Comments on: Quotation of the Week 2

By: Manolis

Manolis — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:58:10 +0000

There is a 1979 movie called “Escape to Athena”, starring Roger Moore, David Niven, and Telly Savalas, among others. In that movie some English archaeologists are held captive in Greece during the German occupation in order to find ancient artefacts for Hitler. So they dig up stuff, show them to the Germans, and then they bury these items again, in order to “rediscover” them later and save their lives, because the Germans are letting them live only as long as they find antiquities. I suggest that historians do something like that in order to ensure “perpetual employment”.

By: constantinakatsari

constantinakatsari — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:11:15 +0000

Well, we do listen to each other. Don’t we?

By: roberta norwich

roberta norwich — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:03:43 +0000

Ah, Richard, now you have it! Perpetual employment! But I would love to know who really ‘listens’ to us.

By: Richard Baron

Richard Baron — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:17:12 +0000

Roberta: ” and re-write in the hope of a better understanding of our past”.

I would go further (and very likely further than Wilde had in mind): we must re-write in order to make it our own past, to which we in our present and ever-changing state can relate, as distinct from its being a past in which we take a purely antiquarian interest.

And what is more, Wilde’s words hold out to historians the promise of perpetual employment.

By: roberta norwich

roberta norwich — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:08:30 +0000

By rewriting we ‘re-view’ history, see past events from fresh perspectives. After all, we know the cliche about history being written by the victors, so let’s give the other side a chance. I always found Wilde to be more provocative than flippant. So, by all means, return to the sources and re-write in the hope of a better understanding of our past.