The Picture of Dorian Gray is Oscar Wilde’s only novel…for good reason. Literary genius is not necessarily adept at all forms. Here is a parlor game: which authors wrote excellent novels, short stories, plays, essays, and poems? Off the top of my head, I can’t think of anyone. Or, make the game easier by aiming at 4 out of 5. Or would it have to be 3 out of 5 to get any entrants? Wilde’s forte was “The Quip.” He was a manufacturer of one-liners; indeed his only rivals in that form might be … [Read more...] about Art of the Quip
Great Books
The Art (and Cure) of Love
“Should anyone here in Rome lack finesse at love-making let himTry me—read my book, and results are guaranteed!Technique is the secret.”How many books have been written for which that could be the back-cover blurb? Technique which is guaranteed to bring good results! Now, you ae thinking that is just hyperbole, but the author is happy to double down. The first thing to get in your head is that every singleGirl can be caught—and that you’ll catch her ifYou set your toils right. Could you … [Read more...] about The Art (and Cure) of Love
The Logic of Bureaucracy
Back in my US History class in 8th grade, my teacher (Mr. Boxdorfer) made one of those odd, throw-away remarks which I am certain that nobody else who was in that room remembered even a day later. Yet, it not only deeply troubled me at the time, it stuck with me all these years, and has had a curious effect on my life. We were talking about the Civil War, and the teacher mentioned Uncle Tom’s Cabin. He then noted that this was a book that everyone still heard about in school, but hardly … [Read more...] about The Logic of Bureaucracy
Check Your Temper
“I beg of you, before you utterlydestroy us and exterminate our family,check your temper.” That is Chrysothemis talking to her sister in Sophocles’ Electra. (Grene translation) Is it good advice? Electra has a problem. Her father, Agamemnon, was murdered by her mother, Clytemnestra, and her mother’s lover, Aegisthus. How should she respond? The whole play is watching Electra try to sort out that question. She is angry and wants revenge on her mother. But, is that really the right way to … [Read more...] about Check Your Temper
Little Odious Vermin
“But by what I have gathered from your own relation, and the answers I have with much pains wrung and extorted from you, I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.”This saith the King of Brobdingnag in Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. That is not a very flattering thing to say about humans. The evidence? He was perfectly astonished with the historical account I gave him … [Read more...] about Little Odious Vermin
Who Then is Free?
When I was growing up, I heard a lot about the advantages of living as a free people in a free society. Freedom is Good. Who would argue with that? Who would argue for the benefits of being a slave or a prisoner or under the thumb of a tyrannical government? Curiously, however, the one question which was never raised in my youth was what “freedom” meant. Or as Horace asks in his second Satire, “Who then is free?” It seems like an easy question in the dialogue. The slave, Davus, asks that … [Read more...] about Who Then is Free?