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Mikhail Shishkin interview at Asymptote

I finally got around to reading Mikhail Shishkin’s interview at the Asymptote journal. He goes into some depth on his writing of Maidenhair, his view of Russian politics, and the launch of a new literary prize (Dar) that celebrates Russian-language literature. Much of the first two I’ve covered before, especially in my posts covering an […]

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2024 live music highlights

And now for something completely different… The Boise area has surprised me with its vibrant music scene. It might not get many of the ‘big names’ coming through, but I’m enjoying the ones that do make it here. I wanted to make a few notes on my favorite shows of the year. Favorites The Lemon […]

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Fool by Peter K. Andersson

The posthumous image of him has been entangled with the real individual, and no one has really fully tried to disentangle them. But achieving that would provide us with a unique window into both the life of the court and fundamental conceptions of humour, humanity, and deviance in the Reneissance. … Fool: In Search of Henry […]

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Dante: Inferno to Paradise (PBS)

Dante: Inferno to Paradise is a two-part, four-hour documentary film chronicling the life, work and legacy of the great 14th century Florentine poet, Dante Alighieri, and his epic masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, one of the greatest achievements in the history of Western Literature. The ambition of the film, which combines powerful dramatic reenactments, colorful interviews with […]

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Finally…my own site

Well, that was a long silence, wasn’t it? I have moved my site over from Blogger. I took the first steps a couple of years ago but didn’t follow up on the maintenance/correction issues necessary until now. I am on the last page reviews of correcting or updating posts. I plan on posting on books […]

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The risk of being real: Phrynichus

Trying to get caught up on everything I mean to post, and feeling frustrated and tired about running into old problems about posting comments on other blogs… A semi-quick comment on Aeschylus’ use of actual events (instead of mythic stories) in The Persians. You usually see a comment about the poet/playwright Phrynichus when there is […]

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The Persians by Aeschylus

Please note this is not intended to be a comprehensive coverage of the play (despite my logorrhea and multiple posts), just a few notes on the play that I find interesting. I’m rusty at this, but let’s give it a go. Original performance, 472 BCE The tetralogy of plays at the Great Dionysia of 472 […]

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Aeschylus by John Herington

I’m going to cover some of the introductory chapters from Aeschylus in case they may help you read some of his plays. Herington’s prose is clear and to the point in these chapters and reveal much about the backdrop against which Aeschylus was writing. Herington explores what we could term Aeschylus’ world view which can […]

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Ancient Greek plays read-along

Amateur Reader at Wuthering Expectations will be hosting a read-along of all the ancient Greek plays this year. The order of the plays can be found at this post. The schedule is one play a week, with his posts about them on or around each Friday. The first play is Aeschylus’ The Persians, starting on […]

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One Hundred Days of Dante

Join the world’s largest Dante reading group. Starting September 8th and ending on Easter 2022, we will read three cantos a week, learning from teachers who know and love Dante well. (Full site coming soon) — 100 Days of Dante Baylor University’s Honors College is hosting what it call “the world’s largest Dante reading group” […]

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Donald Kagan (1932 – 2021)

Sad news: Donald Kagan, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Classics and History, prominent for his scholarship, teaching, and social and political commentary, and a longtime colorful figure at Yale, died Aug. 6 in a Washington D.C. retirement home. He was 89. Kagan, who came to Yale in 1969, was a distinguished scholar of Ancient Greek history. […]

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Welcome to the new site!

Welcome! I have wanted to have my own site for quite a while, so I’m giving it a try. The theme will eventually change and links may or may not work right now. My tags/categories did not transfer quite like I wanted, so I’ll be working on getting those updated. I’m sure there are other […]