Monday A recent New Yorker article about “Curious George” forces us to rethink the beloved children’s classic. While at first glance, Rivka Galchen points out, it uncomfortably echoes the Middle Passage, it actually grew out of a different atrocity. Authors Hans and Margret Rey were Jews fleeing the Germans as they invaded France. The Reys […]
Monthly Archives: June 2019
Come, Holy Spirit
Pentecost Sunday Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz uses the occasion of Pentecost to explore the nature of faith in his poem “Veni Creator.” Although the apostles may have been filled with the Holy Spirit, what about those of us who don’t experience tongues of flame? Here’s Luke’s description of moment (Acts 2:1-4): When the […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Gerontion", "Venite Creator", Brothers Karamazov, Czeslaw Milosz, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Grand Inquisitor, love, Pentecost, T. S. Eliot Comments closed
Teach Game Theory through Greek Myths
Friday The other day I stumbled across an American Economist article, written up in JSTOR Daily, arguing that teachers who want their students to retain the fundamentals of game theory should turn to Greek myths. Economist James D. Miller and classicist Debbie Felton explain their reasoning as follows: For professional economists, game theory is about […]
Fantasy and the Problem of Violence
Thursday Today I will be delivering the following talk as part of Sewanee’s Lifelong Learning series, delivered in a venue that used to be my high school and where I spoke 50 years ago. It may sound strange to some of you that a literary scholar such as myself would talk about fantasy. Aren’t we […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Beowulf, Beowulf poet, Carl Jung, fantasy, J. R. R. Tolkien, Joseph Campbell, Lord of the Rings, Sigmund Freud, violence Comments closed
A Keats Poem for Class Reunions
Wednesday This past weekend I attended my 50th high school anniversary and relived life at Sewanee Military Academy from 1965-69. Some of my former classmates talked of these having been the happiest years of their lives, which brought to mind a poem I learned at SMA while practicing for the regional poetry competition. In some […]
Poohing in the Sun
Tuesday June has opened in Sewanee, Tennessee with four gorgeous days so I’m sharing one of Pooh’s nature poems. A. A. Milne’s self-deprecating poet describes sensory input blending together in a moment of pure bliss. Happy Summer! Oh, the butterflies are flying, Now the winter days are dying, And the primroses are trying To be […]
