ROMAN RUMINATIONS is a trilogy, the volumes of which are LONELINESS, INSTINCT, and LOVE. (Each volume also available separately.) This complete text includes the extras of "A Pause to Reconnoiter" and two "Afterwords".
ROMAN RUMINATIONS presents "the psychology of the human as an enculturated animal". If the human is a cultural creature, what better setting for consideration could there be than Rome, the Cosmopolis, one place on earth that contains the all of culture?
In Rome, you learn by venturing out on itineraries. ROMAN RUMINATIONS, then, is a walking tour through human psychology in culture. LONELINESS is treated within the contexts of literature and music, INSTINCT the contexts of mythology and classical sculpture, and LOVE the contexts of religion, philosophy, education, and art. The human mind is revealed by the activities and products of human culture.
The trilogy is not a quick-and-easy 1-2-3. Roman itineraries seem random and sometimes wayward--are we getting anywhere?--, but just around the next corner there might be the very insight we are seeking. We know that we won't solve the human or fully understand. Even so, there will be some revelations along our Roman way. Insight is expressed in the "Aha!" of an aphorism.
The characteristic Roman craft was mosaic, lots of little pieces put together to make a picture. ROMAN RUMINATIONS is a mosaic, five hundred little pieces, from which, for those who stand far enough back, a picture may emerge. ROMAN RUMINATIONS is a mosaic of the mind.
advertisement