conversations in my household

[dr_tectonic]

I just wanted to share that we started out talking about the fact that Herodotus is basically just like the elderly relative who doesn't quite get that not everything you hear on the Intarwebs is reliable information, and is constantly forwarding, say, the infamous Neiman-Marcus Cookie Recipe, except that he was the first guy EVER to do that, and we finished with "gravity is caused by ponies! Tiny gravity ponies race to the top of the atmosphere, where they meet up with the lunar gravity ponies from the moon, and they kick you as they go past because you're in the way and slowing them down, man, and that's what causes gravity. The moon ponies are much smaller, and that's why there are tides."

I love my partners. =)

Comments

[orbitalmechanic.livejournal.com]

You are so right. Herodotus is exactly that guy. On the other hand, didn't he write the slogan of the USPS?

[ocschwar.livejournal.com]

You realize that back then he had a lot more than his Slashdot karma riding on which accounts of each event he incorporated into his histories. "You can get much more editorial influence with diligent research and a good bronze sword than with diligent research alone."

[zalena.livejournal.com]

My dad read us Herodotus for bedtime stories.

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

I haven't read Herodotus in ages. :-(

This evening's conversation here included a thread about the difference between lesbian-processy people who are more social-work-processy, and about the overlaps between these two types of pragmatics.

Yours sounds more silly...

[tdjohnsn.livejournal.com]

I have the unfortunate image of the Gravity Ponies looking like My Pretty Pony and trailing sparkles. :-(

[bikerbearmark.livejournal.com]

"You made me laugh so hard I spit milk out my nose - and I wasn't drinking milk!"

CO Bound

[joebehrsandiego.livejournal.com]

Relocating to Denver later this week (more information that you probably want or need in my last few LJ entries). Will hope to run into you guys sooner or later!

Re: CO Bound

[dr-tectonic.livejournal.com]

Good luck with the move! We'll keep an eye out for ya.

[ng-nighthawk.livejournal.com]

My classics professor said something that helped me out a lot with classical histories. For the classical mind, the spirit of history, or the plot arc, if you will, that reaches its climax with NOW, is the most important thing to convey with history. What really happened is secondary. Herodotus went to amazing (for his time) lengths to verify the stories he re-told.

If you were to tell Herodotus that his work was compromised because he failed to take into account the context of the situation at that time, he would be baffled. Why would you even care about that context? The important context is my city, right now.

Anyway, once Iread the classical histories with that in mind--that everything that happened before is foreshadowing for right now--the stories seemed to work better for me.