Astrotoy7 Posted February 13, 2008 Author Posted February 13, 2008 cool stuff peeps are getting Ive been a bit busy with other stuff, but have recently embarked on redecorating my study in a neo-classical theme. One of the finishing touches was to add two reproduction paintings depicting an infamous point in the history of the Roman Emperors, the murder of the assuredly mentally ill Caligula, and the ascension of 'The Fool Claudius' Paintings are both variations of the same incident, and wonderfully executed by Victorian era ('Orientalist') artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema. It seems he was quite obsessed by Ancient Greece and Rome, as most of his subject matter are wonderful, detailed depictions of scenes from this era Follow the links if either of those topics interest you The reproductions were wonderfully done, at a 'moderate' price They just look super on my study wall mtfbwya
HerbieZ Posted February 14, 2008 Posted February 14, 2008 I pretty much saw the top scene in the pub last night.
Astrotoy7 Posted February 15, 2008 Author Posted February 15, 2008 HerbieZ said: I pretty much saw the top scene in the pub last night. You saw a reproduction/print of the painting, or was someone crowned Imperator of Rome last night and we missed it ?!! The coolest recreation of this moment was done in that 70s UK TV show I, Claudius, feauturing a stunning cast, from John Hurt as Caligula to Brian Blessed as Augustus and John Rhys-Davis(from Indy & LOTR) as Naevius Sutorius Macro. Trek fans however, will moreso appreciate Patrick Stewart's appearance as the scheming Aelius Sejanus, wearing his original hair no less!! quick vidclip of the hair in action! mtfbwya
HerbieZ Posted February 15, 2008 Posted February 15, 2008 I now have a reference image in my mind for mirror universe picard.
Astrotoy7 Posted February 16, 2008 Author Posted February 16, 2008 HerbieZ said: I now have a reference image in my mind for mirror universe picard. they also recreated Patrick Stewart's hairline for a flashback scene in TNG OT: Anyone descended from Kypris and the Children on Troy has to read this The Robert Fagles translation is the most lovely IMO mtfbwya
Darth InSidious Posted February 17, 2008 Posted February 17, 2008 Astrotoy7 said: I'd advise skim-reading book X - "dull" would be a polite term.
Pavlos Posted February 17, 2008 Posted February 17, 2008 Unless he's completely abandoned the original Latin, of course .
Darth InSidious Posted February 17, 2008 Posted February 17, 2008 Pavlos said: Unless he's completely abandoned the original Latin, of course . Given that the translation I had to work with back in the day began Iuppiter's speech with "Great heav'n-dwellers, why turned aback thy will?", I'd beg to differ. EDIT: All I can say to TK's first screen is: "I think we both know what the problem is, Dave..."
Astrotoy7 Posted February 18, 2008 Author Posted February 18, 2008 Pavlos said: Unless he's completely abandoned the original Latin, of course . Latin is far too compact a language to translate well into English with as many words or in any beauty. In fact, English must try very hard to be beautiful at any time Shakespeare, Keats, Milton - some of their most beautiful compositions are hardly on the "lite" side of verbose That's simply a limitation of a language which is more literal than descriptive - mostly the result of it being distilled from a handful of other unattractive languages I definitely don't know anyone that can read The Aeneid easily in the original Latin Laboured yes, but that detracts from it. When the Emperor Augustus Caesar allowed this to be published(Virgil died before it was fully finished and wanted it burnt when he died!), it was performed so that any and all could hear, not just an elite few. At one level, the Aeneid is very much a propaganda tool for the Julian family, of which Augustus is part of, and who claim Aeneas as an ancestor. How could anyone say it was boring! Difficult to read if you have a bad translation sure, but its full of scheming Gods and Goddesses, Monsters, Epic Battles etc.(including the Battle of Troy of course) Translations of the Aeneid in prose that have been revised in the last 20 years are available for youngsters whose brains and concentrations spans are mush mtfbwya
