Li Po walks back to heaven
Once I found a book called The Living Past, written by Ivar Lissner in 1957: 60 essays on aspects of antiquity. One essay that had a vivid impact on me … Continue reading
Great film directors
Lists of great films are easy to compile if you don’t look too hard at what you mean by ‘great’. I looked around and found lots of lists. They all … Continue reading
Ancient laughter: Aristophanes
Because it seeks to challenge ideas, satire uses methods designed to make its audience think, and so effect their change of attitude themselves. It uses oblique methods. Parody, which exaggerates … Continue reading
Ancient laughter: Petronius
For every great writer we have there is an ocean of ephemera. We read One Hundred Years of Solitude while exposed to Mills and Boon romances, SF magazines TV series … Continue reading
The big world of George Carlin
I heard a voice crying in the wilderness. It was fearsome stuff, and it was the truth. And I laughed and laughed. “But there’s a reason. There’s a reason. There’s … Continue reading
Jesus: the evidence
What if we discovered the gospel writers had made a mistake? Really there had been several Jesus Christs in Judea at the same time (actually there were a few Jeshuas) … Continue reading
The bad popes
I was brought up a Catholic yet never questioned the fact that for 1400 years the head of the religion was also monarch of a state within Italy. I never … Continue reading
