Medea

Euripides

5/4/21

I wonder if one could tell this story without the child murder at the end. Would it be interesting? I
didn’t read much that I didn’t read last time. I am a little curious about Jason.

World of the Rabbis

The Norton Anthology of Jewish Literature

5/5/21

We are now getting into the things I noticed in the other religions. At this point it starts to get bizarre
and difficult to understand. The structure of the more ancient texts are more like modern and easier to
understand. These texts do have a seemingly modern level of analysis.

A New Paradigm

The Power of Creative Destruction

Phillipe Aghion

5/5/21

This looks exciting. It is going to talk about how new firms are better for the economy for old firms and
how governments can help to encourage new firms over old. Hopefully, it will show how old firms can
behave like new firms.

Book 1: The Motion of Bodies

Mathematical Principals of Natural Philosophy

Isaac Newton

“The trajectories of bodies, which are very similar to the trajectories of rays.” This feels so much like
general relativity. In his time rays didn’t bend like bodies. Rays took corners when interacting with
bodies and bodies move in smooth curves. It’s too bizarre to think he observed light curving due to
gravity. He uses Apollonius to prove some of his propositions. Apollonius was recently rediscovered.
He simultaneously demonstrates calculus and his laws of motion. He uses terminology in calculus which
is no longer used, except he does explain limits in a surprisingly modern way. “Those ultimate ratios
with which quantities vanish are not actually ratios of ultimate quantities, but limits which the ratios of
quantities decreasing without limit are continually approaching, and which they can approach so closely
that their difference is less than any given quantity.”

Matthew

6/20/21

“Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its
own trouble.” That’s what I got most from this book. Especially referring to the people who obsess over
Jesus coming back and keep looking for the signs. The bible specifically says that one cannot know when
it is going to happen. Why do people keep ignoring this and predicting the end? It is always very smart
people who tend to think the end of the world is nigh. Marxists who always think we are now in late-
stage capitalism are the same way. Anyway, most people are aware of the “No one knows the day or
the hour” quote, but there is another one in chapter 24 about how you’re just going to be doing your
work, then you’ll be taken. So don’t quit your job or sell your possessions, just go about your business
and Jesus will come. Also, he doesn’t need to come soon because, “I am with you always, to the end of
the age.”

The Jewish Middle Ages

The Norton Anthology of Jewish Literature

6/20/21

It seems that Christianity has been a huge influence on these Jews. One, their idea of the Messiah
adopts much from the story of Christ, in contrast to what pre first century Jews thought the Messiah
would look like. Also, a lot of this feels like Gnosticism (with divine sparks etc) which was largely
abandoned by Christians at this point. There is also a lot of debating the law. I hope this follows the
pattern and the modern era is very interesting.

The Enigma of Takeoffs

The Power of Creative Destruction

Phillipe Aghion

It tells the story of the industrial revolution. It asks why Britain instead of China? The story is the
standard narrative told in AP World. It puts a little bit more influence on protection of intellectual
property.

Book 2: The Motion of Bodies

Mathematical Principals of Natural Philosophy

Isaac Newton

7/11/21

This just goes over what a standard mechanics class goes over. It is interesting, but it is the same stuff
you will learn in one of those classes, only much harder to understand. In the first book it at least goes
into more detail on the basics.

Job

7/22/21

I’ve become a fan of Zophar. I like his first speech, especially, where he says “if only God would speak,

And He would open His lips against you,

Would tell you wisdom’s secrets,

 For prudence is double-edged.

And know, God leaves some of your crime forgotten.” This gels well with my own
Calvinist-Wesleyan philosophy. God gives us more than we deserve. The part he misses is that
punishment is not doled out at all based on the evil you have done, but all based on God’s grace.
Zophar thinks God holds back his punishments only as a matter of degree, whereas Calvin and Wesley
say that, while we do deserve severe punishment, God does not doll them out, bad things that happen
to us are, rather, completely unconnected to the evil we’ve done, and have separate reasons. Why bad
things happen to us are not always to be understood, nor can some of them be, by man. “Look, pray:
Behemoth, whom I made with you,

Grass like cattle he eats.”

Lamentations

7/23/21

It’s not as good as Job. It is similar. There is even a lawsuit against God. While Job assumes that God
must be capricious. The Lamenter understands that just because he doesn’t necessarily understand the
reason for God’s actions, it does not make them wrong. “Who has spoken and it came to pass,

Unless the Lord has commanded it?

Is it not from the mouth of the Most High

that good and bad come?

Why should a living man complain,

a man, about the punishment of his sins?”

Should We Fear Technological Revolutions?

