Writing, Resistance, and Ghosts

It’s been a long time since I posted here. I originally started this blog way back in 2011 because I was inspired by others in archaeology and classics writing blogs that I really enjoyed reading and because I hoped it would help jump start my own writing practice. It didn’t help me.

In the intervening years I’ve tried a number of other things to develop a writing practice and I’ve not been terribly successful. These included joining writing groups, reading books about writing, and even trying my hand at some fan fiction, but none of these helped me develop a practice. I’m contracted as a lecturer at my university so there is no expectation that I do research and publish for my job. But I have ideas and want to put them out there, or in the case of my archaeological fieldwork, need to put them out there.

This fall I’m participating in the NCFDD's Faculty Success Program (FSP). We're only four weeks into the ten-week program. I don’t know if this is going to help me either, but it does feel a little different. Daily accountability and a small cohort that meets weekly, plus specific actions tied to developing a habit of writing. I also feel like I’m in a different head space in the last year or two than I had previously been in, more willing to do the work for whatever reason.

The topic for Week Four of the FSP is “resistance.” I had to document my internal resistance to writing for the week. This reminded me of Pliny the Younger's story about the philosopher Athenodorus and the haunted house in Athens, (Epistle 7.27.5-11). This is not the point of Pliny's story at all, but I’ve always been impressed that Athenodorus could just keep writing, even with a chain-rattling ghost approaching ever closer. I suspect if anyone has ever avoided feeling resistance to writing, it must be Athenodorus.

And since it’s such a good ghost story and it’s almost Halloween, and it gives me more writing practice of a sort a rough translation of Pliny's haunted house story follows below. I’m not sure if I will make any significant return to this blog, but now that I’ve committed to at least 30 minutes of writing every weekday…

 Excerpted* from Pliny the Younger’s letter to L. Licinius Sura about the existence of ghosts:

5. There was in Athens a large and roomy house, but notorious and diseased. Through the stillness of the night there was the sound of chains, and if you were to pay attention more carefully, the noise of chains farther away at first, then echoing back from very nearby: soon afterwards a ghost appeared, an old man diminished by his leanness and filthiness, with his beard grown out, hair shaggy; shackles on his legs, he was carrying chains and shaking them in his hands.

5. Erat Athenis spatiosa et capax domus sed infamis et pestilens. Per silentium noctis sonus ferri, et si attenderes acrius, strepitus vinculorum longius primo, deinde e proximo reddebatur: mox apparebat idolon, senex macie et squalore confectus, promissa barba horrenti capillo; cruribus compedes, manibus catenas gerebat quatiebatque.

6. Afterward gloomy and dreadful nights kept the occupants sleepless due to their fear; as their terror grew, disease and death followed. For also during the day, although the ghost had gone off, the memory of the ghost floated in their eyes, and this longer lingering fear was a cause of anxiety. Then the house, abandoned and condemned to vacancy and left entirely to that monster; still it was listed for sale, whether anyone ignorant of such evil would wish to buy or lease it.

6. Inde inhabitantibus tristes diraeque noctes per metum vigilabantur; vigiliam morbus et crescente formidine mors sequebatur. Nam interdiu quoque, quamquam abscesserat imago, memoria imaginis oculis inerrabat, longiorque causis timoris timor erat. Deserta inde et damnata solitudine domus totaque illi monstro relicta; proscribebatur tamen, seu quis emere seu quis conducere ignarus tanti mali vellet.

 7. The philosopher Athenodorus came to Athens, he read the advertisement and having heard the price, because the low price was suspicious, he made inquiries, he was told everything and nonetheless, despite this he leased it much more readily. When it began to approach evening, he ordered a bed prepared for himself in the front of the house, he asked for writing tablets, a stylus, a lamp, and he sent all of his staff into the interior of the house; he himself turned his mind, eyes, and hand to writing, so that his idle mind would not imagine the reported phantoms and pointless fears.

7. Venit Athenas philosophus Athenodorus, legit titulum auditoque pretio, quia suspecta vilitas, percunctatus omnia docetur ac nihilo minus, immo tanto magis conducit. Ubi coepit advesperascere, iubet sterni sibi in prima domus parte, poscit pugillares stilum lumen, suos omnes in interiora dimittit; ipse ad scribendum animum oculos manum intendit, ne vacua mens audita simulacra et inanes sibi metus fingeret.

 8. At first, just as everywhere else, there was the silence of the night; next, iron clanking together, chains being moved. That man did not raise his eyes, he did not set aside his stylus, but he focused his mind and tuned in his ears. Then the clanking grew stronger, it came ever closer and now it was audible at the door, now inside the door! Athenodorus looked about: he saw and recognized the apparition described to him.  

8. Initio, quale ubique, silentium noctis; dein concuti ferrum, vincula moveri. Ille non tollere oculos, non remittere stilum, sed offirmare animum auribusque praetendere. Tum crebrescere fragor, adventare et iam ut in limine, iam ut intra limen audiri. Respicit, videt agnoscitque narratam sibi effigiem.

 9. It stopped and made a gesture with its finger as if summoning him. The philosopher likewise indicated with his hand that the ghost should wait a bit and again focused on his waxed tablets and stylus. The apparition went on rattling his chains over the writer’s head. Athenodorus looked around again <and saw> the same figure gesturing as before, and without delay he picked up his lamp and followed.

9. Stabat innuebatque digito similis vocanti. Hic contra ut paulum exspectaret manu significat rursusque ceris et stilo incumbit. Illa scribentis capiti catenis insonabat. Respicit rursus idem quod prius innuentem, nec moratus tollit lumen et sequitur.

 10. The apparition moved with slow steps as if heavy with chains. When it turned into the courtyard of the house, it abandoned its companion, disappearing suddenly. Left behind, Athenodorus placed some grass and plucked leaves, a marker on the spot.

10. Ibat illa lento gradu quasi gravis vinculis. Postquam deflexit in aream domus, repente dilapsa deserit comitem. Desertus herbas et folia concerpta signum loco ponit.

 11. The next day, Athenodorus went to the magistrates, he advised that they should order that spot to be dug up. Bones, mixed and entangled with chains, were discovered; bones, which the body, rotted by time and the earth, had left bare and corroded by the chains; having been gathered up they were buried publicly. Afterward, the house was free from spirits, the ghost having been laid by customary rites.

11. Postero die adit magistratus, monet ut illum locum effodi iubeant. Inveniuntur ossa inserta catenis et implicita, quae corpus aevo terraque putrefactum nuda et exesa reliquerat vinculis; collecta publice sepeliuntur. Domus postea rite conditis manibus caruit.

*Latin text from The Latin Library, “C. Plinius Caecilius Secundus, Epistularum Libri Decem.”