The Frogs is my favorite of Aristophanes's comedies. It is the only Aristophanean comedy to feature a god at the beginning -Dionysus, the god of the theatre, and his slave Xanthias. As they walk, Xanthias is meta-textually concerned with telling jokes that will make the audience laugh, and laughter presupposes some kind of suffering, though the … Continue reading Dionysus’s Descent Into Hades In The Frogs
Author: Great Books Guy
Aristophanes’s The Birds: A New City in the Sky
Aristophanes The Birds ("Ornithets") is the only comedy written by Aristophanes whose entire action takes place far from the city of Athens. Consequently, the play makes little mention of the circumstances of the Peloponnesian War, or of contemporary Athenian politics. It won second prize at the Dionysia in 414 BC. It is a play about the … Continue reading Aristophanes’s The Birds: A New City in the Sky
The Story of French Impressionism, Part IX: Gustave Caillebotte
Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) -pronounced "kye-bott"- was descended from a wealthy military textile family in Paris. His family owned a home in Paris and later bought a larger home south of Paris, as well. Photograph of Caillebotte circa 1878 Caillebotte studied law, and he was also drafted to serve in the armed forces during the Franco-Prussian War … Continue reading The Story of French Impressionism, Part IX: Gustave Caillebotte
Modernism in My Ántonia
A novel is just a glimpse, a framed and sometimes fragmented exploration into the depths of memory, psychology, time and place. Willa Cather's My Ántonia (pronounced "an-ton-ee-yuh") is one of the seminal works of the great American pastoral tradition, similar in style to O Pioneers! It is told as a reflection by Cather's friend from their … Continue reading Modernism in My Ántonia
The Story of French Impressionism, Part VIII: Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) is sometimes categorized as a "Post-Impressionist" painter by latter-day more sophisticated scholars of art history. In the same way that Manet is sometimes viewed as a bridge between "realism" and "modernism," Cézanne is sometimes viewed as abridge between late Impressionism and other modernist movements, like Cubism. Both Matisse and Picasso are said to … Continue reading The Story of French Impressionism, Part VIII: Paul Cézanne
The Story of French Impressionism, Part VII: Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas (1834-1917) (pronounced "day-dahs" but in later life he changed the pronunciation to "day-gah") never wished to be called an "Impressionist" instead preferring to be called a "Realist." In his paintings he was obsessed with motion, particularly of dancers, which occupied nearly half of his works. Degas was raised in an upper middles-class family. … Continue reading The Story of French Impressionism, Part VII: Edgar Degas
Thoughts on the Book of Wisdom
The apocryphal Biblical text, sometimes called the "Book of Wisdom" is a collection of 19 chapters intended to encourage readers and listeners to pursue a life of wisdom. It is a non-canonical text that likely emerged from the educated city of Alexandria, Egypt. It is sometimes attributed to Solomon and was listed in the Vulgate … Continue reading Thoughts on the Book of Wisdom
The Story of French Impressionism, Part VI: Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt
Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) was one of the key female figures of French Impressionism. Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets (1872) By: Édouard Manet - she often posed for Manet, this time in mourning for the death of her father. Like the other artists of the time, she began her career vying for a spot at … Continue reading The Story of French Impressionism, Part VI: Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt
Judith: Israel’s Great Heroine
Judith is the great apocryphal heroine of ancient Israel. Like an ancient Joan of Arc, she rises up during her nation's time of need. She employs her guile, like Odysseus, adorning a misleading costume and she dramatically slays Holofernes, the fearsome general of Assyria, before his army destroys the town of Bethulia near Jerusalem. The … Continue reading Judith: Israel’s Great Heroine
Stagecoach
Stagecoach (1939) Director: John Ford Stagecoach brought about a revival in the Western genre, which had largely fallen out of favor in the late '20s and '30s. The Western is a mythic depiction of the Western country and prairie, a largely historically untrue heroic story of courage and goodness in an amoral land of savages … Continue reading Stagecoach
