great leap forwards

[helenic]

Surrealness! I just answered the door to a canvasser from our local MP. An attractive, young, blonde canvasser with good shoes. punkalou, in fact, whom I haven't seen for almost two years. Cue much squeaking of "ohmygod!" and bemused giggling. L, maybe we should meet up sometime and drink wiiiiiine?

I had an excellent weekend. On Friday evening elise, smhwpf, shreena and I saw Billy Bragg play at the Colston Hall in Bristol. We got there during the support band, whose name I didn't catch; they were a blues/electronica group with some fantastic rhythms and basslines and an excellent (and cute) tenor saxophonist, but the singer's voice really didn't blend with the rest of the sound, and their songs didn't seem to be about anything. Elise and I slipped out after a couple of songs and went to the bar. When we returned, Billy still wasn't on; we sat through an Indian guy speaking uninspiringly about Make Poverty History until, without any warning, Mark Steel came on stage. I've never heard his standup before and it was wonderful. Exactly what comedy should be. Hard-hitting, passionate, angry, absolutely fucking hilarious. Mainly he ranted about politics and religion, particularly New Labour and "all the bollocks about the Pope", and I was crying with laughter at the same time as applauding his sarcastically-expressed outrage. The evening would have been worth it just for that, but then Martyn Joseph and Steve Knightley were announced, also completely unexpectedly, which elicited a certain amount of squeaking from me. Apparently they've been touring together for the past three weeks. They mainly took it in turns to play their own songs while the other accompanied; I'd never heard MJ before, and he has an amazing voice. In the interval I bought the album they've recorded together. It was a shame not to see Phil Beer, but since I hadn't expected to see these guys at all I was more than happy.

Eventually Mr. Bragg came on at about 10pm, two and a half hours into the evening. His set only lasted 45 minutes but he was everything I knew he'd be. Forthright, rude, sincere, funny, heartbreaking. He played NPWA, Upfield, John Barleycorn, England Half English, I Keep Faith, All You Fascists, Power In A Union, World Turned Upside Down (which I was particularly happy about), Great Leap Forwards and A New England. For the encore he got Steve Knightley, Martyn Joseph, Mark Steel (who looked a bit uncertain about it all) and the blues singer onstage and did a group version of Redemption Song. Fucking amazing.

Two pieces of good news with which to start the week, both of which have made my insides twist with happiness and disbelief: Pakistan and India are at peace, and (is it wrong that I find this more exciting?) the Oxyrhynchus Papyri have begun to be decoded, making a potential addition of 20% to the current body of extant Greek and Roman literature. "The previously unknown texts, read for the first time last week, include parts of a long-lost tragedy - the Epigonoi ("Progeny") by the 5th-century BC Greek playwright Sophocles; part of a lost novel by the 2nd-century Greek writer Lucian; unknown material by Euripides; mythological poetry by the 1st-century BC Greek poet Parthenios; work by the 7th-century BC poet Hesiod; and an epic poem by Archilochos, a 7th-century successor of Homer, describing events leading up to the Trojan War." Well, that puts my dissertation into perspective.

Comments

[oxfordgirl.livejournal.com]

You saw Mark Steel live?

*Squeeeee*!!

I have already *squeee*d muchly about the Oxyrhynchus over at purple_pen's journal. But I shall squeeee here as well.

*Squeeeee*!!

So, you're coming next Tuesday, right?

*fuzz* :)

[mejoff.livejournal.com]

3...2...1... oh you even beat my counntdown!

[libellum.livejournal.com]

there's nothing speedier than tigers! Or more predictable ... *grin*

[oxfordgirl.livejournal.com]

Rar!

[oxfordgirl.livejournal.com]

*grin* Which bit were you expecting me to Squeeeee at?

[mejoff.livejournal.com]

mainly vast swathes of never before seen classical material, but also mark steele... forgive spag... stinking headcold and struggle to stay awake :(

[libellum.livejournal.com]

stinking headcold and struggle to stay awake

*hug*

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I know!! I had no idea he'd be there. It was the final night of a week-long activist event, which I suppose shouldn't surprise me with Billy Bragg :) But yes. Much wow.

So did you know about the Oxyrhynchus before this article? They're in your neck of the woods. But then it looks like until four days ago, there wasn't really anything to know ... Still. Squeee indeed! It's the kind of thing I've always daydreamed about!

