In the movie Amadeus there is a scene where Mozart is explaining to the Emperor Joseph II about the Opera he wishes to write- (Abduction from the Seraglio) and he is admonished to use a more elevated theme, and he mocks the elevated theme with "people so elevated you think they Bleeped text marble." He then asks
"Be honest your majesty, wouldn't you rather listen to your hairdresser than Hercules?"
A short time ago a friend was talking on my Yahoo Group, "The Society of Daisy" a group dedicated to humor and whimsy in gaming, that he liked to study the personalities and personages of history and he found them far more entertaining than people made up in Imagi-Nations.
Perhaps, and there are a lot, but most of them have been nipped and tucked and plastered over and pablamized and bowdlerized till they are caricatures and kewpie dolls. It strikes me that most people of history may be great and grand or villainous, but I imagine that most were crashing offensive bores, probably had poor hygiene, and little able to talk about anyone but themselves and entirely all to self justifying. Admittedly there were a few like Washington or Einstein, or Schweitzer of the guy from Nazareth, but the great men of history are also often the great criminals of history. I would not relish a table top chat with Hitler or Stalin over dinner.
For me, I'd rather talk to my hairdresser.
