(urth) Short Story 61*: Civus Laputus Sum

[Marc Aramini]

One more thing that I think is pertinent to Wolfe's criticism of academics
is the obscurity of Melville during his life and his general disregard, and
then a resurgence early in the 20th century of "rediscovery" - such that in
the story, all the academics can think to do is memorize Moby Dick.  Thus
his comments, only dead authors are good to them.


On Tue, Apr 29, 2014 at 2:47 PM, Mo Holkar <lists at ukg.co.uk> wrote:

> At 19:33 29/04/2014, you wrote:
>
>> There is an odd statement Jeremy makes, saying his murder will be "the
>> first time in five thousand years one of us has taken the life of one of
>> them."  If taken literally, this really complicates the time line. More
>> likely he is just exaggerating the importance of their animosity. Is he
>> talking about Biblical creation?
>>
>
>
> In the Ussherian Biblical chronology, five thousand years prior to the
> 1990s (ie. 3000 BC) is some time prior to the Flood, among the uneventful
> list of patriarchs in Genesis 5. I had wondered if Jeremy was referring
> loosely to Cain and Abel: but that would be more like six thousand years.
> Also, hard to make that story match the theme of scholars vs athletes.
>
> (Of course, it may be a reference to a non-Christian myth.)
>
>
> On another note, I'd be interested if any Latinist can explain why it's
> 'Laputus' rather than 'Laputanus' in the title. It seems an unlikely slip,
> for Wolfe.
>
> best,
>
> Mo
>
>
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>
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