07-18-2011, 07:09 PM
I took 'The History Boys' as a fairy-tale, reflecting the fantasies of the chief fairy. Your quote though, rings true to v many readers, and it is so striking, when the writer is long-dead, and from a different culture. I recall being stunned by the clarity of Plato. It was so like the almost rabbinic dissection of argument which I was used to growing up, and quite different from the real, 'direct man' (to use Dostoyevsky's word) who spoke with no need for rational basis, like this, (the discussion might be about anything, God, politics, why):
Me: I don't follow. Are you trying to say......
D.M : HAVE YOU EVER RUN A MILL?
In his view, as plainly in my teens I had not run a mill, the answer 'no', proved that only he had the right to speak, about anything, and generally through his arse. So that meant that one more or less had to poke fun at him, and drift further and further away from the point.
So, it was strange that some Greek of 2000 years back would seem more comprehensible than an Englishman, face to face, but so it was.
Fascinated by your chosen holy trinity. While I should not wish to disagree, it did occur to me that over the years, there have been other candidates: bravery and acts of derring-do; sinking down the social scale, to poverty ; rising from poverty, going to learn the rudiments of mathematics, science, and other improving things, while working so hard that, by putting a little by, and investing successfully, getting the old home back, or marrying the girl he could not when poor; or the tragic fate of children --'The Mighty Atom' (a bit of a tirade against science and reason, really). The fate of the poor : Rattle his bones/Over the stones/He's only a pauper /Whom nobody owns. Then there is the whole religious bit.......
Me: I don't follow. Are you trying to say......
D.M : HAVE YOU EVER RUN A MILL?
In his view, as plainly in my teens I had not run a mill, the answer 'no', proved that only he had the right to speak, about anything, and generally through his arse. So that meant that one more or less had to poke fun at him, and drift further and further away from the point.
So, it was strange that some Greek of 2000 years back would seem more comprehensible than an Englishman, face to face, but so it was.
Fascinated by your chosen holy trinity. While I should not wish to disagree, it did occur to me that over the years, there have been other candidates: bravery and acts of derring-do; sinking down the social scale, to poverty ; rising from poverty, going to learn the rudiments of mathematics, science, and other improving things, while working so hard that, by putting a little by, and investing successfully, getting the old home back, or marrying the girl he could not when poor; or the tragic fate of children --'The Mighty Atom' (a bit of a tirade against science and reason, really). The fate of the poor : Rattle his bones/Over the stones/He's only a pauper /Whom nobody owns. Then there is the whole religious bit.......