Category Archives: LITERATURE

LITERATURE: Mo’yet

I am nothing if I am not enthusiastic to the point of obsession.  I went to the bank. Then I went back to the library book sale… Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe Beloved … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Adding to the Pile

Well, for ten dollars I’ve added to the books-to-be-read pile: Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Phaedo – Argument

Had to put it down for a bit, but got into Phaedo again and am glad to see that Simmias and Cebes aren’t falling for the total picture of the life of a soul according to Socrates either. Simmias brings … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Lord of the Rings

Holy Moley, this is neat!  An army of horsemen galloping down a 45 degree angle mountain.  Then the tree folk get into battle and they’re just kind of walking on and squishing the bad guys.  I love it! Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Lord of The Rings

I read this a long time ago, but had never seen the movie.  Watched some of it last night on TV but fell asleep.  Just flicked it on and this is just what makes it worth the watch:  Gollum.  I … Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Reading

Tempting, so tempting: My amazon.com cart overfloweth with $180’s worth of literary ecstacy.  Anticipation argues with frugality in my mind; the need to read with nightmares of the last nine months.  Scrolling back and forth, up and down the list … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Phaedo

Well I’m not really finding any solid answers to the question of life, death, body and soul as I’d hope to easily accept in Plato’s Phaedo.  While it is very clear (as is Plato’s way) in explanation, I think that … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Slaughterhouse-Five – A Last Thought

I believe that I’ll not take this book out of my Amazon.com cart, feeling that even though I’ve read a library copy, it is a book that wants re-reading some day.  There’s more to be said about Vonnegut’s ability to … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Slaughterhouse-Five – Finale

An excellent read.  And while it’s not going to be one of my top ten favorite books of all time, I must say that I can well see what the big hoopla was all about.  Vonnegut, in a mix of … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Slaughterhouse-Five – Devices

I suspect that Vonnegut is not so much fascinated with the question of parallel time as that he has chosen to use it as the perfect vehicle for this novel that is more a question of man’s warring nature and … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Vonnegut

Although I usually feel an immediate attraction to a particular author’s style (Marquez, Faulkner, McCarthy), I am questioning Vonnegut’s pull. Aside from the most annoying, "So it goes." that is overdone in my opinion–although I do catch its revelation of … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Slaughterhouse-Five – Concept

There is a definite relationship between Boethius’ interpretation of Divine Knowledge in answering the question of man’s free will versus the seeming contradiction of foreknowledge, and Vonnegut’s highlighting of that concept in his attempt to understand man’s free will to … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Slaughterhouse-Five – Narrative Structure

Vonnegut plays with time in the story, precisely stating that the character of Billy Pilgrim becomes "unstuck in time."  But it is not only the character, but the author’s own way of handling backstory that plays with time. Once Vonnegut … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Phaedo and Slaughterhouse-Five – On Time

There must be, I thought, a reason other than a busy schedule to have laid aside so interesting a theory on life and living, death and dying as presented in logical argument by Socrates in Phaedo. Socrates attempts to prove … Continue reading Continue reading

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LITERATURE: Vonnegut

Something that I rarely do, and yet it’s not that I have never seen an image of the man before: Without immediate immersion in the story, I think upon the dustjacket of Slaughterhouse Five. Kurt Vonnegut.  The name itself is … Continue reading Continue reading

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