Highlights and Review Index

Below you’ll find what I consider to be my best posts, and an index of shows and books I’ve done review/impressions posts for. You may also be interested in the main site, On the Origin of Fire…

First, a sampling of some of my better posts from each category:

• What’s the Appeal of Mishima Yukio?
• Why Do You Not Study the Odes?
• Plato’s Dialogues: Republic
• “For a Few Thousand Battered Books” – Ezra Pound and the First World War
• Lewis Carroll, the Alice Novels, and Sensible Nonsense
• One Hundred Leaves, Watson’s translation of the Hyakunin Isshu
• Richard III, Reading Shakespeare, and Another Way to Fail at Kingship
• Takimoto Tatsuhiko’s Welcome to the NHK
• A Decade’s Worth of Serial Experiments (Lain)
• Mischief Making in Two Wonderful Dimensions

A few essays and editorials:

• An Ascent with Xenophon – On making up for a poor education, featuring Xenophon and Bl. John Henry Newman
• Cardinal Newman’s Portrait of a Gentleman – Largely quoting from his Idea of a University
• Cardinal Newman on Education and Journalism – More from Idea of a University
• What Books Have Most Influenced Me? – Asked and answered
• What’s the Appeal of Mishima Yukio? – As the title advertises
• Which Translation of the Analects Should I Read? – Also, as the title advertises
• Notes on Approaching the Confucian Canon – Advice on how, and how much, to read of the Four Books and Five Classics
• Notes on Praying the Divine Office – Some tips for people new to the Office
• On Human Sacrifice in the Book of Judges – On Jephte’s daughter
• The Catena Aurea on Biblical Genealogies – Why does Scripture include long genealogies?
• The Happy Game of Mahjong – On learning and enjoying mahjong
• The King of Sports – On professional wrestling
• You’re the Mandarin Now, Dog – On learning Chinese
• Against James Burnham’s Interpretation of Dante – Responding to his portrayal of Monarchia in his The Macchiavellians
• I’ll Hang Around As Long as You Will Let Me – The blog’s tenth anniversary special
• Junior-year Reflections, which ties in with Education without University
• On Surrounding Oneself with Books – An apology for my bibliophilia
• Why Do You Not Study the Odes? – On the value of good art, and focusing on the beautiful
• Is There a Hierarchy Among the Arts? – On the distinction between high and low art
• Notes on the Purpose of Poetry – What is poetry, and what is its end?
• What’s Up with Anime Fans? – Addressing some criticisms of anime fandom
• An Experiment in Fandom Criticism – A follow-up of sorts to the above
• The Moral Dimension of Judging Art – On the interaction between art and the broader culture
• How to Write About a Book – Advice for learning to write about literature and non-fiction
• That 50 Questions Meme – Twenty-five questions on my experience as an anime fan, and twenty-five personal questions
• Why I Watch Anime – Just as the title indicates
• On the Hobby of Collecting Hobbies – On having possibly too many interests
• We Hope You Will Enjoy the Show… In One Piece – A very early post about the album as a unit of composition
• How Do We Judge Anime? – On how to compare disparate works of animation, and to a lesser extent art in general
• How to Claim a Landmark Post – A few guidelines for an old forum pastime

I’ve also done a handful of special series on specific subjects. These lead to category pages.

• Making One Hundred Friends – memorising one hundred poems (introductory post)
• lain20th – on serial experiments lain’s twentieth anniversary.
• Anime Autobiography – on my experiences with that medium, written in 2012.
• Maynguh Memories – an irregular follow-up to the above, on Japanese comics.
• Uncle Walt-a-thon – reviewing every major Disney movie that Walt Disney was personally involved in.
• 75 Book Challenge 2015 – reading 75 books in one year, successfully completed (technically).

Next, an index of review/impressions posts, by categories.

