tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2385543751878406713.post4778915593506008312..comments2024-02-26T21:31:18.490-05:00Comments on The Wrong Monkey: Stephen Greenblatt's Swerve is Not as Accurate as One Might WishSteven Bollingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03215202747829300924noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2385543751878406713.post-70396398395681668452017-11-09T09:40:48.193-05:002017-11-09T09:40:48.193-05:00PS: You may already be familiar with 2 excellent b...PS: You may already be familiar with 2 excellent books on the subject of the textual transmission of the Classics: Scribes and Scholars by L D Reynolds and N G Wilson, which gives an overview of how some ancient Greek and Latin literature has managed to survive to the present day; and Texts and Transmission, ed by Reynolds, which examines the cases of 134 ancient Latin authors and anonymous texts, and goes into great detail about what was known about the most important manuscripts at the time of publication (1983). Scribes and Scholars has gone through several paperback editions, and cheap used copies can be found; Texts and Transmission, as far as I know, is only available as a ridiculously-expensive hardcover. Aside from the price, both books provide a good introduction to the topic of textual transmission. The Introduction to Texts and Transmission, pp xiii-xliii, is particularly brilliant at presenting fact, facts and more facts, plus cautious and sober conjecture based on those facts.Steven Bollingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03215202747829300924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2385543751878406713.post-71628038218124558832017-11-09T09:20:42.420-05:002017-11-09T09:20:42.420-05:00"Though there may certainly be inaccuracies, ..."Though there may certainly be inaccuracies, I wish your review had pointed to those particulars in greater detail."<br /><br />The Swerve is rife with inaccuracies, there's no maybe about it. My approach here was to point to some of these inaccuracies which were not already covered by the reviews I linked.<br /><br />There's no doubt that Greenblatt has made a lot of people interested in Lucretius who had never heard of him before. But it wasn't necessary to give all of those people so many erroneous ideas about Classical literature and the Renaissance in order to arouse such an interest. And by putting such a ridiculous over-emphasis on Lucretius and Poggio, Greenblatt may actually have discouraged some people from learning about many other people involved in the transmission of Classical texts. To name just one example, there's Cassiodorus, who, unlike Poggio, may actually have singlehandedly saved some Classical texts from oblivion in the 6th century, when, unlike in later eras as alleged by Greenblatt, many Classical texts actually did disappear which haven't been recovered since.Steven Bollingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03215202747829300924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2385543751878406713.post-61041297284384238792017-11-08T18:23:12.740-05:002017-11-08T18:23:12.740-05:00Steven, I'm not a classicist by trade, but hav...Steven, I'm not a classicist by trade, but have a reasonable grounding in many of the surrounding topics and history. Though there may certainly be inaccuracies, I wish your review had pointed to those particulars in greater detail. Instead it seems you're relying on additional other reviews while only making cosmetic aspersions. I'll have to take a look at your references and the other reviews to judge more fully what is going on when I have some time. Thanks for compiling the alternate viewpoints though.<br /><br />My short review took Greenblatt to task on some of the details he didn't provide and which I find glaring. I suspect that if he does anything with his text, it'll be to bring a spark of imagination to people who otherwise might not delve into the topic at the level of a masters or even Ph.D. thesis, but who might be encouraged to engage more closely with the humanities in the future. I suspect that this goal was fully realized based on the broader non-specialist reception his book has gotten.<br /><br />(Comment originally posted at http://boffosocko.com/2014/07/09/brief-review-the-swerve-how-the-world-became-modern-by-stephen-greenblatt/#comment-38594<br />Chris Aldrichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13031382155173157140noreply@blogger.com