Olympia Academy

Welcome - Updated 11/8/2007

2009-12-31T14:44:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Olympia Academy. I intend this to be a discussion with a Great Books focus. The ground rules are:

a) No politics unless it can be directly related to the book currently being discussed.
b) Be respectful.
c) Since I own the blog I kind of get to set the pace.

The basis for the reading list will be the "Dartmouth Canon"

First Year

First Quarter

First Week
1) Genesis
2) Hesiod, Theogony
3) Hesiod, Works and Days

Second Week
1) Homer, Iliad 1-4
2) Homer, Iliad 5-8
3) Homer, Iliad 9-12

Third Week
1) Homer, Iliad 13-16
2) Homer, Iliad 17-20
3) Homer, Iliad 21-24

Fourth Week
1) Gilgamesh
2) Thucydides 1
3) Thucydides 2

Fifth Week
1) Thucydides 3-5
2) Thucydides 6-8
3) Job

Sixth Week
1) Aeschylus, Oresteia
2) Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus
3) Sophocles, Antigone

Seventh Week
1) Isaiah
2) Aristophanes, Clouds
3) Aristophanes, Frogs

Eighth Week
1) Plato, Apology
2) Plato, Crito
3) Plato, Phædo

Ninth Week
1) Plato, Republic
2) Plato, Republic 2-3
3) Plato, Republic 4-5

Tenth Week
1) Plato, Republic 6-7
2) Plato, Republic 8-9
3) Plato, Republic 10

Second Quarter

First Week
1) Plato’s Symposium
2) Song of Solomon
3) Psalms

Second Week
1) Aristotle, Ethics 1-2
2) Aristotle, Ethics 3-4
3) Aristotle, Ethics 5-6

Third Week
1) Aristotle, Ethics 7-8
2) Aristotle, Ethics 9-10
3) Aristotle, Politics 1-2

Fourth Week
1) Aristotle, Politics 3-4
2) Aristotle, Politics 7-8
3) Aristotle, Poetics

Fifth Week
1) Aristotle, Metaphysics 1
2) Aristotle, Metaphysics 1
3) Aristotle, Physics 2

Sixth Week
1) Aristotle, Physics 2
2) Aristotle, On The Soul 1-2
3) Aristotle, On The Soul 2-3

Seventh Week
1) Aristotle, Physics 7
2) Aristotle, Physics 7
3) Aristotle, Metaphysics 11

Eighth Week
1) Lucretius, On The Nature of Things 1-2
2) Lucretius, On The Nature of Things 3-4
3) Lucretius, On The Nature of Things 5-6

Ninth Week
1) Livy 1
2) Polybius 6
3) Cicero, De Re Publica

Tenth Week
1) Plutarch, Caesar, Alexander
2) Plutarch, Romulus, Theseus

Third Quarter

First Week
1) Exodus
2) Exodus
3) Deuteronomy

Second Week
1) Virgil, Aeneid 1-3
2) Virgil, Aeneid 4-6,
3)Georgics 4

Third Week
1) Virgil, Aeneid 7-12
2) Tacitus, Annals 1-6
3) Tacitus, History 1-5

Fourth Week
1) Matthew
2) Paul, Romans
3) Revelation

Fifth Week
1) Augustine, Confessions
2) Augustine, Confessions
3) Augustine, City of God

Sixth Week
1) Augustine, City of God
2) Aquinas, Summa Theologica
3) Aquinas, Summa Theologica

Seventh Week
1) Aquinas, Summa Theologica
2) Aquinas, Summa Theologica
3) Dante, Inferno

Eighth Week
1) Ibn Kaldun, The Muqaddimah
2) Ibn Kaldun, The Muqaddimah
3) Dante, Inferno

Ninth Week
1) Dante, Inferno
2) Dante, Paradiso
3) Dante, Paradiso

Tenth Week
1) Njal Saga
2) Njal Saga
3) Song of Roland

Second Year

First Quarter

First Week
1) Montaigne, Essays
2) Montaigne, Essays
3) Machiavelli, Prince

Second Week
1) Machiavelli, Prince
2) Machiavelli, Discourses
3) Machiavelli, Discourses

Third Week
1) Cervantes, Don Quixote
2) Cervantes, Don Quixote
3) Cervantes, Don Quixote

Fourth Week
1) Racine, Phædre
2) Shakespeare, Hamlet
3) Shakespeare, Lear

Fifth Week
1) Shakespeare, Lear
2) Shakespeare, Tempest
3) Bacon, New Atlantis

Sixth Week
1) Galileo, Two World Systems
2) Galileo, Two World Systems
3) Descartes, Discourse on Method

Seventh Week
1) Descartes, Discourse on Method
2) Descartes, Meditations
3) Descartes, Meditations

Eighth Week
1) Hobbes, Leviathan
2) Hobbes, Leviathan
3) Hobbes, Leviathan

Ninth Week
1) Hobbes, Leviathan
2) Pascal, Pensées
3) Pascal, Pensées

Tenth Week
1) Vico, The New Science
2) Vico, The New Science
3) Swift, Gulliver’s Travels

Second Quarter

First Week
1) Locke, Second Treatise
2) Locke, Second Treatise
3) Locke, Second Treatise

Second Week
1) Montesquieu, Persian Letters
2) Montesquieu, Persian Letters
3) Hume, Dialogues on Natural Religion

Third Week
1) Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
2) Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
3) Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Fourth Week
1) Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (selections)
2) Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (selections)
3) D’Alembert, Preface to L’Encyclopedie

Fifth Week
1) Rousseau, First Discourse
2) Rousseau, Second Discourse
3) Rousseau, Third Discourse

Sixth Week
1) Rousseau, Emile 1
2) Rousseau, Emile 2
3) Rousseau, Emile 3

Seventh Week
1) Rousseau, Emile 4
2) Rousseau, Emile 5
3) Rousseau, Social Contract 1

Eighth Week
1) Rousseau, Social Contract 2
2) Rousseau, Social Contract 3-4
3) Rousseau, Reveries

Ninth Week
1) Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
2) Tocqueville, The Ancient Regime and the French Revolution
3) Tocqueville, Democracy in America 1

Tenth Week
1) Tocqueville, Democracy in America 1
2) Tocqueville, Democracy in America 2
3) Tocqueville, Democracy in America 3

Third Quarter

First Week
1) Kant, Foundation of the Metaphysics of Morals
2) Kant, Foundation of the Metaphysics of Morals
3) Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (Introduction)

Second Week
1) Goethe, Faust 1
2) Goethe, Faust 1
3) Goethe, Faust 2

Third Week
1) Goethe, Faust 2
2) Hegel, Phenomenology of Mind (selections)
3) Hegel, Phenomenology of Mind (selections)

Fourth Week
1) Hegel, Philosophy of History
2) Hegel, Philosophy of History
3) Hegel, Philosophy of History

Fifth Week
1) Marx, 1844 Manuscripts
2) Marx, 1844 Manuscripts
3) Marx, German Ideology

Sixth Week
1) Marx, Das Kapital (selections)
2) Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
3) Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Seventh Week
1) Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
2) Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
3) Darwin, Origin of Species

Eighth Week
1) Darwin, Origin of Species
2) Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals
3) Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals

Ninth Week
1) Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
2) Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
3) Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (selections)

Tenth Week
1) Weber, Science as a Vocation
2) Freud, Civilization and its Discontents
3) Heidegger, Letter on Humanism

I don't really expect to cover ground at the same pace as is outlined here, and I don't really expect anyone to read all these books. I figure that as we go along we will pick and choose. Hopefully this will lead to other suggestions. As the site gets established I will be more than happy to let others guide the selection of the reading. Discussion can take place in the comments section. Unless the comments are profane or spam I will not delete them. I will also be tagging each selection with an appropriate Technorati tag for easy linking to related items.

***Update*** Minor format change. I was striking out works as I finished them I am now linking the entries in the list below and the posts concerning each work.

I also struck the original introduction.

Way back when I started this endeavor I figure a few of my friends might stop by and comment every once in a while. Not the case. The fatal mistake in that plan was forgetting I don't have any friends.

I also thought I might get some visitors from technorati and from other blogs I might link. Again I was mistaken. Apparently my opinion of the philosophical works that formed the basis of Western Civilization isn't that highly sought after. Imagine that.

As soon as those pieces clicked into place in my admittedly slow brain I realized that I don't really need to explain my blog or establish any rules. It would almost be liberating if I had any readers. ***Sob***

OK so I don't have any readers and the reading is progressing at a snails pace, why am I continuing? It's a grudge match now. I don't care if I die on the shitter with some ancient piece of semi-pornographic sadomasochistic dreck passing as profound thought (yes I am looking at you Freud) clutched in my cold dead hands and now one ever reads this piece o' crap blog except me I am finishing this project. You can come along for the ride or not it's your choice, but when cockroaches rule the earth and they restore my hard drive this blog will still be there.

Books, Great Books of the Western World, Western Canon

Making progress

2009-04-14T12:06:00.000-07:00

Even though I haven't been posting I have been working on the reading list. In the past couple months I finished the Symposium, Psalms, Song of Solomon, and am working on some Aristotle. I have also read Atlas Shrugged, Plato in 90 minutes, Aristotle in 90 minutes, and am working on an Andrew Jackson biography as well a Naked Lunch.

I know the state of this blog makes me look like a complete slacker but I am at least partially productive.

Wow it's been forever since I posted here.

2009-02-17T23:02:00.000-08:00

Life has gone through a few major upsets and to be honest I kind of lost interest for awhile but today I finished up Plato's Symposium so I am back. At least for awhile.

The Great Books 10 Year Reading Plan 1990 edition

2008-11-30T21:16:00.000-08:00

A while back I published a linked to the 1952 10 year reading plan that came with the Great Books of the Western World. Today I received an e-mail requesting a link to the 1990 version. It took a little effort but I found it here. The two versions have a lot of commonality, but there are some significant differences. Lots more recent fiction in the second version and (without going through and actually counting selections) the first edition seems heavier on the math and sciences.

I should also thank the commenter because he made me realize how badly I have neglected this project. Time to get off my butt and get started again.

Selection 18 - Plato's Republic

2008-04-24T00:03:00.000-07:00

Reference:

Source:

Background:

Discussion:

Placeholder. I have finished the reading but I have been so busy at work I haven't had time to post anything beyond this yet.

Selection 17 - Phaedo

2008-03-10T10:20:00.000-07:00

Reference: Phaedo Wikipedia Entry

Source: Phaedo at Project Gutenberg

or

Background:The last book in the first tetralogy as well as the final book discussing the end of Socrates life (including his trial) and death.

Discussion
1/25/2008 (sorry for some reason this didn’t get posted and stayed in draft way back when)
I started this dialogue about a month ago and something has been nagging at me about it - today I finally realized what it was. I saw this in a Disney(?) movie in the 6th grade. I am not sure what finally triggered the realization but suddenly I had a vivid memory of sitting in the gym at Highland Elementary in Billings with about 99 other 6th graders barely able to stay awake watching Socrates and a bunch of other guys in sheets talk about the soul and then Socrates drinking a chalice full of poison. I also remember when one of the girls in the class, Michelle something, asked why Socrates had to kill himself Mr. Howe, my teacher, told us it was because he had sex with boys. Then they started showing a Donald Duck film about the "Golden Ratio"

Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land Part 1

Donald Duck in MathMagic Land Part 2

Sorry the middle part is missing :-(

Anyway enough cherished childhood memories...

Updated 3/10/2008

So I finally finished Phaedo over the weekend. Although this was the most difficult of the dialogues I have read so far it was also (now that I have thought about it) the most interesting.

I’m really struggling with what to write her. In short this book argues the premise of the immortality of the soul and attacks it from 4 different angles. Stealing shamelessly from Wikipedia they are:

The Opposites Argument or "Cyclical argument" explains that as the Forms are eternal and unchanging, and as the soul always brings life, then it must not die, and is necessarily "imperishable". As the body is mortal and is subject to physical death, the soul must be its indestructible opposite. Plato then suggests the analogy of fire and cold. If the form of cold is imperishable, and fire, its opposite, was within close proximity, it would have to withdraw intact as does the soul during death. This could be likened to the idea of the opposite charges of magnets.

The Theory of Recollection explains that we possess some non-empirical knowledge (e.g. The Form of Equality) at birth, implying the soul existed before birth to carry that knowledge. Another account of the theory is found in Plato's Meno, although in that case Socrates implies anamnesis (previous knowledge of everything) whereas he is not so bold in Phaedo.

The Affinity Argument explains that invisible, immortal, and incorporeal things are different from visible, mortal, and corporeal things. Our soul is of the former, while our body is of the latter, so when our bodies die and decay, our soul will continue to live.

The Argument from Form of Life explains that the Forms, incorporeal and static entities, are the cause of all things in the world, and all things participate in Forms. For example, beautiful things participate in the Form of Beauty; the number four participates in the Form of the Even, etc. The soul, by its very nature, participates in the Form of Life, which would mean the soul could never die.

Of the four I think the “Form of Life” argument is the most important. Mainly because I know that Plato believed that everything had a “form” that made it distinctly it, but this is the first of the four dialogues I have read that really addresses this.

The other interesting thing was how Socrates approaching death tied in with his approach to life. Basically that man should embrace experiences as they happen but with a detachment that allows an unbiased analysis. This will allow the soul to grow and develop with the corrupting influence of the body minimized.

books, great books, western canon, Plato, Socrates, Socratic Dialogues, Phaedo

Portable Professor - The Birth of Western Philosophy

2008-02-25T09:24:00.000-08:00

As you might have guessed Plato is kicking my butt, and since Aristotle is up next I am expecting more bruises. However, this weekend at Barnes and Nobel I found one of their portable professor courses that deals with both Plato and Aristotle so I picked it up. Maybe my pain will now diminish.

Philosophy, Plato, Aristotle, Western Canon, Great Books of the Western World

Podcast

2008-02-16T09:15:00.000-08:00

Would any of the 4 visitors that I get here be interested in a "chapter a day" style podcast for Olympia Academy?

There are a few of this style podcast out there already but nothing that meets my needs for this blog. So I am thinking about filling a gap.

I don't like begging for comments but let me know before I go through all the trouble of setting up my webserver.

Also I have added links to free audiobooks, where available, to the books I have already read.

This is vaguely disturbing - The Bible as a graphic novel

2008-02-11T08:51:00.000-08:00

“Christ is a hard guy, seeking revolution and revolt, a tough guy.”

Those are the words of Ajinbayo Akinsiku, author of “The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation.”

The thing is despite being disturbing, they are true. Christ was a revolutionary challenging the power structures of his day. He took on the Pharisees and won (eventually) and while he didn't directly challenge the Roman's, if you believe Gibbons his teachings led to the fall of the Roman Empire.

It will be interesting to see how well this is carried off, especially given these details:

The medium shapes the message. Manga often focuses on action and epic. Much of the Bible, as a result, ends up on the cutting room floor, and what remains is darker.

“It is the end of the Word as we know it, and the end of a certain cultural idea of the Scriptures as a book, as the Book,” Timothy Beal, professor of religion at Case Western Reserve University, said of the reworking of the Bible in new forms, including manga. “It opens up new ways of understanding Scripture and ends up breaking the idols a bit.”

While known for characters with big eyes and catwalk poses, manga is also defined by a laconic, cinematic style, with characters often doing more than talking.

In a blurb for the Manga Bible, which is published by Doubleday, the archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, is quoted as saying, “It will convey the shock and freshness of the Bible in a unique way.”

No doubt. In the Manga Bible, whose heroes look and sound like skateboarders in Bedouin gear, Noah gets tripped up counting the animals in the Ark: “That’s 11,344 animals? Arggh! I’ve lost count again. I’m going to have to start from scratch!”

Abraham rides a horse out of an explosion to save Lot. Og, king of Bashan, looms like an early Darth Vader. The Sermon on the Mount did not make the book, though, because there was not enough action to it.

Bible, Books, Manga

An Islamic Europe Equals A Better World

2008-02-04T08:50:00.001-08:00

On Point on XM Public Radio had an interview with David Levering Lewis author of "God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215" this morning.

Lewis a pulitizer prize winner for his biographies of W.E.B. Du Bois essentially advances the argument that if the Berbers had swept into France from Spain (Al-Andalus) then European civilization would have essentially been fast forwarded 300 years. At least that is what I gathered from listening to his interview. I can't help but wonder if after that it wouldn't have essentially stalled. From what I know Islamic society isn't exactly known for it dynamism, at least after the Ottoman's took over the Caliphate. When he was directly questioned on the negative aspects of an Islamic Europe he tended to skip away from the question.

