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Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

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Re: Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

#241

Unearthed from a 1,600-year-old Roman-era tomb That's c. 400 AD. Closer to today, than to the time of King Tut...and King Tut was closer to the TFA mummy than to the First Dynasty. Ancient Egypt is really really old. The Great pyramid was 3000 years old at the time of the TFA mummy. The TFA mummy is about equidistant between today and the events of the Iliad and the book was already more than 1000 years old in 400 CE…

Pedantic side note maybe and sorry about that, but I found disturbing to see multiple "the TFA", where I guess TFA stand for "the fine article", so "the the fine article"? If it’s about brevity, "the peg" is just as short and mean in journalism parlance "A topic of interest, such as an ongoing event or an anniversary, around which various features can be developed."

I used the phrase “the TFA mummy” where the “the” is the article for “mummy.”

“The TFA mummy” has the same three articles as “the mummy in TFA” but one less word.

And pedantically, pedantry leaves the house when “TFA” walks in the door.

Re: Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks pretty shonky. I dont care about the casting. But the costumes look like ass (One of the extras was saying he had fit into the same armor for a low budget sword and sandal film), they are using a viking longboat as a greek ship (have already seen half a dozen experts spitting chips over the difference in boat design). I just cant bring myself to care about the film. "Oh its a fantasy film" its set in a histo…

For someone who purports not to care about the film, you seem very familiar with the discourse about it. (I have seen zero experts, or anyone really, discussing boat design.)

Stop noticing, eh?

Re: Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

#243
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've already accepted a lot of non-Greek casting, and always have. Movies like Troy are filled with people of German, English, Scandinavian whatever heritage, same here with The Odyssey. I think they get a pass because we see Greek history as a shared western history, even though it's about as accurate as a black person in those roles. So I think for a lot of people, when they see complaints about black actors playi…

If you go to the streets of Athens and show them two pictures one of Diane Kruger and one Lupita Nyong'o, and ask them who they think represents Helena of Troy more I'm certain you are going to get Diane as the definitive answer. I'm also certain that many will feel the casting of Lupita Nyong'o as cultural appropriation while the same will be less true for Diane Kruger. I'm not saying the Greeks should decide who to…

The Odyssey is not a documentary that sets out to be as visually authentic as possible, it's a drama. If we exclude black people from any roles in western canon, then doesn't that mean we're also excluding them from being part of western culture?

Re: Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that just like our normal museums now ?

No, the artifacts stayed where they were found. Different concept.

You must have been cheering when they blew up the Buddhas of Bamiyan because at least white people didn't have them.

Re: Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

#245
post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To expand on this: It started as “RTFA”, which is a riff on RTFM. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTFM#List_of_similar_initialis... Doesn’t really work as OP used it, though, as it gets confusing. They wrote “the TFA mummy” every time, so it becomes “the the fucking article mummy”. Like saying you’re a fan of the The Beatles.

I am a fan of the Beatles. What’s wrong with that?

It's about the article doubling, being a fan of the THE Beatles

Re: Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

#246
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you go to the streets of Athens and show them two pictures one of Diane Kruger and one Lupita Nyong'o, and ask them who they think represents Helena of Troy more I'm certain you are going to get Diane as the definitive answer. I'm also certain that many will feel the casting of Lupita Nyong'o as cultural appropriation while the same will be less true for Diane Kruger. I'm not saying the Greeks should decide who to…

The Odyssey is not a documentary that sets out to be as visually authentic as possible, it's a drama. If we exclude black people from any roles in western canon, then doesn't that mean we're also excluding them from being part of western culture?

I don't get the argument, there are a million other places you can (and have) black people being part of "western culture", just to list a few sports, music, politics, military, literature and the list goes on. In some of them they are the predominant group.

By your logic every movie should have a lot more east Asians, Indians, Native American etc. which I don't see anybody pushing for.

Re: Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

#247

The article sounds convincing enough, but discoveries can easily be faked, just like crop circles can be made by farmers using rake-like devices. Luxor and Las Vegas = same thing. Not trolling, but it's worth keeping this notion in mind. It's great for tourism and building mystique. At least when there is fakery, it's makes the real thing all the more valuable. Fakery sells movie tickets - it can sell plane tickets t…

You find it hard to believe...that Iliad was big? that 400 AD Egyptian medical practices involved quackeries?

