Indifference

2 0 6 INDIFFERENCE

rejection, transformed her into the unattainable ideal woman. La Belle Dame sans Merci.

ELIZABETH PETERS Naked Once More, 1989

Fates In Greek and Roman mythology, the Fates were the three goddesses who presided over the birth, life, and death of humans. They were represented as three women spinning: Clotho, who held the distaff and spun the thread of a person's life, Lachesis, who drew off the thread, and Atropos, who cut short the thread and so determined when a person's life would end. They can be alluded to for their role in determining human life and death without emotion.

• See also PARCAE SISTERS.

fiddle while Rome burns •See NERO.

Jolly Miller The comic opera Love in a Village (1762) contains a song about the jolly miller, in which the miller declares: 'I care for nobody, not I, If no one cares for me'.

And then sometimes, very disquietingly for poor Susan, he would suddenly interrupt his emotions with an oddly cynical little laugh and would become for a while somebody entirely different, somebody like the Jolly Miller in the song. 'I care for nobody, no, not I, and nobody cares for me.'

ALDOUS HUXLEY Point Counter Point, 1928

Laodicean The Laodiceans in the Bible were a group of Christians who were indifferent to religion, being 'lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot' (Rev. 3: 16). A Laodicean is thus someone who is or seems indifferent, showing no strong feeling.

He felt himself to occupy morally that vast middle space of Laodicean neutrality which lay between the Communion people of the parish and the drunken section. THOMAS HARDY Far from the Madding Crowd, 1874

Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette (1755-93), the wife of Louis XVI, won widespread unpopularity through her extravagant lifestyle at a time when the French people were going hungry. She is reported to have said, on being told that the poor of Paris had no bread to eat, 'Qu'ils mangent de la brioche' (traditionally translated as 'Let them eat cake'). This phrase has won her a reputation for callousness and indifference to the plight of the poor. She was beheaded during the French Revolution.

'He's forgotten the Marhaen,' he said. 'He's forgotten them, as people. They're nothing but an extension of himself, to make speeches to. He said it himself: when he speaks to the people, it's a dialogue with his alter-ego! His voice rose above the drunken conversation. 'What a disgusting admission, while the people starve,' he said. 'The Bung's a Marie Antoinette, but he says, "Let them eat rats.'"

CHRISTOPHER j . KOCH The Year of Living Dangerously, 1978

And they have such long holidays! Why can't they do two jobs, if they're short of

Nero Nero (AD 37-68) was a Roman emperor who ruled AD 54-68. During his

2 0 8 INNOCENCE

Adam and Eve The Book of Genesis relates how God created Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, to live in the Garden of Eden. Before the Serpent persuaded them to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil they were completely innocent, knew nothing of good and evil, and were not ashamed of their own nakedness: 'And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed' (Gen. 2: 25). Adam and Eve can be alluded to as archetypal innocents, living in harmony with nature, and knowing nothing of human weaknesses or wickedness. • See special entry u

EVE on p. 5.

At least in other nations,' Robbie Ross had fulminated, 'Adam and Eve arrived innocent. Here they arrived with their crimes already written all over their faces.'

THOMAS KENEALLY The Playmaker, 1987

Caesar's wife When it was suggested that Pompeia, wife of Julius Caesar, was having an extramarital affair, Caesar divorced her saying that, although he knew nothing of the affair, 'Caesar's wife must be above suspicion'. Caesar's wife may be invoked in the context of a person being required to behave in such a way that no suspicion of guilt can ever fall on them.

Bradley, your conduct has given rise to rumours—and I hope for your sake they are no more than that—so unspeakably distasteful that . . . I mean Caesar's wife . ..

hrump . . . that is, the Department must be above suspicion . . . certainly above such suspicions as you have seemingly aroused.

WILLIAM BURROUGHS Naked Lunch, 1959

'You're forgetting Caesar's wife, Crosby'

Crosby double-declutched to give himself time to think. 'Who sir?' 'Caesar's wife. She was above suspicion.'

CATHERINE AIRD The Religious Body, 1966

Desdemona In Shakespeare's play Othello (1622), Desdemona is the daughter of a Venetian senator who falls in love with and marries the Moorish general Othello. The treacherous Iago, Othello's ensign, convinces Othello that Desdemona is being unfaithful to him and, although she is completely innocent, Othello murders her in jealous rage.

DreyfllS Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935) was a French army officer of Jewish descent who in 1894 was falsely accused of passing military secrets to the Germans. His trial, imprisonment on Devil's Island, and eventual release caused a major political crisis in France. Dreyfus can be alluded to as an innocent person falsely accused or punished.

As things stood we had an offender, a detected crime, and no demands for a second PM. The coroner had therefore released the body for burial. Not the wisest move: Klondike Bill was beginning to look about as guilty as Captain Dreyfus, and I sincerely hoped that the hierarchy had given HM Coroner an explanation, together with the lawyers' version of a frank and sincere smile.

RAYMOND FLYNN A Public Body 1996

Lamb of Cod The lamb is a biblical symbol of innocence and meekness, and 'the Lamb of God' is a name sometimes given to Jesus, famously in the quotation from the Bible: 'The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world' (John i: 29). The Lamb of God is the epitome of innocence and goodness.

'Why, I wonder, is he so suspicious of poor Guy?' 'Him!' Inchcape snorted in amused