Cephalalgia

Någon har en post-cervesiam huvudvärk. Det kanske inte är ölen så mycket som den elektriker som dunsade in vid 8 i morse som orsakar smärtan, men jag tror ändå alkoholen har ett finger med i spelet.

Jag är nu ialla fall, sedan i onsdags officiellt tillträdd och alldeles äkta doktorand. Semesterdagar, föräldrarledighet, friskvårdsbidrag, allt detta är nu mitt, mitt, mitt.
Stort tack för alla lyckönskningar, erbjudanden om champagne och extra tack till ryssofilen som erbjöd en firande fotmassage. Any time!

Även ett gratiam tibi ago till Hr Werkmäster som just nu kallar this humble blog for sin favorit.

Tänkte ta upp diskutera böcker, några volymer med klassisk anknyting som kommit ut i dagarna:

Helen of Troy : Goddess, Princess, Whore av Bettany Hughes

"Helen of Troy has been a part of the Western cultural consciousness for thousands of years, an often troubling figure of female sexual power. [Wow!] Now British historian Hughes investigates the history and myth of Helen, using a mix of archeological evidence, literary sources and personal observation [Oh nej!] to flesh out this archetypal creature. Acknowledging that Helen has long served as a lens through which male thinkers [Alltid dessa 'male thinkers'. Förstår de vad de är ansvariga för?] have projected their views of women, Hughes traces the uses to which the ancient princess has been put, from the prehistoric Mycenaean world, in which she would have been admired for her beauty and strength, through the Elizabethan age, when she was reviled as a demonic harlot [Varför är det ingen som kallar mig det? Om inte annat skulle det bli ett hemskt bra bandnamn, något sådant där riot-grrl band]."

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400041783/104-1385173-7835939?v=glance&n=283155

Jag tänker nog inte läsa den.

A Compulsion for Antiquity: Freud and the Ancient World av Richard H. Armstrong

Någonsin undrat varför det heter Oedipus-komplex?

"A Compulsion for Antiquity fully explores how Freud appropriated figures and themes from classical mythology and how the theory and practice of psychoanalysis paralleled contemporary developments in historiography, archaeology, philology, and the history of religions.[...] Armstrong shows how Freud turned to the ancient world to deal with the challenges posed by his own scientific ambitions and how these lessons influenced the way he handled psychic "evidence" and formulated the universal application of what were initially isolated clinical truths. [...] A Compulsion for Antiquity offers fresh insights into the roots of psychoanalysis and fin de siecle European culture, and makes an important contribution to the burgeoning discipline of mnemohistory [?]. "

http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=4242

Cleopatra and Rome av Diana E. E. Kleiner

"Cleopatra and Rome reveals how these iconic [Ett ord jag hatar!] episodes, absorbed into a larger historical and political narrative, document a momentous cultural shift from the Hellenistic world to the Roman Empire. In this story, Cleopatra's death was not an end but a beginning--a starting point for a wide variety of appropriations by Augustus and his contemporaries that established a paradigm [Ytterligare ett hatord!] for cultural conversion [Ett tredje!]. "

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674019059/qid=1138962490/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/104-1385173-7835939?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

TLS hatade dessutom denna, så jag lär inte läsa den.

Mer om någon timme då jag druckit thé och jagat iväg elektrikern.