Classical education notes

Living where I am, most people are into reading The Bible.  This is OK, I guess, but my humanistic side longed for something else: something as dense and chewy, but different.

I got my inspiration while "on vacation" in Martha's Place, another establishment for the homeless, reading two volumes of "The Limits of Art", an anthology of the best of the best (as selected by well-regarded editors) of Western Literature. Having totally charmed another resident by reading her a French love poem (a villanelle)  I went on to read Milton's "Joy" and "Melancholy", and felt incredibly refreshed!

Which led me to try the Five Foot Shelf.  Every day, I'd log into Gateway Community College's computers, and download, sometimes in pieces, a reading assignment. Sometimes, I'd take whole volumes out: which caused me a major headache when, under the effects of wine, fatigue and a major cold, I lost one (owners of the Faust volume -- No. 29 -- are invited to sell me theirs. Original 1909 binding, please.)

It also led me, once I got my fancy computer, to grab hold of almost every .pdf in sight, along with some movies I wanted to "have with me" (in those heady first weeks, I fancied myself a badass, and needed Quentin Tarantino, plus every classic magic(k), yoga and martial arts text I could find.) 
Which brings me to the subject of my entry today. Considering that I have not one, but two, canonical sets of books considered to be the tops in Western (and some World) literature, I'm interested in a) how these lists might be updated, b) what paintings and music might be included if I were to make a similar "time capsule" on a Terabyte drive?





Location: Columbus House

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