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Ever see a movie where you had to do a double take. Did that kid just hand his teacher a first edition of the IlliaD?
FROM THE BOY NEXT DOOR.
Claire. Oh hey, Noah, come on in. You know Kevin already left.
Noah. Actually I, uh, picked something up for you.
Claire. Oh, heh heh — oh my God, this is a — this is a first edition? I can’t accept this, this must have cost a fortune!
Noah. It was a buck at a garage sale. — One man’s trash …
*
No! No! No, you did not! I saw a snippet from a film where I wanted to reach through the screen and slap someone upside the head. It is just so sad. I don’t know if I want to blame the screenwriter (who says it’s not her fault). I’m angry at the producer as well. My anger is also aimed at the cameramen and everyone that was on the set that day. I just wish that someone said, “Just a minute, this is a huge mistake.” Of course, that person would have been fired or kicked off the set. I don’t even blame JLO. If she didn’t know, she didn’t know. However, SOMEBODY had to have known, and they just kept their mouth shut.
I will set the scene. A student (who admires his teacher way too much than is good for him) brings her a book – it’s kind of a replay of a boy bringing his teacher an apple. This student is in high school, taken with his teacher. So he brings her a book he found at a book sale. It’s a “first edition” he says after she objects it as being a much too extravagant gift. “It was a buck at a garage sale,” he says quelling her fears. Well, it is…and utterly too fantastic for words and entirely unbelievable. Is it Dickens? No. If it was a copy of Dickens I might have let it go.
The Iliad.
Really? THE ILIAD?
This disturbs me on so many levels. It disturbed a lot of other people.
The following are comments of the internet. In this case Twitter, in 140 characters, crystalized the lunacy.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA. Oh crap. Western Civilization is screwed. http://t.co/sqJu8Ph576
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) February 4, 2015
@EWErickson I have to show you my first edition Torah sometime. Found it in a dumpster one day.
— Aaron Gardner (@Aaron_RS) February 4, 2015
My second point is this. Look at the book. It is obviously not a first edition. If it was it would not be in English – by the glaring English title ‘The Iliad’ on the front (GR.Ilias), and would not necessarily be a book. I’d say more likely the first time it was set down it would be on papyrus – in Greek (a scroll), sometime later in Latin. What’s more this story has been told over and over by generations by storytellers (rhapsadoi). It has existed in memory longer than the printing press has been existence. Yes, there was a first time, it had to have been set in print – but far from a first edition. The Illiad came from a time where the printing press did not exist. Copies were hand-made. The printing press could not, would not be imagined for thousands of years. Copying a manuscript by hand was normal. There was no other way. The first Iliad to paper is lost to time itself.
My favorite comment on this is written by Tina Nguyen: “If you ever took seventh grade English, you are likely aware you cannot find a first edition copy of the Iliad, except perhaps in the gardens of the Greek dream-god Morpheus, where Homer lives in eternity (or something).”
Even if we take the meaning of ‘first edition’ as the first time it was set to print (ON A PRINTING PRESS), it is still hard to think a high school student would ever come across a copy. Note* The first printable type machine is credited to Johannes Gutenberg in 1450. So if you think a high school student can afford such a thing, check out Bilblio.com which sells old copies of the Iliad for 25,000 to 30,000 dollars a piece.
When I saw the scene, I cringed. I wondered about the idiot producer, the scriptwriter that rewrote the script (reports say that the original scriptwriter did not include the scene in the original work). I wondered about the idiot director and the producer of the film. I even recognized the cover of the book which has been repackaged and is on sale with a new cover at your local Barnes and Noble. Yes, the scene can be argued one way or another. Yes, maybe he could have had a ‘first edition’ but when you talk about something as old and as part of the human makeup as ‘The Iliad’ the scene comes off as false and contrived.
Stupidity reigns in Hollywood…but wait…you know that already. Also, if your intend to be an actor, make your education broader than limiting yourself to drama classes.
Left: It seems this was found in a book store. This brings up so many issues. First, if I was walking by I would have laughed. Second, It would make me open the book to see who had the gall to sign it. Third, I would wonder about the education of the clerks at that particular store. Fourth, I’d be writing out some ‘Twilight Zone’ episode in my head.
