From a favorite novel. A mentor to the main character, a young boy named Peekay, speaking to the boy’s mother in the context of trying to convince her to let the boy take music lessons: “God and I have no quarrels, madame. The Almighty conceived the cactus plant. If God would choose a plant to […]
Cacti and metaphysics [From *The Power of One*] Read More »
[I use Ayn Rand’s classic The Fountainhead in my Introduction to Philosophy course, analyzing the five major characters as moral-philosophical types. Here is a digest of the novel’s brilliant-manipulator villain, Ellsworth Toohey.] The ethics of altruism holds that others are the standard of value. One is good to the extent one puts the interests of
Ellsworth Toohey’s five strategies of altruism [repost] Read More »
Great Books: Seven categories. Five only in each. Works that I love or learned from or influenced me or that I return to regularly. LiteratureVictor Hugo, Les Misérables (1862)Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac (1897)L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (1908)Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead (1943)Elliott Arnold, White Falcon (1958) Historical FictionMary Renault, The Persian Boy [Alexander the
Great Books — My Recommended Reading List Read More »
Wean Yourself By Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi Little by little, wean yourself.This is the gist of what I have to say. From an embryo, whose nourishment comes in the blood,move to an infant drinking milk,to a child on solid food,to a searcher after wisdom,to a hunter of more invisible game. Think how it is to have
“Wean Yourself” by Rumi Read More »
Did the death of one man in Mongolia affect the entire course of European history since the 1200s? Here’s the context: In 1227, Genghis Khan’s son Ogedai became head of the Mongolian empire, which at that time included much of northern China, southeastern Russia, and Persia. Ogedai sent one of his generals, Tsubodai (or Subotai),
The Mongols and modern European history Read More »
Reprising this on why some cultures become great explorers and others stay home: the role of metaphysics. “And as for trying to sail down the west African coast, everyone knew that as soon as you passed the Canary Islands you would be in the Mare Tenebroso, the Sea of Darkness: ‘In the medieval imagination [writes
On the dangers of exploration — medieval version Read More »
Carrying on the fun Renaissance debate about which art form is the best. Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) was a goldsmith, sculptor, revenge-killer, likely a rapist, and party animal. Check out his Autobiography for all the energetic and sordid true-confessions details. It was he who did the bronze Perseus with the Head of Medusa, now in the
What is the best art medium? — Sculpture version Read More »
Wall Street Journal art critic Terry Teachout asks: “Are our brains big enough to untangle modern art?” As examples, Teachout quotes one of thousands of sentences from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake like this one: “It is the circumconversioning of antelithual paganelles by a huggerknut cramwell energuman, or the caecodedition of an absquelitteris puttagonnianne to the
Is modern art too complicated for us? Read More »