weaving penelope

[A]rendt was a great story teller. Whether in the classroom, her office, or her living room, Arendt told stories to illustrate her thought. As Stern and Yarbrough point out, Arendt had the “gift of thinking poetically,” in which she combined two seemingly contrary modes of thought: literary sensibility and logical precision (Stern and Yarbrough, p. 192-193). This uncanny ability to explore ideas in narrative frameworks was likely due to her love of poetry and fiction, especially Hölderlin and Kafka. Her poetic insight and clarity of thought provided students with a metaphorical space for thinking[..]

http://therelativeabsolute.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/thinking-like-penelope-and-teaching-like-holderlin-learning-the-art-of-teaching-from-hannah-arendt/