The Muses Among Us is an inviting, encouraging book for writers at any stage of their development. In a series of first-person letters, essays, manifestos, and notes to the reader, Kim Stafford shows what might happen at the creative boundary he calls "what we almost know." On the boundary's far side is our story, our poem, our song. On this side are the resonant hunches, griefs, secrets, and confusions from which our writing will emerge. Guiding us from such glimmerings through to a finished piece are a wealth of experiments, assignments, and tricks of the trade that Stafford has perfected over thirty years of classes, workshops, and other gatherings of writers. Informing The Muses Among Us are Stafford's own convictions about writing—principles to which he returns again and again. We must, Stafford says, honor the fragments, utterances, and half-discovered truths voiced around us, for their speakers are the prophets to whom writers are scribes. Such filaments of wisdom, either by themselves or alloyed with others, give rise to our poems, stories, and essays. In addition, as Stafford writes, "all pleasure in writing begins with a sense of abundance—rich knowledge and boundless curiosity." By recommending ways for students to seek beyond the self for material, Stafford demystifies the process of writing and claims for it a Whitmanesque quality of participation and community.

Mother herself had engaged her, and I believe had asked, when dying, that she would remain to take care of us; and I don't say that she was not a good woman. She had been nearly five years in the house, and we had the habit of looking to her for advice in all family concerns; and certainly she took great pains with my education. But of course I was not going to stand seeing her put in mother's place. I told father so. I said to him, kindly, but firmly: "Father, you will have to choose between us. There will not be room under this roof for both." He chose her. Consequently I left my home, though they both tried hard to prevent it, and to reconcile me to their new arrangements. I will say that for them. In fact, my father, pleading legal rights, forbade me to go, except for some temporary visiting. I went on the understanding that I was to return in a couple of months or so. But I was resolved not to return, and I never did. While staying with my uncle, a medical man, I privately married his assistant—one (if I may say so) of a miscellaneous assortment of admirers. I am afraid I encouraged him to propose an elopement; I certainly hastened its accomplishment. Then after all our plottings and stratagems, when at last I had the ring on my finger, I wrote to inform father of what he and Miss Coleman had driven me to. Poor old father! It was a tremendous blow to him. But I don't know why he should have made such a fuss about it, seeing that he had done the same—practically the same—himself. It was a greater disaster to me than to him, or to anybody—even to my husband, who almost from the first regarded me as a millstone about his neck; for he could go away and enjoy himself when he liked, forgetting that I existed. Indeed, it was a horrible catastrophe. When my own children are so anxious to get married while they are still but children, and think it so cruel of me to thwart them, I wish I could tell them what I went through at their age! But I don't mention it. I promised Tom I never would. At twenty I was teaching for a living—I, who had been so petted and coddled, hardly allowed to do a hand's turn for myself! My husband was travelling about the world as a ship's doctor. Father wanted me to come home, but I was too proud for that. Besides, I would not go where I had to hear Edward insulted. After all, he was my husband, and our matrimonial troubles were entirely our own concern. Not from him, either, would I accept anything after I was able to earn for myself. I taught at a school for thirty pounds a year, and managed to make that do. It was a wretched life. I was barely of age when the news came that Edward had caught fever somewhere and been left in a Melbourne hospital by his ship, which was returning without him. At once I made up my mind that it was my duty as a wife to go to him. He had no friends in Australia, and not much money; it was pathetic to think of him alone and helpless amongst utter strangers; and I thought that if I did this for him he would remember it afterwards, and be kind to me, and help me to make our married life a little more like other people's. In those days there was no cable across the world, and mails but once a month; so that when I started I was altogether in the dark as to what I was going to. The first news of his illness—with no particulars, except that it was fever—was all I ever had.

Teagan Green dreams of escaping the drudgery of Earth and traversing the stars. Will her dreams come true, or will events from her past destroy her?

Are you a man struggling to navigate a world dominated by the mater familias? Are you tired of being silenced and oppressed by the cultural Marxist influences of feminism and gender ideology? It's time to take the red pill and reclaim your authority. "Red Pill Guide to Mater Familias" is the ultimate guide for men seeking to understand and overcome the challenges posed by the modern matriarchal society. In this groundbreaking book, you will find answers to burning questions such as: - How did the shift from pater familias to mater familias occur, and what role did feminist and Marxist ideologies play? - How can men adapt to these changes and protect their interests? - How does the concept of matria potestas grant women control over property, children, and family decisions? - How can men protect their assets and legal rights within the family court system? This empowering book offers practical strategies, including: - Tips on prenuptial agreements, estate planning, and navigating inheritance disputes. - Strategies for managing your public image and asserting yourself in family-related decisions. - Advice on protecting your children from feminist educational agendas and asserting yourself in corporate environments. If you want to reclaim your authority and restore balance in your family and society, buy "Red Pill Guide to Mater Familias" today.

In Ciceronis Topica and De topicis differentiis are Boethius's two treatises on Topics (loci). Together these two works present Boethius's theory of the art of discovering arguments, a theory that was highly influential in the history of medieval logic. Eleonore Stump here presents the first English language translation of In Ciceronis Topica, Boethius's extended commentary on Cicero's Topica. To supplement her translation, Professor Stump has provided an introduction that supplies essential information about In Ciceronis Topica, Boethius's life, and the tradition of dialectic; her detailed notes explore the many philosophical problems in Boethius's text. A significant contribution to the history of Western intellectual life in its own right, Boethius's ''In Ciceronis Topica" makes an excellent companion to Professor Stump's earlier work, Boethius's "De topicis differentiis" (also available from Cornell).

“A scatologocial black satire . . . Triomf may be the signal Afrikaans novel of the 1990s . . . A daring, vicious and hilarious flight of imagination” (The Washington Post). This is the story of the four inhabitants of 127 Martha Street in the poor white suburb of Triomf. Living on the ruins of old Sophiatown, the freehold township razed to the ground as a so-called “black spot,” they await with trepidation their country’s first democratic elections. It is a date that coincides fatefully with the fortieth birthday of Lambert, the oversexed misfit son of the house. There is also Treppie, master of misrule and family metaphysician; Pop, the angel of peace teetering on the brink of the grave; and Mol, the materfamilias in her eternal housecoat. Pestered on a daily basis by nosy neighbors, National Party canvassers and Jehovah’s Witnesses, defenseless against the big city towering over them like a vengeful dinosaur, they often resort to quoting to each other the only consolation that they know; we still have each other and a roof over our heads. Triomf relentlessly probes Afrikaner history and politics, revealing the bizarre and tragic effect that apartheid had on exactly the white underclass who were most supposed to benefit. It is also a seriously funny investigation of the human endeavor to make sense of life even under the most abject of circumstances. “South Africa as you’ve never seen it: a tale of incest and white trash. Funny, feisty, ferociously clever.” —Gillian Slovo, author of Ten Days “A world-class tragicomic novel, the kind of book that stabs at your heart while it has you rolling on the floor.” —The New York Times Book Review