You may be right about one observation, but that doesn't mean complimentary observations are genuine and all discoveries are real. In central Australia, and you find some indigenous rock paintings somewhere, and then someone else finds similar ones nearby a year later. Can't question that, right?

The Grand Egyptian Museum (first year in) frequently hits "its maximum planned capacity of around 15,000 to 18,000 visitors per day."

https://www.arabamerica.com/the-grand-egyptian-museums-first...

It's not necessarily about Egypt, it's about questioning discoveries in general.

I've even heard theories of the pyramids existing before "Ancient Egypt" even existed. If so, it may never have even been designed to be a tomb. I read in channeled information that it was to anchor the Earth in space and stop it wobbling. Others have said it is/was a jumping point into other dimensions.

"Despite building them as a gift of love and light to humanity, Ra expresses deep regret over how the pyramids were used."

https://gemini.google.com/share/cbddc708ef93

Re: Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

#248
post #209
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, interstellar has also some nerd stuff in it. If I remember correctly Kip Thorne did physics consulting on the movie and they even use a simulation running on a cluster to visualize the black hole physically correct. They could have used some arbitrary CGI…but no, they wanted it accurate according to science. https://arxiv.org/abs/1502.03808

Maybe we run in different circles, but I feel like “appreciates scientific accuracy” and “appreciates historical accuracy” are pretty disjoint sets? Not entirely without overlap, but pretty distinct.

I was referring to this:

>I think that Nolan sells himself (The online worship can hardly all be organic) as an authentic, technical director interested in accurate physical props.

I just wanted to give an example of such accurate physics props, that this is not only due to Oppenheimer.

This was not about the historic accuracy.

Re: Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

#249
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I also more often enjoy films which sit between "100% realistic/accurate" and "anything goes" than either extreme itself. 100% realistic/accurate and it tends to already be known unless it's relatively bland. 100% anything goes and it can still be good but there is a high risk it ends up feeling like every other "anything goes" movie of the same topic. In between you can often get the best of both worlds - something…

>I think that Nolan sells himself (The online worship can hardly all be organic) as an authentic, technical director interested in accurate physical props. I'm not a huge Nolan-discourse-insider, but that seems like a pretty bizarre reputation to have for someone who's famous for directing three Batman movies, Inception, Interstellar and Tenet? Is this reputation just because of Oppenheimer? I haven't seen Dunkirk (a…

>three Batman movies

The first batman movie was a paint by numbers reimplementation of The Shadow (1997). You can find comparisons online, nearly shot by shot and most of the same plot beats. The second and third went sort of back towards a very mechanical batman representation that reminded me of the planned low budget Iron Man movie where he wouldn't have had the ability to fly. Just stomping around punching badguys like a Power Rangers extra. The new Bat Mobile seems to inspire some of this reputation

>Inception

Inceptions pretty flat for a film about dreams.

>Interstellar

Neuro-Diverse level of detail until the bits with space magic at the end.

>Tenet

I couldnt sit through 10 minutes of it. Its like the antifilm. It didnt want me to observe it otherwise it wouldnt have emitted such a piercing screeching noise.

>Dunkirk

He has an old period watch, and he recorded the ticking. He overlays the ticking constantly. Also he tells the story out of sequence for some reason. But theres lots of practical effects if you include the stupid watch.

>Oppenheimer

Between tenet hating me on a physical level, and the perfectly servicable fat man and little boy film from the 70s I just havent seen it to comment.

Re: Iliad fragment found in Roman-era mummy

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article describes the veneration Roman -> (old) Greek -> (old) Egyptian and this finding appears to show that the veneration went both ways. Frankly I can understand that: Homer really did smash out an absolute banger with Iliad. I might ask for a copy in my grave too, when the time comes. The whole point of the article appears to be that when civilizations overlap, the "good old days" becomes a two way street (t…

I’m thinking I would pick Snow Crash. Or maybe The Matrix DVD.

I'm going old school ... really old school 8)
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