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Thursday, June 20, 2002 |
Keats and Chapman
Of course, one can't metion Chapman & Keats without bringing up a biographical tidbit about them from the works of Flann O'Brien:
Keats was presented with an Irish terrier, which he humorously named Byrne. One day the beast strayed from the house and failed to return at night. Everyone was distressed, save Keats himself. He reached reflectively for his violin, a fairly passable timber of the Stradivarius feciture, and was soon at work with chin and jaw.
Chapman, looking in for an after-supper pipe, was astonished at the poet's composure, and did not hesitate to say so. Keats smiled (in a way that was rather lovely).
"And why should I not fiddle," he asked, "while Byrne roams?"
10:34:44 PM Permalink
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Silent, upon a peak in Darien
The Guardian reviews new editions of the Chapman translations of Homer. Surprisingly, before these translations appeared in 1597, virtually no one knew Homer. "Although the statutes of grammar schools made proud boasts that Greek was studied in the higher forms, it's likely that by the end of the 16th century only a handful of schoolchildren could read more than a few lines of Homer in the original...even literate people would have had only a general idea that the Odyssey was about a magical journey home and that the Iliad was about war. "
This is a superb review, well worth the read.
'Fixure' and 'wonder': the pairing of epithets marks out Chapman's own poem. His Homer is what Homer should be: at once quirkily arresting and homely. Keats had it about right:
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken...
This is the most wondering tribute which any English poet has paid another. Praise of Milton or Shakespeare tends to begin from a platform of veneration and sage familiarity; but Keats's praise is an honest confession that Chapman's Homer opens out a whole new world.
All of this makes Chapman great. He is not quite as great as Keats says he is, though. Looking into Chapman's Homer evokes the excitement of encountering a poet who is reaching for something just beyond the range of what can be said. But if you read the whole thing right through, then the translation begins to feel less like a voyage over strange seas and more like a bumpy ride on choppy waters, with moments of stomach-leaving-behind excitement amid passages which are quite becalmed.
I don't think I have it in me to read the Chapman translations (it's been a long time since I read either of them.)
There are translations here of the Iliad and here of the Odyssey. Jorn Barger has a very nice page of resources on the Odyssey.
10:27:47 PM Permalink
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Will The Circle Be Unbroken
Peter Stone Brown writes nicely about the classic Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album. It's a landmark record from 1972, a collaboration between some hippies and a number of classic country stars. I had the LP when I was in college, and know I haven't heard it for a good 25 years or more. I got the newly remastered CD today, and remember nearly every note on the album. While listening I even found myself parroting some between song patter from it. I remember my roommate Bill and I smirking at one thing one of the Dirt Banders said.
Beyond this nostalgia, it really holds up well. From the first cut, "The Grand Ole Opry Song," with its evocation of Little Jimmie Dickens (Take an Old Cold Tater and Wait) and Bradley Kincaid, to superb renditions of "Tennessee Stud," "Dark As A Dungeon," and many, many more, these musicians really cook. Different styles are united nicely and it all just flows together. A real treat, a classic album.
6:18:01 PM Permalink
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Documentary of US 'War Crimes' Shocks Europeans
American soldiers have been involved in the torture and murder of captured Taliban prisoners, and may have aided in the "disappearance" of up to 3 000 men in the region of Mazar-i-Sharif, according to Jamie Doran, an Irish documentary film-maker.
Is this true? I certainly hope, and trust, that it's not. But I do know that the American press is far more concerned with Gary Condit or what Bill Clinton was doing than looking into possibly unpleasant truths like this. But the thing is, is we lose. If others are presenting these kinds of documentaries and the American press is ignorning them, then the only conclusion many are going to draw is that they're true and that we're all behind this knd of behavior. Not a way to win a "war" on terrorism. [via New World Disorder]
5:47:23 PM Permalink
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Museum of Depression Art
One reasons the web is so great.
Depressionism, according to the landmark Johnson & Jansen "Big Book o' Art Stuff," is not limited to a single place or time. Instead it reflects the low point of an otherwise highly regarded artist's career. Picasso's "Blue Period" is a perfect example of this creative state of mind. Mrs. Mumblestoats describes it perfectly when she says "that boy was lower than an ant's bellybutton."
5:27:46 PM Permalink
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How to Kill an Industry
The copyright office has knuckled under to big radio and big music and is imposing fees on webcasters that are far beyond their ability to pay. This will certainly cause most Internet broadcasters to go out of business. But it will also have other effects, which are really hard to determine now. Perhaps a whole set of music makers who exist beyond the bounds of existing channels?
5:24:03 PM Permalink
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Integrated nonsense search engine
"That story that your brother-in-law just sent to you and forty other people sounds true... Put it to the test here. Take a couple key words from the message, paste or type them into one of the boxes below..." [From Goodshit]
Very handy. Do everyone a favor, and before you mindlessly forward a virus note, a piece of glurge, or a call to protest the death of Elmo, hit this site.
5:07:54 PM Permalink
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Yow! A near miss!
We all dodged a bullet last week. On June 14, a chunk of rock a couple hundred feet in diameter passed only 75,000 miles from our planet; that's about a third of the way from the earth to the moon. If it hit land, it would have caused about as much damage as the Tunguska event in Siberia in 1908, which flattend a lot of forest, about 2,000 square kilometers. And of course, Siberia was pretty unpopulated in 1908. Of course, chances are about 2 out of 3 that it would hit ocean, but that would have its consequences, too.
What's scary is that this one wasn't mapped, and that we didn't even know it had passed till three days later. There are, of course, a lot of them out there which aren't mapped. It seems clear that it would be prudent to invest some money in catalogging these things. Not that we can do much about them for now, but we don't even have a good idea as to the size of the problem.
4:53:30 PM Permalink
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© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.
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