If I were to select any literary couple other than Prince Hamlet and Lady Ophelia with whom to celebrate Valentine's Day, I would choose Dante Alighieri and Beatrice Portinari without question. Though their real-life romance is rather tragic—one could even see the dismal misfortune in a Wikipedia biography—their literary reconciliation is among the sweetest and most ancient epitomes of Christian romantic devotion.
Category: Literary Wisdom
The Storms of King Lear and Paradise Lost
Hello, everyone! I'm sorry I have not posted in a while. I'm working on something grand, lovely, and different, but it needs some more time till I release the first portion on the Internet. In the meantime, here's a pensive little snippet from my other writing, musing on the storms of Shakespeare's King Lear and Milton's Paradise Lost.… Continue reading The Storms of King Lear and Paradise Lost
The Burial of Ophelia: A Poem
With the completion of this Shakespearean sonnet, I sought to speculate at the symbolism of Ophelia's death in Hamlet. Previously I had rewritten a song of death and published it as a poem concerning Ophelia's burial, but only through the eyes of Hamlet's grief. Contrarily, through the shrouded eyes of Ophelia, I think we can gain… Continue reading The Burial of Ophelia: A Poem
New and Noteworthy: Santa Claus Revealed As 1984’s “Big Brother”
WASHINGTON, D.C.—In a shocking study put out by the Central Intelligence Agency today, CIA head Jack Ryan exposed Santa Claus' true identity—the "Big Brother" Orwell so often wrote about in the dystopia 1984.
Literary Wisdom: “Inferno” by Dante Alighieri
As the year began to close, I ventured into the world of epic poetry—and what a beautiful thing it has been! With many thanks to Homer's Odyssey and Milton's Paradise Lost, I finally learned what it was like to sail through the mythological, monster-ridden Mediterranean Sea and to fly on the wings of angels, whirling through space and… Continue reading Literary Wisdom: “Inferno” by Dante Alighieri
On the Death of Frankenstein
When I was first assigned Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, I couldn't think why that could be. Mind you, my teachers were and are exceptionally nice, but horror? The kind made up of nothing but virtually inaccessible laboratories covered in toxic fumes, containing nothing but the maddest and most unearthly fashion of men? Screams of "Aaaah!", "It's alive!", and… Continue reading On the Death of Frankenstein
Literary Wisdom: Hercule Poirot Mysteries
Though Father Brown reignited my love for the literary mystery genre, Hercule Poirot fanned that spark into a lasting flame. Agatha Christie’s conceited little Belgian gentleman, constantly finding something to straighten and thus defy the Second Law of Thermodynamics, always manages to win my heart more thoroughly in every book that I read.
Literary Wisdom: The Deerslayer
James Fenimore Cooper's The Deerslayer is the most charming and profound frontier story that passed before my eyes. Though I would not be surprised if the novel is one of the lengthiest and most drawn-out in the genre, Cooper managed also to instill lessons of integrity, deception, and natural beauty into the genre that is usually characterized… Continue reading Literary Wisdom: The Deerslayer
Literary Wisdom: The Scarlet Letter, Part Two
This post is a continuation of the first Scarlet Letter post. If you'd like to read that one first, please click here. Also, please Google a summary of the novel if you have not read it already...I apologize for not explaining the plot beforehand. Thank you! In our last post, we discussed five key quotations from Hawthorne's The… Continue reading Literary Wisdom: The Scarlet Letter, Part Two
Literary Wisdom: The Scarlet Letter, Part One
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is one of the most dreaded books teens are forced to read in high school. It's made up of everything modern society doesn't like—rambling sentences; an excessively drawn-out plot; mystical, enigmatic symbolism; and early modern English dialogue (think Shakespeare, with "thou" and "dost"). On top of that, Hawthorne occasionally has some...interesting "theology." Yet… Continue reading Literary Wisdom: The Scarlet Letter, Part One
