@@Retrovorious Says about 1 billion people :) - the reason why people eat anything whats been fed to them today. Lucian living today would be the richest man alive, his movies would make hundreds of millions each, like every marvel and dc movie are making...
@@LegoGBlok Yes there are people who just consume everything without thinking but that’s not the same for everyone. Just because I watch everything doesn’t mean I’ll approve of everything. One needs to experience something before appraisal. Those who dismiss something without even looking at it are not the deepest thinkers.
"I confidently pronounce that truthfully, I lie" How ballsy to tell people everything you're about to say is false and then follow it up with "stay tuned for part 2". I love it.
@@TommyBKWL Somebody already did that. A fan of A True Story came from the future gave a Lucian copy of a mysterious book from the future, and Lucian liked it so much it inspired him to write A True Story.
Kinda like when Darth Vader saved Luke from the Emperor and suddenly Vader is forgiven for murdering millions of people when he blew up that planet with the Death Star.
I first heard the line "There are no women on the Moon", in Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged. I figured it was a reference to something, but I had no idea that it would be a 2000-year old sci-fi story.
The fact everyone speaks greek feels like the "you speak the universal language, english" joke before its time (aka isolated aliens from distant space that, even upon first meeting mankind, are nontheless already fluent in English for some reason).
Some pieces of fiction handle this well In Dragon Ball, everyone speaks Japanese because it’s the language that the gods speak, and they created the planets
One example I can think of off the top of my head that doesn't follow that rule is Stargate the 1994 movie, the abydonians speak a version of ancient Egyptian (which Daniel is able to translate after finding the differences) however in the show follow up sg1 Daniel must have taught the whole galaxy English, because most of the time thats what everyone speaks, in my opinion it kinda ruins the magic a little bit, though I can see how it would be hard for only 1 team member to talk to the inhabitants of other worlds.
@@commit7059 Yeah, they tried to stick with it for a couple episodes but realized that it kind of bogged down the adventure plot a lot. The in-universe justification for the retcon was, if I recall, that there were translator microbes in the Stargate that eventually allowed them to understand languages. But really it they were just trying to simplify the stories.
@@merseyviking haha :) maybe he purposely said he'd make a sequel and then didn't: it would force his fans to use their imagination and create fan fiction
i love this so much, he starts it out by saying “this is a bit, im doing a bit” and proceeds to write the weirdest story ever, and knowing the kind of shit people would spew about foreign lands way back then, it’s absolutely hilarious
12:35 - That's one reference that _wasn't_ lost to time! Cloudcuckooland is from Aristophanes' satirical play _The Birds,_ in which the birds of the earth decide to build a city in the clouds and blockade the air so that the steam of humanity's sacrifices to the gods can't reach the heavens, starving the gods out and forcing them to negotiate a deal with the new kingdom of birds.
OH. MY. GOD. This is has Monty Python written all over it! How has it never been turned into a movie?! I guarantee 80% of the satire is still relevant nowadays!!
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen seems to be based off of this and there is a movie. It's pretty good. There also is an old Baron Munchausen cartoon movie.
@@ooooowwussthaataseloik2866 I have one which is a combination of live-action and animation. It was made back in the 60's and depicts a cosmonaut landing on the moon and meeting Baron Munchausen along with other historical figures.
I really love this Lucian dude. Absolutely giving no F's and calling out everyone else's bulls*** by outdoing them at their own game. Satire really hasn't changed.
12:37 For those interested, "Cloud Cuckoo Land" is a reference to another Greek absurdist satire, "The Birds", by Aristophanes. Its about some guys who team up with a bunch of birds to build a rival heaven and try to out-compete the Olympian Gods, very 'in the style' of this work.
I was genuinely beaming all the way through the story. It was so unique and creative, and so fascinatingly clever. It was so fresh, despite being nearly 2000 years old. I loved it.
Fun fact, calf of the leg was an ancient euphemism for a man's family jewels (which itself is a euphemism), similar to how Zeus after accidentally un-existing Dyonisus' mom while she was pregnant with him, he grabbed fetus Dyo and let him finish developing by sewing him to the "calf of his leg"
A lot of genital-focused body horror in Greek myth, between Zeus, his grandpa Uranos, and poor Cerberus edit: Somehow I forgot abt Priapas, the worst of all
Lucian of Samosata, the father of the legal rider: “This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”
*Travels deep into the depths of Hell and comes across a man enduring the most gruesome of tortures imaginable* "Hello sir, could you please enlighten me on the current sociopolitical status of Florence?"
@@alexanderzippel8809 Dante writed The Divine Comedy as his travel through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. How convenient is that his political enemies are in Hell, don't you think?
Lucian put himself in a crazy fiction where he goes in every part of the known universe and meets gods and very famous people in history before Dante did it in the Divine Comedy, what a mad lad.
@@anderty4088 Lucian was well-known in rennaisance Europe even more in Victorian times, inspired picaresque lit, pinocchio, decameron and many other classic books
@@marcparella as literally as possible. I know what the average sci-fi movie is, it's not like I would have really cared about this video if I didn't. I said I wanted *this* story in a movie, not soklme watered down average sci-fi you would see on the CW.
As someone that had to study ancient greek and latin literature we never actually got past mentioning Lucian and his 'A true story', but there is one bit that I read on my own that, again, as someone studying greek literature is still the funniest thing to me: Lucian meeting Homer (the writer on the Hiliad) and asking him why the book starts with the word 'Rage' and he is just 'Dunno, I just felt like it, y'know', 'cause like... Damn, has that detail been over analyzed to death.
Lucian was so sick of travelogues and nitpicky political debates cluttering his Ancient Greek bookstore equivalent he wrote an outlandish tongue-in-cheek tale. Meanwhile I recall the the travel blogs and lukewarm political takes cluttering up my UA-cam rec page. The more things change the more they stay the same. 😄
He was even parodying Christians (specifically the death of a martyr) when they were just one among many random religious movements. Truly ahead of his time.
@@merrittanimation7721 the concept of the martyr was around long before Christ was.....Prometheus was a martyr, he was the demigod who gave humanity fire and was punished for defying the gods?? ugh
"Plato was not there. It is said that he was living in an imaginary city under the constitution and laws that he himself wrote." RIP my sides. Two thumbs up to Lucian the Great.
This has to be one of the greatest/earliest recorded burns, right up there with that clay tablet complaining about receiving inferior copper ore. "Did I not pay for good quality ore, and yet I received inferior quality ore?!?" Good stuff.
I saw an interview where GRR Martin butthurt, that he was saying "fans used to love stars wars, lotr, all these stories, and wanted more of them, now they hate them, I just can't understand why" can't believe he didn't realize, it's the content that is good and worth watching that fans loved, not just anything no matter how bad it is
@Tenchi707 the problem is that most casual people got into it from the show, and the showrunners basically did a series speedrun to quit and work on Star Wars (lmao), which ended horribly and probably did irreparable damage to the series' reputation.
I REALLY need a high budget completely literal adaption of this whole book, including the sequel bait. I might not understand any of the references but just the absurdness would be entertaining enough
Would be great if someone could adapt it and modernize the references so we get the feel they had with it. And use it to satirize stuff that was written after as well. haha
The animaniacs could do their entire third season just copying this, change the satirical references to modern day, and no one would know the difference
I dunno who says ancient humor isn't funny, this is hilarious. Sure, there's bound to be references to people and events most modern humans wouldn't be aware of but the sheer absurdity is enjoyable.
My man had me flabbergasted when instead of ending the story when the characters got back to earth from the moon he hit us with "and this is where they get swallowed by a whale!"
I mean if you going to go for crazy shenanigans, why not go all the way and throw a giant whale into the mix. Worked for Moby Dick and hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy.
@Brian Whedon Jona and whale story has its inspiration from Perseus, or other story relating to Jappa-Tartessus seafarers that has probably inspired both.
Ya, it seemed that way when he got to the part where he was basically just going "and Homer was there and Pythagoras was there but Plato wasn't there cause his stuff sucked"
"There, Lucian meets the heroes of the Trojan War, other mythical men and animals, as well as Homer and Pythagoras. They find sinners being punished, the worst of them being the ones who had written books with lies and fantasies, including Herodotus and Ctesias " Dude had no chill 😂
Luckily, you speak Greek, as is the natural convention. My favorite part (it's so hard to choose) comes right at the start with that "disclaimer." "Any resemblance to persons living or dead is ENTIRELY INTENTIONAL, THAT'S RIGHT, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE"
Diogenes was also a greek who is of a similar legend. Back then, it was common to just spit anywhere, so when he was invited into a rich man’s home the man urged him not to spit on his nice floor or his nice furniture or his nice drapes, so Diogenes just spit in his face lmao. When Alexander the Great proclaimed “if I were not myself, I would wish to be Diogenes” to which Diogenes responded “I agree. If I were not myself, I would wish to be Diogenes too.” Though the best story was upon hearing Plato say that man was a featherless biped, he took a chicken, plucked out all its feathers and went “Behold! A man!”
@@MrZer093 Diogenes also jacked off in public, pissed on people who insulted him, and flipped people off (technically, pointing your middle finger was considered insulting). So, he was the ancient greek equivalent of the stereotypical homeless guy.
I love how when you think you've reached a point where it can't get weirder, it gets weirder. Also this could be adapted into a three hour movie or even a mini-series. I'd totally watch it.
Absolutely! A very watchable mini-series... And directed properly, with all of our CGI capabilities, it could be done very well in a way that would retain everyone's attention, notwithstanding the fact it is set in the ancient past and utilizes archaic technologies. That would be part of the charm.
I love the fact that he mocks other authors with the "Just go see it for yourself" like they fucking knew big majority of the readers would never be able to go see distant lands
And philosophers as well: "Plato was not there. It was said that he was living in an imaginary city under the constitution and laws that he himself wrote." 🤣
@@Barskor1 Not really couch potatoes. Traveling to distant lands back then for average people was like traveling to Mars. It was insanely expensive and took months if not years to do.
He was taught in Greek highschools, at least since the 1880s! But I remember feeling elated, to say the least, when I got to teach (I'm a primary school teacher) an excerpt of "True Story". The kids loved it, we wrote our own sequels! Lucian's spirit would too be... elated! :)
seems like you didnt get the point, Plato is living in an *imaginary* after life which he himself wrote which means Plato never existed and his book is nonsense
Took ancient greek in HS and I tell you the utter confusion when in the second year quite randomly a translation exam was an excerpt from their encounter with the pumpkin pirates. We all tried to force it to make sense as we were used to "serious" classics (taught us that grammar and syntax are indeed sovreign). The whole (4 people) class was so confused it was hilarious. We ended up focusing on this book that year, translating a lot of it, and to this day that has been the most fun I ever had translating something. Thank you, Prof. Lolli, truly a core memory
Mentioning the spider's name may have been a comment on Cato the Elder's history of the Punic Wars, in which the only name he uses is that of Surrus the Elephant. Surrus was an especially brave and effective war elephant who fought on the Carthaginian side. Cato pointedly refuses to name any of the Roman combatants because histories written by Roman politicians, or more likely by educated Greeks they hired to write histories, were written mainly as propaganda to help their political careers. If Appius Claudius hired someone to write a history of the Punic Wars, the names of his heroic ancestors and their valiant deeds would figure with suspicious prominence. Since these ancestors would all, because this is how Roman names worked, all bear the name Appius Claudius, you can see how this might make present-day Appius Claudius look pretty good to the electorate. So Cato wrote this history of the Punic Wars in which only Surrus the Elephant gets a name check. Cato, you see, was a "new man", someone whose ancestors had never held public office, and therefore never led Roman armies in the Punic War, or any war.
