Sophie Duncan
Reader with a Cause
Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life
By Zena Hitz
Princeton University Press 240pp £18.99
The middle of a pandemic is a tricky time in which to proselytise for intellectual life. At its best, Zena Hitz’s Lost in Thought is an inspirational attestation of the ability of intellectual activity to dignify oppressed lives. Hitz presents intellectual life as both a refuge and a retreat, offering an escape into self-examination and a recognition of humanity’s shared heart. We are called to seriousness and to loving service. We should be reading Herodotus and listening to Bach. Perhaps this is a necessary clarion call. But its reverberations jar at a time when even Hitz’s comfiest academic peers (tenured, cultured, well up on Plato) are struggling with the electronic substitutes for the lectures and tutorials that normally occupy their time. More discordant still are Hitz’s vaunting vignettes of playing at poverty on a religious retreat, particularly at a moment when multitudes are jobless, foodless and finding neither dignity nor inspiration in the experience.
In Hitz’s view, the proper subjects for the intellect consist primarily of the Roman Catholic Church and the works found on the Great Books curriculum of St John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, her alma mater and employer. That curriculum is based on an almost unvarying roster of titles (Austen, Eliot
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm