Appearances notwithstanding, Foucault's Virginity is not so much about Foucault as it is a series of three linked essays on a portion of the subject mAppearances notwithstanding, Foucault's Virginity is not so much about Foucault as it is a series of three linked essays on a portion of the subject matter of his book The History of Sexuality, namely, representative erotic narratives of the Second Sophistic (c. 50-250). Appearances do, however, sell books. Here the title catches the attention while the cover's Renaissance drawing of the smiling, busty prostitute, whip raised, side-saddled upon grey-bearded Aristotle clinches the deal--a fair one because, in this case, appearances do not deceive.
As Eva Canterella has observed in her own studies of ancient sexuality, virtually all documents of the period narrate male desire, whether for women or other men. But while women are off-stage in the more philosophical treatments, just as they were in the classical drama, they are represented as central characters, even protagonists, in the erotic comedies discussed by Goldhill. In substantial part, the critique of Foucault is a criticism of inattention. The comedies of the transitional period between paganism and Christianity have been neglected, their spicier sections mistranslated, if translated at all. Everyone reads--or reads of--the Peripatetics, the Academicians, Stoics and Epicureans. Few are exposed to this popular material. Goldhill focusses on four texts: Longus' Daphnis and Chloe; Achilles Tatius' Leucippe and Cleitophon; Chariton's Chaereas and Callirhoe and the romance of Bacchon and Ismenadora inspiring Plutarch's dialogue Amatorius, the text most involving Foucault. Heliodorus' Aethiopica, Apuleius' Golden Ass and a host of other sources, fictional and philosophical, are discussed glancingly.
As slaves confound their masters in the New Comedy, so women are represented as confounding men in the Second Sophistic. So love confounds us all, then as now. While the traditional problematics of eroticism, marriage and gender are, with few exceptions, rather quaint, if not offensive, to we moderns, ancient erotic fiction, thanks to the allowances afforded comedy, can still entertain. This erudite book is, given its self-conscious appreciation of its subject matter, a pleasure to read and an enticement to a neglected literature....more
A labor of love, this history of "food and gastronomy" spans the entire record from prehistory to the present, focusing on the period from 650 B.C.E. A labor of love, this history of "food and gastronomy" spans the entire record from prehistory to the present, focusing on the period from 650 B.C.E. to 300 C.E. "Greece" is also broadly treated, taken to include not only the European peninsula but also all areas occupied by Greeks or Greek-speakers: Asia Minor, the Aegean Islands, Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete, Cyrene and Italy--as well as those areas with whom they traded foodstuffs and culinary discoveries. This is not a cookbook, but a history of one culture's foods, their employments and enjoyments.
The treatment of prehistoric (pre-650) food consumption is cursory, occupying only twenty-two pages of text. Archaic and Classical Greece (650-250) is thoroughly treated in eighty pages while post-Classical antiquity (300 B.C.E.-300 C.E.) receives fifty-four. Byzantine, Ottoman and contemporary developments are quickly reviewed in twenty-five pages. Throughout, the concentration is on ordinary, domestic practice, not on the extraordinary or the cultic. There is little perceptible system to this book beyond such rough chronological ordering. It is not nested, nor does it attempt to substantiate, any anthropological, sociological or economic theory. Thus, while the author demonstrates that the discipline of gastronomy originated circa 400 B.C.E., he adduces neither weighty reasons for this development nor momentous consequences. The aesthetics of eating appear to require no justification. This is a travelogue, not a scientific geography of Greek cookery.
Like a good travel book, 'Siren Feasts' contains tidbits to satisfy all tastes, excurses into the arcana of the once commonplace. For instance, I found Dalby's discussions of seafood fascinating. So various were the species available in the Mediterranean world that language fails him--literally. Modern English simply lacks the nouns. French, a richer language here, is resorted to. One wonders if contemporary supermarket cornucopias are actually more abundant than some ancient marketplaces. Again and again, I was struck by the poverty of my own culinary vocabulary, at my ignorance as regards the such an important facet of human life.
