Goodness, what a year. We’re lucky all of our Core authors are long since deceased; otherwise, we’d be in a mess of trouble. But no matter. We’ve got a end-of-the-year wrap-up to usher in the long-awaited new year. (That’s a lotta hyphens…)
- Did you know that ancient Sumerians interpreted the constellation Orion as the epic hero Gilgamesh? Incidentally, the constellation should now be easy to spot in our winter sky. Well–perhaps not so easy with the light pollution of Boston, but we’ll give it a shot.
A close-up of Orion’s belt. By Davide De Martin via Digitized Sky Survey, ESA/ESO/NASA FITS Liberator. (Public Domain)
- Speaking of Gilgamesh, earlier this year saw the performance of the 1955 oratorio “The Epic of Gilgamesh” by Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu at the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago. The hero’s anguish following the death of Enkidu is particularly moving.
- In an opinion piece in the New York Times, Colby College sociology professor Neil Gross wonders whether collective trauma played a part in the recent election. He bases his article on Durkheim’s concept of “norms, values and rituals [as] the linchpins of social order,” which, when disrupted, may cause collective trauma.
- William Blake’s cottage seems to be suffering despite promises of restoration. The home, “under whose thatched roof Blake and his wife are said to have read Paradise Lost naked” (why the Telegraph deemed this the most important information to share is puzzling, but we will ponder this more later), is said to have a future as shelter for visionaries like Blake himself.
- Just for fun: How to tell if Karl Marx guides your parenting (and if he does, come by the Core office for a free kid-sized Core t-shirt).
Dad?
Marx by John Jabez Edwin Mayall. International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Public Domain)
That’s that! We’ll see you again next week. (PS – if you’re wondering why this post is slightly later than usual, blame the new Star Wars flick Rogue One. Brownie points to anyone who can relate the movie to the Battle of Thermopylae according to Herodotus’s Histories.)
