[lit-ideas] Re: Dead White Man's Guide to the Classics
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2007 08:28:21 -0600
JL:
>>Don't you hate the phrase 'dead white man'...<<
DEAD WHITE MAN -- A EULOGY
I see in my skin the beginnings of a dead white man.
How it wrinkles up on the back of my hands --
looseness, the first sign of letting go.
How it gathers at both sides of my throat
like old men on park benches with nothing to do.
Soon the dewlapping of my triceps,
the breasting of my chest.
My hands and arms are mottled with spots
like lichens on ancient rocks.
My mirror mocks my desire to become
one of the ancient ones.
But I don't know why I'm here,
I need another thirty years.
"Life is a fatal accident,
that's all you need to know."
No, no, there's those Great Books!
I need to read them. One and all.
Find the meaning before I fall.
"Even could you have, you wouldn't have,
that's not the one you are.
Your stubby fingers are perfect
for picking potatoes.
Those books have nothing to say to you."
You're wrong. You're wrong. I'm sure they do.
"Then let's call them forth:
What say ye, O Dead White Men,
what has our friend here to live for?"
Silence. Just the sight of me in the mirror.
Come forward, I cry, come forth and testify,
having lived your life and come back
with the knowledge of death intact,
would you still pursue the metaphysic
over the physical?
Chase down epiphanies aesthetical
or ring down the days in drug induced haze?
Silence. Just the sight of me in the mirror.
"See? Western Civilization
has nothing to say to you,"
my mirror laughed.
Mike Geary
Memphis
----- Original Message -----
From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 10:16 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Dead White Man's Guide to the Classics
I'm trying to retrieve the title of this stupid thing I saw online.
I did not internalize the data (whole title, or contents), but it looked --
possibly in amazon -- like an intro to the classics, where Plato and Aristotle
were judged to be the oldest most dead white men.
Help in identifying title welcome. I'm hoping it has some Sappho in it.
Cheers,
Don't you hate the phrase 'dead white man', or do you think it's sexy?
JL
Bookdwarf » Who knew long hair and dead white men were hot? Who knew long
hair and dead white men were hot? What is with the spate of movies based on
Classics? First comes Troy. Now A&E is trying to get in on the ...
www.bookdwarf.com/?p=81 - 22k - Cached - Similar pages
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