My own self

"How long has he been dead?"
"Five hours."
"Question him."

This show was exactly as I expected: Well-made, intricate, cursed with an overabundance of standalone episodes, containing some quite interesting characters, and based on a main plot and premise that is unable to escape the feeling of "haven't I seen this ten times before?" Fringe is another attempt - this one by Lost's J. J. Abrams and two guys who used to work on Hercules and Xena - at the age old "let's do the sci-fi show as a cop-show as well, that'll make it more mainstream"-shtick that's been floating around since The X-files, and as such attempts to, it's pretty well done. That is, though, not saying too much.

To not focus on all the negative right away, I should mention that I absolutely love two of the characters; the brilliant but confused Dr. Walter Bishop and his prodigal jack-of-all-trades son Peter, who between them probably have an IQ higher than Lex Luthor. John Noble and Joshua Jackson bring these awesomely entertaining characters and their complex relationship with each other out and alive in quite impressive performances. They are lucky, though, as their characters are both well thought-out and well written. Some kudos should thus also be given to the three actors rounding out the main cast (Lance Reddick, Kirk Acevedo and Anna Torv), including the main character Olivia Dunham, because they at times actually seem interesting in spite of the writing passing them off as cliches and dreadful bores.

As I seem to have stumbled into the negative again, why don't we look at the structure of the show? Fringe's main problem in my eyes is its slow-paced standalone episode set up. While I understand the need for attracting new viewers through this formula, they endanger themselves of losing old ones. I know several people who stopped three or four episodes in, and had I myself not been a student with a summer vacation to fill, I probably would not have finished this show either. The only season plot of any real interest - predictably enough closely tied to both the Bishop's - was dreadfully apparent after only four episodes, and the hints just kept on flowing. Now, I'm all for foreshadowing, but when the summer finale's big reveal is the same plot-twist I figured out before Christmas, they're not doing it right. It's a very good plot-twist, having vast potential both for emotional character-stuff, and further plot-progression, and it should not have been wasted by spreading it out so slowly that by the time it happened, there was no shock-factor at all left.

The show's science-stuff is very variable. I'm a humanities type of guy, so when I spot obvious scientific impossibilities in the mumbo-jumbo they have Dr. Bishop spew out, that means they are too far-fetched. If you're going to explain everything with pseudo-science, honestly, you need better explanations than what Fringe often offers. However, sometimes it is not too obvious that their theories are all complete ridiculous bullshit, and those times, the show works splendidly - though it is still laughably ridiculous that anyone, regardless of intelligence, would have vast experience in as many thoroughly different fields as Walter Bishop repeatedly demonstrates. I can overlook that, though, in the interest of storytelling convenience. (Also, it makes Walter even more awesome).

All in all, Fringe is a well-made cop-show with a conspiracy-theory standing in for a main plot and science-fiction with a touch of explicit horror scenes standing in for regular criminals. If this sounds interesting, the show's definitely for you. If it doesn't - if, indeed, it sounds unoriginal and trite to the point of yawning, like it does to me - you might want to steer away but for one thing. It's main redeeming feature - and it is indeed very redeeming - is the dialogue, performance and dynamic of the two Bishop-characters, which consistently offers both emotion, drama and humour of high quality. And, by the end of the show, to a less extent the main character Dunham as well, who in all fairness did get some decent character development throughout. I will check out season 2, but unless it improves strongly, this is one show I will not be too sad to have to let go once I'm no longer a full-time student with scores of sparetime.

By the way, why are you %#&@% on the post office? For 44 cents, someone comes to your house, picks up some piece of crap you wrote, and takes it to Wyoming on a plane.

- Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, June 17th, 2009

"I am prepared to die."
"Good. I'm prepared to kill you."

- Darth Kruhl and Emperor-in-Exile Roan Fel

If you're anything like me at all, you enjoy the idea of Star Wars more than the actual movies. By that I mean the archetypes, the grand mythos, the entire world that we were shown in the movies more than the mere plots inside them should indicate. Sure, Empire Strikes Back is a pretty great movie, but mostly, what these movies have going for them can be summed up in cool concepts: The lightsabers, the space-fights, the lasergun-slingers, the Jedi Order protecting a corrupt galaxy, the Sith Order trying to rule it, the Grand Moffs cooly ordering genocides, the Jedi Spirits, the Death Star, the roaring Wookie, the Force, and just about everything about Darth Vader. These things are all awesome, and they, in addition to the common appeal of legend/fairytalesque plots in general, are why I find these movies to be such an important part of my DVD-collection.

