An interesting adjunct to the study and learning of another language, giving it a human face and one that resonates with parallels, similarities as welAn interesting adjunct to the study and learning of another language, giving it a human face and one that resonates with parallels, similarities as well as remote and unusual social habits. Here is the daily life of a Roman boy from rising in the morning for a school day different in just about every way to the experience of the young modern reader to holidays, a walk through the city, a meal, a wedding, sporting events and death. Religious ideas and the use of slaves are only two of the many often startling differences the young reader will encounter. A wonderful background to the study of Latin, a dead language which still echoes and resonates in many languages we might consider 'modern' today. As close to Time Travelling as one could ever get !!!...more
My First Passion for an Older Culture was the colourful Native American Indians. I was nourished by Hollywood Movies
I began with the American Indians:
My First Passion for an Older Culture was the colourful Native American Indians. I was nourished by Hollywood Movies and the constant game of "Cowboys and Indians". I had one Indian Book and played the Game in the backyard hundreds of times. UNTIL I first visited our Local Library and discovered books about their cultures and how they lived. What a Feast!!!...more
...pleeease don't take THAT literally, even if it is a book !!! This book consists of FIVE Sections : Ancient Egypt AnI'm reading this book BACKWARDS...
...pleeease don't take THAT literally, even if it is a book !!! This book consists of FIVE Sections : Ancient Egypt Ancient China Ancient Greece Ancient Rome Native Americans
I have begun with the American Indians Section, my First Passion for an Older Culture, and nourished by Hollywood Movies and the constant game of "Cowboys and Indians". I had one Indian Book and played the Game in the backyard hundreds of times. UNTIL I first visited our Local Library and discovered books about their cultures and how they lived. What a Feast!!!
However I do recall making a deal with my older cousin Kerry, that when we grew up, we would go to Egypt and explore and dig up its Ancient side. Pyramids and the Sphinx were my only Main Images...but THAT was enough to feed my fantasies.
But at the movies, I had seen "Quo Vadis" and it had MORE detail than Both of my Other Passions for Foreign Older Cultures. They spoke and moved, battled Nero's Burning of Rome all in colour, fed the Christians to the Lions and so on it went with a stunning Deborah Kerr and handsome Robert Taylor. Being a Christian in those days made the story too close to home not to be swept away by my Narrow Escape of about 2,000 years !!! PHEW !!!!! Later I was to learn Latin for 5 years. And LOVED it !! Still have the slim volume "Publius A Roman Boy" which gave a wonderful word picture of Daily Roman Life from a Kid's outlook. Which ever teacher organised THAT was BRILLIANT. I've read it numerous times. I realised only recently that sometimes my Latin is almost fluent. Other times as BAD as my French, which I LOVE but they DO go too fast!! I bought my first edition of "Quo Vadis" only this year ...thank the gods its in English, NOT its Original Polish. The movie and novel of "Ben-Hur" has long been devoured.
When the Greeks and the Chinese showed up I can't recall. There were plenty of Greek Cafes and Chinese Restaurants to be seen locally, so I guess they were ALWAYS there...just NOT Ancient enough!!! Much older, I did discover the Greek music of Mikis Theodorakis, saw him twice on his One Australian Visit and my Greek Collection of Records flourished. And one day I found myself teaching... in ATHENS!! ...living within view of the Acropolis, ...above a shop that remade Ancient Greek pottery and plates and....but never got to China.
BUT I WILL...especially the ANCIENT ONE in this book.
Each section is FULL of different aspects of life and culture and history, anything you might imagine is there...jewellery, toilets, farming, hunting, wars, clothing, marriage,travel, country life and city life, politics, government, diet, dance,architecture, animals,some significant people,art and crafts....hang on, I forgot the OBVIOUS....
And the ILLUSTRATIONS !!! ...almost what makes this Children's Book superior to Adult books on the same subject. A Picture is worth a Thousand Words. Every page has a major picture and sprinkled around are others...photographs and drawings. I get to SEE !!!
The only reason I will be returning to this Book Review is to give it its FIVE Stars. I would have devoured this as a kid, but I had plenty of stuff on hand. And it's NEVER too late. I KNOW !!!!...because I am relishing this book RIGHT NOW !!!...more
I LOVE the history of...ANYTHING !!! Every word has its own history...and you can graduate so easily to the History of a Language A Pre-Review comment:
I LOVE the history of...ANYTHING !!! Every word has its own history...and you can graduate so easily to the History of a Language. So does every object, and custom, nation and person. So we could list them...forever more !! Be My Guest !!!
