Category: Feature

2

Announcement: Return to Work

My absence from Fleming.Foundation was initially due to Christmas and the arrival of two our our children, but the prolongation of inertia was the result of an intestinal disease that left most of the family fairly wasted.  It matches pretty well the classic symptoms of a noro-virus.  The departure of the virus–and the children–has made it possible to return to my labors

16

Sophocles’ Ajax: The Struggle Over the Corpse

The end of the Ajax is a rhetorical battle over the corpse of Ajax, and, though it is a war of words, it is no less serious than the Homeric conflicts over the battle and armour of a fallen hero.  The basic antagonists are three:  Teucer, the two Atridae (who make much the same argument, though Agamemnon is more reasonable, perhaps because he is dealing with Odysseus), and Odysseus. Rather than summarize the scene, I’d like to leave it up to the readers to give their response to the following questions: First, what is the nub of each set of...

34

The Trump Administration:  An Early Assessment

A real historical view of Donald Trump’s one term in the White House will require the passage of considerable time.  Assuming intelligent history is still being written twenty years from now, not an entirely safe assumption,  the emphasis will probably be on Trump’s role, positive or negative,  in the degeneration of American society that is the main theme of our time.

5

Sophocles’ Ajax, Introduction Part II: Principal Characters and the Form

Characters Aias (Ajax) is a prominent character in the Iliad.  He is the cousin of Achilles and half-brother of Teucer.  He is most conspicuous for his athletic strength and unremitting valor in defense.  Sometimes thought of by readers as a bit of a dumb ox, he is praised for his prudence by Hector and is among the small group chosen to take part in the embassy to persuade Achilles to return to the battle.  On that occasion, he displays both good sense and outspoken candor, when he tells his fellows–Odysseus and Phoenix–that there is no dealing with Achilles.  Other men...

9

A Letter from an Alabamian

By

If Martin Luther King Jr. is considered The American Hero, and the civil rights movement viewed as the ultimate expression or spring board of everything good about America…. Then it is only logical that a reexamination of people like Southerner, three-time elected Governor George Wallace is considered, and written about in a different way to counter it