Category: Fate
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 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,
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 10, 2026
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
We watched Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, … and Spring for the final film in the HMU Winter Film Series. What a film with gorgeous scenery and a wonderful narrative!
As the title would indicate, the film opens in springtime. A boy forages on a mountainside while his master, a Buddhist monk, goes into town for some supplies.
April 5, 2024
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
It’s an unlikely pairing, but reading Moby Dick feels a lot like taking a deep dive into a Queen album. First, you’re in gospel, then punk rock, then opera, and all of this about some seemingly mundane thing, like a bicycle. Or, in the case of Moby Dick, into the world of whaling. There are entire chapters on the shape of a whale’s head,
March 3, 2023
Thanks to Ally Zlatar, a 2023 HMU Fellow in Ideas, for today’s post.
Japanese death game films, also known as ‘Battle Royale’ films, typically depict a scenario where a group of individuals are forced to participate in a deadly game or competition, often with the goal of being the last survivor. Think of movies like Squid Game (2021) and Hunger Games (2012) but more grim.
» Read more about: The Art of Japanese Death Game Films Through Analysis of As The Gods Will »
September 16, 2022
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Recently, I attended a pop-up conference hosted by Classical Pursuits. Moderator Melanie Blake walked us through a short story by Guy de Maupassant. I jumped on this opportunity since I had never read any of his short stories. And discussion is an excellent way to be introduced to new stories! Being in such a large group limited the number of comments from each participants,
Friday, May 6, 2022
Thanks to David Kirichenko, a 2022 Fellow in Ideas recipient, for today’s post.
Understanding your place in the universe is difficult. It requires facing, and then transcending, your deepest concerns, with death as one of our core fears. One day you will die. Everyone you know and love will die. All of us began aging from the day we were born, and death does not wait at the end of life’s road – it is with us throughout life’s journey.
January 17, 2020
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
“[G]ive me a life/ wherever there is opportunity/ to live, and better life than was my father’s.” – Oedipus the King by Sophocles (translated by David Grene)
Last week, I discussed a play from around 430 BC as well as a novel published in 2019. It would seem that works separated by over 2,000 years would hold no commonalities.
September 29, 2017
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
“I think many of the stories that we tell ourselves as a society – the stories that encode our hopes, aspirations, and fears – preserve the traces of classical culture and myth and are part of our classical legacy.” – Professor Elizabeth Vandiver
Our modern day understanding of the term hero is mostly positive. We think of heroes as protectors and helpers with outstanding qualities that make them better than the average human.