A Review of Eric Hobsbawm’s Posthumous Essays

March 28, 2013 at 2:13 pm

In his article for the Guardian, Richard Evans discusses the late Eric Hobsbawm’s posthumous collection of essays, and how they reflect the changes in the historian’s views over time. Here is an extract:

What Hobsbawm’s Marxism also did, however, was to turn him from a lifelong optimist – while it was still possible for some to think, even with reservations, that it provided hope for the future – into a bewildered pessimist when it became obvious, from 1990 onwards, that it didn’t. Hobsbawm’s pessimism comes through in many of the essays in this book more clearly than in any other work he published after the fall of communism. The cultural experience, he says, is “disintegrating”. Classical music has no future, only a past. In many parts of the world, state subsidies of the arts are being replaced by market forces, to disastrous effect. (“It is not going to happen in the UK,” he says, but in this case he wasn’t being pessimistic enough.) Nevertheless, his vision of culture’s future is too gloomy. Modernist music may not be very popular in the concert halls, for example (as he repeatedly points out), but it goes out to millions in the form of film scores. Looking around at the visual arts or the theatre, there’s not much sign of decline. As so often, his arguments invite as much dissent as agreement, the sign of a truly creative historian. As the American economic historian David Landes once remarked, you come away from a Hobsbawm book feeling like you do after a vigorous game of squash: exhausted and invigorated at the same time.

For the full article, visit bit.ly/XkfD66

By mdimov | Posted in Community, Future of the Book, Great Personalities | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Rachel Richardson: Escape Artists

March 28, 2013 at 1:57 pm

In her article about studying poetry with prisoners, Rachel Richardson shares the intricacies of the endeavor. Here is an extract:

My partner and I went into the prison to write and hear poems, to share poetry with a group of men who might want to have this art in their lives. That was our theory. Any prisoner in good standing who was interested could show up. That meant we got the occasional gawkers—hey, you don’t see too many women here—and drifters just looking for a way to pass time, but within a few weeks the group settled into a serious workshop. Just tell your class they have to bring and share an original poem every week, and the class winnows itself quickly.

Leading a poetry workshop in such a place—a total institution, to use the anthropological term for a community defined by its complete isolation from the outside world—actually requires very little, in my experience. In showing up, the facilitator cracks open a door to the outside. In coming every week in good faith, he or she values the words of the people inside. These may seem small gestures to people who have the privilege to come and go as they please, to choose how to spend their days—but aren’t these gestures the foundations for any relationship, with people or with a poem? You show up. You listen. You open yourself to whatever you might find.

For the full article, visit bit.ly/ZD408Y

By mdimov | Posted in Art, Community, Great Ideas, Great Questions | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

The Nietzsche Family Circus

March 27, 2013 at 2:57 pm

Relating to CC202′s upcoming study of Nietzsche at the end of this semester is this amusing but informative site: bit.ly/10QJV0h

Enjoy!

By mdimov | Posted in Activities, Announcements, Art, Core Authors, Curriculum, Great Ideas | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Nabokov & His Literature Class

March 27, 2013 at 1:54 pm

In his article titled ‘An A from Nabokov’, Edward Jay Epstein recounts his experience from Lit 311 at Cornell University, where he studied many of the works that the Core explores in CC202. Here is an extract:

The professor was Vladimir Nabokov, an émigré from tsarist Russia. About six feet tall and balding, he stood, with what I took to be an aristocratic bearing, on the stage of the two-hundred-fifty-seat lecture hall in Goldwin Smith. Facing him on the stage was his white-haired wife Vera, whom he identified only as “my course assistant.” He made it clear from the first lecture that he had little interest in fraternizing with students, who would be known not by their name but by their seat number. Mine was 121. He said his only rule was that we could not leave his lecture, even to use the bathroom, without a doctor’s note.

Compare Core professors and Vladimir Nabokov… any similarities? Any differences?

