September 21, 2011 at 10:30 am
Last Tuesday, Prof. Michael Corgan delivered a lecture to the students of CC201: The Renaissance, on the topic of The Prince by Machiavelli. To provide context for his lecture in the intellectual arc of the course, Prof. Jennifer Formichelli introduced Prof. Corgan with the following remarks.
Last week Professor Ricks made a salient distinction between Petrarch and his adjective, Petrarchan. A man cannot be his own adjective, said Prof Ricks; and as we are studying Machiavelli, whose adjective, like Petrarch’s, garnered arguably more power than the work of the man himself, we might keep the dictum in mind. “No one,” said T.S. Eliot, ‘was ever less Machiavellian than Machiavelli’. Read More »
By CAS Core Curriculum
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Posted in Core Lecturers
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Tagged CC201, Corgan, Formichelli, Machiavelli, The Prince
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September 21, 2011 at 9:00 am
« Je voudrais savoir lequel est le pire, ou d'être violée cent fois par des pirates nègres, d'avoir une fesse coupée, de passer par les baguettes chez les Bulgares, d'être fouetté et pendu dans un auto-da-fé, d'être disséqué, de ramer en galère, d'éprouver enfin toutes les misères par lesquelles nous avons tous passé, ou bien de rester ici à ne rien faire ? -- C'est une grande question », dit Candide.
'I would be glad to know which is worst, to be ravished a hundred times by Negro pirates, to have one buttock cut off, to run the gauntlet among the Bulgarians, to be whipped and hanged at an auto-da-fe, to be dissected, to be chained to an oar in a galley; and, in short, to experience all the miseries through which every one of us hath passed, or to remain here doing nothing?'
'That,' said Candide, 'is a big question.'
-- Voltaire, Candide, Chapter 30, English trans. by William F. Fleming
By CAS Core Curriculum
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Posted in Activities, Analects
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Tagged candide, CC201, Events, voltaire
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September 20, 2011 at 9:01 am
Quand les deux curieux eurent pris congé de Son Excellence : « Or çà, dit Candide à Martin, vous conviendrez que voilà le plus heureux de tous les hommes, car il est au-dessus de tout ce qu'il possède. -- Ne voyez-vous pas, dit Martin, qu'il est dégoûté de tout ce qu'il possède ? Platon a dit, il y a longtemps, que les meilleurs estomacs ne sont pas ceux qui rebutent tous les aliments. -- Mais, dit Candide, n'y a-t-il pas du plaisir à tout critiquer, à sentir des défauts où les autres hommes croient voir des beautés ? -- C'est-à-dire, reprit Martin, qu'il y a du plaisir à n'avoir pas de plaisir ? »
As soon as our two travelers had taken leave of His Excellency, Candide said to Martin, 'Well, I hope you will own that this man is the happiest of all mortals, for he is above everything he possesses.'
'But do not you see,' answered Martin, 'that he likewise dislikes everything he possesses? It was an observation of Plato, long since, that those are not the best stomachs that reject, without distinction, all sorts of aliments.'
'True,' said Candide, 'but still there must certainly be a pleasure in criticising everything, and in perceiving faults where others think they see beauties.'
'That is,' replied Martin, 'there is a pleasure in having no pleasure.'
-- Voltaire, Candide, Chapter 25, English trans. by William F. Fleming
By CAS Core Curriculum
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Posted in Activities, Analects
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Tagged candide, CC201, Events, voltaire
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September 19, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Prof. Stephanie Nelson has acquired a few books for the Core library. Students and alumni are invited to stop by and check them out:
The Invention of Dionysus: an essay on the Birth of Tragedy by James I. Porter
Applaus Fur Venus: Die 100 schonsten liebesgedichte der Antike by Niklas Holzberg
Generic Enrichment in Virgil & Horace by S.J. Harrison
Le nozze di Cadmo e Armonia by Roberto Calasso
By CAS Core Curriculum
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Posted in Announcements, Art
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Tagged books, classics, criticism, MFA
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September 19, 2011 at 12:43 pm
LECTURES THIS WEEK
CC101: Jennifer Knust on Genesis (9/20)
CC105, Tuesday: Tereasa Brainerd on relativity (9/20)
CC105, Thursday: Forum -- Is the world deterministic? (9/22)
CC201: Jodi Cranston on Michelangelo (9/20)
CC203: Thomas Barfield on The Muqaddimah (9/22)
A reminder to alumni -- if you will be in Boston during a scheduled course lecture, and would like to sit in, email core@bu.edu and let us know. It is often possible to join the audience as a guest.
THE CORE WRITING CENTER is now open; tutors will be available for half-hour appointments Monday through Friday, 10-1 and 2-4. Students may visit the Core office, CAS 119, to sign up for a session, or email core@bu.edu to request an appointment.
UPCOMING EVENTS IN THE CORE
- TODAY, 9/19: "How to Engage Professors". Professors Cirulli, Kalt, and Nelson will lead a workshop for students to learn strategies for academic success, including how to get to know their professors better, how to use office hours effectively, and how to best participate in class. 4-6 PM, in CAS room 203. Refreshments will be provided; first-year students are especially encouraged to attend.
