In Dick’s world, it is hard to keep the police separate from the corporations or distinguish the state’s propaganda from capitalism’s. Or maybe they’re all space aliens. The idea isn’t so much to crush the citizens—Orwell’s notion of “a boot stamping on a human face—forever”—as letting them know who is boss, and getting another buck … Read more
Below are my favorite selection from The Madman by Gibran Khalil Gibran. HOW I BECAME A MADMAN You ask me how I became a madman. It happened thus: One day, long before many gods were born, I woke from a deep sleep and found all my masks were stolen,-the seven masks I have fashioned an … Read more
Detectives investigate the murder of a girl by Mr. Hyde. Utterson is a lawyer who learns that Dr. Jekyll had transferred all his property to this same Mr. Hyde. Utterson decides to investigate, and visits Jekyll and Dr. Lanyon, a friend of both, to learn about what happened. Dr. Lanyon said that he had … Read more
In Notes from Underground, Dostoevsky describes the psychology of the underground man. He is someone you may relate to, and in the unlikely event that you do not at all relate to him, it is likely that you know people that do. The underground man is rational, intelligent, and perceptive. He claims to be afflicted … Read more
FAUST by Goethe is a play that is based on a tragic myth. It is about a scholar and magician named Faust, who strikes a deal with the devil (Mephistopheles), that he should experience everything on earth, the deepest despairs and the greatest joys, in exchange for his soul. Faust is so confident that nothing … Read more
Zorba the Greek is about the adventure Nikos Kazantzakis had with George Zorba as they sailed for business. A strong friendship develops between the two men, and what makes it interesting is that they are opposites. Kazantzakis is a scholar, a cerebral-minded man who sees nothing as too simple. He is analytic and calculating, he … Read more
“All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others” Animal farm by George Orwell is a story about communism. The animals represented the workers who toiled all day, with the humans their capitalistic overlords, living from the fruits of the animals’ labor without giving them fair compensation. To make things worse, Mr. Jones was … Read more
Candide by Voltaire is a satire about a young, good-natured, naïve man (Candide) who faces a series of tragedies. Candide was tutored by an old philosopher and author (Pangloss) who instilled in him the idea that “everything is the way it should be” and that they lived in the “best of possible worlds.” There is … Read more
Slim looked through George and beyond him. “Ain’t many guys travel around together,” he mused. “I don’t know why. Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.” Of Mice and Men is a story about George and Lenny, two guys struggling to make ends meet during the Great Depression in the … Read more