The Richness of the Aborigines diet in some regions leaves us looking bereft and starving. I don't know when I'll get a chance to review this book, let alone read it...but I will at least continue to be eating. There's ALWAYS a Positive.
I DID find this book ...eventually. It is one of the many repeated covers shown when you go to look at other editions. There only seem to be these TWO oI DID find this book ...eventually. It is one of the many repeated covers shown when you go to look at other editions. There only seem to be these TWO other versions...it's a pale fawny cover with curvey lines down the sides.
I DID NOT find this book at all interesting because I didn't believe in what he was talking about. To claim that his SIX Chosen categories were more unifying than divisive was to me ...astounding. On the contrary, these 6 categories all seemed VERY divisive ones: -endless wars; -religious hatreds; - battle of the sexes; transgender has NEVER been an issue until recently not because people accepted it previously, but because they were too wise to mention it, too screwed up to discuss it, and if they did try who listened???; as for more obvious "genders"- well I did mention the Battle of the Sexes, no? yes !! -Race?? - WWII was a racist war ...65 million dead...no definitely NOT a problem!! the extinction of the aborigines and the american indians....no, no problem I can see there!!!???? -Nation, tribe, family...however you divide up the masses....are friendly on the whole, I suppose, but also where troubles start...hardly an example of union as is... -Class...even MORE divisive.
That's about the Lot...and surely there are less divisive ones. Probably...hopefully ???
I might just burn this book slowly as I briefly scan the pages before casting them into the Inferno and meantime soak up the Enlightenment given off by the Bright Flames... it then will have served the Purpose hoped for by the author even if only VERY INDIRECTLY.
I probably missed the WHOLE Point and Purpose of his Endeavour so if he reads this he might be inspired to REwrite it. Sorry, Mate !!! AND I didn't even get around to reading it ...just read alot of the reviews and THAt had people either agreeing with me OR doing an Intellectual Wank. I definitely will browse it now my curiosity has been aroused and I feel a definite empathy with a Bloke who wasted a fair bit of his Life writing IT ! Bad Luck, Mate...I'd take up writing Kids' Books if I were you....more
Fortunately or Not, but certainly VERY Interestingly, this book contains TWO accounts of the story of William Buckley (1780 A WARNING BEFORE READING -
Fortunately or Not, but certainly VERY Interestingly, this book contains TWO accounts of the story of William Buckley (1780 - 1856). Both of these books were written with HIS assistance...BUT (here is that Topsy-Turvey word !!! ) the two accounts were written 14 to 17 years apart under widely different circumstances and from totally different motives. Buckley is known to have lied during his long life, some critics have pointed out, and I must say I was very glad to hear about this, because it means he was a typical member of the Human Race to which I happen to belong as well - yes, I too have lied !! - but his aforementioned critics had their prejeudices! (I caught a lovely and funny dog I knew very well lying once...believe it or not !!!)
Tim Flannery, who wrote the 46 page Introduction to the Two Tales, concludes it with a WARNING, which he sees as a bit of a challenge :
"Now it is time to take up with William Buckley in his travels and adventures. It is as well to keep your eyes open and your wits about you as you do."
Tim seems to have cottoned on that finding 'lies' may merely mean having a sort of Game trying to spot where a minor 'hiccup' may have occurred; or perhaps where putting the emphasis on one thing rather than another may arise; or a sign of a weakening memory discovered, because William was about 72 years old when the second book about his Extraordinary Life was finally published in 1852. His uniqueness had not helped him to get any Government support for all he had done to assist both the settlers and his Indigenous family. In fact, by 1853, there were only 34 members of the Wothowurong tribe who had cared for Buckley for 32 years remaining, with only one under 10 years old. In 1836, there had been 173 of them, but the whites had already started killing them. And they were ALL dead by 1885.
Tim, a scientist, archaeologist and antropologist also lectures at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, has most probably lied sometimes, but I would not think in any of his many publications. His telling the Truth has, however, got him into much trouble, particularly with the unliberal Liberal Party Government, because he has been warning Us All here about Climate Change for several decades now. I think William Buckley may have had similar experiences. He probably just told the truth Too Often !
