Fun game. What about: More or less Modernist in aesthetics; anarcho-syndicalist in politics; medium high-church Anglican in religion (just have seen too many irreverent small-parish Anglican priests go off on witty tangents).
Must (also) object frankly to the characterization of Arjuna’s debate with Krishna. I don’t think it’s alien at all. I think there is something deeply cross-cultural (universal, in fact) at work there. It’s a sublimation of individuality to duty; a condemnation of the will not-to-act (which finds its peak expression in Hamlet of course -- and so maybe that’s a much later Western response, neurotic-critique, and that’s what distinguishes these traditions) but the endorsement of such a will could be found so easily in Achilles’ slaying of Hector (which you’ve mentioned), or Abraham’s near-infanticide. “We’re not so different, you and I.” I suppose we could say that “Judeo-Christianity” superseded this ethos, but...has it? Has it, really? Has a random messianic, all-embracing religious tradition co-opted by imperial and industrial economic forces really clarified these opposites?
Without wishing to speak as an expert on Hinduism, which I'm not qualified to do, and also without trying to speak for Sam, I think the source of the alienation is not so much the submission-to-duty part as the nothing-is-real/reality-is-an-illusion part, which seems to rob the situation of the pathos and tragedy one finds both in Genesis and Homer, the later political destinies of Jerusalem/Athens aside. But again, I don't pretend to expertise and that was more of a passing comment on my part than a definitive pronouncement.
Thanks, I appreciate your comment. Your characterization of Four Quartets is very apt. The comparison with Stevens is true to my experience. I tried to read Stevens as a teen just as I read Eliot and couldn't get anywhere at all. I love Stevens now, but I didn't really make anything of his work till I was in my 30s and had a PhD.
Fun game. What about: More or less Modernist in aesthetics; anarcho-syndicalist in politics; medium high-church Anglican in religion (just have seen too many irreverent small-parish Anglican priests go off on witty tangents).
Must (also) object frankly to the characterization of Arjuna’s debate with Krishna. I don’t think it’s alien at all. I think there is something deeply cross-cultural (universal, in fact) at work there. It’s a sublimation of individuality to duty; a condemnation of the will not-to-act (which finds its peak expression in Hamlet of course -- and so maybe that’s a much later Western response, neurotic-critique, and that’s what distinguishes these traditions) but the endorsement of such a will could be found so easily in Achilles’ slaying of Hector (which you’ve mentioned), or Abraham’s near-infanticide. “We’re not so different, you and I.” I suppose we could say that “Judeo-Christianity” superseded this ethos, but...has it? Has it, really? Has a random messianic, all-embracing religious tradition co-opted by imperial and industrial economic forces really clarified these opposites?
Without wishing to speak as an expert on Hinduism, which I'm not qualified to do, and also without trying to speak for Sam, I think the source of the alienation is not so much the submission-to-duty part as the nothing-is-real/reality-is-an-illusion part, which seems to rob the situation of the pathos and tragedy one finds both in Genesis and Homer, the later political destinies of Jerusalem/Athens aside. But again, I don't pretend to expertise and that was more of a passing comment on my part than a definitive pronouncement.
It’s possible I’ve been reading too much Paglia of late.
I've been there!
Thanks, I appreciate your comment. Your characterization of Four Quartets is very apt. The comparison with Stevens is true to my experience. I tried to read Stevens as a teen just as I read Eliot and couldn't get anywhere at all. I love Stevens now, but I didn't really make anything of his work till I was in my 30s and had a PhD.