Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Damon Krukowski's avatar

Naomi says my title is too clever by half - she actually said by 250% - so for those who didn't end up memorizing the Norton Anthology as a teen here's the reference (Chapman was a translator):

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

By John Keats

Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,

And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;

Round many western islands have I been

Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.

Oft of one wide expanse had I been told

That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;

Yet did I never breathe its pure serene

Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:

Then felt I like some watcher of the skies

When a new planet swims into his ken;

Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes

He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men

Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—

Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

Expand full comment
Lucy Sante's avatar

I was just old enough (high school) to read through all the editions as they came out (the only one I kept was the compact Last with the R. Crumb cover), and I always felt a cold future-elite wind emanating from the catalog. That "gods" business didn't bode well at all. The catalog led me to Lynd Ward, the Lucis Trust Library, and a few other things, but most of it was clearly Not Meant for Me, neither then nor in the future--I was perfectly happy to be part of the rotting urban fabric, for starters. And I remember how I felt when I learned that Brian Eno was on the board of the Long Now Foundation. Hope they'll all be happy colonizing Mars.

Expand full comment
5 more comments...

No posts