“How shall we call such a thinking man as Thucydides? The word ‘historian’ is somehow not satisfactory.” Leo Strauss, Lecture 17 “Neither historians nor political scientists can deal with the complexity of true strategy and statecraft. Thucydides does so because his narrative is literature, and literature does not restrict itself. It can say anything that […]
The lectures/recordings on this course can be found at the center’s site. What follows are some of my notes on topics I found of interest in these recordings. I don’t pretend to cover everything he discusses in the lectures and my quotes are close but may not be exact. His class uses the Rex Warner […]
The lectures/recordings on this course can be found at the center’s site. What follows are some of my notes on topics I found of interest in these recordings. I don’t pretend to cover everything he discusses in the lectures and my quotes are close but may not be exact. His class uses the Rex Warner […]
The lectures/recordings on this course can be found at the center’s site. What follows are some of my notes on topics I found of interest in these recordings. I don’t pretend to cover everything he discusses in the lectures and my quotes are close but may not be exact. His class uses the Rex Warner […]
The lectures/recordings on this course can be found at the center’s site. What follows are some of my notes on topics I found of interest in these recordings. I don’t pretend to cover everything he discusses in the lectures and my quotes are close but may not be exact. His class uses the Rex Warner […]
The lectures/recordings on this course can be found at the center’s site. What follows are some of my notes on topics I found of interest in these recordings. I don’t pretend to cover everything he discusses in the lectures and my quotes are close but may not be exact. His class uses the Rex Warner […]
Recently The Leo Strauss Center began providing audio recordings of many of his lectures. I saw a listing for Thucydides and decided to listen to them during my commute. This course was offered during the 1972-73 academic year at St. John’s College in Annapolis. Strauss died later in 1973 but it’s clear to hear his […]
Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age by Bohumil Hrabil Translation by Michael Henry Heim Harcourt Brace & CompanyI have enjoyed the works of Bohumil Hrabal to date and that streak continues with Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age. An 117-page sentence from an old shoemaker/brewmaster to some young ladies (he directly addresses them […]
For more foreign movies, check out Caroline’s World Cinema Series 2012 and Richard’s monthly Foreign Film Festival round-up. The IMDb.com page for this movie can be found here. I usually enjoy the Sunday night movies on TCM—they’re one of the few things I record. This one was on a few weeks ago and I finally […]
To commemorate HBO’s documentary Namath, I present my 4th grade class picture with me wearing his jersey. What the picture doesn’t reflect is that I was barefoot—the info board covers that detail. I refused to wear shoes to school until 5th grade (and I was lied to in order to get me to wear shoes […]
The Letter Killers Club by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky Translation by Joanne Turnbull with Nikolai Formozov Introduction by Caryl Emerson NYRB ClassicsI’m at a loss. I liked this book. Or rather I liked the concept of this book and most of what I read. But I’m having trouble thinking of anything, or at least anything original, to […]
Links: The IMDb.com page for Szindbád My notes on The Adventures of Sindbad by Gyula Krúdy, the source for the movie (and recommended if you’re unfamiliar with Krúdy’s work). How do you adapt Krúdy’s surreal, atmospheric work to the screen? The easy answer is very carefully. The more involved answer would be something like director […]
Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters Translated and Edited by Michael Hofmann W. W. Norton & Company, Hardcover, 512 pages ISBN-10: 0393060640 / ISBN-13: 978-0393060645 Albert Einstein to B. W. Huebsch (24 February 1935) Esteemed Mr. Hübsch, I am truly grateful to you for sending me this consoling book [Job] by a real mensch and […]
From Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters, translated and edited by Michael Hofmann. The last few years of Roth’s life saw many of the same themes as already posted, and some extended thoughts on these subjects: • A lot of talk of politics and how many, especially “those who embodied the ‘word’s conscience’ were themselves […]
From Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters, translated and edited by Michael Hofmann. Once again I provide too many excerpts, but I’m finding Roth a fascinating figure. The uprising by the Social Democrats in Austria (12 February 1934) and the resulting Dollfuss dictatorship discourages Roth in a manner more than he had been in previous […]
From Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters, translated and edited by Michael Hofmann. I’m including too many excerpts from this year but it seems to mark a clear change in Roth, or perhaps an acceleration in his downward spiral tied to his despair. He was perceptive on the dangers Nazism posed for Germany and Europe. […]
From Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters, translated and edited by Michael Hofmann. The letters from this period covers much of the same material as in the previous post. During this period he wrote The Radetzky March, although how he did so in his circumstance is amazing—taking care of his sick wife, scrambling for money, […]
From Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters, translated and edited by Michael Hofmann. Michael Hoffman makes the observation that Roth “in those days was like an open knife, a mixture of prophet, revolutionary, and sociopath”. The bluntness he exhibits with his friends shows an honesty that often wanders into just being a jerk. Major topics […]
I finally had some time to start Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters, translated and edited by Michael Hofmann. The young Roth sounds so…so…young, something that doesn’t come through in any of his work I’ve read so far. I’ll quote from some of his letters as they strike me, even if they are as inconsequential […]
