THE DAYS ARE JUST PACKED: If I've been a little slow to post lately, it's because the semester has finally gotten into a rhythm. The week has been spent doing research for my advisor (good, simple 10-page introductions to Thucydides; reading Iris Murdoch and Bryan Garsten's book on persuasion (which is excellent)), pursuing two new paper-length, dissertation-related projects (reading interpretations of Grotius' position on the right of rebellion; Lucan's Pharsalia as a window into alternative readings of the Prolegomena to De jure belli), preparing to teach section.
At times the work is overwhelming--and there's nothing like the futility of approaching secondary literature for a new paper*. But there will be more productive thoughts to come (the Murdoch already seems like it could drop in very well to the paper I presented at McGill, giving a deep philosophical cause to reject the language of public reason), and in the meantime, it's good, productive work, and I'm glad to be doing it.
*e.g. spending the afternoon reading a book or two that will be entirely useless to your project
"Thou shalt not extinguish thine anger, but shall master it,
that thy conscience may not be blunted by adjustment
to wrong causes."
-The Dutch Ten Commandments to Foil the Nazis
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