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Rats! I'm still intrigued by how historically accurate it is for there to be Black men and women at Versailles in The Girl in the Fireplace, and for a moment I thought I'd come up with a super explanation for the chap visible in the panic at the ball - that he might be Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, composer, fencer, and generally pretty amazing guy. Alas! He was born in 1745, and would only have been 13 years old when the clockwork robots arrived. But this does suggest that what we're seeing is not cheerful racial integration, which would be anachronistic, but the presence of a few remarkable individuals. (My other theories: the characters are visiting aristocrats; they are not aristocrats, but servants.)
(I haven't watched the story for a while. The Doctor is so smitten when he sees the grownup Reinette that he talks as though someone's hit him in the head with a shovel.)
ETA: I wonder if Reinette's friend Charlotte was inspired by Charles-André van Loo's Orientalist portrait of Madame de Pompadour?
(I haven't watched the story for a while. The Doctor is so smitten when he sees the grownup Reinette that he talks as though someone's hit him in the head with a shovel.)
ETA: I wonder if Reinette's friend Charlotte was inspired by Charles-André van Loo's Orientalist portrait of Madame de Pompadour?
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Date: 2007-04-20 09:10 am (UTC)It's almost unlinked, but the topic did remind me of something I thought while listening to a Family Guy commentary. There, they reveal that Alex Borstein is voicing a black character on the show, and they wonder if it's the first time a Jewish actor has played an African-American woman. I thought, Not really, Whoopi Goldberg does it all the time.
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Date: 2007-04-20 09:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-20 10:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-20 11:51 am (UTC)I should really know more about this, it's supposed to be my area of expertise.
Um.
Lettres Persanes, Montesquieu, that was 18th Century. Paris viewed through the prism of visiting Persian aristocracy. I don't remember much comment on the Persians' skin tone, although obviously that wasn't Montesquieu's angle anyway.
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Date: 2007-04-20 10:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-21 08:53 am (UTC)I know I wrote a final year essay on this text, but a quick search suggests it was actually written in the exam, rather than as coursework. I've got a ton of notes kicking around somewhere though.
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Date: 2007-04-21 11:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-20 01:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-20 01:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-20 01:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-20 01:22 pm (UTC)That bit is so sweet! All those 'Erm,erm, erm' Lol ( I could see Five doing that).His eyes wander as well...
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Date: 2007-04-20 01:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-20 02:22 pm (UTC)As for the Doc falling all over Reinette, it's amusing to note that she was played by David's then-girlfriend Sophia Myles. I do love me some meta.
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Date: 2007-04-20 03:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-21 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-21 06:48 am (UTC)(Which makes it even more meta, kinda sorta. =:o> )