Classicists and historians already well-versed in the sociology, politics and literature of the period may, similarly, be surprised at how little they know about this fundamental topic. They will find in this humble history both a useful introduction to an academically neglected aspect of culture as well as an entre into the daily concerns of generations of ordinary Greeks....more
Last year brought the first domestic paperback issue of Secundo Natura, originally published by Editori Riuniti in 1988. Professor of Roman law at theLast year brought the first domestic paperback issue of Secundo Natura, originally published by Editori Riuniti in 1988. Professor of Roman law at the University of Milan, Dr. Cantarella has produced an instance of successful scholarship, appealing to general audiences without sacrificing academic rigor. Consequently, it may be reviewed from both perspectives.
Forty-six pages of notes indicate a wide background with relevant classical texts as well as with two centuries of analytical work on Greco-Roman sexual mores available in Latin, English, German, French and Italian. When available, English editions of these materials are noted. Source texts are commonly given in the original Greek (transliterated) and Latin, with either direct translations or paraphrases following. Her particular strength is the law, written and customary, and what ancient legislation suggests about prevailing practices from the seventh century to Justinian's legislation in A.D. 533. This vast period is divided into five epochs, attention being primarily devoted to the middle three: Hellenic culture before the domination of the city states and, then, the classical period; Rome before its hellenization, during the Empire and, then, upon its Christianization. She is at her weakest in discussing the roots of Judeo-Christian influences.
This book is comparable to her prior, foundational history of ancient gender roles, Pandora's Mirror. Matters taken for granted here are documented and argued there. Exactly what female testimonies come down to us? She provides the sadly short list of texts, mostly fragmentary, and references. How is that the autonomy of women declined with the rise of the city-states? What happened to the institutions for the higher education of girls? She provides arguments while critically reviewing more radical theories, ancient and modern, of traditional matriarchies superseded by patriarchy. Was Christianity an alien accretion upon a more sexually liberal culture or had the move toward ascetic self-control already occurred in paganism? What of ordinary people? How much of what we know about classical mores applies only to the articulate elites?
It is impossible to discuss sex roles without prejudice. Cantarella does not conceal hers. The effect is to the make the book more humane and accessible. It is remarkable that, after Sappho, women are nearly voiceless in classical antiquity, their attitudes only known as they are represented by men. It is remarkable that the ruling elites were generally quite comfortable with exacting subservience, sexual and otherwise, from their inferiors: slaves, freedpersons, women and the lower orders in general. Their unconsciousness or, at least, lack of sensitivity to the interests of others is glaring. One wonders how we might compare in the eyes of future historians. For, like the ancients, we have our enlightened voices, sages and poets, who inspiringly bespeak the worth of humanity while our society remains substantially class-riven, oppressive and violent.
However, while tendentious, the book is not simplistic. Gay and free love advocates will find no unequivocal endorsements in this record. For, while acceptant of sexual practices generally proscribed in the modern West, the ancients hedged their behaviors with prohibitions. While both the Greeks and the Romans sanctioned male bisexuality, it was with conditions and the conditions radically varied between these two cultures and over time.
In the highest sense, a good book will constructively broaden its public. Attentive readers of this one will have their own beliefs challenged, their own taboos put into perspective. So doing, we become more conscious of our own limitations, more sensitive to the ways of others....more
The recent success of the movie 300 has raised interest in the history of Sparta to a level where it has spilled into the community of World WrestlingThe recent success of the movie 300 has raised interest in the history of Sparta to a level where it has spilled into the community of World Wrestling Federation fans. Thermopylae (480 BCE), represented in the movie, shows the legendary high point of their culture, the reign of Agesilaos II (444–360 BCE), their fall and the reasons for it. I read this upon the recommendation of Dr. James DeVoto while editing and indexing his own, yet to be published, book about King Agesilaos II....more
R.A. Lafferty is sui generis, a science fiction writer like no other. You love him or you hate him or you, like me, are perplexed by him enough to reaR.A. Lafferty is sui generis, a science fiction writer like no other. You love him or you hate him or you, like me, are perplexed by him enough to read his bizarre novels and short stories obsessively while hating every minute of it.
