I have never asked any favors of my fellow members on Flare. Aside from help with computer software. And antivirus aid. And screencaps from Star Trek eps. Um..
ANYWAY, now I really need help. It's a trifle of a literary question, but time and again you Flareites have proven your worth in Worthless Knowledge�, and since I'm working right now on my paper on "A Farewell To Arms", to be turned in and orally presented in, oh, 8 hours, I submit to you, this:
From where comes the famous axiom "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may die"? Shakespeare? The Bible? Reich-Chancellor Gorkon?
I would be most appreciative for your most urgent response, I seem to've depleted my net-searching skills, as it were.
Please?
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
It's a memento mori from the bible (Isaiah 22:13:something), though that particular sentiment (which is basically "you're mortal, have a nice day") was expressed even earlier in Horace' Odes, I think.
You owe me a turnip.
Posted by Nim the Fanciful (Member # 205) on :
You'll get turnips in due time, are you certain the modern version is from Isaiah 22:13:something? I really need to back up this quote.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
Well, I don't know if the modern version matches verbatim, but I'm reasonably sure it's in there.
Posted by Nim the Fanciful (Member # 205) on :
Ah, found it in my bible. The "merry" part is not there, but I guess it will suffice as source material. Thank you, Cartman.
If anyone has any more observations, I'll happily accept it too. Come on, you know-it-alls! Usurpers and intellectuals! Muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists!
Posted by Masao (Member # 232) on :
Luke 12:19: "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry."
Ecclesiates 8:15: "A man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry."
What we have here is a mixing of a few proverbs.
PS: I am a lapsed/former Presbytarian. I found this info in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Yes! A book!
Posted by Nim the Fanciful (Member # 205) on :
The devil you say! :.)
It just so happens, the passage from Isaiah 22:13 is ironically similar to Frederic Henry's fate in "A Farewell To Arms".
If I've interpreted the scripture correctly (feel free to correct me), the people of Jerusalem were under attack from an external enemy, God wants the people to dress in canvas, shave their heads and lament, in hope of redemption. But the people slaughter oxen and pour wine. They laugh destiny in the face, saying "Eat and drink, tomorrow we die!", whereupon God replies "This your debt shall never be paid for as long as you live, says the Lord Seabot.
Henry and pregnant Catherine in the book defies fate and flee away from WWI in Italy, to settle in Switzerland, and for a while it is good. But the baby dies and Catherine bleeds to death, leaving Henry utterly broken. The book ends just ten sentences after her death. The message? You can't escape death, but you must spend every living moment chasing your dreams, for even though you will never attain them, your life will at least have had meaning. That's at least how I saw it.
Like the people of Jerusalem, sticking it to fate and having a ball, before being slaughtered like animals.
What do you think?
Posted by Nim the Fanciful (Member # 205) on :
Ok, it's 4:53AM here, I gotta leave in two and a half hours, just tell me this, those of you who know the bible. Do you think I got the interpretation right? Of the peoples' motivation behind the words "eat and drink..."?
Posted by Nim the Fanciful (Member # 205) on :
Oh well, time to go. Wish me luck. See you on the other side, Flare.
God's saying that, instead of realizing they've screwed up and asking for help, they'll just give up. Or so I see it.
Posted by Nim the Fanciful (Member # 205) on :
Yeah, no room for quitters.
Well, I'm back. What a surprise. I went overkill, imagine that. The presentation was supposed to be all-oral, so no turning-in paper necessary. I'm so glad I shortened it down from the original manuscript.
The quote fit perfectly in the end, in any case. Matched the Hemingway-mentality, I think. Life sucks, then you die. "Drink the nectar from the leaf of the vine you're hanging from, growing in the side of the well you've fallen into, with a dragon at the bottom and wild dogs on the verge, the ones you were running from when falling in." Who said that btw? Descartes? Spinoza? Fabio?
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
Two healthy cubs AND a vixen! Oh Nim, you shouldn't have. B)
Posted by Toadkiller (Member # 425) on :
Wow - try to give us 24 hours next time, OK? We didn't even have time to spin off into 5 pages of off-topic banter.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
Spin this off, muthafucka. B)
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Wow. I would only have thought that possible in the US.
Posted by Nim the Fanciful (Member # 205) on :
Toadkiller: Yeah no kidding, this was a real emergency, I had no idea I was going to need the quote until I thought of adding it as an end to my disposition, and it was spot on.
And I take it back, this wasn't Worthless Knowledge at all, this was good. Thanks for the help, all of you.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Those things are poisonous, you know.
Posted by Ultra Magnus (Member # 239) on :
The dude holding that thing, is like, the fattest dude.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
quote:Originally posted by Cartman: Spin this off, muthafucka. B)
Those two will SO be going at it like dogs now!
This Simpson's quote springs to mind: "To make it up to you we will go out to dinner at a sensibly priced restaraunt then have a night of efficient German sex."
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Poisonous yes; fatal hardly. (sorry just jumped into that Itchy and Scratchy land episode).
Yeah they are the only mammals to produce a poison.
And no, Andrew has never seen one in the wild
I have seen echidnas in the wild, though - the only other monotreme.
Posted by Nim the Fanciful (Member # 205) on :
Seen these too? They plant them in Australia now, to stage cool prize fights with Koalas. Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
Giant pandas in Down Under? The "fuck"?
Posted by Nim the Fanciful (Member # 205) on :
WELL WHY NOT. THEY'RE CUTE.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
This would have worked better if I'd posted it earlier, but...
The best advice I could give you is to spell "literature" correctly.
Posted by Nim the Fanciful (Member # 205) on :
You're right, it would've worked better earlier. *dortcz*
See we spell it "litteratur" in swedish, and it was 5 o'clock in the morning for me, I was going on caffeine, the gravel in my gut and the spit in my eye.
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