And What About the Future?

People in Russia in 1913 had no idea what the country would look like ten years later.
People in Germany in 1930 had no idea what the country would look like ten years later.
People in Yugoslavia in 1983 had no idea what the country would look like ten years later.

Do you know what your country will look like in ten years?

Rehashed repetition

I know this has been said before, but it deserves to be repeated until more people grasp the meaning:

Colourless green ideas sleep furiously. Quadruplicity drinks procrastination. Hold the newsreader's nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will countermand my trousers. Nine silk draconian petals have rendered the gutter a Toblerone.

There. And don’t you forget it!

(Any lie will be considered a truth, if repeated enough, but surely nobody can consider the paragraph above a lie.)

The places you need to visit before you die instead of enjoying the place where you currently are

None.

The books you need to read before you die instead of thinking for yourself.

None.

Geography of the Snark

In Lewis Caroll’s The Hunting of the Snark (An Agony in 8 Fits), the geography may not be obvious to every reader. This blog post aims to sort out the locations.

The Place for a Snark - A Description

The Agony begins at just the place for a snark. Unfortunately, the poem does not contain many hints exactly what makes it a good place to hunt snarks, except that the Bellman says so three times, and whatever he says three times must be true.

However, the text tells us that it is a place where there is tidal waters, and that the view where they landed consisted of chasms and crags.

There is a dismal and desolate valley, which is unfrequented by man, where the Butcher and the Beaver make a separate sally. The valley gets so narrow at the end, that the two have to march shoulder to shoulder.

There is the crag which the Baker climbed ahead of the others, signalling to them that he had spotted a snark, and nearby a chasm where he plunged, before meeting it.

Then there is the location where the Banker encountered the Bandersnatch, and where he is left by the Bellman. No further geographical details are given for this location.

The Place for a Snark on the Globe

Where the place for a snark is situated on the globe is not trivial to tell.

The tool the crew uses to track distances is a map without the least vestige of land, which makes it easy to understand, but difficult to use. Nevertheless, the text tells us that they are in tropical climes, where the bowsprit often gets mixed with the rudder. The route has at least partly been due West to the Bellman’s exasperation.

We also know that the Baker comes from a place with a beach, where all his belongings were left behind. To reach the current position, the place for a snark, they have sailed many months, so the distance between the Baker’s home and the place for a snark is considerable.


The information in this blog post may not have been as precise or detailed as you had hoped, but it is at least more exhaustive on the subject than Google Maps.

Geography of Lochinvar

In Walter Scott's poem Lochinvar, which appears in his romance Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field, there are a few geographic names, that may not be obvious to every reader. This blog post aims to sort out the locations.

The Border. This is the border between Scotland and England. The poem is set in the Debatable Lands that were part of Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland and Cumbria in England. The area was disputed, and marriages across the border were once discouraged. This is one possible reason why the Scottish Lochinvar was not accepted by Ellen's parents in this mostly fictional story.

Cannobie Lee. Cannobie is now usually spelt Canonbie. It is a small village in Dumfriesshire in Scotland, right at the River Esk. It used to be the main settlement in the Debatable Lands between England and Scotland. A "lee" is what is nowadays usually spelt "lea," an open area of grassland or arable land.

Eske River. This is today called the River Esk. It is a river that flows on both sides of the border and out in Solway Firth. If Lochinvar swam it, he probably went from Scotland to England, even though the river follows the actual border for only a short stretch. There are a number of water courses called River Esk around the world - confusingly there are two in Cumbria alone. However, the one Lochinvar swam would have been the one that crosses the border.

Netherby Hall. This is an estate in England, three miles South of Cannobie. Fair Ellen may have been English and not Scottish.

Solway. Solway Firth is a firth, an inlet of the sea, where the Eske River flows out near the border between England and Scotland.

Persistent Opinions

Whenever we take up a new political opinion, it is good to think about for how long we intend to keep it.

Clearly, there are no political opinions that are absolute truths. Whatever we call an opinion must represent a position that at least some other people don't share. Otherwise, it would be called a "truth."

Knowing that our opinions are not absolute, do we think about for how long we intend to keep them? What facts that might swing us to another opinion? Whose authority could reinforce or discard the opinion?

Or do we take our opinions so lightly that we do not even think about how long they will last?

Fessis Membris Dulcis Quies

In the little Italian town of Bordighera, there are a few Latin inscriptions above stone benches. The inscriptions do not contain any particularly useful information. They do not say "no smoking" or "it is dangerous to lean out."

