In a nutshell: December 22 will mark the tenth anniversary of the untimely death of Joe Strummer, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and leading force of the punk-rock band, The Clash. Here are links to some appreciations of Strummer, and to my own April 2012 post on Strummer as Critical Pedagogue.
Joe Strummer, singer, songwriter, guitarist, leader of The Clash, and provocateur of critical pedagogy through punk rock, died of a quite unexpected heart attack as the result of an undiagnosed congenital condition at the age of 50 on December 22, 2002. There was a nice piece on NPR about him this morning, and I also found this article in SPIN magazine. If readers of Pedagogishness want to send me links to other appreciations of Strummer, I will add them.
Back on April 24, I posted an entry on Pedagogishness about Joe Strummer's influence on my own "post-punk pedagogy," which turned out to be more about the many Joe Strummer stand-ins and lookalikes in my life, but may still be worth a read.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
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Fascinating Chapter on Critical Race and Classics
In a nutshell: I'm reading a fabulous essay on critical race theory in classical studies by Shelley P. Haley of Hamilton College, and you should read it, too.
In 2009, Fortress Press published Prejudice and Christian Beginnings: Investigating Race, Gender, and Ethnicity in Early Christian Studies, a collection of essays edited by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and Laura Nasralla. Chapter 1 is a wonderful essay entitled "Be Not Afraid of the Dark: Critical Race Theory and Classical Studies," by Shelley P. Haley of Hamilton College.
Haley confronts the same issue with critical race theory and classics that I confront in my use of queer theory and classics. Namely, widespread resistance to the idea that the theoretical perspective is relevant to the object of study, and the suspicion, bordering on accusation, that scholarship done in this vein is "anachronistic" or in some other way invalid or inappropriate.
Haley dispenses with this charge concisely and effectively in the brief abstract that begins the chapter:
The simple summary above does not begin to do justice to the nuance and insight of Haley's reading of individual ancient texts, or her analysis of how modern social and cultural constructs of race, class, and gender have shaped the scholarly response to these texts, particularly to the representation of race, gender, and cultural difference in these texts.
I'm not sure the full text PDF I found of Dr. Haley's chapter is really intended for public consumption, or if it is only accidentally downloadable from the Fortress Press servers. Therefore, I am not going to include a direct link to the chapter here. But it's quite easy to find if you search for the title and author of the essay. Oh, and of course, you can also borrow the book from your local public or campus library, or purchase the book on Amazon or directly from the press.
In 2009, Fortress Press published Prejudice and Christian Beginnings: Investigating Race, Gender, and Ethnicity in Early Christian Studies, a collection of essays edited by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and Laura Nasralla. Chapter 1 is a wonderful essay entitled "Be Not Afraid of the Dark: Critical Race Theory and Classical Studies," by Shelley P. Haley of Hamilton College.
Haley confronts the same issue with critical race theory and classics that I confront in my use of queer theory and classics. Namely, widespread resistance to the idea that the theoretical perspective is relevant to the object of study, and the suspicion, bordering on accusation, that scholarship done in this vein is "anachronistic" or in some other way invalid or inappropriate.
Haley dispenses with this charge concisely and effectively in the brief abstract that begins the chapter:
The justification for using a theory focused on modern phenomena like “race” and “racism” to analyze ancient Greek and Roman society is that modern interpreters of those ancient societies have internalized the modern values, structures, and behaviors that are the object of critical race theory.After an overview of critical race theory, Haley proceeds to discuss definitions of race and color in the ancient Mediterranean world and to a reconsideration of race in an understanding the Vergil's Dido before proceeding to a consideration of race and gender in Pseudo-Vergil’s Moretum. Haley concludes that "the Romans were acute observers of color, gender, and class difference" and that "critical race theory can help to unlayer the intersectionality of the constructs [of race, class, and gender] of ancient Roman society."
The simple summary above does not begin to do justice to the nuance and insight of Haley's reading of individual ancient texts, or her analysis of how modern social and cultural constructs of race, class, and gender have shaped the scholarly response to these texts, particularly to the representation of race, gender, and cultural difference in these texts.
I'm not sure the full text PDF I found of Dr. Haley's chapter is really intended for public consumption, or if it is only accidentally downloadable from the Fortress Press servers. Therefore, I am not going to include a direct link to the chapter here. But it's quite easy to find if you search for the title and author of the essay. Oh, and of course, you can also borrow the book from your local public or campus library, or purchase the book on Amazon or directly from the press.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Ban on Mexican-American Studies headed for repeal?
In a nutshell: A newly enacted plan to desegregate the Tucson Unified School District may provide a path for the return of Mexican-American Studies.
As reported on the News 4 Tucson website, the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) on December 11 passed a plan designed to satisfy a 1978 federal desegregation order and ending the district's dual system for white and minority students, giving supporters of the banned Mexican-American Studies (MAS) program new hope for a return of the outlawed ethnic studies program. A federal court still has to approve the plan. If it is implemented, a revived MAS program could return in fall 2013.
For background on this story, see my long, detailed, multimedia post on the plight of MAS in Tucson.
As reported on the News 4 Tucson website, the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) on December 11 passed a plan designed to satisfy a 1978 federal desegregation order and ending the district's dual system for white and minority students, giving supporters of the banned Mexican-American Studies (MAS) program new hope for a return of the outlawed ethnic studies program. A federal court still has to approve the plan. If it is implemented, a revived MAS program could return in fall 2013.
For background on this story, see my long, detailed, multimedia post on the plight of MAS in Tucson.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Government picking winners and losers in college?
In a nutshell: We need to shift the debate on STEM vs. liberal arts from an either/or to a both/and
discussion.
As reported in The New York Times, Governor Rick Scott of Florida is now proposing that Florida's 12 state universities charge lower tuition for students majoring in "business-friendly" science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects and higher tuition for students majoring in humanities or social science fields.
This is wrong and bad on so many levels, and ironically, perhaps, represents precisely the kind of government regulation of the economy to pick winners and losers that conservatives generally oppose. But I don't want to spend a lot of time dwelling on that now. Instead, I want to propose that we humanists (and our allies) consider supporting a higher education model that encourages all students to have a humanities/social science major and a STEM minor. As callers to Brian Lehrer's show on WNYC are repeatedly affirming right now, we need both: we need students to learn the STEM subjects so they can be prepared for jobs in the post-industrial economy; and we need students to learn the humanities and social sciences so they can think critically, be culturally literate, and be prepared to participate fully as informed citizens in a democratic society.
Right now, this debate seems to be very polarized: Should we support STEM or liberal arts, period. This is ridiculous; typical, but ridiculous. We need to start shifting the debate from an either/or to a both/and discussion. How can we restructure our curricula, at public and private institutions alike, across the entire country, in both K-12 and in higher education, so that we can educate our children holistically and not partially.
The discussion should not be driven by anxiety on the part of liberal arts programs. This paragraph in the NY Times article reveals the disturbing tendency of so-called "liberal arts devotees" to focus on funding concerns rather than social or economic justice:
As reported in The New York Times, Governor Rick Scott of Florida is now proposing that Florida's 12 state universities charge lower tuition for students majoring in "business-friendly" science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects and higher tuition for students majoring in humanities or social science fields.
This is wrong and bad on so many levels, and ironically, perhaps, represents precisely the kind of government regulation of the economy to pick winners and losers that conservatives generally oppose. But I don't want to spend a lot of time dwelling on that now. Instead, I want to propose that we humanists (and our allies) consider supporting a higher education model that encourages all students to have a humanities/social science major and a STEM minor. As callers to Brian Lehrer's show on WNYC are repeatedly affirming right now, we need both: we need students to learn the STEM subjects so they can be prepared for jobs in the post-industrial economy; and we need students to learn the humanities and social sciences so they can think critically, be culturally literate, and be prepared to participate fully as informed citizens in a democratic society.
Right now, this debate seems to be very polarized: Should we support STEM or liberal arts, period. This is ridiculous; typical, but ridiculous. We need to start shifting the debate from an either/or to a both/and discussion. How can we restructure our curricula, at public and private institutions alike, across the entire country, in both K-12 and in higher education, so that we can educate our children holistically and not partially.
The discussion should not be driven by anxiety on the part of liberal arts programs. This paragraph in the NY Times article reveals the disturbing tendency of so-called "liberal arts devotees" to focus on funding concerns rather than social or economic justice:
At the University of Florida, the state’s most prestigious campus, a group of history professors criticized the recommendation for tiered tuition and organized a protest petition. Liberal arts devotees across the state are signing it. The professors said the move would inevitably reduce the number of students who take humanities classes, which would further diminish financing for those departments. In the end, Florida universities with nationally prominent programs, like the one for Latin American history at the University of Florida, will lose coveted professors and their overall luster.At a policy level, the flight from humanities classes is not to be lamented for the toll it will take on departmental budgets, but rather for the impact it will have on students' ability to think critically and perform their civic duty, including serving as energetic, innovative leaders of business and government.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
The End of Western Civilization
In a nutshell: My classroom full of black, brown, East Asian, South Asian,
orthodox Jewish, Muslim, female, and gay male students, very few of
whom are well spoken for by the White Male Christian Subject of Culture, have a very hard time accepting the idea that they
themselves have supplanted him.
This semester I have been teaching a class at Brooklyn College called The Idea of Character in the Western Literary Tradition. The course description, not of my own design, is very broad, and allows the instructor to cobble together any kind of survey of Western literary texts that suits his or her fancy.
I decided to go broad and teach the class as a survey of the entire Western literary tradition from Homer to Toni Morrison. I wanted to explore the emergence of the idea of Western Civilization itself and its eventual run in with the crises of multiculturalism and globalization. In the course of the semester I came up with the idea of a White Male Christian Subject of Culture who imagined himself to have roots in twin Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian traditions. We looked at the Greek male heroic subject of culture in the Homeric epics and how he was joined on the literary landscape by a range of alternative "heroes" (in the later sense of protagonist or central figure), including the idealized shepherd of bucolic poetry, the parodic antihero of Hellenistic mime, and the indignant scowl of Roman satire. We also looked at representations of women's voices (albeit in poems by men), with examples including the Briseis and Penelope of Ovid's Heroides and the gossipy housewives of Herodas's sixth mime. I took particular pleasure in regaling my students with ancient literary examples of pimps, prostitutes, hustlers, and sex-toy mongers. They enjoyed reading these texts and, more importantly from a pedagogical perspective, they were surprised by them, and learned some new things about the Western literary tradition.
By the end of the semester (this week), I was trying to convince them that Western Civilization was over, a historical construct that now exists only as a relic of the past, not the dominant form of culture (to use Raymond Williams' term) or the discourse (to go Foucaultian) in which we currently live. One last, great, impotent tirade of the White Male Christian Subject of Western Culture, I have argued to them, can be heard in Dostoyevksy's Underground Man (Notes from Underground), and his last pitiful gasps can be heard in T.S. Eliot's "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock." Toni Morrison's Sula represents a radically different form of cultural existence, with its defiant assertion of black female subjectivity that is not only aware of its historical marginalization but determined to assert both its own dignity and its right to speak.
I was shocked, but not surprised, and in fact perversely pleased, to find in class yesterday that The End of Western Civilization was a very hard sell in my classroom full of black, brown, East Asian, South Asian, orthodox Jewish, Muslim, female, and gay male students, very few of whom are well spoken for by the White Male Christian Subject of Culture, but all of whom had a very hard time accepting the idea that they themselves had supplanted him.
That is the exciting discovery I wanted to share with you in this post. As old friends of Pedagogishness might be aware, this post marks an emergence from a four-month silence on my part. The academic year 2011-2012 was exhausting, somewhat traumatizing, and left me voiceless. It's been a rough fall semester, but also exciting, and my voice is starting to come back. This semester has given me a lot to think about and write about, and as it runs its course in final exams and the posting of grades, I believe readers of Pedagogishness will have more to demand their attention.
This semester I have been teaching a class at Brooklyn College called The Idea of Character in the Western Literary Tradition. The course description, not of my own design, is very broad, and allows the instructor to cobble together any kind of survey of Western literary texts that suits his or her fancy.
I decided to go broad and teach the class as a survey of the entire Western literary tradition from Homer to Toni Morrison. I wanted to explore the emergence of the idea of Western Civilization itself and its eventual run in with the crises of multiculturalism and globalization. In the course of the semester I came up with the idea of a White Male Christian Subject of Culture who imagined himself to have roots in twin Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian traditions. We looked at the Greek male heroic subject of culture in the Homeric epics and how he was joined on the literary landscape by a range of alternative "heroes" (in the later sense of protagonist or central figure), including the idealized shepherd of bucolic poetry, the parodic antihero of Hellenistic mime, and the indignant scowl of Roman satire. We also looked at representations of women's voices (albeit in poems by men), with examples including the Briseis and Penelope of Ovid's Heroides and the gossipy housewives of Herodas's sixth mime. I took particular pleasure in regaling my students with ancient literary examples of pimps, prostitutes, hustlers, and sex-toy mongers. They enjoyed reading these texts and, more importantly from a pedagogical perspective, they were surprised by them, and learned some new things about the Western literary tradition.
By the end of the semester (this week), I was trying to convince them that Western Civilization was over, a historical construct that now exists only as a relic of the past, not the dominant form of culture (to use Raymond Williams' term) or the discourse (to go Foucaultian) in which we currently live. One last, great, impotent tirade of the White Male Christian Subject of Western Culture, I have argued to them, can be heard in Dostoyevksy's Underground Man (Notes from Underground), and his last pitiful gasps can be heard in T.S. Eliot's "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock." Toni Morrison's Sula represents a radically different form of cultural existence, with its defiant assertion of black female subjectivity that is not only aware of its historical marginalization but determined to assert both its own dignity and its right to speak.
I was shocked, but not surprised, and in fact perversely pleased, to find in class yesterday that The End of Western Civilization was a very hard sell in my classroom full of black, brown, East Asian, South Asian, orthodox Jewish, Muslim, female, and gay male students, very few of whom are well spoken for by the White Male Christian Subject of Culture, but all of whom had a very hard time accepting the idea that they themselves had supplanted him.
That is the exciting discovery I wanted to share with you in this post. As old friends of Pedagogishness might be aware, this post marks an emergence from a four-month silence on my part. The academic year 2011-2012 was exhausting, somewhat traumatizing, and left me voiceless. It's been a rough fall semester, but also exciting, and my voice is starting to come back. This semester has given me a lot to think about and write about, and as it runs its course in final exams and the posting of grades, I believe readers of Pedagogishness will have more to demand their attention.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - Day 50
Today is Day 50. The 49 instructional days are past. The day of celebration is past. It's final exam day. A passage from Vergil's Aeneid to translate at sight (glossed), with questions about syntax, scansion, and poetic interpretation. An Ode of Horace to translate at sight (glossed), with a similar range of questions to answer. A passage from each student's elective to translate, something they've seen before, with a prompt for writing an essay about the language and meaning of the passage.
