Siddhartha - Chapter 5
Kamala, the courtesan, teaches Siddhartha about making love.
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Archive for August, 2007
Kamala, the courtesan, teaches Siddhartha about making love.
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Posted on 31 August '07 by wgb, under Herman Hesse. No Comments.
Siddhartha - Chapter 4
Siddhartha leaves the grove and continues on the path to self.
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Art courtesy of The Wonder That Was India
Posted on 30 August '07 by wgb, under Herman Hesse. No Comments.
Siddhartha - Chapter 3
The two ascetics find Gotama and Govinda leaves his friend.
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Art: wall painting in a Laotian temple, depicting the Bodhisattva Gautama (Buddha-to-be) undertaking extreme ascetic practices before his enlightenment. A god is overseeing his striving, and providing some spiritual protection. The five monks in the background are his future 'five first disciples', after Buddha attained Full Enlightenment.
Posted on 29 August '07 by wgb, under Herman Hesse. No Comments.
Poem of the Week - Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night is considered to be among the finest works of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (1914–1953). It was written for his dying father. Thomas watched his father grow weak and frail with old age. Thus, he tries to convince his father not to give up to Death without a fight. To support this, he gives examples of wise men, good men, wild men, and grave, or serious, somber men all with the same message -- to pursue their passions even in the face of their mortality and impending death.
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Posted on 28 August '07 by wgb, under Dylan Thomas. No Comments.
Siddhartha - Chapter 2
Siddhartha and Govinda learn the ways of the Samanas.
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Posted on 22 August '07 by wgb, under Herman Hesse. 1 Comment.
Siddhartha - Chapter 1
Siddhartha is an allegorical novel by Hermann Hesse. It deals with the spiritual journey of an Indian man called Siddhartha during the time of the Buddha.
The book was written in German, in a simple, yet powerful and lyrical style. It was first published in 1922, after Hesse had spent some time in India in the 1910s. It was first published in the U.S. in 1951, and became influential during the 1960s.
The novel takes place in ancient India around the time of the Buddha (6th century BC). It starts as Siddhartha, a Brahmin's son, leaves his home to join the ascetics with his companion Govinda. The two set out in the search of enlightenment.
Siddhartha goes through a series of changes and realizations as he attempts to achieve this goal.
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Posted on 20 August '07 by wgb, under Herman Hesse. 1 Comment.
The Tell-Tale Heart
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe is simultaneously a horror story and psychological thriller told from a first-person perspective. It is admired as an excellent example of how a short story can produce an effect on the reader. Poe believed that all good literature must create a unity of effect on the reader and this effect must reveal truth or evoke emotions. The Tell-Tale Heart exemplifies Poe’s ability to expose the dark side of humankind and is a harbinger of novels and films dealing with psychological realism. Poe’s work has influenced genres as diverse as French symbolist poetry and Hollywood horror films, and writers as diverse as Ambrose Bierce and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
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Watch the animated film of The Tell-Tale Heart on YouTube. It was narrated by James Mason and nominated for an Academy Award in 1954.
Posted on 16 August '07 by wgb, under Edgar Allen Poe. 1 Comment.
The Masque of the Red Death
Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Masque of the Red Death is a prime example of his Gothic horror fiction. Poe evokes a dark and eerie mood in a story that focuses on images of blood and death, while the personification of the Red Death lends an element of the supernatural. The Masque of the Red Death embodies Poe's mastery of the short story; in addition, it illustrates his literary philosophy. According to Poe, a short story should be tightly focused so that every word, from beginning to end, contributes to the overall effect. In this story, powerful imagery and an illusive narrative voice are tightly woven into a macabre tale of horror with insight into the human condition.
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"The Masque of the Red Death: Introduction." Short Stories for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 8. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. January 2006. 15 August 2007.
Posted on 15 August '07 by wgb, under Edgar Allen Poe. No Comments.