The Power of Creative Destruction

Phillipe Aghion

7/23/21

No, we shouldn’t. Increased productivity reduces prices, which increases demand. This leads to more
jobs. They may be worse jobs. This book doesn’t address that, but the data I’ve seen doesn’t seem to
bear it out.

Modern Judaism

The Norton Anthology of Judaism

7/24/21

Weather reform, orthodox or secular, don’t let the genociders win by ceasing to be Jewish. That was
very laconic, but I do want to add that the feminist writings were very powerful.

Edgar Lee Masters

Collected in the Norton Anthology of American Literature

7/25/21

He talks about mundane things, but they are things that would have been magical thirty years prior. It’s
also interesting that it could have been today that these poems were written. I would have thought that
hyper-contemporary poetry would easily be outdated. Maybe it was a by-product of the selection
process.

Edwin Arlington Robinson

Collected in the Norton Anthology of American Literature

7/25/21

This one was more classical than the last. Sort of Mythological.

Book 3: The System of the World

Mathematical Principals of Natural Philosophy

Isaac Newton

8/8/21

This is where he develops the law of universal gravitation from Kepler’s laws. Most of if is about comets.
At the end he talks about how all of these laws are a part of God’s dominion. At the very end he says
that man can never understand all of God’s laws. This is something I’ve ben saying for a while, that
scientific understanding can always get better, but will never be perfect.

Hebrews

8/15/21

I think the most important part is the last chapter. Before the last chapter there are two seemingly
unrelated threads. One, Jesus is the High Priest of the church. He is a perfection of the Levitical
traditions. The other implores us not to lose faith. The whole book works as wisdom literature. It is full
of little quoteables, and the general point is quite succinct. The last chapter is the best at this. It’s main
point is not for people to convert to Christianity, but rather for Christians to stay Christian. Which brings
together the other two threads.

Joel

8/29/21

This is sort of like an Amos-Lite. I decided to read this because it was often mentioned in the footnotes
of Amos. God will judge Israel and her enemies. He says to the nations the opposite of what he said to
Israel “Beat your plowshares into swords,” This one is a little about trying to make Israel feel better. He
wants them to “rend your hearts and not your garments.” Prophets are not meant to predict the future.
They sometimes say what God will do and even then often with an if. The point of these books is to
correct the course, not to predict the future. Focusing on the parts where the future was predicted is
folly because that is not the point of the book. The books are about now.
Is Competition a Good Thing?

The Power of Creative Destruction

Phillipe Aghion

8/29/21

Robert McNamara was the head of The World Bank? Anyway, yes competition is a good thing. The
government is fairly bad a picking winners and losers in picking which industries to protect and invest in.
But sometimes government agencies make things that are very innovative, how do we decide where
government should invest and where it should not? The government should invest in things, but not
based on potential for economic growth. It should invest in the things it has a vested interest in
(defense, climate change) and let the chips fall where they may, economically speaking.

My Ántonia

Willa Cather

9/4/21

I guess slice of life is the way to describe this. “In farmhouses, somehow, life comes and goes by the
backdoor.” Yes. I’ve noticed this. I like Lena, she is a strong independent woman. This might be
another one that was cutting edge at the time, but because it was hyper-modern, it is now quaint.

The Sculptor’s Funeral

Willa Cather

9/4/21

This is something that could be melodramatic, but Cather makes it Mundane.

Amy Lowell

Collected in the Norton Anthology of American Literature

9/4/21

It’s mythological and mundane. I think we’ve been here before. I liked “New Heavens for Old.”

The Making of Americans

Gertrude Stein

Abridged in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

9/4/21

This is a very short abridgement of a very long book. So far, there has been nothing that traditionally is
associated with Americanism. She talks about loving being American, and being American is defined by
a capacity for love. It seems very good.

Tender Buttons
Gertrude Stein

9/5/21

I have never read Finnegan’s Wake, but I suspect this is similar. I don’t know which came first. It was a
fun read, but it was hard to retain. Once something entered my brain, I took a second to enjoy it, then it
left.

I Have a Rendezvous with Death…

Alan Seeger

9/6/21

In war death touches everything. And everyone.

Letter of August 18, 1918, to His Parents

Ernest Hemmingway

9/6/21

War is terrible. Especially the artillery. Books do a better job showing how awful artillery is than movies
do.

The Enormous Room

e e cummings

Abridged in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

Oh, e e. This is so weird and trippy. It happens to be set in the war.

There is Confusion

Jessie Redmon Fauset

Abridged in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

9/6/21

I was not aware of this happening until World War Two. Black soldiers were treated better in France
than they are in America. Then they get in a fight with white soldiers. There is also no irony in this war
with segregated soldiers like there was in World War Two.

