Brilliant Minds

Iliad Selections

Soon we'll begin our discussion of Homer's Iliad. Key readings include:

• Books 1-3, 6, 9, 16, 18, 22-24.

If you're interested in what the original may have sounded like (since the Iliad was composed to be sung in performance), try this website: Homeric Singing.

Murdoch and The Sea, The Sea

Here are a few additional perspectives on Murdoch and The Sea, The Sea:

At the Guardian: Booker club: The Sea, the Sea (to read) & The Digested Read with John Crace (link to audio)

At the Paris Review: The Art of Fiction, No. 117 (on craft)

A Pun to Remember

A "BritLit" grad student, a Moose and Squirrel, and Thou: The Ruby Yacht of Omar Khayyam.

An outline for discussing Caesar: The Gallic Wars

Here is an outline for our discussion of Caesar's Gallic Wars:  Download CaesarTheGallicWar (PDF file). Or view as a web page.

Caesar Word for Word

In reading Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic Wars, both the genre of the "commentary" and his particular use of it figure in much of the scholarly literature. Here is a literal translation by Rev. Dr. Giles: 

Download RDG_Caesars_Commentaries in PDF format (7.57MB) to compare to our text. File, courtesy of Textkit.

Ramayana related ...

Before we move on to Caesar,  a few items related to the Ramayana:

Becoming a contemporary sensation: Sita Sings the Blues 

Many of the references I made to Alan Watts' comments on Hinduism are from this set of transcribed lectures, now out of print, but may be available used: Philosophies of Asia (P) (Alan Watts Love of Wisdom)

Also, consider Huston Smith's classic study of comparative religion: The World's Religions (Plus)

For Current Students & Alumni

If you  missed either the Lecture on Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage, or The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates, a streaming audio recording will be available by sending a request through a special page & site for Current Students & Alumni. This is a new process, so please be patient while we work out the details. I'm looking forward to offering additional resources and this is an exciting first step.

Onegin (the films)

English and Russian

Onegin at Dicapo Opera 2011

Tchaikovsky's music, Pushkin's poetry at Dicapo in April 2011:

http://www.dicapo.com/html/onegin.html

The Met's DVD with Fleming:

Twain at the Morgan

See the Twain at the Morgan Library exhibit before it closes January 2nd. The exhibit includes some original pages of Huck Finn.