[lit-ideas] Re: The Dolphin and the Shark: A Moral Fable
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 19:46:57 EST
"Is the writer aware of dolphins bullying sharks? It's been on tv. As to
legalese perhaps it's because it slimes with sleaze.
--- Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx wrote:
> Why Lawyers are Sharks
>
> Donal -- who's been to the bar
Don't know who told you that, but anyway the next round is yours.
Donal"
----
With pleasure.
In any case, I apologise. I never meant a word.
Lawyers are certainly more prestigious than philosophers in _any_
*conceivable* society -- including 500 B. C. Athens --.
The proof is glyptothetick. Thus, while Socrates was bald and ugly and dirty
and wore no shoes, etc. -- I never tried to _imitate_ *him* -- I just found
what he _said_ *sort of* interesting -- you can at most get a bust of the
ugly man to display at the swimming-pool library.
Whereas Demosthenes -- the first Greek lawyer -- was pretty attractive, and
gay too -- I only own one Loeb by Demosthenes. It's called "Eroticon", and
it's all about his lover and how he loved him. It's pretty embarrassing to
read,
but then he did.
A statue of Demosthenes is going for:
$ 119 -- at
_http://www.ancientsculpturegallery.com/255.html_
(http://www.ancientsculpturegallery.com/255.html)
Have a look.
Item No. 255
Weight 1 Lb. W: 3.25" H: 12" D: 3.25"
Made of cast stone, hand finished with
antique finished.
It's not so bad. He is not naked, mind. He is holding something in his hand.
Looks slightly phallic but it's not a phallus, more like a roll of a speech
he's about to read. He's looking down, and wears nice sandals.
Demosthenes was supposed such a good lawyer -- that he commanded the 'laws
of nature' (nomoi phuseos) too and once -- he had a sailing competition --
convinced the tide to go up. This was photographed by Delacroix at
_http://www.art.com/asp/sp-asp/_/PD--12963935/SP--A/IGID--2200020/Demosthenes_
Harangues_the_Waves_Frescos_from_the_Spandrels_of_the_Main_Hall.htm?sOrig=CRT&
sOrigId=124&ui=A1660C06744249758824FEEA1E9717FE_
(http://www.art.com/asp/sp-asp/_/PD--12963935/SP--A/IGID--2200020/Demosthenes_Harangues_the_Waves_Frescos_f
rom_the_Spandrels_of_the_Main_Hall.htm?sOrig=CRT&sOrigId=124&ui=A1660C06744249
758824FEEA1E9717FE)
and it's going for $179.
So how can I hate a lawyer or have anything against her -- when they model
after Demosthenes?
And the 'shark' quote was stupid. From Captain Marryat himself. The OED is
cryptical there, it says, "shark, fig. NAUT. a lawyer". Which was strange,
since I first learned of the Americanism "lawyers are called sharks" by a
Jewish
New Yorker!
Anyway -- The Temple is supposed to be nice. Many Loebs are tr. by
"barrister-at-laws" -- The one I'm reading now is, Aristophanes's Clouds. And
also
Martial's Epigrams. The latter was tr. by Mr. Ker, barrister-in-law, etc.
Oddly
when the edition was repr. all his qualifications were dropped. The intro. is
still signed as being written from the Templar, and there is some obscure
reference which I fail to detect. But then Socrates is _full_ of obscure
references that I fail to detect.
Dolphins can be silly. Always smiling, and certainly promiscuous.
Aristotle classifies 'dolphins' -- in his "Progression of Animals" (Loeb) as
'a kind of fish', along with whales and lobsters. I forget if he has sharks.
Most of his zoological knowledge (I'm using the term Popperianly here,
'zoological') came from his tutee, Alexander Magnus.
Cheers,
JL
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