One thing I found interesting was the possible indication of North American continent at 15:50 onwards. "great continent which is opposite to the one your people inhabit". Makes you wander if by 2nd century Greeks had knowledge of new world ! There are theories like from Plutarch's work De Facie which mentions of a great continent east of the pillars of Hercules. They definitely visited azores, celtic britain and were aware of Iceland and Greenland based on available studies. So few visits to canada/newfoundland might not be entirely impossible. makes you wander, how new is actually the new world !
@@linkme2dnet Sure, it seems quite likely that the Americas were "discovered" many times after the Native Americans actually discovered the place. I don't buy the argument from technology, that before late Renaissance ships were available -- okay, yes, we have to throw in Viking age ships -- no way could more primitive ship designs make it across the oceans. When we had to acknowledge that the Vikings made the journey, the argument form technological limitation was decisively outflanked. What is a bit mysterious is that once having "discovered" all that land, there wasn't a land rush. The Old World had suffered from overcrowding for centuries, and at a time when farmland meant the difference between life and starvation, you would think that the (relatively) free and open land in the New World (or at least big swaths of it) would have been an irresistible draw. Maybe colonization only worked later because Europeans caught the Native Americans during some slump in their will and ability to fight off land-grabbers. We have to imagine that earlier they managed to wipe out the intruders before they were dispossessed of their land, but that failed in the 16th and 17th centuries. I don't find the lack of really clear and solid (solid meaning non-literary and non-ironic, if the author here is referring to actual discovery) mention of the discovery of the New World terribly surprising. Many achievements of antiquity were never memorialized in any writing that survived. Rome it seems had high rise buildings, and the Ptolemies had ships with crews in the thousands, and there were apparently steam engines and things like the Antikythera device that just didn't make the very narrow cut of mention in the amazingly small percentage of ancient writing that survived.
@@linkme2dnet Possibly - but the Greeks also believed that all landmasses on Earth had to be balanced, with land opposite them. They were aware that the earth was round, and the only way they could imagine that actually working was with a balance of masses. Thus the imagined continent of Terra Australia - Southern Land - as a counter to Europe. It's because of that imagined continent that modern Australia has its name. See also Antarctica - "rival to/opposite of the Arctic"
@@2gtomkins The "some slump in their will and ability to fight" is well documented: an Apocalypse of disease wiped out over 90% of the inhabitants of North America. There were thriving civilizations long, long ago, even in areas along the Mississippi river. There are early documented reports of great cities along the Mississippi that were gone by the time Europeans truly colonized that region. There are still archeological results to that show people thrived in a civilized system in this area. It's truly sad that these societies and the people are all lost to time.
@@Raveler1 What we call America the ancients called Perioeci. But they had no idea whether it actually existed. It was believed to be the Western counterpart of The Oecumene (that is the three linked continents of Africa/Asia/Europe. It was then believed that Africa did not extend south of The Equator.
Samosata wasn't a part of the Ancient Greece. It's located in southeastern Turkey near Syria. Lucian wasn't Greek. He was a culturally Hellenized Assyrian.
I like how he starts the story out as a typical odyssey showing us that these stories were already told by Hercules and such - instead he literally catapults them off into outer space just to ridicule the bullshit that was spread at that time in travelogs. This man was truly ahead of his time.
This story is in the public domain due to pre-dating mega corporation. You could make a sequel, thus turning one of his lies into the truth. Denying this man in death his spiteful and smug satisfaction. And there's no force on Earth that could stop you.
No there's is one, but only one : the quality of your writing. Because you can't compete with the man who have created the longest clef anger of history!
@@heraut Unless the writing were to be the critique of modernity - I would write it as a fun little romp for myself, but I genuinely want to see if we can get Neil Gaiman to do it, in collaboration with Stephen Fry?
The only problem is that I don't think modern man could easily recreate the world as an ancient greecian would imagine it. We already know North America exists. I think our understanding of reality would make writing a sequel difficult, because we would have to forget everything we know about the actual world, and it still might just end up seeming inspired by Gulliver's travels. Maybe Gulliver's travels is a sort of sequel to this.
He also specified "I shall tell you" your are not the "I" in the context of the sentence, so even if you write a sequel "I shall tell you in the next book" will still be a lie because "I" didn't write the next book, you did
People haven’t really changed since we began much further back than 2000 years ago. Just different environments and technology (yes a wooden stick with a sculpted point is technology).
You can easily go back another 500 years and read Plato, or Aristophanes' "Clouds". You can't deny the modernistic humanity and humour of their characters. Or listen to Irving Finkel talk about his beloved Sumerian culture going back 5000 years. He's got lots of vids up on this app.
I'd guess that that detail was meant to satirize travelers who said they met no one but tribes of beautiful women, whose queen of course offered all of their hands--including her own--to the dashing Greek explorers.
@@iivin4233 I think that and the way in which he writes it as though it's similarly his own fantasy fulfillment fiction to those previous stories is the best part. (This is honestly one of the ancient works worth a read.) Modern authors keep pulling out "odyssey/argonauts/illiad/aneaed but in space" like it's a new concept but it's actually gd functionally as old as the common era and I adore that Edit: Like, in the correct translation, A True Story legit just feels like classic golden age sci fi.
Captured by Moon Guards, taken to their king, invited to join in a grand war... This feels like something from a pulp fiction story like Flash Gordon. It's interesting how people's minds can go to the same places, despite being centuries apart.
Flash was caught by one side, his new girlfriend was taken to "marry" the emperor, against her will, and the scientist that got them there, so escaped, found others who disliked the emperor ( yes captured, invited to join the war ) just to get to get his friends back.
@catheh17 But in Sailor Moon, not only do females exist but they are useful... ( the original moon people didn't have any women ( don't know how that works ) and, well, in flash they were ornamental )
Begins by stating that everything in the book is fiction and then says "I confidently Pronounce that truthfully, I lie". Ends the story on a cliff hanger with a promise to continue the story in the next book. It's fascinating to find out that the oldest act of "trolling your audience" was done by the Ancient Greeks. They truly were minds far ahead of their time.
"if you think i am lying go there yourself" honestly funniest shit ever literally telling people to go to the fucking moon is such a great example of satire its insane
This shows just how ruthless ancient satire could be. "Oh, everyone is telling these crazy stories as if they actually happened? Well let me write the most off the wall insane bullshit anyone has ever heard about lettuce space people and dogs flying acorns around the Sun, and repeatedly say that I'm not lying and that anyone who say I am can go see it thenselves. And let me call this insane tome a true story just to fuck with my contemporaries."
I’m absolutely LIVING for the ancient drama and tea that Lucian was spilling. It’s sad we may never know whom he was taunting or understand many of the pop cultural references he was making throughout that book. CGPGrey had a similarly fun time exploring Thomas Hearne and the shade that Alexander Pope threw at him in the 18th century. I hope we’re able to preserve our history better than even them so that one day in the year 4022 people are still able to enjoy the subtleties of things like Futurama or the Onion in a similar way as we do today.
They never will because part of the fun of pop culture subtleties is living through it. Even if we knew the context around the shade Lucian was throwing and at who, it will never be as crazy as it must've been back then.
Another really good one to read is Erasmus. That man couldn't write one paragraph without dropping a sick burn on someone. He had to insult someone and it always had to be Simon Cowell or Gordon Ramsay quality.
Idk man, when I watch a fresh prince of bell air, or Seinfeld episode today half of their references fly over my head like an arrow and their only from the 90's also, futurama has this futuristic feel, but it was written when Watergate jokes were still relevant imagine how this all will age 30 years from now imagine 300 a 1000 years time is just brutal
I think maybe modern day meme shitpost Internet culture is perhaps not very far removed from Ancient Greek satire humor. We as a society have done a complete 180 back to the ancient times
@@k4tgames212 I'd like to recommend Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series to you in case you haven't heard of it. It's every bit as absurdist and comedic as Discworld is, but like Lucian's story, it's sci-fi.
@@moondust2365 We have designs and loose plans to use them in the future (E.G. Space X's tiny drones they want to accelerate to 1/3 the speed of light using lasers), but I'm not aware of any currently in use either.
I'm Greek, and I remember reading an excerpt from the space battle between the Sun and the Moon in my Elementary School Greek Language book; the artwork was hauntingly detailed as well.
This is the same guy who wrote "Alexander the Oracle-Monger," a nonfiction account of Lucian and his skeptical buddies exposing the tricks of a cult leader who had a puppet he passed off as a talking snake god. It's a great read.
...things I'd forgotten, reading it again: 1. Lucian does yet more dunking on Platonists in it; 2. at one point Alexander gets into dispensing bogus medical advice during an epidemic. 3. Many years later, after a series of fights with Lucian and his fellow debunkers, Alexander himself gets sick and what really puts an end to his career is when the doctors discover his magnificent flowing locks are a hairpiece.
@@MattMcIrvin Yknow, I've always disliked Plato, what little I heard about him. I'm glad to know I'm in the good company of the first sci fi author ever.
How can you resist the opening lines of that one? “I am sorry you asked me to write this person's biography, because he would much more deserve to be torn apart by monkeys and foxes in front of a packed stadium than have his life immortalised in literature.”
I weirdly love ancient storytelling structure, we are so accustomed to 3/5 act structure that we now find ancient story structures alien absurd. Stuffs just keep on happening. One after another like there is no end.
It's not as wild as this story, but you might enjoy watching "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen". It's a fun, sort of nonsensical story about impossible feats and places.
@@Secondary_Identifier For that matter I'd suggest The Fabulous Baron Munchausen by Karel Zeman! incredible Czech film with some of the best visuals I've seen, not only for the time it was made but just in general. Magnificent excess!
Its interesting to see that even in the past people where wondering about the future and about going into outer space. Although the story is mostly satire, it is still interesting when you learn the historical context
Typical sci-fi, everyone always speaks the same language. Even Lucian couldn't be arsed trying to deal with translating alien languages whenever his crew went somewhere new.
@@Hawk_of_Battletbf, even writing cosmic horror rn where the ancient beings can speak their own language or any of ours, making a fake language is friggin HARD
I think it's more specific than that. How many sci-fi movie aliens end up speaking English? Even the convenience that they would vocalize language at all?
I think his thought process when writing the book was that he started like how all others would, but then thought "you know what, I'm lying to the reader, they know I'm lying, LETS GO TO THE MOON!" and made the most absurd stuff ever and knowing no would fact check him, because he already beat everyone to it. and I bet everyone liked it because of how bizarre it was and how imagitive it became not having to make it seem real, but instead making the imagination stur, yep, I'm definitely putting you in the hall of fame of writers for that.
No, I think the idea is to intentionally make the most absurd story possible as a statement that all other stories of the type are similarly absurd, even if the absurdity in other stories is more subtle. In short, the sheer absurdity itself is the satirical message.
A mix of satire, philosophy by way of debate, and travelogue does seem to be a pretty good root for Scifi. The entire point of the genre is the hypothetical as a means of contemplation, so going to the edge of the map and seeing something familiar and referential is exactly where I would expect that tradition to start without the lens of science and technology. Even if that wasn't really the intent at the time. Heck, this reminds me quite a bit of Gulliver's Travels, which I have always held as being another precursor to modern speculative fiction for it's mix of satirical allegory and implausible circumstances.
Lucian is an absolute legend. The whole "go see it for yourself" bit gives me exactly the same vibe as a shitpost making fun of TPUSA. "Dear sceptics, you say I am lying yet you have never been to the moon yourselves. Curious. 🤔" He seems kind of like an ancient version of Douglas Adams to me. I'm actually pretty curious what he'd think of the state of literature nowadays, like how the genre of fiction and science-fiction especially has evolved, and the prevalence of social commentary and the exploration of political or philosophical themes and ideas.
