The World’s Most Inane Blog

The Ancient Greeks consider Homer’s Illiad their greatest literary achievement. Modern Greeks know as well as anyone else that while we all play the game of being savvy, cultured literates, the damn book is more tedious than a drive across the plains with your mother-in-law’s aunt Gertrude who is adamant the station not be moved from her favourite whining evangelist. The Illiad’s successor , the Oddessy has been acclaimed as a “modern-bestseller” and new translations crop up ever ten years or so.

Well, one wants to at least appear cultured and intellectual at parties so I am reading the Oddessy. However, unwilling to fork out over 30 bucks for something new I visited my local used and rare and I’m on page 202 of the 365 page 1946 E.V. Rieu translation published by Penguin Classics; I am bloody bored out of my skull. Would that Scylla would come and eat me alive with any one of her six slavering maws or Cyclops stare me into a puddle of mush and relieve me of spineless Telemachus and his father whose willing to be the human prostitute of any god that will have him.

From the back cover here’s high praise with my slightly less complimentary notes in parenthesis: “with its well-knit plot [meet another god, receive another impossible to accomplish challenge and overcome it to meet another god, receive another impossible challenge...] its psychological interest [of the kind that is well below the interest created in Hitchcock's Psycho or The Birds] and its interplay of character [gods have sex with humans who alternate between making many boring speeches ad nauseum or are disemboweled as the so called plot crawls toward some predictable heroic conclusion].”

I really wanted to like this book. I wanted to have read one of the greats but as I’ve done so much skimming I think I might as well just go to http://www.mythweb.com/odyssey/ and find out how the damn thing ends.

I’m not big on the ‘other’ Homer either.

Woke up this morning and forgot to put underwear on. Now, part way through the day I’m thinking, you know, those Europeans might have something there.

Yes, I’m not sure what this has to do with God or religion (and I’m quite fine with both) but this has certainly been, lovely, freeing; a revelation.

Yesterday I woke and thought it was today so I took out the trash in my pyjamas (an example of poor writing – think about it – as well stupid citizenry). The whole street knew of my mistake. It’s like walking around all day flying low. So, I left the cans out there as if to say I did this on purpose because I’m going to be away tomorrow and I am a conscientious person. But this morning I forgot I wasn’t supposed to be away so I took out the recycling boxes and the trash cans were still there, of course. The suit across the street looked up from his Smart phone while opening his car door drinking a fresh brewed latte and winked at me. SOB.