A Rhinoceros in Eighteenth-Century London November 5, 2011
Posted by Beachcombing in : Ancient, Medieval, Modern
***This post is dedicated to Don who sent the reference in*** Beach has a longstanding thing about elephants (see many previous posts and many posts to come) and has been wondering recently about opening up a second front on the rhinoceros: a distant reading of a text about Romans importing this beast for their [...]
Aristotle and the flatulent earth October 27, 2010
Posted by Beachcombing in : Ancient
Beachcombing is always loath to give any publicity to the appalling Aristotle – and recently had a piece on Aristotle’s lost work on comedy wrung out of him against all his better judgement. However, after Beachcombing’s first experience of an earthquake last year he found himself grazing in Aristotle’s Metereology where the non-Platonic one gives [...]
In search of Aristotle’s ‘On Comedy’ August 29, 2010
Posted by Beachcombing in : Ancient
In 1928 that old grumpystiltskins K.K. Smith wrote that ‘Like many another Lost Atlantis the chapter on comedy which Aristotle may have written to conclude his analysis of Poetics has lured many a searcher into waters beyond his depths.’ And, mindful of the warning, Beachcombing straps on his Little Kitty armbands and struggles bravely into [...]
