Week 38: Who Killed Homer?

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Who Killed Homer? by Victor Davis Hansen and John Heath

I wish I owned this book; it would go on my list of books that I like to re-read every few years (Women's Work: the First 20,000 Years, The Discarded Image, and Going Solo are some of the others). Hansen and Heath lament the decline of Classics as a field of study, asserting that the whole field has become too elitist and self-focused, and everyone really ought to be working on giving the world reasons to read Homer & co. and ponder the lessons of the Greeks. Most of the interesting parts of the book focus on why we should all read Homer; the bits about how to reform Classics departments are skimmable if you're not really interested.

They never fail to convince me that I should read more Sophocles, and now I'm kind of thinking of doing a Greek Classics challenge in the new year. Yay, another project no one will be interested in! That's the sort of thing I always come up with. But if you're interested, comment and at least I'll know I'm not totally alone.

Comments

  1. JennySeptember 20, 2011 at 8:39 AM

    You're not alone!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. ChristopherNovember 9, 2011 at 7:37 PM

    You are definitely not alone! I would be delighted to join you. I read and blog about the Greek classicists and their works frequently. I'd love to read the Hanson & Heath book too. Pop me a note if you decide to go forward with the challenge. I'm now following your blog, and look forward to browsing about and seeing what you've read and written about. Cheers! Chris

    ReplyDelete
  3. JeanNovember 9, 2011 at 8:36 PM

    Will do Chris! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

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