Attention Seafarers and Chanteyists

I regret to report that the New Yorker double-issue of this week, Feb. 19-26, 2007 contains a dynamite main course in Mark Singer’s long piece, The Castaways. Why the regret for a terrific piece? Well, it ain’t online, so I can’t extract or link. You, dear reader, will be forced to the extremis of commerce to chime with or reject my observations on the composition.

The issue is the annual Eustace Tilley cover number, for those taking note. Act now, supplies are limited.

In the article, Singer recounts the tale, verging on a year gone, of the Mexican Pacific Coast fishermen found over nine months adrift and five thousand miles west of their port, San Blas, Mexico. I recall reading the initial coverage of the rescued men and the nearly-immediate skepticism of the men’s tale in the press. Reading a long-form sympathetic retelling of the men’s months adrift is nothing sort of remarkable even if it does not provide a prescriptive verdict on the truth or fiction of aspects of the tale. The men appear to be the exception to those we build mariners’ memorials to, and the detailed recounting of their time adrift may serve as proxy for the countless others never found out upon the trackless main.

Bumpy Headed Greek

Nouri posted an intriguing look at Alcibiades that caught my attention. I wrote this as a comment for his blog, but my age must be showing as the spam-defeating measures were beyond my patience. I emailed it to him and eventually decided it was a blog post in-and-of, etc. I assume the essay is something he posted in the just pride of scholastic accomplishment. I was engaged by it, as I enjoy the classics very much and always appreciate a contrary view. As the response below was composed as a comment, please forgive any pompous blowharding. 😉

Indeed, there is a fiercely individualistic character to this robe-dragging, lisp carrying Athenian, but, at the root, this is all a mask for the imperatives of the city-state of Athens.

I’m intrigued by Nouri’s choice of subject for contrarian rehabilitation. Taking it as granted that we might challenge the narrative of Plutarch, a first point of consideration might be that an advisable course of challenge would be grounded in direct sources apart from that well-beloved talespinner. Granted that resources may be tight, I’ll adopt a primary-sourced close-reading model and proceed in yoke with him.

First, it interests me that Nouri might choose to view the life choices of a man that clearly valued both dominant cultures of his socioeconomic circle as worthy of service such that the Athenian traitor (the conventional position on Alcibiades’ Athenian and later Trojan political service) becomes the Athenian patriot rather than considering or expounding the possiblity that Alcibiades’, um, flexibility of mind might have led him to serve each in turn and both at the same time, and just possibly, himself before either (my own opinion).

I do grant that my view supports the conventional verdict on the man; but I must confess, when I review what know of his character I also find many compelling things about him and his acts in Athens. However, I wholeheartedly endorse the viewpoint that Alcibiades’ foolish and self-serving interest in an imperial Athens essentially destroyed the city-state (plague or no plague – if there had been no plague, the undermined economy would have failed at the next catastophe), and I certainly do draw the lessons for today that one might expect.

One wonders if exile might not be well-suited in today’s world, for the evidence is that it broadens the mind, yes?

But I tease. I love the classics, and I love them for the very reasons the plays remain important to us today: studying the events of the past and the personalities involved can give us a wonderful set of tools for interpreting the events of today. I hope Nouri keeps that eye on the classics, and keeps looking for a contrary interpretation.

With regard to celebrating Alcibiades’ imperial vision as patriotic, though, in my view, since his time (and undoubtedly before – alas for the undeciphered, lost, or nonexistent tablets of Mojeno-Daro and Catal Hyuk) each deployment of that vision has been by self-serving criminals, and the cost of that vision has exceeded its’ benefits since at least the time of Athens. The cost upfront is to the contested locale in blood and economic opportunity and the longer-term cost has been the ultimate failure of both the social and economic structures of the wannabe empire. I am sure that we all concur on this, although I admit my certainty stems from an inability to understand how a reasonable person can view the facts otherwise.

On a side note, may I suggest for your amusement that you seek out the Cartoon History of the Universe, Vols I and II? The author is very amusing and his scholarship – and enthusiasm for Petrarch – is strong. He generally presents the recieved wisdom / standard interpretation, followed by his own take, often quite original and always originally presented.

I’m embarking on the Fagles Aenid this week and expect to be really pissed off every week I explore it. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

On another side note, Nouri’s (and later the pros’) news of resurgent bombings in the Kabilye has me heartsick. Your own trajectory, on the other hand, lightens my day even when I suspect we may not share political perspectives in every detail. Hope you’re doing well.

Yoornalista

I totally missed the memo, but TCJ editor emeritus Dirk Deppey has bravely picked up the banner of the sorely missed Journalista chez fanta. Several years ago, Dirk launched the site embedded in the upolished confies of the Fantagraphics website and within months, due simply to absurd internet diligence, had transformed the site into not only the single-best comics news-roundup site on the web, but in many ways, into the single-best topic-focused newsblog on the web. When he was rightly selected to head TCJ, the site was understandably suspended; now that’s he’s back at it, who knows what will happen. If Fanta doesn’t see how to properly capitalize on Deppey’s magnificent obsession, I am sure someone shall. I am sure that his TCJ stint has if anything sharpened his capacity for the job.

Dirk, what you do with Journalista is formally astounding considered simply from a blogging perspective. the fact that it is comics which inspires your labors is a credit to Fanta, and to you.

Finding Lost

cityofsound: Why Lost is genuinely new media [via thingsmagazine.net]

Far out. The author notes that there is a book for sale on Amazon seen on the show as a manuscript being read by Hurley, and cites the author bio from the online bookseller’s listing:

“About the Author: Bad Twin is the highly-anticipated new novel by acclaimed mystery writer Gary Troup. Bad Twin was delivered to Hyperion just days before Troup boarded Oceanic Flight 815, which was lost in flight from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles in September 2004. He remains missing and is presumed dead.”

Lostpedia, a wikipedia for the show.