R. B. Parkinson

Wow! Apparently I was wrong to think that there were hardly any well-rounded stories from Ancient Egypt, as was the case from Mesopotamia (think of the Epic of Gilgamesh). But this is in any case a very impressive text. It tells the story of a farmer who is robbed and seeks redress from a local magistrate. Because they initially remain deaf to his request for justice to prevail, the farmer has to plead his case up to 9 times. The way he does that is unparalleled, and not just rhetorically. This short story, about 30 pages long, shows the contours of an ethics of responsibility in several ways. And that in a document dating from about 1850 bce. More about that in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
PS. This edition isn't a translation, but the academic publication of source material. For a viable translation, see SIMPSON. The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry.… (plus d'informations)

Compared to other surviving fiction at the time of this story's "publication" and earlier, The Eloquent Peasant caters to a sensational ethos reminiscent of modern stories. It's not just a statement of laws and law philosophy, or a two-dimensional tale of morals between mythical figures, but it's the first of the universal theme of the wronged person standing up for their rights. While I didn't find it entertaining or easy to read in terms of flow, I do appreciate that it is the first to tackle such a familiar plot from almost 4000 years in the future (the book's origin might be around 1859-1840 BCE). Unfortunately, much of the story is lost. There were nine speeches but most are missing. However, the loss reads like a montage and jumps through time like a movie transition, so it works as a modern short story.… (plus d'informations)

N.B. Drafted beginning last year

Historical comments: I’m an old man, just like I always knew! I grew up around 27-30, and I’m 32 now, and Ancient Egyptians only lived to 35, so.

Since only the rare scribe could write—they were like technicians—and people didn’t read alone but attended readings, which were parties, books were a lot more like going to the movies than working your way through the Oxford World’s Classics books (complete with untranslated Italian epigraph quote).

Oldness aside, I wouldn’t have done well in Ancient Egypt, being neither technician nor movie-goer. Then again, those are still the main two divisions of our own society.

“Otherness, otherness!” Not being a specialist, I undersell otherness, although I know it was there…. I console myself that the specialists are showing off, lol…. They’re just not me. What a mistake, and so common…. “Auf deutsch gespracht!” That’s not the right way to talk, man. (“You make me sad feel.” No! No, you make, me, sad feel, Herr Buchmeister!)

But I think I like a lot of the tales & teachings; as much as I want to be a Romantic (Chopin & Sand) outsider and not an early or imitative technician, I like the didactic eternalness, so much like another sort of Narnia Jack.

I think a speculative point that should be made is, where you have a small group of moral thinkers and a group of peasants and such, the peasants would inherit most of their ideas as a form of simplified state moral thinking; they wouldn’t be rebels. Even in societies with some rebellion, you can’t just collect rebels at random from among all the non-elites. Most people, I think, especially in simple societies, say, The king does things the right way; the scribes are noble. If only we understood, we would see how great! Now push the cart.

And such does have some charm and utility, especially where we are talking about honest peasants and not hypocritical libertarians (freedom for me, not for thee). Of course, if I were wrong about everything else, I’d be wrong now.

…. The other thing is, as bad as artificiality can be, you have to ask yourself whether you like idle conversation. A certain amount of distance is constructive.

…. And they were great kings of Africa.

…. Anyway, if you had a great intellect but no compassion (not that you’d necessarily be able to display that in translation and criticism), you’d become a devil, you know. Sooner or later it does make a difference…. Anyway, that’s why I don’t really like translation and formal criticism, and I don’t do it myself, you know.

…. Anyway, even in old times there’s ‘there and back again’, although I will allow how strange it seems. No more Southern or New Yorker novelists, or German, British, and French scholars, but Ancient Egyptians and Syrians. It’s still true though, that even ages and ages before Marx there was sufficient alienation from home and life that the famous story is about losing home and going abroad, and you only come home at the end.

…. And it’s nice “to have in mind the day of burial”. It’s pretty. “Think of your corpse—and return!”…. That’s also the sense I got of say the Koran, or the Confessions of Augustine, very pretty. And Psalm 88, very pretty. ‘Darkness is my only friend’. Poor girlie.