Fromereville

John Allan Wyeth Jr

9/6/21

They are fighting with each other inside. Over some soap, I think. It was two minutes ago, and I don’t
remember. Anyway, in the middle of that fight, a battle starts.

The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas

Gertrude Stein

Abridged in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

9/6/21

Written in 1933, the end of the war seems temporary. I’m not sure how many people thought that in
1918.

Robert Frost

Collected in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

9/6/21

Robert Frost is the reason I started reading these anthologies to begin with. He was really good. Much
better than his contemporaries, but not as good as Whitman. I don’t think there is much point in getting
a collection of Frost alone. The only ones that were really good were the famous ones I already knew.

Trifles

Susan Glaspell

9/7/21

This reminded me of an episode of Columbo I watched recently. Where a murder now helped solve a
past murder. Even the title, “trifles” is Columbo-esqe. He would always picking up on the littlest things.
“I just can’t get over the fact that he had put his watch in his breast pocket.”

Winesberg, Ohio

Sherwood Anderson

Abridged in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

9/10/21

This one is actually very modern. It has gay child molestation (He didn’t really do it, people just thought
he did). While the writer is quite savvy, but the characters are not. “For all of her willingness to support
herself (she) could not have understood the growing modern idea of a woman’s owning herself and
giving and taking for her own ends in life.”

Carl Sandberg

Collected in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

9/10/21

I think this is the America that most people are familiar with. Mostly urban, but we are still aware of the
rural.

Wallace Stevens

Collected in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

9/10/21

I read Anecdote of the Jar in college and Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird in middle school.
Those are the only good ones.

William Carlos Williams

Collected in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

9/11/21

I think some of these poets are better read one at a time rather than in chunks, the way I do.

To Whistler, American

Ezra Pound

9/11/21

Whistler is boring, so is this apology of his work.

Portrait d’une Femme

I believe the Sargasso Sea is where Luca was set. Poem still boring.

A Virginal

Ezra Pound

9/11/21

This one is better. The opening line is good. “No, no! Go from me.”

A Pact

Ezra Pound

9/11/21

The pact is with Walt Whitman. He hates Walt Whitman, but with this poem he attempts to emulate
him. This is one of the best poems he’s written. I think the shorter a Pound poem the better. The next
poem will show that.

In a Station of the Metro

Ezra Pound

9/11/21

This one is amazing. I always remember “Petals on a wet, black bough.” I can never remember the first
four words, I think I would like to memorize this.

The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter

Ezra Pound
9/11/21

Decent, I guess. It is a translation, so my pattern still holds.

Villanelle: The Psychological Hour

Ezra Pound

9/11/21

Interesting, but not exciting.

Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (Live and Contacts)

Ezra Pound

9/11/21

This seems almost exactly like The Wasteland. It is also boring, but I think Ezra must have done more
than half the work on The Wasteland. At least responsible for more than half the final product.

On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies and on the Great Magnet the Earth

William Gilbert

9/11/21

These scientific works are so interesting. They write so passionately. It is also interesting to see what
people used to think and why. “Thus he is badly mistaken, thinking it fair to infer that, as the loadstone
has a north and a south pole, it has also an east and a west, a superior and an inferior, pole. So do many
vain imaginations arise out of mistakes committed and accepted as true judgements.”

The Cantos

Ezra Pound

Abridged in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

9/12/21

This one is even more mythological. It’s the longest one yet, but it’s been abridged. It’s fairly good, but
only the best parts have been chosen.

Manifesto of Futurism

F T Marinetti

Abridged in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

9/12/21

This is good. I love this manifesto. It feels like satire, but I’m pretty sure he’s serious. He likes racecars
and bridges and world wars. “Time and Space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute, because
we have created eternal, omnipresent speed.”
Feminist Manifesto

Mina Loy

9/12/21

Women should not desire men, but they should be very good at satisfying men’s desires. Women
should not not be masculine; they should be feminine.

A Retrospect

Ezra Pound

Abridged in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

9/12/21

Just make sure you use an economy of words, that is all.

The Novel Démeublé

Willa Cather

Abridged in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

9/12/21

This is almost a direct rejection of A Retrospect. “If the novel is a form of imaginative art, it cannot be at
the same time a vivid and brilliant form of journalism.”

Spring and All

William Carlos Williams

Abridged in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

9/12/21

It’s one of the most aggressive, fun ones, but its point is sort of nebulous.

The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain

Langston Hughes

Abridged in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

9/12/21

He rails against artists, who want to be artists, not negro artist. An artist must be who he is negro or
not.