R.A. Lafferty has got some peculiar take on religion. I've never read anything biographical about him, but it appears that this man was a very idiosyncratic, very serious Catholic--a factor that may, in part, explain some of his weird fictions.
This book, however, is a straightforward account of Alaric and Rome's fall(s). Here Lafferty reads like almost any decent popular historian. The specialist will likely find it amateurish, but others will find it engaging and informative. I did....more
I've previously only read one book about the Austro-Hungarian state, The Eagle Has Fallen, and a lot of books about its south slav appendages. OtherwiI've previously only read one book about the Austro-Hungarian state, The Eagle Has Fallen, and a lot of books about its south slav appendages. Otherwise, I'm pretty ignorant and was hoping to get a sense of the world in which so many of the authors I admire (Freud, Wittgenstein, Kafka etc.) inhabited. It does that in its way, but it was almost over my head.
This is not a fun book. This is a serious history written by a serious, and very competent (he works in very many of the original languages of that polyglot empire) historian. Expect a lot of professional asides as Okey covers the commen historiographical issues which have come up in the study of Austro-Hungary. Also, expect a lot of well-documented hard facts, a lot of economic and social statistics. By the standards of the profession, this is a magisterial work. By popular standards, it is dry-as-dust. Having thought myself a history major once, years ago, in college, I have to weigh in for the competence and give it four stars....more
This is a work along the lines of Manchester's The Glory & the Dream and almost as good. Goulden, the author, hasn't quite the stylistic abilities of This is a work along the lines of Manchester's The Glory & the Dream and almost as good. Goulden, the author, hasn't quite the stylistic abilities of William Manchester, but being a professional journalist, he writes well enough.
The book is basically a popular social history of the United States of America in the years between the end of the war with Japan to the beginning of the war with Korea. I was born after the period, so, for me, it is a book about my parents and their friends, about the world I was to be born into. Someone older than I would probably like it, albeit more critically, even more than I did.
Although almost five hundred pages long, it was so interesting that it kept me up way too late at night and was finished in a couple of days....more
I only began this oral history collection because a close friend gave it to me. Normally I avoid the genre as being too anecdotal, too prone to give fI only began this oral history collection because a close friend gave it to me. Normally I avoid the genre as being too anecdotal, too prone to give false impressions. Starting with the Manchurian incident of 1931, the going was slow at the outset because I know too little about Sino-Nipponese relations before the Pacific war. But once I got to the late thirties and events with which I've acquired some knowledge, it became riveting and coming to its conclusion with the occupation of Japan was a sadness.
The book is objectively significant for two reasons. First, the authors, an Anglo-Japanese couple, provide good historical essays surveying the period and the particular events discussed. One will know enough about the Manchurian Incident to proceed to the first-person accounts of it and its aftermath. Second, an oral history of the war from the perspective of ordinary Japanese has never, incredibly, been done before. What does that say about Japan and its people? What does that say about being the losers in war who renounce war rather than tooling up for another one?
A disproportionate amount of space is given to the extreme, the exotic and the bizarre, to such events as our nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and to such Japanese practices as torturing and testing poisons on prisoners as well as on those men who trained for suicide aeroplane and torpedo missions. But, heavens, I must admit that I am fascinated by these extremes and the psychology of those who bring themselves to promote and justify them. And here you will get, often, both descriptions and repentant confessions. Although disproportionate in that they distort the sense one might obtain about how most Japanese experienced the war, these accounts which punctuate the broader flow of the basically chronological text make this book a page-turner....more
My Dad fought in both theatres while Mom lived under Nazi occupation in Norway. Dad turns eighty-seven tomorrow, so I read this book blind, being geneMy Dad fought in both theatres while Mom lived under Nazi occupation in Norway. Dad turns eighty-seven tomorrow, so I read this book blind, being generally interested in reading books about the world they grew up in, but knowing nothing about the author. I've likely read scores of books about WWII for similar personal reasons.
In any case, I know enough about the war to state that the book's approach is creditable. Fleming--brother of Ian Fleming--not only lived through the events on the homefront, but he did his homework as well. What merits the fourth star, however, is readability. Fleming writes beautiful English....more
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