Re: [ga] Olympic Hymn [arete]

["Richard Henderson" <richardhenderson@ntlworld.com>]

Well done Sotiris!

You hold your ground with a noble and justified indignation.

Please don't misunderstand me. I don't deny your rights in the matter. I was
just observing wryly that once text is let loose on the net, there is little
way we can control all the hidden corners and disparate outlets. And I'm
frankly glad we can't. It is an illusion to think that control can be
exerted effectively from the centre. As the namespace expands (and
multiplies) and as roots get copied and new roots evolve, we are dealing
with a multiplicity of multiplicities. Like Borges labyrinth of labyrinths,
(with its diverse futures, diverse times, which themselves also proliferate
and fork) the internet and other internets will proliferate and roots will
evolve at more and more local levels. That's why centralist efforts to
"capture" the Net will inevitably fail. The nature of the net is network.
The nature of the net is "I am empowered to publish, and frankly either
no-one will know or a million people may know". The nature of the net is my
root and your root and our root. The nature of the net is humanity at
grassroots ignoring the controllers.

All that will happen in the end is that local/national networks who create
their own roots will bypass the people who think they control it all. They
will create their own roots, and mirror others, and before you know it there
will be a multiplicity of mirrors, and interdependent roots. It is sure to
come.

And we see the controllers, like emperors standing before the sea with
outstretched hands, saying to those on shore "We control this - go back, go
back" and shouting "You may not sail on it" to the people already far out on
the water...

...sailing away from Icann Island.

Richard H

----- Original Message -----
From: Sotiris Sotiropoulos <sotiris@hermesnetwork.com>
To: Richard Henderson <richardhenderson@ntlworld.com>; <ga@dnso.org>
Sent: Monday, January 20, 2003 1:36 AM
Subject: Re: [ga] Olympic Hymn [arete]


