#wow never thought i'd be getting emo over cicero

[astudyinfreewill]

So this excerpt that Maggie tweeted appears to be a quote from Cicero’s Laelius, also known as De Amicitia (On Friendship), and it means as if another self / just like another self.

I went to look up the Latin passage because I wanted to see how this worked within the paragraph, and after quickly translating it in my head, I thought it had some interesting potential for discussion.

The larger passage it comes from is as follows:

digni autem sunt amicitia, quibus in ipsis inest causa cur diligantur. rarum genus! et quidem omnia praeclara, rara, nec quicquam difficilius quam reperire quod sit omni ex parte in suo genere perfectum. sed plerique neque in rebus humanis quicquam bonum norunt nisi quod fructuosum sit, et amicos tamquam pecudes eos potissimum diligunt, ex quibus sperant se maximum fructum esse capturos.[80] ita pulcherrima illa et maxime naturali carent amicitia per se et propter se expetita,nec ipsi sibi exemplo sunt, haec vis amicitiae et qualis et quanta sit. ipse enim se quisque diligit, non ut aliquam a se ipse mercedem exigat caritatis suae, sed quod per se quisque sibi carus est; quod nisi idem in amicitiam transferetur, verus amicus numquam reperietur: est enim is qui est tamquam alter idem. (Cic. Lael. 21, 79-80).

And this is the translation (I didn’t feel like re-doing it all from scratch myself and making it pretty, because I was possessed by the feral urge to make this post, so I am using the one from this excellent website) -- emphasis mine:

Now they are worthy of friendship who have within their own souls the reason for their being loved. A rare class indeed! And really everything splendid is rare, and nothing is harder to find than something which in all respects is a perfect specimen of its kind. But the majority of men recognize nothing whatever in human experience as good unless it brings some profit and they regard their friends as they do their cattle, valuing most highly those which give hope of the largest gain. [80] Thus do they fail to attain that loveliest, most spontaneous friendship, which is desirable in and for itself; and they do not learn from their own experience what the power of such friendship is and are ignorant of its nature and extent. For everyone loves himself, not with a view of acquiring some profit himself from his self-love, but because he is dear to himself on his own account; and unless this same feeling were transferred to friendship, the real friend would never be found; for he is, as it were, another self.

While Cicero’s work is, as you can tell, a philosophical discussion about the value of disinterested/unselfish friendship, somehow I don’t think that’s quite what’s being discussed in the excerpt. There are a few other angles that could come into play here:

dream doubles: it’s pretty clear from the excerpt that Adam is visiting Ronan in one of his dreams, most likely by scrying/astral projecting (that is, unless Adam’s somehow figured out how to disappear in real life). So Adam could be taking the quote of context to explain how he’s there, not really physically but through a projection of his essence, “another self”

Lindenmere: Maggie replied to the original tweet saying that the excerpt might make more sense if you’ve read the Opal story. The first thing that came to my mind was Ronan struggling to make the new Cabeswater, because he wants to make it perfect, like the old Cabeswater but better, and Adam reassuring him that “it won’t be what you imagined, but it will be just as good”. So Lindenmere could be seen as Cabeswater’s “other self”. This also has additional meaning for each of them, because Ronan manifests Lindenmere as he manifested Cabeswater, and therefore they are a reflection of his soul (another self?); and though Adam’s special connection to Cabeswater was caused by his sacrifice to awaken the ley line, it’s possible that Lindenmere, being a manifestation of the same entity, taking energy from the same line, being Cabeswater’s other self, remembers him and might be responsive to him, making it easier for him to scry into it (and Ronan’s dreamspace). Currently, I believe this is the most likely option.

But there’s another level of it that intrigues me, and really, one that I think is true regardless of whether it’s what the characters are referencing. If you look at the passage I bolded, you’ll see that it compares disinterested friendship and sincere affection to loving oneself: we all love/care for ourselves in some way, at least a little bit, even if it’s just survival instinct, and we can’t have any ulterior motives in loving ourselves, because we have nothing material to gain -- only acceptance and happiness. It’s that concept of being “dear to someone on our own account”. And that, ultimately, is how Adam and Ronan feel about each other. Now I personally think -- watch me be clowned, but I’d bet on it -- that Ronan is going to struggle a lot with the dangers his dreaming poses to Adam (both in itself and because people are hunting him down) and I can see him trying to distance himself to keep Adam safe. So it’s not a stretch to imagine Adam showing up in Ronan’s dreams and Ronan telling him that it’s dangerous, that he shouldn’t worry about Ronan, that he needs to look after himself, and Adam replying that that’s ridiculous, because he cares about Ronan as if Ronan was Adam’s own self. And mayhaps I’m emo about that, because it really is the truth, whether or not it’s what the quote means here.

So, until November 5 rolls around and we find out for sure... have fun picking your favourite interpretation (or heck, all three of them - I know I am), and if you have any other ideas, let me know what you think!