Saturday, October 31, 2009


QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"Likewise the appropriation of cultural tradition becomes more dependent upon the creative hermeneutic of contemporary interpreters. Tradition in the modern world loses its legitimacy of simply being valid because it is the way of the past. The legitimacy of tradition rests now with resourceful and creative appropriations of it in view of the problems of meaning in the present."

--Seyla Benhabib, Situating the Self

You know, this somehow reminds me of Hegel. I'm not saying that Hegel is necessarily wrong. I think that this woman is very, very clever.

Friday, October 30, 2009


“The world was so recent that many thing lacked names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to point.” –Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

This captures both my love of names and naming and my aversion to people pointing (especially at me). Marquez is delightful.

Old, But Wonderful, Quote

"Ah for the halcyon days of smoking on the porch, and other places (such as KRAKR JAK CIRCLE, or whatever horrendous way they spelled it), with Emily." --Percy

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Long Twitter

I'm spending the afternoon at the best. coffee shop. ever.--Dillsburg, PA and the mountains are just out the window. And soon to see Parker.

Gchat

When I couldn't understand something that Wystan was trying to explain (how defining nature as stable and knowable begs the question):

Wystan: imagine it as a dialogue:
"W: How do we know what nature is?
E: Nature is what is stable and knowable about human beings
W: Why does nature have to be stable?
E: Because that's just what it means to be nature and not custom"


TSE


"I have just one note to add, which is the preface to an extensive sequel. I believe that at the present time the problem of the unification of the world and the problem of the unification of the individual, are in the end one and the same problem; and that the solution of one is the solution of the other. Analytic psychology (even if accepted far more enthusiastically than I can accept it) can do little except produce monsters; for it is attempting to produce unified individuals in a world without unity. The social, political, and economic sciences can do little, for they are attempting to produce the great society with an aggregation of human beings who are not units but merely bundles of incoherent impulses and beliefs. The problem of nationalism and the problem of dissociated personalities may turn out to be the same."

--TSE, "Religion Without Humanism" in Humanism and America


This is very interesting for several reasons, not the least of which is Eliot's own love for localism--his embrace of Anglicanism because he saw it as the Catholic Church in England. I can't imagine him wanting the unification of the individual and the unification of the world, unless of course, it was a sort of "multeity in unity" or something like that.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Locke Seminar





















In a discussion about how much work Locke's appeal to God does:

"He [Locke] doesn't mention Jesus in this reading."

"But you have to remember, the Church of England offers less focus on Jesus, Mary, and the saints than Catholicism."

...

Me: "How gross is it that he [Locke] ate an acorn?"
A student: "It isn't gross. Haven't you ever had acorn pancakes? The Indians made acorn pancakes."

Me: "Are you serious?" (skeptically)
The student: "Are you from Jersey?" (not believing that someone from a regular state would be this dense)

References to acorns punctuated the rest of our discussion. And then, after me not knowing about the process of freezing disrupting walls made out of rocks,

Another student: "Where are you from?"

Delightful.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Welcome to Little Gidding










(In its third or so reincarnation)




HT: Diana.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The Proper Response


"Yes--if all goes well, if I have any money, & if nothing happens out of the ordinary happens personally, or nothing ordinary, like a war, happens impersonally--I'd like to go to Italy very much. In fact, I think I'd like to go & stay quite a while, about a year, and see southern Italy, hill towns, etc., then settle in Rome for a while." --Elizabeth Bishop's response

On Fusion or Fusionism

Once I was at a conference where the readings were from some Fusion man and Michael Oakeshott. One of my friends at the conference chose to read Oakeshott over the Fusion man because he liked Oakeshott's picture better.

I think that this was a wise choice or a happy accident, either way.

The Fusion thing (between libertarians and traditionalist conservatives) seems to me like it might be a problem. Well, I use "might" generously: I've never cared for it. I wonder if the problem doesn't have to do with the blurring of the realm of theory and practice. In terms of practice, sure, fuse up. It doesn't matter to me too much who I fuse up with. In terms of theory, please don't tell me who to fuse with. You can't have the end in mind (fusion) and then bend the theory so it works out that way. If it naturally happens, then so be it, but let's not force anything, okay?

Monday, October 19, 2009


"Next year if our books were done and we had the cash, wouldn't you like to try Italy?"--Robert Lowell to Elizabeth Bishop in a letter, Words in Air

I second this sentiment.

Or, rephrased: "This year, even if our books aren't done, or if we don't even have any books in mind, wouldn't you, dear reader, like to try anywhere in Europe?"

Sunday, October 18, 2009


Yay for a lovely (albeit rainy) weekend with Diana and her sister and Stearns! Oh my goodness, I love "How to Marry a Millionaire" (especially Marilyn Monroe as an almost blind model; thanks Hopkins for letting me borrow it!).

Why Men Ought to Let Women Play Poker

Here.