Instead they are different ways to pay homage to rest and idleness.

Fessis membris dulcis quies

The meaning of fessīs membrīs dulcis quiēs is "sweet repose for weary limbs."

As far as I can tell, the complete phrase is not a quote from any Latin writer, but the people who put up the bench simply wanted to say that here was sweet repose for weary limbs, and they said it in Latin because that sounded good.

Seneca used the the expression of sweet repose, dulcis quiēs in his drama Thyestes, but not in the context of tired limbs.

Fessīs membrīs means "weary limbs." The expression uses dative plural of fessus and membrum to express "for."

Dulcis quiēs means "sweet repose." It is in nominative singular.

Honesto otio

The expression honestō ōtiō means "for honourable idleness (or retirement)".

It is a little too short to be considered a "quote," but Cicero uses it a few times in letters.

The expression is in dative singular to express "for," similar to membrīs dulcis.

Quid ultra tendis? 

This expression finally is a real quote, and its meaning is a little less obvious, as is often the case with real quotes. It means "why stretch further?"

The context is Horace's Ode 18 in Book II of his Carmina. The poet asks why one should aim for more than is necessary in life. The linked page contains both translation and comments if you click on the links to the right.

Well, now that's sorted out, and I hope you can relax even more next time you go on holiday to Bordighera.

Wodehouse, Jellyfish and Lord Emsworth

There is a quote that goes around the internet: “Lord Emsworth, whose IQ may be some thirty points below that of an absent minded jellyfish...”

It appears over and over in the context of P. G. Wodehouse's book Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best, also published as Blandings Castle and Elsewhere (1935). 

The confusing matter is that the quote only appears on the cover of that otherwise excellent collection of short stories. Inside there is not a single jellyfish. It is a spectacularly jellyfish free book. If you ever wanted a book without any mention jellyfish, this is the book for you.


However, Wodehouse really has a comparison of Lord Emsworth and jellyfish, but that appears in his novel Full Moon (1947). In this book, Lord Emsworth's brother, the Hon. Galahad describes the lord:

‘I have been closely associated with my brother Clarence for more than half a century, and I know him from caviare to nuts. His I.Q. is about thirty points lower than that of a not too agile-minded jellyfish.'

Later on in the book, the narrator describes their sister, Lady Hermione Wedge:

But the formidable woman seated behind the teapot was a different proposition. Here, beyond a question, danger lurked. You might not admire Lady Hermione Wedge as you would admire Helen of Troy, or the current Miss America, but there was no gainsaying her intelligence. It would have to be an exceptionally up-and-coming jellyfish which could even contemplate challenging her I.Q.

I hope this has settled the question for everyone who is a fan of Wodehouse, Lord Emsworth and jellyfish.

Vargtimmen

Vargtimmen, English title, Hour of the Wolf, is a 1968 film by the Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman.

He explains the title in the following words:

The hour between night and dawn. The hour when most people die, when sleep is deepest, when nightmares are most real. It is the hour when the sleepless are haunted by their deepest fears, when ghost and demons are most powerful, the hour of the wolf is also the hour when most children are born.

Or in his original Swedish:

Vargtimmen är timmen mellan natt och gryning, det är timmen då de flesta människor dör, då sömnen är djupast, då mardrömmarna är verkligast. Den är timmen då den sömnlöse jagas av sin svåraste ångest, då spöken och demoner är mäktigast. Vargtimmen är också den timme då de flesta barn föds.

Most of those statements are not scientifically true, but they make artistic sense for the film. Nevertheless, nothing comes from nothing, and there are certain things that may have inspired him.

The Hour of the Day

There is a very old French expression, "entre chien et loup", "between dog and wolf." The most common explanation is that it is the early morning hours when both wolves and dogs can be out, but the eye is unable to tell which is which in the limited light. However, it was originally used not only for the morning, but for the evening as well.

Infra horam vespertinam, inter canem et lupum.

This was written by Marculfe, abbot of Saint-Denis around the 7th century. He wrote in Latin, not in French, which did not exist as a written language at the time. He uses the expression to write about the evening.

Postea vix summos Aurora rubescere montes
Fecerat, & valles nondum primordia lucis
Attigerant : interque canem distare lupumque
Nullus adhuc poterat aliquid discernere visu.

Guillaume le Breton (1165-1225), poet, cleric and historian wrote the lines above. This is also Latin, but le Breton talks about the difficulty of telling dog from wolf in the morning, not the evening.

