Book Notes: "The Analects" by Confucius

The Analects by Confucius

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was my first proper reading of Confucius. Again, the ancients set the tone for so many things that followed. Given that Confucius lived during the 6th century BCE, I am not surprised to read familiar words that have somehow crept into modern language but without sufficient acknowledgement of the original source. There are many surprising similarities with Stoicism, and, dare I say, Christianity. While reading the Stoics, I was conscious of the need to avoid the Occidentalist assumptions, hence my choice to read Confucius now. This work has encouraged me to read The Book of Odes, Shi-King to lift the veil of my ignorance in this important area - religion, spirituality, ethics, morals, philosophy, call it what you will. It is regrettable that I do not have enough life remaining to study all the things I wish to learn.

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Book Notes: "Letters from a Stoic" by Seneca

Letters from a Stoic by Seneca

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Letters is regarded as one of the three key Stoic works, along with Marcus Aurelius' Meditations and Epictetus' Discourses. My initial thoughts were that Seneca's letters provided gems of genius amid banal everyday topics. Indeed, one critic compared Seneca's style with a boar taking a whiz (provided in the detailed notes to the letters). But the moments of genius continue to resonate as if Seneca showed me, empirically, a primal instinct. There is so much of the source of contemporary social norms in this work. I am often surprised how modern complaints were "old hat" even in the time of the classics. For example, Seneca despises those who follow the crowd and let the majority following determine right and wrong. Further, he complains about the modern conveniences and how people suffer from what we might today term "affluenza". Maybe this does not bode well for the present state of affairs. I have learnt a great deal from this book, as I did with Meditations, and I am eager to delve into Discourses.

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Book Notes: "History of the Peloponnesian War" by Thucydides

History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This work is a proper classic, therefore it is difficult to "review" it. This is my first cover-to-cover reading and I must say that putting the "speeches of democracy" into context is helpful. I have read Pericles "Funeral Oration" so many times, but it takes on such an insignificant role in the long history of Thucydides' incomplete work. We are lucky to have such a document survive, yet I was surprised by the lack of studies in English of the text and its context. For such an important document, I assumed that the scholarly work would have been done to death. At times, the History reads like an adventure novel, and often I found myself turning pages eagerly to discover what happened next. Nowadays, I try to read classics cover-to-cover because I, like many, have never devoted proper time to do so, but the effort is most rewarding.

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