While in conversation with my friends the other night, I claimed that what excites me to continue living, despite my dark episodes of depression, is the sheer amount of knowledge out in the world waiting to be explored; what a pity it would be to die without ever having explored as much of it as humanly possible.
The thoughts, feelings, and wonders that I’ve imparted in me through the books I’ve read has only intensified my quest for more books. The books I now own are a source of strong allurement towards living a life of exploration through books. The stories that lie within the piling number of unread books on my shelves arrests me every now and then into a momentary pause where I stand run my glance through those books… thinking of the stories awaiting to be read. Yet even still, the books that I haven’t yet got my hands on, countless in numbers as I continue to discover newer books, stretches this promise of awe and wonder ever beyond my numbered years.
Greenblatt’s brilliant and awe-inspiring book, ‘The Swerve’, which won the Pulitzer, Lowell, and National Book awards, was a reinforcement of how books can be a source of endless wonder and joy. Based upon the accidental discovery of an ancient book of poem, this is the story of how renaissance, ‘the great return’, as we know it, began.
Poggio Bracciolini, a humanist scholar with a desire for discovering lost books of the Roman Empire (f. 27 BC), after searching parts of the Europe in 1417 finds numerous lost manuscripts, among which is the book of poem by Lucretius (b. 94 BC) ‘On the Nature of Things’ – a book inspired by the Epicurean philosophy founded by the philosopher Epicurus (b. 347 BC) which explains what our world consists of: atoms and space. Given the book’s naturalistic (scientific) view of our world, which was in utter contradiction with dominant Catholic church and its preaching, its rediscovery by Poggio sets in motion a chain of events that would later be called ‘The Renaissance’, a return to the ages of Greek and Roman empire and their philosophies.
Greenblatt’s simple prose and fascinating storytelling makes for a great reading experience, where not only this incredible true story but also its accessible representation by the author, fuses to inspire a transcendental awe in readers. In eleven chapters, starting with the tales of the ‘book hunters’, Greenblatt beautifully involves the reader in the rediscovery of Lucretius; the hardships these humanistic scholars had to go through; the dominance of the Catholic Church and the darkness of the medieval age; the philosophy of Epicurus and the timeless beauty of Poggio’s poem; the eventual return that this poem puts in motion; and the swerves who championed the poem and used it as a source of inspiration for future discoveries about our world.
‘The Swerves’, therefore, is one of those essential books you can read about the history of our shared world; for it takes the readers to the starting point of one of our history’s greatest shifts. Yet there’s an irony in this great revolution: it’s a change inspired not by propelling into the future, but by returning to the era of great thinkers wherein the true human progress lied. And I find this to be a humbling idea: the idea of retreating to something deeper and wiser rather than pushing vainly against a solid wall.
It’s not often that one comes across such a solving book that has in it an idea so neat and transformative that it distinguishes one age from another; and for that reason, ‘The Swerves’ will be one of the best books you’ll ever read.
Ratings: 5/5 ***** December 14, 2021_