Category Archives: Uncategorized

Prometheus (1737) by Nicolas-Sébastien Adam

From Wikipedia: In Greek mythology, the Moirai (Ancient Greek: Μοῖραι, “apportioners”, Latinized as Moerae)—often known in English as the Fates—were the white-robed incarnations of destiny. Their number became fixed at three: Clotho (spinner), Lachesis (allotter) and Atropos (unturnable). They controlled the metaphorical thread of life of every mortal from birth to death. They were independent, … Continue reading →

Our class policy: You will receive a full two points for your free-write if you arrive on time, one point if you arrive late but still hand in a response at the end of the writing time, and a zero if … Continue reading →

PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE IN READING SCHEDULE BEGINNING ON OCTOBER 15.

Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of a New Man (1943)

Homer (8th century BCE) is the blind bard from Chios recognized by Plato and Aristotle, as well as the historian Herodotus (5th/4th century BCE), as the poet who composed the Iliad and the Odyssey. Zeus starts the Trojan War to bring an end … Continue reading →

That there is no direct, unmediated link between ourselves and Shakespeare’s plays does not mean that there is no link at all. The “life” that literary works seem to possess long after both the death of the author and the … Continue reading →

Creation and the Cosmos A cosmogony is a story about how the world began. The Greek word cosmos implies order and beauty, as well as universe. To compose a cosmogony, therefore, is to describe how the world came to be … Continue reading →

It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it. Oscar Wilde

Theme is sometimes used interchangeably with “motif,” but the term is more usefully applied to a general concept or doctrine, whether implicit or asserted, which an imaginative work is designed to involve and make persuasive to the reader. M. H. … Continue reading →