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THE
St. John’s College
Annapolis, Maryland
GADFLY
Johnnie Culture
November 27, 2023
Vol. XLV, Issue 4
�CONTENTS
Letter from the Editor
λόγος
Johnnie Family Weekend: An Honest Review by
Vivian Miyakawa
The Truth of Containers by B.S.
Thai and a Movie by Audrey Fox
Leptoglossus corculus: Leaf-footed Pine Seed Bug
by Louis Rosenberg
συμπόσιον
Gilbert’s Metaphysics of Magnetism by Luke
Briner
Mathematics and Seminar by Augustus Pananas
Five Beautiful Passages from Plotinus arranged by
Luke Briner
πόλιςÊ
St. John’s, A New Panem by Molly Sprout
Competition at the College: The National Intercollegiate World Chopsticks Championship By B.S.
SJC Mystery #4: A Deeper Dark by Bennett
“Toxic” Scott
vessels by Natalie Goldman
The Statuary by Luke Briner
Noodles: “The Pessimist” by Tamar Pinsky
“The Student’s Lament”: A Poem From the SJC
Archives
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4
6
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Dear Polity,
We hope that you’ve had an enjoyable
and rejuvenating Thanksgiving break!
Please enjoy our fourth issue of the
semester, and here’s to finishing it
strong.
Luke Briner
Editor-in-chief
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THE GADFLY STAFF
COVER
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
MANAGING
EDITOR
STAFF
Abigail Poppleton
Luke Briner
El’ad NicholsKaufman
Meliha Anthony
Vivian Miyakawa
Tamar Pinsky
THE STRUCTURE
Λόγος holds news reports and narratives of
immediate relevance to the Polity. The purpose here
is to develop a shared reservoir of information
relating to campus life and the community.
ΣυμπόσιονÊoffers the opportunity for our readers to
thoughtfully consider contrasting opinions
regarding a particular topic.
ΠόλιςÊserves as a platform for elevating voices in
our community. Here we find letters to the editor,
columns, cartoons, and submitted pieces.
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Louis Rosenberg
Benne Sco
YOUT
CONTRIBUTORS
Tuyết-Nhi Nghiêm
Louis Rosenberg
Molly Sprout
Natalie Goldman
Audrey Fox
Augustus Pananas
�λόγος
THE GADFLY
November 27, 2023
Johnnie families participate in the school’s Fall Festival (Photography by Abigail Poppleton)
Johnnie Family Weekend: An Honest Review By Vivian Miyakawa
For many students, college is their first taste
of true freedom away from their families. Far from
the stress and monotony of home life, suddenly the
world is new and exciting. They have independence
to live how they want, sleeping, cleaning, and
working all on their own terms. However, this
transition doesn’t mean complete isolation from the
people they grew up with, especially with events such
as Johnnie Family Weekend. During the weekend of
October 27th-28th, friends and family were
encouraged to make the trek out to Annapolis,
Maryland and visit the students they had dropped off
at college just a few months before.
During this fun-filled weekend, students had
the opportunity to drop their beloved family members
off at a variety of educational and riveting activities,
or in other words, “parent daycare.” Here, Johnnie
friends and family got to gawk at the old books in the
Greenfield Library, listen to the dean assure them that
their children wouldn’t end up as deadbeat poets, and
even participate in a mock seminar! Seeing the
parents raising their hands all around the table, eager
to interject with an “um, actually” moment, really
shed light on why some of my classmates turned out
the way they did.
Another crucial aspect of family weekend was
perfecting your white lies. It’s a valuable skill to be
able to stand in the middle of the quad and assure
your grandfather that “nobody really drinks or
smokes here.” Flaunting your perfect rhetorical
argument, you plaster on a wide smile and convince
them that it’s your dream to become a lawyer one
day. After all, if you charm them enough, they may
just help you pay tuition. Just be sure that if your
room is too messy, it means your roommate is “sick”
and they surely wouldn’t want to catch whatever’s
going around.
Jokes aside, the best part of family weekend
was watching students gleefully drag their family
around campus, introducing them to all of their
friends and seeing them genuinely excited to share
their newfound home with the people they love. And,
for the rest of us, well, it was our collective sigh of
relief when the weekend was finally over.
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November 27, 2023
The holy land and the disciples (Photo by B.S.)
The Truth of Containers
The Universal Form
(MAJORÊPHILOSOPHICALÊDISCOVERY)
Esteemed members of this philosophical
institution,
Modern philosophy, as you know, claims to
have come far, rooting out so much superstition and
error. But in our rapid motion towards truth, we have
left behind a great many of the most important
questions. If I may speak frankly, you are cowards. But
I cannot blame you. For, until now, I too was afraid, a
coward, a degenerate bound by the will of ‘University
Boards’ and ‘Codes of Ethics.’ No more. We have
hidden the most important lines of inquiry—Why is
there something rather than nothing? What is truth?
Who am I?—out of sheer embarrassment. Even worse,
we have abandoned much of our realm of knowledge to
the“hard sciences”. We have betrayed the presocratics1,
having given up even the most important of all
questions: What is the essential matter of the world?
“Chemists” and “Physicists” claim to know of “atoms”
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By B.S.
and “quarks.” Let me ask you a simple question: have
you ever seen an atom? A quark? No? Then how can
they possibly be the essential matter of the world? How
could there ever be anything important that was hidden
away from us? It just makes no sense. My dear friends,
science has misled you, has misled us all. And I am
here to right that wrong.
On a date which shall go down in history2
(11/1/2023), I made a trip: I went to Westfield mall.
Amongst the Five Guys,3 the Hot Topic, and the emptygazing shoppers, I found something truly incredible.
The Container Store. One could say it is located right
next to the Crate and Barrel, but, in truth, it exists on an
entirely separate metaphysical plane. To enter into it is
to be confronted with truth. Walking around with my
loyal companions,4 I started to feel a dread emptiness:
was everything here a container? Was there no
substance, no actuality, only a vast abyss waiting to be
filled with all the excess accretions of capitalism so
numerous that we must dedicate ourselves not only to
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collecting things but collecting things to collect things?
There were boxes, chests, drawers, luggage, every sort
of container, but then I turned and saw something: a
candle? How could they be selling a candle at The
Container Store? Right next to the candles were shirts.
There were even fancy board games. Could it be that
this store, so committed to its cause that it put
‘Container’ in its name, would betray itself and give us
things which were not containers, but containeds? No.
To believe such a betrayal would be akin to
accusing the CIA of testing brainwashing
techniques on American citizens from
1943 up to July 10th, 1972. It’s
just not possible.
I grabbed the candle and
stared, whispering, then saying,
then screaming: how are you a
container? What do you
contain? WHAT DO YOU
CONTAIN?? Then, I had my
revelation, given by the gods.
I looked up and around
Everything I saw was
containers. Not just the boxes
and chests. Candles contain
smells. Shirts contain bodies.
Fancy board games contain fun!
Everything made sense. I began
running through the store, imbibing
in the wisdom of The Container Store
founders Garrett Boone, Kip Tindell, and
John Mullen.5 Measuring tapes contain the form
of measurement. Mirrors contain reflections. That cute
french press contains a possible future for my roommate
and I6. My mind began to expand beyond its dogmatic
state. Those children running around screaming contain
potential. Their parents chasing after them contain
regret. My companions and I and so too you my dear
reader, we are all but mere containers for thoughts and
guts. The Container Store was a container container, the
highest of all forms7. To contain is to have is to be8.
My peers, we’ve done it. I’ve done it. So long
we have faced the dictum “Think outside the box.”
Fools! Fools! All of them! There was never anything
outside of the box to think of! Aristotle will remind us
that after physics must come meta-physics, but what
about containa-physics, encompassing top, bottom, and
sides? Don’t you see? We were misled from the very
beginning. Everything is container. Philosophy has been
solved.
Thank me later (but not too much later),
B.S.
November 27, 2023
Endnotes
1. The moment Socrates began asking his insipid
questions, philosophy died. How could anything
interesting survive genuine inquiry? No. Questions
must be silenced.
2. Alongside the death of Socrates and The Bay of Pigs.
3. Fries were not nearly as good as I remember, clearly
the decline of capitalism.
4. Audrey Fox, food reviewer and enthusiast
of making fun of me, and Ben Maier,
Love Doctor and man who greeted
every employee by saying we
were shopping for Christmas.
5. Our Container Story |
Container Stories
(containerstore.com)
6. In a small apartment on
the Eastside of Seattle.
There are birds singing.
There’s a gentle breeze.
The coffee’s ready. We
have matching cableknit
sweaters. It’s all there! And
we can buy it all at The
Container Store!
7. There were also containers
just for pasta. Truly
revolutionary that containers can
be so object specific.
8. “Rabbi Zeira says that there is another
method [for acquiring an elephant]: One
brings four vessels [which must, of course, be
containers] and places them under the elephant’s feet,
and he thereby acquires it like any other item that is
inside the buyer’s vessels” [Tractate Kiddushin, 25b, tr.
William Davidson]
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�λόγος
THE GADFLY
November 27, 2023
Thai and a Movie
By Audrey Fox
Are you looking to film a 21st century
Annapolis reboot of the all-time classic The
Godfather? I too would be a little suspicious if I were
told the best place in Annapolis to reenact the classic
restaurant assassination was Carslon’s Thai Kitchen,
but hear me out; it fulfills many of the aesthetic and
logistical requirements that unfortunately none of the
Italian restaurants in Annapolis possess. It’s quiet,
customers keep to themselves, and the food is great.
There are also some great stand alone tables in the
restaurant that I am sure would easily break upon
impact with a falling body, making for a great
location to stage a cold hearted mob assassination.
Upon arrival at the location, I was struck by
the various means of escape I could utilize for the
getaway car. Not only is West Street an obvious
choice, there are numerous side roads in the vicinity
that could also aid in a “stealth” based approach.
Unfortunately I could not test this, as my editor is a
poor driver, and almost got us killed while pulling out
of the driveway. There are also two entrances to the
restaurant, which I am certain could come in handy.
Inside the restaurant there are two spaces that
constitute the main dining room. There is the check
out area, which is connected to the vestibule of the
doorway, and there is also the seating area that is
partitioned off by a partial wall. Both booths and
tables are available, however it seems that the
majority of customers carry out, meaning it will be
empty inside.
I was staking out the location with my editor
to get a sense of the atmosphere. I had to come back
in the morning as I forgot the most important part: the
bathroom. Oh, and of course the donuts as well. It
soon became apparent that we would have to stage
the bathroom scene at an alternate location, as the
toilet was not an old fashioned one with the pull
chain. Otherwise everything was perfect. The interior
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has that small, hole in the wall vibe that was essential
to the assassination. Numerous vases line the wall,
the lighting is warm, the only people sitting near us
were an old hard of hearing couple and a young girl
watching Minecraft videos. I would have some
ethical issues with staging such a violent scene near
one so young, but perhaps if she had headphones on
this issue could be averted. By the way—to any
freshman or other Johnnies who have not been to
Carlson’s and love Thursday night donuts—these
donuts are 10x better. I recommend a good old
chocolate glaze donut, but the cronuts (croissant
donut) are also a fun option.
Now, let me get to the good stuff: the food.
We started out with fried tofu. Very solid, a hard
appetizer to mess up. I had the red curry with pork,
and I found it very delicious and perhaps better than
Lemongrass, which is often hailed as the best Thai in
Annapolis. Their drunken noodles are also out of this
world. The noodles are fresh and the flavor has a
�THE GADFLY
λόγος
November 27, 2023
little kick but nothing too overpowering. My
editor loves Carlson’s, but unfortunately the
meal he got while we were staking out the
location (he only referred to it as the #7) was
not to his liking. We also got the Thai iced
tea—which was good, but nothing
remarkable. The only food they order in the
Godfather is the veal. There is no veal at
Carlson’s, however I think any of the curry’s
would be a good substitute.
I have been told by my editor that my
budget proposal for recreating the Godfather
has not been approved. I guess it makes
sense. What sort of mobster movie would
take place in Annapolis at a Thai restaurant?
We may never know. But in the meantime, I
highly recommend you check out Carlson’s
Thai Kitchen.
Images by Benne Sco , Audrey Fox, and Taste of Cinema
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�λόγος
THE GADFLY
November 27, 2023
Leptoglossus corculus: Leaf-footed Pine Seed Bug
By Louis Rosenberg
About the many bugs that are leaf-t largely
undescribed.
I saw this leaf-footed bug on my friend’s car last
week, so naturally I took a picture of it. After my
initial plan for this bug article fell through, I came
back to that picture and began working to identify its
subject. I began my search by looking up leaf-footed
bugs, family Coreidae, which seemed to be the best
starting place for this specimen and its jagged hindleg protrusions. Since I found it in Maryland, I
headed over to the Maryland Biodiversity Project
website, which is a large database of animals (and
plants and fungi) found throughout Maryland,
including common names, scientific names, and
pictures of specimens of each species. After noting
that the leaf-footed pine seed bug, L. corculus, most
closely matched my specimen, I headed back to my
favorite search engine to try and find more
information on this species.
I found very little. Michigan State University
published a short article from 2006 that focused on
the agricultural impacts of the species, but there was
little description of the bug (only the creature’s size,
the white stripe on its back, and its hind leg shape
were described). Its living habits were only described
insofar as they impact humans — they may
overwinter in human homes, causing minor nuisance,
and thus the authors flatly recommend homeowners
“destroy them or vacuum them up.”
Beyond the MSU article, most of the remaining
search results were for a closely related species, L.
occidentalis or the western conifer seed bug. One of
those links, from Pennsylvania State University, led
to an excitingly detailed article on that species, which
included a note that L. occidentalis can easily be
confused for other Leptoglossus species, including L.
corculus. L. corculus is a darker brown than L.
occidentalis, and the inner and outer portions of their
hind leg expansions can differ in size, as they do on
the bug I found, which further confirmed my
identification of this specimen. A Wikipedia article
for L. occidentalis also comes up, which includes
sections on the insect’s description and range. The L.
corculus Wikipedia article, on the other hand,
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contains only two sentences: “Leptoglossus corculus,
the leaf-footed pine seed bug, is a species of leaffooted bug in the family Coreidae. It is found in
North America.”
Why is so little information about L. corculus
available? Perhaps because it is so innocuous to
humans: while its relative is expanding its range, and
thus accruing ecological concerns, L. corculus itself
does nothing worse than irritating homeowners.
Perhaps it’s just because there’s so many species of
insects in the world that it’s foolish of me to hope for
detailed information on each and every one of them.
While I feel a little sad for every underresearched
insect that I spot, it also reminds me of the glory of
the natural world. There is, and always will be, so
much out there that’s unknown. We can only strive to
find it.
Sources:
・https://extension.psu.edu/western-conifer-seed-bug
・https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/viewChecklist.php?
family=Coreidae
・https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/leaf_footed_pine_seed_bug
・https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_conifer_seed_bug
・https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptoglossus_corculus
�λόγος
THE GADFLY
Gilbert’s Metaphysics of
Magnetism By Luke Briner
In his treatise De Magnete (On the
Loadstone), William Gilbert expounds his theory of
the spiritual nature of magnetism, attributing the
essential behavior of magnetically active bodies not
to the physical properties of body in itself, but to the
“effused immaterial forms beyond the limits of the
body” (p. 61). How can we understand the magnetic
force of these bodies as not a physical but a
metaphysical phenomenon, and what implications
does that understanding have for the way that we
must think about all magnetic bodies?
