Results 1 to 3 of 3
- How to be : life lessons from the early Greeks / by Nicolson, Adam,1957-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."What is the nature of things? Must I think my own way through the world? What is justice? How can I be me? How should we treat each other? Before the Greeks, the idea of the world was dominated by god-kings and their priests, in a life ruled by imagined metaphysical monsters. 2,500 years ago, in a succession of small eastern Mediterranean harbour-cities, that way of thinking began to change. Men (and some women) decided to cast off mental subservience and apply their own worrying and thinking minds to the conundrums of life. These great innovators shaped the beginnings of philosophy. Through the questioning voyager Odysseus, Homer explored how we might navigate our way through the world. Heraclitus in Ephesus was the first to consider the interrelatedness of things. Xenophanes of Colophon was the first champion of civility. In Lesbos, the Aegean island of Sappho and Alcaeus, the early lyric poets asked themselves 'How can I be true to myself?' In Samos, Pythagoras imagined an everlasting soul and took his ideas to Italy where they flowered again in surprising and radical forms. Prize-winning writer Adam Nicolson travels through this transforming world and asks what light these ancient thinkers can throw on our deepest preconceptions. Sparkling with maps, photographs and artwork, How to Be is a journey into the origins of Western thought. Hugely formative ideas emerged in these harbour-cities: fluidity of mind, the search for coherence, a need for the just city, a recognition of the mutability of things, a belief in the reality of the ideal--all became the Greeks' legacy to the world. Born out of a rough, dynamic--and often cruel--moment in human history, it was the dawn of enquiry, where these fundamental questions about self, city and cosmos, asked for the first time, became, as they remain, the unlikely bedrock of understanding."--- Subjects: Heraclitus, of Ephesus.; Homer; Sappho; Civilization, Western;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- Papyrus : the invention of books in the ancient world / by Vallejo Moreu, Irene,author.; Whittle, Charlotte,translator.; translation of:Vallejo Moreu, Irene.Infinito en un junco.English.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Papyrus is an enthralling journey through the history of books and libraries in the ancient world and those who have helped preserve their rich literary traditions. Long before books were mass-produced, those made of reeds from along the Nile were worth fighting and dying for. Journeying along the battlefields of Alexander the Great, beneath the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, at Cleopatra's palaces and the scene of Hypatia's murder, award-winning author Irene Vallejo chronicles the excitement of literary culture in the ancient world, and the heroic efforts that ensured this extraordinary tradition would continue. Weaved throughout are fascinating stories about the spies, scribes, illuminators, librarians, booksellers, authors, and statesmen whose rich and sometimes complicated engagement with the written word bears remarkable similarities to the world today: Aristophanes and the censorship of the humorists, Sappho and the empowerment of women's voices, Seneca and the problem of a post-truth world. Vallejo takes us to mountainous landscapes and the roaring sea, to the capitals where culture flourished and the furthest reaches where knowledge found refuge in chaotic times. In this sweeping tour of the history of books, the wonder of the ancient world comes alive and, along the way, we discover the singular power of the written word"--- Subjects: Books;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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- The dry season : a memoir of pleasure in a year without sex / by Febos, Melissa,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The award-winning author of Girlhood returns with a revelatory chronicle of her year of celibacy and its transformative impact on her relationships -- to others, and to herself. In the wake of a catastrophic two-year relationship, Melissa Febos decided to take a break -- for three months she would abstain from dating and casual sex. Ever since her teens, she'd been in one entanglement after another. As she puts it, she could trace a "daisy chain of romances" from her adolescence to her mid-thirties. And no matter where her partners identified on the gender spectrum, she always instinctively moulded herself to appeal to them. Over those first few months, she gleaned insights into her past and awoke to the joys of being single. She decided to extend her celibacy not knowing it would become the most sensual and satisfying year of her life. Unburdened by preoccupations that had consumed her for decades, she learned to relish the delights of solitude and the thrill of living on her own terms. A reckoning with lifelong patterns and dominant systems of power, The Dry Season puts Febos's experience into conversation with those of women throughout history -- from Sappho to mystic nuns to Virginia Woolf -- situating it within a lineage of queer and feminist role models in unapologetic pursuit of their ambitions and ideals. Blending intimate personal narrative and incisive cultural criticism, Febos tells a story that's as much about celibacy as it is about its inverse: pleasure, desire, fulfillment. Infused with her fearless honesty and keen intellect, it's the memoir of a woman learning to live at the centre of her story, and a much-needed catalyst for a more radical conversation around sex and love"--- Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Febos, Melissa; Authors, American; Celibacy.; Single women; Women;
- Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Results 1 to 3 of 3