[lit-ideas] The Swimming Pool Library
- From: jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:02:46 -0500
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE
Excellent short story, L. K. Must say I identified with it more than with your
Friday one on the Civil War!
----
My selected passage:
"That was a magnificent time: from the Persian war all the way
through the Peloponnesian war and beyond. It wasn't until Alexander full of
scotch and water set about outdoing Philip that everything was ruined, well
not totally ruined. A lot was saved. We have quite a lot from that period
and we can learn from it. We ought to be willing to learn.""
Too true. Sadly, though, Classicists refer to the period -- INCLUDING the death
of Alexander the 'classical' period. I beg to differ, of course. To me, it's
the archaic period which is the classiest!
-----
I loved your references to Salamis and Salami and Boetia and Baloney, etc. I
too enjoyed the description of the 'cute' protagonists.
It's true that Periclean is a period, but mind, if we are being Spartans, we
should talk Lycurgus and Pausanias too. Perikles was said to have 'prostituted'
Athens with all that 'crap' which they called the new Parthenon, etc. I say
this because for Classicists, the Parthenon is the epitome of the classical
age, while it looks like a newish Brighton pavilion to me!
------- My focus is sculpture, though, and I'm fascinated by the fact that
clumsy male statuettes achieved the contraposto that made Greek art a
_miracle_. Never mind architecture or vase painting! The Chinese did that too!
----
I will not go into the details of your short story. So the female protagonist
is frustrated because she had a 'frustrating' day at the university. But that's
HER fault. No air head can be such an air head that won't listen! I think you
are being a bit patronising!
It's true that current Americans only care about actresses and singers,
especially if 'demens' (Britney Spears), but hey, there's the occasional good
film with classical references (like "Atonement" and the magnificent episode by
the Triton fountain of Graeco-Roman antiquity --, "in half-scale" only, but
better than a swimming pool in the eyes of the constructor.
The female protagonist talks about 'willing(ness) to learn', but we must also
consider what to do with the things we've learned. Learning is an ongoing
process, etc. I would not have an airhead recite Ovid, Tristia just for the
sake of it. I would rather have the airhead ... think? Dunno. Airhead is not a
word I use!
----?? The male protagonist seems to be too much in the know of things Greek
and one wonders who's the Classics teacher there! I tend to think that there is
a gender difference.
Only today, I was reading Horace, and he refers to a philosopher (in what of
his Satires, Loeb),
?????? "That was a good one. You deserve a barber"
-- there is a footnote at this point, and it goes, "Being a philosopher, he
would grow a beard"
which I think was a silly typically Loeb thing to say, knowing that I don't
grow one, and neither did Hanna Arendt. "En fin", as the French say.
But when it comes to the Classics, a male and a female are different. Females
will focus on Sappho, never Leonidas. And if they do, how can they _identify_?
A few Greek females were into the playing fields and war, I grant.
The audience is also to be considered. Eton is not co-educational, and while
they may have the occasional female Greek tutor (Horace uses 'tutor' as synonym
with 'slave'!) it would be someone who's both proficient in cricket and Homer.
This was transported to drama by Rattigan in his brilliant Browning Version
(new version with Albert Finney -- and this American actor playing the sporty
type who _commits adultery_ with the classics teacher).
There was a musical theatre success recently, "Spring Awakening". It's all
about the classics and it's set in Germany, being the adaptation of a Wedekind
play. But the issues are still relevant? What is appropriate for a gymnasium
worship of the 'great and dead'? What is what we expect from necessarily
airheads. For surely if their heads are already full of shit, it's even a
harder task!
Most classics teacher rely on the mechanics of grammar, as Andreas tried to
instill on us re: the grammar of Finnish that our new moderator manages, but we
don't. Latin and Greek were seen as mental gymnastics to contribute to corporal
gymnastics, and there may be some truth to it, but then I'm not a dualist.
As a non-dualist, I don't believe in the primordial duality (neither did
Aristotle, the greatest of the dead and great) between soul and body. Today I
was browsing Lyra Graeca II, and there is indeed this discussion as to whether
upon dying, the soul leaves the body, or the body leaves the soul! In my
opinion, being a functionalist, neither leaves the other!
------- So the Classics, a period, provides a lot of food for thought and
gymnastics of all sorts. If you find that your day is frustrating ("as it
always must be if you try instill a love for the classics to a bunch of
airheads"), then the bimbo should considering outsourcing in France, since The
Classical Heritage is not for her! (And her 'students' deserve better!)
Cheers,
J. L. Speranza
??? The Swimming Pool Librarian
????? Villa Speranza, Bordighera,
??????????? and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
?????????????????????????????????????
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