Author: Dwight

Notes Dwight 

The War on the Poor by Éric Vuillard

The War on the Poor by Éric VuillardTranslation by Mark PolizzottiOther Press, 2020 I have been reading a few books about the Peasants’ War of 1524-25,  a somewhat timely endeavor since we’re at the 500 year mark of the war’s culmination. I was going to post on one book I thought extremely well done and […]

Movies, Shows, Interviews Dwight 

Jacqueline du Pré: Genius and Tragedy (PBS)

At the risk of sounding like I’m shilling for yet another PBS show, I highly recommend Jacqueline du Pré: Genius and Tragedy currently on PBS. Narrator Yo-Yo Ma describes du Pré as the “greatest instrumentalists of the 20th century.” While obviously a debatable opinion, her virtuosity on the cello is not. Some of the descriptions […]

Notes Dwight 

Musings on Plato’s Symposium by Alex Priou

This book is decidedly not a work of scholarship, stubbornly not. It offers a holistic interpretation of Plato’s Symposium, as is conventional among scholarly books, but departs by presenting it as a series of musings, beginning with the puzzles of the dialogue’s various parts, long perplexing to me, and ascending therefrom in the direction of […]

Article Dwight 

“The depletion of culture” by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

But the fundamental, intrinsic reason for culture’s ongoing decline, its petering out, is its secularization. For several centuries now, the minds of enlightened humanity have been increasingly captivated by anthropocentrism—more politely called humanism—which in the twentieth century risked morphing almost into totalitarianism. But a hubristic anthropocentrism can provide no answers to many of life’s vital questions, […]

Notes Dwight 

Adam and Eve in Paradise by Eça de Queirós

Then began the abominable days of Paradise. Our Parents’ tireless, desperate efforts were devoted entirely to surviving in the midst of a Nature that was ceaselessly, furiously plotting their destruction. And Adam and Eve spent those days—which Semitic texts celebrate as delightful—always trembling, always whimpering always fleeing! The Earth was very much a work in […]

Notes Dwight 

Alexandra by Lykophron

So griefs and various disasters shall grip them, as they mourn their destiny of no return, the requital for my ill-wedded violation. Not even those who jouyfully arrive home at last will light votive flames of sacrifice, paying thanks to Kerdylas, the Larynthian. [Zeus]  (lines 1087-1092) The glory of the race of my grandfathers will be […]

Article Dwight 

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 […]

Miscellaneous Dwight 

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 […]

Notes Dwight 

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 […]

Movies, Shows, Interviews Dwight 

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 […]

Notes Dwight 

The Devil’s Workshop by Jáchym Topol

Readers to this book are likely aware, more or less, of the basic facts of the genocide of European Jews in the Second World War. Yet the mass killings of non-Jewish Belarusians during the same period have only recently been dragged out of the shadows, thanks to US historian Timothy Snyder’s tour de force of […]

Miscellaneous Dwight 

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 […]