A student points out a weakness in Stanley Fish ‘s reader-response treatment of Milton’s Satan, the notion that Milton deliberately makes Satan attractive and powerful not because Milton is of the devil’s party but because he is trying to run the reader through the same experience . . . . Continue Reading »
Sir Reginald Piddleby-Squeak was in a pickle. The pickle he was in was no ordinary pickle, but a pickle of the most unusual size and sourness, a pickle from which he had no prospects of being rapidly extracted. He expected at any moment that he would begin turning green and breaking out in small garlicky lumps. It all started a week ago Monday, Monday of course being the day when Sir Reginald met at the golf club with his schoolfellows, Sir Allan Pennymain and the Right Rev. Harold Puffmelon. Harold was wearing his clerical collar under a worn wool sweater, and Sir Allan was questioning him closely about his attire. ?Why must you wear that holy shirt when we?re on the golf course? Does the Archbishop forbid you to remove it??E Continue Reading »
Elizabethans viewed Rome through two historical lenses. On the one hand, Rome was for Elizabethans the great civilization of antiquity. They knew less of Greece than we do, and almost nothing of ancient Egypt or Babylon, much less China. When they traced their cultural genealogy, they traced it back to Rome rather than Athens. As Dartmouth scholar Peter Saccio has pointed out, Rome was more than a historical artefact for Englishmen. Ancient Roman history provided examples of morality and immorality, illustrations of honor and dishonor, parables of political triumphs and political catastrophes. Learning about Rome was part of an educated Elizabethan’s moral and political education. It is no accident that American descendants of Elizabethans studded Washington, D.C., with Roman architecture, nor that Madison, Hamilton, and Jay adopted the Latin pen name Publius when they wrote the Federalist Papers. Continue Reading »
I’ve read some surprising things in The New Republic : Andrew Sullivan ‘s analysis of the Roman Catholic Church several years ago was very insightful, and Eugene Genovese , reviewing a book on Southern slavery, encouraged TNR ‘s readers to check out the works of James Henley . . . . Continue Reading »
Air travel requires a reversion to infantile behavior, or at best to behavior characteristic of elementary school kids. You’ve got to stay in the seat, you can’t go to the bathroom without permission from the captain or the flight attendant, you’re served packaged food (if at all) . . . . Continue Reading »
Watching the closing courtroom scene of The Merchant of Venice , I was struck by how allegorical it is. First, there’s Antonio, threatened with death for a debt that really was incurred by Bassanio. Second, he’s threatened by a Jew. Third, Shylock says something like “his blood be . . . . Continue Reading »
Does the “foolishness of God” carry the connotation of “God playing the fool”? As in, God the jester? Is Paul saying that God the jester is wiser than the sages? . . . . Continue Reading »
Further reflection on Scott: His anti-romanticism, as I suggested, is a common theme in early novel-writing. Defoe furnishes another example. Robinson Crusoe is warned by his father against running off to sea and seeking adventure, but Robin is unwilling to settle down to a boring middle-class . . . . Continue Reading »
The church fathers went to great lengths to prove that Moses was both more antique than Greek sages, and also to show that the Greek sages were dependent on Moses. While historically plausible, these efforts a form of Christian apologetics done within the confines of pagan thought. The assumption . . . . Continue Reading »
Cyril of Alexandria developed an intriguing conception of the Spirit as the “fragrance” of God. The Spirit is “a living and active fragrance from the substance of God, a fragrance that transmits to the creature that which comes from God and ensures participation in the substance . . . . Continue Reading »
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