I have not seen it, but look forward to it.  I'm sorry to hear that it seems
to have gone more 'Hollywood' than we would have liked.  Probably another
affirmation of my view of history:

                                                         "It never was   '
like it was  . '  "

And maybe the Hollywood folks could even add a trailer, modifying somwhat my
observation of this neck of the Virginia woods..........

                    "The Hollywood Story..... Where its about as close as it
ever will be to like it never was."

Perhaps now is the time to suggest that we all re-read James Branch Cabell's
LET ME LIE.  While all to often he sinks into is Cabellian ramblings and
musings about some of his other books, his major point is that we Virginians
by tradition, right, and expectation tell our history the way we want to
think it happened.  When LET ME LIE was written, little of the original
Jamestowne had been discovered, so he takes a pretty deep dig at "the first
permanent English settlement in the new world", little of which had been
found, vs the Spanish who settled St. Augustine some 40 years earlier.  He
has a particularly interesting story of what he calls "The first Virginian"
whose actions (he says) paved the way for England to settle
Virginia-to-Georgia rather than the Spanish.

As we move toward the quadracentennial of Jamestowne, I am sure we are going
to see a lot more of pseudo history like "The New World", and probably many
gigabytes of EMail on VA-HIST about where Jamestowne really fits into the
settlement of America.

My personal feeling is that in spite of all its warts, trials and
tribulations, and tortureous early history, and issues of trampling the
rights of Native American, (and of course the fact that as a Virginian I am
biased in its favor),  the heritage of Jamestowne goes far beyond the story
of a few men and later a few women who came to the New World for whatever
reasons.

I look forward to the next couple of years!

Randy Cabell



----- Original Message -----
From: "Louise Bernikow" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 02, 2006 7:40 PM
Subject: Malick\s movie


> Has anyone seen The New World? Though as a writer, i'm willing to cut
> Hollywood a lot of slack about inventing stuff for a better story, I can't
> imagine
> why Malick did some of the things he did-- from the truly bizarre
> emptiness of
> Native American rituals to the virtual absence of wild-life anywhere
> around the
> landscape to the sweet english graveyard in which Pocahontas is
> buried....all
> of it seems silly and flat and incredibly long. others?
> Louise Bernikow
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html