…. There were days when a middle-class trader was termed an ‘eloquent peasant’.

…. I hate to tear down another culture, (unless it’s the French), but I think that the Eloquent Peasant may be the first recorded co-dependent of history: you’re great; you’re so great; but you suck unless you do what I want…. You’re great, don’t be an ass…. I’m sure you’ll do what I want, since you’re so much better than everyone else….

…. Although it is nice: ‘Do not plan tomorrow before it comes; the evil in it cannot be known….Your heart should be patient, so you will know the Truth!’

…. The Odyssey would be as good as “The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor” if it were as concise. Ha! :P

…. It was the rule of custom. That is a little different. (The Tale of King Cheops’ Court).

…. The Words of Neferti: Lost wars are one of the problems of life, but oftentimes if you are very powerful you imagine that all problems consist of not thrusting a sword in somebody’s belly; many ancient writings though do talk about hard times as being the divorce of heaven and earth and the withering away of nature, even if in some ways they are more recognizably ‘rightist’, to use the anachronism: ‘we need hierarchy, the rule of custom, and a strong king’. (Although who knows what the modern right wants, since it is not always a strong king or a more or less even amount of productivity.)

…. The Dialogue of a Man with his Soul: I remember in ‘The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying’ the teacher counsels against what he calls the ‘romanticism’ of death, which the Egyptians must have known in the old days, and which this text advises against, even if it does allow that the last day is something great.

…. Although I’m sure a more ‘cool’ new ager might call it, The Dialogue of a Man with his Ego, since it gives the ‘wrong’ advice.

…. I think that Richard P should have confined the notes to things that are historically alien—which notes are quite necessary—and not to multiply formalities by summarizing every literary universal in the notes, just because every paragraph in the text should have a paragraph in the notes.

…. The Loyalist Teaching is pretty; Jack and Deepak would like it.

…. I don’t want to get too crazy, because I do the same thing, but I don’t like the Teaching of Khety, the (Scribe’s) Satire on Trades. Oh yes, the foodies and the exercise people and the jewelry store people and the people who talk—and everyone who doesn’t just read and read and read…. Well, if you’ve got it all, then you don’t need them, right? “But I need servants.” Because you’re weak! You’re not an Angel! “It’s not my fault!” Yeah, and it’s not their fault that there’s only one bookstore in the mall instead of three or ten or twenty; they’re just living their lives. You too, have but a brief life.

…. —Twenty bookstores?
—Well, they wouldn’t all be as big as Barnes & Noble. Barnes and Noble doesn’t carry a lot of books. There could be niche book stores—
—But twenty? They’re all just books.
—Well, you only really need three food types: High Calorie, High Vitamin, and High Protein. So have three food places at the mall—for breads, fruit juices, and vegan protein bars.
—Vegan?…. Wait, only three?
—And then you could have a clothing store, for your annual trip to replace worn-out clothes, some kind of therapists emporium or chess garden where you could meet up with people in a respectful way, and—
—And you’re a nut! Therapy? YOU need therapy!
—And then there could be a place to sell you a cross, for when the church stops being embarrassing and driving people away from Jesus.
—But what about the normal people?
—Are normal people happy?
—No. but they don’t want. This.

…. (The Teaching of Khety) These fuckers are all poor! Punish them, steal their things, and become a scribe!
—Lord have mercy; you’re ruining it. It could have been so great! There could have been a church, a gym, a music store—lots of stuff! Now we won’t get anything!
—It’s all a lie! I don’t even like books. The people who like them are all like that Ketie freak, or you. You’re both freaks.
—I tried, Jesus. When you come back, and we’ve scorched the earth…. I tried…. I cried; I cried….

…. (Fragments) “He who fails the drowning man, fails everyone
He who drives away his protection is protection-less
A man does what he does, without knowing that someone is doing the same against him.”

Now there’s a sign for a goddamn pizzeria. Most of the signs just say something that means, Get Fat. And Pay Me.… (plus d'informations)