Monday, November 07, 2005
And for this, my 400th TLB post, Luminous Luciano tackles Lunatic Lucian - in a dream match-up of literatis!
No disrespect intended - Lucian wrote his "TRUE STORY" about going to the MOON, so... Luna-cy seems to fit! This is not going to be all about him, however...! It always struck me as synchronicity to the Nth degree that I was so very prone to write and verse poetic as sarcastic, as if by right - in the 20th Century - from the first day in little school, very nearly; when a certain Syrian by the name of Lucian had done the exact same thing in the 2nd Century of our era! We both have had the additional trait in common that we are not "widespread/mainstream" flavors of the moment... Both of us writing the way we wanted to write, independently of what is deemed "saleable" or "popular" in our respective times. Both of us... challenged the "status quo" quite a lot!
Apparently, my namesake Lucian made fun of near-namesake
Lucius - with this title right here! More on the latter (?) below!
Lucian is even deemed to be the FIRST SCIENCE FICTION WRITER - EVER! ""Lucian, Syrian by birth but Greek by culture, wrote his "True Story" parodying the weird tales told by Greeks from the Odyssey onwards. He was born about 120 AD, trained as a lawyer, but spent most of his life as a travelling lecturer, before he settled down in Athens to some more serious philosophy. Many of his books (he wrote over 80) weren't at all serious (being sarcastic in tone, they were not DEEMED SERIOUS... no.). "A True Story" anticipates Jules Verne, George Lucas and, especially, Douglas Adams."" I knew the similarities had to end at some point... First major divergent point is the abominable fact that he trained himself to be a lawyer... Yikes! I abhor pettifoggers! He did mock the beliefs of the Greeks, true, but he was also sarcastic about the beliefs of that budding new "cult" called... the Christians! Especially about the latter religion's lack of fear in the face of DEATH... Thus, quite evidently, even an intelligent man such as Lucian of Samasota could not fathom nor comprehend everything... heck, no one can!
The last drop is most probably the sad fact that he was more a harbinger of one profoundly atheistic (as well as irreverent, sure; no one is aaaaall bad, see?) and celebrated whimsical author - namely Douglas Adams - than he is a forerunner of... well... me, his namesake! Similarities with Jules Verne and even George Lucas I relish - but with Adams? Ugh! Wrong one to "connect" with if you ask me - I wish it had been, instead, Charles Addams! And, in some way, Lucian does have a little bit of Addams prefiguration too, somewhere in his massive body of work there... No time to look for it now - but you may find it yet... here. Or here. Or even here. Or, most especially here! (OK - make it here!)
This last link gives a good round-up of the titles that Lucian proudly produced over his lifespan - titles such as The Disinherited, Phalaris I & II, Demosthenes, Patriotism (!), The Fly (!), Swans and Amber, Dipsas, The Hall, Nigrinus, The Portrait-study, Defence of The Portrait-study, A Trial in the Court of Vowels, Hesiod, The Vision (!), Pantomime, Anacharsis, Toxaris, Slander, The Way To Write History (!) (Πως δεί ιστορίαν συγγράφειν), Hermotimus, The Parasite, A Feast of Lapithae, Dialogues of the Hetaerae, Dialogues of the Dead (!), Dialogues of the Gods (Θεών Διάλογοι ), Dialogues of the Sea-Gods (!), Menippus, Icaromenippus, Zeus cross-examined, The Cynic, Of Sacrifice, Saturnalia, A True History ( Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα ), A Voyage to the Lower World (!), Charon, Timon, Prometheus on Caucasus, Zeus Tragoedus, The Gods in Council, The Ship, The Life of Peregrine (!),The Runaways (!!), The double Indictment, The Sale of Creeds, The Fisher, Herodotus, Zeuxis, Harmonides, The Scythian , A literary Prometheus, The Book-fancier, The Purist purized, Lexiphanes, The Rhetorician's Vade-mecum, Demonax, a biography (?!?), Alexander The Oracle-Monger (Ἀλέξανδρος ἢ Ψευδομάντις), Mourning, Dionysus, Heracles, Apology for 'The dependent Scholar, A Slip of the Tongue, Peri Tes Syries Theoy, (De Dea Syria / Concerning the Syrian Goddess)., Dream ( Somnium Περὶ τοῦ ἐνυπνίου ), On Dancing (Περί Ορχήσεως )
The Face of Despair: Lucius had seen better days when they made his face mold there... (left pic - duh! And more about him in three... two... one!)I knew not about Lucian (and much less about other "namesakes" of mine such as Lucian Freud or Lucius Annaeus Seneca) - when I first began to have the same interests in literature, satire and these subjects Lucian (of the 2nd Century A.D.) tackled so well and so often...
Heck, I did not even know about Lucien Piccard until recently - and the only famous Luciano I've always known is Pavarotti! Now, of course, I have discovered the Jamaican one - yeah, man!
Hmm... maybe I should have saved all this for the 500th post instead, hmm...? *lol*
Unless I decide to tackle my Brazilian namesake then - there is a model down in Brazil who bears my name... He doesn't stand a chance against me! *lol*
The Lucian/Luciano analogies are far more interesting to me though - far better also than the apparent similarities between myself and author Christian Mistral, whose name is great but whose writing - according to his own "people" - is "phoqué". Okaaaay... with fans like these, you don't need critics! *LOL* (And yes; if you want to know more about Mistral, you are going to have to google him up - AND learn French too! I am NOT linking him up to TLB! *LOL*). Oh, no... Come to think of it now, a druggie recently asked me if I was exactly that... "phoqué". Hmm... To him, non-addicts must seem very strange, I am sure... He also thought me to be a true-blue, full-blooded Italiano - since he is, evidently, his name being Fabrizio... Well, Luciano is a most popular name that is to be found now in Portugal, Spain, Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and so on! Italy has lost its exclusivity on the name! And the sons of Italia who bear the name have lost their monopoly... And originality in the process, I guess... Too bad, Guido!
They still have their Fabrizios to fall back on...
But enough about ME, the Satirist... And enough about him, the druggie! His wretched kind and I will never get along nor see eye to eye; I am profoundly convinced of so much!
I would have rather rubbed shoulders with the Syrian Satyr there; we had so much more in common, after all! Maybe when time travel becomes possible - *LOL*.
Blessings - to the rest of you - namesakes or not!
Labels: Luciano, Lucius, Luminous, Luminous Connections, music, Namesakes
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