Once exams are completed and handed in, the faculty will grade them as a team. That will be the first step in assigning course grades and honors.
Tomorrow, student will come back in the morning to get their final grades, course grades, commemorative tee-shirts (of their own design), and to bid their teachers farewell—in whatever spirit of fondness or recrimination they feel is suitable!
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Once exams are completed and handed in, the faculty will grade them as a team. That will be the first step in assigning course grades and honors.
Tomorrow, student will come back in the morning to get their final grades, course grades, commemorative tee-shirts (of their own design), and to bid their teachers farewell—in whatever spirit of fondness or recrimination they feel is suitable!
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - Day 49
Day 49 was yesterday, August 17, 2012. The last instructional day of the Summer Latin Institute. At last, the end is nearly here.
For morning drill, we read Horace's Odes 1.37 (Nunc est bibendum), 3.25 (Quo me rapis), and 3.30 (Exegi monumentum).
For morning drill, we read Horace's Odes 1.37 (Nunc est bibendum), 3.25 (Quo me rapis), and 3.30 (Exegi monumentum).
After morning drill, we went straight into electives: Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues.
The elective session was limited to one hour, after which we left the premises to celebrate our students' accomplishments offsite—Latin and Greek students alike. We like to keep the
details of that celebration under wraps, so as not to spoil any surprises that may
be in store for students in subsequent summers. Let me just say there may have been some singing and reciting of poetry in Latin and Greek, some drinking of Bacchic beverages, and some eating of delicious food. And perhaps a laurel wreath or two.
This is the first weekend since their "summer vacation" in July that they have no homework. They do, however, have to study for the final exam on Monday. On Tuesday, students will come in for a few minutes to get their final grades, course grades, commemorative tee-shirts (of their own design), and to bid their teachers farewell, hopefully with minimal recriminations for the rigors to which we have subjected them these past ten weeks.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - Day 48
Today is DAY 48.
For morning drill, we switch from Horace's Odes to his Epistles 1.2.
More lunchtime optional sight reading from Vergil's Aeneid.
After lunch, students continue reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective elective.
Afternoon sight: A passage from Hobbes' De Homine.
The end is truly near. The final exam is made up. Students will translate passages of Vergil (Aeneid) and Horace (Odes) that they have not seen before, with glosses, and they will answer questions about syntax and scansion and write brief interpretive essays. Each faculty member has prepared a section of the final addressing the electives we taught—one for students who studied Tacitus' Annals, another for those who studied Augustine's Confessions, and one for those who read Vergil's Eclogues.
In another important development, students have designed a tee shirt to commemorate their experience at the Latin Institute this summer, bearing the words of Seneca: quod acerbum fuit ferre, tulisse iucundum est ("what was bitter to bear is pleasant to have born"). Those will be delivered next Tuesday, when students come to get their final grades and bid their faculty a fond (?) farewell.
Some celebration may be in store for Day 49, but we like to keep the details of that in the family, so as not to spoil any surprises that may be in store for students in subsequent summers.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
For morning drill, we switch from Horace's Odes to his Epistles 1.2.
More lunchtime optional sight reading from Vergil's Aeneid.
After lunch, students continue reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective elective.
Afternoon sight: A passage from Hobbes' De Homine.
The end is truly near. The final exam is made up. Students will translate passages of Vergil (Aeneid) and Horace (Odes) that they have not seen before, with glosses, and they will answer questions about syntax and scansion and write brief interpretive essays. Each faculty member has prepared a section of the final addressing the electives we taught—one for students who studied Tacitus' Annals, another for those who studied Augustine's Confessions, and one for those who read Vergil's Eclogues.
In another important development, students have designed a tee shirt to commemorate their experience at the Latin Institute this summer, bearing the words of Seneca: quod acerbum fuit ferre, tulisse iucundum est ("what was bitter to bear is pleasant to have born"). Those will be delivered next Tuesday, when students come to get their final grades and bid their faculty a fond (?) farewell.
Some celebration may be in store for Day 49, but we like to keep the details of that in the family, so as not to spoil any surprises that may be in store for students in subsequent summers.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - Day 47
Today is Day 47.
In morning drill today we read Horace Odes 2.9 and 4.2.
Our lunchtime optional sight reading is from our old friend, Vergil's Aeneid.
After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective elective.
Afternoon sight: Selection from Descartes.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
In morning drill today we read Horace Odes 2.9 and 4.2.
Our lunchtime optional sight reading is from our old friend, Vergil's Aeneid.
After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective elective.
Afternoon sight: Selection from Descartes.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Summer Latin Institute - Day 46
Day 46 was Tuesday, August 14.
I taught both hours of morning drill today, in which we read Horace Odes 2.3, 2.13, 2.14, and 3.13.
Odes 3.13 is the famous celebration of Horace's Spring of Bandusia (fons Bandusiae). Here are pics of an inscription containing the Latin text, and a little waterfall on Horace's estate thought perhaps to be the very fountain addressed in the poem.
All this week, our lunchtime optional sight reading is from our old friend, Vergil's Aeneid.
After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective elective.
I led the afternoon optional sight reading from Aquinas' De Ente et Essentia. Fun, fun, fun: it's technical terminology makes about as much sense as that of the Aristotle from which it derives (okay, okay, so I'd never seen the word quiddity before!).
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
I taught both hours of morning drill today, in which we read Horace Odes 2.3, 2.13, 2.14, and 3.13.
Odes 3.13 is the famous celebration of Horace's Spring of Bandusia (fons Bandusiae). Here are pics of an inscription containing the Latin text, and a little waterfall on Horace's estate thought perhaps to be the very fountain addressed in the poem.
All this week, our lunchtime optional sight reading is from our old friend, Vergil's Aeneid.
After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective elective.
I led the afternoon optional sight reading from Aquinas' De Ente et Essentia. Fun, fun, fun: it's technical terminology makes about as much sense as that of the Aristotle from which it derives (okay, okay, so I'd never seen the word quiddity before!).
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Summer Latin Institute - Day 45
Day 45 was Monday, August 13.
And yes, once again, I led the 8:30 a.m. optional review of the previous night's reading, which was our students' first foray into the Odes of Horace.
Morning drill: Horace Odes 1.5, 1.6, 1.9, and 4.7.
Lunchtime optional sight reading from our old friend, Vergil's Aeneid.
After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective elective.
Afternoon optional sight reading from the Lives of Suetonius.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
And yes, once again, I led the 8:30 a.m. optional review of the previous night's reading, which was our students' first foray into the Odes of Horace.
Morning drill: Horace Odes 1.5, 1.6, 1.9, and 4.7.
Lunchtime optional sight reading from our old friend, Vergil's Aeneid.
After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective elective.
Afternoon optional sight reading from the Lives of Suetonius.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Summer Latin Institute - Day 44
Day 44 was Friday, August 10.
I led the 8:30 a.m. optional review of the previous night's reading.
TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (642-705): That nothing may interrupt her plan, Dido sends away her late husband's old nurse Barce and kills herself with Aeneas' sword on top of the pyre.
And that was that. Aeneid Book 4 notched into our students' belts right next to Caesar, Cicero, Sallust, Catullus, and all the other prose and poetry they have read.
Lunchtime optional sight reading from St. Augustine.
After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective elective.
Afternoon optional sight reading from Jerome's letters.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
I led the 8:30 a.m. optional review of the previous night's reading.
TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (642-705): That nothing may interrupt her plan, Dido sends away her late husband's old nurse Barce and kills herself with Aeneas' sword on top of the pyre.
—Summary courtesy of Clyde Pharr.
And that was that. Aeneid Book 4 notched into our students' belts right next to Caesar, Cicero, Sallust, Catullus, and all the other prose and poetry they have read.
Lunchtime optional sight reading from St. Augustine.
After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective elective.
Afternoon optional sight reading from Jerome's letters.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - Day 43
Day 43 was Thursday, August 9.
Mirablile visu, the final couple of students recited their passages of Aeneid 4 from memory, complete with elisions, pauses, and coincidence of ictus and accent after the caesura.
TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (553-641): Again urged by Mercury to hasten his departure, Aeneas arouses his sleeping comrades and hurriedly sails away by night. Dido's frenzy increases as from her palace window she sees the Trojan fleet depart. She again calls down curses on Aeneas and his followers and prays that some avenger may rise from her ashes to punish such perfidy.
I led students in a lunchtime optional sight reading of Tibullus 1.1. After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective electives. We rounded off the afternoon with an optional sight reading of a selection from Bede.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Mirablile visu, the final couple of students recited their passages of Aeneid 4 from memory, complete with elisions, pauses, and coincidence of ictus and accent after the caesura.
TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (553-641): Again urged by Mercury to hasten his departure, Aeneas arouses his sleeping comrades and hurriedly sails away by night. Dido's frenzy increases as from her palace window she sees the Trojan fleet depart. She again calls down curses on Aeneas and his followers and prays that some avenger may rise from her ashes to punish such perfidy.
—Summary courtesy of Clyde Pharr.
I led students in a lunchtime optional sight reading of Tibullus 1.1. After lunch, students continued reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective electives. We rounded off the afternoon with an optional sight reading of a selection from Bede.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 42
TODAY IS DAY 42.
Mirablile visu, students continued reciting passages of Aeneid 4 from memory, complete with elisions, pauses, and coincidence of ictus and accent after the caesura.
TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (474-552): Concealing her plans from her sister, Dido builds a great funeral pyre in the palace court, pretending that she is preparing a magic rite which will bring back Aeneas or else free her of her love for him. Dido offers prayers and sacrifices to gods of the lower world. Dido bewails her fate and strengthens her resolve to die.
After lunch, we took a visual tour through the Aeneid in Western art and sculpture, and Patrick presented a fascinating lecture on textual criticism and the manuscript tradition of Vergil.
Later in the afternoon, students continued reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective electives.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Mirablile visu, students continued reciting passages of Aeneid 4 from memory, complete with elisions, pauses, and coincidence of ictus and accent after the caesura.
TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (474-552): Concealing her plans from her sister, Dido builds a great funeral pyre in the palace court, pretending that she is preparing a magic rite which will bring back Aeneas or else free her of her love for him. Dido offers prayers and sacrifices to gods of the lower world. Dido bewails her fate and strengthens her resolve to die.
—Summary courtesy of Clyde Pharr.
After lunch, we took a visual tour through the Aeneid in Western art and sculpture, and Patrick presented a fascinating lecture on textual criticism and the manuscript tradition of Vergil.
Later in the afternoon, students continued reading Tacitus' Annals, Augustine's Confessions, or Vergil's Eclogues in their respective electives.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 41
Day 41 was yesterday, August 7, 2012.
Students have begun reciting passages of Aeneid 4 from memory, taking careful pains with their elision, pausing at their principal caesurae, and showcasing the coincidence of ictus and accent after the caesura. Mirablile visu.
TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (388-473): After cursing Aeneas and all his race, Dido hurries from his presence and falls fainting into the arms of her attendants. Her own efforts proving unavailing, Dido sends her sister Anna, hoping that she may persuade Aeneas; but he is deaf to all entreaties. Terrified by omens and disturbed by dreams, Dido determines to die.
After lunch, we had our final poetry survey reading of the summer, the description of Pygmalion and the statue from Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Later in the afternoon, we resumed our electives, with some students reading Tacitus' Annals, others reading Augustine's Confessions, and still others reading Vergil's Eclogues.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Students have begun reciting passages of Aeneid 4 from memory, taking careful pains with their elision, pausing at their principal caesurae, and showcasing the coincidence of ictus and accent after the caesura. Mirablile visu.
TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (388-473): After cursing Aeneas and all his race, Dido hurries from his presence and falls fainting into the arms of her attendants. Her own efforts proving unavailing, Dido sends her sister Anna, hoping that she may persuade Aeneas; but he is deaf to all entreaties. Terrified by omens and disturbed by dreams, Dido determines to die.
—Summary courtesy of Clyde Pharr.
After lunch, we had our final poetry survey reading of the summer, the description of Pygmalion and the statue from Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Later in the afternoon, we resumed our electives, with some students reading Tacitus' Annals, others reading Augustine's Confessions, and still others reading Vergil's Eclogues.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 40
Day 40 was yesterday, August 6, 2012.
Eight weeks down, two weeks to go!
This was our second week with Book 4 of Vergil's Aeneid. The morning was devoted to the reading that students prepared over the weekend...
TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (296-387): Dido, learning that the fleet was being equipped and suspecting the truth, bitterly reproaches Aeneas and with tears and prayers attempts to prevail on him to remain. Aeneas replies that he is not following his own desires but the plans of the gods and the stern decrees of fate. Carried away by her furious passion, Dido curses Aeneas and all his race, promises to reproach him even after death, and insists that he will pay the penalty for his cruelty.
After lunch, we began our two-week electives: Akiva and his students began reading Tacitus' Annals, Patrick and his students began reading Augustine's Confessions, and my students and I began reading Vergil's Eclogues.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Eight weeks down, two weeks to go!
This was our second week with Book 4 of Vergil's Aeneid. The morning was devoted to the reading that students prepared over the weekend...
TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (296-387): Dido, learning that the fleet was being equipped and suspecting the truth, bitterly reproaches Aeneas and with tears and prayers attempts to prevail on him to remain. Aeneas replies that he is not following his own desires but the plans of the gods and the stern decrees of fate. Carried away by her furious passion, Dido curses Aeneas and all his race, promises to reproach him even after death, and insists that he will pay the penalty for his cruelty.
—Summary courtesy of Clyde Pharr.
After lunch, we began our two-week electives: Akiva and his students began reading Tacitus' Annals, Patrick and his students began reading Augustine's Confessions, and my students and I began reading Vergil's Eclogues.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 39
Day 39 was Friday, August 3, 2012.
Vergil in the morning...
TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (219-295): Moved by the prayer of Iarbas, Jupiter sends Mercury to Aeneas to remind him of his high destiny and of his duty to his son Ascanius. Mercury hastens from Olympus to Carthage. Mercury finds Aeneas busily engaged in furthering Dido's plans; he delivers his message and disappears. Obeying the divine commands, Aeneas instructs his followers to prepare secretly for the voyage, and seeks a favorable opportunity for informing Dido of his plan to depart.
Vergil's phrase in tenuem auram ("into thin air"), with which he describes the sudden disappearance of Mercury (4.278) may have inspired Shakepeare to write: "These our actors, / As I foretold you, were all spirits and / Are melted into air, into thin air." (Tempest, IV.1.148-50)
After lunch, Patrick led students in reading some poems of Catullus and Horace in a variety of lyric meters. I closed out the instructional day with an optional sight reading of the opening passage of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura.
The end of the day brought us to the end of Week 8. Next week, our electives begin, with different students choosing to study Vergil's Eclogues, Tacitus' Annals, or Augustine's Confessions.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Vergil in the morning...
TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (219-295): Moved by the prayer of Iarbas, Jupiter sends Mercury to Aeneas to remind him of his high destiny and of his duty to his son Ascanius. Mercury hastens from Olympus to Carthage. Mercury finds Aeneas busily engaged in furthering Dido's plans; he delivers his message and disappears. Obeying the divine commands, Aeneas instructs his followers to prepare secretly for the voyage, and seeks a favorable opportunity for informing Dido of his plan to depart.
—Summary courtesy of Clyde Pharr.
Vergil's phrase in tenuem auram ("into thin air"), with which he describes the sudden disappearance of Mercury (4.278) may have inspired Shakepeare to write: "These our actors, / As I foretold you, were all spirits and / Are melted into air, into thin air." (Tempest, IV.1.148-50)
After lunch, Patrick led students in reading some poems of Catullus and Horace in a variety of lyric meters. I closed out the instructional day with an optional sight reading of the opening passage of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura.
The end of the day brought us to the end of Week 8. Next week, our electives begin, with different students choosing to study Vergil's Eclogues, Tacitus' Annals, or Augustine's Confessions.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 38
Day 38 is TODAY, August 2, 2012.
The morning started off with some Vergil...
TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (129-218): Aeneas and Dido go on a hunting party. While all are intent on the chase, Juno sends a sudden tempest, scattering the party and driving Aeneas and Dido to the same lonely cave, where they go through a form of marriage under unlucky omens. Rumor (a goddess) spreads exaggerated reports of the love affair, finally carrying the news to Iarbas, an African chieftain and spurned suitor of Dido. Iarbas prays to his father, Jupiter Ammon, for help, reproaching him that he had allowed Aeneas, a mere adventurer, to be preferred to himself.
Then Patrick gave a lecture on lyric meters, followed by the afternoon poetry survey reading of passages from Lucretius, and an optional afternoon sight reading of excerpts from Petrarch.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
The morning started off with some Vergil...
TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (129-218): Aeneas and Dido go on a hunting party. While all are intent on the chase, Juno sends a sudden tempest, scattering the party and driving Aeneas and Dido to the same lonely cave, where they go through a form of marriage under unlucky omens. Rumor (a goddess) spreads exaggerated reports of the love affair, finally carrying the news to Iarbas, an African chieftain and spurned suitor of Dido. Iarbas prays to his father, Jupiter Ammon, for help, reproaching him that he had allowed Aeneas, a mere adventurer, to be preferred to himself.
—Summary courtesy of Clyde Pharr.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 37
Day 37 is TODAY, August 1, 2012.
The morning started off with some Vergil...
TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (54-128): Love drives Dido to frenzy. Juno favors the marriage of Dido and Aeneas, in order that she may turn Aeneas aside from Italy, and so agrees to help Venus consummate the affair, promising to devise a suitable situation.
Lunchtime optional sight reading from the works of Ovid. After lunch, one hour of the poetic fragments of Ennius, another hour of Plautus (currently in progress). My colleague Patrick just did a beautiful job of presenting the zany iambic senararius meter of Roman comedy. Take an essentially iambic rhythm, allow all shorts to be substituted for with longs, and then allow any and all longs (whether long originally or by substitution) to be resolved into two shorts, and you get a dizzying array of possibilities, which Patrick explained brilliantly.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
The morning started off with some Vergil...
TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (54-128): Love drives Dido to frenzy. Juno favors the marriage of Dido and Aeneas, in order that she may turn Aeneas aside from Italy, and so agrees to help Venus consummate the affair, promising to devise a suitable situation.
—Summary courtesy of Clyde Pharr.
Lunchtime optional sight reading from the works of Ovid. After lunch, one hour of the poetic fragments of Ennius, another hour of Plautus (currently in progress). My colleague Patrick just did a beautiful job of presenting the zany iambic senararius meter of Roman comedy. Take an essentially iambic rhythm, allow all shorts to be substituted for with longs, and then allow any and all longs (whether long originally or by substitution) to be resolved into two shorts, and you get a dizzying array of possibilities, which Patrick explained brilliantly.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 36
Day 36 was yesterday, July 31, 2012.
Book 4 of Vergil's Aeneid in the morning, optional sight reading from Vergil's Eclogues at lunch, a lecture on lexicography in the early afternoon, followed by an 80-minute romp through fragments of Livius Andronicus and Naevius.
That's right--in 10 weeks of Latin class, our students are not only getting a complete grounding in first-year college Latin grammar, and an in-depth exposure to Cicero, Sallust, and Vergil, but also a rich survey of Roman poetry and prose going back to archaic inscriptions and the Arval Hymn and continuing through the beginnings of Rome's cultural engagement with Greece, Rome's own Golden and Silver Ages, and the Latin of late antiquity and the Middle Ages.
TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (1-53): Dido, madly in love with Aeneas, discloses her feelings to her sister Anna. Anna encourages Dido to look forward to marriage to Aeneas.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Book 4 of Vergil's Aeneid in the morning, optional sight reading from Vergil's Eclogues at lunch, a lecture on lexicography in the early afternoon, followed by an 80-minute romp through fragments of Livius Andronicus and Naevius.
That's right--in 10 weeks of Latin class, our students are not only getting a complete grounding in first-year college Latin grammar, and an in-depth exposure to Cicero, Sallust, and Vergil, but also a rich survey of Roman poetry and prose going back to archaic inscriptions and the Arval Hymn and continuing through the beginnings of Rome's cultural engagement with Greece, Rome's own Golden and Silver Ages, and the Latin of late antiquity and the Middle Ages.
TODAY IN AENEID BOOK 4 (1-53): Dido, madly in love with Aeneas, discloses her feelings to her sister Anna. Anna encourages Dido to look forward to marriage to Aeneas.
—Summary courtesy of Clyde Pharr.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 35
Day 35 was Monday, July 30.
Eventful start of an eventful week!
Students took a prose final exam in the morning, and I presented introductory lectures on Vergil, the Aeneid, and dactylic hexameter in the afternoon. By 3:30, students were scanning, eliding, identifying their principal caesurae, and singing their verse--they got the moves like Vergil, they got the moves like Vergil.
After the instructional day, students got right down to reading Aeneid, Book 4, lines 1-53. We'll be reading all of Book 4 in the next two weeks, plus a poetry survey in the afternoons, and ongoing optional sight readings of poets and prose authors. Still doing about a week of traditional Latin class every day.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Eventful start of an eventful week!
Students took a prose final exam in the morning, and I presented introductory lectures on Vergil, the Aeneid, and dactylic hexameter in the afternoon. By 3:30, students were scanning, eliding, identifying their principal caesurae, and singing their verse--they got the moves like Vergil, they got the moves like Vergil.
After the instructional day, students got right down to reading Aeneid, Book 4, lines 1-53. We'll be reading all of Book 4 in the next two weeks, plus a poetry survey in the afternoons, and ongoing optional sight readings of poets and prose authors. Still doing about a week of traditional Latin class every day.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 34
Day 34 was Friday, July 27.
The last day of the prose survey section of the second half of the course. It's all over except for the prose final exam on Monday.
It was a lighter day for me. 8:30 a.m. optional review and 3:40 p.m. optional sight reading of a passage from Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy.
In between, Patrick and Akiva led our students through the end of Sallust's Bellum Catalinae, some Latin prose composition, and the afternoon prose survey, a story from the medieval Gesta Romanorum. I remember reading that passage as a student in the program in 1982!
Starting Monday, it's time to begin the poetry portion of the program. Book 4 of Vergil's Aeneid in the mornings; poetry survey beginning with Livius Andronicus in the afternoons.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
The last day of the prose survey section of the second half of the course. It's all over except for the prose final exam on Monday.
It was a lighter day for me. 8:30 a.m. optional review and 3:40 p.m. optional sight reading of a passage from Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy.
In between, Patrick and Akiva led our students through the end of Sallust's Bellum Catalinae, some Latin prose composition, and the afternoon prose survey, a story from the medieval Gesta Romanorum. I remember reading that passage as a student in the program in 1982!
Starting Monday, it's time to begin the poetry portion of the program. Book 4 of Vergil's Aeneid in the mornings; poetry survey beginning with Livius Andronicus in the afternoons.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Thomas Eagleton, the Summer of 1972, and Me
In a Nutshell: A story about Thomas Eagleton on NPR reminds me of what I was doing in the summer of 1972, a bittersweet and melancholy summer that in some ways set the tone for the rest of my life.
I was just listening to a story on NPR's On the Media about the Thomas Eagleton affair, during the presidential election campaign of 1972, when democratic candidate George McGovern chose Eagleton, a senator from Missouri, as his running mate without knowing that Eagleton had undergone electroshock therapy for depression on several occasions in the 1960s. When a tipster alerted both the media and the campaign, the campaign went public with the story; Eagleton of course withdrew from the race, and he was replaced on the ticket by Sargent Shriver. And, of course, the McGovern-Shriver ticket went down in a landslide reelection victory for President Richard M. Nixon and Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew. Reminiscences about the affair have been in the media this week as Mitt Romney prepares to announce his choice of vice-presidential running mate, and the media consensus seems to be that his main concern is to avoid any potential surprises in the current hyperactive media environment.
But what the story made me think about, perhaps not surprisingly, was myself, forty years ago, in the summer of 1972, when I was eleven years old. My father had just died, on July 7, 1972, at the age of 52, of colon cancer. I lived in a middle-income co-op apartment building in the Luna Park housing complex, in Coney Island, just across the street from the New York Aquarium and the Cyclone Roller Coaster, and of course the boardwalk and the beach. And about a 20-minute walk from the Brighton Beach Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. I was an avid reader in those days, but not a particularly precocious one—that is, I enjoyed juvenile literature, including fantasy and science fiction for young readers. That summer I remember reading books in the Mushroom Planet series, by Eleanor Cameron (1912-1996), including the first book in the series, The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, written in 1954. Other titles in the series included Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet (1956), Mr. Bass's Planetoid (1958), A Mystery for Mr. Bass (1960), and Time and Mr. Bass (1967). I can't honestly tell you which or how many of the sequels I read, but I know it was at least one or two, and I enjoyed their escapist fantasy adventure very much, especially under the terrible circumstances of that summer.
I believe that was also the summer that I found the Famous Writers Course books at Nostrand Books, the used bookstore on Brighton Beach Avenue (apparently it had been on Nostrand Avenue in a previous incarnation). In seeking to confirm the title of the series just now, I was surprised to find that the course is still in business. I believe I found only the first four volumes of the six-volume series, Principles of Good Writing (Volumes I and II) and Fiction Writing (Volumes III and IV). I devoured those books. I started writing short stories. I wish I could say that my stories were fabulous and I kept on writing and before long I was publishing in literary journals and beginning a successful fiction writing career. But that's not what happened. I was unfocused. I mostly wrote journal entries rather than stories. I had trouble finishing things that I started. I didn't know what to do with any work that I did happen to finish. I had no connection with other burgeoning writers, of my own age or any age. And even though I went on to have some fabulous English teachers (see my post on Post-Punk Pedagogy for a tribute to some of them), none really encouraged me or nurtured me or mentored me with a view towards publishing my work—in their eyes, I think I was just a sensitive, creative, precocious, very bright little boy who would probably go on to very successful careers in high school and college, go on to study law or medicine, and have a brilliant professional career. I always had difficulty getting the kind of mentorship and support I needed for what I really wanted to do and what I really wanted to be.
Well, I want to go for a run now, so I'm going to put this post aside. I'm not really sure what the point of writing this was, but it was nice to write about something other than the Summer Latin Institute.
I was just listening to a story on NPR's On the Media about the Thomas Eagleton affair, during the presidential election campaign of 1972, when democratic candidate George McGovern chose Eagleton, a senator from Missouri, as his running mate without knowing that Eagleton had undergone electroshock therapy for depression on several occasions in the 1960s. When a tipster alerted both the media and the campaign, the campaign went public with the story; Eagleton of course withdrew from the race, and he was replaced on the ticket by Sargent Shriver. And, of course, the McGovern-Shriver ticket went down in a landslide reelection victory for President Richard M. Nixon and Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew. Reminiscences about the affair have been in the media this week as Mitt Romney prepares to announce his choice of vice-presidential running mate, and the media consensus seems to be that his main concern is to avoid any potential surprises in the current hyperactive media environment.
But what the story made me think about, perhaps not surprisingly, was myself, forty years ago, in the summer of 1972, when I was eleven years old. My father had just died, on July 7, 1972, at the age of 52, of colon cancer. I lived in a middle-income co-op apartment building in the Luna Park housing complex, in Coney Island, just across the street from the New York Aquarium and the Cyclone Roller Coaster, and of course the boardwalk and the beach. And about a 20-minute walk from the Brighton Beach Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. I was an avid reader in those days, but not a particularly precocious one—that is, I enjoyed juvenile literature, including fantasy and science fiction for young readers. That summer I remember reading books in the Mushroom Planet series, by Eleanor Cameron (1912-1996), including the first book in the series, The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, written in 1954. Other titles in the series included Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet (1956), Mr. Bass's Planetoid (1958), A Mystery for Mr. Bass (1960), and Time and Mr. Bass (1967). I can't honestly tell you which or how many of the sequels I read, but I know it was at least one or two, and I enjoyed their escapist fantasy adventure very much, especially under the terrible circumstances of that summer.
I believe that was also the summer that I found the Famous Writers Course books at Nostrand Books, the used bookstore on Brighton Beach Avenue (apparently it had been on Nostrand Avenue in a previous incarnation). In seeking to confirm the title of the series just now, I was surprised to find that the course is still in business. I believe I found only the first four volumes of the six-volume series, Principles of Good Writing (Volumes I and II) and Fiction Writing (Volumes III and IV). I devoured those books. I started writing short stories. I wish I could say that my stories were fabulous and I kept on writing and before long I was publishing in literary journals and beginning a successful fiction writing career. But that's not what happened. I was unfocused. I mostly wrote journal entries rather than stories. I had trouble finishing things that I started. I didn't know what to do with any work that I did happen to finish. I had no connection with other burgeoning writers, of my own age or any age. And even though I went on to have some fabulous English teachers (see my post on Post-Punk Pedagogy for a tribute to some of them), none really encouraged me or nurtured me or mentored me with a view towards publishing my work—in their eyes, I think I was just a sensitive, creative, precocious, very bright little boy who would probably go on to very successful careers in high school and college, go on to study law or medicine, and have a brilliant professional career. I always had difficulty getting the kind of mentorship and support I needed for what I really wanted to do and what I really wanted to be.
Well, I want to go for a run now, so I'm going to put this post aside. I'm not really sure what the point of writing this was, but it was nice to write about something other than the Summer Latin Institute.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 33
Day 33 was yesterday, July 26, 2012.
Not that it's all about me, but I had a FABULOUS day. I was on for second hour of morning drill, Sallust's Bellum Catilinae, section 20, which is the speech of Catiline. My students did a wonderful job and we even took about three minutes at the end to discuss Sallust's characterization of Catiline compared with that of Cicero in the First Oration Against Catiline.Three minutes of Latin Institute time is about 30 minutes of traditional class time, so it was quite an in-depth discussion!
