No dyslexia diagnosis yet. I'll ask next time I see my doctor. I'll try to work on my speaking skills generally. Thanks.

indubitably so.

Perhaps. It's difficult to read the topspin that may or may not be implied on any given word when dealing with translation, particularly in an alien culture of Japanese monks from so long ago. One thing I can say with great confidence is that the uncertainty enriches the aesthetic experience of this story. The self-inherent conflicts of human nature are the central theme underlying the whole thing.

We can all learn from those who have gone before. Great art is their gift to us in uncertain times.

Thanks for watching

I'll put it on the 'to do' list. Thanks for the suggestion.

Good for you for reading critically.

The average life expectancy in the United States in 1776 was around 38 years. Life expectancy in the United States in 2024 is projected to be between 78.7 and 79.9 years. If you're over 38 and don't feel worms burrowing through your corpse, you probably think life got better.

Agree can't wait till he reads up on metziz b'peh

glad to help.

The Odyssey is endlessly so.

thanks. It's hard to go wrong with Boccaccio.

me

the conflict between "high" and "low" art has been around since humanity first began producing art. The questions help us all sharpen our judgements, but ultimately we're entitled to like what we like. The history of art is the story of people swinging back and forth between artful sophistication and gritty naturalism. Don't worry about any of that. Read what makes you happy.

No argument on that point in essence. I'm not the first to suggest the novel characteristic of Petrarch in regard to his outdoorsiness, but certainly there are predecessors. What I will say about this one quotation, however, is that the clambering described seems to be in deliberate pursuit of a specific discovery of objective Nature. That seems different in kind from Petrarch whose explorations of Nature are mostly metaphorical probings of his subjective self. I won't claim anything definitive here, but this is the handle I maintain on Petrarch to guide my interaction with his work.

I'm not trying to get anything across, exactly. I'm trying to demonstrate an approach to poetry broadly for students with little contextual familiarity. I pick one word at a time through texts to show how meaning can be constructed rather than decoded, which hopefully empowers readers to believe that they don't need to read 500+ pages of background material in order to find some meaning in a short lyric poem. We've all had that experience of confusion and intimidation when confronting the unfamiliar. I'm just trying to show how mountains may be climbed from just the first toe-hold. I'm not always graceful in the execution, but the intention is sincere.

Dude?

Thanks for the perspective. It's important to keep the story anchored in its context. So much attention in the story is focused on the male participants, who are all really just sideline figures to the main event. Wrestling that spotlight back onto the visceral ordeal of the woman adds immeasurably to the dramatic tension and layers of significance.

I’ve read Siddhartha, but not for many years. It’s good as far as I recall, but I can’t say I know Hesse well. I have seen the Nighy movie, but thanks for the tip. I’ll look for it.

Glad to help. Thanks for watching.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. When it comes to great art, every scratch reveals something new.

thanks for watching. Good luck with your reading.

Thanks for watching.

Regrets aren't terribly constructive, and your affinity with any group probably shouldn't compel a sense of obligation to the point of guilt. Focus on the opportunity you have to engage with figures like Wollstonecraft with the full scope of experience and perspective you've forged in your life up until now. Truly good philosophies benefit from pushback and struggle. You're clearly very smart and are coming to Wollstonecraft with an educational grounding and some solid contextual knowledge. This is the ideal, and it's certainly the readership Wollstonecraft expected. Anything less cheapens the dignity Wollstonecraft asserted with such revolutionary force.

