An account of a dinner with an old Slovenian friend and intellectual.
Tag Archives: Plato
My Dinner with Mladen
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged intellectual conversations, Ion, King Lear, Mladen Dolar, Oedipus at Colonus, Pierre de Marivaux, Republic, Samuel Beckett, Sophocles, Wayne Booth, William Shakespeare, Worstward Ho Comments closed
GOP Tax Plan and the Invisible Man
If the GOP tax plan panders to the wealthiest Americans, maybe it’s because they are like H.G. Wells’s Invisible Man and believe they can act with impunity.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, GOP Tax Bill, H. G. Wells, Invisible Man, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Republic Comments closed
Aristotle Changed the Way Europe Thought
In “Aristotle’s Children,” Richard Rubenstein gets us to rethink the Faith-Reason and Religion-Science splits. When Aristotle revolutionized the High Middle Ages, Church leaders and thinkers tried to reconcile the tensions. Knowing this has me rethinking Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Donne.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aristotle, Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, High Middle Ages, John Donne, scholasticism, William Shakespeare 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, Homer, Odyssey, philosophy, Republic, Tom Jones Comments closed
To Strengthen Your Caring, Read Lit
When we become numb to the world’s horrors, the problem is not the numbness but the insufficient attention paid. Reading lit can help us overcome compassion fatigue
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged compassion fatigue, Emily Dickinson, Iris Murdoch, mass media, Simone Weil Comments closed
Can Lit Also Be a Force for Evil? A Debate
The classics are capable to doing great good but can they also do harm? Even as they powerfully open up the mind to new possibilities, can they also close it down? A debate.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Anabelle Lee", Aristotle, Bridge to Terabithia, Charles Dickens, Earth Sea Trilogy, Edgar Allan Poe, George Eliot, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Jane Austen, Katherine Paterson, Middlemarch, Old Curiosity Shop, Percy Shelley, Pride and Prejudice, Sir Philip Sidney, Twelfth Night, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Ursula Leguin, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Plato Anxious about Lit’s Pyschic Impact
Plato’s complaints about literature show up in censorship battles today. They testify to power of literature to invite imitation.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aescylus, Hesiod, Homer, Iliad, mimesis, neurocriticism, Republic Comments closed
Plato’s Warning: Beware of Poets
While Plato advocated banning poets from the ideal republic, his censure works as an indirect testimony to literature’s power.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Ion, passions, philosophy, reason, Republic, Socrates Comments closed
Finding Hope in a Captured Fish
Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Fish” works as a powerful meditation on hope.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Fish", artifice, divine madness, Elizabeth Bishop, hope, Ion, Socrates Comments closed