Because of enjoying these concepts, I've at many points in my life delved into the chasm of entertainment that is the Star Wars Expanded Universe. There are novels, short stories, comics, video games, computer games, and TV-series. And a whole bunch of other stuff. I've mainly kept with the novels and the comics, though I should say both the TV-serials based upon the Clone Wars, one of which is still on-going, are surprising me with their level of quality.

Now, I've by no means read all the novels and comics, I've not even read all the good ones - believe you me, there are many not so good ones out there too - but I've read enough to have a basic grasp of the history of the gigantic Star Wars universe. It goes back to millenia before the prequel-movies, and covers events during, between and even after the six films of Lucas' making. And for the most part, it all fits together in a gigantic continuity. The latter appeals to me a lot, because I'm an anal crazy-person.

Anyway, to get to the point, even though books and comics have previously ventured pretty far ahead into the time after Return of the Jedi, they never went beyond the years were the good old main characters could reasonbly be expected to be active. Until Star Wars Legacy. Legacy jumps a full century ahead in time from the last point we have previously been told stories from - a point which was already a good three decades after he final film - and introduces us to a very changed Star Wars-universe. New characters, new allegiances, new conflicts. So does it work?

Holy crap, yes! And the why is the concepts. There are lightsabers, there are Jedi, there are Sith, there are evil Moffs and Jedi Spirits, the whole shebang. These familiar, tantalizing concepts have in Legacy been put into a completely new environment, which harkens back to and descends from but is still very different when compared to the good old days of Palpatine's Empire. There are three branches of Force-users now - the Jedi, who are much like they were in their glory days of the Old Republic. The Imperial Knights, who do not adhere to the light- and dark-side philosophies but rather swear loyalty to the Emperor personally over any one value-system. The Emperor is a descendent from the Fel-family, a major group of characters in the novels and comics taking place after Return of the Jedi, who apparently at some point became the heads of what was left of Palpatine's Empire. Now, this Emperor is not a bad guy, if anything, he's rather benevolent. But he was usurped by a new and changed Sith Order who also extinguished most of the Jedi Knights, making Legacy start out in a world with a handful of Jedi, vast armies of Sith, and a third group of Force-users supporting the now Emperor-in-Exile.

And then there's a new Skywalker, who is a little bit like Han Solo would be if he had had basic Jedi training and was really, really grumpy. Together with all of these pieces come plots which, while maybe not brilliant, are far more intricate and interesting than most of the linear storylines of the original movies.

After three volumes, I'm well and truly hooked, and I will continue trying to set aside money to buy these TPBs. Legacy has breathed new life into the Star Wars-universe for me - and it has even retroactively made things that happen before it more interesting, as the century-long gap of information preceding it is now basically just begging to be filled. Where did Luke go? What about Leia? And all their children?

If you have any interest in Star Wars and think you could enjoy a comic with new characters and new plots but the same good old concepts that drew you to the original movies in the first place, I suggest you check out Legacy. If not, well, I'm thoroughly impressed you managed to stay interested throughout the entire post!

If you can keep your head when all about you
are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
but make allowance for their doubting too;
if you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
and yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

if you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
if you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
if you can meet with triumph and disaster
and treat those two imposters just the same;
if you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
and stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

if you can make one heap of all your winnings
and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
and lose, and start again at your beginnings
and never breath a word about your loss;
if you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
to serve your turn long after they are gone,
and so hold on when there is nothing in you
except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

if you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
if all men count with you, but none too much;
if you can fill the unforgiving minute
with sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
and - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

- Rudyard Kipling

[T]he line between attraction and horror is very, very thin. When you see footage of a polar bear walking in the snow, your heart melts. And then seconds later when you see the same polar bear mauling a baby seal, you can be horrified. And I don't see why these aspects of life cannot be reconciled.

