Richard Parker

Richard Parker was the name of a character in Poe's novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, published in 1838, who is shipwrecked and cannibalized by other survivors.

Richard Parker was the name of an actual cabin boy who was killed and eaten by others in their lifeboat in 1884. This led to the R v Dudley and Stephens criminal case that set the precedent that necessity is never a defense for murder.

Richard Parker was the name of the Bengal tiger in Life of Pi.

Richard Parker was also the name of one of the characters in Weekend at Bernie's.

Evidently, both truth and fiction are very strange. Q.E.D.

Why I Don't Teach Hegel

Structure of Hegel's Science of Logic

Off Again

Off again. Our administration is now "stepping away" from most of the extraordinarily time-consuming and ill-conceived program prioritization that took center stage last year. There will now be a brief intermission while some top administrative jobs are reshuffled, and then next year we will see if this plan re-emerges or simply disappears.

Galt or Gor?

Ayn Rand. Nothing good tends to follow after her name comes up in discussion. Currently, my favorite way to respond to such digressions is by comparing her ideas with those of another work from the same time period, John Norman's Chronicles of Gor. Although this may be somewhat unfair to Norman, I like the idea of characterizing the ideas of John Galt and Rand's other characters as Gorean economics.

     

Both in content and style, the two authors resonate for me. So, here is a short quiz for you: Galt or Gor?

See if you can tell if the following quotes come from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, or John Norman's Chronicles of Gor. The answers are in the first comment below. Feel free to share your score out of 10 in the comments as well. But no cheating. Cheating is for the slavish, weak, and corrupt.

1. "I once betrayed my codes," I said. "It is not my intention to do so again."
2. “I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.” 
3. “Never think of pain or danger or enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them.” 
4. "In denying it we deny our nature. In betraying it we betray no one but ourselves." 
5. "Invisible chains are those which weigh the most heavily." 
6. “If one's actions are honest, one does not need the predated confidence of others.” 
7. "Did I feel a physical desire for him? I did. Was I moved by a passion of my body? I was." 
8. "Hate them for their pride and power they will pity you for your shame and weakness." 
9. "Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach."
10. "He will always be attracted to the woman who reflects his deepest vision of himself, the woman whose surrender permits him to experience a sense of self-esteem."

Preparing For Classes

At the beginning of the semester, I can often convince myself that wandering through YouTube videos in search of new things to show in class is a useful way to spend my time. Below are two videos I unearthed in this quest. The first is short compilation of Sigmund Freud's home movies including clips of Herr Doktor playing with a baby and a dog. The second is a film of André Breton's apartment and art collection. I find them both charming, so I believe I will inflict them on my students this semester.

Dubstep Theory

Here is a disturbing artifact, not so far removed from the Freire Death Metal below. Dubstep theory may be the next leap forward: the sublation of philosophy and a danceable beat.

Similarly when it is said: "the real is the universal", the real, qua subject, passes away in its predicate. The universal is not only meant to have the significance of a predicate, as if the proposition stated that the real is universal: the universal is meant to express the essential nature of the real. Thinking therefore loses that fixed objective basis which it had in the subject, just as much as in the predicate it is thrown back on the subject, and therein returns not into itself but into the subject underlying the content. – from the Preface of Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind.

Academic Kindness

A small blog, but I approve.

Resolutions

Below is a list of resolutions for the new year penned by Woody Guthrie himself. It makes the rounds online this time of year. I like his list. If I manage to accomplish a handful of these this coming year, it will be a better year. 1, 2, 6, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 32, 33 would all be good. 8 won't happen, and I'm fine with that. Happy new year everyone.

1. Work more and better
2. Work by a schedule
3. wash teeth if any
4. shave
5. take bath
6. eat good – fruit – vegetables – milk
7. drink very scant if any
8. write a song a day
9. wear clean clothes – look good
10. Shine shoes
11. Change socks
12. Change bed clothes often
13. Read lots good books
14. Listen to radio a lot
15. Learn people better
16. Keep rancho clean
17. Don’t get lonesome
18. Stay glad
19. Keep hoping machine running
20. Dream good
21. Bank all extra money
22. Save Dough
23. Have company but don’t waste time
24. Send Mary and kids money
25. Play and sing good
26. Dance Better
27. Hep win war – beat fascism
28. Love Mama
29. Love Papa
30. Love Pete
31. Love Everybody
32. Make up your mind
33. Wake up and Fight

My Adorable Daughters

beach-watch: Done for an English project. Me eight years ago; me now. :)

gogglesque: It gets better. The first image comes from a project her sister did eight years ago for the same teacher. That sister was me: 

LumpenProf is their photographer/father.

The Brownies' Book

Via:

Du Bois had long worried that African American children had no place to turn in the mainstream media for stories about members of their race. With most of the children’s literature of the day produced by white authors for white children, Du Bois wanted to offer an alternative: a magazine written by black authors for black children. 

In January 1920 the first issue of The Brownies' Book was produced by Du Bois and Dill, publishers, and made available to subscribers at $1.50 a year or 0.15 an issue.

The Library of Congress' Rare Book and Special Collections Division provides online access to all but the last issue of the Brownies' Book. Or one can choose to download the available issues as one large PDF file (351MB).