Tag Archives: the novel
What Is Truth?
The question, famously put to Jesus by Pontius Pilate, was prompted by Jesus’ self-report that he had come to bear witness to the truth. Without capitalizing “Truth,” so that it acquires other-worldly sound-and-light effects – isn’t bearing witness to the … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal’s A Good Look at Evil, acculturation and maturation, aesthetic theory, bearing witness, beyond good and evil, celebration of the novel, characters in novels, children’s adaptation to grownups, continental know-it-all, cultural history, culture and meaning, culture as influence on purpose, despair as affectation, destroying the culture, discerning life purpose, discerning one’s purpose, evil defined, evildoers and innocent purposes, evildoers attacking ordinary purpose, fashionable despair, feminine self-respect, fiction and nonfiction, good and evil, Guido Mazzoni’s Theory of the Novel, initial purposes, intellectual influence, Jesus, ladies don’t believe this creep, libertine Gnosticism, life as a journey, life as a pilgrimage, life as a quest, literary criticism, literary history, mapping and purpose, moral anomie, moral flatness, mutual influence in society, nineteenth-century novels, novelistic life stories, novels and real-life, Pontius Pilate, preferred purposes, pretense of amorality, revising purposes, seducer’s line, seducing the reader, self-definition, self-discovery, self-education, self-respect, stories true and false, story as putting purpose to the test, storylines, subjectivity mischaracterized, technique of seduction, testing purposes, the nature of evil, the novel, trials and errors, true stories, truth and falsehood, truth and postmodernism, truth vs fiction, undermining the culture, What is truth?, what you see is what you get
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Who’s In Charge Here?
Who’s In Charge Here? Today I read an essay about the meaning of life. It was written in the form of a book review by Peter Brooks of The Storyteller Essays by Walter Benjamin. The review appears in the current … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, books, Christianity, cities, class, contemplation, contradictions, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, freedom, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, Hegel, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, immorality, Jews, Judaism, life and death struggle, literature, love, masculinity, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, novels, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, psychology, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, scientism, secular, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged "New York Review of Books", accessing one's situation, administrative savvy, bad luck, belief systems, Bible stories, Bible study, causation in history, chance or design, cover story, death scene, discerning meaning, disciplined life, divine guidance, divine influence, Egyptian bondage, erotic temptation, failure as opportunity, failure’s lessons, family reconciliation, favorite son, fiction as instructive, fictional heroes, fictional life, fractured kneecap, fratricidal feeling, God as Co-Author, God in control, Hebrew Bible, History, housebound, how the story ends, imaginary character, intelligent choice, Joseph in Egypt, life plotline, life review, living intelligently, making lemonade out of lemons, Master Blueprint, meaning of history, meaning of life, moral framework, moral society, Moses, narrative closure, novelistic Bible stories, novelistic outlook, novelistic view, Peter Brooks’s review of The Storyteller Essays by Walter Benjamin, phenomenological reduction, political smarts, promised land, providential influence, randomness of experience, rationalization, recognition scene, reconciliation, reunion scene, roll of the dice, self-awareness, self-correcting, selling your brother, sibling rivalry, sophisticated readers, the choices we make, the Joseph story, the novel, Walter Benjamin’s The Storyteller Essays, working the room, wrongly accused
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“Jane Austen”
“Jane Austen” The Oxford philosopher Gilbert Ryle was once asked whether he read novels. He is supposed to have answered, “Yes, all six of them.” How is it that Jane Austen, the author of those six and quintessential novelist-of-women, had … Continue reading →
Posted in academe, art, culture, femininity, gender balance, literature, nineteenth-century, relationships, social conventions, the examined life, the problematic of woman
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Tagged Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Bullying, coquetry, courtship, cynicism, Emma, Englishmen, feelings, Gilbert Ryle, girls, gossip, hard truths, Jane Austen, Literature, lying, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, persona, Persuasion, Plato, Pride and Prejudice, principles, Sense and Sensibility, social space, tact, the novel, vulgarity, vulnerability, Women
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