4.0144 Satire; What is Man? (2/33)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 29 May 90 18:46:58 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0144. Tuesday, 29 May 1990.


(1) Date: Mon, 28 May 90 06:08:15 IST (14 lines)
From: Daniel Boyarin <BOYARIN@TAUNIVM>
Subject: Re: 4.0125 Parody

(2) Date: Sat, 26 May 90 10:56 GMT (19 lines)
From: Don Fowler <DPF@vax.oxford.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: 4.0123 General Notes and Queries

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 May 90 06:08:15 IST
From: Daniel Boyarin <BOYARIN@TAUNIVM>
Subject: Re: 4.0125 Parody (2/38)

i would like to contribute a case of misread satire from *real* -- too
real-- life.

two years ago traveling in a jitney cab in israel, we passed a site of a
settlement on the west bank where there had been demonstrations by peace
people. some babbit in the car said that those traitors should be put in
jail, to which i replied that they should be put in concentration camps.
he said he thought i was too extreme and that jail was enough.

daniel
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------25----
Date: Sat, 26 May 90 10:56 GMT
From: Don Fowler <DPF@vax.oxford.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: 4.0123 General Notes and Queries (3/73)

What is a man? The most obvious formal parallel in classical
literature is Pindar Pythian 8. 95-6, epameroi: ti de tis; ti de ou tis;
skias onar anthropos, translated by Bowra as

Man's life is a day. What is he? What is he not? A shadow in a dream
is man (but the indefinite tis and the word anthropos are not gender
specific. [...])

The question about resources for Toposforschung is a good one.
Classicists would go in the first instance to certain well-known and very
comprehensive commentaries (Pease on Vergil and Cicero, headlam on
Herodas etc). It would be nice to have a collection of tips for the
various disciplines that HUMANIST covers.

Don Fowler