Books, Islam, David Levering Lewis

Thucydides and Herodotus

2008-01-31T11:51:00.000-08:00

On Point on XM Public Radio had a pretty interesting interview with Robert Strassler, editor of "The Landmark Thucydides" and "The Landmark Herodotus". The books are getting pretty good reviews and the interview was very interesting so it may be worth picking up copies.

Books, Great Books, Western Canon, Thucydides, Herodotus, History

Found at NPR - The Democracy Library

2008-01-23T21:42:00.000-08:00

As part of the Public Radio Collaboration Whose Democracy Is It?, Talk of the Nation has assembled a "library of democracy," compiled from suggestions from both guests and listeners. Browse our reading list:

It's a fairly long list but some interesting choices, quite a bit of Marx, some Chomsky, lots of angry choices. My favorite was Hannah Humphrey who has a couple of different entries on the list I'm betting she isn't a real big fan of the American System:

Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich; What is To Be Done? by V.I. Lenin; Strategy and Tactics by Leon Trotsky
-- suggested by Hannah Humphrey

The Story of American Freedom, by Eric Foner; Class, Race, and the Civil Rights Movement, by Jack Bloom; Grassroots Socialism: Radical Movements in the Southwest 1895-1943, by James R. Green; European Social Democracy and American Imperialism, by Leo Panitch
-- suggested by Hannah Humphrey

Source

Democracy, Books, NPR

The Western Tradition

2008-01-13T10:56:00.000-08:00

Just found this today. Video Course - The Western Tradition.

Since Olympia Academy is all about the Western Tradition as exemplified in the Western Canon I thought I would share.

(I know that there is at least one PhD in Humanities and one in History that occasionally stop by here I would be interested in your thoughts on these lectures)

History, PBS, Western Canon, The Western Tradition

Still working on Phaedo and the Republic

2008-01-10T07:45:00.000-08:00

Just busy at work whichs cuts into my prime reading time.

From the Islamic World

2008-01-10T07:19:00.000-08:00

The NY Times Book Review section had quite a bit of stuff focusing on the Middle East / Islamic World this week.

First is a review of "The Suicide of Reason. Radical Islam's Threat to the Enlightenment"

Several authors have published books on radical Islam’s threat to the West since that shocking morning in September six years ago. With “The Suicide of Reason,” Lee Harris joins their ranks. But he distinguishes himself by going further than most of his counterparts: he considers the very worst possibility — the destruction of the West by radical Islam. There is a sense of urgency in his writing, a desire to shake awake the leaders of the West, to confront them with their failure to understand that they are engaged in a war with an adversary who fights by the law of the jungle.

Next is "Arguing the Just War in Islam"

“Arguing the Just War in Islam” re-opens such debates. John Kelsay, a professor of religion at Florida State University, shows that today’s freelance fatwa-hurlers rarely capture the best of Islamic thought, but are not wholly divorced from it either. Their pronouncements attempt to pass for “Shariah reasoning,” a tradition of reconciling the Koran’s passages and the Prophet Muhammad’s examples to changing times.

For Muslim militants, however, the times do not change. Because Islam is humanity’s “natural religion,” evolution ended in the seventh century. That means the Islam of 1,400 years ago must be true everywhere and forever. “The militant vision,” Kelsay observes, “is one in which premodern precedents are not so much interpreted as applied.” No wonder a 20-something imam in the cosmopolitan West can feel utterly entitled to champion values straight out of tribal Arabia.

To his credit, Kelsay refuses to whitewash the role of religion in fostering the violence he discusses. “Those who wish to argue that Islam has nothing to do with the attacks of 9/11 or with the tactics of Iraqi ‘insurgents’ will find no comfort here,” he warns early on.

Yet his analysis also respects the nuances of Shariah reasoning. Kelsay appreciates Islamic history and delves into detail — though it is often tedious — about how theologians, jurists and dissidents decided what constitutes a just war. Like their Christian counterparts, Muslims have asked and asked again: When may battle be waged? Can noncombatants ever be targets? How much force is proportional? Does negotiation take precedence over a quick and easy victory?

Kelsay could have brought these questions to life had he given us something — anything — about the personalities of the questioners and not merely the process they followed. Stick with him, though. By forensically dissecting the development of Shariah reasoning he illuminates the situation we now face, in which classical Islamic scholars are trumped by bloodthirsty bandits who pose as thinkers.

Then we have two that deal with the golden days of Islam. The first being "The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In."

Few events in history have had so swift, profound and far-reaching an impact as the arrival of Islam. Within a mere 15 years of the Prophet Muhammad’s death, in A.D. 632, his desert followers had conquered all the centers of ancient Near Eastern civilization. They had erased a great and enduring regional power, Persia; reduced its brilliant rival, Byzantium, to a rump state; and carved from their territories an empire as vast as that of Rome at its height. Within 100 years, Muslim armies were harrying the frontiers of Tang dynasty China in the east, while 5,000 miles to the west, they had charged across Spain to clash with the Merovingian princes of what is now France.

The triumph was not just military. The explosive expansion of Islam severed at a stroke the 1,000-year-old links of commerce, culture, politics and religion that had bound the southern and northern shores of the Mediterranean. It created, for the first and only time, an empire based entirely upon a single faith, bound by its laws and devoted to its propagation. It uprooted long-embedded native religions, like Zoroastrianism in Persia, Buddhism in Central Asia and Hinduism in much of the Indus Valley. It transformed Arabic from a desert dialect into a world language that, for centuries, supplanted Latin and Greek as the main repository of human knowledge.

And yet strangely, the question of how the Muslim Arabs achieved all this, in such a short time, remains puzzling.

And the second "God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe 570 to 1215"

The Umayyad dynasty of Spain, which dominated the Iberian Peninsula for almost 300 years, remained, for all its high cultural sophistication and sheer military might, an empire rooted in nostalgia. Like its founder, Abd al-Rahman I, who composed poignant lyrics evoking the palm groves of his youth in the summer palace of Rusafa, in distant Syria, its poets and chroniclers looked yearningly eastward. They lived in Granada or Seville among feuding Berber tribesmen and conquered Visigoths, but when they wrote their pens flew home to the lost gardens of their origins. When Abd al-Rahman I was proclaimed “amir,” or ruler, of the dynasty on May 15, 756, he was not quite 25 years old, but he had already had long training in the backward glance. He, and the dynasty he created, were fortuitous survivors of a long succession of hairbreadth escapes.

Then we have an essay on "Reading the Koran"

and then a new telling of an epic from the Indo-Islamic world "The Adventures of Amir Hamza: Lord of the Auspicious Planetary Junction"

The “Hamzanama” was once the most popular oral epic of the Indo-Islamic world. “The Adventures of Amir Hamza” is the “Iliad” and Odyssey” of medieval Persia, a rollicking, magic-filled heroic saga. Born as early as the ninth century, it grew through oral transmission to include material gathered from the wider culture-compost of the pre-Islamic Middle East. So popular was the story that it soon spread across the Muslim world, absorbing folk tales as it went; before long it was translated into Arabic, Turkish, Georgian, Malay and even Indonesian languages.

It took particular hold in India, where it absorbed endless myths and legends and was regularly performed in public spaces in the great Mughal cities. At fairs and at festivals, on the steps of the Jama Masjid in Delhi or in the Qissa Khawani Bazaar, the “street of the storytellers” in Peshawar, the professional storyteller, or dastango, would perform nightlong recitations from memory; some of these could go on for seven or eight hours with only a short break. The Mughal elite also had a great tradition of commissioning private recitations. The greatest Urdu love poet, Ghalib, was celebrated for his dastan parties, at which the Hamza epic would be expertly told.

If a discussion of the Islamic world is what you are after today was your week for it.

Books, Islam, NY Times

Selection 16 - Crito

2007-12-31T08:39:00.000-08:00

Reference: Crito Wikipedia Entry

Source: Crito at Project Gutenberg

or

Background: The third dialogue in the first tetralogy of Plato's Socratic Dialogues, Crito examines Socrates response to injustice.

Discussion: This is the only dialogue so far in which I feel slightly sympathetic to Socrates but even here that is tempered.

Visited in his cell by his friend Crito who urges him to escape Socrates refuses. His reasons - Answering injustice with injustice is wrong and laws, even when flawed, deserve respect from those who consent to be governed by them (As Socrates did when he remained in Athens upon reaching adulthood).

Those sentiments are ones I can identify with (although I may disagree with Socrates on what an injustice is and I reserve the right to attempt to have the law changed) but then he goes and bungs it up with his statement that the opinion of the common man means nothing because they are too ignorant to be allowed an opinion. A little bit of foreshadowing of the need for Philosopher Kings in the Republic maybe?

Actually since I think chronologically "The Republic" takes place first it may just be a re-expression of that view. Timothy Shutt who lectures on Plato at Kenyon College says in his Portbale Professor course "Foundations of Western Thought: Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans" that the government outlined in "The Republic" was essentially a fictionalized version of Sparta. Maybe that is what the Athenians meant by making "The worse appear the better"

books, great books, western canon, Plato, Socrates, Socratic Dialogues, Crito

Selection 15 - The Apology

2007-12-29T07:42:00.000-08:00

Reference: Apology (Plato) Wikipedia Entry

Source: The Apology at Project Gutenberg

or

Audio: Librivox

Background: The second dialogue in the first tetralogy of Plato's Socratic Dialogues, The Apology is the recitation of Socrates defense of himself before the citizens of Athens.

Discussion: The Apology starts with Socrates introducing his accusers and relating the charges against himself. (Corrupting Youth, Not believing in the states gods and creating new ones, and making the worse appear the better). After this the dialogue divides into three parts.

In the first part of the dialogue Socrates immediately starts out by telling his audience that they aren't smart enough to judge him on the facts and that they will be swayed by his accusers and by others such as Aristophanes, who criticized Socrates in his play the clouds a number of years earlier. Claiming he will not try and convince his jurors with rhetoric, but with plain truth he then proceeds with his defense.

He starts his defense by relating the story of some guy who asked the oracle at Delphi if Socrates was the wisest man in Athens, and is told there are none wiser. He professes astonishment because he doesn't consider himself wise so he starts questioning people who are considered wise and finds out (and I am paraphrasing here) they are a bunch of dumbasses. Discovering this Socrates concludes that what the oracle was saying was Socrates may be an idiot but so is everyone else in Athens.

After insulting his entire jury Socrates then examines Meletus (one of his accusers) and gets him involved in the traditional dialogue, trips him up and like Joe Peschi in "My Cousin Vinnie" declares "I got no more use for this guy".

The rest of this section is just Socrates pointing out that if any youth were corrupted that it was as much society's and the parent's faults as his. Again not a moved designed to encourage love among the jury.

Of course he is found guilty, I mean how could they not being just a bunch of emotional morons incapable of rational thought, and that brings us to the second of the three parts.

In the second part of "The Apology" Socrates pushes even more buttons and proposes that what he does is more important to Athens than those they routinely consider heroes (athletes, politicians, generals etc.) and therefore they really should punish him by giving him free room and board. You know because they have had the pleasure of his company and his sharing his wisdom and all. Realizing that isn't going over real well he then proposes a fine of about $2500 (100 drachmae). That is also a bomb so his supporters up the sum to $75000. Also not a popular option and the jury votes to make him drink hemlock. (Although at this point I am betting that a few were holding out for stuffing a live racoon up his butt.)

After being told of the punishment the 3rd pase of the Apology begins and Socrates again calls everyone emotionally overwrought retards and tells them that they are just opening themselves up for harsher examination by others that will follow.

OK so that is the apology in a nutshell and I see why it is recommended. It show a Socratic Dialogue in action. It lays out Socrates basic beliefs and thus the foundations that others like Aristotle started from, but at the same time it makes me doubt the accuracy of the dialogues Plato relates. I want to be flip and say no real person in such a situation could possibly be that annoying but that isn't all of it. It is just that the dialogue feels contrived. I don't know if Plato made it up out of whole cloth (I doubt it because there is another account by Xenophon that talks about Socrates Apology) or paraphrased or what but it just feels off.

books, great books, western canon, Plato, Socrates, Socratic Dialogues, The Apology

Deviation from the list - Euthyphro

2007-12-28T11:51:00.000-08:00

Reference: Euthyphro Wikipedia Entry

Source: Euthyphro at Project Gutenberg

Audio: Librivox

Background: The first dialogue in the first tetralogy of Plato's Socratic Dialogues, Euthyphro examines impiety. As this was one of the charges against Socrates in the trial that eventually leads to Socrates death by Hemlock poisoning this is an important stage setter for The Apology.

Discussion: Euthyphro opens with Socrates approaching the court of the King Archon, I am not sure if it is to defend himself at a trial or turn himself in or what, where he meets Euthyphro who is there to charge his father with murder. They chat and it turns out that the basis of Euthyphro's charges against his father is that he acted impiously when he allowed a servant to die while being held for the death of another servant. Upon discovering this Socrates challenges Euthyphro to define piety so that he may properly defend himself at his trial. They argue back and forth for awhile and in the course of this Euthyphro offers three separate definitions:

1. Doing what is demanded by circumstances (i.e. prosecuting his father) - Socrates rejects this as an example of a pious act not a defintion of piety
2. What the gods approve of - rejected because the gods don't always agree on the nature of an act.
3. What all the gods approve of is pious, and what they all disapprove of is impious - rejected because the approval arises because the act is pious the act is not pious because of the approval.

At this point Socrates offers the defintion that an act is pious if it is just and morally good leading to the further clarification by Euthyphro that a just or morally good act is pious if it does honor to the gods. Socrates challenges Euthyphro on a couple of points here one being what do the gods get out of being honored. Euthyphro can't really answer and is called a dumbass by Socrates and he runs off to another appointment.

My question - Is Euthyphro really wrong? We obey the laws of God (or the gods) both out of fear and out of respect and we make our offerings to them for a reason. As Socrates points out the gods don't really need them. So whats the point? Well it's simple by sacrificing (whether it be a goat or a son like Abraham is ready to in Genesis) we show that the god is more important than ourself and that does them honor. The Greek myths clearly show the Gods were all about honor and even God in the Old Testament demands his sacrifice in the form of the Sabbath. When you have everything the only thing that can really matter is respect and that is what the gods get out of Euthyphro's definition of piety.

On a side note - I can see why the Athenians wanted to execute Socrates. He is kind of annoying jerk.

books, great books, western canon, Plato, Socrates, Socratic Dialogues, Socratic Dialogues

Selections 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 31 - The Socratic Dialouges

2007-12-27T18:36:00.000-08:00

The next five selections are by Plato and are in a style calledSocratic Dialogues (as is selection 31 Cicero's De re publica).

The Socratic Dialogue is a style of writing in which a central character interacting with another investigates a moral principle. Generally an issue is decided upon and questions are asked forcing those involved to agree to certain assumptions and defend their point of view. One person or another eventually "wins" by making another contradict himself. The method is credited to Socrates and, as far as I know, in the dialogues written by Plato he always wins. (Of course given that Socrates was executed for making the worse thing appear the better maybe he didn't really win.)

Plato's Socratic Dialogues are interesting in that they appear to be dividable into tetralogies (one large work composed of four smaller works) that are I believe similar in structure and content. Selections 15 (The Apology), 16 (Crito) and 17 (Phaedo) are contained in the first tetralogy and along with Euthyphro describe the trial and death of Socrates. Selection 18 (The Republic) is in the 8th tetralogy and Selection 19 (Symposium) is in the 3rd. I don't know why the originator of this list didn't prescribe the complete tetralogies and I am trying to decide if I want to do all twelve works. At the moment I am leading towards yes. I'm kind of a dumbass and I need all the help I can get.

Another interesting thing about Plato's writings - although he writes as though transcribing a conversation with the exception of "The Apology" he is never present at the conversations. This has led some to wonder if he just made this stuff up and assigned his views to Socrates.

Socrates, Plato, Cicero, Socratic Dialogues, Books, Great Books, Western Canon

Selection 14 - The Frogs by Aristophanes

2007-12-23T21:18:00.000-08:00

Reference: The Frogs Wikipedia Entry

Source: The Frogs at Project Gutenberg

Background: We already discussed Aristophanes background when discussing "The Clouds". The main difference in the background of The Frogs is Athens has just been dealt a major defeat in the Peloponnesian War and that is referenced in play itself.

Discussion:Generally I don't like this play as well as I liked "The Clouds". I found that it wasn't as funny both in content and in the manner in which it is presented. There just seems to be a harder edge here. There are a couple good moments of slapstick, not quite Three Stooges quality but still funny.

