Newsletter time!
Today’s piece has a wee essay for all, on the struggle for many writers to make sense of violence in their times.
That’s then followed by a fuller essay for my paid subscribers, in which we deep-dive into lessons to be gleaned from Thucydides, the Peloponnesian War, and Athenian struggles for a democracy we still haven’t perfected here and now.
#History #Democracy #BetterWorldsTheory
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/lessons-from-ancient-fools
Some were, some weren't! But the library was a refuge I used to go to by myself from age nine on, and then in middle school and high school I always left home ASAP in the morning, to work in the halls until the library or a classroom opened.
We find some fun coping mechanisms when trying to get out of our head-spaces in homes with so much stress!
Have fun with The Peloponnesian War! Many editions to choose from these days, if you want something more lyrical or footnote-heavy!
Uh oh, our age difference is showing: I have no idea who that is!!! But the cat theme rocks, so...
It's such a fun, lighthearted series! A newspaper writer has two Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum. The latter is simply cute, but Koko has extra whiskers and a curious habit of giving our writer clues to solve mysteries. After a few books, he lands a windfall inheritance and moves to a small northern town with his cats, where he has quaint country mysteries to solve while living in a converted barn and getting by as an eccentric small-town columnist.
ADORABLE and filled with #LifeGoals 😂
Oh, wow, I just looked up the publication dates for those books.
Apparently the first three were in the '60s! Then the author took a well-deserved two decades off, and then picked up where she left off in the late '80s, continuing until the late '00s.
Now that is charming as heck. What a joy to return to a fun universe after so long!
I guess that means there's hope for us all. 🙃
Oh, I'm diving into *your* writing about Thucydides, lol! In the meantime, I got stuck on the bit about your childhood reading. It brought up a bunch of things. Yes, libraries are sublime refuges and shelters, even these days. My reading material was very different from yours, of course, but we probably had a very similar experience of libraries.
I'm really so thankful about the nonjudgmental policy for kids in the library back in the day. It was a couple blocks from home and my father was country-raised so he didn't mind me going off on my own very young (sometimes I was just sent with a quarter to call from the library to confirm that I was there). And since the librarians weren't judgmental, that meant peace & quiet in an era with only children's books and adult reads... making my transition from one to the other super easy.
(Huh, I looked them up and those books actually weren't after my time, yet somehow I missed them. And I have kids! And there are cats!!! 🤷 )
My father took me to the library on weekends and left me alone with the books for hours. My parents never read to me, but I had a series of Reader's Digest-style books at home that gave me a taste for what was out there, and that's how I found my way. The librarian at my school slipped me some great stuff. Teacher-librarians are *heroes*.
Oh, I had those Reader's Digest-style books, too! I loved them. They were completely indifferent to genre breakdowns: medical thrillers with a touch of near-future SF, romances that opened into deep criminal dramas, mundane happenstance that opened into wild life-or-death adventures. I never knew what I was going to get into next, but I always had such a blast. Such a great era for publishing good stories, first and foremost! :)
Mine were actually divided by genre. They were mostly fiction, but not exclusively. The first volume was nursery rhymes and poems for children (Wynken, Blynken, and Nod was my favourite); and the very last was autobiography: Helen Keller, Anne Frank, Florence Nightingale... I believe there were eight in total. I have no idea who I'd be without them. They were an incredibly powerful influence. So many doors to open each time I was taken to the library. Sigh!
@LiseL
AND I SHOULD ADD that I didn't just read the heavy stuff.
I also loved, loved, loved this series growing up. :) And read cartoons, and manga, and SFF, and anything else I could get my hands on.