It seems that I have been mentioned in the Jakarta Globe.
Tag: From my diary
Saying farewell to Falco
Some time ago I made a momentous decision. I decided not to buy any more of Lindsay Davis’ “Falco” novels. For those who have not encountered them, they are detective fiction set in the days of Vespasian.
This was quite a decision. I started buying them in paperback yonks ago. Then, one day, I was staying in Newcastle at the airport Premier Inn, using it as a base for visits to Hadrian’s Wall. And I started buying the hard backs. They were so reliably good, you see, and I can always use something light, cheerful, and happy. I couldn’t wait for the paperbacks. I think this is the only series where I ever did this.
Of course I knew that they were anachronistic in many important respects. But I value my light reading.
After One virgin too many, something happened. Firstly the bright, cheery, mock-ancient covers were replaced with photographs of dull, grimy, genuinely ancient frescoes. Ode to a banker, the next volume, was just not that inviting. But the contents were worse. Something had happened! The writing just wasn’t as good.
The series continued to decline in the next couple of volumes. The Jupiter House was sufficiently bad that I stopped buying hardbacks. The next few I bought in paperback, and they were really no better.
I reread one of the latest ones the other day. It was dull. I wearied of it. And I made the decision — no more. In fact I took all the Falco’s after The Jupiter House and conveyed them to the “out” pile, where they will ultimately go to a charity shop.
It’s sad, but what else can one do? I suspect a change of editor, myself, because the ingredients are not really different. But it is a shame all the same.
John Maddox Roberts’ “SPQR” series started dreadfully, and is nowhere near as good. But the volumes have got better, and I have them all. So … I await the next one of these instead.
From my diary
Now that I have lots of PDF files of articles, it seems like a good idea to do regular backups. So I mirror all the key directories onto an external drive.
Last night I did the same — and the external disk started clicking. And clicking. Yes, it’s the “click of death” — a hard disk on its way out.
I hastily ordered two more external hard disks off the web!
It’s been suggested to me that I should get a NAS box with a couple of drives mirroring each other and run it in the loft, backing up wirelessly.
From my diary
My new job is going well, so I must start chasing up projects like Philip of Side and the Origen book.
It’s not been possible to do anything interesting this week. It’s hard to think of anything else when you’re up early and back late. But I will get back to ancient world stuff soon.
I’m thinking about cover designs for the Eusebius book, and indeed asking for suggestions on how it should look.
One element that will be required is some form of company logo. I’ve put out an enquiry with a graphic design firm. If they do a good job, I’ll get them to do a sales website as well.
Lightning Source, who will be printing the book, continue to be a pain to deal with. I’ve now received from them a formal contract to sign. It looks as if you have to be incorporated to do business (which, fortunately, I am). The materials from them that I am supposed to read now total over 100 pages. Fortunately I read contracts regularly, as part of my secret identity as a latter-day Bruce Wayne (!), so these should present no problems.
Still no news from Les editions du Cerf on whether they are happy with what I have done with their Greek text. I shall have to enquire whether anyone else at the firm can assist me. I’ve just been too busy to bother. Maybe next week!
From my diary
Back to work yesterday, so suddenly rather tired in the evenings.
I’ve not heard back from the Sources Chretiennes about the Eusebius volume. I’m using their Greek text for part of it, and the contractual condition is that I get their OK at proof stage. So I’ve prompted them today, in case the email went astray.
I also ordered a printed proof at Lulu for myself at the weekend — just so I can check the proof copy is usable before I order some to be sent out. Lulu.com doesn’t seem to be compatible with IE8 — I had to use Firefox.
Lightning Source are now processing my application to use their services for printing, so that is going forward.
Sitting at my new desk, I had a look at my Google Docs account to see if any pending projects were sitting there from last time. I was interested to find parts of a translation of Chrysostom’s Christmas sermon. If I get some downtime, I may complete this. It might be timely!
The Roman art of satire
Yesterday I picked up one of my favourite books, an old Loeb edition of the satires of Juvenal and Persius. I don’t quite remember where I got it. I seem to think that I found it somewhere in the west country, perhaps in a second-hand bookshop on a trip to Minehead. Anyhow it sits on my shelves, and from time to time I reread the Juvenal in English, and look intermittently at the Latin.
I’ve never been able to get into the Persius, however. Yesterday, for the first time, I managed it. I actually read and enjoyed all six satires.
I don’t know why I’ve found Juvenal so much more accessible. It can’t be the translator, since it’s the same one. But somehow the style of Perseus, even in translation, is harder to read.
As I read, I saw a reference to the satires of Lucillus, in 30 books, and a thought flashed across my mind that I ought to get hold of these. But then I remembered that Lucillus is lost, and his satires, so adapted to the age of Roman freedom, are not to be had.
The translator, living in a free age, made the point that the end of the Republic and the establishment of an autocracy had a ruinous effect on literature. Instead of dealing with real things, and making an impact thereby, as was the case in the days of liberty, an ever more frivolous stylistic concern took its place. For who could say what he really thought, when the First Citizen frowned? Wealth and a lack of freedom led directly to self-indulgence. People who are free take responsibility for their actions, and the state will prosper or suffer accordingly. But if you have no power, why be responsible?
I found myself wondering about the lack of literature in our own days, and the rottenness that we see everywhere.
Crispinus once again! a man whom I shall often have to call on to the scene, a prodigy of wickedness without one redeeming virtue; a sickly libertine, strong only in his lusts, which scorn none save the unwedded. …
To-day I shall tell of a less heinous deed, though had any other man done the like, he would fall under the censor’s lash: for what would be shameful in good men like Seius or Teius sat gracefully on Crispinus. What can you do when the man himself is more foul and monstrous than any charge you can bring against him? — Juvenal, Satire 4.
