A Don’s Life

Bedding down in The Library

Earlier this week I took part in a debate at the British Library -- 'Is the Physical Library a Redundant Resource for 21st century academics' organised by THE. To put it another way, should we all stay at home/in our studies and call up all the resources we need on our lap tops and let the country save all the money that bricks and mortar and bulky things like books eat up. You can read an account of the debate here and here and here.

Now no-one could accuse The Don of being a Luddite (I have my laptop open in the breakfast table and cant imagine what life was like before JSTOR), but I don't intend to give up the physical library without a jolly good fight.

My paean of praise for the physical library included some of the familiar lines...You dont just go to the library for information, you go there to learn how to think differently, and that is about ordering, classification, serendipity (what book you find on the shelf next to the one you thought you were looking for...on which, see Grafton and Hamburger on the marvellous but threatened Warburg Library). And you go also for the people, the other readers and the librarians. And you go for the sheer pleasure of having space and quiet to THINK... not to mention the pleasures of transgression (and on this topic I had a little nostalgic reflection on all the things we used to do in libraries . . . eat, drink, smoke substances legal and illegal, have sex. I was tempted to ask for a show of hands from those who had ever made love in a library bookstack, a bibliophile's Mile High club, but thought embarrassment might produce a misleadingly low score.

Who used to live in my house?

We are having some building work done -- to put in a shower, after 15 years with just a bath. The kids are pleased, but point out that we are installing this new technology just after they have 'left home".

Anyway in the course of demolishing the bathroom, the builders discovered that it had been lined with newspapers from 1958. Now, for all kinds of research reasons, I spend hours looking at old papers in the University Library, and am used very to looking at (and mining) old news stories -- but it means something quite different when the paper in question has been peeled from the interstices of your own bathroom.

Anyway the Cambridge Daily News, as it then was in 1958, is full of the celebrations of "Ceylon Independence Day" -- with a picture of the High Commissioner "amusing the company at the Bombay Restaurant, in the company of his two daughters. And there are the usual Cambridge flurry of bike thefts (including the arrest of some unfortunate nine-year-old on the said charge). Meanwhile the Sunday Times was praising the virtues of the New Years Honours List (Julian Huxley's Knighthood "can hardly appear premature"... and the same for Lord Nuffield's Companionship of Honour apparently).

But who was it who had the papers stuffed in to the wall?

The Cambridge University Diary goes multi-cultural

One of the things that we teach students about the early Roman empire is the impact of imperial rule on the Roman calendar. A traditional religious festival could become also the anniversary of the day on which one of Augustus' heirs assumed his adult toga, or whatever. And they were marked as such on the publically inscribed calendars.

The little changes in the inscribed texts offer a great resource for understanding big changes in Roman culture.

So what, I wonder, will the future historian make of what has been happening to the University Diary over the last few years. For those who aren't familiar with this, the University Diary is a little pocket calendar used largely by senior members of the university -- who like it because it marks the date of Faculty Board meetings, not to mention the beginnings and ends of term and so forth.

Anyway, a few years ago the poor old diary was resolutely Christian. In addition to the University meetings (and the birthdays of a few royals), it included all those little saints' days ..St Barnabas, St Edward King and Martyr and the rest. There was little practical point, but it paraded an old fashioned English Anglicanism of the established church.

Now it has suddenly become a cornocopia of religious diversity.

I get to own a Bugatti . . . kettle

I would never have normally spent such a lot on just a kettle. But two things coincided. First, the lid of our old faithful kettle finally bust -- and second it was the husband's birthday. As he rather likes gadgets, I wondered what a really hi-tech kettle might look like.

No sooner had I scanned the John Lewis website than I had fallen in love with the very very top of their range, a Bugatti Vera, for not much short of £200 (yes, but it was the conjugal birthday present remember -- as well as a replacement for the old one). It looked absolutely gorgeous and really not kettle-like at all. But I think I was partly struck by the idea of having a kettle made by the makers of the car I would never afford. It didnt take long to discover that the kettle makers have nothing to do with the cars (which are now made by Volkswagen anyway); but by then I was smitten.

