Suffering

In Homer’s Odyssey, Eumaeus, the swineherd, is the first person Odysseus meets upon his return to Ithaca. “[L]et us two, here in the hut, over our food and wine, regale ourselves with the unhappy memories that each can recall. For a man who has been through bitter experiences and traveled far can enjoy even his…

My Ántonia

My Ántonia Ántonia is, of course, Ántonia Shimerda, a twelve year old immigrant girl from Bohemia with big brown eyes and wavy hair, when we first meet her. Ask different people what they remember of Willa Cather’s My Antonia and they will tell you different things. It depends, one supposes, on whether one grew up…

Redundancies

Feeling superfluous? My twelve year old daughter came home from school one day and proudly announced she got the part of Lord (Lady) Angus in Macbeth. Then she proudly pointed to the word that said this part is “SUPERfluous.” She acted the part with consummate skill to great approbation. Superfluous is related to redundancy, both…

Words Fail Me

Words, words, words “Words, English words, are full of echos, of memories, of associations. They have been out and about, on peoples lips, in the streets and in the fields for so many centuries. And that is one of the chief difficulties in writing them today …“ Virginia Woolf, Words Fail Me, BBC, 29 April…