What Are You Reading

Harp · Jan 18, 2009

Doran said:
... Of course this advantage did not last in grad school which is so specialized and subject-focussed that the only way to keep your head above water is brutally hard work -- the wide reading didn't cut it.

You're much more focused and disciplined than I am, brother.
I always managed to make both Dean's List and the dean's s..t list;
truancy and ghostwriter mercenary sins bounced me out of grad school
once, and a Desert Shield recall saved my gluteus maximus from a
similar fate. This time, however, is different. I've turned a new leaf
and decided to play by the rules and wrap the Philosophy doctorate.
And I owe it all to the late Simone Weil; her writings will be the focus
of my doctorate thesis. Just wish I had met her sooner.

Dr Doran · Jan 18, 2009

Harp said:
You're much more focused and disciplined than I am, brother.
I always managed to make both Dean's List and the dean's s..t list;
truancy and ghostwriter mercenary sins bounced me out of grad school
once, and a Desert Shield recall saved my gluteus maximus from a
similar fate. This time, however, is different. I've turned a new leaf
and decided to play by the rules and wrap the Philosophy doctorate.
And I owe it all to the late Simone Weil; her writings will be the focus
of my doctorate thesis. Just wish I had met her sooner.

Well, if war helps, goody for it. I have never met Ms. Weil in person but I have certainly read her "The Iliad: Or, the Poem of Force" pretty scrupulously (although it has not stayed with me, alas). As far as Homer goes, in my experience there is no better book than Jonathan Gottschall's 2008 The Rape of Troy: Violence, Evolution, and the World of Homer. In fact, it is one of the best books I have ever read in my life. I have written to him and from his replies he is an honest and good person.

I made the Dean's List as an undergrad in Berkeley, but I am more on the s---t lists as a grad student here; I am hoping to squeak by with my doctorate and, if the gods are willing, to get a post, probably in the University of East Treestump, South Dakota, or some place like that; as horrified as my peers are with the prospect of such an Epistulae Ex Ponto-type position, at least through the Lounge I can meet interesting and like-minded people in literally every single state in the Union, plus Turkey and Poland (the two nation-states who have the most inhabitants, in my experience, who want to be the 51st State of the USA), and I can participate in whatever pre-1950 culture still exists in such places.

And I have never ghost-written (shades of Tom Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons) but when I teach classes that require papers (everything except beginning Latin, in other words) I recite a very stern and calculatedly frightening speech on the horrors that await students if they plagiarize on essays. I have delivered this speech so many times that I feel it should be videorecorded, with proper lighting, for a scene in a movie -- complete with gesticulations and monstrous, threatening facial expressions as I stand before my 20 or so Berkeley undergrads who watch, slack-jawed, at the monster in the vintage suit into whose hands they have entrusted their next semester.

As for now, and as for this thread, my reading is Eugene Borza's The Shadow of Olympus, a fine book on ancient Macedon.

ShoreRoadLady · Jan 18, 2009

Doran said:
And I have never ghost-written (shades of Tom Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons) but when I teach classes that require papers (everything except beginning Latin, in other words) I recite a very stern and calculatedly frightening speech on the horrors that await students if they plagiarize on essays. I have delivered this speech so many times that I feel it should be videorecorded, with proper lighting, for a scene in a movie -- complete with gesticulations and monstrous, threatening facial expressions as I stand before my 20 or so Berkeley undergrads who watch, slack-jawed, at the monster in the vintage suit into whose hands they have entrusted their next semester.

Do you offer guest lectures, complete with all the aforementioned gesticulations and facial expressions? Because I think some of my college peers could've used this - specifically, to frighten them into *not* using Wikipedia both as a source AND as the actual text of a report.

:rage: :eusa_doh:

imoldfashioned · Jan 18, 2009

Harp said:
Searching for John Boyer's recommended,
Three Outsiders: Pascal, Kierkegard, Simone Weil
by Diog Allen.

That sounds really interesting; I might have to look that up m'self.

Harp · Jan 18, 2009

Doran said:
... I have never met Ms. Weil in person but I have certainly read her "The Iliad: Or, the Poem of Force" pretty scrupulously (although it has not stayed with me, alas).

And I have never ghost-written (shades of Tom Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons) but when I teach classes that require papers (everything except beginning Latin, in other words) I recite a very stern and calculatedly frightening speech on the horrors that await students if they plagiarize...

Weil's Illiad is most interesting. Rachel Bespaloff,
a contemporary of her's who taught at Mount Holyoke I believe, also
wrote an Illiad piece that contrasts with Weil's work. Bespaloff
committed suicide in the late 1940s; and Simone Weil died in England
during WWII after settling her parents in New York. I have never been
so fascinated by a philosopher as I am by Weil, whose work traverses
philosophic bound to theology and mysticism.

Actually, I was the "ghost" in grad school-and college, since the
statute of limitations has passed. lol I supplemented the GI Bill by
writing papers for other students; including a thesis for my own
mother who returned to campus while a full time social worker. lol
I always produced A grades for my clients and I rather enjoyed being
a literary rascal for a spell.