The thought of space being filled with air is almost comforting. I feel like if there was anything filling the space then the massive expanse of emptiness wouldn't feel as terrifying.
But there are things in space….mainly space…and time, and the occasional particle. Space and time are material constituents of the Universe just not in the way that we typically envision “stuff”.
If were space suddenly filled with air, gravity would immediately cause a level of star and black hole formation not seen since the beginning of the universe. Earth would quickly be engulfed in a flash of plasma. This would,of course, be terrible for the economy.
Don't want to be annoying, just want to clarify: Solar sails don't work with "wind", ther is no real wind in space. The solar wind is just a bunch of particles (protons mainly) constantly getting ejected from the sun and would not be able to "push" anything (because there are too few of them), the high energy of those particles will hurt you or damage equipment similar to powerful X-rays though. Solar sails work independently from solar wind, as confusiong as that sounds. Solar sails use the so called radiation pressure of photons (light "particles) to get propelled forward because even if photons don't really have any mass we can measure, photons that hit a surface still give the surface a tiny bit of momentum. And when you use a huge surface/sail that photon pressure is enough to technically propel things away from the sun.
I mean, it's what the translator came up with, since the original is in Ancient Greek. The owl was Athena's animal, but I assume whatever was in the original was a satirical dig at some political figure or fellow writer.
I love this story! I'm Greek and in ancient Greek class we read a segment of this story in the original language and then had to draw the moon men it was the only ancient Greek lesson I ever liked
The fun part is that Lucian was Syrian and he worked in Egypt... so while he wrote all of his works in Greek, his own first language was Aramaic. So not only did he not live in Greece, he was not ethnically Greek. It's safe to say that's why he wanted to emphasise that even people in space spoke Greek, since the Greeks seemed to think everybody should. His main audience were Greeks since he loved to travel in Greece, which he could do easily since Egypt and Greece were both part of the Roman Empire. But I'm certain the language being taken for granted sometimes bothered him, especially since Latin had all but replaced other languages across the Mediterranean sea, all except the Greek language.
Yeah, that joke aged perfectly. Lucian wrote his book for an audience of an intellectual in-crowd, and the fact that I get it makes me feel like I'm part of that crowd.
Id like to point out that, as it is approximately 1.8 thousand years old, this story is in the public domain and anyone can make their own adaptation of it.
@@VelvetMetrolink then they'll put in the most political stuff in it as fast as possible and blame a random person for being insensitive and a being mean jerk.
@CreeperkingHT This comment is about you and the way you perceive the world, not about Disney. Every piece of content is political because that is the nature of politics. You either question the status quo or go along with it. Going along with it is just as political an act as calling for change. Both are inherently political positions. What you are saying is the politics in them offends you. Normally when people say that, the politics they are offended by is the representation of people who traditionally went unrepresented in media and are different to them.
@@VelvetMetrolink Bro. IT was a joke. No source of fictional media offends me because I don't care about the politics in them, I'm just aware of it. Whoop de doo. It was a satirical comment on how companies put political perspectives into shows that aren't necessary, like Star Wars. Sure people get upset, that's fine, but me I don't care man. I know everything isnt about me and that's fine, even great ( I don't like the feeling of the world staring at me, too much stress.) My opinion is my opinion and people can care or not care, and that's whatever dude. Politics are boring. Don't take it so seriously, like how this story does, just for fun and goofiness and adventure. Disney may mess up sometimes and there's shame of making some humor out of it. They do what they do.:) P.S Congratulations you just wasted your time over a joke comment. :P
This story reminds me of of one of his actual movies: The Adventures of Baron Von Monchouser. The plot is different but the framing de ice is that this eccentric old man is telling these insane off-the wall stories about his life and exploits and no one believes him.
@@Elonyx.studios I love that movie! I remember when it was first released the critics shit on it hard. It was at that point I learned not to trust their opinions.
i honestly want a full series of this, maybe animated, with unironically high budget and the best CGI only for it to end with a "To be Continue" that will never resolve, or maybe just leads up to a super meta story of people after the fact trying to come up with a good enough story to end it.
The whole "This is FICTION!" disclaimer was important because the idea of fiction was so foreign to ancient Greece. Like, they had it, but there were very strict conventions to be observed so as to not confuse the common man. The first time an actor actually played a part instead of being a storyteller, there was written outrage that the common yokel would think the actor truly was the character and how dare these theatre people tell such lies and try to pass themselves off as Dionysus or Medea?
I'm reminded of the late dawn of "talkie" film-making, when film-makers started to realize they could add music soundtracks. We take these for granted today, but at the time, there was no proper convention for it, the idea of a music soundtrack was so avant-garde and weird, film-makers worried that the audience would be disturbed by music that didn't have an in-movie source... "Where IS all that music coming from???" Audiences, it seems, are a little smarter than critics and movie studios give them credit for, though, so it seems that musical soundtracks - much like special effects, actors who are not the same people as their characters, and fictional story-telling - were pretty readily embraced by ordinary people, who have accepted it all as part of the experience! And I mention special effects because, in the early days of silent film-making, special effects were considered to be sort of the realm of stage magicians: a slightly shifty sort of thing that was maybe meant to lie to and trick the audience, rather than a form of art in their own right, which is how audiences actually accepted special effects. So, that "weird silent French movie" - 'A Trip to the Moon' - was actually the work of George Melies, director, special-effects creator, producer, etc., who was also an accomplished stage magician, with many of his movie's special effects being pretty obviously derived from a mix of stage magic, puppet shows, and stage play backdrops, costumes, and props, presented in a fanciful way that was certainly meant to be more playful, than convincing. Thomas Edison made a couple early sci-fi movies, too, which similarly depended on stage magic. And then, there are NINJAS! Mention "ninja" to anyone today, and they'll probably picture a guy dressed in black outfits and masks, where ninjas, as assassins, almost certainly dressed more like ordinary people who blended into the background - farmers, messengers, servants, and that sort of thing. The modern "ninja" costume is actually that of stage-hands in Japanese theater: the guys who moved stage dressing around between acts, supplied special effects, and that sort of thing - the black outfits helped the stagehands to blend into the background off the sides of the stage, where the audience might see them, but could safely ignore them. Until someone needed an assassin in a play, and decided to do something really weird, shocking, and avant-garde: rather than the usual practice of choosing one of of the lesser characters on stage to be the ninja, one of the stage-hands was written into the play as the ninja - nobody saw THAT coming! It was so shocking and such a bold, attention-getting, and popular decision, that the modern black-clad ninja was born! It would have been sort of like watching a traditional western stage play, and having a member of the audience jump up onto the stage to "assassinate" another character! Which, come to think of it, was a popular gimmick in professional wrestling, which would similarly "break the fourth wall" and have staged arguments and fights between wrestlers and the audience, beginning with the old days of pro wrestling, which started as a kind of circus side-show which would encourage local wrestlers - who were usually secretly in on a rigged show, before pro wrestling came to openly acknowledge it's a "work" - to emerge from the audience to compete with the professionals. In more recent years, having random characters jump out of the audience to fight famous wrestlers as the start of a new feud is a pretty common way to introduce a new wrestler. It probably didn't take early audiences very long to figure out the truth about pro-wrestling, and just accept it as part of the show, much like stage magic audiences understand that it's all sleight of hand, and that's the real art of a magic show, rather than actually believing in magic! The fourth-wall-breaking gimmick is another one of those things where there were little rules that got deliberately broken eventually, which might be one of the last few examples that still shock audiences even today: it must have been pretty weird for audiences the first time they saw actors on stage address the audience directly in, say a Shakespearean play! As a routine part of post-modernism, we kind of accept that sort of thing as more or less normal, but film-makers even now find new ways to shock audiences a little with new ways of doing this! (The horror movie 'Funny Games' infamously used this trick to have maniac killers use a TV remote control to "undo" a scene where one of their victims almost escapes! Before that, William Castle in the 1950s infamously produced horror movies with accompanying gimmicks that included skeletons that would float over theater audiences on wires, or seats that were wired to "buzz" some audience members when a monster known as 'The Tingler' supposedly escapes into a theater on-screen in the movie by the same name while Vincent Price instructs the audience to scream for their lives - the gimmicks are famous, but they would still weird audiences out today as something that hasn't really turned into a cliche yet!) Speaking of horror movies, that travelogue gimmick that this early sci-fi story parodies still exists, after a fashion, even today: it's the early ancestor of the Found Footage Film! You were still seeing the travelogue being parodied as recently as 'Gulliver's Travels', while the practically identical "trope" of telling a fantasy, sci-fi, or horror story in the format of a fictional confession, diary, newspaper article, or manuscript in a bottle was pretty well-established by the time Edgar Allan Poe made it a permanent staple of Gothic literature. The next logical thing, after trick ghost photography played the whole thing straight in the age of Spiritualism, was for someone to simply trade in the old apocalyptic log confession or journal entries for a movie camera....
In the mean time, give Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen from 1988 a watch as the next-best thing. It's even got Robin Williams as the king of the moon.
@@TheCrazyHedgehogLady He doesn’t mean they need more writers. He wants people who know how to use Blender (3d modelling software) to animate this into a story
The guy wrote one of the earliest sci-fi, spoof, political commentary, expose content on fake celebrities, yaoi themed utopia, treesome porn, weapons made out of asparagus, and ultimately teased a sequel that would never be made. This Lucian dude was ahead of his time.
I grew up in Greece where we had the pleasure of studying Loukianos at school, both parts of the True Story and a couple of his Dialogues of the Dead. Loved him. It's hard to convince teenagers that a 2000 year old writer is actually funny, but he made it somehow. ETA: It's been decades since then, but I think I remember the weird random details being references to current events. I also remember the line "if you don't believe me go see for yourselves" having a footnote explaining the joke in the schoolbook. Because the authors did put some satirists in our schoolbook, but they did not trust us to get it...? I guess?
Really I think dwindling reading comprehension in modern society is a reason a lot of people don’t “get it”. Most people would never even attempt to read this because of too many four syllable words :/
I feel like some of the perspective of what made this particular story funny kind of changed over the two eras. Back then, it was “facts” that were so absurdly impossible and provided commentary on other contemporary authors, it was relatable. Today, while giving perspective had elements of things we probably would guess they couldn’t figure out given the advances in technology, but then throw a curveball with concepts that strongly parallel modern things, ideas, and concepts AI and how its utilized both in real world application and modern sci-fi storytelling such as the world with floating lamps that were assigned purposes, like a sort of code, or ideas that resemble things you’re more likely to find in a weird fanfic where the author really wants two men to get together but one dies and the other has a canonical child and wasn’t that into women in the literal canon text, so mpreg, except instead of “Kakyoin laid an egg for Jotaro and hatch out Jolyne”, you get leg babies.
Are you kidding? Lucian’s my favorite author of all time! I read A True Story 2,000 years ago back when it first published and it was a treat! It’s been 2,000 years and the small community of Lucian’s fan base is still waiting on A True Story: The Truest of Them All, but I heard Lucian’s already finished half of it! It’s very exciting to see where he’ll take it, a favorite fan theory is that he meets Joe Biden in Mars! Thrilled!
Hi there. I'm making a movie, and I need your help: bit.ly/GOATLAS
cope
Love the vid. Someone needs to make this in to a Movie or TV show. It's KRAZY FUN!!!
i8 No man is an island, cope with the fact you exist by the grace of others, one way or another.
This should be a movie
Pleeease learn how to pronounce Samosata, it's painful to listen to the way you say it.
Not only did he write about space, he also ended on a cliffhanger and never made a sequel. He was truly way ahead of his time.
Netflix looking for ideas for 1-season series: "WRITE THAT DOWN! WRITE THAT DOWN!!"
