A Gladiator Dies Only Once

Posted on October 31, 2009 by smellincoffee
A Gladiator Dies Only Once: The Further Investigations of Gordianus the Finder
© 2005 Steven Saylor
269 pages
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Although the meat of the Roma sub Rosa series is its novels, Steven Saylor also enjoys writing short stories set within it, as these allow him to explore elements of Rome that don’t justify an entire novel. They also allow him creative leeway, demonstrated nicely in The House of the Vestals, his first story collection, where he told a ghost story and used Egypt as the setting several times. This is the second and as far as I know final short story collection in the sub Rosa universe, with stories set between the Sullian dictatorship of Roman Blood and Cicero’s consulship in Catalina’s Riddle. Most of the stories are set very early in Gordianus’ career, before he and his wife were married and had established a family.
House of the Vestals established a patrician friend for Gordianus in the rotund shape of Lucius Claudius, and he appears in most of the nine stories here. The length of the stories varies: some, like “If Cyclopes Should Vanish in the Blink of an Eye” are short, while others are long. Through the course of them, Gordianus rubs shoulders with the best and worst of Rome, and does a little traveling (to Sicily, for instance) along the way. All of the stories were quite enjoyable, although a couple seemed a bit short — “The White Fawn” is an example of that. It is set in Spain, where Pompey the Great is attempting to subdue the last remnants of Marian’s forces, leftovers from the Roman Civil War who intend to make Spain the home of a new Roman republic. The “white fawn” is said to be a manifestation of the goddess Diana, who whispers advice into the rebel general’s ear. The stories are not only enjoyable, but paint vivid and informative pictures of historical Rome. This may be one of my favorites of Saylor’s works.
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This Week at the Library (27/10)

Posted on October 31, 2009 by smellincoffee

Books this Update:

  • A Mist of Prophecies, Steven Saylor
  • The Spiritual Teachings of Marcus Aurelius, Mark Forstater
  • For Everything a Season, Philip Gully
  • Darwin Awards III, Wendy Northcutt
  • The Cosmic Connection, Carl Sagan
This update is a bit unusual in that it covers two weeks: I think I’ve updated once a week since spring 2008, but reading has been slower than usual because of papers and a difficult read, one that I’ve not finished yet — a formal translation of Epictetus’ Manual for Living and Discourses. Two weeks ago I continued in the Roma sub Rosa with Mist of Prophecies, which breaks the emerging pattern of stories against war by taking us to Rome in a period of relative peace. Gordianus takes it upon himself to investigate the murder of a seeress called Cassandra, for reasons made clear to the reader near the end. Mist offers more characterization on Gordianus’ part, but isn’t quite as riveting as novels that precede it.
Next I read a partial translation and commentary on the Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Author Mark Forstater updated the language of a more conservative translation, then organized sections of the Meditations into themes (“Cultivation of Death”, “Oneness of Nature”, etc.). This text follows an extended introduction on Forstater. The book is an obvious recommendation for those interested in ethical philosophy: it makes the Meditations more accessible, and may give those who have read it a more filling experience through background.
I followed this with Quaker pastor Phillip Gully’s For Everything a Season, stories about his and his town’s life organized into chapters that follow Ecclesiastes “For everything there is a season” passage. (If you’re bored, click that and read verses 19 through 22 and tell me you’re not surprised to read such heathery in the bible.) The book is rather charming, and makes for enjoyable reading. The stories show people living the simple life, relatively unspoiled by modernity.
I followed that up with a little levity in the form of the third collection of Darwin Awards, “honors” given to people to improve the human gene pool by offing themselves in stupid ways before breeding. The collection wasn’t as strong as the first, but there were a couple of amusing tales. Interestingly, one of the Darwin awards in this book just featured in a Cracked.com article — entry #6.
Lastly, I read Carl Sagan’s The Cosmic Connection, a series of essays written about astronomy and space exploration in the hopes of expressing Sagan’s own enthusiasm for those objects and cultivating them in readers. Although some essays are more technical than others, they should be appreciated by most lay readers. I recommend the book to science buffs and Sagan fans.
Pick of the Week: The Spiritual Teachings of Marcus Aurelius, Mark Forstater
Potentials for Next Week:
  • A Gladiator Dies Only Once, Steven Saylor. This is Saylor’s second collection of Roma sub Rosa short stories.
  • The Greatest Show on Earth, Richard Dawkins. This was the surprise entry from last week.
  • Discourses, Epictetus. (I wouldn’t count on it.)
  • Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor, Sudhir Venkatesh. I’m rather looking forward to this one: Venkatesh penned the fascinating Gang Leader for a Day.

