Category Archives: literature classics
Paulo Coelho: The Alchemist
Upon recommendation I read The Alchemist by best-selling Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. A fable/parable novel, it has some great insights into why we don’t pursue our dreams. What bugs me about the book is its New Age-y themes. Although Christ appears … Continue reading
Beauty and the Tyrant
Why bother with Arenas? A comment follows this quotation. Quoting Reinaldo Arenas, Before Night Falls (1993): “At the [Cuban] National Library in 1969 Lezama [Lima] gave a reading of perhaps one of the most extraordinary essays of Cuban literature under … Continue reading
In Spirit and Truth
I always get into what I’m reading. I’ve been wanting some biography, and happened on Before Night Falls through a book list. It’s a memoir of Reinaldo Arenas, Cuban poet, freedom fighter and gay activist. Not the kind of book you’d … Continue reading
Posted in literature classics, politics, reading, religion
Tagged Arenas, Cuba, poetry
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Les Mis finished!
Left: Victor Hugo I just finished Les Miserables, 1260 pages in the Modern Library translation by Charles Wilbour. If anyone has read the new translation published by the Vintage Classics, please comment. I’d like to compare translations, because I’ve read … Continue reading
Posted in Spiritual classics, literature classics, reading, social issues
Tagged Les Miserables, reading, self image
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The Moth and the Flame, a parable
The following is from Les Miserables (Project Gutenburg) St. Denis, Bk 7, “Slang.” Hugo defends recording slang, which he calls the language of misery. Then, as is typical, after several pages I forced myself to read, I found this: Thoughtful … Continue reading
Posted in Spiritual classics, literature classics, reading, social issues
Tagged Les Miserables, reading
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Lent is for “lencten”—lengthen what?
As, from outside, I endure the extreme misery of my friends, sometimes it gets too much. This week it did. I turned to Victor Hugo’s mythic novel Les Miserables, which I’ve never read, I don’t know, maybe as a way … Continue reading
Posted in Bible, literature classics, religion, social issues
Tagged Isaiah, Lent, Les Miserables, Revelation
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From the tower looking out on the Sea
1008 pages! I finished my semi-annual reading of Lord of the Rings. Not the 130 pages of appendices. Not The Silmarillion. That book’s a little dense for me, or I’m too dense for it, maybe. I’ve read that Tolkien believed … Continue reading
When the heart is hard and parched
When the heart is hard and parched, come upon me with a shower of mercy. When grace is lost from life, come with a burst of song. When tumultuous work raises its din on all sides, shutting me out from … Continue reading
Of the Ring in the road, chocolate and reading
I’m making good progress in LOTR. The orcs have Frodo in custody, Aragorn and the Dunedain have taken the paths of the dead, and the Rohirrim are about to ride. Sam reveals that Frodo bears the Ring to Faramir, Boromir’s … Continue reading
