Greek reads

I promised when I blogged for The Lipstick Chronicles that I would post the list of books I'm reading before my trip. Most of these were recommended to me by the wonderful Gillian Roberts, but I've added a few of my own. I'm also open to other suggestions...

Homer: Iliad, The Odyssey (Fagels translations--this guy is one of my literary heroes)
Sophocles: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonnus, Antigone
Plato, Republic, Bks I, II, VII, IX; Apology; Crito; Symposium
Aristophanes: Clouds; Lysistrata
Aristotle: Nichomachean Ethics, Bks I-III, VIII
Aeschylus: Agamemmnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides
Euripedes: Electra
Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, Bks. II, III, V (ch 17) VI, VII
Frank Miller: 300

The "Eyewitness" guides by DK: Greece (Athens and the Mainland), The Greek Islands

There will probably be more, and there are luscious, luscious maps to pore over (me loves me some maps!), but for now...hey, it's keeping me off the streets.

I'll be guest blogging at The Lipstick Chronicles

Tomorrow, I'll be posting my blog, "My own private Odyssey," at TLC. Why not stop by and tell me about some of your favorite travel reading, hints, and adventures?

The BR Pile: Euripides and Aristophanes

I have a sporadic but increasing capacity for silly humor: I will admit it here and now, that there are days when I find “South Park” dumb or offensive, but there are also days when I think it’s hysterical (can you say “Lemmiwinks?”). I’ll also admit to a ridiculous fondness for “Jackass,” so it’s not like I’m not in touch with my inner 11-year old boy. I couldn’t understand why I didn’t find The Clouds and Lysistrata by Aristophanes funny; I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that in these plays are some of the foundations of Western humor. Written by Aristophanes in 411BC, Lysistrata (“she who disbands armies”) concocts a plan to end the war between Athens and Sparta by convincing all the women of Greece to withhold sex until their husbands come to a peace agreement. The Clouds (also written in the late 5th century) takes potshots at philosophers; when a man can’t convince his gambler son to attend school to think of a way to get them both out of debt, the man attends himself and is exposed to the silliness of current philosophical teachings.

I was bored by them, and it took a while to figure out why: I forgot was I was reading satire. For one thing, satire doesn’t work unless you understand what is being satirized, and what I really enjoyed were the historical footnotes that explained the actual events that surrounded the production of these plays—this quick history lesson was the best part, for me. The other thing is that I suspect that, like most poetry needs to be read, most comedic plays need actors to really come to life.

I was a little taken aback that I enjoyed the tragedies as much as I did: being unable to escape your fate is horrible, and it’s not often that I’ll choose to cuddle up with it. But the Euripides dramas (written in the last third of the 5th century) surprised me: the emphasis was on the dreadful choices the protagonists are forced to make (or have forced on them). There is a humanity and individuality to the characters that felt familiar and immediate. Medea, married to Jason and mother of his children, is put aside when he is offered a royal Greek princess. In order to take her vengeance against Jason, she contrives to poison the new bride and her father, and then stabs her own children, killing them. The Trojan Women takes place after the defeat of Troy, when Hecuba and her ladies discover the fates that await them as Greek slaves, concubines, or sacrifices.

I'll probably go tearing through Electra and The Bacchants before I check out The Frogs. It’s not that I found the comedies lesser works than the tragedies, or less believable, any more than I believe hard boiled mysteries are more realistic than those with amateur sleuths or that comedy is less an art than drama. These weren't to my taste; maybe I wasn't in the mood for bawdy humor when I was reading them. What they gave me, and why I’m glad I pushed through them, was a great, quick lesson in the history of the Golden Age Greek politics, culture, religion, and thought.

Got lycanthropes?

Toni L.P. Kelner and I will be discussing our stories and signing copies of Wolfsbane and Mistletoe (co-edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni). Like mysteries? Like urban fantasy? Got lycanthropes? A little holiday shopping left to do? Then the place to be is the Peabody Borders, tonight, 7:00pm sharp.

Sharp as in "fang."

Something you CAN do

As the economic bad news piles higher and higher, people feel like there's very little they can do to make things better, that the problems are too big to conquer. It's a crummy feeling. The problems we face are gigantic, if you take them as a whole, but the one thing I've learned over the years is that you can conquer big problems if you break them down, starting with what you know and moving out from there.

So I'd like to turn you on to what I think is a pretty cool idea. Gathering Change is a grassroots non-profit charitable organization that collects spare change from communities for distribution back into their neighborhood food pantries and social programs. The idea is that everyone has a penny jar or a pile of change collecting somewhere, and that when lots of these small collections are all pooled together, lots of money can be raised--painlessly--to help others. You can participate at any level, from making a donation to volunteering to host a collection party to starting a chapter.

Little things add up. Light that single candle, folks.

Holiday party at Kate's!

Tonight is the annual holiday party at Kate’s Mystery Books in Cambridge.

It would be an AWESOME time to buy some Christmas presents, meet your favorite local authors, and wallow in holiday cheer! (I personally think that a copy of Wolfsbane and Mistletoe, signed by co-editor and contributor Toni Kelner and yours truly is what every reader is looking for this holiday season. So why not get a jump on it?)

See you there!