Literature:

• Alighieri, Dante – La Vita Nuova
• Anonymous – The Book of Odes (Arthur Waley’s translation)
• Anonymous – Edward, Edward
• Anonymous – The Epic of Gilgamesh
• Banville, John – The Sea
• Campion, Thomas – “Rose-Cheeked Laura”
• Carroll, Lewis – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and The Hunting of the Snark
• Catullus – Various poems
• Cavalcanti, Guido – Various Poems
• Cecil, William, 1st Lord Burghley – “To his Daughter Ann, New Year’s Day, 1567“
• Chesterton, G. K. – The Man Who Was Thursday
• Cowley, Abraham – “The Given Heart”
• Desbordes-Valmore, Marceline – “Le Rendez-vous”
• Denham, Sir John – “A Song”
• Dick, Philip K. – The Man in the High Castle
• Donne, John – Holy Sonnets: Death, be not proud
• Faulkner, William – The Sound and the Fury
• Frost, Robert – Fire and Ice
• Fujiwara no Masatsune – Hyakunin Isshu 94 (“Fair Yoshino”)
• Golding, William – Lord of the Flies
• Graham, James, Marquis of Montrose – “On Himself, upon Hearing What was his Sentence”
• Hasekura Isuna – Spice & Wolf (vols. 1-4)
• Heinlein, Robert – The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
• Henry VI – “Kingdomes are but Cares”
• Hesiod – The Works and Days, Theogeny
• Homer – The Homeric Hymns, The Iliad, The Odyssey
• Housman, A. E. – “Here Dead Lie We”
• Kafka, Franz – The Castle
• Lindsay, Vachel – “The Congo” and “Factory Windows are Always Broken”
• Martial – Epigrams
• Milton, John – Sonnet XIX: When I Consider how my Light is Spent
• Molière – Le Misanthrope
• Murakami Haruki – Kafka on the Shore
• Neovictorian – Sanity, Reality
• O’Brien, Tim – Going After Cacciato and The Things They Carried
• O’Connor, Flannery – Various short stories
• Ogle, Garth – The Bowl of Tears and Solace
• Pindar – The Odes
• Poe, Edgar Allan – Tales of Mystery and Imagination, poems
• Pope, Alexander – A Little Learning
• Pound, Ezra – Hugh Selwyn Mauberley and The Cantos, “A Pact,” and “In a Station of the Metro”
• Randolph, Thomas – “Upon his Picture“
• Ransom, John Crowe – “Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter”
• Sappho – Various poems
• Shelley, Mary – Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus
• Shirley, James – “The Glories of Our Blood and State”
• Spenser, Edmund – “Amoretti LXXV: One Day I Wrote her Name”
• Stevenson, Robert Louis – A Child’s Garden of Verses, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• Stoker, Bram – Dracula
• Takimoto Tatsuhiko – Welcome to the NHK
• Tanigawa Nagaru – The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Series) (Books 1-7) (Dissociation)
• Thomas, Dylan – Various poems
• Various – Ben Jonson and the Cavalier Poets
• Various – One Hundred Leaves (Hyakunin Isshu) (Frank Watson translation)
• Villon, François  – “Ballade des dames du temps jadis” (English) (French)
• Waller, Edmund – “Go, Lovely Rose”
• Whitman, Walt – “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”
• Wilde, Oscar – The Picture of Dorian Gray

Non-fiction:

