“Tell something to children, tell them the whole thing right to the end, and they’ll still ask: Then what? What comes next?”
“Children are the only bold philosophers. And bold philosophers will always be children.”
Zamyatin: Children as bold philosophers Read More »
I think of him as the anti-Homer poet. While Homer’s subjects are gods and heroes, Archilochus writes of drunkenness, running away to live and perhaps fight another day, the common man with his feet planted firmly on the ground — and, occasionally of sweet love. Not much is known about him other than that he
An old favorite, discovered in my graduate school days, Anacreon (570–488 BCE) is one of the great poets of drinking parties, the many varieties of love, and the sweetness of life in the shadow of death. Infatuation from a distance: O sweet boy like a girl,I see you though you will not look my way.You
Anacreon and Simonides Read More »
Anton Chekhov is a great writer, in large part because he follows ruthlessly a principle of selectivity named after him: “Chekhov’s gun” is principle of writing that says that every element in a narrative must be essential and irreplaceable, and anything that is neither must be eliminated. But I don’t like reading Chekhov. I read
Chekhov’s artistic choices (and the artist as a god) Read More »
Reprising this post from reading Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. A character comments: “Everyone must have one thing that they can excel at. It’s just a matter of drawing it out, isn’t it? But school doesn’t know how to draw it out. It crushes the gift. It’s no wonder most people
Haruki Murakami on standard education and Russian novelists Read More »
Kleist was widely traveled, energetic, a brilliant writer — and a suicide at age 34. Why? In reviewing Selected Prose of Heinrich von Kleist, Ian Brunskill writes: “Kleist in his youth had espoused with enthusiasm all the optimism of the Enlightenment. Reason would conquer all; happiness would come with experience and understanding. In March 1801,
Kleist: How Kant ruined my life Read More »
Quince argumentos para el Liberalismo: Este post va a formar parte de una serie de argumentos del libro Liberalism: Pro & Con de Stephen Hicks en español. (English edition here: Amazon.) Pueden encontrar todos los argumentos que serán publicados en orden en el siguiente link: Liberalism: Pro & Con en español. Argumento 6: Los pobres
Los Pobres Están Mejor Bajo el Capitalismo Liberal [*Liberalism: Pro & Con* en Español] Read More »
With the participation of Professor Hicks The Atlas Society Book Club will have Stephen Hicks in the hot seat on July 25th at 4:30 PM PT / 7:30 PM ET to discuss all things Postmodern and his book, Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault. In Explaining Postmodernism, Hicks provides fresh insights into the debates underlying the furor over