{"id":5553,"date":"2010-08-22T18:07:29","date_gmt":"2010-08-22T22:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=5553"},"modified":"2010-08-23T05:02:26","modified_gmt":"2010-08-23T09:02:26","slug":"what-it-is-82310","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-82310","title":{"rendered":"What It Is: 8\/23\/10"},"content":{"rendered":"

What I’m reading:<\/em> After Bernard Knox’s death<\/a> last week, I decided to read his introduction to Fagles’ translations of Homer. I found myself bored by them for some reason (probably because of their focus on philology), so I decided to break out my old Richmond Lattimore translation of the Iliad<\/a>\"\". I don’t think I ever read the intro before (written by Lattimore), choosing instead to dive right into the poem itself. It was illuminating, esp. his segment on how the meter of the poem informs some of the descriptions, as well as his piece on how many of the similes bring everyday life into a poem about war. I decided to dive back into the Iliad<\/em>, with hopes of sticking through the Odyssey<\/a>\"\", too, and then rolling into Troilus & Cressida<\/a>\"\" and some of the other Shakespeare plays I haven’t read. The problem is, it’s tough for me to stick with this stuff when I’m not being pushed nowadays. It almost makes me want to start some sorta online book club. I doubt I could put together a Homeric Reading Society of Ringwood, NJ, awesome though that concept would be. I could do what I did with that Montaigne collection<\/a>\"\", and try to write about it each week, but the Essays<\/em> are (mostly) self-contained and speak about personal experience in a way that the Iliad<\/em> and the Odyssey<\/em> don’t. I think any attempt at writing book-by-book comments on Homer would be a waste of my time, insofar as it would have to involve real scholarship I simply don’t have the time to perform; I’d much rather have a conversation about it. Still, I’m going to reimmerse myself in the wrath of Achilles. I’ll try to let you know what comes of it. Maybe I’ll finally develop some ideas on how we’re supposed to understand the role of the gods in the play (Lattimore’s intro has some helpful comments on that, too.)<\/p>\n

What I’m listening to:<\/em> Greetings from Asbury Park<\/a>\"\", Spirit of Radio<\/a>\"\", Wake Up The Nation<\/a>\"\", and the most awesome single of the year:<\/p>\n

<\/object>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

What I’m watching:<\/em> An Education<\/a> and\u00c2\u00a0Whip It<\/a>,. Comments to come on Tuesday. I hesitate to call them reviews. We also watched that Rush documentary<\/a> again, because it was on, and because it’s wonderful to see the camaraderie within the band. And you really need to watch Louie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What I’m drinking:<\/em> G’Vine Nouaison & Q-Tonic.<\/p>\n

What Rufus & Otis are up to:<\/em> Not too much. I didn’t take them on my hikes this weekend, and we decided the Sunday grey-hike was too rainy to deal with.<\/p>\n

Where I’m going:<\/em> NYC this afternoon for a pharma-interview, but no other travels planned.<\/p>\n

What I’m happy about:<\/em> A raver-looking chick behind the register at Ramsey Outdoor told me, “Wow, you have really beautiful eyes,” when I was buying a hat to keep the sun off during hikes.<\/p>\n

What I’m sad about:<\/em> She could’ve been my daughter, if I’d started off young.<\/p>\n

What I’m worried about:<\/em> The doggies’ seeming bout of allergies, which is leading them to nibble on their forelegs and sides at weird hours. I thought they might have fleas, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Amy’s for giving them benadryl, but I’m hoping this’ll pass..<\/p>\n

