Novels in the Great Books

The reading for October is Swift's 'Gulliver's Travels'.  This got me thinking about the pure stories in the Great Books.  Outside of the science, history and pure philosophy, we have storytelling.  That breaks down neatly between theater (Aeschylus, Shakespeare), poetry (Homer, Milton) and what are probably best described as novels.  This is a list of the novels, including a breakdown on when we'll come across them in the reading list.

• Gargantua and Pantagruel - Rabelais; (two parts) June of year one and June of year seven
• Gulliver's Travels - Swift; October of year two
• Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky; (two parts) November of year three and November of year four
• Moby Dick - Melville; October of year four
• Don Quixote - Cervantes; (two parts) July of year five and July of year 10
• War and Peace - Tolstoy; (two parts) November of year five and December of year six
• Tristam Shandy - Sterne; July of year eight
• Tom Jones - Fielding; July of year nine

Poetry - Holmes

The following poem is 'Old Ironsides' by Oliver Wendell Holmes.  He wrote it in 1830 when the US Navy planned to destroy their oldest frigate, the U.S.S. Constitution.  Holmes, then 21 years old, helped sway public opinion and saved the ship.  It can still be visited in Boston.

Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle shout,
And burst the cannon's roar;
The meteor of the ocean air
Shall sweep the clouds no more.

Her deck, once red with heroes' blood,
Where knelt the vanquished foe,
When winds were hurrying o'er the flood,
And waves were white below,
No more shall feel the victor's tread,
Or know the conquered knee;
The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!

Oh, better that her shattered bulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!

It's an effective poem, certainly.  The warship has a definite place in the world and Holmes articulates it well.  The ship brings joy to those who shear its goals and fear to those that oppose them.  Having served its intended purpose, it becomes a holy object and must be treated with reverence.  As he says, 'better that her shattered bulk/Should sink beneath the wave' than to be simply pried apart and junked.  (I'll admit that when I was young, I was shocked that old wars ships were scrapped and turned into things like razor blades.)
These points are moot, of course, to pacifists.  We don't live in an era that honors warships, or at least the people that judge poetry tend not to.  In other words, if Holmes had written this two centuries later, it would have faded into obscurity.
Is the poetry itself good?  Hmmmm.  I can't find a phrase that is often quoted.  I can't see any particularly clever turn of phrase.  It's not bad at all, but it doesn't really break through into genius either.  It was influential in its day and I'm glad that it worked to save the U.S.S. Constitution but it's not one that I'll probably return to in the future.

Biography of Swift

Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin in 1667.  His father died shortly before he was born and his mother chose to return to England, where she was from.  He was given over to his uncle to be cared for.  He attended school in Dublin and received a B.A. from Trinity College.  While working on his master's degree, he was forced back to England during the 'Glorious Revolution'.  His mother got him a position with Sir William Temple, a diplomat of some importance.
Swift bounced back and forth a bit from Temple's employ to Ireland.  In 1694 he became an ordained priest and was assigned to a parish in a small remote part of County Antrim, Ireland.  While there he apparently had some sort of romantic encounter with a woman named Jane Waring.  This didn't go well and in 1696 he returned to Temple.  While there he wrote his famous 'Battle of the Books'.
Temple died in 1699 and Swift was at odds for some time.  He pursued various positions, including a secretary spot with then King William.  Nothing worked and he ended up with a very small congregation some twenty miles outside of Dublin.  While there he traveled back to London from time to time and published an anonymous political pamplet.  In the following years he published some other work, 'The Tale of the Tub' and the 'Battle of the Books'.
Swift's skill as a writer began to get attention and he became friends with Alexander Pope and others.  He also became more politically active.  He became a promiment Tory.  Swift also made enemies.  Of note, he angered Queen Anne by publicly noting which women of her bedchamber she could trust and whom she could not(!).
When the Whigs came back into power, Swift moved again to Ireland.  He continued to write, and in 1729 published the wonderful 'Modest Proposal'.  While there he tangled with the Irish judiciary.  He was obviously not a man who feared a fight, or at least he didn't know how to stay out of one.
Around this time he wrote 'Gulliver's Travels'.  It was published anonymously, but Swift was well known as the author.  It sold and sold and sold and was quickly translated into French and German.  It was even pirated back into Ireland.
Some time in the 1730's, it appears that Swift became insane.  His friends were worried that he would hurt himself.  He was declared not to be of 'sound mind and body' and in 1741 he had a guardian appointed.  In 1742 he suffered a stroke, causing great swelling to his left eye.  He didn't speak for a year.  He finally died in 1745.  Years before he had composed an epitaph in Latin.  W.B. Yeats translated it like this:

Swift has sailed into his rest;
Savage indignation there
Cannot lacerate his breast.
Imitate him if you dare,
World-besotted traveller; he
Served human liberty.

