My Aim with This Blog – All Things Learning
I keep coming back to blogging – think I’ve started and stopped almost ten of them now. Always they’ve been the wrong focus, the wrong reason. So I’ve given up trying to make a million dollars, and now I’m going to write about things that are genuinely important to me and see if that makes a difference.
I’ll let you know right off – the interests I have get somewhat niche-y. But I find that, in the niches, sometimes you find treasures that everyone else forgot about. Best of all, no one's fighting you for it.
Faith and Literature
It’s my own humble opinion that the best literature isn’t always found in Harvard or other Ivy-League colleges. Sometimes, to find the good stuff, I’ve had to actively avoid those same recommendations.
Don’t get me wrong – I do love the Harvard Great Books and the Western Canon in general. It’s my jam. But at the same time, I’m also a person of faith, and what I find fascinating is the intersections between sacred writings and literature or culture. It seems to be disappearing in a lot of ways or at least losing its memory.
You’ll find out right away if you stick around for any length of time that I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and something that you might not know about us is that we love the Bible. Not only the Bible, but also a lot of other scriptures sources – we never lack for scriptures. The Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price. Even talks from modern prophets and apostles we listen to at General Conference count as scripture, and we get more of it every six months! If you thought the Bible was a hefty read, try joining my faith. There’s never any lack of reading material.
But I love it. All these sacred works harmonize into a beautiful, comprehensive thought process that deepens all other sources in so many ways. In fact, my first project (and I’m so excited about this) is to dig into the literature and cultural references found in the General Conference talks, starting back to 1971. It’s a treasure trove, I’m telling you, and I’m the dragon opening the doors to the horde.
Yes, dragons aren’t normally supposed to share their horde, but Jesus loves sharing…so I’m THAT kind of dragon.
A Nod to the Ladies
In addition to that, we’re going to explore lots of collections – the Harvard Great Books, Mortimer Adler’s Great Books List, as well as Arthur Henry King’s Reading List for a Lifetime, and explore how each of these works relate back to sacred works.
It’s an ambitious undertaking, but it makes me happy, and I’m glad to spend whatever life I have left on this. It is totally worth it, in my view.
In addition to that, I’m adding a slight twist – I’ll be searching out (and hopefully finding) lots of female authors that SHOULD have been on the Harvard Great Books list, if all those well-educated men had given more of a thought to the women writers at the time. Being a woman writer myself, I feel the loss keenly, and I’m curious to see what’s out there.
Ways to Learn (And Not Forget)
Since I also want this blog to be useful to you, we’ll go into ways to help other students of literature and learning do better themselves. We’ll explore different forms of note-taking and talk about how to read at a high level, so that you can join me in the fun of exploring what the world has left behind for us to explore.
Right now I’m leaving this category open, since I don’t know what people will find useful just yet. But we’ll figure that out together. I have every confidence in you, Dear Reader, whoever you may be. I’ll be pointing out my stories already for sale, and others I may come up with, if that floats your boat. Maybe some classes for those who want to dive deeper. Who knows?
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