How to Read a Book

"Wonder is the beginning of wisdom in learning from books," says Mortimer Adler, in his classic, How to Read a Book. Indeed, it is important to have that intellectual curiosity that comes naturally with book-worms, but Adler highlights some important rules for reading a good book good. Called the "Rules of Analytical Reading", Adler expounds some important tips to apply while reading any book.

1. Classify. You must know what kind of book you are reading; and you should know this as early in the process as possible -- preferably before you begin to read.
2. State. State the unity of the whole book in a single sentence, or at most a few sentences (a short paragraph).
3. Enumerate. Set forth the major parts of the book, and show how these are organized into a whole, by being ordered to one another and to the unity of the whole.
4. Define. Find out what the author's problems were.
5. Find the important words and come to terms.
6. Mark the most important sentences in a book and discover the propositions they contain.
7. Locate or construct the basic arguments in the book by finding them in the construction of sentences.
8. Find out what the author's solutions are.
9. You must be able to say, with reasonable certainty, "I understand," before you can say any one of the following things: "I agree," or "I disagree," or "I suspend judgment."
10. When you disagree, do so reasonable, and not contentiously.
11. Recognize the final difference between knowledge and mere personal opinion by presenting good reasons for any critical judgement.

There you have it, then. Now you know "how to read a book."

Film Review: Metropolitan (1990)

Although I've been trying like mad to get my hands on Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev, my local library was at least able to procure for me director Whit Stillman's first film, Metropolitan (1990). Nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar, this coming-of-age film follows the lives of a group of college-aged preppy Upper East Siders -- or, as they call themselves, the Urban Haute Bourgeoisie--as they navigate the debutante ball season during Christmas break.

The film is seen through the eyes of middle-class outsider and aspiring Fourier socialist, Tom Townsend -- a newcomer to the group and one who doesn't believe in the debutante society of Park Avenue. Yet, as the film progresses, he realizes that the need to belong outweighs his disdain for high society -- in fact, much to the delight of his new friends, he realizes that traditions such as deb balls are far more humane than raw ideology. Thinking of Fourier, a friend tells Tom near the end of the film: "I wouldn't want to live on a farm with a bunch of other people." He seems to nod his head in agreement.

A comedy of manners, I heartily recommend Metropolitan for someone who'd enjoy watching the Brat Pack in bowties.

Gaius Marius Victorinus

Here was a man who reached a learned old age, skilled in all the liberal arts, one who had read all the philosophers and could sift their worth, who had taught many of the most distinguished senators, had even earned and accepted the honor of having his statue raised in the Roman forum (a thing citizens of this world so highly prize) because of the great worth of his instruction, yet was also, deep into his years, a cultist of idols, the celebrant of evil rights, with which almost all the nobility had grown giddy--with a spawn of misbegotten mongrel deities... all this Victorinus, into old age, had defended with earthshaking eloquence, yet he did not, finally, blush to become a child of your Christ, an infant at your font, 'humbling his neck under your yoke' and branding his vanquished forehead with your cross. (St. Augustine, Confessions, Book VIII)

In 4th century Rome, Gaius Marius Victorinus was a celebrity--if not the Einstein of the Roman Empire. A Neoplatonist, grammarian, and official rhetor of the city of Rome, Victorinus stunned the intellectual class--in which paganism was revived under the emperor Julian the Philosopher--when he resigned his position as rhetor and announced his conversion to Christianity.

In ancient Rome, newly baptized converts to Christianity were required to profess the Creed before the multitude of the faithful. According to St. Augustine, in his Confessions, "As he climbed to the place for reciting the creed, all those who recognized him--and who did not?--raised the glad outcry: Victorinus! Then the whole rejoicing crowd repeated in low whispers: Victorinus!"

His radical departure from the prevailing intellectual order was greatly influential to St. Augustine, and many scholars have attributed Victorinus' conversion as foreshadowing the Christian conversions of Roman intellectuals in the subsequent decades. It must be noted that Victorinus did not abandon his Platonist philosophy; rather, his efforts to synthesize Platonism and Christianity was influential to St. Augustine's similar (albeit much more well-known) efforts.

Hyperbolus, the Demagogue

In today's politics, demagoguery is ubiquitous. But let us remember the father of soapbox oration, Hyperbolus (circa 400 B.C.). Born into a common family, Hyperbolus rose to political prominence in ancient Athens through his powerful oratory skills. Eventually he was ostracized from Athenian politics for conspiring against two political enemies (these fellows ended up conspiring together to ostracize him).

His ultimate legacy? Universal scorn. Furthermore, he is the root of the word "hyperbole," which are exaggerated claims or statements not meant to be taken literally.

I close with some lines from Plato Comicus' poem, Hyperbolus.

The man deserved the fate; deny't who can?
Yes, but the fate did not deserve the man;
Not for the like of him and his slave-brands
Did Athens put the sherd into our hands.

Ideas have consequences

Modern man has become a moral idiot.

So says Richard Weaver, in his philosophical masterpiece, Ideas Have Consequences (1948). Starting with William of Occam, Weaver details the destructive influence of nominalism on Western Civilization.  Students of philosophy understand nominalism as the doctrine which states that universals or general ideas are mere names without any corresponding reality. Anathema to reality, nominalism denies objective truth.

Accordingly, Weaver argued that the defeat of logical realism by the likes of William of Occam was crucial in bringing about moral relativism and the belief of man as the measure of all things. As a result, Weaver claims that, "for four centuries every man has been not only his own priest but his own professor of ethics, and the consequence is an anarchy which threatens even that minimum consensus of value necessary to the political state."

"In our own day," Weaver continues, "we have seen cities obliterated and ancient faiths stricken... we have for many years moved with a brash confidence that man had achieved a position of independence which rendered the ancient faiths needless.

Thus, we are living in the age of the Philistine -- that is, "the barbarian living amid culture."

How, then, do we restore logical realism and morality? In his Laws, Plato advised: "Let the parents, then, bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence." Piety, that is. According to Weaver, "Piety is a discipline of the will through respect. It admits the right to exist of things larger than the ego, of things different from the ego. And, before we can bring harmony back into a world where now everything seems to meet in 'mere oppugnancy,' we shall have to regard with the spirit of piety three things: nature, our neighbors, and the past."

Piety is duty to our Creator in all its forms; only with a sense of reverence can we embrace reality while keeping our hearts open to the transcendent.

Watercolors

The following watercolor paintings are the work of my dear friend, Dr. Walter Bruning, of Oceanside, California. Walter has granted me permission to exhibit them on "Obey the Divine Design" -- please enjoy!

Camaldolese Monks at Prayer

Sea Birds

Wild Flowers -- High Valley Meadow

Northwest Salmon Long Liner

St. Augustine Shrimper

The Novice

Ut In Omnibus Glorificeture Deus