Literary works are the ultimate expression of the human art form. Well, there would be those who disagree, and I appreciate many of those areas that encompass their thinking. Be it music, dance, painting or other areas of expression that reach out to others with their message. Be it a message of hope or despair, beauty or vulgarity, reason or fantasy, these are all ways in which people have been gifted to reach out and express what they are led to communicate.
Yet, whether through oral or written conveyance, language is the “art form” through which we can impart that artistic message (although often imperfectly) to another person who lacked the opportunity to personally experience the original medium of expression. It is to those with the best command of language through which other expressions truly come alive. Moreover, language is the medium and literary pursuits are the mechanism through which meaning, thought, beauty, vulgarity, wisdom, folly and more cast the most indelible vision on our hearts and minds.
To be clear, only a small portion of writing is literature; of literature only a small part has that most excellent of artistic quality. This forum is dedicated to that small corner of the written word that is quintessentially artistic. There are many forms and genres of the written word that are enjoyable to many, but this forum is dedicated to those that reside in a category set apart from the common. Of course, I am the imperfect arbiter of literary works that qualify, although I am willing to be persuaded.
This site is a platform for those who truly enjoy language as an art form. Unfortunately, I am limited to those works that are written in or translated to English. Truly wonderful works of literary excellence are seen across languages. These includes ancient Greek and Latin, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Russian. Moreover, my ignorance of literature from other parts of the world are not an indictment of those culture, but rather of my own ignorance of them.
Finally, as you can probably tell, this site is very much a work in progress. As much as I would want to ensure that it was perfect before being made publicly accessible, were I to wait for that, it would probably never happen. I have yet to enable much of the functionality that will ultimately reside on the site. Additionally, I am starting with a single literary work: Eric Metaxas’ biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer – mostly because that is what I happen to be currently reading. That said, I have laid the foundation for this site and I expect that it will come into bloom shortly.
I hope you enjoy it as it continues to evolve.
Greg Schaub