On the serious side Aristophanes continues his defense of the traditional ways, and given that the play won the contest I would guess that he had some support in that position, but I think we can agree that is a battle he ultimately lost.

books, great books, western canon, aristophanes, plays, the frogs, Turbo Tagger

Project Kalima - Bringing the Western Canon to the Arab World

2007-12-19T12:52:00.001-08:00

The Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage has announced a major project to translate major foreign intellectual works into Arabic. Since many of the works will be drawn from the Western Canon which is where many of the ideas of modern western democracy are derived from I just can't believe this is going to make Al-Qaeda happy.

Wouldn't it be cool if it lead to an Islamic Reformation and an Arabic Enlightenment?

The Abu Dhabi-based project, Kalima ("word" in Arabic), aims to publish 100 books in its first year and 500 titles a year by 2010, it announced yesterday.

The first 100 are from 16 languages, including Greek, Japanese, Swedish, Czech, Russian, Chinese, Yiddish, Italian, Norwegian, Latin and ancient Greek. Half the candidate titles are English.

Four years ago the UN's Arab human development report identified a lack of translated foreign works as an issue restricting Arab intellectual life. The UN report noted that Spain translates in one year the number of books that have been translated into Arabic in the past 1,000 years.

...

"The rest of the world enjoys a wealth of domestic and translated writing, why should the Arab world be any different?" Karim Nagy, Kalima's Egyptian chief executive, said as the first titles were announced. "We can start putting Arabic readers back in touch with great works of world literature and academia, and begin filling the gaps in the Arabic library."

The selection process is designed to strike a balance between different genres, juxtaposing the works of classic authors with contemporary writers. Academic, business and educational material is also being translated.

Project Kalima Homepage

More

"The choices reflect what we consider are the real gaps in the Arab library," said Karim Nagy, the founder and chief executive of the project, which was launched yesterday in Abu Dhabi. "We shy away as far as possible from best-sellers."

The initial list does include Khaled Hosseini's blockbuster about Taliban-era in Afghanistan, The Kite Runner. But far more typical of its scope and focus are canonical classics such as George Eliot's Middlemarch and Baruch Spinoza's Ethics, or influential modern texts like Eric Hobsbawm's The Age Of Extremes and JM Keynes's General Theory Of Employment. There are also scientific masterpieces from the likes of Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr and Richard Feynman. Recent books on the launch list include Lawrence Wright's history of al-Qa'ida and "the road to 9/11", The Looming Tower, and the memoirs of the retired US Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan.

...

Kalima is endorsed by the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, and backed financially by the emirate's authority for culture and heritage. The authority's director-general, Mohammed Khalaf al Mazrouei, said the Crown Prince saw the UN figures and "commissioned us to work to revive translation".

...

However, as Mr Nagy admits, Kalima has deep-rooted obstacles to overcome. During the "golden age" of medieval Islamic civilisation, Moorish cities such as Córdoba and Toledo in Spain hosted an Arabic-based culture of exchange and translation that played a crucial part in preserving the Greek legacy of science and thought for western Europe. Following the Renaissance, which Arabic learning did so much to foment, colonial conflict and a breakdown of relations led to a sense of exclusion and estrangement from the West which fuelled Arab nationalism in the modern era.

With the help of literary figures from Isaac Newton to Albert Camus, Thomas Hobbes to Umberto Eco, Kalima aims to bridge this historical gap. Mr Nagy said he wanted to balance "catching up" with classics as yet unreadable in Arabic and "keeping up" with current trends and movements – 70 per cent of the inaugural list consists of books published since 1945.

...

The Kalima project's first translations

The Acharnians/The Knights, Aristophanes

The Aeneid, Virgil

A Briefer History of Time, Hawking

The Complete Odes and Epodes, Horace

Greek Anthology, Archilochus, Alcaeus, Anacreon, and Simonides

Helen/Cyclops, Euripides

Poems, Du Fu (Tu Fu)

The Progeny, Sophocles

Galeni Opera Omnia/Corpus Medicorum Graecorum, Galen

Palimpsest, Archimedes

Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers: A Complete Translation of the Fragment at Diels, Various

Film Form, Eisenstein

In Praise of Folly, Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

Dialectic of Enlightenment, Adorno, Horkheimer

The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, John Maynard Keynes

Canzoniere, Petrarch

The Complete Essays of Montaigne Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, Montaigne

Kokoro, Natsume Soseki

Middlemarch, George Eliot

The New Life, Dante Alighieri

Paradise Regained, Milton

Sonnets to Orpheus, Rilke

Troilus and Criseyde, Geoffrey Chaucer

Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, Isaac Newton

Sidereus Nuncius; Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems; Two New Sciences, Galileo Galilei

The Ethics Of Spinoza: The Road to Inner Freedom, Spinoza

Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast, Bruno

Leviathan, Hobbes

Logic, Hegel

Logical Investigations, Husserl

Art History: vol. 1, Stokstad

The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Lewis

Inside Music, Haas

Towards a New Architecture, Le Corbusier

A History of Architectural Theory, Kruft

Ecology, Community and Lifestyle: Outline of an Ecosophy, Næss

The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics, Penrose

Godel, Escher, Bach (20th Anniversary Ed), Hofstader

The Age of Extremes, Hobsbawm

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World, Greenspan

The Birth of Europe, Le Goff

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Gibbon

The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA, Watson

The Films in My Life, Truffaut

Freud: A Life for Our Times, Gay

Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance, Saliba

The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, Wright

The Struggle for Master of Europe, A J P Taylor

The Anatomy of Revolution, Brinton

Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition, Friedman

Competitive Strategy, Porter

Kafka on the Shore, Murakami

The Executive in Action: Managing for Results, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Effective Executive, Drucker

The Halo Effect and Eight Other Business Delusions that Deceive Managers, Rosenzweig

Making Globalization Work, Stiglitz

The Middle East (Sociology of Developing Societies), Asad

Reading Capital, Althusser, Rancière

Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour, Von Neumann, Morgenstern

The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Hoffer

What is Globalization, Beck

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: vol. 1, M T Anderson

The Case for Literature, Gao Xingjian

Collected Stories, Singer

The First Man, Camus

The Higher Power of Lucky, Patron

The Inheritance of Loss, Desai

The Kite Runner, Hosseini

The Pickup, Gordimer

Pipi Longstocking, Lindgren

Selected Poems, Milosz

Something to Answer For, P H Newby

The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner

Stranger in a Strange Land, Heinlein

The Western Canon, Bloom

The Word, The Text, and The Critic, Edward Said

The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence, Kurzweil

Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature; Discussion with Einstein on Epistemological Problems in Physics, Niels Bohr

Cellular Automata and Complexity, Wolfram

The Chemical Bond: Structure and Dynamics, Zewail

Cracking the Genome: Inside the Race to Unlock Human DNA, Davies

Dreams of a Final Theory: The Scientist's Search for the Ultimate Laws of Nature, Weinberg

The Eighth Day of Creation, Judson

Engines of Creation, Drexler

Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind, Buss

The Feynman Lectures on Physics including Feynman's Tips on Physics: The Definitive and Extended Edition, Feynman

In Search of Schrodinger's Cat, Gribbin

On the Meaning of Relativity, Einstein

Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory, Planck

Punctuated Equilibrium, Gould

Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory, Heisenberg

The Principles of Quantum Mechanics, Dirac

The Scientist as Rebel, Dyson

Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, 25th Anniversary Edition, Wilson

Uncertainty: Uncertainty, Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science, Lindley

Difference and Repetition, Deleuze

The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, Lacan

The Future of Human Nature, Habermas

Il Segno, Eco

Margins of Philosophy, Derrida

Charlemagne and Mohammed: The Arab Roots of Capitalism, Heck

Books, Western Canon, Arab, Islam, Al Qaeda, Project Kalima

This is both interesting and disturbing

2007-12-06T11:10:00.000-08:00

My review of "To the Lighthouse" by Virginia Woolf made the front page at Google. Considering Olympia Academy has an average daily readership of 0 (not kidding check sitemeter) that is unexpected and says something disturbing about the health of reading in this country.

Books, To The Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf, Google

Amazon Kindle

2007-11-21T19:19:00.000-08:00

I really like the idea of this product, but damn $399. I really need some convincing to justify this. It's to bad it isn't cheaper this would be great for schools.

100 Books that Shaped the World

2007-11-17T22:07:00.000-08:00

I forget where this came from but here is yet another list, this one of 100 books which shaped the world:

Epic of Gilgamesh (C. 2700-1500 B.C.)**
The Egyptian Book of the Dead (C. 2400-1420 B.C.)
Iliad (C. 800 B.C.)**
Aesop's Fables (C. 600-560 B.C.)
Hippocratic Corpus (C. 5th Century B.C.)
The History of Herodotus (C. 440 B.C.)
The Analects of Confucius (429 B.C.)
Republic (C. 378 B.C.)**
Nicomachean Ethics (C. 330 B.C.)
On the Republic (51 B.C.)
Koran (C. A.D. 652)
The Tale of Genji (C. 1010)
The Travels of Marco Polo (C. 1300)
The Divine Comedy (C. 1320)*
Gutenberg Bible (1455)
The Prince (1513)**
Utopia (1516)
Ninety-Five Theses (1517)**
The Fabric of the Human Body (1543)
On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres (1543)
Romeo and Juliet (1594)**
Don Quixote De La Mancha (1605)*
Treatise on Painting (1651)
The Pilgrim's Progress (1678; 1684)
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1689)
Two Treatises of Government (1690)**
Robinson Crusoe (1719)
Poor Richard's Almanack (1732-1757)
The Social Contract (1762)**
Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)**
Common Sense (1776)
The Federalist Papers (1787-1788)
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
Cartagena Manifesto (1812)
Pride and Prejudice (1813)
The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
Nature (1836)
A Christmas Carol (1843)
Tales (1845)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)
Wuthering Heights (1847)
Civil Disobedience (1849)
David Copperfield (1849-1850)
The Scarlet Letter (1850)
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1851-1852)
Moby Dick (1851)
On the Origin of Species (1859)**
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Das Kapital (1867)**
Little Women (1868)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870)
The Brothers Karamazov (1879-1880)
Treasure Island (1883)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
War and Peace (1886)
A Study in Scarlet (1887)
The Jewish State (1896)
The War of the Worlds (1898)
The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)
Up From Slavery (1901)
The Story of my Life (1902)
The Call of the Wild (1903)
The Jungle (1906)
Riders of the Purple Sage (1912)
O Pioneers! (1913)
Sons and Lovers (1913)
Relativity: The Special and General Theory (1916)
Siddhartha (1922)**
Ulysses (1922)
The Great Gatsby (1925)**
Mein Kampf (1925; 1927)
The Sun also Rises (1926)
The Oxford English Dictionary (1928)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)
The Sound and the Fury (1929)
The Maltese Falcon (1930)**
The Good Earth (1931)
Brave New World (1932)**
Story of Civilization (1935-1975)
Gone with the Wind (1936)
The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
Native Son (1940)
The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (1946)
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (1947)
Cry, The Beloved Country (1948)
The Second World War (1948-1954)
The Catcher in the Rye (1951)**
Lord of the Flies (1954)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)**
Catch-22 (1961)**
Silent Spring (1962)
The Feminine Mystique (1963)
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964)
Unsafe at any Speed (1965)
Quotations of Chairman Mao (1966)
One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967)
Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee (1971)
The Gulag Archipelago (1973-1975)
Beloved (1987)
A Brief History of Time, Updated and Expanded (1998)

books, 100 Books That Shaped The World, Great Books of the Western World, Western Canon

Selection 13 - The Clouds by Aristophanes

2007-10-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

***Updated***

References: The Clouds Wikipedia Entry

Source: The Clouds at Project Gutenberg

Background: Aristophanes was born sometime in the 5th Century BC, probably to a wealthy family and was probably well educated. Given the time period in which he was born I would guess that he was educated in the Sophist school, which he later became a critic of.

Aristophanes apparently first came to widespread attention as a judge in a poetry contest. After that he began writing his own plays and competing in the Dionysian festivals. I have seen differing accounts on whether or not he was a critic of Socrates but it is definite that he was critical of the Sophists and his play The Clouds is a satirical view of them. He was also critical of the political situation at the time and his play the Lysistrata was a dig at the conduct of the Peloponnesian War.

Discussion: I have just started this play and am about 1/4 of the way into it. So far Strepsiades upon determining that his family is going broke supporting his son's expensive habits is looking for a solution. His son refuses to change his ways and Strepsiades appears reluctant to force him and unwilling to pursue other paths. Looking around he notices that the philosophers led by Socrates somehow seem to make a living without really working or contributing anything useful to society. He determines to become one. His impression seems to be borne out when he enters the thinkery and finds the residents discussing how far a flea can jump and how a fly farts. He convinces Socrates to take him as a student and begins his education.

Thats as far as I have gotten so far.

Updated 11/14/2007About 3/4 done now. So far Aristophanes has not been kind to the Sophists.

What this play is really breaking down into is a classic generational clash. The Sophists have introduced new ways of thinking and the more traditionally minded are trying to defend the position and privilege. Aristophanes carries this to absurd lengths but surprisingly the coemdy holds up well (lots of fart jokes). Amazingly there are still echoes of this debate in modern society, witness the debate over intelligent design and stem cell research.

Updated 11/16/2007Finished. Yay!!! Even though it took awhile this is the most enjoyable of the works I have read so far. As I said previously it seems to break down into a generational clash but it also goes a little further with a suggestion that it is OK to use violence to quash wrong ideas (the burning of "The Thinkery").

From what I have read previously the Greeks weren't adverse to using violence on anyone they disagreed with but it was a little startling to see. Maybe because we have this image in our minds of these guys in white robes sitting around discussing philosophy and being all civilized about it and now we have a contrasting image of someone not liking a guys ideas so he burns his house down. Despite that I laughed quite a bit while I was reading this.

Books, Great Books, Western Canon, Aristophanes, The Clouds, Plays

The 10 year reading plan from the "Great Books of the Western World"

2007-10-14T14:39:00.000-07:00

found here

Books, Great Books, Great Books of the Western World

A couple random things

2007-10-10T12:55:00.000-07:00

David Thompson has a link to the Spectator's debate on whether western values are superior. I haven't listened to it yet but given that this blog is dedicated to the Western Canon and the Western Canon serves as a touchstone for western values you can be sure I will.

h/t Ace of Spades

Today is the 50th anniversary of Atlas Shrugged

via the Wall Street Journal

Finally, I know this blog has been languishing. I have been trying to be more diligent about posting without much success so I recently invited a number of people that I know to co-blog on this site. Unfortunately out of the six I invited not a single one felt the offer was even worth a thanks but no thanks. Not one single reply so I guess i will just have to keep struggling along by myself or close the stinking blog down.

Western Canon, Western Values, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, Supposed Friends Who Can't Even Be Bothered To Answer A One Sentence Email, blogs

Selection 12 - Book of Isaiah

2007-09-20T19:21:00.000-07:00

***Updated***

References: Book of Isaiah Wikipedia entry

Source: Online at Bible Gateway

Discussion: I actually started this selection back in May and rapidly became bored wit it. I started it again about a month ago and have struggled to complete this reading. I was working on the version in the King James bible and just could not make any progress. I would make it through a page and my head would feel like it was going to explode. A couple of weeks ago I thought well maybe it will make more sense if I hear this instead of read it so I got an audio version and have been listening to it also. No help. I just drift off and lose track of what is going on. Finally tonight I tried the New American Bible and what a difference. I am up to chapter 10 after an hour of reading and I am actually able to take some notes and understand what is going on. The only problem is I feel like I am cheating. I don't know why it's not like God personally blessed the King James version but still it is the traditionally accepted version in America so I feel guilty.

So anyway on to the story.

From what I have read so far the Book of Isaiah is the story of the destruction and redemption of the people of Israel after they have turned away from their covenant with God. So far in chapters 1 through 9 God has declared his anger against the people of Judah and Jerusalem for their wickedness, including idol worship. He has also shown his power by preserving them in the face of attack by Assyria and Ephraim. He has offered chances for redemption bust so far they have been rejected.

[An interesting aside (at least it is to me) I did a blogsearch to see if others were having the same problems with the Book of Isaiah that I have been having. No one else is claiming too but I found out that a copy of the Book of Isaiah was recovered with the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947. It dated from 125 BC and is essentially the same as the version in the current Bible.]

Updated 11 Oct 2007

Finished the King James version but all I really gathered from it was that God was pissed so he killed almost everybody, then after letting people suffer awhile he forgave then survivors. I don't quite think that is what I am supposed to be gathering here. I am continuing with the New American Bible version up to chapter 25 there. but I am also starting with Aristophanes.

Bible, Great Books, Western Canon, Isaiah

Robert Jordan -author of the "Wheel of Time" series dead at 58

2007-09-18T08:58:00.000-07:00

James Oliver Rigney Jr. (aka Robert Jordan) author of the "Wheel of Time" series, died on 16 Sep of Amlyiodosis at age 58.

