Source: Law & Liberty
by Aaron Alexander Zubia
“In the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the genetically engineered superhuman, Khan Noonien Singh, is discovered in his exile on Ceti Alpha V with a bookshelf populated by the Bible, Dante’s Inferno, Shakespeare’s King Lear, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and Melville’s Moby Dick. His last words in the film are taken straight out of the latter, as the revenge-obsessed Khan murmurs to his nemesis, Captain James T. Kirk: ‘From hell’s heart, I stab at thee. For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee.’ In the film Die Hard, the ruthless East German terrorist, Hans Gruber, also proclaims himself to be well read: ‘And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer,’ Gruber says, with the aside: ‘Benefits of a classical education.’ Reading great books does not necessarily make you a good person.” (02/06/26)