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Alec had
not studied the Han dynasty very well and all he could remember
was that Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian was
considered to be traditional China's greatest piece of
historical writing. Beyond that he drew a blank until time was
up. After Dr.
Wong’s final, he headed off to the last review class in
Ancient Philosophy. He arrived in the classroom a half-hour
early, beating Dr. Catania who typically was the first in the
room. The room filled quickly with students poring over their
texts in their final dash to the finish. Then, professor Catania
jumped into the room as if he had just been transported from
some other space-time point. "Today,
dear astute scholars, we will have the fifth and
final…yes, final review of the main themes in the Meno," the agile professor announced. He bounced back and forth across
the front of the room as if invisible rubber walls were
containing him, preventing him from escaping to that other
space-time point where, Alec could only conjecture, he must have
been the moment before he appeared. Alec hung
on every word and nuance of the professor’s long, running
commentaries in response to various questions from the students.
He followed along in the original Greek text, reading as the
small, bouncing professor recited lengthy passages, first in
Greek and then in English—all from memory. The time passed
quickly and the professor was making some final generalizations
and final lists of key concepts. "...and
one final point...dissect Plato’s use of the Pythagorean
Theorem in his experiment with the slave boy. Why did he use
that example from geometry? Did the result shed any light on the
initial question of the dialog? From the textual evidence, is it
clear that Meno has had his question answered?" The kinetic
professor paced in silence, alternately rubbing his hands and
pulling on his earlobes. Alec
bolted upright in his seat. The professor’s reference to the Pythagorean
Theorem conjured a floating right triangle in Alec’s
imagination. "What if the Chrome was trying to do something
similar to what Socrates attempted with Anytus?" Alec almost said aloud. "That’s
got to be it...at least for this summer," the professor
almost shouted as he headed for the door. "Tomorrow,
scholars, I expect to see your final best!" And with that,
he vanished through the doorway as if it were a portal into
another dimension.
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