If it’s made into a movie I’ll watch it.
@@Retrovorious Says about 1 billion people :) - the reason why people eat anything whats been fed to them today. Lucian living today would be the richest man alive, his movies would make hundreds of millions each, like every marvel and dc movie are making...
George RR Martin isn’t the innovator we thought he was then!
@@LegoGBlok Yes there are people who just consume everything without thinking but that’s not the same for everyone. Just because I watch everything doesn’t mean I’ll approve of everything. One needs to experience something before appraisal. Those who dismiss something without even looking at it are not the deepest thinkers.
"I confidently pronounce that truthfully, I lie"
How ballsy to tell people everything you're about to say is false and then follow it up with "stay tuned for part 2". I love it.
this is an old old trope. in arabic oral tradition "there was, there was not a girl named..."
I know right!
Him: "I made it up"
Them: "OUTRAGEOUS!"
500th like!, I'm indifferent to this comment but it hurt seeing 499 likes and I just thought you should know
Well, he lied about that too, because he never wrote a "Part 2" :D
Now I know where Mel brooks history of the world stole their ending from🤣
Sounds like Lucian would have loved hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
someone better go back in time and give him a copy
@@TommyBKWL Somebody already did that. A fan of A True Story came from the future gave a Lucian copy of a mysterious book from the future, and Lucian liked it so much it inspired him to write A True Story.
you mean hitchhikers guide to the galaxy is based on this loosely
Yooo. It’s so fucked. A man WAY ahead of his time. Trapped within time.
@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 and of course the book was also in Greek, as is standard.
Big fan of having an unimagineably large battle with millions dying only for the kings afterwards to decide "yknow we could also just be friends".
Kinda like when Darth Vader saved Luke from the Emperor and suddenly Vader is forgiven for murdering millions of people when he blew up that planet with the Death Star.
Monarchy moment
That's how it happens all the time.
That pretty much summed up the relationship between Monarch England and Monarch France, for a short while.
I'd imagine that was intended as a commentary on Classical Greek politics, where that did occur.
I first heard the line "There are no women on the Moon", in Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged. I figured it was a reference to something, but I had no idea that it would be a 2000-year old sci-fi story.
@Account deleted on September 11th Did you watch this video? It's from the titular 2nd century sci-fi tale.
@Account deleted on September 11th ah ok, this was just a case of rounding to a larger number :D
Gotta respect people who did their research
do you know which episode it was?
this book along with lots of old mythology often finds itself being secretly referenced all the time
The fact everyone speaks greek feels like the "you speak the universal language, english" joke before its time (aka isolated aliens from distant space that, even upon first meeting mankind, are nontheless already fluent in English for some reason).
Some pieces of fiction handle this well
In Dragon Ball, everyone speaks Japanese because it’s the language that the gods speak, and they created the planets
One example I can think of off the top of my head that doesn't follow that rule is Stargate the 1994 movie, the abydonians speak a version of ancient Egyptian (which Daniel is able to translate after finding the differences) however in the show follow up sg1 Daniel must have taught the whole galaxy English, because most of the time thats what everyone speaks, in my opinion it kinda ruins the magic a little bit, though I can see how it would be hard for only 1 team member to talk to the inhabitants of other worlds.
Conlangs are hard
babel fish, babel fish everywhere
@@commit7059 Yeah, they tried to stick with it for a couple episodes but realized that it kind of bogged down the adventure plot a lot. The in-universe justification for the retcon was, if I recall, that there were translator microbes in the Stargate that eventually allowed them to understand languages. But really it they were just trying to simplify the stories.
"There are no women on the moon."
In Lucian's defense, this is still entirely correct.
wait for 2 years nasa's moon mission will prove lucian wrong
It's better there, men will learn to asexually reproduce given enough time on la Lune
@@kiwiwasoncehere3623 they'll die before they even become a pregnant femboy or something idk
And women still haven't been to the moon either...
@@kiwiwasoncehere3623 Maybe they have to reproduce with animals using special God-given sperm and then feel bad about themselves.
"I confidently pronounce that truthfully, I lie" That was cleaver
"cleaver" - he hatcheted the truth 😉😄
@@Vidchemy 😂
" The greatest lie of all "... He said at the start that it was all a lie.
Things I was not expecting in the first sci-fi story ever written:
1. mpreg
2. a city of sentient lamps
Crazy how the idea of AI was already basically fully formed.
Honestly, I was more enthralled by the lamps than I probably had any right to be.
@@elizabethfletcher1487 What is AI, if not anthropomorphization persevering?
You expected every other part?
You're passing this off way too lightly :D
This is absolutely incredible. We need more stories of "whatever shit I could make up on the spot to make fun of my contemporaries" in pop culture.
Try Rick and Morty "dimensional cable" episodes.
Damn Huggbees, this must be a good watch then.
i feel like thats pretty common nowadays.
I read him years ago. Did not feel irrelevant. Especially criticism of cults.
A True Story by Lucian
An Actually True Story by Huggbees
"This is Lucien's greatest lie of all". That scholar was so damn disappointed that he never wrote another book
The world's first cult fan.😉
I would be too man, it'd be like if LOTR ended at Two Towers.
What's worse is there would be... fanfic 😱
@@merseyviking haha :) maybe he purposely said he'd make a sequel and then didn't: it would force his fans to use their imagination and create fan fiction
@@poep85 I'd like to think that was true. I think the celestial city was a really cool version of heaven.
I love how it sounds like the scholar is so miffed. Like he was really into it and was upset about being left on a cliffhanger.
Being left orphan after the story ends is no joke.
Today the scholar would complain about the endless sequels
It's amazing to know that sequel baiting has been a thing since ancient times.
i think we will have a sequel this year... i can feel it.
@ It's been centuries but I think you're right.
@@JuniperJadePR I mean, it'll probably come out before Half-life 3.
@@palmerharrison7660 Or the second season of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.
@@PrototypeSpaceMonkey or promised neverland season 2. NO THAT ONE DOESNT COUNT.
i love this so much, he starts it out by saying “this is a bit, im doing a bit” and proceeds to write the weirdest story ever, and knowing the kind of shit people would spew about foreign lands way back then, it’s absolutely hilarious
and the fact that he ends it with a sequel hook he never followed up on? absolute gold, pure class mate
@@leftygurl the man knew how to make sure he stays relevant on peoples minds! 👌
Yo, I've been to India and they have plants that grow whole-ass SHEEP. I swear!
@@Twisted_Logic Can confirm. Your sequel should be on how to take care of them, though - I never really figured that part out.
A lot of the satire in the context of this kind of holds up! If I understood all the references then this would be hilarious!
12:35 - That's one reference that _wasn't_ lost to time! Cloudcuckooland is from Aristophanes' satirical play _The Birds,_ in which the birds of the earth decide to build a city in the clouds and blockade the air so that the steam of humanity's sacrifices to the gods can't reach the heavens, starving the gods out and forcing them to negotiate a deal with the new kingdom of birds.
Wow. 🤣
Ahhh. So it's all a part of the Ancient Greece Cinematic Universe, eh?
And there is Cloud Cuckoo Land from the Lego Movie.
Also Banjo Tooie
@@austinmcconnell you can actually find 'Cloudcuckooland as a still-existing trope today!
dang its been over a thousand years and this mans jokes are still landing. legend
Almost 2000 years ago. He apparently lived from 125 ce to 180 ce.
OH. MY. GOD. This is has Monty Python written all over it! How has it never been turned into a movie?! I guarantee 80% of the satire is still relevant nowadays!!
It has the same overly well written nonsense vibe
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen seems to be based off of this and there is a movie. It's pretty good. There also is an old Baron Munchausen cartoon movie.
@@ooooowwussthaataseloik2866 interesting
@@ooooowwussthaataseloik2866 I have one which is a combination of live-action and animation. It was made back in the 60's and depicts a cosmonaut landing on the moon and meeting Baron Munchausen along with other historical figures.
Also reminds me a bit of the early sci-fi like Barbarella and Flash Gordon.
I really love this Lucian dude. Absolutely giving no F's and calling out everyone else's bulls*** by outdoing them at their own game. Satire really hasn't changed.
I completely agree guy gave no fucks and just called out everyone I've never respected a dead guy more than I do now
He was the Bill Hicks of his time
I bet Phil Hendrie was a voice in his head, wow
Well if like Greeks that give no fucks boy do I have a philosopher for you.... Diogenes
the boys
12:37 For those interested, "Cloud Cuckoo Land" is a reference to another Greek absurdist satire, "The Birds", by Aristophanes. Its about some guys who team up with a bunch of birds to build a rival heaven and try to out-compete the Olympian Gods, very 'in the style' of this work.
Interesting, I had no idea where the phrase "Cloud Cuckoo Land" came from - and it's definitely used here and there in German.
I heard the term "Cloud Cuckoo Land" in Lego Movie 1.
@@marxvargas7697 lol thats what i was thinking of too
Now that phrase makes sense
@@selene6.238 I remember it in Morgan Freeman's voice.
I was genuinely beaming all the way through the story. It was so unique and creative, and so fascinatingly clever. It was so fresh, despite being nearly 2000 years old. I loved it.
this feels like an entire season of star trek being crammed into one book and im here for it
Me too! I would totally watch this as a movie!
Yeah, when those two guys kiss the trees and got turned into trees themselves, right away I thought, "he even has redshirted ensigns." :-)
TOS Was wild.
I was thinking it had a Baron Munchausen-esque craziness to it, and would totally watch this as a film. :D
Star Trek but instead of Picard it's Pythagoras.
Fun fact, calf of the leg was an ancient euphemism for a man's family jewels (which itself is a euphemism), similar to how Zeus after accidentally un-existing Dyonisus' mom while she was pregnant with him, he grabbed fetus Dyo and let him finish developing by sewing him to the "calf of his leg"
"Accidentally unexisting" is my new favorite phrase
that explains a whole lot
OMG, that's the same in my mother tongue.
A lot of genital-focused body horror in Greek myth, between Zeus, his grandpa Uranos, and poor Cerberus
edit: Somehow I forgot abt Priapas, the worst of all
That's way worse than what I imagined lmao
Lucian of Samosata, the father of the legal rider: “This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”
And that was his first lie...
😂
ironically saying amen to this
"Any similarity to persons or actual events is coincidental", rather in Lucian's case, it is fully intended.
Oh, that concept has existed since theater was first invented.
“Lucian finds his lamp and asks him how his family is doing back home.” Can’t believe he also mocked Dante 12 centuries in advance.
*Travels deep into the depths of Hell and comes across a man enduring the most gruesome of tortures imaginable*
"Hello sir, could you please enlighten me on the current sociopolitical status of Florence?"
@@Raphe9000 What is hell compared to the current political situation of Florence?
@@Raphe9000 See, you are in hell. Thus it proves that I am right 12 centuries later.
@@alexanderzippel8809 Dante writed The Divine Comedy as his travel through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. How convenient is that his political enemies are in Hell, don't you think?
So Dante was a _plagiarist?_ I thought he was an original, but Lucius cleans his clock!
"They meet other seamen who were swallowed too"
Austin, I refuse to believe this phrasing was on accident.
added by the translator most likely
It had to be intentional
holy shit this is the most likes I've ever gotten on anything in my life lol
I'm pretty sure seamen and semen weren't homophones in ancient Greek
@@Backinblackbunny009 wooosh
Lucian put himself in a crazy fiction where he goes in every part of the known universe and meets gods and very famous people in history before Dante did it in the Divine Comedy, what a mad lad.
Very well done point about Dante and comedy. Great story is remembered. But great satire is legendary!
