Tobacco Talk: Love and Interpretation

By the cigars they smoke and the composers they love, ye shall know the texture of men’s souls.

– John Galsworthy, Indian Summer of a Forsyte

What if I told you that those who love are the ones who understand the best? We’re often trained to see ourselves as neutral observers who are impartial and unbiased, and that is very important for empirical knowledge. But that isn’t the only form of knowledge. This week the students in my honors class are exploring the role love has in hermeneutics and learning about Samuel Hazo’s take on Jacques Maritain’s aesthetics as they listen to Malcom Guite and read Mark Twain and Nicholas Black Elk.

Readings

• “Midnight Pipe” by Samuel Hazo
• Selection from Mark Twain’s Autobiography
• The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk’s Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux

Lectures

Further Reading and Resources

• The World within the Word: Maritain and the Poet by Samuel Hazo
• Black Elk Canonization