Author: Michael W Jackson

Good Reads meta-data is 368 pages rated 4.28 by 72 litizens.

Genre: Biography.

DNA: Academic.

Verdict: The anti-platonic Plato.

Tagline: He kept all of receipts.

Focus is in the title, that is, Plato’s on-again, off-again relationship with the tyrant father and son, Dionysius the Elder and the Younger of Syracuse on Sicily.  Before going on please note, that in Greek the word ‘tyrant’ meant a ruler who was not hereditary. Because Herodotus’ account of the Persian Wars looked east (as did Alexander the Great later in retaliation), and much of Thucydides’ account of the Peloponnesian War concentrated on the Greek peninsula and the east, with the exception of the catastrophe at this very same Syracuse in earlier times when it was a democracy. In contrast, the extensive Greek settlements in the western Mediterranean are not as well documented and known.  But Greek colonies populated southern Italy, Sicily, Marseilles in France, as far as Cadiz in Spain.  

The greatest single power among the Western Greeks was Syracuse. It had wealth from silver and gold, and large population compared to many other cities. Its double harbour gave it an advantage in sea trade.  And it had, by the time the Dionysius two ruled, a formidable military reputation after having defeated that Athenian invasion in the Peloponnesian War.  

Plato went to Syracuse – a long and expensive voyage with some risks from weather and pirates – three times over two decades.  He did so, when the smoke and mirrors of scholarship have been exhausted, to encourage the ruler(s) of Syracuse to exercise moderation.  He hoped to convert a ruler to think of the whole in the long term against the highest and most abstract standard.  The Dionysii were infamous for their cruelty, debauchery, hedonism, and worse, but Plato decided he could but try, despite the apparent odds.  The Elder was cruel and rapacious but liked to have trophy wives, slaves, and intellectuals in his entourage. The Younger was vain, selfish, and debauched by food, drink, and sex. Not promising ground then, but Plato had a student of old at court, one Dion who was wealthy and an in-law of the Dionysii to pave the way for him.  So Plato tried and tried again, and again.  To no avail.  

These efforts have long fascinated Platonists and much has been written about them over the centuries. The author’s mastery of this multi-lingual literature is impressive. Very. Intriguing also to learn Twenty-First century efforts to apply MRI technology to reading carbonised scrolls destroyed/preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.  

Instead of admiring Plato for dirtying his hands, even risking his life, and trying to redeem the tyrants (and thereby lighten their yoke on the people of Syracuse), he is indicted for interfering by hindsight moralists. But he did little more than advise moderation. Does make him liable for what followed. It seems so since he is routinely arraigned as an accessory.   

I first read of this story in Mary Renaut’s novelThe Mask of Apollo (1954) when I was an graduate student. It was recommended to me by someone whose identity has by now escaped me. Perhaps I will re-read that.  We will see. 

Awhile ago I read and commented on a book the front cover of which declared it to be a biography of Plato.  It was a very well done account of the history of his time and place, but not a biography of the man.  Ergo, I was still in the market for a biography and when Howard Whitton sent me a review of this book, I had a look, and it promised some more biography.  This is another excellent study that tries to bring out the biographical echoes in Plato’s essays, particularly Republic.

A few months ago I read and commented on a Straussian study of Plato’s thirteen letters (Ariel Helfer, Plato’s Letters [2023]) that….  That entry is elsewhere on this blog for clickers. Well, Straussians make a lot out of little or nothing.  If aboriginal stargazers concentrated on the black areas of the sky rather than the stars, Straussians concentrate on what it absent; silence; what is not said.  Of course, there is a lot of nothing, right Jean-Paul? And you can make it mean whatever you want want.  

Long ago I read Ludwig Marcuse, Plato and Dionysius: a Double Biography (1947) and learned nothing about either of them from it.  

Good Reads meta-data is 146 pages, rated 3.11 by 193 litizens

Genre: Sy Fy.

Verdict: Kept me guessing.

Tagline: ‘Gulp!’

The briefings for the 1942 Operation Torch included everything but an encounter with an alien or a trip in its craft (forward a billion years or so in time).  Two Allied agents on a secret mission behind enemy lines in Tunisia meet two Germans on a similar quest but before they can kill each other and be done with it by page 10, there is that presence against which they, hesitantly combine forces.

It is the usual suspects in this motley crew, a Scots scientist, an upper-lip-stiffed Brit, a crazed Nasty, and a mercenary woman.  When they emerge from the craft they find a strange old world, and the strangeness is very well portrayed, as is the porcelain living doll they find there.  

Adventures follow. What they needed was Captain Future and the three Future Men (tricky though because none of the latter trio is a man).

Turns out ’47’ was the right answer. ‘729’ was a close second.

Both the aberrant strangeness of the alien and the old world are the best parts of the book.  I found it intriguing and diverting for a few hours. Though there were two women – one wily and one porcelain – in the story, both are ciphers, and disappear in the last two acts.  

The date 1 January refers to the publication of the first episode in a serial form of the novel only a few months after Operation Torch. 

Genre: Sy Fy: Species: Epic poem; subspecies: Blank verse. 

Good Reads meta-data is 157 pages, rated 3.85 by 3001 litizens. 

DNA: Sweden.

Verdict: 47.  

Tagline: Helvetet är andra människor.  (Hell is other people.)

This epic poem is the basis of an opera, and four films. Whew!  When the author was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1974 this volume was named as the second most important book published in Swedish. Double whew! The only Nobel Prize for SyFy, apart from those in economics.

What’s the story then?