Even when I read the decidedly adverse on-line reviews from people who had had to send theirs back twice within the first six months, I was too much in love with the damn thing to waver. Even when the first few John Lewis outlets turned out not to have any in stock (they were being discontinued.. I wonder why), I persevered until the Oxford St branch had tracked one down at their distribution centre. And I wasn't even put off when the John Lewis lady couldnt help blurting out that it did seem quite expensive for a kettle (when John Lewis ladies do that, you know you are being a mug..).

Anyway, once I found it, it came within a day. And what did I get for my money?

World-class universities vs the Human Resources Compliance Unit

Britain has a good number of world class universities, and many more than you would expect for its population and GDP.  One of the things that KEEPS those universities world class is the exchange of lectures, seminars, examiners etc across the globe.

So, reflect on this:  just recently a directive has come down to us from the "management" (as I have regretfully come to call the administration.. only 10 years ago they felt like my "colleagues"), explaining that in future we will only be allowed to appoint external examiners for PhDs from those who have a right to work in the UK (ie no Americans, Australians whatever). Apparently, so our "Human Resources Compliance Unit" (I am not joking) assures us, reading a PhD thesis, writing a report and giving the candidate a viva of (say) two hours counts as "employment". So if you are appointed to do this, you need to prove your eligibilty to work in this country, by showing your passport.

If this is correct (and I mean IF), then this is just one little blow to the idea of the UK as a home of world class scholarship.

The Cambridge Greek Play

I have a great affection for Greek drama, but I have to say that I prefer it either on paper in Greek, or performed on stage in English. I am not a huge fan of Greek tragedy performed in Greek.

The simple reason is that I don't understand enough of it. I was brought up to read Greek, and most spoken versions remain pretty incomprehensible to me, unless I have the Greek text on my knee. I remember going to see a performance of Aristophanes' Birds when I was in the sixth form, and the only line I caught in the whole damn play was spoken by Iris... 'all' athanatos eimi' ('but I'm immortal') she grinned at a crucial point, winsomely enough. It didn't take me too long to see that I would have got more out of just curling up in an armchair and reading the text. Since 1974, I have resolutely eschewed Greek drama performed in Greek.

Anyway, this puts me in a tricky position every three years when it comes to the triennial Cambridge Greek play (whose 1974 Medea was the last performance I saw).

This venerable Cambridge institution goes back to 1882, since when the university has staged a play in the original Greek pretty much every three years, a bit more irregularly in its early days. It was the first successful venture of this kind,and more or less since antiquity itself. The original idea was not actually to enjoy the brilliance of Greek literature. It was put on with a much more archaeological aim in view -- to explore how Greek tragedy could be re-enacted in the physical context of a theatre, and to recreate costumes, settings and authentic props. The literature came second.

In the early years, it was a huge society event. There were special trains put on from London, and the great and the good flocked to Cambridge to see the likes of the wonderfully attractive Rupert Brooke play the second guard from the left (apart from a starring role for Janet Case, Virginia Woolf's Greek teacher, in 1883, there was not a women in the cast till 1950); the music was specially composed by the likes of Vaughan Williams. It is still a semi-professional production, rather than a bit of student am. drama.

Anyway, this year the Greek play is the Agamemnon. And, for no particularly good reason (they have useful surtitles now, I'm told), I am keeping up my record of non attendance...from bloody minded-ness more than anything else. (Sorry James -- the charming invitation nearly worked, but I do have my record to sustain).

But they do say it is really very good this year, and most people dont feel like me about spoken Greek;  I am told there are still a few matinee tickets left. So go for it, and report back!

 

 

How to read a Latin poem, the ancient Booker -- and other Cheltenham events

I have just got back from the Cheltenham Literature Festival -- and from the start of the Classics "strand" which worked better than I could ever have hoped (there is still a "heroines" debate next week, if you are near Cheltenham and up for some high-fibre entertainment). I've already trailed this, so apologies for any repetition... but it has now actually happened.

First off, on Saturday, was that discussion I mentioned between Kevin MacDonald and Maria Wyke about the forthcoming movie, Eagle - based on the Rosemary Sutcliff novel. This went really well, I thought, because both Maria and Kevin were prepared to play and engage with the audience -- and in Kevin's case to talk frankly about how he had changed the original story and why (like the relationship between Marcus and Esca becoming less deferential and more edgy, and the virtual disappearance from the movie of Cottia -- the only possible heterosexual love interest in the original book). For me this was an eye opener onto adapting a book for the screen. (No less fascinating was people's recollection of old BBC versions on both radio and tv, which had stuck in their memory more firmly, I think, than the book itself.)

