Arts & Letters

You all have talked much lately of the generation divisions, but today I saw one that is not, I suspect, what most of you were thinking about. In the midst of one of our endless workshops on grading freshman English papers, we were divided into groups to compare grading techniques. This was generally meant to encourage us to grade in a more similar manner – given that some of the sample papers we were given were graded with 40 point differences, probably we do need some standardization.

Well, I complained in passing that years ago, at my first go-around of college teaching, students were constantly telling me that “one does this” and “one does that.” A fellow teacher of approximately my age groaned about the “pompous one.” They don’t do that so much, now – McWhorter & countless others have noted the informalizing of American writing. Getting rid of the “one” is a small silver lining in that particular cloud.

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In writing an answer to Mitch, I got long-winded. So, not wanting to hijack my own thread as I so often do others’, here is a post.

Some did not buy into post-modernism because they found it ignored one of two assumptions against which they tested theories: 1) some truths are eternal (that is why few such thinkers are religious and few of the religious were attracted to post-modernism) and 2) an intrinsic human nature is at once individual to us and characteristic of all of us. The latter leads to a belief nurture will only bend our strong selves rather than define them.

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John Jay’s fascinating post has been rolling around in my mind – one that seldom if ever thinks in terms of numbers. I find minds such as his admirable and am delighted by the clarity with which they pierce my more hazy process.

My family, of course, lives our lives amidst words. My son-in-law once said he was happy he was writing his dissertation in English. An indication of my family’s (if not my own) interest in languages is that when he arranged their Italian honeymoon he booked Italian lessons as well – and she was thrilled. His first language is German; he studied in France, where he met her. Therefore, he had written many papers in both those languages. He welcomed English because he found its breadth & depth gave him greater precision with which to capture, contain & communicate ideas than did other languages he knew.

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People having fun…

Where the Hell is Matt?
Introducing Lisa Nova
LisaNova takes the Bus
Bikini Wax

You’ll need your speakers on.

Beckett’s century.

And so, Chicagoboyz is our stage – we throw our posts out into the blogosphere. But, we wonder, if no one comments is our post unread? If posted and not read, does it exist? Do we?