Gilbert begins his investigation by observing
some of the empirical phenomena which loadstones
(naturally occurring magnetic bodies) exhibit. By
taking a loadstone and shaving it down into a
spheroid, subsequently called a terrella and “a true
homogenous offspring of the earth and…of the same
shape” (p. 56), he observes that, by the movement of
a needle or iron wire along its surface, a north and
south pole may always be observed along its equator
with opposite directions and tendencies to each other.
These two poles, however, despite being contrary to
each other, are at the same time attracted to each
other. Gilbert demonstrates this by showing that the
north pole of a terrella, when suspended in water
such that movement is easy and free, will actively
align itself with the south pole of the earth itself, and
that the south pole will thereby do the inverse (p. 58).
This attraction to the contrary pole, either to that of
the earth itself or to that of any other magnetic body,
is in fact so great that poles of the same kind will
actively repel each other: if two loadstones are set
against each other such that the pole of one is put
toward the same pole of the other “one stone repels
the other” (p. 59) until the proper alignment of
opposites previously observed is restored.
Gilbert attributes all of this behavior not to a
merely physical or mechanical but to a spiritual
cause. While it’s true that “not from a mathematical
point does the force of the stone emanate, but from
the parts themselves” (p. 56), the parts themselves
possess such a force at all solely by virtue of the
“effused immaterial forms” (p. 61) of the souls which
inhabit them. Just as many of the ancients believed
that “not without a divine and animate nature could
movements so diverse be produced” (p. 60) in the
November 27, 2023
great bodies of the universe, so Gilbert attributes a
similar nature to magnetic globes large and small,
since only by such a nature could their seemingly
active movements and tendencies be possible or
intelligible.
The implications of this assertion for the ways
in which we can conceive of the general nature of
magnetic bodies can be easily drawn out by applying
the methods of the differential and integral calculus
of our Junior Mathematics tutorial to them. Gilbert
demonstrates that when a loadstone is split apart, the
parts thus divided will naturally and immediately
seek to reunite with those parts to which they were
originally connected when the stone was whole, with
it the one being themselves a north and the other a
south pole (p. 59). But say that we divide the entire
loadsone, “at one fell swoop” (Galileo, Two New
Sciences, NE 93), into a “continuum out of absolutely
indivisible atoms” (ibid). Let the whole original
loadstone be M, and each infinitesimal atom be called
dm (to borrow the language from Leibniz’ New
Method). Now in each infinitely fine cut made to the
unified loadstone, there must, by the same tendency
demonstrated above in the case of the splitting of one
into two, a tendency for each to unify with their
adjacent atoms, since they were connected when the
loadstone was still a unity. From this it’s evident that
there is an infinite series of north and south poles
already and always contained within the loadstone as
present in each dm, such that ∫dm = M; in other
words, each loadstone, itself ensouled, contains
within itself a virtual infinity of equally ensouled
magnetic particles. A merely physical division
couldn’t possibly, on Gilbert’s account, in any way
alter the polar nature of each dm, since this nature has
no physical cause in the first place. Neither does the
duality implicit in each dm necessarily containing a
north and south pole contradict their atomized
indivisibility, by the same distinction between
the physical and the metaphysical explained
before. Hence we come to a similar
conclusion to Leibniz, then, that “there is
a world of creatures…of souls in the
least part of matter” (Monadology,
§66), with each magnetic soul
being immaterial, indestructible,
and causing or helping to
cause all physical
phenomena observed in
magnetic bodies.
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November 27, 2023
Mathematics in Seminar
By Augustus Pananas
Of all the elements of the Program, the
mathematics tutorial is perhaps the one which
requires the most explanation. Not that the value of
the tutorial in itself isn't obvious (at least to the extent
that you take it seriously). People like myself, who
always hated math classes previously, find
themselves delighted with the clarity, orderliness, and
comprehensibility of Euclid. Even the prospect of
calculus in future years and dark hints from the
seniors about some kind of dark sorcerer called
“Lobachevsky” aren't enough to abate the wonder of
this new way of thinking about mathematics. The
experiences of subsequent years only confirm this
feeling. What is perhaps less clear is the way in
which this miraculous experience fits in with the rest
of the Program.
If the central work of St. John's takes place in
seminar (and this I believe wholeheartedly), how
does the mathematics tutorial serve that work? The
content of the mathematics tutorial doesn't seem to
aid much in the project of seminar. If the language
tutorial teaches us how to utilize the tools of language
in a meaningful way, laboratory helps us to use our
observational and theory-forming skills, and chorus
and music tutorial connect our work to the experience
of the beautiful and sublime, what does mathematics
do? As much as some (myself included) might like,
the work of seminar is simply not reducible to
propositional argumentation. And since many of us
don't study any formal logic at St John's (a travesty
which is too vast to be addressed here), the
parallelism with syllogistic reasoning isn't very
helpful either. While the kind of rigorous thinking
which the study of mathematics produces is
something worth mastering in itself, it is something I
see applied to the work of seminar only rarely, even
by the very best Johnnies. The topics of seminar
simply don't lend themselves to the same sort of
thinking that occurs in the mathematics tutorial. So
what is it for? I suspect that the answer lies more in
the
effect
mathematics
(especially
public
mathematical demonstration) has on the psyche of the
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student. In particular, it has two effects which, if
applied to the work of seminar, address a pair of
failings to which Johnnies are prone.
First, mathematical demonstration requires a
precision of language which is extremely helpful in
seminar. This is distinct from the rigor of its ideas.
Mathematical demonstration is rigorous in that all of
its claims can be said to follow immediately from
those that came before. If an unsupported claim is
made, anyone who is paying attention can
immediately point it out. This is extremely powerful,
but is not the feature which is important here. What
matters here is the fact that in a good demonstration,
it is necessary to always make clear exactly what one
is referring to. All of us have had the experience of
watching (or even presenting) a disastrous
demonstration in which someone makes repeated
reference to “it” or “that one” or “the thing” without
clarifying the objects being referred to. It simply
doesn't work. Mathematical demonstration is
incompatible with that kind of imprecision. The
application of this kind of precision can be
immensely helpful in seminar. Too often a
conversation is hindered because someone proposes
an idea (sometimes even a great idea) in terms too
imprecise to move the conversation forward. At such
times, reminding oneself of the constraints of
demonstration (if you can't say it, you don't know it)
can be immensely helpful. The topics of seminar are
vast and sweeping; the thoughts which it provokes
often have a grandeur which seems to evaporate on
the lips. Grounding ourselves in the simplicity of
speech that our shared experience in mathematics
gives can be a lifesaver when we fall into the trap of
trying to say everything all at once by forcing us to
use meaningful language.
If our mathematical experience can help
prevent us from trying to say too much, it can also
save us from falling into another classic trap: saying
nothing at all. In seminar, it's easy to fill a silence by
rambling about nothing at all. Because a discussion
of Plato or Dante or Locke isn't a proposition, it is
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possible to spend a great deal of time rearranging the
terms of the discussion in such a way that it produces
no new ideas at all. This can happen both
intentionally and accidentally, and all (or at least
most) of us are guilty of it from time to time. It's less
awkward than sitting in silence, but it's even more
useless. And if it's interjected into a conversation
which is actually progressing smoothly, it can be a
massive hindrance to the flow of the argument. While
this problem will almost certainly be with us for a
long time to come, I'm willing to bet that it is not
worse than it is because of our time spent with
mathematics. While seminar may be fertile ground
for using a great number of words to say nothing, the
November 27, 2023
same is not true of mathematics. When you go up to
present a proposition, you either know it or you don't.
There is no faking it. That feeling of standing at the
board with a piece of chalk in your hand and your
foot in your mouth is not easy to forget, and it
reminds us that there is a real difference between
being able to speak and having something to say. You
can talk about a proposition all you want, but if you
can't do the proof, there's no way to hide it. I suspect
we all carry at least a bit of that feeling (or the
vicarious version of it, for those demigods who have
never flubbed a proof) with us into our other classes.
It's a feeling we could stand to bring to mind a little
more.
Female Student at Blackboard during Mathematics Tutorial in 1961
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November 27, 2023
Five Beautiful Passages from Plotinus
Arranged by Luke Briner
All passages are from the MacKenna-Page
translation as produced in Encyclopædia
Britannica’s 1952 Great Books edition of the
Enneads.
-LB
IV.8.1.
Many times it has happened: Lifted out of the body
into myself; becoming external to all other things and
self-encentered; beholding a marvellous beauty; then,
more than ever, assured of community with the
loftiest order; enacting the noblest life, acquiring
identity with the divine; stationing within It by
having attained that activity; poised above
whatsoever within the Intellectual is less than the
Supreme: yet, there comes the moment of descent
from intellection from reasoning, and after that
sojourn in the divine, I ask myself how it happens
that I can now be descending, and how did the soul
ever enter into my body, the soul which, even within
the body, is the high thing it has shown itself to be.
I.6.9-10.
But how are you to see into a virtuous soul and know
its loveliness?
Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not
find yourself beautiful yet, act as does the
creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful: he cuts
away here, he smoothes there, he makes this line
lighter, this other purer, until a lovely face has grown
upon his work. So do you also: cut away all that is
excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to
all that is overcast, labour to make all one glow of
beauty and never cease “chiselling your statue,”1 until
there shall shine out on you from it the godlike
1
splendour of virtue, until you shall see “the perfect
goodness surely established in the stainless shrine.”2
When you know that you have become this perfect
work, when you are self-gathered in the purity of
your being, nothing now remaining that can shatter
than inner unity, nothing from without clinging to the
authentic man, when you find yourself wholly true to
your essential nature, wholly that only veritable Light
which is not measured by space, not narrowed to any
circumscribed form nor again diffused as a thing void
of term, but ever unmeasurable as something greater
than all measure and more than all quantity—when
you perceive that you have grown to this, you are
now become very vision: now call up all your
confidence, strike forward but a step—you need a
guide no longer—strain, and see.
VI.7.36.
Knowledge of The Good or contact with it, is the allimportant: this—we read—“is the grand learning,”3
the “learning” we are to understand, not of looking
towards it but attaining, first, some knowledge of it.
We come to this learning by analogies, by
abstractions, by our understanding of its subsequents,
of all that is derived from The Good, by the upward
steps towards it. Purification has The Good for goal;
so the virtues, all right ordering, ascent within the
Intellectual, settlement therein, banqueting upon the
divine—by these methods one becomes, to self and to
all else, at once seen and seer; identical with Being
and Intellectual-Principle and “the entire living all,”4
we no longer see the Supreme as an external; we are
near now, the next is That and it is close at hand,
radiant above the Intellectual.
Here, we put aside all the learning; disciplined to this
pitch, established in beauty, the quester holds
knowledge still of the ground he rests on but,
Plotinus is referencing Phaedrus, 252b7 here. Although the quotation marks are absent in MacKenna-Page’s version, I have chosen to follow
Armstrong’s lead and add them in order to make that reference’s fact clear to the reader, and will do the same when necessary going forward.
2
Phaedrus, 254b7.
3
Republic, 505a2.
4
Timaeus, 31b1.
12
�THE GADFLY
συμπόσιον
November 27, 2023
suddenly, swept beyond it all by the very crest of the
wave of Intellect surging beneath, he is lifted and
sees, never knowing how; the vision floods the eyes
with light, but it is not a light showing some other
object, the light is itself the vision. No longer is there
thing seen and light to show it, no longer Intellect and
object of Intellection; this is the very radiance that
brought both Intellect and Intellectual object into
being for the later use and allowed them to occupy
the quester’s mind. With This he himself becomes
identical, with that radiance whose Act is to engender
Intellectual-Principle, not losing in that engendering
but for ever unchanged, the engendered coming to be
simply because that Supreme exists. If there were no
such principle above change, no derivative could rise.
VI.9.8.
Thus the Supreme as containing no otherness is ever
present with us; we with it when we put otherness
away. It is not that the Supreme reaches out to us
seeking our communion: we reach towards the
Supreme; it is we that become present. We are always
before it: but we do not always look: thus a choir,
singing set in due order about the conductor, may
turn away from that centre to which all should attend:
let it but face aright and it sings with beauty, present
effectively. We are ever before the Supreme—cut off
is utter dissolution; we can no longer be—but we do
not always attend: when we look, our Term is
attained; this is rest; this is the end of singing ill;
effectively before Him, we lift a choral song full of
God.
Bust of Plotinus from the Ostiense Museum in Rome,
VI.9.11.
This is the purport of that rule of our Mysteries:
Nothing Divulged to the Uninitiate: the Supreme is
not to be made a common story, the holy things may
not be uncovered to the stranger, to any that has not
himself attained to see. There were not two; beholder
was one with beheld; it was not a vision compassed
but a unity apprehended. The man formed by this
mingling with the Supreme must—if he only
remember—carry its image impressed upon him: he
is become the Unity, nothing within him or without
inducing any diversity; no movement now, no
passion, no outlooking desire, once this ascent is
achieved; reasoning is in abeyance and all
Intellection and even, to dare the word, the very self;
caught away, filled with God, he has in perfect
stillness attained isolation; all the being calmed, he
Italy (Source: worldhistory.org, CC BY-SA license)
turns neither to this side nor to that, not even inwards
to himself; utterly resting he has become very rest.
He belongs no longer to the order of the beautiful; he
has risen beyond beauty; he has overpassed even the
choir of the virtues; he is like one who, having
penetrated the inner sanctuary, leaves the temple
images behind him—though these become once more
first objects of regard when he leaves the holies; for
There his converse was not with image, not with
trace, but with the very Truth in the view of which all
the rest is but of secondary concern.
There, indeed, it was scarcely vision, unless of a
mode unknown; it was a going forth from the self, a
simplifying, a renunciation, a reach towards contact
and at the same time a repose, a meditation towards
adjustment. This is the only seeing of what lies within
13
�συμπόσιον
THE GADFLY
the holies: to look otherwise is to fail.
Things here are signs; they show therefore to the
wiser teachers how the supreme God is known; the
instructed priest reading the sign may enter the holy
place and make real the vision of the inaccessible.
Even those that have never found entry must admit
the existence of that invisible; they will know their
source and Principle since by principle they see
principle and are linked with it, by like they have
contact with like and so they grasp all of the divine
that lies within the scope of mind. Until the seeing
comes they are still craving something, that which
only the vision can give; this Term, attained only by
those that have overpassed all, is the AllTranscending.
It is not in the soul’s nature to touch utter
nothingness; the lowest descent is into evil and, so
far, into non-being: but to utter nothing, never. When
November 27, 2023
the soul begins again to mount, it comes not to
something alien but to its very self; thus detached, it
is not in nothingness but in itself; self-gathered it is
no longer in the order of being; it is in the Supreme.
There is thus a converse in virtue of which the
essential man outgrows Being, becomes identical
with the Transcendent of Being. The self thus lifted,
we are in the likeness of the Supreme: if from that
heightened self we pass still higher—image to
archetype—we have won the Term of all our
journeying. Fallen back again, we awaken the virtue
within until we know ourselves all order once more;
once more we are lightened of the burden and move
by virtue towards Intellectual-Principle and through
the Wisdom in That to the Supreme.
This is the life of gods and of the godlike and blessed
among men, liberation from the alien that besets us
here, a life taking no pleasure in the things of earth,
the passing of solitary to solitary.
Pictured on le : Portrait of Stephen
Mackenna, translator of Plotinus, drawn in
1907 by Leo Mielziner
Excerpt from a 1907 journal entry of
MacKenna’s: "Whenever I look into Plotinus I
feel always all the old trembling fevered
longing: it seems to me that I must be born
for him, and that somehow someday I must
have nobly translated him: my heart,
untravelled, still to Plotinus turns and drags at
each remove a lengthening chain. It seems to
me that him alone of authors I understand by
inborn sight..."
