Robert Fagles, 1933-2008

From The Daily Princetonian:

Robert Fagles, the Arthur Marks '19 professor of comparative literature emeritus best known for his translations of Greek epic poems and other widely read classic texts, died in Princeton on Wednesday, March 26, after battling prostate cancer. He was 74.

Fagles' translations of Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey were both popularly and critically acclaimed. In 1991, the Academy of American Poets awarded him the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award for his translation of The Iliad, and his work on The Odyssey won him an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1996. . . .

"No translator of major writers in the Western literary tradition has ever met with the kind of success that Robert Fagles has enjoyed," Robert Hollander '55, professor of European literature and French and Italian emeritus, said in a statement issued by the University. "His 'trilogy,' both epics of Homer and that of Virgil, has brought these texts to life for over a million readers."

Robert Fagles, Translator of the Classics, Dies at 74 (New York Times)
Robert Fagles, celebrated translator of ancient epics, dies at age 74 (Princeton press release)

Xenía in the Bronx

New York social worker Julio Diaz turned a mugging into an opportunity for what the ancient Greeks called ξενία (xenía), hospitality:

As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm."

The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, "like what's going on here?" Diaz says. "He asked me, 'Why are you doing this?'"

Diaz replied: "If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me . . . hey, you're more than welcome."

Read the rest: A Victim Treats His Mugger Right (NPR, via Boing Boing)

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Xenía in D.C.

Your name here U.

In yesterday's mail:



I even have a Latin seal (not readable in this scan):

INTELLECTUS SCIENTIA SAPIENTIA

[Intellectus: understanding; scientia: knowledge; sapientia: wisdom.]

Tags
vanity, vanity, all is vanity

Confusing metaphor of the day

From the New York Times:

A headline on Saturday with an article about the increasing number of women who serve as chief investment officers for university endowments and foundations used a "glass ceiling" metaphor in a way that conveyed the opposite point made by the article. The headline should have said something to the effect that "The Glass Ceiling Is Lifting," not "The Glass Ceiling Is Edging Lower."

There'd still be a problem though: if the ceiling is lifting, breaking through it becomes even more difficult. The only way to remove the glass ceiling is with a metaphorical glass cutter or hammer.

The article's current headline is also less than ept: corner and climbing suggest to my mind that someone is climbing the walls. Yipes.

Corner of Finance Where Women Are Climbing (New York Times)
All metaphor posts (via Pinboard)

Garfield minus Garfield

It's been clear for some time that Garfield can be improved by removing Garfield's thought balloons. More recently, it's become clear that Garfield is better still — funnier, richer, stranger — when one removes Garfield.

Let us begin with familiar Garfield territory. A stupid man! A snarky cat!



Alas, the punchline self-destructs: if Garfield himself is indeed good at doing nothing, why must he imply that? Why must he even think? Remove the thought balloon and the scene changes drastically:



Now Garfield's eloquent silence tells us all we need to know about what it's like to be stuck in a comic strip with this man. There's no need for words. But remove Garfield and things are even better:



Now Jon is all alone with his thoughts, such as they are. He's Estragon without Vladimir, or a figure from The Waste Land. He seems to realize that in the final panel, "Looking into the heart of light, the silence."

Reader, try this strategy at home, and see if it gives you a value-added comics experience.

And to the creator of the Garfield-minus-Garfield reading strategy, wherever you might be: Thanks!

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Blondie minus Blondie
Thoughtless

Richard Widmark

December 26, 1914 - March 24, 2008

“Movie audiences fasten on to one aspect of the actor, and then they decide what they want you to be. They think you’re playing yourself. The truth is that the only person who can ever really play himself is a baby.”

Richard Widmark, Actor, Dies at 93 (New York Times)
Scene from Kiss of Death (1947) (YouTube)

[Above: Widmark as Tommy Udo, Victor Mature as Nick Bianco, in Kiss of Death.]

Overheard

Elaine on the phone:

"Now my hair is back to its natural color: 6C."

L'Oréal: because you're worth it.

[Used with permission. Thanks, Elaine!]

All "Overheard" posts (via Pinboard)
Musical Assumptions (Elaine's blog)

James Carville's metaphors

I've been collecting and commenting on inept and absurd political metaphors over the past few weeks, but I thought of letting James Carville's recent comparison of Bill Richardson to Judas go by. I still don't understand its supposedly transparent logic. Judas : Jesus :: Bill Richardson : Bill Clinton? Hillary Clinton? Both?

I'm interested though in Carville's defense of his statement as metaphor. He defended it in these terms four times in his conversation yesterday with CNN: "It's a seasonal metaphor I was using"; "I was using a biblical metaphor"; "I wanted to use a very strong metaphor"; "It was a metaphor I was using." Carville never says that it was just a metaphor he was using, but his comments carry that suggestion, as if metaphor were simply a way to underscore one's meaning, and not a statement whose implications are its maker's responsibility. Just words after all, right? Just politics.

Another metaphor in Carville's remarks yesterday had me puzzled:

I mean, you do these things, and people come up and say, you’re comparing and everything else. I wanted — I got one in the wheelhouse and I tagged it.

As I just learned, wheelhouse is (among other things) a metaphor for "a hitter's power zone," and, it seems, one of Carville's pet words. No home run for James Carville this time — just a foul.

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CNN and mixed metaphors
Dying metaphors of the day
Everything but the kitchen sink
Inept political metaphor of the day
Of prongs and pillars
Political tropes of the day
Puzzling political metaphor of the day
Strained political metaphors of the day
Times reporter on metaphorical spree

"Modern-Day Proust"

Meet Eric Dressler:

Much like the prolific 19th-century French novelist Marcel Proust, local claims adjustor Eric Dressler generates prodigious volumes of prose, chronicling the most minute details of his life and experiences in a seemingly endless stream of e-mails, friend Kevin Honig reported Monday.

"Proust devoted the last decade of his life to writing In Search of Lost Time, a massive, sprawling, 3,000-page semiautobiographical work that covers 13 volumes," said Honig, Dressler's best friend since college. "Well, the way he spends half his work day sending e-mails, Eric has probably turned out at least that much. I get, like, six or seven a day without fail."

Modern-Day Proust E-Mails Friend Six Times A Day (The Onion)

All Proust posts (via Pinboard)

Strained political metaphors of the day

Carpetbagging beaver! Drunken horse! Tired as dogs! From Erica Jong:

We have two great candidates — one a hard working, never give up eager beaver, and one an inspiring, heart-leapingly brilliant stallion. . . .

They're tired. Dog-tired. The stallion makes heart-stopping speeches. And the beaver just beavers along, remembering how she won over upstate New York when everyone called that impossible. And called her a carpetbagger. And the stallion is drunk on his own rhetoric. . . .

We need beavers and we need stallions. Beavers get the work done. Stallions inspire us. And they both have limitations. Stallions have fragile legs (think Barbaro). And beavers are nothing without their teeth.

A related post
Puzzling political metaphor of the day