Please, help expand Sparky's mind - recommend Lit. Thanks.

[Samuari]

Great Books

Mortimer Adler, University of Chicago, published a sylibus in the sixties that was based on what he concidered to be the great books of the west. It was a four year course and became the basis of many honors cricluems in liberal arts colleges. Now if I could just remember the title?

Anyway, it not only lists the works, but gives some discussion notes that are realy helpful.

Another general work that can be used to lead you to others is Flemming's "Arts and Ideas". Good luck Sparky.

[Edited by Samuari on 11-01-2000 at 04:33 AM]

 

[Lasher]

HOLY FUCKING CHRIST!! If ANYONE wants to know what happened to education in the second half of the 20th Century... Here's your culprit... MORTIMER fucking ALDER and his goddamned "Great Books of the Western World".

Remember the thread I posted a month or so ago about the godawful reading list my wife was suffering thru with her English Lit class?? This is the cocksucker, along with his "Center for the Study of Great Ideas" that was, and still is, responsible for all that.

If you want a better idea of how fucked up he was, check this link and read for awhile...

http://radicalacademy.com/adlerdirectory.htm

And, uhhhh, Sparky, if you want the ULTIMATE breeding ground for dust bunnies, go here...

http://www*****wisdom.com/gb.desc.html

...and you can order the 60 volume Britannica edition of the 130 or so mind-numbing books that Dr. Adler believes should be forced down every school child's throat.

Don't get me wrong, these are some outstanding and very significant books. But does anyone believe Sparky is going to discover the joy of reading from Adam Smith? or Epictetis?

I'm sorry, but as much as I love some of the authors on this list, the whole idea behind the "Great Books" smacks of elitism and exclusionism to me - and it just absolutely burns my butt to see how it's infested the educational system of this country from top to bottom.

 

[CelestialBody]

 

[KillerMuffin]

Sparky, my man this is almost a must for you, W.E.B. Griffin.

The Corps series. Cool as mutha fuckin hell. If you don't mind army pukes, the Brotherhood of War. Easy to understand if your military, you'll miss all the giggles if you aren't. I loved the Corps series. They got it on tape unabridged too.

 

[Lasher]

This just popped into my head when I saw KM's post. You'd probably dig William Manchester's work too, Sparky. He's best known for his MacArthur bio, "American Caesar", but if you want something that's really a great read and gives a more down to earth look at WWII, check out "Goodbye, Darkness".