Friday, March 15, 2024

Well, If Ms Kaminska Isn't Going To Repost It, I Will: "Dateline Rome..."

An early report on the death of Julius Caesar discovered by Izabella Kaminska during one of her investigations.

From The Blind Spot, originally posted March 15, 2022:

ROME, ITALY (The Blind Spot) – Gaius Julius Caesar, winner of the Civic Crown, conqueror of Gaul, and dictator perpetuo, was fatally stabbed on Tuesday 23 times at the Theatre of Pompey. He was 55 years old.

A group of senators identifying as freedom fighters and led by Marcus Junius Brutus have claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they were compelled to act on concerns Caesar’s lifelong appointment was unconstitutional.

Caesar was struck soon after he entered the Theatre of Pompey for a routine legislative session, collapsing in the centre of the auditorium. Sources say he had ignored warnings from trusted psychic intelligence agents, among them his own wife Calpurnia, as well as multiple pleas to “beware the Ides of March”.

Eye witnesses told The Blind Spot the Dictator’s last words, “Et tu, Brute?”, were uttered directly to chief conspirator, Brutus, who at the time showed no regret.

Anti-Caesar sentiments had been brewing in Roman conspiracy circles ever since the dictator for life had refused to confirm that he would commit to a peaceful transfer of absolute powers back to the people......

....MUCH MORE

It's not easy to come up with the idea for a pastiche.

And after you have the idea, it is very difficult to sustain the the device for more than a few sentences without descending into the less arduous (for the writer) form, satire.

Then, to do so on two different levels, the simulacrum of reportage combined with the overview of the historian, in effect a double pastiche, is damn near impossible.

Coming up next on Book Nook, decontextualizing Bohemian Rhapsody and its role in the evolution of FT Alphaville.
(it's the only other double pastiche I know of)