The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
Mary Renault Book Discussion
Kerry:
--- Quote from: injest on January 17, 2007, 08:47:30 pm ---"Shall I tell you the sin of Alkibiades? He was born too late to into a City of little men. Why did the mob banish Aristides the Just? Because they were sick of hearing his virtue praised. The admitted it. It shamed them. Now they hate to see beauty and wit, valour and birth and wealth, united in one man. What keeps the democracy alive at all but the hatred of excellence; the desire of the base to see no head higher than their own?"
--- End quote ---
Regarding Alkibiades – this had particular relevance for me as an Australian. All Australians suffer from a peculiar national malady/trait, which is referred to in this country as “Tall Poppy Syndrome.” I feel confident enough to say that the majority of Australians suffer from it. Imagine a garden bed with poppies growing. Further imagine the taller poppies, proudly standing high above all the other shorter poppies. Now imagine a naughty child coming along and maliciously knocking-off the heads of the tall poppies, for no other reason than because they are taller than the rest.
It’s similar to the piece in the Bible (and forgive me if I am unsuccessful in achieving a verbatim quote here – been a long time since I last read it) about a prophet not being loved/venerated in his own home town.
Or another example, closer to home for me. I paint recreationally (oils on canvas). I usually get positive, complimentary remarks about my paintings, from people I barely know. However, from my family and “friends” I get nothing but negativity.
Australians are known for knocking the heads off our most famous tall poppies. We can’t help ourselves! It’s almost a national hobby. Goes waaaaay back to our convict origins, I guess, where we had no respect for authority (some might argue we still don’t!)
And I’m seeing that this is the way the Athenians are reacting to Alkibiades. He is their most dazzling, tallest poppy, and they’re determined to knock him down to size.
Kerry:
--- Quote from: injest on January 17, 2007, 08:47:30 pm ---"Justice? If the gods give a man wisdom or forethought, or skill, must he be brought down as if had got them by theft? We shall be laming the best athletes soon, at the demand of the worst, in the name of justice. Or some citizen with pockmarks and a squint will lay a complaint against such a boy as this" (here he pointed suddenly at me) "and his nose will be broken, I suppose, for justice's sake."[/color]
I see parellels to our own times...the schools that have banned tag or spelling bees to 'protect' childrens egos...
even handicapped parking spots for an ever widening group of complaints and ailments...
--- End quote ---
This made me laugh, when I read it. I’m sure “political correctness” was not even invented when MR wrote TLOTW. I hope political correctness (“PC” for short) isn’t another uniquely Australian term. Let me know if you don’t know what PC is.
Not only is MR referring to PC here, long before the term was coined; she is also sending up the out-of-control monster that PC has become.
I’m not sure about elsewhere in the world, but here in Australia PC is everywhere! And we are all aware of its precepts and what can befall us if we fail to adhere to them One must be constantly aware of one’s English usage, as well as one’s body language. If you moderately offend against PC, you risk only a slight reprimand. However, if you make a biiiiiiig PC boo-boo, you could find yourself before the courts. For example, you are not permitted to say to a woman in the office, “You’re blouse is a lovely colour.” She can sue you for sexual harassment. Or, on a lighter side, (and this has actually happened to me), it is no longer appropriate for a man to be a gentleman and open a door for a lady. He might find himself being told, most aggressively, “Hey, I’ll open my own door, mate. I’m just as good as you are!”
This particular quote from LTOTW, above, reminded me that we are all now forced to use the ramps at the entrances of public buildings, which are installed there to provide wheelchair access for a tiny minority. It is good that the ramps are there (I suspect many architects may not agree) for the disabled, even though it could be viewed by some as a case of “over-kill,” forcing us all to use them.
Breaking all our noses to comply with the pockmarks and squints of the few?
Am I being cruel? Don’t mean to be. Mea culpa!
Kerry:
As Jess has noted previously, there’s more to Renault than meets the eye. It’s not all about ancient Greece. It’s topical, too. For example:
“As for justice,” Theramenes said, “they have as much notion of it as the guts of a mullet. I tell you, my dear Myron, this very night I could raise a drunken brawl here, strike you before all these witnesses, wound your slaves; and if you would only come to court looking and behaving like a gentleman, I undertake you would lose your case. I, you see, should put on the old tunic I wear on my farm, and have a speech written for an honest poor fellow, which I should con till it came like nature to me. I should bring my children along, borrowing some little ones as the youngest is ten; and we should all rub our eyes with onion. I assure you, in the end it would be you who would pay the fine, for plying your simple friend with stronger stuff than he could afford at home, and trying to profit by it. They would spit on you as you left.”
When I read this, I immediately thought of the despicable “gay rage defence,” whereby someone could quite assuredly and with impunity, take the life of a gay man, and not suffer the consequences under law. Walk free! How? Their defence case would state that they were propositioned for sexual favours by the said gay man (even when this wasn’t the case); that the defendant was so traumatised by these “unnatural advances,” he took the life of the gay man, in an attempt to defend himself against being violated. It was self defence, his attorney would claim.
This actually happened many times. Murderers walked free. It took the judicial system a long time to realise that it wasn’t self-defence at all. It was murder.
Mary Renault was a gay woman. I wonder if she is eluding to “gay rage defence” here.
injest:
You reminded me of the case in Florida, I believe...a teacher had sex with a thirteen year old...she showed up in court dressed like a little girl all ribbons and curls...
her attorney argued she was too pretty to go to jail. They let her go...
How often do we see defendents that when they were arrested; were dressed like thugs and show up in court dressed for church...and the jury buys it... :P
Kerry:
I meant to post this some time ago and became distracted elsewhere (that's too much fanfic for you, Kerry!) ::)
There were a wide variety of Herms to choose from.
Here are some:
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