RamistThomist
Puritanboard Clerk
Kantor, Elizabeth. The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature. Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2006.
While Kantor provides good analyses of Shakespeare and others, the book’s key strengths, like all the books in the P.I.G. series, lie in its structure: books you should read, concepts “they” (e.g., Deep State Marxists) don’t want you to know, etc.
On Shakespeare
“Shakespeare celebrates the limits that define us” (77). Shakespeare, unlike postmoderns, believes in “nature.”
Sonnets. If we can wax ironic and use postmodern categories, the Sonnets are the dark “Other” to the comedies. Sex is very dangerous when handled outside of its proper boundaries. Some notes on the structure: In Italian sonnets there is a “turn” between the octave and sestet.
The Seventeenth Century
John Donne.
John Milton. “Temptation is the theme of Milton’s poetry” (93). “Milton’s heroic ideal” is patient obedience.
20th Century, including American Literature
Good section on Oscar Wilde and his decadent friends. “Aestheticism” meant art for art’s sake; there is no outside meaning. If we apply this to ourselves, and see our life as art, then we don’t have meaning, either. Welcome, 20th century aesthetics.
Kantor captured the essence of the South perfectly. You can’t escape original sin by programs and agendas and trying to be Woke. Similarly, a flawed culture like the South is superior to no culture at all. With that said, I normally dislike stories by O’Connor and Faulkner. I just can’t take Steam-of-Consciousness seriously.
Do it Yourself
Reed’s Rule. When reading a poem, sometimes ask yourself, “Why is this word, and no other, in this place, and no other place” (218)?
It is more important to know terms like “Iambic pentameter,” “epic simile,” and Spenserian stanza, not “binaries,” “reception history,” and “imaginary” (as a noun) (222).
Books They Don’t Want You To Read
Lewis, C. S. Allegory of Love.
Stark, Rodney. Victory of Reason.
Pearce, Joseph. The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde.
Kimball, Roger. Tenured Radicals.
Horowitz, David. The Professors.
At War with the Word: Literary Theory and Liberal Education , by R. V. Young, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1999.
Literature Lost: Social Agendas and the Corruption of the Humanities , by John M. Ellis, Yale University Press, 1999.
The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis, Harper SanFrancisco, 2001.
A Student’s Guide to Literature , by R. V. Young, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2000.
The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric: Understanding the Nature and Function of Language by Miriam Joseph Rauh, Paul Dry, 2002.
Books You Shouldn’t Miss
Medieval Literature
Chaucer, Canterbury Tales.
Langland, Piers Plowman
Gawain and the Green Knight
Malory, Morte d’Arthur
Renaissance Literature
Spenser, Edmund. Faerie Queene.
Sidney, Philip. Defense of Poesy.
Shakespeare, everything.
Seventeenth Century
John Donne, Songs and Sonnets, Holy Sonnets
Herbert, George. The Temple
Bunyan, John. Pilgrim’s Progress.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost.
Restoration and Eighteenth Century
Dryden, John. Absalom and Achitophel
Pope, Alexander. Rape of the Lock
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s travels.
Johnson, Samuel. Preface to Shakespeare
A Mini Course in American Literature
While American literature can never compete with English literature, she does offer a good course in it. Read the following:
O’Connor: “Everything that Rises Must Converge”
Faulkner: “Barn Burning”
Poe: “Cask of Amontillado”
Hemingway: “Big Two-Hearted River”
Hawthorne: “Young Goodman Brown”
Dickinson: “The Soul Selects Her Own Society”
Whitman: “A Noiseless Patient Spider”
Frost: “Nothing Gold Can Stay”
Pound: “In Station of the Metro”
While Kantor provides good analyses of Shakespeare and others, the book’s key strengths, like all the books in the P.I.G. series, lie in its structure: books you should read, concepts “they” (e.g., Deep State Marxists) don’t want you to know, etc.
On Shakespeare
“Shakespeare celebrates the limits that define us” (77). Shakespeare, unlike postmoderns, believes in “nature.”
Sonnets. If we can wax ironic and use postmodern categories, the Sonnets are the dark “Other” to the comedies. Sex is very dangerous when handled outside of its proper boundaries. Some notes on the structure: In Italian sonnets there is a “turn” between the octave and sestet.
The Seventeenth Century
John Donne.
John Milton. “Temptation is the theme of Milton’s poetry” (93). “Milton’s heroic ideal” is patient obedience.
20th Century, including American Literature
Good section on Oscar Wilde and his decadent friends. “Aestheticism” meant art for art’s sake; there is no outside meaning. If we apply this to ourselves, and see our life as art, then we don’t have meaning, either. Welcome, 20th century aesthetics.
Kantor captured the essence of the South perfectly. You can’t escape original sin by programs and agendas and trying to be Woke. Similarly, a flawed culture like the South is superior to no culture at all. With that said, I normally dislike stories by O’Connor and Faulkner. I just can’t take Steam-of-Consciousness seriously.
Do it Yourself
Reed’s Rule. When reading a poem, sometimes ask yourself, “Why is this word, and no other, in this place, and no other place” (218)?
It is more important to know terms like “Iambic pentameter,” “epic simile,” and Spenserian stanza, not “binaries,” “reception history,” and “imaginary” (as a noun) (222).
Books They Don’t Want You To Read
Lewis, C. S. Allegory of Love.
Stark, Rodney. Victory of Reason.
Pearce, Joseph. The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde.
Kimball, Roger. Tenured Radicals.
Horowitz, David. The Professors.
At War with the Word: Literary Theory and Liberal Education , by R. V. Young, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1999.
Literature Lost: Social Agendas and the Corruption of the Humanities , by John M. Ellis, Yale University Press, 1999.
The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis, Harper SanFrancisco, 2001.
A Student’s Guide to Literature , by R. V. Young, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2000.
The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric: Understanding the Nature and Function of Language by Miriam Joseph Rauh, Paul Dry, 2002.
Books You Shouldn’t Miss
Medieval Literature
Chaucer, Canterbury Tales.
Langland, Piers Plowman
Gawain and the Green Knight
Malory, Morte d’Arthur
Renaissance Literature
Spenser, Edmund. Faerie Queene.
Sidney, Philip. Defense of Poesy.
Shakespeare, everything.
Seventeenth Century
John Donne, Songs and Sonnets, Holy Sonnets
Herbert, George. The Temple
Bunyan, John. Pilgrim’s Progress.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost.
Restoration and Eighteenth Century
Dryden, John. Absalom and Achitophel
Pope, Alexander. Rape of the Lock
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s travels.
Johnson, Samuel. Preface to Shakespeare
A Mini Course in American Literature
While American literature can never compete with English literature, she does offer a good course in it. Read the following:
O’Connor: “Everything that Rises Must Converge”
Faulkner: “Barn Burning”
Poe: “Cask of Amontillado”
Hemingway: “Big Two-Hearted River”
Hawthorne: “Young Goodman Brown”
Dickinson: “The Soul Selects Her Own Society”
Whitman: “A Noiseless Patient Spider”
Frost: “Nothing Gold Can Stay”
Pound: “In Station of the Metro”
