anyone watching BBC4 on Julian of Norwich?

[Lucydogz]

just as i thought no tv historian could be as annoying as Mary Beard, along comes Dr Janina Ramirez, doing a stupid programme on Julian of Norwich, chock full of maybes, could bes, and possiblies, plus her agenda as Julian as a feminist icon. What a waste.

Don't watch it then

I love Prof Mary Beard

well I'm watching it because I'm really interested in Julian of Norwich

I watched some of it and will watch the rest on catch up. I don't think she's annoying, I like her, she's like an enthusiastic puppy

Ooh, I am interested in Julian of Norwich. Am on holiday though so no BBC4.

Is it worth watching on IPlayer when I get back or should I give it a wide steer?

When she's being filmed listening to experts she just looks gormless. I seriously learned nothing from this. The point of JoL was religious, which the good Doctor is too busy doing her feminist thing to bother with. It's like having a tone-deaf person doing a programme on Mozart. As for the ridiculous shot of her children running to greet her....

I wouldn't bother Ellahen

Hahahaha. I actually know her! Probably best I don't tell her about this thread . . .

How dare you slag off Mary Beard, though

Righto. My interest in her is about her religious experiences and what can be gleaned about God, relationships with God, the human condition etc.

me too Ella, but Dr R wasn't having any of that. She banged on about how JoL referred to God as a mother figure (true) but neglected to mention that she referred to God as male far more often.
I went right of M Beard after seeing her on Question Time, filmed in Boston. A local expressed concerned concerns about immigration, and she smiled pityingly and told her that there was no problem at all, as she had read a report that said so.

I'm a big fan of Janina Ramirez, even if she does get a bit carried away reading stuff out in Anglo Saxon on occasion. This programme did strike me as quite odd - I assumed it was about the history of the text, which is why the bits about Julian herself were so scant on facts or evidence - just 'she would have been here when the plague happened' and 'she would have seen a market that looked a bit like this'. However it turns out almost nothing is known about the text either, I think the entire programme could have been done in 10 mins if it had stuck to evidence. It probably would have helped if she had started off by saying there's virtually no evidence for Julian's life so this is mainly supposition and general history of the period and topic.

It also annoyed me that Julian's religious experiences were presented as fact, i.e. 'Julian now spoke directly to God'. I'm sure she thought she did but there's no more actual evidence for that than anything else in the programme.

The stuff at the beginning with her children was awful - I've done phone conferences whilst getting ds' shoes on in the morning and taken calls from sports day (in between his events) but I think if I were presenting, whether on telly or in real life, I'd probably just do that and not put shoes on and get kids out of the door to school.

All in all not her best,

I heart Mary Beard as well, though.

I'm really late to this, but ... it's hardly unusual to bring a feminist reading to Julian of Norwich! Every single serious academic I've ever read on the subject, has acknowledged at least some kind of feministy implications in Julian's texts. Including plenty of crusty old male profs (not that being a crusty old male prof means you can't also be a feministy type).

Yes, but that was all she brought to it. As I said, it was like a tone deaf person discussing Mozart. Plus all the really irritating stuff like her riding on a donkey, having a cup of coffee etc.

Mmm. I didn't feel like that. She was making points about theology and emotion, and English versus Latin, as well, right?

I agree, for me her delivery is a bit funny. And I find bits of it annoying. But I don't think the feministy stuff is bad, or pushing an agenda.

Janina Ramirez, No, imagine being vamped by that for a three years degree and having to keep your mouth shut, get her off the screen, please