Contents

• An endless blue circle. In it a star.
• Dealing with the backlog, and other worthy goals
• Learning from the Greeks
• News sources, part one
• The Viking Borges
• Versions of Browning
• Borges and History

Nishigawa Kobo · essays

An endless blue circle. In it a star.

Category: Essays

Yugoslavia has come to be associated with a particular kind of barbarism; but there was a time – not so very long ago – when it was associated with a particular kind of dream. Milos Crnjanski, in his novel Migrations, demonstrates how this is a dream we all share.

C.F. Ryal, 13 July 2002

Dealing with the backlog, and other worthy goals

Category: Essays

This essay grew from an an attempt I made to clear some space in one of the two metal baskets on my desk – the geological basket, where reading accumulates. It was an attempt to deal with a private backlog, which ended up revealing a worthy goal for everyone.

C.F. Ryal, 8 June 2002

Learning from the Greeks

Category: Essays

Classical Greece continues to act as an emotional ancestor of our political system in the West. These two standard overviews of classical Greek culture still have much to say to us, and offer useful and stimulating interpretations of their subject.

C.F. Ryal, 1 June 2002

News sources, part one

Category: Essays

Background information on what I read every week. There are far too many possible sources of news in the world today. This essay lists a few that I believe to be reliable and which I can recommend to other readers.

C.F. Ryal, 29 May 2002