Javier Centellas > Recent Status Updates

Read another section, this time from Book 4, Pyramus & Thisbe. Really liked this one. Almost identical to the story of Romeo & Juliet. I assume al of lecture/class will talk about that fact & compare it to Song of Songs. On page 139.

Read another small section, this time from Book 14. At least this time the professors gave us a whole section to read, the Wanderings of Aeneas Resumed, to read instead of some random-ass lines. The Apetown section caught me off guard a bit and made me chuckle. Can't wait to come back to actually read this and give it proper justice once I finish the Plato book. I also need to read the Aeneid soon too.

Reading guide says to read lines 678-687 of Book 13. We are the honours programme. Why the fuck are we babying ourselves by only reading such small segments of these texts. There are times this class is downright insulting in the way it assumes we are more simian that we actually are. Anyways, this is the part about the daughters of Orion killing themselves to save Thebes. On page 531.

Again, fuck this reading list. It says read lines 933-942 of Book 15, which I assume means the epilogue of the book. Call for infamy & kleos. On page 636.

Read another small section of the Pythagoreas section of Book 15. What the actual fuck is this reading guide the professors gave us. Part of it is the line numbering in the class packet is way off from this copy, but it seems to be a problem with the packet because this translation keeps the line numbers faithful to the original Latin. Hope this doesn't fuck me over in the quiz tomorrow.

Read a very brief excerpt from the Pythagoreas section of Book 15. Why the hell are we reading these random-ass sections of the poem? We spent a week on Song of Songs for some reason yet we speedrun through Ovid? smh. In this section, Pythagoras talks about how cool being vegetarian is. He was a weird dude. Need to do a deep dive on him at some point. Like to see the contemporary Roman view of him.

Read a section of Book 5, The Rape of Prosperina. I'm so Greek pilled that it took me far to long to realize that this is just a Romanized retelling of the Hellenic story Hades kidnapping Demeter's daughter Persephone. On page 202.

Read the first two sections of Book 1, The Creation & The Four Ages. Surprised how similar this is to Genesis. Also interesting to see how the Iron Age Romans used the term “Iron Age” and “Bronze Age” contemporarily

Read all the intro stuff. Preface, context, 20 page intro, translators note. We’re only readinf small parts of this for class, which is a shame. I plan to read the whole thing. The Nabokov comparison is NOT as flattering as the editors think it is. Can’t wait to read tho.

Read the third dialogue, Crito. I only had to read the first two for class but I bought the whole book, I'm going to read the whole book. This dialogue was quite short but I really liked it. Discussion of what it means to be a good citizen as well as thoughts on how to face death with dignity. I think about my own death and mortality a lot so I liked this aspect. Wish everyone nowadays had a spine like Socrates.

Read Book VIII. I have a bad habit of getting halfway through a book/chapter then not finishing it and coming back days later. Given how this was supposed to be read aloud in one sitting it kinda fucks up the message of the book. Took me a week to finish this chapter. But basically in this section St. Augustine finally converts fully to the Catholic Church.

Read the final chapter, Chapter 9: The Alternative History; Selected Myths and Mysteries. The world used to be so exciting and unknown. I hate living in modern society. Remember driving over the faery bridge on the A5 so I hope I don’t have bad luck. UFOs are cool too.

Read Chapter 8: Up to Now. World War One & Two history. Would have liked a little more about the internment camps but I already saw those in the museums. Liked the post WWII section but it felt rather short, but then again I suppose there's not much to talk about.

Read Book VII. What the helliante.

Finished Book VI. A lot more talk of sexual matters. Strange reading this now.

Read Chapter 7: The English, Emigration, and Entrepreneurs. Really cool hearing about the 19th century. Also love all the AP Euro references. Love the section on the trains, wish it was longer (I swear I'm not autistic). Would have liked more about the financial crash of 1900 in the last section but maybe that will get picked up on the next chapter. Also big fan of the nautical stuff (yo ho ho).

Read Chapter 6: Return of the Stanleys. Cool to learn about the smuggling trade I've heard so much about. Also kitty cats!

Read Chapter 5 (Two and a half centuries of Stanleys)

Finished Apology (days ago)

Read Book III. Interesting discussion of how the theatre is to be avoided, talk of immoral catharsis. Lot of Platonic themes. Discussion of how Augustine became more religious and is led astray by the Manichaens. I like all the footnotes but I wish they went more in depth about Manichaeism. Some discussion on sexual matters. Discussion on basic morality & the nature of divine law. I've been warned about book 4

Read the first half of the second dialogue, Apology. Don’t know why the syllabus split the reading in half (half to be read by tomorrow and the other half by Friday). Seems out of character for the programme but whatever. I definitely like this dialogue more than the first, mainly because it’s less philosophical. This is definitely humorous in a classical sense of the world.

Read Book 2. Contemplating his riotous childhood, sin, and the nature of God in all of this. Brief commentary on sexual immorality. Hope to see more of his thoughts about this since I’ve been in freak mode lately. The famous story of the pear theft is in this one. I get what he’s saying (I think).

Read Book I. Super dense and hard to get to. About early childhood. Hope it’s not this convoluted the entire way through.

Read Chapter 4: The Scots, the English, and the Lords of Mann. The mediaeval era is so cool. Dope to read about Castle Rushen a bunch. Interesting that the Isle never was hit by the Black Death. Surprised to read that the Isle's population was about 10,000 around this time. I know that it is a small Island, but it felt so small when I visited and the current population is about 80,000.

Read the Euthyphro Dialogue. We only have to read two of the five but they are all quite short so I’m going to try to read them all. On the nature of piety/justness but also at a deeper level about the nature of wisdom & who is able to have power over naming and declarations.

Read the introduction & and all that Jazz. I can’t wait to read this as I start the conversion process. Augustine seems like such an interesting dude. Currently hard to focus sadly because situationship. Maybe this will help me find some answers. Also obligatory, SPQR because Rome gets mentioned hella. Low key thought this was a Medieval text, not classical. More fun though.

Read Chapter Three (Invaders from the North). I love learning more about Norse society I feel like it's always overlooked. Would kinda have wanted to know a bit about how mainland Norway was Christianized. Loved the final section, literally had a warning for how much complex political intrigue was about to go down.

Read Chapter Two (The Bronze Age, The Iron Age, and why the Romans Never Came to Mann). Life then must have been awesome. Liked the part about the Romans, would like to know more about early Christianity though.

Read Chapter One (Moving Mann into the Stone Age). Couldn't find the edition I'm reading on GoodReads, the version the website pulls up is nine years outdated. Whatever, the book is pretty obscure from a pretty obscure place. I can tell that when I read, since this is very obviously an amateur/semi-professional author. Not complaining though, this book feels like it was written by a kind, wise local grandmother.