♔LitRex♔

Note: I tend to spend long periods deeply focused on my studies. Because of this, I really savor my downtime—usually in nature or cooking—so, don’t take it personally if I’m slow to respond.

My book club supports the No Kings movement. The name of both my YouTube channel and this group, inspired years ago by the song “Brutus” by The Buttress—“my name is Brutus, but the people will call me Rex”—became a personal mantra that guided my journey of individuation and self-actualization.

This club is for fellow Rexes—“rex” meaning “king” in Latin, and, in my view, anyone can be a king over themselves—who are committed to rigorous self-study.

↖♔✶˖ 🕯˖⁺‧📜⋆☽🏛☾⋆📜‧⁺˖🕯˖✶♔↗

As Voltaire puts it:

"Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien" The best/better is the enemy of the good.

So, do please feel free to join for only one book or the whole list or if you're just curious about any of it. I'm sure I'll be skim reading a lot myself to practice for graduate school. Just know that it's more about the community and sharing of ideas consistently than anything.

This club is a welcoming space to practice reading, share resources, and connect with curious minds. Our goal is to spark curiosity and explore it deeply—free from the pressure of perfection—while supporting one another’s growth along the way.

Keep in mind that this is an outline for our timeline of discussion, leaving the last two months for both catching up where we might have had to leave off for some books and rehashing conversations that connect overarching themes. So, whether or not we've finished, all are always welcome to the conversation. All in all, feel free to move at your own pace. Hopefully, we can bridge any gaps in our readings together. Let’s be patient, kind, and enjoy this journey together.

LitRex—List w/Q&A convo. Docs linked will be what we use for our (bi-)monthly official discussions.

The document which outlines all the books we'll explore, expanding on how we’ll be framing the works and examinations alongside short descriptions with key elements, themes, and ideas throughout can be found at the top of the "Alphabetized reading list — "♔LitRex♔" below.

Of course, we can and should still branch beyond this framework; my intention is simply to keep in mind the overarching themes and elements I hope to focus on and explore more deeply together.

Regarding the discord server, fair warning, I am not someone online much so, it will be unmonitored until I figure out the bot side of things (I'm not tech savvy). Be appropriate and respectful. Anyone who shows bad character will be removed. Same thing goes for here.

↖♔✶˖ 🕯˖⁺‧📜⋆☽🏛☾⋆📜‧⁺˖🕯˖✶♔↗

I facilitate multiple groups:

♔LitRex♔

An interdisciplinary reading and discussion group exploring through anthropological inquiry, philosophy, literature, psychology, and myth from classical to modern thought. The group spans Greek tragedy, Gothic and Grotesque traditions, and major figures such as Plato, Nietzsche, Jung, Dostoyevsky, Bakhtin, Rilke, and Hesse.

Through the lenses of existentialism, individuation, and radical self-acceptance, LitRex examines enduring Apollonian–Dionysian tensions of human existence. Emphasis is placed on foundational texts by and about Plato, Homer, and Euripides, with particular attention to Orphism and its and symbolic influences.

Core themes include fragmentation, decay, isolation, transcendence, and integration, with a focused exploration of the psychological and aesthetic dimensions of the Gothic and the Grotesque.

↖♔✶˖ 🕯˖⁺‧📜⋆☽🏛☾⋆📜‧⁺˖🕯˖✶♔↗

Scroll & Quill Society: Becoming ἀρετή

A literature-and philosophy-based study circle dedicated to sharing our close reading and comparative analysis of Ancient Greek, German, and French texts, studied in both their original languages and in translation. The group is oriented toward those with a shared interest in philology, historical linguistics, and the evolution of meaning across cultures and time.

Grounded in philosophical and anthropological inquiry, the Society approaches language as a living cultural artifact—one that shapes ethics, identity, and worldview. Central to the group’s ethos is ἀρετή (aretē), understood not as abstract “virtue,” but as the active cultivation and exercised application of one’s highest capacities.

Through disciplined reading, dialogue, and interpretive practice, members engage texts as tools for intellectual formation and personal Becoming—seeking clarity of thought, depth of understanding, and the development of one’s best self through their shared love of language learning and reflection. (Freeform but welcomed to join in other's language learning plans.)

↖♔✶˖ 🕯˖⁺‧📜⋆☽🏛☾⋆📜‧⁺˖🕯˖✶♔↗

The Cards of Life (Les Cartes de la Vie)

A discussion group tracing the historical development of tarot and cartomancy as symbolic systems, examining their anthropological cultural foundations.

The group approaches tarot not as simply divination, but as a visual and symbolic language reflecting archetypal structures, narrative meaning-making, and historical cosmologies and anything more we might find interesting to share with the group.

(I suggest if you want to dive deeper into archetypes that you join LitRex for Months 5–6 — Jungian Psychology, Myths & Motifs in Lit, Ancient Western Phil., at least. Month 10 also includes: Jenkyns, Classical Literature; Campbell, The Power of Myth. Regardless, this is optional so it's not included on this groups official doc.)

Join one of my book clubs:

• Language Club—Ancient Greek, German, French: Scroll & Quill Society: Becoming ἀρετή | Discord

• Philosophy, Literature & Analysis :♔LitRex♔ | Discord

• History & Tarot/Cartomancy: The Cards of Life (Les Cartes de la Vie) | Discord

Alphabetized reading list — "♔LitRex♔":

• Adamson, Peter S. — A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps: Medieval Philosophy
• Adamson, Peter S. — A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps: Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds
• Athanassakis, Apostolos N. — Orphic Hymns

^(Optional: focuses purely on Orphic religion)^

• Bakhtin, Mikhail — Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics
• Bakhtin, Mikhail — Rabelais and His World
• Burrows, David J. — Myths and Motifs in Literature
• Camus, Albert — The Plague
• Campbell, Joseph — The Power of Myth
• Dostoyevsky, Fyodor — The Brothers Karamazov
• Dostoyevsky, Fyodor — The Double
• Dostoyevsky, Fyodor — Notes from Underground
• Euripides — Bacchae
• Hamilton, Edith — The Greek Way
• Hesse, Hermann — Demian
• Hesse, Hermann — Narcissus and Goldmund
• Hesse, Hermann — Steppenwolf
• Hobart, Michael E. — The Great Rift: Literacy, Numeracy, and the Religion-Science Divide
• Jenkyns, Richard — Classical Literature
• Jung, Carl Gustav — Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
• Jung, Carl Gustav — Aion
• Nicolson, Adam — Why Homer Matters
• Nietzsche, Friedrich — Beyond Good and Evil
• Nietzsche, Friedrich — The Birth of Tragedy
• Nietzsche, Friedrich — Thus Spoke Zarathustra
• Plato — Phaedo
• Plato — Protagoras and Meno
• Plato — Symposium
• Plato — Republic
• Rilke, Rainer Maria — Letters to a Young Poet
• Rilke, Rainer Maria — Duino elegies and The Sonnets to Orpheus