The Classical Mind Newsletter for August 4, 2023
Reading as an Act of Hospitality, The Brothers Karamazov, Russian Literature and Meaning, "Forbearance", and A Little Bit About Punctuation
Housekeeping
We recorded the final episode of season 1 on The Brothers Karamazov yesterday. It will be released this Tuesday.
The September episode will be a twofer: Oedipus Rex by Sophocles and Poetics by Aristotle.
We are working on setting up a merch store. It should be live soon.
Junius has a new book out: On Teaching Fairy Stories: A Guide to Cultivating Wonder in Students through Great Literature. This book isn’t just for teachers, parents can also benefit from it. Check it out here!
Wesley will be teaching the following classes this school year at True North Homeschool Academy if your family or someone you know is looking for classes for their kids: Philosophy through Plato, Formal Logic, Latin II, Latin III, and Latin IV.
Season 2 Schedule
In case you missed the most recent episode of the podcast, here is our reading schedule for Season 2:
September: Oedipus Rex by Sophocles and Poetics by Aristotle
October: Euthyphro by Plato
November: The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
December: Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer
January: TBD - Listener’s Choice
February: Julius Caesar by Shakespeare
March: Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
April: Emma by Jane Austen
May: The Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott
June: TBD - Listener’s Choice
July: Intention by Gertrude Elizabeth Anscombe
August: Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
Reading as an Act of Hospitality
As always, the brilliant Jessica Hooten Wilson provides us with an important reminder at The Scandal of Reading: Uncovering Holy Wisdomthat the act of reading is an exercise in hospitality. To teach us this lesson, she engages with Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri. This is a book I haven’t read but has come up in a few different conversations recently and, after reading her discussion of it, I am inclined to pick up a copy as soon as possible. In this context, the hospitality of reading comes from the guest-host relationship: “You are sitting down before the author to receive his or her gift.”
“The Brothers Karamazov,” Reviewed
At The New Yorker, Jennifer Wilson—no relation to Jessica Hooten Wilson—offers a helpful summary and review of The Brothers Karamazov. It might be a helpful article if you haven’t read the book or want to revisit the story in anticipation of our upcoming episode.