HD

Collected in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

9/12/21
This is more in line with Pound’s idea of imagism than Pound’s work. It tells exactly what’s going on with
as few words as possible.

Marianne Moore

Collected in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

9/13/21

The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock

T S Elliot

9/13/21

Some things are the same now as they were in Homer’s time. The clothes may have changed, but we
still wade in the foam.

Sweeney among the Nightingales

T S Elliot

9/13/21

Who is Sweeney? He is being compared to Agamemnon, whoever he is.

Tradition and the Individual Talent

T S Elliot

Abridged in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

9/13/21

He believes in the death of the author, but only for good writing. Bad writing, it’s obvious how wrote it.
Personality shines through bad writing.

Gerontion

T S Elliot

9/13/21

This is very bland. It is almost like a template for other Elliot poems.

The Waste Land

T S Elliot

9/16/21

I’ve read this several times, but I’ve never read it without the footnotes. I need to read it once just
through, having no idea what them there foreign words mean.

The Hollow Men

T S Elliot

9/17/21

This is the one with “this is the way the world ends

Not with a bang, but with a whimper,” at the end

Journey of the Magi

T S Elliot

9/17/21

This one ends well. It struggles with ideas of Christianity.

Burnt Norton

Four Quartets

T S Elliot

9/17/21

Probably the worst one.

The Bhagavad Gita

9/17/21

This had a lot in common with The Manifesto of Futurism. I don’t really agree with either. It has a lot of
quotes that I can agree with. I think where I agree with the quotes and not the general theme of the
book is that I think there is a difference between destiny and duty. One must do ones duty, but there is
no such thing as destiny. We must choose between right and wrong for ourselves, given the current
situation, not the circumstances of our birth.

It also has a lot in common with Job around the seventh chapter. 18:73 especially feels like Job’s
repentance.

Innovation, Inequality and Taxation

The Power of Creative Destruction

Phillippe Aghion

9/19/21

Taxes can increase innovation, but if they are too high they will stifle it. Also, corruption helps
innovation, until it is too high. Then it stifles it.

Long Day’s Journey into Night

Eugene O’Neill
It is starting to feel like now. There are more things which are relatable. People speak openly about
relationships and political issues. It is within the family, not in public, but they still speak openly.

Claude McKay

Collected in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

9/28/21

If We Must Die was good. Fight back.

Judas Flower

Katherine Anne Porter

10/7/21

This is a sort of female horror. A man was hurt by a woman as a teenager, now he has a bad man who
ruins women’s lives. Women’s lives can be ruined in a lot of ways.

Pale Horse, Pale Rider

Katherine Anne Porter

10/7/21

This seems to be about PTSD. Not just for the soldiers, but also the home front.

Sweat

Zora Neale Hurston

10/8/21

The vernacular is beautiful. I don’t know how accurate it is, but I don’t care. I would love to hear this
read.

The Eatonville Anthology

Zora Neale Hurston

10/8/21

This feels exactly the same as white people in a small town.

How it Feels to Be Colored Me

Zora Neale Hurston

10/8/21

This one was amazing. She grew up in an all black town, so she doesn’t feel black. She only feels black
now when she is surrounded by white people. “Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not
make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company?
It’s beyond me.”
Passing

Nella Larsen

10/10/21

This uses the term C P Time. I had no idea the term was this old. It’s kind of boring until the third part
when she is outed as an African-American and can no longer pass as white.

Edna St Vincent Millay

Collected in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

10/10/21

She really hates war. Apostrophe to Man is just vitriolic towards the politicians who want to start a war.
That and I Forgot for a Moment just wonder Why?

Thy fingers make early flowers of

E e cummings

10/10/21

It’s a fairly simple love poem. His style is different, but not so different that it overpowers the content.

In Just-

E e cummings

10/10/21

I read this one on school. It is loads of fun. It’s about a baloonman.

O sweet spontaneous

E e cummings

10/10/21

All things seemingly mad by man actually come from the earth.

Buffalo Bill’s

E e cummings

10/10/21

This is kind of sweet. He’s upset that Buffalo Bill dies, even though I’m pretty sure they never met.

The Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls

E e cummings

10/10/21
This uses the term unbeautiful. I never liked George Orwell for attacking this way if speaking. There is
nothing tyrannical about it. He just puts it in the mouth of a tyrannical government because he doesn’t
like it. It really just comes from an anti-Americanism. I like talking that way.

“next to of course god america i

E e cummings

10/10/21

This is a rambling pro-America speech overheard in a bar, but this is during the time of the Volstead act,
so the drunk drinks a glass of water after his diatribe.

