On the Oceans of Eternity

[Wombat]

Just re-reading Stirlings On the Oceans of eternity. How many times do you think he watched the movie Zulu before he wrote it? The O'Rourkes Ford scenes are almost word for word in places!

[wkwillis]

Originally Posted by Wombat

Just re-reading Stirlings On the Oceans of eternity. How many times do you think he watched the movie Zulu before he wrote it? The O'Rourkes Ford scenes are almost word for word in places!

A drift is a ford.

[Prunesquallor]

Far too many. I didn't like the in joke about Hook and the sergeant.

[Grimm Reaper]

Wombat, before he wrote it? Obviously Stirling had the damn DVD running the whole time as inspiration!

[Wombat]

Originally Posted by wkwillis

A drift is a ford.

Your point being?

[wkwillis]

Originally Posted by Wombat

Your point being?

The battle at Rorke's Drift in the Zulu wars (just after Isandlwana, when the British were massacred by the Zulus) was pretty much the same as the O'Rourke's Ford battle in the Stirling book. Brave men with spears against desperate men with rifles.
Stirling changed Rorke to O'Rourke and drift to ford. Authors do that sort of thing. I've noticed battles in Piper's and Gilliland's books that were lifted from real life. It does avoid second guessing from people questioning your credibility if you lift a battle with an unlikely conclusion from a real life battle. What you can call an existence proof.

[Wombat]

Obviously I didn't know that. Oh hang on, I refered to it's resemblance in my original post. In the movie Zulu the scenes involving Private Hook are virtually identical to those in the book, together with the volley fire episodes, hence my post. My problem is not with Stirling lifting the action from history, but rather the fact he lifted it from the movie.

I'm well aware that authors lift events from history, just as I am aware of the Zulu war.

Have you seen the movie Zulu? If you had you would be aware of my reference. If you haven't, watch the film, then you should understand what I am referring to.

[wkwillis]

Now I understand what you were getting at. It's at my local library. I can get it out and watch it. But not till I see "The Day After Tomorrow", and let's hope it's better than "10.5" in acting if not realism.