Rigney was a pretty incredible author with an amazing gift for detail in his work and it's too bad his series will go unfinished.

Books, Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time

Who Won the Canon Wars?

2007-09-17T05:11:00.001-07:00

In this weeks New York Times Sunday Book Review Rachel Donadio has written an Essay entitled "Revisiting the Canon Wars".

Interesting piece.

Ms. Donadio outlines the battle over the teaching of the Western Canon that culminated in the late 1980's / early 1990's with the publication of "The Closing of the American Mind" by Allan Bloom, along with a number of other works including "Cultural Literacy by E.D. Hirsch, "Tenured Radicals" by Roger Kimball and "Illiberal Education" by Dinesh D'Souza, and the effect the publication of those works had on academic thought in this country.

She thinks the impact of Bloom's book was, at least at that time, minimal. Multiculturalism replaced the core curriculum in most universities and students fragmented into interest groups, while teachers concentrated only on their narrow (and in Bloom's opinion worthless) specialty.

This led to a loss, among students, of a common basis for communication and the commodification of education. The university was no longer a place to examine and expand your knowledge of the world. It has become a ticket punch for people entering the job market. Examining the big questions of life has been replaced by the mundane task of learning the intricacies of Sorbanes-Oxley or how do generate a Gantt Chart in Microsoft Project. (Interestingly you can see this theme repeated in the movie "Accepted" at least when you aren't looking at Diora Baird's boobs)

At present there doesn't seem to be a huge groundswell of opinion to change things, but does that mean the battle is lost?

I don't know. Five years ago I would have been one of those calling for the removal of a core curriculum, now I have a blog devoted to it and since I didn't get the exposure in High School and my various college experiences I am working my way through it on my own. Slowly to be sure but I am slugging away. But I'm a nobody more some academics are starting to realize the importance also:

For John Guillory, an English professor at New York University and the author of “Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation” (1993), “The major fact that the discipline is confronting today is global English, which is a cultural corollary of economic globalization.” At the same time, postcolonial Anglophone culture is only half a century old. “I’m often impressed by this scholarship, but I’m also concerned that this new field seems to be so disconnected from the history of literature and scholarship that goes before it,” Guillory said. “I see too many scholars in the field who know very little about anything before the 20th century, and that concerns me.”

Elaine Showalter, a feminist literary scholar and a former president of the Modern Language Association, who retired from Princeton in 2003, today urges a reconsideration of some of the changes made in past decades. “This period of discovery and recovery (for example, of women writers) has been stimulating, exciting and renewing,” Showalter wrote in an e-mail message. “But now it’s time for a period of evaluation and consolidation.”

To some, another question is how to get students to read critically in the first place. “What does it profit progressives to get minority writers like Walker and Black Elk into the syllabus if many students need the Cliffs Notes to gain an articulate grasp of either?” asked Gerald Graff, an English professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago who has written on the canon wars.

Of course this all leads to the question of what are Colleges and Universities there for?

Are they supposed to make better people and better citizens? If so then a common basis for understanding is necessary. Especially in a country as diverse as America where almost no two people have the same background.

If it is technical education (and by that I mean merely concentrating on the students major / minor) then lets drop all pretense and do away with all the general education requirements entirely.

Education, Western Canon

Colleges and "Liberal" Education

2007-09-13T08:03:00.000-07:00

Recently I wrote about Educations End by Tom Kronman. According to it's blurb this book explores the failure of colleges and universities to provide a well rounded education which would allow a student to explore the "meaning of life".

Today via instapundit I came a cross this piece in the Wall Street Journal:

Our Compassless Colleges

At universities and colleges throughout the land, undergraduates and their parents pay large sums of money for -- and federal and state governments contribute sizeable tax exemptions to support -- "liberal" education. This despite administrators and faculty lacking, or failing to honor, a coherent concept of what constitutes an educated human being.

...

Harvard's general education reform will allow students to graduate without ever having read the same book or studied the same material. Students may take away much of interest, but it is the little in common they learn that will be of lasting significance. For they will absorb the implicit teaching of the new college curriculum -- same as the old one -- that there is nothing in particular that an educated person need know.

...

The reason to worry is that university education can cause lasting harm. The mental habits that students form and the ideas they absorb in college consolidate the framework through which as adults they interpret experience, and judge matters to be true or false, fair or inequitable, honorable or dishonorable. A university that fails to teach students sound mental habits and to acquaint them with enduring ideas handicaps its graduates for public and private life.

Moreover, properly conceived, a liberal education provides invaluable benefits for students and the nation. For most students, it offers the last chance, perhaps until retirement, to read widely and deeply, to acquire knowledge of the opinions and events that formed them and the nation in which they live, and to study other peoples and cultures. A proper liberal education liberalizes in the old-fashioned and still most relevant sense: It forms individuals fit for freedom.

The nation benefits as well, because a liberal democracy presupposes an informed citizenry capable of distinguishing the public interest from private interest, evaluating consequences, and discerning the claims of justice and the opportunities for -- and limits to -- realizing it in politics. Indeed, a sprawling liberal democracy whose citizens practice different religions and no religion at all, in which individuals have family heritages that can be traced to every continent, and in which the nation's foreign affairs are increasingly bound up with local politics in countries around the world is particularly dependent on citizens acquiring a liberal education.

As I have written before as few as five (maybe ten) years ago I would have disagreed with Mr. Berkowitz. I hate general education or core curriculum classes but as I get older I realize both that they have value and that the reason I hated them is in most of the I felt a particular idea was being imposed on me and that I wasn't being allowed to develop my own opinion about things.

Now I am more inclined to agree with the ideas that a standard reference point is important for society to function and with the idea that in order for people to make informed decisions about public policy the need to be able to adequately evaluate that policy in the light of the principles that have brought America to this point in history.

I like Mr. Berkowitz's suggested core:

Greek and Roman History
European History
American History

European Literature
American Literature

American Government
Economics
Political Science

Biology
Physics

Comparative Religion (Christianity, Judaism, Islam)
History, Literature, and Religion of a non-western culture

Demonstrate Foreign Language proficiency

If it was up to me I would also add a Math Requirement (which could be met by testing) of College Algebra and a course on minorities in America (the need for a standard reference point goes both ways).

As Berkowitz says:

Citizens today are called on to analyze a formidable array of hard questions concerning war and peace, liberty and security, markets and morals, marriage and family, science and technology, poverty and public responsibility, and much more. No citizen can be expected to master all the issues. But liberal democracies count on more than a small minority acquiring the ability to reason responsibly about the many sides of these many-sided questions. For this reason, we must teach our universities to appreciate the aims of a liberal education. And we must impress upon our universities their obligation to pursue them responsibly.

or more practically as Robert Heinlein says:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

Robert Heinlein (as spoken by Lazarus Long in Time Enough For Love)

This curriculum doesn't meet all those requirements but it pushes towards them.

Education, Western Canon, Great Books

Great Books by David Denby

2007-09-04T21:22:00.000-07:00

Finished "Great Books" by David Denby which is one of those books I throw in my bag and read when I have to go offsite for testing.

Overall it was ok but the cover blurb makes it look more interesting that it actually is. In short Denby, a Columbia undergrad in the early 60's returns to Columbia in the 90's to revisit the Contemporary Civilizations and Literature and Humanities courses which make up a part of the core curriculum. During the course of the year Denby rediscovers his love of movies (he's a movie critic so I would hope he loves them) and literature and watches his late teen early twenties classmates "learn how to think".

That part was ok and even very interesting at times; like when two students almost come to blows over "Heart of Darkness", and when he discusses the philosophy of helplessness and fear in the "Take Back The Night" movement.

Other areas where Denby veers into politics I don't agree with so much. He is about as liberal as they come, at least in this book which was originally published in 1996.

One other useful thing I found in this book was this quote by John Mill in "On Liberty" :

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good and no one may have been able to refute them. But, if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are , he has no grounds for preferring either opinion. The rational position for him would be suspension of judgment, and unless he contents himself with that, he is either led by authority or adopts, like the generality of the world, the side to which he feels most inclination. Nor is it enough that he should the arguments of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. That is not the way to do justice to the arguments or bring them into real contact with his own mind. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them, who defend them in earnest and do their very utmost for them. He must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form; he must feel the whole force of the difficulty which the true view of the subject hos to encounter and dispose of, else he will never really possess himself of the portion of truth which meets and removes that difficulty. Ninety-nine in a hundred of what are called educated men are in this condition, even of those who can argue fluently for their opinions.

(pg. 354)

Last year I posted about why I am working my way through this reading list - At that time I said it was mainly because it was a challenge to myself, and in main it is. I also told someone recently that part of it was because I find these lists and I get mad that I haven't read these books. That is part of it too. But so is the opinion that John Mill expressed in the quote above. In order to think for yourself you have to be willing to be challenged by ideas. Of the three that is probably the best reason but honestly it only occurs to me as a philosophy occasionally. Usually I am much more about the other two.

At the same time I posted about women I was waiting on marriage proposals from (Pamela Anderson, Katherine Bell, Traci Lords, Juliet Huddy, Angie Harmon, Elizabeth Rohm, Jill Hennessy, Grace Park, Charlize Theron, Sabine Ehrenfeld). I haven't heard from any of them but I am still available if any of them should happen to read this.

BTW after burning out on Isaiah I am back to working on the list again. Expect to see some progress over the next couple weeks.

Books, Great Books, Education

Educations End - Looks like an interesting read

2007-08-30T10:16:00.000-07:00

Throughout my various college careers I have been highly opposed to the General Education requirements, mainly because outside the Math and Sciences requirement they seems to be designed to impose a political ideology on me and I hated that. In the past year or two I have slowly come to the realization that a well laid out humanities requirement can do more than tell me what to think, it can help me learn how to think.

This opinion has been bolstered by my nearly completed reading of Great Books by David Denby, which explores Columbia Universities Literature and Humanities and Contempory Civilization course and their effect on students. (Which I started reading to complement my reading list over at here)

Today at Instapundit I found I blurb regarding "Educations End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life" which looks like it might be a good follow-up.

Book Description
The question of what living is for—of what one should care about and why—is the most important question a person can ask. Yet under the influence of the modern research ideal, our colleges and universities have expelled this question from their classrooms, judging it unfit for organized study. In this eloquent and carefully considered book, Tony Kronman explores why this has happened and calls for the restoration of life’s most important question to an honored place in higher education.

The author contrasts an earlier era in American education, when the question of the meaning of life was at the center of instruction, with our own times, when this question has been largely abandoned by college and university teachers. In particular, teachers of the humanities, who once felt a special responsibility to guide their students in exploring the question of what living is for, have lost confidence in their authority to do so. And they have lost sight of the question itself in the blinding fog of political correctness that has dominated their disciplines for the past forty years.

Yet Kronman sees a readiness for change--a longing among teachers as well as students to engage questions of ultimate meaning. He urges a revival of the humanities’ lost tradition of studying the meaning of life through the careful but critical reading of great works of literary and philosophical imagination. And he offers here the charter document of that revival.

,

Books, Great Books, Western Canon, Humanities, Education

The Teaching Company

2007-08-27T05:43:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned the Portable Professor series from Barnes and Noble a couple of times, now via Betsy's Page and OpinionJournal.com I have learned of a similar series of courses from The Teaching Company.

In the Opinion Journal article Wilfred M. McClay, a humanities professor, nails the precise reason I created this blog:

So these courses offer a constructive way to fill up the empty times of commuting, exercising and the like. But there is more to their appeal than that. As the generations of post-1960s college graduates grow older, they will come to understand that their expensive formal education, with its trendiness and lack of breadth or rigor or enduring substance, quite simply failed them--by failing to connect them to the riches of their own civilization. Not all of them will be content to leave matters at that, and so the market for the Teaching Company's products will only continue to expand.

but beyond that courses like this are just enjoyable, in the same way that the history channel is enjoyable. I am going to have to acquire one or two of these courses and report back on the quality.

Just a note that this would fit in perfectly with my Open University idea.

Education

"Civilization" by Roger Osborne - Chapter 1

2007-08-08T05:19:00.001-07:00

Chapter One of "Civilization" looks at the development of underlying culture of Western Civilization.

Starting in pre-history with the migration of ancient Homo Sapiens into Europe Osborne follows the development of the underlying cultures of western civilization from hunter gatherer to semi-nomadic to fixed (sedentary) communities. In many ways he echoes Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, especially his admiration of hunter-gatherers over "sedentary" communities.

Interestingly Osborne argues that the main influence on western society is Germanic or Celtic and not the Romans or the Greeks. At the same time he dismisses the popular history of the Anglo-Saxon influence in Britain and France. Arguing that it was individuals who settled in areas that spread that culture rather than repeated armed invasions that overcame the dominant Celtic cultures. This occured partially beacuse the Celts would foster superior individuals into "royal" families and inheritance was not dependent on primogeniture. I wonder how this is going to square with the arguments that are apparently presented in "A Farewell to Alms" by Gregory Clark?

Up to this point "Civilization" has only dealt with pre-literate societies, and Osbornes admiration for them is evident. At one point he argues that customary law is superior to written law because it draws communities together while written laws separate them. He makes the same argument regarding storytelling as the main imparter of information versus written histories. This presages chapter two in which hes says he will explore the development of writing and it's (destructive) influence.

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Roger Osborne, Civilization, A Farewll to Alms, Gregory Clark, Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond, History , Books

The Open University

2007-07-28T07:37:00.001-07:00

One of the nice things about having zero readership is I can float ideas that other people might be afraid to because of fear of ridicule. This is one of those ideas-

One of the major complaints of businesses in this country is a growing lack of qualified college graduates. One of the major complaints of students is lack of opportunity (defined as too expensive, lack of access, insufficient preparation etc.) Other groups have similar complaints but what it boils down to is a breakdown in the higher education delivery system. The sad thing is there is no reason for this breakdown to be occurring.

This moment in time allows us access to the greatest knowledge transfer mechanisms that have ever been developed. The computer and the internet. We just are not utilizing them properly. Well in my opinion that's the case anyway.

To simplify this post I am just going to talk about the goal of delivering a qualified graduate to a consumer, no matter who they are.

First we have to accept that my proposed model won't work in every case. It will be up to the consumer to define their needs and sometimes that may mandate a more traditional college program.

Second the ultimate customer for the project, will have to be heavily involved in the process. For example Boeing needs Aeronautical Engineers. To really get the type of engineer that they want they would need to lay out a set of skills that they feel are important. From there it would be necessary to backtrack to the courses which develop those skills, and a curriculum would need to be developed. From there textbooks would need to be written and labs developed. On and on continuing up the chain until a comprehensive program had been developed.

Once that process has been completed it is necessary to deliver the required knowledge to the student. Most of the pieces are already in place. Lectures can be developed and delivered via pod cast or youtube (The open courseware project and iTunes university are already doing some of this). Reading assignments can be emailed out. Textbooks and other course materials can be placed on Wikibooks. The two major sticking points as I see it are labs and a feedback mechanism.

Feedback is the easiest - IM, Email, Phones, Blog Comments, all those offer a feedback loop. Testing is another method. Here we have to be careful though. We want the test to be both fair and applicable as well relatively secure. In other words we don't want a bunch of multiple choice questions floating around on the internet that a student can memorize to get a passing grade, but we want the test to really measure knowledge. Part of this problem can be solved by the use of adaptive testing.

Adaptive testing is a method of testing that adapts to an examinees knowledge level of a subject.

CAT successively selects questions so as to maximize the precision of the exam based on what is known about the examinee from previous questions.[1] From the examinee's perspective, the difficulty of the exam seems to tailor itself to their level of ability. For example, if an examinee performs well on an item of intermediate difficulty, he will then be presented with a more difficult question. Or, if he performed poorly, he would be presented with a simpler question. Compared to static multiple choice tests that nearly everyone has experienced, with a fixed set of items administered to all examinees, computer-adaptive tests require fewer test items to arrive at equally accurate scores.[1] (Of course, there is nothing about the CAT methodology that requires the items to be multiple-choice; but just as most exams are multiple-choice, most CAT exams also use this format.)

The biggest problem with adaptive testing in this program would be the development of the question pool. One of it's biggest advantages is it's flexibility, allowing a number of different question types including scenario and simulation questions. In addition the report from the exam can be used to pinpoint where a student has mastery or requires work in a subject. One nice thing about this style of testing is the flexibility it places into the program. A student may already have a high level of mastery in a subject. He would be able to prove that by simply taking the test. As this program goes on this method of testing may be defined to an even greater level of granularity so that certain critical skills are tested for mastery at various points.