I sing of Olaf glad and big

E e cummings

10/10/21

I was not expecting for cummings to get vulgar, but he did. Olaf is a conscientious objector and gets
hurt for it. Like Muhammad Ali. Olaf is a conspicuously European name, refusing to fight in what is a,
presumably, European war.

Somewhere I have never travelled,gladly beyond

E e cummings

10/10/21

I think this is about a beautiful woman. One he is afraid of breaking.

Anyone lived in a pretty how town

E e cummings

10/10/21

I don’t think he likes the suburbs. He takes standard suburban dreams and turns them into Joyceian
nonsense.

My father moved through dooms of love

E e cummings

10/10/21

This one is a bit too long, almost two pages. It combined all the themes so far.

Pity this busy monster,manunkind

This is one of the more confusing ones. Anti-war anti-progress. It was written in 1944 so he was
probably pretty sad about the state of the world.

Cane
Jean Toomer

Abridged in the Norton Anthology of American Literature

10/10/21

Is the south really more racist than the north? Yes, yes it is.

Winter Dreams

F Scott Fitzgerald

10/10/21

Pretty straightforward description of young love.

Babylon Revisited

F Scott Fitzgerald

10/13/21

People do something boring. Then they meet a few years later and are kind of sad about it. This is a
format that a few stories have done. I really hate it.

USA

John Dos Passos

Abridged in the Norton Anthology of American Literature

There is supposed to be an emulation of a newsreel. It takes a Picasso or Burroughs. It takes a collage

style of intercutting thins, which is not how a newsreel works. It does one story at a time. Did film feel
like this to people who are used to reading? It had the wreck of the old ninetyseven. I love that song.

As I Lay Dying

William Faulkner

11/2/21

Faulkner is boring, and people in the South are awful.

A Rose for Emily

William Faulkner

11/2/21

It’s easy to feel sorry for her, but remember people from the South are awful.

Barn Burning

William Faulkner

11/3/21
If you do something awful to someone in the South he will do something awful back to you.

Hart Crane

Collected in the Norton Anthology of American Literature

11/3/21

This is a fun read. I think it marks a bit of a turning point in American Literature and culture. His
touchstones are all American, Chaplin, Melville, Powhatan. He also doesn’t feel like his missing
anything, just limiting himself to America.

It was a Warm Spring Night

The Sun Also Rises

Ernest Hemmingway

11/3/21

I think this is supposed to be set in the 30’s, but the culture of the 20’s is still carrying through.
Glamourous nightlife is not so glamorous up close.

Hills Like White Elephants

Ernest Hemmingway

11/3/21

It’s a hard age to be. You’ve got go get real and actually start to engage with the boring parts of life.
There is also now another generation coming up after you that humanity is putting their hopes in.

The Lost Boy

Thomas Wolfe

11/4/21

You can’t go home again. Even if you go home, it’s not home anymore.

Sterling Brown

Collected in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

11/5/21

This is heavy stuff. He talks about lynching and systemic racism. This is who Kanye thinks he is.

Dialogues Concerning the Two New Sciences

Galeleo Galelei

11/5/21
This was not what I was expecting. I didn’t follow the actual debate. It just read like the Principia. The
actual physics was presented in the language of geometry, not algebra. So, when something falls
proportional with the square of time, he actually draws out squares.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Langston Hughes

11/9/21

Really good, “I’ve known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.” He mentions Lincoln going down the Mississippi river to New Orleans. I am
unaware of this event and I think he is referring to Grant’s campaign to secure the Mississippi.

Mother to Son

Langston Hughes

11/9/21

Again, great. The metaphor of the stairs is great. Everyones life is a stairway they have to trudge up,
but for some people it is a crystal stair and others have “splinters,

And boards torn up”.

I, Too

Langston Hughes

11/10/21

Someday Jim Crow will end. “Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed-“

The Weary Blues

Langston Hughes

11/10/21

This is like a jazz version of The Wasteland.

Mulatto

Langston Hughes

11/11/21

Mulattos are rejected by the white community, but accepted by the black.

Song for a Dark Girl

Langston Hughes

11/11/21

It’s about a lynching to the tune of Dixie.

Genius Child

Langston Hughes

11/11/21

I don’t think I get it. It’s dark if I do. No one loves you if you’re smart. It’s better just to die.

Visitors to the Black Belt

Langston Hughes

11/11/21

Okay, don’t view people different from you as one single mass? Just because I live in Harlem doesn’t
mean I’ll be comfortable on Chicago’s south side.

Note on Commercial Theatre

11/11/21

Cultural appropriation. Putting black songs on Broadway and black actors in Macbeth don’t show what
black life I like.

Vagabonds

Langston Hughes

11/11/21

Rich people have space to retreat if things go bad, the poor do not.

