Brilliant Minds

The Duchess

Here is a rare opportunity to see a production of Webster's classic, The Duchess of Malfi:

Curtain Up review

Selections from Hildegard

We will concentrate our discussions on the following sections:

1. Letter to Bernard of Clairvaux

5. The Trinity

13. The First Version of the Play of the Virtues

20. The Cosmic Egg

21. The Cosmos

23. Songs from Symphonia

25. The Iron Mountain

27. The Seven Vices and Virtues

31. A Vision of Love

A recording of songs from Symphonia:

Aurelius & the Confessional Life

Consider how the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius express the 5 elements of the Confessional Life as outlined by Prof. H. Mark Roelofs (NYU):

1. a condition of isolation in a universal context
2. an intense inward effort to stay alive (i.e. to affirm life)
3. an attempt to identify that ground of existence which will not give way and from which one need not retreat
4. an ethic: to be and do the right thing with an awareness of one's finitude in a universal context
5. a faith, as opposed to knowledge, which makes life livable in the face of the unknowable

Aristotle diagrammed

A visual representation of our discussions on Aristotle (click to View this photo)

Can you spot an Aristotelian—sort of?

Alberto Manguel writes:

I believe that we are, at the core, reading animals and that the art of reading, in its broadest sense, defines our species. We come into the world intent on finding narrative in everything: in the landscape, in the skies, in the faces of others, and, of course, in the images and words that our species creates.

—from the Preface to A Reader on Reading

Weather Cancellation

Weather cancellation for tonight's Brilliant Minds class. I just got word that NYU is closing this afternoon as of 1pm. Latest information is available from NYU at: http://www.nyu.edu/info.alert or by hotline: 212-998-1220.

Aristotle Selections

Happy New Year!

For those who wish to get a head start on reading Aristotle, we will focus on the Ethics, Politics, Rhetoric, and Poetics. Below are my suggested selections from those sections, referenced by Book and Chapter numbers which should work with any edition:

(Nichomachean) Ethics
i, 1-10, 13
ii, 1-7
iii, 1-7
v, 1-2, 7, 10
vi, 1-3, 5-8, 12-13
vii, 1-3
viii, 1-3, 9
ix, 4, 7-9, 12
x, 4-9

Politics
i, 1-6
ii, 1, 2, 3-5
iii, 1, 4, 6-12
iv, 1, 3, 11
v, 1, 8, 9
vii, 1-3, 8-9, 13, 15

Rhetoric
i, 1-2, 5-6, 13
ii, 1, 4, 22

Poetics
4, 6-11, 13-15

I also recommend Aristotle in Outline by Timothy A. Robinson (Hackett 1995) for a concise, yet thorough overview of Aristotle's work.

Atwood & Speculative Fiction

Atwood's work is often categorized as "speculative fiction". Take a look at how the term is used, especially by those in the "business":

What is Speculative Fiction? from Green Tentacles

What is Speculative Fiction? from Lost Books

From Atwood herself at Wired

You'll find Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale on this historical list-in-progress of dystopian literature at Wikipedia.

Atwood interviewed on religion by Bill Moyers via YouTube.

Spring Book List

Our Spring 2010 Brilliant Minds book list is now available for download in printable PDF format:

Download BMSpring2010

For Aristotle, we will concentrate our reading on selections from the Ethics, Politics, Rhetoric, and Poetics.

December Classes on Close Reading

Brush up on your close reading skills between Thanksgiving and the Holidays!

Two Classes: December 9th & 16th. Register here (classes limited to 7 participants each).

Learn: The key to The Tempest in one line. The key to "Stopping By Woods" in one word.

Close reading allows you to discover the meaning of a text through precise attention to its structure and patterns. It is a method of reading that stimulates interest and knowledge in interpreting literature. We introduced the literary art of close reading over the Summer as part of the Literature as a Life Practice class. In these classes we will apply this method to these literary classics by Shakespeare and Frost.