@@anderty4088 Lucian was well-known in rennaisance Europe even more in Victorian times, inspired picaresque lit, pinocchio, decameron and many other classic books
To be fair Dante visited the lands of the dead which technically lie OUTSIDE the known universe.
@@CassandrashadowcassMorrison how can you tell this after "to be fair".
The whole time i was watching this video all i could think was "I wonder if Dante ever heard of this story?"
I would unironically love to see this modernized into a movie.
Same...
It has been... every B sci-fi movie originated from this book. Giant insects from space?
@@marcparella as literally as possible.
I know what the average sci-fi movie is, it's not like I would have really cared about this video if I didn't.
I said I wanted *this* story in a movie, not soklme watered down average sci-fi you would see on the CW.
I want to see it as surreal animation
You can watch the 1981 French-Japanese anime Ulysses 31, that loosely adapted the Odyssey into a space opera with a prog rock soundtrack.
As someone that had to study ancient greek and latin literature we never actually got past mentioning Lucian and his 'A true story', but there is one bit that I read on my own that, again, as someone studying greek literature is still the funniest thing to me: Lucian meeting Homer (the writer on the Hiliad) and asking him why the book starts with the word 'Rage' and he is just 'Dunno, I just felt like it, y'know', 'cause like... Damn, has that detail been over analyzed to death.
How do i look this up
@@1klan you might try typing on Google some key words like 'Lucian A True Story Homer' and see if anything shows up for you!
@@lunadiggorytennant thanks man
Didn't Tolkien say he was befuddled at how everything he wrote managed to connect in the end and not seem random or something?
@@JonatasAdoM Well, not EVERYTHING... Mind our dearest Tom Bombadil.
Lucian was so sick of travelogues and nitpicky political debates cluttering his Ancient Greek bookstore equivalent he wrote an outlandish tongue-in-cheek tale. Meanwhile I recall the the travel blogs and lukewarm political takes cluttering up my UA-cam rec page. The more things change the more they stay the same. 😄
him talking about how people lie about travelogues is literally the state of vlog culture today lol
He was even parodying Christians (specifically the death of a martyr) when they were just one among many random religious movements. Truly ahead of his time.
I was just thinking, the only reason there aren't books like that now is because there are much better ways to distribute that sort of information
@@merrittanimation7721 the concept of the martyr was around long before Christ was.....Prometheus was a martyr, he was the demigod who gave humanity fire and was punished for defying the gods?? ugh
@@Red_Lanterns_Rage Prometheus is no demigod, he is a Titan god, and he was the (co)creator of man kind
"Plato was not there. It is said that he was living in an imaginary city under the constitution and laws that he himself wrote."
RIP my sides. Two thumbs up to Lucian the Great.
This has to be one of the greatest/earliest recorded burns, right up there with that clay tablet complaining about receiving inferior copper ore. "Did I not pay for good quality ore, and yet I received inferior quality ore?!?" Good stuff.
@@bondvagabond42 It would've been even better if it complained about receiving inferior clay.
!
"an imaginary city under the constitution and laws that he himself wrote." -- That would be Atlantis.
@@jasonhernandez619 or The Republic maybe
"he never wrote a sequel".
Damn. I didn't realize people were satirizing George RR Martin back in the 2nd century.
He was so slow to write the next book that even the 2nd Century made fun of him for it.
GRRM always takes inspiration from real world history when it comes to writing his books. Not finishing his books is no exception to this.
I saw an interview where GRR Martin butthurt, that he was saying "fans used to love stars wars, lotr, all these stories, and wanted more of them, now they hate them, I just can't understand why" can't believe he didn't realize, it's the content that is good and worth watching that fans loved, not just anything no matter how bad it is
I think he was mocking Virgil. Virgil died before he could finish the Aeneid LMAO.
@Tenchi707 the problem is that most casual people got into it from the show, and the showrunners basically did a series speedrun to quit and work on Star Wars (lmao), which ended horribly and probably did irreparable damage to the series' reputation.
MF invented SciFi, satire, shitposting, mpreg and unresolved cliffhangers all in one book. Legend.
Mpreg was literally programmed into greek mythology centuries before this man even existed.
also you forgot vore
@@absolutebastardhours4404 😳
*and with Storyblocks you can be just like him without the awkward creativity part!
Well that is a title...
I REALLY need a high budget completely literal adaption of this whole book, including the sequel bait. I might not understand any of the references but just the absurdness would be entertaining enough
Yeah oh my gosh pleease xD
Would be great if someone could adapt it and modernize the references so we get the feel they had with it. And use it to satirize stuff that was written after as well. haha
I'm glad I'm not the only one with this idea
YES. Honestly, Spaceballs may be the closest thing to refer to, but honestly even Spaceballs isn't weird enough to compare.
The animaniacs could do their entire third season just copying this, change the satirical references to modern day, and no one would know the difference
"let no man therefore in any case believe these words"
"I shall tell you in the next book"
He did warn them
I dunno who says ancient humor isn't funny, this is hilarious. Sure, there's bound to be references to people and events most modern humans wouldn't be aware of but the sheer absurdity is enjoyable.
I'd laugh at a good Ea-Nasir reference.
Inside jokes be like
It usually is if worded differently so modern audiences get it.
Sure
Did you like Dune, 2001, The Martian Chronicals....
There you go...this story for a mid 20th century technology obsessed society.
My man had me flabbergasted when instead of ending the story when the characters got back to earth from the moon he hit us with "and this is where they get swallowed by a whale!"
And the whale have more civilization inside that there is in outer space of our solar system!
Truly a BIG whale.
I mean if you going to go for crazy shenanigans, why not go all the way and throw a giant whale into the mix. Worked for Moby Dick and hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy.
So THIS is where the Jonah and the Whale story came from!
@@brianwhedon8442
Lucian was born around 125 years *after* the birth of Christ. I seriously doubt it.
@Brian Whedon Jona and whale story has its inspiration from Perseus, or other story relating to Jappa-Tartessus seafarers that has probably inspired both.
I've had a copy of this all this years and now kicking myself for not getting to it. Also I really love how this feels like an ancient shitpost
Ya, it seemed that way when he got to the part where he was basically just going "and Homer was there and Pythagoras was there but Plato wasn't there cause his stuff sucked"
@@stateofflorida5082 The dunk on Plato is still hilarious thousands of years later.
@@MattMcIrvin I can't believe I'm laughing because some dude roasted another dude 2000 years ago
What is a $#!+post if not gen z-style satire?
@@ethanhinton4549 why exactly *did* you censor yourself? This isnt fuckin Roblox...
"There, Lucian meets the heroes of the Trojan War, other mythical men and animals, as well as Homer and Pythagoras. They find sinners being punished, the worst of them being the ones who had written books with lies and fantasies, including Herodotus and Ctesias "
Dude had no chill 😂
144 likes, gross
@@pomtubes1205 correction: 435
@@victoralexandervinkenes9193 objection: time moves.
@@pomtubes1205 hypothesis: motion exists
@@pomtubes1205 you. I see what you did there.
Worry not, at least one person picked up what you put down.
Not gonna lie, I unironically loved that. Adding Lucian to my list of "people, alive or dead, I'd like to have dinner with" immediately
Luckily, you speak Greek, as is the natural convention.
My favorite part (it's so hard to choose) comes right at the start with that "disclaimer."
"Any resemblance to persons living or dead is ENTIRELY INTENTIONAL, THAT'S RIGHT, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE"
It's cool, just pull a Dante and write a self-insert fanfic where you have dinner with the list. I'd totally read it
Diogenes was also a greek who is of a similar legend. Back then, it was common to just spit anywhere, so when he was invited into a rich man’s home the man urged him not to spit on his nice floor or his nice furniture or his nice drapes, so Diogenes just spit in his face lmao. When Alexander the Great proclaimed “if I were not myself, I would wish to be Diogenes” to which Diogenes responded “I agree. If I were not myself, I would wish to be Diogenes too.” Though the best story was upon hearing Plato say that man was a featherless biped, he took a chicken, plucked out all its feathers and went “Behold! A man!”
@@MrZer093 Diogenes also jacked off in public, pissed on people who insulted him, and flipped people off (technically, pointing your middle finger was considered insulting). So, he was the ancient greek equivalent of the stereotypical homeless guy.
Who's the other ones
I unironically want a film of this
It's probably in the public domain, you can make a film of it
@@lankyfishy Its 2000 years old. Yeah it's public domain lol
@@TheRedHorseman1208 Not if disney has anything to say
Same
I see this more as a multi-seasoned series. Maybe done in the style of Babylon 5?
"with each side usually bickering over the semantics of ultimately trivial or unknowable matters"
nice to see things never change..
2 millenia ago Hassan vs Destiny was rhe same
@@sferna Hassan... LMAO
... well, they don't.
But nice . . .
Hating Twitter before it existed.
Based.
I love how when you think you've reached a point where it can't get weirder, it gets weirder.
Also this could be adapted into a three hour movie or even a mini-series. I'd totally watch it.
Count me in too!
Absolutely! A very watchable mini-series... And directed properly, with all of our CGI capabilities, it could be done very well in a way that would retain everyone's attention, notwithstanding the fact it is set in the ancient past and utilizes archaic technologies. That would be part of the charm.
Make it a trilogy!
I love the fact that he mocks other authors with the "Just go see it for yourself" like they fucking knew big majority of the readers would never be able to go see distant lands
And philosophers as well: "Plato was not there. It was said that he was living in an imaginary city under the constitution and laws that he himself wrote." 🤣
💀💀💀💀
Ancient couch potatoes
@@Barskor1 Not really couch potatoes. Traveling to distant lands back then for average people was like traveling to Mars. It was insanely expensive and took months if not years to do.
He was taught in Greek highschools, at least since the 1880s! But I remember feeling elated, to say the least, when I got to teach (I'm a primary school teacher) an excerpt of "True Story". The kids loved it, we wrote our own sequels! Lucian's spirit would too be... elated! :)
Δυστυχώς εκεί γύρω στο 1998 το καταργήσανε και αυτό και τους Νεκρικούς Διαλόγους και τον Τίμωνα. Όπως παντα τα καλύτερα πράγματα κόβονται από την ύλη.
Plato deciding to make his own afterlife, just for himself, has got to be the best bit
And it was all imaginary. Brutal burn of Plato!
It also means that certainly there were lots of people that were kind of sick of Plato and his perfect utopian government
seems like you didnt get the point, Plato is living in an *imaginary* after life which he himself wrote which means Plato never existed and his book is nonsense
Oh. I thought that was about what the author thought about Platonic Ideals
It’s so fascinating how that throwaway comment alone could be interpreted in a multitude of ways
Now *this* is truly one of the tales of all time
I can't believe the first Sci-Fi in recorded history has puppycorns and moon femboys. Truly, the genre peaked before it ever really began
I don't know why but there's just something so funny about the phrase "moon femboys".
@@KingNedya I don't see what's so funny about it. It's pretty clear there are no women on the moon.
Lucian was a man ahead of his time
@@gaiusjuliuscaesar9296 based and blackpilled
@@ArcaneAnouki he took the Greco-Roman redpill, chewed it up, and spit it out, then made his own
I like how the asparagus spear joke still lands perfectly all these centuries later.
