From "The Teaching of Ptahhotep", c. 2400 BCE

[kateorman]

"Don't spread rumours. Leave that kind of thing to drama queens. If you didn't witness something yourself, don't spread gossip about it. Gossip's about as real as a dream. Forget it - or it'll come back and bite you on the ass."

(My paraphrase.)

Comments

[theta_g]

Sally Field has said that as long as one remains in top form, the hurt experienced at points in dramatic acting doesn't stop. For the exact quote you'll have to hunt up the episode of 'Inside the Actors' Studio' she was in. What I took from that was the possibility that if you channel emotions for a living, you risk hazardous exposure.

Maybe there's something similar going on with writers? I start to wonder if writers are more susceptible to careless talk than people whose relationship to words is more distant.

[dreamer_easy]

I've speculated on that myself - but, as lovely as it is to think that writers might be especially sensitive souls, gossip and rumours can screw anybody up. :)

[bodlon]

I like this. It sounds like some of what the Buddha had to say about Right Speech, as well. Very nice.

My learnings, let me etc

[dreamer_easy]

Yes indeed. :)

Ptahhotep's maxims are part of an ancient Near Eastern genre called Wisdom Literature, which is full of common-sense advice of the sort given by a parent to a child (well, by a father to a son, anyway) - the Babylonian Counsels of Wisdom have similar advice.

[murasaki_1966]

I like your translation best.

[dreamer_easy]

I'm not quite happy with "gossip is about as real as a dream" - actually, I'm not quite sure if the ancient authors meant "as reliable as a dream" or "as nonsensical as a dream" oe even just "a freakin' nightmare, man".

[murasaki_1966]

Probably both. Gossip usually has about as much foundation as a dream. Although, around my work, it has been correct more times than not lately.

[lemon_cupcake]

I love "drama queen"--it's perfect, exactly what the author meant, I believe.

I think the part about the dream amounts to saying that (1) gossip is, like a dream, ephemeral and insubstantial, and (2) spreading it reveals more about you and your own motives than about the person about whom you're gossiping.

Texts like this are such a good example of a basic difference in Egyptian and Greek ethics. Greeks loved a smooth-talking rogue, or a good fish story, whereas the Egyptian ideal was someone taciturn, rigorously truthful, and rather earnest.

[dreamer_easy]

The older and tireder I get, the less Sethian I become. :)

[murasaki_1966]

The rumour that doesn't have a leg to stand on will post on Facebook.