"Outlander" from a HISTORICAL perspective.....

[CollinMacD]

Totally agree...well put.

[Nomad]

The most horrible thing about the series is that women's fake English accent, such a shame she can't get killed.

[Steve Ashton]

The books are novels. Novels written for a specific audience. The author says that she was not intending to be historically correct. She included kilts because her audience expect there to be kilts. She actually teaches classes on how to write sex scenes.

But really, they are novels. Novels that don't even fit within any one genre. Part romance, part science fiction, part girl porn. Who would really expect a novel to be, or need to be, historically accurate?

I love this story from the author, Diana Gabaldon.

During a book signing in Germany Diana had been interviewed all day by the press. It had been a long day sitting in a windowless room. It was late and the last interview was with a man with a thick German accent to his English.

He caught an exhausted Diana by surprise with his last question -

"So, what is this thing with the kilts?"

Without thinking she blurted out -

"That's because every woman knows, that if you find yourself alone in a room with a man in a kilt - You are likely, at a moments notice, to find yourself up against the wall."

I think that puts these stories into their proper perspective.

Here is Diana Gabalon with the small version of our Travelling Quaich.



Can you tell by the look on her face that she does not mind standing next to a man in a kilt?



This whole thing is supposed to be fun and not be taken too seriously.

[bikercelt1]

I've read all the books, I've seen the first couple seasons of the show, and I've met Diana Gabaldon and heard her talk about her books and how she wrote them. They are not history and were never intended to be such. I enjoy them. The nutritionists hate it when I eat a candy bar or Ice Cream but I sure do enjoy them and life would be poorer without them. Every time we see a guy in a utility kilt or a "costume" inspired by Outlander we can be incensed or we can see somebody willing to brave the conventional and attempt his best at wearing a kilt. Some of my first attempts at kilt wearing were probably pretty terrible too.

Don't like the books or the TV show? That's OK. I think it's OK that I do.

Jamie

[Pleater]

One of my professions is making garments out of yarn and I can assure you that the series also takes liberties with garments such as bodices and shawls, - well with just about everything really - and I have had a few internal struggles when people want to pay me money to create 'something off Highlander that is authentic historical garb'.

Anne the Pleater

[Dollander]

One of my professions is making garments out of yarn and I can assure you that the series also takes liberties with garments such as bodices and shawls, - well with just about everything really - and I have had a few internal struggles when people want to pay me money to create 'something off Highlander that is authentic historical garb'.

Anne the Pleater

That's when you ask them, "Which one? Do you want something from Outlander*, or do you want authentic historical garb?"

I understand the frustration when people take period fiction at face value. But like Steve pointed out, it's fiction. It's not meant to be a documentary. It's like scientists picking apart the physics errors in scifi shows. Even a show like Battlestar Galactica that kept fantasy technology to a minimum still had to take liberties for the sake of entertainment, e.g. having sound in space (a commentary track revealed that they tried being authentic, but it was incredibly distracting to watch). Likewise, if Outlander had been full of brightly-colored kilts on clean-shaven men, the bulk of the audience would've reacted "Are you kidding me? "

And yes, I admit, it was a bit of tartanry on my part that got me interested. I was a huge fan of BSG, so it was like, ooh, Ron Moore has a new show? Oh, it's a period drama based on a series of romance novels? But wait, it takes place in Scotland?





* I'm assuming you meant Outlander and not Highlander; otherwise you could say, "I'm sure you could find 80s fashions at a charity shop or on eBay...oh, you mean the flashback scenes?"

[OC Richard]

Could only bear to watch one episode. It''s rubbish!

My wife read your comment and asked "but what do the female Highlanders think about it?"

It's a chick-flick, let's face it.

There's a handsome guy who spends hours in the gym and in every episode they cook up some reason for him to take his shirt off.

Heck, in one episode he takes his shirt off, and the shirt is the only stitch of clothing he's wearing at the time!

[OC Richard]

History can never be put to film... too little research done by the movie company... budgets for the movie product limits what can be done...

The galling thing is when they take the trouble to hire Technical Advisors and then don't follow their advice!

Joseph Wambaugh was a stickler for authenticity. I was on the set of The Onion Field (one of many pipers hired- he wanted actual pipers, not extras, for the Highland Games scene) and we were all yelling up at him (he had a high perch on a crane thing) because they had hired an accordion player to play for the Highland Dancing competitors!

"They don't use accordions! They use bagpipes!"

As soon as he figured out what the row was about he got rid of the accordion guy and one of us pipers stepped up to the dance platform.

Sadly directors like him seem to be the exception.

I have friends who were hired as advisors for this show or that and they have tales of their advice being overruled.

I've played on the soundtracks of many things and my advice has likewise often been ignored. Stuff like that is why on some films you'll see a Highland piper but hear uilleann pipes. A group of us did one TV show years ago; we had uilleann pipes, fiddle, bodhran, and harp playing a 9/8 jig for some Irish dancers. When the show aired they had replaced our playing with an accordion and clarinet playing some hokey tune in 4/4, making it look as if the dancers couldn't properly follow the music! (Obviously dancers dancing in 9/8 isn't going to line up with music in 4/4.)

About the budget, that's not the issue, I don't think. Outlander spends vast sums of money (into the hundreds of thousands of dollars at least, I would guess) just on the embroidery on the costumes. They have a whole embroidery team working on them. Ditto Games Of Thrones.

[neloon]

My wife read your comment and asked "but what do the female Highlanders think about it?"

I'm afraid my wife and daughter also thought the film was nonsense.

Alan

[ThistleDown]

My wife watched episode one, but that was it for her. She's from the 'other' Highlands, mind you: Switzerland Part of the problem, she admitted, was that the accents didn't sound like any of the Highlanders she knows.