The 110-Most Interesting Readings

Here is my selection for the best readings, a personal list, out of a 1000-selections.
The Gospels (Mathew, Mark, Luke, John) 31 A.D.
Epic of Gilgamesh
(John Garn Gardner & John Maier, translated: poetic) 2700 B.C.
Iliad (Homer: poetic) 800 B.C.
The Odyssey (Homer)
Aeneid (Vigil)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (J.R.R. Tolkien, translated)
Alexander Trilogy (by: Mary Renault) three-books 325 B.C.
The Republic (and, Plato's Atlantis, 450 B.C.)
Grendel (John Gardner)
Beowulf (9th Century)
The Tale of Troy (by John Masefield; Epic Poem) 1250 B.C.
Book of Job (Poetic) 2200 B.C.
Song of Solomon (Poetic) 1000 B.C.
Sandalwood and Jade (Poems by: Lin Carter) 1951
Galleon of Dreams (poems by: Lin Carter) 1953
The Great Stone Face (Hawthorn)
A Movable Feast (Hemingway)
The Unvanquished (by Faulkner)
In the Beginning... (Joseph Ratzinger)
Dracula's Guest (Bram Stoker)
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
(Only Novel by E.A. Poe) 1838
The Story of Philosophy (by Will Durant)
The Raven and other Poems (Edger Allen Poe) 1845
Silence in the Snowy Fields (poems by Robert Bly)
The Branch Will not Break (poems by James Wright)
Life of Cicero (by Robert Harris) 2 books
Pillars of the Earth (by Ken Follett)
Tobacco Road (by Erskine Caldwell)
The Road Back (by Erich Maria Remarque)
The Source (by James Michener)
Before Adam (Jack London)
This Side of Paradise (by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
Huckleberry Finn (by Mark Twain)
Absalom, Absalom! (By Faulkner)
Sound and the Fury (by Faulkner)
Life along the Mississippi (by Mark Twain)
Men without Women (by Hemingway)
Save Me the Waltz (Zelda Fitzgerald)
Robin Hood (11th Century)
Hamlet (William Shakespeare)
Ariel (Plath: poetry)
Theseus: The King Must Die &
The Bull from the Sea (Mary Renault) 2-books (1250 B.C.)
The Grass Crown & Sequel (Coleen Macaulay) 2-books
The Book of Folly (Anne Sexton)
Crow (Ted Hughes: Poetry)
Lilith (by George Sterling: Poetic)
Nigger to Nigger (E.C. L. Adams)
The Liar of the White Worm (Bram Stoker)
The Game (by Jack London)
Anomalous Phenomena &
Homeward Bound (Jules Verne) SF 2-books
A Night in Lisbon (by Erich Maria Remarque)
Night over Water (Ken Follett)
Chicago Poems (Carl Sandburg)
Twenty Poems of Georg Trakl
Twenty Poems of Cesar Vallejo
Tender is the Night (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
The Children of Húrin (by J.R.R. Tolkien)
The Man with the Hoe (Markham: Poetry)
Twenty Prose Poems (Charles Baudelaire)
In Country Sleep (Dylan Thomas: Poems)
The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers
The Last Trumpet and the Woodbridge Demon
The Tale of Willie the Humpback Whale
Dark Odyssey (Donald Wandrei)
Mary, Called Magdalene (Winthrop & Frances Neilson)
Windy McPherson's Son (Sherwood Anderson)
The Fifty Column... (Hemingway)
Go, Down Moses (Faulkner)
Verses in Ebony (Robert E. Howard)
The Notorious Jumping Frog... (Twain)
The Night Born (Jack London)
The dragons of Eden (Carl Sagan)
The Grand Design & Black Holes
(Stephen Hawking... ) 2-books
Music for Chameleons (Truman Capote)
The Doctor and the Devils (Dylan Thomas)
The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)
Habitant of Dusk (August Derleth: poems)
Songs and Sonnets Atlantean (Donald Fryer: 9000 B.C.)
The Four Million (O. Henry)
The Dwarf (Par Lagerkvist)
The Windmills (Los Molinos) Poetry of: Juan Parra del Rigo
The Last Tomb (Michael Grichton as: John Lange)
Private Latitudes (Michael Crichton)
Journey (by Jams A. Michener)
The Colossus (Plath: poems)
Men at War (Hemingway)
Scenes and Portraits: The King of Uruk
(By Frederic Manning)
Arch of Triumph (by Erich Maria Remarque)
Heaven Has no Favorites (by Erich Maria Remarque)
Hawthorn's Short Stories (1946, Edition)
The Tomb (H.P. Lovecraft)
The Star-Treader (Clark A. Smith: poems)
The Dunwich Horror (H.P. Lovecraft)
Granite & Rainbow (Essays by Virginia Woolf)
Lectures in America (Gertrude Stein)
The Stolen White Elephant (Twain)
Chamber Music (Poems by James Joyce)
Pomes Penyeach (by James Joyce)
Strange Waters (George Sterling)
Death by Demand (Eldritch Stories)
Ecstasy (by Donald Wandrei: poetry)

