Posts Tagged ‘Anecdotes’
Socrates as Enigma
Tags: Anecdotes, Aristophanes, Daedalus, Euthyphro, Plato, Psychology, Socrates, Symposium, The Clouds
Socrates as intangible ghost
In Euthyphro (written by Plato), Socrates claims to descend from the lineage of Daedalus, the mythic sculpture who created statues that, when completed, would begin to move in all directions, evading the grasp of the people. When someone would try to approach these statues, they would run away and disappear as if they were ghosts.
This story makes Socrates’ affinity with Daedalus revealing about how he sees himself (as written by Plato,of course): a personality that cannot be captured in a simple idea or definition, illusive like a ghost but filled with tantalizing beauty.
Socrates saw ideas very much in the same light as Daedalus’ statues. He felt that ideas that were written down died. As he tells Phaedrus:
I cannot help feeling, Phaedrus, that writing is unfortunately like painting; for the creations of the painter have the appearance of life, and yet if you ask them a question, they preserve a solemn silence
Source: Phaedrus.
In the writings of Antisthenes, Plato, Euclides and Aristippus Socrates presents himself as a complex, contradictory character. The minute you think you understand him, you lost him. A true offspring of Daedalus.
Perhaps that is why that Alcibiades tells us is in Symposium that
none of you knows Socrates
A man few liked: Socrates as a ridiculous character
As the comedian Aristophanes’ summed up Socrates’ personality in The Clouds (a play written during Socrates’ life, when the philosopher was middle aged):
A bold rascal, a fine speaker, impudent, shameless, a braggart, and adept at stringing lies, and an old stager at quibbles, a complete table of laws, a thorough rattle, a fox to slip through any hole, supple as a leathern strap, slippery as an eel, an artful fellow, a blusterer, a villain a knave with one hundred faces, cunning, intolerable, a gluttonous dog.
Socrates was disliked by many and liked by few. Alcibiades portrayal of Socrates in Symposium is telling:
[Socrates] spends his whole life playing his little game of irony and laughing up his sleeve at the world.
Diogenes Laertius writes:
Frequently, owing to his vehemence in argument, men set upon him with their fists and tore his hair our; and for the most part he was despised and laughed at, yet bore all this ill-usage patiently.
Tags: Anecdotes, Aristophanes, Daedalus, Euthyphro, Plato, Psychology, Socrates, Symposium, The Clouds
A President Caught Skinny Dipping
Tags: 1826, American Presidents, Anecdotes, Anne Royall, Humor, John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams
Skinny dipping became something of a tradition among American Presidents. Harry Truman was a fan, and so was Lyndon Johnson. In that list belongs John Quincy Adams, an enthusiastic swimmer, who used to go skinny dipping in the Potomac before starting work.
Anne Royall, considered by many the first female journalist in the U.S., felt ignored by Adams. When she heard about his habit to go skinny dipping, she tracked the President down, hid herself out of view, and waited patiently for the President to enter the water. Once Adams was submerged, she quickly positioned herself on his clothes.
When Adams returned, he looked puzzled at the very determined young lady. She announced her intention to have an interview with the President.
Adams suggested that if she let him get dressed first, he’d be happy to oblige. But Anne, sensing the opportunity, coolly replied she had no intention to move until the President answered all her questions to a satisfactory level. She also added that if the President dared getting out of the water she would scream out loud for all to hear. Adams, aware that there were some fishermen round the next bend, was nervous about the embarrassment this could cause.
Anne Royall got the interview of her life, while the President stayed decently submerged in the water throughout.
Tags: 1826, American Presidents, Anecdotes, Anne Royall, Humor, John Quincy Adams
Belloc on becoming famous
Tags: 1904, Anecdotes, Fame, Hilaire Belloc, Literature, Writing
“My advice to a young writer who is merely thinking of fame,” Belloc once wrote, “is to concentrate on one subject. Let him, when he is twenty, write about the earthworm. Let him continue for forty years to write about nothing but the earthworm. When he is sixty, pilgrims will make a hollow path with their feet to the door of the world’s greatest authority on the earthworm. They will knock on his door and humbly beg to be allowed to see the Master of the Earthworm.”
Note:
Belloc was so embarrassed about the substandard stuff he had to write to make a living, that one day, when he was traveling by train and saw a man reading his ‘History of England’ in front of him, he asked the man how much he had paid for the book. The man disclosed the sum, Belloc took the money from his wallet, handed it to the man, snatched the book from his grasp and threw it out of the window…
Tags: 1904, Anecdotes, Fame, Hilaire Belloc, Literature, Writing