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 ...

Inventing Paradise

In the post this morning - the spells and potions of mid-20th century Philhellenes. I'll come to Byron later. This is an opportunity to become more familiar with the wonderfully crafted constructions that underlie the creation of Greece as an object of foreign admiration, passion, yearning and joy - not lust or possessiveness like some others - though some Greeks, one talented and very modern Greek polymath - Nikos Dimou - has written of this as a 'misery'. He's qualified that observation since. From the back cover of Professor Keeley's book:

In the looming shadow of an oppressive dictatorship and imminent world war, George Seferis and George Katsimbalis, along with other poets and writers from Greece's fabled Generation of the 1930s, welcomed Henry Miller and Lawrence Durrell to their homeland. Together, as they spent evenings in Athenian tavernas, explored the Peloponnese, swam off island beaches, and considered the meaning of Greek life, freedom and art, they seemed to be inventing paradise. In a lyrical blend of personal memoir, literary criticism, and interpretative storytelling, Edmund Keeley takes readers on a journey into the poetry, friendships and politics of this extraordinary time.

On Byron, British philhellenes get a taste of their own medicine. I saw a game of cricket last September while having coffee on the Liston. The grass was too long. There were too many cars parked round the pitch and I've never enjoyed cricket, but I felt quite proud. Byron sailed to Greece for the last time in 1823 and arrived at Kefalonia on the 4th August. I sailed to Greece from Messina with a friend in July 1962. The first morning of our two day crossing we were bouncing and swaying on a swift etesian reach. A sleek Greek frigate cut smoothly through the cresting waves heading west. In return to our salute she dipped her flag to us. I get a lump even now at that gesture - seeing that lovely ensign falling and rising again in the seconds of her passing as though official Greece was saying "yasus" just to us. Next morning we made Byron's landfall. Shapes - north and south - that appeared and disappeared and might have been no more than dawn shadows - though we knew otherwise - lay before us. All day, in zephyrs, we sailed towards them, passed between, and anchored off Killini where we rowed ashore to be sat at a table (my memory is flawed by many photos of Greek chairs - see Keeley's cover as typical), offered ouzikis and curiosity, before a polite policeman - reproached by our hosts - "po, po, po" - told us we were supposed to clear customs and immigration at Patras, but "please finish your conversation."
 * * *
Nikos Dimou 17 July 2007

"What a blog! A cornucopia! I know now I need no books for my vacation ..." Which cat feels like me on reading this?

[Squeak is grooming Bubble, and in the background - village sounds from Ano Korakiana]
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Back to the future - 25 July 2010: Henry Miller's Colossus of Maroussi reissued.

Democracy - 'only another form of government'

Henry Maine, my great great grandfather, wrote in 1876:

'To one small people, covering in its original seat no more than a hands breadth of territory, it was given to create the principle of Progress, of movement onwards and not backwards or downwards, of destruction tending to construction. That people was the Greek. Except the blind forces of Nature, nothing moves in this world which is not Greek in its origin. A ferment spreading from that source has vitalised all the great progressive races of mankind, penetrating from one to another, and producing results accordant with its hidden and latent genius, and results of course often far greater than any exhibited in Greece itself.' p.238, 'The effects of observation of India on modern European thought' in Village Communities in the East and West (New York:Henry Holt 1876) That sting in the tale of his paean for 'the Greek' absolves Maine from the reproach of having added to the Greek 'misfortune' that Nikos Dimou describes so eloquently. Maine's approach is anthropological not classical. He challenged uncritical faith in democracy. In Popular Government - four essays published in 1885 - saying 'democracy is only another form of government', noting how the flattering rhetoric lavished on kings had been transferred uncritically to 'the people'. He was criticised as conservative, even reactionary, for questioning widely accepted justifications for 'popular government' - Rousseau's natural law, Benthamite utilitarianism, the idealism of John Stuart Mill. In fact he was not dismissing democracy in a Platonic way but providing astute cautions, matched by the Churchillian quip that democracy is the worst form of government - except for all the others. Democracy is not in itself more stable than other forms of government. There is no essential connection between democracy and progress. [On Greek origins see alternative views e.g. Hindu]

Maine's lecture, The Rede Lecture for 1875, delivered before the University of Cambridge, was titled 'The Effects of observation of India on Modern European Thought'. It was aimed at impressing upon a British audience the undiscovered richness of India's contribution to world thought, through drama, comparative philo­logy and mythology and the possibility that 'it may yet give us a new science not less valuable than the sciences of language and of folk-lore.

