Helen Keller on Learning Greek to read Homer

 Helen Keller, The Story of My Life, chapter 21:

My mind opened naturally and joyously to a conception of antiquity. Greece, ancient Greece, exercised a mysterious fascination over me. In my fancy the pagan gods and goddesses still walked on earth and talked face to face with men, and in my heart I secretly built shrines to those I loved best. I knew and loved the whole tribe of nymphs and heroes and demigods--no, not quite all, for the cruelty and greed of Medea and Jason were too monstrous to be forgiven, and I used to wonder why the gods permitted them to do wrong and then punished them for their wickedness. And the mystery is still unsolved. I often wonder how

   God can dumbness keep
   While Sin creeps grinning through His house of Time.
   [Sidney Lanier, Acknowledgment, III]

It was the Iliad that made Greece my paradise. I was familiar with the story of Troy before I read it in the original, and consequently I had little difficulty in making the Greek words surrender their treasures after I had passed the borderland of grammar. Great poetry, whether written in Greek or in English, needs no other interpreter than a responsive heart. Would that the host of those who make the great works of the poets odious by their analysis, impositions and laborious comments might learn this simple truth! It is not necessary that one should be able to define every word and give it its principal parts and its grammatical position in the sentence in order to understand and appreciate a fine poem. I know my learned professors have found greater riches in the Iliad than I shall ever find; but I am not avaricious. I am content that others should be wiser than I. But with all their wide and comprehensive knowledge, they cannot measure their enjoyment of that splendid epic, nor can I. When I read the finest passages of the Iliad, I am conscious of a soul-sense that lifts me above the narrow, cramping circumstances of my life. My physical limitations are forgotten -- my world lies upward, the length and the breadth and the sweep of the heavens are mine!

My admiration for the Aeneid is not so great, but it is none the less real. I read it as much as possible without the help of notes or dictionary, and I always like to translate the episodes that please me especially. The word-painting of Virgil is wonderful sometimes; but his gods and men move through the scenes of passion and strife and pity and love like the graceful figures in an Elizabethan mask, whereas in the Iliad they give three leaps and go on singing. Virgil is serene and lovely like a marble Apollo in the moonlight; Homer is a beautiful, animated youth in the full sunlight with the wind in his hair.

How easy it is to fly on paper wings! From "Greek Heroes" to the Iliad was no day's journey, nor was it altogether pleasant. One could have traveled round the word many times while I trudged my weary way through the labyrinthine mazes of grammars and dictionaries, or fell into those dreadful pitfalls called examinations, set by schools and colleges for the confusion of those who seek after knowledge. I suppose this sort of Pilgrim's Progress was justified by the end; but it seemed interminable to me, in spite of the pleasant surprises that met me now and then at a turn in the road.

I was a 6th Grade Marxist

 I have told this story many times. In 6th grade I became a Marxist without knowing it, and when told I was one, I started reading. Our teacher was trying to explain why communism was bad. I countered all her arguments by citing the parallels between what she described as socialism/communism and the teachings of Christ. I wasn't trying to be smart. I just saw then how the system we have rewards those who already have something and vilifies the poor. She said, "The problem with socialism is that you run out of other people's money." I raised my hand and when called on asked, "Isn't it all other people's money when you don't have any?" She stopped in her tracks and asked to see me after class.

I did some reading and discovered that from a Marxist POV, there has never been a true socialist country in history. The US and USSR both had socialist programs, and the US actually had better luck with them because they had more money to start with. Later I learned that there have been totalitarian regimes that claim to be communist (like the US claims to be a democracy) but they have not passed through the necessary steps of capitalism and socialism first. Socialism is more democratic than the so called "free" market because rather than the whims of advertising and competition the people, the PUBLIC, decide what to do with collective resources and the Commons. Social need rather than private profit should guide production. If you say it wouldn't work, it has never been tried, much like the teachings of Jesus ( not Christianity) have never really been tried.

Having Thought

 Offisa Pup also realizes he can never know Krazy's thoughts. There is more than one reason for that.

Exchange of Thoughts: Fair But Uneven

 "He has a thought. He dares to harbor one in his head right in front of me!"

Ignatz thinks thoughts that Offisa Pup would never come up with on his own. This puts the mouse at an advantage.

IGNATZ HIDES HIS THOUGHTS

Offisa Pup is disturbed when he realizes that he can't see or hear what Ignatz is thinking.