Pavlos Posted February 18, 2008 Posted February 18, 2008 Astrotoy7 said: Latin is far too compact a language to translate well into English with as many words or in any beauty. In fact, English must try very hard to be beautiful at any time Shakespeare, Keats, Milton - some of their most beautiful compositions are hardly on the "lite" side of verbose That's simply a limitation of a language which is more literal than descriptive - mostly the result of it being distilled from a handful of other unattractive languages I wouldn't call Latin compact. From what I've seen, Roman poets loved to ramble (then again a few liked to completely omit critical words a la Tacitus). It's an incredibly poetic language, born of it being an inflected tongue, but it's far from compact. I mean, look at Laocoon's speech in book 2: Laocoon ardens summa decurrit ab arce, et procul "o miseri, quae tanta insania, cives? creditis avectos hostis? aut ulla putatis dona carere dolis Danaum? sic notus Ulixes? aut hoc inclusi ligno occultantur Achivi, aut haec in nostros fabricata est machina muros, inspectura domos venturaque desuper urbi, aut aliquis latet error; equo ne credite, Teucri. quidquid id est, timeo Danos et dona ferentis." All that to say: I think something fishy is going on with this horse - don't trust it. No doubt Carver or Hemmingway could pull it off with far more grace than Virgil ever dreamt of but then I'm a sucker for minimalism . I'm also unsure what you meant by "literal rather than descriptive". The finest examples of English literature are not to be taken at face value and are veritable minefields of multi-faceted interpretations; every time you pick up a novel or an essay by Orwell you'll find something new - I guarantee it, a free cupcake if you don't. I don't think you could say poetry by Wordsworth was straightforwards and devoid of description, either. I think it really comes down to your personal taste. Some people like free-verse poems, I happen like the struggle between emotion and verse structure .
Astrotoy7 Posted February 19, 2008 Author Posted February 19, 2008 Pavlos said: I wouldn't call Latin compact.... Not being a native Latin speaker, and also not being in the business of translating classical texts, in the instance above I was quoting people who should know Unless you are in the business of the above too, we must be a bit cautious in what we say, lest we mislead our poor readers David West's Aeneid Prose Translation. Penguin Revised 2003. In Notes on the Translation "The numbers in the margin refer to the Line numbers of the Latin[original]. Latin being a very compact language, ten lines of Virgil have often required more than ten in translation." Like you Pavlos, Professor West(University of London School of Advanced Study) believes in "the power, range and music of Contemporary English prose." !! He has done a smashing job, IMO/ If you want a great read that examines the language idioms used in The Aenid, check Virgil's Epic Technique. Richard Heinze tr. by Harvey et al. >>clicky=online edition I also would highly recommend Robert Fagles lovely and recent verse translation, definitely more palatable than the puristic translations of old. But this thread is *hardly* the place for such a discussion > feel free to PM or start a new(and ill fatedly unpopular thread) about the pitfalls involved in creating translations of ancient Latin verse * * * BACK ON TOPIC I gots me one of these > The remarkable ASUS eee. Developed as part of the OLPC initiative, has become one of the most wanted geek-toys of everyone outside of the OLPC demographic as well I bought it because *its dirt cheap - cost me just under $300US *only used for general net/pc/work/media stuff *highly portable *can be used by other lady and irritationskids in family to get them to stay the heck of my pc *runs a tweaked linux ubuntu this pic shows the size of it(the size of a portable dvd player)* *Smiling Asian girl does not come with pc purchase. mtfbwya
Darth InSidious Posted February 21, 2008 Posted February 21, 2008 Astrotoy7 said: Not being a native Latin speaker, and also not being in the business of translating classical texts, in the instance above I was quoting people who should know Unless you are in the business of the above too, we must be a bit cautious in what we say, lest we mislead our poor readers Generally, the 'compact' style you ascribe to all Roman writers is only really prevalent under the Silver Age writers such as Sallust and Tacitus. The language itself, in its syntactical setup can be very compact - the Romans themselves, however, more than make up for this in their love for ridiculously expanded - not to say needless - metaphor, or other linguistic tricks taken to their most extreme. Then you get writers like Tacitus, who decide to try and liven things up by doing things like missing out main verbs... Astrotoy7 said: ~snip~ about the pitfalls involved in creating translations of ancient Latin verse More to do with the number of possible ambiguities that the Romans litter verse with, their love of over-extended description as mentioned above (See the business over the fire in Aeneid X), and their habit of throwing their own linguistic rules out of the window just for fun...the Aeneid is a fairly tame creature when compared to, say, the Annales - even if that is prose (some would argue that the nature of the Annals cannot in fact be classified so rigidly.)