For the full article, visit bit.ly/11MKnzm

By mdimov | Posted in Academics, Core Lecturers, Great Ideas, Great Personalities | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Auden on Memorizing Poetry

March 27, 2013 at 1:17 pm

Relating to the Core’s study of W.H. Auden is an article about his insistence on memorizing poetry. Here is an extract:

Auden would insist that the boys in his class learn poem after poem by heart. Even parrot-fashion. Auden said it didn’t matter whether they understood them. If they learnt the poems now, they would not forget them and maybe, later in life, they would understand them. “It’s true,” the painter told me, “I can still remember them.”

For the full article, visit bit.ly/109BXx1

By mdimov | Posted in Academics, Core Authors, Great Ideas, Great Questions | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

The 2013 Robert Fitzgerald Translation Prize

March 25, 2013 at 4:05 pm

The Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature and the Creative Writing Program announce

The 2013 ROBERT FITZGERALD TRANSLATION PRIZE

First Prize: $250
Second Prize: $100

Please submit:

  • 3 copies of the selection in the original language
  • 3 copies of the translation in typed manuscript, double-spaced, including the title, author, and language of the original (do not include your name)
  • One cover sheet including:
    Titles of the original and the translation,
    Name and Social Security Number,
    Mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address.

Verse submissions should be approximately 100 lines of a single long poem or several shorter works by the same poet or poets of similar style and period. Prose and prose drama submissions should not exceed 12 double-spaced pages: a complete short work or an excerpt (chapter, act, or section) of a longer work.

Submit all materials on or before noon Friday April 12 to:

Robert Fitzgerald Translation Prize
Dept of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature
745 Commonwealth Ave, 6th floor, room 602

JUDGES:

  • Prof. Sassan Tabatabai, MLCL and editor of Pusteblume journal
  • Prof. James Uden, Classics
  • Prof. Jeffrey Mehlman, Romance Studies

The awards ceremony will be Thursday, May 2, 2013, 5pm in STH 625.

By mdimov | Posted in Academics, Activities, Announcements, Community, Core Lecturers, Events, Great Ideas | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

The 2013 Shmuel Traum Prize In Literary Translation

March 25, 2013 at 3:58 pm

The Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature and the Creative Writing Program announce

The 2013 SHMUEL TRAUM PRIZE IN LITERARY TRANSLATION

for works in poetry, fiction or drama translated into English from French, German, or Hebrew

Grand Prize: $200

Please submit:

  • 2 copies of typed manuscript, indicating title and author and specifying language of the original; do not include your name
  • 2 copies of selection in original language
  • 1 cover sheet indicating titles of original and translation, your name, student ID number, mailing address, and telephone number and email

OPEN TO BU UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDENTS

Verse: submissions should not exceed 100 lines of a single long poem or several shorter works by the same poet or poets of similar style and period.

Prose: submissions should not exceed 12 pages of a complete work or excerpt (chapter, act, or section).

DEADLINE: Submit all materials by April 12, 5pm to: Shmuel Traum Prize, Creative Writing Program, 236 Bay State Road, Rm. 211

JUDGES:

  • Prof. Abigail Gillman, Modern Languages & Comparative Literature
  • Prof. Irit Kleiman, Romance Studies

The awards ceremony will be Thursday, May 2, 2013, 5pm in STH 625.

By mdimov | Posted in Academics, Activities, Community, Core Lecturers, Events, Great Ideas | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

One Of Us: Discussing Descartes & Animal Consciousness

March 25, 2013 at 11:39 am

Relating to CC201′s study of The Renaissance is the essay ‘One Of Us’ by John Jeremiah Sullivan on animal consciousness, in which he discusses Descartes’ views on the topic. Here is an extract:

Descartes’ term for them [animals] was automata—windup toys, like the Renaissance protorobots he’d seen as a boy in the gardens at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, “hydraulic statues” that moved and made music and even appeared to speak as they sprinkled the plants.

This is how it was with animals, Descartes held. We look at them—they seem so full of depth, so like us, but it’s an illusion. Everything they do can be attached by causal chain to some process, some natural event.

