Steven Rodriguez
@smarcorodriguez.bsky.social
Reading the songs of women in the Hebrew Bible, Zhuāngzǐ, and Antony and Cleopatra
This is the worst definition of imagination that I’ve ever seen, but what would you expect from Thomas Hobbes, the guy who is responsible for the worst translation of the Iliad of all time?
November 11, 2025 at 1:06 PM
This is the worst definition of imagination that I’ve ever seen, but what would you expect from Thomas Hobbes, the guy who is responsible for the worst translation of the Iliad of all time?
Starting this right after Zhuāngzǐ and WOW the Mahāyāna Buddhist vibes are SO DIFFERENT from the Daoist world I was in for a year...
November 10, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Starting this right after Zhuāngzǐ and WOW the Mahāyāna Buddhist vibes are SO DIFFERENT from the Daoist world I was in for a year...
I’m back in this book. It is so wild to read Chinese nationalists in the early 20th century advocating for western Aristotelian rationality because they felt that their own Chinese traditions lacked the philosophical rigor of the West. But, like, I just read Zhuangzi and it was amazing??
November 10, 2025 at 4:16 PM
I’m back in this book. It is so wild to read Chinese nationalists in the early 20th century advocating for western Aristotelian rationality because they felt that their own Chinese traditions lacked the philosophical rigor of the West. But, like, I just read Zhuangzi and it was amazing??
the opening track off of the new Mavis Staples album is an absolute BANGER
November 10, 2025 at 12:58 PM
the opening track off of the new Mavis Staples album is an absolute BANGER
I finished Zhuāngzǐ! Easily one of top ten best books I've ever read!!
November 9, 2025 at 12:51 PM
I finished Zhuāngzǐ! Easily one of top ten best books I've ever read!!
Starting this tonight
November 8, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Starting this tonight
One of the best things about homeschooling is intentionally leaving piles of books around for kids to find and read on their own.
November 6, 2025 at 12:24 PM
One of the best things about homeschooling is intentionally leaving piles of books around for kids to find and read on their own.
I read the Daoism in Zhuangzi and think, "This sounds wonderful!" But then I remember the scathing Buddhist critique in Journey to the West of what Daoism looked like in practice and I am re-chastened.
November 6, 2025 at 10:51 AM
I read the Daoism in Zhuangzi and think, "This sounds wonderful!" But then I remember the scathing Buddhist critique in Journey to the West of what Daoism looked like in practice and I am re-chastened.
Very sad day for me today
November 4, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Very sad day for me today
When my kids graduate from high school I am going to:
1. Try out for local Shakespeare productions
2. Build a home theater and start a local movie watching group for historical and foreign films
3. Start reading groups for adults for books like Dante and Zhuangzi
1. Try out for local Shakespeare productions
2. Build a home theater and start a local movie watching group for historical and foreign films
3. Start reading groups for adults for books like Dante and Zhuangzi
November 4, 2025 at 1:07 PM
When my kids graduate from high school I am going to:
1. Try out for local Shakespeare productions
2. Build a home theater and start a local movie watching group for historical and foreign films
3. Start reading groups for adults for books like Dante and Zhuangzi
1. Try out for local Shakespeare productions
2. Build a home theater and start a local movie watching group for historical and foreign films
3. Start reading groups for adults for books like Dante and Zhuangzi
Fascinating contrast between two back-to-back books of Zhuāngzǐ.
In the first, an evil warlord absolutely ridicules Confucius and exposes him to be a greedy fraud.
In the very next book, Zhuāngzǐ confronts another evil warlord, tells him a parable of sorts, and "defeats" him.
In the first, an evil warlord absolutely ridicules Confucius and exposes him to be a greedy fraud.
In the very next book, Zhuāngzǐ confronts another evil warlord, tells him a parable of sorts, and "defeats" him.
November 4, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Fascinating contrast between two back-to-back books of Zhuāngzǐ.
In the first, an evil warlord absolutely ridicules Confucius and exposes him to be a greedy fraud.
In the very next book, Zhuāngzǐ confronts another evil warlord, tells him a parable of sorts, and "defeats" him.
In the first, an evil warlord absolutely ridicules Confucius and exposes him to be a greedy fraud.
In the very next book, Zhuāngzǐ confronts another evil warlord, tells him a parable of sorts, and "defeats" him.
The Halloween hangover is real. This morning, the eight-year-old said, “Man, those Sour Patch Kids really knocked me down.”
November 1, 2025 at 4:37 PM
The Halloween hangover is real. This morning, the eight-year-old said, “Man, those Sour Patch Kids really knocked me down.”
I was recently at a Halloween party where some Gen Z kids were talking about how everyone is either into Star Wars *or* Marvel. The point was that you can't be into both.
At which point a Gen X person spoke up and declared, "Well I'm neither. I am into JANE AUSTEN."
At which point a Gen X person spoke up and declared, "Well I'm neither. I am into JANE AUSTEN."
November 1, 2025 at 3:33 PM
I was recently at a Halloween party where some Gen Z kids were talking about how everyone is either into Star Wars *or* Marvel. The point was that you can't be into both.
