Loving this old school visualizer
Aug 12– “A Courtin’” by James Russell Lowell (1864)
Summary: Lewis Caroll is less nonsensical than this.
Commentary: What is with Elliot and the phonetic/dialect poetry? Was it a thing at the time? Was it something he was just interested in?
Also, in "Froggy Went A Courtin'" why did he need a sword and pistol? Was he expecting to duel for her hand? Apparently it's sword and buckler in some versions.
Is PewDiePie still cool? (Trick question, Epictetus wouldn't care.)
Aug 11– The Golden Sayings of Epictetus translated and arranged by Hastings Crossley (1903)
Summary: Questionable collection/translation of mostly good stoic stuff.
Commentary: Again, I don't really love (or even understand) how this wound up in T5FSOB. It's not a great translation, and it's not original. Eliot mostly focused on complete, original works for the collection, which makes sense. For some reason, this random collection of questionably compiled/translated sayings made it through. Instead of just whining, I'll highlight my favorite one for tonight:
CLXXIII
It stamps a man of mean capacity to spend much time on the things of the body, as to be long over bodily exercises, long over eating, long over drinking, long over other bodily functions. Rather should these things take the second place, while all your care is directed to the understanding.
I've probably used this before
Aug 10– Reflections On The Revolution In France by Edmund Burke (1790)
Summary: "I have strong opinions, but I cannot express them."
Commentary: I think it's fine to say that you believe in moderation, that you want to see the full effect of things before passing judgement, etc. The French Revolution being only around a year old when he wrote this. But to take page after page to say so is a bit much. The rest looks like background, preparing to compare the difference between England and France, but it cuts off in the middle of the line of reasoning in this selection.
Aug 9– From The Life of Dr. Donne by Izaak Walton (1670?)
Summary: The least interesting tale of forbidden love ever written.
Commentary: I'm so glad this is the last one of these. Every single one has been boring, pointless, and uninformative. HE WROTE A PERFECTLY GOOD FISHING BOOK! (Although it appears to have a Socratic Dialogue in it for some reason...)
One of the better ad campaigns Nintendo has done
Aug 8– The Odyssey by Homer translated by S.H. Butcher and A. Lang
Summary: Circe turns Odysseus's crew into pigs (they get better) and bangs him for A WHOLE YEAR!
Commentary: This has always struck me as one of the odder, and more pointless encounters in The Odyssey. Odysseus and co. land on an island. Some of the men go inland, find Circe, eat the food she offers, and get turned into pigs. A huge part of The Odyssey is hospitality to guests, so Circe using that against the men should be just as bad (or worse!) than Polyphemus. Instead of being inhospitable, she uses hospitality to harm her guests. Instead, she (depending on who you ask) is generally considered one of the less bad (or even sympathetic) obstacles in Odysseus's way.
Meanwhile our great hero of "many devices" pauses his journey (and only sort of looks after his men, some of which are guarding the ships) to sleep with her for a year.
We're supposed to be cheering for this guy to get back to his wife, and he spends a whole year fucking a woman who wanted to turn his men into pig slaves! Even if we accept that he and Penelope are swingers or something, I don't think anyone would be okay with their missing spouse taking a year long hall pass without any contact.
It's even weirder since it's so similar to the earlier encounter with Calypso (where Odysseus at least generally makes it out like he's being held captive, instead of willing.) Is Homer just so into men being stuck on islands with hot demi-goddesses that he needed two different versions of the same story?
There's an interesting arc in the middle chunk of The Odyssey where Odysseus, after initially being introduced as this genius/awesome guy, seems to get dumber and douchier as time goes on. It doesn't really follow all the way through (he's mostly smart/good once he returns to Ithaca for the last third of the book) but it's interesting while it lasts. It'd be interesting if Penelope just told him to go back to see when he got home, or if he was going nuts or time or something.
I like when there are songs with the same title as the reading.
Aug 7– Phaedo by Plato translated by Benjamin Jowett
Summary: OMG Socrates, you're so smart!
Commentary: Another dialogue, another contrived textual fellating of Socrates. It's really easy to convince people of things when they can't actually ask you questions (except ones obviously designed to make you look smart) and have to agree with everything you say.
Book 3
This book (like several others, and some scenes within books) starts with a sunrise. Usually it's described as having rosy fingertips or something like that. Telemachus goes to visit Nestor, who tells him about the war and returning and has a big feast for him (contrasting the greedy suitors who take advantage of Telemachus and Penelope.) We get the first (I think) appearance of a repeating line "Spare me no part for kindness' sake," as Telemachus asks for news. I think the contrast with the feast is the main point of this chapter, which is relatively short. Beyond that it's just Nestor sending Telemachus to Menelaus.
Book 4
This book has an even stronger contrast with the suitors:
You were no idiot before, Eteoneus,
But here you are talking like a child of ten.
Could we have made it home again-- and Zeus
give us no more hard roving!-- if other men
had never fed us, given us lodging?
You tell 'em, Menelaus. He tells Telemachus more about the war and journey, and Menelaus tells him that his hand and feet are like his father's. As someone with huge feet that he got from his dad, I can relate.
Helen talks about how Odysseus snuck into Troy, and that she recognized him, but didn't give him away. At one point, Menelaus tells about meeting some nereids who use sealskins as (very smelly) disguises. Kind of like a selkie. Always interesting to see parallels in mythology like that. He fought Proteus, who revealed that Odysseus is still alive! We find out he's been trapped with Kalypso for some time, partially explaining the ten years he's been missing.
Back on Ithaca, the suitors find out what Telemachus is doing, and make plans to trap and kill him.
If the first two books set up Telemachus and his quest, these two fill us in on the Trojan war background, and show how terrible the suitors are. Next week: Odysseus finally shows up!
