"Ruth" Topic

I like it.

Also…

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Amicalement
Armand

Not bad, but I think they're 35 mm (see the homepage), which is not the scale I need. Still, maybe I can use one as a statue for terrain.

magnificent egos' is (or was? I don't know if they are still a going concern) erratically sized.
anything from 25mm to 35mm

so don't rule it out yet

and you missed this one :)

Ruth…is the archetype of the Good Woman. She is the Dutiful Daughter-in-law. Her devotion is rewarded with a Good Marriage and Illustrious Descendents – from her loins spring King David and ultimately Messiah.

Ruth in a slit skirt and bustier, with a big sickle and a bird on her shoulder? Urrgh. How culturally illiterate can someone be? Call that figure Morrigan or something. Not Ruth.

Dear Zipy fusenet

It's another "Ruth."

I agree with you on the character of "Ruth" from the Bible, and you bring up a good point. I would like to see modellers try their hand at modeling a miniature which portrays the archetypes you mention. It would be interesting to see how they would handle this (can they handle it) and they would be excellent artistic creations.

But… the questions is… would these tropes and attributes that a sculpture of Ruth that emblemized them be popular with wargamers? Or can they only relate to blood, and weapons, violence and cruelty.

Otto

Otto? What other Ruth is there?

Dear Zippyfusenet

Well --- yes-- there is that! But not everyone may know the Ruth you and I were talking about.

There's Babe Ruth, the candy bar?

So let's you and I have some fun with this. How would you envision a "Ruth" figure.

The story is so wonderfully redolent with images that I would think it would take a monumental sized canvas to just paint it.

I would go for a figure, tall, in a full hooded robe, carrying a basket bulging with sheaves, looking off to the side at a Boaz figure. This remembering how Boaz instructed his men to let her glean among the reapers and not to let the men molest her.

Or…her bending over the figure of her old mother in law, holding a bowl or something with the full basket on the ground.

Otto

You take my point. There is no other. Ruth is an important figure in western culture. She's one of only two women who have Bible books named for them. She is Jesus Christ's great-great-great-great…grandmother. Her statement of devotion to Naomi is one of the most moving speeches in English literature:

"Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me."

Artists through the ages have portrayed Ruth and Naomi, Ruth and Boaz. I don't see any great need for wargaming miniatures of these subjects, although I wouldn't interfere with someone who was so inspired.

But how could someone with more than a Saturday-morning cartoon understanding of western culture, take a sculpt, however well executed, an utterly banal sculpt, of a hot young woman with a big weapon and a pet bird, loosely based on Old European Heathen prototypes, and call her 'Ruth'? She might be Morgan or Boudicca or Helga Leofricsdattar or Cwynigunda…but Ruth?

The sheer, arid, vapid, cultural illiteracy staggered me for a minute.

Not that I want to hurt anyone's feelings.

I'll get over it. There'll be something else to be outraged about tomorrow.

Dear Zippyfusenet

Believe me I sympathize and empathise. In my days when things get me down I steam for exactly the same reasons as you do. That's why I said they might have just pulled the name out of thin air -- not knowing the Biblical Ruth.

One might however note that there are many women in the Bible who are causal and important figures. There are two more books in the Apocrtypha Judith, and Susannah. There Is Judith's slaying Holfernes which might be a good subject that would yield a more "wargamish" treatment. Susannah in her bath would be erotic enough for anyone. I suppose one could do a very nice piece of Queen Esther on a chariot with King Azheraeus.

But we are largely agreed. By the way the book of Ruth is one of my favorites and the whole "courtship" of Ruth by Boaz is one of the most charming and delightful stories of all time.

I do want to intercede on the sculptors behalf though and beg you to reconsider. I really don't think that they had any idea who Ruth really was. Had they, I think they would have chosen another name.

Of course if they didn't and made it to be the "Ruth" we are talking about then everything you condemn them with and more, is true.

Otto

I really don't think that they had any idea who Ruth really was.

I agree. And it staggers me that anyone of western background would not. I'm done venting now.

over thinking it guys

Ruth is probably the name of someones player character

Oh, Liz.

Otto may be over-thinking. I am emoting.

Compare and contrast Ruth's poetry, truth and beauty with the inarticulate love-that-dare-not-speak-its-name homo-eroticism of Sam Gamgee's devotion to his Mr. Frodo:

"I made a promise, Mr Frodo. A promise. 'Don't you leave him Samwise Gamgee.' And I don't mean to. I don't mean to."

I love Ruth. To see her clarity and purpose reduced to a poor imitation of a Tolkien character breaks my heart.

It's not exactly cultural vandalism like blowing up the Bamiyan Buddhas. To be ignorant of the Biblical Ruth is more like walking past those statues every day and not even seeing them.

I agree with you, I agree with Otto. Whoever named that sculpt had No Idea. No Idea At All.