- Guillermo Del Toro,
June 3rd 2009

Everyone's alone, Ally. It's just easier to take in a relationship.

- Richard Fish

Three years back, I stumbled over some Ally McBeal-reruns, watched them, and decided that hey, I would like to sit down and watch this show from end to end some day. I've not done that yet, but two months or so ago, I finally got started on the project.

I watched Ally McBeal during its original Norwegian run the gods know how many years back, but I never managed to follow it regularly enough to catch every single episode. I saw most by far, but not all, and not completley in the right order, what with summer-reruns and waiting for new seasons. I liked it. I remember my early-teenage self having two important reasons why: Peter MacNicol's John Cage and Greg Germann's Richard Fish. Two delightful supporting characters of wit, eccentricity and, in their own ways, a curious moral integrity - an integrity which in Fish's case went straight against most of his character traits.

They amused me to no end. John's courtroom antics, Fish's delightfully cynical yet strangely optimistic philosophies on life, John's inner music and bathroom gymnastics, Fish's rampant greed and cheuvinism. It was hilarious, and it was exciting. The other characters weren't bad either, even if the title role was rather whiny at times. Still, the main strength being two secondary characters didn't exactly put it up there with my favourite TV-shows ever.

Upon catching the reruns, what struck me the most was how good the dialogue was - not just that of Cage and Fish, but that of their entire law firm. I hadn't noticed this in my early teens; the characters had registered as funny, but I hadn't realised that this was as much because of the dialogue as the acting. The second thing that struck me was how powerful and filled with sentiment the show was. (If you add a much stronger politically angled perspective it shares this trait to a very large extent with D. E. Kelley's other quirky lawyer show, Boston Legal, which I've previously reviewed season 1, 2, 3 and 4 of, and plan to one day get around to writing a post on the final season of as well). The emotion, the ups and downs of these characters, they register, as do the issues they deal with - sometimes in spite of their ridiculous lawsuits and insane eccentricities, but also sometimes because of them. This was not something I really expected from my memories of the show, but with the added maturity of ten years, it was something I picked up on quite a lot.

Now that I've seen the first two seasons from beginning to end, these two impressions have certainly only gotten stronger. They have, however, been joined by more. First, Ally McBeal is a show that manages to mix the melancholical with the perky, and the angsty with the hopeful. I sometimes get sad or blue from watching an episode, but if I watch three, I'll usually have balanced out to pretty happy again. The main character is an emotional roller-coaster, and this actually translates very well to me as a viewer. (Yesyes, I am an enormous sap who lets good TV get to his emotionals state. Bygones).

Which brings me to a second point - Ally McBeal herself is far less annoying. Oh, sure, every once in a while you feel she deserves a good kick in the rear or bucket of cold water in the face, but for the most part, she's kind of likable. Much like most of her collegues, I now find her to be ridiculously self-absorbed, vain, self-pitying, naïve and also quite the drama queen - but also much like most of her collegues, I find her genuinely sweet and caring personality to be mediating this to the point where she's strangely likable. This obviously improves my enjoyment of the show greatly and also helps me understand how the show could ever have gotten as popular as it did in the first place.

A third point is that while I as a kid remembered the courtroom cases strongly from the show, having now seen other lawyer-shows, I realise that hey, this show is mainly a drama with elements of both soap and comedy. But a lawyer-show? Well, I suppose. Most episodes, though, spend five or six times more time on even secondary characters' personal lives than on actual cases they do as lawyers. The law-firm is simply the framework for this show; it is a show about people whose jobs happen to be as lawyers, not a show about lawyers who happen to have interesting personal lives.

Fourth, McBeal is not the only character who looks more fun and interesting in hindsight. So do the rest. I always enjoyed Lucy Liu's Ling, but I've now found a lot of interest in Portia de Rossi's Nelle as well, and the remaining characters as well are almost to a one more interesting than last time around. Thus, while I still love Cage and Fish, they're suddenly no longer the characters making the show worth watching - now, they're but icing on an already quite tasty cake.

