December 2008

Milton was born 400 years ago this month, specifically, on December 9. In terms of English literature, Milton is generally considered one of the "big three," the other two being Shakespeare, of course, and Chaucer. There have been times in the not-too-distant past when Milton surpassed Shakespeare in the minds of many. Indeed, just a couple months ago, in May, Princeton professor and Miltonist Nigel Smith published a book entitled is Milton Better than Shakespeare? Smith's answer is a resounding "yes,"— he asserts that "Milton's interrogations of free will, liberty, and the threat to it are more riveting" than Shakespeare. You can, if you're curious, explore the argument yourself by reading the introduction to Smith's Harvard University press book here. Read more

Hunter Thompson released two enormous volumes of his collected letters during his life, each concentrating on a different portion of his life. There were letters from his time in the Army as well as much latter in his career after he’d achieved relative fame.

The simple idea to collect all of you correspondence from the time one is about twenty five years old seems odd at best. So, what kind of self absorbed man does that? HST does.

Since his death a few years ago, there have been a number of film related projects that have surfaced and now a cd set of his notes and ramblings. Read more

Dead Souls was the signature novel from Nikolay Gogol, a Russian born in the Ukraine, written while living in Rome. It was first published in Russia in 1842, and was the book that established Gogol as the greatest Russian prose writer of his time. Gogol wrote many significant works, including Mirgorod, and the play Zhenitba, before supposedly burning his sequels to Dead Souls and then dying at the age of 43.

Nozdryov, his "Dead Souls" lead character, archetypes the utterly selfish man, the man who has unlimited fun but zero love.

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For some reason, the theatrical release of "Golden Compass" created a strained argument over whether Philip Pullman argues against C.S. Lewis' God.

The argument was monumentally silly; of course Pullman is an atheist, and of course he "hates" Chronicles of Narnia "with a deep and bitter passion," as he put it. Of course "His Dark Materials" shadow-steps Narnia in plot mechanics and in photo-negative thematics. When children are in over their heads, they need (or need not) turn to Help.

What I don't understand, is why the argument wasn't simply about whether Dark Materials, or Narnia, present the more helpful worldview.

In any case, this mini-overview isn't intended to rebut Pullman, nor to demonstrate the vapidity of his worldview. It's offered more as a quick-scan of a few plot elements for those who perhaps have not read the books, so that such readers might decide whether Dark Materials is likely to be worth their time.
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