“In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners.”- Camus
Called upon to choose, I would argue that the 5 great American novels of the late 20th Century are Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1973), Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (1985), Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987), Libra by Don Delillo (1988), and American Pastoral by Philip Roth (1997). There may be better American novels out there that were published between 1945 and 2000. One cannot read everything, but I’ll rest with these books as the ones that tell […]
read more
St. Peter’s Basilica Martini’s The Annunciation* Sunday Mass Lear’s Prayer Skeleton Growl and Smile *The painting entitled The Annunciation with Saint Margaret and Saint Ansanus now housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence*King *Lear, III, iv, 23-36: KENT Good my lord, enter here. LEAR Prithee, go in thyself. Seek thine own ease. This tempest will not give me leave to ponder On things would hurt me more. But I’ll go in.— In, boy; go first.—You houseless poverty— Nay, get thee in. I’ll pray, and then I’ll sleep. Fool exits. Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, Your looped and windowed raggedness defend you From seasons such as these? O, I have ta’en Too little care of this. Take physic, pomp. Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, That thou may’st shake the superflux to them And show the heavens more just.
read more
Melville Dreams of the Terrors of G0d Colosseum Adolf Eichmann Gives Advice to a Subordinate November, 2024 Learning to Read
read more
Florence New York, Early December Rain, Dawn Arriving Star Field North Country Aztec Red Wings Avalon In January Agnes* Spring Work Black Forest* Simon the Pit Presque Isle Wolverine Eagle Owl Vultures In the Darkness *Hurricane Agnes, June, 1972 *The Black Forest Trail in Lycoming County, PA
read more