As for the two seasons, well, the addition of Ling and Nelle in season 2 was awesome in many ways. It added a level of sweetness to both Cage and Fish through their romantical entaglements that I would never have wanted to be without. It is also delightful to see the rest of the firm reel in hostility against the arrival of the two ice-cold super-women. Further, where season 1 was largely a rather sad albeit optimistic story of how Whipper leaves Richard, Ally doesn't want to be with John, and Billy doesn't want to be with Ally, season 2 has more ups and downs.

Oh, and I love the way this show uses music. I absolutely love it. The dance-scenes in particular are amazing. I love it so much when they all start dancing in the unisex bathroom, or for John's birthday in the downstairs bar. It's hilarious, exciting and so incredibly sweet it's almost saddening all at the same time. There is an incredible sense of the pure joy of life bubbling through this show, and it has smitten me.


Ally McBeal might still not be my favourite show, but I'll say this - of truly massively popular shows, I've very rarely seen any that deserved it more. I'm very excited about checking out season 3 now, even though it'll likely have to wait until this fall. I believe that already with the first two seasons, though, Ally McBeal has proven that it deserves a spot somewhere in the lower half of my top ten TV-shows-list. Considering how much TV I watch, that's an enormous accomplishment.

Just for anyone who might wonder, the show (click here for my post about its pilot), whilst miraculously still not formally cancelled, has been moved to this summer, where its piss-poor ratings will look a little less shitty next to exclusively reruns of more popular and far less interesting shows. Also for anyone who might wonder, every single episode that's aired before they moved it has delivered on the promise of the pilot. I watch ungodly amounts of American television, and of all the current shows, this is my favourite by far. (Even Pushing Daisies is a far cry behind, though I will admit that's probably due to it being less up my alley genre-wise than Kings). Of the six episodes aired so far, only the one failed to leave me completely overwhelmed, and even that one was a cut above most other shows I currently watch, especially now that Battlestar is done. I need to go to giants of Television Past to find suitable shows to compare Kings to, but I won't, as it will just crank your after this post unreasonably high expectations even higher than they already are. Suffice to say that if good dialogue, an interesting world, compelling acting and lots of delicious politics and intrigue with a very well done layer of the religious and spiritual sprinkled in sounds made for you - not to mention Ian Mc-bloody-Shane owning every television screen he has ever appeared on - Kings is a show you should go watch, and a show you should go watch now. Though of course you can't, because they booted it to mid-June. So catch it this summer, or get it on DVD once it is cancelled as these ambitious and impeccably well done shows always are. I implore you.

My retirement¹ is cast in my teeth; and to this charge I cannot reply without highly exalting my own merits. For what, gentlemen, must I say? That consciousness of misdoing urged me into exile? But the charge that was laid at my door, so far from being a misdoing, was the grandest deed in the history of the human race!² That I dreaded prosecution before the people? But such a prosecution was never even contemplated, and had it taken place I should have emerged from it with my reputation doubly enhanced. Shall I then say that the patriotic party failed in my protection? It would be false. Or that I feared death? That would be cowardly. I must say, then, what I would not say save under compulsion - for any self-congratulary remarks I have ever uttered have been made rather to repel insinuations than to claim credit for myself - I say, then, and with all the emphasis I can use, that when, under the ledership of a tribune of the plebs and with the support of the consuls, with the senate humiliated, the Roman knighthood cowed, and the whole community agitated and distraught, the carefully stimulated lawnessness of desperadoes and conspirators was launching an asault not so much upon myself as upon all good patriots through me, I saw that, should I prove victorious, some frail vestiges of a republic would yet remain, but, should I be defeated, it would become utterly extinct. Having come to this conclusion, I was heart-broken at the prospect of separation from my unhappy wife, of the destitution of my beloved children, of the blow that would fall upon my excellent and affectionate brother who was far away, and of the unforeseen wreck of a family whose sense of security had been so complete; but all these possibilities came second in my thoughts to the lives of my fellow-citizens, and I thought it better that the state should falter through the retirement of one,³ than that it should fall through the destruction of all. I hoped, and my hopes have been realised, that if brave men yet survived, my humiliation might be retrieved; but if I should perish, and the patriotic party⁴ with me, I saw no prospect of a resurrection for the republic.

