Let us talk of Steerpike, Mervyn Peakes villain in the first two of the Titus Groan novels--I am thinking of him upon finishing watching the BBC miniseries dramatizing those books, with Steerpike nicely played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (thats Henry VIII to you viewers of THE TUDORS). I have always felt the novels to be unfairly biased against him, the only stated egalitarian in a savagely hierarchical society--as though Steerpike were really a better guy than Peake admits. I actually feel that way less about Steerpike in the TV version: a parallel with Hitler is at one point almost explicit, and his egalitarian speeches seem to me more obviously hypocritical than in the novels. Then again, some have criticized the BBC series for making Steerpike *too* sympathetic. Anyway, what other thoughts about Mr. Steerpike? Surely there are some Peake readers out there in FB-land?
Posted on: Sat, 31 May 2014 17:55:18 +0000