The Knights Templar...

[fajrdrako]

First, in the afternoon, was the Ottawa Science Fiction Society meeting. The subject was, "What makes good science fiction?" I didn't have high expectations but it turned out to be quite fascinating, as each speaker explained what they believed to be the criteria for good SF and why, and then it went into a general discussion, in which we each gave what we believed to be examples of good SF.

I'm not sure if any two of us even had the same definition for science fiction, let alone good science fiction, but that made it all the more interesting. I took notes on the books people recommended. I was happy to see Tasia mention The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, and several people mentioned The Chrysalids by John Wyndham. For my favourites, I said Ursula K. LeGuin, Brian M. Stableford, and E.C. Tubb.

Afterwards, I had dinner with Lyn and Beulah at the Pho Bo Ga, and then we came back to my place to watch a two-hour documentary on the Knights Templar. Like all broadcast history, it was superficial, but it was fun. I found it interesting that they gave a complete history of the Templars without even mentioning their relationship with the Hospitallers. Nor did they ever mention the names of the Crusader kings or lords except for Conrad of Montferrat - the only personalities they mentioned in the middle east were a few of the European kings who came on crusade, and Saladin. I was pleased to see the Israeli professor call him Salahadin, which is what my medieval sources call him.

It bothered me that as a theme they repeatedly called the Templars "a coroporation" and "the first of the great multinational corporations". I see their point, but the statement strikes me as utterly anachronistic - they didn't even have the concept of a corporation, let alone the word. They were an Order, and though I can see that their business had aspects to it that we now associate with corporations, that wasn't what they were, or how they saw themselves, or how they were seen by others.