Of course adaptive testing will not work for all subjects and scenarios so a network of instructors will need to be developed. These can be industry professionals, local educators, retirees, essentially anyone with the required knowledge who can evaluate the work of the student and provide feedback. A quality control mechanism would be needed to insure that the instructors are adequate, but I think that could be handled by evaluations from students, skill set feedback from employers, and evaluations from other instructors or administrators involved in this program.

On the subject of practical exams, labs, and hands on instructions we would use the same local instructors or partnerships with local businesses. For classes such as chemistry it may be necessary to set up a partnership with a local high school or community college. In these cases the students will have to bear some additional cost. In some cases it may be necessary to set up a regional center where a student can come do a block of labs over a weekend again this may require some additional cost. In all these cases participating industry partners should also help with some of the expense. After all the idea is to deliver a more prepared graduate to them.

After completion of this program the student is awarded a certificate that includes the sponsors of his degree track and a breakdown of the didactic and practical skills he has demonstrated mastery of and is off into the world. Hopefully with the goal of delivering relevant, affordable, and convenient education having been met.

One other option that I think would be interesting is if major state universities partnered with this program. That would simplify many of the start up pains and would also give them the opportunity to cherry pick out the best students for an "elite" education.

Anyway just another idea that will never be adopted.

Education, MIT, iTunes U, Open Courseware, Adaptive Testing

Open Library Project Begins

2007-07-17T06:30:00.000-07:00

With the goal of creating the worlds greatest library with access open to all the Open Library Project kicked off today.

What if there was a library which held every book? Not every book on sale, or every important book, or even every book in English, but simply every book—a key part of our planet's cultural legacy.

...

But most importantly, such a library must be fully open. Not simply "free to the people," as the grand banner across the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh proclaims, but a product of the people: letting them create and curate its catalog, contribute to its content, participate in its governance, and have full, free access to its data.

Right now the have a Demo site up and running, and it is connected to the Internet Archives book scanning project; they are also planning an open wiki style catalog that will allow users to help update and maintain that information.

As far as the catalog goes it would be interesting to see a mapping function of some sort so that readers can build kind of an interactive guide of related works ,an interactive synopticon if you are familiar with the Great Books of the Western World Series. Just my $.02.

Anyway looks to be a interesting project.

h/t Slashdot

(Sidenote as I was writing this I found a link to the Angelicum Academy which has a very ambitious reading list)

Books, Classics, Open Library Project, Internet Archive, Great Books of the Western World

Blogging the Bible and Blogging the Qur'an

2007-07-01T10:22:00.000-07:00

Over 10 percent of the list this blog is based on are selections from the Bible, which by the way I am finding to be incredibly hard going in spite of the fact that at one time or another I have previously read all these selections. Because of that I decided to link David Plotz's "Blogging the Bible" from Slate magazine.

As a first time reader Plotz will probably have a slightly different view of the meaning of each book and how it applies to today's world.

And just because I thought it would be an interesting contrast I am also linking Blogging the Qur'an from Hotair.com. Beyond being a comparison of books important / central to three religions this will also be a contrast in style. Robert Spencer has read the Qur'an before and he is not only relating his personal interpretation of what is being said but also that of various Muslim scholars.

Books, Western Canon, Bible, Qur'an

How is Catullus not included in the Dartmouth Canon?

2007-06-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

I generally hate poetry but Catullus may change my mind. Here is an example courtesy of Ace:

Catullus 16
Latin Text
Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo,
Aureli pathice et cinaede Furi,
qui me ex versiculis meis putastis,
quod sunt molliculi, parum pudicum.
Nam castum esse decet pium poetam
ipsum, versiculos nihil necesse est;
qui tum denique habent salem ac leporem,
si sunt molliculi ac parum pudici
et quod pruriat incitare possunt,
non dico pueris, sed his pilosis
qui duros nequeunt movere lumbos.
Vos, quod milia multa basiorum
legistis, male me marem putatis?
Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo.

English Translation
I will fuck you in the ass and throat-rape you.
Kinky Aurelius and bottom-man Furius,
You who think that I'm a pussy
Because of my delicate verses.
It's right for the devoted poet to be chaste
Himself, but it's not necessary for his verses to be so.
Verses which then have taste and charm,
If they are delicate and sexy,
And when they can incite an itch,
And I don't mean in boys, but in those hairy old men
Who can't get their flaccid dicks up.
You, because you have read of my thousand kisses,
You think I'm a pussy?
I will fuck you in the ass and throat-rape you.

OK I'm joking. There really isn't anything particularly poetic about this. It's more like high school bathroom graffiti I was just surprised that there are apparently a number of people who study this guy's invective poetry. Good Work if you can get it I guess.

poetry

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

2007-06-25T18:27:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I picked up the unabridged audiobook of To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf and I finished listening to it this week. I know a lot of people consider audiobooks cheating, and maybe they are but sometimes they are the only way I can get to a book. Anyway that's really neither here nor there the point is I finished.

Overall I was much more impressed by To the Lighthouse than by Dubliners. For one thing it had a unifying story where Dubliners was merely a set of short stories set in the same place. I also found the writing to be more descriptive especially the dinner scene at the house. I have to admit though that I was a little distracted at times by that. I kept thinking of the one Bergman film I have seen where everything appears washed out and flat. That was the way I was picturing the dining room with some guttering candles and deep shadows thrown in.

The major theme of the book seems to be the transience of life (as is noted in the Wikipedia article I linked) and I don't disagree with that, but I noted a couple subthemes also.

One is the centrality of the wife / mother figure in a family. Mrs. Ramsey is really the glue that holds although the characters together as a cohesive whole. It is her will that is imposed on the family whether they realize it or not and her approval they seek. At the end of the book when the majority of the surviving characters return to the Hebrides they are really doing so to mourn her.

The second ... honestly I had something really profound to say here but as I was typing I completely forgot what it was. Something about the perception of gender roles I think.

I also picked up a little bit of lesbian subtext in the first section of the book where Lily is thinking about sitting at Mrs. Ramsey's feet with her head in her lap thinking how beautiful Mrs. Ramsey was and wondering why she wanted Lily to get married and subjugate herself to a man.

There is also the traditional nod to death with the Boar's skull and the sea etc.

This isn't a book I would read again (at least not for pleasure) but at the same time I don't want to find Woolf's grave and spit on it like I did Joyce's.

Books, Woolf, Classics, To the Lighthouse

I need a "WOW" book

2007-06-15T06:25:00.000-07:00

I am bogged down in my reading right now. All the books on my reading list are boring the hell out of me and I can't find one that jumps out at me. Here is what I am looking for:

It has to move fast
It has to have an edge
It has to make me think a bit
It has to be enough of center that it can make me wake up in the morning thinking did I really read that last night
It has to be fun.

Any suggestions. The two books that were even close were American Tabloid and A Million Little Pieces neither of those were really what I would call fun though.

Books, Reading, James Ellroy, James Frey

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

2007-06-13T22:04:00.001-07:00

Yes I am still working on Civilization by Rogers Osborne but I had to read Guns, Germs, and Steel for a book club I belong to.

In Guns, Germs, and Steel Dr. Jared Diamond attempts to explain the causes of the Eurasian dominance of history and he does a pretty compelling job.

Proposing an environmental reason the courses that various societies followed throughout their history Dr. Diamond narrows the reasons to three factors, domesticateble plants, large domesticateble animals, and geography. He dismisses the idea that innate intelligence may have anything to do with the process (although he does propose the idea that native New Guineans are more intelligent than westerner because the constant wars, battle against diseases, and other pitfalls of a primitive society naturally select for higher intelligence. )

Professor Diamond's theory goes like this. In order for an advanced civilization to develop it must domesticate plants and large domestic animals. Of the species that are suitable the vast majority are located in Eurasia (including North Africa). In addition the environment must be geographically suitable. Because of the difference transporting crops and animals from the temperate to tropical areas the most suitable areas for this to happen are aligned along an east-west axis (again Eurasia). No problem so far I have thought along similar lines since high school, long before I knew what geographic determinism was/is.

Once the plants and animals have been domesticated Guns, Germs and Steel postulates that social more complex social organisms can evolve. This is driven by the relative abundance of food which allows specialized artisans, warriors, and bureaucrats, eventually leading to modern societies.

One of the major problems I have with Guns, Germs and Steel is Professor Diamond's dismissal of the idea that technological progress may be driven by harsher living conditions. Instead he dismisses it out of hand and just moves on.

Another is the way he squeezes everything into his theory. Because Eurasia is easy to traverse it allows for the spread domesticated plants, animals, and technology. China however is to easy to traverse so it lacks competition among rival states and stagnates. India is too fragmented and can't develop the cooperation needed to advance. Only Europe has the optimal amount of state fragmentation even though India and China were much more advanced than Europe for hundreds of years.

In addition, although Professor Diamond states that there is no innate difference in intelligence among the races he states that the hunter gatherers of New Guinea are naturally more intelligence because of the natural selection imposed by their environment, while Eurasians are selected for disease resistance at the expense of intelligence. This is because of our close contact with domestic animals and is a fourth major factor in the spread of Eurasian dominance.

My final objection is Professor Diamond's obvious bias against western society. This is obvious in his word choice when describing these societies, such as describing even ancient farming communities as sedentary, implying that the active societies are the hunter-gatherers. This is a minor point but irritating.

Technorati tags: Books, Guns Germs and Steel, History

"Civilization" by Roger Osborne - Prologue

2007-05-23T22:59:00.000-07:00

The Book of Isiah wasn't doing it for me so I decided to work on "Civilization" by Roger Osborne for awhile; This may be a mistake I have the feeling that this going to be one of those books that pisses me off.

Be that as it may I have decided to analyze each chapter as I go.

In the prologue Mr. Osborne asserts that the idea of civilization is a fiction dreamt up in the 18th century by intellectual elites seeking to explain the state of man. That there is in fact no intellectual tradition that defines the west as a culture and that our acceptance of the idea that there is is buying into a fraud.

As he discusses the subject of his book it becomes apparent (to me at least) that Mr. Osborne is not an admirer of western civilization, declaring that it breaks up communities and families in pursuit of cheaper goods. The only period about which he seems to have anything good to say is the counter-culture of the 60's for their rejection of materialism, and they get on his shit-list for selling out later in life.

This is only the prologue so my impression may change but so far I have the idea that Osborne would be much happier if we were all living in mud huts unable to read his book because writing hadn't been invented. Of course you should take all this with a grain of salt. I am not a historian and my opinion is worth exactly what you paid for it.

Roger Osborne
Civilization
History
Books

Finished P. J. O'Rourke's "On the Wealth of Nations"

2007-05-19T08:56:00.000-07:00

P. J. O'Rourke took Adam Smith's "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" and "Theory of Moral Sentiments" and broke them into bite sized pieces. Coupling that with an examination of Smith and the period in which he lived his book is readable and humorous (although not laugh out loud funny). Do I now think I have a complete understanding of Adam Smith? No. But, I have a better basis to finish his works and that's what I was looking for.

Books, Politics, Classics, Western Canon, Economics, Scottish Enlightenment

Selection 11 - Antigone

2007-05-18T10:47:00.001-07:00

References: Sophocles Wikipedia Entry, Antigone Wikipedia Entry, Theban Plays Wikipedia Entry

Sources: Free at classics.mit.edu or

Discussion: The first of Sophocles Theban plays Antigone is also the most meaningful in my opinion. This play is a story of conflict, between the laws of men and the laws of the gods, between family and the state, and between the law and justice. Creon represents the state, and the law and is bullheaded, arrogant, and cruel. Antigone is the family, the gods and justice and while she is also bullheaded she is clearly in the right, and she is willing to die for that. The fact that she is undermines and ultimately destroys Creon's position and while she does die her victory serves a purpose in hopefully restoring Thebes.

Once again nothing new or spectacular in my analysis but it's another notch in the bookcase.

books, classics, tragedies, sophocles, western canon, antigone

Gilgamesh revisited

2007-04-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

I read the Epic of Gilgamesh last year and noted at that time, without any great leap of insight mind you, that it foreshadowed a number of later epics, Arguably this story is the father of literature.

Today in Salon magazine Laura Miller reviews "The Buried Book" by David Damrosch, the story of the rediscovery of the Gilgamesh epic.

I found this review especially insightful because Ms. Miller made some of the same points about Gilgamesh's influence that I did, although she does it a lot better.

Anyway I will have to pick this book up and add it to my stack of books to be read.

Books, Epics, Classics, Western Canon

Saddest Blog Ever

2007-04-13T05:34:00.000-07:00

I was just looking at sitemeter, man this is the saddest blog ever.

I know that I am not the most scintilating blogger out there, but I do try to have something relevant to say. I guess I am just not hitting a cord with anyone. Maybe after I move out of the classical greek stuff into some more modern works interest will pick up.

Tech Tags: blogs books

List Deviation - Oedipus at Colonus

2007-04-12T10:27:00.000-07:00

References: Sophocles Wikipedia Entry, Oedipus at Colonus Wikipedia Entry, Theban Plays Wikipedia Entry

Sources: Free at classics.mit.edu

or

Discussion: I am barely into this play so far and as pointed out in the references above there are some continuity differences. The two that I have noticed are the fact that Oedipus is now talking about a blessing to the land in which he is dwelling when he dies and a curse on the city which exiled him:

"shalt thou round thy weary life,
A blessing to the land wherein thou dwell'st,
But to the land that cast thee forth, a curse."

But, in Oedipus Rex he begged to be exiled so he would no longer be a curse on Thebes. Secondly in Oedipus Rex he left his children in Creon's care so they would not be burdened by his curse but now his daughters are traveling with him. (I guess they may have hunted him down out of love.) Relatively small points I guess certainly no worse than the continuity issues between any two episodes of Star Trek.

Update: I completed this play last week. To me it seemed rather incomplete, not really a story in itself but more of a way to tie the other two plays (Oedipus Rex and Antigone) together.

Beyond the discontinuities I note above there were a couple other things I noticed. First off Oedipus was essentially the Grandpa Simpson of his day. Alternately crotchety and demanding, and scared of the world and needing reassurance and protection. Second the role of the chorus is really diminished here. In the Oresteia they went on and on for pages of boring back and forth dialogue. In Oedipus at Colonus it's a couple statement maybe a poem and boom back to the story.

I didn't really think much of the story. Others say that it shows Oedipus's acceptance of his own portion of responsibility for his fate, and his reconciliation with the gods. I say crap. If his fate was preordained he had no responsibility for it so why should he accept any. If however his fate was a result of his own pride then he doesn't take near enough.

Anyway that's that and I am on to Antigone.

Tech Tags: Books Classics Tragedies Western Canon Sophocles Oedipus at Colonus

New site in the Links section

2007-04-07T15:39:00.000-07:00

Solarvoid. The guy is reading the same books I am and has some interesting tech posts.

Selection 10 - Oedipus Rex

2007-04-03T15:39:00.000-07:00

References - Sophocles Wikipedia entry, Theban plays Wikipedia entry

Selections - Free at classics.mit.edu or available at Amazon.com.

Discussion - So far I am only about 10 pages into the play but I can already spot some differences from the Oresteia. There isn't as much action with the chorus and in my mind the flow of everything seems smoother because of it. Or maybe the chorus just isn't as long winded and boring?

Updated 3/11/07 - I finished the play this evening. It may only be the translation but it was so much easier to read than any of the Oresteia trilogy. I'm not real sure of what the underlying message of the play was though.

As near as I can tell Oedipus did nothing personally to offend the God's. He just seems to be condemned to his fate for some non-specific reason and nothing he does will change his fate. This may be a statement regarding the folly of relying on the God's to provide. I can't decide.

Books, Classics , Western Canon, Sophocles, Oedipus the King, Tragedies

Selection 9 - Oresteia - The Eumenides (The Furies)

2007-04-01T09:12:00.000-07:00

Definitely the easiest of the 3 plays to read. Also the most interesting to my mind.

As with the Libation Bearers I knew the story but hadn't read the play; so I knew that most people consider it as marking a turning from a society based on tribal rules and a kind of might makes right philosophy to a society based on law and impartial justice.

There also seem to be a couple of political messages contained in the play.

Specifically starting at line 976 there is a warning against civil war, stating it should never come and blacken the city with blood lust and revenge. I am not precisely familiar with the internal political situation in Athens in 458 BC, when the Oresteia was first presented, but I am betting there was some sort of political strife. (Looking it up on wikipedia it appears that there was some significant political activity going on, specifically the expansion of the rights of the lower classes and changes to the archonship)

Externally the First Peloponnesian War was underway. This would explain the reference, starting on line 754, to the city of Argos always standing with Athens.

I don't know I may be way off base here and maybe I am reading too much into those lines but they seem to topical to be an accident.

