Why ‘Scriptorium’? Why ‘Marcus Apollo’?
To all and sundry, Marcus Apollo is a prelate-diplomat in Walter Miller’s sci-fi masterpiece, A Canticle for Leibowitz. <spoilers follow> He appears in only 2 scenes in the novel, but is, nonetheless, convincingly enfleshed as a witty, sophisticated priest with a penchant for serious debate and practical humor, and who is martyred when the ruler of his host country Texarkana launches a schism a la Henry VIII. Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome, dear reader (if, indeed, you exist)!
I’m finally starting this blog on the advice of a friend, who told me that writing things down would enable me to organize and, more importantly, to retain inklings and experiences. Mark you, I’m under no illusion that I have anything “deep” or “original”, but her suggestion nonetheless seems valid, as the inveterate journal-keepers of the past would likely attest. Can anyone, for example, imagine Boswell without a diary close to hand (unless, of course, his biography was mostly fiction)? I am not, alas! a skilled amanuensis, though there are plenty of Johnsons close to hand, but then
…a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what’s a heaven for?
In a word, then, this blog is to be a kind of sounding-board, containing occasional and (I admit, not-too-coherent) opinions and recollections. If my language seems wordy and stilted, I must apologize in advance, but I truly can’t help my being—as the same friend once observed—quite unaffectedly pompous; and, remember, even Homer nods (doh!).
God bless you, then, dear reader—and, yes, that would be a good topic: the Five Ways to prove the existence of the Reader:)—and I hope you don’t get too bored.
Sincerely,
Marcus Apollo
SCRIPTORIUM 