datura-literature-journal

[datura-literature-journal]

The Sound of Pornography #poem by Frederick Frankenberg. Photograph by Posterboy. https://urticalitblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-sound-of-pornography-by-frederick.html

[datura-literature-journal]

Billygoat by Ian C. Smith. Photograph by Adrian Scottow from Flickr. https://urticalitblog.blogspot.com/2024/08/billygoat-by-ian-c-smith.html

[datura-literature-journal]

Urtica Lit Blog: Vagrancy by John Grey

Photograph by Thomas Hawk from Flickr

[datura-literature-journal]

The Invisible Man by Lynn White is up at Beakful. Photograph Invisible Man Seen in Whitehaven by Alan Cleaver from Flickr. https://beakful.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-invisible-man-by-lynn-white.html

[datura-literature-journal]

One day when I'm dead I'll come back to life, by Gale Acuff. Photograph Superman Stick by A. Currell from Flickr https://urticalitblog.blogspot.com/2024/08/one-day-when-im-dead-ill-come-back-to.html

[datura-literature-journal]

The Difference between a Homeless Man and Studying Poetry at School by John Grey. Photograph Homeless by Psyberartist from Flickr https://beakful.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-difference-between-homeless-man-and.html

[datura-literature-journal]

[datura-literature-journal]

Bells. Whistles. Smoke. Screens. Lawyers. The lawyers win. Americans are famously attracted to the back porch light of conflict. Google invented it. Google wrote the script. Do no harm while you strangle other trade homo sapiens engage in. Are we giving it to you now.“ Yes, Google. Yes. Until you don’t. Google will fail. The concept of do no harm was thrown out of the ballpark decades ago. The only way you do no harm is to stop existing. All of these stuffed suits will fail. The reach for conflict is the conflict. Engagement. Is not increased engagement. It’s Vegas on steroids. Vegas on steroids does a lot of harm. Everything that is wrong with Google’s Genesis, their rolling out of AI, feels like (after checking out every company selling or renting AI) I cannot find the voice behind the voice, the soul of the thing, is a discovery. It’s not a good product. Yet. But that yet is a big one. Too little, too late. The bigness is a burden. For a company to pretend they do no harm, releasing a vague, lame, voice for everyone, is called attitude: We do not need you, you need us.” But no. Not everyone needs a monopoly to coexist with homo sapiens whose origins, too, usurp conflict after conflict. It is us even if we are loathe to admit it. Our lizard brains were arranged so as to recognize conflict, and go over there to start some of your own. In my subjective opinion, all search engines engage in placement hierarchy where conflict results in increased engagement. So end the conflict.

[datura-literature-journal]

Ancient Persian culture exerted a powerful influence throughout the Near East, and beyond, for over a thousand years between c. 550 BCE - 651 CE and many aspects of their culture continued to influence others afterwards and up through the present day.

The first Persian polity was the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550-330 BCE) which fell to Alexander the Great and, after his death, the region was held by the Hellenic Seleucid Empire (312-63 BCE) founded by one of Alexander’s generals Seleucus I Nicator (r. 305-281 BCE). Persian culture continued under the Seleucids, however, and again became dominant with the rise of the Parthian Empire (247 BCE-224 CE) and continued, at its greatest height, throughout the Sassanian Empire (224-651 CE) until the Persians were conquered by the invading Muslim Arabs.

From the earliest days of the Achaemenid Empire till the last of the Sassanians, the Persians introduced a number of novel concepts in innovations and inventions which are often taken for granted today or whose origins are largely unknown. Literary motifs, the custom of daily teatime, care for dogs, refrigeration and air conditioning, and many other established aspects of daily modern life originated or were developed by the ancient Persians.

The Persians held to an oral tradition of transmitting information, however, and so much of their history, until the Sassanian period, comes from others. A large part of whatever written records of the Achaemenids did exist was destroyed by Alexander when he burned the capital city of Persepolis in 330 BCE and the Parthians retained the oral tradition of their precursors and so much of Persian history was preserved by the Greeks and, later, the Romans. These writers did not always represent Persian culture accurately but provide enough information, coupled with archaeological evidence and what Persian sources remain, to recognize the power and vision of the culture and its enduring legacy.

Below are ten contributions and historical facts relating to the Persians which are often overlooked or largely unknown. These are only a notable few, however, and do not begin to address the vast scope of Persian achievement.

[datura-literature-journal]

[datura-literature-journal]

[datura-literature-journal]

[datura-literature-journal]

[datura-literature-journal]