Re: Boris Johnson's persona

His Iliad recitation, which started this thread, is quite mechanical and out of the Homeric, aoedic/rhapsodic character. As Alice Radin noticed, he skipped the crucial line Iliad 1.8 ("tis t'ar' sphwe thewn"), necessary to cue the name (or kenning) "Lhtous kai Dios huion hekhbolon Apollwna." That's a line that a proper Greek performer would have *needed* to emphasize. So, rather than a Pericles, or even an Alcibiades (Alcibiades, we recall, carefully auditioned Homeric teachers, rejecting most vigorously the man who offered to teach him without a text), Boris is a kind of low=grade Ion: a performer who thinks that his studied performance makes him the equal of real political leaders.
OC

-----Original Message-----
From: Classical Greek and Latin Discussion Group <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Mark Davidson
Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2019 1:04 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Boris Johnson's persona

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I was not intending to be snide at all. If you took it that way, I apologise.

The 'twist in the tale' is in the last quarter of the article, so if you only read three-quarters of the article, you wouldn't have seen it.

When I said 'keep reading' in my original post, and when suggested you hadn't read down the end, I meant it literally, without being snide.

For anyone who doesn't want to read the entire article, the author describes how, on a subsequent occasion 18 months later, he saw Johnson repeat everything he said and did the entire evening down to the smallest detail.

Everything - from arriving at the last minute and asking for pen and paper, to the untidy hair, to forgetting the name of the institute, to the rambling jokes, and forgetting the punch line of the George Brown story - every single tiny detail was a standard performance.

Nothing was spontaneous. Every word and every action was part of a carefully designed and prepared act. There was no thinking on his feet.

This was only an after-dinner entertainment, but when we know what a superb actor he is, and how carefully he prepares and presents his image, then we have to wonder how much of what he says and does at any time is genuine.

I used the word persona - an actor's mask - deliberately.

Here's a segment of John Oliver's show on HBO where he makes a similar point about Johnson:

And yes, keep watching, even though it's a bit irritating, because he's making an important point.  :-)

https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FdXyO_MC9g3k%3Ft%3D1m&amp;data=02%7C01%7CCLASSICS-L%40LSV.UKY.EDU%7C773961ec09fe4faad52808d715e7eff6%7C2b30530b69b64457b818481cb53d42ae%7C0%7C1%7C637001958246987766&amp;sdata=Nju27r%2BlAXIQPOKo5XUBSymakYgTH53uVV%2B2IAjSHac%3D&amp;reserved=0

Mark D