With St. Valentine's Day as the only exception (I realize that it is a contentious subject for some people), isn't February a great month? You've got all the perks of winter - snow, pleasantly chilly weather, sliding around on solid ground, and wearing long sleeve shirts under short sleeve shirts - without the brutal cold of January, the hectic Christmas season, the rain of spring, or the foul humidity of summer. And my thesis isn't due for another month and a half. I love you, February.February brought me something else: The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides. When this appeared on the reading list for one of my courses, I cringed in horror - 600 page books about ancient Greece? Does anyone like this besides Trevor the Plutocrat? But after reading the first two books, I realized my mistake. This is a must-read for anyone that enjoys epic, glory-obsessed military/political history. One of Pericles' speeches (intended to rally the Athenians) gave me the elusive non-sexual tingly-feeling - more than 2000 years later. The democratic prewar deliberations on both sides and the events leading up to the ultimate conflict are incredibly interesting.
I'm writing this from a weightroom in a sophomore dormitory - my other job. If I make the horrible mistake of not blasting music when people come in, they immediately turn on the radio. Today was CLASSIC ROCK RADIO, one of my least favorite things. When I was in middle school, I thought that classic rock was great...before I realized that classic rock stations played THE SAME SONGS OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. NO MORE STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN l;aksdjf alw;erja;lksdfjal;skjliawejflkasdjflawerhfiasdjglaksjsgl;waieejtlasngljjsdnfa.
6 comments:
February is by far the best month ever! It has Valentines Day (which, although some lament, is when at our house we make peanut clusters, which are amazing and only come once a year - Alyssa's tried one, she can testify), it has my birthday, it has Laura's birthday, it has an extra day hidden once every fourth year (but not in years xx00, unless xx is divisible by 4) and it has ground hogs. And, even if you don't like the wintery cold, the lengthening days and the snow, then it's the shortest month, too. It even accepts that people don't like it, and makes it easier on them. What a friendly month!
And I love Greeks! Mainly the ancient ones, but I like Homer, and Hesiod, and Xenophon, and Plato and all the other good writers (but not the playwrites - they're boring). If only we were more Lacedaemonian, Boeotian, Danaan or Achean.
No Stairway! Denied!
The downside of Pericles' speeches is that they were probably written 50-odd years after he died.
AND THE PLAYWRIGHTS WERE NOT BORING!
Aeschylus and Sophocles were way cooler than Homer. Euripides sucks though, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Hey, I could care less whether Thucydides used a stone voice recorder to get the speeches 100% accurate; bottom line is, his writing is fantastic, and the speeches are - presumably - fairly close. That makes it more realistic than the LOTR while only slightly less epic.
Don't diss Homer. His poetry is lovely. And anyone who regularly refers to Achilles has having a "shaggy brest" is alright by me. Only Hesiod is a better poet by my standards (admittedly, they aren't very well versed in English, American, Roman, Italian, Spanish, French or any other poets)
I think that should be "breast," not "brest". Achilles isn't French, but everytime I see the name I pronounce it the French way. Damn other books.
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