Buffy, Brutus, Churchill, and Cicero Walk Into A Bar
and you'll never guess what happens next!
διὸ καὶ φιλοσοφώτερον καὶ σπουδαιότερον ποίησις ἱστορίας ἐστίν: ἡ μὲν γὰρ ποίησις μᾶλλον τὰ καθόλου, ἡ δ᾽ ἱστορία τὰ καθ᾽ ἕκαστον λέγει.
Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.
That’s a quote from Aristotle’s Poetics, and I hope the Greek is correct because I got it from Wikiquote. This next quote I did not find the greek for, and I could not find a better citation than on a website that was last updated in, I’d have to guess, 1997.
The voice of the dolphin in air is like that of the human in that they can pronounce vowels and combinations of vowels, but have difficulties with the consonants.
I like to imagine that an Ancient Greek person reading this would have simply taken him at his word, thinking “huh, I guess dolphins only speak in vowels.” If I’d read Aristotle’s Historia Animalium while living in Ancient Greece this would be my go-to fun fact for parties. Much like my current one: baby porcupines are called porcupettes.
I also like to imagine what it would be like to live in a world where dolphins speaking in vowels is scientific fact.
Or better yet! A world in which it is scientific fact that baby bears are born as a formless mass that their mama bears must literally lick into bear-shape!
How utterly whimsical!
Far more whimsical than the things we accept as fact in our world.
“The Stock Market” is not real. It is a gambling game that somehow governs the Global North’s capitalist societies. “The Stock Market” is definitely not whimsical.
Eternal Youth is an ancient human myth but we have taken that idea and turned in into a FIFTY-EIGHT BILLION DOLLAR global industry. Believing you can halt the visible passage of time on your biological human body is an expensive idea to hold. And it’s not very whimsical when the lip filler you thought had dissolved has migrated around your face for the last few years.
Czech men believe that the buttons on metro doors need to jammed forcefully at least five times by a man and only a man. One press by a women? No, those doors are never opening and he’ll be trapped on the green line for the rest of his life. Ok, maybe this one is a little bit whimsical. Once you get over the gross misogyny and can finally laugh at them.
While I would much prefer to live in a time when dolphins had problem pronouncing consonants and small bears were formed by their mother’s tongues, I am unlikely to time-travel in this lifetime.
Meanwhile I must content myself with the wonder and whimsey of Buffy the Vampire Slayer references by my favourite historian in her books and podcasts.
Truly though, I’m easy to impress. Just demonstrate your equal knowledge of both Ancient Greek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer with alacrity and whimsey.
After all… Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.
I do apologise for my absence last week. I was, once again, dealing with my chronic ocular inflammation and a stabbing pain anytime I looked at a screen. I’m feeling back on form now and I hope to see you next week!
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