Posts
2011-07-25
When I first read The Lord of the Rings in grade school I remember being horribly depressed at the end of the book. Reading about how Sam, Merry, and Pippin moved on with their lives, got married, and started having kids really paled in comparison to reading about their adventures. Now, I’m not a total ass - I was happy that they were reaping the fruits of their labor, but in the back of my mind I always wondered if they really enjoyed it as much as they did when they were kicking ass over in Mordor back in the day.
2011-07-18
The son has gotten into philosophy of late. Summer camp had a “philosophy buffet” or “philosophy lunch” or maybe it was “philosophy cafe” as an elective activity at which he was a constant diner. I have a tenuous relationship with Philosophy; even concepts I feel that I understand have been known to go spinning merrily away from my comprehension. The boy and I have spent a few nights discussing such lovely topics as Russel’s balding king of France, philosophical zombies, the exact meaning of “self”, and other esoteric constructs. I find some of these maddening in that it seems that understanding is just dancing off to the side as I grope for some sort of meaning.
2011-07-11
I’ve always been amazed by the multi-lingual poet or author; I have a hard enough time writing (and thinking) in the one language I know. An even more impressive feat - well, to me at least - is the translator who is able to take a poem in one language and re-work it into another. I say “re-work” because I cannot imagine it’s as easy as just doing a translation - there is a flow and a mood that must be preserved in poetry that’s not as simple as going to bablefish and clicking the “translate” button.
Loyalty is to the Goddess Calliope
2011-07-04
In the spirit of snarky humor, I today give you Robert Graves’ To an Ungentle Critic. Graves did things the way that he wanted to, and didn’t much care what anyone else thought. When I was first introduced to him back in college, my teacher described him as having enormous strength of character coupled with the ability to tune out criticism. His book The White Goddess was on our recommended reading list in that class, and our teacher urged us to read his poetry and his prose - such as his novel I, Claudius - to gain a better understanding of how one could write well in both forms.
2011-06-20
I admit, this is the only poem I know by Gwendolyn Brooks (for shame! for shame!). No particular reason why - I’ve just never thought to pick up one of her books. Probably because I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to selecting a poetry book, so I tend to go for anthologies of poems rather than a particular poem. Of course, the fact that I’ve just spent the last hour reading about Ms. Brooks leads me to believe that I’ll be delving into her career a bit more.