she's more verbose than the gods of olympus

[makyo]

So apparently some book's just about to be published. It seems that yet another `major character' is going to snuff it, and this time the smart money's on Dumbledore. I reckoned it was going to be him last time, which probably shows how clued-up I am about these things.

Anyway, The Guardian is holding a little competition to see who can write

Comments

[rich_r]

I promise not to post anything related to 'the book' on Tuesday, when I'll have finished it (unless it's even longer than the last one, which is possible!)

[makyo]

Cheers for that. I don't think I'd mind too much, to be honest - I'm not an obsessive fan of the books by any stretch of the imagination. If you'd told me spoilers for Doctor Who then things would have gone badly for you, but I seem to remember you were extremely careful and considerate about that - thanks very much.

Actually, when the major character died in the last book, it took me a couple of pages before I realised that (a) a character had just died, and (b) the character in question was actually the one whose death had been foretold.

It's possible that I'm not entirely engaging with Ms Rowling's writing.

[rich_r]

I find them very easy books to read, when you're tired but can't get to sleep and want something that's not too thought provoking, for example.

[st3v3]

This is class. Well done.

[clotilde]

Cool. I don't actually know who dies, because I've been on holiday for the past two weeks. But there are almost certainly thousands of copies waiting for me at work. Come to think of it, there'll be huge trouble if thousands of copies aren't waiting.

[smorgasbord]

I'm sure that you could knock up a replacement by midnight. Then get a thousand copies printed.

[clotilde]

Maybe, but Bloomsbury would probably sue :-)

[drdoug]

Only if anyone noticed the difference :-)

[drdoug]

I chose Homer.

Could it be that there are now more living that have read Harry Potter than are dead and have read Homer?

[makyo]

Could it be that there are now more living that have read Harry Potter than are dead and have read Homer?
You really know how to brighten up my day, don't you?

I'm happy to be able to report that I'd read Homer (albeit only in translation) by the age of 8, though.

[drdoug]

We always try to spread good cheer!

Many more people know what you get in a McDonald's Happy Meal than how Daedalus threaded the spiral shell and was thereby discovered by the vengeful Minos. Far more people could tell you the details of David Beckham's tattoos than have even heard of Seneca.

But never mind. This stuff was only pop culture in Greece, and that only millenia ago - and they didn't even know they were Greek at that point (at least, according to childeric, but what they thought the non-Trojan side in the Trojan War was I don't know). Just because it's old doesn't mean it's good. I bet there was a vast quantity of trashy, rubbishy, throw-away epic poetry about then, but mercifully none of it survives.

I first consciously read the Iliad and the Odyssey (in translation - my Greek is halting, to say the least) in my late teens, but the stories were for the most part very familiar, and I have no idea when I first came across them. They've always seemed so much part of the cultural fabric it's hard to know.

[drdoug]

s/millenia/millennia

(I blame a sticky 'n' key.)

[banshee_branwen]

Hello makyo,
i saw something like this at http://www.livejournal.com/users/banshee_branwen/928523.html