о Гиббоне и английском юморе

[avva]

ilyavinarsky цитирует (англ.) из "Упадка и падения Римской империи" Гиббона абзац о том, как удивительные чудеса времени Христа не заметил ни один из современных ему римских писателей и философов.

Мне это напомнило один пример из Гиббона, который я вычитал в статье о сносках несколько лет назад. Некоторая часть статьи была посвящена юмору (а также иронии, сарказму итп.) в сносках, и там приводился такой замечательнейшний, по-моему, пример:

To identify a certain "Apollonius the philosopher" for whom the emperor Aurelian felt a "superstitious reverence," Gibbon composed a footnote that has served to vex generations of Christian apologists: "Apollonius of Tyana was born about the same time as Jesus Christ. His life (that of the former) is related in so fabulous a manner by his disciples that we are at a loss to discover whether he was a sage, an impostor, or a fanatic".

Помню, что когда я это прочитал, то захохотал так, что закололо в боку.

Comments

Re:

[avva.livejournal.com]

Well, the joke is in the words "(that of the former)". That parenthetical remark isn't really needed (had it been absent, "his life" would have been unambiguous in this context anyway); by adding the unnecessary remark, Gibbon (who was rather defiantly anti-religious) hints facetously that the description following the remark could apply to Christ himself, and so he "needs" to disambiguate who the description refers to.

In other words, Gibbon subtly alleges at his distaste of Christianity by pretending that the words "... we are at a loss to discover whether he was a sage, an impostor, or a fanatic" could apply to Christ, without ever saying it explicitly -- in fact, he achieves the feat by explicitly denying the very possibility.

I find this device rather hilarious.

[mratner.livejournal.com]

Thank you... I wasn't aware of Gibbon's anti-religious stance, and have never actually read any of his work (though I did read the biography of Apollonius of Tyana), so I wasn't sure if perhaps there was more to it than what you've described.