Took ancient greek in HS and I tell you the utter confusion when in the second year quite randomly a translation exam was an excerpt from their encounter with the pumpkin pirates. We all tried to force it to make sense as we were used to "serious" classics (taught us that grammar and syntax are indeed sovreign). The whole (4 people) class was so confused it was hilarious. We ended up focusing on this book that year, translating a lot of it, and to this day that has been the most fun I ever had translating something. Thank you, Prof. Lolli, truly a core memory
Mentioning the spider's name may have been a comment on Cato the Elder's history of the Punic Wars, in which the only name he uses is that of Surrus the Elephant. Surrus was an especially brave and effective war elephant who fought on the Carthaginian side. Cato pointedly refuses to name any of the Roman combatants because histories written by Roman politicians, or more likely by educated Greeks they hired to write histories, were written mainly as propaganda to help their political careers. If Appius Claudius hired someone to write a history of the Punic Wars, the names of his heroic ancestors and their valiant deeds would figure with suspicious prominence. Since these ancestors would all, because this is how Roman names worked, all bear the name Appius Claudius, you can see how this might make present-day Appius Claudius look pretty good to the electorate. So Cato wrote this history of the Punic Wars in which only Surrus the Elephant gets a name check. Cato, you see, was a "new man", someone whose ancestors had never held public office, and therefore never led Roman armies in the Punic War, or any war.
One thing I found interesting was the possible indication of North American continent at 15:50 onwards. "great continent which is opposite to the one your people inhabit". Makes you wander if by 2nd century Greeks had knowledge of new world ! There are theories like from Plutarch's work De Facie which mentions of a great continent east of the pillars of Hercules. They definitely visited azores, celtic britain and were aware of Iceland and Greenland based on available studies. So few visits to canada/newfoundland might not be entirely impossible. makes you wander, how new is actually the new world !
@@linkme2dnet Sure, it seems quite likely that the Americas were "discovered" many times after the Native Americans actually discovered the place. I don't buy the argument from technology, that before late Renaissance ships were available -- okay, yes, we have to throw in Viking age ships -- no way could more primitive ship designs make it across the oceans. When we had to acknowledge that the Vikings made the journey, the argument form technological limitation was decisively outflanked.
What is a bit mysterious is that once having "discovered" all that land, there wasn't a land rush. The Old World had suffered from overcrowding for centuries, and at a time when farmland meant the difference between life and starvation, you would think that the (relatively) free and open land in the New World (or at least big swaths of it) would have been an irresistible draw. Maybe colonization only worked later because Europeans caught the Native Americans during some slump in their will and ability to fight off land-grabbers. We have to imagine that earlier they managed to wipe out the intruders before they were dispossessed of their land, but that failed in the 16th and 17th centuries.
I don't find the lack of really clear and solid (solid meaning non-literary and non-ironic, if the author here is referring to actual discovery) mention of the discovery of the New World terribly surprising. Many achievements of antiquity were never memorialized in any writing that survived. Rome it seems had high rise buildings, and the Ptolemies had ships with crews in the thousands, and there were apparently steam engines and things like the Antikythera device that just didn't make the very narrow cut of mention in the amazingly small percentage of ancient writing that survived.
@@linkme2dnet Possibly - but the Greeks also believed that all landmasses on Earth had to be balanced, with land opposite them. They were aware that the earth was round, and the only way they could imagine that actually working was with a balance of masses. Thus the imagined continent of Terra Australia - Southern Land - as a counter to Europe. It's because of that imagined continent that modern Australia has its name. See also Antarctica - "rival to/opposite of the Arctic"
@@2gtomkins The "some slump in their will and ability to fight" is well documented: an Apocalypse of disease wiped out over 90% of the inhabitants of North America. There were thriving civilizations long, long ago, even in areas along the Mississippi river. There are early documented reports of great cities along the Mississippi that were gone by the time Europeans truly colonized that region. There are still archeological results to that show people thrived in a civilized system in this area. It's truly sad that these societies and the people are all lost to time.
@@Raveler1
What we call America the ancients called Perioeci.
But they had no idea whether it actually existed.
It was believed to be the Western counterpart of The Oecumene (that is the three linked continents of Africa/Asia/Europe.
It was then believed that Africa did not extend south of The Equator.
"...on the eight day they arrived on the moon." Dude from the 2nd century almost nailed the time rockets take to reach the moon.
to be fair, they were better at astronomy during the 2nd century than all of the middle ages
@@lynxerax7011 *Central Asian Moslems have entered the chat*
@@lynxerax7011 A billion facepalms
@@zimriel You are right, but i was talking about in greece, where the story comes from
Actually no they doubled the time. The round trip takes about 8 days. Journey there on average 3 days.
*"There are no women on the moon"* has to be a dig at other authors who inflated the world count by describing hot exotic women
Kirk would be crushed!
I interpreted that as the author being attracted to men and writing a little wish-fulfilment fantasy stuff, but I like your interpretation as well.
@@TheJohtunnBandit Sounds like you are self projecting
@@magicman3163 Based.
@@magicman3163 self projecting?
how does this particular form of projecting differ from just regular projecting?
I'm always a sucker for a serious, well-done shitpost. Never thought I'd see one from ancient Greek, but humans never change, I guess.
We’re not smarter than they were. We’re just laying on the shoulders of giants.
@@christopher6337 Judging by the state of affairs, I'd say we fell off the shoulders a while back
@@anameyoucantremember 😂
Samosata wasn't a part of the Ancient Greece. It's located in southeastern Turkey near Syria. Lucian wasn't Greek. He was a culturally Hellenized Assyrian.
Yeah we do. It's just that WE get older and wiser but our kids ALWAYS start over from Ground Zero.
(One reason there are SO many Catholics...)
"publishing outright lies as facts in order to stay relevant" - I'm so glad that 2000 years later we are passed all that.
yes completely.
Indeed, so much truth this comment tread, not a single lie X)
Sarcasm alert !
the more things change the more they stay the same
WaPo? NYTimes? MSNBC? US Govt? Soooo many candidates to choose from...
The fact that I started laughing at "truthfully, I lie" means that his humor has lasted 2000 years. Well done.
I like how he starts the story out as a typical odyssey showing us that these stories were already told by Hercules and such - instead he literally catapults them off into outer space just to ridicule the bullshit that was spread at that time in travelogs. This man was truly ahead of his time.
This story is in the public domain due to pre-dating mega corporation. You could make a sequel, thus turning one of his lies into the truth. Denying this man in death his spiteful and smug satisfaction. And there's no force on Earth that could stop you.
No there's is one, but only one : the quality of your writing.
Because you can't compete with the man who have created the longest clef anger of history!
@@heraut Unless the writing were to be the critique of modernity - I would write it as a fun little romp for myself, but I genuinely want to see if we can get Neil Gaiman to do it, in collaboration with Stephen Fry?
The only problem is that I don't think modern man could easily recreate the world as an ancient greecian would imagine it. We already know North America exists. I think our understanding of reality would make writing a sequel difficult, because we would have to forget everything we know about the actual world, and it still might just end up seeming inspired by Gulliver's travels. Maybe Gulliver's travels is a sort of sequel to this.
He also specified "I shall tell you"
your are not the "I" in the context of the sentence, so even if you write a sequel "I shall tell you in the next book" will still be a lie because "I" didn't write the next book, you did
@@videogamesarecool9280 No, I did.
With context, a lot of the humor still holds up. Shows you that people haven't really changed all that much in 2000 years.
People haven’t really changed since we began much further back than 2000 years ago. Just different environments and technology (yes a wooden stick with a sculpted point is technology).
You can easily go back another 500 years and read Plato, or Aristophanes' "Clouds". You can't deny the modernistic humanity and humour of their characters.
Or listen to Irving Finkel talk about his beloved Sumerian culture going back 5000 years. He's got lots of vids up on this app.
I actually chuckled at the dig at Plato.
Its easily funnier than any Tik Tok meme out there
ye our brains havent changed much in the last 50,000 years
To be completely honest, I kinda want a show about this. It's absolutely crazy, and I really wanna see ancient Greeks in space.
I'd watch it. It's like ancient Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Watching any of the adaptations of Baron Munchausen's adventures would be the closest you can find of what you are asking for here.
It's basically the Dungeons & Dragons setting called Spelljammer which is inspired by a lot of this I imagine
You might like Ulysses 31
It's an old Japanese-French anime that's basically Ancient Greeks in Space
I'd like to see this adapted into a musical. The more shameless, the better.
"There are no women on the moon" is hands down my favorite random detail. 2,000 year old mpreg is hilarious to me somehow.
I'd guess that that detail was meant to satirize travelers who said they met no one but tribes of beautiful women, whose queen of course offered all of their hands--including her own--to the dashing Greek explorers.
I guess you haven’t seen Amazon Women on The Moon
@@iivin4233 I think that and the way in which he writes it as though it's similarly his own fantasy fulfillment fiction to those previous stories is the best part. (This is honestly one of the ancient works worth a read.)
Modern authors keep pulling out "odyssey/argonauts/illiad/aneaed but in space" like it's a new concept but it's actually gd functionally as old as the common era and I adore that
Edit: Like, in the correct translation, A True Story legit just feels like classic golden age sci fi.
I somehow forgot when commenting this that Journey to the West also has mpreg. Love it. 10/10 comedic and worldbuilding device.
this sentence is lethal
Captured by Moon Guards, taken to their king, invited to join in a grand war... This feels like something from a pulp fiction story like Flash Gordon. It's interesting how people's minds can go to the same places, despite being centuries apart.
Flash AH-AHHH, Savior of the Universe!
Flash was caught by one side, his new girlfriend was taken to "marry" the emperor, against her will, and the scientist that got them there, so escaped, found others who disliked the emperor ( yes captured, invited to join the war ) just to get to get his friends back.
@catheh17 But in Sailor Moon, not only do females exist but they are useful...
( the original moon people didn't have any women ( don't know how that works ) and, well, in flash they were ornamental )
Begins by stating that everything in the book is fiction and then says "I confidently Pronounce that truthfully, I lie". Ends the story on a cliff hanger with a promise to continue the story in the next book.
It's fascinating to find out that the oldest act of "trolling your audience" was done by the Ancient Greeks. They truly were minds far ahead of their time.
Oldest recorded. There may yet have been others that did not survive to the modern day.
He was not Ancient Greek. He was Syrian. Greek was his second language.
@@yllejord Exactly! He was a Syrian, hellenized and with roman citizenship, truly a good example of the 2nd century Roman Empire.
@@NaFran49 bless him and his works. i bet syrians will have a gasp when they found that out and praise him
All of this reminds me of a critique to "Star Wars: Episode VII" - The Force Awakens (2015). 🤣 What a train wreck!
"if you think i am lying go there yourself" honestly funniest shit ever
literally telling people to go to the fucking moon is such a great example of satire its insane
People wanted to prove Lucien wrong so badly, the Space Race was invented. Armstrong was so disappointed.
@@Som_RandomGuy the whole thing lasted two millennia, but it was wirth it!
This shows just how ruthless ancient satire could be. "Oh, everyone is telling these crazy stories as if they actually happened? Well let me write the most off the wall insane bullshit anyone has ever heard about lettuce space people and dogs flying acorns around the Sun, and repeatedly say that I'm not lying and that anyone who say I am can go see it thenselves. And let me call this insane tome a true story just to fuck with my contemporaries."
The eternal Siren's Call to the writer:
"How batshit can I get with this?"
The answer is always "extremely";
and the results are often magnificent.
I really wish the discourse around Lucian's work was preserved. I would have loved to read salt of the ancient world.
Basically writing creepypasta, or something to that effect, well before the Internet.
Nice 👍
@@Lugbzurg *copypasta* you mean. Creepypasta is derivative and specifically refers to spooky stories.
My class read this in ancient Greek for a language department project! It was so much fun.
I’m absolutely LIVING for the ancient drama and tea that Lucian was spilling. It’s sad we may never know whom he was taunting or understand many of the pop cultural references he was making throughout that book. CGPGrey had a similarly fun time exploring Thomas Hearne and the shade that Alexander Pope threw at him in the 18th century.