I hesitate to call it Com­parative Jurisprudence because if it ever exists, its area will be so much wider than the field of law. F­or India not only contains (or to speak more accurately, did contain) an Aryan language older than any other descendant of the common mother-tongue, and a variety of names of natural objects less per­fectly crystallised than elsewhere into fabulous per­sonages, but it includes a whole world of Aryan institutions, Aryan customs, Aryan laws, Aryan ideas, Aryan beliefs, in a far earlier stage of growth and development than any which survive beyond its borders. (pp.210-211)

My impression is that Maine was seeking to draw his potentially sceptical audience into a recognition that here in a sort of Hindu wilderness - though he does not say that - is a treasure house of information on the roots of Western civilisation. Whereas no-one would have doubted the connection of British or European culture to those of Greece and Rome, the thought of such connection with our India was novel. So when later in the lecture Maine makes his, often quoted, reference to all things Greek in origin, I surmise an intention that was less about praising Greece (the way his quote is used) and more about using an intellectual and emotional connection, familiar to all his listeners, about us serving India's progress as Greece had served ours.

It is this principle of progress which we Englishmen are communicating to India. We did not create it. We deserve no special credit for it. It came to us filtered through many different media. But we have received it; and as we have received it, so we pass it on. There is no reason why, if it has time to work, it should not develope* in India effects as wonderful as in any other of the societies of mankind.

Maine's finale is less a fanfare for Greece, more an astutely placed douceur, to attract the attention and curiosity of his classically educated audience to India's intellectual archeology, drawing upon his posting in India as Darwin drew upon his voyage to the Galapagos. [*'develope', tho' now archaic, is not a misspelling] * * * Lin wrote to Corfu:

Hi George, Glad to hear that the money arrived safely. It was quicker than I thought it might be. Thanks for the update on work and the photos. The roof pictures look good, but I'm not sure about the bit in the bottom right corner of the 'slope looking at Lefteris' garden'. Is this before it was quite finished? The 'lower terrace' looks great. Not sure what you mean about covering the drain with plaka, though. Do you mean permanently or temporarily? I thought we were going with the idea of a reed bed in the drain? That's what we'd prefer if possible. It's great to see that wall out. Can't wait to see it with the door gone as well! I hope the top of the arch is going to be curved, as discussed with Martin before we left - look at arches on buildings near the house for reference - I looked at them with Martin and we talked about how much curve would be possible...I've attached photos of the arch in our kitchen here which might be helpful. It's much wider and therefore quite flat - I'd think there should be a bit more curve on the new arch. (Don't look at the mess! I haven't caught up with housework since our return and I'm in the middle of a major clearout at the moment, so there's lots of junk around, waiting to be moved to various places.) I looked on the internet and found information about sealing wood floors. I think we'll go with the polyurethane! We want a satin or matt finish - not shiny gloss. I'm pretty sure Squeak is a girl, so she probably is pregnant. it's a shame, 'cause she's only a kitten herself. More biscuits and sandwiches will be required! Good luck with the stairwell-widening next week. Looking forward to seeing more photos. All the best, Lin and Simon

The authors of the essays in the book Mazower edited are conscientious in their methodologies. They explain how they have striven to make the subjective objective, aware of the challenge - even now - of making space for debate about so fragmented a time. The writers tread carefully recording impressions that have become currency, observing the reconstruction of the family, nation and state but also aiding that process in their thinking and writing. They exemplify an alert approach to gentler ideas of truth built on teasing out many subjectivities, privileging none over others, describing their own part in their conclusions. These authors are not detached from their findings, yet nor are they opinionated. Each describes and argues for the truths they've uncovered. Sweet unsleeping reason.

[back to the future - from a Greek friend via Flickr on 17 Aug: Except the blind forces of nature, Εκτός από τισ τυφλέσ δυνάμεισ τησ φύσησ, nothing moves on this world τίποτα δε κινείται σε αυτον τον κόσμο which is not Greek in its origin το οποιο δεν είναι Ελληνικά στην καταγωγη The phrase "in its origin" is freely translated "apo ta genofaskia tou - από τα γενοφάσκια του" - that is commonly used in the villages in folk language and in slug Greek. It is a "warmer" expression. Genofaskia means early age or ancestors or family origin.]