Jorge Luis Borges
Dear Fred,
Thanks for your email.
At the University of Toronto, I had good fortune to speak with Jorge Luis Borges.
Borges was a cultured fellow who grew up in an English-speaking home "pervaded by English and England." He started reading Shakespeare, in English, at age 12 and considered him vastly over-rated. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Borges did acknowledge the bard as author of many literary nuggets, but often found them overshadowed by long, droning passages.
Consider the following review of "Borges" by Adolfo Bioy Casares: "This extraordinary volume sheds light on Borges’ omnivorous intellect while exposing his unbridled snobbery. He was a man of forceful, though inconsistent, opinions: Shakespeare is the most overrated writer, Joyce’s books are idiotic but keep literary critics employed, anyone who admires Baudelaire is an imbecile." - Angel Gurria-Quintana, Financial Times - http://www.complete-
I like your "left-wing rant."
How much of it do you believe?
And how much issues from your inner advocatus diaboli?
Pax on both houses,
Alan
PS Again, I encourage you to read "Under the Banner of Heaven." There are some seemingly impertinent chapters, but overall the book is thrilling and jaw-dropping. It is better to skip the "genealogically confounding" sections (mostly occurring from the middle of the volume to the three quarters' mark) than to miss the beginning and the end. Krakauer, who grew up in Oregon surrounded by Mormons (whom he very much admired) grapples admirably with "faith," "doubt," "belief-systems-in-conflict-with-science," the jurisprudential view of insanity and belief, and finally, the impulse to believe one's childhood conditioning even when such beliefs become increasingly "untenable." Although it is important to read deep enough into the book to get a saturated sense of Mormon history, the final chapter, "Canaan Mountain" is so good that you "should" read it even if it means by-passing the rest of the book. When Ron Howard converts "Banner of Heaven" into a movie, America will finally have the discussion of Mormonism that Romney diligently avoided and which Obama (an essentially courteous man) did not wish to force "from the closet." (Here is my most recent Mormon post, "Mormon "Prophet" Joseph Smith's Last Social Act Was To Fire Blindly Into A Crowd"
PPS Mormonism's polygamous past -- and present -- confer genealogical confusion. Despite LDS declarations eschewing polygamy, it will eventually prove necessary to revert to "Prophet" Joseph Smith's polygamous teaching, or, to continue as a religion whose formal power structure deleted Smith's core teaching. Essentially, Mormonism's 1890 anti-polygamy edict, issued by Mormon president Wilford Woodruff, countermanded God's "everlasting" revelation to "Prophet" Smith. Woodruff's retraction of God's Truth is like St. Paul retracting "Love your enemies, do good to those who persecute you" because God had bestowed personal revelation of a Higher Truth. (See "Mormonism and Polygamy" at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormonism_and_polygamy)
On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 11:11 AM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:
The remains of Richard III -- the only news that cheered me this morning.
I'm trying to do a left-wing rant.
Of course, he was one of those patriarchal p____ --- Shakespeare never wrote a play about a f______ queen unless it was Cleopatra and he made her second fiddle to Caesar when she should have kicked his male p__-a__ all over Rome and seized power in the name of all lower people. Seriously, Shakespeare will need to be re-written, all the heroes are men -- Hamlet, Macbeth, all those kings, Lear -- destroyed by his own daughters -- the witches in Macbeth -- women portrayed as inferior and evil...... Shakespeare can't be re-interpreted -- his vile chauvinist p__-p____ will need to be banished.
--
Fred Owens
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