Monday, September 06, 2004
Beauty and barbarity
I sent this piece from the Belmont Club to Scholar Jack, who teachers Dostoevsky. Jack's reply:
I sometimes think he has a better gig than teaching economics, though perhaps my pay is a compensating differential. At any rate, I think we're all ready to get back to the classroom where I at least don't fear it looking like this.
Beautiful. As Karamazov is. He's [Wretchard's] right, it's the greatest novel ever written, and finally has more power, complexity and vision than even the Iliad. Within the brothers any area of genuine human intensity -- sensual, spiritual, intellectual-- and all our themes from birth and joy to utter barbarity and unutterable suffering is there. It makes me anxious to teach it again.
I sometimes think he has a better gig than teaching economics, though perhaps my pay is a compensating differential. At any rate, I think we're all ready to get back to the classroom where I at least don't fear it looking like this.