14
�πόλις
THE GADFLY
November 27, 2023
Noodles: “The Pessimist”
By Tamar Pinsky
15
�πόλις
THE GADFLY
SJC Mystery #4: A
Deeper Dark
By Benne “Toxic” Sco
I was in Mellon 206, looking for a strike
lighter and a bunsen burner (I have no idea how long
the power is going to last). I haven’t been going out
much. The rain was always cold, but I’m fine with
the cold. My problem was how loud and blinding it
could be; in all my paranoia, the thought of not being
able to see or hear properly sounded, to say the least,
unappealing. But I couldn’t sit inside forever (I’m
slowly discovering all the different ways you can go
crazy), so I went on a little adventure in pursuit of the
thing my little caveman brain can understand best:
fire!
Lights turned off and on in a few of the
windows I passed, the cars were in different locations
despite never moving, all the usual haunts to make
me question the stability of my mind/reality. I
checked my phone out of habit: no texts (despite
having service?), and the date still and always the
same: somewhere between midnight and 8, April 7th,
2016. I kept walking.
After I’d been in Mellon for a while, I found
myself with a bunsen burner in one hand and a
problem in the other: how was I supposed to get a
fuel source from the lab to my apartment? For all the
evidence to the contrary that I have provided you
dear reader, I am not entirely a fool. Having a
propane tank in my apartment that has one exit and
no windows which can open in a world where
firefighters definitely will not answer my call? That’s
fool central. So I decided to light it then and there
instead. About three seconds later, the lights went
out.
Now, someone who has actively put
themselves in the position of summoning powers
beyond our comprehension would be well served by
having a good survival instinct. I, naturally, do not;
when it comes to fight or flight, I freeze. So I stood,
unmoving, trying to make out the contours of the
darkness. At first, I only heard the rain and the
burner. The burner, about a minute in, went out. After
about three or four minutes (long enough that I could
have just been hallucinating), I began to hear the
scratching, a rhythmic cutting in the darkness. It was
coming from the next room.
16
November 27, 2023
There is only one thing to do in such a
situation, once more a correlate of ‘Don’t do anything
that would start a horror movie’: if you’re in a horror
movie situation, do something absolutely antithetical
to being murdered. Options include: break dancing,
yodeling, reciting the declaration of independence,
etc. My demon prevention method of choice? Britney
Spears. Toxic. Certainly has some bad vibes, but who
ever got stabbed to something so danceable? Now, I
didn’t sing too loud at first for obvious reasons, but
once you get to the chorus, brother you cannot stop
yourself from going for it. I put on a little show for
those demons: choreography, high notes, drama. And
by God, it must have worked; I finished singing, and
there was no more scratching.
I stood in silence, waiting to hear the screams
of the damned. Nothing, nothing so pure it started to
hurt my ears. I looked around: why the hell did
silence hurt? My head felt like it was expanding,
pressing out at the temples. I tried coughing and it
was swallowed up. It was so very quiet. Out the
window, I could see the stars. The panes were clear.
The rain had stopped.
Well I—to speak like my good ol’
grandmother—just about jumped for joy. What the
hell happened? What the hell kind of explanation
could there be? What the hell did I care for an
explanation? The rain was done and the air was
warm! The lights turned back on (I only jumped a
little when they did). Everything was gonna be
alright! There was only one problem: I had to check
where the scratching had come from. It might get me
killed, but there might be answers. This was what I
found:
�πόλις
THE GADFLY
November 27, 2023
St. John’s, A New Panem
By Molly Sprout
Recently my friends and I were imagining a
Hunger Games-type situation at St. John’s; a fight to
the death with the entire student body. While
entertaining to think of, and maybe even intriguing
(Reality Club... maybe something to work on?), there
was a thought that came to me: we are all incredibly
weak. And yes, this is ignoring some of the student
body that does really have their shit together and
could probably kill a lot of us with their bare hands.
But for the most part our weakness is accurate and
unavoidable. And this isn’t just due to the student
body comprising mostly of previous high school
nerds, and we can hear why in the conversations we
have outside of class. Does any of this sound
familiar? “I haven’t eaten anything
all day” “I only got three hours of
sleep last night” “I’ve just been
drinking coffee and eating the
dining hall fries for the past week”
“I had ten (10) shots of Jack
Daniels last night” “I have had
bronchitis for eight
weeks but will
continue to
smoke half a
pack a day”—
this campus is
malnourished,
under slept,
and sick.
With our college’s motto being “Books and a
Balance” one would think that we would attempt to
execute this. Our failure to do so raises the question
of what kind of balance the student body is seeking.
If it is not the balance of a healthy life with an
immersive study of books, then what exactly is it?
With the obsession with acting thoughtlessly and
unhealthily along with the need for our peer’s eyes, it
seems as though we are seeking the balance of
someone on a tightrope, teetering on the thin line we
have created for ourselves, made for the spectacle of
it. Because it is not that we are just drinking too much
or eating and sleeping too little, but that it is done in
tandem with scholarly perfection. It is an attempt to
do the impossible; reduce your body and health to
Student Studying in McDowell Hall
nothingness while turning in a beautiful essay on
time. We must be the impossible to everyone we
know! And as glamorous as that sounds, being a
functional alcoholic with a great Don Rag, it is
impossible. We can try to convince ourselves that the
essay we turned in after seventy-two hours of not
sleeping is good, but it really isn’t. Instead of
reaching perfection and self-destruction at the same
time all we have done is hurt our bodies and our
minds without anything to show for it. As much as
we avoid this conclusion it is inevitable, and we can
all see it when we cry to our friends about not being
able to keep going as tired as you are.
To offer a solution for this is to throw a stone in a
glass house. I smoke an incredible amount and
absolutely do not work out. So, really what I have
done is offer up useless critique on a mass problem of
young people in academia. But I will say that each
and every one of you would benefit from drinking a
glass of whole milk
and eating some
vegetables.
17
�πόλις
THE GADFLY
November 27, 2023
The Statuary
By Luke Briner
They stand abidingly amid the sun-enhalcyoned shrouds
That diadem the lofty, lonesome mount
As though the eminences of a never-passing age,
Formidable and unoblivioned.
I’ve longed so much to know
Myself the secrets of that conclave’s beatific life—
No longer to meander through its ranks
In idle fancy, but to offer up this trembling flesh
Unto its highest rigor, and be free
From all that lies below.
Beneath this sacred crest partitioning the long-estranged
Hypostases of timelessness and toil
A worthless nature writhes, unidylled, frantically inert,
And aching for a self-subverted peace.
Is that my destiny?
Or does a higher motion dwell within this dismal breast,
By which I could endeavor to endure
In still submiss the apogean kiln that immolates
All false debris, and fires the faultless form
That hides inside of me?
18
�πόλις
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November 27, 2023
Take all that’s good within: outstretch, unfold the tiny point
Of infinite and life-enthralling light
That silently reposes in the center of the squalls
And miseries of its posterity
Into a puissant shape,
Epitomized in its unique perfection, as its kin,
Atop an undeclining golden age;
Would that ascendancy be mine?—or would I, thrown aside
As an extraneous vessel, only watch
Its heavenward escape?
Alighted effortlessly on the yawning azure apse
The Luminary, cool and pontiff-like,
Presides above the praises of her progeny, and sighs
A living redolence that sweeps them up
In transcendental rite;
As she to them, so they to me—and I in kind aspire
To carve upon the all-anointed plane
A self-derived exemplar that, unmoving, moves the world,
And, surpliced by the noon, behold her with
An uneliding sight.
I have withdrawn into myself and looked, and I have found
The dim quiescence of a once-held spouse;
There lies the one true work made for these transience-addled hands:
To grasp the chisel, and restore him to
His early, godlike shine.
For you and you alone, my Critic, do I make myself
At once the Statue and the Cypriot—
For nothing but the hope of finding in your loving eyes
My truth and legacy, forever fixed
Within your stainless shrine.
19
�πόλις
THE GADFLY
November 27, 2023
Competition, Victory, Joy. (Picture by Meliha Anthony)
Competition at the College: The National
Intercollegiate World Chopsticks
Championship By B.S.
Dear friends competitors,
You are certainly aware that society is
presently going down the drain. But why? Scroll long
enough on any Tik-Tok feed (past the incessant
dancing, stolen jokes, and… is that just almost porn?
Why?) you will find the same answer given by the
same people: men variously to the side of the camera,
a microphone in their face, will tell you that
masculinity is dead (the so called ‘Bro Scogan
Experientia’ is the prime example of this). People tell
you to be tougher, harder, fight more wolves. And, to
be honest with you dear reader, it’s boring. The man20
o-sphere’s solution is returning to something more
primal, less soyboy; I, as the soyboy philosopher king
that I am, know that they are only striving after
shadows; we must strive after truth. And the truth is
competition.
The immediate, weak-minded assumption is
that competition exists purely in and for itself; the
thoughtful, big-brained solution sees that competition
solves every single problem ever and never has any
issues thank you very much Adam B. Smith. And let
me tell you: St. John’s College has entirely lost its
competitive edge. We make our college ‘hard’ by
�πόλις
THE GADFLY
November 27, 2023
say pressure makes diamonds, they are not going far
enough: enough pressure makes a black hole, strong
enough to swallow up even Einstein.
Imagine the money from the reality TV
version.
And to prove my commitment to this cause, I
have begun the competing process with a new and
great competition, not just for the college, but for the
whole world: The Intercollegiate National World
Chopsticks Championship:
having enabling, but what is enabling when everyone
and their cousin gets enabled? We claim to have a
rigorous program, but we don’t even require a single
class in Business Administration (the most difficult
course)? We take our name, our calling professors
tutors, calling evaluations don rags from Oxford, the
most prestigious school in the world. The first step to
being truly competitive is to take another Oxi
tradition: post grades on public bulletins. “But B.S.!
We don’t concentrate on grades at the College!” Shut
up. What kind of world is it where we are not
comparing GPAs? What is there to compete over
when our unit of measurement is the number of
longing looks directed your way during a semester
(2)? And god damn it, why do we only have to be
graded on our classes? We need to be truly expansive
in our evaluations. We need grade postings for
everyone as a waltz partner (C+), as a friend (A–), as
a lover (F). You try kissing like a fish and being
publicly ridiculed for it; you will change. You will
evolve.
But why stop there? Everything done by
everyone should be rated all the time to build
pressure and spite. Seminar points should get a rating
from both tutors on the spot (a la gymnastics); papers
should be read aloud and critiqued at random;
intramural games should be made overly violent and
obsessive (see how small the steps we have to take
are!). Forget renovating the dorms: destroy them all
and make one giant Naval Academy building: eat and
be judged, sleep and be judged, shower and be
judged, judged even for your judgement. When they
Entirely seriously,
B.S.
21
�πόλις
THE GADFLY
November 27, 2023
vessels
By Natalie Goldman
The channels for spirit
Are delicately constructed.
Lying in a well-worn path,
They drive passion to madness.
Nobody, though, would doubt
The hardiness of the walls themselves,
Keeping in even the most
Base and heinous of rages.
There is no seeping out.
Someday, blood will be replaced.
They will change it for something
More beautiful and terrifying.
When that day comes,
We will break down our barriers
And run into each other’s arms.
22
�πόλις
THE GADFLY
November 27, 2023
The Student's Lament from the St. John's College Yearbook;
Author and Year Unknown
Hope you all had some wonderful food over Thanksgiving Break!
23
�THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
OF
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly is the
student newsmagazine distributed to
over 600 students, faculty, staff, and
alumni of the Annapolis campus.
Opinions expressed within are the
responsibility of the author(s). The
Gadfly reserves the right to accept,
reject, and edit submissions in any
way necessary to publish a
professional, informative, and
thought provoking newsmagazine.
Submissions sent to the Gadfly
should either be in Google Docs or
JPEG format. The deadline for
submissions is the Friday prior to
(Photography by Abigail Poppleton)
publication.
For more information, contact us
via email at lbriner@sjc.edu.
Photographs without a listed source are from the
St. John's College Digital Archives.
St. John's College owns the rights
to these photographs.
Illustrations without a listed source are by Takashi
Mifune from Irasutoya.com and are free to use for
non-commercial purposes. All rights to these
illustrations still belong to the artist.
60 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
�
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The Gadfly, Vol. XLV, Issue 4
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Text
THE
St. John’s College
Annapolis, Maryland
GADFLY
Common Ground
November 2, 2023
Vol. XLV, Issue 3
�CONTENTS
λόγος : news reports & narratives regarding immediate campus life
An Interview With Mr. Bellinson & Mr. Kerimov
by El’ad Kaufman-Nichols
3
THE GADFLY STAFF
COVER
Kunai, a History by Tamar Pinsky
10
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Carlson, God of Donuts and Thai Food
by Bennett Scott, with Audrey Fox
12
MANAGING
EDITOR
συμπόσιονÊ:Êcontrasting opinions on various topics for thought
Ungo by Nicky Jordan
13
An Attempted System of Operational Proofs for Four
Transfinite Equations by Luke Briner
17
STAFF
Abigail Poppleton
Luke Briner
El’ad NicholsKaufman
Meliha Anthony
Vivian Miyakawa
Tamar Pinsky
Louis Rosenberg
πόλιςÊ:Êvoices of the community, including poetry, cartoons, etc.
Benne Sco
Noodles: “A Cannibalistic Chef’s Dilemma”
by Tamar Pinsky
19
Don’t Meet Your Wife At St. John’s College by Ben Maier
20
Should Men Have Friends? by B.S.
22
Notes on Dialogue Gossip by Vivian Miyakawa
24
Ben Maier
SJC Mystery #3: Could Have Gone Better by Bennett Scott
25
art i guess by Natalie Goldman
26
Natalie Goldman
Translation of Baudelaire’s “Élévation” by Luke Briner
27
YOUT
KC Taylor
Tuyết-Nhi Nghiêm
CONTRIBUTORS
Letter from the Editor
Nicky Jordan
Audrey Fox
Dear Polity,
We’re excited for you to read our third issue of the year!
I want to give a special word of gratitude to our new layout team, Ms. Tuyết-Nhi Nghiêm and Ms. KC
Taylor, who begun their work at the Gadfly last issue, as well as Ms. Abigail Poppleton, who has and will be
continuing to very kindly provide us with her excellent photography. It’s because of them that our paper is
able to look nearly as good as it does, and they have my and our sincerest thanks.
I also want to personally address the recent demonstration in protest of insufficient tutor
compensation organized and executed by tutors Mr. Nicholas Bellinson and Mr. Khafiz Kerimov. Tutors are
the guardians and the lifeblood of St. John’s, and are accordingly deserving of the highest respect not only
from students but from the College itself—and one of the clearest and most important criteria for measuring
the degree of that respect must inevitably be the level of material well-being that the College actually affords
them with. The Gadfly, as an expression of the activity and the will of the student body, is inextricably linked
to all conditions surrounding the educational life of that student body, and consequently must be passionately
invested in this struggle which is so vital to the essence of that life. It is our very earnest hope that any and all
financial ills and wrongs currently suffered by tutors are ameliorated and rectified as swiftly and as
completely as possible, and we wholeheartedly support any means by which that may be accomplished. In
practice, the Gadfly will use its platform to address the situation in three main ways. First, there will have
already been coverage of the walk-out itself as well as our Dean’s personal reaction to it in the sixth issue of
the Collegian. Second, within this issue, there is an extended interview by our Managing Editor Mr. El’ad
Nichols-Kaufman with Mr. Bellinson and Mr. Kerimov. Third, Mr. Nichols-Kaufman and I will be working
together on a significantly larger investigation of financial compensation and insecurity at the College for
staff and students as well as for tutors in an upcoming issue. We also encourage our readers to reach out to us
with their own respectfully-expressed perspectives on the situation, which we will happily publish in future
issues.