 Saturday evening turned out to be a big prequel to an even bigger day on Sunday -- with two classical events. The first was the high risk discussion of two Latin poems, Catullus and Horace. I guess this is what I am most proud of -- because it would have been so easy to get it wrong (and dull). But we managed to go through the poems in such a way that I felt I saw more in them than I ever had before, and honestly I thought we had 250 people really gripped. One of the reasons it worked so well was that the Horace (the Plancus Ode, ie Odes 1, 7) looks pretty rebarbative at first sight, full of proper names and myths you havent heard of. Just the kind of thing that puts people off Latin poetry, in English or in Latin. But give it half an hours and it is quite easy to see what is going on, and why. (In fact one of the questins we dealt with was, quite how bookish and learned this all was for Roman readers too.)

So thank you Llew and Peter. I'd love to hear reactions from anyone who was there.

And finally, as some of you who could not be there have asked me to post, who won the ancient Booker prize?

The Eagle of the Ninth

Tomorrow I am off to the Cheltenham Literary Festival, to do the series of gigs as Guest Director there.

The first event, on Saturday afternoon, is a session of discussion with Kevin (Last King of Scotland) Macdonald and Maria Wyke on Roman movies. The prompt for this is KM's forthcoming film, The Eagle, which adapts Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth for the big screen. I read this book (or, I think, had it read to me) when I was a small child.. and remember the story of the lost ninth legion, and the quest of Marcus to find out what happened to his lost dad (is that right?) with huge warmth, though haven't been back to it since.

So I have bought a new copy to read on the way there. The text is still a bit of a closed, or slightly ill-remembered, book. But I have skimmed through and the pictures are just the same as I recall, including the dreamy wood-cut of Marcus as the frontispiece.

Do we want Simon Schama as History Czar

Declaration of interest: I dont know Prof Schama well, but what I know I like a lot. He is smart, clever, engaging and not -- so far as I have any experience -- remotely ill-willed. A great cook,  a great dinner companion, a wonderful writer and an acute historian.

True. But do we want him advising Mr Gove on the History Curriculum in British schools?

I think not. Actually, what we really need is a group of intelligent British school teachers, calling on all kinds of historical talent outside school, wherever it may be found.

So what's wrong with Schama?

Well, this is celebrity culture at its most meretricious -- Gove playing to the populist gallery. The fact that Schama is smart and has made some good television programmes does not mean that he is the best person (if reports are right) to head up the new drive to revitalise British history.

Schama long ago decided to make his (day job) career in the United States -- which gives him maybe a usefully external perspective on the British system, but also means that he is necessarily out of touch with the stresses, strains and demands of what is going on in British schools right now. That makes him an excellent person to consult, but not to head up the new policy.

The same would go for Niall Ferguson (another Tory brainwave for putting some energy into school History).. and the same would go, in Classics, for Mary Beard (though I do at least work here). She certainly ought to be consulted about the direction of Latin teaching in schools, but only as part of a wide team. We dont want MB guiding what happens to Classics in this country any more than we want Schama or Ferguson doing that for History. That is because there are many good History/Classics teachers who would be much better at tackling this job.

My suspicion though is that this is not simply celebrity culture, it is also penny pinching. I dont know how much Prof S is getting paid, if at all (and for his sake I hope he has a nice fee). But whatever it is, I am sure that it is less than what it would cost to bring 15 History teachers, plus a few outside "experts", together for a couple of days... costing up the travel, board and lodging, etc.

Prof Schama is not only glitzy, but also cheap. And appointing him to whatever "job" he now has is also an insult to History teachers here.

 

I test-drive Google Latin -- and some other new electronics

Our computer officer (thanks Steve) alerted me to the new addition to Googles repertoire of electronic translation aids: the Latin translator. You type the Latin words in they give you the English words out.

Wondering whether it might put me out of a job (no, not seriously..), I decided to give it a test drive.

Let me say, before I get the knives out, that part of me is full of admiration for the people who do this. I would have no idea how to start making a computer translating programme. I'm sure it's very hard -- and that many exciting innovations have teething troubles.

But with that out of the way, the verdict is -- dont touch it with a barge pole.