Commentary on content and instructors, fwiw:
Though I don't know all the books, or instructors, I've taken courses
from both Eva Brann and Patricia Greer, and both of them are superb--
Brann is legendary. I re-read the Alexandria Quartet a few years ago
(it came out in the late fifties) and it seemed to me to hold up very
well, even though Durrell wrote the last couple of volumes at
lightning speed, desperate to get it finished and published. My guess
is that this course is already closed, based on the fact that Brann is
one of the instructors. Worth trying to get into if it isn't.
Brann is also co-teaching Mann's "Magic Mountain" later in the term.
Another book I re-read recently, and seminal to 20th century thought.
Brann would be a superb guide through it.
Some of us in this group went through "Moby Dick" together last summer
with great pleasure; I know nothing about these instructors.
I've re-read "David Copperfield" in the last decade, and was agog at
how very good Dickens is (I speak as writer as well as reader). Know
nothing about the instructors.
Plutarch's "Lives" was not well-served by the course I took at St.
John's (not these instructors). In the first place, they insisted on
the Dryden translation. Dryden was a wonderful stylist and surely knew
his Greek, but (a) this meant the translation's English prose was
slightly archaic, and (b) since Dryden farmed out a lot of the
translation to others, more than slightly uneven.
In the second place, they taught it as if they were teaching
undergraduates--a moment to ask what constitutes the good life. As a
70-year-old fellow student said to me, if I don't know by now, Dryden
and Plutarch ain't gonna teach me. (He happens to be an example of a
very good life well-lived, so I understood his annoyance at this lost
opportunity for another approach.)
On Apr 19, 2011, at 12:26 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
Dear all,
Last fall, some of you encouraged me to try and organize a lit’ry
thing (12 best books, or something of the sort) for our “seminar”
series. I couldn’t pull it off ,but, for the summer, St Johns is
offering seminars that might fill the bill. Please See, http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/outreach/SF/SC/seminar_schedule.shtml
Also, I will copy in the info below:
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
http://www.cusf.org
Summer Classics 2011
Seminar Schedule
Week I
July 11 - 15
Morning
Lawrence Durrell | The Alexandria Quartet
Eva Brann and Patricia Greer
Joseph Conrad | The Secret Agent
Michael Peters and Steven Isenberg
Flannery O’Connor | Wise Blood, “The Enduring Chill,” and “Parker’s
Back”
Eric Salem and Cary Stickney
Sigmund Freud | Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis
Jan Arsenault and Linda Wiener
Afternoon
Nathaniel Hawthorne on Science, Technology, and Progress
Topi Heikkerö and Michael Wolfe
Søren Kierkegaard | Fear and Trembling
Keri Ames and David Starr
Week II
July 18 - 22
Morning
Thomas Mann | The Magic Mountain
Eva Brann and Janet Dougherty
The Founding Documents of the United States | The Declaration of
Independence, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers
Victoria Mora and Michael Peters
The Wisdom of Solomon
Patricia Greer and Michael Wolfe
William Faulkner | Go Down, Moses
Andy Kingston and Frank Pagano
Afternoon
Henry James | The Golden Bowl
Victoria Mora and Peter Pesic
Vivaldi | Griselda
and Puccini | La Bohème
William Fulton and Andy Kingston
Week III
July 25 - 29
William Shakespeare | The Merchant of Venice
Judith Adam and Warren Winiarski
Homer | The Odyssey
Michael Golluber and Susan Stickney
Herman Melville | Moby Dick
Arcelia Rodriguez and Greg Schneider
Plato | Phaedrus
John Cornell and Topi Heikkerö
Afternoon
Charles Dickens | David Copperfield
Guillermo Bleichmar and Richard McCombs
Plutarch | Lives
Susan Stickney and Margaret Kirby
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
