In it, a scientist engineers live in a laboratory: tiny people called Neoterics.
|
|
Kidder asserts his authority over the Neoterics by killing off half the population of Neoterics whenever they disobey his orders. Kidder communicates with the colony via 'teletype' and this device is considered divine by the Neoterics. Kidder's banker, Conant, who has grown immensely rich on the inventions passed on by Kidder, takes over the island on which Kidder has built his laboratory, hoping to use a Neoteric design for a new source of power to take over the world. When the banker strikes to kill Kidder and the workers who had assisted in building the power plant, Kidder asks the Neoterics to throw up an impenetrable force field.
|
|
Influenced by the Greek Hellenistic poets, the Neoterics or poetae novi (writing in the 1st century BC) rejected traditional social and literary norms. Their poetry is characterized by tight construction, a playful use of genre, punning, and complex allusions. The most significant surviving Neoteric works are those of Catullus. His poetry exemplifies the elegant vocabulary, meter, and sound which the Neoterics sought, while balancing it with the equally important allusive element of their style.
|
|
The Neoterikoi (Greek νεωτερικοί "new poets") or Neoterics were a series of avant-garde Latin poets who wrote in the 1st century BC. Neoteric poets deliberately turned away from classical Homeric epic poetry. Rather than focusing on the feats of ancient heroes and gods, they propagated a new style of poetry through stories that operated on a smaller scale in themes and setting. Although the poems of the Neoterics may seem to address superficial subjects, they are viewed as subtle and accomplished works of art.
|
|
The story ends years later. It is unknown whether or not Kidder is still alive under the shield, but it is certain that the Neoterics have continued to develop technology far in excess of anything controlled by humans.
|
|
It refers primarily to the erudite, shorter hexameter poems of the Hellenistic period and the similar works composed at Rome from the age of the neoterics; to a lesser degree, the term includes some poems of the English Renaissance, particularly those influenced by Ovid. The most famous example of classical epyllion is perhaps Catullus 64.
|
|
Latin poets normally classified as neoterics are Catullus and his fellow poets such as Helvius Cinna, Publius Valerius Cato, Marcus Furius Bibaculus, Quintus Cornificius, etc. Some neoteric stylistic features can also be seen in the works of Virgil, who was one generation younger than the poetae novi. They were occasionally the subject of scorn from older, more traditionally minded Romans such as Cicero.
|
|
Dee Clayman, Timon of Phlius 2009 pp 174-176The epigrams are more widely respected, and several have been incorporated into the Greek Anthology. According to Quintilian (10.1.58) he was the chief of the elegiac poets; his elegies were highly esteemed by the Romans (see Neoterics), and imitated by Ovid, Catullus, and especially Sextus Propertius. Many modern classicists hold Callimachus in high regard for his major influence on Latin poetry.
|
|
A highly secretive and reclusive biochemist named Kidder produces inventions that transform human life, spanning every aspect of science and engineering. Kidder is a brilliant scientist, but can only take others' ideas and turn them into usable products - he cannot innovate. Consequently he gets impatient with the slow progress of innovation by humans, and develops a synthetic life form, which he calls "Neoterics." These creatures live at a greatly accelerated rate, and therefore have a very short lifespan and produce many generations over a short period of time.
|
|
The Elegiae in Maecenatem cannot possibly be by Virgil, as Maecenas died eleven years after Virgil in 8 BC. The poems are all probably by different authors, except for the Lydia and Dirae which may have a common author, and have been given various, nebulous dates within the 1st century AD. The Culex and the Ciris are thought to have been composed under the emperor Tiberius.Schmidt, P. s.v. Culex and Ciris in Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World (Leiden, 2006) Some of the poems may be attempts to pass works off under Virgil's name as pseudepigraphia, such as the Catalepton, while others seem to be independent works that were subsumed into the collection like the Ciris which is influenced more by the late Republican neoterics than Virgil. Modern techniques have also been used to authenticate the components of the Appendix Vergiliana.
|
|