Working and thinking

So here I am with my trusty folding bicycle about to enjoy a cheese and pickle roll on an almost empty London to Brighton train after the rush hour passengers unpacked themselves and headed into the capital. I was up at 5.30, set the alarm for Lin at 8.30. My main bicycle had a puncture, so I changed lights to the other, and cycled into Birmingham New Street in the growing light to catch a busy express to London. From Euston on a bright morning amid the bustle I pedalled to Victoria via Trafalgar Square, Whitehall and Victoria Street. What a delightful way this is to get about. With 20 minutes before my train I sent off some e-mails via the WiFi that covers most of central Westminster. Among other things I sent one to Lin asking if she could find me a reasonably priced copy of the natural history book F & D had recommended when we visited them two Tuesdays ago, while it was still light, threading our way down to their home over a bridge off a narrow alley at the foot of Ano Korakiana – a walk of minutes that would have been a mile by the road. Cold, sinking that evening to -6°C, had shrivelled greenery in our garden. The air was too dry for rime or ice to hazard the steep path between the houses. F & D brought us in to their sitting room, with blazing fire, carpets, a warm puppy, tea, coffee, glayva – a whisky liqueur - and conversation. We discussed Corfu wildlife and I was given a reference to and shown their copy of Thanasis Petsis’ and Penelope Gourgourini’s Greek Nature: The authentic field guide 2004, Lynx Edition, Athens ISBN 960-87746-1-6 e-mail: lynx@hol.gr “Borrow it! Borrow it” said F but knowing my unreliability on the matter of returning books I really want, especially a reference book that looked as interesting and practical as this – you can slip it in a pocket when walking – I refused. (Another guide to Corfu Wildlife can be downloaded as a PDF file)
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An exchange with one of my favourite bloggers - My Greek Odyssey (MGO) - Stavros had been pondering his reasons for writing on the net:

Anyone stumbling across MGO and reading its contents might think I am a hopeless romantic, out of touch and disconnected with Greece and Greeks as they exist today. Perhaps so. Not so long ago a blogger named Thomas lamented my naivete: 'A lot of Greeks here in Greece would disagree with you. They would say your view is quaint and old-fashioned. Some would say the Greece you talk about is dying fast, and others would say it's been dead for a long time.' From its inception MGO has been one man's view of Greekness. It is a celebration of the Greek spirit and the things that have shaped and molded that spirit. If my version of Greekness and its cultural legacy is idealized it is because I prefer to highlight what I see as worth keeping and passing on to my children. If my view is nostalgic, it is for an ethos that was preserved by those that came before me. If I sound naive about the ever shrinking piece of Greece that exists in our collective memory, it is because I am trying to keep it from shrinking even further.

I commented:

I wonder if we are all experiencing what Edward Said described:
http://www.reconstruction.gr/en/actions_dtls.php/25
I don't like the word 'Glocalisation' but I think its rather baleful effects are being widely experienced, which makes your blog and other odyssey's especially treasured. On the feeling of disappointment no-one knows better than you that if you arrive at the real Ithaka you will have done all your discovering - so voyage slowly. Simon Posted by: Simon Baddeley | 25 February 2008

Stavros replied to me and another of the many comments on his blog:

S. Fascinating link. I've read it twice and must admit that it seems to me that its theme is played out regularly on this blog. As for your sage advice, I will try to tarry awhile enroute and smell the roses on the way. BTW, your new home is coming along beautifully.

Kosta, Where have been? You've been missed. Blogs, whether you are looking in or out, are addictive. An offshoot of this 'globalization' Simon refers to. I sit at my desk in Maine and get to talk to really interesting people thousands of miles away. People who I find are looking for that elusive Ithaka just like me. Why shouldn't we learn from each other on the way? Posted by: Stavros | 25 February 2008

The link I mentioned in my comment leads to a piece on Glocalization - Homelessness: a new geographical boundary by Katerina Nasioka who sounds like a most interesting mind among a number on a site called 'reconstruction community' concerned with artististic and architectural projects for the remaking of cities. It seems based in Greece but its relevance extends. I shall make a link, I think there are also cross-references with Artemis Leontis' Topographies of Hellenism: Mapping the Homeland - based at my old university in Ann Arbor. On the same website my eye was caught by a piece called tunnel 14: the art of courage by Mélinna Kaminari which quotes Theodore Zeldin - a pioneer of 'new methods to improve personal, work and intercultural relationships in ways that satisfy both private and public values.':

It is in the power of everybody, with a little courage, to hold out a hand to someone different, to listen, and to attempt to increase, even by a tiny amount, the quantity of kindness and humanity in the world. But it is careless to do so without remembering how previous efforts have failed, and how it has never been possible to predict for certain how a human being will behave. History, with its endless procession of passers-by, most of whose encounters have been missed opportunities, has so far been largely a chronicle of ability gone to waste. But next time two people meet, the result could be different.

