(no subject)
Oh my fucking GOD. Have I ever mentioned how much I love classical music? I love, love, love it. I'm sitting on my bed, eyes closed, lying down and listening to Dvorak's 9th. Hearing that theme... the anticipation, the release, the tension -- it's the best feeling in the world. Better than sex. Better than good cheese, even. This is why I sit around and listen to Beethoven and bother to write bad essays about the Appassionata and don't want to shoot my Beethoven class for having the most work... it's awesome. I love the coda of the first movement of this symphony. You get all anxious that the theme won't come back again, and then it does -- and then, boom, it's over. Ahhhh. Aaaaaaah. And the second movement is... sad, and hopeful. The emotions it evokes are so hard to describe, it's like hearing the end of a good book, or the end of IYAP (well, maybe a bit more cheerful than that) or... yes. You get the point.
WARNING: Geekiness ahead. The rest of this entry is gratuitous latin GEEK.
So, in my Latin class, we just translated Tacitus's description of Petronius, to help with our essays. That man had class. I feel the need to share it with you all, because the way he went out... he didn't just die. He died in style, with a huge fuck you to The Man. I'll type up not my own translation (which is fine, but not perfectly flowy) but the translation by Gilbert Lawall. So, here you are. Tacitus's Annals, 16.18-19)
"His days were spent in sleep, his nights in duties and the pleasures of life. As industry had brought others to fame, so laziness brought him, and he was regarded not as a debauchee and spendthrift, as are most of those who squander their resources, but as a man of refined luxury. The more his words and deeds were unrestrained and displayed a certain neglect of his own best interests, the more they gave an appearance of simplicity and were recieved with goodwill. Yet when procunsul of Bithynia and then consul he showed himself vigorous and equal to his tasks. Then relapsing into his old vices, or merely imitating them, he was absorbed into the small group of men close to Nero as his arbiter of elegant living, with Nero thinking that nothing had charmo or was conducive to delicate living unless Petronius had given it his stamp of approval. For this reason Tigellus became jealous of Petronius as if he were a rival possessing greater knowledge of the science of pleasures. Therefore he addressed himself to the emperor's cruelty, which surpassed all the emperor's other passions, charging Petronius with complicity with Scaevinus, having first bribed one of Petronius's slaves to turn informer and then having removed any chance of his defending himself and having put the greater part of his household slaves in prison.
It chanced that at that time the emperor had gone to Campania, and Petronius had progressed as far as Cumae when hew as detained there. He did not brook any further delay, either of his fear or his hope. Nor, however, did he take a headlong departure from life. Having cut his veins, he bound them up and opened them again as he pleased, and he talked with his friends, but not on serious matters or in order to seek glory for his steadfastness. Rather, as he listened, his friends were not talking about the immortality of the soul and the beliefs of philosophers but reciting frivolous poems and light verse. He awarded some of his slaves presents, others lashings. He partook of a banquet and indulged himself with sleep, so that his death, although forced upon him, would seem natural. He did not flatter Nero or Tigellinus or any other powerful person even in his will, as most of those forced to commit suicide did. Rather, he wrote up the scandalous acts of the emperor with the names of his male and female prostitutes and the novelty of each one of his sexual crimes, and he sent the document to Nero under his own seal. He then broke his signet ring so that it would not be of use to mischief makers."
A note on the Latin of this passage: The latin for "charging Petronius with complicity with Scaevinus" makes me really happy. It translates literally as, "throwing at Petrnius the friendship of Scaevinus". I don't know why it makes me so happy, but, well. It does. Yay.
The point of all that wasn't just to make you all see how very cool Petronius was. There's a running debate on whether Petronius wrote his Satyricon as a criticism or celebration of Roman life at the time. I think that the way that Petronius chose to end his life, as described above, is crucial to answering this question, and that Petronius did, in fact, want to critique Roman life. Fuck what Auerbach says about inherent seperation of styles, he's a pretentious kneecap anyway. And I don't think he can entirely apply to Petronius, because what Petronius wrote was different from anything else written before. Anyway, I stray from the point.
