iDecameron

So I have been reading some of the Decameron on DecameronWeb, translated by a British man in the early 20th century. It is quite different than the version we read in class, and I'm glad we did not read J. M Rigg's translation from the early 1900's. It peppered with "th's" and seems almost medieval to me. To be honest, it's much more boring to read. It might be a more sophisticated way of writing but it's not as free flowing as our classroom version. And now, I could go off into another direction about the effects of translation, but I'll save you my inner turmoil.

Another reason I'm glad we didn't read this version (at least online) - I CAN'T LOOK AT A COMPUTER SCREEN FOR MORE THAN 2 MINUTES BEFORE MY EYES TWITCH AND MY BRAIN RUNS AND HIDES AT THE BACK OF MY OCCIPITAL LOBE. Seriously, I have had professors assign Greek Literature from online sources... think about it, The Odyssey and the Iliad all online... What do I remember from those readings? Checking the sidebar to see how much further I had to go, and some stuff about wars and Greek men of course, but more than that just being annoyed at staring into a gazillion little brightly lit pixels.

Needless to say I can't get too far with Decameron Web before I'm wandering to Facebook and GMail to get some instant gratification. When I'm online I want to find things instantly, the information needs to be short and sweet, and quickly available. If it's time to get my read on, I fancy me an old fashioned paper smellin' book.