Gerald R. Lucas

Today, despite the cool weather, I donned my new jacket and, once again, headed south. My destination: the 25th annual conference for the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. Walter, Tom, and I are to give a panel on Lem’s Solaris at the conference in Ft. Lauderdale, and I decided that I needed [...]

I have finished re-reading, again, what is arguably F. Scott Fitzgerald’s best short story, “Babylon Revisited.” It merges the past with the present as Charlie Wales returns to Paris to try and recapture his life literally by taking custody of his daughter Honoria, and figuratively by exploring the Paris of his prodigal past that still [...]

“For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearance, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by things that seem than by those that are.” –from The Prince The Prince Use of practical experience; use of observation of human events and political behavior; realistic assessment of political behavior; knowledge acquired from [...]

While Gogol, Russia’s master of circumlocution and hyperbole, and Pushkin, the rational romantic, are apparently dichotomous in many ways, both share the singular distinction of forming the foundation of 19th and 20th century literature in Russia and beyond. Distinctly different in various ways, Gogol’s Dead Souls and Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin also, however, share many similarities, [...]

Book XI of the Odyssey shows Odysseus’ symbolic death and rebirth: a journey into the psyche of Odysseus in which he learns both about his past and future and comes to terms with his responsibilities as a leader, a father, a husband, and a hero. Perhaps most importantly Odysseus learns from the shades of his [...]

All men owe honor to poets — honor and awe, for they are dearest to the Muse who puts upon their lips the ways of life. (VIII.512-14). Odysseus begins book nine of the Odyssey by venerating King Alkinoos’ rhapsode, emphasizing, in a very rhetorical way, the foundation of human community. At the center of Phaeacia [...]

Recounts events after the fall of Troy (9th century BCE), and written as a secondary, or literary, epic by Virgil in 14CE. Out of the destruction of Troy came an heroic figure who would found a new state. The Aeneid is a story of return that is providentially ruled by the gods. Aeneas’ story is [...]