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View Poll Results: Should we translate and upload ancient obscenity in otherwise interesting texts?
Yes 57 98.28%
No 1 1.72%
Yes, but soften it a bit, leave the worst in Latin, or otherwise slow it down 0 0%
Other 0 0%
Voters: 58. You may not vote on this poll

 
 
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Old 04-17-2008, 01:58 PM   #11
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This, of course, is what I thought might influence voting. Perhaps I should have a separate poll on that?
enough with the chit-chat, where can I get some of this ancient porno:devil1:
Vel vide Priapum vel lege Martialem.
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Old 04-17-2008, 03:14 PM   #12
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Publish and be damned.
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Old 04-17-2008, 05:23 PM   #13
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I'm not so sure about that, Roger.

To us here on the western end of the pond (well, at least to me), the ANF editors refusing to render the Latin into English just seemed to smack of prudishness, if not elitism. There was a certain stuffy-ness about the series. All that ranting and raving about "that certain Pettau" (presumably Pettavius) and the way Catholic scholars didn't truly understand the Fathers because they just didn't "get" reformation theology ... Keeping such matters in Latin will keep it out of vulgar hands.

What is ironic about that was the scholarship demonstrated in the ANF series was rather uncritical. What was being published in Germany made the scholarship of the Edinburgh editors, as well as the later editors, pale in comparison. But that was the wrong kind of protetestant scholarship, I suppose.

DCH

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The Latin option is basically what the ANF series did for book 3 of the Miscellanies, right?
That's correct. The idea is not to suppress it, but to ensure that those specialists who need to consult it can do so.

Of course the other motivation, in Victorian times, was to avoid your book being turned into an under-the-counter item!

All the best,

Roger Pearse
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Old 04-17-2008, 06:02 PM   #14
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I checked out an old (1950's?) book translated from Suetonius that had parts edited out because of the graphic nature. Acts pertaining to Nero and Caligula. I could NOT believe it! How is that history?! I was deeply offended!
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Old 04-17-2008, 07:36 PM   #15
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Rum, sodomy and the lash

Oppss, thought this thread was about the British navy
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Old 04-17-2008, 07:43 PM   #16
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Rum, sodomy and the lash

Oppss, thought this thread was about the British navy


:rolling:
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Old 04-17-2008, 08:01 PM   #17
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Of course the other motivation, in Victorian times, was to avoid your book being turned into an under-the-counter item!
Considering what can be bought over the counter these days...

My dad had a copy of The Pearl (or via: amazon.co.uk) when I as a kid that I wasn't supposed to know about. There was some good Victorian era smut around...

Seriously though, I think the sorts of people who are likely to peruse translations of ancient texts probably wouldn't be shocked by what they'd find.

regards,

NinJay
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Old 04-17-2008, 08:13 PM   #18
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Rum, sodomy and the lash

Oppss, thought this thread was about the British navy
It's wine, women and song in port, and rum, bum and bacca at sea.

Eldarion Lathria
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Old 04-17-2008, 08:21 PM   #19
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Imagine an ancient text stuffed full of gloating descriptions of the most obscene vices. But imagine also that most of the text is of real interest for antiquity. Should we translate and upload these passages? yes or no?

I'm slightly nervous that people will respond depending on whether they like obscenity or not. So imagine it describes graphically child-rape or something.
Got my attention. If you could leak a copy to the religious right, they will promote it for you.
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Old 04-18-2008, 12:07 AM   #20
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Originally Posted by DCHindley View Post
To us here on the western end of the pond (well, at least to me), the ANF editors refusing to render the Latin into English just seemed to smack of prudishness...

There was a certain stuffy-ness about the series. All that ranting and raving about "that certain Pettau" (presumably Pettavius) and the way Catholic scholars didn't truly understand the Fathers because they just didn't "get" reformation theology ...
There is some interesting background on this, which I came across by accident. As issued, in the Ante-Nicene Christian Library, those volumes had very few notes, and were designed to appeal to a very wide audience. All those notes of 'elucidation'were composed by an American, A. Cleveland Coxe, second episcopalian bishop of New York, some twenty years later. He pirated the ANCL, rearranged the volumes (admittedly in a more logical manner), and composed the attacks on Roman Catholicism which festoon the series. I have read a pretty trenchant article in the Catholic Dublin Review at the time, commenting on his actions.

All the best,

Roger Pearse
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