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The Cosmic Connection

Posted on October 28, 2009 by smellincoffee

The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective
© 1973 Carl Sagan
273 pages

Carl Sagan penned The Cosmic Connection in the interests of communicating his own exhilaration at the human exploration of space. He begins by expressing his appreciating for being alive when he was, at such a unique point in history when human beings were capable of and willing to explore the solar system: no other generation will visit the planets Sagan and his colleagues did for the first time. The book almost seems a collection of essays at times, united only by the common topic of astronomy and space exploration, but Sagan does weave inter-essay references into a few of them, particularly towards the end. Although some essays are more technical than others, the book should be readable for even lay persons. I would recommend it particularly to astronomy buffs and Sagan fans.

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Darwin Awards III

Posted on October 28, 2009 by smellincoffee

Darwin Awards III: Survival of the Fittest
© 2003 Wendy Northcutt
304 pages

The Darwin Awards are tongue-in-cheek “honors” given to adults who remove themselves from the gene pool by killing themselves in extraordinarily stupid ways, thus improving it. The home of the Darwin Awards is online, but from time to time awards find their way into collections such as this. I figured I’d check the book out for a few laughs. The stories in this book are not quite as funny as the original, but usually manage to be amusing, even if only mildly so. There are a few that are staggeringly funny, though. If you’re interested in the book, I’d first suggest you visit the website and sample a few of the wares first.

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For Everything a Season

Posted on October 24, 2009 by smellincoffee
For Everything a Season: Simple Musings on Living Well
© 2001 Phillip Gully
220 pages
I don’t recall what lead me to reading this book, although I’m sure my fondness for the Hebrew book of Ecclesiastes had something to do with it. I also have a soft spot for Quakers, so a book of stories about the simple life set to themes from Ecclesiastes might have been appealing. An oft-quoted passage of Ecclesiastes, and one perhaps known better for its having been turned into lyrics by Pete Seeger, maintains that in life there is a time to sow, a time to reap, a time to laugh, a time to weep, a time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together (on the Sabbath, to bean the guy sweeping his porch), and so on. Each of the “A time to” qualities is given a chapter here, consists of a short story about author Phillip Gully’s life that in his opinion demonstrates that there is indeed a time for all these things.
Gully is a Quaker minister, hence my earlier reference, any many of the stories reference his experience as a minister in his community. He lives in a small Indiana town, one that seems to have held a get-out-of-change-free card, for most of the simple pleasures he enjoyed as a boy are enjoyed in turn by his boys, with a few exceptions like the lamented Royal Theatre, a teacher of everything that was good in life — Gully’s life, anyway. The stories are very charming — folksy, but not annoyingly so. Gully has a delightfully dry and self-depreciating humor, and his gentle and kind voice endeared him to me: only once did he border on growing overly preachy.
Although the book and chapter titles come from the Christian scriptures, this is not a religious book: it is more a book about a man and town who are more moved by religion than most people, and in more good ways than bad. Gully is very conservative in his way, but at the same time he has moral values that break conservatism’s hold on him. In “A Time to Hate”, he writes that he believes hate is to be cast away, that we make a choice to hate just as we make a choice to love.
In short, it’s a charming little book of stories about life in a small Quaker town, one where humanity still flourishes without regard to too much of modernity’s excesses — a place the reader might wish to live, so that they might sit on Gully’s self-built stone patio and listen to him talk, or simply enjoy the silence. It’s a lovely little book.
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The Spiritual Teachings of Marcus Aurelius