Then in the afternoon I led prose survey reading, selections from Einhard's Life of Charlemagne, where we got a taste of early medieval Latin as well as of the bathing practices of the Frankish nobility. In fact, what with my Petronius passage about Seleucus and his reluctance to bathe daily, bathing seems to be emerging as a major theme of the CUNY Summer Latin Institute. Let's just hope our very busy students are finding time to attend to their own daily hygiene needs! From what I can determine, they have managed it well.
The rest of the day I prepped: for next week's reading of Book 4 of Vergil's Aeneid, for today's afternoon optional sight reading of a passage from Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy.
In the evening I answered questions from students, both in person here at the Grad Center, and on the phone once I got home, where I did manage to watch three episodes of the old Dark Shadows daytime soap opera while my husband Jason fed me a very nice dinner.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Not that it's all about me, but I had a FABULOUS day. I was on for second hour of morning drill, Sallust's Bellum Catilinae, section 20, which is the speech of Catiline. My students did a wonderful job and we even took about three minutes at the end to discuss Sallust's characterization of Catiline compared with that of Cicero in the First Oration Against Catiline.Three minutes of Latin Institute time is about 30 minutes of traditional class time, so it was quite an in-depth discussion!
Then in the afternoon I led prose survey reading, selections from Einhard's Life of Charlemagne, where we got a taste of early medieval Latin as well as of the bathing practices of the Frankish nobility. In fact, what with my Petronius passage about Seleucus and his reluctance to bathe daily, bathing seems to be emerging as a major theme of the CUNY Summer Latin Institute. Let's just hope our very busy students are finding time to attend to their own daily hygiene needs! From what I can determine, they have managed it well.
The rest of the day I prepped: for next week's reading of Book 4 of Vergil's Aeneid, for today's afternoon optional sight reading of a passage from Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy.
In the evening I answered questions from students, both in person here at the Grad Center, and on the phone once I got home, where I did manage to watch three episodes of the old Dark Shadows daytime soap opera while my husband Jason fed me a very nice dinner.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 32
Day 32 was yesterday, July 25, 2012.
Akiva, 8:30 a.m. optional. Questions about the previous night's Sallust assignment. Michael (me), first hour of morning drill, Sallust's Bellum Catalinae, from where we left off in section 5 on the previous day to the beginning of section 7. Patrick, second hour of morning drill, Sallust's Bellum Catalinae, from where I left off in section seven to the end of section 12 (skipping 8, 9, and 10—we're intense, but even we are not THAT intense). Michael, lunchtime optional sight reading, another stab at Vergil's first Eclogue. Afternoon prose comp, Patrick, focusing on a comparative analysis of the style and rhetoric of Cicero and Sallust. Tricolon vs. antithesis; concinnitas vs. inconcinnitas; Cicero's emphasis on oratorical structure; Sallust's use of archaism. Afternoon optional sight reading, a special treat, Rita Fleischer teaching further (and perhaps even more salacious) excerpts from Petronius' Satyricon.
The prose survey portion of the second half of the program is winding down. We on the faculty side of things are beginning to focus our preparations for the poetry survey that begins next week.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Akiva, 8:30 a.m. optional. Questions about the previous night's Sallust assignment. Michael (me), first hour of morning drill, Sallust's Bellum Catalinae, from where we left off in section 5 on the previous day to the beginning of section 7. Patrick, second hour of morning drill, Sallust's Bellum Catalinae, from where I left off in section seven to the end of section 12 (skipping 8, 9, and 10—we're intense, but even we are not THAT intense). Michael, lunchtime optional sight reading, another stab at Vergil's first Eclogue. Afternoon prose comp, Patrick, focusing on a comparative analysis of the style and rhetoric of Cicero and Sallust. Tricolon vs. antithesis; concinnitas vs. inconcinnitas; Cicero's emphasis on oratorical structure; Sallust's use of archaism. Afternoon optional sight reading, a special treat, Rita Fleischer teaching further (and perhaps even more salacious) excerpts from Petronius' Satyricon.
The prose survey portion of the second half of the program is winding down. We on the faculty side of things are beginning to focus our preparations for the poetry survey that begins next week.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 31
Day 31 was Tuesday, July 24, 2012.
Oh, my...I let a whole day go by without a post. Shame on me. OK, here goes, but it'll have to be a quick one.
Patrick, 8:30 a.m. optional. Questions about the previous night's Sallust and St. Augustine assignments. Akiva, first hour of morning drill, Sallust's Bellum Catalinae, sections 1-3-ish. Michael (me), second hour of morning drill, Sallust's Bellum Catalinae, from where Akiva left off to the middle of section 5. Akiva, lunchtime optional sight reading, another selection from the works of Tacitus. Afternoon prose comp, Michael, focusing on the "too big too fail" construction (comparative adjective + quam ut + subjunctive). Patrick, afternoon assigned reading, selections from the Confessions of St. Augustine. Michael, afternoon optional sight reading, Vergil's first Eclogue.
A lot for one day, wouldn't you say? Wouldn't you agree that our students study at least one week of traditional Latin in one day of the Summer Latin Institute?
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Oh, my...I let a whole day go by without a post. Shame on me. OK, here goes, but it'll have to be a quick one.
Patrick, 8:30 a.m. optional. Questions about the previous night's Sallust and St. Augustine assignments. Akiva, first hour of morning drill, Sallust's Bellum Catalinae, sections 1-3-ish. Michael (me), second hour of morning drill, Sallust's Bellum Catalinae, from where Akiva left off to the middle of section 5. Akiva, lunchtime optional sight reading, another selection from the works of Tacitus. Afternoon prose comp, Michael, focusing on the "too big too fail" construction (comparative adjective + quam ut + subjunctive). Patrick, afternoon assigned reading, selections from the Confessions of St. Augustine. Michael, afternoon optional sight reading, Vergil's first Eclogue.
A lot for one day, wouldn't you say? Wouldn't you agree that our students study at least one week of traditional Latin in one day of the Summer Latin Institute?
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 30
Day 30 was yesterday, July 23, 2012.
It was the beginning of Week 7. If there is a "hump" week in the Summer Latin Institute, we are now over it. Six weeks down, four weeks to go.
We finished reading Cicero's First Oration Against Catiline. I covered the 8:30 a.m. optional homework review and graded the daily quiz. These days, quizzes consist of a sentence or two from the previous night's reading, plus a syntax question or two, plus occasional principal parts. All in ten minutes. The Day 30 quiz was a doozy: the Cicero passage was a full 50 words and we asked three syntax questions. Some students did not have enough time to finish. But most did very well.
Starting this week, lunchtime optionals are sight reading, not grammar review. On Day 30, Patrick led students in reading a selection from the Rhetorica ad Herennium, a first-century BCE text on rhetoric formerly attributed to Cicero but of unknown authorship.
After lunch, Akiva presented a lecture on postclassical Latin, which is what we are reading this week in our afternoon prose survey. Today's afternoon prose was a selection from Tacitus' Annals, but later this week students will be reading selections from Augustus' Confessions, Einhard's Life of Carlemagne, and the anonymous Gesta Romanorum, a medieval compendium of anecdotes and tales probably compiled around the beginning of the 14 century and providing source material for vernacular authors including Chaucer, Boccaccio, and Shakespeare.
I led the afternoon optional sight reading of Pliny's letter to Tacitus about writing on his wax tablets while sitting at his hunting nets, encouraging Tacitus to bring a loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and a stylus and notebook next times he goes hunting, and ending with the memorable declaration, "Diana wanders the woods no more than Minerva."
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
It was the beginning of Week 7. If there is a "hump" week in the Summer Latin Institute, we are now over it. Six weeks down, four weeks to go.
We finished reading Cicero's First Oration Against Catiline. I covered the 8:30 a.m. optional homework review and graded the daily quiz. These days, quizzes consist of a sentence or two from the previous night's reading, plus a syntax question or two, plus occasional principal parts. All in ten minutes. The Day 30 quiz was a doozy: the Cicero passage was a full 50 words and we asked three syntax questions. Some students did not have enough time to finish. But most did very well.
Starting this week, lunchtime optionals are sight reading, not grammar review. On Day 30, Patrick led students in reading a selection from the Rhetorica ad Herennium, a first-century BCE text on rhetoric formerly attributed to Cicero but of unknown authorship.
After lunch, Akiva presented a lecture on postclassical Latin, which is what we are reading this week in our afternoon prose survey. Today's afternoon prose was a selection from Tacitus' Annals, but later this week students will be reading selections from Augustus' Confessions, Einhard's Life of Carlemagne, and the anonymous Gesta Romanorum, a medieval compendium of anecdotes and tales probably compiled around the beginning of the 14 century and providing source material for vernacular authors including Chaucer, Boccaccio, and Shakespeare.
I led the afternoon optional sight reading of Pliny's letter to Tacitus about writing on his wax tablets while sitting at his hunting nets, encouraging Tacitus to bring a loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and a stylus and notebook next times he goes hunting, and ending with the memorable declaration, "Diana wanders the woods no more than Minerva."
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 29
Day 29 was Friday, July 20, 2012.
Optional 8:30 a.m. review, morning Cicero, lunchtime optional grammar review on the ablative case, and postprandial prose composition, taught by Michael (me), Akiva, Patrick, Akiva, and Patrick, respectively.
Then at 2:00 p.m. I had my most fun of the whole summer, teaching three sections of Petronius' Satyricon. It may be the most salacious two hours of the entire curriculum. As an intro, I read our students the passage in Tacitus' Annals where the author describes the forced suicide of Petronius, Nero's arbiter elegantiae, widely assumed to be the author of the Satyricon. That's the one were he slits his wrists and then binds and unbinds his bandages all afternoon, prolonging his death while his friends read him poetry and sing him songs, and he gives some of his slaves gifts (or perhaps freedom?) and others beatings, and writes up a chronicle of the sexual crimes of Nero, naming male and female partners alike, which he signs, seals, and delivers to the emperor as his last will and testament. A highlight for me was explaining the word exoleti, which is Latin for (queer) beef cake: grown-up, muscular pretty-boys, a term generally used in the context of homosexual liaisons, although I suppose Nero could just have cocktails with his exoleti as well as, well, you know.
Then onto the the Satyricon itself, where we read about Trimalchio and his charming (slave?) boys playing catch while one eunuch supplies new balls (so none need ever be picked up off the ground) and another eunuch affords a chamber pot to Trimalchio so he need not interrupt his play to void his bladder (washing his fingers in a bowl of water and wiping them on the head of a boy). Then we read about the part of this famous literary dinner in which a roasted boar is served, with baskets of figs hanging from his tusks as party favors, and little piglets fashioned out of pound cake all around him, as if they were reaching for their mother's teats, so that our boar looks for all the world like a sow (one student exclaimed gleefully, "So the Romans, just like the British, loved a man in a dress!" which indeed they did). In the final brief passage, we read about Seleucus, recently returned from the funeral of his charming friend Chrysanthus, who expounds on life, death, the mortal risks of daily bathing, and the perniciousness of women, whom he calls "a race of kites" (birds of prey, not the Ben Franklin kind of kite).
As if that wasn't enough fun for once day, Patrick led a late-afternoon optional sight reading of selections from Catullus 64, the mini-epic about the marriage of Peleus and Thetis.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Optional 8:30 a.m. review, morning Cicero, lunchtime optional grammar review on the ablative case, and postprandial prose composition, taught by Michael (me), Akiva, Patrick, Akiva, and Patrick, respectively.
Then at 2:00 p.m. I had my most fun of the whole summer, teaching three sections of Petronius' Satyricon. It may be the most salacious two hours of the entire curriculum. As an intro, I read our students the passage in Tacitus' Annals where the author describes the forced suicide of Petronius, Nero's arbiter elegantiae, widely assumed to be the author of the Satyricon. That's the one were he slits his wrists and then binds and unbinds his bandages all afternoon, prolonging his death while his friends read him poetry and sing him songs, and he gives some of his slaves gifts (or perhaps freedom?) and others beatings, and writes up a chronicle of the sexual crimes of Nero, naming male and female partners alike, which he signs, seals, and delivers to the emperor as his last will and testament. A highlight for me was explaining the word exoleti, which is Latin for (queer) beef cake: grown-up, muscular pretty-boys, a term generally used in the context of homosexual liaisons, although I suppose Nero could just have cocktails with his exoleti as well as, well, you know.
Then onto the the Satyricon itself, where we read about Trimalchio and his charming (slave?) boys playing catch while one eunuch supplies new balls (so none need ever be picked up off the ground) and another eunuch affords a chamber pot to Trimalchio so he need not interrupt his play to void his bladder (washing his fingers in a bowl of water and wiping them on the head of a boy). Then we read about the part of this famous literary dinner in which a roasted boar is served, with baskets of figs hanging from his tusks as party favors, and little piglets fashioned out of pound cake all around him, as if they were reaching for their mother's teats, so that our boar looks for all the world like a sow (one student exclaimed gleefully, "So the Romans, just like the British, loved a man in a dress!" which indeed they did). In the final brief passage, we read about Seleucus, recently returned from the funeral of his charming friend Chrysanthus, who expounds on life, death, the mortal risks of daily bathing, and the perniciousness of women, whom he calls "a race of kites" (birds of prey, not the Ben Franklin kind of kite).
As if that wasn't enough fun for once day, Patrick led a late-afternoon optional sight reading of selections from Catullus 64, the mini-epic about the marriage of Peleus and Thetis.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 28
Day 28 was Thursday, July 19, 2012.
We continued pushing through Cicero's First Oration Against Catiline in the morning. Over lunch we reviewed dependent clauses with verbs in the subjunctive. After lunch we did some prose composition. Later in the afternoon we read some Livy.
The big event of the day, however, was not Cicero, or Livy, or any Latin language or literature at all. The big event of the day was the Hoplite Challenge Cup, an annual verb morphology bee in the Summer Greek Institute, our neighbors down the hall. Greek students (mathetai) faced off against Greek faculty (didaskaloi Hardy Hansen, Bill Pagonis, and Aramis Lopez) in a series of one-on-one match-ups.
In each round, the student calls the verb and the form, and the faculty member has 20 seconds to generate the correct verb form on the blackboard. If the didaskalos gets the form wrong, the round is over and the mathetes earns a point for his/her team. If the teacher gets the form right, he announces two changes (choosing among person, number, tense, mood, and voice), and hands the challenge back to the student, who has 30 seconds to generate the correct form on the blackboard. Play goes back and forth for up to three turns per set until either a student or a teacher gets the form wrong. Sets continue for a full hour. There is a time keeper and a judge—vital roles this year performed by the Latin program's own Aaron Shapiro and Patrick Gaulthier respectively. I served the novel role of videographer.
Teachers trounced students by a score I will not commit to print, but a good time was had by all: it is a great honor and privilege for a Graecus (Greek student) even to step up to the Hoplite Challenge Cup blackboard with chalk in hand and face off against the likes of Hardy, Bill, and Aramis. It's not winning or losing, it's playing the game that counts. For Greeks at least. If there were a similar contest in the Latin program, I think the loser might have to lie down in the middle of the room and submit to being run through with a sword by the winner, à la Turnus and Aeneas in the final lines of Vergil's Aeneid.
