5 ms·

If you haven't read it already and need help interpreting it, you can take this free course on edx. https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:DartmouthX+DART.E

If you haven't read it already and need help interpreting it, you can take this free course on edx. https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:DartmouthX+DART.ENGL.02X+1T2018/c0e0d30dac4848c7a13a177fc0f46e40/ https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:DartmouthX+DART.EN... I took this course to understand what the whole fuss around 'Paradise Lost' meant. I was utterly mind-blown, learning its snide references to free will, tyranny, slavery, civil liberty, etc. in the poem. What I once thought was a retelling of the Bible, surprised me with its political nuances.

throwaway_7718 6y ago
Thanks a heap for this! Coincidentally, there's a course on the Divine Comedy starting today (http://dante.georgetown.edu/ http://dante.georgetown.edu/).
- akkshu92 6y ago
  Ah, nice! Let me check it out.
hombre_fatal 6y ago
Good courses/teachers change everything. I thought I hated literature and philosophy until I took a philosophy 101 course that I procrastinated until my final semester at UT. It was basically two professors (one was Dutch that was co-teaching the course until he would transition to be a stand-alone professor) and a class of 12 students at a university where I was used to intro courses in 200-student lecture halls. The enthusiasm of the professors was contagious. And they turned text that would have been boring / misunderstood if read on my own into lines that were couched in all sorts of humor and greater commentary about the world, and I was hooked. They taught me how to enjoy literature that otherwise would have seemed totally dull and dry and it was a real gift. Over a decade later, I was at a bar and somehow Plato's Gorgias came up with a stranger and we both half-jokingly agreed that Callicles was right about the world. And I thought about how thankful I was for that philosophy class once again.
- akkshu92 6y ago
  Wow. That sounds interesting. Consider yourself lucky, haha!
- RNCTX 6y ago
  I often think that if we ever achieve an automated AI-driven society (unlikely, but bear with me), everyone will be a philosophy or literature PhD. They're the only disciplines that make it fun to go to class.
UncleOxidant 6y ago
> What I once thought was a retelling of the Bible, surprised me with its political nuances. The Bible has surprising political nuances as well.
- diegoperini 6y ago
  I raise. All holy books have _unsurprising_ political nuances because their whole purpose was providing guidance towards stable societies during lawless times.
- akkshu92 6y ago
  Ah, I see. :)

throwaway_7718 6y ago

Thanks a heap for this! Coincidentally, there's a course on the Divine Comedy starting today (http://dante.georgetown.edu/ http://dante.georgetown.edu/).

akkshu92 6y ago
Ah, nice! Let me check it out.

hombre_fatal 6y ago

Good courses/teachers change everything. I thought I hated literature and philosophy until I took a philosophy 101 course that I procrastinated until my final semester at UT. It was basically two professors (one was Dutch that was co-teaching the course until he would transition to be a stand-alone professor) and a class of 12 students at a university where I was used to intro courses in 200-student lecture halls. The enthusiasm of the professors was contagious. And they turned text that would have been boring / misunderstood if read on my own into lines that were couched in all sorts of humor and greater commentary about the world, and I was hooked. They taught me how to enjoy literature that otherwise would have seemed totally dull and dry and it was a real gift. Over a decade later, I was at a bar and somehow Plato's Gorgias came up with a stranger and we both half-jokingly agreed that Callicles was right about the world. And I thought about how thankful I was for that philosophy class once again.

akkshu92 6y ago
Wow. That sounds interesting. Consider yourself lucky, haha!
RNCTX 6y ago
I often think that if we ever achieve an automated AI-driven society (unlikely, but bear with me), everyone will be a philosophy or literature PhD. They're the only disciplines that make it fun to go to class.

UncleOxidant 6y ago

> What I once thought was a retelling of the Bible, surprised me with its political nuances. The Bible has surprising political nuances as well.

diegoperini 6y ago
I raise. All holy books have _unsurprising_ political nuances because their whole purpose was providing guidance towards stable societies during lawless times.
akkshu92 6y ago
Ah, I see. :)