LETTERS Alexander technique
Sir: It seems a pity that Peter Jones attacked Michael Wood's television pro- grammes about Alexander the Great for containing too many interesting pictures that had nothing to do with the literary account of Alexander's career (Media stud- ies, 8 August).
They were awfully good programmes, all the same. Basically Michael Wood was not just telling the story of Alexander, he was telling the story of his own travels through the territory Alexander campaigned in which would have been fascinating if he had not given a single new piece of infor- mation about Alexander. And he didn't, as far as Peter Jones was concerned. But he informed lots of people who didn't know as much as Peter Jones.
Using one story to tell another is not only a way of producing good and informative stuff, it is also a central method in classical literature — in the Aeneid, for instance, Thucydides and almost the whole of Athe- nian tragedy. As for asides about interest- ing things the investigator found while researching his theme — it's as well Herodotus didn't have Peter Jones to snipe at him.
Classical learning is on a knife-edge. It might not make it through the present peri- od of indifference. To get through, it needs to play to its strengths, and not throw away the chance to interest people. Stuffy fastidi- ousness like that of Peter Jones is some- thing it can't afford.
Trevor Timpson
19 Lansdowne Road, Hounslow, Middlesex
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