Another cold day

Wherein I slept in until 1500, dreaming narrative dreams about scientists and their families trapped in a gulag of sorts, until The King Should Come Again.

Walked on the beach, cold and chill, with the parent, after rain and hail. Collected driftwood for the fire - it's burning now, bright and cheerful, helping to eke out the other fuel. Bright and cheerful and colourful.

Last night I read Chaz Brenchley's The House of Bells. It is very good, and now I want the preceding novel too. *wants all the books* Unfortunately, my moneys are all pledged until spring, so I will have to wait.

Now I have to do a section or two of Plato, and put some consideration into my to-do list.

Plato, Apology, 35a 35b mid

[35α] εἰ οὖν ὑμῶν οἱ δοκοῦντες διαφέρειν εἴτε σοφίᾳ εἴτε ἀνδρείᾳ εἴτε ἄλλῃ ᾑτινιοῦν ἀρετῇ τοιοῦτοι ἔσονται, αἰσχρὸν ἂν εἴη: οἵουσπερ ἐγὼ πολλάκις ἑώρακά τινας ὅταν κρίνωνται, δοκοῦντας μέν τι εἶναι, θαυμάσια δὲ ἐργαζομένους, ὡς δεινόν τι οἰομένους πείσεσθαι εἰ ἀποθανοῦνται, ὥσπερ ἀθανάτων ἐσομένων ἂν ὑμεῖς αὐτοὺς μὴ ἀποκτείνητε: οἳ ἐμοὶ δοκοῦσιν αἰσχύνην τῇ πόλει περιάπτειν, ὥστ᾽ ἄν τινα καὶ τῶν ξένων

So if the ones of you seeming to be superior either in wisdom or in manliness or in any other excellence which [is] of this kind, were to be [like this], it would be shameful: such as if I had often seen certain ones, whenever they were being judged, while they seemed to be something [worthy], working strange things, as if they believed they would suffer something terrible if there were to die, as though they would be immortal if you did not kill them: they seem to me to attach shame to the city, so that also one of the foreigners might

[35β] ὑπολαβεῖν ὅτι οἱ διαφέροντες Ἀθηναίων εἰς ἀρετήν, οὓς αὐτοὶ ἑαυτῶν ἔν τε ταῖς ἀρχαῖς καὶ ταῖς ἄλλαις τιμαῖς προκρίνουσιν, οὗτοι γυναικῶν οὐδὲν διαφέρουσιν. ταῦτα γάρ, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, οὔτε ὑμᾶς χρὴ ποιεῖν τοὺς δοκοῦντας καὶ ὁπῃοῦν τι εἶναι, οὔτ᾽, ἂν ἡμεῖς ποιῶμεν, ὑμᾶς ἐπιτρέπειν, ἀλλὰ τοῦτο αὐτὸ ἐνδείκνυσθαι, ὅτι πολὺ μᾶλλον καταψηφιεῖσθε τοῦ τὰ ἐλεινὰ ταῦτα δράματα εἰσάγοντος καὶ καταγέλαστον τὴν πόλιν ποιοῦντος ἢ τοῦ ἡσυχίαν ἄγοντος.

suppose that the superior ones among the Athenians, in excellence, who they themselves in the offices and the other honours prefer before others, they are not any superior to women. For with respect to these things, O Athenian men, it is necessary for you neither to make/do the ones seeming [good], and by which to be something, neither, if we do, to refer to you, but to demonstrate this itself, that more indeed you would vote down the one who brings these pitiable acts and who makes the city mockable than the one who comes in silence.

Books 2012: House of Bells

Books 2012: 214


214. Chaz Brenchley, House of Bells. Severn House, 2012.

A gothic, horror-esque, deeply affecting novel. Look out for review in winter Ideomancer, but in the meanwhile, I recommend it highly.