Page 96 "Gordes would do them good."

From page 96 of the book:    "...That morning, I was waiting for a car.  Owen and Sarah were being driven to Gordes, a village on the edge of the Vaucluse plateau, nearly 20 kilometers north of Cadenet and the Luberon mountain range.  They were taking a couple of days to  be alone, to investigate the land without me.  I knew that at times I must have acted like a meddlesome nurse, or a nagging orderly; available, helping, knowledgeable, unavoidable.
     Gordes would do them good.  They were going to visit three things: a castle; a bizarre cluster of cone-shaped, stone huts called the village des bories (origin unknown); and the Senanque Abbey, built by the Cistercians in the 12 century.  Owen wouldn't pass up the Abbey for, as I've said, he was attached to history.  It was, I hoped, what would give him strength."

Gordes

Map showing Luberon range, Cadenet, Gordes, etc.

Village des  bories



Detail of Village des Bories



Senanque Abbey

Page 88 "What's going on, Catullus?"

From page 88 of the book:  "..."What's going on, Catullus?" he asked, kicking off his shoes.  "Reading dirting poems?  Thinking about unnatural acts?"
"No," I smiled, avoiding his eyes, drinking my wine."

[Gaius Catullus (84 BC to 54 BC), Latin poet of the Roman Republic.  His poems have been preserved in an anthology of 116 carmina, which can be divided into three formal parts: short poems in varying metres, longer poems, and epigrams.

    The short poems and the epigrams can be divided into four major thematic groups (ignoring a rather large number of poems eluding such categorization):

a.  poems to and about his friends (e.g., an invitation like poem 13).

b.  erotic poems: some of them indicate homosexual penchants (50 and 99), but most are about women, especially about one he calls "Lesbia" (in honour of the poetess Sappho of Lesbos, source and inspiration of many of his poems).

c.  invectives: often rude and sometimes downright obscene poems targeted at friends-turned-traitors (e.g., poem 30), other lovers of Lesbia, well known poets, politicians (e.g., Julius Caesar) and rhetors, including Cicero.

d.  condolences: some poems of Catullus are solemn in nature. 96 comforts a friend in the death of a loved one; several others, most famously 101, lament the death of his brother.

    All these poems describe the lifestyle of Catullus and his friends, who, despite Catullus's temporary political post in Bithynia, lived their lives withdrawn from politics. They were interested mainly in poetry and love. Above all other qualities, Catullus seems to have sought venustas, or charm, in his acquaintances, a theme which he explores in a number of his poems. The ancient Roman concept of virtus (i.e. of virtue that had to be proved by a political or military career), which Cicero suggested as the solution to the societal problems of the late Republic, meant little to them.]

Page 86 "...a Cezanne-like bowl of fruit,"

From page 86 of the book:  "...Gloria silently opened a concealed bottle of bourbon and grouped it between our glasses, along with bottles of white and red wine, a tray of cheeses, a plate of prosciutto ham, a Cezanne-like bowl of fruit, and some bread."

Page 81 "...the four-knights' opening."

From page 81 of the book:  "..."How do you play chess?" asked Ebert, watching Owen's move, which mirrored Ebert's.
"What do you mean?" asked Owen, as Ebert moved his queen's knight to bishop-three. Owen copied the move, thus completing the four-knights opening.
"What is your plan?"
"My plan?" replied Owen, as Ebert moved king's bishop to bishop-four. "You ever read Magister Ludi?" "
                                                                           

[The Four Knights Game is a chess opening starting with the moves
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6

This is the most common sequence but the knights may be developed in any order. The ECO codes for the Four Knights Game are C47 (alternatives to 4.Bb5), C48 (4.Bb5 without 4...Bb4), and C49 (the Symmetrical Variation, 4.Bb5 Bb4).]

[The Four Knights is fairly popular with beginners who strictly adhere to the opening principle "develop knights before bishops." It was one of the workhorses in the family of the Open Game, at even the highest levels, until World War I. Thereafter it fell by the wayside, along with a number of open games. In this period ambitious players explored the Ruy Lopez, believing it a better attempt for White to exploit the advantage of the first move. In the 1990s, this opening saw a renaissance, and is now seen in the praxis of players from beginner to grandmaster. The Four Knights usually leads to quiet positional play, though there are some sharp variations.]  See this video link: http://chrisrecord.com/chess-com-the-four-knights-opening-intro/

Magister Ludi was originally published under the title: The Glass Bead Game (German: Das Glasperlenspiel).  It is the last work and magnum opus of the German author Hermann Hesse. Published in Switzerland in 1943, after being rejected for publication in Germany, the book was mentioned in Hesse's citation for the 1946 Nobel Prize for Literature.  Glass Bead Game is a literal translation of the German title, but the book has also been published under the title Magister Ludi, Latin for "master of the game," which is an honorific title awarded to the book's central character. "Magister Ludi" can also be seen as a pun: lud- is a Latin stem meaning both "game" and "school."

Hermann Hesse

The Glass Bead Game takes place at an unspecified date, centuries into the future. Hesse suggested that he imagined the book's narrator writing around the start of the 25th century. The setting is a fictional province of central Europe called Castalia, reserved by political decision for the life of the mind; technology and economic life are kept to a strict minimum. Castalia is home to an austere order of intellectuals with a twofold mission: to run boarding schools for boys, and to nurture and play the Glass Bead Game, whose exact nature remains elusive and whose devotees occupy a special school within Castalia known as Waldzell. The rules of the game are only alluded to, and are so sophisticated that they are not easy to imagine. Playing the game well requires years of hard study of music, mathematics, and cultural history. Essentially the game is an abstract synthesis of all arts and sciences. It proceeds by players making deep connections between seemingly unrelated topics.

Page 76 "...from local wines to Jean Paul Sartre, from sexuality to Dostoyevsky"

From page 76 of the book:  "...The two men walked on. They crossed the street and finally stepped over the threshold of Ebert's home.  Their talk ran from local wines to Jean-Paul Sartre, from sexuality to Fyodor Dostoyevsky." 

Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) was a Russian writer and essayist, best known for his novels Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.  Dostoyevsky's literary works explored human psychology in the troubled political, social and spiritual context of 19th-century Russian society. Considered by many as a founder or precursor of 20th-century existentialism, his Notes from Underground (1864), written in the embittered voice of the anonymous "underground man", was called the "best overture for existentialism ever written" by Walter Kaufmann.  Dostoyevsky is often acknowledged by critics as one of the greatest psychologists in world literature. (Text & painting Courtesy of Wikipedia)

 Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, existentialism, and Marxism, and his work continues to influence fields such as Marxist philosophy, sociology, critical theory and literary studies. Sartre was also noted for his long polyamorous relationship with the author and social theorist, Simone de Beauvoir. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature but refused the honor. (Courtesy of Wikipedia)