♔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.

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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. Hopefully, we can bridge any gaps in our readings together.

All in all, feel free to move at your own pace. I’ll include Q&A sections for our bi-monthly official discussions, available anytime in the Discord server for everyone to join in before or after the official session. If you can't make it, please check out the previously mentioned space here: (voice channels: bookclub discussions). Let’s be patient, kind, and enjoy this journey together.

I'll check in as able. There will only be one official meeting a month for us to discuss all of the readings in one go for said month, so that we can really flow from threads tying things together.

I'm working on a document outlining all the books we'll explore, expanding on how I’ll be framing the works and examinations myself alongside the pacing outline and my reasoning—while also shortly describing key elements, themes, and ideas throughout. 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. Be appropriate and respectful. Anyone who shows bad character will be removed. Same thing goes for here.

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We take our vow as keepers of the hidden light,

to be the white gleam within the black shell of night.

From the cosmic egg of Being, we hatch anew —

the dawn within the dark, forever gleaming, morning dew.

All in All, Being and Becoming;

in the Void — the potential of All — we find the All from Nothing.

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I facilitate discussion groups exploring the intersections of philosophy, literature, and symbolism.

"♔LitRex♔" a group which involves reading, interpreting, and generally discussing our explorations into philosophy, literature, psychology, and myth from classical to modern thinkers—ranging from Greek tragedy to the Gothic and The Grotesque, from Plato to Nietzsche, Jung, Dostoyevsky, Bakhtin, Rilke, and Hesse.

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

Central themes include fragmentation, decay, isolation, transcendence, and integration—along with the psychological and aesthetic dimensions of the Gothic and the Grotesque, in particular.

"Scroll & Quill Society: Becoming ἀρετή" a literature and philosophy based circle dedicated to studying Ancient Greek, German, and French texts in both original languages and translation

"The Cards of Life (Les Cartes de la Vie)" is a group tracing the history of tarot and cartomancy as symbolic systems.

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
• 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 — Notes from Underground
• Dostoyevsky, Fyodor — The Brothers Karamazov
• 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