Through a Glass, Darkly, with Film Noir
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhereThe ceremony […]
Toronto Pursuits
The Symphony: Listening to History
A seminar series on the evolution of the symphony parallels a study of European history from the start of the
The Odyssey of a Sentence: Nine Ways Homer Changes in Translation
New English translations of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey appear with notable regularity. For the general reader, it’s natural to ask: are they really all that different? And more importantly, do those differences matter?
The answer is: yes—and no.
From Motif to Masterpiece: Themes & Variations
The Theme & Variations form is one of the simplest in music: a given melody, idea or theme is put through a series of melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, tempo and other changes, revealing different aspects and traits of the original.
A Dilemma a Day Keeps Nihilism Away!
Toronto Pursuits’ “Nixing Nihilism: A Survey of Contemporary Philosophy” will serve up a “moral dilemma of the day” for seminar participants to consider.
In Cold Blood and the Potential of Nonfiction
Truman Capote declared that his choice of material in choosing to write a true account of “an actual murder case was altogether literary.” He wanted to create a “serious new art form: the nonfiction novel.”
Where Words Unfreeze: The Terra Incognito of Rabelais
It is this world of words we will bring to life in the Toronto Pursuits 2025 seminar Seriously Funny: The Fantastical Worlds of François Rabelais.
Second Acts, Second (or Third) Thoughts on Rereading The Great Gatsby
Whenever I’ve moved from one city to another, I have had to pack up my extensive (some would say inordinately
Empathy Through Kurosawa’s Lens
There is something I believe about literature: Nonfiction allows us to learn about stuff, but fiction allows us to learn
Convivium, Journal, Toronto Pursuits
What Keeps a Fictional World Alive? Exploring the Work of Lewis Carroll
Although Charles Dodgson died over a century ago, his alter ego Lewis Carroll is still very much alive. Alive as