10.9.19=19/19
I do not envy translators. One summel, I read Antigone and actually got a second copy so I could read a different translation because the first was way too modern.The Nagle seems to have the opposite problem, with its extreme, not even formallity, but what seems to be deliberately confusing language. The translations today, however, seemed really solid. I liked them.
Also, I’m wondering how they wrote numbers. I did a quick google and it seemed to be (mostly) what looks like the modern Greek alphabet with the letters corresponding to progressively bigger values. Why were numbers such a hard concept? Why did 0 even have to be invented? Isn’t the first things babies learn (via peekaboo) 0 and 1, not here vs here? (I’ve only just located the child development building on campus, so I’m really not qualified to speculate.)
I write notes in the margins during class about things I want to comment on and then proceed to spend forever trying to decipher what I wrote. All I want is the validation to be told ancient Greeks didn’t always write perfectly. Or maybe the invention of paper is what let’s us write quickly and sloppily. My hand doesn’t move fast enough for my thoughts. Was it even worse for people who had to manually carve their words letter by letter? Or was the language more concise? Or is this how people feel taking notes on laptops? I took notes for the first time last night on my computer and I hate how much more time-efficient it was in terms of ease to keep up and freedom to move around (I don’t even type correctly, it’s all index finger RIP ASDF and JKL;) But I don’t actually remember what I write. I wonder if the fact they read less and wrote less meant they were better at remembering what people said because they came into contact with less information.
Or were people just always the same?
[Update: I remember what I wrote]
The fact Sparta’s legendary discipline hinged on not coming into contact with anything mentally stimulating is pathetic. It reminds me of parents who are super strict and then once the kid gets to college they go wild and wind up hospitalized with alcohol poisoning. (Which theoretically wouldn’t happen for the Spartans who learned how to handle their liquor, nor the Athenians.) A system like that can’t last, because a military society like that will either conquer (and come into contact with others) or be conquered (and come into contact with others).
