Hypatia lived and died as a Humanist among religious zealots

Reference (1) is a collection of significant film clips dedicated to Hypatia of Alexandria.
The film clips offer us glimpses of modern Alexandria, interviews with several scholars, visits to several museums, archeological sites, drawings of the ancient Alexandria and accounts of Hypatia’s achievements in Philosophy, Astronomy and Mathematics.
Some of the highlights are:
• The late Carl Sagan told 600 million television viewers, "here in the Library of Alexandria, were the first trials to understand the world (1,2)."
• Bettany Hughes (3) made the point that Alexandria was more famous than Athens and Rome.
• In her film clips Bettany included: (i) segments from Amenabar’s film “Agora”; and visits to: (a) The Bibliotheca Alexandrina. (b) the Temple of Apis in Saqqara; and (c) the archeological site of the Royal Alexandrian Library at the Kom-el-Dika.
A Polish team of archeologists discovered the ruins of the Royal Alexandrian Library and its Mouseion, the research centre of the Royal Library.

Hypatia lived and died in Alexandria as a Humanist among religious zealots

(1) http://wn.com/Hypatia_of_Alexandria.
(2) “Cosmos”- The popular television series.
(3) Oxford scholar / archeologist / BBC presenter / author of "Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore."

The Publishing Revolution - P.S. Thank You Amazon

Two traditional publishers published my two university textbooks because I had a long list of publications in the field of Radio Astronomy; in their language I had a platform.

After I wrote my first literary novel I spent many months trying to find a publisher to no avail mainly because I didn’t have a platform in the literary circles. I therefore, like many authors, have a dossier of rejection letters from traditional publishers.

As I was keen to get my work out there, I approached a local publisher in Adelaide who published my first literary novel Hollywood Amarroo – a chronicle about two young lovers who ignored the prejudices of the sixties in Australia to defend an Aboriginal mother accused of manslaughter.
I organized a successful book launch but after that happening, I didn’t sell many copies of my book because no one advertised and / or marketed my book.

Outskirts Press published Hypatia’s Feud, my second literary book, because I didn’t want to go for another merry go round with the traditional publishers. The time it took Outskirts Press to convert my manuscript, MS, as a WORD doc to a book and e-book was about six months. Amazon now advertises and markets my book but it was a costly experiment.

Thanks to the publishing revolution authors now have a third alternative: Amazon’s CreatSpace. An author sends the finished MS to Amazon’s CreateSpace where it is converted into an e-book and presto the author’s book is out there in the virtual world! Parenthetically I’ll add that the cost of converting the MS as a WORD doc to an e-book is less than$100. With this approach the author has absolute control of every aspect of production and earns royalties worth 70% of the book’s purchase price. The royalties offered by CreatSpace therefore compare favourably with the 15% (of the book’s purchase price) I earn from my university text books. It is simply brilliant!

Royalties aside imagine how many trees authors would save using Amazon’s CreateSpace to put their work out there. Many readers would simply visit the virtual Amazon bookshop before they can buy any e-books, costing less, say, $6.00. E-books are simply transmitted to the reader via the Internet, almost instantly, so no one pays packaging or postal charges. And more importantly no more merry go rounds for authors dealing with traditional publishers. Lastly non- English authors can also use Amazon’s CreateSpace to get their work out there.

I’m already working toward re-issuing my Hollywood Amarroo book as an e-book. Now you know the route I’ll pursue to publish all my future books.

My book "Hypatia's Feud" is in Amazon

The publication of my book “Hypatia’s Feud” marks the end of a three year project during which I researched, wrote and edited the manuscript.

During that period I had many interesting conversations with friends and colleagues. Some women who graduated from various courses broadly labeled as Women Studies were not happy hearing that I was writing a book based on the life and times of Hypatia. The insinuation was that Hypatia belonged to them and I, a man, had no right to write a literary novel about their hero and idol.

The fact that I had a classical education didn’t matter to them. I reminded them that as an astronomer, qualified in Science and Mathematics I understood her achievement in these branches of science. Lastly I mentioned that I spent several summers in Alexandria and took a number of philosophy courses but could not change their minds. Eventually we agree to disagree.

An astrophysicist, I respect, insisted that Hypatia was just a mathematician. In vain I tried to convince him she was the quintessential philosopher-hero who lived and died as a Humanist among religious zealots. Sensing I could not change his mind I mentioned she was the conduit of ancient wisdom to the modern world but failed again to change his mind.

To my religious friends I stressed that Hypatia’s Feud at the dawn of the fifth century CE with all dogmatic religions and political creeds, is our feud too because her foes under different names are ever-present.

The moral of my experiences is that no matter what we choose to do or write we will always have detractors. What is important to me is to explore universal issues and put my work out there.

“Hypatia’s Feud” is now available as a book and as e-book from Amazon.