Classics and the Western Canon discussion

I recently had a chat with a friend from the blogsphere on Plato and Nietzsche. During the conversation, I was reminded of a story that I had heard a long long time ago, but couldn't remember the author or the title.

I think many people have had similar experiences. We retain in our memory the interesting and memorable part of a story, an image, a quote, a song, but not where it came from or who the author was. So I'm starting this "lost and found" thread to help us retrieve the "lost" pieces of our memory.

The following is the story I had in mind, can you name its author and title?

I [an art merchant] traveled to a far country on a business trip, and found lodging in a small family inn owned by a blind old man and his daughter. During an after-dinner conversation, I learned that the old man was actually a connoisseur of art with many famous paintings in his collection. Naturally I was delighted when he offered to show me the paintings. But his daughter was visibly distressed and signaled me to follow her.as she went to fetch the paintings. She explained to me that they had fallen on hard times and she had no choice but to sell the paintings to survive, in spite of the old man’s firm instructions that the paintings must not be sold, because they were his life. He had become blind due to sickness so he didn’t know that the paintings were all gone. When the daughter brought the blank frames to the old man, he proudly presented them to me, naming them one by one, while caressing them gently with his withered hands. Staring at the blank frames, I listened in silence and shock. Suddenly, the old man stopped, he sensed that something was missing, something didn’t feel quite right. What happened to his beloved painting? The daughter looked to me in desperation for help. I hesitated but finally mustered enough courage to speak. I picked up where the old man had left off, and, recalling from memory, I described the details of the paintings and complimented the old man’s taste. He beamed with pride and delight.

The Invisible Collection, Stefan Zweig

That's it! Thank you so much, thewanderingjew. You've won the Most Erudite Reader Award (for the 1st round at least :) ).

I just read Zweig's Wikipedia entry, and found out that he held a Ph.D. in Philosophy and wrote a biography of Nietzsche. It's no wonder that his story popped into my mind during a discussion on Nietzsche.

You are very welcome!

Now I need to find a lost episode of Star Trek.

The story is about a mad scientist who has the machinery to alter the history of the universe. He violates the Prime Directive even to the extent that, instead of making war, he prevents a whole planet and the people on it from coming into existence.

Can you name the episode?

Which series was it (I am presuming OS)?

It's one of the later series

That information has been erased.

Okay I know of two major storylines that violate the temporal prime directive.

But I think you are referring to a group of scientists that are working on a ship that set about trying to fix the timeline. They were the last survivors of two warring planets (or two nations on a warring planet), and they were determined to go back in time and alter history. But the problem was that every time they fixed something they would not get a 100% population restoration. At one point they had almost 97% or something, but we find out that the captain of the ship's wife didn't get restored and he will not rest until she is.

If that isn't the storyline then it could be related to Captain Braxton (from the future) who is a starfleet officer trying to fix Voyagers disruptions to the timeline (breaking the temporal prime directive) he was pretty ruthless.

Cass wrote: "Okay I know of two major storylines that violate the temporal prime directive.

But I think you are referring to a group of scientists that are working on a ship that set about trying to fix the ti..."

Which series is the first story in? Does it involve eliminating a people or planet?

That they can't get 100% restoration reminds me of Heraclitus, "No man ever steps in the same river twice"

Both were from Voyager. I am trying to find the episode name.