I'm still intending to try and make it next Tues. Don't hate me if work means I have to back out that morning, though ...

*fuzzzzzz* *stroke*

[oxfordgirl.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard anything about them until purple_pen brought them to my attention - yesterday or the day before, I believe. It's going to be fantastic, I can't wait to read this stuff!

*purrrr*

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I heard for the first time through aletharch. It makes me long to be a) post-doc and b) good at language so I could at least hope to be involved in the translation. I wouldn't be so bothered about the transcription, but getting my mits on an untranslated text - WOW. I sigh wistfully. And attempt to concentrate on mundane thesis.

[mejoff.livejournal.com]

Pakistan and India are at peace

this must be the most beautiful thing i've read on a news-site!

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I know! Good news for once! So do you reckon they're going to decide the Kashmir dispute through cricket?

[adamw]

If that's the case, I would think India will be wanting a rematch - they have been thoroughly thumped by Pakistan this last week!

[kimkali.livejournal.com]

Oh who was she canvassing for?!?!?!

It's all very exciting.

All good news!

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Anne Campbell, whom she works for :) Seeing her was quite a surprise!

[the-alchemist.livejournal.com]

(Is it wrong that I find this more exciting?)

I find it more exciting too - I nearly wrote that in Elly's livejournal. I don't think it's wrong. Barring apolcalyptic events, people in 500 years time will definitely still care about the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, but the India/Pakistan thing only *might* have escalated into something that people would still care about then.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

*nods* Also I'm more personally involved with the papyri; I suppose if I'd been involved in projects to do with India-Pakistan I'd find that more exciting because it would make a profound difference to what I'd spent a number of years working on. And I have daydreamed about papyrus discoveries, particularly related to the Trojan War song cycle, whereas (perhaps to my discredit) the India-Pakistan conflict hasn't pressed on my mind of its own accord. There's been a sense of discomfort and anxiety whenever I've been confronted with it, and I'm glad that's over, but ... oh, I don't know, any attempts to explain the preference end up sounding like I'm not valueing the peace agreement, and I made the post to celebrate both.

[mejoff.livejournal.com]

I disagree, most stongly in fact. In 500 years time, the papyn will be just some more greco-roman literature as has been coming to light for many many years. On the other hand I think 'The Day People Finally Began To See Sense', sudden, hard worked for but unexpected peace between two deadly enemies divided by religion, with no coups d'etat, no assassinations and all the militant groups in between the powers piping up saying 'we ant to join in with the peace thing too' might be remembered just a little longer, especially if it sets the precedent that it might.

[mejoff.livejournal.com]

I should clarify, I don't think anything is wrong with being more excited by the point that is within your field, i simply object to the idea that 'people in 500 years time will definitely still care about the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, but the India/Pakistan thing only *might* have escalated into something that people would still care about then'
if only because there are as many geopolitical historians as there are classicists, and also the papyn is of limited interest outside the classics community.

[the-alchemist.livejournal.com]

For me the key part was "making a potential addition of 20% to the current body of extant Greek and Roman literature". This might be over-optimistic, of course, but it would be completely ridiculous to claim that the current peace agreement between India and Pakistan, even if it lasts (which it might not) would add even 2% to the corpus of 'things studied by geopolitical historians.'

I don't think I'm 'part of the classics community' myself, but like everyone who did the English tripos at Cambridge I spent much of my final year studying Euripides and Sophocles - I would certainly have had to read the fragments had they been discovered then. Modern linguists and philosophers will also be directly affected by the discovery. Even though I imagine only fragments of drama will be discovered as opposed to complete plays, Euripides and Sophocles are so important to theatre that directors, actors and theatre-goers may well feel its repercussions.

In a sense it's an unfair comparison. Obviously if India and Pakistan hadn't made peace and the conflict had escalated into a full scale nuclear war then this would have had way more historical significance than the discovery of some new classical texts. But there's no way of knowing whether that would happen or not. And of course it still might - it's meaningless to say that the peace is 'irreversible'. Of course it isn't, though I very much hope it won't be reversed, and am glad that the leaders involved say they feel the same.

[mejoff.livejournal.com]

" don't think I'm 'part of the classics community' myself, but like everyone who did the English tripos at Cambridge..."
Well, yes.

[thene]

Yay for world peace! Now it's China and Japan's turn...