Words like Freedom

Langston Hughes

11/11/21

Freedom is a good word and Liberty is a bad word. Liberty is an abstract ideal that slave owners touted.

Madam and Her Madam

Langston Hughes

11/11/21

This is an interesting one. It’s not very good.

Freedom [1]
Langston Hughes

11/11/21

A dream deferred us a dream denied. Said in more depth.

Madam’s Calling Cards

Langston Hughes

11/11/21

This is another one where America is coming into it’s own. It doesn’t need to look back to Europe for
class and dignity.

Silhouette

Langston Hughes

11/11/21

To southern white women: are you happy? Is all this lynching worth it?

Theme for English B

Langston Hughes

11/11/21

If Women and African-Americans are going to break into areas previously only occupied by white men,
they will eventually have to learn how to do it from white men.

The Chrysanthemums

John Steinbeck

11/11/21

Women are sensitive, emotional. It’s hard to be a woman.

Countee Cullen

Collected in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

11/11/21

No one can tell him that he is not an American. Not whites who say he can’t be an American, nor blacks
who say he shouldn’t be an American.

The Day of the Locust

Nathanael West

11/18/21
The thing most people know about this book is in a single paragraph. Where he is stuck in a Hollywood
warehouse full of cultural potpourri from around the world and throughout history. The Locusts are the
poor who came from Oklahoma and Texas to work on orange farms and instead wind up devouring
celebrity. It was a little hard to concentrate, because one of the characters was named Homer Simpson.
One theme I’ve been tracing throughout American Literature is its decreasing reliance on European and
other sources. This marks another turning point where this book not only doesn’t need to reference
Europe, it uses a source (Hollywood) that Europe can’t use. No other country in the world has anything
like Hollywood.

The Man who was Almost a Man

Richard Wright

11/19/21

He gets some work over the summer, but has to give the money to his mom. He wants a gun, but his
mother won’t let him have the money for the gun. He winds up getting the gun and shoots a mule. He
then has to work to pay off the debt, so he skips town. All of these steps lead back to the title. He is not
doing or getting what a man ought.

There is a scene at the end where he goes over his mistake over and over in his head, trying to change it.
I’ve done that.

Poetry

Collected in Coleridge’s Poetry and Prose

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

11/19/21

Coleridge is just fun. When he tries to be deep, it’s not as good. His best ones are the fun ones like
Kublah Kahn and Ryme of the Ancient Mariner. I love his rhymes, they are so simple, you forget they are
there sometimes, but when you notice them, they are fun and easy.

The Secular Stagnation Debate

The Power of Creative Destruction

Phillippe Aghion

9/19/21

Does innovation reduce productivity? The main example given is photographs. Much less money is
made off of photographs now, it’s contribution to GDP has decreased, but more total photographs are
taken and seen.

The First Anatomical Disquisition on the Circulation of the Blood, Addressed to John Riolan

William Harvey

11/22/21
Circulation exists, and it goes to all pats of the body.

A Second Disquisition to John Riolan

William Harvey

11/26/21

No one wants to argue with Galen. He makes an experiment to show that the veins and arteries can
move blood themselves, the heart isn’t the only pump.

The Apostolic Era

The Norton Anthology of Christianity

12/6/21

This section is just an abridgement of the bible. The old testament is just the hits and also the bits that
foreshadow The New Testament. Melchizedek is mentioned in the Psalms, but they skip his inclusion in
Genesis and Hebrews.

The Patristic Era

The Norton Anthology of Christianity

12/29/21

The theology seems remarkably similar to modern theology. Maybe I just see it because I am a
Christian. Maybe I am surprised because I know all of the changes that have occurred in Christian
history, why does it seem so similar? There is one very tasty line in Tertullian “So it comes about that a
mon who will scarcely lift his tunic in public for the necessities of nature, will take it off in the circus in
such a way as to make a full display of himself before all.” Does not seem to have incorporated much
Platonism.

The Middle Ages

The Norton Anthology of Christianity

1/6/22

I liked the histories of various nations and how they came to Christianity. Bede had the story of the
sparrow. Who is in the hall for a brief time, but doesn’t know where he came from or where he is going.
Russia was a good one. They chose orthodoxy because Greek churches had more splendor. Of course,
they compared it to Catholicism in Germany, not Italy. Islam in Bulgaria, not Baghdad. Anyway, Aquinas
is not near as good as Augustine.

