Syllabus

[Ian Livingston]

Will Durant notes that any period of peace seems to require a similar
period of war to follow it. Something in the social nature of the
human, perhaps, an eternal return to conflict, with intermittent
respites.

If all is story, why limit yourself? Read 'em all and see how they connect.

On Sun, Mar 20, 2011 at 1:53 PM, Richard Fiero <rfiero at gmail.com> wrote:
> I see no reason to study historical fictions when the entire present is also
> a fiction. I would reverse the reverse of the Pynchon study.
>
> From M&D:
> "Brae, your Cousin proceeds unerringly to the Despair at the Core of
> History,- and the Hope. As Savages commemorate their great Hunts with
> Dancing, so History is the Dance of our Hunt for Christ, and how we have
> far'd. If it is undeniably so that he rose from the Dead, then the Event is
> taken into History, and History is redeem'd from the service of Darkness,-
> with all the secular Consquences, flowing from that one Event, design'd and
> will'd to occur."
>
> "Including ev'ry Crusade, Inquisition, Sectarian War, the millions of lives,
> the seas of blood," comments Ethelmer. "What happen'd? He liked it so much
> being dead that He couldn't wait to come back and share it with ev'rybody
> else?"
>
> "Sir." Mr. LeSpark upon his feet. "Save that for your next Discussion with
> others of comparable wisdom. In this house we are simple folk, and must
> labor to find much amusement in Joaks about the Savior."
> Ethelmer bows.
>
> "Temporarily out of touch with my Brain," he mumbles, "Sorry, ev'rybody.
> Sir, Reverend, Sir."
>
>



-- 
"Less than any man have I  excuse for prejudice; and I feel for all
creeds the warm sympathy of one who has come to learn that even the
trust in reason is a precarious faith, and that we are all fragments
of darkness groping for the sun. I know no more about the ultimates
than the simplest urchin in the streets." -- Will Durant