Category: Culture
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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September 11, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
A book like The Iliad never truly ends. Originally, an epic meant a long narrative focused on one or two individuals. Epics told tales of heroes. Such is the case with The Iliad in which the actions of Achilles and Hector take center stage.
The story begins in the ninth year of a war.
August 28, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Emerald Fennell says that, in her films, every single detail matters. That every detail should create an emotional response. Her slightly exotic, absurd, and otherworldly adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights certainly achieves this goal. Throughout the film, brilliant colors, lush fabrics, overstated décor, and hypnotic music set the tone. From the astonishing opening scene,
» Read more about: Review of Fennell’s 2026 Adaptation of Wuthering Heights »
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.
July 10, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Xiaolu Guo’s novel Call Me Ishmaelle reimagines Moby Dick. The adventure begins when a fifteen year old girl, Ishmaelle, becomes an orphan. Born and raised in the poor village of Saxonham, a fictional coastal village in the UK, she tries to work as a ropemaker for a time but is quickly drawn to a life at sea.
» Read more about: BOOK REVIEW: Call Me Ishmaelle by Xiaolu Guo »
May 22, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
The Parable of the Good Samaritan concludes with Jesus’s advice to be merciful and charitable. “Go and do likewise” Jesus reminds the reader. Be like the Samaritan who saw a fellow human in need and helped them.
In last week’s blog, I made a case for discussing charity in Voltaire’s Candide, basically arguing that chapter three retells the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
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 »