Have you ever been totally and completely boggled at the holes in others’ education? Yesterday, a coworker was searching for an AWOL book that a patron had requested be rush cataloged. The book? The Iliad. My coworker, armed with a printout of the catalog record, began to describe the book to me.
Coworker: It’s 600 pages.
Me: Yes, I know. I’ve read it about umpty times.
Coworker: Oh. Um.
Me: It’s good.
Coworker: It says it’s poetry. [Inconceivable that someone would read 600 pages of poetry!]
Me: It’s an epic poem. [Hmmm. Does she know what “epic” means?]
Coworker: [Looking at the bib record.] What’s the Trojan War?
Me: [Gobsmacked] I don’t think I can help you.
How?! How does that happen?! How can someone never have heard of the Trojan war, Homer, or The Iliad?
Kalypso, from The Odyssey of Homer, translated by Richard Lattimore, 1991.
My copy of The Iliad is even more marked up than The Odyssey.
And, speaking of the Trojan war and people who appear to be completely ignorant of even the most famous parts of the story (via Got Medieval):
red paper boat 