- Marcus Tullius Cicero in De Domo Sua 35.95-36.96,
his speech to the Pontiff Collegium of priests concerning his house having been given away to the goddess of Liberty by Publius Clodius Pulcher,
translated by N. H. Watts.

¹: Fleeing the country to avoid prosecution.
²: He had a half-dozen men executed without trial.
³: Fleeing the country to avoid prosecution.
⁴: The conservative über-rich ruling elite, to a large group of whom he is currently talking.

You on this day are called upon to decide whether from this time forward you desire that mad and unprincipled magistrates¹ should be stripped of the protection afforded them by wicked and dastardly citizens, or actually armed with the awful sanction of the immortal gods.² For if that plague-spot and devouring flame of the republic³ should succeed in defending by means of divine religion⁴ his inquitous and ruinous tribunate, which he can defend on no ground of human justice, then we shall have to look around for a new ritual, new mediators between ourselves and the power of heaven, and new interpreters of the divine will.⁵ But if, on the other hand, your authority and wisdom is applied to the cancelling of what the madness of villains has achieved,⁶ now in the crushing of constitutional government,⁷ now in its desertion, and now in its betrayal, then we shall have good reason to give well-deserved approbation to the prudence of our ancestors in electing to the priestly offices the men of highest distinction. But since that madman⁸ has thought that by pouring abuse upon all political courses recently advocated by me in the senate he could win some access to your ears⁹ I shall depart in my speech from a natural arrangement; and shall reply, I will not say to the speech of my infuriated opponent, for a speech is beyond his capacity,¹⁰ but to his scurrility, his practice in which has been reinforced not only by an intolerable impudence,¹¹ but also by a long-continued impunity.¹²

- Marcus Tullius Cicero in De Domo Sua 1.2-3,
his speech to the Pontiff Collegium of priests concerning his house having been given away to the goddess of Liberty by Publius Clodius Pulcher,
translated by N. H. Watts.


¹: Clodius, who took his house.
²: And then built a temple on it.
³: Clodius, again. He took his house, you know.
⁴: And then he built a temple on it.
⁵: Someone who doesn't think the gods want his house.
⁶: The stealing of his house.
⁷: If it isn't unconstitutional to go about stealing people's houses, it should be.
⁸: Still Clodius. Guy took his house.
⁹: People were starving, so Cicero had suggested they got some food. Clodius claimed this was horribly populistic of him, and figured the Senate and the Collegium of Pontiffs would agree that populists shouldn't get their houses back.
¹⁰: He sure can steal them houses, though!
¹¹: The man is reported to go about simply taking people's houses...
¹²: ...and then he just gets away with it!

In victory was the empire founded and through victory was it perpetuated.

- J. Rufus Fears, "The Theology of Victory at Rome"
in Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, 1981.

Sensemaking I won't comment on, but there has never been any doubt of your ability to cast any event in a light that makes you right.

- Obdormio, about me, at 20:54 April 8th 2009.

Still, in many rural areas [of China], including Anxi County, a resident whose first child is a daughter is allowed to have a second. Having a third child, however, can mean steep fines as high as $5,800 and other penalties that include the loss of a breadwinner’s job.

A boy, by contrast, can often be bought for half that amount, and authorities may turn a blind eye if the child does not need to be registered as a new birth in the locale.

In some cases, local officials may even encourage people desperate for a son to buy one. After their 3-month-old son died, Zhou Xiuqin said, the village family planning official went to her home and tried to comfort her and her husband, who was compelled to have a vasectomy after the birth of the boy, their second child. “He said, ‘Don’t cry, stop crying, you can always buy another one,’” Ms. Zhou recalled.

- "Rural China's Hunger for Sons Fuels Traffic in Abducted Boys",
by Andrew Jacobs for The New York Times, April 4th 2009.

This always looks inexplicably awesome.

Last week came the first sign that Obama remembers that he came to
drain the whole swamp, not just to whack a couple of high-profile
alligators.

- Gwynne Dyer, Obama and the Gulag Archipelago, March 15th 2009

Who watches the Watchmen?

I did! I did! And I'd like to go again! May I go again, mom, pleeeeeease?


