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quislibetYesterday I neglected to call Brandeis University's library, as the boss requested, to make sure that no one would check out Iustus Lipsius. Europae Lumen et Columen. Proceedings of the International Colloquium, Leuven 17-19 September 1997, Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia XV, ed. G. Tournoy et al. (Leuven 1999), before I could pick it up for him. The electronic catalog had indicated on Monday that it was still available, but you never know.
Fortunately there were no runs on the library's supply of recent books on (16th century humanist) Lipsius out Waltham way. Probably that's only because it's the first day of classes out there. Had I waited til next week, boy howdy, who knows.
The Brandeis main library has a pretty cool HO-scale Roman Forum. I wasted some time scoping it out.
It's hilly there. Rather a steep climb from the commuter rail.
While at the library I skimmed the current periodicals to see if there was anything BU didn't have with articles relevant to my world. Unfortunately their periodical room is set up like BU's, that is, in alphabetical order by journal title. Perfect if you know exactly what you're looking for, sucky if you want to check out everything in a given field with relative ease. At Brown, I was pleased to note when I lived an easy walk from there, the current periodicals are grouped by Library of Congress call number, so checking out everything they have in classical studies and ancient history involves at most two different aisles. I found one tangential article, which I photocopied, and skimmed another one on "homosexuality" in the ancient world. It's a Big Thing in Classical Studies, esp. since Foucault, to debate whether modern sexuality has anything to do with understanding what the ancients were up to. This guy argued rather convincingly that it does not. Not a new argument, but one that can be oversimplified. "Kinaidos," a Graeco-Roman category of "pervert" frequently understood to mean "homosexual," or at least "passive homosexual," is in fact rather the passive male partner no matter what the sex of his playmate. A kinaidos is the adult male who gives oral sex to either men or women or who receives anal sex.
So for the Greeks, if you're into the perfectly respectable hobby of buggery, it makes no difference for your "sexuality" whether you're poking boys or girls. Say you're a man and you've got a male lover who is the passive partner, and then suddenly you take up with a passive woman. There is no change in your "sexuality" status whatsoever, nor will people be particularly surprised (the author likened it to the modern distinction between the "leg man" and the "breast man"). Now let's say you have had a male lover for some time now. You keep the exact same lover -- but suddenly word gets out that he's penetrating you. Before you were just a normal guy who happened to like men. Now you're a disgusting kinaidos pervert. Same relationship, same boyfriend. Different category and new social stigma.
Different, then, from modern "hetero" vs. "homo."
Just so you know.
It was also refreshing to see the phrase "fuck him up the ass" in scholarly discourse.
-------
I was going to write a quirky entry based on people-watching at the laundromat last night, but not anymore. Suffice it to say that annoying 20-something women felt the need to sing along with "Brown-Eyed Girl."
The music did remind me tangentially of a conversation I had with the woman cutting my hair at a Super- or Great Cuts once a few years ago.
"What do you study?" she asked, having sussed out my student-ness.
"Classical Studies," I said. Often that takes additional explaining, and this was no exception. She assumed I meant classical music. "No, it's Greek and Roman history."
[Insert usual "What are you going to do with that" conversation. Teach or live in a cave, I sometimes say. I used to add, depending on the audience, something I stole from a friend who once used it to describe my field, when I said I studied Latin and Greek, that I was acquring "skills for the 90s. But not the 1990s." Ha ha. Now, of course, it is no longer the 90s, so it's even lamer to say. -- What is this decade going to be called, anyway? But I digress.]
Having outlined my future career for the benefit of the woman with the scissors, she returned to her earlier misconception: "I thought you meant classical music."
"Yeah, I get that a lot. They should probably call it something else."
"I like classical music, though," she said. "Like they play on Magic 106.7."
There wasn't much I could say to that.
I think I will eat some lasagna now.
Fortunately there were no runs on the library's supply of recent books on (16th century humanist) Lipsius out Waltham way. Probably that's only because it's the first day of classes out there. Had I waited til next week, boy howdy, who knows.
The Brandeis main library has a pretty cool HO-scale Roman Forum. I wasted some time scoping it out.
It's hilly there. Rather a steep climb from the commuter rail.
While at the library I skimmed the current periodicals to see if there was anything BU didn't have with articles relevant to my world. Unfortunately their periodical room is set up like BU's, that is, in alphabetical order by journal title. Perfect if you know exactly what you're looking for, sucky if you want to check out everything in a given field with relative ease. At Brown, I was pleased to note when I lived an easy walk from there, the current periodicals are grouped by Library of Congress call number, so checking out everything they have in classical studies and ancient history involves at most two different aisles. I found one tangential article, which I photocopied, and skimmed another one on "homosexuality" in the ancient world. It's a Big Thing in Classical Studies, esp. since Foucault, to debate whether modern sexuality has anything to do with understanding what the ancients were up to. This guy argued rather convincingly that it does not. Not a new argument, but one that can be oversimplified. "Kinaidos," a Graeco-Roman category of "pervert" frequently understood to mean "homosexual," or at least "passive homosexual," is in fact rather the passive male partner no matter what the sex of his playmate. A kinaidos is the adult male who gives oral sex to either men or women or who receives anal sex.
So for the Greeks, if you're into the perfectly respectable hobby of buggery, it makes no difference for your "sexuality" whether you're poking boys or girls. Say you're a man and you've got a male lover who is the passive partner, and then suddenly you take up with a passive woman. There is no change in your "sexuality" status whatsoever, nor will people be particularly surprised (the author likened it to the modern distinction between the "leg man" and the "breast man"). Now let's say you have had a male lover for some time now. You keep the exact same lover -- but suddenly word gets out that he's penetrating you. Before you were just a normal guy who happened to like men. Now you're a disgusting kinaidos pervert. Same relationship, same boyfriend. Different category and new social stigma.
Different, then, from modern "hetero" vs. "homo."
Just so you know.
It was also refreshing to see the phrase "fuck him up the ass" in scholarly discourse.
-------
I was going to write a quirky entry based on people-watching at the laundromat last night, but not anymore. Suffice it to say that annoying 20-something women felt the need to sing along with "Brown-Eyed Girl."
The music did remind me tangentially of a conversation I had with the woman cutting my hair at a Super- or Great Cuts once a few years ago.
"What do you study?" she asked, having sussed out my student-ness.
"Classical Studies," I said. Often that takes additional explaining, and this was no exception. She assumed I meant classical music. "No, it's Greek and Roman history."
[Insert usual "What are you going to do with that" conversation. Teach or live in a cave, I sometimes say. I used to add, depending on the audience, something I stole from a friend who once used it to describe my field, when I said I studied Latin and Greek, that I was acquring "skills for the 90s. But not the 1990s." Ha ha. Now, of course, it is no longer the 90s, so it's even lamer to say. -- What is this decade going to be called, anyway? But I digress.]
Having outlined my future career for the benefit of the woman with the scissors, she returned to her earlier misconception: "I thought you meant classical music."
"Yeah, I get that a lot. They should probably call it something else."
"I like classical music, though," she said. "Like they play on Magic 106.7."
There wasn't much I could say to that.
I think I will eat some lasagna now.
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Re: And you didn't visit?!
Date: 2002-01-23 12:49 pm (UTC)Well, I have to return the book in a month.
Macaroni, eh? What I want to know is, did they have to have the little Romans specially made?
Classy.
Date: 2002-01-23 01:18 pm (UTC)Priceless!