Fun fact, at one point in my life I was an English major. I was considering becoming a high school English teacher. I didn’t pursue that path but a big takeaway was, I am not a fan of classic literature. Seriously. Most of the required reading I did in high school showed me that my idea of great literature and a school board’s idea are not the same thing. However, I am a big fan of Buddhism and that’s why when offered the opportunity to read a book intended to show the Dharma hidden in Western literature, I couldn’t say no.
“The Dharma Bum’s Guide to Western Literature: Finding Nirvana in the Classics” by Dean Sluyter is an entertaining and thought provoking read. Sluyter discusses expected classics, such as “The Great Gatsby”, “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, and “Moby Dick”, but also adds the unexpected like “The Cat in the Hat”, Frederick Douglass “The Slave Narrative”, and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” “The Dharma Bum’s Guide” isn’t claiming these were written from a Buddhist perspective, but that the Dharma is so universal, it can be found in everything….including Western literature.
Sluyter’s exploration of the authors, as well as their works, can make Buddhist thought more accessible to the Western mind, and can occasionally make a person carrying a disdain for classics (like yours truly) reassess their previous stances. “The Dharma Bum’s Guide to Western Literature” by Dean Sluyter is a fantastic book for anyone interested in Western literature, or Buddhism, or both.
You can learn more here.
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