“Is it just me or is it getting crazier out there?” -Joaquin Phoenix, Joker In the late 16th century, French philosopher Michel de Montaigne wrote the Essays or Essais (in French). It was, as the name suggested, a series (107 to be exact) of essays on the essence of human nature and other philosophical-sounding issues. …
From Exeter, to Trinity, to Vanderbilt, I’ve been immersed in a very unique culture. It’s a culture that I’ve decided to call PrestigeWorld. PrestigeWorld, like all cultures, is messy and complex. It has it’s popular icons (Harvard, McKinsey, and Goldman Sachs) as well as it’s common lingo, customs, and myths. Like most people immersed in …
At the beginning of 2019 I set an ambitious goal: read 50 books in a year. As someone who wasn’t a very avid reader ‒ I doubt I had even read 50 books for pleasure in my entire life ‒ reading that much tin the next 365 days was a daunting prospect. But, I was …
A reflection on 1984, by George Orwell Where do I start. Every now and then I come across a book so intricate in its composition, so dense in its wisdom, and so daring in its scope, that upon attempting to synthesize it in a reflection I’m only left with four pathetic words: Where do I …
A reflection on All Quiet on The Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque. “This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of …
“The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away.” -William Golding I took a brief hiatus from the blog this past month, but since finals are over and summer has started, the reflections will be up once again. The Lord of The Flies, by William Golding. This novel is shocking. It’s a book that …
A reflection on Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius. Meditations is, as the name suggests, the meditations of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. There isn’t really another book of its kind. In this volume of 150 pages, we get to witness the private thoughts of the most powerful man in the world at the time as he gives …
This is my reflection on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Mr. Utterson, a middle-aged lawyer in London, witnesses a curious relationship unfold between Dr. Jekyll, a prominent doctor, and Mr. Hyde, a short devilish man of mysterious origin. Dr. Jekyll’s will, which relinquished all of his belongings to Mr. Hyde upon …
A reflection on Time Machine, by H.G. Wells. “Nothing remains interesting where anything may happen.” -H.G. Wells. The key to successful world-building is a set rules. In novels with fantastical elements, the talent displayed in good literature is not about what an author includes, it’s about what the author excludes. Anyone can write a novel …
This is my reflection on Man’s Search For Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl. “There is only one thing that I dread; not to be worthy of my sufferings.” -Dostoevsky Man’s Search For Meaning. The title is simple; straightforward. There is a refreshing sense of sincerity and honesty that runs throughout the pages of this incredibly …