Various Authors "Life and Death" vs. Simone Weil "The Iliad, or the Poem of Force"
Life and Death
Aside from philosophy both of these books have a common thread, which will become apparent later.
This first one, Life and Death, was required reading for my Honor Scholar's freshman seminar at DePauw University. The seminar was called "Ruin and Re-begetting" and was taught by Dr. Andrea Sununu, an unparalleled instructor about whom I cannot write enough praise without sounding corny.
My education sucked before college. Senior year the longest book we read was George Orwell's "Animal Farm." To study the Odyssey we watched the SciFi (Syfy?) channel's made-for-TV version. I'm not kidding. Sununu's class kicked my ass. My head hurt I had to think so much and this slender volume of philosophy made it hurt more than anything. It unrooted my preconceived, Christian notions of how everything worked, of how everything should be.
Because of things written in this book, and discussed in Sununu's class I considered death for the first time without the guarantee of Heaven, which is to say, I considered death for the first time. For this reason, I kept this book.
The Iliad, of the Poem of Force
This slender volume was a graduation gift from the same Dr. Sununu. Over the course of college I went from pre-med to econ major to classics major, going on to do a post-bac year in Greek and Latin and then becoming a Latin teacher--the post I will soon be leaving.
There was a time when I excelled at Greek and could almost, almost just read it. I brought all my skills to bear on The Iliad. However, it was not until I read Weil, a year after I received the gift, that I understood the art behind that epic poem. Up until then I'd kept the book because it was a gift, but after reading it, the book became a touchstone that I return to even though I've long forgotten Greek.
Back on the Shelf: The Iliad, of the Poem of Force
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