BL

Over the course of the past month, I've been in the British Library quite a bit. It really is a pretty cool place to do research, despite the somewhat inconvenient hours (and inconvenient for me essentially means that it isn't open 24/7). But it is pretty inspiring to walk by the Codex Sinaiticus (the oldest codex of the Bible, which some German guy stole from Greek monks 150 years ago), the Codex Alexandrinus (the 3rd oldest codex of the Bible which the Patriarch of Constantinople GAVE to the King of England :(...the Catholics have #2 in case you were wondering), and the 3rd oldest Koran in the world on my way to do a day's research.

The way the BL works is that you can enter the reading rooms (which you need to get a reader's card to enter) with your computer, and papers and pencils (only) in a clear plastic bag. Everything else (including your jacket) has to stay in a locker downstairs. Then you order whichever books you want on their card. Like the Library of Congress, they have nearly everything. Though their collection goes much deeper. This should give you some idea of just how far back their collection goes. (search for "de Administrando Imperio" and look at the oldest entries) And yes, I ordered one of those.

Pretty amazing to hold a book that old in your hands, and even more interesting how they've restored it. It's not only completely rebound, but each page is somehow chemically bonded to newer paper so it is still like a new book and not flimsy (think of the consistency of the pages in a 50 year old old King James Bible...that is what it would be like if they didn't do this).

I don't know what they would do if someone actually ordered up the Codex Sinaiticus... Probably direct you to the digital version that they have of it. But there are plenty of other manuscripts that they have (which I didn't order b/c I assumed it would be a hassle and they are tough to read).


Finally, and most importantly, there are many people there doing research, and I was getting depressed at the dwindling numbers of them as the summer progressed. Yeah I started a bit too late, I should have been there in June instead of the end of July... I was particularly bummed by the exodus of girls doing their work in there. One might think that there wouldn't be very cute girls doing research there, but one would be very wrong. Then there is the "BL multiplier effect."

A girl in the BL is already 2x as attractive as she would normally be. A girl in the rare books room (where I can be found) is 4x as attractive as she would normally be. A girl actually reading a rare book is yet 8x hotter. An East Asian girl reading 16th century treatise in Latin in the rare book room of the BL is, my apologies to Brazilian beaches and the French Riviera, off the charts...

Avant Garde

Ok, I'm going to try and fill in a bit of the past 5 months...

FIVE months since I've regularly posted... While these few posts may make it seem like I've done a lot, all I can say is that they have been very disappointing personally. (In that I've disappointed myself.)


One of the benefits of being in a place like London is the possibility of meeting people on the cutting edge of art, academia, science, politics... Read the biography of any important person and they seemed to know everyone else who was interesting, talented, or intelligent. Whenever I got to the Bricklane/Spitalfield market on Sundays, I am always a bit jealous of the people there DOING things. Fashion design students from Brazil/Japan/Italy selling clothes that look pretty cool, artists selling paper flowers encased in plastic resin, DJ's and musicians playing at the clubs that have been thumping through the night...

But as for me, I don't seem to know these sorts of people, let alone people who will someday write books, run corporations, or design skyscrapers. So where does that leave me?

I DID manage to cut the edge of the cutting edge however. A friend of mine is studying stage design at the Central School of Speech and Drama. It's not the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, but Laurence Olivier and the Redgrave sisters attended.. and lets not forget Carrie Fisher.

In any event, I went to see a 'site specific performance' and it went something like this:

I walked into the main theater and waited in line. Eventually an usher came out and asked a group of us into an elevator. We took it to the top and walked past a girl reading War and Peace out loud. Then we walked down a hallway bathed in red light, to the left was a large picture window, out of which could be seen some Asian girls in red silk dresses doing tai chi. We were then led out of the building.

We walked through a huge open space past the Chinese girls towards a large fountain that resembled a swimming pool with a half inch thick sheet of water flowing towards the "deep end". There were some college girls splashing each other in it.

We walked past a homeless guy into the atrium of the library. There were several "librarians" checking in books, and several more pushing book carts around the room. All of them were moving frantically, and finally dropping books all over the floor and yelling at each other. All of a sudden, red paper parachutes were falling from the balcony containing messages like "Life is all about suffering," and "I want a lover I don't have to love." Finally they instructed us to all enter the stacks.

Up in the stacks, the tables were all covered with sheets of paper covered with verses from the book of Genesis or pornographic pictures. A woman dresses as the typical (non-Wiccan...that phenomenon only seems to occur in the US) librarian was saying, "Will you take this if I give it to you," and of course handing out apples.

Then another librarian handed out slips of paper with call numbers on them... despite the fact that I'm describing this all matter of factly, it was all rather disorienting at the time. So the audience was divided into two groups on balconies facing each other and overlooking the atrium.

