Jealousy
Whenever I read or hear about anyone doing, um, pretty much anything, I get jealous and want to do the same. I’ve written about my inability to be content with life as is before, and nothing has changed. I just read that my old friend Caitlin is in University studying, among other things, the Greeks. I really want to study the classics. And learn Latin. And continue learning Greek, but this time Attic, not Koine.
How is it that I’m 21 and haven’t read The Iliad, or the Aeneid, or the complete Nicomachean Ethics, or the complete Canterbury Tales (it’s not just Greek and Latin literature I’m missing out on), or Paradise Lost (completely inexcusable), or Finnegan’s Wake (slightly more excusable) or Pliny’s Natural History, or anything by Cicero? I could go on and on with the deficiencies of my education, and have no one to blame but myself. But there’s just so much to learn, in and out of books. How does one narrow one’s interests down to essentials? I don’t seem capable of narrowing interests, or focusing in. I’m cursed to float on the surface of everything.
njero said,
Oct 20, 14:09 #
On a tangential note, I had no idea that Caitlin had a new blog. I don’t say that to whine about being out of the loop, I say it as a segue into extending the rabbit trail even further that I might declare my complete inability to navigate through and within a MySpace page. That shit is bassackwards if ever shit was so.
Kelly Wilson said,
Oct 20, 16:26 #
As far as literary deficiencies, I think you may feel some of them compensated for if you picked up a few books by, oh, say, Graham Greene.
I too feel as if I haven’t read enough. I read Joyce this summer and was going to reread him the other night, but my roomate used ‘Portrait an An Artist,’ as toilent paper, without my permission, which I would have gladly given, had he asked.
May I recommend the Odessey instead of the Iliad. While the Iliad has a few immortal moments, it is the Odessey that I found more captivating…
Ivan said,
Oct 20, 22:10 #
Face it, you’re probably not going to be another Jaroslav Pelikan. But you’ll find your place somewhere.
I can relate to your sentiments, and this is truly the answer that I find most reliable and most honest when dealing with my own.
The less honest one is “you’re only x years old” but we all know that’s bullshit.
Tristan said,
Oct 21, 09:00 #
Thanks for the recommendations Kelly. I didn’t mention the Odyssey because I have already read it, though sadly not in Greek. Despite indications I may have given to the contrary, Greene is high on my list, but unavailable in China, so he’ll have to wait a little longer.
I don’t even remember how I found Caitlin’s blog, but I believe it was a link through a link sort of thing.
Tristan said,
Oct 21, 09:02 #
Jaroslav Pelikan nothing. Harold Bloom, here I come.
(Though I’d rather having Pelikan’s writing legacy than Bloom’s, I think. Well…maybe I should think about that one a bit more).
Brad said,
Oct 21, 09:42 #
I just picked up the Aeneid, mainly because I read the Divine Comedy and wanted to know who this Virgil know-it-all was. Haven’t started it yet though.
Tristan said,
Oct 22, 07:30 #
The Aeneid has been on my shelf for half a year. Partly because of the Divine Comedy for me as well. It rose on my ‘to-read’ list after talking to Gord about it, and I almost brought it to China. But I left it, and knowing it’s there, I can’t justify buying a second copy.
Cory said,
Oct 22, 14:46 #
I’d say you’re too hard on yourself. Everyone wishes they had read more, travelled more, and just DONE more. I wish I would have more literature under my belt, but come on the Nicomachean Ethics? Hasn’t experiencing an Asian culture already removed these quirky obsessions Tristan? lol. Time for a dose of reality. The more we read the more we want to read.