Luke Briner,
Editor-in-chief
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November 2, 2023
An Interview With Mr. Bellinson & Mr. Kerimov
By El’ad Nichols-Kaufman
Mr. Kerimov Addressing the Polity During the Walk-Out (Photo by Abigail Poppleton)
On Friday, October 20th, a group of tutors and
students walked out of classes ten minutes early to
protest tutor pay, in response to a letter calling for
action by tutors Nicholas Bellinson and Khafiz
Kerimov. We sat down with them to ask about how
the protest came about, and what kind of action might
be expected moving forward.
year, the compensation situation gets worse because
of inflation, and things are at a breaking point in
some ways. While it’s probably true that we could
have done this in another month, we wanted to do it
as early in the year as possible to give the board and
the governance of the College as much time to
respond as early in the budgeting season as possible.
Nichols-Kaufman: Could you tell me how this
protest came about, and why you decided to have it
particularly now?
Kerimov: Another thing that may have pushed us to
do it now, is that as we perceive it, the problem has
become visible to students now, which is really
disgraceful. In the future, it will only become much
more visible. It really felt like we had to act.
Bellinson: I think one important thing to say is that
we’ve tried the official channels a number of times.
We’ve talked to the governing bodies of the College,
we’ve shared our concerns, we’ve said the same
things we’ve said in the letter, we’ve contextualized
them with the data and numbers that have been
provided to us, and that is apparently to no avail. We
felt that something else was necessary.
Why now particularly? Well, with every passing
B: We had a letter from a recent alum who said that
the whole time she was here, she was painfully aware
of this problem. I think it's not good for the tutorstudent relationship, for students to know this is
going on, but at the same time, they do know it’s
going on, so it seemed to us that pretending it's not
going on was not doing anything for anyone.
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N-K: What in particular made you choose the
walkout as the way to raise this issue?
B: I think we felt that because instruction is being
eroded by the problem, it was a form of protest that
seemed appropriate to and commensurate with the
problem itself. With our letter, we reached a wider
audience than we thought, but the actual walkout
seemed to us to make a statement about how
instruction and potential instruction is lost because of
poor compensation.
N-K: At the BVG meeting on Saturday (10/21) they
announced they would not be increasing
compensation. What are you thinking of doing to
move forward now?
B: There are two things to say about that. One is that,
in general, we see this as a problem of allocating the
resources we already have as a college, and allocating
money that’s raised in the future, since the only
sustainable way to deal with compensation is to
fundraise for it. It’s not something that will be
covered by adjusting tuition or financial aid. We’re
sure people are worried about that, and we want to
make sure that people understand that those are not
sustainable routes to raising tutor compensation.
One thing is that modest annual increases to
compensation every year would prevent the problem
from getting worse, and part of the issue is that the
board, in stopping annual increases 15 years ago, they
made it so that every year the gap between where we
are and where we should be gets larger. It looks like
this insurmountable problem that you couldn’t
possibly throw enough money at, but part of the
problem is that they simply do not put any money to
it each year. Part of it is setting aside a modest
amount every year, but it's also the case that there has
been a refusal to fundraise on this particular issue.
We think it's clear that students, alumni, and wider
members of the St. John’s community understand that
this is an issue, and they would be responsive to
fundraising.
It's true that last year (2022-2023) the College
increased pay slightly. That increase is quickly being
swallowed by inflation, but it's now being used to
justify the refusal to increase pay further. This is
exactly why we need a commitment to annual
increases corresponding to inflation.
K: Let me add that we have encouraged at multiple
faculty meetings the governance of the College to
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November 2, 2023
fundraise to improve tutor compensation, but no such
attempts have been made. This is really a problem of
priority. The governance of the College, the board,
has been taking tutors for granted for fifteen years
now. We want a change in priority in how we are
allocating the money we have already gathered, think
of the freeing minds campaign, but also a change in
priority in what we fundraise for. We are moving
towards fundraising as the chief source of funding for
the college, but the priorities of the governance just
don’t reflect the reality of what it means for this
college to be run. It’s so manifest that tutor
compensation is not a priority.
B: One more thing to say is that we’re often told that
there’s no money for things. I’m sure you’ve heard
this in other contexts as well, it’s not just tutor
compensation. But, while it is the case that although
there is separate fundraising for capital expenditures,
it's also the case that capital expenditures like that do
restrict endowment funds, and that’s where money
for other things on campus come from.
The other thing is although we're alway told that
there isn’t money for tutor compensation, recently the
board found money for a possible readjustment of
compensation that would be disastrous, which we
will probably reject. But it is certainly true that
money can be found when there is a will, and the will
simply hasn’t been there.
N-K: I’ve heard two arguments made before at board
meetings. One is that it’s harder to fundraise for pay,
and the other is that it is not sustainable to pay people
out of fundraising money.
B: Just to clarify what we were saying, fundraising
goes into the endowment for the most part. The
endowment yields a certain amount of interest every
year, which then can be drawn to pay the expenses of
the College. That money can be allocated in different
ways. There’s some question as to whether a separate
fund would be the right way, we’re not sure about
that. It is the case that when you fundraise you tell
people, ‘this is why you should give money. These
are our priorities,’ and then you allocate the fund
accordingly. It’s not so much about fundraising into a
particular pool, as it is allocating the funds
appropriately.
K: One of the reasons why we did what we did
Friday is that we want to bring attention of the wider
polity to the issue of tutor compensation. It doesn’t
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November 2, 2023
seem to us a ridiculous idea to fundraise for tutor
compensation. At the end of the day, the College is
about the students and the tutors. How can buildings,
moving a coffee shop from one building to another,
be a priority compared with making the job of a tutor
sustainable? Let’s just say I’m not convinced that it's
not possible to fundraise specifically for raising tutor
compensation. They need to try it.
how can I help?’ I just want to say that it's probably
the case that in order to determine what the next steps
are, we need to wait to get a response from the
governance of the college. We haven’t received an
official response yet, and I’m not sure one is
forthcoming. If one is not forthcoming, we’ll make
our next move (the board has not changed its position
as a result of the walkout).
B: By the way, there are people who work in the
fundraising office who want to try it, it’s not that the
opposition to this is universal. It’s kind of an
accepted principle of fundraising that you don’t
fundraise for this, but I don’t think that it takes into
account that St. John’s is different. Our relationship
to our students and alumni community is different,
the modes of instruction are different, and I don’t see
why we shouldn’t be more creative about our modes
of fundraising.
K: We have to wait for the governance to articulate
their position, to respond to what happened, and
hopefully they do.
We’re really impressed by the kind of support we
saw on Friday. I don’t think this could happen at
other schools, and it really shows that when the
essence of this College is under threat, students show
up to protect it. It’s really beautiful.
N-K: My last question is, given that this is going to
remain an issue, what would you like to see happen
moving forward?
B: I think we want to say first that we’re really blown
away by the student support we’ve received. We’ve
received many offers from students: ‘what can I do,
B: Just as a footnote to that: we’d much rather that
students not have to worry about this. We are totally
sympathetic to the desire not to burden students with
this. But the reason we did what we did in the way
that we did is that we believe that now students are
burdened with this. Treating students as adults, and as
members of the Polity, which is a political
community, it’s only fair to at least make clear how
important the stakes are.
A Polity United: Students Sing “Sicut Cervus” During the Walk-Out (Photo by Abigail Poppleton)
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November 2, 2023
A Brief Note from Your Layout Editor
This issue of the Gadfly was originally set to be
published on November 2, 2023. The submission deadline for
articles was on October 23, 2023. Layout was completed and
the final copy sent in for review on November 1, 2023 for the
planned publication date of November 2, 2023. The printing
of the issue has been delayed due to the desire of the
administration of the college to add in the following piece
(beginning on the facing page), in response to the interview
with Mr. Bellinson and Mr. Kerimov that they saw while
reviewing the final copy. Administration insisted on the
response being in this issue of the Gadfly as an immediate
reaction to the interview, in order to correct allegedly
inaccurate statements made in the interview. This letter was
finally sent in to Gadfly editors on the morning of November
8, 2023. I have completed the layout with adjustments for this
piece — which, I must note as a layout editor, are not as
simple as just copy-pasting text in and was indeed a
significant inconvenience — as soon as possible as to not
delay printing of this issue any further, but I believe it is
important for transparency’s sake that the polity know the
circumstances surrounding the addition of this piece and the
delay of the issue’s publication.
You may read more about this situation in the Collegian,
where our managing editor, El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, has
provided some additional commentary.
Tuyết-Nhi Nghiêm
Layout editor
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November 2, 2023
Le er from the President: A Response to the
Tutor Compensation Walk-Out
By Nora Demleitner
Over the past several weeks, the issue of tutor
and staff compensation has become a focus of
broader conversation on campus. Although this issue
is complex, I am committed to sharing information
with the express aim of educating the community
about the multitude of factors that influence
budgetary decisions, including those around
compensation. It is my hope that through both the
statement shared by the dean in the Collegian last
week, and through this longer and more detailed
letter, that the community will start to understand the
complexities of this issue more fully.
First and foremost, I wholeheartedly agree
that our employees deserve to be compensated at
higher levels. They are the lifeblood of this
institution, and we could not deliver the education we
deliver without them. We are committed to exploring
fundraising and other strategies that will help address
this issue and will continue to work with our donors
and employees as we move forward. At the same
time, the issue is a complicated one that I hope to
clarify more fully here.
St. John’s provides an exceptional education
that is also exceptionally expensive: small classes
that allow students to get individualized attention and
feedback, seminars with two tutors who are all tenure
-track or tenured faculty (no adjuncts or graduate
assistants), and all in a residential setting on a historic
college campus, which requires high levels of
maintenance. These realities create many challenges
when thinking about how to allocate funds.
It is important for our community, and
especially our students, to understand how we operate
when thinking about the economic choices we
make—whether addressing the cost of higher
education by cutting tuition by one-third as we did a
few years ago, expanding financial aid support for
students, addressing the deferred maintenance on our
buildings by committing to residence hall
improvements and other renovations, and addressing
the very real challenge of compensating our tutors
and staff at the levels we to which we aspire.
Like household budgets, operating budgets
consist of revenue and expenses. On the expense side,
the St. John’s Program is very costly. A St. John’s
education costs approximately $65,000 per student
annually, even though we receive far less on average
from students who attend. Why is it so expensive?
Our education is highly individualized. It requires
two full-time, tenure-tracked faculty members in
three years of seminar; none of our classes besides
freshman music are more than 21 students. There are
no lecture classes of 50 or 500 (that happens only for
Friday night lecture). Because our faculty members
are all full-time, they receive full benefits, including
excellent medical insurance, generous retirement
benefits, and a host of other incidental benefits. And
up to a certain level of seniority, every faculty
member receives annual step increases, which is the
college’s language for an annual raise. The college
also offers other multiple opportunities, such as
summer teaching to augment salaries, and works
closely with the tutor compensation committee to
address salary issues and discuss, as we currently do,
at least some limited proposals to mitigate the most
serious impact of our salary structure.
In addition to the high cost of our educational
model, our student services are robust. Over the last
several years, we have increased student services
across multiple areas: mental health and wellness
resources, career development services, graduate
school preparation, and more. In total, our annual
operating expenditure for both campuses exceed $53
million.
On the revenue side, St. John’s draws revenue
from two sources: student-derived revenue, which
includes tuition and fees plus housing and dining; and
donor-derived revenue, which includes the annual
fund, dedicated gifts, government and institutional
grants, and the endowment draw. On the studentderived revenue front, the college annually receives
approximately $14 million less from students today,
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November 2, 2023
Students Walking Out In Support Of Their Tutors (Photo by Abigail Poppleton)
inflation-adjusted, than we did in 2008. This is a
challenging trend seen across higher education. On
the donor front, the college’s annual fund provides
approximately $3 million annually for operating
expenses including salaries and benefits; donor gifts
and grants are often restricted to specified uses; and
our approximately $240 million endowment has strict
legal requirements around its use: the college may
use 5 percent of the endowment annually— which is
called the endowment draw—to help fund that year’s
operating expenses including salaries and benefits.*
Balancing the distribution of funds to meet multiple
competing needs while honoring donor intent and
legal restrictions is never a simple task.
Unlike most colleges, our educational model
makes alternative revenue streams challenging to
access. We do not have major sporting events,
profitable vocational certificate programs, or large
money-making online programs. We also choose not
to operate at the scale that large institutions do
because we believe that real community on a small
campus matters, but this means that our per student
costs are very high. We don’t want to compromise
the things we hold most dear: our tight-knit
8
community, small classes, and a full-time, tenured
faculty.
Although we have just completed the
successful $325 million Freeing Minds capital
campaign, it is important to note that more than $135
million of the funds raised are bequests and planned
gifts, which will not become available to the college
for years and even decades. Of the $190 million
received to date, $80 million went into the
endowment. Another $68 million went toward
academic and operational support, which also
supports college salaries and benefits. In addition, as
part of the campaign, a specific gift of over $330,000
was spent on faculty support for freshman advising
and direct stipends. And another $41 million was
given by donors specifically to support construction
projects, and that especially means, in Annapolis, our
residence halls.** Anyone living in our residence
halls knows that renovating them is not a luxury but
an overdue necessity—and some of our donors want
to put their resources there.
Fundraising specifically for salaries can be
challenging, but is not impossible. It requires a donor
who has the will to support us and the capacity to do
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so. Because salaries are not one-time costs, we need
to fundraise for them in a way that provides
consistent, ongoing, annual support. The most
effective way to do this is by establishing tutorrelated endowments, from which the college could
reap 5 percent annually without the underlying
principal dropping. We do have some endowments
that are uniquely focused on tutor support, but a step
forward would be to fundraise specifically for faculty
salaries; this may require us to find new and creative
avenues, such as endowing the deanship or the
associate dean position, endowing rotating faculty
positions, or endowing specific functions the college
values, such as archons. Those opportunities may
resonate with donors who could help us create longterm, year-over-year funds for the ongoing and
always rising costs of salaries. Should we be
successful at finding interested donors, the solution
would not arrive overnight as endowments take some
time to build but would allow our small but
outstanding fundraising team to make specific
requests for donor support of salaries.
Last year, we were happy to be able to raise
tutor and staff salaries (separately from tutors’ annual
step increases) but were not in a position to do so
again this year. The board and college leadership are
committed to raising salaries going forward but we
have to do so in a way that is fiscally responsible by
not adding further uncovered expenses. In the
meantime, the board is considering proposals to
increase junior tutor salaries, which many consider
the most immediate shortcoming.
These challenges are not new to us. The
Program was founded in 1937 as the college was on
the precipice of collapse. At that time and throughout
the Program’s multiple decades, St. John’s has
required many periods of sacrifice across our full
community. This sacrifice has always been shared
across our faculty, staff, and even our students. On
the student side, we put Johnnies through a rigorous
curriculum and ask them to forgo some of the
luxuries that large universities offer. On the staff side,
most work very long hours, have no guaranteed step
increases, and deserve higher pay. And on the tutor
side, as we all know, they pour their very hearts and
souls into their work and are paid less than they
deserve. It is a demanding Program for all of us, and
we are in this together because we love St. John’s.