- Friday, 9/23: Core in the City Trip to the Semitic Museum. Prof. Kyna Hamill will lead a trip to Harvard Square, where students will be given a guided tour of the Harvard Semitic Museum. Students should bring fare money for the T; leaving from CAS 119 at 3 PM. RSVP at http://on.fb.me/Core-F11-4.
- Saturday, 9/24: Core in the City Theater Night, "Candide": Students in CC201, and juniors and seniors who have graduated from Core, are invited to sign up for one of 25 available tickets. Students will be able to pick up their tickets from the Core office in the days before the performance, and will meet at the Huntington on the night of. More information about the show can be found at http://www.huntingtontheatre.org/season/production.aspx?id=10114.
- Friday, 9/30: Core in the City at the BPL. Prof. Thornton Lockwood will lead a tour through the Boston Public Library in Copley Square to view John Singer Sargent's famous mural, "Triumph of Religion." Students should bring fare money for the T; leaving from CAS 119 at 3 PM. RSVP at http://on.fb.me/Core-F11-5.
Students may RSVP for events by emailing core@bu.edu, by adding their name to the sign-up sheet in CAS 119, or by visiting the RSVP link provided.
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If you have any ideas or comments about future Core activities, please contact Prof. Jennifer Formichelli at jlf@bu.edu.
Get connected with Core:
The Core blog - http://bu.edu/core/blog
Facebook - http://facebook.com/BUCore
Core events - at http://www.bu.edu/core/calendar
E-bulletin archive - http://blogs.bu.edu/core/tag/e-bulletin
By zakbos
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Posted in e-bulletin
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Tagged e-bulletin
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September 19, 2011 at 9:00 am
Un jour, Cunégonde, en se promenant auprès du château, dans le petit bois qu'on appelait parc, vit entre des broussailles le docteur Pangloss qui donnait une leçon de physique expérimentale à la femme de chambre de sa mère, petite brune très jolie et très docile. Comme Mlle Cunégonde avait beaucoup de dispositions pour les sciences, elle observa, sans souffler, les expériences réitérées dont elle fut témoin; elle vit clairement la raison suffisante du docteur, les effets et les causes.
One day when Miss Cunegonde went to take a walk in a little neighboring wood which was called a park, she saw, through the bushes, the sage Doctor Pangloss giving a lecture in experimental philosophy to her mother's chambermaid, a little brown wench, very pretty, and very tractable. As Miss Cunegonde had a great disposition for the sciences, she observed with the utmost attention the experiments which were repeated before her eyes; she perfectly well understood the force of the doctor's reasoning upon causes and effects.
-- Voltaire, Candide, Chapter 1, English trans. by William F. Fleming.
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This week's Analects of the Core are taken from Candide in anticipation of this Saturday's Core tip to see the Huntington Theatre Company's new production of Leonard Bernstein's operatic version of Voltaire's novel.
By CAS Core Curriculum
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Posted in Activities, Analects, Uncategorized
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Tagged candide, CC201, Events, voltaire
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September 16, 2011 at 2:23 pm
This is a friendly reminder to first-year students, second-year students, and Core alumni to stop by the Core Office, CAS 119, for cookies, cider and conversation anytime between 3-5 PM today. Mingle with Core faculty, staff, and other students, learn about Core student organizations, and sample some of the BEST cookies in Boston! Featuring:
Salted Caramel Double Chocolate Chip
Chocolate Coconut Macaroons
Chocolate Chunk
Oatmeal Raisin
Triple Chocolate
Chocolate Chip Walnut
Peanut Butter
and Heath Bar Crunch (Plato's favorite)
YUM! See you this afternoon.
By CAS Core Curriculum
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Posted in Activities
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Tagged cookies
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September 13, 2011 at 2:53 pm
Today's visual Analect is an Assyrian bas relief from the collection of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, in Brunswick, Maine: "Winged Figured with Embroidered Tunic and Shawl", from Northwest Palace, Nimrud, Iraq. Gypsum, 90 9/16 x 58 13/16 x 6 7/16", 883-859 BC. Gift of Dr. Henri B. Haskell M 1855 (1860.2).
Students may have an interest in this pamphlet guide to the Assyrian bas reliefs at Bowdoin; click the image above to open the PDF in a new window.
By zakbos
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Posted in Analects
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Tagged Art, CC101, Gilgamesh, sculpture
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September 13, 2011 at 1:59 pm
- “Genesis starts with ‘In the beginning’; and that is always a great place to start.”
- “The Bible’s stories, laws, and beliefs decisively influenced the western imagination; biblical heroes became models for kings and commoners, and taught westerners how to act, what to pursue, how to govern and rule.”
- “The Bible has been many a person’s favorite book—the text one might bring along to a solitary island, or if one wanted something to read in jail.”
- “We are still coming to terms with this dwarfing of a text that, until not too long ago, was a towering monument of the ancient world; so towering, in fact, that it was believed to reach all the way to heaven.”
- “What does God do on the seventh day? He rests. Good for Him.”
- “It’s like the story of Pandora’s Box. If you put women in the mix everything goes wrong: labor, childbirth, gender relations, and so on. Everything goes wrong.”
As recorded by Core office employee Winona Hudak during Prof. Michael Zank's introduction to the book of Genesis this morning in CC101.
By zakbos
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Posted in Core Lecturers, Great Ideas
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Tagged Bible, CC101, Genesis, lectures, Quotes, six quotes, Zank
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