Dear Sir, It was a pleasure to finally be able to drive my car again, after its long sojourn in your workshops and the completion of the necessary repairs. To all intents and purposes I should be, and am, pleased with the results, but do have one of two qualms about praising the work carried…
It Is Not The Length Of Time
It is not the length of time that it takes, more the fact that a letter manages to get through the system and can be delivered and then, the highlight of all things, is replied to. The hiring freeze across all federal areas is only going to make things worse, so a good deal of…
Stepping Into The Yard
I admit, there is a massive difference between stepping into something you know and have been able to prepare yourself for, and being forced into a situation where you have no knowledge whatsoever of what will happen, how the whole system works, and how you will be received in it; which made the description in…
Narration And Mime
Dear Professor Feeney, Having just finished reading Beyond Greek: The Beginnings of Latin Literature I am left with one or two questions, one of which I sincerely hope you will indulge. The premise you set out is that the Latin-speaking authorities, and many of the citizens, were unable or unwilling to learn the languages of…
When Lost For A Few Suitable Words
Firstly I must admit that I have a copy of the complete works of Michael de Montaigne permanently on my writing desk and, when lost for a few suitable words, glance in its direction to remind myself that there is always something to write about or, as Pliny the Younger admirably demanded when Fabius Justus…
Write What Is Worth Reading
I finished my last letter to you with a reference to the long conversation carried out over one hundred and twenty years about the value of Cicero’s Latin. What I didn’t point out was that this conversation began considerably earlier, but was not considered part of the whole; not waged between Renaissance Humanists trying to…
Junk Mail For Cable Television
Someone asked me recently how it is possible for me – or anyone else, I presume – to write to a person I do not know; how can I find anything to write about and where, if any, are the connections to those I write to. The person who asked is one of those whose…
The Principle Of A Single Theme
In her introduction to Pliny’s Letters, published in 1969, Betty Radice notes that Gaius Plinius Luci filius Caecilius Secundus (Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, son of Lucius of the tribe Oufentina, better known to us as Pliny the Younger) followed the principle of a single theme for his letters rather than the scholastic Rule of Three…
Betty Radice – A Correction
Dear Sirs, This morning I had the pleasure of enhancing my collection of classic Latin texts in the Loeb Classical Library series with the receipt of Pliny’s Letters, edited by Betty Radice, and published by Harvard University Press in 1969. Unfortunately the first few glances into my newest acquisition left me slightly confused and, upon…
Writing One Long Letter
Asking questions is not one of my strong points when it comes to writing letters, or even getting to know people in real life, and that despite a reasonably strong belief that the best way to let someone reveal themselves is to challenge them in some way; questions being the most immediate form of challenge…