Gabaldon intro post

[meko00]

Some of you might know that Ronald D. Moore is adapting Outlander by Diana Gabaldon for Sony and Starz. (The link to the author website has further links to twitter and Facebook, where she usually posts snippets of scenes from upcoming or recently published works.) Outlander was published in 1991. It has 850 pages and 41 chapters, and it's to be

Comments

[ayinhara]

I read the first three books but declined to follow the stories any further. I guess I have limited interest in the Perils of Pauline even in an updated form. I do love the time travel gimmick and Claire having a modern perspective trying to deal with 18th century characters and issues was entertaining.

[meko00]

Not having seen The Perils of Pauline, I just looked it up on Wikipedia; I think the series is far more than that. Then again, I read for more than just plot.

[ayinhara]

The expression perils of pauline is used colloquially to refer to any damsel in distress situation, where the hero routinely saves the heroine from death or dishonor. I didn't realize that the expression derived from film serials. I just looked it up myself.

[meko00]

(Not living in the States (nor being a native speaker), I have other colloquialisms. *g*) Well, I still feel the books have more to offer than a mere damsel in distress situation, but to each her own. Also, it's not clear who's the damsel. Of course, in the first two books there are elements of danger from death or dishonour, but that's partly due to the setting and Jamie's religious and moral code. Me, I'm agnostic secularised Lutheran so a Catholic in the 1740s seem a bit... odd, but I can accept it.

[kassto]

I don't think these stories fit into a damsel in distress model. Actually Claire seems to rescue Jamie a lot of the time... And there is one particular part of the first book where he is victimised in quite appalling fashion in a fashion usually used on females...

[meko00]

Nor do I, really. Well, there are elements of rescuing by both Claire and Jamie, but what with living in a more dangerous time... Things do have to happen, but as I've written I don't read primarily for plot. I can appreciate it on a more academic level, but you really need more than that. And yes, there's that part in Outlander...