LAL #024 — Norm Reads Aloud: The Odyssey, Book III

<p>"<em>Though as for death, of course all men must suffer it:<br />  the gods may love a man, but they can’t help him<br />  when cold death comes to lay him on his bier</em>."</p> <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 III of Homer’s Odyssey.</p> <p>See: <a href= "https://anchor.fm/norm-pattis/episodes/LAL-022--Norm-Reads-Aloud-The-Odyssey--Book-II-e10e2so"> LAL #022 for my reading of Book II</a>.</p> <p>See Also: Law and Legitimacy on <a href= "https://www.patreon.com/normpattis">Patreon</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 /> “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.”<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= "htt