Category Archives: history

Of Men and Mollusks

Posted on December 30, 2025 by JE

Came across this choice bit of abuse this afternoon: πλεύμονα αὐτὸν ἐκάλει καὶ ἀγράμματον καὶ ἀπατεῶνα καὶ πόρνον.—Diogenes Laertius 10.8 I render this as: “He <Epicurus> calls him <Democritus> a mollusk and an illiterate and a cheat and a whore.” … Continue reading →

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Of Eeels and Miracles

Posted on July 6, 2025 by JE

The Surprised Eel on their Patreon gives us a very nice piece of writing that usefully complicates some over-simplified worldmaking advice. One thing that leapt out at me was this: “Of course, your fantasy world doesn’t have to work like … Continue reading →

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Dial D for Diogenes

Posted on June 2, 2025 by JE

Reading Diogenes Laertius through for the 1st time. Before I’d only read specific bios, like his account of Diogenes the Cynic. DL seems to be agnostic regarding philosophic schools, interested in philosophy more from a historical and literary point of … Continue reading →

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Alphonso I, Conqueror of Erewhon

Posted on May 21, 2025 by JE

One of the features or bugs of reading five or six books at a time is that sometimes you finish them all in the course of a day and then wander around feeling strangely bereft. One of the books I … Continue reading →

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18th Century Mashup: White’s MISTRESS MASHAM’S REPOSE

Posted on May 7, 2025 by JE

I came to T.H. White’s brilliant fantasy Mistress Masham’s Repose (Putnam, 1946): immediately after reading two much inferior (but not worthless) books. One was by White himself, The Age of Scandal (Putnam, 1950), a social history of the later 18th … Continue reading →

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Surfing the Time Waves

Posted on March 29, 2025 by JE

I’m reading the minor declamations of pseudo-Quintilian in Shackleton-Bailey’s great Loeb edition. The idea is to briefly escape the current political nightmare by immersing myself in the weird little stories of these controversiae. It’s not going that well. For example: … Continue reading →

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Ripped From the Headlines: UNNATURAL DEATH by Dorothy L. Sayers

Posted on March 22, 2025 by JE

Some writers I take to with irrational intensity. Others, who may be equally good or even great, I don’t. Sometimes I understand the process involved; sometimes I don’t. Sayers is one of the writers I took to as soon as … Continue reading →

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Mail Call

Posted on January 27, 2025 by JE

Looking forward to (re)reading the vintage paperbacks. The history book is more for figuring out how teaching will work in the future, now that everything old is new again. I already have a copy of Van Vogt’s The Book of … Continue reading →

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Breslin vs. Trump

Posted on May 31, 2024 by JE

As Fate or Chaos would have it, the LoA collection of Jimmy Breslin arrived on my doorstep this week, so that on the evening when Trump’s guilty verdict was announced in Manhattan, I got to read Breslin’s verdict on Trump … Continue reading →

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Actaeons Have Consequences

Posted on August 15, 2023 by JE

“διὰ τί, πολλῶν ὄντων ἐν Ῥώμῃ ναῶν Ἀρτέμιδος, εἰς μόνον τὸν ἐν τῷ καλουμένῳ Πατρικίῳ στενωπῷ ἄνδρες οὐκ εἰσίασιν;” ἢ διὰ τὸν λεγόμενον μῦθον; γυναῖκα γὰρ αὐτόθι τὴν θεὸν σεβομένην βιαζόμενός τις ὑπὸ τῶν κυνῶν διεσπάσθη, καὶ ἀπὸ τούτου δεισιδαιμονίας … Continue reading →

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