Вчера на встрече книжного клуба Winner мы говорили о том, что романы, которые мы читаем и обсуждаем, насыщены отсылками к античным философам и классикам европейской литературы.
Эпиграфом к роману Дэниела Киза «Цветы для Элджернона» служит цитата из диалога Платона «Государство»
Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from causes, either from coming our of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter life, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light.
And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other; or, if he have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into the light, there will be more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the den.
