Sorry, Isidore

[thedarkages]

I just finished and sent off a scathing letter to Oxford University Press. My friends Oliver and Wendy and my former teacher Steve Barney have just put out the definitive translation of Isidore of Seville's Etymologies. Isidore's work attempts to be an encyclopedia of the state of Dark Ages classical knowledge in the form of an etymological dictionary. What makes it hilarious is when Isidore pulls the etymologies out of his posterior. The price of the book is $150. This is ludicrous. The press must want the book to be bought only by libraries, since it's priced it out of the reach of people like me. Eventually, I suppose, it will be remaindered and I can pick it up then, but the press could avoid such a contingency by lopping a hundred bucks off the price.

After I sent the letter, which was a stunning piece of flamage, I realized something. The book is published by Cambridge. Whoops.

Comments

[mrbalihai.livejournal.com]

D'oh!

Reminds me of the time I applied for a job at a famous software company and noticed I'd got the name of their main product wrong in my cover letter after I'd mailed it.

[vlforman.livejournal.com]

That's hilarious. Brilliant.