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…
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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.”
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