Yes, I've now seen Watchmen, the movie based off of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' twelve-issue comic from the mid-eighties. As much of what I've read of Moore's work, it is highly dystopian, and very intelligent. As, er, some of what I've read of Moore's work, it's also rather entertaining. It is certainly very challenging. Frequently referred to as the best graphic novel out there, I must admit that Watchmen is among the heavier reads I've encountered, and few "regular" novels can compete with it for complexity.

It is thus no small wonder that the task of making this into a movie has daunted people from doing so for a long, long while. It is also no small wonder that Mr. Moore is outspokenly negative to the mere idea of making a movie out of any of his work. Too bad for him. While I agree that League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was a rather heavy departure from the source material, V for Vendetta was among the better adaptations I've ever seen. I thus have no problem with the attempt of adaptation of his work in general, though I do believe that when the creator doesn't want you to, you shouldn't, rights or no rights. Even if the creator is a stuck-up elitist who seems to judge people's worth by their amount and IQ-points over 150 and anarchist sympathies.

Still, all that aside, I agreed, Watchmen couldn't be made into a satisfactory movie. I freely admit, I was wrong. This movie satisfied me. Did it cut out some complexities? Yes, of course. Did it change some details and executions to make it work better on screen? Absolutely. And why shouldn't it?

Before seeing it, the one thing I heard most of all from friends and reviewers was how this movie was alright but too enslaved by staying true to the original book to dare being its own thing and thus achieve greatness. My expectations, then, were neither high nor low.

This seems to have been the way to go, expectation-wise, as I greatly enjoyed it. Mind you, it's been years since I read the book. I could simply be forgetting all the little things that made Moore's work superior to this. But I in all honestly felt that the movie stayed true to the comic, whilst also working as a movie. The pacing, so close to the book's own, was a little off in a movie, sure, but they shifted the weight of the narrative just enough that the pacing wasn't too off. And yes, the regular humans in superhero outfits fight as if they're rather superpowered anyway, and yes, the fightscenes are more flashy than in the book. So what? I mean, the only thing this movie remotely fits into, marketing wise, is the superhero-movie staple. Without scenes like this, anyone seeing the movie without having read the book would be thoroughly disappointed, not getting what they expected at all.

My only real problem with the movie, in fact, other than that the pacing could have been slightly better, was its overly long sex-scenes. Particularly two of them got to the point where you're embarrased as the viewer. That's unfortunate, and hurts the pacing further as well. I'm no prude, I don't mind the nudity and the simulated sex on the screen in front of me. I just mind it when it goes on, and on, and on. Two people moaning is not the world's most interesting thing. Still, it's a minor quibble.

All in all, I really and thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Almost as much as I did V for Vendetta, in fact. V had the combined advantages of a smaller cast and a shorter running time, though, making it feel more intense and work better as a movie to begin with. Considering the much more difficult task set to the filmmaker's on this one, I think they did way better than I could ever have imagined when I heard they were finally making it. The visuals are superb, and even though Dr. Manhattan looks about as fake as I expected crappy special effects rarely bother me. The use of music is simply phenomenal. The plots, characters and dialogue are basically all lifted directly from the book, meaning that while the dialogue sometimes might sound slightly off, it always sounds rather awesome, too, and as for the plots and characters, well, if one didn't like it one wouldn't have liked the book. And I did, very much. What remains then, is the acting. I am a very poor judge of these things, but I thought it was rather well done on the whole. Especially the Comedian and Nite Owl seemed spot-on, but I honestly didn't have a problem with any of the characters.

Also, this movie has Roschach. There has ever been another movie that could make that claim.*


I thought it was nifty. And I want to see it again. The only reason I'm not getting this movie a 9 is because I believe it might get overlong on rewatches, and I need to do them before I award it its final 0.5. For now? A very strong 8.5/10



* (If someone comes running with the 300 Easter Egg now, I'll bite. Seriously. With my teeth.)

He [Cæsar] attempted to return to Brundisium in a fishing boat to supervise the transport of the second half of his troops personally. The sea was stormy and the fisherman frightened. Cæsar exhorted him:
'do not be afraid, you carry Cæsar and the fortune of Cæsar's.'

- Divus Julius, page 117,
by Stefan Weinstock, 1971.