Virgil’s 4th Eclogue

This Poem by Virgil is mysterious to me. Is this Virgil's prophet vision of a Roman that will bring world order, or the vision of the man Jesus Christ who will come, that will allow us to fathom the mysteries of God's trinity? I see it mentioned often. Muses of Sicily, essay we nowA somewhat …

Vacuum of Freedom

Those who are free don’t want anything. They don’t want anything from their mind, they don’t want anything from their emotions, they don’t want anything from anyone, and they don’t want anything from life. They don’t want anything.~ Adyashanti Imagine not having desires, ambitions, dreams. Imagine not wanting to be a good person, or wanting …

Twitter and the Ring of Gyges

Reflecting on Twitter, I wonder if anybody should hold that much power, in a collective think tank, where mob mentality has such a sway over any human being. Trump certainly, but even the most civilized of people. Think about it with me for a moment, Twitter is the inverse of the Ring Of Gyges allegory …

Gretchen-Frage: Faust’s Romantic sermon.

MargaretSay, as regards religion, how you feel.3415 I know that you are a dear, good man, Yet, for you, it seems, it has no appeal. FaustLeave that alone, child! You feel I’m kind to you: For Love I’d give my blood, my life too. I’ll rob no man of his church and faith.3420 MargaretThat’s not …

A Short Review of Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

Please forgive my comparative literature I'm about do, but I believe it must be done. It matters how one reads a book. Sometimes the main character shouldn't be whom one should cares about. Part 1 of Faust is essentially the tragedy of Gretchen. Gretchen is just a young, pious girl, who is tricked and seduced …

Goethe: To live is to burn

Tell a wise person, or else keep silent, because the mass man will mock it right away. I praise what is truly alive, what longs to be burned to death. In the calm water of the love-nights, where you were begotten, where you have begotten, a strange feeling comes over you, when you see the …

America by Claude McKay

Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth,Stealing my breath of life, I will confessI love this cultured hell that tests my youth.Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,Giving me strength erect against her hate,Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood.Yet, as a rebel fronts a king …

Friedrich von Schlegel on Romantic Poetry

Romantic poetry is a progressive, universal poetry . . . It tries to mix and fuse poetry and prose, inspiration and criticism . . . Other kinds of poetry are finished and are now capable of being fully analyzed. The romantic kind of poetry is still in the state of becoming; that, in fact, is …

A Prayer to Chaos

In the beginning was Chaos, and out of Chaos came the Other, and out of the Other came Light and Love. And Out of Light and Love came the Word which connects the Background realm to the Static realm through meanings, which cannot be seen, and through the alphabet, which can be seen. This is …

Tocqueville: Kind of Despotism to Fear

I see an innumerable host of men, all alike and equal, endlessly hastening after petty and vulgar pleasures with which they fill their souls. Each of them, withdrawn into himself, is virtually a stranger to the fate of all the others. For him, his children and personal friends comprise the entire human race. As for …

The Angel and the Void

The angel then asked the prophet, “Wise man, I’ve brought you here to God’s kingdom, God who has trusted me with his faith, to ask you what wisdom you have to offer me.” The prophet stood like a great oak tree in the light. He spoke in silence with his eyes closed. “You insult me …

A Short Review of The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

I just finished The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. It traces racism in America from the Jim Crow Era up until Obama. She argues that racism in America is going through revolutions but not progressive ones. The drug war over crack cocaine is what started mass incarceration and it was targeted at young black …

I Published My New Short Story “The Fall of Mephisto”

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B088N68MP5/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+fall+of+mephisto&qid=1589800087&sr=8-1&fbclid=IwAR30wC3WkdefEKljMfyyTmxiXj4zQn8f1ulV1DfqQwuaJp2h1QQsbh96kCM After the apocalypse, and Earth has fallen, there is nothing left but a starless sky and Mephisto on the throne of Oblivion. Now he must wrestle with his inner daemons to prepare himself. Biblical, psychological, apocalyptical.

Applying William James’ Pragmatism

There are many reasons to believe in God, some of which aren't very good. However, there are patterns and designs that suggest there might be a god, but this isn't the place for natural theology. What I would like to discuss is William James' pragmatism which attempts to make judgements and relieve the mind from …

Tennyson's In Memoriam

              Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), a Victorian poet, completed his In Memoriam in 1849 where he wrestled with the contradictions between the idea of a providential god and the bleak evolutionary and materialistic science of the day after the death of his best friend. The poem is divided into 133 cantos. He was son to …