At which point a Gen X person spoke up and declared, "Well I'm neither. I am into JANE AUSTEN."
At which point a Gen X person spoke up and declared, "Well I'm neither. I am into JANE AUSTEN."
The way in which Zhuāngzǐ uses Confucian characters, values, and ideas is unlike anything I've ever read before.
It's varied, given Zhuāngzǐ's plural authorship, but even within that variety, the tonal ambiguity between polemic and indebtedness is really striking.
It's varied, given Zhuāngzǐ's plural authorship, but even within that variety, the tonal ambiguity between polemic and indebtedness is really striking.
October 31, 2025 at 10:17 AM
The way in which Zhuāngzǐ uses Confucian characters, values, and ideas is unlike anything I've ever read before.
It's varied, given Zhuāngzǐ's plural authorship, but even within that variety, the tonal ambiguity between polemic and indebtedness is really striking.
It's varied, given Zhuāngzǐ's plural authorship, but even within that variety, the tonal ambiguity between polemic and indebtedness is really striking.
Just found out that Adele Berlin has a brand new commentary on Song of Songs!? Love her work!! Anyone have a spare $100
October 30, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Just found out that Adele Berlin has a brand new commentary on Song of Songs!? Love her work!! Anyone have a spare $100
"Don't you know about the praying mantis? It angrily raises its arms to block the path of an oncoming carriage, unaware it's not up to the task. This is because it has too high an opinion of its capacities."
—Zhuāngzǐ 4.3
—Zhuāngzǐ 4.3
October 30, 2025 at 10:29 AM
"Don't you know about the praying mantis? It angrily raises its arms to block the path of an oncoming carriage, unaware it's not up to the task. This is because it has too high an opinion of its capacities."
—Zhuāngzǐ 4.3
—Zhuāngzǐ 4.3
Do you take the phrase "there was no king in Israel" in the Book of Judges to be a merely descriptive phrase, or is it loaded with the same condemning acid as the corresponding phrase "everyone did what was right in his own eyes"?
October 29, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Do you take the phrase "there was no king in Israel" in the Book of Judges to be a merely descriptive phrase, or is it loaded with the same condemning acid as the corresponding phrase "everyone did what was right in his own eyes"?
What if, in the context of the story, Hannah's song is about a king because she mistakenly believes that /her/ son Samuel will one day become king?
October 28, 2025 at 10:48 AM
What if, in the context of the story, Hannah's song is about a king because she mistakenly believes that /her/ son Samuel will one day become king?
"The story is told of a peasant who, when he heard this consolation from his pastor, that the afflictions and troubles by which God afflicts us are signs of his love, replied: 'Ah, how I would like him to love others and not me!'"
—Martin Luther, Lectures on Genesis
—Martin Luther, Lectures on Genesis
October 27, 2025 at 12:03 PM
"The story is told of a peasant who, when he heard this consolation from his pastor, that the afflictions and troubles by which God afflicts us are signs of his love, replied: 'Ah, how I would like him to love others and not me!'"
—Martin Luther, Lectures on Genesis
—Martin Luther, Lectures on Genesis
Let's hear it for Fructuosus of Braga, this random guy who showed up in the Ancient Christian Commentary this morning. Literally have never ever heard of this guy
October 27, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Let's hear it for Fructuosus of Braga, this random guy who showed up in the Ancient Christian Commentary this morning. Literally have never ever heard of this guy
oh wow Augustine in City of God just straight up calls Hannah a prophet.
October 27, 2025 at 11:46 AM
oh wow Augustine in City of God just straight up calls Hannah a prophet.
Something literarily weird about the Book of Samuel is its ambiguous protagonist. Who, exactly, is the main character of the book?
October 27, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Something literarily weird about the Book of Samuel is its ambiguous protagonist. Who, exactly, is the main character of the book?
Even setting aside historical-critical stuff, the Song of Hannah is very weird in narrative context. Why does the mother of the prophet sing a song about a king, especially considering how much the prophet and king will stand in tension throughout the rest of the book?
October 27, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Even setting aside historical-critical stuff, the Song of Hannah is very weird in narrative context. Why does the mother of the prophet sing a song about a king, especially considering how much the prophet and king will stand in tension throughout the rest of the book?
The realism of the Book of Samuel will never cease to amaze me. The sons of Eli the priest, the sons of Samuel the prophet, and the sons of David the king are all almost journalistically exposed for their bad behavior and rampant corruption.
October 27, 2025 at 10:22 AM
The realism of the Book of Samuel will never cease to amaze me. The sons of Eli the priest, the sons of Samuel the prophet, and the sons of David the king are all almost journalistically exposed for their bad behavior and rampant corruption.
There is an incredible amount of narrative tension at the beginning of the Book of Samuel between the office of prophet and the priestly establishment. And looming behind this conflict is the dark void where a king could hypothetically be.
October 27, 2025 at 10:05 AM
There is an incredible amount of narrative tension at the beginning of the Book of Samuel between the office of prophet and the priestly establishment. And looming behind this conflict is the dark void where a king could hypothetically be.