Anthony Doerr on CLOUD CUCKOO LAND
Poured Over
00:00
Book Culture in Constantinople
In constantinople, books are protected by the walls of a city. The greek and roman classics are surviving as they are deteriorating everywhere else in the world. We have about 55 thousand ancient greek texts that you can look at to day. Forty thousand plus of them only arrived in our laps because of byzantine copy is preserved in constantinoplee. I'm always kind of been obsessed with the fragility of memory. Why do some things last? Who decides to let things last? What heroic acts allow for something old to travel into the now?
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