> At 08:51 PM 1/19/2003 +0000, Richard Henderson wrote:
> >Sotiris!
> >
> >What a tangled web we weave... and how strange to be touched by your poem
in
> >this barren ghetto with its endless attrition.
> >
> >"O saeclum insipiens et infacetum"
> >
> >You fret over your poem, and yet seem to overlook the knowledge it
imparts,
> >in itself and of itself.
>
> The value of that knowledge is exactly what I am fretting over,
> Richard.  Others get paid handsomely for far more ephemeral produce.  I am
> an Injured Party, have been for at least 11 months and change.
>
>
> >Knowledge comes imparted like that, sometimes. When I recall a particular
> >encounter, an unsolicited encounter ten years ago, what resides and
> >resonates in my memory is not the spectacular technology and unimagined
> >power of advanced minds, but simply an awareness:  awareness of
> >communication, of an untaught knowledge imparted whole. Just suddenly
there.
>
> Knowledge comes about as the result a Synthesis of preceeding
> Experience(s).  It doesn't appear out of thin air, just like my
translation.
>
>
> >Plato understood this too, in a separate way.
>
> To be honest, I prefer to hear my Socrates through Xenophon.  Plato
doesn't
> carry much weight with me.
>
>
> >Your poem captures something of the wholeness of another place. it is an
> >achievement.
>
> Others get commercial endorsements and big bucks for their achievements
> Richard, I have not.  I have to eat, Richard.  I am only human.
>
>
> >Do you seriously think you can control and contain your excellent
> >translation, once it has been created?
>
> That's what the Laws are there for Richard.  Redress of wrongs
> committed.  I have been wronged.  How many eyes drank in my poem without
> even an acknowledgment of my achievement?  There are plenty of venues for
> this kind of news.
>
> >Don't you realise the nature of this
> >web, its repetition of repetitions? Soon, even this forum, this ICANN,
will
> >exist only as one of innumerable parallel worlds.
> >
> >...or as Borges said:
> >
> >"The Governor of Yunnun renounced all worldly power to construct a
> >labyrinth - a labyrinth in which all men would become lost. I imagined it
> >inviolate. I imagined it infinite. I thought of a labyrinth of labyrinths
> >that would encompass the past and the future. An invisible labyrinth of
> >time. To me, a barbarous Englishman, has been entrusted the revelation of
> >this diaphanous mystery. I read, uncomprehendingly and with fervour,
these
> >words written by a man of my blood : I leave to the various futures my
> >garden of forking paths. The forking in time. Diverse futures, diverse
times
> >which themselves also proliferate and fork."
>
> I am of Greek heritage and we have a Labyrinth too, but Theseus showed us
> how to get out a long time ago.
>
> >"In a riddle whose answer is chess, what is the only prohibited word? I
> >thought a moment and replied: the word Chess. To omit a word always, is
> >perhaps the most emphatic way of stressing it."
> >"In contrast to Newton and Schopenhauer, your ancestor did not believe in
a
> >uniform, absolute time. He believed in an infinite series of times, in a
gro
> >wing, dizzying net of divergent, convergent and parallel times. We do not
> >exist in the majority of these times; in some you exist and not I; in
others
> >I, and not you; in others, both of us. Time forks perpetually towards
> >innumerable futures."
> >"The least things in the universe must be secret mirrors to the greatest.
> >Every man is on Earth to symbolize something he is ignorant of. I do not
> >know what right we have to that continuity which is time. Each moment is
> >autonomous. My life is a flight and I lose everything and everything
belongs
> >to oblivion."
> >
> >But the significance of your Hymn is that it reaches out from another
place.
> >Inviolable. It has a classic timelessness and dignity.
>
> Thank you, I know.  But it was still STOLEN without my permission and
> displayed where conceivably millions got what you got out of it, and I got
> NOTHING, not even the dignity of a little CREDIT.
>
>
> >Just let it go, and the path will fork, and fork. Maybe it is not yours.
> >Maybe it was given to you.
>
> It came out of my head, Richard.  Nothing could be more mine.
>
>
> >Outside, the sun shines bright - and your fingers can trace the rough
bark -
> >and a breeze as ancient as Thermopylae feels ardent against your cheek.
> >Offerings are given up in honour of the gods. You can smell their
fragrance
> >but you cannot bring them back. That is part of the dignity. Part of the
> >arete or excellence.
>
> So is GERAS and I want my share for my part
>
> Regards,
>
> Sotiris Sotiropoulos
>
>
>
> >Richard H
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: Sotiris Sotiropoulos <sotiris@hermesnetwork.com>
> >To: <ga@dnso.org>
> >Sent: Sunday, January 19, 2003 7:49 PM
> >Subject: [ga] Olympic Hymn [continued]
> >
> >
> > > Using an interesting facility called "The Wayback Machine"
> > > I have found the following regarding the British Olympic
> > > Association's webpages (specifically the contents of the
> > > page now found at:
> > > http://www.olympics.org.uk/olympicmovement/olympicmovement.asp
> > > that is, the page where they are currently displaying my
> > > uncredited translation of Costis Palamas' Olympic Hymn).
> > >
> > > Please go here to see what I mean:
> > >
>
>http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.olympics.org.uk/olympicmovement/olympicmov
e
> >ment.asp
> > >
> > > The first archived instance of the web page in question is
> > > from Jul 14, 2001, and in the section "Olympic Hymn" it
> > > contains a DIFFERENT translation from the one currently
> > > displayed (i.e. my own).
> > >
> > > The second available archive instance is from Aug 05, 2001
> > > and again, it does not contain my version of the
> > > translation but rather, it contains the same one as the
> > > preceeding date.
> > >
> > > On Aug. 6, 2001 I sent the following message (containing
> > > my translation) to the Classics-L academic list:
> > >
>
>http://omega.cohums.ohio-state.edu:8080/hyper-lists/classics-l/01-09-01/021
7
> >.html
> > > As well, I have a copy of an email I sent to Isidoros at
> > > ioniccentre@hol.gr from Aug 6, 2001 which contains my
> > > translation.  Also, on Aug. 7, 2001 I sent a digitally
> > > certified email to the publisher Aristide Caratzas (as
> > > mentioned in my previous email) which contained my
> > > translation.  On Aug. 8, 2001 I responded onlist on
> > > Classics-L to questions about my translation from Dr.
> > > Rudolph Masciantonio.
> > >
> > > The third referenced copy from the "Wayback Machine"
> > > archive of the same BOA web page from Oct 31, 2001 is
> > > unavailable.
> > >
> > > The fourth archived instance of the same web page is from
> > > Feb 22, 2002, and it contains MY translation (without any
> > > credit to myself)!
> > >
> > > So, my transltion has been on their web site for about 1
> > > year, for sure.  They replaced a previous translation with
> > > my own.
> > >
> > > How do you like that?
> > >
> > > Sotiris Sotiropoulos
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
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> > >
> > >
> >
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>
> Sotiris Sotiropoulos
>          Hermes Network Inc.
>          Toronto, Canada
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>

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