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| A View of Howth (Wikimedia) |
Note: Ahh, James Joyce. Some of his work seems more like a puzzle or guessing game than like literature. At the top of that list is this book, Finnegans Wake.
Get Ready: Do you think reading literature should be a struggle, or as easy as watching television?
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| Tristan and Isolde by John Duncan (1912) (Wikipedia) |
Note: This is one of the great love stories of all time, with traces of Guinevere and Lancelot--and Romeo and Juliet.
Get Ready: Can we ever blame our actions on an external influence (like a "love potion"), or ought we to take responsibility for everything we do?
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| Street scene, Dublin, 1900s (Wikimedia) |
Note: Dubliners is the most accessible of James Joyce's fiction, and contains 15 superb short stories.
Get Ready: What phase of life are you in (adolescence, middle age, etc.)? What challenges do you face that are typical of that age?
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| "Setanta Slays the Hound of Culain" (Wikipedia) |
Note: Setanta, better known as Cu Chulainn or "The Hound of Chulainn," may be the most important hero you've never heard of. Lend an ear.
Get Ready: If you were a soldier, would you rather fight in a troop or in single combat?
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| "I really must insist on your oiling those chains..." (from the book on Gutenberg) |
Note: A "modern" American family deals with a ghost in the house; the ghost loses, but "wins" in the end.
Get Ready: How would you deal with a ghost in the house?
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| Dorian Gray and his painting in a 1945 film (Wikipedia) |
Note: Few novels explore the nexus of esthetics and morality--with a little magic thrown in--like Oscar Wilde's masterpiece.
Get Ready: Do you think our acts of kindness or cruelty have effects beyond the everyday? That is, do our choices affect a realm beyond this one?
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| Gulliver in discussion with Houyhnhnms, by J.J. Grandville (1856) (Wikipedia) |
Note: Many of us know that Jonathan Swift's protagonist in Gulliver's Travels met little people and giants, but there were other interesting encounters on subsequent voyages. Here's one.
Get Ready: This part of Gulliver's Travels seems to say that people are bad. Do you agree? Are people basically good or not?
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| The giant and the child (Wikipedia) |
Note: The story of "The Selfish Giant" is a modern fairy tale written by the Irish author Oscar Wilde.
Get Ready: If you had a large yard and garden, would you allow the neighborhood children to play in it?
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| Van Helsing and Dracula (1931) (Wikipedia) |
Note: Vampires still sell, but the first "big hit"--and still scary today--is Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula. It was written in the form of diary entries, letters and other "real" documents, giving it a feeling of authenticity.
Get Ready: What sorts of books or stories do you find scary?
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| Gulliver at the mercy of the Lilliputians (Wikipedia) |
Note: You might know about Gulliver among the Lilliputians (little people), but what about the giants? Or the talking horses? And how about those Yahoos?
Get Ready: What would it be like to be a giant--like twelve times larger than "normal" people--or a tiny person less than 1/10th normal size? What challenges would it present? What advantages?
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| Conaire Mor (grabbed from an old book) |
Note: Read of the killing of Conaire Mor, High King of Ireland, after circumstances forced him to break a number of taboos.
Get Ready: Do you think there are any prohibitions so strong that "the universe" brings about punishment for breaking them? What are they, and how does it work?
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| The statue of the Happy Prince (Wikipedia) |
Note: The 19th-century Irish author Oscar Wilde was one of the strangest mélanges of cynic and optimist that the literary world has ever seen. A good example of this is "The Happy Prince," a bittersweet story that depicts the best and worst of humanity.
Get Ready: How do we bear knowing that the world is filled with suffering? Is it okay to ignore it--as long as we're happy--like the Prince does during his life?
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| The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Wikipedia) |
Note: From an Irish pub crawl to the luring of rats to their deaths--and with a group of mystical sleepers thrown in--June is just weird!
Get Ready: Can you tell the story of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin"?
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| Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Father of the Mexican Nation (Wikipedia) |
Note: Three very different birthday celebrants: Mexican Founding Father Miguel Hidalgo; longtime Malawian leader Hastings Banda; and the Irish monk-explorer Saint Brendan.
Get Ready: Do you accept the common idea that Columbus was the first European to come to what is now called North America? Why or why not?
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| A Leprechaun (Wikipedia) |
Note: The Irish have contributed hugely to world culture, including some English words you know--and didn't know were Irish!
Get Ready: Do you know any Irish words?
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