continuum march 2004 (2 résultats)

Trade Paperback. Etat : Very Good.

Paper Back. Etat : New. Ken Bazyn is first of all a reader, and his approach to writing might best be told through the words of the famed Petrarch: ''If anyone asks why I so abound with quotations and seem to dwell on them so lovingly, I can merely reply that. nothing moves me so much as the quoted maxims of great men. I like to rise above myself.'' Though Barzyn's book bears a weighty title, his surprisingly light-handed approach in illustration and clear, thoughtful style make us want to keep pen and paper close at hand. But while he may be light-handed, he is not a lightweight. It's Mr. Barzyn's intent to help us remember our sins, we whose ''minds are porous with forgetfulness'' (quoting poet Jorge Luis Borges), so that we might appropriate his lessons and tales to our ongoing struggles with temptation. The book's organization gives a chapter each to the seven perennial (or deadly) sins, separated by chapters on what Bazyn terms ''subsins,'' reinforcing the consequential effects of our disobedience. To list the scope of his references we'd need more room than we have here (his notes and index approach a hefty fifty pages), so we'll suffice to say he interacts not only with the greats in poetry, literature, theology and philosophy, but also sociology, economics, psychology and biology. Still, it's Bazyn's honest desire for true self-awareness (and self-transcendence) that is the most attractive and revealing. We hear him praying alongside Gregory of Nazianzus: ''I have deceived myself, dear Christ, I confess it; I have fallen from the heights to the depths. O lift me up again, for well I know delusion came because I wanted it.''.