LAL #022 — Norm Reads Aloud: The Odyssey, Book II

<p>Too busy to read? Fine—I will read for you. Listen as though your soul’s life depends on it, because, in fact it does. </p> <p>Herewith, Book II of Homer’s Odyssey. </p> <p>See: <a href= "https://anchor.fm/norm-pattis/episodes/LAL-020--Norm-Reads-Aloud-The-Odyssey--Book-1-e1046od"> LAL #020 for my reading of Book I</a>.</p> <p>_____________________________________</p> <p>I’ve a confession: Months go by without my ever turning on the television; I cannot recall the last time I watched cable news. I see the talking heads, and I think Macbeth:<br /> <br /> “<em>Out, out, brief candle!<br /> Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,<br /> That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,<br /> And then is heard no more. It is a tale<br /> Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,<br /> Signifying nothing</em>.”<br /> <br /> All the chatter, all the news, the breathless repetition of the obvious, the rendering of half-truths into complete nonsense, and yet the audience, the millions who cannot tear themselves away from the noise. We’re rubbernecking at the catastrophe that has become our common lot.<br /> <br /> We can do better. We are living on the capital of a great civilization, drawing down from ancient fonts of wisdom even as we tear at the foundations of what makes our foolish extravagance possible.  It’s terrifying.<br /> <br /> So what can you do?<br /> <br /> Nourish the best within you and within our civilization.<br /> <br /> Read the classics, I say. Start with the Bible, or, with Homer.<br /> <br /> Aren’t we all Odysseus's son now? “He’s gone, no sign, no word of him; and I inherit trouble and tears …”<br /> <br /> Odysseus is a man of many wiles and troubles. Join me as we chart his course.</p> --- Support this podcast: <a href= "https://anchor.fm/norm-pattis/support" rel= "payment">https://anchor.fm/norm-pattis/support</a>