“The swerve” by Stephen Greenblatt

I saw Stephen Greenblatt on “the Daily show with Jon Stewart” when he appeared as guest with his book “Will in the world”.

I loved the book very much and it was fascinating read. His language is wonderfully rich and imaginative as Shakespeare scholar. His writing had the kind of realism which made me feel like going back to Elizabethan England and walking in Shakespeare’s shoes.

So I was definitely interested when I found out about his new book “the Swerve” especially after I heard it was just awarded National Book Award.

The book is about how the sectary of Pope/book hunter/ardent ancient literature lover discovered the ancient Roman philosopher and poet, Lucretius’ epic poetry book “On the nature of things” after over 1000 years of obscurity in 1417. The author claims that the discovery of this book contributed to the explosion of Renaissance humanist arts and has influenced many intellectuals in arts, science and politics.

Lucretius (c. 98-55 B.C.) was the passionate follower of the Greek philosopher, Epicurus (341-270 B.C.). And in “On the nature of things”, he tried to explain Epicurean philosophy in the most beautiful, eloquent poetic language.

Epicureanism is very interesting school of thought I’ve never heard of before. It observes the world based purely on science. It explains everything in the world as being made of atom and void, which is very close to what we know now as nuclear science. It strictly opposes any type of abstract belief, even in religions.  The main core of the Epicureanism teachings is that world beyond death doesn’t exist and pain and pleasure don’t last forever. Therefore, we should pursue inner and outer happiness in moderation in our own lives.

“On the nature of things” had influenced many artists, philosopher and politicians including Virgil, Machiavelli, Montaigne, Moliere, Christopher Hitchens and Thomas Jefferson to name a few.

Thomas Jefferson called himself as “Epicurean” and owned at least 5 Latin editions of “On the nature of things” along with English, French and Italian editions. The famous words, “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence were derived from such Epicurean teaching.

It was also interesting to read about the very Christian institution which put “On the nature of things” into obscurity is also the same institution painstakingly had kept copying manually and protected these pagan books for over 1000 years.

“The swerve” was very fascinating read especially for me because this book explained why I’ve had certain fascination with Renaissance/Baroque humanist arts.

“The swerve” is about feverish story of book lovers. And it is the passionate story about men who have obsessed with art and influenced the world as whole.