As a classical pursuits newbie I signed up for everything I could before I started. Stratford was a great introduction. I knew I’d get great theatre, and I did. It was a great balance between three performances, special events, and some free time to explore the town. The highlight was […]
Guest Blog
GUEST BLOG – Louise Dimattio
Arrived on a beautiful sunny morning in Toronto for a stimulating discussion of Henri James’ Portrait of a Lady. Our group was small, but mighty with the help of our illustrious leader Nancy Carr. We delved into the question of the character of our protagonist. It is so exciting to […]
GUEST BLOG – Why on earth would Sharon Zane go back to Paris again?
Ann has asked me to write a bit about why I will be taking part in La Belle Epoque trip to Paris this September, given that I have been to Paris more times than I can count and that I took part in an earlier Classical Pursuits trip there in […]
GUEST BLOG – Don Whitfield invites you to engage in friendly argument about David Hume
There are many, many books that seek to communicate the complex philosophical ideas of great thinkers by presenting them in language that the authors feel is easier to understand than the original works. Some of these books are very successful in doing so – the original works are sometimes written […]
GUEST BLOG – Taking Henry James at his Words
Henry James took novels seriously. He believed that a good novel gave us unique access to depths of experience, and enabled us to explore how individuals work out their destinies in specific times and places. This seriousness of purpose has irritated more than one reader of James’ work. Most famously, […]
GUEST BLOG – Betty Ann Jordan on Looking at Photographs with Susan Sontag
“Like a pair of binoculars with no right or wrong end, the camera makes exotic things near, intimate, and familiar things small, abstract, strange, much farther away.” –Susan Sontag In Susan Sontag’s essay collection On Photography, every sentence is a zinger, and almost every idea a game-changer. Written in a […]
GUEST BLOG – Nella Cotrupi’s 5 reasons to choose Lucretius
Here are Five of the Many Reasons Why You Should Take My Seminar on Lucretius and the Rediscovery of his Masterpiece, On the Nature of Things, as described in Greenblatt’s The SWERVE – How the World Became Modern: 1. Stephen Greenblatt is a very talented writer/storyteller and a courageous scholar […]
GUEST BLOG – Jimmye Hillman’s poem, penned late one night during our American Civil War trip
You sorta hadta be there to get all the references, but y’all can see what a fine poet Jimmye Hillman is (no matter what his daughter says). I TAKE RICHMOND* Not as a British frigate’s cargo: freedom’s heirs Stuck at James River’s falls in royal pause, Not as some conquering […]
GUEST BLOG – Thomas Jones on why you should choose Buddenbrooks this July
In scope, detail, and humanity, Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks is a classic of modem literature and continues to be a model for family sagas, a genre of literature which follows generations of a family through a period of history. (Think Downton Abbey, The Forsythe Saga, The Thornbirds.) Buddenbrooks was Mann’s first […]
GUEST BLOG – Thou Shalt Not with Gary Schoepfel
Thou Shalt Not… The Decalogue The Old Testament “thou-shalt-nots” are deeply dyed into the fabric of Western Culture. I may hesitate when it comes to obeying those prohibitions, but I rarely pause to consider just what they command and why. “Thou shalt not murder.” “Thou shalt not steal.” They seem […]