Category: Authors
We’re excited that you’ve joined the conversation! At HMU, we want to continue the great authors’ conversations in a contemporary context, and this blog will help us do that. We look back to Aristotle and the early philosophers who used reason and discourse to gain wisdom and now we endeavor to do the same every day.
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July 31, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
According to Emily Wilson, a Greek hero is extraordinary because of their connection to the divine. The closer one is to the gods, the more heroic the human. So, heroes don’t need to do good deeds or have impressive moral standards. Instead, Greek heroes are uncannily victorious, beyond superior on the battlefield. One might say they have a lot of plot armor.
July 24, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Last week, I talked about my own shortcomings as a reader of The Iliad. I am just now starting to realize the importance of discussing Achilles’ wrath. I have always struggled to face it because it leads me to the darkest of human truths. His “cataclysmic wrath” (as coined by Emily Wilson) evidences itself in books 20-23 when Achilles kills everything in his path,
July 17, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Recently, I’ve been talking a lot about fate. For example, in The Iliad, everyone knows the fate of Achilles – even Achilles. In fact, Achilles’ death is so unimportant to the telling of the tale, that it’s not even included in the book. This confirms that the end of the story is less important than the arc of the journey.
May 8, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
The “Town-Ho’s Story” is one of the more enigmatic chapters in Moby Dick (which contains plenty of enigmatic chapters). Situated between “The Gam” and “Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales,” the “Town-Ho’s Story” serves multiple purposes. First of all, at this point in the story, Ahab isn’t interested in any gams. He doesn’t care to chat with other whalers unless they can point him to the white whale.
April 24, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
In my undergraduate coursework, I took a class on Shakespeare’s tragedies. We read Romeo and Juliet first. I will never forget my second day in that class because it was mortifying. The professor, a white-haired theatrical visiting professor from England, was only interested in how we could read Shakespeare out loud. On our second day in class,
» Read more about: An Honor That I Dream Not of: The Practice of Reading Aloud »
March 20, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Last week, I introduced some of Martha Nussbaum’s thoughts from Justice for Animals. The idea of granting capabilities to animals is unique to Nussbaum. However, even she admits that it will be problematic to assign capabilities to species that are so completely other from us as to be unintelligible. Here, I insert the example of sharks,
» Read more about: What Lurks Below Melville’s Whale: The Shark Chapters Part III »
March 13, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
If you read the post from last week, you’ll remember that Stubb orders a sermon from the ship’s cook. Poor Fleece unwillingly obliges. But the whole scene smacks of injustice and indecency. Fleece seems to be the most blameless of all the characters — he’s just an aged and broken body being ordered around. And yet,
» Read more about: What Lurks Below Melville’s Whale: the Shark Chapters Part II »
March 6, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Sharks flow in and around the Pequod for most of its journey. Ishmael often notes their presence rather casually. They are, of course, one of the many challenges involved in whaling. They hover at the periphery of the tale until Stubb, Ahab’s second mate, decides to feast on a recently harpooned whale. At this point in the story, the reader has met everyone except Moby Dick.
» Read more about: What Lurks Below Melville’s Whale: the Shark Chapters Part I »
February 20, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
In Book Eight of The Odyssey, King Alcinous of Phaeacia treats Odysseus to a series of entertainments. First music and food, then games and sport. At this point in the epic, Odysseus has yet to tell his tale of woe. The Phaeacians do not yet know his name or identity. Instead, the king requests the best performers in honor of the guest.
February 6, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
I don’t know if anyone reads Galen anymore. I certainly never encountered his works during my education. Yet it turns out that Galen wrote a lot. In fact, he was one of the most prolific of the ancient authors. He also touched on nearly every subject. Not only did he write about medicine, but he wrote about grammar, rhetoric,