Another meme
Courtesy of Ben, the book meme:
- Grab the nearest book.
- Open the book to page 123.
- Find the fifth sentence.
- Post the text of the sentence in your own bulletin...along with these instructions.
- Don't search around and look for the "coolest" book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.
And finally he threw himself as far as Mila, who rescued him from his demons, coaxing him out of his internal exile, taking for her own pleasure the beautiful body that he had made his prison cell and in return giving him back companionship, community, the world.
Salman Rushdie, "Fury"
I had to cheat a little: the nearest book had only 96 pages, and the second-nearest was in German.
posted by Udge @ 11:22
3 Comments:
My nearest book is The Talmud: the Steinsaltz Edition Volume 1, thanks to you! It's in English and Hebrew; there are two columns of translation surrounding the central Hebrew Mishnah text, one literal and one free with commentary. The whole tractate is about who is entitled to acquire a found object. Since I'm using the English page numbers, I'll use the free translation of sentence five.
"A third answer is now suggested by the Gemara which eliminates completely the difference of opinion between Rabbi Yohanan and Resh Lakish: And if you wish you can say: One Sage was explaining one case and the other was explaining another, different case, and they do not really disagree on a point of law."
Since the basis of the possible disagreement between the rabbis was about a distinction of ownership entitlements between a male minor or a female minor, you can see how the Torah's contents relate to modern-day legal arguments about rights. Jane Eyre it is definitely not!
"The people of the book" indeed! And what do the wise men advise?
Perhaps "what to do with a found object" could be another short meme. It's clear to me: If it is evident who lost the thing, then I have an absolute, non-negotiable obligation to return it to them; if not and it seems to be of great monetary or sentimental value, then I have a mild obligation to attempt to find the owner; else I may keep it. Is there an alternative answer?
Oh, Udge, would that it were so simple! The Talmud Tractate on found objects occupies all 252 pages of volume 1.
From what I can tell so far, having not at all finished the book, one's obligation to make reasonable efforts track down whoever lost the object is independent of the object's value. However, things get murky when the ownership is ambiguous: unprovable, divided, recently inherited. Also, what if the "object" is an animal that requires care, and/or dies during the search period? And oh, so much more.
A "short meme" indeed. Hmpfff.
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