Looking across to the other side, they seemed to be watching some of the scenographers set up books like dominoes - On our side, something entirely different happened.

At first a cadre of librarians started "cleaning" the shelves... the were acting coyly and smiling and winking at the men. Next thing you know they were aggressively frotting the guys... the most frottage I've gotten lately. Then they started removing their library clothes and were wearing S&M type gear underneath. They were dancing on the tables and stripping one guy. Then, all of a sudden, they all stopped and adopted dour faces. The "head librarian" said, "GET OUT".

Everyone quietly filed out...past the circulation desk with "librarians" sitting on it miming as if sailing a ship (one was holding a office chair upside down as the ship's wheel).

Outside a woman was walking with huge bouquet of red balloons which she started popping. Suddenly, a homeless man stood up and smoke started coming out of the (outdoor) stairwell he was sitting in and he went on a rant about loneliness and oppression.

Next we were directed back to the fountain which was now crisscrossed with hundreds of strands of red elastic, which we were directed to weave through (in an inch of water). At the other side, there was wine.... It took me awhile to figure out that was the end, since I am NOT that avant-garde.

While my first instinct was to ridicule, and I WILL ridicule the fact that most of these actors want to be the next Colin Farrell or Angelina Jolie rather than to explore the human condition via drama, and they are practicing stripping and rehearsing for "Candid Camera" (I suppose I mean "Punk'd", but I'm old).

On the other hand, it WAS somewhat thought provoking, and even clever dealing with the relationship between guilt, knowledge, confusion and sexuality....

Well, I'm sure my readership is non-existent now.

"Pour tromper un rival l'artifice est permis; on peut tout employer contres ses ennemis."

The people who would least admit to it, are the ones who most often follow Richelieu.

I am firing the blog back up again. To get the new address, email me at akrites@gmail.com

Some say the end of the medieval period, but on this day 553 years ago, the Roman Empire came to an end and the Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, Serbs, Bulgarians, Vlachs, Albanians, and Bosnians were sentenced to 400 years of Turkish oppression.

It's a cloudy day in London...

^^/^^/^ 0rz

Dear All

On Monday 8 May the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd and Rt Hon Dr
Rowan Williams, will spend time at King's in his capacity as the College's
Visitor. In the morning he will visit the Guy's campus, and come across the
river to the Strand after lunch, finishing the day with a short service in
the College Chapel at 4.00pm.

All are very welcome to this service, which will last about half an hour,
and will include music from the Chapel Choir. Although we will be into the
exam period then, we do hope that you will be able to join us and the
Archbishop on that Monday afternoon.

The Office of the Dean
King's College London
Strand
London WC2R 2LS

Tel: 020 7848 2333


Hmm the leader of a church of over 70,000,000 people and the holder of a historical see is at school... and I can't get my shit together to go.... STILL... this bodes ill.

??/??/? 0rz

802 years ago on this day, Boniface of Montferrat and Enrico Dandolo led the crusaders over the walls of Constantinople, setting off an orgy of destruction that ensured the eventual Turkish conquest of Southeastern Europe. I can't believe it's been 802 years!

I think the aphorism that "Time heals all wounds," is totally bunk. It is merely a way of sugarcoating the human tendency to perceive life/history in terms of fate/destiny in such a way that the natural progression of things is not only meaningful but ultimately comprehensible. As Plato believed, that the gods always ensure justice and goodness. This concept exists across cultures... karma, luck, adl...

But I have to disagree here... it is human nature to perceive things in that way, to believe that for every indignity, there will be a balancing triumph. I firmly don't think that God established the universe along those lines.

He did give people a geist (or a thumos....no more German philosophical terms)... and with that one can direct events to a desired outcome... assuming one is willing to dedicate oneself to the unpleasantness of the discipline/sacrifice required to reach such an outcome. Maybe the strongest thumos is to realize the limits of physical reality... and accept them... rather than to hope fate will lead otherwise.

??/??/? 0rz

Whenever there is a big holiday... and I'm here in Europe, I always feel a nearly palpable sense of anticiptation... followed by a slight dissapointment.

Today (25th), is the Feast of the Annunciation. It is exactly nine months before Christmas day.. and people say they were recondite in Late Antiquity!

It was once a great holiday all over Europe. In fact, it was New Year's Day in the West (hence tax day is April 6 which is Annunciation by the Old Calendar)... Our New Year was Sept. 1....

But for all that... nothing. Just another day. I know, I know... I should have gone to listen to Evensong at St. Pauls (I should do that regardless)... I just sometimes wish I was in London 1406 instead of 2006.

??/??/? 0rz Nam fuit ante Helenam cunnus taeterrima belli
causa. . .