipulate it back into its socket. Some sophisticated procedures go back a surprisingly long way - cataract surgery in Rome, if I remember rightly. I can't remember if it's Hippocrates or Galen, but one or other of them sets out a method for reducing fractures that hardly differs from modern practice. One of the Norse sagas has a woman administering a test meal for an early form of triage. What would now be called 'supportive care' - basically feeding the patient and keeping them clean, warm and rested - would also have helped provide the conditions for the body's healing processes to apply themselves if they could. ("Keeping the patient amused while nature cures the disease", as Voltaire put it). <br /><br />But in most cases the cause would have been unknown (in some diseases it still is) and the practitioner would be working on little more than guesswork dressed up in jargon, with predictably dismal results.Carlahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-71942343923556888712009-07-02T18:45:57.463+01:002009-07-02T18:45:57.463+01:00I'm afraid this will be too slow for my taste....I'm afraid this will be too slow for my taste. I like more action in my books - and I don't mean only battles.Gabriele Campbellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17205770868139083575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-22392561839383495212009-07-02T17:34:48.902+01:002009-07-02T17:34:48.902+01:00Thanks for the review, Carla!Thanks for the review, Carla!Anna Elliotthttp://www.annaelliottbooks.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-46935347297873974372009-07-02T15:47:18.993+01:002009-07-02T15:47:18.993+01:00Very true that a healing role is more credible tha...Very true that a healing role is more credible than a warrior princess! And an intelligent woman using traditional knowledge was probably far better for the patient than falling into the hands of a premodern physician. :-)<br /><br />Though - digression alert! - now I wonder whether the stereotype about physicians is a more sophisticated version of 'medieval people never bathed.'Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16932015378213238346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-16069469133795295072009-07-01T19:33:29.613+01:002009-07-01T19:33:29.613+01:00I wouldn't exactly call it old-fashioned. The...I wouldn't exactly call it old-fashioned. The concentration on a (female) character's emotional journey is a popular contemporary style, for example. One of the versions of the legend involves Tristan being poisoned or badly wounded and only Isolde has the power to heal him, so having her as a skilled healer draws on that version of the legend. I quite like that aspect; somebody would have had to pick up the pieces after battle or epidemic, it's most likely to have been the women, and some of them probably became highly skilled at it. And it does seem to be medicine rather than magic here - hurrah! It's also a useful plot point for narrative purposes, as medical skills give a woman a reason to be at the centre of the action without having to make her a (highly implausible) warrior-princess. I use it that way myself, so I'm certainly not going to throw stones! :-) My feeling was that there was maybe too much of a good thing, like the escape-recapture cycle. Once is great, twice is fine, three times and I started thinking, okay, I get it.Carlahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-59908105441777131702009-07-01T18:38:48.204+01:002009-07-01T18:38:48.204+01:00In some ways this sounds like quite an old-fashion...In some ways this sounds like quite an old-fashioned book, from Isolde nursing everyone in sight back to health to the (refreshing!) relative lack of hoodoo. <br /><br /><i>Guards working for an evil tyrant are traditionally inefficient, partly for plot purposes and partly because tyrannical leadership styles rarely get the best out of their subordinates, but having the same guards fall for the same trick pulled by the same prisoner twice within a few days stretched my credulity.</i> <br /><br />LOL. There are indeed valid reasons, in Romance (in the broad sense), for wicked kings to have incompetent guards - just as for Good Kings to have crisply efficient ones. But bad guards shouldn't be <i>too</i> hopelessly incompetent!Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16932015378213238346noreply@blogger.com