If you're reading and entry this week, I probably actually wrote it today! Trying to get back ahead some.
Quick review on this week's readings:
July 22 The Odyssey by Homer: 4/5 Hitting a real "classic's classic" here
July 23 "Envy" by Francis Bacon: 4/5 Mostly still good and relevant.
July 24 The Voyage of The Beagle by Darwin: 3/5 Would've liked more first hand accounts, but mostly good.
July 25 "The Lay of Brynhild" from The Elder Edda: 2/5 Too fragmented
July 26 The Imitation of The Christ By Kempis: 1/5 I'm so tired of reading different versions of, "God is awesome! You suck!"
July 27 "On the Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery" by Lister: 4/5 Yay for primary source science!.
July 28 "Of Agriculture" by Cowley: 1/5 Pastoral hipsters gonna hipster pastorally.
Average: 2.7 Plenty of good stuff this week!
Overall Thoughts on The Project:
Overall, this was a pretty solid week. Four strong pieces, and even "Of Agriculture" feels like it has some value in showing historical examples of something most people probably think of as more modern (evidently it goes all the way back to ancient Greece. You can never get too nostalgic for pastoralism!)
But the stand out here is The Imitation of The Christ for the reasons I talked about in its entry. It's always weird when the super traditional/conservative Christian texts come up, since they feel so opposed to the entire idea of T5FSOB. All people are terrible, stupid, worthless, etc. is a constant theme in them. But look at this quote from Dr. Eliot in 15MAD:
Before the reading plan represented by The Harvard Classics had taken definite form, I had more than once stated in public that in my opinion a five-foot—at first a three-foot—shelf would hold books enough to afford a good substitute for a liberal education to anyone who would read them with devotion, even if he could spare but fifteen minutes a day for reading.
As I've written before (and he talks about later in the same intro) the defining characteristic of a liberal education is its suitability for someone who is free, creative, etc. While Eliot also notes that we're not supposed to agree with everything in the collection, it's meant to show the overall arc of thought, etc. it's still hard to reconcile something so opposed to the basic purpose's conclusion, except as a way to show how misguided it is. I've entertained this theory before, but the fawning introductions and frequency of these kinds of selections makes me doubt it.
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