Details
- “[Lucretius] thought that nothing could violate the laws of nature. He posited instead what he called a “swerve,” — Lucretius’ principal Latin word for it was clinamen —an unexpected, unpredictable movement of matter” (Page 7). Because the title of this book is “The Swerve” we can assume that this definition given in the preface has to have some sort of importance. At this point in the preface I’m unsure how this will factor into the book. I wonder if something big will happen that seemingly defies the laws of nature and is labeled a swerve.
- “The best course was humbly to accept the identity to which destiny assigned you: the ploughman needed only to know how to plough, the weaver to weave, the monk to pray” (Page 16). I thought this quote was just interesting especially when contrasted with today. With this it also talks about how curiosity was said to be a mortal sin. I think these things give a pretty grim outlook on how things are in the story.
Connection
- In the text Poggio says “When I reached the beginning of a lengthy exposition of philosophical first principles, I fully expected to lose interest: no one had assigned the book to me, my only object was pleasure, and I had already gotten far more than my ten cents’ worth. But to my surprise, I continued to find the book thrilling” (Page 2). I think this relates a lot to me and my experience with reading books. Whenever I am assigned a reading I almost never actually enjoy reading. On the other hand, whenever I am reading a book on my own I usually really enjoy it and end up reading a lot more than I otherwise would.
Question
- Why do you think the book is titled “The Swerve”? What may happen?
