The Dharma bum's guide to Western literature Finding nirvana in the classics

Dean Sluyter

Book - 2022

"A meditation instructor and former English teacher shows how the great classics of Western literature illustrate the essential concepts of Eastern philosophy. The discussion includes works by authors such as John Keats, William Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf, Frederick Douglass, and many others"--

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Subjects
Genres
Literary criticism
Published
Novato, California : New World Library [2022]
Language
English
Main Author
Dean Sluyter (author)
Physical Description
303 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (page 278) and index.
ISBN
9781608687695
  • William Blake: Eternity's Sunrise
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby: Unutterable Visions
  • Frederick Douglass: The Slave Narrative: Tribulation
  • Thoreau, Emerson & Friends: Future Buddhas of America
  • Dr. Seuss: The Cat In The Hat: Have No Fear
  • Virginia Woolf: To The Lighthouse: Plenty for Everybody
  • Ernest Hemingway: A Farewell To Arms: Pebbles and Boulders
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Kubla Khan: The Milk of Paradise
  • John Donne: A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning: Let Us Melt
  • Mark Twain: Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn: Betwixt Two Things
  • John Keats: Still
  • Edwin Abbott Abbott: Flatland: Upward, Not Northward
  • William Shakespeare: Macbeth: What's Your Hurry
  • Samuel Beckett: Waiting For Godot: Thanks for Nothing
  • Rodgers & Hammerstein: Oklahoma!: OK
  • Gerard Manley Hopkins: Flame Out
  • Toni Morrison: The Bluest Eye: Love Nonetheless
  • Herman Melville: Moby Dick: Whiteness
  • Emily Dickinson: I'm Nobody
  • Walt Whitman: I Am Large
  • J.D. Salinger: Ah, Buddy
  • Key, Rogers & Franklin: Three Anthems: Look Again.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Sluyter (Cinema Nirvana), a retired prep school English teacher, posits in this lighthearted survey that there are enlightenment lessons to be found in Western classics, whether in works by Dr. Seuss or Aretha Franklin. In "Unutterable Visions," he suggests the fiction of F. Scott Fitzgerald (namely, The Great Gatsby) holds the lesson to "be your own light," while, in "Love Nonetheless," he praises the "boundless compassion" that can be found in Toni Morrison's writing, specifically The Bluest Eye. "Eternity's Sunrise," meanwhile, sees him analyze the oeuvre of William Blake, who found the divine in "every ordinary object," and Sluyter makes a strong case in "Look Again" that Mr. Rogers saw life as "inherently beautiful." While not all the essays are equally convincing--his pieces on kindness in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the internal satipatthana in the works of Virginia Woolf feel less fleshed out and require a bit more buy-in from readers--Sluyter's angle is nonetheless an original one, and the execution is pleasantly breezy. Those with an appreciation of literature and spirituality will appreciate Sluyter's fresh takes. Agent: Lisa Hagan, Lisa Hagan Literary. (Mar.)

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