[lbo-talk] What are you reading now?

Robert Wrubel bobwrubel at yahoo.com
Fri Sep 14 07:29:41 PDT 2007


Well argued, Andie. I may be reacting more to the tv version of Claudius than the book(s?) which I didnt finish. The TV version was certainly disappointing, reducing fifty years or so of history to the machinations of Livia, and giving no political dimension at all to the loveable buffoon Augustus.

Somehow I find the elegant veil of Gibbon's prose more suggestive/erotic than gawking at the real thing.

BobW

--- andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com> wrote:


> What it is with I, Claudius, but obviously our
> tastes
> differ, so this won't persuade you; Graves' usual
> crystalline prose and profound knowledge of the
> sources (I'm a big fan of Graves as a poet, a
> novelist, and a critic), an ability to tell a story
> that moves -- unlike Gibbon -- and you get something
> that has made classical history to exciting to more
> people than just about anyone.
>
> I don't see what's wrong with lechery, I'm in favor
> of
> it. The Romans were big on it, Catullus, Ovid,
> Petronius, and I, Claudius is in fact pretty
> discreet.
> More so than Gore Vidal's' great and highly
> libidinous
> American historical novels, Burr through Hollywood,
> which are sort of our version of Graves on Rome. You
> want real lechery, read Graves' poetry -- he is one
> of
> the great erotic poets.
>
> No, it's not history from below. Yes, it focuses on
> the private lives and tragedies of a handful of
> Roman
> aristocrats. OK, you want to read a historical novel
> that takes the other approach, read Howard Fasts'
> Spartacus. Graves' other historical fiction, which
> you
> probably haven't read -- for example, Count
> Belisarius, Wife to Mr. Milton, Sgt. Lamb's America,
> have almost no sex, but only an American would
> complain that a work contained too much sex.
> Graves'
> history is Tacitus leavened with Suetonius, and
> maybe
> the masses would be better off reading the Annals,
> which I love, but the masses ain't gonna, and,
> Tacitus
> can't touch Graves as a popular storyteller. (Of
> substantially accurate stories.)
>
> --- Robert Wrubel <bobwrubel at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > what is it about I Claudius? It just seems like
> > crap
> > to me. Robert Graves book on Travelling in Greece
> > is
> > superb, as is every shorter work I can remember
> > reading, but turn him loose on history and you
> wind
> > up
> > with lechery. Anthony Burgess' contrapuntal
> > narration
> > of the story of the early apostles and decadent
> > contemporary Romans is much better, as fiction and
> > history. Gibbon is pretty good, too.
> > BobW
> > --- Charles Brown <charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us>
> > wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > >>> andie nachgeborene
> > > Robert Graves', I, Claudius
> > > A book on the Borgias by some 60's Italian
> > historian
> > > Machiavelli's Prince and the Discoursi on Livy
> > > (random
> > > selections as I read along with the Borgias)
> > > Plan to start a book on the Medici next
> > > Gary Wills' Venice: the Lion City
> > > Just finished: Ross King, Brunelleschi's Dome
> and
> > > Michelangelo and The Pope's Ceiling (along with
> > the
> > > very good guide illustrated to Mike & Raphael
> you
> > > get
> > > in the Vatican, for the pix)Plan to start Tony
> > > Grafton's book on Alberti: Master Builder of the
> > > Renaissance, just bought this to follow up on
> the
> > > Brunelleschi
> > > May take Graves' Claudius the God as my next
> train
> > > reading
> > > Plan to restart Pynchon's Against the Day, read
> > > aloud
> > > with la Espouza
> > > Various books and papers on class actions for a
> > > paper
> > > I'm writing
> > > Various texts on federal civil procedure for a
> > > course
> > > I'm teaching
> > > Recently finished the new Harry Potter (eh, a
> real
> > > disappointment)
> > > Manera's Borgia series, Blood for the Pope and
> > > Incest
> > > and Power (classy or any way well drawn
> > > semi-historical pornographic comix)
> > > Some recent Serpieri Druuna books (more classy
> or
> > > any
> > > way well drawn sci fi pornographic comix)
> > > At my kids' instigation I read through (again
> > Thomas
> > > Harris Hannibal Lecter books, except for
> Hannibal
> > > Rising) ("I'll eat you up, I love you so.")
> > >
> > > ^^^^^^^^
> > >
> > > CB: Sounds like you are a voracious reader
> reading
> > > about the
> > > voracious.
> > >
> > >
> > >
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