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8501696

By Dennis Siluk Dr.h.c.

Synopsis Of 'Oedipius Rex' By Sophocles

The story begins with a dialogue between Oedipus, the king of Thebes, and the priest, as they discuss the evil predicament that has befallen their land; blights on their harvest and grazing flocks. Oedipus informs the priest of having sent his consort brother, Menoeceus's son, Creon, to inquire from the Pythian Phoebus at his Delphic shrine, how the state might be saved.

Before long, Creon arrives bringing news from the gods. He says what they demand is the punishment, either by death or banishment, of the murderer of the past King, Laius son of Labdacus. Oedipus, who is new to the land, and keen to bring to light this criminal who is the cause of their woes, asks him details of the murder.

In another scene, Oedipus lays a curse on the killer, prohibits all Thebans from associating with him and encourages those who have knowledge of him to announce it.

The chorus/elders advise Oedipus to summon Teiresias, the blind seer, to give his opinion on the issue. But Oedipus had already sent Creon, in a much earlier time, to bring him to the palace.

Eventually, Teiresias, the widely renowned seer arrives at the palace. He is very unwilling to speak on the Laius and his murderer, the issue for which he was summoned; he in fact requests that he be allowed to take his leave. However, Oedipus accuses him of being the murderer. Hearing this, Teiresias made a counter-accusation by daring to say Oedipus himself was the man who killed Laius. After the exchange of invectives, Oedipus claims that Teiresias must have conspired with Creon to blemish and overthrow him. After hearing this, Teiresias prophesies that Oedipus will be exiled from Thebes and have his eyes no more after he discovers his true lineage.

Creon comes out to deny the king's allegations, asking what is he to gain from bidding to overthrow him. He would rather not inherit the position at such a trying time, because all he desires, fame and fortune, are already his; the crown is just a burden. Nevertheless, Oedipus threatens him with death, after he, Creon, suggested banishment.

Jocasta enters and pleads with her husband, Oedipus, to believe Creon for his oath's sake, for her sake and for the sake of the elders (chorus). She went ahead to enquire about the cause of the rift. After hearing the claim of the seer, she told him that it could not be true as it was formally predicted that Laius would be killed by his son at a spot where three roads meet. But obviously, he was murdered by highway robbers, as reported by the survivor of the attack. Oedipus was shocked on hearing this fact, so he asked where exactly the incident happened. Jocasta said Phocis, where roads from Daulis and Delphi meet. He asks further, trembling that perhaps the seer might be proven right, what the built of Laius was and how many attendants he had with him.

Oedipus then immediately demands that the Serf, who survived, be brought before him for questioning. He thereafter narrates the cause of his fear to Jocasta, how a drunkard once told him that he is not the true son of his seer (Polybus; and Merope, his mother), how he visited Delphi and Apollo told him of a prophesy that he would kill his father and sleep with his mother, how he ran away and killed some men when he got to the three-branching road. But there is hope of him not being the killer if the Serf confirms that indeed it was an army of robbers that killed Laius and not a lone wayfarer.

Shortly afterwards, a messenger comes from Corinth bringing news of Polybus's (Oedipus guardian) death, and the search for a new king. This gladdens Oedipus because it seems that the prophecies were false after all, as his father died not through his hands. Nevertheless, he mentions his fear of returning to Corinth because Merope, his mother, still lives and he does not want the second part of the prophecy to materialise.

The messenger offers to rid him of this fear by disclosing that Polybus and Merope are not his real parents, adding that it was he who gave him to Polybus, after another shepherd who is from Laius's palace hands him over to him. This other shepherd turns out to be the same as the witness of Laius's death.

