Strange Question
Aug. 7th, 2026 07:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meanwrightPicked up a book on the Epic Cycle that I'd last read for the Theban Cycle essays a few years ago, and was reading a essay on the place of the non-Homeric epics in Greek society, when someone comes up to me and asks what I'm reading. I had to go into more detail than I thought I'd need to.* Then after I'd gotten him to understand that it in some way related to a Christopher Nolan movie, he asked:
And it probably doesn't. But I hope, at least, that if I do know a little bit more about things like this then maybe, just maybe, I'll make judgements that are just a little bit better than the ones I've made before.
Because God knows those were shit.
Then, I met an old lady who knew all about the Commedia dell'Arte and wanted to talk about the stupid little comic I draw whose characters are based on archetypes from 16th century Italian improvisational street theater like Pantalone, Arlecchino, and Bob Ross.
* I would think some like, "There were some other Greek epic poems that connect the Iliad and the Odyssey.
This book is about them," would be sufficient.
The question I have for you is this: how will this make the world better. When I wake up in the morning, I always ask myself how I can make the world better. How does this make the world better, how does it help anyone?
And it probably doesn't. But I hope, at least, that if I do know a little bit more about things like this then maybe, just maybe, I'll make judgements that are just a little bit better than the ones I've made before.
Because God knows those were shit.
Then, I met an old lady who knew all about the Commedia dell'Arte and wanted to talk about the stupid little comic I draw whose characters are based on archetypes from 16th century Italian improvisational street theater like Pantalone, Arlecchino, and Bob Ross.
* I would think some like, "There were some other Greek epic poems that connect the Iliad and the Odyssey.
This book is about them," would be sufficient.