Here's some video of a round in which student Daniela Bartalini goes up against against faculty member Bill Pagonis. The student chooses the verb timaō (to honor). Apologies for the narrow image—this was taken with my iPhone. But I hope it gives you a feel for the excitement of the event.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
We continued pushing through Cicero's First Oration Against Catiline in the morning. Over lunch we reviewed dependent clauses with verbs in the subjunctive. After lunch we did some prose composition. Later in the afternoon we read some Livy.
The big event of the day, however, was not Cicero, or Livy, or any Latin language or literature at all. The big event of the day was the Hoplite Challenge Cup, an annual verb morphology bee in the Summer Greek Institute, our neighbors down the hall. Greek students (mathetai) faced off against Greek faculty (didaskaloi Hardy Hansen, Bill Pagonis, and Aramis Lopez) in a series of one-on-one match-ups.
In each round, the student calls the verb and the form, and the faculty member has 20 seconds to generate the correct verb form on the blackboard. If the didaskalos gets the form wrong, the round is over and the mathetes earns a point for his/her team. If the teacher gets the form right, he announces two changes (choosing among person, number, tense, mood, and voice), and hands the challenge back to the student, who has 30 seconds to generate the correct form on the blackboard. Play goes back and forth for up to three turns per set until either a student or a teacher gets the form wrong. Sets continue for a full hour. There is a time keeper and a judge—vital roles this year performed by the Latin program's own Aaron Shapiro and Patrick Gaulthier respectively. I served the novel role of videographer.
Teachers trounced students by a score I will not commit to print, but a good time was had by all: it is a great honor and privilege for a Graecus (Greek student) even to step up to the Hoplite Challenge Cup blackboard with chalk in hand and face off against the likes of Hardy, Bill, and Aramis. It's not winning or losing, it's playing the game that counts. For Greeks at least. If there were a similar contest in the Latin program, I think the loser might have to lie down in the middle of the room and submit to being run through with a sword by the winner, à la Turnus and Aeneas in the final lines of Vergil's Aeneid.
Here's some video of a round in which student Daniela Bartalini goes up against against faculty member Bill Pagonis. The student chooses the verb timaō (to honor). Apologies for the narrow image—this was taken with my iPhone. But I hope it gives you a feel for the excitement of the event.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 27
Day 27 was yesterday, July 18, 2012.
Sections 7-12 of Cicero's First Oration Against Catiline in the morning, an optional review of genitive and dative noun syntax at lunch time, a few chapters of Sallust's Conspiracy of Catiline in the afternoon, along with a lecture on the Indo-European background of Latin, and an optional sight reading of some Caesar.
Now don't think I was teaching all of that stuff. I'd be in a coma right now if I had. No, the Latin Institute is a team-taught affair. I share teaching responsibilities with my two illustrious colleagues, Patrick Gaulthier and Akiva Saunders. The instructional day is divided into seven "hours" (ranging in actual length from 30 minutes to 80 minutes). Students and teachers move around the building throughout the day, with classes being held in five different rooms, both to meet our various instructional needs and to keep us from going stir crazy. So, as a student, you might be in one room on the third floor of the Graduate Center with Michael at 10:40, and in another room on the sixth floor with Patrick at 1:20, and so on.
Of course, the whole thing is possible because of the tireless efforts of Rita Fleischer, the Latin/Greek Institute administrator, and Laila Pedro, our fearless and tireless administrative assistant.
To remind us that the Romans were not the only players in classical antiquity, we share our program with the Summer Greek Institute students, and their incomparable faculty, Hardy Hansen, Bill Pagonis, and Aramis Lopez.
Right now, the Greeks are preparing for the Hoplite Challenge Cup, an annual Greek verb morphology bee in which a student team competes with a faculty team. Our own intrepid Patrick Gaulthier is serving as a judge (I love my Greek verb morphology, but I'm nowhere near ready to touch that particular opportunity for shame and humiliation this summer!).
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Sections 7-12 of Cicero's First Oration Against Catiline in the morning, an optional review of genitive and dative noun syntax at lunch time, a few chapters of Sallust's Conspiracy of Catiline in the afternoon, along with a lecture on the Indo-European background of Latin, and an optional sight reading of some Caesar.
Now don't think I was teaching all of that stuff. I'd be in a coma right now if I had. No, the Latin Institute is a team-taught affair. I share teaching responsibilities with my two illustrious colleagues, Patrick Gaulthier and Akiva Saunders. The instructional day is divided into seven "hours" (ranging in actual length from 30 minutes to 80 minutes). Students and teachers move around the building throughout the day, with classes being held in five different rooms, both to meet our various instructional needs and to keep us from going stir crazy. So, as a student, you might be in one room on the third floor of the Graduate Center with Michael at 10:40, and in another room on the sixth floor with Patrick at 1:20, and so on.
Of course, the whole thing is possible because of the tireless efforts of Rita Fleischer, the Latin/Greek Institute administrator, and Laila Pedro, our fearless and tireless administrative assistant.
To remind us that the Romans were not the only players in classical antiquity, we share our program with the Summer Greek Institute students, and their incomparable faculty, Hardy Hansen, Bill Pagonis, and Aramis Lopez.
Right now, the Greeks are preparing for the Hoplite Challenge Cup, an annual Greek verb morphology bee in which a student team competes with a faculty team. Our own intrepid Patrick Gaulthier is serving as a judge (I love my Greek verb morphology, but I'm nowhere near ready to touch that particular opportunity for shame and humiliation this summer!).
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 26
Day 26 was yesterday, July 17, 2012.
I led the morning optional review of the previous night's homework. Akiva and Patrick led our students in two hours of morning drill, reading sections 1-6 of Cicero's First Oration Against Catiline. I led a lunchtime optional review of conditional sentences and independent uses of the subjunctive.
In the afternoon, Patrick led an hour of prose composition, and I led the prose survey hour. We were back to Cicero, but this time an excerpt from the Pro Caelio. Emphasis on Cicero's principles of elegance (elegantia), balance (concinnitas), and rhythm (numerus). Specifically, such rhetorical devices as personification (prosopopoeia), rhetorical questions, anaphora, asyndeton, tricolonic structure, and antithesis.
After the instructional day, students returned to their corners to begin work on sections 7-12 of Cicero's First Oration Against Catiline for the next morning, and an excerpt from Livy's Ab Urbe Condita for the afternoon.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
I led the morning optional review of the previous night's homework. Akiva and Patrick led our students in two hours of morning drill, reading sections 1-6 of Cicero's First Oration Against Catiline. I led a lunchtime optional review of conditional sentences and independent uses of the subjunctive.
In the afternoon, Patrick led an hour of prose composition, and I led the prose survey hour. We were back to Cicero, but this time an excerpt from the Pro Caelio. Emphasis on Cicero's principles of elegance (elegantia), balance (concinnitas), and rhythm (numerus). Specifically, such rhetorical devices as personification (prosopopoeia), rhetorical questions, anaphora, asyndeton, tricolonic structure, and antithesis.
After the instructional day, students returned to their corners to begin work on sections 7-12 of Cicero's First Oration Against Catiline for the next morning, and an excerpt from Livy's Ab Urbe Condita for the afternoon.
Does all of this sound too good to be true? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Just think—You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 25
Day 25 was yesterday, July 16, 2012.
First day of the second half of the program. The second half of the program, five weeks, is like the second year of college Latin. The first 10 days are like the first semester. The prose survey. Mornings: Cicero's first oration against Catiline for one week, Sallust's account of the Catilinarian conspiracy for another. In the afternoons, a prose survey (Ennius, Cato, Livy, Petronius).
Yesterday, Day 25, our students were reading all of their prose at sight, and doing an excellent job. After the instructional day, they broke up into groups, as usual, to start preparing the following day's assigned reading. We faculty members were in our offices to answer their questions, as usual. Questions were asked; answers were given. I find that sometimes what gets in a student's way is thinking that something is more complicated than it really is or more difficult than it needs to be. They know most of the answers. They just don't know they know, or cannot believe they already have the tools they need to build this house. But they do. They'll figure it out. They're a smart bunch.
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
First day of the second half of the program. The second half of the program, five weeks, is like the second year of college Latin. The first 10 days are like the first semester. The prose survey. Mornings: Cicero's first oration against Catiline for one week, Sallust's account of the Catilinarian conspiracy for another. In the afternoons, a prose survey (Ennius, Cato, Livy, Petronius).
Yesterday, Day 25, our students were reading all of their prose at sight, and doing an excellent job. After the instructional day, they broke up into groups, as usual, to start preparing the following day's assigned reading. We faculty members were in our offices to answer their questions, as usual. Questions were asked; answers were given. I find that sometimes what gets in a student's way is thinking that something is more complicated than it really is or more difficult than it needs to be. They know most of the answers. They just don't know they know, or cannot believe they already have the tools they need to build this house. But they do. They'll figure it out. They're a smart bunch.
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Advocating for Public Education in Indiana
Yes, I teach college and graduate students; but I care about all education, including K-12, and I am concerned about the pernicious education policies currently being pursued by the federal government and many state governments, including privatization, increased reliance on standardized tests, and use of standardized test scores to evaluate schools and teachers and to make decisions about who stays and who goes. That's why I follow Diane Ravitch's blog, among others (see my links list).
On a recent post on Diane Ravitch's blog, I learned about a group of parents and educators in Northeast Indiana that has drafted a statement in opposition to the policies of Governor Mitch Daniels and State Superintendent Tony Bennett. The statement not only expresses opposition to these harmful policies; it also offers a platform advocating measures to save public education in the state of Indiana. Diane Ravitch recommends helping this statement go viral, as a recent anti-high-stakes testing resolution in Texas has gone viral. So I'm doing my part, here on Pedagogishness, to join with my friends, neighbors, and fellow educators to awaken the American public to support good education policies that strengthen our public schools and our democracy.
On a recent post on Diane Ravitch's blog, I learned about a group of parents and educators in Northeast Indiana that has drafted a statement in opposition to the policies of Governor Mitch Daniels and State Superintendent Tony Bennett. The statement not only expresses opposition to these harmful policies; it also offers a platform advocating measures to save public education in the state of Indiana. Diane Ravitch recommends helping this statement go viral, as a recent anti-high-stakes testing resolution in Texas has gone viral. So I'm doing my part, here on Pedagogishness, to join with my friends, neighbors, and fellow educators to awaken the American public to support good education policies that strengthen our public schools and our democracy.
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 24
Day 24 was yesterday, July 13, 2012.
Our students took their grammar final (which in previous posts I called their midterm exam). This exam marks their successful completion of the first half of the course, which is equivalent to successfully completing their first year of Latin. Really. Truly. It's like they've studied two semesters of Latin in the past five weeks.
This weekend they are on the Latin Institute equivalent of intercession. Pure unadulterated vacation. No homework. No studying. Unless, of course, they want to take a peek at their vocabulary flashcards while they are lying on the beach, just to keep in shape. But it's not required. They can read a newspaper instead, or Vanity Fair, or Vogue, or The Onion. Or see a movie. Or watch T.V. Or just sleep. Some of them will probably just sleep.
These folks could walk into an intermediate Latin class at any college or university in the country, tomorrow, and know as much Latin as, or more Latin than, students who have been studying Latin since last September.
And in fact, they will walk into just such a class on Monday morning, at 9:30 a.m., when the second half of the course begins. Patrick Gaulthier will give them a one-hour lecture on Cicero, focusing on the genre of forensic oratory and the kinds of rhetorical devices that characterize such speech and writing. In the next hour, I will lead the class through the beginning of Cicero's first oration against Catiline, at sight. For the next five days, they will be preparing six chapters of the First Catilinarian for homework, and reading it in morning drill, the way they previously did with exercises from their intensive introductory text book.
All next week, lunchtime will be a systematic grammar review of major topics like noun syntax, subjunctives in subordinate clauses, and independent subjunctives. In the afternoon, we'll be doing some prose composition and a prose survey. Students have been writing two or three English-to-Latin sentences every night for homework since the beginning of the course, but now they will be imitating the style of Roman authors like Cicero and Sallust. In prose survey, they will be reading healthy chunks of Ennius, Cato, Livy, Petronius, and even some more Cicero. On Monday, their afternoon prose reading will be at sight; but for the remainder of the course, afternoon prose survey will be assigned reading, so students will have one assignment to prepare for morning drill, and another for afternoon survey.
After a couple of weeks, will will switch from prose survey to poetry. Mornings will be book four of Vergil's Aeneid (hence all the sentences in Moreland & Fleischer about queens, sailors, and fama [fame, reputation]). Afternoons will be a poetry survey.
In the final week, they will have an elective (choices this year will include Tacitus, Vergil, and Augustine).
Fun times, huh? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Think about it yourself. You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Our students took their grammar final (which in previous posts I called their midterm exam). This exam marks their successful completion of the first half of the course, which is equivalent to successfully completing their first year of Latin. Really. Truly. It's like they've studied two semesters of Latin in the past five weeks.
This weekend they are on the Latin Institute equivalent of intercession. Pure unadulterated vacation. No homework. No studying. Unless, of course, they want to take a peek at their vocabulary flashcards while they are lying on the beach, just to keep in shape. But it's not required. They can read a newspaper instead, or Vanity Fair, or Vogue, or The Onion. Or see a movie. Or watch T.V. Or just sleep. Some of them will probably just sleep.
These folks could walk into an intermediate Latin class at any college or university in the country, tomorrow, and know as much Latin as, or more Latin than, students who have been studying Latin since last September.
And in fact, they will walk into just such a class on Monday morning, at 9:30 a.m., when the second half of the course begins. Patrick Gaulthier will give them a one-hour lecture on Cicero, focusing on the genre of forensic oratory and the kinds of rhetorical devices that characterize such speech and writing. In the next hour, I will lead the class through the beginning of Cicero's first oration against Catiline, at sight. For the next five days, they will be preparing six chapters of the First Catilinarian for homework, and reading it in morning drill, the way they previously did with exercises from their intensive introductory text book.
All next week, lunchtime will be a systematic grammar review of major topics like noun syntax, subjunctives in subordinate clauses, and independent subjunctives. In the afternoon, we'll be doing some prose composition and a prose survey. Students have been writing two or three English-to-Latin sentences every night for homework since the beginning of the course, but now they will be imitating the style of Roman authors like Cicero and Sallust. In prose survey, they will be reading healthy chunks of Ennius, Cato, Livy, Petronius, and even some more Cicero. On Monday, their afternoon prose reading will be at sight; but for the remainder of the course, afternoon prose survey will be assigned reading, so students will have one assignment to prepare for morning drill, and another for afternoon survey.
After a couple of weeks, will will switch from prose survey to poetry. Mornings will be book four of Vergil's Aeneid (hence all the sentences in Moreland & Fleischer about queens, sailors, and fama [fame, reputation]). Afternoons will be a poetry survey.