Comme le simple oiseau qui cherche sa pasture
Lors qui il ne est, ne iour ne nuit
Quand le veillant Berger
Si i’ est ou Chien, ou Loup,
Ne peut au vrai juger.

Jean-Antoine de Baïf (1532-1589), poet. Here is finally an example in French, even if it is not the kind of French we see today. Baïf also talks about the difficulty of distinguishing dogs from wolves. As he mentions this in the context of a bird looking for pasture, one has to assume that he talks about the early morning hour.

So far, the quotes have only talked about the time of day, not about the anxieties Bergman talks about.

However, considering the limited light, some worry has been expressed by people like the French aristocrat Madame de Sévigné (1626–1696). The expression occurs in several of her letters to her daughter, la comtesse de Grignan. In most cases she talks about the evening, not the morning.

Je n’ose me livrer à l’entre chien et loup, de peur d’éclater en cris et en pleurs; l’obscurité me seroit mauvaise dans l’état où je suis.

Here de Sévigné fears that the darkness of "dog and wolf" will cause her to burst out crying. However, it is mainly a time of day:

On soupe pendant le chien et le loup.

In the short sentence above de Sévigné simply tells her daughter that she has dinner during the "dog and wolf." It is as if she tried to find any excuse to use an expression she clearly is fond of, and I don't blame her.

The simple fact that wolves are active during the night has of course been mentioned since antiquity.

Ac veluti pleno lupus insidiatus ovili
cum fremit ad caulas, ventos perpessus et imbris,nocte super media;

Virgil, Vergilius (70-19 BCE). In the lines from his Aeneid above, he talks about a wolf prowling near the sheep all through the night.

ἄλλος δ᾽ αὖ μέγεθος μὲν ὑπέρτερος, ἅψεα δ᾽ αὖτε
μηκεδανός, πάντεσσι θοώτερος ὦκα λύκοισι:
τὸν μέροπες κίρκον τε καὶ ἅρπαγα κικλήσκουσι. πολλῷ σὺν ῥοίζῳ δὲ μάλ᾽ ὄρθριος εἶσιν ἐπ᾽ ἄγρην
πρώτῃ ὑπ᾽ ἀμφιλύκῃ.

Oppian of Cilicia, a 2nd century author, wrote instructive texts in Greek hexameter. In the quote above from his hunting book Κυνηγετικά (Cynegetica), he writes about a wolf who seeks its prey in the first morning light.

An even more precise time is given by the Chinese, but with a different animal. The Chinese have a system to divide the hours of the day with two hours for each of the animals of the zodiac. The hours 3:00-5:00 a.m. which arguably are closest to Bergman's hour of the wolf, are allocated to 寅虎, yín hǔ, the tiger. Like the wolf, the tiger has a reputation of being particularly dangerous during these hours.

Anxieties

There are some possible scientific reasons for Bergman's wolf hour anxieties.

The hormone melatonin (not to be confused with the melanin pigments in skin and hair) makes sleep easier. The levels of melatonin are typically at their highest in the early morning hours. Blood pressure becomes low in the early morning. Our body temperature is low. The metabolism and heartbeats are slow.

Someone who has problems with their melatonin level can get the body rhythm out of order and that may cause sleep problems and anxiety.

The theme of morning anxieties has been written about in fiction several times the past.

On atteignait l'heure entre loup et chien où les gens sensibles se confient, où les criminels avouent, où les plus silencieux eux-mêmes luttent contre le sommeil à coup d'histoires ou de souvenirs.

Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987), French author. In the quote above from Le Coup de grâce (1939), Yourcenar uses the French expression entre "loup et chien" to talk about the hour when sensitive people confide, criminals confess, when the most silent people fight against their sleep.

In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day. At that hour the tendency is to refuse to face things as long as possible by retiring into an infantile dream - but one is continually startled out of this by various contacts with the world.

Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940). The Crack-Up part 2, “Pasting It Together.” Fitzgerald does not need to mention wolves, but this is likely one of the most famous quotes about morning anxiety.

Bergman's Inspiration

It is impossible to tell which of the above authors Bergman had read. He may very well have got inspiration from other sources. It is not known how much he was aware of the physiological aspects of the human body in the morning.

However, the expression "hour of the wolf" to describe morning anxiety hardly existed before the 1968 film, and if Bergman did not coin the phrase, he at least popularised it.