What follows is a marvelous poem by Robert Penn Warren, “Original Sin: A Short Story.” I am currently writing a brief analysis of the poem for class. For now, here’s the poem in its entirety:
Nodding, its great head rattling like a gourd,And locks like seaweed strung on the stinking stone,The nightmare stumbles past, [...]
Γίνεσθε δὲ ποιηταῖ λόγου καὶ μὴ μόνον ἀκροαταὶ παραλογιζόμενοι ἑαυτούς. ὅτι εἴ τις ἀκροατὴς λόγου ἐστὶν καὶ οὐ ποιητής, οὗτος ἔοικεν ἀνδρὶ κατανοοῦντι τὸ πρόσωπον τῆς γενέσεως αὐτοῦ ἐν ἐσόπτρῳ‧ κατενόησεν γὰρ ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἀπελήλυθεν καὶ εὐθέως ἐπελάθετο ὁποῖος ἦν. ὁ δὲ παρακύψας εἰς νόμον τέλειον τὸν τῆς ἐλευθερίας καὶ παραμείνας, οὐκ ἀκροατὴς [...]
Today’s sermon passage was Titus 3:8 “The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.” It reminded me of a passage in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers [...]
In an attempt to become at least a bit more familiar with contemporary debates about critical theory, I recently finished reading two introductions recommended by one of my professors, Dr. Scott Crider. They were Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan Culler and Critical Practice by Catherine Belsey. Both were accessible (a [...]
A few months ago after I had finished Flannery O’Connor’s Collected Short Stories, I decided to pick up another American author, this time 1993 Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison. This was my second time to read Beloved, and honestly, I still feel very conflicted about it as a novel. Perhaps this is at [...]
I recently finished reading Sylvia Plath’s only novel, The Bell Jar. The protagonist is Esther Greenwood, a young student and writer who steadily descends into insanity, simultaneously expressing Plath’s own autobiography and the social status of women in the 1950s. But more importantly, it also portrays the perilous fragility of genius, particularly the [...]
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Not to be a damper on the Thanksgiving festivities, but a recent Greek class sparked some thoughts about American consumerism I thought I should share. The Greeks had several words that connect the accumulation of wealth with a virtually inevitable devolution into spiritual blindness. The progression is first olbos, then koros, then hubris, [...]
α) πολλὰ τὰ δεινὰ κοὐδὲν ἀνθρώπου δεινότερον πέλει.τοῦτο καὶ πολιοῦ πέραν πόντου χειμερίῳ νότῳχωρεῖ, περιβρυχίοισινπερῶν ὑπ᾽οἴδμασιν.θεῶν τε τὰν ὑπερτάταν, Γᾶν ἄρθιτον, ἀκαμάταν, ἀποτρύεται ἰλλομένων ἀρότρων ἔτος εἰς ἔτοςἱππείῳ γένει πολεύων.
α´) κουφονόων τε φῦλον ὀρνίθων ἀμφιβαλὼν ἄγεικαὶ θηρῶν ἀγρίων ἔθνη πόντου τ᾽ εἰναλίαν φύσιν σπείραισι δικτυοκλώστοις,περιφραδὴς ἀνήρ·κρατεῖ δὲ μηχαναῖς ἀγραύλουθηρὸς ὀρεσσιβάτα, λασιαύχενά θ᾽ ἵππον ὀχμάζεται ἀμφὶ [...]
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