I’ve always been fond of Julian’s observation (in his satire on Christian ‘beard-haters’) that he ‘sang for the Muses, and myself’. (If it isn’t fun, don’t do it, as Robert Creeley put it.) There’s an entertaining and under-sung novel about him, eponymously called “Julian”, by Gore Vidal.
Hey Victoria, your piece was a joy to read. Thank you so much.
I think what gave me so much reading joy was how you wrote about language, about reading it, about shopping for it, about your experience as a new mother. The whole thing. I loved it.
I’m no classicist. I wish I were. I do have schoolboy Latin and a little Greek. But, being Jewish, I do read Hebrew. I think there is something magical about different scripts, eg Greek and Hebrew, that by their very shape to our Western eyes bring difference and a sort of romance. They also speak of a different sense of time, and require our eyes to look differently. I think that is a very beautiful thing.
I always feel that Jewish time has a different quality, and when we read Hebrew in synagogue or use Hebrew in the home for blessings on Friday night etc we are part of a different time continuum. In a way, of course I do need Hebrew to know my way around the Torah (the Old Testament…even the name has a kind of gravitas) and the Siddur (prayer book) and to understand it all, but I don’t need it at all in my modern day 21st century busy life. But I still love it for all that it offers as a counterbalance to all that, and for its reminders of identity and ancestry.
I think though, as you say in Julian, reading Greek or Latin is of a different order again to a jew reading Hebrew (although as a classicist I guess you absolutely do have a very real and pressing need to read it in order to teach it), I read it because I’m Jewish you don’t read them because you’re Greek or Roman; the sheer joy of reading for the sake of reading alone is intensified by the text being in both a different language and a different script.
Once again, I’m so pleased I found your piece. I’m looking forward to reading your Stack.
I’ve always been fond of Julian’s observation (in his satire on Christian ‘beard-haters’) that he ‘sang for the Muses, and myself’. (If it isn’t fun, don’t do it, as Robert Creeley put it.) There’s an entertaining and under-sung novel about him, eponymously called “Julian”, by Gore Vidal.
Hey Victoria, your piece was a joy to read. Thank you so much.
I think what gave me so much reading joy was how you wrote about language, about reading it, about shopping for it, about your experience as a new mother. The whole thing. I loved it.
I’m no classicist. I wish I were. I do have schoolboy Latin and a little Greek. But, being Jewish, I do read Hebrew. I think there is something magical about different scripts, eg Greek and Hebrew, that by their very shape to our Western eyes bring difference and a sort of romance. They also speak of a different sense of time, and require our eyes to look differently. I think that is a very beautiful thing.
I always feel that Jewish time has a different quality, and when we read Hebrew in synagogue or use Hebrew in the home for blessings on Friday night etc we are part of a different time continuum. In a way, of course I do need Hebrew to know my way around the Torah (the Old Testament…even the name has a kind of gravitas) and the Siddur (prayer book) and to understand it all, but I don’t need it at all in my modern day 21st century busy life. But I still love it for all that it offers as a counterbalance to all that, and for its reminders of identity and ancestry.
I think though, as you say in Julian, reading Greek or Latin is of a different order again to a jew reading Hebrew (although as a classicist I guess you absolutely do have a very real and pressing need to read it in order to teach it), I read it because I’m Jewish you don’t read them because you’re Greek or Roman; the sheer joy of reading for the sake of reading alone is intensified by the text being in both a different language and a different script.
Once again, I’m so pleased I found your piece. I’m looking forward to reading your Stack.
I've started reading Julian's letters this afternoon. The one that you've written about is delightful, as you say. Peter Hulse