The Swerve

[Paul Mackin]

On 9/8/2011 2:34 PM, Albert Rolls wrote:
> Greenblatt is a smart guy but he's sort of hit or miss. In my younger days, I was overly impressed but then started seeing the cracks. That said, despite what Brian Vickers said about his style, I admire Greenblatt's prose.

 From the publisher's description it sounds like the author could be 
indulging in the one cause fallacy. But that might be just a grabber and 
not fair to the book..  Many texts from the ancient world were 
discovered by Europe during those years and propagated  via Gutenberg's 
invention. They and many other factors were responsible for the 
"swerve." It is true that Lucretius'  notion that the soul cannot exist 
without the body and that there is no question of life after death is a 
prevalent modern one. But  it didn't really catch on during the 
Reconnaissance.   Becoming aware of human possibility didn't eradicate 
belief in the soul and God.  That lasted centuries into the future.

And as McLuhan would say. if you don't like this analysis I've got 
another one. :-)

P

>
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Dave Monroe<against.the.dave at gmail.com>
>> Sent: Sep 8, 2011 11:41 AM
>> To: pynchon -l<pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Subject: The Swerve
>>
>> http://books.wwnorton.com/books/The-Swerve/
>