Montana Classical College

I have a had a ridiculous amount of fun reading this book and would like to share a commentary I’m writing on it orally. I’m treating Bradbury as if he wrote with logographic necessity (=every word is exactly where it needs to be in order to convey the teaching of the book) and the care I’ve paid to his text has been richly rewarded. This session covers the first 10 chapters of the book. If you ha...

Here are the core questions that I asked Clawson. We went slightly out of order, we had a couple of friendly disagreements that were mostly resolved, and I think that you will find Clawson charming and interesting on how we ought to ACT right NOW. He is a barbarian who has learned to read the runes. You can buy his book here . 1) Posserilla is a sequel of sorts to Goonhood . The first book outline...

Lecture 10 for the Nationalism vs. Globalism Course Outline: * Introducing Anton’s synthesis of Straussian thinking and Online Right thinking * America’s suicidal morality; or turning away from the nation toward the UHS * A thoughtful response from another reader of Anton who discusses the vices endemic to commercial regimes as such Links to things mentioned : The Stakes: America at the Point of N...

I had an excellent conversation with @kingbolingbroke (his twitter handle) on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. I’m sure that you will find his writings on contemporary politics to be of interest and they can be found here: * King of Twitter at American Mind * That Hideous Strength Animating Joe Biden at American Greatness. Here is a brief table of contents of our conversation: * I introduce B...

Louise Cowan’s essay “Epic as Cosmopoesis” This lecture provides an overview of Cowan’s essay; it is a poetic approach to Homer and epic that takes the idea of genre seriously in full awareness of the obstacles to taking genre seriously. She sketches the contours of the inner disposition of epic. A brief note from an obituary of Cowan: “Louise Cowan, university teacher and nationally recognized le...

This is a timely addition to our Introduction to Literature course. Here we try to understand Scrooge sympathetically with a view to seeing how he understands himself and the world. There is a striking moment when the narrator speaks directly to the reader and tells us that he is as close to us as the spirit is to Scrooge. The narrator reaches past the 4th wall to speak directly to the reader and...

Book 4 is broken up into three parts: It opens up with a scene up in Olympus where the gods plan how to continue the war; then, Athena leads the archer Pandarus to break the truce after the inconclusive duel between Menelaus and Paris; then finally, we get another review of the troops, somewhat like the catalogue of ships from Book 2, and like Helen’s review in Book 3; though here, there is more i...

In this session we think through what might be the truest cause of the war and the relationship and even similarity between Homer and Helen. Post thoughts and comments on the arguments from the lecture and raise questions about scenes not discussed in the lecture! Montana Classical College promotes noble deeds, the understanding of nature, and nationalism. Please subscribe. This is a public episod...

Phocaean and I discuss David Sidorsky’s article “The Third Concept of Liberty and the Politics of Identity.” This is the fourth and final session of our course “ Understanding Modern Liberty : On Constant, Berlin, Strauss, and Sidorsky.” Themes discussed: I. What are the three concepts of liberty and why does one concept give way to another? II. What type of person is each of these concepts design...

This lecture is focused on the deceptive Dream that Zeus sends to Agamemnon and Agamemnon’s strange response to it. We turn as well to the Catalogue of Ships. Many find this to be the most boring part of the Iliad but I aim to demonstrate that several crucial lessons can be gleaned from it. What observations have you made when looking at the Catalogue of Ships? This is a public episode. If you'd l...

This is the beginning of a course on Homer’s Iliad . There will be a lecture on each of the 24 books of the Iliad in addition to lectures on “theoretical approaches” to Homer which include Nietzschean, Platonic, and poetic approaches. The lectures on odd numbered books will be free and the lectures on even numbered books will be paywalled. I have studied the Iliad with a handful of excellent indiv...

Mrs. MCC and I discuss Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds . We read Camille Paglia’s book on the movie and make liberal use of her insights. The movie takes place over the course of five days. Our analysis is broken up into an introduction and then thematic commentary on each of the days. This session introduces the movie and then comments on the first day. This is a public episode. If you'd like to dis...

