Noli credere id quod loquitur (Don't believe what people say)

"Wall, I am amazed you don't fall down, since you contain so many scribbles."

I often write here about the real world value of a classics education . I studied classics out of a simple, impractical affection for the subject; its practical value wasn't of interest to me until the affection had worn off a little. 

I've been thinking lately about how important it is *not* to take every statement at face value. Greek and Latin literature, read in the original, is the best education possible in the obfuscatoy power of language. Unless you're thoroughly anti-intellectual, a first glimpse of the 2-inch thick commentary on a 1000 line poem will destroy any notion of 'one word, one meaning. Witnessing an early Imperial poet damn Augustus while singing his praises *at the exact same time* makes you look askance at butt-kissers for the rest of your life.

Which brings me to a recent  NYT essay on disaffected working-class youth. "Young and Isolated" is about the poverty and isolation of working class young adults. Working class poverty is nothing new in the US, but the isolation of young adults is a fairly new issue. I had always naively assumed that one small advantage of a blue collar background is less pressure to move away from your extended family and perhaps even more time to spend with your spouse.

But you can't spend time with a spouse you believe you're too poor to have. From the article:

"Christopher, who was 25, stated simply, “Well, I have this problem of being tricked.” He explained: “Like, I will get a phone call that says, you won a free supply of magazines. And they will start coming to my house. Then all of a sudden I am getting calls from bill collectors for the subscriptions to Maxim and ESPN. It’s a runaround: I can’t figure out who to call. Now I don’t even pick up the phone, like I almost didn’t pick up when you called me.” He described isolation as the only safe path; by depending on no one, Christopher protected himself from trickery and betrayal.

....

Men often face a different challenge: the impossibility of living up to the male provider role. Brandon, who worked the night shift at a clothing store, described what he thought it would be like to be in a relationship with him: “No woman wants to sit on the couch all the time and watch TV and eat at Burger King. I can only take care of myself.”

This may be absurdly utopian,  but I can't help thinking that an acquaintance with classics would at least help with the problems of taking language too literally and having rigid notions of social roles. A standard line is that working class people need more and better vocational educaton, but I can't help thinking that a better appreciation of the subltleties of language, and its capacity for deception, would help Christopher. And Brandon might be amused by Ovid's thoughts

on the "male provider role":

now your beauty can’t captivate my eyes.

Why am I changed, you ask? Because you want gifts.

That’s the cause that stops you from pleasing me.

Once you were innocent, I loved you body and soul:

now your beauty’s flawed by this defect of mind.

Love is a child and naked: without the shabbiness of age

and without clothing, so he’s all openness.

Why tell Venus’s son to sell himself for cash?

Where can he keep cash, he’s got no clothes!

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Wheelock's Latin and the works of Jan Morris

This morning my Latin students were reading an adapted sentence from Horace, "Et fortunam et vitam antiquae patriae saepe laudas sed recusas" (You often praise but refuse the fortune and life of the old homeland (= old Romans). I had to explain to them the whole array of symbolism that the Romans place on  their virtuous, simple-living ancestors.

I might have wished for the literary abilities of Jan Morris. Bookslut's piece on her wonderful travel books sums up her lyric prose and her ability to capture the spirit of a city in a few paragraphs:

To the ancient Greeks, history was the realm of the muse Clio, and throughout literary history most readers have thought of history as a branch of literature like the play or the poem. Morris’s histories are literature, and reading them is a startling experience in an age when “history” means either cutesy bestsellers or tedious academic cinder blocks.A small sample of Morris’ historical writing, the setting Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee:Victoria returned to her palace in the evening, exhausted but marvelously pleased, through the blackened buildings of her ancient capital, whose smoke swirled and hovered over the grey river, and whose gas-lamps flickered into tribute with the dusk.

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The Vergil Strike: Latin in the novels of Jean Webster, Part I

via Wikimedia Commons

Update: the article that led me to Webster's novel is "Girls Reading Vergil: Stories of Latin and Progressive Education," by Rob Hardy (New England Classical Journal 33.2 2006 122-133).

The other day I saw that someone had written an article about the novel Just Patty by Jean Webster, focusing on the Latin classes the characters have to take. (The novel is set at a turn of the twentieth century boarding school, St. Ursula's.)

Extremely spaced out from being on vacation with a baby, I did not save the reference to the article. I did download the novel to my Kindle (it was free). So far I have read Just Patty, its sequel (although published earlier) When Patty Went to College, and part of Webster's best known work, Daddy-Long-Legs. 


Latin is a continuous theme in the novel thanks to Miss Lord, the strict yet intriguing Latin instructor. Although 'Lordy' is a harsh taskmistress for most of the book, by the end she saves Patty and two of her classmates from expulsion. The three girls formed a secret society devoted to enhancing their feminine charms:

"We're going to become sirens," Mae whispered impressively. "We're going to be beautiful and fascinating and ruthless -"
"Like Cleopatra," said Rosalie.
"And avenge ourselves on Man," added Mae.
[....]
"My heart hasn't been broken."
"Not yet," said Mae with a touch of impatience, "because you don't know any men, but you will know them some day, and then your heart will be broken. You ought to have your weapons ready." (204-205 of the 1911 ed.) 

Miss Lord discovers the secret society because of the SAS bracelets the girls wear (for "Society of Associated Sirens"). Patty convinces her the letters stand for "Smiles and Sunshine," and agrees to make her an honorary member. When an SAS member is nearly expelled for flirting, 'Lordy' explains to the headmistress that she herself is a member of this entirely innocent club.

Patty's Latin classes dominate chapter 3, titled "The Vergil Strike," which Hardy discusses extensively in his article. Miss Lord is also an advocate of worker's rights and the new field of sociology. After listening to a lecturer Miss Lord herself brought to campus, Patty decides to help a struggling classmate by striking for 60 line of Vergil per day instead of 80. After a negotiation mediated by the headmistress, Mrs. Trent, Miss Lord and her class eventually settle on assignments of 70 lines per day. Pin It

Greek and Latin in the News: A tutor for Apple and Moses

Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin would like a tutor who knows Latin, Greek, French and Spanish to tutor their seven-year-old daughter Apple and five-year-old son Moses. Apparently Chris Martin graduated from University College London with First Class Honors in Greek and Latin, the equivalent of a summa cum laude. Luckily he met he future bandmates in college, so he was able to launch a practical career :)

I would love to hear them discuss why they want their elementary-school age children to learn Latin and Greek. I think it is great, as long as it is presented in an age-appropriate way. I bet, as entertainers and 'creative' people, they would be more articulate about the value of studying classics than many professors sometimes are.

Update: Disappointingly, the ad turned out to be fake. Pin It