3 ms·
I think people should read enough from the classics to understand how old some ideas are — we tend to think of certain philosophies, narrative styles, jokes, an
by devindotcom 11y ago
I think people should read enough from the classics to understand how old some ideas are — we tend to think of certain philosophies, narrative styles, jokes, and other things as relatively modern and usually they're much, much older than that.
Once you understand that, you understand that you can trace ideas through history and sometimes view their genesis and evolution — it adds a lot of perspective.
That's a very valuable lesson and one that can be learned from relatively little reading — after that, one may read or not read according to one's taste. Not everyone is cut out to go straight through Aristotle, or Livy, or what have you. You can get their ideas second hand (or third, or fourth, or five hundredth) - the important part, I think, is learning that intelligence, insight, humor, and wisdom are by no means modern contrivances (and may even have suffered a little over time).
- rokhayakebe 11y agoI think people should read enough from the classics to understand how old some ideas are The understatement of the century, or you are too nice. I think people should read enough from the classics to understand how few new ideas there are
- hyperion2010 11y agoI also think it can be very revealing of just how biased our interpretations are, even without the issues surrounding translation. Our context for interpreting these works is completely different from their contemporary context, yet we still find ideas that resonate with us over 2500 years even though the context needed to understand their original meaning is long gone.
- kagamine 11y agoOvid's The Erotic Poems are a fine and entertaining example of Roman knowledge and wit with regards to human relationships. So much from 2000 years ago is still relevant today if you want to get some tail. Mixed with the continuous references to Greek mythology (for which I was very glad for the authors notes at the back of the book) and you really wonder why classical literature is not a part of the school curriculum now. The breadth of knowledge relevant to today is astounding.