Thoughts on Papyrus

The nine muses are the daughters of Zeus and Titan goddess Mnemosyne (of “memory”) who lived on Mount Helicon where they cultivated their creative gifts near the streams and geysers made by the hoof of winged horse Pegasus. Those streams and lakes, created by the hoof, were said to endow anyone who drunk from them …

Botchan [1906/2012] – ★★★★ In this novel by Natsume Sōseki, one reckless and boisterous young man from Tokyo somehow manages to finish school and an institute and gets the position of a mathematics teacher in a small town on the island of Shikoku. The fun begins then and there because “Botchan” (this young man’s nickname) …

Explosion in a Cathedral (El Siglo de las Luces) [1962] – ★★★★★ When Victor Hugues, a merchant sailor, enters the quiet life of a trio of adolescent orphans, bringing with him revolutionary spirit and new ideas, they do not immediately suspect the consequences of their newest attachment or the corrupting influence he will unleash. Left …

Matthias Grünewald is one of those Renaissance painters who were forgotten for a long time before being rediscovered in the nineteenth century. Grünewald was born c.1470, and gained some recognition during his lifetime for his work in the late medieval style, even as the world turned to classicism. Much of his work was lost at …

Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds [2002] – ★★★★ Using the structure of Lurianic Kabbalah, American literary critic Harold Bloom (1930-2019) talks about one hundred literary geniuses in this book that presents each of the authors’ major works, biographical trivia and Bloom’s own insightful commentary. Virgil, William Shakespeare, Thomas Mann, Fyodor Dostoev...