Posted on October 20, 2009 by smellincoffee

The Spiritual Teachings of Marcus Aurelius
© 2000 Mark Forstater
288 pages

I first encountered Marcus Aurelius in November 2007, reading his Meditations during Thanksgiving. Although I did not mention it any detail here, the Meditations have stuck with me ever since, often providing me with a source of strength during troubled times. Aurelius’ words provoked an interest in Stoicism, an interest that would lead me to visit sites such as the Humanist Contemplative and Humainism, two blogs/essay repositories focused on the intersection of Humanism, Stoicism, and Buddhism. DT Strain of the Humanist Contemplative has a “suggested reading” list, some titles of which I’ve read already and others I intend to track down. The first new book I read from this list is The Spiritual Teachings of Marcus Aurelius, functioning as a partial translation of the Meditations with preceding commentary.

After author Mark Forstater became interested in Stoicism, he decided to visit the Meditations in their most conservative translation, one promised to be as close to the literal meaning of the Greek as possible. He then began updating the language for easier reading while maintaining the original meanings of the word and Marcus Aurelius’ tones. I was able to compare Spiritual Teachings‘ passages with my copy of the conservative translation I read two years ago and can say with reasonable authority that Forstater succeeded in his goal: while these passages read easily, they have abandoned the first text. I say this not because I believe conservative translations are better, but because while some readers are interested in the general message, others might be more interested in the way Aurelius expressed that message. This is the difference between those who love Sharon Lebell’s modern interpretation of Epictetus in The Art of Living and those who loathe it. For stater has produced more of an edited translation than an interpretation.

Spiritual Teachings is not the meditations in whole: Forstater focused on specific passages and groups them into themes (“Cultivation of the Self” and “Death” are two), sometimes repeating passages or portions of passages when they address multiple ideas. The passages constitute the bulk of the book, being preceded by commentary from Forstater in the beginning. I would recommend the book to those who have heard of the Meditations but who don’t want to dive head-first into the Roman emperor’s biography and more esoteric references, or to those who have read the Meditations and are interested in a pocket-sized book containing their favorite passages.

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A Mist of Prophecies

Posted on October 19, 2009 by smellincoffee
A Mist of Prophecies
© 2003 Steven Saylor
304 pages
Gordianus the Finder and Rome have been through much turmoil in the past two preceding books, Rome having been plunged into civil war by the ambitions of those two men and Gordianus having been dragged behind history’s wake by his family — one son serving as Caesar’s aid, and a son-in-law kidnapped into Pompey’s service. A Mist of Prophecies provides a respite: after becoming more important and then directing the plots of the books, the historical background has become once more background. Gordianus the Finder has returned to Rome to rest, while Caesar and Pompey have their battles in Greece, Spain, and elsewhere. Rome is far from a peaceful sanctuary, however: although Caesar left a government to manage the city, it is now largely ruled by the creditors. Mob action against the creditors features into the book’s plot.
The book opens with a young seeress called Cassandra collapsing into Gordianus‘ arms in the market as he and his wife shop for radishes to cure said wife’s illness. Cassandra lives only long enough to tell Gordianus that “she did it, Gordianus…she poisoned me”. The death of this purportedly half-mad seeress from parts unknown has a strange effect on Gordianus: despite being in debt himself, he arranges to have this stranger to Rome properly buried, complete with a funeral process. As her body is being burned in the necropolis, Gordianus happens to see the hill lined with Rome’s matrons — the leading ladies of Rome’s patrician class are all in attendance, watching from their litters with guards in tow. Gordianus is at once puzzled: what is their connection to the deceased?
Cassandra’s memory will haunt Gordianus until he is told to stop moping and solve the mystery of who killed her. Cleverly, Saylor uses Gordianus‘ recollections of his encounters with Cassandra while he moves through the city interviewing the matrons to catch the reader up on Rome’s political happenings since Last Seen, as Mist is set about a year since then. Saylor thus avoids giving the reader an extended lecture, as the order in which Gordianus sees the matrons coincides with his recollections. We thus get two stories running with one another: one political, one a mystery. What is unusual about this book is that rather than Gordianus tell it in person, he seems to be recalling it from the future, referring to even events set in the present as “In those days…”. Usually Gordianus narrates the story as he lives it, and the reader is given a sense of following in his footsteps. This is a tale to be told to us, although as the book progresses the feeling of the usual format becomes more pronounced. The plot wraps things up nicely, giving us an answer to why Gordianus felt impelled to give the young woman a funeral — and giving us a look into continuing character development on his part.
Although Mist of Prophecies isn’t the most riveting of the sub Rosa series, it’s still a fine addition. Next week I may continue in the series proper or take a break to read through a collection of short stories set within the series as a whole, in the same vein as The House of the Vestals.
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This Week at the Library (16/10)