What I’m pondering:<\/em> Whether I could<\/em> launch that Homeric Reading Society here in town. “Ringwood Atheneum”?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What I’m reading: After Bernard Knox’s death last week, I decided to read his introduction to Fagles’ translations of Homer. I found myself bored by them for some reason (probably because of their focus on philology), so I decided to break out my old Richmond Lattimore translation of the Iliad. I don’t think I ever … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “What It Is: 8\/23\/10”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61,4],"tags":[1124,1127,84,1126,1125,121],"class_list":["post-5553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis","category-literature","tag-bernard-knox","tag-cee-lo-green","tag-homer","tag-richmond-lattimore","tag-robert-fagles","tag-shakespeare"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-1rz","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1818,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/reader-request","url_meta":{"origin":5553,"position":0},"title":"Reader Request","author":"Gil","date":"December 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks ago, one of my pals asked me for advice on picking a translation of the Divine Comedy. I forgot to post it, but recalled it this week under typically convoluted circumstances. Early this year, I reread the Iliad, so I decided to get back to the Odyssey\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0811856577","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5589,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/you-sir-are-badass-ajax-cleans-up-edition","url_meta":{"origin":5553,"position":1},"title":"You, Sir, Are Badass: Ajax Cleans Up edition","author":"Gil","date":"September 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This edition of hardcore badassery comes from Book 13 of The Iliad. Pushed back to their boats by the Trojans and their leader, Hektor, the despairing Achaians are inspired by the god Poseidon to stave off the attack. An exchange of spear-thrusts has left Amphimachos (an Achaian) and Imbrios (a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "You Sir Are Bad-Ass"","block_context":{"text":"You Sir Are Bad-Ass","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/you-sir-are-bad-ass"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0140275363","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8974,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-130-the-cult-of-experience-and-the-tyranny-of-relevance","url_meta":{"origin":5553,"position":2},"title":"Episode 130 – The Cult of Experience and the Tyranny of Relevance","author":"Gil","date":"August 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show #130: Elizabeth Samet - The Cult of Experience and the Tyranny of Relevance \"How do you learn things? How do you acquire the patience to admit when you don't know things? I think those are really important things for an Army officer to know.\" Elizabeth D. Samet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"41X6zxtIM4L._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/41X6zxtIM4L._SX327_BO1204203200_-290x440.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7659,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-the-consolation-of-poetry","url_meta":{"origin":5553,"position":3},"title":"Podcast: The Consolation of Poetry","author":"Gil","date":"January 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Virtual Memories \u2013 season 4 episode 3 - The Consolation of Poetry \"Poetry chose me at an early age. I think it was connected to the fact that poetry is emotional, pretty, and short.\" Rachel Hadas, author of Strange Relation: A Memoir of Marriage, Dementia and Poetry\u00a0(Paul Dry Books),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/11973492465_5e16c1c364_o.jpg?fit=847%2C1114&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/11973492465_5e16c1c364_o.jpg?fit=847%2C1114&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/11973492465_5e16c1c364_o.jpg?fit=847%2C1114&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/11973492465_5e16c1c364_o.jpg?fit=847%2C1114&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9515,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-159-burton-pike","url_meta":{"origin":5553,"position":4},"title":"Episode 159 – Burton Pike","author":"Gil","date":"March 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show #159: Burton Pike \"When you translate, you are digging into not so much the psyche of the author but the psyche of the author's use of language.\" Translator and emeritus literature professor Burton Pike joins the show to talk about his lifetime in the arts, the musicality\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"25540193895_62b4490de7_z","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/25540193895_62b4490de7_z-620x425.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/25540193895_62b4490de7_z-620x425.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/25540193895_62b4490de7_z-620x425.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3342,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-of-the-disadvantage-of-greatness","url_meta":{"origin":5553,"position":5},"title":"Monday Morning Montaigne: Of the disadvantage of greatness","author":"Gil","date":"February 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"With Of the disadvantage of greatness (pp. 849-853), Montaigne counters Mel Brooks' wisdom that \"it's good to be the king.\" M. concedes that the actions and effects of kings are awesome, but the tradeoff is that they'll never have a measure of themselves because of the deference of their subjects.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Monday Morning Montaigne"","block_context":{"text":"Monday Morning Montaigne","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/monday-morning-montaigne"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5553"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5556,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5553\/revisions\/5556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}