The college won’t lessen the demands of the
curriculum nor add luxuries to our campuses, but it is
committed to bettering the workload and
November 2, 2023
compensation situation for tutors and staff.
Sincerely,
Nora Demleitner
President
*With an endowment of roughly $240 million, we
draw approximately $10 million annually to spend on
college expenses, which covers about 20% of our
annual $53 million operating budget.
** An additional $41 million in funds from the
campaign were given by donors for construction
projects that support students through campus
improvements, such as Santa Fe’s solar array and
the renovation of Campbell Hall in Annapolis. The
college has also been able to benefit from special
funding from the state of Maryland and foundations
for some building projects, such as Mellon Hall.
These are funds that are not available for other uses,
but that provide an important opportunity to improve
our students’ living and learning environment, while
also offering additional budget relief. In addition,
after a 2020 facilities assessment of both campuses
was completed— in which we learned that the cost of
deferred maintenance on both campuses was
estimated to exceed $80 million—a generous donor
awarded the college a matching grant of $25 million
dollars over 10 years to address these projects, so
long as the college can match the amount two-to-one
annually. This means we are responsible for finding
$5 million dollars in cash gifts annually through
2032 in order to get our campuses in healthy shape.
This is no small task but one that we are committed to
and will complete.
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November 2, 2023
Kunai, a History—a Made-up Name, But Here to Stay
By Tamar Pinsky
Pictured: Aerial View of a Kunai game. Photography by KC Taylor.
Kunai as we know it today is a place where women
and non-cisgendered students come together to play
sports, whether it be practicing, scrimmaging, or
competing in tournaments. Not quite the same as
either intramurals or pick-up, rather, Kunai is a
program all its own; however, it did not start out this
way.
What is now Kunai was once the women’s
complementary program to an all-men intramural
program. The two operated similarly, having five
10
teams for men and four for women, and a draft that
took place sophomore year—this construction was
thanks to the athletic director at the time, Bryce
Jacobsen. The women’s league had some difficulty
getting enough people out to play, but this was not
unusual at the time—the 1970s. Title IX, the federal
civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination
in schools, had just been passed, and so support for
women in sports had just started to increase.
But then Jacobsen retired from the athletic director
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position, and the athletic program experienced a
transitional two-year blip, in which three different
people ran it together. The next person to take over
was Leo Pickens, a St. John’s alumnus and previous
commercial banker.
During Pickens’ first year in 1988, the women’s
league still had small games on the regular, but
Pickens realized that the structure of two parallel
leagues was outdated, bringing the women down. He
abolished the format of intramural games, and had
the women start playing club sports—against schools
such as Washington College, Gallaudet University,
and the Naval Academy. The women’s program, now
focusing strongly on soccer, resembled the crew
program, with practices three times a week and
games three times a semester.
It was at this time—the mid-90s—that they started
calling themselves Kunai Kthonyai, meaning “the
female dogs from the underworld,” because they
practiced on the lower field. Participation grew, and
excitement hit the roof—big crowds came to watch
the 24 women play against non-Johnnies.
These intercollegiate games started to get a little too
rough. The other schools’ teams played differently,
and students were getting seriously injured. As
referee of the games, Pickens felt that he lost control.
Pickens decided that this level of intensity was more
harmful than helpful for the students, and besides—
the amount of effort needed to facilitate the games
was not worth it, and playing other schools was not in
the spirit intended—and so he brought Kunai back
from intercollegiate play.
Now he had to decide what to have Kunai members
do instead of playing other schools. He decided to
form an “advisory council” of the most enthusiastic
players from the women’s league—about fifteen
people. These fifteen in turn recruited more, for now
they would just be playing amongst themselves.
However, Kunai had moved on from being an
intramural substitute.
The Kunai council created the idea of a “craft”
instead of a “draft” for arranging the players into
teams. Rather than have each captain choose who
they like for their own team, they all worked together
to create teams with optimum fairness. Their goal:
maximum participation and fun competition.
November 2, 2023
The identity of Kunai cemented. Weeks of clinic
work followed by weeks of soccer and basketball
games turned the teams of women into one proud
united group.
Then Pickens retired, and under the new athletic
director Mike McQuarrie, Kunai did not have as
much support as in the past. McQuarrie held a spot
for Kunai and gave them equipment, but his main
focus was making intramurals co-ed. Many people
wondered about the purpose of Kunai – they did not
realize that Kunai was not akin to pick-up, nor a sort
of preparation for intramurals, but some unnamed
third thing.
In 2016, Chris Krueger took over as athletic director,
and helped revive Kunai. He brought back the
advisory council, the structure of captains and teams,
and had them start playing netball. He tried to get rid
of the “pick-up” label they had acquired, encouraging
Kunai members to do league play. It was around this
time that the student captains decided to expand
Kunai to include non-cisgendered individuals as well.
But yet another obstacle was up ahead: Covid. A lot
of the smaller clubs had been struck hard by the
pandemic—fencing, crew. There was at least one
year when Kunai did not manage to have any
practices, and only a tiny season.
Kunai has essentially had to build from the ground up
since then, under the athletic coordinator Rachel
Fleming who started at St. John’s in 2022.
With all the changes Kunai has had over the years,
there is no sign of it stopping anytime soon. Already
in the two years since Covid, Kunai has taken on
several additions—a reintroduction of netball, a
reintroduction of crafted teams, and this year, for the
first time, flag rugby.
And Kunai may keep on changing in the future, to
keep up with its evolving purpose and participants.
But it is clear that along the journey that Kunai has
had—from being a women’s league alongside the
men’s, to playing intercollegiate games, to becoming
a program all its own, Kunai has held a special place
in our athletic program. A place of adaptability, a
place of sports for the sake of sports, and a place of
community.
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November 2, 2023
Carlson, God of Donuts and Thai Food
By Benne Sco , with Audrey Fox
What happened in 2002? Audrey Fox, food
reviewer of The Gadfly, was born (boring,
predictable). But what really happened? The Global
Thai Program was launched, expanding Thai food
from 5,500 restaurants to 10,000 in less than a decade
(see the Wikipedia article about it IDK1). And what is
better than Thai food? Donuts. But putting them
together reminds me of my uncle’s first three
marriages: bound to be a bad combination. So how,
then, does this place which once sent my nerves
tingling out of fear become my favorite restaurant?
Let me tell you about my most recent trip to
Carlson’s Thai and Donuts (!?).
Ms. Audrey Fox is a woman. At first, we did
not get along; she knew what she was talking about,
undercutting any mansplaining I might have done
(AudreyÊ note:Ê IÊ disagree). However, on the drive
over, we learned that we aren’t so different: we have
the same messed up speech pattern (mayor
pronounced like mare, nuclear pronounced like
George Bush), we have the same birthday (March
9th), and were dreadfully afraid of the dark as
children (she feared being stabbed, I feared the Green
Goblin). Our main bond: Minecraft. If we had met in
the 7th grade, we would have stabbed each other with
digital sticks. So that’s cool (AudreyÊ Note:Ê IÊ
unfortunatelyÊdoÊnotÊagreeÊthatÊthisÊisÊcool).
Upon arriving, you’re immediately hit with
one of my favorite parts of the Carlson’s experience:
extreme dis-ease. The parking lot is oddly slanted, the
building next door is an abandoned gas station with a
boat out back, and the restaurant itself is just a house
that’s been gutted. They’ve tried to make the inside
less unsettling: the lighting is gentle, coming from
nice decorative lamps, and there’s plenty of art (all of
the Thai royal family). This is one of the worst
changes Carlson’s has undergone; last year, when
they were only doing takeout, the lighting was pure
white, the tables were covered in disposable utensils,
and not a soul was sitting at them. As a man who
doesn’t let himself feel any real emotions and so must
rely on incredibly strange stimuli to have anything
like actual feeling, this liminal experience scratched a
deep itch and I miss it. Don’t worry, though, some
remnants of the uncanny remain: the refrigerators full
of half and half (tasty with your fried rice), the
panicked and continual stream of phone calls, the
12
signs posted everywhere warning against buying
alcohol without a real ID (‘DON’T EVEN TRY,’ but
y’all don’t even sell alcohol?), all combine to remind
you that this place is certainly not home.
We ate in a booth (AudreyÊ Note:Ê WeÊ oughtÊ
toÊhaveÊsatÊatÊtheÊtableÊwithÊtheÊtwoÊchairsÊfacingÊ
theÊ wall). Before our food arrived, what had seemed
to be our saving grace turned out to be our worst
nightmare: Minecraft was back. And this time it came
with something even more horrifying than my own
childhood: a real living present-tense child. She was
two booths over from us and listening to KidsYoutube Minecraft on full blast (I can’t even attempt
to recreate what they were saying it makes my brain
melt so bad). My secondhand embarrassment, if you
can believe I have such a thing, was through the roof.
How could I explain the intricacies of how a block
game has become a cultural institution and how
videos on the internet have become explicitly
designed to be crack-for-children to the old couple
sitting next to us? How could I make them
understand that that little girl didn’t want to ruin their
cute evening together (they just learned what Thai tea
is!), that she was just a victim of late stage
entertainment capitalism? I stuck to eating (AudreyÊ
Note:ÊVeryÊcoolÊBennett).
It was during the first course that Audrey
went on the first of many monologues: “You see I
remember the day I learned I was gonna die: I was
sitting on a trampoline with my mom and said, ‘It
sucks that you’re gonna have to grow old and die one
day while I’m gonna be young forever.’ Then she
promptly informed me I was gonna die too. That was
the first time I faced my mortality.” She proceeded to
torment me about the worst moments of my life and
dunk on the entire concept of dog movies (AudreyÊ
Note:Ê IÊ don’tÊ thinkÊ thisÊ shouldÊbeÊ aÊ controversialÊ
opinion.ÊInÊfact,ÊIÊthinkÊMr.ÊScottÊisÊusingÊthisÊandÊ
previousÊcommentsÊonÊmyÊbehaviorÊtoÊpaintÊmeÊasÊ
aÊ cold,Ê unfeelingÊ woman.Ê IÊ likeÊ dogs,Ê IÊ justÊ findÊ
dogÊ moviesÊ toÊ beÊ usingÊ ourÊ loveÊ ofÊ animalsÊ asÊ anÊ
emotionalÊcrutchÊtoÊavoidÊanyÊrealÊsubstance).
Honestly, I don’t know how to review actual
food. Go read Audrey’s article if you want opinions.
I, truly, just love Carlson’s. The fried rice. The curry.
The stir fry. It’s flavorful, it’s fresh, it’s fucking
delicious. Sure, I’m weak to mushrooms and
sometimes they randomly show up, but as Audrey
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loves to remind me: I’m 22 years old and I can suck it
up. Will I, upon every return trip, recall a certain food
editor making fun of the time I had to recite a ten
minute ‘humorous’ speech in front of my entire
government class and got not a single laugh (AudreyÊ
note:Ê IÊ don’tÊ rememberÊ thatÊ atÊ all,Ê butÊ BennettÊ
definitelyÊ does)? Yes. But, by god, it’s good enough
to endure even that.
You really should go.
November 2, 2023
Endnotes:
1. I actually fear plagiarism so here’s the
real citation: “Culinary Diplomacy.” Wikipedia,
Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Sept. 2023,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Culinary_diplomacy#Thailand.
Illustrated: Audrey Fox and Benne Sco and Benne Sco and Benne Sco and Benne
and Benne Sco and Benne Sco and Benne Sco and Benne Sco
Outside Carlson’s
Sco
and Benne Sco
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Ungo By Nicky Jordan
Over the last couple of years, one subject and one technology have
been the cause of much clamor, that subject being what might be popularly
referred to as AI.
Whether or not this so-called AI technology is truly Artificially
Intelligent is a question with many dimensions. Questions such as: What is
intelligence? How would we identify Intelligence? What are the ethical
implications of such a theoretical intelligence? and others of that sort are just
some of a seemingly infinite fractal spiral of problems that seem to rise with
the birth of anything somewhat new.
In this essay, my aim is not to answer any of these broad questions; I rather want to buttress
some grounding aspects of the question of intelligence and problematize the idea that any kind of large
language model has any actual understanding of words in and of itself. With the hope that this investigation
will somehow provide some insight into this ever looming issue, one that bears not only on our lives but on the
nature of life itself.
Of course, the dangers of AI as it exists now are not yet at least the dangers of the formation of some
super spirit or superintelligence of the Skynet variety—that's probably at least a few years down the line,
though we can of course debate whether it's possible at all.
My concern here is not so much with AI but rather with the possible ramifications of so-called AI for our
understanding of ourselves and for our understanding of language.
The thought experiment I present here will look rather familiar to some of you, and it should be—the first part
of it is stolen from John Searle.
Part I: A Chinese Room
“Imagine a native speaker of English, me for example, who understands no Chinese. Imagine
that I am locked in a room with boxes of Chinese symbols (the database) together with a book of
instructions in English for manipulating the symbols (the program). Imagine that people outside
the room send in small batches of Chinese symbols (questions) and these form the input. [What]
I know is that I am receiving sets of symbols which to me are meaningless. Imagine that I follow
the program which instructs me how to manipulate the symbols. Imagine that the programmers
who design the program are so good at writing the program, and I get so good at manipulating
the Chinese symbols, that I am able to give correct answers to the questions (the output). The
program makes it possible for me, in the room, to pass the Turing Test for understanding
Chinese, but all the same I do not understand a single word of Chinese. The point of the
argument is that if I do not understand Chinese on the basis of implementing the appropriate
program for understanding Chinese, then neither does any other digital computer solely on that
basis because the computer, qua computer, has nothing that I do not have.”1
This is the Chinese room argument, often considered one of the most important arguments regarding
AI. The argument essentially seeks to show that something is missing as regards so called AI, that being
semantic cognition. By this I mean that mental process by which a signified is understood as corresponding
determinately to a signifier; i.e., by which a tree is understood to be a tree.
One important feature of this kind of cognition that I would like to highlight especially is the ability to
name. In naming, we are, in stark contrast to the sort of arbitrary input-output manipulation featured in the
passage above, capable of actively generating symbols that have a real signified-object, and therefore that have
a determinate, substantial meaning to us. An intelligence with real semantic cognition, then, will have an
entirely different, and we might suppose far more intentional and conscious, process of thinking than an
1 Searle, “Minds, Brains, and Programs,” 1980.
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artificially-programmed intelligence which does not. In naming we not only construct meaningful sentences or
statements but indeed furnish the very meanings of words. But perhaps this is to get ahead of ourselves.
Part II: Ungo
1. Let me now present a further, extrapolative thought experiment whose possibility and implications
are unclear and which I hope will provide insight into the precise nature of semantic cognition that I’ve
indicated above.
Imagine two Chinese rooms, with each room in this case being two different programs. Each sharing a
set of randomly generated symbols, each with a set of syntactic rules like Searle’s, the symbols are generated
split up into categories, randomized into sets, further categorized, etc. These categories are subsequently
assigned syntactical rules of interaction with all other sets. These two programs are also to be slightly
randomized as well as equipped with neural networks to train and evolve on the data involved for each
stabilizing and changing the symbol sets. These two will then be put in “dialogue.”
I propose that the system I have described here would by all appearances
simulate effectively the interactions of the two speakers of a language, such that if
carved in stone the symbols would be interpreted as linguistic by some unfortunate
archeologist of the future who has no idea the kind of prank that has been pulled. I
will refer to this “language” as Ungo and its “speakers” as Ungo Boxes. The
arrangements of symbols produced by this dynamic system would have consistent
structure, consistent symbols grouped in consistent orders, and even sequences or
embedded parts of this “dialogue” that involve the consistent inconsistencies so
common to language. I operate under the assumption that this latter part is
achievable by means of the aforementioned neural network. I would add here that
if those readers who are more knowledgeable on the subject have found this
description fundamentally flawed, I would welcome them with open arms to
correct me.