I hope we’re able to preserve our history better than even them so that one day in the year 4022 people are still able to enjoy the subtleties of things like Futurama or the Onion in a similar way as we do today.
They never will because part of the fun of pop culture subtleties is living through it. Even if we knew the context around the shade Lucian was throwing and at who, it will never be as crazy as it must've been back then.
Which cgp grey video was this?
@@Lazbotable “Someone Dead Ruined my Life…Again”. It was part of the recent “Tiffany” series
Another really good one to read is Erasmus. That man couldn't write one paragraph without dropping a sick burn on someone. He had to insult someone and it always had to be Simon Cowell or Gordon Ramsay quality.
Idk man, when I watch a fresh prince of bell air, or Seinfeld episode today half of their references fly over my head like an arrow
and their only from the 90's
also, futurama has this futuristic feel, but it was written when Watergate jokes were still relevant
imagine how this all will age 30 years from now
imagine 300
a 1000 years
time is just brutal
Honestly, even lacking most of the cultural context of the times, this seemed pretty darn hilarious.
This story is wonderful and it just makes me angry that I'm missing out on half of it by not being ancient Greek.
yeah, just make it so all the satire is about modern day stuff
It's like a Discworld novel except it's sci-fi instead of fantasy
I think maybe modern day meme shitpost Internet culture is perhaps not very far removed from Ancient Greek satire humor. We as a society have done a complete 180 back to the ancient times
@@k4tgames212 I'd like to recommend Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series to you in case you haven't heard of it. It's every bit as absurdist and comedic as Discworld is, but like Lucian's story, it's sci-fi.
"They thought space had wind back then, give them a break"
Well, it has Solar Wind so he was half right
Instantly what I thought too.
and once and infect sail to other planets, man was ahead of his time lol
True. You wouldn't be able to use regular sails, but solar sails for space are definitely a thing. They aren't being used yet tho, as far as I know.
I thought that straight away too
@@moondust2365 We have designs and loose plans to use them in the future (E.G. Space X's tiny drones they want to accelerate to 1/3 the speed of light using lasers), but I'm not aware of any currently in use either.
I'm Greek, and I remember reading an excerpt from the space battle between the Sun and the Moon in my Elementary School Greek Language book; the artwork was hauntingly detailed as well.
This is the same guy who wrote "Alexander the Oracle-Monger," a nonfiction account of Lucian and his skeptical buddies exposing the tricks of a cult leader who had a puppet he passed off as a talking snake god. It's a great read.
...things I'd forgotten, reading it again:
1. Lucian does yet more dunking on Platonists in it;
2. at one point Alexander gets into dispensing bogus medical advice during an epidemic.
3. Many years later, after a series of fights with Lucian and his fellow debunkers, Alexander himself gets sick and what really puts an end to his career is when the doctors discover his magnificent flowing locks are a hairpiece.
Interesting
@@MattMcIrvin Yknow, I've always disliked Plato, what little I heard about him. I'm glad to know I'm in the good company of the first sci fi author ever.
For real?
How can you resist the opening lines of that one?
“I am sorry you asked me to write this person's biography, because he would much more deserve to be torn apart by monkeys and foxes in front of a packed stadium than have his life immortalised in literature.”
I mean.... Solar Wind is a thing, so Lucian was half right about there being wind up there
Deploy solar sails!
@@WasatchWind Treasure Planet, my beloved.
Not that bad considering that it was over 1000 years ago, and knowledge of space back then was limited to folk story’s, myths, and religion.
@@lukedelameter7961 I was going to say the same thing!
He doesn't actually say "space", just from skimming it. I think he just goes from storm to the moon.
Some things never change, like readers of all eras wishing for a sequel to a great story.
Been waiting on that hxh sequel for the last decade
also mpreg
for some reason >___>
There are prequels and there's sequels, but can there ever just be quels?
Imagine waiting on a sequel but it's been thousands of years
Thousands of years later, Lucian reincarnated as Douglas Adams.
Plot twist: The whale is the same dude as the sperm whale
Wonder what "Don't Panic" is in ancient Greek..
They even used the same joke: Dog-headed aliens from Sirius.
The plant is a stand in for himself
And millennia later, people would once again complain about how slowly he wrote.
I weirdly love ancient storytelling structure, we are so accustomed to 3/5 act structure that we now find ancient story structures alien absurd. Stuffs just keep on happening. One after another like there is no end.
Gilgamesh is interesting for that, although it being a compilation of fragments found from the culture's written lore explains that well.
It's like the animated resident evil movie that was set in Russia. There was like 12 climaxes before the movie ended
@carlyofearth Like Disney
this would make a fantastic movie that i would absolutely watch.
It's not as wild as this story, but you might enjoy watching "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen". It's a fun, sort of nonsensical story about impossible feats and places.
I was thinking the same. Who wants to Collab?
I was just about to say.
knowing Hollywood, they'd want to fucking patent it
@@Secondary_Identifier For that matter I'd suggest The Fabulous Baron Munchausen by Karel Zeman! incredible Czech film with some of the best visuals I've seen, not only for the time it was made but just in general. Magnificent excess!
Its interesting to see that even in the past people where wondering about the future and about going into outer space. Although the story is mostly satire, it is still interesting when you learn the historical context
were*
It’s also interesting to see that even in the past popular authors left their most famous series perpetually unfinished
Spoiler Alert: We're not that different now from who we were as a species then.
@@Pablo360able The Greek scholar's note in the margin about him releasing a sequel being the biggest lie of all radiates angry fanboy energy
It would be extremely weird if they didn’t.
That feeling when you go to the moon but they only speak greek.
Typical sci-fi, everyone always speaks the same language. Even Lucian couldn't be arsed trying to deal with translating alien languages whenever his crew went somewhere new.
@@Hawk_of_Battletbf, even writing cosmic horror rn where the ancient beings can speak their own language or any of ours, making a fake language is friggin HARD
@@Hawk_of_Battle Greek was lingua franca at the time, and according to the story, Endemion was from Earth originally.
Most of the storeys you can.t really tell what language they're speaking.
You're only reading the record of it after the fact.
@Anuclano Perhaps people would understand it if they weren't so used to English, which is quite ironic in this scenario.
5:18 "Luckily the tree ladies all speak Greek."
And thus he also invented the concept of plot convenience.
I think it's more specific than that. How many sci-fi movie aliens end up speaking English? Even the convenience that they would vocalize language at all?
I think his thought process when writing the book was that he started like how all others would, but then thought "you know what, I'm lying to the reader, they know I'm lying, LETS GO TO THE MOON!" and made the most absurd stuff ever and knowing no would fact check him, because he already beat everyone to it. and I bet everyone liked it because of how bizarre it was and how imagitive it became not having to make it seem real, but instead making the imagination stur, yep, I'm definitely putting you in the hall of fame of writers for that.
No, I think the idea is to intentionally make the most absurd story possible as a statement that all other stories of the type are similarly absurd, even if the absurdity in other stories is more subtle. In short, the sheer absurdity itself is the satirical message.
@@mar_speedman yeah, but its at that point he realised how absurd he can actually be
@@ninonook677 no, because we know a lot of his other works, he was always funny man
@@arturhashmi6281 ... not the point I was trying to make... but ok
Makes me wonder if all the people he trolled were good sports about it or if they were looking for some angle to sue him.
A mix of satire, philosophy by way of debate, and travelogue does seem to be a pretty good root for Scifi. The entire point of the genre is the hypothetical as a means of contemplation, so going to the edge of the map and seeing something familiar and referential is exactly where I would expect that tradition to start without the lens of science and technology. Even if that wasn't really the intent at the time. Heck, this reminds me quite a bit of Gulliver's Travels, which I have always held as being another precursor to modern speculative fiction for it's mix of satirical allegory and implausible circumstances.
Wizard of Oz as well. Seems like satire was an easy way to justify writing what are essentially fairy tales for adults.
Lucian is an absolute legend. The whole "go see it for yourself" bit gives me exactly the same vibe as a shitpost making fun of TPUSA. "Dear sceptics, you say I am lying yet you have never been to the moon yourselves. Curious. 🤔"
He seems kind of like an ancient version of Douglas Adams to me. I'm actually pretty curious what he'd think of the state of literature nowadays, like how the genre of fiction and science-fiction especially has evolved, and the prevalence of social commentary and the exploration of political or philosophical themes and ideas.
I was getting Terry Pratchett vibes
WDPOTIEETKTMORO30LA?
The thought of space being filled with air is almost comforting. I feel like if there was anything filling the space then the massive expanse of emptiness wouldn't feel as terrifying.
But there are things in space….mainly space…and time, and the occasional particle.
Space and time are material constituents of the Universe just not in the way that we typically envision “stuff”.
With air between the stars the sound on earth would be more terrifying then the emptiness
people say this but when i fill the emptiness of space with an endless amount of piranhas suddenly emptiness is better
If were space suddenly filled with air, gravity would immediately cause a level of star and black hole formation not seen since the beginning of the universe. Earth would quickly be engulfed in a flash of plasma. This would,of course, be terrible for the economy.
@@rayxtimeoh god no, not the economy. do you think fish imports would be effected? or god forbid gaming PCs!!!??!!!11
“Thought space had wind… give them a break” space does have wind, Solar wind, and some satellites use solar sails to help with their propulsion
I was gonna say yah, I’ve seen treasure island.
Not but yah space does have wind which is just crazy to think about
Exactly, this guy was centuries ahead of his time.
Lucian just keeps winning
Don't want to be annoying, just want to clarify: Solar sails don't work with "wind", ther is no real wind in space. The solar wind is just a bunch of particles (protons mainly) constantly getting ejected from the sun and would not be able to "push" anything (because there are too few of them), the high energy of those particles will hurt you or damage equipment similar to powerful X-rays though.
Solar sails work independently from solar wind, as confusiong as that sounds. Solar sails use the so called radiation pressure of photons (light "particles) to get propelled forward because even if photons don't really have any mass we can measure, photons that hit a surface still give the surface a tiny bit of momentum. And when you use a huge surface/sail that photon pressure is enough to technically propel things away from the sun.
@@lordhelmchen3154 thank you for explaining something I already knew 😂
"Owlett son of Fairweather"
This has to be the absolute most dead meme ever.
It's a good name though
Lol let's bring it back give random animals in story's the most elaborate and pretentious name possible
I mean, it's what the translator came up with, since the original is in Ancient Greek. The owl was Athena's animal, but I assume whatever was in the original was a satirical dig at some political figure or fellow writer.
I love this story! I'm Greek and in ancient Greek class we read a segment of this story in the original language and then had to draw the moon men it was the only ancient Greek lesson I ever liked
Space survival guide:
Step one: learn greek
Step two: go to space
Step three : don't kiss the tree
Step five: Don't count on the slingers from the milky way
Step six : If you are invited in a war, accept.
The fun part is that Lucian was Syrian and he worked in Egypt... so while he wrote all of his works in Greek, his own first language was Aramaic. So not only did he not live in Greece, he was not ethnically Greek. It's safe to say that's why he wanted to emphasise that even people in space spoke Greek, since the Greeks seemed to think everybody should.
His main audience were Greeks since he loved to travel in Greece, which he could do easily since Egypt and Greece were both part of the Roman Empire.
But I'm certain the language being taken for granted sometimes bothered him, especially since Latin had all but replaced other languages across the Mediterranean sea, all except the Greek language.
@@myfaceismyshield5963 In the last 6-7 decades, most human - looking aliens in movies and TV series speak English. What a coincidence...
I heard Lucian did actually write a sequel, "The Persian Empire strikes back..." but then he was sued for copyright by Lucas.
Underrated comment
Edit: Its become relatively rated, still needs over 1k more likes imo
He renamed it A True Story 2: Steampowered Boogaloo
wow copyright existed back then? i guess it makes sense but i didn't expect it.
