Second, we have the arcade and "skill" component since the game goes fast, and you will have to move the snake fast, otherwise you will lose very easily when hitting something you do not owe or getting into where you should not. There will also be elements that will make you gain value in the snake, you will see them as out of square elements with a number, you simply have to go through them. There is the strategy, you will have to think about the best way, although sometimes it is going through a square with a large number. These squares often can not be avoided, since there will also be obstacles and other elements that will make it impossible for you. First, we have the strategic part, with a mathematical component, why? Because the snake will open an infinite and straight path, and sometimes it will have to go through squares that indicate a number, that number will be subtracted from it to your serpent as it passes through it. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.Snake VS Block Numbers is an indie game with a mix of genres: This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. And that is not a sentiment I expect to hear from most politicians.īLOCK: Well, Professor Mendelsohn, thanks for explaining the sword of Damocles to us today.īLOCK: That's Daniel Mendelsohn, author, translator and professor of humanities at Bard College.Ĭopyright © 2011 NPR. But the point was all this stuff is meaningless, power, luxury and wealth, and if you know what's good for you, you'll be happy to be a much lesser kind of person. We all use that expression, oh, it's a sword of Damocles. It's not just, oh, something terrible is going to happen, but it's about realizing that what looks like an enviable life, a life of wealth, a life of power, a life of luxury is, in fact, fraught with anxiety, terror and possibly death.Īnd so that's the moral lesson of the original story, which has completely, I would say, gotten lost in the common usage. The real point of the story is very clearly a moral parable. But it wouldn't be the first time politicians misread the classics. Is that the original intent, do you think, of the metaphor of the story?
KENNEDY: Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles hanging by the slenderest of threads.īLOCK: So Professor Mendelsohn, it's come to be used as sort of the notion of impending doom. in a speech before the UN about the threat of nuclear war. And he then begged Dionysius to be allowed to leave the throne and to go back to his subservient position as a courtier and obviously got the point, which is that anybody who gets to enjoy immense wealth, luxury and power also is living under a threat.īLOCK: We found all kinds of references to the sword of Damocles as a metaphor. And Dionysius said, oh, really? Well, if you want to know what that's like, you can come sit in my throne, which Damocles did and Dionysius made sure that he was well supplied with opulent food and great service and cute waiters and beautiful perfumes and scented candles going.Īnd Damocles was thinking to himself, how very wonderful then, it must be and then noticed that Dionysius had also hung above the throne a gleaming sword, which was suspended by a single horsehair.
USING WRONG EMAIL ON SNAKE VS BLOCK PROFESSIONAL
As author and classics scholar Daniel Mendelsohn explains, it goes back to the reign of a Sicilian tyrant at the end of the fifth century, B.C.ĭANIEL MENDELSOHN: The story goes that Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse had a courtier named Damocles who was more or less a professional flatterer who lay around these opulent feasts saying nice things to Dionysius.Īnd once, he made a comment to the effect of, oh, how great it would be to be the king. Since that sword has been getting such a workout, we figured we should understand the origins of the metaphor. UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: At a time when the debt limit was not hanging over the economy's head like a sword of Damocles.īLOCK: The sword of Damocles.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Well, the good news obviously is that the economy now doesn't have the sword of Damocles hanging over it. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: With the sword of Damocles overhead, if not, we're going to default. UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: We have this sword of Damocles hanging over our heads. MELISSA BLOCK, host: This summer, we've noticed that the debate over the debt crisis has led to a surge in metaphor and one in particular.
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