Technorati tags: Classics, Western Canon, Oresteia, The Eumenides, Books

Selection 9 - Oresteia - Libation Bearers

2007-03-31T09:26:00.000-07:00

This was kind of a let down. Based on the reaction of the chorus at the end of Agamemnon I expected more of an undercurrent of resentment. I didn't feel it. Everything seemed really formulaic (is that a word), but maybe that is because I knew the ending and I could just see everything leading up to it.

It was kind of interesting that Orestes felt some reluctance to kill his mother and then felt shame afterwards. Up to the point he actually was confronted with having to do it he was very determined in his course and felt completely in the right. Confronted with having to perform the act he wavered a bit, which both shows the effect mothers have on children and foreshadows the next play. As does his acceptance of his guilt and immediate descent into madness, or maybe I am reading to much into the lines about black cloaked women and gorgons descending on him.

Technorati tags: Books, Classics, Western Canon, Oresteia, Libation Bearers

Selection 9 - Oresteia- Agamemnon finished

2007-03-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

Whew! Feels good to be making some progress again. Popped in the soundtrack to 300 and I was able to power thru the last 10 pages of Agamemnon.

This play started out very slow with a lot of back and forth between the chorus and Clytemnestra that was very boring when I first read it. Lots of protestations of wifely fealty and love, but as the play closes you see how necessary that dialogue was. It really set the stage for the actual murder.

Loved the conflict at the end between Aegishus and the chorus too. He comes off as a cowardly bully who has to have his girlfriend do his dirty work and then declares himself the true avenger of his family. When he is called on this he blusters a lot but doesn't really have the guts to follow thru. You just know that this is going to come to play in "The Libation Bearers". As an aside I know I have seen this character in a couple of movies but for the life of me I can't think of which ones.

Technorati tags: Books, Classics, Western Canon, Oresteia, Agamemnon

Selection 8 - Book of Job -conclusion

2007-03-21T10:13:00.000-07:00

I finally finished the Book of Job. What a chore!

I actually found the entire book rather confusing. First what was the purpose of God's test other than his own perverse amusement? As I stated in my previous post on this subject it's almost a "Trading Places" scenario - I have something to prove and I don't care who gets hurt while I prove it.

The dialogue between Job and his friends didn't really say that much to me. The main thrust of it on his friends part was God is all knowing and infallible therefore if he is punishing Job, the Job must deserve it. In response Job asks, "What have I done? Nothing that I know of. And even if I had inadvertently sinned, my sins are nothing compared to the truly evil who live their entire lives without punishment." Of the two sides of what truly was a very long and boring dialogue Job's is definitely the more sympathetic.

Elihu's speech is semi-interesting in that it puts both sides on the defensive. Telling Job's friends "Hey, who are you to judge? That's God's job." while at the same time telling Job that even though right now he is being punished by God in the end God is merciful. After this defense God's appearance and the invocation of the angry parent attitude, "Because I said so / My house my rules", is a little anti-climatic. I know it's supposed to underscore the majesty of God but all it does it add to making him look capricious. Especially when after allowing Satan to kill Job's children he blesses him with another 10, like they are throw away toys or a goldfish that you find floating belly-up in the aquarium.

All in all I didn't find this to be a very inspiring book of the Bible.

Technorati tags: Bible, Classics, Western Canon, Books

Harvard Classics - Free

2007-03-12T12:54:00.000-07:00

As near as I can tell there are two series of books really incorporating the Western Canon. Great Books of The Western World (which I own after a screaming deal on E-Bay) and the Harvard Classics.

I was messing around at lunch seeing who was blogging about Agamemnon and came across a blog called One Man Book Club which led to an e-learning site which lead to a site offering free downloads of the Harvard Classics. Since I'm cheap (as well as easy) I am always into free stuff so I will have to scrounge up a bunch of 3-Ring Binders and start downloading.

Technorati tags: Books, Free, Western Canon, Harvard Classics

Free Audiobooks at Librivox

2007-03-03T06:27:00.000-08:00

One of the problems I am having with the reading list from the Olympia Academy is a lack of time. Between work and my commute about 10 hours a day are eaten up and if I am taking a class at at given point, there goes my free time as well. Because of this my reading has lagged some.

I have recently been listening to lectures from the Portable Professor series which made me decide to see if I could locate audio books for some of the works on my list. I was specifically thinking of the plays which are designed to be enjoyed aurally anyway but I found a lot more than I expected here at Librivox. Almost all the works on the list are either in progress or have been completed.

I don't intend to do all of this by audiobook now but it does extend my options and since reading reinforced with hearing greatly enhances retention it will actually do me more good. How's that for an excuse? :-)

From the Librivox website:

LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Our goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books. We are a totally volunteer, open source, free content, public domain project.

Technorati tags: Books, Classics, Audiobooks

Selection 9 - The Oresteia by Aeschylus - Updated

2007-02-24T07:18:00.000-08:00

I just found out that on Olympia Academy updates to posts are not working correctly for some reason. Either they don't take or they overwrite the entire previous post.

Still working on the Oresteia so far I am very unimpressed. Clytemnestra definately comes off as a harridan while at this point Agamemnon is sort of falsely humble. The killing of the daughter has only been alluded to so far and the affair with Aegisthus hasn't been shown yet.

related:

Jerry Springer meets the Ancient Greeks

Technorati tags: Books, Classics, Oresteia

England honoring Adam Smith

2007-02-16T06:36:00.001-08:00

Adam Smith, author of "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" is to be honored by appearing on the new 20 pound note according to the Bank of England:

Making the announcement yesterday, Bank of England Governor, Mervyn King, said, “It is such a pleasure to use the occasion of the launch of a new series of notes as an opportunity to recognize Adam Smith’s contribution to the understanding of society and its development. Smith’s insights into human nature, the organization of society, the division of labour and the advantages of specialisation remain at the heart of economics.” The Governor was giving the Adam Smith Lecture at the Adam Smith College, Kirkcaldy, Fife.
...
Along with the different ‘look’ of the note, the main change is the inclusion of a portrait of Adam Smith on the back of the note, along with the image of a pin-making factory and a summary of Smith’s observations on the benefits of the division of labour, drawn from his major work, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

Money as an economics textbook? Well I guess if you can print an RSS feed on toilet paper you can print Adam Smith quotes on money.

H/T Betsy

Technorati tags: Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Money

(Yes I know the RSStroom reader is a joke, but it's also genius whose time is coming)

How the Scots Invented the Modern World

2007-02-05T13:11:00.000-08:00

I have been working on this book for a few months now, mainly reading it on airplanes or when I am working off site and I finally finished it last night. Overall a pretty good book but a little weak at the end.

The first half of this book describes the origins of the Scottish Enlightenment and the conditions which led to the Scottish Diaspora. This is definitely the stronger half of the book. Herman outlines the thinking that led to classics such as "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith, and "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" by William Gibbons, as well as the Political though that would surround the American Revolution and and the establishment of the United States.

That legacy can still be seen in the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.

The second half seems more tenuous. When Herman talks about the effects of the Scots on the policies that affected the formation of the United States, and on the British Empire his work stays strong. (in my opinion at least, but who am I? Maybe in the PHd world it's considered crap.) However, when he begins describing the effect of Scots in the area of industry it seems more rushed, and more stretched at times. Probably with more room he could have made a stronger case but here it seems a little weak.

Again overall a pretty good book.

Technorati tags: Books, History

PJ O'Rourke's New Book - On A Wealth Of Nations

2007-01-09T06:19:00.000-08:00

Allan Sloane writes in the New York Times:

Before we had radio, telephones, television, the Internet and iPods, we had books. Long books. Complicated books. Books that got read, their length and complexity notwithstanding, because before talk shows and chat rooms, what else was there to do?
Back then, people like Adam Smith wrote long, long, long volumes like “The Wealth of Nations,” which revolutionized economic thought and theory when it was published in 1776.
...
Today, however, almost no one other than the obsessed (or the assigned) is likely to read Smith’s book, which runs more than 900 pages; the author’s convoluted prose makes it seem even longer than that.

So the free market in books has produced Smith-lite: P. J. O’Rourke channeling Adam Smith in a work titled “On ‘The Wealth of Nations.’ ” Think of it as a hardcover blog, in which O’Rourke cites Smith’s essential points, and riffs while preaching Smithian doctrine.
...
This opus is part of a series its publisher calls Books That Changed the World, a description to which we should append, as O’Rourke says, the further title “Works Which Let’s Admit You’ll Never Read the Whole Of.” Due soon are two other oft-cited but rarely-read-in-full classics: The Koran and Darwin’s “Origin of Species.” It’s a very clever, very market-driven thought: getting to know the classics without having to read them.

I kind of like this idea, not for the condensation of Smith's book "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations", but for the idea of a easily accessible introduction to the material.

My re-introduction to the Western Canon was similar. I found a couple of lists purporting to be the 25 books every freshman must read and the 20 greatest geek novels of all time as well as an earlier proposed classics curriculum from Dartmouth College; while reading one of the books I was led to by the geek novel list (Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson) I noticed how many of the classics were referenced and decided to open a new blog centered around the Dartmouth Canon. That led to the formation of, the currently dormant, Olympia Academy.

If O'Rourke's book gets other's reading then more power to him.

Technorati tags: Books, Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith, Classics, PJ O'Rourke

The Ancient Greeks Meet Jerry Springer

2006-11-19T11:52:00.001-08:00

As part of my reading I like to dig into the background of the book and author a bit.

Doing so on "The Oresteia" I pulled up the Wikipedia entry on the House of Atreus and found the world's first White Trash Family.

Story

The House of Atreus begins with Tantalus. Tantalus starts off holding the favor of the gods but pushes his luck when he decides to cook his own son, Pelops, and feed him to the gods as a test of their omniscience. This, of course, was a very bad idea and the gods found out. They threw Tantalus in the underworld, where he had to suffer thirst and hunger with water and food just out of his grasp for all of eternity. The gods bring Pelops back to life and cursed the family.
Pelops has two sons, Atreus and Thyestes. Thyestes begins an affair with Atreus' wife, and in retaliation, Atreus kills of Thyestes' sons and feeds them to him in a pie. Thyestes responds by asking an oracle what to do, who advises him to have a son by his daughter, Pelopia, who would then kill Atreus. This son is Aegisthus, who does just that, although not before Atreus had two sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus, who became the brother-in-law and husband (respectively) of Helen (later of Troy).

Sacrifice of Iphigenia

Prior to sailing off to Troy, Agamemnon annoyed the goddess Artemis. As a result, Agamemnon's fleet cannot catch a wind, and thus can't sail. A prophet named Calchas tells him that in order to appease Artemis, Agamemnon must sacrifice one of his daughters, Iphigenia. He does so, and sets sail. While he is fighting the Trojan War, his wife Clytemnestra (sister of his brothers wife Helen of Try BTW), infuriated by the murder of her daughter, begins an affair with Aegisthus (husbands cousin and uncle). When Agamemnon returned home from the war, he brought home with him a new concubine, the prophetess Cassandra. Clytemnestra and Aegisthus then murder Agamemnon and Cassandra. Agamemnon's son, Orestes, goaded by his sister Electra, must avenge his father's death but in doing so, must kill his mother. Orestes was still quite young when Agamemnon was killed by Clytemnestra. He was sent into exile and swore revenge. He was torn between avenging his father and not killing his mother. 'It was a son's duty to kill his father's murderers, a duty that came before all others. But a son who killed his mother was abhorrent to gods and to men.' When he asked Apollo for advice, the god advised him to kill his mother. 'And Orestes knew that he must work out the curse of his house, exact vengeance and pay with his own ruin.' After Orestes murdered Clytemnestra, he wandered the lands with guilt in his heart. After many years, he pleaded to Athena with Apollo by his side. No man of Atreus had ever done something so noble and 'neither he nor any descendant of his would ever again be driven into evil by the irresistible power of the past.' Orestes therefore ends the curse of the House of Atreus.

Between The murder, incest, concubines and non-branching family trees Jerry Springer and Jeff Foxworthy both would have felt right at home with this family.

Technorati tags: Books, Classics, Oresteia, Jerry Sringer, Jeff Foxworthy

Selection 9 - The Oresteia by Aeschylus

2006-11-19T11:34:00.001-08:00

References: The Oresteia Wikipedia Entry, Discussion of Agamemnon by Ian Johnston of Malaspina College

Selections: Translation by Ian Johnson of Malaspina University (Free) or available at Amazon.com.

Technorati tags: Books, Great Books, Greeks, Tragedies, Aeschylus, Oresteia

Selection 8 - The Book of Job

2006-11-19T11:17:00.001-08:00

References: Book of Job Wikipedia Entry

Selections: King James Version at Wikisource

Audio: Librivox

Discussion: I don't really know a lot about The Book of Job. The way I remember being taught about it as a kid is, "Even though Job was suffering he maintained his faith in God and therefore in the end he was rewarded."

Later I heard it analyzed as proof that God's will was unknowable and therefore we should just accept it. I have also heard it used to show the capriciousness of God and as a justification for behavior that is generally considered unacceptable. I haven't made it all the way thru the selection yet, but at this point I would have to go with the last one.

So far we have a "Trading Places" scenario. God and Satan are having an argument and to prove his point God gives Satan permission to ruin a man's life, even allowing his family to be killed. After misfortune befalls Job his friends assume the worst about him, until finally the truth is revealed. (I haven't actually read that far yet I am just to the point where his friends are condemning him).

Technorati tags: Books, Bibles, Classics, Great Books, Job

I know it seems like I have abandoned Olympia Academy...

2006-10-31T13:04:00.000-08:00

But that's just not true. I haven't had a lot of time for reading because of Work and personal commitments, but I am still around. Not that anyone cares given that I have 0 yes that's right zero visitors or comments outside my own.

tags: Blogs

Selection 7 - Thucydides "The History of the Peloponnesian War" Continued

2006-10-07T11:29:00.000-07:00

Well apparently the previous post got to long. Blogger isn't letting me go any further.

Books 6, 7, and 8 deal mainly with the invasion of Sicily and it's after effects. It's is here I think that most people will try and draw the major parallels between current day US policies and this history.

Specifically a "democratic" people talked into a war which doesn't go the way in which they intended. Betrayal of the government by various oligarchs and the destruction of the democracy and replacement by a oligarchy. Finally the downfall of the state.

In my opinion these are false comparisons.

First, the Athenians invaded Sicily for the purpose of establishing dominion over the Sicilians and eventually all of Greece. Iraq was invaded because rightly or wrongly a threat was perceived.

Second, while people may not like the results of recent elections the facts are we are still having them, and candidates are abiding by the results. Arguably we may have an oligarchy but it is elected not imposed.

Finally, there is no concerted plan (ala Alcibiades) to bring down the government and replace it with a new one.

The main thing that I took from this section of Thucydides "History of the Peloponnesian War" was how much Alcibiades vanity contributed to the downfall of the state.

It was his desire for glory that was a driving force behind the Sicilian expedition and the maneuvering of his enemies which led in part to that failure. His counter maneuvering led to the involvement of the Persians and civil war(or at least severe strife) in Athens. Finally the state fell.

Which leads me to wonder, if one of the main sources of praise for Socrates was Alcibiades, and he was such a scumbag. Was Socrates really that great?

Technorati tags: Books, Greece, War, History, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Current Affairs

More Thucydides

2006-10-05T10:28:00.000-07:00

Previously I blogged on some of the comparisons between the political situation in the World today and that of the Greek world in the time of Thucydides. Googling around today I found an article by Alan Gilbert at Balkanization which also draws a number of comparisons between the two.

I can't say that I completely aggress with his assessment, but it is still an interesting read.

Technorati tags: War, Greece, History, Books, Thucydides, Classics

Coolest Movie Trailer Ever - Frankk Miller's "300"

2006-09-22T08:53:00.000-07:00

Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie

tags: Greece, Sparta, Movies, Thermopylae, 300, Frank+Miller

Daily Lit - The Classics One Email At A Time

2006-09-15T03:21:00.000-07:00

Want to read the classics, but don't have time? Use e-mail for something besides work, porn spam and chain letters.

Daily Lit will take a book such as Moby Dick and break it into bite sized pieces and deliver it via e-mail. It may take a while to finish a book but also provides a break in the work day.

tags: Books, Classics

I Hate It When I Get Bogged Down In A Book

2006-09-03T00:15:00.000-07:00

I am still working on Thucydides "HIstory of the Peloponnesian War" and I am stuck.

I read a page and then I immediately lose track of where I was. I had the same problem with Kafka.

I know I juts have to just push through, but man it's hard.

Update 9/5/2006: Finally making some progress again.

tags: Books, Thucydides, Peloponnesian+War, Greco-Roman, Classics, Western+Canon

Soldier Ask Not and the Aeneid

2006-08-31T22:41:00.000-07:00

I haven't read the Aeneid but today I was listening to a lecture about it.

