Reading W.H. Auden's Age of Anxiety in Our Age of Angst

     Among the most quoted and likely the least read works of modern poetry is W.H. Auden's deep and insightful The Age of Anxiety.  Readers who need some help with the richness of this modern poetic masterpiece, you now can get the the first critical edition and annotated volume of Auden's The Age of Anxiety since the original publication.  Similar to Eliot's The Waste Land, this poem requires some deep attention and assistance.  Scholar Alan Jacobs introduces this important work to a new prospective generation of open readers by placing the poem within the historical and biographical context, and providing numerous references to potential obscurities.  Alan Jacobs's introduction and informed annotations help today's readers understand and appreciate the full richness of a poem that contains some of Auden's most powerful and beautiful verse, and that deserves a place among the Great Books of the Western World.

     When it was first published in 1947, The Age of Anxiety was Auden's longest, and clearly his most sweeping poem.  The work was well received among critics and intelligent readers as it was a brilliant, cultural commentary on that particular moment. Beginning as a conversation among four strangers in a barroom on New York's Third Avenue, Auden's analysis of Western culture during the Second World War won the Pulitzer Prize and inspired a symphony by Leonard Bernstein. Auden has characters (Quant, Malin, Rosetta, and Emble) engaged in a reflective  conversation exploring the contours and particulars of the age within which they were living.  Likely, if this work were cast today, it would likely take place in a Sports Bar with an array of our athletic distractions blaring in the background.  

Montaigne's The Essays

     This reading is from Montaigne's The Essays.  Mortimer Adler says that spontaneous interest seems simply that of an explorer and to him nothing human is foreign or strange (99).   Adler also says this is the characteristic of Montaigne's special brand of skepticism and tolerance.  It challenges us as does the faith of St. Augustine and the devotion of Socrates to the pursuit of truth.  For those who believe that there is such a thing as TRUTH, should not fear in any way the devout pursuit for truth.    
     Adler, speaks of this end in terms of suspended judgment.  One question that Adler asks is this what kind of riding is the essay why did Montanio adopt this particular literary form he speaks of this intensely personal character ballhandler speaks about Montania's motivation in terms of leisurely speculation one can see there is more going on here in this ultimately we encounter Mantegna the skeptic page 103 
     no view is to be taken for granted simply because custom and received opinion favorite we see in this work she tools of persuasion also recognized despite Montanio's intellect. He is not a philosopher we should think of him as being in line with the modern social scientist who observes reflects and comments some questions that after opposes our import are all customs equally good 105 on page 106 ever asked this question is custom itself responsible for what we consider good or bad. 
     What gives us the opinion concerning good and evil? How does this position effect moral judgment can we say for example that a person who practices racial or religious discrimination in a society or area where such practices cost Mera customer is guilty of anything have we any ground in this beautiful condemning the communist and a communist contrary to the Nazi and about to country the hell does the view that custom determines the judgments of good and evil have any effect on the question whether accustom itself can be good or evil field greens with Montanya's view that philosophy should be studied by the young there are for good questions that Adler asked on page 408. Why should only 15 or 16 years be given over to education does not make more sense to say that a man's education is never finished except in the accidental sense of his having finish certain formal requirements is not more flossy fully understandable only to the person who has experience the full range of moral dilemmas that is the adult and for what are the plane. Will this courses that Mantegna recommends for starting one key point that Adler makes is at the whole difficulty of moral education is not learn rules and maxims but you know how to apply another question ever asked how valid is Montagne argument that good and evil depend on opinion what does this argument prove there a number of excellent insights that Adler offers in reaction to a response to Montagne you some good insights from unchaining himself finally at Erastus does the essay title didn't say anything more than that the opinion of good and evil depends in a great measure upon the opinion we have of them

More Tools to Assist in a Journey Through Dante's Divine Comedy

     Aside for Robert Hollander's three volumes on Dante's Divine Comedy, 

Bertrand Russell's Definition of Number: Readings from Gateway to the Great Books

Bertrand Russell's Mathematics and Metaphysicians: Readings from Gateway to the Great Books

The Declaration of Independence: The Great Ideas Program

Tacitus The Annals: The Great Ideas Program

Biblical Readings of a Political Nature: The Great Ideas Program

Plutarch's The Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans: The Great Ideas Program