Picture two kittens next to each other, watching a cat toy fly around, their heads making precisely the same movements at precisely the same time, as if choreographed, two little fleshy machines made of nerves and electricity, obeying their mechanical mandate.

The essay (bit.ly/YteICr) proceeds to expand and discuss these ideas, and is an interesting read.

By mdimov | Posted in Academics, Curriculum, Great Personalities, Great Questions | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Gender Inequality: CC204 & The Claims of Esquire’s Editor

March 23, 2013 at 4:12 pm

Relating to last week’s lecture by Professor Mears on gender inequality and Hochschild’s readings, are two articles discussing the claim made by the Esquire‘s editor, that “women are there to be beautiful objects”. Some extracts:

“The women we feature in the magazine are ornamental,” he said, speaking at the Advertising Week Europe conference in London on Tuesday. “I could lie to you if you want and say we are interested in their brains as well. We are not. They are objectified.”

Seeing someone admit outright that his magazine deliberately objectifies female models is refreshing.

Sadly, however, having admitted to perpetuating sexism, Bilmes then tried to rationalize it with two of the most illogical sexist excuses in circulation: That’s just how men are and women do it, too! He trotted out the latter when he accused women’s magazines of also objectifying women, as if the practice becomes less, not more, objectionable for being ubiquituous.

For the full articles, visit slate.me/14eHHuw and gaw.kr/ZdcjZ0.

This directly relates to and integrates themes addressed in both CC202 and CC204. In last week’s CC204 lecture, Professor Mears highlighted some important changes in gender inequality in our society. Here is a sample:

  • Women’s labor force participation rate peaked at 60% in 1999, following several decades in which women were increasingly entering the labor market.
  • The share of mothers who are breadwinners or co-breadwinners has risen from 27.7% in 1967 to 63.3% in 2008.
  • Men have increased their participation in housework from 15% to 30%  since 1965.
  • The mentality in the fashion world is strongly affected by gender. If you are a male model, “Just walk like a man, just walk like yourself.  For guys it’s very different than girls.  Girls have to learn to walk.  Guys just walk with confidence,”  says male model Parker, 24 , NYC.
  • For men looking for prospective wives, traits like mutual attraction, education, intelligence and good looks have risen in importance between 1939 and 2008, while traits like dependable character, neatness, housekeeping and chastity have declined in importance during the same period.

The Core encourages students to dig further into this broad and controversial topic- it certainly deserves our attention.

By mdimov | Posted in Announcements, Community, Curriculum, Great Questions, In the News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

CC105 Information

March 22, 2013 at 1:48 pm

To all CC105 students,

Nate and Gayle, your Core Mentors, have been sending out weekly emails summarizing the important topics from the lectures that week, reminding you of assignments and giving you links to some science articles that you may find interesting. The Core Blog is regularly updated with what is being sent in these emails. For the last week before spring break:

Important Topics:

  • Electromagnetic waves (light) (review)
  • Speed of light (review)
  • Refractive index
  • v=μ
  • Differential absorption of wavelengths in H20
  • Reflection and refraction
  • H20 as a medium
  • Snell’s window
  • Blue Jay search images
  • Spatial resolution
  • Pit viper and the debate of whether their “pits” allow them to see in the infrared
  • Flicker fusion as a visual illusion

Reminders:

  • Prof. Atema’s lectures have been updated. Please download them again. Slides marked with stars will be important to study for the exam.
  • Important changes to Labs 3 & 4: Lab 3 will meet on April 3, not March 20; Lab 4 will meet on April 17, not April 10. Here is the updated schedule:

Lab I, Feb. 6: Simulating natural selection and building phylogenies
Lab II, Mar. 6: Sensory biology
Lab III, Apr. 3: Ecology and behavior of isopods
Lab IV, Apr. 17: Biosphere I: Building an ecosystem
Lab V, Apr. 24: Biosphere II: Analysis of an ecosystem”

Interesting Articles:

If you have any questions, email Nate (ndf93@bu.edu) or Gayle (gminer@bu.edu)!!

By mdimov | Posted in Academics, Announcements, Curriculum | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)