Written in Water 18: Alypius's Fandom

(This isn't the intended update, but I kind of need my bookshelf for that one and I'm holiday, so Julian the Apostate is going to have to wait for a week or two.)

If you'd ever studied any kind of classical subject, you've probably come across part of this passage at some point. It's really popular (for instance it's on the GCSE Latin syllabus, in the Sources for Latin paper – it even made the exam last year).

For a friend on his wedding day

(Originally delivered on Saturday 6th August 2016, at the Walled Garden, Moreton, Dorset.)

Lucretius, De Rerum Natura I

Everything falls as it always will;
Nothing is lost, nothing goes to waste.
Lives come to an end, one by one, until
Everything falls as it always will;
Annihilation comes, yet matter persists still
And so death is the least of the perils you have faced.
Everything falls as it always will;
Nothing is lost, nothing goes to waste.

The Truth About Sappho: The Con Club

– We’re in hiding, says the girl.

Saint Peter Explains

(Note: I wrote this in about 2000, originally. Any resemblance between it and old friends is entirely coincidental. No Future Friday post today. Normal service will be resumed next week.)

The Truth About Sappho: First Examples

Ana is late. Everyone else has already started eating by the time she turns up, unapologetic. Ryan gets up, bustles around getting her a glass of wine, a plate of food. She nods to the others and tucks in without saying thanks. This is just her way.

Written in Water 17: Lector Intende, Laetaberis.

By Jean de Bosschère, from an early 20th century edition of The Golden Ass.

This is the first page of one of the most contradictory and bizarre novels ever written. It seems a rambling sort of preamble; in fact, it's heavy with occult significance.