Oedipus, against the wish of Jocasta, wants to get to the root of the matter. He wants to discover his true lineage. Hence, he asks, more emphatically, that the shepherd be brought for questioning.

In next to no time, the long-awaited shepherd who is expected to shed more light on the conundrum finally arrives. He was very reluctant to give straight answers to Oedipus's questions, he even rebuked the Corinthian messenger for saying Oedipus is the accursed child he gave to him years back. However, he soon admitted it, after Oedipus threatened him with death. He also admitted that Jocasta, his mother, gave him to her so that he may get rid of him.

Oedipus was devastated, that, after cursing himself, he immediately left the scene. Not long after his exit, a second messenger came in with the terrible news of Jocasta's death. She was said to have committed suicide through hanging. And then Oedipus himself inflicted injury on himself, he used the golden brooches on Jocasta's robe to smite his eyeballs, thereby blinding himself.

Oedipus, came out, a wretched scene he was. He asked that Creon exile him from the land into the desert so that no eye may behold him and Thebes may be freed from his curse. But Creon refused, firstly deciding to consult the gods, and then instructing Oedipus to leave by himself, if he must.

Such was the fate of Oedipus of Thebes, the son of Laius. And such was the evil calling and cunning desire of the gods. To kill his father, lay with his mother, and spend the rest of his miserable life groping in darkness and humiliation.

By Adekunle F Adebajo

The Status of Art in Dubai

With its modern buildings and cosmopolitan air, Dubai is known as a contemporary, high tech emirate and few people associate this image with art. However, Dubai is home to several widely acclaimed artists and those who live there often have the possibility of going to galleries and shows. In fact, an artistic air can be felt in the entire area: from the awe-inspiring skyscrapers designed by some of the most renowned architects in the world, to the interesting film and music festivals, Dubai itself has been called a work of art many times. For this article, we will focus on the growing influence and popularity of visual arts such as painting, photography and prints.

Many galleries are in operation with frequent openings. For example, the emirate is home to Carbon 12 Dubai, an internationally recognized gallery. It was established in 2008, as the first gallery in the region to initiate a comprehensive, firmly global, program of institution-grade artists. Some of the artists that are featured during this event are Rui Chafes, Andre Butzer, Katherine Bernhardt, Birgit Graschopf, Philip Mueller and Ralf Ziervogel.

The exhibitions on Alserkal Avenue District are very popular and they have been featured in various regional and international art magazines. Alserkal is doubling in size by the end of 2014 adding more space and strength to its relevance. Another key Art Fair is Art Dubai, located in Madinat Jumeirah, which hosts galleries from more than 30 countries. It is recognized as the most important Art Fair in the Middle East. Also, the SIKKA Art Fair in traditional Dubai, Al Bastakiya area was established in 2011 and aims to promote young, and establishing contemporary artists. Another place of interest for art and culture enthusiasts is Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde representing some of the most important regional artists.

Due to the fact that Dubai is a very popular tourist attraction and transit hub, the audience for the above mentioned galleries comprises thousands of foreigners who are interested in following the evolution of the local art scene. However, the emirate seems to place bigger emphasis on its global artistic status, so there is considerable online promotion of these events too. Also, with the Expo 2020 coming, Dubai has engaged itself into establishing its self as a world leader in creativity, innovation and online connectivity. Those who cannot get to Dubai to see the galleries can see an art gallery online and appreciate the most notable works. Even more, enthusiasts and art lovers no longer have to go to the seller in person if they want to purchase a painting or a photograph, because they can order everything online.

It goes without saying that the transition towards online accessibility is regulated by quality standards. Those who purchase art online also get a certificate of authenticity and can choose from multiple framing options. Although paintings are still extremely popular, clients are beginning to show a growing interest in the artistic value of contemporary photography. Some of them are art collectors, but there are also individual clients who need modern photographs for their home decoration or as corporate centerpieces. Even if Dubai is less known for its art up to now, the emirate is rapidly establishing into a creative hub and becoming a landmark for arts. In conclusion, those who love paintings, photography and art prints and would like to find out how vibrant Dubai has contributed to the regional and global art scene can visit the most important galleries in that area or they can see them online, where some of them can also be purchased.

By Groshan Fabiola