I might begin with the vernacular observation that, like all of Saint Thomas’s five ways, the argument from design seems rooted in human imagination. At some point we wake up and look around and see that the world is wonderful. We may be the Hebrew psalmist: “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1), or Saint Francis, who sang of brother sun and sister moon
In this episode of Utopia Limited, Dr. Fleming discusses the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta that is the namesake of the series, as well as a dystopian classic set with some of the same ideas about English government: G.K. Chesterton’s The Napoleon of Notting Hill.
In this episode of Homer, Dr. Fleming discusses the value of the Greek religion from a cultural perspective, and begins to describe the qualities of the gods.
What is perhaps most significant about Daniel Webster is that – like every other remotely interesting figure – he lies beyond the pale of acceptable discourse.
I wanted to ask Mr. Chiaroscuro about some of the tricks he had used to propel faceless nonentities into the Senate and up to the White House.
Jeremy Chiaroscuro is one of the most important men in American politics. Not that he is a politician. Jeremy wants to be a puppet master and not one of the puppets whose only qualification is an insipid face and a case of hairspray. Like his one-time rival Carl Rogue, he was a protégé of the legendary Grant Blackpool, who until his premature death pioneered the science of hardball politicking.
In this inaugural episode of Utopia Limited Dr Fleming traces first the introduction of Utopian literature and the necessary “myth of progress” which led to the first dystopian literature, and how the genre is distinct from science fiction.
In this episode of Homer, Dr. Fleming discusses various episodes in the Iliad and their particular resonances. He also goes on to discuss the overall structure of the work and how little the “main story” occupies the majority of the work.
In this episode of On the Shelf, Stephen shares his thoughts on Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey, and Dr. Fleming comments on it and what he considers a superior Western novel, The Virginian by Owen Wister. Join us for discussions of shootouts, Mormons, and the beguiling beauty of the American West.
Homeric epic poems were not originally written but preserved by a tradition of oral composition that made these stories easier to recite (and remember). To appreciate the brilliant technique, it is useful to understand dactylic hexameter, which is used throughout the Iliad, as well as how the various “homeric” texts came down into the texts we know today as the Iliad and the Odyssey.
