Tuesday, October 17, 2017
The Pleasures Of Reading The Old Stuff
By: Donovan Baldwin
I read almost anything, but, I still enjoy reading "the classics", at least in bits and pieces.
I go back, and dip into the Iliad and the Odyssey, Moby Dick, The Three Musketeers, Tale of Two Cities, old Roman poetry, and so on, for many reasons.
One reason, of course, is that I had the good fortune to have had a bit of a classical education.
Three years of Latin at Pensacola Catholic High School: Caesar's Gallic Commentaries, some Cicero, etc. Confession; flunked third year Latin. Sorry, Mrs. Semmes. You did your best.
Most of it just remains jumbled bits and pieces these days, pushed out of my cerebral cortex by hurricanes, elections, practical college courses, tech manuals, too much alcohol on too many late nights, and life in general.
But, that's one reason I like to read the old stuff.
Before there were jet planes, cell phones, or men on the moon, there was a Moon, and men and women who enjoyed entertainment, thought about "stuff" even if not fully understanding it, had conversations with one another as they tried to understand themselves and the world around them, and the "stuff" in it.
Reading old stuff, not just "classics", but writing from earlier times, is about spending time with them...people...like you and me...in their time. Dressed funny, and talking weird, and probably drinking really bad wine, but, still, like you and me.
Old friends.
I go back, and dip into the Iliad and the Odyssey, Moby Dick, The Three Musketeers, Tale of Two Cities, old Roman poetry, and so on, for many reasons.
One reason, of course, is that I had the good fortune to have had a bit of a classical education.
Three years of Latin at Pensacola Catholic High School: Caesar's Gallic Commentaries, some Cicero, etc. Confession; flunked third year Latin. Sorry, Mrs. Semmes. You did your best.
Most of it just remains jumbled bits and pieces these days, pushed out of my cerebral cortex by hurricanes, elections, practical college courses, tech manuals, too much alcohol on too many late nights, and life in general.
But, that's one reason I like to read the old stuff.
Before there were jet planes, cell phones, or men on the moon, there was a Moon, and men and women who enjoyed entertainment, thought about "stuff" even if not fully understanding it, had conversations with one another as they tried to understand themselves and the world around them, and the "stuff" in it.
Reading old stuff, not just "classics", but writing from earlier times, is about spending time with them...people...like you and me...in their time. Dressed funny, and talking weird, and probably drinking really bad wine, but, still, like you and me.
Old friends.
Labels: Caesar's Gallic Commentaries, Cicero, classics, donovan baldwin, Latin, Pensacola, Pensacola Catholic High School, reading classics
