[HN Gopher] The history of the epigraph from Appointment in Sama...
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       The history of the epigraph from Appointment in Samarra (2022)
        
       Author : dang
       Score  : 11 points
       Date   : 2024-11-10 19:01 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (subsublibrarian.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (subsublibrarian.com)
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Here's the epigraph:
       | https://www.k-state.edu/english/baker/english320/Maugham-AS.....
       | 
       | I was thinking of this legend because, somewhat improbably, it
       | shows up in the last 20 seconds of the video for "Particle Man":
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsAiCs66l40 (thanks pvg!)
       | 
       | Here's a melodramatic rendition:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLeVHqiAGcY.
        
         | tptacek wrote:
         | Does it? In any more specific way than that where Plucky runs
         | to, his wrestling adversaries are waiting for him? They don't
         | seem surprised to see him in the ring. :)
        
       | motohagiography wrote:
       | weird that this obscure story has been on my mind a lot lately as
       | a way of describing the effects of depression. in the zeitgeist
       | perhaps.
       | 
       | The essential version of the story is quoted at the end:
       | 
       | > _There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to market
       | to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back,
       | white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the
       | market-place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I
       | turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and
       | made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will
       | ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra
       | and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his
       | horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its
       | flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the
       | merchant went down to the market-place and he saw me standing in
       | the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a
       | threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?
       | That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start
       | of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an
       | appointment with him tonight in Samarra._
       | 
       | the link between the 'Appointment in Samara' story and depression
       | is that it's a sense of damnation that finds a way to catch up
       | with you, and when you find some escape or even come through it,
       | the consequences of things you neglected under its influence come
       | due. The story is a bit trite, as like the servant it's easy to
       | say we fool ourselves. I'd say it's less easy to apprehend the
       | layered mendacity of a malevolent presence that hates you, but
       | the story captures some of the dynamic well.
       | 
       | It's a wry observation about what we do to ourselves, but having
       | given it some oddly specific thought, it's more useful as a
       | metaphor for articulating and black boxing a game that this thing
       | can set us up to play and lose. Perhaps a bit personal and TMI,
       | but if someone's going to talk about Appointment in Sarmarra
       | today, it's worth looking at it with a contemporary lens.
        
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       (page generated 2024-11-10 23:00 UTC)