So, just look at how the man died. He mocks Nero. He doesn't do the usual thing, he doesn't support the Roman system in his death -- he undermines it by being decadent. I think that's ultimately what he's doing in the Satyricon, too. He's criticizing the system, the emperor, by having his characters be decadent. I'm happy. I've found my essay topic; now I just have to link it directly with style. If I throw in something about how the drunkards talk it will make Steve happy.
WARNING: Geekiness ahead. The rest of this entry is gratuitous latin GEEK.
So, in my Latin class, we just translated Tacitus's description of Petronius, to help with our essays. That man had class. I feel the need to share it with you all, because the way he went out... he didn't just die. He died in style, with a huge fuck you to The Man. I'll type up not my own translation (which is fine, but not perfectly flowy) but the translation by Gilbert Lawall. So, here you are. Tacitus's Annals, 16.18-19)
"His days were spent in sleep, his nights in duties and the pleasures of life. As industry had brought others to fame, so laziness brought him, and he was regarded not as a debauchee and spendthrift, as are most of those who squander their resources, but as a man of refined luxury. The more his words and deeds were unrestrained and displayed a certain neglect of his own best interests, the more they gave an appearance of simplicity and were recieved with goodwill. Yet when procunsul of Bithynia and then consul he showed himself vigorous and equal to his tasks. Then relapsing into his old vices, or merely imitating them, he was absorbed into the small group of men close to Nero as his arbiter of elegant living, with Nero thinking that nothing had charmo or was conducive to delicate living unless Petronius had given it his stamp of approval. For this reason Tigellus became jealous of Petronius as if he were a rival possessing greater knowledge of the science of pleasures. Therefore he addressed himself to the emperor's cruelty, which surpassed all the emperor's other passions, charging Petronius with complicity with Scaevinus, having first bribed one of Petronius's slaves to turn informer and then having removed any chance of his defending himself and having put the greater part of his household slaves in prison.
It chanced that at that time the emperor had gone to Campania, and Petronius had progressed as far as Cumae when hew as detained there. He did not brook any further delay, either of his fear or his hope. Nor, however, did he take a headlong departure from life. Having cut his veins, he bound them up and opened them again as he pleased, and he talked with his friends, but not on serious matters or in order to seek glory for his steadfastness. Rather, as he listened, his friends were not talking about the immortality of the soul and the beliefs of philosophers but reciting frivolous poems and light verse. He awarded some of his slaves presents, others lashings. He partook of a banquet and indulged himself with sleep, so that his death, although forced upon him, would seem natural. He did not flatter Nero or Tigellinus or any other powerful person even in his will, as most of those forced to commit suicide did. Rather, he wrote up the scandalous acts of the emperor with the names of his male and female prostitutes and the novelty of each one of his sexual crimes, and he sent the document to Nero under his own seal. He then broke his signet ring so that it would not be of use to mischief makers."
A note on the Latin of this passage: The latin for "charging Petronius with complicity with Scaevinus" makes me really happy. It translates literally as, "throwing at Petrnius the friendship of Scaevinus". I don't know why it makes me so happy, but, well. It does. Yay.
The point of all that wasn't just to make you all see how very cool Petronius was. There's a running debate on whether Petronius wrote his Satyricon as a criticism or celebration of Roman life at the time. I think that the way that Petronius chose to end his life, as described above, is crucial to answering this question, and that Petronius did, in fact, want to critique Roman life. Fuck what Auerbach says about inherent seperation of styles, he's a pretentious kneecap anyway. And I don't think he can entirely apply to Petronius, because what Petronius wrote was different from anything else written before. Anyway, I stray from the point.
So, just look at how the man died. He mocks Nero. He doesn't do the usual thing, he doesn't support the Roman system in his death -- he undermines it by being decadent. I think that's ultimately what he's doing in the Satyricon, too. He's criticizing the system, the emperor, by having his characters be decadent. I'm happy. I've found my essay topic; now I just have to link it directly with style. If I throw in something about how the drunkards talk it will make Steve happy.