• Adler, Mortimer J. and Charles van Doren – How to Read a Book
• Alighieri, Dante – Monarchia and The Monarchia Controversy (ed. by Anthony Cassell)
• Anissimov, Michael – A Critique of Democracy
• Anonymous – The Book of Documents (Shujing)
• Anonymous – The Analects of Confucius (Leonard Lyall translation) (Choosing a translation)
• Aristotle – Poetics
• Azuma Hiroki – Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals
• Bellarmine, Robert  – The Art of Dying Well, De Laicis, De Romano Pontifice vol. 1, and Doctrina Christiana
• Benedict XVI – Saint Paul
• Bernays, Edward – Propaganda
• Bloom, Harold – How to Read and Why
• Boethius – The Consolation of Philosophy
• Calloway, Fr. Donald – Consecration to St. Joseph
• Carter, John – ABC for Book Collectors
• Chapman, John “Borzoi” – Cultured Grugs
• Chesterton, G. K. – The Everlasting Man, Heretics, and Orthodoxy
• Clark, Christopher – Iron Kingdom
• Cochran and Harpending – The 10,000 Year Explosion
• Dabney, Robert Lewis – A Defense of Virginia and the South
• de Liguori, Alphonsus – How to Pray at All Times
• Evola, Julius – Fascism Viewed from the Right and Notes on the Third Reich
• Garfunkel, Art – What is it All but Luminous?
• Gongyang Commentators – The Gongyang Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals
• Herbert, Edward – A Confucian Notebook
• Herodotus – The Histories
• Hitchens, Peter – Short Breaks in Mordor
• Hockenmaier, Fr. Fructosious – Confession Made Easy
• Hobbes, Thomas – Leviathan
• Ingrao, Charles W. – The Habsburg Monarchy, 1618-1815
• Israel, Ann and Gregg Swain – Mah Jongg: The Art of the Game
• Jones, Dan – The Plantagenets
• Kinkead, Fr. Thomas – Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism
• Kissinger, Henry – Diplomacy
• Kondo Marie – The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
• Mamalakis, Philip – Parenting Towards the Kingdom
• Mangan, P. D. – Best Supplements for Men’s Health, Strength, and Virility and Muscle Up
• Marchant, Bill – Northern Reaction
• Maritain, Jacques – Education at the Crossroads
• McGovern, Fr. James – The Religious and Moral Training of Children
• Mencius – er, well, Mencius
• Metternich, Klemens von – Metternich: The Autobiography (1773-1815)
• Okrent, Arika – In the Land of Invented Languages
• Pines, Yuri – The Everlasting Empire
• Sallust – The Catiline Conspiracy and The Jugurthine War
• Santagata, Marco – Dante: The Story of his Life
• Scott, Emmet – Mohammed & Charlemagne Revisited
• Semmes, Raphael – Memoirs of a Service Afloat During the War Between the States
• Tanizaki Junichiro – In Praise of Shadows
• Taylor, A. J. P. – The Habsburg Monarchy, 1809-1918
• Trudeau, Noah Andre – Robert E. Lee
• Trump, Donald and Tony Schwarz – The Art of the Deal
• Tuchman, Barbara – The Guns of August
• Various – The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and Sophists (ed. by Robin Waterfield)
• Various – From Irenaeus to Grotius: A Sourcebook in Christian Political Thought (ed. by Oliver O’Donovan and Joan Lockwood O’Donovan)
• Walther, Peter – The First World War in Colour
• Weaver, Richard – Ideas Have Consequences
• Xenophon – Hiero the Tyrant and Other Treatises
• Yao, Xinzhong – An Introduction to Confucianism
• Young, Philip H. – The Printed Homer: A 3,000 Year Publishing and Translation History of the Iliad and the Odyssey

Plato:

• Introduction; Lysis, Laches, and Charmides
• Meno
• Euthyphro
• Socrates’ Defense (The Apology)
• Crito
• Protagoras
• Greater Hippias
• Gorgias
• Lesser Hippias
• Symposium
• Phaedrus
• Republic
• Phaedo
• Ion
• Euthydemus
• Menexenus

Shakespeare:

• 1 Henry VI
• 2 Henry VI
• 3 Henry VI
• Titus Andronicus (and Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew)
• Richard III (with notes on reading Shakespeare generally)

Graphic Novels and Comics:

• Aida Yu – Gunslinger Girl (vols. 7-8) (vols. 11-12) (finale)
• CLAMP – Gate 7 (vol. 1)
• Fujishima Kosuke – Oh, My Goddess! (vol. 41) (vol. 47) (vol. 48) (vols. 1-7)
• Go Nagai – Devilman
• Kamachi Kazuma (story) and Fuyukawa Motoi (art) – A Certain Scientific Railgun (vols. 1-2)
• Kio Shimoku – Genshiken Second Season vol. 6-7
• Kishiro Yukito – Battle Angel Alita: Last Order Omnibus vols. 3-5
• Ishinomori Shotaro – The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Ito Junji – Frankenstein
• Ito Junji – Gyo
• Ito Junji – Uzumaki
• Kon Satoshi – Opus
• Koume Keito – Spice & Wolf (GN) vol. 9-10
• Kumeta Koji – Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (overview) (vol. 9)
• Mori Kaoru – A Bride’s Story vol. 6
• O’Connor, Flannery – The Cartoons
• Oshii Mamoru and Kon Satoshi – Seraphim 266613336 Wings
• Suenobu Keiko – Limit vols. 3-6
• Suetsugu Yuki – Chihayafuru (French Edition)
• Tadano Nobuaki – 7 Billion Needles
• Takemiya Yuyuko (story) and Zekkyo (art) – ToraDora (vols. 1-2) (vol. 3) (vol. 7)
• Tanigawa Nico – Watamote vols. 5-7
• Tezuka Osamu – Dororo
• Ueda Hajime – FLCL
• Unita Yumi – Bunny Drop (vols. 1-2)
• Yasuhiko Yoshikazu – Joan
• Yasuhiko Yoshikazu – Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin (vols. 4-5) (vols. 6-7) (vols. 8-10)