My central question, then, is this: does this language (this zombie language
if you will), and thereby also the dialogue produced on its basis, have any actual
semantic content? Again, on the assumption that 1) this dynamic symbolic system I
have described is possible and 2) that my descriptions of the outcomes of that
dynamic system are theoretically plausible, we have here with what I have called
‘Ungo’ a system of signs that to anyone who didn’t know it’s origin would appear to be a language.
2. To illustrate this point, I would like to provide a story, one whose basic narrative will be familiar to
most historians and archaeologists.
In some distant other time, perhaps long ago or long after the time I am writing, an archeologist digs through
the ruins of an ancient civilization, digs through the ruins of what is thought by common hypothesis to have
been a great temple, one made of fine strange materials and standing high, well preserved, and ornate amidst a
vast expanse of sunken, water-logged ruins. Stumbling about in the dark recesses of this great and mysterious
structure, our archeologist comes across a room that strikes her as strange. She slowly, carefully makes her
way into this room in order to investigate further—and then, in a single, startling moment, the wall that she has
kept her hand against for stability suddenly opens as though a secret door, revealing an even stranger octagonal
room with high ceilings. Squinting in the darkness, she discovers a great black obelisk with incomprehensible
symbols staggered across it as far as she can see everywhere and in all directions. A later investigation finds
that the walls around the monolith are also transcribed upon but with letters and numbers that are much more
familiar.
This is naturally hailed as the discovery of the century, and the young archeologist becomes famous.
But as the years drag on, all attempts to decode, decipher or make intelligible the monument transcripts utterly
fail. The writings on the wall provide no resources for deciphering it; and, once translated, only provide what
seem to be interpretive methods for the monument itself, some of which contradict each other and some of
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November 2, 2023
which simply prescribe probabilities of sequences. Speculation abounds; some even suggest an extraterrestrial
origin.
One thing is abundantly clear to all, however: the makers of the monument room didn’t seem to know
any more about this language than the researchers did.
Paper after paper is published on the monument transcript, arguing over its linguistic content, its origin,
and its purpose. One paper of particular interest takes the interpretive paradigms transcribed on the wall as
evidence that, much like many ancient civilizations, this monument represented a type of divination, a stone
transcription of an oracle bone or augury. This theory is, however, ultimately rejected: the syntactical character
of the writing was far too obvious for it to have been any kind of random augury.
Throughout all this, the archaeologist who discovered the monument finds herself in a constant
frustration and anxiety that she cannot explain what she has become so well known for finding.
3. What I propose as the main features that differentiate an empty zombie language from the sort of
language of actual speakers, then, is that the latter is necessarily embodied in a world, and moreover that it
refers to that world. When I speak of “eating that banana over there,” I am not merely playing out a
structurally necessary series of signs; rather, I am weaving together those signs with the conscious intent of
representing some reality, or at least the notion of some reality. Conversely, in the case of zombie language
like Ungo, the signs cannot mean anything because they are only for themselves: x only means x, y only means
y—or, really, not even that, for any actual enunciation of y is always already a case of y standing for
something other than its pure existence as a symbol or sign. At most it stands for its syntactical role.
It is just this kind of reference that is impossible in any meaningful sense for the Ungo Boxes. The
system involved are completely incapable of making any meaningfully-embodied reference to a world,
because the only world that this mechanical system has is its own symbolic plumbing system, one necessarily
contained entirely within itself and with no external reference or meaning for the whole manifold of its
vocabulary.
I’ll leave off my inquiry at this important point. The legitimacy of my ultimate claim is questionable, of
course, and the work has only just been outlined here; I hope in any case, however, that my basic enunciation
of it serves as an effective means of stimulating dialogue concerning this highly important topic at the
College.
John M. Christensen, Director of Admissions, Seated at Desk Typing on a Computer Keyboard
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AXIOMS.
1. Two numbers are equal when one cannot be shown
to be greater or less than the other.
2. The sum of two numbers in an additional operation
will be greater than or equal to each of those numbers
individually; i.e., (n₁ + n₂) ≥ n₁ or n₂.
3. A transfinite number is immeasurably greater than
any finite number.
An A empted System of
Operational Proofs for Four
Transfinite Equations
4. Any number, finite or transfinite, cannot signify
two discrete quantities at once; i.e., if n is determined
to represent a discrete quantity of two, it cannot at the
same time represent a discrete quantity of three, and
likewise ℵ₀, being the representative of the transfinite
set S comprehending all natural numbers, can neither
simultaneously represent any of those natural
numbers themselves or any transfinite set definitely
greater than S itself.
DEFINITIONS.
PROPOSITIONÊ1.
1. A set is “any collection into a whole…of definite
and separate objects…of our intuition or our
thought” (p. 231).1
The sum of a finite number and a transfinite number
is always exactly equal to that transfinite number.
By Luke Briner
2. A cardinal number is a number which signifies the
discrete quantity of members within a given set.
3. Transfinitude is that which is not bound by
finitude.
4. S is the transfinite set of all natural numbers.
5. ℵ₀ is the cardinal number signifying S.
6. n is any definite, finite (natural) number.
7. Counting is the simple operation of “the successive
creation of the infinite series of positive integers in
which each individual is defined by the one
immediately preceding” (p. 210).
8. Addition is the compounded operation of counting.
9. Multiplication is the compounded operation of
addition.
Let the operation n + ℵ₀ be given. Hence it is for us to
prove that the sum of that operation will necessarily
be exactly ℵ₀. Now since the sum of any additional
operation will always be greater than or equal to each
of its constituent numbers (Ax. 2), the sum of n + ℵ₀
will necessarily either be equal to or greater than ℵ₀;
for a sum less than either of the constituent numbers
of the operation is impossible. I say, then, that n + ℵ₀
= ℵ₀. For to assume that the sum would be greater
than ℵ₀ by the addition of n would be to assume that
ℵ₀ is in a less-than-immeasurable ratio to n, such that
its magnitude could actually be added to by its
combination with it. But this would imply that ℵ₀ is
not in fact a transfinite number, since all transfinite
numbers are immeasurably greater than any finite
number (Ax. 3), and, this being the case, its
magnitude could not be increased by the addition of a
finite number. But this is absurd, since ℵ₀ is a
transfinite number (Defs. 4-5). Since, then, n + ℵ₀
cannot be either less than or greater than ℵ₀, their sum
must be exactly equal to ℵ₀ (Ax. 1).
Q.E.D.
1 All citations are to the Junior Mathematics Manual as produced for the academic year of 2022-2023.
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PROPOSITIONÊ3.
The product of a finite number and any transfinite
number is always exactly equal to that transfinite
number.
Student at Blackboard during Mathematics Tutorial
PROPOSITIONÊ2.
The sum of a transfinite number with itself is always
exactly equal to that same transfinite number.
Let the operation ℵ₀ + ℵ₀ be given. Hence it is for us
to prove that the sum of that operation will
necessarily be exactly ℵ₀. Now since the sum of any
additional operation will always be greater than or
equal to each of its constituent numbers (Ax. 2), the
sum of ℵ₀ + ℵ₀ will be either greater than or equal to
ℵ₀. Moreover, it is given that ℵ₀ signifies the
transfinite set S (Defs. 4-5), and that any transfinite
number is immeasurably greater than any finite
number (Ax. 3). I say, then, that ℵ₀ + ℵ₀ = ℵ₀. For to
assume that the sum of ℵ₀ + ℵ₀ is greater than ℵ₀
would necessarily be to assume that the sum ℵ₀
(designated hereafter by sℵ₀) is greater than the
addend ℵ₀ (designated hereafter by aℵ₀), and thereby
that aℵ₀ is actually less than sℵ₀, since only then
could sℵ₀ be conceived as actually greater than it. But
sℵ₀ and aℵ₀, despite performing different functions
operationally, are constituted by the very same
number ℵ₀ which itself signifies the very same
transfinite set. Thus to say that sℵ₀ > aℵ₀ is
effectively to say that ℵ₀ > ℵ₀, i.e., that each of the
individual ℵ₀s presented to us in the operation ℵ₀ +
ℵ₀, before being summed, are definitely less in
themselves than the sum ℵ₀ on the other side of the
supposed equation. But this would imply that ℵ₀
simultaneously signifies two different discrete
quantities; and this is absurd (Ax. 4). Since, then, sℵ₀
cannot be greater than aℵ₀, it must be equal to it (Ax.
1); i.e., ℵ₀ = ℵ₀.
Q.E.D.
18
Let the operation n ℵ₀ be given. Hence it is for us to
prove that the product of that operation will
necessarily be exactly ℵ₀. Now multiplication is
simply the compounded operation of addition (Def.
9), i.e., is simply a given multitude of additional
operations; thus what holds fundamentally for
addition will also hold fundamentally for
multiplication. I say, then, that n ℵ₀ = ℵ₀; for since
we have proven that n + ℵ₀ = ℵ₀ (Prop. 1), the same
must hold for the subsequent multiplicative
operation.
Q.E.D.
Corollary.
From this it necessarily follows that 1/n ℵ₀ = ℵ₀. For
although fractions are produced by the more
complex, indirect operation of division (p. 210) rather
than addition or multiplication, the fractional number
is nevertheless a finite number signifying a discrete
quantity, and hence is not conceptually distinct from
n in itself in any way, and will in any case result in a
finite number when the divisitive operation is
actually performed on 1/n itself; i.e., 1/n = n/n₂/etc.
Since, therefore, we have proven that n ℵ₀ = ℵ₀, the
product of 1/n ℵ₀ must be the same.
Q.E.D.
PROPOSITIONÊ4.
The product of a transfinite number with itself is
always exactly equal to that same transfinite number.
Let the operation ℵ₀ á ℵ₀ be given. Hence it is for us
to prove that the product of that operation will
necessarily be exactly ℵ₀. Now multiplication is
simply the compounded operation of addition (Def.
9), i.e., is simply a given multitude of additional
operations; thus what holds fundamentally for
addition will also hold fundamentally for
multiplication. I say, then, that ℵ₀ ℵ₀ = ℵ₀; for since
we have proven that ℵ₀ + ℵ₀ = ℵ₀ (Prop. 2), the same
must hold for the subsequent multiplicative
operation.
Q.E.D
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Noodles: “A Cannibalistic Chef’s Dilemma”
By Tamar Pinsky
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November 2, 2023
Don’t Meet Your Wife at
St. John’s College
By Dr. Benjamin Raymor Maier, Ph.D.
During this past alumni weekend, I was
horrified to see the College giving out a button that
said “I met my wife at St. John’s College.” At first, I
couldn’t articulate the dread that this harmless little
button caused me. Some dark evil seeped through its
inanity and kitschness. As an expert in romance, I felt
compelled to publish a public health announcement
to anyone remotely concerned for their future:Ê Don’tÊ
meetÊyourÊwifeÊatÊSt.ÊJohn’sÊCollege.
Within the confines of the College, we are in
a kind of intellectual Disneyland. We are constantly
exposed to the same mentors, friends, and colleagues
who share our own interests. There are even little
rituals, traditions, and ways of life that mold our
minds over the course of four years. If libraries could
be homesteads or pastoral villages they would be our
College. An unfortunate consequence of all this
sentimental exposure is that Johnnies tend to develop
deep romantic feelings for each other.
Most critics would immediately attack my
diagnosis: “Of course this happens. Most people fall
in love at college”, “Isn’t it such a cute way to meet
your future spouse?”, or “Stop judging the way
people fall in love”. Before I proceed let me clarify, I
am notÊ advocating abstinence at the College. If the
Spirit compels you to a series of twisted and sexy
Johnnie encounters (if such a thing exists), then by all
means go ahead. However, the idea of “marrying a
Johnnie” indicates a deep sickness within one’s heart:
a total enrapturement with a functional co-worker
because they “get you” or have given you “so many
great memories”.
It is truly the romance of our grandparents and
generations past. Much like our classical curriculum,
the Johnnie romance harkens back to an older time
where desperation and necessity compelled us to the
nearest objects of desire. For Euclid that was shapes,
but for the Johnnie it's someone you’ve had a seminar
and two tutorials with.
“Marrying a Johnnie” rejects the modern and
scientific prescriptions of dating and openly stands
against the norms of our world. As Figure 1 shows,
there has been a total collapse of romantic
partnerships among co-workers and college students.
20
Figure 1
Once again, the critics will claim that this shows how
diseased our modern condition and heart has become:
“What about the intimate connections gained through
in-person community?” I will say that I am deeply
sympathetic to the claims of the pastoral integralist
who scorns the current state of affairs. We have lost
many great things with the decline of the tight-knit
community. However, I believe that the injection of
modernity into romance has been a triumph for the
erotic soul. Online dating and meeting at bars
leverages romantic volume at an unprecedented rate:
one can probably find three more potential spouses in
a dedicated week of “dating-around” than their
village-stuck grandmother could do in a lifetime.
There are no serious advantages to marrying a
Johnnie and I am not convinced by the arguments of
my opponents. The common polemic waged against
me is that “There is no one else I would rather talk to
than a Johnnie”. The claim testifies against itself and
shines a light on the deep egotism of the Johnnie
soul: a belief that “being good at talking” makes
someone attractive. The absurdity of this claim grows
when these kinds of Johnnies get married. The yoke
of marriage inverts all traditional so-called romantic
wisdom and “cures” like communication and
affection become poisons to the union. As any
graduate student would know, being “good-attalking” does not pay the mortgage or buy the
pleasures of life. To love a beautiful soul is to live a
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life of poverty. For the record, I do not want to hear
of successful Johnnie marriages. Survivorship bias is
already enough of a poison to the discourse as it is.
Now if you must entertain marriage with one
of your classmates, please consider this helpful
example to guide your decision making. Consider the
first-class Midshipman who is ready to graduate. He
has been trapped for four years in an open-air prison
with severe restrictions on his freedom. His prospects
for future partners are grim and he is deeply afraid of
being alone. Consequently, he immediately marries
his classmate or hometown girlfriend in order to
bring her along on his six years of drudgery. Most
would think that this is the worst kind of marriage but
I say the opposite. Before this couple inevitably
divorces, they will freely enjoy Uncle Sam’s
numerous benefits for young married couples in the
Armed Forces: mobility, adventure, financial
November 2, 2023
security, healthcare, etc. In fact, the quickness of their
marriage is a boon to the couple. Neither partner will
have enough assets to make the divorce messy and
they will still be young enough to try again if they so
choose. The Johnnie marriage promises quite the
opposite: longevity with little material gain.
But as St. Paul says, it is better to marry than
to burn. If you, Johnnie man or woman, have a heart
of twists and turns and feel compelled to marry-up
then please do the following: Next time you steal
your Johnnie partner’s phone, don’t check through
their text messages, look at their bank account
instead. Trust me, I’m a doctor.
Yours Truly
Ben Maier,
Ph.D. in Romance and Sports Medicine
Pictured: The Love Doctor, photo by himself, artistry by BS
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Should Men Have Friends?
By B.S.
Dear men,
Images by B.S., Pexels, PNG Tree, and Raw Pixel
22
As
an
elite
entrepreneur, the first and only
certified Omega Male, and wildly
successful podcast host (The Bro
Scogan
Experientia),
people
frequently bring me their most
important questions: “How can I get
in shape?” Work hard, hit the gym,
stay consistent. “What are the things
I need to do to be a real man?”
