tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7106797429392727612.post573564853135102558..comments2023-11-02T03:03:51.375-07:00Comments on Now and Rome: ReadingIkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954104097396714498noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7106797429392727612.post-30526913650779256822007-03-30T05:21:00.000-07:002007-03-30T05:21:00.000-07:00PS, on Rome - if I haven't bored you to death on t...PS, on <I>Rome</I> - if I haven't bored you to death on the subject yet - yes, you <I>must</I>, and I can supply the DVDs in manner of proper fandom crack dealer. My plan for my first two days in North Carolina is to watch the entire second season courtesy of HBO On Demand.Una McCormackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08946949711109912505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7106797429392727612.post-65395871212312769142007-03-30T05:19:00.000-07:002007-03-30T05:19:00.000-07:00I would love to read the Arendt/Heidegger when you...I would love to read the Arendt/Heidegger when you're done -I'll send you my NC address once I have it (i.e. when I arrive, although I think M. should tie it around my neck in case I get lost at Gatwick or something). Also it's possible that we might be able to arrange an emergency <I>Doctor Who</I> supply for you (depending on our success this weekend at finding Certain Technical Devices Of Which I Have No Real Understanding).Una McCormackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08946949711109912505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7106797429392727612.post-80335394938921799752007-03-26T02:03:00.000-07:002007-03-26T02:03:00.000-07:00Una - it's terrifically breathless and gushy (it t...Una - it's <I>terrifically</I> breathless and gushy (it took me a while to figure out you meant the Arendt/Heidegger, though, because frankly Cicero is kind of breathless and gushy too, which is shattering my illusions: when <I>was</I> this period when men didn't talk about their feelings?*). I'll pass it on to you when I've finished it, if you like (and if you give me your NC address).<BR/><BR/>Ee! Pompey has been murdered! I'd tell you what Lucan has to say about that, but it's <I>335</I> lines of hexameter. <BR/><BR/>Az - ironically, Una is probably a better person to ask about <I>Rome</I> than me, because I only watched the first couple of episodes. Most of the classicists I know are curiously indifferent to it - I mean, you can usually start a conversation about Brad Pitt's <I>Troy</I> at a classics event, but <I>Rome</I> just seems not to be being watched. In my case, that's partly because I have a very specific and not at all scholarly investment in a slightly later period of Roman history, which crystallized from reading <I>The Sandman</I>, <I>Antony and Cleopatra</I> and the <I>Aeneid</I> simultaneously when I was a sixth-former, and the miniseries has a very different version of events. The other reason is that I don't know if I believe in history - I mean, <A HREF="http://www2.blogger.com/profile/06064830217891706344" REL="nofollow">toft</A> got me into Cicero in the first place, through her excitement over the narrative and the people, but I don't have the same kind of excitement. I guess, thinking about it, literature works better for me as a site of otherness than history - I mean, I can see where <I>Rome</I> is playing on the same structures of same/different, recognizable/reconfigured,** as, say, Derek Walcott's <I>Omeros</I>, but there's too much of an illusion of transparency inherent in the genre of 'history' for it to be as interesting to me. (That's not just because it's telly and low-culture, either - I'm having a similar difficulty with Cicero's letters. I have to literarize them before they become interesting to me.)<BR/><BR/>But! I might completely change my mind*** - I'm eventually going to get hold of the DVDs and watch them all from the start, because it's frankly a bit embarrassing being a person who writes on Rome and on pop culture and on classical reception and hasn't seen <I>Rome</I>.<BR/><BR/>*Not the 50s - I've been in a car listening to about 300km of 50s pop music, most of which is appears to be about boys crying. <BR/><BR/>** you know, historical characters 'with loves and hates and passions just like mine, but on the other hand occasionally bathing in the blood of slaughtered oxen', as Morrissey nearly wrote.<BR/><BR/>***I originally wrote 'mine' there and was just smiling to myself about the Freudian slip - <I>I OWN MY OWN THOUGHTS</I> - while I corrected it. Then I saw I'd corrected it to 'minx'. I have no idea what that's about.Ikahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16954104097396714498noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7106797429392727612.post-83167253504418156492007-03-25T05:53:00.000-07:002007-03-25T05:53:00.000-07:00Talking about Cicero reminds me of a question I've...Talking about Cicero reminds me of a question I've been wanting to ask you for what seems like ages. What do you think of <I>Rome</I> the miniseries? I think it's splendidly soap opera-esque, but have no idea of the historical 'reliability' (or if they're doing something quite histrionic to counter that expectation of authenticity.)Azhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04176961568635217064noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7106797429392727612.post-88722508534344442462007-03-24T02:02:00.000-07:002007-03-24T02:02:00.000-07:00Wow, it sounds all breathless and gushy. If he is ...Wow, it sounds all breathless and gushy. If he is poor and she is posh, I'm going to be forced to read it. <BR/><BR/>In my world, Pompey just got murdered. And I finished reading my little source book of essays and documents about Spartacus and the Slave Wars, with questions at the back, like I'm doing history all over again.Una McCormackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08946949711109912505noreply@blogger.com