The lecturers premise was the Aeneid was Virgil's answer to the Iliad and the Odyssey and was his attempt to put Rome and Roman culture into perspective against Greek culture.

As it was related in the lecture while Greece was an older and more sophisticated culture, it was also one which placed the individual above the group, whereas Roman culture was a series of duties which placed the group first.

That made me think of this song from Soldier Ask Not, a novel in Gordon Dickson's Childe Cycle.

Soldier, ask not - now, or ever,
Where to war your banners go.
Anarch's legions all surround us.
Strike - and do not count the blow!

Glory, honor, praise and profit,
Are but toys of tinsel worth.
Render up your work, unasking,
Leave the human clay to earth.

Blood and sorrow, pain unending,
Are the portion of us all.
Grasp the naked sword, opposing,
Gladly in the battle fall.

So shall we, anointed soldiers,
Stand at last before the Throne,
Baptized in our wounds, red-flowing,
Sealed unto our Lord - alone!

Don't know why it just seemed appropriate. Actually it is surprising I still remember that poem, the last time I read it I think I was about 13. Another one that I remember is from Jerry Pournelle's Falkenberg's Legion Series.

"We've left blood in the dirt of twenty-five worlds,
We've built roads on a dozen more,
And all that we have at the end of our hitch
Buys a night with a second-class whore.
The Senate decrees, the Grand Admiral calls,
The orders come down from on high.
It's 'On Full Kits' and 'Sound Board Ships,'
We're sending you where you can die."

"The lands that we take, the Senate gives back,
Rather more often than not,
But the more that are killed, the less share the loot,
And we won't be back to this spot.
We'll break the hearts of your women and girls,
We may break your arse, as well,
Then the Line Marines with their banners unfurled
Will follow those banners to hell.
We know the devil, his pomps, and his works,
Ah, yes! We know them well!
When you've served out your hitch in the Line Marines,
You can bugger the Senate of Hell!"

"Then we'll drink with our comrades and throw down our packs,
We'll rest ten years on the flat of our backs,
Then it's 'On Full Kits' and out of your racks,
You must build a new road through Hell!
The Fleet is our country, we sleep with a rifle,
No man ever begot a son on his rifle,
They pay us in gin and curse when we sin,
There's not one that can stand us unless we're downwind,
We're shot when we lose and turned out when we win,
But we bury our comrades wherever they fall,
And there's none that can face us, though we've nothing at all."

I actually performed that one as my dramatic reading for my 10th grade speech class. The instructor wasn't thrilled, especially since he was a flaming commie and I was offering it as a commentary on American Foreign Policy and the Soldier.

tags: Books, Virgil, Aeneid, Dickson, Pournelle, Childe+Cycle, Falkenberg's+Legion

The Stranger by Albert Camus (a break from the list)

2006-08-19T18:35:00.000-07:00

I am finding "The History of the Peloponnesian War" tough going so I took a break with "The Stranger"

I dont quite know what to make of this book.

In one sense it seems like a political tale. Meursault has killed an Arab and therefore he must be punished. That really isn't the thrust of the novel though. The killing and even the trial are really trivial to the main point. Stage dressing so to speak.

The main point of "The Stranger" in my mind is the folly of letting society dictate morality. Meursault isn't tried and sentenced to death because he killed an Arab. He is tried because he does not conform to societies moral norms. Specifically it appears he is indifferent to his mothers death. This and his refusal to acknowledge God convince the court and the jury that he is a monster who was only capable of premeditated murder.

Camus appears to argue this is wrong. The reader is aware of the circumstances and should be (at least I was) frustrated at the inability of his lawyer to make a better case and of the overreaching of the Prosecutor's claims that Meursault's crimes are equivalent or more horrific than intentional Parricide.

I disagree in a way. While Mersault is not guilty of premeditated murder, he is also not guiltless. His inability for introspection and his lack of a sense of right and wrong, illustrated when he lies to the police for Raymond, when he helps Raymond plan to punish his woman, and when he doesn't intervene when Raymond is beating her, are characteristic of a sociopath. In other words one incapable of existing normally in society.

It's there I find the dilemna in "The Stranger", I feel sorry for Meursault although his choices have put him in the situation he finds himself in I don't think he is really guilty. After all the Arabs followed Meursault and Raymond to the beach, the Arabs pulled a weapon first and cut Raymond, and the Arab pulled the knife to intimidate Meursault. But at the same time I recognize that a shared morality is what holds a society together. That sense of right and wrong is what allows people to interact on a day to day basis and Meursault violates that code so maybe he really does deserve to be punished. I don't have a good answer.

tags: The+Stranger, Albert+Camus, Books, Literature

Just a Quick Update

2006-08-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted here for awhile so I wanted to get a quick update in. I have finished book three and most of book four of the . I will be posting my discussion in the main post later. I haven't been super active in the reading for a couple weeks because of work and school but I will catch up and be moving forward. Also at the moment I have The Stranger by Camus as my carry araound book.

tags: Thucydides, History, History of the Peloponnesian+war, Books, Camus, The Stranger

USATODAY.com - 'Beowulf' undertakes glorious deeds on stage and in films

2006-08-12T07:18:00.000-07:00

USATODAY.com - 'Beowulf' undertakes glorious deeds on stage and in films

Amazingly Beowulf isn't on the list despite being:

usually the first thing studied in any English-lit survey course because it's the first piece of literature in English — actually, Old English, which eventually became modern English.

I guess if you want to attract attention make a movie with Angelina Jolie, especially if you can put her in that chainmail outfit that Tina Turner wore in "Beyond Thunderdome"

Hell I'll go see it.

Technorati tags: Books, Poems, Literature, Beowulf, Angelina Jolie, CGI

From Burke to Kirk and Beyond...: More about how to lose a war...

2006-08-06T14:28:00.000-07:00

From Burke to Kirk and Beyond...: More about how to lose a war...

Well I am not the only one reading Thucydides even if I am the only one reading this blog.

Others:

Mary Beard

I need to figure out a way to increase traffic

2006-08-06T11:19:00.000-07:00

I have had this blog up since May. I have had zero visitors.

I don't know if it is the subject matter or if I am not posting often enough or if it is the format. It is really hard to blog about these books because of the way they are written. For example the History of the Peloponnesian War is composed of 8 separate books. I have just been adding on to the main post as I finish each book. Should I do a separate post for each book? If you by chance read these offer suggestions, please.

Technorati tags: Blogs, Books, History

Ordering of the selections

2006-07-19T05:55:00.000-07:00

Since I am one percent or so of my way threw my list I now consider myself an expert, so I am going to make the following suggestion. Read Gilgamesh as the first selection. My reasoning is that sibce Geneisis and some of the greek legends seem to draw on it get it out of the way early and have the basis of comparison.

Selection 7 - Thucydides "The History of the Peloponnesian War"

2006-07-16T00:37:00.000-07:00

References: Thucydides Wikipedia Entry, History of the Peloponnesian War Wikipedia Entry

Selection: Online at Project Gutenberg or available at Amazon.com:

Audio: Librivox

Background: After the Persian wars (chronicled by Herodotus who will appear as a reading later) Athens established the Delian league to fund a permanent navy that would protect Greece against further aggression. Kind of a Antiquarian NATO or UN. Over time the league was slowly converted into an Athenian empire to the detriment of it's other members. As money was bled off by the Athenians resentment grew and then finally a series of sanctions against Spartan allies / proxies led Sparta to form the Peloponnesian league and attack Athens. The war lasted 27 years and eventually ended with the capitulation of Athens.

7/25/06 - Finally finished Book 1. Thucydides spends most of this book outlining the history leading up to the outbreak between the Delians and the Peloponessians. I am not very far into the reading but so far it appears that the Athenians were the much more aggressive of the two major powers.

It also seems that the Corinthians really went out of their way to manipulate the two powers into a war. Probably because they didn't want their colonies paying tribute to Athens. Athens on the other hand didn't really go out of it's way to avoid war.

In a way I am reminded a lot of the Cold War. You have two powers one of which is openly expansive and the other that is more contained in its use of power. Both are trying to expand their influence and they both realize that coexistence is no longer an option. The battle scenes describing the Battle of Sybotha(?) and Potidea were fairly interesting.

8/2/2006: Completed Book Two. The two major are the Plague of Athens and the death of Pericles (although not specifically described).

Both of theses events seem to augur poorly for the Athenians. The plague due to lack of manpower. A huge loss that should have been devastating. And the death of Pericles loss of leadership. This could have been the smaller blow but according to the accounts those who followed were not able to follow the same conservative path that Pericles had.

Pericles's speech in the early part of the book was outstanding and highly appropriate for today's world:

They began to find fault with Pericles, as the author of the war and the cause of
all their misfortunes, and became eager to come to terms with
Lacedaemon, and actually sent ambassadors thither, who did not however
succeed in their mission. Their despair was now complete and all
vented itself upon Pericles. When he saw them exasperated at the
present turn of affairs and acting exactly as he had anticipated, he
called an assembly, being (it must be remembered) still general,
with the double object of restoring confidence and of leading them
from these angry feelings to a calmer and more hopeful state of
mind. He accordingly came forward and spoke as follows:

"I was not unprepared for the indignation of which I have been the
object, as I know its causes; and I have called an assembly for the
purpose of reminding you upon certain points, and of protesting
against your being unreasonably irritated with me, or cowed by your
sufferings. I am of opinion that national greatness is more for the
advantage of private citizens, than any individual well-being
coupled with public humiliation. A man may be personally ever so
well off, and yet if his country be ruined he must be ruined with
it; whereas a flourishing commonwealth always affords chances of
salvation to unfortunate individuals. Since then a state can support
the misfortunes of private citizens, while they cannot support hers,
it is surely the duty of every one to be forward in her defense, and
not like you to be so confounded with your domestic afflictions as
to give up all thoughts of the common safety, and to blame me for
having counseled war and yourselves for having voted it. And yet if
you are angry with me, it is with one who, as I believe, is second
to no man either in knowledge of the proper policy, or in the
ability to expound it, and who is moreover not only a patriot but an
honest one. A man possessing that knowledge without that faculty of
exposition might as well have no idea at all on the matter: if he
had both these gifts, but no love for his country, he would be but a
cold advocate for her interests; while were his patriotism not proof
against bribery, everything would go for a price. So that if you
thought that I was even moderately distinguished for these qualities
when you took my advice and went to war, there is certainly no
reason now why I should be charged with having done wrong.

"For those of course who have a free choice in the matter and
whose fortunes are not at stake, war is the greatest of follies. But
if the only choice was between submission with loss of independence,
and danger with the hope of preserving that independence, in such a
case it is he who will not accept the risk that deserves blame, not he
who will. I am the same man and do not alter, it is you who change,
since in fact you took my advice while unhurt, and waited for
misfortune to repent of it; and the apparent error of my policy lies
in the infirmity of your resolution, since the suffering that it
entails is being felt by every one among you, while its advantage is
still remote and obscure to all, and a great and sudden reverse having
befallen you, your mind is too much depressed to persevere in your
resolves. For before what is sudden, unexpected, and least within
calculation, the spirit quails; and putting all else aside, the plague
has certainly been an emergency of this kind. Born, however, as you
are, citizens of a great state, and brought up, as you have been, with
habits equal to your birth, you should be ready to face the greatest
disasters and still to keep unimpaired the lustre of your name. For
the judgment of mankind is as relentless to the weakness that falls
short of a recognized renown, as it is jealous of the arrogance that
aspires higher than its due. Cease then to grieve for your private
afflictions, and address yourselves instead to the safety of the
commonwealth.

"If you shrink before the exertions which the war makes necessary,
and fear that after all they may not have a happy result, you know the
reasons by which I have often demonstrated to you the groundlessness
of your apprehensions. If those are not enough, I will now reveal an
advantage arising from the greatness of your dominion, which I think
has never yet suggested itself to you, which I never mentioned in my
previous speeches, and which has so bold a sound that I should
scarce adventure it now, were it not for the unnatural depression
which I see around me. You perhaps think that your empire extends only
over your allies; I will declare to you the truth. The visible field
of action has two parts, land and sea. In the whole of one of these
you are completely supreme, not merely as far as you use it at
present, but also to what further extent you may think fit: in fine,
your naval resources are such that your vessels may go where they
please, without the King or any other nation on earth being able to
stop them. So that although you may think it a great privation to lose
the use of your land and houses, still you must see that this power is
something widely different; and instead of fretting on their
account, you should really regard them in the light of the gardens and
other accessories that embellish a great fortune, and as, in
comparison, of little moment. You should know too that liberty
preserved by your efforts will easily recover for us what we have
lost, while, the knee once bowed, even what you have will pass from
you. Your fathers receiving these possessions not from others, but
from themselves, did not let slip what their labour had acquired,
but delivered them safe to you; and in this respect at least you
must prove yourselves their equals, remembering that to lose what
one has got is more disgraceful than to be balked in getting, and
you must confront your enemies not merely with spirit but with
disdain. Confidence indeed a blissful ignorance can impart, ay, even
to a coward's breast, but disdain is the privilege of those who,
like us, have been assured by reflection of their superiority to their
adversary. And where the chances are the same, knowledge fortifies
courage by the contempt which is its consequence, its trust being
placed, not in hope, which is the prop of the desperate, but in a
judgment grounded upon existing resources, whose anticipations are
more to be depended upon.

"Again, your country has a right to your services in sustaining
the glories of her position. These are a common source of pride to you
all, and you cannot decline the burdens of empire and still expect
to share its honours. You should remember also that what you are
fighting against is not merely slavery as an exchange for
independence, but also loss of empire and danger from the
animosities incurred in its exercise. Besides, to recede is no
longer possible, if indeed any of you in the alarm of the moment has
become enamoured of the honesty of such an unambitious part. For
what you hold is, to speak somewhat plainly, a tyranny; to take it
perhaps was wrong, but to let it go is unsafe. And men of these
retiring views, making converts of others, would quickly ruin a state;
indeed the result would be the same if they could live independent
by themselves; for the retiring and unambitious are never secure
without vigorous protectors at their side; in fine, such qualities are
useless to an imperial city, though they may help a dependency to an
unmolested servitude.

"But you must not be seduced by citizens like these or angry with
me--who, if I voted for war, only did as you did yourselves--in spite
of the enemy having invaded your country and done what you could be
certain that he would do, if you refused to comply with his demands;
and although besides what we counted for, the plague has come upon
us--the only point indeed at which our calculation has been at fault.
It is this, I know, that has had a large share in making me more
unpopular than I should otherwise have been--quite undeservedly,
unless you are also prepared to give me the credit of any success with
which chance may present you. Besides, the hand of heaven must be
borne with resignation, that of the enemy with fortitude; this was the
old way at Athens, and do not you prevent it being so still. Remember,
too, that if your country has the greatest name in all the world, it
is because she never bent before disaster; because she has expended
more life and effort in war than any other city, and has won for
herself a power greater than any hitherto known, the memory of which
will descend to the latest posterity; even if now, in obedience to the
general law of decay, we should ever be forced to yield, still it will
be remembered that we held rule over more Hellenes than any other
Hellenic state, that we sustained the greatest wars against their
united or separate powers, and inhabited a city unrivalled by any
other in resources or magnitude. These glories may incur the censure
of the slow and unambitious; but in the breast of energy they will
awake emulation, and in those who must remain without them an
envious regret. Hatred and unpopularity at the moment have fallen to
the lot of all who have aspired to rule others; but where odium must
be incurred, true wisdom incurs it for the highest objects. Hatred
also is short-lived; but that which makes the splendour of the present
and the glory of the future remains for ever unforgotten. Make your
decision, therefore, for glory then and honour now, and attain both
objects by instant and zealous effort: do not send heralds to
Lacedaemon, and do not betray any sign of being oppressed by your
present sufferings, since they whose minds are least sensitive to
calamity, and whose hands are most quick to meet it, are the
greatest men and the greatest communities."

Update 9/5/06: Finally completeed Books 3 and 4. I know what your thinking "Oh My God, could you read any slower?" Actually, yes I could.

Book 4 was incredibly hard to finish for some reason, even though the Athenians were getting their butts kicked up and down Greece.

In Book 3 we are starting to see some of the realpolitik that this book is known for peeking through. This is seen in the recounting of the civil war in Corcyra (the city which started this whole mess back in book 1). The oligarchs, backed by Sparta, are trying to overthrow the commons, backed by Athens and break the alliance with Athens which was formed during the original dispute with the Corinthians. This was a typical civil war lots of revenge being played out. The Athenians try to impose a peace, but it doesn't hold and finally the democrats begin to slaughter the oligarchs putatively for "attempting to put down democracy" but a lot of it was just private revenge.

