The poem wasn't written by "Alfred Lord Tennyson". It's true that 362 horses perished, but for Messrs Bennett and Royle, no horses were there. And where did they come up with "more than 400 British deaths"? According to historical record, 118 lost their lives and 127 were wounded. What do Bennett and Royle think the soldiers "rode" on - skateboards? The rhythms (for the tin-eared professors) are not "militaristic", but mimetic of the horses' gallop. It was not, of course, "infantrymen", but cavalrymen who charged into the valley of death. Post-Vietnam, mid-Iraq, we are made of finer stuff: "The public nationalistic celebration of the 19th century has given way to a more contemporary appreciation of the significance of private sorrow and a resistance to the futility of war, any war, all war." "Its militaristic repetitions and rhythms" and its celebration of heroism: "Just the kind of thing you might expect of a 19th-century poet laureate".Īnd, of course, the Times. Then they tell us what we (probably) don't like. "What is it about the poem that you (probably) don't like?" the authors tactfully inquire. The authors explain: "The poem recounts an incident from the Crimean war in which, after a 'blunder' by an officer, 600 lightly armed infantrymen charged the Russian artillery, resulting in more than 400 British deaths." The poem was written "by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the poet laureate, after reading a report of the incident in the Times newspaper". It opens: "Here is a poem that you probably won't like very much." There follows, printed in full, over two pages, The Charge of the Light Brigade ("Half a league, half a league/Half a league onward/All in the valley of Death/Rode the six hundred, etc"). The tone and quality of the work is fairly represented by chapter 31, "War". LCT3 is arranged as talk-you-through chapters with titles like "Sexual Difference", "Ideology" and "Queer". To which add "Heap of crap! - Prof Sutherland". LCT3 is written by two professors (Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle) and comes blurbed with encomia from a dozen more: "Irreplaceable!" "Masterful!" and "Terrific!" exclaim Profs Richard Rand, Hayden White and Peggy Kamuf, in unanimous chorus.
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