Tuesday, January 09, 2018

Oh My God, people and literary techniques really don't change ...

I could have written a milder "Plus Ca Change ..." in the title above but
1) We have just had Fire and Fury, criticized for its free approach to rigor, that is the author's statement that the book as comprised of, if not true occurrences,  characteristic anecdotes; 
and two thousand years ago we had
2)  Twelve Ceasars, of which Britannica.com says:
De vita Caesarum, which treats Julius Caesar and the emperors up to Domitian, is largely responsible for that vivid picture of Roman society and its leaders, morally and politically decadent, that dominated historical thought until modified in modern times by the discovery of nonliterary evidence ... Though free with scandalous gossip, [it is] largely silent on the growth, administration, and defense of the empire. Suetonius is free from the bias of the senatorial class that distorts much Roman historical writing. His sketches of the habits and appearance of the emperors are invaluable, but, like Plutarch, he used “characteristic anecdote” without exhaustive inquiry into its authenticity.
(P.S.  And lest we forget, "fake but accurate" pace Dan Rather.

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