Re: What means "Consider Phlebas"?

From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Wed Oct 25 2000 - 18:44:30 MDT


Al Billings wrote:
>
> It is from a famous poem. I think a chunk of it is quoted on the opening
> page of the book. I think it is by Keats but I could be wrong.

I also recall that it's quoted on the opening page. I don't remember which
poem it is in the book, but the 'Net turns up this poem by T.S. Eliot:

T.S. Eliot, "Death by Water" in "The Waste Land".

Phlebas the Phoencian, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swells
And the profit and loss.
    A current under sea
    Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool.
    Gentile or Jew

    O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Remeber Phlebas, who was once as handsome and tall as you.

-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence



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