The banality of good - Η κοινοτοπια του καλου?

The picture of Barbati on the slopes of Pantokrator, taken by Lin from Corfu Fishing Port last November, has nothing to do with the discussion below. I just wanted a pin-up of the sea.

Από: Simon Baddeley
Προς: Nikos Dimou 20 Ιουλίου 2007 11:36 μμ
Θέμα: Re: Another bloody Philhellene*

I describe my blog as “waging peace” and I was thinking of adding the phrase “the banality of good” - both being about playing on the phrases “waging war” and “the banality of evil”. To complicate things I was hoping to have a Greek translation of these phrases that captured their meaning – but which was a good interpretation and not just a good translation. I am getting so much pleasure reading your articles. How I wish I could read them again in Greek to understand the extra nuance of the original. In fact so parental is Greek (and Latin) to English that much comes through but not all. Herete. Simon

From: Nikos Dimou (his third letter)
Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2007 08:49:39 +0300
To: Simon Baddeley
Subject: Re: Another bloody Philhellene

Well then it is: "i koinotopia tou kalou" - which is a bit Oscar Wildean ...

N. Nikos Dimou Athens
Greece www.ndimou.gr
doncat.blogspot.com
nikosdimou.blogspot.com

My tutors have been letting me know this isn't straightforward. From the office via my sister:

Dear Verena,
Thinking about the Greek version of “the banality of good” I must say that I cannot come up with a standard Greek phrase corresponding to it, not one that I know of anyway. I can attempt to “propose” something equivalent but in that case it would help me a lot to know the context in which the phrase will be used. There are words that could be suitable to create the Greek phrase. The choice depends on context.

Η πεζοτης του Συναιτου

Η κοινοτοπια του Σωστου

Το τετριμμενον του Αγαθου

Η απλοτης του Ορθου

Η απλοτης του Καλου

There could also be other good ways, involving more than two words, in which to express the concept satisfactorily, but knowledge of the context is necessary, Dimitris

And from Corfu

Από: Simon
Προς: Alex

Dear Alex
I need a philosopher. Is there a translation that captures the opposite of Hannah Arendt’s ‘banality of evil’?
Best wishes, Simon

Από: A 26 Ιουλίου 2007
Προς: Simon

Hello Simon. Finally, after a long and adventurous journey I am in Corfu, where I was greeted by an abnormal high temperature weather and scorching fires. I thought of what you sent me before and I asked a couple of friendly opinions here in Corfu, only to agree that we disagree with “kainotopia tou kalou” because it sounds bit like a prototype, an archetype or revolutionary. I think in the context of the firefighters it sounds better something like “aperantosini tou kalou” “to afilodokso kalo” “geneodoria tou kalou” mostly fit, meaning aperantosini – limitless, afilodokso – without the need for recognition, geneodoria – selfless giving.
In the concept of “waging war” or the idea of, if you use something like “evilness good” it would be an oxymoron. The solution might be the substitution of good with “areti” which is noble charisma and then can use it like “to proterima tis aretis” which is the advantage of having noble trait. I hope it helped a bit.
BTW, the Kapodistrias plan was not enforced properly across the country, therefore became a local and regional nightmare!
I also read the comments you wrote on the amazon website and I don’t think you went too far. I ordered the book because I want to see some of the actual writing and research. Hope you are flood-safe! Hopefully see you in Greece!
Cheers, Alex

[Note: Artemis Leontis in her brilliant book Topographies of Hellenism: Mapping the Homeland, Ithaca and London: Cornell UP 1995, which seeks - 'humbly' - to bridge 'the wide chasm between the dead and the living' (p.13) quotes Cedric H.Whitman on the difference between a classicist and a philhellene being 'chiefly this: . . . a philhellene likes the living Greeks, and a classicist likes the dead ones' The Vitality of the Greek Language and Its Importance Today, New York: The Greek Archdiocese Publication Dept. 1954]

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21st century weather in UK from the Independent - 24 July:

Amidst all the news of communities being overwhelmed by water yesterday, one very significant announcement, from Gordon Brown and the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hilary Benn, was that the Government is setting up an independent inquiry to look at the flood events ... Its report ... may prove a milestone in terms of the British public's appreciation of the reality of climate change. It will doubtless focus on the key problem in terms of flood response ... but it may also take a view of the disaster in terms of global warming, and may well come to the conclusion that we are already witnessing the future. ... In April 1989 Margaret Thatcher ... gave her Cabinet a seminar on global warming at No 10 and one of the speakers was the scientist ... James Lovelock. A reporter asked him ... what would be the first signs of global warming. "Surprises." Asked to explain, he said: "The hurricane of October 1987 was a surprise, wasn't it? There'll be more." The floods of 2007 were a surprise as well ...