Posted on October 16, 2009 by smellincoffee
This Week at the Library:
  • I Sold My Soul on eBay, Hement Mehta
  • Last Seen in Masillia, Steven Saylor
  • The Consolations of Philosophy, Alain de Botton
  • Humanist Anthology, ed. Margaret Knight and James Herrick
  • Love and Death, F. Forrester Church
This week I learned that I am not always the ardent follower of wisdom that I would like to be. I was given a week to write a seven-page essay articulating my opinion on the Meiji Restoration and how it might be best described (coup or revolution). I committed the same folly that the unnamed character from Kokoro did when working on his thesis: I thought about it a good bit, but I didn’t begin doing the work until it was almost too late. I finished a paper due at 5:00 at 4:45, making me feel rather foolish. Because the latter part of the week was occupied by my note-taking and writing, I didn’t do a week-in-review as promptly as I usually do.
As far as books go, this was a gorgeous week. All five works I read would have been “pick of the weeks” in an ordinary week, and for that reason I’m not doing to do a “pick of the week” this week, which I usually do to spotlight a book that was particularly well-written or which made a powerful impact in my mind. I began with Hemant Mehta’s I Sold My Soul on eBay, his account of visiting several dozen Christian churches of varying sizes and doctrines over the course of a few months. He did so partially out of desire to learn about Christian culture and as a consequence of auctioning off his own church attendance. A man interested in improving Christian outreach won the auction and asked Mehta to attend a variety of churches, take notes, and report back with his thoughts on what they did poorly and what they did well. I Sold my Soul on eBay is a result of this. While it seems to be aimed at Christians, the novelty of someone alien to Christian culture immersing himself in it and giving his objective reflections is enjoyable by anyone.
I next continued in Steven Saylor’s series about Rome under the rose. The historical background of the books has becoming the plot’s driving force, and in Last Seen in Masillia, the plot brings Gordianus and his son-in-law to a town that will be later known as Marseilles, to investigate a rumor about his son Meto’s death. The town is under siege by Caesar’s forces, making it difficult to get into and impossible to get out. Gordianus is soon stranded in the town and occupies himself by investigating a death he witnessed within hours of stepping foot inside Marseilles, when a young woman plunged off of “Suicide Rock” into the sea below. The young woman’s father wants Gordianus to ascertain if her death was murder or suicide. There are plenty of plot twists here, as well as information for military history readers on ancient sieges.
Next, I was able to read Alain de Botton’s The Consolations of Philosophy, in which he addresses the everyday concerns of six famous philosophers — Socrates, Epicures, Seneca, de Montaigne, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. Rather discussing the whole of their philosophical output, de Botton labors to show how some of their thoughts can be applied to help everyone in responding to unpopularity, poverty, inadequacy, heartbreak, and hardship. Despite the book’s title, these philosophical principles are not simply consoling band-aids: if taken to heart (or to one’s mind, which a more proper expression), they are preventive measures. To use Socrates’ section as an example: if you ground your beliefs in reason and do your utmost to ensure that they are in line with reality, when you should have no fear of faltering when people oppose your ideas. Even if your opinions are wrong, they were honestly come by and there is no shame in an honest mistake. (On a final note, this book was actually cited in last week’s The Wisdom of Harry Potter.)
I then moved on to Humanist Anthology, although I commented on Love and Death first. Humanist Anthology is a collection of humanistic views throughout the ages, beginning with the ancients (Confucius and Epicurus) and ending with modern personalities like Richard Dawkins and David Attenborough. Themes include ethics, god-belief, religion, wonder, idealism, and the primacy of reason. The thoughts collected are generally civil, although criticism of religion can be quite sharp (particularly in Mark Twain’s case). The average length of collected material may be about a page, as there are longer essays and shorter quips both. I highly recommend it to all readers, especially humanists, but sadly it will not be easy for you to find as it is out of print. Perhaps in the future a revised edition will come out.
Lastly, I read cancer-stricken Unitarian minister Forrester Church’s account of his relationship with death — death as a concept, the death of his loved ones, and his own looming death. Church sees death not as a foe to be fought, but the punctuation point of a well-lived life. He believes death to be the cradle of religion, as he defines religion to be our response to the twin realities of being alive and having to die. The book acts as ministerial advice to those who have recently experienced the death of a loved one or are dying themselves: reading it was quite a thought-provoking and emotional experience, one I would recommend to others.
Quotation of the Week: Although Humanist Anthology had plenty of winners, it may merit its own full-length post on another blog, so I’d like to share this quotation from Love and Death:
“It is not in our words, but in our life that our religion must be read.” – attributed to Thomas Jefferson’s letters.
Potentials for Next Week:
  • Epictetus’ Discourses, as translated and edited by the classics club. It’s much more formal than The Art of Living, but I wanted to read a more conservative translation/interpretation of Epictetus for comparative reasons.
  • The Spiritual Teachings of Marcus Aurelius, Mark Forstater. This is on the recommended reading list at the Humanist Contemplative.
  • A Mist of Prophecies, Steven Saylor. The last book saw Gordianus make a staggering decision, one promising interesting but tormenting character development.
  • The Darwin Awards, volume something or another. After reading two books on Stoic philosophy, I may want a little levity.
  • The Cosmic Connection by Carl Sagan. Not sure what this one is about, I just like the author.
  • Mystery Entry, Mystery Author
Hint: the mystery entry was released this month. Additional hint: it is obliquely related to another book on the list.
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Humanist Anthology