This example spread to other polises and civil wars broke out their also expanding the conflict between Sparta and Athens . Again we can see an echo of the Cold War, with the proxy battles reflecting the situations in Africa and Southeast Asia in the 70's and 80's.

I believe the behaviors shown at Corcyra (and the other states in revolt) are echoed in book 4 when Brasidas enters into an armistice with Athens which he then promptly ignores, while accusing the Athenians of breaking the peace.

Update: 10/2/06 - Book 5
The most important part of book 5 is the Melian Dialogue. It is here that the Athenians abandon all pretense of justification for their actions and tell the Melians. We are attacking and will rule you because we can. After the attack on and defeat of the Melians every man of military age is killed as an example to others. This is a signifigant shift in attitude and it leads to the events in books 6 and 7, specifcally the invasion of Sicily. The dialogue is presented below:

431 BC
HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR
by Thucydides

CHAPTER XVII.
Sixteenth Year of the War - The Melian Conference - Fate of Melos

THE next summer Alcibiades sailed with twenty ships to Argos and seized the suspected persons still left of the Lacedaemonian faction to the number of three hundred, whom the Athenians forthwith lodged in the neighbouring islands of their empire. The Athenians also made an expedition against the isle of Melos with thirty ships of their own, six Chian, and two Lesbian vessels, sixteen hundred heavy infantry, three hundred archers, and twenty mounted archers from Athens, and about fifteen hundred heavy infantry from the allies and the islanders. The Melians are a colony of Lacedaemon that would not submit to the Athenians like the other islanders, and at first remained neutral and took no part in the struggle, but afterwards upon the Athenians using violence and plundering their territory, assumed an attitude of open hostility. Cleomedes, son of Lycomedes, and Tisias, son of Tisimachus, the generals, encamping in their territory with the above armament, before doing any harm to their land, sent envoys to negotiate. These the Melians did not bring before the people, but bade them state the object of their mission to the magistrates and the few; upon which the Athenian envoys spoke as follows:

Athenians. Since the negotiations are not to go on before the people, in order that we may not be able to speak straight on without interruption, and deceive the ears of the multitude by seductive arguments which would pass without refutation (for we know that this is the meaning of our being brought before the few), what if you who sit there were to pursue a method more cautious still? Make no set speech yourselves, but take us up at whatever you do not like, and settle that before going any farther. And first tell us if this proposition of ours suits you.

The Melian commissioners answered:

Melians. To the fairness of quietly instructing each other as you propose there is nothing to object; but your military preparations are too far advanced to agree with what you say, as we see you are come to be judges in your own cause, and that all we can reasonably expect from this negotiation is war, if we prove to have right on our side and refuse to submit, and in the contrary case, slavery.

Athenians. If you have met to reason about presentiments of the future, or for anything else than to consult for the safety of your state upon the facts that you see before you, we will give over; otherwise we will go on.

Melians. It is natural and excusable for men in our position to turn more ways than one both in thought and utterance. However, the question in this conference is, as you say, the safety of our country; and the discussion, if you please, can proceed in the way which you propose.

Athenians. For ourselves, we shall not trouble you with specious pretences- either of how we have a right to our empire because we overthrew the Mede, or are now attacking you because of wrong that you have done us- and make a long speech which would not be believed; and in return we hope that you, instead of thinking to influence us by saying that you did not join the Lacedaemonians, although their colonists, or that you have done us no wrong, will aim at what is feasible, holding in view the real sentiments of us both; since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they canand the weak suffer what they must.

Melians. As we think, at any rate, it is expedient- we speak as we are obliged, since you enjoin us to let right alone and talk only of interest- that you should not destroy what is our common protection, the privilege of being allowed in danger to invoke what is fair and right, and even to profit by arguments not strictly valid if they can be got to pass current. And you are as much interested in this as any, as your fall would be a signal for the heaviest vengeance and an example for the world to meditate upon.

Athenians. The end of our empire, if end it should, does not frighten us: a rival empire like Lacedaemon, even if Lacedaemon was our real antagonist, is not so terrible to the vanquished as subjects who by themselves attack and overpower their rulers. This, however, is a risk that we are content to take. We will now proceed to show you that we are come here in the interest of our empire, and that we shall say what we are now going to say, for the preservation of your country; as we would fain exercise that empire over you withouttrouble, and see you preserved for the good of us both.

Melians. And how, pray, could it turn out as good for us to serve as for you to rule?

Athenians. Because you would have the advantage of submitting before suffering the worst, and we should gain by not destroying you.

Melians. So that you would not consent to our being neutral, friends instead of enemies, but allies of neither side.

Athenians. No; for your hostility cannot so much hurt us as your friendship will be an argument to our subjects of our weakness, and your enmity of our power.

Melians. Is that your subjects' idea of equity, to put those who have nothing to do with you in the same category with peoples that are most of them your own colonists, and some conquered rebels?

Athenians. As far as right goes they think one has as much of it as the other, and that if any maintain their independence it is because they are strong, and that if we do not molest them it is because we are afraid; so that besides extending our empire we should gain in security by your subjection; the fact that you are islanders and weaker than others rendering it all the more important that you should not succeed in baffling the masters of the sea.

Melians. But do you consider that there is no security in the policy which we indicate? For here again if you debar us from talking about justice and invite us to obey your interest, we also must explain ours, and try to persuade you, if the two happen to coincide. How can you avoid making enemies of all existing neutrals who shall look at case from it that one day or another you will attack them? And what is this but to make greater the enemies that you have already, and to force others to become so who would otherwise have never thought of it?

Athenians. Why, the fact is that continentals generally give us but little alarm; the liberty which they enjoy will long prevent their taking precautions against us; it is rather islanders like yourselves, outside our empire, and subjects smarting under the yoke, who would be the most likely to take a rash step and lead themselves and us into obvious danger.

Melians. Well then, if you risk so much to retain your empire, and your subjects to get rid of it, it were surely great baseness and cowardice in us who are still free not to try everything that can be tried, before submitting to your yoke.

Athenians. Not if you are well advised, the contest not being an equal one, with honour as the prize and shame as the penalty, but a question of self-preservation and of not resisting those who are far stronger than you are.

Melians. But we know that the fortune of war is sometimes more impartial than the disproportion of numbers might lead one to suppose; to submit is to give ourselves over to despair, while action still preserves for us a hope that we may stand erect.

Athenians. Hope, danger's comforter, may be indulged in by those who have abundant resources, if not without loss at all events without ruin; but its nature is to be extravagant, and those who go so far as to put their all upon the venture see it in its true colours only when they are ruined; but so long as the discovery would enable them to guard against it, it is never found wanting. Let not this be the case with you, who are weak and hang on a single turn of the scale; nor be like the vulgar, who, abandoning such security as human means may still afford, when visible hopes fail them in extremity, turn to invisible, to prophecies and oracles, and other such inventions thatdelude men with hopes to their destruction.

Melians. You may be sure that we are as well aware as you of the difficulty of contending against your power and fortune, unless the terms be equal. But we trust that the gods may grant us fortune as good as yours, since we are just men fighting against unjust, and that what we want in power will be made up by the alliance of the Lacedaemonians, who are bound, if only for very shame, to come to the aid of their kindred. Our confidence, therefore, after all is not so utterly irrational.

Athenians. When you speak of the favour of the gods, we may as fairly hope for that as yourselves; neither our pretensions nor our conduct being in any way contrary to what men believe of the gods, or practise among themselves. Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever they can. And it is not as if we were the first to make this law, or to act upon it when made: we found it existing before us, and shall leave it to exist for ever after us; all we do is to make use of it, knowing that you and everybody else, having the same power as we have, would do the same as we do. Thus, as far as the gods are concerned, we have no fear and no reason to fear that we shall be at a disadvantage. But when we come to your notion about the Lacedaemonians, which leads you to believe that shame will make them help you, here we bless your simplicity but do not envy your folly. The Lacedaemonians, when their own interests or their country's laws are in question, are the worthiest men alive; of their conduct towards others much might be said, but no clearer idea of it could be given than by shortly saying that of all the men we know they are most conspicuous in considering what is agreeable honourable, and what is expedient just. Such a way of thinking does not promise much for the safety which you now unreasonably count upon.

Melians. But it is for this very reason that we now trust to their respect for expediency to prevent them from betraying the Melians, their colonists, and thereby losing the confidence of their friends in Hellas and helping their enemies.

Athenians. Then you do not adopt the view that expediency goes with security, while justice and honour cannot be followed without danger; and danger the Lacedaemonians generally court as little as possible.

Melians. But we believe that they would be more likely to face even danger for our sake, and with more confidence than for others, as our nearness to Peloponnese makes it easier for them to act, and our common blood ensures our fidelity.

Athenians. Yes, but what an intending ally trusts to is not the goodwill of those who ask his aid, but a decided superiority of power for action; and the Lacedaemonians look to this even more than others. At least, such is their distrust of their home resources that it is only with numerous allies that they attack a neighbour; now is it likely that while we are masters of the sea they will cross over to an island?

Melians. But they would have others to send. The Cretan Sea is a wide one, and it is more difficult for those who command it to intercept others, than for those who wish to elude them to do so safely. And should the Lacedaemonians miscarry in this, they would fall upon your land, and upon those left of your allies whom Brasidas did not reach; and instead of places which are not yours, you will have to fight for your own country and your own confederacy.

Athenians. Some diversion of the kind you speak of you may one day experience, only to learn, as others have done, that the Athenians never once yet withdrew from a siege for fear of any. But we are struck by the fact that, after saying you would consult for the safety of your country, in all this discussion you have mentioned nothing which men might trust in and think to be saved by. Your strongest arguments depend upon hope and the future, and your actual resources are too scanty, as compared with those arrayed against you, for you to come out victorious. You will therefore show great blindness of judgment, unless, after allowing us to retire, you can find some counsel more prudent than this. You will surely not be caught by that idea of disgrace, which in dangers that are disgraceful, and at the same time too plain to be mistaken, proves so fatal to mankind; since in too many cases the very men that have their eyes perfectly open to what they are rushing into, let the thing called disgrace, by the mere influence of a seductive name, lead them on to a point at which they become so enslaved by the phrase as in fact to fall wilfully into hopeless disaster, and incur disgrace more disgraceful as the companion of error, than when it comes as the result of misfortune. This, if you are well advised, you will guard against; and you will not think it dishonourable to submit to the greatest city in Hellas, when it makes you the moderate offer of becoming its tributary ally, without ceasing to enjoy the country that belongs to you; nor when you have the choice given you between war and security, will you be so blinded as to choose the worse. And it is certain that those who do not yield to their equals, who keep terms with their superiors, and are moderate towards their inferiors, on the whole succeed best. Think over the matter, therefore, after our withdrawal, and reflect once and again that it is for your country that you are consulting, that you have not more than one, and that upon this one deliberation depends its prosperity or ruin.

The Athenians now withdrew from the conference; and the Melians, left to themselves, came to a decision corresponding with what they had maintained in the discussion, and answered: "Our resolution, Athenians, is the same as it was at first. We will not in a moment deprive of freedom a city that has been inhabited these seven hundred years; but we put our trust in the fortune by which the gods have preserved it until now, and in the help of men, that is, of the Lacedaemonians; and so we will try and save ourselves. Meanwhile we invite you to allow us to be friends to you and foes to neither party, and to retire from our country after making such a treaty as shall seem fit to us both."

Such was the answer of the Melians. The Athenians now departing from the conference said: "Well, you alone, as it seems to us, judging from these resolutions, regard what is future as more certain than what is before your eyes, and what is out of sight, in your eagerness, as already coming to pass; and as you have staked most on, and trusted most in, the Lacedaemonians, your fortune, and your hopes, so will you be most completely deceived."

The Athenian envoys now returned to the army; and the Melians showing no signs of yielding, the generals at once betook themselves to hostilities, and drew a line of circumvallation round the Melians, dividing the work among the different states. Subsequently the Athenians returned with most of their army, leaving behind them a certain number of their own citizens and of the allies to keep guard by land and sea. The force thus left stayed on and besieged the place. About the same time the Argives invaded the territory of Phlius and lost eighty men cut off in an ambush by the Phliasians and Argive exiles. Meanwhile the Athenians at Pylos took so much plunder from the Lacedaemonians that the latter, although they still refrained from breaking off the treaty and going to war with Athens, yet proclaimed that any of their people that chose might plunder the Athenians. The Corinthians also commenced hostilities with the Athenians for private quarrels of their own; but the rest of the Peloponnesians stayed quiet. Meanwhile the Melians attacked by night and took the part of the Athenian lines over against the market, and killed some of the men, and brought in corn and all else that they could find useful to them, and so returned and kept quiet, while the Athenians took measures to keep better guard in future.

Summer was now over. The next winter the Lacedaemonians intended to invade the Argive territory, but arriving at the frontier found the sacrifices for crossing unfavourable, and went back again. This intention of theirs gave the Argives suspicions of certain of their fellow citizens, some of whom they arrested; others, however, escaped them. About the same time the Melians again took another part of the Athenian lines which were but feebly garrisoned. Reinforcements afterwards arriving from Athens in consequence, under the command of Philocrates, son of Demeas, the siege was now pressed vigorously; and some treachery taking place inside, the Melians surrendered at discretion to the Athenians, who put to death all the grown men whom they took, and sold the women and children for slaves, and subsequently sent out five hundred colonists and inhabited the place themselves.

Technorati tags: Books, History, Greece, War

Selection 6 - The Epic of Gilgamesh

2006-07-14T15:29:00.000-07:00

Reference: Wikipedia "Epic of Gilgamesh" Entry

Selection: Online at aina.org

A comparison of the Biblical and Sumerian flood stories. The author notes 20 items of similarity and I think 9 signifigant differences.

Update: I have decided to start posting my take on the selections in the main posts rather than in the comments section.

I just finished the Stephen Mitchell "translation" of Gilgamesh. It was the only one available when I bought it a few weeks ago. I have the feeling I should have held off the feel of the work wasn't right to me.

Overall this read like some homoerotic fantasy, two giant men fighting and then becoming soul-mates. I don't have a real problem with that but it just feels like something injected into the story. I didn't find the story itself very compelling although there did seem to be some foreshadowing of both Greek and Eygtian myths as well as the similarities that have been noted in the old testament. You could probably make this into a fairly decent movie, defiantely a better one than either Troy (the Iliad) or the Odyessy. I amy go back and read a deifferent version when I have the time.

Technorati tags: Books, Sumerian, Epic, Mythology

Selection 5 - (1st Diversion from the list) The Odyssey

2006-06-20T06:51:00.000-07:00

Reference: Wikipedia Odyssey Entry

Selection: Plaintext at Project Gutenberg

Audio: Librivox

This is my first divergence from the list posted above. I have read the Odyessy before, but decided it was worth reading again, mainly because there is an Odyssey movie on the Sci-Fi Channel, and it seems right to read both the Iliad and the Odyessy together.

Update: 7/6/06 - I felt this was important enough to come out of the comments section to the main post. I have both the Samuel Butler and the Robert Fitzgerald translation of the Odyessy. All the reviews I have read have called the Fitzgerald translation "The Definitive English Translation", I don't find that to be true. Maybe I am just being obstinate but I find the Butler version easier to read, probably because he didn't randomly replace Cs with Ks.

Technorati tags: Books, Greco-Roman, Epic, Mythology

Wikisource

2006-06-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

This is a potential source for many of the readings on the Canon listed in the Welcome post.

As I was looking through the list of works available I noticed a lot of stuff by HP Lovecraft, who is always an interesting read.

The Competent Man

2006-06-11T09:25:00.000-07:00

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

Robert Heinlein (as spoken by Lazarus Long in Time Enough For Love)

Technorati tags: Books, Education, Heinlein

Selection 4 - The Iliad

2006-06-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

Reference: Wikipedia Iliad Entry

Selection: Plaintext at Project Gutenberg

Audio: Librivox

Technorati tags: Books, Greco-Roman, Epic, Mythology

Well the first week is done.

2006-06-06T16:40:00.000-07:00

So far Olympia Academy is not a rousing success. Everyone I have told about it is very blah on the idea, well fuck 'em, if I was really worried about success and popularity in blogging I would have slit my wrists after the first year with Kuru Lounge.

Selections Two and Three - Hesiod Theogonies and Works and Days

2006-06-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

Reference: Hesiod Wikipedia Entry

Selections: Available in Plaintext at Project Gutenberg

Books
Creation Myths
Greco-Roman
Mythology

Selection 1 - Genesis

2006-05-31T15:27:00.000-07:00

Reference: Genesis Wikipedia Entry

Audio: Librivox

Books
Bible
Creation Myths
Judiaism
Christianity