Lara has to be the love of his life, with no other. Hence, he catches one final glimpse of her. We may hope that Lara is his Beatrice, the revelation of Sophia, assuming that his life and poetry had made him wise. Continue reading
Category Archives: Reviews
Brief Encounter
Laura is a dissatisfied housewife who realizes that an essential element is missing. Laura, it must be noted, is the name of the mysterious woman who was the subject of so many of Petrarch’s sonnets. Hence, she must not be understood as a contemporary woman eager for sexual experiences, although she is never quite sure of what is missing in her life. Continue reading
Happy Wife, Unhappy Life
Stuff happens and then she lives happily ever after. Continue reading
Naima
Naked in bed together the next morning, she asks, “Now what?” He suggests, “we get a dog, get married, have children, buy a house.” And “then what?” she asks again. “Life as usual,” Continue reading
Orpheus and Eurydice: The Happy Ending
Contra all the psycho-babble online, Plato understands “true love” as the willingness to die for one’s love. Orpheus was therefore a coward because he could only sing about it. Continue reading
Laura: Men Desire Her and Women Envy Her
Laura was that rare combination of intelligence, beauty, and brashness that made “men desire her and women envy her.” She draws attention that will lift her out of her office job into the world of the rich and powerful. Continue reading
The Empty Man
In the twilight states between sleep and awakening, disturbing images of an abyss enter my consciousness. It may be a building or a natural structure. I look down, straight down, and experience the same vertigo as if it were there physically in front of me. It is not the fear of falling that is the cause. Rather, it is the fear of jumping that raises alarm. The return to the unreal status quo is a bad option, since it is just more repetition of the same old. On the other hand, there is no bridge to cross it. At such moments, it is necessary to make a decision and accept what life has offered you. So you jump. Continue reading
The Animus and Mrs Muir
The young widow Lucy Muir moves to the English seashore only to discover that the cottage she rented is haunted by the ghost of Captain Daniel Gregg, a rough and tough seafaring man. Undaunted, she develops a relationship with him. His crude and direct manners contrast with her prissy upbringing. Continue reading
Kerouac and the Faustian West
The sinner is at the very heart of Christianity. Nobody is so competent as the sinner in matters of Christianity. Nobody, except the saint. ~ Charles Péguy Love, Work, and Suffer ~ Motto of the Kerouac family (Rivista Araldica) Am actually not “beat” but strange solitary crazy Catholic mystic ~ … Continue reading
Heroes and Vibhutis
The thing a man does practically believe (and this is often enough without asserting it even to himself, much less to others); the thing a man does practically lay to heart, and know for certain, concerning his vital relations to this mysterious Universe, and his duty and destiny there, that is in all cases the primary thing for him, and creatively determines all the rest. Continue reading