posted
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?
-------------------- "I'm nigh-invulnerable when I'm blasting!" Mel Gibson, X-Men
Registered: Aug 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
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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.
-------------------- ".mirrorS arE morE fuN thaN televisioN" - TEH PNIK FLAMIGNO
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
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.
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
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Well, I don't know if the modern version matches verbatim, but I'm reasonably sure it's in there.
-------------------- ".mirrorS arE morE fuN thaN televisioN" - TEH PNIK FLAMIGNO
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
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!
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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?
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
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..."?
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
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.
Registered: Mar 1999
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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?
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
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Two healthy cubs AND a vixen! Oh Nim, you shouldn't have. B)
Registered: Nov 1999
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