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I wonder how widespread this idea is. Last x-mas my MIL reacted really weirdly when I mentioned that I was reading letters by Pliny the Younger. I know that she's exposed to a wide variety of crazy that supplements her own crazy, but I never expected Pliny of all things to be something that would set her off.

She seems to have a set of rules.

1. Old things must be true.
2. Unless we don't like them for reasons.
3. Then they must be fake and there's a very good explanation.

I guess that's another reason to be thankful I skipped out on x-mas this year.

Pliny's letters describing the eruption, which he personally survived (but his uncle rather famously did not) are well worth reading. In addition to the fascinating glimpse at history, Pliny was very weird about sharing his own story in addition to his uncle's. Very human.

You have to give credit to them, they start the whole thing with "Funny!!!".

It sure is

What you have captured here is pure, unadulterated, insanity. These are the ramblings of a person whose brain has betrayed them.

You need just a little bit of smarts to be actually insane. Mad and ignorant is just dull. Being fairly well read and also totally bat shit generates some of the most incredible things..

Just skimming the first bit, there's some true info in the crazy. The Latin word for 'brothel' really is 'lupanar' and there really are a surprisingly large number of stone penises on the walls in the city. That the penises point anywhere is a popular myth, but isn't true; they were apparently good luck charms. Some of the houses had back doors, but it wasn't anywhere near all of them and there's no evidence they were intended for prostitution.

Skimming the rest looks like pure crazy, though.

This is some of the best insanity I have seen here.

Is this the next Dan Brown novel?