The real problem for Heidegger was that he lacked the gift of song. So he did the best he could with the talent that he had: he adopted an oracular style and offered original readings of modern German poets and ancient Greek philosophers and Tolstoy--let us not forget Tolstoy--who, with War and Peace (his Iliad) and Anna Karenina (his Odyssey) had become the Russian Homer.

¶ 2:55 PM