Welcome to The Banquet!

What's on the menu?

Dear All and Sundry!

Welcome to The Banquet, a cozy and cheerful corner of the web dedicated to teaching the Great Books to homeschoolers, high school and college students, teachers, parents, grandparents and anyone who is interested in whetting their appetite for the wisdom found in classic works of literature, one bite at a time.

This periodical is an attempt to answer a need—

Many of us wish to gain wisdom from great literature but we don’t know how to approach it ourselves, much less make it approachable to our students or children. Either we missed out on a classical education and feel lost in trying to give our children that experience, or we don’t have the resources on hand to pass it on to those we love. Maybe you just want to dig a little deeper into some of the great works that you already cherish. Maybe you want to finally find out what all the fuss is about. Whatever circumstance you find yourself in, I hope you will find something to your taste here at The Banquet.

Here you will find:

Appetizers—A guide to the Great Books, how to navigate them as a whole for the first time, as a student, teacher or parent

The Soup or Salad—Tips for teachers and students

The Main Course—Insights and Deep Dives into our main dishes, the great works of literature, particularly those in the Western Canon

Dessert—Tidbits on English words and phrases, wordplay and wit

The After-Dinner Coffee—Reflections on a life spent in the classroom, and how literature shaped my own views

As well as…

—Updates on what’s being offered in Classical/Great Books Education locally, in the U.S., and around the world

—Reviews of the Creative arts as they touch on the Classical

If that sounds like a feast you would like to join, please subscribe today!

Here at The Banquet, we believe that education in the classics and Great Books is essential, messy, sometimes difficult, sometimes dangerous, but inherently joyful:

Essential

Though we humans can be told what to do, we are most at peace with acting rightly and being what we are when we have learned those things experientially, in accordance with our Free Will.

But just as none of us came with an instruction manual to guide us through our questions, none of has the necessary few thousand years to live through all the necessary mistakes to finally arrive at the right answers. Luckily or providentially, we humans have been around for a bit, and over the last few millennia, we managed to create a way to pass our experiences on to the next generation so they wouldn’t have to start at square one: writing. 

The classics represent the best answers to the biggest questions:

Who are we?

Where did we come from? Where are we going?

What should we do with the time that is given us?

What is our relationship to the world around us?

How should we treat one another?

The classics are works of art, and all art if it’s successful, imitates an experience, and allows the reader to have an experience, too. The classics teach us to be more fully human, to live with more certainty concerning what is good, what is true and what is beautiful, and to live more meaningfully in pursuing those things, and more joyfully, avoiding the mistakes of a life lived unworthily. That is an education that is meant not only for academics or for elites—it is an education for everyone!

Messy

Classical education resists a checklist mentality—it is not a series of hoops to jump through.  Merely reading a chosen work will not guarantee it will be a meaningful experience for the reader, (though a great work will have a greater chance.)

Because experiences -those sparks of insight between the reader and work--happen at the right time with the right circumstances, and often, with the right teacher, they are hard to plan. Knowing your student is important. Knowing the work well is also important. But providence has a hand in these things too, and sometimes the spark happens with little planning (or in spite of planning!)

There is no proper order, or proper age, after the high school years for any of these works (though placing works in some chronological context can be helpful). It will be different for each person. Did you miss Moby Dick when you were a youth? Never picked up Shakespeare? Do you have to teach Great Expectations but find you have only ever read A Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol? That’s ok. There’s still time to fill in the corners! The teacher should be flexible. Education is an ongoing endeavor.

Feed the young mind the good that it is hungry for, and dishes like it, and the appetite will grow and thrive. That goes for the old mind, too. Is your education a muddle? Are there great gaps in your learning? Be at ease. No one has read everything. The trick is to take the next step.

Sometimes Difficult

Part of the work (and a great part!) of educating is putting the classics in the path of the reader at the right time. But beyond that is helping the reader attain an insight through properly understanding the questions being asked, and how they are being answered in the work.

Life is complexly ordered, nuanced, layered and surprising, and does not reveal its secrets all at once, so we shouldn’t be surprised to find that the classics are the same. It will take patience to understand them over time. Some works are so abundant that they will reward a lifetime of dedicated study and still have more to offer. The Odyssey, the Iliad, the Aeneid, the Divine Comedy, The Canterbury Tales, The Faerie Queen, Don Quixote, Paradise Lost—to say nothing of the Republic, or the Summa—these are inexhaustible. As teachers you will come to a deeper understanding as you also gain experience.

Do not expect to teach the Great Books and avoid being taught by them! That is part of the risk and adventure. But do not be daunted! The Banquet will be here with knife and fork, and with a bit of sauce, to make even the most difficult palatable.

Sometimes Dangerous

Sometimes the great minds were lured into philosophically dangerous places—necessary at the time, perhaps, but ultimately leading towards dead ends. Like certain areas of a great city, they may be places worth exploring but not places to linger. The teacher should proceed cautiously here, but ultimately, it is good for the mind to know these places exist as well. (I’m looking at you, Machiavelli! And you, Wallace Stevens!) They are dangerous because they still retain their allure, and ultimately the reader will decide for themselves their value, and that evaluation may differ from their teacher. That too is part of the risk and adventure.

Joyful

The classics are fun! Wild, zany, dramatic, comedic, bawdy, robust and bursting with life, partaking in humor that is both shockingly recognizable and utterly alien, and filled with as many strange characters as a twenty-generation family reunion, the classics are the forebears that survived wars, went to jail, crossed oceans, fell in love, and lived to tell the tale. Never was there a less stodgy or boring sphere of interest.

Like all families, the classics have their churls, brutes, hooligans and scalawags, too, and not just roving among the fictional characters-some of the authors were as well. It is good for us to know them, even if only to know to avoid them. Sometimes we must dare to love them.

But, and here is the rub, most are great souls, and our souls are enlarged for knowing them, our wits are sharpened with having bandied with them, and our laughter is deeper with having shared a jest about the human condition across the ages with them.

An Invitation

Enjoying your first bite? I hope you will come back for more!