Prose

Collected in Coleridge’s Poetry and Prose

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

1/15/22
His is like a not quite as good Thoreau. Biographia Literaria is even more insufferable than Walden, but
the shorter stuff can be good. I remember reading it in college. It was in a course called English
literature after 1800. I took the class because I liked The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. He tries to
boycott products from America because of slavery. He exempts some products. He gives some made
up reasons. The real reason is that the ones he is not boycotting are the ones he likes.

The Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance

The Norton Anthology of Christianity

1/17/22

A lot of these are stories, even the non-fiction selections are told narratively. The stories are used to
make theological points, like The Wife of Baths Prologue. Margery Kempe is good, “’Why weep you so,
woman?’

She answering, said, ‘Sir, you shall wish some day that you had wept as sorely as I.’”

Convergence, Divergence, and The Middle Income Trap

The Power of Creative Destruction

Phillippe Aghion

1/17/22

A compelling theory about economics is that extraordinary growth can only happen as economies play
catch up to more developed economies. The problem is the largest economies in the world also tend to
be the fastest growing. Innovation is the true driver of growth, after that the more capital you already
have the more you can accumulate.

Reformation and the Wars of Religion

Norton Anthology of Christianity

2/8/22

I’d have thought this would be more interesting, but like all the other religions this is one of the more
boring eras. There is one section where they talk about converting China, which is like the conversion of
England and Russia, which were also very interesting. They talk about how Christianity and
Confucianism are sympatric.

Objections Against the Meditations and Replies

René Descartes

2/9/22

I think the main focus of this, taken independently of the Meditations themselves, is whether or not God
could make illogical things true. Like saying 2+3=4, or have a triangle with angles that do not add up to
two right angles.

Letters
Collected in Coleridge’s Poetry and Prose

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

2/14/22

I like lectures about books where they talk about the letters writers wrote while writing the book, but
trudging through the letters themselves is a drag. I am also pretty strongly supportive of the death of
the author, so it’s a little unnecessary. He talks a bit about his pantisocracy, but he did plenty of that in
his published works.

Can we Bypass Industrialization?

The Power of Creative Destruction

Phillippe Aghion

2/15/22

He says yes, we can skip straight to a service economy, but all the evidence he presents actually says no.
At least, it says it is better not to. Service economies do grow, but industrial ones grow faster.

The Gospel of Thomas

So, it was interesting. The most notorious part is where he gives several analogies about the kingdom of
heaven. My favorite is the one about stabbing a wall to test a knife. I have no idea what it means. He
talks about circumcision the way Paul does. He uses the term “circumcision in spirit.” Does that mean
these ideas go directly back to Jesus? There is also a bit about what comes out of your mouth defiles it
rather than what goes in it. Does the letting go of dietary restrictions go all the way back to Jesus as
well? But now that I think about it, I seem to remember that in the canonical gospels. A lot of stuff
about the meek being great. Many things use different words to make the same point, but some things
use the same words to make a different point. In verse 6 he gets angry at a simple question like he does
in John, but it is a different question.

Daniel

2/25/22

The first six chapters are the bits people know. The quad metallic statue, the fiery furnace, the lions den
and the writing on the wall. The last six are prophecies, most of which being retreads of the statue, but
chapter 11 is incredibly specific. The Greeks are even mentioned by name, which surprised me. I
thought these were all vague.

Encounters with Modernity

The Norton Anthology of Christianity

2/25/22

John Wesley’s ideas say that religion should influence every decision of your life. (Sort of, I’m probably
exaggerating.) Religion enters the political debates of the time, religion itself is not the major political
conflict. Agnosticism also starts to begin.
Jonah

2/25/22

He is in the whale during chapter 2, but nothing happens. He recites a poem. I guess it makes sense
that nothing happens, but it still surprised me. The fourth chapter would surprise most people, but I
saw the veggie tales movie. A big part of the movie was that it includes the last chapter, which most
telling leave out. Jonah gets upset that God does not destroy Nineveh. Why should God not have mercy
on a city with hundreds of thousands of people “and also much cattle?”

Green Innovation and Sustainable Growth

The Power of Creative Destruction

Phillippe Aghion

3/1/22

He views climate change the way I like to view it, as a wholly economic problem. It is simply a matter of
balancing the cost of carbon restraint/reduction/recapture vs the future cost of climate change. One
way he measures it is to count the number of green patents vs polluting patents. That doesn’t seem
good to me. Car companies probably patent a new engine for each car every year, probably more.
While green patents probably last longer. He has counted patents in past chapters, this makes me
question the whole practice.

Shepherd of Hermas

3/30/22

I added this one to my list on a whim after I got close to the Gospel of Thomas. It was not that
interesting. I noted some bits, but they were basic Christian theology. Nothing would have really
changed if this had made it into the bible.

The Twentieth Century

The Norton Anthology of Christianity

4/2/22

This shows how Christianity interacts with modern issues, like racism and colonialism. And war,
horrible, horrible war. The Parable of the Old Man and the Young was good.

Job

4/4/22

God does not rebuke Elihu. Only the first three of Job’s friends. Also, when Elihu shows up it says “He
burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God.” The point of the book is kind of
that God does not need to be justified, but men do.

Esther

4/10/22
I have heard that this is supposed to be a funny book. I didn’t really laugh. Nothing really surprising
happened that I didn’t get from when I read it as a kid, or what I’ve heard people say about it.

The New Millennium

The Norton Anthology of Christianity

4/12/22

It’s so hard to determine what is important in recent history. I am certain that Spiritual Testament will
be remembered forever. It is by a guy who is about to be murdered by jihadists. He still thinks Muslims
and Christians should get along. Minjing will not be remembered. It goes too far. It’s not Christianity
anymore. After all, there are no Mormon or Rastafarian texts are not in this anthology. (I think there
was a Mormon one, but it wasn’t really about Mormonism.) Back to Jerusalem and Environmental
Ethics will depend on who things turn out regarding China and the climate.

Robert Penn Warren

Collected in the Norton Anthology of American Literature

4/16/22

Fun to read. He can do what only the best modern rappers do, talk about multiple things at once. As he
moves on it gets deeper. He has a sonet, but it’s Shakespearean, not Italian.

Theodore Rothke

Collected in the Norton Anthology of American Literature

4/16/22

I don’t care for sensory poetry. I liked Whitman, but he had such a strong voice.

Petrified Man

Eudora Welty

4/17/22

A lot like Falkner. Horrible southern people. It end with the quip, “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you
rich?”

Elizabeth Bishop

Collected in the Norton Anthology of American Literature

4/17/22

This is like a surreal version of Whitman. It can also be very deep and sad, like in One Art. She writes a
poem called Sestina. It is named for the poem format called Sestina. It is a surreal format and has the
line “ time to plant tears, says the almanac.”

Innovation: Behind the Scenes

The Power of Creative Destruction

Phillippe Aghion

4/18/22

There were two parts to this. One, innovation occurs more in the upper classes than lower classes. No
matter how egalitarian education is. It seemed like maybe innovation depends more on your parents
education that your own. Two, Why is basic innovation less profitable than applied innovation. Primary
innovation leads to secondary innovation. If more people are allowed to make secondary innovation
then there is more secondary innovation. I think it would be smart for patent holders to let other
innovators have access to their patents for free, that way when they invent something, they can make a
royalty when it is marketed.

The Acts of Paul and Thecla

4/19/22

It’s sexual the way the song Somebody Told Me is sexual. It’s overtly romantic, but has an underlying
sexual energy. She rolls around in Paul’s warmness. She is licked by a lioness. She stays a virgin
throughout the story. At the end she is about to be raped, but she prays to God to let her die and she
does.

A Streetcar Named Desire

Tennessee Williams

4/24/22

There are two monologues where Blanche talks about death. They made me physically ill. I also noticed
that Blanche’s story is a little like Hamlet’s. There is also a good middle ground asking if this is Blanche’s
fault, if she did this to herself, or if society (and men) did it to her. It’s written in a way like you can take
either side. Like, the parallel parking episode of Seinfeld. Or, like A Doll’s House was meant to be. A
Doll’s House didn’t age well, but this one did.

The Swimmer

John Cheever

4/25/22

At first I thought this was about a sad old man, then I found out it was about a crazy old man.

Robert Hayden

Collected in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

4/26/22

It’s kind of boring. The Middle Passage tells the story of The Amistad. It would have been a cool way to
learn about that ship.

Randall Jarrell
Collected in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

4/27/22

War is Hell. Even the so called “good war” was awful for the men fighting it. The experience on the
ground was no different for a WWII soldier and Vietnam war soldier. The Death of the Ball Turret
Gunner was especially good and very short.

John Berryman

Collected in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

4/28/22

This is sort of in between the last two. It was fun, but not thrilling.

The Magic Barrel

Bernard Malamud

4/30/22

A man in rabbi school goes to a matchmaker trying to find a wife. He says on one of his dates, “I came
to God not because I loved Him, but because I did not.” It ends ambiguously.

4/31/22

The Invisible Man

Abridged in The Norton Anthology of American Literature

Ralph Ellis

Really good. This is one of the ones I was not expecting to like, but I did. I loved the prologue, but not
so much the first chapter. I think the voice of reason shoes up at the end and it is something I’ve been
trying to articulate for a while. “even the invisible victim is responsible for the fate of all.”