Book Notes: "A Summary of Stoic Philosophy: Zeno of Citium in Diogenes Laertius Book Seven" by Charles Duke Yonge and Keith Seddon

A Summary of Stoic Philosophy: Zeno of Citium in Diogenes Laertius Book Seven by Charles Duke Yonge

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It took me a while to get into this book. It was recommended by one of the Stoic websites I have visited. I was a little confused when I first picked up the book. It was published by Lulu, a self-publishing platform, and for a time this put me off. But this is actually an annotated work of an original Greek work written some time in the early 3rd century CE, and then translated into English by Charles Duke Yonge in 1853, and then re-worked by Keith Seddon in 2007. The original author, Diogenes Laërtius, has, in effect, written a literature review of some of the major Stoic philosophers, and listed their various works. Unfortunately, only fragments of the original work, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, of which the present work is drawn, from Book 7, have been recovered. Once I had the provenance under control, I appreciated Seddon's work in resurrecting a Stoic classic, and then the knowledge of how much I don't know began to flow in. Without Diogenes Laërtius' work, the existence of many of the Stoic works would be unknown, as it seems that none of these other works has survived. These Stoic authors wrote on logic and ethics and physics and so on, and were far more sophisticated in their philosophy then simply not budging when somebody punched them in the face. As I am currently reading Aristotle's Rhetoric, there is some congruence with the basic elements of the philosophy that all piece together as I read more of the classics. What surprises me most is that much of my knowledge of the classics, gleaned as it was from the formal education system, is a facsimile of a facsimile copied and recopied and passed on through the ages until what I have been given barely resembles a mere trace of the original. There is too much in this for one reading, and it really is a study piece rather than a work for easy leisure, pointing to further studies to be done more than a standalone piece of literature (as one would expect of a literature review). That scholars were so sophisticated 2,000 years ago makes me wonder how humanity went so backward and has arrived today at what is barely an echo of the wisdom of the past. It haunts me in that if it happened before, it can and will happen again, so our present circumstances could easily dumb things down, if it is not already too late. And all this from reading a book published on Lulu. It is enough to change my opinion of the self-publishing platform!

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Book Notes: "The Good Soldier Švejk" by Jaroslav Hašek

The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is quite a tome. It is really four books in one (view spoiler).[or three and a half, as the author expired before the final book was completed. (hide spoiler)] This is my first reading of a Czech author. I understand that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was held back by the Russians and later the Italians, otherwise the Anglo-French and their allies may have been in some mighty trouble during the Great War. Švejk puts an interesting spin on the peoples and cultures of this part of the conflict and, as an ex-soldier, I couldn't help but chuckle at the timeless idiocies of the military life, and Švejk's nonchalant way of handling such banal annoyances as "greatcoats on, greatcoats off", making "lists of lists", and nonsensical statistics about serving soldiers. While the work is part comedy, it is also satirical. In my mind's eye the comical events were reinforced by the cartoon drawings of Švejk and his antics. These cartoon characters tended to dance in front of real war footage, so a Laurel and Hardy figure had me laughing with embarrassment while at the same time I felt like I shouldn't be laughing. The effect is brilliant. There are so many stories within stories, and Švejk reminds me of the many characters I crossed paths with during my time in the army. One constantly came to mind as I read The Good Soldier Švejk: a soldier who could recite word for word any Monty Python movie ever made. At times, you had to tell him to just shut up, but it was hard to dislike him. Švejk is this same person. Tragic comedy is how I would describe this work. Brilliant.

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Book Notes: "Eclogues" and "Georgics" by Virgil

Eclogues and Georgics by Virgil

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book of pastoral poems is a classic, and therefore difficult to dismiss off-handedly. What I found interesting were other reviews on Goodreads. One stated: "I have hardly any clue what I actually read". Virgil reads like Shakespeare, although the work is translated from Latin, so I share the sentiments of the other reviewer! It took me some time to read the poems, as I had to research the various characters and Greek and Roman gods to make sense of it. Even then, the background story of the civil wars and political instability in Rome is difficult to discern simply from the poems' text. The imagery of the text is evident in Naomi Mitchison's book Cloud Cuckoo Land, but the difference between Roman and Greek ideals about pastoral life are significant. While Virgil applies Greek imagery to the Italian landscape, the images belie the true story. In Virgil's time, rich Roman families dominated the farms and used slave labour to operate them. According to David Quint, writing in The New Republic, it was the Roman equivalent of what has happened in agribusiness in the United States, where the virtues of the rural life on the family farm persist, yet 'big business' owns most of the farms. The Georgics are didactic in that they provide guidance for farming, interspersed with metaphors for the birth of Rome. I found Georgic IV, which concludes the book, to be inspiring. We are hoping to keep bees, and bee-keeping is the subject of the poem (if one puts aside the birth-of-Rome metaphor). So there is some joy to be found for the virgin reader, much like one might find in a Shakespearean sonnet. However, without the background information, one might read and not absorb a word of what one had read. This brings me to this particular Dover Thrift Edition. I enjoy the size and price of this series, but sometimes I wonder whether a more substantial text with notes would be useful. Of course, there is the tendency, like in the Penguin version of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, to have longer notes than the actual work, and this can be worse. Nevertheless, this reading was useful as I steel myself for tackling Homer, Milton, and Dante.

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