Aniara, a routine shuttle carrying 8,000 people, lifts off for Mars from a despoiled Earth.  (‘I told you so,’ said Greta, again.) It is a three-week flight aboard this Volvo ferry with its casino, IKEA shopping maze, theatres, and other mod cons with 2000 rooms, each with an en suite bathroom(?).  Millions have taken this ride before.  But hardly has this one left Earth orbit for the jaunt when the unimaginative writer’s friend, a meteor shower, strikes.  The contractor who built Aniara did not anticipate such an occurrence and the ship is damaged. Like the mighty KM Bismarck, the Aniara’s rudder is mangled and the craft cannot be steered.  Instead it is thrown well off course toward the light-centuries distant Lyra constellation.

Pippi Longstocking, Max von Sydow’s knight, Inspector Beck, Björn Börg, Olof Palmé, Greta (not you know whom) Garbo, and other Swedish stereotypes are on board. The crew attempts repairs without success; nor is there is any emergency road service from Volvo for Aniara.  These 8000 are now condemned to live out their lives, as are their descendants, within this metallic shell on the way to Lyra where they will never arrive (because the ship itself will wither en route into a Marie Celeste hulk).  What meaning is there in this existential crisis?  See above.

(Was this the basis for StarLost in 1973.  Hope not. But it is a trope in a lot of SyFy before and after 1956 – the ark as coffin.)

In addition to all the other short term diversions the ferry has Mima with its minder.  What is Mima?  Mima is an AI as conceived in 1956. It is referred to in the same casual I might refer to my iMac, and so I can only guess what it is.  Mima is there to inform, entertain, educate, and pacify passengers during the short trip to Mars. It has a repository of tapes, both video and audio, but it also receives and intercepts transmissions from the ether, including from Earth. Intended to function mostly as a diversion for three weeks at a time, when left on continuously for the years of this journey it becomes increasingly self-conscious, and it is aware of the situation. It is sentient enough to realise the hopeless situation even as it itself wears out, those flash drives and circuit boards are not immortal, and Mima is sentient enough to feel dread of the darkness to come.  The minder became the central character in the two film versions I have seen.  

So for the first few months or even years Mima keeps up a happy face, but like Grock the clown Mima grows melancholy as it ages and becomes decrepit. The CDs wear out from repeated spins.  It receives incomprehensible transmissions, perhaps from alien beings. It loses contact with dying Earth long before all that.  

(Note to self: turn off Dexter, iMac, before it becomes sentient.)

Mima mirrors the hopes of the passengers and as this robot loses hope, so do they, or vice versa.  On board the population re-enacts much of the stupidity of life on Earth. There is wasteful use of resources that seem to be infinite on the Aniara.  Salvation cults come and go. Orange demigods strut and fret. First there is unlimited orgy followed by celibacy. Human sacrifice was a short-lived fad. (Get it?) Through it all the Aniara drifts on.  

***

It is partly a take on a common Cold War setting of mixed group of survivors of a nuclear war, having to deal with each other. e.g., Five (1951), Day the World Ended (1955), On the Beach (1959), This is not a Test (1962), The Earth Dies Screaming (1964), and many more.  This trope has since been done to death and well past that in the Post-Apocalyptic genre that has exploded in recent times.  But in this case not one of the passengers is a distinctive personalities. 

Good Reads meta-data is 274 pages, rated 3.90 by 7130 litizens.

Genre: Krimi.

DNA: Italy

Verdict: Nolo contendere.

Tagline:  Proving what might not have happened. (Yeah, not punchy.) 

When a young boy is found dead near a beach resort one of the usual suspects is arrested and fitted to the crime. Being a Senegalese peddler, the racial stereotypes in the court of public opinion have him convicted before the handcuffs go on.

Hero reluctantly gets involuntarily involved and slowly picks apart the circumstantial case against Peddler.  There is much insider detail about the judiciary, the judicial system, and policing in Bari, way down south.  The telling is smooth and packed with asides into the humanity of all involved, though mostly that of the lawyer, though not of the police officers who do have a cardboard quality.  

The main events are in the court room where Hero casts doubt on the certainties of the prosecution. The means by which that is done is fascinating, a seminar in defence by obfuscation.  There is a very great deal of talk. One defence summation is timed at more than two-hours.  Could the judges, let alone a jury, cope with that much exposition?  (Many social-psychology experiments conclude that a person’s attention span is no more than 20 minutes at a time.) They must have been made of stern stuff and elastic bladders because I am sure students could not withstand a 2 1/2 passive lecture. 

Along the way we learn much about the lawyer, his life, his loves, his habits, his car…[TMI].  On the other hand we learn only a little about the Senegalese peddler, apart from the facts that he is a legal immigrant, multi-lingual, and – spoiler – maybe innocent of the alleged crime.  That is another thing we do not learn, who committed the crime, how, and why. This story does not follow that Perry Mason trope, that the best way to prove a client innocent is to find the guilty party.  

I said ‘maybe’ above because I was not quite sure what I was supposed to think. Nor was I sure whether the police officers’ superficial effort was (1) to calm public opinion with a quick arrest or (2) if they really believed he was guilty, but (3) were too lazy to make a proper investigation, (4) because his being black was sufficient for conviction.  Whoops there I go again tying myself into knots over nothing. 

Also under the heading of unknown is what lawyer had to say to his ex-wife that was so important.  OK, may I blinked.  

This is the first in a series by the author, a retired judge who managed a number of mafia trials, and lived to write these tales unlike some others.  Both are major achievements.