PHILIPSBURG — An award-winning Philipsburg author has announced the publication of his new book. Mark Seinfelt, applied communications instructor at the Clearfield County Career and Technology Center, published his fifth book, “A Meal for a Minotaur and Five Companion Essays.”
The book, a hybrid fiction and nonfiction publication, “deals with the spiritual education of its protagonist, the Greek hero Theseus, at the hands of his one-time victim Helen of Troy, whom, or so the story goes — Theseus himself can’t remember — Theseus kidnapped and deflowered as a small girl,” a press release shared.
“The grown, goddess-like Helen — who reverts from time to time into a not-so-very-innocent child — becomes a second Ariadne for the now aged hero,” it continued to explain. “Every bit as much a victim as her predecessor, the Cretan princess, she nonetheless points and directs her erstwhile corruptor’s way through a stupendous new labyrinth, far more twisted and complex than the dreaded maze of Minos which Theseus threaded as a boy with Ariadne’s assistance.”
In addition to the novel, the publication includes five essays on “literature, myth, music and morality,” according to the release, some of which are “Empedocles’ Final Draft,” “The Birth and Investiture of Skanda,” “Operation Crossbroch” and “Mud Church Address,” a speech given by Seinfelt at the Philipsburg landmark in 2019.
Additional Philipsburg connection can be found in the cover art that was created by local artist Mary Beth (Murphy) Myers.
Seinfelt’s student Noah Baker, a graduate of the CCCTC’s Information Technology program assisted Seinfelt in the text preparation for Kindle Direct Publishing. Shannon Dawson, of Philipsburg, is also credited by Seingelt as a “creative sounding board for the project” and the person who encouraged him to develop a glossary for the work.
