At the beginning of World War II, George Orwell started an essay off, as German bombs fell in his neighborhood. It was a scary time for the Brits. His essay was full of a determined optimism. He concluded with a prophecy of how the war would go:
Although there is some historical glamor to discovering some "new" truth, this experience reminds an individual how exciting (and more frequent) it can be to rediscover an old truth. Old truths become uninspiring as they devolve into bumper sticker slogans and one-liners. They become stale clichés.
An individual must stretch to see their own particular experiences as a thinly-disguised reprise of something larger and more universal. For instance I play with that idea when mountain biking in the western states, by seeing the mountain biker as the reincarnation of the cowboy-era archetype of the 'lone rider of the plains', who in turn was just a reincarnation of the European knight-errant of the Middle Ages.
I doubt that motor-sport people appreciate that connection. They probably think that a mountain biker is just a health nut/exercise puritan.
Do you think that they see their sport as the reinvention of something noble and timeless? Perhaps they do, but I can't imagine what it would be.
More generally, creative re-invention is the purpose of reading classic books, quite unlike many people's notion that one reads them just for the snob appeal, or as a form of literary ancestor worship.
...but England will still be England, an everlasting animal stretching into the future and the past, and, like all living things, having the power to change out of recognition and yet remain the same.That sentence knocked me over, when I first read it. Looking back at it later, I wondered why it made such an impression. After all, it essentially says what the old proverb does: 'the more things change, the more they stay the same.'
Although there is some historical glamor to discovering some "new" truth, this experience reminds an individual how exciting (and more frequent) it can be to rediscover an old truth. Old truths become uninspiring as they devolve into bumper sticker slogans and one-liners. They become stale clichés.
An individual must stretch to see their own particular experiences as a thinly-disguised reprise of something larger and more universal. For instance I play with that idea when mountain biking in the western states, by seeing the mountain biker as the reincarnation of the cowboy-era archetype of the 'lone rider of the plains', who in turn was just a reincarnation of the European knight-errant of the Middle Ages.
I doubt that motor-sport people appreciate that connection. They probably think that a mountain biker is just a health nut/exercise puritan.
Do you think that they see their sport as the reinvention of something noble and timeless? Perhaps they do, but I can't imagine what it would be.
More generally, creative re-invention is the purpose of reading classic books, quite unlike many people's notion that one reads them just for the snob appeal, or as a form of literary ancestor worship.
Comments
I appreciate writings of old as well. I'm currently reading Seneca's letters to Lucilius, written about 60 A.D., in which he talks of how to live. Being a stoic, it is a life of virtue he was interested in. 2000 years doesn't seem to make a shred of difference for the jist of them is just as applicable today.
Right. The more things change the more they stay the same. A sobering thought which helps us get over ourselves.
George
I don't remember his letter to Lucilius. His "On the Shortness of Life" is one of my favorites.
So uncontrollable blushing could be a real problem and Seneca talked about the overriding power of the body which no amount of wisdom could overcome.
Just as you became quite excited about your Orwell quote, so I became equally excited about this one:
No amount of wisdom ever banishes these things (referring to uncontrollable blushing); otherwise--if she (wisdom, seen as feminine in the ancient world) eradicated every weakness--wisdom would have dominion over the world of nature. One's physical make-up and the attributes that were one's lot at birth remain settled no matter how much or how long the personality may strive after perfect adjustment. One cannot ban these things any more than one can call them up.
And this was spoken long before any knowledge of chromosomes, genes, etc. Yet, purely through observation such sobering thoughts could be known.
It is indeed a remarkable thing to resonate with voices long dead. And, I may add, to resonate through the internet with another, such as yourself, someone who I could pass on the street and never recognize.......Seneca would understand.
George
Yes, it is an unexpected pleasure to find people on the internet to "resonate" with.