Posted on October 14, 2009 by smellincoffee

Humanist Anthology
© 1995 ed. Margaret Knight and revised editor James Herrick
220 pages

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of Mankind is Man.
Plac’d on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic’s pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest,
In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;
In doubt his Mind or Body to prefer,
Born but to die, and reas’ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little, or too much:
Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus’d;
Still by himself abus’d, or disabus’d;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurl’d:
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world! – Alexander Pope

In a creative mood a few months back, I began assembling a personal anthology of sorts — collecting philosophical articles, essays, quotations, and poetry that I have found to be inspirational, highly informative, or otherwise helpful in my philosophical-spiritual journey. Thus, I was quickly interested by this book’s title, as it seemed similar to what I was doing with my own reading. Humanist Anthology collects religious, scientific, philosophical, political, and literary essays and quotations with a humanistic theme ranging in time from what Karen Armstrong called “the age of transformation” to the end of the 20th century. Authors included exhibit a good deal of diversity: there are obvious choices like Voltaire and Robert Ingersoll, not-so-obvious choices in Seneca and deists, and at least one questionable choice in Herbert Spencer. (I will be cautious in criticizing this: I associate Spencer with the inequality-justifying ideology of Social Darwinism that soils Darwin’s name, but Spencer’s own views might not have reflected the view of the robber barons and neo-conservatives who espouse it under a different name.)