In the final week, they will have an elective (choices this year will include Tacitus, Vergil, and Augustine).
Fun times, huh? Tell your friends. Tell your students. Think about it yourself. You could be doing this next summer!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 23
Day 23 was yesterday, July 12, 2012.
Our students surprised us, flying through their Caesar faster than we expected, getting through the passage planned for afternoon sight during morning drill!
It's amazing to watch not only their skills develop, but their enthusiasm heighten, and their insight become more penetrating. The structure and function of Latin is making more and more sense to them every day. Caesar and his strange pluperfect indicatives (and this happened prior to...what?), his relentless near and far demonstrative pronouns (these men, those men...which men is that, now?), his frequent ellipsis of the preposition "in" with ablatives of place, and so on.
Students were also surprised to find the content become more interesting and the narrative more exciting than it may at first have seemed, as they began reading about the Gauls' religious practices of human sacrifice, including the wicker men, large wicker statues filled with people who were burned alive (inspiring a 1973 cult classic British horror film and a schlocky 2006 remake with Nicolas Cage and Ellen Burstyn).
We were privileged to have a visit by Brooklyn College classics professor John Van Sickle, who not only observed our classes in action, but took a place at the seminar table for a few minutes to kibbitz with us, in his inimitable way, adding his own syntax questions to my own, listening to our students' responses with interest and engagement, and sharing with us his endless well of knowledge about etymology ("Druid" comes from "dru-," "tree" plus "wid-," "to know" [cf. Latin verbs like videō and English words like "wit"], therefore meaning "tree knowers"and related to the English word "witch").
Class ended a bit early, giving students perhaps an hour or two to relax before studying in earnest for their midterm exam on Friday.
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Our students surprised us, flying through their Caesar faster than we expected, getting through the passage planned for afternoon sight during morning drill!
It's amazing to watch not only their skills develop, but their enthusiasm heighten, and their insight become more penetrating. The structure and function of Latin is making more and more sense to them every day. Caesar and his strange pluperfect indicatives (and this happened prior to...what?), his relentless near and far demonstrative pronouns (these men, those men...which men is that, now?), his frequent ellipsis of the preposition "in" with ablatives of place, and so on.
Students were also surprised to find the content become more interesting and the narrative more exciting than it may at first have seemed, as they began reading about the Gauls' religious practices of human sacrifice, including the wicker men, large wicker statues filled with people who were burned alive (inspiring a 1973 cult classic British horror film and a schlocky 2006 remake with Nicolas Cage and Ellen Burstyn).
We were privileged to have a visit by Brooklyn College classics professor John Van Sickle, who not only observed our classes in action, but took a place at the seminar table for a few minutes to kibbitz with us, in his inimitable way, adding his own syntax questions to my own, listening to our students' responses with interest and engagement, and sharing with us his endless well of knowledge about etymology ("Druid" comes from "dru-," "tree" plus "wid-," "to know" [cf. Latin verbs like videō and English words like "wit"], therefore meaning "tree knowers"and related to the English word "witch").
Class ended a bit early, giving students perhaps an hour or two to relax before studying in earnest for their midterm exam on Friday.
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 22
Today was Day 22. The 18 instructional units of the beloved first-year Moreland and Fleischer text book rapidly receding light years behind us! Caesar's Gallic Wars charging over the horizon! Book 6, Chapter 12 in the morning; Book 6, Chapters 14, 15, and 16 in the afternoon. Chapters 17 and 18 tomorrow morning. One of the many virtues of Moreland and Fleischer is that it includes substantial unadapted passages of Caesar as part of the last two units, so students, whether at the Institute or in traditional classrooms nationwide and worldwide, can make the transition from text-book Latin to ancient Roman texts while enjoying the comforting presence of their familiar first-year text book in their own two hands.
Some grammar review in the afternoon. On Friday, Day 24, our students have their midterm exam. First thing Monday morning, Patrick Gaulthier delivers an introductory lecture on Cicero, and we dive into the first oration against Catiline. That keeps us busy for a few days. Then it's Sallust's Bellum Catalinae, with an emphasis on stylistic differences between Cicero and Sallust. Then our prose survey begins, with generous chunks of Ennius, Cato, Livy, Tacitus, Petronius, Saint Augustine, Einhard, and the medieval Gesta Romanorum.
Our students are doing great. They don't even realize how much Latin they have learned or how proficient they are. I get the impression they feel like the proverbial rats on a wheel. But you should have seen and heard them tearing into Caesar today. Great work, guys!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Some grammar review in the afternoon. On Friday, Day 24, our students have their midterm exam. First thing Monday morning, Patrick Gaulthier delivers an introductory lecture on Cicero, and we dive into the first oration against Catiline. That keeps us busy for a few days. Then it's Sallust's Bellum Catalinae, with an emphasis on stylistic differences between Cicero and Sallust. Then our prose survey begins, with generous chunks of Ennius, Cato, Livy, Tacitus, Petronius, Saint Augustine, Einhard, and the medieval Gesta Romanorum.
Our students are doing great. They don't even realize how much Latin they have learned or how proficient they are. I get the impression they feel like the proverbial rats on a wheel. But you should have seen and heard them tearing into Caesar today. Great work, guys!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 21
Day 21 was yesterday, July 10, 2012.
We reached Unit 18 of Moreland & Fleischer! The end of the text book. Our students have now successfully completed first-year Latin in five weeks. Staring on Day 22, it's off to the races with Caesar's Gallic Wars.
In the later afternoon, Patrick Gaulthier led our students in a reading and discussion of Catullus 11, a great companion piece to the poem I did with them the day before, Catullus 45. The sex and gender stuff going on in Catullus 11 is amazing. I'm going to have to write something about this poem. I was very pleased to see how enthusiastic our students were about it.
One final great treat before leaving Unit 18 behind us was having Rita Fleischer, text-book co-author and Latin/Greek Institute Administrator, come to our classroom and do a special, augmented Vocabulary Notes presentation. After running gracefully and effortlessly through the short vocabulary list at the end of Unit 18, Rita regaled our students with a presentation on Latin word formation, putting words on the blackboard that they had never seen before, and demonstrating to them that they can guess their meanings based on their current knowledge of verb, noun, and adjectival stems, and the suffixes that turn nouns into verbs, verbs in nouns, concrete words into abstract ones, etc. Her concluding message: You do not always need to run right to the dictionary to look up every unfamiliar word. You can figure it our for yourself, at least well enough to continue reading whatever passage you are reading. You can always go to the dictionary later to confirm what you already gathered and learn about the word's full range of meanings and usage. This was a great lesson for our students and they were able to put it to use immediately.
Well, quick post, but the more our students learn, the more real Latin prose and poetry I need to prep, so talk about off to the races...I'm right behind them!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
We reached Unit 18 of Moreland & Fleischer! The end of the text book. Our students have now successfully completed first-year Latin in five weeks. Staring on Day 22, it's off to the races with Caesar's Gallic Wars.
In the later afternoon, Patrick Gaulthier led our students in a reading and discussion of Catullus 11, a great companion piece to the poem I did with them the day before, Catullus 45. The sex and gender stuff going on in Catullus 11 is amazing. I'm going to have to write something about this poem. I was very pleased to see how enthusiastic our students were about it.
One final great treat before leaving Unit 18 behind us was having Rita Fleischer, text-book co-author and Latin/Greek Institute Administrator, come to our classroom and do a special, augmented Vocabulary Notes presentation. After running gracefully and effortlessly through the short vocabulary list at the end of Unit 18, Rita regaled our students with a presentation on Latin word formation, putting words on the blackboard that they had never seen before, and demonstrating to them that they can guess their meanings based on their current knowledge of verb, noun, and adjectival stems, and the suffixes that turn nouns into verbs, verbs in nouns, concrete words into abstract ones, etc. Her concluding message: You do not always need to run right to the dictionary to look up every unfamiliar word. You can figure it our for yourself, at least well enough to continue reading whatever passage you are reading. You can always go to the dictionary later to confirm what you already gathered and learn about the word's full range of meanings and usage. This was a great lesson for our students and they were able to put it to use immediately.
Well, quick post, but the more our students learn, the more real Latin prose and poetry I need to prep, so talk about off to the races...I'm right behind them!
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 20
Day 20 was yesterday, Monday, July 9, 2012.
It's amazing to watch our students' abilities grow. They began their study of Latin a scant month ago. Now they are reading passages from Caesar, Cicero, Catullus, Vergil, epigrams of Martial, odes of Horace and, of course, sentences of varying complexity and trickiness in their exercises for homework. Sure, they make mistakes, they forget things they learned a week ago, they miss the obvious, they need reminders...but all in all, these folks have learned a lot of Latin, and it shows. And they keep learning more.
I had great fun teaching them Catullus 45 in the afternoon, the one about Acme and Septimius. This followed another stunning grammar lecture by my colleague Patrick Gaulthier.
OK, not a very dense post, but enough for now.
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
It's amazing to watch our students' abilities grow. They began their study of Latin a scant month ago. Now they are reading passages from Caesar, Cicero, Catullus, Vergil, epigrams of Martial, odes of Horace and, of course, sentences of varying complexity and trickiness in their exercises for homework. Sure, they make mistakes, they forget things they learned a week ago, they miss the obvious, they need reminders...but all in all, these folks have learned a lot of Latin, and it shows. And they keep learning more.
I had great fun teaching them Catullus 45 in the afternoon, the one about Acme and Septimius. This followed another stunning grammar lecture by my colleague Patrick Gaulthier.
OK, not a very dense post, but enough for now.
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Hot Latin for Guys & Guys: Catullus 99
Surripui tibi, dum ludis, mellite Iuventi,
suaviolum dulci dulcius ambrosia.
verum id non impune tuli: namque amplius horam
suffixum in summa me memini esse cruce,
dum tibi me purgo nec possum fletibus ullis
tantillum vestrae demere saevitiae.
nam simul id factum est, multis diluta labella
guttis abstersisti omnibus articulis,
ne quicquam nostro contractum ex ore maneret,
tamquam commictae spurca saliva lupae.
praeterea infesto miserum me tradere amori
non cessasti omnique excruciare modo,
ut mi ex ambrosia mutatum iam foret illud
suaviolum tristi tristius elleboro.
quam quoniam poenam misero proponis amori,
numquam iam posthac basia surripiam.
I just found a very compelling translation by Julia Haig Gaisser from her 2012 book, Catullus, in the Blackwell Introductions to the Classical World series, and I am going to reproduce it here while I think about how to write a verse translation that is anywhere near as good as this prose rendering.
I stole while you played, Juventius honey,
a little kiss sweeter than sweet ambrosia.
Nor did I go unpunished, but for over an hour
I remember hanging nailed atop the cross
atoning for my sin, nor for all my tears
could I diminish a bit of your rage,
but before your lips could dry you rinsed them clean,
wiped them with the back of your hand,
lest any contagion from my mouth remain,
like the filthy spit of a piss-soaked whore,
all the while making me sick with hateful love,
subjecting me to every possible torture,
until that little kiss transformed from ambrosia
to something more bitter than bitter hellebore.
And since you levy this fine on my wretched love,
never anymore any more kisses shall I steal.
Why I Love This Poem
You might not be surprised to learn that I love this poem because of its queer/camp sensibility. Again, queer means it's messing around with normative constructions of sex, gender, and kinship. Camp means it uses incongruity, theatricality, and humor to embrace stigmatized identity, particularly stigmatized gender identity. (See other posts in the Hot Latin for Guys & Guys category for further elaboration on these notions of queer and camp.)
To me, this poem is one of the clearest examples of Catullus-as-queer-poet in a strikingly modern sense. He loves another man, and not in some me-Tarzan-you-Jane-its-not-gay-as-long-as-I-stay-on-top kind of way. Yes, Catullus is, presumably, big and hard and hairy, and Juventius is, presumably, little and soft and smooth. But Catullus is Juventius's sexual plaything. Juventius is scornful and contemptuous; Catullus is lovesick, humiliated, degraded, and devastated by rejection, nor for all that does he desire Juventius any the less. To paraphrase Anne Bancroft to Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, "Now if this is not a queer poem in a completely modern sense, then I don't know what."
So what's the so-what factor in my love of this poem and poems much like it? Well, we queers have long been told that we delude ourselves if we think we see ourselves among the ancient Greeks and Romans. There was no homo/hetero binary in classical antiquity, only a dominant/submissive binary, according to which there is nothing "queer" about a manly man having sex with a girly man or boy, as long as the manly man stays on top. I don't think, however, that the literary and material facts bear out that argument in quite the form to which we are accustomed to seeing it. Sure, homo/hetero is a nineteenth-century idea; and sure, dom/sub is a fairly accurate way to describe ancient Greek and Roman sex and gender dynamics. But no, that does not mean that there is nothing queer about an ancient Roman man having sex with another ancient Roman man, or boy, or slave. And you wanna know why not? It's because, in context after context, in poems by Catullus, Martial, Juvenal, and others, we see the whole dom/sub dichotomy totally break down. It all goes flippity flip, and soft little sissy boys end up on top, while big hard manly men end up on the bottom. Much like they do every day, right here, right now, in New York, and San Francisco, and Paris, London, Rome, Athens, and Tel Aviv, and Johannesburg, and Sophia, Bulgaria.
suaviolum dulci dulcius ambrosia.
verum id non impune tuli: namque amplius horam
suffixum in summa me memini esse cruce,
dum tibi me purgo nec possum fletibus ullis
tantillum vestrae demere saevitiae.
nam simul id factum est, multis diluta labella
guttis abstersisti omnibus articulis,
ne quicquam nostro contractum ex ore maneret,
tamquam commictae spurca saliva lupae.
praeterea infesto miserum me tradere amori
non cessasti omnique excruciare modo,
ut mi ex ambrosia mutatum iam foret illud
suaviolum tristi tristius elleboro.
quam quoniam poenam misero proponis amori,
numquam iam posthac basia surripiam.
I just found a very compelling translation by Julia Haig Gaisser from her 2012 book, Catullus, in the Blackwell Introductions to the Classical World series, and I am going to reproduce it here while I think about how to write a verse translation that is anywhere near as good as this prose rendering.
I stole from you while you were teasing, honey-sweet Juventius, a little kiss sweeter than sweet ambrosia. But I did not get away with it unpunished. For I remember being nailed to the top of a cross for more than an hour while I apologized to you and could not for all my tears diminish a bit of your fury. For as soon as it was done, you washed your lips with many splashings of water and wiped them off with your dainty fingers, in case any contagion from my mouth remain, like the filthy spittle of a pissed-on whore. Besides, you did not hesitate to hand me over, wretched, to cruel love and to torture me in every way, so that changed from ambrosia that little kiss was now more bitter to me than bitter hellebore. Since this is the penalty you hold over my wretched love, I'll never steal kisses anymore.Working on my own verse translation; this is likely to change...
I stole while you played, Juventius honey,
a little kiss sweeter than sweet ambrosia.
