When I realized that I wanted to study history, literature and philosophy in a more serious, organized way I didn’t have much of a path to guide me. People in my community studied their Bibles and they were content. I had heard of Mortimer Adler during the education coursework for my college degree. Coupling that cheerful recommendation was my mother-in-law’s set of The Great Books which she was willing to pass on to me. It was a place to start especially when paired with Adler’s How to Read a Book. Once I got my feet under me I began to choose other paths, but I will always appreciate the Syntopicon. Its mountain top view of philosophy is stimulating and pleasurable. 102 ideas are described and their places of mention are cataloged from The Great Books.
In order to give my studies some shape without overwhelming rigor, I set myself the task of writing a YA short story about one of the Great Ideas every year. I believe there are eight of them now. Some years I’ve missed my deadline. The stories are quirky. Reality has been shaped to sketch the rough outline of the idea. The characters vary from story to story with some overlap and repetition to keep them interesting. I enjoy this project, but I find it gets more and more complicated and takes more and more effort. They are invariably longer than I thought they’d be.
This is a unique project. Its core comes from the 1950s. I like to think the fictional world and characters update that, but somehow the ancient Greeks keep sneaking in.
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