Astrotoy7 Posted February 22, 2008 Author Posted February 22, 2008 Darth InSidious said: Generally, the 'compact' style you ascribe to all Roman writers is only really prevalent under the Silver Age writers such as Sallust and Tacitus. ...... Like Augustus, I blame the Eastern(Greece and beyond) influence for the over-elaborate style of Latin that plagues and confounds all I love Tacitus, Plutarch and Dio less so, whose Eastern influences are easier to understand. Still, THIS THREAD ISNT THE PLACE for such banter! OT: All my video editing biz is taking up far too much room, I got myself 2 of these. I think Im eventually going to get one of those RAID cases mtfbwya
lukeiamyourdad Posted February 23, 2008 Posted February 23, 2008 Astrotoy7 said: OT: All my video editing biz is taking up far too much room, I got myself 2 of these. How much is one of those?
Arcesious Posted February 23, 2008 Posted February 23, 2008 I wonder when computers will be able to process an entire terabite of information per second... (Meaning games like Crysis functioning as smoothly as a tiny, simplistic pac man game functions on a super-charged gamign PC...)
Astrotoy7 Posted February 23, 2008 Author Posted February 23, 2008 lukeiamyourdad said: How much is one of those? For mortals, yeah about $200-300. For Astro, no money out of my pocket I just completed a x2 media center/x1 media server setup for a 'friend of a friend'. As I dislike taking cash for something that is my hobby and I set no deadline to complete, I usually ask for something in return that is easy for that person to get, or they have spare. This chap happens to work in a electronics hardware distribution warehouse You might notice I dont say "bought" in these posts much Although the Asus eee I did pay for, though got a full rebate from my employer as I say its for work fun fun fun! mtfbwya
Negative Sun Posted February 26, 2008 Posted February 26, 2008 It just keeps getting more awesome with more familiar faces, can't wait for the next volume!!!
adamqd Posted February 26, 2008 Posted February 26, 2008 ^^^ Very Cool NS! I've got them all myself, they've made up for a lack of a KotOR III (For Now at least )
Negative Sun Posted February 27, 2008 Posted February 27, 2008 Yeah it really does, I'm totally into this comic, I'm watching the KotOR (comic) handbook on Ebay right now as you can't get it in retail in the UK, if I win it I'll be sure to post "woohoo" in here
Pavlos Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 Edited by Jonathan Bate! The only thing that could be better is if it were edited by him and Tom Paulin (and yes, part of the latter's awesomeness - I've been told I use 'awesome' and its derivatives too much : / - comes from his name and its striking similarity to the word 'tarpaulin' >_>). Only issue is that it's too nicely printed to do my usual scribbles and notes. I like to write books on the inside of books, it's a problem I have.
Serpentine Cougar Posted March 5, 2008 Posted March 5, 2008 and Haven't started reading it because I'm already reading something else (The Book of Ti'Ana), but I can't wait to see what Drizzt is all about!
Astrotoy7 Posted March 5, 2008 Author Posted March 5, 2008 Serpentine said: but I can't wait to see what Drizzt is all about! he is all about....awesomeness!! truly mtfbwya
Negative Sun Posted March 7, 2008 Posted March 7, 2008 Woohoo! Also got this: Can't wait for Volume 2 to come out now!
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