Poetry - Tennyson

The next poem is 'Ulysses' by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.  I've run across fragments of this poem in places, but have never read the whole thing before.  Unfortunately, the whole piece is too long to type out so I'll link to the complete poem, which I highly recommend.  Normally I'd excerpt the first part but it's the last that stuck with me so I'll do that.  The poem is told from Ulysses' standpoint and here he speaks about retiring from being king.

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail'
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toiled, and wrought, and thought with me-
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads - you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
Tis not too late to see a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall all touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are-
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

The story is that of an heroic old man who is choosing to pursue one last adventure, rather than to fade away into death.  Even after all of the voyages that he's undertaken, he will once more go out there and see what happens.  It might even be good.  Or at least the worst wouldn't be terrible as he might be reunited with Achilles whom he knew of old.
It's very much a poem of things that have come to an end.  Not in death, per se, but things are changing and will never be the same again.  Even in that change, that end, the speaker will keep going.  'To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.'  It's a boast, but a calm boast, given from someone who is old and wise.
What a beautiful poem.

Great Books for Children

Interesting blog post here, trying to figure out what books to expect your children to read. 

In particular, I want to put my kids through a Great Books tutorial, and put together a list of books that I want them to read between 12 and 16/18. So I’m trying to come up with my own list of Great Books to put them through. 

 I've thought similar things.  Well not necessarily on the schooling but on the books list. 

In particular, I want to put my kids through a Great Books tutorial, and put together a list of books that I want them to read between 12 and 16/18. So I’m trying to come up with my own list of Great Books to put them through.
I know the lists that are currently in existence, but I want our own list to be slightly different. I want the books to cover disciplines outside the traditional liberal arts (e.g. economics; business) and cover more temporary topics. I also want the list to include literature.

 His list is there, if you're curious.  I believe he's French, but I could be wrong about that.  As I mentioned, I've tossed around similar thoughts about what I want them to read.  They'll get some steady doses of Heinlein, especially 'Starship Troopers', which I think asks some very interesting questions of the state/citizen relationship.  They'll get some other science fiction as well, in part because questions of societal structure comes up there more often than in other books.
And after reading some Plutarch last year, I've been noodling how to get some of that in their diet.  As written, it may be so dense that it will turn them off.  There is a version that is 'edited for boys and girls' so that may be the ticket.
They'll get some Shakespeare and some Mark Twain.  They'll get some science education, especially in astronomy because that's an interest of mine as well.  They'll get some history with me and also with various games.  I'd like to plug 'History of the World', the boardgame.  It looks like it's out of print right now, darn it.
One area that I'm not comfortable with is economics.  I'd like some books for young teens that teach market theory.  I want supply and demand to be on the tip of their brains whenever people ask 'why' questions.  (Suggestions welcome!)

One thing that I've kept in mind is to be looking for opportunities to introduce philosophy to them.  That may mean looking for the right time to suggest Plato's 'Apology', or his philosophical question of the cave.  It means looking for the right time to have them read through Aristotle's 'Poetics'.  Montaigne and Pascal will have entry spots come along, and so on and so on.  I'm afraid that trying to preset these works will turn them into a task, instead of a more organic happening. 
Obviously, this is a work in progress.

Author Timeline

Still in the 17th century, but right at the end of it with Swift.

BC
Homer 7th or 8th Cent(?)
Aeschylus 525-456
Sophocles 497-405
Herodotus 484-425
Plato 428-347
Aristotle 384-322
Lucretius 99-55(?)
AD
Nicomachus 60-120(?)
Marcus Aurelius 121-180
Hobbes 1588-1679
Milton 1608-1674
Pascal 1623-1662
Swift 1667-1745
Rousseau 1712-1778
Kant 1724-1804
Mill 1806-1873

Reading for October

Just one, but it's a good one.


October
Swift: Gulliver's Travels link