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Jun 5

Nafplion: The Leisure to Think

Thinkers from Plato to Marx remark on the need for leisure–for leisure time won by having one’s expenses covered and necessities provided–to engage in the life of the mind.  After the busy work of investigating Athens, we have now settled into the leisurely place of Nafplion where we have plenty of time to think.  I’ve set two thinking projects for myself: one is a paper on Arendt and Aristotle that I’m giving at the American Political Science Association (APSA) at the end of the summer and the other is a piece on Aristotle’s conception of government, politeuma, which I have presented a number of times and am now ready to send it out for publication. Read more

Jun 3

Greek Graffiti: But hey, isn’t all writing illicit?

Yesterday we took the bus down to Nafplion on the peninsula that juts out from the northeast coast of the Peloponnese.  It’s a gorgeous town that still retains its 19th century Italianate charm, as our host in absentia, told us.  The place is rustic and again, to quote, “close to nature.”  But I spend a lot of time thinking about nature so I’m pleased to be close to it.

I’ve been writing some fairly heady posts, so I’m taking this break to share some pictures of graffiti that I took in Athens and a couple here in Nafplio.  What?  No, long diatribe about how all writing is illicit and therefore of the structure of graffiti?  That was just a teaser.  You’ll have to fill out that argument on your own. Read more

Jun 1

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Greece for the Greeks?

Yesterday I went to the Piraeus with my husband.  He’s the best.  I’d recount our entire conversation to you, but it would take all night.  At first, I didn’t want to stay to eat down there because I wasn’t entirely impressed by the restaurants which range from KFC to frozen seafood places.  But I let myself be persuaded.

Earlier in the day, we went to the Benake Museum, which is in an old mansion near the Parliament building.  It houses archaeological finds dating back to the Neolithic Era around 7000 BCE and art through the 19th and 20th centuries.  I’ve been thinking since I arrived in Greece about how the Greeks occupy an ambiguous racial position (stay with me here, I promise this will bring me back to the Benake) Read more

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