Dang, dude. Keeping the flame alive, I see. 👍👍
@@ominousburrito5198 bro are you fr?
Ok, but that line about Plato living in his own imaginary kingdom made me laugh 😂
His own Republic
And how! That is one of the sickest burns I have ever heard.
Yeah, that joke aged perfectly. Lucian wrote his book for an audience of an intellectual in-crowd, and the fact that I get it makes me feel like I'm part of that crowd.
What did exactly the joke mean? 😗
@@mrpurple11 I think the more important question is, "What does that '😙' mean?"
Id like to point out that, as it is approximately 1.8 thousand years old, this story is in the public domain and anyone can make their own adaptation of it.
I'm sure Disney own it somehow.
@gat9800 They'll make an adaptation and somehow own any future iteration of it and scare away anyone trying to make an original adaptation of it.
@@VelvetMetrolink then they'll put in the most political stuff in it as fast as possible and blame a random person for being insensitive and a being mean jerk.
@CreeperkingHT This comment is about you and the way you perceive the world, not about Disney. Every piece of content is political because that is the nature of politics. You either question the status quo or go along with it. Going along with it is just as political an act as calling for change. Both are inherently political positions. What you are saying is the politics in them offends you. Normally when people say that, the politics they are offended by is the representation of people who traditionally went unrepresented in media and are different to them.
@@VelvetMetrolink Bro. IT was a joke. No source of fictional media offends me because I don't care about the politics in them, I'm just aware of it. Whoop de doo. It was a satirical comment on how companies put political perspectives into shows that aren't necessary, like Star Wars. Sure people get upset, that's fine, but me I don't care man. I know everything isnt about me and that's fine, even great ( I don't like the feeling of the world staring at me, too much stress.) My opinion is my opinion and people can care or not care, and that's whatever dude. Politics are boring. Don't take it so seriously, like how this story does, just for fun and goofiness and adventure. Disney may mess up sometimes and there's shame of making some humor out of it. They do what they do.:) P.S Congratulations you just wasted your time over a joke comment. :P
This story is actually brilliant and if it was to be made into a Monty python-esque movie I would definitely watch it
Have you seen Time Bandits?
Reminds me of baron Munchausen
It does look like a Terry Gilliam movie
Dude, could u imagine if Terry Gilliam made a movie based on this story, it would be the most batshit insane thing ever and it’d be great
They better get on that, Pythons are dropping like puppycorns in a Vinyard.
@@josh.8104 John Cleese seems to be holding up rather well. I think his annoyance level regarding modern society is keeping him alive.
This story reminds me of of one of his actual movies: The Adventures of Baron Von Monchouser. The plot is different but the framing de ice is that this eccentric old man is telling these insane off-the wall stories about his life and exploits and no one believes him.
@@Elonyx.studios I’ve seen it and it’s amazing, Robin Williams character was madness incarnate
@@Elonyx.studios I love that movie! I remember when it was first released the critics shit on it hard. It was at that point I learned not to trust their opinions.
So basically: 2 minutes of tree ladies, 10 hours of space battles, 1 hour of whale belly battles, then a bunch of other crazy stuff. Amazing.
So it's like a Marvel film then.
What a fantastic time he must have had writing this!!
Syrian hash was good...apparently.
i honestly want a full series of this, maybe animated, with unironically high budget and the best CGI only for it to end with a "To be Continue" that will never resolve, or maybe just leads up to a super meta story of people after the fact trying to come up with a good enough story to end it.
The whole "This is FICTION!" disclaimer was important because the idea of fiction was so foreign to ancient Greece. Like, they had it, but there were very strict conventions to be observed so as to not confuse the common man. The first time an actor actually played a part instead of being a storyteller, there was written outrage that the common yokel would think the actor truly was the character and how dare these theatre people tell such lies and try to pass themselves off as Dionysus or Medea?
Amazing!
The radio premiere of _War of the Worlds_ comes to mind.
I mean, you still get idiouts who like to pretend their Vulcans. They are the most toxic people in the star trek fandom
@@Stettafire How idioutic
I'm reminded of the late dawn of "talkie" film-making, when film-makers started to realize they could add music soundtracks. We take these for granted today, but at the time, there was no proper convention for it, the idea of a music soundtrack was so avant-garde and weird, film-makers worried that the audience would be disturbed by music that didn't have an in-movie source... "Where IS all that music coming from???" Audiences, it seems, are a little smarter than critics and movie studios give them credit for, though, so it seems that musical soundtracks - much like special effects, actors who are not the same people as their characters, and fictional story-telling - were pretty readily embraced by ordinary people, who have accepted it all as part of the experience!
And I mention special effects because, in the early days of silent film-making, special effects were considered to be sort of the realm of stage magicians: a slightly shifty sort of thing that was maybe meant to lie to and trick the audience, rather than a form of art in their own right, which is how audiences actually accepted special effects. So, that "weird silent French movie" - 'A Trip to the Moon' - was actually the work of George Melies, director, special-effects creator, producer, etc., who was also an accomplished stage magician, with many of his movie's special effects being pretty obviously derived from a mix of stage magic, puppet shows, and stage play backdrops, costumes, and props, presented in a fanciful way that was certainly meant to be more playful, than convincing. Thomas Edison made a couple early sci-fi movies, too, which similarly depended on stage magic.
And then, there are NINJAS! Mention "ninja" to anyone today, and they'll probably picture a guy dressed in black outfits and masks, where ninjas, as assassins, almost certainly dressed more like ordinary people who blended into the background - farmers, messengers, servants, and that sort of thing. The modern "ninja" costume is actually that of stage-hands in Japanese theater: the guys who moved stage dressing around between acts, supplied special effects, and that sort of thing - the black outfits helped the stagehands to blend into the background off the sides of the stage, where the audience might see them, but could safely ignore them. Until someone needed an assassin in a play, and decided to do something really weird, shocking, and avant-garde: rather than the usual practice of choosing one of of the lesser characters on stage to be the ninja, one of the stage-hands was written into the play as the ninja - nobody saw THAT coming! It was so shocking and such a bold, attention-getting, and popular decision, that the modern black-clad ninja was born!
It would have been sort of like watching a traditional western stage play, and having a member of the audience jump up onto the stage to "assassinate" another character! Which, come to think of it, was a popular gimmick in professional wrestling, which would similarly "break the fourth wall" and have staged arguments and fights between wrestlers and the audience, beginning with the old days of pro wrestling, which started as a kind of circus side-show which would encourage local wrestlers - who were usually secretly in on a rigged show, before pro wrestling came to openly acknowledge it's a "work" - to emerge from the audience to compete with the professionals. In more recent years, having random characters jump out of the audience to fight famous wrestlers as the start of a new feud is a pretty common way to introduce a new wrestler. It probably didn't take early audiences very long to figure out the truth about pro-wrestling, and just accept it as part of the show, much like stage magic audiences understand that it's all sleight of hand, and that's the real art of a magic show, rather than actually believing in magic!
The fourth-wall-breaking gimmick is another one of those things where there were little rules that got deliberately broken eventually, which might be one of the last few examples that still shock audiences even today: it must have been pretty weird for audiences the first time they saw actors on stage address the audience directly in, say a Shakespearean play! As a routine part of post-modernism, we kind of accept that sort of thing as more or less normal, but film-makers even now find new ways to shock audiences a little with new ways of doing this! (The horror movie 'Funny Games' infamously used this trick to have maniac killers use a TV remote control to "undo" a scene where one of their victims almost escapes! Before that, William Castle in the 1950s infamously produced horror movies with accompanying gimmicks that included skeletons that would float over theater audiences on wires, or seats that were wired to "buzz" some audience members when a monster known as 'The Tingler' supposedly escapes into a theater on-screen in the movie by the same name while Vincent Price instructs the audience to scream for their lives - the gimmicks are famous, but they would still weird audiences out today as something that hasn't really turned into a cliche yet!)
Speaking of horror movies, that travelogue gimmick that this early sci-fi story parodies still exists, after a fashion, even today: it's the early ancestor of the Found Footage Film! You were still seeing the travelogue being parodied as recently as 'Gulliver's Travels', while the practically identical "trope" of telling a fantasy, sci-fi, or horror story in the format of a fictional confession, diary, newspaper article, or manuscript in a bottle was pretty well-established by the time Edgar Allan Poe made it a permanent staple of Gothic literature. The next logical thing, after trick ghost photography played the whole thing straight in the age of Spiritualism, was for someone to simply trade in the old apocalyptic log confession or journal entries for a movie camera....
We NEED and I mean *NEED* a blender team to get together and make this man's ancient, ridiculous, shit post of a story a real thing.
::raises hand:: I’m in! And so is my little companion. But I’m only one writer, and her weird little hedgehog companion. Who else is in??
😁😄
In the mean time, give Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen from 1988 a watch as the next-best thing. It's even got Robin Williams as the king of the moon.
I want the guys who did Jojo's bizarre adventure to do this.
@@TheCrazyHedgehogLady He doesn’t mean they need more writers. He wants people who know how to use Blender (3d modelling software) to animate this into a story
A source game
That 'glass platform over a well that lets you see anything happening on earth' is honestly so similar to modern computers that it's unnerving.
You mean satellites??
Obviously, a talescope. But since they hear Earth talks, it is more like a radio telescope.
Dunno, sounds more like a general decription of a crystal ball to me.
The guy wrote one of the earliest sci-fi, spoof, political commentary, expose content on fake celebrities, yaoi themed utopia, treesome porn, weapons made out of asparagus, and ultimately teased a sequel that would never be made. This Lucian dude was ahead of his time.
“Yaoi themed utopia” sent me
Same 😂
😂
>treesome
the door is over there.
yeah, if it was in fact satirical and making fun of celebrities
I grew up in Greece where we had the pleasure of studying Loukianos at school, both parts of the True Story and a couple of his Dialogues of the Dead. Loved him. It's hard to convince teenagers that a 2000 year old writer is actually funny, but he made it somehow.
ETA: It's been decades since then, but I think I remember the weird random details being references to current events. I also remember the line "if you don't believe me go see for yourselves" having a footnote explaining the joke in the schoolbook. Because the authors did put some satirists in our schoolbook, but they did not trust us to get it...? I guess?
Really I think dwindling reading comprehension in modern society is a reason a lot of people don’t “get it”. Most people would never even attempt to read this because of too many four syllable words :/
@@RamManNo1 oh, we got it alright back then and kids today get it too.
That footnote was just some old professor thinking kids are stupid.
I feel like some of the perspective of what made this particular story funny kind of changed over the two eras. Back then, it was “facts” that were so absurdly impossible and provided commentary on other contemporary authors, it was relatable. Today, while giving perspective had elements of things we probably would guess they couldn’t figure out given the advances in technology, but then throw a curveball with concepts that strongly parallel modern things, ideas, and concepts AI and how its utilized both in real world application and modern sci-fi storytelling such as the world with floating lamps that were assigned purposes, like a sort of code, or ideas that resemble things you’re more likely to find in a weird fanfic where the author really wants two men to get together but one dies and the other has a canonical child and wasn’t that into women in the literal canon text, so mpreg, except instead of “Kakyoin laid an egg for Jotaro and hatch out Jolyne”, you get leg babies.
Are you kidding? Lucian’s my favorite author of all time! I read A True Story 2,000 years ago back when it first published and it was a treat! It’s been 2,000 years and the small community of Lucian’s fan base is still waiting on A True Story: The Truest of Them All, but I heard Lucian’s already finished half of it! It’s very exciting to see where he’ll take it, a favorite fan theory is that he meets Joe Biden in Mars! Thrilled!