Anyone can be a real man. Just be
kind, protective, loyal, and run at
least two marathons every week.
“How can I do all that while
maintaining a family life?” Get rid of
the family. But there’s one really
difficult question I’d like to address
here, in my Omega-Sigma-AlphaTRT-Man-Letter of the week: Should
men have friends?
To some of the lesser thinkers
of this generation, the answer seems
obvious: “Of course. All the finest
men have had friends and confidants:
Alexander the Great, Julius Caeser,
Napoleon. They all had close
advisors who must certainly qualify
as friends. Having friends not only
helps you achieve your highest goals,
they can also help you in your worst
times. Nobody deserves to be alone.”
Oh really? If that’s true, then explain
this: why is it a lone wolf, not a ‘goes
to trivia every Thursday and goes
drinking every Friday with a reliable
group of friends’ wolf? If those
friends were so important to the great
people, name three. Name three
friends. Of all time. If men are
supposed to have friends, why do I
have absolutely none and am forced
to stare at the empty ceiling every
night as it slowly blurs with tears?
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Huh? Exactly: because men aren’t supposed to have
friends. We’re supposed to have rivals.
To a real man, everyone is a rival. Your
rivalry with your roommate pushes you to wake up
earlier, shower colder, grunt louder during every
slight physical activity. Your rivalry with your gym
partner forces you to work even harder at the church
of iron because you know he’s getting stronger in his
own time, yeah, he’s been eating right, he’s been
lifting, he’s been doing cold plunges, you can tell, in
the hard… smooth… beautiful… the perfect muscles
he’s got going on for this summer. And you won’t
stand for it. Your rivalry with your classmates and
coworkers makes you speak faster, longer,
interrupting more just to let them know: I’m the
smartest, the greatest, you’re not correct and you’re
gonna be aware that you’re not correct as soon as I
start clearing my throat and making faces in the
middle of your point. To a true omega male, it’s all
about the grind to being #1, no matter how much you
have to push others out of the way. That’s why
omega is the first letter of the Greek alphabet.
Here’s my daily routine so you get an idea of
how a real man outruns his rivals and his impending
sense of doom: I wake up at 4:30 a.m. and I’m
already at the gym. I’m on a bench, mid-rep, ready to
start pumping iron from second numero uno. After I
hit the gym, I hit the showers. I hit my workplace. I
hit a brick wall at the age of 35 and have no idea
what the meaning of life is. So what do I do? Read
the stoics. You know Marcus Auerelias? Second only
to me. After a good reading session (just as I am
entering my first meeting of the day), I get a good
scream in. Scientists have proven that screaming
raises testosterone, makes you more of a savage, and
induces fear into all those ‘civilized’ types at HR.
That’s efficiency. Once my meetings are done, I start
another business. One every day. How can you be a
true entrepreneur if you stop entrepeneuing to
actually commit to a project? You can’t. This is about
business. And you know what every business needs?
A website. This week’s sponsor Circle Location
provides the ideal platform for [redacted]. Now that
I’ve created a new and revolutionary product, sold it
to the highest bidder, and made my ad plug, it’s time
to hit the gym again. It’s delt, forearms, and neck
day. I’m grinding. I’ve forsaken the touch of all
women. I’m hard as hell. I’m a certified omega male
on BStheBigMan.com. Get your certificate for only
$2,599.99. And that’s how I absolutely crush my
workouts every damn time. Then I eat dinner:
November 2, 2023
Chicken. Broccoli. Rice. But mostly meat. It’s as
important to eat as much meat as you can: it leaves
less for the rivals and leaves less potential animal
rivals all at once. That’s efficiency. At this point,
most people would go home, go to bed, see their
wife, their kids. I haven’t seen my kids in three
months. They were taken from me in the divorce. I
was promised every other weekend, but my week
never ends. And you know what I say? Everyone can
have kids, but not everyone is built for the grind. I’m
out here till midnight. Till 1 a.m. Till 2 a.m. You ever
heard of time zones? Someone else is always up, on
their shit. I can’t let them have that. I’m always in
competition mode. Every damn day. Grind. Sleep
while you blink. That’s efficiency. It’s 4:30 a.m. Let’s
do it again.
And don’t forget to watch the latest episode of
The Bro Scogan Experience with our good friend, the
Love Doctor, Ben Maier:
—B.S.
23
�πόλις
THE GADFLY
November 2, 2023
Notes on Dialogue Gossip
By Vivian Miyakawa
St. John’s College, a school that prides itself
in great discussions about great books, excels in all
sorts of dialogue. However, there is one integral art
that continues to slide under the radar: gossip. This
underrated rhetoric is objectively the best way to
relay crucial information about friends and enemies
alike. Unfortunately for would-be messengers of the
gospel, a small group of people on a small campus
can lead to some unseemly situations. Here are my
top three tips on how to improve your gossip game
and avoid certain embarrassment.
1.
Location matters- The first and perhaps the
most important tip is that in a small college, space is
everything. Rumors fly faster than the winged boots
of Hermes, and everything, from the maniacal to the
mundane, is news. Now, as most have probably
realized by now, the walls of your dorm rooms are
not soundproof, so by gossiping in your dorm you’ve
already established that you’d appreciate an audience.
Tragically, your daily roommate ranting session is
only heard by everyone else in your hall. To avoid
this hapless mistake, try gossiping in the fishbowl
instead! This way your rumors will reach a larger
audience, and the echoey spaces of Mellon Hall add
to the grandeur of your news.
Two Faculty Members in Academic Robes Talking in
McDowell Hall, Fall 1980
24
Male Students in Conversation in the Coffee Shop
2.
Know your audience- Obviously, gossip is
meant to be spread, but it’s an anonymous art. One
needs their information circulating exactly where
they want it: everywhere. That is, everywhere except
for the ears of the unfortunate member of the Polity
who’s found themselves on the receiving end of the
rumor. With this in mind, be sure not to gossip
around those untrustworthy Johnnies who will betray
your noble goal and tell their friend about your
campus-wide whispers. Luckily, all Johnnies are
inherently trustworthy, having read Plato’s Republic
and ascribed to the Socratic ideals of justice.
3.
Embrace it- Honestly, it’s time to face the
music. It’s St. John’s College. Everyone knows
everyone. You’re not going to be able to gossip
without a little bit of risk, and maybe that’s why it’s
just so addicting! What’s the fun of spreading rumors
without constantly glancing around, avoiding the
subject of ridicule. Life is more interesting with a bit
of paranoia, and nobody will ever notice your
discreet head nods as you giggle and look over your
shoulder. Besides, only the squirrels are really
watching!
�πόλις
THE GADFLY
November 2, 2023
SJC Mystery #3:
Could Have Gone
Be er
By Benne Sco
Photo from the Library of Congress
This time, I’m going to ask you to watch the video
first. It’ll be easier that way.
The rain hasn’t stopped since I got here. It’s cold
and heavy. I can hear it all the time. Normally I can’t hear
the rain here. Somehow, it reminds me of home, out in the
desert where the rain is rare and always loud. Hopefully
it’ll end soon.
I think I’m stuck here. I tried putting my arm back
in the mailbox; nothing changed. I tried variations: the
other arm, the symbol drawn backwards, the other boxes;
nothing changed. There might be some other secret hidden
in that basement, but every time I go back… I can’t make
myself stay down there longer than a minute. It feels like
I’m choking on mud.
I’ve been trying to find out where I am between
the mad panics. Almost everything is the same as
Annapolis (though I’m suddenly paranoid that I’m missing
obvious details: were the streetlamps always that color?
Was the bay always so cold? I don’t know). There are just
no people. I’d be fine if the world were entirely empty
(that’s probably a lie), but it can’t be: I’ve been here long
enough that the power should have gone out, but it still
works; I swear I hear traffic in the distance; and things
move. When I’m not looking, things move. The cars on
the street change places. Lights in far away buildings turn
on and off. I went to bed last night and the chairs in my
apartment moved. All the changes make sense too. It’s not
some random haunting where the tables are being flipped
and glasses shattered. I know the way my roommates
leave plates out, the exact messes and the chairs set up for
a party. I just can’t see them. It’s as if everyone is living
their normal lives, but I just can’t see them. Maybe it
would be better to say: I’m not allowed to see them.
And for all the information I can glean from
random object movement, none of it seems
communicative. I find no notes, no panicked tearing apart
of my room in search of signs as to where I’ve gone,
nothing. I can’t find anything on the internet since the time
I disappeared. So let’s revise our hypothesis: maybe it’s
not that the people are still there and I’m not allowed to
see them, but that the world keeps on functioning without
them. There’s only one way to tell the difference: science.
So if you’re reading this, somewhere out there in the real
world, I want to try an experiment: put a note in the
mailbox with the symbol drawn on it. If you’ve got any
ideas how the hell to get me out of here that would be
great. But, honestly, I could use any form of human
interaction right now. So a note hello is appreciated too.
Consider me your interdimensional pen pal.
One last thing: something is wrong with the
clocks. My computer has been stuck at the same time ever
since I got here (it’s not even roughly close: it’s saying the
date is in 2016?). I can’t find my watch either. The clouds
make it difficult to even tell where the sun is. Should have
paid more attention in Ptolemy. I’m not even sure if I’ve
been here for two days or three. I go to bed and wake up
and it doesn’t seem to be the right time of day at all. It’s
almost always dusk or night. So if you could include the
date on your letters that’d be nice too.
What the hell have I gotten into.
25
�πόλις
THE GADFLY
art i guess
By Natalie Goldman
A crack through which
All the universe becomes clear,
Painted shadows dancing,
Arrested to the wall,
Presents itself before me
As the paradigm of humanity.
I can’t help but wonder
What all the toil and struggle
Was really for,
If not for this.
Not a person, really,
But an idea
Is crucified on that wall.
When I tilt my chin up
To peer into heaven,
I don’t see anything at all.
I only hear
The most cacophonous of silences.
26
November 2, 2023
�πόλις
THE GADFLY
November 2, 2023
Translation of
Baudelaire’s
“Élévation”
By Luke Briner
The alexandrine verse of the original has been converted
into iambic hexameter, and the ABBA rhyme scheme of each
stanza has been preserved.
Above the languid pond, above the vale-etched plains,
Above the mountains, forests, seas, and whirling clouds,
Beyond the Sun, beyond the fine-aetheric shrouds,
Beyond the confines of the Spheres’ celestial trains,
Move you, my Soul, with consummate celerity,
And, like a swimmer who swoons underneath each wave,
Upon the Vastitude you joyfully engrave
With an unspeakable and virile ecstasy.
Make quick your exodus from these miasmic banes;
Go sanctify yourself amid the air divine,
And there do you imbibe, as an ambrosial wine,
The halcyon fire that flows throughout the lucent planes.
Behind the greatness of our troubles and our spleen
That burden with their weight a pale life ever-bent,
Beatified be they who by a swift Ascent
Soar to those golden fields supernal and serene;
They whose own contemplations, like the songbird’s wings,
Take free and cheerful flight unto the morning skies,
—Who hovers over life, and effortless descries
The language of the flowers and of silent things!
27
�THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
OF
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly is the
student newsmagazine distributed to
over 600 students, faculty, staff, and
alumni of the Annapolis campus.
Opinions expressed within are the
responsibility of the author(s). The
Gadfly reserves the right to accept,
reject, and edit submissions in any
way necessary to publish a
professional, informative, and
thought provoking newsmagazine.
Submissions sent to the Gadfly
should either be in Google Docs or
JPEG format. The deadline for
submissions is the Friday prior to
Photo by Abigail Poppleton
publication.
For more information, contact us
via email at lbriner@sjc.edu.
Photographs without a listed source are from the
St. John's College Digital Archives.
St. John's College owns the rights
to these photographs.
Illustrations without a listed source are by Takashi
Mifune from Irasutoya.com and are free to use for
non-commercial purposes. All rights to these
illustrations still belong to the artist.
60 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
�
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Gadfly Vol XLV Issue 3
Gadfly
Student publication
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Text
THE
St. John’s College
Annapolis, Maryland
GADFLY
Settling In
October 12, 2023
Vol. XLV, Issue 2
�CONTENTS
Letter from the Editor
λόγος
Dear Polity,
Interview: Robert Abbott, Assistant Dean and [Man
Who Doesn’t Want Me to Call Him the] Philosopher
King by Bennet Scott
3
Club Spotlight: Historia by Tamar Pinsky
6
Shaking Down Leftism by B.S.
7
Club Spotlight: The Platypus Review by Tamar Pinsky
9
How to Survive the Dining Hall in 13 Easy Steps by
Anonymous
12
We hope that you’re having a great start
to the year, and that you loved the
Gadfly’s first issue of it! In this issue, we
take a closer look at everything that’s
now very much underway at the College;
new clubs, new inquiries, and new
experiences. To provide a pleasant
counterpoint to this, and to keep with the
precedent set by the previous issue,
we’ve also reproduced another
foundational text by Barr on the nature of
the Program as we know it, and thus on
how we’ve actually gotten to where we
are now. Enjoy!
Why Waltz? by Vivian Miyakawa
13
Luke Briner,
Editor-in-chief
SJC Mystery #2 by Bennett “Worked in Real Estate for
One Summer” Scott
14
Swish: Motion of Fish by Ella Jacky
15
The Rose by Kurtis Bleakley
16
Comic: Noodles 02: “The Overly Optimistic Crosswalk
Button by Tamar Pinsky
17
συμπόσιον
Freedom, Responsibility, and the Liberal Arts by
Stringfellow Barr, arranged by Luke Briner
10
πόλιςÊ
THE STRUCTURE
Λόγος holds news reports and narratives of immediate
relevance to the Polity. The purpose here is to develop a
shared reservoir of information relating to campus life
and the community.
ΣυμπόσιονÊoffers the opportunity for our readers to
thoughtfully consider contrasting opinions regarding a
particular topic.
ΠόλιςÊserves as a platform for elevating voices in our
community. Here we find letters to the editor, columns,
cartoons, and submitted pieces.
·
·
2
Corrections to Vol. XLV, Issue 1
In Tamar Pinsky’s article “Registrar Resignation
Leaves Students Spooked,” a previous registrar at the
College was referred to as “Jacki Thomas”; their name
is actually “Thoms Jacqueline.”
At the end of section IV.§2 of Luke Briner’s essay “A
Critique of Dialogue,” a citation is missing—this
should be to: Robert C. Post, “Managing Deliberation:
The Quandary of Democratic Dialogue,” Ethics, Vol.
103, No. 4 (Jul. 1993), pp. 667-8.
THE GADFLY STAFF
COVER
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
MANAGING
EDITOR
STAFF
Photography by
Abigail Poppleton
Luke Briner
El’ad NicholsKaufman
Meliha Anthony
Vivian Miyakawa
Tamar Pinsky
Louis Rosenberg
Benne Sco
YOUT
KC Taylor
Tuyết-Nhi Nghiêm
CONTRIBUTORS
Ella Jacky
Kurtis Bleakley
�λόγος
THE GADFLY
October 12, 2023
Robert Abbo , Assistant Dean and [Man Who Doesn’t Want Me to Call Him
the] Philosopher King
By Benne Sco
Pictured: Assistant Dean Robert Abbo and Desistant Mean Obert Rabbo (Photo by Meliha Anthony)
Every interview I read has some description of its
subject and the interviewing process at the beginning.
