RKS Literature: The View of a Good Presbyterian as to Other’s Religious Obligations (Herman Melville)

“I cherish the greatest respect towards everybody’s religious obligations, never mind how comical. And could not find it my heart to undervalue even a congregation of ants worshipping a toad-stool; or those other creatures in certain parts of our earth, who with a degree of footsmanism quite unprecedented in other planets, bow down before theContinue reading “RKS Literature: The View of a Good Presbyterian as to Other’s Religious Obligations (Herman Melville)”

RKS Literature: Marriage and the Third Thing (D.H. Lawrence)

“It is in the spirit that marriage takes place. In the flesh there is connection; but only in the spirit is there a new thing created out of two antithetic things. In the body I am conjoined with a woman. But in the spirit my conjunction with her creates a third thing, an absolute. AContinue reading “RKS Literature: Marriage and the Third Thing (D.H. Lawrence)”

RKS Literature: Italians; Children of the Sun or of the Shadow? (D.H. Lawrence)

“The Italian people are called ‘Children of the Sun’. They might better be called ‘Children of the Shadow’. Their souls are dark and nocturnal. If they are to be easy, they must be able to hide, to be hidden in lairs and caves of darkness. Going through these tiny, chaotic back-ways of the village wasContinue reading “RKS Literature: Italians; Children of the Sun or of the Shadow? (D.H. Lawrence)”

RKS Literature: Who is Captain Ahab? (Herman Melville)

“He’s a queer man, Captain Ahab-so some think-but a good one. Oh, thou’lt like him well enough; no fear, no fear. He’s a grand, ungodly, god-like man, Captain Ahab; doesn’t speak much; but when he does speak, then you may well listen. Mark ye, be forewarned; Ahab’s above the common; Ahab’s been in colleges, asContinue reading “RKS Literature: Who is Captain Ahab? (Herman Melville)”

RKS Literature: Outraged by a Grin (Joseph Conrad)

“Every mental state, even madness, has its equilibrium based on self esteem. Its disturbance causes unhappiness; and Captain Hagberd lived amongst a scheme of settled notions which it pained him to feel disturbed by people’s grins. Yes, people’s grins were awful. They hinted at something wrong, but what? He could not tell; and this strangerContinue reading “RKS Literature: Outraged by a Grin (Joseph Conrad)”

RKS Literature: Why One Must Defect from the USSR (Vladimir Rott)

“An ordinary person in the USSR has no prospects except for being trapped in misery and trudging directly toward the grave. All of the friends and even casual acquaintances we talked to were in a bleak mood: there was nothing ahead, just emptiness. No goals to set, nothing to look forward to. We knew theContinue reading “RKS Literature: Why One Must Defect from the USSR (Vladimir Rott)”

RKS Literature: Beware of Those Mean Soft Chaps (Joseph Conrad)

“High spirited husbands were the easiest to manage. These mean, soft chaps, that you would think butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths, were the ones to make woman thoroughly miserable.” Joseph Conrad, “Tomorrow” , 1902.

RKS Literature: Mrs. Hosea Hussey’s Nantucket Clam Chowder (Herman Melville)

“However, a warm savory steam from the kitchen served to belie the apparently cheerless prospect before us. But when that smoking chowder came in, the mystery was delightfully explained. Oh sweet friends! hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazelnuts, the whole enriched with butter, and salted pork cutContinue reading “RKS Literature: Mrs. Hosea Hussey’s Nantucket Clam Chowder (Herman Melville)”

RKS Literature: Who are these People from Nantucket? (Herman Melville)

“The Nantucketer, he alone resides and riots on the sea; he alone, in Bible language, goes down to it in ships, to and fro ploughing it as his own special plantation. There is his home; there lies his business, which a Noah’s flood would not interrupt, though it overwhelmed all the millions in China. HeContinue reading “RKS Literature: Who are these People from Nantucket? (Herman Melville)”

RKS Literature: Christians Both Wicked and Miserable (Herman Melville)

“But, alas! The practices of whaleman soon convinced him that even Christians could be both miserable and wicked; infinitely more so, than all his father’s heathens. Arrived at last in old Sag Harbor: and seeing what the sailors did there, and then going on to Nantucket, and seeing how they spent their wages in thatContinue reading “RKS Literature: Christians Both Wicked and Miserable (Herman Melville)”