Brilliant Minds

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

Aristophanes in Translation

The comedies of Aristophanes pose a particular challenge for choosing a translation in English. His language is very close to the sensibilities of his time (or lack thereof by our standards!).  There are a number of issues which include dialect; speech patterns to denote social, economic, or political status; and especially, what today could be considered vulgarity.

Translations in English have tended to be overly "genteel", awkward, archaic or just downright silly. Furthermore, we need a translation that speaks and acts well in English. After all, these plays were written for competitive performance.

In choosing a translation for our reading, I selected Paul Roche's Aritsophanes, The Complete Plays (trans. Paul Roche) for its combination of directness and poetic attributes. Since there is no single translation that serves all purposes all the time: fidelity, scholarship, accessibility, and performance, two other translations I recommend for comparison include:

• Jeffrey Henderson (scholarly, accurate, direct): Aristophanes, Clouds (trans. Jeffrey Henderson)
• Peter Meineck (speakable, performance oriented): Aristophanes I (trans. Peter Meineck)

On David Mitchell & Black Swan Green

Some links on David Mitchell and Black Swan Green:

• David Mitchell on the influence of living in Japan on his writing:  Essay
• Nell Freudenberger's NYTimes review of Black Swan Green
• Daniel Zalewski's review for The New Yorker
• Steven Pooles review for The Guardian
• Scarlet Thomas's review for The Independent on Sunday
• Laura Miller on Black Swan Green for Salon

Fall 2008 Brilliant Minds reading list

Readings include:

1. Aristophanes, The Complete Plays, (we will read Clouds), trans. Roche (New American Library)
2. Comnena, The Alexiad (Penguin Classics)
3. Shakespeare, Coriolanus (The Pelican Shakespeare)
4. Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (Penguin Classics)
5. Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy)
6. Joyce, Dubliners (Oxford World's Classics)
7. Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita (Penguin Classics)
8. Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel

Editions subject to change.

Literature for the 21st Century

Included on our reading list for Literature for the 21st Century, Summer 2008 are:

1. J. M. Coetzee, Diary of a Bad Year
2. Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
3. Robert Pinsky, Gulf Music
4. David Mitchell, Black Swan Green
5. Ali Smith, The Accidental
6. Lydia Davis, Varieties of Disturbance
7. Tracy Letts, August: Osage County

Spring 2008 Booklist

The Spring 2008 Booklist with recommended editions:

1. Hesiod, Works and Days & Theogony, trans. Lattimore (Univ of Michigan Press)*
2. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, trans. Warner (Penguin)
   
3. Anonymous, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, trans. Raffel (Signet)**
4. William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, ed. Braunmuller (Pelican/Penguin)
   
5. Anne Bradstreet, The Works of Anne Bradstreet, ed. Rich (Belknap)
   
6. Willa Cather, O Pioneers!, ed. Lindemann (Oxford)
   
7. John Cowper Powys, A Glastonbury Romance (Penguin)
8. Elias Khoury, Gate of the Sun (Archipelago)***

Download the Spring 2008 Booklist (pdf)

NYU Registration Information

Notes:

*Consider this alternate translation of Hesiod:

• Works of Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns by Daryl Hine (Univ of Chicago)
  

**Consider two alternate translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:

• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A New Verse Translation by Simon Armitage (Norton); and
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by W.S. Merwin  (Knopf)

***Brooklyn-based Archipelago Books website.

Travels with Herodotus & Greenaway's Pillow Book

This book may of interest: Travels with Herodotus, by Ryszard Kapuscinski.

Also of possible interest is director Peter Greenaway's film, with a storyline related to Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book.

Fall 2007 Recommended Editions

1. Herodotus, The Histories, trans. Waterfield (Oxford)
2. Sei Shonagon, The Pillow Book, trans. Morris (Columbia)
3. Anonymous, The Nibelungenlied, trans. Hatto (Penguin)
4. Molière, The Misanthrope, trans. Wilbur (Harcourt/Harvest)
5. Balzac, Père Goriot, trans. Raffel (Norton)
6. Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling, eds. Evans & Walsh (Cambridge)
7. Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter, Vol I: The Wreath, trans. Nunnally (Penguin)
8. Naipaul, A Bend in the River (Vintage) 

Download the Fall 2007 Reading List

NYU Information & Registration
 

Literature for the 21st Century, Summer 2007

Get ready for Summer 2007 at NYU. Our study of contemporary literature continues with Literature for the 21st Century from May 24 to July 19, 2007.

Readings include: The Echo Maker by Richard Powers, The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai, An Illiad by Alessandro Baricco, The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, The Sea by John Banville; After: Poems by Jane Hirschfield, The Exonerated by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.

Desai's LOSS wins Booker

Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss: A Novel has won the Booker Prize.  Coverage from Publisher's Weekly: Desai Nabs Booker.

Add to your reading list!