Amazing Discoveries in Egypt: “O excellent! I love long life better than figs.”
April 25, 2007
“O excellent! I love long life better than figs.” –Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, 1.2.35
The Daily Star Egypt is reporting that the mummies of Antony and Cleopatra have likely been found at a Ptolemite site near Alexandria. Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, also announced that they may have found the remains of Queen Hatshepsut in Al Deir El Bahari. Oh, and they discovered four hidden doors inside the Great Pyramid. In other news…
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April 27th, 2007 at 9:07 am
Oh dear, I see you are reading Allan Bloom. I pray you do not take him very seriously.
Peter
April 27th, 2007 at 9:29 am
I actually like what he has to say in several of his chapters, especially the chapter about books and reading. He had an insightful approach - even when I disagree, I find his arguments thoughtful and in some ways prophetic given the accuracy of his wonderings about future implications. The first half of the book seems to be his appropriation of Plato; the second half is his appropriation of Nietzsche. It was (is) rare to find his perspectives in the secular Academy.
What about him do you find aversive?
April 27th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Well, I largely agree with what you agree with there, about reading and scholarship. Despite my leftist leanings, I still like the ‘great books’ and when Harold Bloom says something I usually listen. What bothers me about Alan Bloom is his association with the entire Straussian school of neoconservatism. Also the fact that he perpetuates Strauss’ misreading of Nietzsche.
April 27th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
I am not enough of a philosophe to press the discussion much farther, and I have not read any of Leo Strauss (though I have read some disagreeing views on his role in political neoconservatism). My fascination with him is that he arrived at his theological and moral conclusions with a secular worldview. The existence of an absolute evil, for example.