Nor did I go unpunished, but for over an hour
I remember hanging nailed atop the cross
atoning for my sin, nor for all my tears
could I diminish a bit of your rage,
but before your lips could dry you rinsed them clean,
wiped them with the back of your hand,
lest any contagion from my mouth remain,
like the filthy spit of a piss-soaked whore,
all the while making me sick with hateful love,
subjecting me to every possible torture,
until that little kiss transformed from ambrosia
to something more bitter than bitter hellebore.
And since you levy this fine on my wretched love,
never anymore any more kisses shall I steal.
Why I Love This Poem
You might not be surprised to learn that I love this poem because of its queer/camp sensibility. Again, queer means it's messing around with normative constructions of sex, gender, and kinship. Camp means it uses incongruity, theatricality, and humor to embrace stigmatized identity, particularly stigmatized gender identity. (See other posts in the Hot Latin for Guys & Guys category for further elaboration on these notions of queer and camp.)
To me, this poem is one of the clearest examples of Catullus-as-queer-poet in a strikingly modern sense. He loves another man, and not in some me-Tarzan-you-Jane-its-not-gay-as-long-as-I-stay-on-top kind of way. Yes, Catullus is, presumably, big and hard and hairy, and Juventius is, presumably, little and soft and smooth. But Catullus is Juventius's sexual plaything. Juventius is scornful and contemptuous; Catullus is lovesick, humiliated, degraded, and devastated by rejection, nor for all that does he desire Juventius any the less. To paraphrase Anne Bancroft to Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, "Now if this is not a queer poem in a completely modern sense, then I don't know what."
So what's the so-what factor in my love of this poem and poems much like it? Well, we queers have long been told that we delude ourselves if we think we see ourselves among the ancient Greeks and Romans. There was no homo/hetero binary in classical antiquity, only a dominant/submissive binary, according to which there is nothing "queer" about a manly man having sex with a girly man or boy, as long as the manly man stays on top. I don't think, however, that the literary and material facts bear out that argument in quite the form to which we are accustomed to seeing it. Sure, homo/hetero is a nineteenth-century idea; and sure, dom/sub is a fairly accurate way to describe ancient Greek and Roman sex and gender dynamics. But no, that does not mean that there is nothing queer about an ancient Roman man having sex with another ancient Roman man, or boy, or slave. And you wanna know why not? It's because, in context after context, in poems by Catullus, Martial, Juvenal, and others, we see the whole dom/sub dichotomy totally break down. It all goes flippity flip, and soft little sissy boys end up on top, while big hard manly men end up on the bottom. Much like they do every day, right here, right now, in New York, and San Francisco, and Paris, London, Rome, Athens, and Tel Aviv, and Johannesburg, and Sophia, Bulgaria.
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 19
Day 19 was yesterday, July 6, 2012.
Morning drill was fun...some nice chunks of slightly adapted Cicero on old age (De Senectute).
Afternoon sight was fun, too. We did Propertius 2.11, in which Propertius is really mean to Cynthia. Don't tell anyone, but I snuck some renegade Martial in, too. When I did sight on Day 18, there was not enough material in the text to fill the time, so I scribbled Epigrams 9.63 on the board, and the kids loved it. We got to talking about how Phoebus made a living as a sex worker, and I told them there was another poem indicating that he did quite well for himself. So we looked at that one yesterday, Epigrams 1.58.
I understand perfectly well why poems like these were not included in the curriculum when the program debuted 40 summers ago, but I think their time has come. I realize that introducing new material into the curriculum formally needs to be done very deliberately and by faculty consensus; but in this instance I feel like I was just sending up a couple of trial balloons with a small number of students with whom I have a very good rapport. They really enjoyed the poems. They're not only raunchy; they also introduce a lot of important social history regarding sex and gender dynamics and aspects of ancient socioeconomic reality that might otherwise go unaddressed.
Anyway...afternoon lecture was another stunning performance by my colleague, Patrick Gaulthier. He is a simply excellent Latin grammar teacher. Our students learned about all sorts of impersonal verbs, including verbs of emotional distress and verbs of necessity and propriety, and what constructions they take. Then Akiva Saunders led them them through Catullus 3, in which Lesbia's sparrow dies. I did a quick romp through Vocabulary Notes, and we were off to the weekend.
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Morning drill was fun...some nice chunks of slightly adapted Cicero on old age (De Senectute).
Afternoon sight was fun, too. We did Propertius 2.11, in which Propertius is really mean to Cynthia. Don't tell anyone, but I snuck some renegade Martial in, too. When I did sight on Day 18, there was not enough material in the text to fill the time, so I scribbled Epigrams 9.63 on the board, and the kids loved it. We got to talking about how Phoebus made a living as a sex worker, and I told them there was another poem indicating that he did quite well for himself. So we looked at that one yesterday, Epigrams 1.58.
I understand perfectly well why poems like these were not included in the curriculum when the program debuted 40 summers ago, but I think their time has come. I realize that introducing new material into the curriculum formally needs to be done very deliberately and by faculty consensus; but in this instance I feel like I was just sending up a couple of trial balloons with a small number of students with whom I have a very good rapport. They really enjoyed the poems. They're not only raunchy; they also introduce a lot of important social history regarding sex and gender dynamics and aspects of ancient socioeconomic reality that might otherwise go unaddressed.
Anyway...afternoon lecture was another stunning performance by my colleague, Patrick Gaulthier. He is a simply excellent Latin grammar teacher. Our students learned about all sorts of impersonal verbs, including verbs of emotional distress and verbs of necessity and propriety, and what constructions they take. Then Akiva Saunders led them them through Catullus 3, in which Lesbia's sparrow dies. I did a quick romp through Vocabulary Notes, and we were off to the weekend.
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 18
Day 18 was yesterday, July 5, 2012.
Back from a one-day Independence Day holiday.
I was "on" for both hours of morning drill, optional lunchtime sight reading, and afternoon poetry. We read Catullus 5 and 7, two of the most iconic poems in all of Latin literature, IMHO.
Grammar wise, it was a day for cum clauses, other ways of saying "when, since, although" with either indicative or subjunctive, clauses of proviso, and the accusative of exclamation (ō tempora, ō mōrēs!).
I had a great Fourth of July holiday. Went for my run. Ended my run at my favorite local cafe for an iced Americano and toasted sesame bagel with cream cheese. Had a relatively quiet and relaxing day. Visited a couple of new wine and liquor stores in my Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood on Franklin Avenue and Bedford Avenue. Noted that a few new bars and restaurants are on the way. It's pretty awesome. The neighborhood is finally becoming what we (Jason and I) always wanted it to be. Home and commercial construction has picked up its pace, too. It feels like the East Village around 1990. Of course, I moved to the East Village back then, but I was a bit late in arriving and did not really belong in that ambiance at that time. Now, I feel like I am in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. I'm happy.
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Back from a one-day Independence Day holiday.
I was "on" for both hours of morning drill, optional lunchtime sight reading, and afternoon poetry. We read Catullus 5 and 7, two of the most iconic poems in all of Latin literature, IMHO.
Grammar wise, it was a day for cum clauses, other ways of saying "when, since, although" with either indicative or subjunctive, clauses of proviso, and the accusative of exclamation (ō tempora, ō mōrēs!).
I had a great Fourth of July holiday. Went for my run. Ended my run at my favorite local cafe for an iced Americano and toasted sesame bagel with cream cheese. Had a relatively quiet and relaxing day. Visited a couple of new wine and liquor stores in my Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood on Franklin Avenue and Bedford Avenue. Noted that a few new bars and restaurants are on the way. It's pretty awesome. The neighborhood is finally becoming what we (Jason and I) always wanted it to be. Home and commercial construction has picked up its pace, too. It feels like the East Village around 1990. Of course, I moved to the East Village back then, but I was a bit late in arriving and did not really belong in that ambiance at that time. Now, I feel like I am in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. I'm happy.
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 17
Day 17 was yesterday, July 3, 2012.
I taught the 8:30 a.m. optional, which is a time for students to ask specific questions about specific sentences they read and translated for homework. Their assignment for yesterday included a sizable chunk of lightly adapted Caesar talking about the druids.
The teacher who does the 8:30 a.m. optional generally grades the daily quiz, which I did. This was the first of four quizzes that I wrote (faculty members rotate the writing of quizzes on a weekly basis). The main focus of the quiz was indefinite pronouns (aliquis, quis, quisquam, quisque) as well as dative with intransitive verbs (placeō, parcō, etc.) and dative with compounds (praesum, praeferō, praeficiō, etc.). I was surprised by the number of students who got my present contrary-to-fact conditional sentence wrong: how quickly they forget! Conditional sentences are Unit 2; we are up to Unit 14. Be that as it may, they cannot forget their basics, so we need to keep asking them syntax questions to remind them of all their grammar, all the time. Welcome to the Institute.
My colleague Patrick Gaulthier did another masterful job with a complicated afternoon grammar lecture, this time covering result clauses, substantive result clauses, relative clauses of characteristic, relative clauses of result, relative clauses of purpose, purpose clauses introduced by adverbs, and, oh yes, indirect reflexives. I learn a lot every time I watch Patrick give a grammar lecture. He's really good at this.
In the second hour of the afternoon session, my colleague Akiva Saunders led the students in reading and translating Catullus 12, the one about the stolen napkin. It's a somewhat mystifying poem about which I had not thought very much before, but about which I want to think more now. I'm sure Catullus is talking smack about Asinius' brother Pollio (he's a "boy," he's "full of charm and wit," and he would gladly requite his brother's pilferies for a sum; in my world, that amounts to calling Pollio a poof), and threatening to talk more smack (to the tune of 300 hendecasyllables) unless Asinius returns the pilfered napkin. But nobody else seems to read it that way. That's okay; I'm accustomed to my queer/camp readings of Roman texts being novel and meeting stiff resistance (as it were), which is in part what makes performing these readings worth my while. But I need to figure out how to make a persuasive case for my reading.
I did vocabulary notes, a short session at the end of the instructional day where we read through the night's vocabulary word by word and make sure the students say the principal parts of all the new verbs. It's also an opportunity to call attention to any potential pitfalls (intendō and ostendō have perfect active stems that are identical to their present stems, so confusion is possible in some forms, such as intendit and ostendit) as well as to interesting bits of etymology and derivation (we get the English words senate and senator from the Latin noun senex, "old man," by way of the Latin nouns senatus, "council of elders," and senator, "member of the council of elders").
Finally, the instructional day was over, and we were on the brink of our July 4th holiday. Some students stayed at the Graduate Center, as they do every weekday, working through their homework sentences as a group, occasionally coming into our offices to ask us questions.
At about 6:16 p.m., I left to go to Bryant Park, where my husband, Jason Schneiderman, was reading in the Word for Word poetry series. After the reading we joined the series host and the other readers for dinner at the Bryant Park Grill. Of course, I thought about the days in the early-to-mid 1980s when I studied at the Summer Latin/Greek Institute at it's old home across the street from Bryant Park (the building that now houses the SUNY College of Optometry). As full of drug dealing and other miscreancy as it was, it was nice having a park to stroll in during lunch breaks. Now, at the Graduate Center housed in the old B. Altman's building, there's not much around beyond your choice of three Starbucks.
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
I taught the 8:30 a.m. optional, which is a time for students to ask specific questions about specific sentences they read and translated for homework. Their assignment for yesterday included a sizable chunk of lightly adapted Caesar talking about the druids.
The teacher who does the 8:30 a.m. optional generally grades the daily quiz, which I did. This was the first of four quizzes that I wrote (faculty members rotate the writing of quizzes on a weekly basis). The main focus of the quiz was indefinite pronouns (aliquis, quis, quisquam, quisque) as well as dative with intransitive verbs (placeō, parcō, etc.) and dative with compounds (praesum, praeferō, praeficiō, etc.). I was surprised by the number of students who got my present contrary-to-fact conditional sentence wrong: how quickly they forget! Conditional sentences are Unit 2; we are up to Unit 14. Be that as it may, they cannot forget their basics, so we need to keep asking them syntax questions to remind them of all their grammar, all the time. Welcome to the Institute.
My colleague Patrick Gaulthier did another masterful job with a complicated afternoon grammar lecture, this time covering result clauses, substantive result clauses, relative clauses of characteristic, relative clauses of result, relative clauses of purpose, purpose clauses introduced by adverbs, and, oh yes, indirect reflexives. I learn a lot every time I watch Patrick give a grammar lecture. He's really good at this.
In the second hour of the afternoon session, my colleague Akiva Saunders led the students in reading and translating Catullus 12, the one about the stolen napkin. It's a somewhat mystifying poem about which I had not thought very much before, but about which I want to think more now. I'm sure Catullus is talking smack about Asinius' brother Pollio (he's a "boy," he's "full of charm and wit," and he would gladly requite his brother's pilferies for a sum; in my world, that amounts to calling Pollio a poof), and threatening to talk more smack (to the tune of 300 hendecasyllables) unless Asinius returns the pilfered napkin. But nobody else seems to read it that way. That's okay; I'm accustomed to my queer/camp readings of Roman texts being novel and meeting stiff resistance (as it were), which is in part what makes performing these readings worth my while. But I need to figure out how to make a persuasive case for my reading.
I did vocabulary notes, a short session at the end of the instructional day where we read through the night's vocabulary word by word and make sure the students say the principal parts of all the new verbs. It's also an opportunity to call attention to any potential pitfalls (intendō and ostendō have perfect active stems that are identical to their present stems, so confusion is possible in some forms, such as intendit and ostendit) as well as to interesting bits of etymology and derivation (we get the English words senate and senator from the Latin noun senex, "old man," by way of the Latin nouns senatus, "council of elders," and senator, "member of the council of elders").
Finally, the instructional day was over, and we were on the brink of our July 4th holiday. Some students stayed at the Graduate Center, as they do every weekday, working through their homework sentences as a group, occasionally coming into our offices to ask us questions.
At about 6:16 p.m., I left to go to Bryant Park, where my husband, Jason Schneiderman, was reading in the Word for Word poetry series. After the reading we joined the series host and the other readers for dinner at the Bryant Park Grill. Of course, I thought about the days in the early-to-mid 1980s when I studied at the Summer Latin/Greek Institute at it's old home across the street from Bryant Park (the building that now houses the SUNY College of Optometry). As full of drug dealing and other miscreancy as it was, it was nice having a park to stroll in during lunch breaks. Now, at the Graduate Center housed in the old B. Altman's building, there's not much around beyond your choice of three Starbucks.
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Summer Latin Institute - DAY 16
DAY 16 was yesterday, July 2, 2012.
On Sunday, July 1, I led the optional Sunday exam review from 2-4 p.m.
Yesterday, our students took their third exam from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
After lunch, I taught Unit 13: Indefinite pronouns and adjectives; dative with intransitive verbs; dative with compounds; fīō; and the numerical adjective duo, duae, duo.
After the grammar lecture, my colleague Patrick taught two Catullus poems, Poems 8 (Quem basiabis?) and 85 (Odi et amo).