You can read the essay we discuss here . Strauss’s essay “Relativism” from The Rebirth of Classical Political Rationalism appears to have 3 sections of unequal length. * Paragraphs 1-14: On Isaiah Berlin’s “The Two Concepts of Liberty” * Paragraphs 15-28: On Positivism (and Marxism) * Paragraphs 29-33: On Existentialism; Nietzsche is the root and Heidegger the core We will provide helpful reading...

Here is a lecture on Rousseau’s Letter to D’Alembert . It is an exciting little work that takes what appears to be an innocuous suggestion about adding a public theater to Geneva, and turns it into a brutal critique of the Enlightenment. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit montanaclassicalcollege.substack.com/subscri...

Phocaean and I discuss Isaiah Berlin’s essay “Two Concepts of Liberty.” * We define negative and positive liberty and how John Stuart Mill does not satisfyingly reconcile them. * We discuss Berlin’s own attempt to resolve this tension and his failure to do so. * We look at how Berlin seems to point toward a so-called messy pluralism but in fact has a universalist position undergirding his view. *...

This co-taught session is the first in a short course called: “POL 205: Understandings of Modern Liberty: Constant, Berlin, Strauss, and Sidorsky”. Constant distills what he understands to be the essence of both ancient and modern liberty. We discuss his account, the difference between ancient and modern citizenship, the purpose of modern political philosophy, and why it is that we can’t go back t...

Outline of Kojeve’s argument coming here soon… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit montanaclassicalcollege.substack.com/subscribe

For those in the discussion group, please leave a question and/or observation. If you have thoughts on parts of the text that were not discussed in the lecture, those are just as welcome as comments on parts that were discussed. Links to things discussed or which I consulted : Leo Strauss’ Course Lectures on Nietzsche from 1957 Laurence Lampert’s Nietzsche’s Task: An Interpretation of Beyond Good...

A Surprising Critique of Progressive Education: A Short Outline of the Episode I. Moments when Progressive education is openly blamed; and a small moment reminding the reader of what the older education system looked like. II. Atticus often evinces astonishing mental clarity which forms the foundation of very modest hopes for political life. This sobriety is upended or slowly eroded by an overly o...

Here is an outline with key quotations: I. Why do Societies Fall Apart? * This question is asked by the novel’s protagonist, Ralph, on two separate occasions (pages 82 and 139). In Ralph’s words, “what makes things break apart like they do?” * This is one of the core questions of the novel and is a question of importance for human communities in all times and places. II. Forming a Political Commun...

Outline: I. Opening Thoughts on Civilization and Barbarism II. Buck’s Early Aristocratic Beginnings III. Buck’s Education in the Law of Club and Fang IV. Can the Virtues of Civilization and Barbarism be Combined? Key Quotation: “There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it...

This is the edition I used. It contains an interview with Bradbury that I found interesting and illuminating. There are probably helpful interpretations of F451 out there, but I did not encounter them—admittedly I did NOT make any attempt at an exhaustive list of sources. If you know of any helpful ones, please let me know. If you think future literature lectures could do with more summary of the...

We turn to the exciting conclusion of Bacon’s “unfinished story”. If you made it this far, through all 4 lectures, I thank you for listening and I welcome questions or disagreements. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit montanaclassicalcollege.substack.com/subscribe

On the Feast of the Family and the conversation with Joabim. Bacon shows how difficult it is properly legislate or contain eros just as Plato did in his Republic. In other words, Bacon seems to suggest that there are political problems that don’t admit of full solutions, and that these might very well create political instability if not properly managed, even in his utopian scheme. He thus tells t...

Structure of the text: I. Opening II. A priest of Bensalem has two conversations with some of the sailors. First: how does Christianity emerge here? Second: How does Bensalem know so much about the world and yet, the world knows so little about Bensalem? ( we focus on this part in this session). III. Feast of the Father IV. Jewish man Joabin’s account of, among other things, the erotic dimensions...