Robben Island was the Alcatraz on the South Atlantic where Nelson Mandela and other South African political prisoners spent many years of their lives; the “Bible” was a collection of the complete works of William Shakespeare smuggled into the jail in the 1970s by a prisoner called Sonny Venkatrathnam. They called it the Bible because Venkatrathnam cheated the prison censorship system by telling his warders that it was a Hindu religious work. But there was another reason, too. As the book circulated, Shakespeare’s poems and plays acquired the condition of secular scripture, interpreted by one and all much as believers might the Koran, the Christian Bible or, for that matter, Karl Marx.
As Dora Thornton, the curator of the British Museum exhibition put it, “They used him as a way of developing their own moral sense.” With Shakespeare having anticipated and explored the competing questions of leadership and self-doubt, idealism and expediency, ambition and loyalty that bedevil politicians everywhere and always, but all the more urgently at times of national conflict, Mandela and his comrades drew from his works to shape political debate and lay the philosophical foundations for political action.”
I remembered this during a conversation with my sister earlier today.
Some notes on Paradise Lost that seem relevant,
Then there’s Milton’s obsession with secret, all-powerful technologies. In Book VI of his epic, the rebel angels send the good army into disarray with a Satanic invention: gunpowder. Aided by the devil’s evil genius, they harvest the crude materials from beneath the ground and pack them into cannons. Satan, unveiling his dastardly plan for the first time, gets one of the great “Look what I invented” super-villain speeches in the English language:
These [nitrous ores] in thir dark Nativitie the Deep
Shall yield us pregnant with infernal flame,
Which into hallow Engins long and round
Thick-rammd, at th’ other bore with touch of fire
Dilated and infuriate shall send forth
From far with thundring noise among our foes
Such implements of mischief as shall dash
To pieces, and orewhelm whatever stands
Adverse.Yikes. Like the sci-fi B-movies of the 1950s, which imagined the doomsday consequences of nuclear energy, Paradise Lost reflects anxieties about contemporary technology. In the late 17th century, armies were beginning to experiment with “modern” artillery, such as cannons and gunpowder; people faced a previously unthinkable type of violence, one vicious enough to leave entire battalions dead when the smoke cleared. Science’s possibilities, but also its costs, weighed on Milton throughout his life, as they have any science-fictionist worth his salt.
Inky cat footprints!
From p. 170 of Clavis Bibliorum: The Key of the Bible, Unlocking the Richest Treasury of the Holy Scriptures by Francis Roberts (1675). Original from Princeton University. Digitized August 12, 2008.
Obviously the cat was trying to paw our attention to something in the text. We should inform Nicolas Cage and Dan Brown about this, it might involve popular works of biblical art and strange religious organizations with strong political ties to the state.
I want to believe.
I am, within the confines of reason, elated to announce to you that Libertarianism: A Novel has finally been completed and may be found at the above link. This long-awaited aesthetic treatise on the philosophy of FREEDOM and LIBERTY, with a special introduction by none other than Ludwig von Mises, should serve to clarify the various misgivings of those who would seek to castigate individual self-determination and the glory of the free market. Consider this as a warning: to approach this text as anything other than a TRUE INDIVIDUAL one must be willing to risk all of one’s systems and values. The truth is not political, it is just correct.
Special thanks to Sam Stein for cover design/layout, and to Evelyn Pappas for putting me in touch with Ludwig von Mises.
Sharing of the text is encouraged and indeed almost obligatory, though not without the proper adjustments to allow for perpetuation of the free markets whose praises every word contained herein can be said to sing.
For my libertarian lurkers, Happy Holidays!
I am, within the confines of reason, elated to announce to you that Libertarianism: A Novel has finally been completed and may be found at the above link. This long-awaited aesthetic treatise on the philosophy of FREEDOM and LIBERTY, with a special introduction by none other than Ludwig von Mises, should serve to clarify the various misgivings of those who would seek to castigate individual self-determination and the glory of the free market. Consider this as a warning: to approach this text as anything other than a TRUE INDIVIDUAL one must be willing to risk all of one’s systems and values. The truth is not political, it is just correct.
Special thanks to Sam Stein for cover design/layout, and to Evelyn Pappas for putting me in touch with Ludwig von Mises.
Sharing of the text is encouraged and indeed almost obligatory, though not without the proper adjustments to allow for perpetuation of the free markets whose praises every word contained herein can be said to sing.
This is probably the funniest and best greatest thing on the internet today ever.
Your gimmick blog, the one you’re still vainly hoping gets picked up as a book to be made available at Urban Outfitters, will never be as incredible as this. Stop. Trying.
Remember, give me Liberty™ or give me Death™. ©
from LIBERTARIANISM: A NOVEL
The reviews are flooding in and they seem to be overwhelmingly positive,
- “An instant member of the Western Canon… the most important book written since Abortion and Liberty by Ron Paul.”
- “…the 75 page sex scene as a dialogue on how racism is the exclusive domain of collectivists blew me away…”
- “…it’s Ayn Rand meets Murray Rothbard meets David Foster Wallace meets Jorge Luis Borges meets Jeffrey Eugenides.”
- “… exhilarating…”
- “…finally a book that’s not by Ron Paul…”
- “Ron Paul.”
I’m looking forward to the rest of this, who wouldn’t be after those reviews?
