In our continuing discussion of rumor vs. truth, Figaro finds a way to defeat malicious gossip, Kafka not.
Tag Archives: Enlightenment
Byatt’s Babel Tower and Truth Today
A.S. Byatt counterposes Fourier and Sade in “Babel Tower.” The novel is influencing a “Truth, Education, and Democracy” session I am helping put together.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged A.S. Byatt, Babel Tower, Carleton College, Charles Fourier, Marquis de Sade Comments closed
When a Novel Affected Clock Sales
Friday I have lots of thoughts about the Congressional hearings on Donald Trump’s January 6 coup attempt, which opened last night, and am working up a post that references Milton’s rebel angels. I’ll end this week, however, on a lighter note, an interesting footnote that my English professor son alerted me to. Apparently, Laurence Sterne’s […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged clocks, Country Wife, John Wilmot, Laurence Sterne, Plain Dealer, Tristram Shandy, William Wycherley Comments closed
“Clarissa” Taught the Age Empathy
A new book argues that epistolary novels, especially “Clarissa,” taught the 18th century empathy.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Clarissa, Daniel Defoe, Denise Diderot, empathy, Humphrey Clinker, Moll Flanders, Roxana, Samuel Richardson Comments closed
Gothics Speak Truth to Denial
Thursday Thursday morning I delivered the following talk to Sewanee’s Rotary Club. I entitled it “America’s Obsession with Gothic Fantasy, from Poe to Game of Thrones. When you hear someone mention gothic fantasy or gothic horror, what American stories, movies or television shows come to mind? Before I let you answer that question, let me […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Black Cat, Edgar Allen Poe, Flannery O'Connor, Game of Thrones, George Martin, Good Country People, gothic fiction, It, John Winthrop, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Stephen King, Tell-Tale Heart, Twilight Zone, Young Goodman Brown Comments closed
Fantasy Frees Us from Narrow Thinking
Friday I share today a new insight that I gained from my recent Lifelong Learning class about “Wizards and Enchantresses.” To set it up, I first share my theory of fantasy. As I see it, fantasy is always oppositional in its invocation of magic and the supernatural. If it flourished in the wake of the […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged fantasy, Fundamentalism, Geoffrey Chaucer, scientism, Wife of Bath Comments closed
Authentic Awareness vs. Reason
In Nicole Krauss’s “Dark Forest,” we see a character’s hunger for magic and mystery and her battle with Enlightenment Reason.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Age of Reason, Dark Forest, Descartes, Nicole Krauss Comments closed
Fantasy, a Portal to the Numinous
People are often drawn to fantasy in our post-Enlightenment world because they hunger for the numinous.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Crystal Forest", alienation, angels, Beauty and the Beast, Charles Taylor, disenchantment, fantasy, Georg Lukacs, Harmut Rosa, His Dark Materials, Homer, John Milton, Odyssey, Paradise Lost, Philip Pullman, re-enchantment, resonance, Theory of the Novel, Willam Sharp Comments closed
How Fantasy Saves Our Souls
Great fantasy can always be seen as oppositional, pushing against prevailing modes of thought and opening up portals into new human possibilities.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Age of Reason, Bacchae, Don Quixote, Euripides, fantasy, Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Miguel de Cervantes, Scientific Revolution, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Tracks Comments closed