What indeed?
Another source of nonsense about Jesus and Mithras
Today I read online that:
Mithras, the Persian divinity, was also given this title of “Unconquered”; and as one of the very earliest Christian writers tells Justin Martyr (Dialog with Trypho, p. 305) Mithras was mystically said to have been born in a cave or grotto, as was also Jesus, according to very early and wide-spread orthodox Christian legends. Justin adds: “He was born on the day on which the Sun was born anew, in the stable of Augeas”: and, as all know, the Christian gospels which are now considered as canonical say that Jesus was born in a “manger” or in a “stable,” because, so the legend runs in the New Testament, there was no room for Joseph and Mary in the inn.
I do love the touch that only the New Testament is qualified as “the legend runs that…”; pagan myths are not so qualified. Hate is a funny thing, eh?
Well, this is news about Justin is news to me. And when looking at Justin’s Dialogue, which is online, it seems to be news to him too! The claim is copied verbatim from here, which seems to be a headbanger site. This in turn is plagiarising Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds: their origin and meaning (1928) who says:
Justin Martyr again, in the Dialogue with Trypho says that the Birth in the Stable was the prototype (!) of the birth of Mithra in the Cave of Zoroastrianism; and boasts that Christ was born when the Sun takes its birth in the Augean Stable, (1) coming as a second Hercules to cleanse a foul world; and St. Augustine says “we hold this (Christmas) day holy, not like the pagans because of the birth of the Sun, but because of the birth of him who made it.”
(1) The Zodiacal sign of Capricornus, iii.
Not that Carpenter troubled to verify what Justin said, as these claims also are not found in Justin’s text. The “reference” given is to something unknown, for neither COPAC nor the Library of Congress record any book of that title.
Oh well.
Trying to deal with Lightning Source
I’ve been told that the people to print the books that I have commissioned are Lightning Source. They have printers in the US and UK, and access through Amazon. The quality of the job is apparently rather better than Lulu.com.
But they do seem rather difficult to deal with. First they won’t give you any kind of information up front. At the moment I have no idea what they will charge for what I want.
Secondly they demand that you “apply” for an “account”, and they say, rather snootily, that they will review your “application” and deal with it within a couple of days. It’s an online form, and a bit over the top but liveable w ith.
But why the delay, the manual “review”? This I do not get. Now remember that these people are a business selling a service. Just imagine if Amazon took that sort of line! It’s unthinkably bad customer service. It discourages business, puts off the punter, and so on. All I want of these people, remember, is some printing. Why the third degree?
But there is worse. I filled in those forms this morning. This afternoon I get an email, which makes a whole series of further demands for information, with no indication given as to why they need to know all this. Here it is:
Dear Roger
We notice that you have started to register for an account with Lightning Source and would like to ascertain your requirements.
You have populated the first part of our application for an account, but our application process is two-fold. Before we can open your account, we need to ask the following questions:
1. How many titles do you plan to print with Lightning Source over the next 12 months?
2. Do you own the rights to the title(s)?
3. Have your titles been printed/published by any company other than your own? If yes, by whom?
4. In what format do you plan to submit your titles for printing? (i.e. physical books for scanning or files? If files, what type? Are you familiar with creating pdf file?
5. Have you read and understood the File Creation link on our website covering Digital File Submission Standards, Cover Template Generator etc?
6. Have you previously spoken to a sales representative at Lightning Source? If so, with whom?
7. All publishers are required to administer their own web accounts independently of any intervention by Lightning Source. Do you agree to work with Lightning Source on this basis?
Thank you.
Best Regards
Georgina Walpole
Content Acquisition Sales Representative,
Lightning Source UK Ltd., Chapter House, Pitfield, Kiln Farm, Milton Keynes, MK11 3LW, UK
What the heck is that!?! I’ve written back with answers, but remarked on how this is a lot of information to ask of someone trying to give them money. They sound as if I might get a telephone call — I’ve asked them not to.
All in all it’s a rather nasty experience, as an introduction to someone selling you a service. And “content acquisition”? I’m not selling them my content!
From my diary
I’ve been translating the discussion of Theodor Birt from 1882 on chapter divisions in ancient books. This I have done, but I want to augment the footnotes somewhat, by giving the text where he merely gives a reference to some ancient work. Birt also revised his views in 1923, as the papyri became available. I want to translate that material also.
One thing I did this evening was use the Google Latin translator on some of the stuff I was retrieving. This was the introduction in Latin to the 1832 text of Horapollo. And it worked very well indeed! It helps to have QuickLatin on hand to help with working out the part of speech, tense, etc, for individual words. But the same is true for German, etc, where I use the Systrans Pro product for a second take on bits that Google mangles.
More on this tomorrow. I go back to work on Monday, and I imagine my first week back after the holidays will be rather a shock! So I’d like to finish up the chapter titles stuff by then.
From my diary
Employment beckons, and dealing with the paperwork associated with that, chasing people up, and so forth, has filled up today.
I’ve emailed a PDF of the Eusebius book across to the Sources Chretiennes people for their approval. I’m reprinting their Greek text, so it is a condition of doing so that they review the manuscript. There are still a few corrections to add, but this can happen in parallel, if it takes them long to reply (as I think it might). I was going to process my list of corrections into the PDF today, but was too distracted by real-world stuff. There are really only a few, tho, I was pleased to see.
I’ve also been looking at Theodor Birt’s Die antike Buchwesen (The ancient book-trade). After translating a few paragraphs, I have run the PDF through Finereader 9 to get a better OCR’d text. I was hoping to do some more on this, but again was distracted. Maybe later.
It seems possible that I may get the rest of this week to myself, however. If so I will try to deal with both of these.