I am convinced, along with a number of other teachers, that I could benefit from owning an iPad. I didn’t read Herodotus’ The Histories on an iPad because, unfortunately, I do not yet own this wonderful new device from Apple. I did, however, just finish reading that classic, weighty tome – the first example of historical writing in Western civilization – lugging it around in my brief case, to and from work, and from class to class.
It was, at least, an absolutely beautiful copy: last year’s The Landmark Herodotus, edited by Robert B. Strassler, complete with pictures of artifacts and numerous maps. Probably the best book published on ancient Greece in recent history. I was quick to share it with my colleague in the History department who gushed over it… until he opened it. “Oh, too bad it isn’t in colour.”
No kidding. All that love and care, only to publish it in black and white.
Now, imagine The Landmark Herodotus on an iPad. Colour? Of course. Maps? You bet; and much more interactive, at that. And so much more. Hyperlinks. Video. My goodness. The iPad will change the way we read.
The illustrated edition of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code was wildly popular because of the many references to art, architecture, and history, brought alive through accompanying images. The same goes for Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes (published as Someone Knows My Name for our American neighbours). Well, as more and more of us pick up an iPad, we’ll expect every book to include, not just images, but hyperlinks and more. Our reading experience, for better or for worse, will be revolutionized.
Incidentally, Herodotus’ The Histories was interesting, but not a book that I will be quick to return to. His digressions were worth hearing – interesting (and degrading) stories about cultures to the east of his home – still, nothing against Strassler’s translation, but I’d like to read a completely re-written account of the history of the Greek-Persian wars. I don’t have the ability to read it in the original Greek, but I didn’t find the prose particularly uplifting. What would The Histories sound like under the pen of Tom Wolfe, or of Guy Vanderhaeghe?
Give it the wit that Herodotus avoided, and put it on the iPad, and we’ve got a story our students would love.
——
Image by bazylek100
