Log24

Today’s New York Times
on the Sept. 22 death
of William D. Rogers,
architect of United States
policy on Latin America–

When Rogers died during
a Virginia fox hunt,

“An Episcopal priest was called,
the hounds were collected
and the hunters gathered
for a short service on the spot.

‘One by one, they rode past him
and tipped their hats’….”

A man returns a crucifix
to a Huichol village chapel.

Photo by Rachel Cobb
for National Geographic

“Funeral services will be held
at Trinity Church, Upperville,
at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30.”

The source:

Today’s previous entry had
 a different image of Rogers
with a quotation from
  Wallace Stevens’s “The Rock.”
Stevens, though raised as
a Presbyterian, was a
secular poet.

Since Rogers’s funeral
is to take place in
a Christian church,
it seems fitting to
grant equal time to
a Christian poet of
at least equal stature:

The Holy Spook
 
continues:
 
Classics 101 —
 

Prof. Coleman Silk introducing
 freshmen to academic values

(See September 15. )

"The communication
of the dead is tongued with fire
   beyond the language of the living."

— T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets

The Boston Globe,
Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2007-

Psychiatrist treated veterans
using Homer

MacArthur fellow
 

Dr. Jonathan Shay
(Harvard Class of 1963)

(PAT GREENHOUSE/GLOBE STAFF)

By Anna Badkhen, Globe Correspondent

"When Boston psychiatrist Jonathan Shay wanted to understand the psychological toll of the Vietnam War on the veterans he treated, he turned to the 'Iliad' and the 'Odyssey.'

The classical Greek epics perfectly encapsulate the mental damage of combat, said Shay, who works for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Boston….

Today, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation will announce that Shay, 65, has been selected as a 2007 MacArthur fellow 'for his work in using literary parallels from Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey" to treat combat trauma suffered by Vietnam veterans.'….

'I was hearing elements of the story of Achilles over and over again,' Shay said.

Achilles, the hero of the 'Iliad,' is mistreated by his commander, who takes a girl, a prize of war, from him. Achilles is also tormented by the loss of his best friend in the Trojan War. With his ethical universe upended, he goes berserk.

Soon, Shay began to work on his first book, 'Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character.'

In the book, he interspersed the story of Achilles with examples of his patients' losses and contentious relationships with their commanders in Vietnam to illustrate some of the causes of the troops' psychological wounds."

The first word of the 'Iliad,'
Menin, is written in Greek
on Professor Silk's blackboard
in the photo at top.
It means "wrath."

Related material:

The wrath of a Vietnam
veteran, portrayed by
Ed Harris, in the film
"The Human Stain,"
and a calmer Harris in
the illustration below,
from Log24, Oct. 8, 2005:

A History of Death

Adapted from
the film
"A History of Violence"

“Teach us to
number our days.”
— The New Yorker,
Oct. 1, 2007

Link from previous entry:
on a day numbered

2/10 …

“Come, Mister Tally Man…“

Related material:
The Crimson Passion
and this morning’s
Harvard Crimson:

Faust’s Kickoff

 
See also the home page
of today’s online New Yorker—

— as well as
Harvard at the Grammys (2/12/07),
The Fullness of Time (7/29/04),
and Soul at Harvard (9/18/04).

“At any time, God can cancel a life. ‘So teach us to number our days,’ as the King James Version has it, ‘that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.’….

The ancient Hebrew word for the shadowy underworld where the dead go, Sheol, was Christianized as ‘Hell,’ even though there is no such concept in the Hebrew Bible. Alter prefers the words ‘victory’ and ‘rescue’ as translations of yeshu’ah, and eschews the Christian version, which is the heavily loaded ‘salvation.’ And so on. Stripping his English of these artificial cleansers, Alter takes us back to the essence of the meaning. Suddenly, in a world without Heaven, Hell, the soul, and eternal salvation or redemption, the theological stakes seem more local and temporal: ‘So teach us to number our days.'”

The reference to “numbering our days” recalled Saturday morning’s Yom Kippur entry on the days numbered 8/09 and 9/12.  Here is another such entry, courtesy of the Pennsylvania Lottery:

For a midrash,
see last year’s
7/07 and 2/10
as well as
this year’s
7/07 and 2/10.

For another psalm
from the underworld
see Toy Soldiers.

READINGS

On Oct. 10, Stephen King
opens the new season
of “Selected Shorts”
at Symphony Space as
the host of readings from
“The Best American
Short Stories 2007,”
 which he guest-edited.
(www.symphonyspace.org.)

Related material:
“When you care enough…”
(Aug. 20 in Summer Reading)

Update of 5:00 PM EDT
Monday, Sept. 24, 2007:

See also King’s essay
“What Ails the Short Story”
on the inside back page
of next Sunday’s (Sept. 30)
New York Times Book Review.

On Stephen King’s
Birthday, 2001–

A Reading List

“to observe King’s birthday,
the High Holy Days,
the autumn equinox,
et cetera”

On Stephen King’s
Birthday, 2007-–

The Pennsylvania Lottery
numbers were 809 and 912.

For parts of a story
about these numbers,
see “Summer Reading“
(Aug. 7 – Sept. 22).

Click on image
 for soundtrack.

See also
8/09, 9/12.

“For every kind of vampire,
there is a kind of cross.”
— Gravity’s Rainbow