"American DNA is a notoriously complex recipe for creating a body politic, but two strands in particular have always stood out in high contrast: the risk-averse Puritan work ethic and the entrepreneur's urge to seize the main chance. Proponents of neither m.o. like to credit the other with anything positive; huggers of the shore tend not to praise explorers, while gamblers remain unimpressed by those who husband savings accounts. Yet blended in much the same way that parents' genes are in their children, the two ways of operating have made us who we are as a country.
...
The national card game still combines Puritan values—self-control, diligence, the slow accumulation of savings—with what might be called the open-market cowboy's desire to get very rich very quickly. The latter is the mind-set of the gold rush, the hedge fund, the lottery ticket of everyday wage-earners. Yet whenever the big-bet cowboy folds a weak hand, he submits to his Puritan side. As Walter Matthau drily put it, poker 'exemplifies the worst aspects of capitalism that have made our country so great.'
...
'Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn poker.'"

Saturday, October 17, 2009

From Rosemary, The Littlest Spice

I have a new puppy!!!!
Her name is Roxanne and we call her Roxy.
I just wanted you to know!
love,
Rosemary

I love it! That's really exciting! What kind of puppy is it? You should send a picture sometime!
Emily

She's a mut.
I hope you don't mind it when people say that.
I will try and send you a picture soon!

Rosemary

Thursday, October 15, 2009

On Politics and Art, A Running Theme of This Blog

"The last corruption that can visit a society is a corruption of its consciousness, and from this the politically active cannot protect it. If a society is to be saved from a corrupt consciousness it will be saved not be having its values and its civilization protected, but by knowing itself and having its values recreated. Indeed, political activity involves a corruption of consciousness from which a society has continuously to be saved. To ask the poet and the artist to provide a programme for political or other social action, or an incentive or an inspiration for such action, is to require them to be false to their own genius and to deprive society of a necessary service. What they provide is action itself, but in another and deeper sphere of consciousness. It is not their business to suggest a political remedy for political defects, but to provide an actual remedy for more fundamental defects by making a society conscious of its own character. The emotional and intellectual integrity and insight for which they stand is something foreign to the political world, foreign not merely in fact, but in essence. This integrity and insight cannot be introduced into that world without changing their character; and to attempt to introduce them makes a chaos of what is otherwise a restricted but nevertheless ordered view. It is not their business to come out of a retreat, bringing with them some superior wisdom, and enter the world of political activity, but to stay where they are, remain true to their genius, which is to mitigate a little their society's ignorance of itself. This is the truth of the neglected half-truth that the artist and the poet and the philosopher are and should remain separated from 'the world'; not because they have no part in the promotion of the communal interests of mankind, but because to be free from the world is the condition of their contribution. Societies, in fact, are led from behind, and for those capable of leadership to give themselves up to political activity is to break away from their true genius. And a society in which this becomes common will, in a short while, be a society without leaders, a society ignorant of itself and without the true power of recreating itself. And this is true not less in times of political crisis than in others. Culture, it is true, is indebted most to the politically weakened periods of history; but in a society which circumstances encourage to embrace an exclusively political view, it has still its part and its friends their duty."

--Michael Oakeshott, Religion, Politics and the Moral Life, 96

Procrastination


In an effort to psych myself up to write a paper about Michael Oakeshott, I give you: adorable pictures of Michael Oakeshott:

Thursday, October 8, 2009

On My Jewelry

My new favorite blog, academichic, has this cool thing they do with displaying jewelry on books that I love so much that, after telling Stearns six times that I loved it, I decided to do to all of my favorite jewelry for no reason whatsoever (except that I like to stay busy while I'm on the phone and like to keep my blog readers entertained):





My Polish amber broach. I love, but am largely unable to effectively wear broaches.






A broach that belonged to my great grandmother, which I wear in my hair.







My Williamsport ring.









My favorite. bracelet. ever., which I bargained for (I love bargaining) at the Saturday (I love Saturdays) flea market in Clarendon.







My Oxford earrings, which I fell in love with while window shopping, and, after returning every day of my trip to look at them, finally gave in and bought them.






My grandmother's pearls.









An artsy (or just plain sillier than the rest) picture.







P.S. For extra credit, please identify the books.


















Congrats to Ilana and her partner for upsetting the number 1 seed in district doubles. I'm uber proud. The word is Mama Leopard was so happy she cried.

Brad Paisley - Welcome To The Future

Unknowing Guest Blog: Whigwham

(On Brad Paisley's "Welcome to the Future," [above])

I think this is a pretty incredible illustration of the power of the historical understanding of man. It is a complex and extremely problematic philosophical idea of progress expressed in the most simple of popular music idioms. (Who says pop music is mind-numbing?) It is also extremely compelling and moving. (Who could resist the conclusion?) Finally, notice the amalgamation of technological, political, and cultural progress. And the fusing of the religious with the political. What a crazy world we live in. Quite exhilarating and horrifying.

[Editor's note: It is ironic that these themes are present in a country song--usually I think of country music as being provincial and local, while this extols globalism (yet with American flags and the statue of liberty all over the place). Additionally, the pro-technology theme is surprising in a country song--often country music praises his old truck or tractor or something.]

Sunday, October 4, 2009















































I finally, after 3 years, managed to bring my childhood bike to DC. My bike is not green, unfortunately, and I have contemplated stealing the old green one that parks beside mine.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

26:

The five-mile walk with my father, breakfast and then apple picking in Canton with my family, the Michigan game (which was close), my Poppop's homemade ice cream and my Grandmother's chocolate cake, my cousin and his wife and baby, the Penn State game and a nap on the couch, the graveyard with Wystan, For You Departed with Wystan and Ilana, a little Aristotle for section, and then monster cookie dough batter before bed.