NaBloPoMo! And more.
Since I can't afford to do NaNoWriMo, I've decided to do NaBloPoMo. This means, for an entire month, you lucky readers will (probably) actually get daily updates from me!
There may be a kink in my evil plan come mid-month, because I'm not sure what kind of internet access I'll have during my short trip to London. But we shall see. I wonder if it counts if you write it on a certain day but don't get it online until the next day. hm.
Anyhow, my week of inactivity on the blog made me think that this might actually be a good idea. I feel remiss in my blogging duties. Yes, I realize how silly that thought sounds when one has papers to write and such, but blogging here is actually a nice way for me keep thinking and writing about Classics without getting too bogged down in my current research. It's a good but productive way to take a break.
And now for a fun across-the-pond story. So we finally got to noun declension in German today, and I'm looking at the list thinking that something just feels a little off. Then, I suddenly realize, oh, right, because accusatives butt in front of genitives on this side of the pond! I had heard stories of this but had sort of forgotten, considering I'm past stage that in both Latin and Greek. I'm quite glad, though, that I've done two languages past that stage already, otherwise I'd be liable to get confused. But now I'm at the point where I think less of lists and more of function, even in languages I'm just starting to learn. Thankfully!
Speaking of that, here's Monday's Get Fuzzy comic that made me laugh in about ten ways.
Lastly, over at In the Middle, Eileen Joy has posted about her new book and its modern political intersection. There is, of course, debate over whether or not historians should be involved in the modern world. But I have to wonder why we're studying history if not to learn from the past and, when it's suitable, to apply this knowledge to the present. That is, after all, what makes us living, conscious creatures. As they say--what have the Romans done for us? But also--how can we take that and improve? (I know, not as catchy. :-P)
posted by Glaukôpis at 5:24 AM
4 Comments:
I'm sorry, but to say that the Romans did anything for us sounds very silly to me. They did everything for themselves and their idea of civilization and owe us precisely nothing and neither do we owe them anything!
As I see it, Roman history offers us an unique glimpse into the human condition, just as with other civilizations. We can use this for our own education and to eveluate more objectively our own time and its shortcomings. We are misleading ourselves if we inject our own morals into these dead people or, alternatively, let their morals determine our thinking.
Partisan scholarship is fine to a degree, but not if it deflects from the task of any humanistic academic devoted to democracy: to educate the public in truth so that they can make their own decisions.
I'm a bit passionate about this ;)blame it on personal experience. But there are eerie dimensions to partisanship that universities anywhere should avoid.
It *is* silly. I was quoting Monty Python.
Besides which, it wasn't quite meant to be taken that literally. ;-)
Heh, the joke is on silly me then ;)
Nah, I know what it's like to feel that passionately about something that I occasionally miss a joke. ;-)
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