Animation:

• 101 Dalmatians
• Alice in Wonderland
• Bambi
• Cinderella
• Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (both seasons)
• Dumbo
• Evangelion 2.0
• Evangelion 3.0
• Fantasia
• Fate/Stay Night
• Fate/Zero (box set 1) (box set 2) (final impressions)
• FLCL (blu-ray)
• Ghost Hound
• The Hobbit
• Interstella 5555
• The Jungle Book
• Lady and the Tramp
• Last Exile (eps. 1-2)
• The Last Unicorn
• The Lord of the Rings
• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Endless Eight arc)
• The Mystic Archives of Dantalian
• Neon Genesis Evangelion (TV Series)
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth
• Peter Pan
• Pinocchio
• Return of the King
• Rozen Maiden and RM: Träumend
• Rozen Maiden: Zurückspulen
• serial experiments lain (blu-ray) (the “theology” of) (personal experience with)
• Sleeping Beauty
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
• Sword in the Stone
• The Three Caballeros
• Watamote
• The Wind Rises
• Your Name and 5 Centimetres per Second

Miscellaneous:

• Akira Club (art book)
• The Chekist (film)
• Jurassic Park (film)
• Katyn (film)
• Maniac (film)
• Medieval Monsters (art book)
• Mischief Makers (video game)
• Moby Dick, by Geraldine McCauhrean (picture book)
• Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber (video game)
• Pokemon: White Version (video game)
• The Road Home (film)
• Sweeney Todd (film)
• Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (PS version) (video game)
• Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis (video game)
• Tales of Mystery and Imagination (album)
• The Wicker Man (film)

Bibliophile’s Journal (Short Book Reviews):

• Akira by Otomo Katsuhiro
• Alex Cross, Run by James Patterson
• Anything and Something by Mori Kaoru
• The Arthurian Handbook by Norris Lacy and Geoffrey Ashe
• Battle Angel Alita: Last Order (Omnibus 1) by Kishiro Yukito
• Biblical Commentaries: Romans by St. Thomas Aquinas
• A Bride’s Story (v.4) by Mori Kaoru
• Bunny Drop (v.3-4) (v.8) by Unita Yumi
• Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
• Confessions of a Mask by Mishima Yukio
• Considérations sur la France by Joseph de Maistre
• Cromartie High School (v.1-2) by Nonaka Eiji
• Disappearance Diary by Azuma Hideo
• Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
• Gate 7 (v.3) by CLAMP
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• Great Expectations (started) (finished) by Charles Dickens
• Gunslinger Girl (v.13-14) by Aida Yu
• History of the English-Speaking Peoples by Sir Winston Churchill
• The Indignation of Haruhi Suzumiya by Tanigawa Nagaru
• Limit by Suenobu Keiko
• The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Navarre Bible Commentary: Jeremiah
• Neon Genesis Evangelion (v.1-3) (v.7-9) by Sadamoto Yoshiyuki
• Oh, My Goddess! (v. 42) by Fujishima Kosuke
• Rules of Prey by John Sandford
• The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Spice & Wolf (graphic novel) (v.7) by Koume Keito
• Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Mishima Yukio
• Thermae Romae (v.1) by Yamazaki Mari
• ToraDora (v.5) by Zekkyo
• A Troublesome Inheritance by Nicholas Wade
• Twenty Prose Poems by Charles Baudelaire
• The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot
• X (Omnibus III, Omnibus V) by CLAMP
• Yotsuba&! (v.11) by Azuma Kiyohiko

Finally, the year-end retrospectives, which may be of interest since they contain a “highlight reel” of each year:

• 2021: For this Child did I Pray
• 2020: O My Dove, in the Clefts of the Rock
• 2019: Mais où sont les neiges d’antan! (also: Book Report)
• 2018: Tomorrow Will Be Special, Yesterday Was Not (also: Book Report)
• 2017: The Speed at Which Cherry Blossoms Fall (also: supplemental Book Report)
• 2016: A Human Work
• 2015: The Other Side of Agincourt
• 2014: It All Comes Tumbling Down, Tumbling Down, Tumbling Do~wn
• 2013: The Agincourt of Weblogging
• 2012: An OK Year in Review
• 2011: A Personal Reflection