William Buckley was in a unique position in the Australian White Society of 1803 !!! He knew MORE about the indigenous people, or certainly a particular group of them , because they were divided into thousands of Language Groups, he knew more than any other white person AND he was prepared to speak on their behalf and even in their Defence. Many White settlers hated him IMMEDIATELY they realised this, and later, after they had killed his horse, he feared they would soon kill him. They had already started killing the Aborigines about property, and Buckley's main tribe,the Wothowurong, were now being murdered as well, because it irritated the founding settlers of Melbourne,that these blacks were living where they wanted to graze their sheep. In England, where killing other English people was against the Law of the Land, the Peasant Class who had got in the way of the Sheep Graziers, just as the Indigenous people were now doing in European Colonies, but had been dealt with by getting the British Government to privatize their lands and then the Establishment of the Enclosure System meant that fencing off the land soon made it obvious to the Peasants that their class of people were now required to work in and support the Industrial Revolution by moving to where the factories were. And mines ! Fewer were needed on the Land. This led to the Rise of the Working Class and the Chartist Movements where the Rights of these people were finally won and which are now still being gradually undone and abolished by Governments as we move into the 21st century. Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) wrote about this AMAZING takeover in his poem "The Deserted Village". And in the 19th Century, Elizabeth Barrett-Browning (1806-1861) wrote a famous poem,"The Cry of the Children", about the very young children who had to work in Factories and Coal Mines, a much more practical alternative to genocide.)
Buckley is NOT listed among "Australia's Famous Men and Women".
Does THAT surprise YOU ? Those we choose to imitate and hold up as Icons say MUCH about our values.
His face appears on no coin or paper note or nor does any statue exist that I know of. But there are expressions such as " You have Buckley's Luck /Hope /Chance of that happening" acknowledges that Buckley's Luck was Rare; and several places in Melbourne bear his name, where he was known to have lived his Native Life of 32 years. Here he had lived and enjoyed mostly an alternative valid existence, where disease was rare, food was plentiful and no gods spoilt one's peace of mind. Spirits had a history - they had shaped the land; and many had been transformed into the Native Animals which were now taken as Guardians, one special animal for each person. But the Land, the Trees, the Rivers, the Animals and the Peoples...all were to suffer Terrible Loss at the Hands of the Newcomers. They suffer still. No White Invader really seemed to acknowledge that these apparently primitive, uncivilised Black People might have untapped depths, hold keys, Keys to Secrets, Keys of Knowledge. Did they ever think to ask or observe or get an opinion? Native Food was scorned; customs ignored, scorned and abandoned. To Our Detriment. Bushfires once prevented now occur and kill Every Summer; rivers turn salty; erosion is rampant; reefs diminish as does Everything. Some few did learn..and Buckley would have been one of the First. Why is he not remembered and generously? Can we admit to our Great Failure, to the Wrong Turnings we made and whose paths we persist in still following? What do Ned Kelly and Burke and Wills offer us except staggering failures. Burke and Wills died where Native Peoples had survived for centuries. It did not take them long to perish. It is not taking long for us either.
My Vision I have long contemplated is when we in our boats set off seeking refuge in nearby Asia leaving the Original Peoples behind, will they assist us, wave us a Fond Farewell from Sydney's clifftops or will they be too busy preparing a Corroboree of Joy and wondering can the Land now cure itself with their aid?
These Two Tales of Buckley are precious beyond Price. Another which reads more easily and blends many other facts together is "Buckley's Hope" by Craig Robertson which was published in 1980. I've heard it has never been out of print.
I feel compelled to clarify what some readers of this review understandably might see as an Offensive Remar 'OFFENSIVE' ALERT !!!!...but no spoiler....
