A BLAH BLAH BLAH V, MICHIGAN FOOTBALL EDITION:
I was asked by someone last week what it would take for me to give up my various sports fandoms (not actually--I was asked if I'd ever stop being a Yankees fan, which is certainly a legitimate question, coming to it, as I did, late in life). If Kirk Ferentz becomes Michigan's next football coach, that'd come pretty close to doing it. A certain amount of masochism is fine--loyalty to the guy who won a national championship is good, and, honestly, 8-4 would've been a dream scenario after week 2 (hello Ole Miss)--but this would just be stupefying on so many levels...
"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
25.11.07
21.11.07
A SENTIMENTAL ETC ETC III:
I'm happy to make this argument:
"...which makes me ask if anyone else finds it ironic to see the heyday of the Rolling Stones – “‘Paint it Black’ you devil” – invoked as a time when young people appreciated the value of tradition."
If the Rolling Stones are about anything, it's the value of tradition. This is a band, after all, who were happy to play interpretations of traditional American musical forms (and rather obscure ones, at that) until their manager locked Mick 'n' Keef in a kitchen and forced them to start writing songs. Their best work is gloriously backward-looking--happy to embellish, not looking to break any new ground.
I'm happy to make this argument:
"...which makes me ask if anyone else finds it ironic to see the heyday of the Rolling Stones – “‘Paint it Black’ you devil” – invoked as a time when young people appreciated the value of tradition."
If the Rolling Stones are about anything, it's the value of tradition. This is a band, after all, who were happy to play interpretations of traditional American musical forms (and rather obscure ones, at that) until their manager locked Mick 'n' Keef in a kitchen and forced them to start writing songs. Their best work is gloriously backward-looking--happy to embellish, not looking to break any new ground.
19.11.07
A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY THROUGH PHILADELPHIA AND CHICAGO II:
I asked my nephew this evening if he wanted to read my book with me (current book: Charles Taylor, A Secular Age). We actually made it through several pages. Interestingly enough, he kept on flipping to the sections of the book where Taylor writes about Neitzsche. He picked up some vocabulary, too: 'Meecha' (this is Neitzsche) and 'last man.' I tried to get him to 'Zarathustra,' but he couldn't quite pronounce it--four syllables is a bit much.
Now I pretty much have to get him the child's Machiavelli book for Christmas.
I asked my nephew this evening if he wanted to read my book with me (current book: Charles Taylor, A Secular Age). We actually made it through several pages. Interestingly enough, he kept on flipping to the sections of the book where Taylor writes about Neitzsche. He picked up some vocabulary, too: 'Meecha' (this is Neitzsche) and 'last man.' I tried to get him to 'Zarathustra,' but he couldn't quite pronounce it--four syllables is a bit much.
Now I pretty much have to get him the child's Machiavelli book for Christmas.
17.11.07
8.11.07
QUOTE: I enjoy adding an element of absurdity into the day of anyone I run across. From an online game of scrabble earlier today:
"Nick T: just so y'all are aware, I am performatively deconstructing the very idea of a 'game' which one might try to 'win.' Anyone can score the most points; no challenge there. But to score as few points as possible using as many tiles as possible? That, my friends, is a game."
For what it's worth, I've played four tiles for 10 points; I hope to get my average down below 1.5 by the end of the game.
"Nick T: just so y'all are aware, I am performatively deconstructing the very idea of a 'game' which one might try to 'win.' Anyone can score the most points; no challenge there. But to score as few points as possible using as many tiles as possible? That, my friends, is a game."
For what it's worth, I've played four tiles for 10 points; I hope to get my average down below 1.5 by the end of the game.
5.11.07
UM, YES: The former English major emerges in this post from Megan McArdle:
"Contrary to what Gopnik says, a lamb or a donkey in Aslan's place wouldn't make it more accurate; it would rip the heart out of Christian theology. The sacrifice of the Lamb of God is extraordinary precisely because the Lamb of God is actually the Lion of Judah. A lamb that dies on the sacrificial altar is no more than one in a string of pointless sacrifices; the lamb has no choice in the matter. What is central to the Narnia stories, and to Christian theology, is that the lion, which could rend the sacrificiants limb from limb, instead deliberately eschews violence and lays himself down to be killed. The lion-as-lamb simultaneously acts to end the violent power that is lion-ness, and the passivity that is lamb-ness. It is an endlessly rich act, which Gopnik would have us replace with the martyrdom of the cow at the slaughterhouse gate."
"Contrary to what Gopnik says, a lamb or a donkey in Aslan's place wouldn't make it more accurate; it would rip the heart out of Christian theology. The sacrifice of the Lamb of God is extraordinary precisely because the Lamb of God is actually the Lion of Judah. A lamb that dies on the sacrificial altar is no more than one in a string of pointless sacrifices; the lamb has no choice in the matter. What is central to the Narnia stories, and to Christian theology, is that the lion, which could rend the sacrificiants limb from limb, instead deliberately eschews violence and lays himself down to be killed. The lion-as-lamb simultaneously acts to end the violent power that is lion-ness, and the passivity that is lamb-ness. It is an endlessly rich act, which Gopnik would have us replace with the martyrdom of the cow at the slaughterhouse gate."
4.11.07
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