Rowan's Bookshelf (Carleigh)’s Reviews > The Swerve: How the World Became Modern > Status Update

Don’t get the point at all from the Swerve titular chapter?? Doesn’t seem like much is changing on the outside, even if people are thinking about Lucretius

Way more interested in what Nature of Things actually says than what Poggio is doing and stuff like that. It’s really cool to think a lot of modern thinking came from something written 2K years before now, and why no one talks about it

Interesting about Pogs emotional attachment to his mentors, and friends. And the aggression towards his enemies. I don’t really know the point of the chapter, and the timeline is a lil confusing bc I thought he wasn’t allowed to be papal secretary bc the old one was excommunicated, but still interesting chapter

Very very interesting about Alexandria and how Christianity is basically to blame as to why there's nothing from ancient times. Some parts about the villa are pretty forgettable, but still important to understand what people thought of Lucretius when 1st published, and how books were seen. Epicurus philosophy also very interesting

Finally actually discovered the poem, after weirdly descriptive pages on monk bookmaking and keeping. Other interesting finds seem a lot more important, why Lucretius above everything else? Maybe bc it was scandalous

Already pretty long winded writing, a whole chapter devoted to saying what Poggio isn't probably isn't necessary. I'm taking a lot of vocabulary notes, and I think the story about Antipope John 23 sounds a lot more interesting, but we'll see. I'm just glad it's written mostly like a story