I feel compelled to clarify what some readers of this review understandably might see as an Offensive Remark re a Sexual Life. I can appreciate this reaction because the subject is too often seen as 'Private' and a sex-obsessed Church has made it into the Cardinal Sin. These Monastic Romances, for these relationships were taken very seriously by the participants, were bred from a desperate loneliness and stifiled youthful desire; many left the Monastic Life feeling they had failed, whereas I always considered that the system had failed us. Some married and became acceptably normal, while others joined the Gay Ranks, several of these committing suicide. Guilt was well instilled. Celibacy was promoted as the Higher and Better Path; compared to those who merely married, We Celibates were able to Love Everybody. However, Lives given over to alcoholism, desperate loneliness, nervous breakdowns, secret affairs, constant guilt and quitting the monastery as failures were the Fruits of the Celibate Life for Most. Few never doubted the validity of their Forbidden Relationship and grew and blossomed instead. To me Sex was one of God's Better Gifts and perversely I gloried in it; I finally refused to confess what I could only regard as Positive and Permissable . "Church History", surprisingly, was never taught in the Celibate House, so we never learned that it was not introduced because of a "Vocation of Love" but as an Economic Measure by an Institution intent on the practicalities of running an efficent and profitable Organisation. Shedding wives and offspring stopped for good a drain on Profits, and were in no way Essentials of a Wholesome Life. The Italian Clergy saw that a Sex Life was actually essential to Normalacy. Luther was scandalised on his visit to Rome, but as an apostate, he soon took an ex-nun to wife and lived 'Happily Ever After' -as did most of the priests and students who left our Monastic Order in droves after the Pope condemned Birth Control in the late 1960's. Sex should be a Joy, not an imposition or a deprivation , and when mutually respectful and caring, never a source of Guilt. Passion and Laughter should not be strangers.
June, 2016. Eight Years have passed since I cast aside this grotesque book - the Mutual Diaries of the Two Goncourt Brothers -
...knowing Full Well I would have to pay it a Revisit as it is a True Reflectionof a Slice of 19th Century French Life ...and I AM a Francophile... and MUST face up to ALL aspects of the French and France!!
Having just resurrected the Rabelesian, bawdy Mediaeval "Droll Stories" of Honore de Balzac, purchased soon after my Own Departure from a Catholic Monkish Monastery, where I was part of the Unspoken Sexual Life, ...I could bring a Dinner Party to both a Deathly Silence and Laughter by calmly admitting that my Best Years of a Lively Sex Life were spent in a Monastery... I realised that my Naive,Ingenuous Exterior belied my Continual Search for a Realistic Life, and Frenchmen like Emile Zola, Honore de Balzac, Proust,Hugo, the Goncourt Brothers, de Maupassant, Flaubert, Baudelaire etc were definitely Realists and an area I was committed to investigating. Thankfully I also found there Two Women -impossible to miss- Aurore Lelia Dudevant better known to History as Georges Sand... and Colette...my friends for Life.
The Goncourt Brothers and the more easily digestible de Balzac lie on my bookshelves, a little like as yet undetonated bombs, and before I fade away, I feel obliged to partake of their realistic though often indigestible Feasts. Presently they still lie on their shelves, but dusted off...awaiting their coming Resurrection. June 2016.
Written January , 2009. DEATH AND WOMEN...with SEX,of course !!
These Journals should be put on the Feminist Shelf, because........................... IT - Feminism - is NEVER referred to !!!!!!!!!! A concept never imagined or considered a possibility!! And WHY???
Death and Women are Two of the obsessive subjects of the Jolly Goncourt Freres. Ghastly slow deaths without modern medicines to assist.
And Women ??? Not surprisingly,it is solely "Women and ....SEX !!
Oh, yes,...plus..Women and how stupid they are.
Sadly the Women the Goncourt Brothers met also had that opinion of themselves. The Boys never seemed to have run across George Sand and if they did, did they ever give her a chance to reveal herself as a Mind ?? Probably not. Because it was not expected. And the girls do appear to be a bit thick, probably because they were never given a chance to see themselves as anything else but !!
Despite all the famous names,and culture and....whatever, I really couldn't take any more, any more of the ladies who were introduced, and were happy to be what they were expected to be. But we didn't get to hear the girls away from the blokes. Now THAT may have been a revelation.
It was Revelation enough to see the Girls of the Circle of the Goncourt Brothers.
And I had had ENOUGH.
I have shelved this under "Books-I've-thrown-across-the-room" but it is safely awaiting recall on that other shelf "Re-reads" even though/because I NEVER finished it.
Next time, knowing what to expect may assist in coping; and I shall read on, glean some interesting knowledge, accept the Times for what they were, be glad the book has an end and come out on the Other Side.
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