“the aggregate sum”

Please click HERE for "Greentopia, the Utopian Place at the Side-West: a Review of Marleen S. Barr's 'Bluetopia' by Nigeria's (and International Authors') Ebi Robert.

Ebi Robert

 

Lucas Cranach the Elder Allegory of Law and Grace (1530)

 

USS Seadragon

 

Workstation

A Hamster Wheel for Neophytes

In a recent Gypsy Scholar blog post (please click HERE) Professor Hodges holds up for consideration the following passage from James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake:

...a way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs . . . . a way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

Professor Hodges observes, first, that the circular character of the passage is clear but nevertheless it goes neither here nor there, nor has it much to say; if this is Joyce’s point, it really isn’t much of a point, nor is the prosody that interesting—which is supported by Professor Hodges' second, bibliographic, observation that the text itself is an unsettled and ill-defined matter. He writes:

One knows not where to begin . . . plus even before setting forth to read (before the beginning? before the ending?), one must, as I have now come to understand, first settle on a correct manuscript, notoriously difficult in a text that breaks rules.

My comment, to which Professor Hodges signals agreement, reads as follows:

FW is a work exhibiting much mystery and few virtues... A "scripture" for a secular prelacy... A hamster wheel for neophytes.

What's to be done with this over-written text teaming with the endless exercise of linguistic "suggestions" and cultural allusions that trace off into meaninglessness, and (most importantly?) exhibiting an aesthetic that is evidently obscurantist?  I suppose there are some who view the book as a lively expression of "Irish wordplay unbound", an explosion in four dimensions of the "dynamic and wonderfully unpredictable" Keltic imagination. Being somewhat predisposed to a Keltic view of things (and my ancestry is one-quarter Scot, after-all) I am wont to pronounce a Keltic judgment upon the work; to whit, it is a bog full of gibberish.

Riddle me this: Is ________ ?

NASA’s Eyes

 

Please click HERE.

Highbrow Advice from St. Thomas Aquinas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Man's task is to control his action in the direction of good so that he may grow from time to eternity, from the smallness of himself to the greatness of God. The means of this control, right reason and good will, are within the power of every man. They are not the privileges of rich or poor, of the powerful or of the weak of this present world. By using the reason and the will properly every man can direct his steps unerringly forward to the vision of God in which his true happiness is to be found.

-- My Way of Life: Pocket edition of St. Thomas; the Summa Simplified for Everyone. p. 186.

This reminds me of Aristotle's advice to cultivate our virtues (or skills) and to moderate our actions through thoughtfulness, as a means to find eudaimonia. But of course when reflecting upon Aquinas it is always appropriate to remain mindful of Aristotle.

If this sort of Highbrow advice is to your taste, please click HERE.

tech giant...

 

Paradise Lost Tarot Deck by Terrance Lindall

Terrance Lindall's Paradise Lost Tarot Deck will be available  November 15, 2020.  Contact the WAH Center.

A list of Milton's works linked to descriptive articles

Poetry

• 1629: On the Morning of Christ's Nativity
• 1630: On Shakespeare
• 1631: On Arriving at the Age of Twenty-Three
• 1632: L'Allegro
• 1632: Il Penseroso
• 1634: A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634, commonly known as Comus (a masque)
• 1637: Lycidas
• 1645: Poems of Mr John Milton, Both English and Latin
• 1652: When I Consider How My Light is Spent (Commonly referred to as "On his blindness", though Milton did not use this title)
• 1655: On the Late Massacre in Piedmont
• 1667: Paradise Lost
• 1671: Paradise Regained
• 1671: Samson Agonistes
• 1673: Poems, &c, Upon Several Occasions
• Arcades: a masque. (date is unknown).
• On his Deceased wife, To The Nightingale, On reaching the Age of twenty four.

Prose

• Of Reformation (1641)
• Of Prelatical Episcopacy (1641)
• Animadversions upon The Remonstrants Defence Against Smectymnuus (1641)
• The Reason of Church-Government Urged against Prelaty (1642)
• Apology for Smectymnuus (1642)
• Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643)
• Judgement of Martin Bucer Concerning Divorce (1644)
• Of Education (1644)
• Areopagitica (1644)
• Tetrachordon (1645)
• Colasterion (1645)
• The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649)
• Eikonoklastes (1649)
• Defensio pro Populo Anglicano [First Defence] (1651)
• Defensio Secunda [Second Defence] (1654)
• A Treatise of Civil Power (1659)
• The Likeliest Means to Remove Hirelings from the Church (1659)
• The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth (1660)
• Brief Notes Upon a Late Sermon (1660)
• Accedence Commenced Grammar (1669)
• The History of Britain (1670)
• Artis logicae plenior institutio [Art of Logic] (1672)
• Of True Religion (1673)
• Epistolae Familiaries (1674)
• Prolusiones (1674)
• A brief History of Moscovia, and other less known Countries lying Eastward of Russia as far as Cathay, gathered from the writings of several Eye-witnesses (1682)
• De Doctrina Christiana (1823)

More 

Sources for an American Idea of Revolution

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preface to Modernism

 

If you want me to post in this blog...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buy my books. Click the cover images on the right. Thank you.

Professor Hodges on the quest for poetic justice for poets

 Jeffery reflects on his poetry in Octo-Emanations. Please click HERE.

Routine Disinterment of a Supersonic Artifact

Amy Coney Barrett knows her Octo-Emanations

Impressing the Senate today with her encyclopedic knowledge of case law, Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett was asked if she had brought any preparatory notes to help her with the confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. According to the media, Barrett held up a blank notepad and smiled.  Here is the alleged image of that moment:

This account, however, does not coincide with the facts.

Moreover, the image circulating around the media has been doctored!

An international Authors correspondent present in the Senate committee chamber has reported to me that when asked if she had brought any notes to help her with the confirmation hearing, Amy Coney Barrett actually raised a copy of Octo-Emanations. This fact is confirmed by the following un-doctored image:

Professor Hodges reads Octo-Emanations, continued...

Recent remarks on Michael Butterworth's contributions to Octo-Emanations.

Medicine of the Future Perfect?

Food for Thought 

Professor Hodges reads Octo-Emanations

Here are the titles of four of Jeffery's recent blog entries, and they are linked to his remarks. The fourth on the list touches on the story that I contributed to the anthology.

Octo-Emanations: First Review

On Writing Miltonic Sonnets 

 M-A Berthier's Great Adventures

 Critiquing Capitalism?

 

 

 

 

"Saint Clare intervenes to save a child from a wolf" (Giovanni di Paolo, 1455)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Professor Hodges is keeping abreast of all things Octo-Emantaions, as is his wont. Please click HERE.

"Words and Images" -- a review of Octo-Emanations

Octo-Emanations has its first Amazon review. Please click the cover image, then scroll down to read the review: