(no subject)

How is a Greek chorus like a lawyer
they're both in the business of searching for a precedent
finding an analogy
locating an example
so as to be able to say
this terrible thing we're witnessing now is
not unique you know it happened before
or something much like it
we're not at a loss how to think about this
we're not without guidance
there is a pattern
we can find an historically parallel case
and file it away under

ANTIGONE BURIED ALIVE FRIDAY AFTERNOON
compare case histories 7, 17 and 49

now i could dig up those case histories,
about Danaos and Lykourgos and the sons of Phineas
locked up in a room or a cave or their own dark mind
it wouldn't help you
it didn't help me
it's Friday afternoon
there goes Antigone to be buried alive
is there
any way
we can say
this is normal
rational
forgivable
or even in the widest definition just

- Anne Carson, Antigonick [x]