Plato's Republic: The Great Ideas Program

Aristotle's Politics: The Great Ideas Program

Gulliver'sTravels: The Great Ideas Program

     It is difficult, for different reasons, to read some of the Great Books. One reason it is challenging is because they have been so altered by other forms such as television shows or movies. Possibly the best example would be Jonathan Swift's, always relevant, Gulliver's Travels. Adler says of the Great Books that, "these books contribute to the worth of the individual life by increasing personal self-knowledge.  The injunction to 'know-thyself' may be a counsel of wisdom for the human race as a whole as well as for the individual man." (137)   
     I think Adler says this because he recognizes Jonathan Swift's classic of satire as a great way of helping us to know ourselves as particular people, and the human condition in general.  I do know of Jonathan Swift's Lilliputians both in the work Gulliver's Travels and in my daily life! Adler uses some of the following adjectives to speak of Jonathan Swift's work, "satirical, biting, bitter, savage, merciless, mocking, contemptuous, misanthropic." (139)   
     Long debated is what exactly Jonathan Swift is attempting to do in this work.  No doubt, part of what he was doing was looking very carefully and critically at the age in which he lived.  Certainly, we could apply some of his insights to our age.  Noteworthy is his criticism of education and scholarship, although some of his sharpest barbs are for politics and politicians.  After reading this dark literary delight and turning to the modern academy and our political milieu, one could speculate that Swift used divination to look into the future.   Adler makes a key point that there are times where Swift moves from satire to hatred, (142) and this is where the Christian reader ought to tread cautiously.  


A few questions for reflection when reading Gulliver's Travels:
1) What are some of the similarities and differences between satire and tragedy?
2) What of the four parts of Gulliver's Travel's is most successful?

Western Civilization--Old School via Professor Dawson

     Before all the noise, bizarre theories, revisionists approaches, and misinterpretations of Western Civilization there was a brilliant and dedicated scholar who carefully studied primary documents and a range of cultural and social artifacts.  His research and passion yielded much fruit, and in his day, Christopher Dawson was recignized as a world class cultural historian.  
     Then enter full-blown secularized consciousness, and Dawson's approach and findings fell to the wayside. Among his many insights, Dawson noticed an inextricable bond between religion and culture.  He wrote often, and masterfully, about this bond.  The encouraging news is that many of his works have come back into print.  Many of these works have returned due to the work of Catholic University Press of America.  I am looking forward to the re-release of Dawson's The Age of the Gods: A Study of the Origins of Culture in Prehistoric Europe and the Ancient East.  I will read it carefully and blog on it by summer's end.  
     I am so indebted to Dawson on so many levels, and I can honestly say that apart from the primary sources, he has shaped the way I think about history and the way the cultural historian should go about the task of thinking historically.  It still surprises my students when I divide Western Civilization in the broadest categories of "Pre-Christian; Christian: Post-Christian."  They are shocked when I begin with Ancient Israel, and dumb-founded when the so-called Dark Ages are lifted up as being the Age of Faith and extraordinary cultural good.  Often I hear them say, we have never heard before that the "Age of Enlightenment" was an age of barbaric and brutal blood-shed in the name of "reason" and "progress."  
     If you desire to understand Western Civilization as it was taught before all the modern academic distortions, get a set of The Great Books, read the historical volumes, and make your way through the works of Christopher Dawson.  It will be well worth the time and an education you cannot purchase for big bucks at the best universities.

You Paid How Much for That Education?

     It is common when expressing what a person paid for a car or house, when they clearly paid more for something that was not worth the price, "You paid how much?!?!"  One is surprised that this expression is not daily heard of higher education.  Considering the ridiculous price many university students pay for the non or anti education they lay down hundreds of thousands of dollars to receive, you would think "buyer beware" should become the unofficial motto of the modern academy.
     When and how it all went wrong has been well documented, and there is certainly no shortage of "solutions," but the reality is that Titanic University struck the ice-berg some time ago and the band plays on while the student body meanders about getting crumbs from what used to be the feast of learning.  What is true of the California Universities, is likely as true for the rest of the nation with a few notable exceptions.