Regular readers will note that I did not post blogs about the weekend this past weekend. That reflects the extent to which the program is becoming more routine for me, and my weekends are becoming more about myself, my husband, my home, my regular, non-Institute life. Jason and I had a great weekend, seeing Shakespeare in the Park (As You Like It) on Friday night, doing all sorts of brunch and crosswords and window shopping (Ikea) and actual shopping (Fairway) on Saturday. Jason went to karate class on Sunday and worked on his dissertation at the Graduate Center, while I covered the optional exam review. In the evening, we ordered in pizza from the local gourmet pizza joint, Nice (that's "Nice," the French town, not "nice," the English adjective).
And of course, as some of you may be aware, I started my new feature on Pedagogishness, Hot Latin for Guys and Guys.
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
On Sunday, July 1, I led the optional Sunday exam review from 2-4 p.m.
Yesterday, our students took their third exam from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
After lunch, I taught Unit 13: Indefinite pronouns and adjectives; dative with intransitive verbs; dative with compounds; fīō; and the numerical adjective duo, duae, duo.
After the grammar lecture, my colleague Patrick taught two Catullus poems, Poems 8 (Quem basiabis?) and 85 (Odi et amo).
Regular readers will note that I did not post blogs about the weekend this past weekend. That reflects the extent to which the program is becoming more routine for me, and my weekends are becoming more about myself, my husband, my home, my regular, non-Institute life. Jason and I had a great weekend, seeing Shakespeare in the Park (As You Like It) on Friday night, doing all sorts of brunch and crosswords and window shopping (Ikea) and actual shopping (Fairway) on Saturday. Jason went to karate class on Sunday and worked on his dissertation at the Graduate Center, while I covered the optional exam review. In the evening, we ordered in pizza from the local gourmet pizza joint, Nice (that's "Nice," the French town, not "nice," the English adjective).
And of course, as some of you may be aware, I started my new feature on Pedagogishness, Hot Latin for Guys and Guys.
More soon...
Note: The opinions expressed in this blog entry are those of the blogger, and do not represent the opinions of the CUNY Latin/Greek Institute, its students, faculty, or administration.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Notes Toward A Post-academic Humanism, 2
Thinking more about my humanities manifesto-in-progress. Article in the NY Times about how small farmers are creating a new business model for local agriculture. Makes me wonder: as the American small farmer goes, so goes the American non-academic humanist?
Take the names of great institutions of the arts in New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; Brooklyn Academy of Music. What if we re-imagine these: The Metropolitan Museum of the Humanities; Lincoln Center for the Humanities; Brooklyn Academy of the Humanities.
What would that mean? What would these institutions do?
Imagine a Brooklyn Academy of the Humanities. An organization that supports humanists in their research and writing about language, literature, art, architecture, music, theater, history, religion, etc. But no teaching. An organization that publishes books and journals, sponsors exhibits, stages performances, and offers public lectures. But no teaching. To a degree, it overlaps with what the Brooklyn Academy of Music already does. And the Metropolitan Museum of the Humanities and the Lincoln Center for the Humanities would overlap with what the existing Met and the existing Lincoln Center do. But no teaching.
Why do I hate teaching so much?
I don't. I love teaching, in fact. But what, if any, is the natural and inevitable connection between research and teaching? The modern research university in the United States began with Johns Hopkins in 1876. It has not existed from time immemorial. And there is no reason it must have a monopoly on the humanistic enterprise in perpetuity, especially when a case can be made that it has not done such a hot job with the humanistic enterprise for the past century and a half.
As per usual when my addled mind drifts back to this manifesto-in-progress, I'm not sure where I'm going with this. But I keep having these thoughts...and here is where they get parked...
Help shape my thoughts, anyone?
Take the names of great institutions of the arts in New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; Brooklyn Academy of Music. What if we re-imagine these: The Metropolitan Museum of the Humanities; Lincoln Center for the Humanities; Brooklyn Academy of the Humanities.
What would that mean? What would these institutions do?
Imagine a Brooklyn Academy of the Humanities. An organization that supports humanists in their research and writing about language, literature, art, architecture, music, theater, history, religion, etc. But no teaching. An organization that publishes books and journals, sponsors exhibits, stages performances, and offers public lectures. But no teaching. To a degree, it overlaps with what the Brooklyn Academy of Music already does. And the Metropolitan Museum of the Humanities and the Lincoln Center for the Humanities would overlap with what the existing Met and the existing Lincoln Center do. But no teaching.
Why do I hate teaching so much?
I don't. I love teaching, in fact. But what, if any, is the natural and inevitable connection between research and teaching? The modern research university in the United States began with Johns Hopkins in 1876. It has not existed from time immemorial. And there is no reason it must have a monopoly on the humanistic enterprise in perpetuity, especially when a case can be made that it has not done such a hot job with the humanistic enterprise for the past century and a half.
As per usual when my addled mind drifts back to this manifesto-in-progress, I'm not sure where I'm going with this. But I keep having these thoughts...and here is where they get parked...
Help shape my thoughts, anyone?
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Hot Latin for Guys & Guys: Juvenal 6.33-37
aut sī dē multīs nūllus placet exitus, illud
nōnne putās melius, quod tēcum pūsio dormit?
pūsio, quī noctū nōn lītigat, exigit ā tē
nūlla iacēns illic mūnuscula, nec queritur quod
et laterī parcās nec quantum iussit anhēlēs.
Of the many ways out of marriage, if none pleases you,
don't you think it is better to sleep with a boy?
A boy, who at night does not argue, does not lie there
demanding little gifts, and does not complain
that you slack off or don't pant on command.
Exigit munuscula - "He demands little gifts," he's sexually demanding or a pushy bottom
Queritur - "He complains," he's high maintenance
Non queritur - "He doesn't complain," he's low maintenance
Lateri parcas - "You slack off," sort of like "You spare the rod; you're all meat, no motion."
Lateri non parcas - "You don't slack off," you give it all you've got, you really put your hips into it
Quantum iussit anheles - "You pant as much as he orders," you're very verbal, you moan a lot in bed
Why I Love This Passage
As with most of the passages (complete poems or excerpts) that I will feature in Hot Latin for Guys and Guys, I love this passage because of its queer sensibility, which I also call a camp sensibility.
What do I mean by "queer"? I can answer that on different levels. It's about same-sex desire. It resists heteronormative conceptions of sex, gender, and kinship. To borrow Esther Newton's terminology for analyzing camp drag performance, it uses incongruity (as a subject matter), theatricality (as a style), and humor (as a strategy) to embrace stigmatized identity.
Now, there is a dark underbelly to the "fun and artifice and elegance" (to quote Christopher Isherwood on camp) in this brief passage; namely, the reputation for misogyny that has accrued to Juvenal's sixth satire for hundreds of years. On the surface, Juvenal 6 seems to be a virulent screed against women and marriage. But camp employs a rhetorical strategy that translation theorist Keith Harvey has called ambivalent solidarity: feigning adherence to moral principles that the camp speaker in fact rejects, principles that are in fact the very opposite of what he actually believes. As Maria Plaza has argued (in her book, The Function of Humour in Roman Verse Satire: Laughing and Lying, although the title and the subtitle really should have been reversed), the misogyny of Juvenal 6 completely falls apart—the misogynistic speaker's fear and hatred ultimately subvert and undermine his attack, so that he is left demonstrating not the inferiority of women, but rather the inferiority of men.
Plaza seems to think, if I read her correctly, that this subversion is a function of the satirist's humor getting the better of him; that is, the poem ends up saying something opposite to what the historical Juvenal intended. But while I revel in Plaza's point-by-point analysis, I come to a completely different conclusion: the subversion of misogyny is precisely what Juvenal intended, because his sixth satire is a camp text. Of course, in the long wake of Wimsatt and Beardsley, we are not supposed to pay any attention to authorial intention. And indeed, authorial intention does not really matter to my camp interpretation of this or any other text. But the fact is, I think we need to revisit the intentional fallacy, because nobody ever picked up a pen or sat down in front of a computer keyboard without having an intention.
Other objections to my reading of this passage have to do with debates among classicists and historians of sexuality about categories like queerness, masculinity, and stigma. The standard line is that the speaker of this poem is not a stigmatized figure, because he is a masculine, sexually dominant man talking about sex with a feminized, sexually submissive boy. But, once again, as you may have seen me argue elsewhere, I have a one-word response to this claim: Really?!?
That is to say, sure, the speaker would appear to be masculine and sexually dominant, while the boy (who is only hypothetical, I should probably hasten to add) appears to be feminine and sexually submissive. But the operative and very crucial word here is appears. As Antonin Scalia once said from the bench of the Supreme Court, acknowledging a constitutional right to commit sodomy opens the door to all sorts of madness, including gays in the military and same-sex marriage. And so it did (Google Lawrence v. Texas if you want to know more). Similarly, and by the laws of camp duplicity, Juvenal's conservative-looking scenario in this passage, where an older man is sexually dominant and a younger boy is sexually submissive, opens the imaginary door to all sorts of madness, like sissy boys on top and manly men on the bottom, not to mention gays in the military and same-sex marriage.
Trot Gloss, Vocab, and Commentary to come...
Trotting Glossary
NOTE: I've yanked some words out of their original order and put them together into meaningful groups, since the objective of this trotting glossary is to help you see how the Latin works.
aut, or
sī, if
dē multīs, from among the many (understand "suggested ways out of marriage")
nūllus exitus, no exit
placet, pleases (you)
nōnne putās, don't you think?
illud melius, that (i.e., the following course of action; understand "would be") better
quod, (namely) the fact that
tēcum,
pūsio,
dormit,
pūsio,
quī,
noctū,
nōn,
lītigat
exigit
ā
tē
nūlla
iacēns
illic
mūnuscula
nec
queritur
quod
et
laterī
parcās
nec
quantum
iussit
anhēlēs
nōnne putās melius, quod tēcum pūsio dormit?
pūsio, quī noctū nōn lītigat, exigit ā tē
nūlla iacēns illic mūnuscula, nec queritur quod
et laterī parcās nec quantum iussit anhēlēs.
Of the many ways out of marriage, if none pleases you,
don't you think it is better to sleep with a boy?
A boy, who at night does not argue, does not lie there
demanding little gifts, and does not complain
that you slack off or don't pant on command.
LATIN YOU CAN USE!
Pusio dormit - "He sleeps with a boy," especially a pretty young boy, a twink
Pusio non dormit - "He doesn't sleep with a boy," that is, he's not into younger guys
Noctu litigat - "He argues at night," he's difficult, argumentative (cf. English "litigate, litigious")
Pusio non dormit - "He doesn't sleep with a boy," that is, he's not into younger guys
Noctu litigat - "He argues at night," he's difficult, argumentative (cf. English "litigate, litigious")
Noctu non litigat - "He doesn't argue at night," he's easy, he lets his man do whatever he wants
Exigit munuscula - "He demands little gifts," he's sexually demanding or a pushy bottom
Queritur - "He complains," he's high maintenance
Non queritur - "He doesn't complain," he's low maintenance
Lateri parcas - "You slack off," sort of like "You spare the rod; you're all meat, no motion."
Lateri non parcas - "You don't slack off," you give it all you've got, you really put your hips into it
Quantum iussit anheles - "You pant as much as he orders," you're very verbal, you moan a lot in bed
Why I Love This Passage
As with most of the passages (complete poems or excerpts) that I will feature in Hot Latin for Guys and Guys, I love this passage because of its queer sensibility, which I also call a camp sensibility.
What do I mean by "queer"? I can answer that on different levels. It's about same-sex desire. It resists heteronormative conceptions of sex, gender, and kinship. To borrow Esther Newton's terminology for analyzing camp drag performance, it uses incongruity (as a subject matter), theatricality (as a style), and humor (as a strategy) to embrace stigmatized identity.
Now, there is a dark underbelly to the "fun and artifice and elegance" (to quote Christopher Isherwood on camp) in this brief passage; namely, the reputation for misogyny that has accrued to Juvenal's sixth satire for hundreds of years. On the surface, Juvenal 6 seems to be a virulent screed against women and marriage. But camp employs a rhetorical strategy that translation theorist Keith Harvey has called ambivalent solidarity: feigning adherence to moral principles that the camp speaker in fact rejects, principles that are in fact the very opposite of what he actually believes. As Maria Plaza has argued (in her book, The Function of Humour in Roman Verse Satire: Laughing and Lying, although the title and the subtitle really should have been reversed), the misogyny of Juvenal 6 completely falls apart—the misogynistic speaker's fear and hatred ultimately subvert and undermine his attack, so that he is left demonstrating not the inferiority of women, but rather the inferiority of men.
Plaza seems to think, if I read her correctly, that this subversion is a function of the satirist's humor getting the better of him; that is, the poem ends up saying something opposite to what the historical Juvenal intended. But while I revel in Plaza's point-by-point analysis, I come to a completely different conclusion: the subversion of misogyny is precisely what Juvenal intended, because his sixth satire is a camp text. Of course, in the long wake of Wimsatt and Beardsley, we are not supposed to pay any attention to authorial intention. And indeed, authorial intention does not really matter to my camp interpretation of this or any other text. But the fact is, I think we need to revisit the intentional fallacy, because nobody ever picked up a pen or sat down in front of a computer keyboard without having an intention.
Other objections to my reading of this passage have to do with debates among classicists and historians of sexuality about categories like queerness, masculinity, and stigma. The standard line is that the speaker of this poem is not a stigmatized figure, because he is a masculine, sexually dominant man talking about sex with a feminized, sexually submissive boy. But, once again, as you may have seen me argue elsewhere, I have a one-word response to this claim: Really?!?
That is to say, sure, the speaker would appear to be masculine and sexually dominant, while the boy (who is only hypothetical, I should probably hasten to add) appears to be feminine and sexually submissive. But the operative and very crucial word here is appears. As Antonin Scalia once said from the bench of the Supreme Court, acknowledging a constitutional right to commit sodomy opens the door to all sorts of madness, including gays in the military and same-sex marriage. And so it did (Google Lawrence v. Texas if you want to know more). Similarly, and by the laws of camp duplicity, Juvenal's conservative-looking scenario in this passage, where an older man is sexually dominant and a younger boy is sexually submissive, opens the imaginary door to all sorts of madness, like sissy boys on top and manly men on the bottom, not to mention gays in the military and same-sex marriage.
Trot Gloss, Vocab, and Commentary to come...
Trotting Glossary
NOTE: I've yanked some words out of their original order and put them together into meaningful groups, since the objective of this trotting glossary is to help you see how the Latin works.
aut, or
sī, if
dē multīs, from among the many (understand "suggested ways out of marriage")
nūllus exitus, no exit
placet, pleases (you)
nōnne putās, don't you think?
illud melius, that (i.e., the following course of action; understand "would be") better
quod, (namely) the fact that
tēcum,
pūsio,
dormit,
pūsio,
quī,
noctū,
nōn,
lītigat
exigit
ā
tē
nūlla
iacēns
illic
mūnuscula
nec
queritur
quod
et
laterī
parcās
nec
quantum
iussit
anhēlēs
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