​@@douglasparker6276 Thank you. On a personal note I only found out two years ago just after my grandmother's death that she herself was enslaved as a child, how her brothers died from malnutrition and she was kidnapped in the Sino-Japanese war. I have always said I'm a student of life, as life is the greatest teacher. I also know my privilege. Speaking of affinity, I feel I have one with Mary. My mother wanted to me have this name, but I was given another from my paternal side that happens to rhyme, a decision I'm happy with. Had I been named Mary, my personal name initials would also have been M.W. I was also born on Women's Int'l Day... Funny how that is. It's a bit surreal for me. Just how many people can say that? Studying history grounded me in fact, and to appreciate the eye opening experience and struggles of real life people vs the holier-than-thou pronouncements of dogmatic religion and the narcissistic, patriarchal leadership of entrenched power structures. As a result of my own experience and fascination with people, I've embraced social and environmental justice. I got to meet Ms Naomi Klein as a result of her latest academic appointment, who is also self-proclaimed eco-feminist. (I swear, this woman just gets cooler and cooler by the decade). It gives new meaning for my personal voice as a Contralto. My new job title in latin, contra-alto: "against high". 😂 [Best job title ever, if you ask me.] The apparent biases in Alito's judgement are telling, with a significant lack of nuance and a complete disregard for the impact on women, whom he labels as "murderesses." Mary cautioned against tyranny and noted that man/men seldom correct their prejudices, preferring instead to perpetuate them. She also warned against blindly following authority and allowing emotions to lead one astray As a concerned Canadian, I also have a bit of an outsider perspective and I encourage Americans and people globally to examine their constitution, specifically the part that prohibits discrimination based on race and sex. Echoing Mary's logic, it is both illogical and senseless-cruel, even-to deny half the population [women] access to necessary [reproductive] healthcare. The time has come to eliminate gender and racial disparities in healthcare, as well as state-enforced reproductive coercion and human bondage. It is also time to stop penalizing healthcare professionals [whom Alito calls "abortionists"] for performing their duties. Reject Conservative Originalism. Ratify ERA. Alito is clearly grasping at straws. The rationale seems to reach desperately into the past, as far back as the 16th century. In 2024, it is unreasonable to expect modern women to accept the risk of dying to give life, simply due to tradition and historical context Alito is clearly grasping at straws, as far back as the 16th century. It's the year 2024, why do modern women have to accept the risk of dying in order to bring new life to the world--just because of tradition and historical context? "This is the way it was, and this is the way it ought to be and shall be now and forever", is his pronouncement. This situation is sheer madness, and it is even more maddening that this all unfolding at the expense of the public purse. Make no mistake, this autocratic decision is is covertly paving the way for the erosion of additional civil liberties.

I agree that Associate Justice Alito has demonstrated some questionable judgement, and instances such as these seem to merit institutional reform; but the personalization of systematic legal proceedings either for or against is a very precarious road to travel. I also agree that Naomi Klein is very cool. I would caution against a firm assertion that an appreciation of history grounds you "in fact." Facts, despite our idealistic inheritance of the Enlightenment, can be very fungible. John Adams very famously declared them to be "stubborn things," and they are, but in any complicated debate they are counter-balanced by opposing points. History demonstrates this pretty irrefutably. Analysis, on the other hand, is the way we sift through these disparate fields of data and navigate between the entrenched facts despite their intractability, allowing for something approaching truth in a necessarily imperfect human context. Thanks for joining in. This is great.

I don't think I ever said that Camus was a great human being. I honestly have no idea what kind of person he was, and it really doesn't matter to me at all. My interest is in the art he produced. That's where his portrayal of humanity rises above any concern with his individual character. If you can't get past his political or moral positions, if they get in the way of your appreciation of the art, that's fine. There are plenty of other writers to read. It is a tough standard to apply to artists, however. Not many are really people you want to be around. Morality and politics are also inherently relative. They tend to change. Politics more than morality, I suppose, but perceptions of them are highly personal and unstable over time. With art, I find that the best way to proceed is to rise above the petty particularities. Camus' literature treats the Algerians at some remove, like an Other. Now, I can view that as a personal flaw in Camus' personality and promise myself that if I ever run into him I'll give him the cold shoulder. Ok. That makes me feel a little better about myself, but it really doesn't do anything positive. For me, the more valuable approach is to note that certain characters in his literature feel this way, so it serves as a document of this social phenomenon. But this can go deeper. If I notice that the other characters are ostracizing the Algerians, I'm prompted to ask 'why?' Once I do that, I humanize the Algerians and elevate them beyond the disdain of the other characters. This causes me to look at both the Algerians and the Europeans as elements within a much larger and more complex construct. Plus, once I see that, it no longer really matters that they're Algerians and Europeans: they're people. Being people, they can be anyone around the world or at any time or context. The particular has become universal, which is the true test of great art.

part of the fun in reading is developing your own relationship to the text. Little nuances of irony, sincerity, political calculation, etc., can make for vastly distinct interpretations. Historians can build a more solid case for one reading or another based on supporting and contextual evidence. For my purposes here, readings can be more subjective. Regardless, however, thanks for weighing in with a more generous appraisal than mine. I can be very stingy in my judgements.

I'm glad it helped.