Themes and some contributing authors to them include:

  • the necessity of free Reason as a means of finding the truth and guiding our lives. (Voltaire, Thomas Paine)
  • the feasibility and indeed superiority of ethical systems based on reason and empathy instead of “revealed” and supernaturally-based premises. (the Stoics, Jeremy Bentham, Charles Darwin, G.E. Moore)
  • criticism of organized religion, particularly Christianity given that the majority of authors included were western thinkers (Mark Twain, Bertrand Russell)
  • criticism of the idea of a benevolent god (Robert Ingersoll, Mark Twain)
  • criticism of pro-deity arguments (T.H. Huxley, Robert Ingersoll)
  • the role of wonder (Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell)
  • the importance of idealism (Sir Julian Huxley, M.N. Roy)

There’s a fair bit of balance here. Contributions are sometimes short, sometimes long: a scoffing paragraph by Twain on religion may follow a passionate plea by Ingersoll for the liberty of thought, again followed by a more serious and involved essay on the substance of ethical living and how one may define “good”. Although there are many famous names here, there are also more anonymous ones whose words reveal fascinating lives — like a French abbot (Jean Meslier) who for years had been a closet skeptic, who used his death to apologize to his flock. The book itself is not self-congratulatory: it doesn’t just offer a humanist more eloquent expressions of his or own beliefs. The works here often made me reflect on my own views, and I felt reproached more than once — mostly by Seneca. The inclusion of humanistic politics was particularly interesting. I think highly of the book, for it is such a marvelously Humanist work — collecting not only the views of religious skeptics and curmudgeons but of passionate idealists like Ingersoll. Today’s humanism could do with more passion.

I would recommend the book to any reader with a high-school reading level, including to religious moderates. Alas, I fear you will be unable to find the book, for it is out of print and used copies on Amazon are being offered for perhaps too high a price. I will be working with the book over the weekend and hope to produce a list of authors included and the works cited for the benefit of those interested who cannot find the book. The results will be posted on my philosophy and humanities blog.

Oh, unhappy human kind
In those grim gods, your own creation,
What anguish for yourselves you find,
For babes born what tribulation!
Not palms in prostrate prayer outspread,
Not all the blood on alters shed
Is piety, but that calm mind,
Whose fruit is tranquil contemplation. – Lucretius, translated by J.S.L. Gilmour and R.E. Lantham

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Love and Death

Posted on October 14, 2009 by smellincoffee

Love and Death: My Journey Through the Vally of the Shadow
© F. Forrester Church 2008
145 pages

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“Want what you have. Do what you can. Be who you are.” – author’s personal motto

When typing my comments for Our Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism, I visited the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations website and saw that one of the book’s co-authors, F. Forrester Church, had recently died from cancer. I learned from his obituary that before his death he penned a book on death and dying called Love and Death. I was immediately interested in what a dying man had to say about the subject and decided to read it as my way of paying respects.

The theme of love and death was a common one for Church, having sermonized about it many times. He wrote in this book that when he was diagnosed with cancer, he became strangely anticipatory, describing himself as a student who had long studied for the examination of dying and wanted to see if he would prove worthy. Church believes that death is an essential part of the human experience, one that defines us and gives rise to religion — which he defines as the human response to the twin truths of both being alive and having to die. After introducing the book, he delves into his history of death, reflecting on the deaths of friends and family that have marked his personal life and his service as a minister. He does this to establish why he views death with the grace he does, and once it is established he begins to speak as a minister — offering meditations and advice.

The book appears to be written for those who are or who have loved ones who are dying, as well as to those who have recently lost loved ones. Neither of these categories apply to me, at least not to my knowledge, but still I was able to receive a great deal from his message. The book is very personal: it’s not something one should read on the subway. The book isn’t just read, it’s experienced. I don’t think I’ll soon forget my own time spent reading it, and as a result of it I intend to read more of Church as I am able and recommend Love and Death to you.

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