(oddly enough, the title of this entry instantly made me think about Maoism...)

[oakwonder.livejournal.com]

The newly-deciphered texts sound so exciting, they sound wonderful, you'd squee over them if they were discovered somewhere... But this is just the first few readings after the initial success. It's just the beginning. Oxyrhynchus in the nineteenth century gave us Bacchylides and Menander and original texts of things known only from Carolingian whispers or Veronese bungs. And that was 2000 readable fragments out of 100 000. No, there won't be any complete Euripides from beginning to end, but the volume of fragments potentially there is... Sappho is nothing but fragments. In those rubbish heaps we could double our Sappho. Pages of new plays. Do you know Stoppard's Arcadia? How Thomasina weeps over what is gone, consigned to entropy, never to be recovered...

[punkalou.livejournal.com]

you're far too kind! I worried afterwards about being a bad advert for the Labour Party - freezing cold, snuffly and not really wanting to be there! You were the only person on that street who actually answered the door, so was rather dispirted by that point.
Wiiine is indeed a good idea, but can't make plans at the moment because tend to be working until stupidly late. It's likely to be less manic next week though, as we will have finished yet another mailout...

[proctalgia.livejournal.com]

Steel is excellent, isn't he? If you're interested in the topic, I recommend his audio precis on Marx. It's most amusing. (if you've read extensively around the topic, it won't be hard to identify the three or four sources he's relying on).

(1DiMan)

here:
http://mp3.lpi.org.uk/resistancemp/fulllist.htm

[(Anonymous)]

re: the most recent post.
people you've probably forgotten, or even of whom you may never have really been aware, think about you quite often, a bit like in the cheery forwards which well-meaning people send but which so often just make it worse. i can't speak for the others; but you have my sympathy and best wishes, if not my acquaintance. lost, alone, and that other one. take care you.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Many thanks for the sympathy and best wishes - you are very welcome to my acquaintance if you desire it, but you'll have to disclose yourself first. I'm a little confused which "most recent post" you're referring to - I assume you mean my latest friends-only entry, which would mean you're on my friends list and it's extremely unlikely I've "never been aware of you". If I've added you it's fairly probable I like you quite a lot. So if the secrecy is due to any ideas that I don't (know you, or like you) then I think it's unfounded (and evidently I'm curious).

Still, the sentiments and the thrill of mystery are very much appreciated. (Your IP address suggests you're in Oxford, but I can't think why you'd suppose I'm not aware of you, if that's the case... intriguing!)

[(Anonymous)]

i'm often guilty of unfounded paranoia i suppose. i just stopped posting in my livejournal for whatever reason and moved elsewhere, but may come back, having realised how much i like comments being made. here to learn. your acquaintance would be wonderful; i am on your friends list (i often wondered why that was, without wishing to sound like a self-pitying arse). are you still at cambridge next year? i hope to be. and my ip address is leading you on.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

my ip address is leading you on.
fair enough. I don't speak computer very well.

I am hoping to be at Cambridge next year. Clare have accepted me for the one-year MPhil in Classics, but whether I can do it depends on the generosity of the AHRB. If I can't afford the course, I'll probably defer and work in Cambridge, so I'll still be around.

I have some guesses as to your identity, but I am too shy to reveal them. Which, I suppose, leaves us at a bit of an impasse.

If you're any of the people I think you are, you should start writing again. If you're the one I hope you are, then you really should write again because as it is I occasionally find myself getting such a craving for you (like Dionysus for Euripides!) that I have to go and read your old entries, and that's kind of lame. So yes. Write more!

[(Anonymous)]

fair enough. I don't speak computer very well.
this is a shame; despite being a screaming fag, i was coming close to falling in love with you, as a gothish female classics student who can interpret IP addresses.

i'm not sure i'm one of the people who you think should start writing again; long gone are the days when language for me was a perfectible element, something with which to play, something to explore, in displays of verbal pyrotechnics of which i am still proud. recently it has become, like music (my primary pursuit) and art, merely a crude vessel for expressing whatever i feel like whining about at the time.

clare! hurrah. pembroke's music department beckons, grades permitting, and i believe we share a director of studies with clare. my ex-boyfriend is there. i still cry over the bastard now. have you ever fallen for the wrong person? who hasn't. i am actually as terrified of living in the same set of buildings as him as i am of not reaching my offer and being rejected. DI-lemma.