Ill Nature by Joy Williams

Author:Joy Williams [Williams, Joy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Non-Fiction, Writing, Science
ISBN: 9780375713637
Goodreads: 526853
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 2001-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

was on a Swan Hellenic educational cruise, #447, which had as its subject the Byzantine Empire, and I was frightfully lacking in comprehension of just about everything. On the second day I went to the ship's library and began reading about Constantinople. I soon became distraught about the fall of the Byzantine Empire. It had happened on a Tuesday. Those fascinating people! That beautiful city! Those awful crusaders, those greedy Venetians.... I read on and on about the triumphant Turks, their baths and harems and eunuchs. They were always drowning people in the Bosphorus or gouging out the eyes of their relatives. There was also much garroting. The palace mutes and dwarves were supposed to be excellent manicurists.... Days followed nights, and I was still engrossed with the Ottomans as our elderly ship Orpheus (plucky, but doomed to be scrap the following season) close-cruised Mt. Athos. The cruise had barely begun, and I was already badly off in my timing. Even so, the monasteries, which looked like sprawling failed resorts built against the cliffs, were pretty fascinating and the close-cruising was accompanied by a thrillingly erudite deck talk by one of the lecturers. Women are not allowed on the Holy Island, although it was all the Virgin Mary's idea. Not even female animals are allowed, no goats or chickens or cows or sheep, the reason for this being ... being ... that female animals require too much care or time, time that the monks would more wisely spend in prayer.

After the deck talk a video was shown about Mt. Athos, which of course everyone crowded in to see. I was shocked to see footage of an old monk feeding cats. There must have been twenty-five cats leaping and crawling all over him.

"What about all those cats?" I said. "There has to be a female cat in there somewhere."

"That was explained in the deck talk," an Englishwoman said.

"I missed that," I said. I was embarrassed, but I admitted it.

"An exception was made with the cats," an Englishman said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.