AN ALMOST SPIVVY LIVY

You know a book's gonna be awesome when the author has the gall to begin:

"In a preface to just a section of my work I am able to make the claim that most historians have made at the beginning of their entire opus: I can say that I am going to provide an account of the most momentous war ever fought."

In the Latin: "In parte operis mei licet mihi praefari, quod in principio summae totius professi plerique sunt rerum scriptores, bellum maxime omnium memorabile quae unquam gesta sint me scripturum..."

Starting Yardley's OWC translation of Livy (XXI-XXX).

The Time's They Are a-Changin': Brainstorm Criticism Tone Poem Rant Thingie

incipit. Ovid's Metamorphoses v. fittingly anonymous genius's Beowulf. Both deal with time/change. Both see the changeableness of things, but write in different flavors. Ovid is more of the "littera scripta manet" variety (see his (facetious?) concluding auto-epigraph), and sees change/time as a positive/creative thing. Beowulf sees change in a much more melancholy, negative light. But, the Metamorphoseon also depict change as patternless, arbitrary and empty. Ovid's time has a certain "terrible lightness of being" quality: time expanded so infinitely that it becomes hollow. In Beowulf time plods ever on and on, growing in weight at the same time that it shrinks with age and weariness. In Beowulf history is much sadder, much older, but much more meaningful. fin.

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Reading Chesterton's biography of Blake in preparation for upcoming Blakeathon. Delivers w/ the usual poise and intellectual rigorvigor. In re John Flaxman (1755-1826), Chesterton states: 

He would admit no line into a modern picture that might not have been on a Greek bas-relief. Even foreshortening and perspective he avoided as if there were something grotesque about them -- as, indeed, there is. Nothing can be funnier, properly considered, than the fact that one's own father is a pigmy if he stands far enough off. Perspective really is the comic element in things.

This in the midst of philosophical expositions on Blake's early life & work. He eventually says that "Flaxman upside down is almost a definition of Blake" (i.e. Blake inherited Flaxman's con- and precision, but applied it with Blake's characteristic taste for the topsy-turvy. I heart Chesterton.

Also, rather like Flaxman's stuff for its precision. May try some copies.

Mtmrphss X.520

nihil est annis velocius

Metamorphoseon: Plectrum

I've been picking my way through Ovid's Metamorphoses for the better part of two months now. The Latin's a bit beyond my ability, so I'm basically translating line-by-line with the help of lots and lots of dictionary searches. One interesting word that I should already know is the imposing-sounding "plectrum" (English pl. plectra), better known as the "pick" used to play guitars (as well as harpsichords).

I will wax lyrical on the splendiferous Metamorphoses as a whole once I finish it (at X.149 at the moment).

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In other news, Fitzgerald's 1920 début This Side of Paradise, is a witty, rather début-novel-ish showcase of literary ability for the young Francis Scott Key Fitz. Shares a number of things in common with Gatsby, e.g. fatal car-crashes, explorations of intimate relationships, and a brooding, unclear concern with WWI. Random poetical interpolations also give it an odd, off-kilter quality that enhances the 1920 it's a mad, mad, mad, mad world feeling. Haven't finished it though, so I will try to reserve judgment until then. Fitzgerald's way of talking (rather not talking) about the war reminds me of Mann's Der Zauberberg. Also, PURPLE ZEBRAS. [Bear in mind, most of this comes from "Book I: The Romantic Egoist." I have yet to delve into "Book II: The Education of a Personage."