Virgil

I was going to post my 2013 reads but instead I’ll just let all of Lit Net in on my personal literature blog and you can get to my reads from there. I started this blog just over a year ago. I had been reading a number of literature blogs around the internet and realized that thoughts on my reads as I go throughout the year might be interesting to some. At a minimum it lets me document what I thought of a work during or soon after I read it, and sharing it with the general public is a way to share knowledge and keep my writing skills sharp. I named my blog, “Ashes From Burnt Roses” and in the About tab where I give the blog’s introduction I cite that it comes from T.S. Eliot. By the way, I go by my real name, Manny. (It may be a shock to some, but my real name is not Virgil. ) Here’s part of the About tab:

Ash on an old man's sleeve
Is all the ash the burnt roses leave.
Dust in the air suspended
Marks the place where a story ended.
Dust inbreathed was a house-
The walls, the wainscot and the mouse,
The death of hope and despair,
This is the death of air.
-T.S. Eliot, from "Little Gilding."

This is my literary blog, reflecting my reads and thoughts on literature, novels, short stories, poetry, plays, even literary criticism. I'll also comment on writing style, especially the use of the English language. My name is Manny. I have an advanced degree in English Literature, but that's relatively meaningless. The love of high literature is the only criteria that really matters. Literature is the ultimate art form, abstract yet tangible, rhythmic yet static, didactic yet aesthetic. Literature as art form has had hold on me for over thirty years. Since I talk about it elsewhere, since I read continuously and ponder the artistry behind the works, since I dilly-dally with creative writing myself, and have built up some store of knowledge, I thought it high time to share my thoughts with those that may want to hear them, create a dialogue on shared readings to reach some sort of conclusion, and just kibitz on literary topics in a way that would occur if we dear reader were sitting at a cafe with a coffee or tea and a Limoncello or Sambuca.


I take the name for this blog, "Ashes From Burnt Roses" from T.S. Eliot's poem cited above. Set aside what Eliot might actually mean by the phrase, what the rose symbolizes here for me is the highest artistic perfection from nature. And yet, in our discussion as we dissect and break literature down, it gets burned to ashes, reduced to cinders, dust and dirt. But let us hope that from our examination the rose rises from the ashes into the greater rose, the finer rose, the more complete rose. It is in understanding art, in reaching its central mystery—whether the mystery is revealed or veiled—that great art is fulfilled and reaches its teleologic purpose.

I guess that sounds a bit lofty, but I do hold literature to be dear. Feel free to come by. Sometimes I just post cursory thoughts from what I’m reading, with some key excerpts, and sometimes I really do some detailed analysis. I look at novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction. I’ll post some author quotes that catch my fancy. I’ll highlight some really exquisitely well written passage that I come across and identify it as “Lines I Wished I’D Written.” I’ll link up to news items with a literary subject that I come across. I also try to change up every so often with either a post on a work of art or some piece of music I really enjoy. There’s an occasional personal note for friends and family, since I shun social media. For those that remember my adopted son Matthew, I do have a feature titled “Matthew Monday” where I’ll post a picture or tell a personal anecdote. He’s four years old now.

I have let a few of my Lit Net friends in on the blog. The reason I didn’t let all of Lit Net in until now was my reluctance with the few crazies or cranks that are around here, and too many people bring up non-literature topics, topics that just lead to argument . Now here’s the one stipulation I have at “Ashes From Burnt Roses,” again from the Introduction:

Please do not bring up politics here. I want nothing controversial on this blog. I want no one to feel alienated or aggrieved. It will be a failing on my part if this blog does not live up to the first line of the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, "Lord make me an instrument of your peace."

My blog is a refuge from squabble and contentious issues. I don’t care about the news of the day, politics, elections, celebrities, economics, international affairs, public policy, global warming, population control, and saving the planet. Those are topics for people without imagination. (Yes, I know, I’ve been known to debate them, but that’s from the narrow part of my brain. ) In the one year of my blog I haven’t had a single argument and that’s saying something for my personality. And there won’t be because I won’t bring those subjects up. It really will be a failing on my part if there is an argument.

I was about to mention in that list above no religion either. And there is no religious debate. This is what I say in my introduction:

Also I am a Roman Catholic by faith, and I would consider myself somewhat devout. This is not a religious blog, and I don't intend to ever talk about theology, except if it might pertain to a work under discussion. But my religion will at times reflect my reading choices and perhaps my readings of various works. That is who I am. I will also post an entry on Fridays--an image, or a poem or a music video--that reflects my faith. It will be my form of virtual prayer. Feel free to ignore it if it does nothing for you.

I have no interest in arguing over theology either (I’m not qualified and neither are 99% of the people who think they know what they’re talking about just because they “read the bible”) or the endless and futile atheism/theism bickering. Let me repeat, the blog is a refuge from what divides people.

So can a blog (or any internet forum) be successful without any hot button issues? Probably not. But success is in the eye of the beholder. I don’t have any advertisements and I don’t make any money from the blog. The readers are few but they’re good souls. I put this together to think through what I read. Without it I wouldn’t write anything down and it would get lost. The one difficulty for a literature blog is that if the blog readers aren’t reading the same work, it’s awfully hard to have an intelligent conversation on the work. I understand that. Still it may stir some thoughts, and some of the less stodgy posts might catch your fancy. Stop by, I’d love to hear from you.

So here is the link to the blog itself.

Here is my post on My 2013 Reads.

Here are my reading plans for 2014.

It’s also easy to navigate by clicking through the Labels listed on the column on the right. If you want to sample some of the more detailed literature posts, here are some I’m fairly proud of.

On an Emily Dickinson poem, “I Heard I Fly Buzz When I Died”

On the Edgar Allen Poe short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”

On the Tolstoy novel The Cossacks.

The Raymond Carver short story, “Feathers”

The Walt Whitman poem, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”

One last thing. If the site doesn’t allow you to comment with your name or handle, you can select “Anonymous” and signoff with your name (or however you wished to be identified) inside the comment box. Let me know what you think and how I could improve it.