Dr Doran · Jan 18, 2009

ShoreRoadLady said:
Do you offer guest lectures, complete with all the aforementioned gesticulations and facial expressions? Because I think some of my college peers could've used this - specifically, to frighten them into *not* using Wikipedia both as a source AND as the actual text of a report. :rage: :eusa_doh:

YES.
I only need airfare, a pickup at the airport, a place to stay for a couple of nights, and a guided tour of whatever town it is.

One of my ex-teachers who now has a tenure track post at Reed College in Portland, Oregon (very highly rated college!) said she wants to borrow me to scare her students some day.

I was at UCLA last November to give a presentation on early Christian eugenic practices at a grad student conference but grad students certainly weren't going to copy my work, so I kept the intimidation level low and only acted a little stern.

carter · Jan 18, 2009

Just slightly

fftopic:
Doran, After reading the posts regarding your demeanor as an instructor, it occurs to me that
worthlesswithoutpics
for a limited time only.

Dr Doran · Jan 18, 2009

Posting pics is too difficult with this computer ... maybe someday I'll take some that show the gestures and faces I use to keep the brats in line ... AND I THINK I'LL WEAR MY MONOCLE FOR THOSE.

russa11 · Jan 19, 2009

right now I am currently reading All the President's Men. Surprisingly I find this moves rather quick.

Harp · Jan 19, 2009

imoldfashioned said:
That sounds really interesting; I might have to look that up m'self.

Try Rodney's in Cambridge.

Dani_Daydream · Jan 19, 2009

I've just started a really interesting topic at university called Philosophy, Ethics and Literature. So I'm eagerly thumbing through 4 different novels at the moment.

Lord Jim - Conrad
Macbeth - Shakspeare
The Trial - Kafka
The Plague - Camus

All are brilliant!

Harp · Jan 19, 2009

Dani_Daydream said:
...I'm eagerly thumbing through 4 different novels at the moment.

Lord Jim - Conrad
Macbeth - Shakspeare
The Trial - Kafka
The Plague - Camus

Ever read Conrad's Heart of Darkness? I find Conrad a tad melancholic,
but worth the effort. Kafka ditto-fantastich aber nicht mein muse. He grabs
at my conscience though, as does Camus--his Stranger however failed to
win with me for some reason. I've always wondered whether his
Nobel Prize was awarded-at least partially-to France; despite his being
Algerian. Shades of Faulkner's Nobel detract.
And you know Shakespeare was an Irishman....

imoldfashioned · Jan 19, 2009

Gosh, it's been ages since I've been to Central Square--or to Rodney's! Thanks for the reminder. I work downtown so I usually hit Brattle Book Shop.

I assume you've been to Grolier in Harvard Square? I love that place.

Harp said:
Try Rodney's in Cambridge.

Down2BDapper · Jan 19, 2009

I just started reading a really excellent book called "The boy detective fails". If anyone else here grew up reading The Hardy boys or Encyclopedia Brown then you'll enjoy this. It's about A very stereotypical "boy detective" and what happens when he grows up and has to deal with real life. It's a great dark comedy.

Harp · Jan 19, 2009

imoldfashioned said:
Gosh, it's been ages since I've been to Central Square--or to Rodney's! Thanks for the reminder. I work downtown so I usually hit Brattle Book Shop.

I assume you've been to Grolier in Harvard Square? I love that place.

HS' main draw for me is Twisted Village. Can spend an entire day there.
And I left a copy of Poe's complete poetry at an Indian restaurant named
appropriately, Tamarind. I just know it's still there with the Alan Dershowitz-
signed Black's Law Dictionary.

Feraud · Jan 20, 2009

This a.m. I opened up Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book by Gerard Jones. An interesting beginning on the origins of the men who made comic books.

JME2 · Jan 20, 2009

Well, as with the last update, print-wise, I'm still working on Resident Evil: Nemesis. Audiobook-wise, I just finished up Gregory Magurie's A Lion Among Men (which as it was the first time I've listened to it and because of today, I will forever associate it with the Obama inauguration).

Overall, I liked it; definitely a stronger installment than the previous volume, Son of a Witch. Ties up a lot of the loose ends seeded in Wicked and Son of a Witch while leaving the door open for at least one outing from Maguire. So, with my audio-book 'readings' of the Wicked Cycle complete, I'll be embarking tomorrow morning of a 're-reading' of the Harry Potter audiobooks, which I haven't touched in a year and a half.

ShoreRoadLady · Jan 21, 2009

Currently reading/browsing The Case of the Real Perry Mason, a biography of Erle Stanley Gardner, by Dorothy Hughes. And interspersing it with lots of Gardner mysteries.

Creeping Past · Jan 21, 2009

Just finished Semi-Invisible Man by Julian Evans. It's a biog of Norman Lewis, racing driver, camera salesman, spy, travel writer, novelist.

It's the finest biography I've read in years.

Frykitty · Jan 22, 2009

Ayn Rand

Right now I'm flying through "the Fountainhead" and wow what a top notch read. I think I'll have to read "Atlas Shrugged" again after this. I heard that there was a movie made of the latter, starring *choke* Angelina Jolie??? I hope this is just a crazy rumor I heard in a dream. . . 'cause, no way.

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