Review of The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt

An epic account of a manuscript that might’ve never seen the light of day.

Though Greenblatt greatly exaggerates the general influence of said document, the realm of lost classics, buried classics and unrecovered masterpieces has always fascinated me.
He takes a Bloomian view of the canon, completely excluding all Eastern cultures from the literary history. His focus is on Lucretius’ ultimate poem of On the Nature of the Universe, seen as a precursor to our understanding of the movement and immortality of atoms, as well as a profound meditation on the role of religion and revolutionary thinking that Epicurus and Lucretius espoused.
The journey of the manuscripts described, the countless digressions and the vicissitudes of the noble monks who rescued works from oblivion was absorbing. Historical tales like this probably influenced Neal Stephenson’s Anathem.
Refers to the hundreds of lost plays of Aristophanes, Sophocles, Euripides, et al, conjuring that sickening despair any bibliophile understands. A satisfyingly Borgesian exploration of the potential of sacred texts, infamous rulers, and devoted readers to subtly alter the course of history through their unconventional plumbing of unpopular truths. He envisions incunabula as living beings, nurtured through the ages, and, as changes, translations and copying errors are introduced, morphing into clones who bear an uncanny resemblance to the original without being perfect copies. The descriptions of acetic methods, illumination, and tracking down hidden libraries was especially intriguing.
A beguiling and wonderful meditation on the anxiety-inducing half-lives of printed information. Why exactly, did it take so long to invent the printing press? What were the half-million scrolls and texts housed in the Library of Alexandria? Literature is tested by its ability to float above the drowned examples that came before. The cream rises to the top and is supplanted by the creamier cream, while the skim milk below spoils.
A devastating read about the onslaught of time