Tag Archives: Homer’s Odyssey

Must Our Stories Come Out Right?

Posted on July 11, 2023 by Abigail

In my passage from childhood to young girlhood, there were two stories I relied on for clues about the life that lay ahead of me. The first was Homer’s Odyssey. The second was Joseph and His Brothers (from Genesis 37-50) … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, idealism, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memory, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged a daughter’s sorrows, a mother’s secret, a woman’s sorrows, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "God and the Care for One's Story", appeasement, Athena’s rejuvenating gift, Biblical high drama, bystanders’ denial of evil, Cain and Abel, calling evil by its name, Christianity’s doctrine of original sin, Christianity’s view of sin, clever enemies, clues for living, coat of many colors, divine help, divine intervention helping nature, effective enemies, encountering evil, enemies of the story, exile and homecoming, figuring out one’s parents, fratricide in history, Genesis 37-50, good stories, growing up, happy endings, Homer's Odyssey, how to deal with evil, human wickedness, ignorance and unintended evil, ignorance vs wickedness, Joseph and dreams, Joseph in Egypt, Joseph meets his brothers, Judaism’s doctrine of sin, Judaism’s view of sin, judgmentalism and moral judgment, living a good story, long voyage home, mapping one’s personal future, misunderstanding vs wickedness, moral philosophers and evil, moral relativism, mothers and daughters, Odysseus and Penelope, Odysseus's homecoming, placating evil, providence overriding nature, providential element in stories, public success private failure, quest for the grail, real life and mythology, recognition and reunion, recognizing evil, refusal to judge evil, romantic hopelessness, romantic hopes, saving the story, silver tongued enemies, sins of the mothers, stories in the Bible, suffering in nature, the Bible’s dramatic stories, the concealed truth in official stories, the hero’s journey, the invisible stories of women, the Joseph story, the owl of Athena, the problem of evil, the quest, the wise child knows her parents, theodicy, theology and the problem of evil, Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers, unspoken disapproval, when evil looks good, women friends, women’s cover stories, women’s secrets, young girlhood | Leave a comment

Who or What Were Adam and Eve?

Posted on August 18, 2020 by Abigail

Who or What Were Adam and Eve? Unless you believe that the entire universe actually came into being at the divine summons 5,781 years previous to the New Year of September, 2020, with the two parents of the human race … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, books, Christianity, Contemplation, Contradictions, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Gender Balance, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "David and Bathsheba", 17th-century philosopher, Achilles, Adam and Eve, Antonio Gramsci, Bereshit, Bible as fiction, Bible as myth, Biblical characters, brute power, bully’s rationale, Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre", cover story, creation ex nihilo, David and Jonathan, David and Saul, David the adulterer, David the warrior, David’s repentance, dialectic defined, dialectical personifications, embodied ideas, embodied spiritual stages, Erich Auerback’s Mimesis : The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, false consciousness, functional power, Garden of Eden, Gramscian view, hegemonic euphemisms, Hobbes’ Leviathan, Homer's Odyssey, Homer’s Illiad, human choices, in the beginning, King David, King Saul, literary characters, New Year 2020, Nietzsche, novelistic creation, Odysseus, original sin, Plato's Republic, Plato’s genius, political philosophy, power relations, Psalms of David, Rosh Hashana, social contract, Socratic dialectic, spiritual drama, spiritual moments, spiritual reality, spiritual space, spiritual temptation, study of myth, the human race, the state of nature, theoretical construct, Thomas Hobbes, Thrasymachus | Leave a comment

“The Well of Time”

Posted on March 1, 2016 by Abigail

“The Well of Time” “Very deep is the well of the past.” So, in Joseph and His Brothers, Thomas Mann begins his monumental recreation of the Biblical Book of Genesis. In early adolescence, Mann’s Joseph was my favorite book, together … Continue reading →

Posted in Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, Bible, Childhood, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Heroes, hidden God, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Idolatry, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Memoir, Mind Control, Modernism, Mortality, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, Power, Propaganda, Psychology, Public Intellectual, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Seduction, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, Social Conventions, Sociobiology, Spirituality, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged adolescence, adult conversation, alchemy, ancestors, autonomy, bad luck, biblical experience, biblical redactors, biblical time, bitterness, boredom, childhood, choice, convenant, creativity, evanescence, family life, feeling trapped, fleetingness, flux of time, fortune, freedom, God's time, good luck, grandfather, grownups and kids, Homer's Odyssey, kid's stuff, lottery of life, memory, no exit, pagan time, paganization, past and future, past present and future, personal authority, promising, remembrance, responsibility, restlessness, revelation, self-determination, sexual competition, sexual rivalry, social life, social position, social safety, The Bible, The Book of Genesis, The Joseph stories, The Old Testament, the specious present, Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers, threats, Time, time and eternity, winners and losers, writers | 2 Comments

“Unhappiness”

Posted on September 29, 2015 by Abigail

“Unhappiness” Now there’s a rich topic! It seems easier to do (achieve) than happiness, or at least easier to write about. The New York Times Book Review — where you have a weekly roundup of what the people who read, … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Autonomy, Chivalry, Cities, Class, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courtship, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Heroes, History, history of ideas, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Institutional Power, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, Memoir, Mind Control, Modernism, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, Power, Psychology, Public Intellectual, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Seduction, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, Social Conventions, Sociobiology, Spirituality, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, Theism, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", alienation, angst, anomie, anxiety, Australia, Australian unhappiness, bad guys, Brené Brown's "The Power of Vulnerability", choice of evils, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, despair, doom, enabling, failed romance, falling in love, false love, first love, frustration, generosity, good guys, happy endings, heartbreak, hidden facts, hidden life, Homer's Odyssey, lies and identity, literate readers, looking to score, lying, Mr. Right, New York Times Book Review, Odysseus, predators, psychic stability, rescuing others, Romance, saving others, seducers, self-sacrifice, Siren's Song, social defenses, staying in love, stolen identity, the fadeout, The Right Guy, the shootout, true love, unavoidable losses, unhappiness, unhappy loves, unhappy women Down Under, unsuitable loves, vulnerability, Westerns, writers | Leave a comment

Tag Archives: Homer’s Odyssey

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