the Bible
the Eddas
the Sagas
medieval legends
Shakespeare
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Percy Shelley (quoted twice)
Rudyard Kipling
Wells
Heinlein
de Camp
various contemporaries and successors
Are poets inspired authorities? (See Poets And Prophets.) No, but they express insights. So what do Shakespeare and Kipling say about a hereafter?
Kipling:
They will come back - come back again, as long as the red Earth rolls.
He never wasted a leaf or a tree. Do you think He would squander souls ?
-copied from here.
Shakespeare:
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
-copied from here.
Comments:
I agree with Shakespeare (and would also cite him as the greater poet!);
it will really make my day if I do wake up after death;
"He," personified nature, does not waste decayed vegetable matter but nor does He restore the individual leafs or trees;
the "soul" equivalent is language, tradition, literature, knowledge etc, which we celebrate here.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree with the list of "contexts" in which Anderson wrote. But I might have others, including thinkers as varied as Marcus Aurelius and St. Thomas Aquinas, both of whom can also be found mentioned in the works of Anderson.
Shakespeare might be a greater poet than Kipling, but after reading the latter's "The Sack of the Gods," I would have to argue that Kipling drew on greater knowledge and a wider range of topics than was available to the Bard.
Moreover, I am not sure the "He" in the final lies applies to something ad vague as personified nature. Rather, it reads to me as tho Kipling had God in mind.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
He did indeed. I am, of course, putting my own slant on it.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I tend to be sometimes too literal minded, but I think a good rule would be to try to deduce as simply as possible what an author most likely meant.
Ad astra! Sean
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