Spiritual Sunday Every time I visit Slovenia (six times now, the first two for year-long Fulbrights), I learn something new. In my most recent visit, I discovered it is common for couples to live together for years before getting married (if they ever do). While I can’t speak to overall statistics, I talked with several […]
Tag Archives: Homer
The GOP & Trump’s Siren Call
Tuesday The other day I detected one of Atlantic’s excellent columnists misusing a classical analogy. I flag Ed Kilgore, not to show off, but because the analogy is indeed enlightening if used correctly. See if you can find the mistake: This would suggest that the occasional efforts by individual Republican congressmen to show some distance from […]
Returning to the Misty Past
John Gatta’s “Spirits of Place” is helping me understand why I have chosen to retire in my home town. Wordsworth, Stowe, Homer, and Frost help out as well.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Death of the Hired Man", "Pulley", George Herbert, Harriet Beecher Stowe, home, John Gatta, Odyssey, retirement, Robert Frost, Sewanee, Tintern Abbey, Uncle Tom's Cabin, William Wordsworth Comments closed
Anger in Ancient Greek Works
A new book looks at how the ancient Greeks approached the issue of anger in works such as “Iliad,” “Ajax,” and “Hecuba.
Great Pro-War Literature Doesn’t Exist
In which I argue that great pro-war literature doesn’t exist, including “The iliad” and “War and Peace.” (Both works are magnificent; I just don’t see them as pro-war.)
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Charge of the Light Brigade", Alfred Lord Tennyson, anti-war literature, Catch 22, Donald Trump, Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Iliad, Joseph Heller, Leo Tolstoy, Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer, Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien, war, War and Peace Comments closed
Bob Dylan, Gifted Storyteller
Bob Dylan, in his Nobel Acceptance Speech, made it clear that literary influences are as big in his song writing as musical influences.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Blowin' in the Wind", "Masters of War", All Quiet on the Western Front, Bob Dylan, Erich Maria Remarque, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Nobel prize, Odyssey 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, Enlightenment, fantasy, Georg Lukacs, Harmut Rosa, His Dark Materials, John Milton, Odyssey, Paradise Lost, Philip Pullman, re-enchantment, resonance, Theory of the Novel, Willam Sharp Comments closed
Defending Homer against Plato
Plato’s attacks on Homer have to do with the bard’s focus earthly concerns rather than higher ones. Following Plato’s prescriptions, however, will not produce very interesting poetry.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Henry Fielding, Odyssey, philosophy, Plato, Republic, Tom Jones Comments closed
On Broken Ceasefires, in Homer & in Syria
The horrific bombing of a 31-truck aid convoy brought an end to the painstakingly negotiated ceasefire between Russian and the United States in Syria. The incident resembled how Hera and Athena break up the truce that the Greeks and Trojans are trying to negotiate in “The Iliad.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged broken truces, ceasefires, Iliad, Russia, Syria, Syrian aid convoy bombing, Syrian civil war Comments closed
