Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Your favourite author

My new poll (thanks to all who voted in the last one) is in honour of my year 11 class, who are doing their exams at the moment. The five authors listed are those which we’ve studied during the course of the year. Feel free to vote- if you’re not sure who some of the authors are, here’s a quick bio of each one.

Ovid: a poet who found it hard to take much seriously. If Ovid were around today, he’d be the class clown with a brilliant wit, and would delight particularly in making fun of Catullus. All the girls would like him, but he would probably get a reputation as a bit of a player.

Virgil: Virgil wrote what is probably Rome’s greatest work of literature. He writes in a beautifully concise way, and is capable of evoking vivid images and powerful emotions with the shortest of phrases. If he attended St George Girls’ he would be the teacher’s pet and do Extension 2 English.

Livy: Livy wrote history, and lots of it. 142 books in fact. He, when he wrote, with an idea having been begun, in order to express it, long and complicated sentences, which seem to take forever to get to the point, whatever that was, and which make you forget what he was talking about in the first place, would use. Livy is the kind of guy who asks for another writing booklet before you’ve even finished reading the question.

Cicero: In my opinion Cicero is one of the smartest guys ever. Unfortunately he had a bit of an attitude problem. He would be the kind of guy who never stops telling you how good he is, and would probably dob in his friends for smoking at the train station.

Lucretius: A bit of an enigma, Lucretius wrote a philosophical poem about the nature of the universe. He would have been the quiet guy at school, who grows dreadlocks, goes to uni and takes nine years to do an arts degree. He would probably have enjoyed watching What the bleep do we know.

Catullus: if Catullus were around today, he’d wear a lot of black and would probably look something like this. He was an intense kind of guy, who fell hard for another man’s wife, and wrote a bunch of poems about the agony and the ecstasy of love.

[I realise you can't actually vote for Catullus in the poll, but I thought he was worth including anyway]

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't vote! Why won't it let me vote?!?

Not that I know much about them...I can only remember a bit of Livy, and Cicero.

And that "bit" is tiny, considering I don't understand any of the Latin in it...

Mathea said...

Never actually thought of Catullus as being emo but the link really helped me visualise it.
Thankyou also for acknowledging that you do in fact have a year 11 class, however, I must have missed all the well wishes and the 'I know you'll do well because you're all really smart' - so i'll put it down to my poor eyesight...

Anonymous said...

Anyone who thinks Latin is a boring, dead language should probably read this.

"If he attended St George Girls’ he would be the teacher’s pet and do Extension 2 English, and would be a she - not a he"

Anonymous said...

<3 Cicero and Virgil.

Surely Catullus had more class than that?

Oh, no, wait... Poem 16.

Never mind.

Anonymous said...

P.S. What's "What the bleep do we know!?" about?

Anonymous said...

"[I realise you can't actually vote for Catullus in the poll, but I thought he was worth including anyway]"
ha your funny... by any means..
are you asking us to rate these guys?! i cant decide theyr all good! really? would catullus be an emo today?... never thought of it that way. yet i guess he would be now i think of his poems...

Anonymous said...

who would you vote for mr morrison?

Anonymous said...

Aha. See, before, al it showed in the poll was 100% for Virgil and no votes for anything else. But now it's let me vote. And I went for Ovid. Which is ironic, considering he's the only one we don't study this year. What a worry.

Anonymous said...

zmf, what the bleep is a really wierd documentary/movie hybrid about quantum physics and how it can change your life... really. i recommend watching it (it's probably on DVD now), if only to see the overly excitable physics lecturers.

Anonymous said...

You just get cooler and cooler everyday.
Cheers to that.


Bisous!

Anonymous said...

Gosh Mr Morrison! This blog entry is SO GOOD! I am pretty thrilled about it, really. It would have been good though if you had mentioned who wrote what, because I don't really remember. Still, excellent blog, especially your hilariously Yodesque Livy-sentence. Livy sounds a bit like Emma Went...(in a good way)

My favourite is Lucretius I think, especially after that super-duper description that makes me wish he weren't dead so he could be my boyfriend, but I also really like Hercules and Eurydice, which I think is by Virgin. (lol @ Juliargh)

Anonymous said...

i'm having quite alot of trouble with how to distribute my vote for this poll. in fact, i'll probably just vote for everyone a few hundred times, that's how much trouble i'm having.
ovid wrote daedalus and icarus. and we all know how captivating that story was (LOL, comment sarcasm!). but then there's the whole idea of him being a bit of a player and i'll be the first to admit that that fact does give daedalus and icarus some much needed appeal.
virgil has some pretty good personification going on, but he totally got it wrong when he made orpheus the hero, rather than hercules. but, being a selective school girl, the whole teacher's pet, intelligent thing does sort of make the whole choosing the wrong hero thing matter alot less.
i sort of relate to livy and sympathise with him a little bit, because, like livy, i too tend to express my ideas in long, rambling sentences and often get marks deducted in exams for this, especially when i am trying to describe how livy uses pathos in hannibal's speeches. (i don't think livy would get marks deducted for using his "rambling" technique, but funnily enough, my technique which prefectly emulates his gets me the lower marks.)
cicero was a pretty funny guy and quite kind in letting caesar use his bath and all, but also proved to be quite a bitch with the whole playing a big part in caesar's assassination thing.
lucretius seems like an indie kind of guy, with the whole loving nature, unhygeinic, dendy, arts degree thing going on. indie's getting pretty big these days.
and catullus was the biggest girl ever! no wonder she was called lesbia!
about to make my hundred votes...

Anonymous said...

Sir!

Do we have to know Cicero's last two pieces of writing?

Anonymous said...

I grew up in a world of excitable physics teachers... my advice is to nod thoughtfully, move away slowly, and never talk about 70s rock music.

On a more relevant note, Virgil (and, incidently, Aeneas) contribute to my list of dead lovers, so there's my vote.

Anonymous said...

you should post something else. i like reading your posts.

Anonymous said...

ruth (aka curly), yes you do need to know the last two cicero passages for your exam.

byron smith said...

I vote for Augustine of Hippo. :-)

Anonymous said...

hmmm... I voted for Livy because I felt sorry for him.. only 7%! Poor Hannibal, but I rekon Virgil is the best! This poll has a flaw... haha I voted again twice for Virgil! He's now in the lead with 41%!!! =P

Anonymous said...

Anyone but Catullus.

That man has already ruined any of the pop-culture I loved.

*sniffles* my poor bands...

Anonymous said...

i think i like catullus. if he looked like that, it would mean his taste in music was awesome.

cool blog, and the number of non-latin students browsing it amuses me.