I, unfortunately, consider myself the most contrarian
interviewer in America. Thus, an at-best-tangential
note: I wrote my first Gadfly article at Mr. Abbott’s
request. So blame him for all my madness-making.
Q:ÊWhoÊdoÊyouÊthinkÊyouÊare?
I don’t know.
You’reÊ aÊ knownÊ fanÊ ofÊ Tristram Shandy;Ê howÊ
wouldÊyouÊbeginÊyourÊfictionalÊautobiography?
I would like to know how on earth did you know that
I am a fan of Tristram Shandy? How widespread is
this knowledge and what is it based on?
Research.
Oh. Oh. You’re a reporter is what you’re saying.
Mhm.
Tristram begins his narrative in a completely
unmentionable way which I will not do. I would
probably start with the rather dry observation that
one’s life has many origins. What’s been interesting
in mine has been discovering them. So I don’t know,
I would say something like “I was born in Virginia
but came to consciousness in Annapolis.”
IfÊyouÊcouldÊmakeÊaÊnewÊSJCÊclass,ÊwhatÊwouldÊitÊ
lookÊlike?
If we had more time, I’d want to put on more law and
German literature. I have thought about the art
3
�λόγος
THE GADFLY
preceptorial, but, as much as I love art and painting, I
think it would be difficult to make a regular class. I
really can’t think of any that I would want to add.
What’sÊbeenÊyourÊgreatestÊlearningÊmomentÊatÊSt.Ê
John’s?
I don’t have a good answer; you’re going to have to
help me. All the ones that occur to me are from
Freshman year and were in some way fundamental or
profound though simple. Looking at a fish and
realizing that I did not understand what causality was,
and would not have any idea how one thing led to
another in an organism. This is different, this is
entirely different, but equally important: the first time
I realized a tutor was reading my essay really
carefully and they were taking what I was saying
seriously and I could feel my whole person turning
towards the effort of becoming a better writer
because if that’s going to happen—people are going
to read my writing—I should get better at it. But I
don’t know how to rank these things.
[There was banter here; as I am a reporter, this is
called: Off The Record.]
Joining crew. I was a terrible athlete in high school. I
remember being forced to play soccer in high school
and I used to request to play ‘fullback,’ which I
learned was a term I could ask to be. I could just
slowly back off the field into the woods and nobody
would notice. That was how bad my fear of being in a
game or being observed was. But then I had this
incredible experience of being on crew with then
coach Leo Pickens and I realized physical exertion
and being part of a team could be a path to selfrealization and connecting with other people. He used
to say at the beginning of the year “You show, you
row,” and it came to me as the year went on: “Oh
right, all I have to do is show up, and all sorts of
amazing things will happen. I don’t have to be a
certain person. I just have to show up.”
WhatÊ SJCÊ traditionsÊ shouldÊ weÊ bringÊ backÊ fromÊ
whenÊyouÊwereÊaÊstudent?
Okay, so the good part about this question was my
realizing that so many of the traditions that I love at
the college are still here. I kind of came at it
suspiciously like, “That’s right Mr. Scott, there are so
many things we need to bring back and I’m going to
think of them.” But then I thought: there’s still the
DC, the SCI, etc. There are a couple things I’d throw
out there: film club (which is in a slump but might be
coming back this year)…oh, what about adding a
film class? I hadn’t thought of that, but that would be
4
October 12, 2023
something I might seriously consider because I’m
one of those crazy people who thinks there are great
films [His list of great films later included: Tokyo
Story, Ran, The Night of the Hunter, Nights of
Cabiria, The Four Hundred Blows]. Anyway, the
sophistry contest, do you know about that?, So back
in the day as part of the Reality games there would be
a sophistry contest, and it would often be between
tutors. A question would be proposed, the one I
recall being, ‘Is Pindar right that water is best? Or
maybe it was, ‘Is a dry soul or a wet soul best?’ and
then the two people would have to argue the question
with great seriousness and erudition. But what is the
spirit of the tradition I’d like to see come back?
Something like the alternation between seriousness
and mirth. I know that’s still present, but it’s
something I want to make sure we hold onto, cultivate
it. I remember it from being a student, you know what
I mean? One day you’re in Rome, the next day it’s
carnival.
Also, guerilla seminars. Now it’s true that that
phrase is still in use at the college, but when I was a
student it was strongly held that if the tutor didn’t
show up, class would still be held. It’s your class.
Our second Politics seminar there was a huge
snowstorm and we, as a class, decided to have
seminar. Not just our particular seminar, but any
freshman who wanted to could come to this seminar.
CouldÊtheÊJohnniesÊofÊthisÊgeneration,ÊtwoÊofÊthemÊ
ofÊ theÊ strongestÊ sort,Ê lift,Ê withÊ greatÊ difficulty,Ê aÊ
boulderÊthatÊoneÊfromÊ yourÊgenerationÊcouldÊheftÊ
withÊease?
Yes. I’ve seen it. To answer that in a serious vein,
when I returned to interview [at the College] eleven
years ago, I was asked if I had any questions myself,
and I asked: how are the students different now? And
the answer was: though very little at the college has
changed, more has changed in the program than in
the type of student who comes here.
[There will be a later BS article on our ensuing
dispute about whether Johnnie typologies actually
exist.]
IsÊSJCÊtooÊencompassingÊforÊsomeÊpeople?
Yes. I often find myself in the somewhat ironic
position of encouraging people to think beyond the
College. Having been away from it, having come to
love so many other worlds within our larger world, I
am very ready to encourage people to find what is
beyond it. Something happens to a lot of seniors and
recent graduates; they think: “If I specify my area of
�λόγος
THE GADFLY
study, I will betray the college and I will narrow
myself as a human being.” And it turns out somehow
the opposite is true. By accepting some form of life
or study, you move beyond the College into the larger
world. I want students to feel like they’re expanding
when they leave. I have no credibility when I say that
because I’m an alum who’s come back, but I do hope
people think I have arguments for it. I’ve participated
in other traditions of learning. And I’ve taken up a
vocation. In one way, it’s true that what the tutors and
students are doing in the classroom is the same, that’s
a fundamental principle of the college, but it’s also
true that the tutors have a vocation that the students
don’t.
WhatÊ bookÊ wereÊ youÊ annoyinglyÊ attachedÊ toÊ asÊ aÊ
student?
[Minutes were spent thinking on this question in
silence.] I was probably the Johnnie who would just
incessantly bring up Aristotle in seminar with
complete honesty and genuineness, and say,
‘Actually, Aristotle says in On the Soul…’ and expect
everyone to thank me for that helpful reference.
WhatÊ story/legend/fableÊ fromÊ yourÊ timeÊ asÊ aÊ
studentÊneedsÊtoÊbeÊrevived?
Sometimes the stories are the character of the person.
It seems to me there were a lot of characters that were
part of the legendarium when I was a student and one
of them was Chaninah Maschler. She was German
and then Dutch and had survived the war and become
an American citizen. She was quite deaf by the time
I knew her and [was] a titanic intellect, which she did
not shy away from wielding, even on those who
could not handle her intense questions. I will never
forget her sitting at the table during question period
and pounding the table with her fist and destroying a
visiting lecturer because he had given a bad argument
and it was intolerable to her that it should be allowed
to stand. The room was packed, we were all titillated,
and I thought this was the most amazing thing. But
what has mattered in retrospect was not her pounding
the table but seeing someone who cared so deeply
about correct language.
HasÊ theÊ aestheticÊ lossÊ ofÊ smokingÊ inÊ classÊ andÊ
acrossÊcampusÊweighedÊonÊyou?
Yes. [Eight second pause before the interviewer can
no longer hold laughter in.] Thank you, thank you
Mr. Scott, let’s leave it at that.
YouÊheldÊfiresideÊchatsÊthroughoutÊlastÊyearÊinÊtheÊ
October 12, 2023
coffeeÊ shopÊ inÊ McDowell,Ê aÊ buildingÊ knownÊ
primarilyÊforÊhavingÊburnedÊdown.ÊAreÊyouÊaÊmanÊ
ofÊirony?
Mr. Scott, I am a man of irony, but I never considered
the great danger that I brought the college into. No.
That never occurred to me. I do often think of
McDowell burning down because one of the central
things I’ve thought about in my life is Athens burning
down, and, as someone who likes to think about
disaster, I often imagine what it would be like if the
tulip poplar on front campus fell. I don’t know if I’d
be able to live through that. That’s going to be a
terrible moment. And I certainly did not think about
that with the fireside chats. The fireplace does not
work very well and does fill the coffeeshop with
smoke, rather ominously, so I am chastened.
McDowell Hall a er the Fire of 1909, St. John's
College Annapolis, Maryland
InÊtheÊsameÊvein,ÊwouldÊyouÊconsiderÊtheÊHermanÊ
T.ÊWootersÊMemorialÊIceÊSkatingÊRink?
The what?
HermanÊ T.Ê WootersÊ MemorialÊ IceÊ SkatingÊ Rink,Ê
theÊmanÊwithÊtheÊplaqueÊinÊtheÊboathouseÊwhoÊfellÊ
inÊtheÊcreekÊandÊdrowned.
That is an incredibly bad joke Mr. Scott.
ThankÊyou.
That poor man. No, I have often, as a lover of
Tristram Shandy and the sentimental, I have often
looked on that plaque with some sadness and a little
bit of a smile, but mostly sadness. But that plaque had
better stay up. One of my little projects is making
sure the memorial plaques from the FSK lobby go
back up. [Pause.] Herman T. Wooters.
5
�λόγος
THE GADFLY
WhichÊ StÊ JohnÊ doÊ youÊ thinkÊ we’reÊ namedÊ after?Ê
[There are 101 Saints John.]
It seems right that it would be John the Baptist
because we’re about beginnings.
October 12, 2023
than I have that there’s an ethical aspect to what we
do at the college. But I think there’s also a place for
saying what we don’t do. The college is involved in
the process of becoming a good adult. I’m hesitant to
say that we’re teaching people how to be good. We’re
mostly about beginnings, not ends, not ethics.
HowÊdoÊweÊmakeÊSJCÊmoreÊunethical?
We could care about grades more and more. It would
eat the endeavor from the inside out. Maybe get rid of
grades. Say to the outside world, “We meant it when
we said we didn’t care about these.” The only reason
we haven’t done that is we care about our graduates.
[A discussion ensues which leads us to a simple
conclusion: GPAs at SJC ought to be given in the
form of complex numbers or existing in nonEuclidean space.]
Students Standing by the "St. John's College Founded
1696 as King William's School" Sign on College Avenue
DoÊyouÊthinkÊSJCÊcanÊclaimÊtoÊhaveÊtrulyÊstartedÊ
inÊ 1696,Ê orÊ isÊ thisÊ aÊ shipÊ ofÊ TheseusÊ thatÊ we’reÊ
drowningÊon?
Well, it’s definitely a ship of Theseus. I wish we
talked more about the founding of the new college.
That is our college. That is the water we swim in. I
want to honor that this institution has existed since
1696, but my college was the one founded by Barr
and Buchannan and reformed by Jacob Klein. I wish
we talked more about that. See? As I said, there’s
more than one beginning.
[Mr. Abbott spent the next minute threatening to
destroy the transcript of this interview; things were
going well.]
ShouldÊSJCÊbeÊanÊethicalÊendeavor?
That’s a really serious question. I am on the side of
saying no for two reasons: I believe in its aim it
should not be an ethical endeavor; I also don’t think
it’s good for us to say it’s an ethical endeavor. Many
tutors whom I love and respect have expressed better
6
HowÊemotionalÊshouldÊweÊgetÊwhenÊreading?
Pretty emotional. I think that the word sentiment is
one way to talk about the connection between thought
and feeling. I don’t think there’s a hard division.
When you’re reading a book, you’re feeling certain
things about it. Feel hard, if you can. How do you
read a poem without feeling? In class, you feel
longing for something, you don’t even know what it
is. I’ve run into more students who say “I hate Don
Quixote” rather than that they feel something about
it. It absolutely seems like a part of a seminar.
What’sÊyourÊfavoriteÊquestion?
“Why is there something rather than nothing?” I
understand it’s not the most interesting question
because it doesn’t really go anywhere, but I like what
it does to me when I think it.
DoesÊtheÊhatÊhaveÊaÊname?
No! Maybe it should. [The interviewer will be
collecting a list of potential names, please email me
with options to petition Mr. Abbott with.]
What?
τί ἐστι. That’s my answer.
ThankÊyouÊforÊyourÊtime.
Oh Mr. Scott.
After our interview finished, Mr. Abbott promptly
compared being interviewed to being tortured and
wondered how he was going to work through the
trauma of this experience (forcing his friends to listen
to his agonies over dinner and then an intensive
therapy session was the decision we came to).
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October 12, 2023
Club Spotlight: Historia
By Tamar Pinsky
St. John’s College has several publications such as
Energeia (a literary and arts magazine), the Gadfly
(which if you haven’t realized yet, is a newspaper),
and 814 Magazine (which publishes photography.)
There used to be Historia as well, but it became
inactive—not anymore! Georgia Green, a junior, as
well as writing assistant, has started this academic
magazine back up again. You finally have a place to
send in all those essays you write for class (or essays
you wrote not for class)!
WhatÊisÊHistoria?
Historia was a publication of essays and other
inquiries that existed as St. John’s for some time but
fell apart in 2019 due to the Covid pandemic. This
year I am bringing it back as a journal with a focus on
long-form essays.
HowÊdidÊyouÊdecideÊtoÊrestartÊHistoria?
I was thinking about all the essays I read as a writing
assistant, and it made me sad that other people do not
get an opportunity to read all the great writing that we
do here. I thought it would be fun to have a
publication for people to show off their good work,
whether that be essays written for tutorials or for
pleasure.
HowÊdoesÊitÊwork?
We will open the submissions soon, and there will be
guidelines sent out alongside. It will work similarly
to Energeia – where you send your work to the
Female Student Typing on a Typewriter in her
Dormitory Room
editors—and then it goes through an editing process.
We hope to publish as many essays as possible.
WhoÊisÊtheÊarchon?
I (Georgia Green) am the archon, and Luke Briner is
the vice archon. There will be staff consisting of
contributors and/or people who have expressed desire
to be editors or layout editors.
WhatÊkindÊofÊJohnniesÊareÊyouÊlookingÊfor?
Anyone who is excited about writing! Anyone whose
essays show that they have put thought into their
work. Or if you just want to edit or do layout, that is
welcome as well. I know it is hard to be passionate
about writing when you are forced to do it for class,
but hopefully Historia will provide a space where you
can find fun in the form of writing.
HowÊoftenÊwillÊthereÊbeÊHistoriaÊpublications?
We are planning to have two publications per year—
one for each semester. The first should be out before
winter break, and the second one before the end of
the year, close to graduation.
AnyÊlastÊwords?
Look out for our email about submissions! I really
encourage people to submit essays even if they are
not your best work – we just want to hear your ideas.
Also, if you are interested in editing or layout please
reach out to gsgreen@sjc.edu!
Robert F. Vincent Studying at a Large Table with
Books, St. John's College
7
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October 12, 2023
Shaking Down Le ism at St John’s College By B.S.
S
t. John’s College is the mecca of liberal arts;
our courses are diverse and our student body
is trying to be, all in service of some
‘liberation.’ But what of the conservative
arts? Where is the degree for budding young
hardliners in support of weed being schedule 1 and
Ronald Reagan never having done anything wrong;
where is the degree which cares about facts, not
feelings; where is the degree my uncle from rural
Michigan wants me to have? Of course, you might
argue: “But we actually engage with a great deal of
what’s considered the tradition of conservatism:
Adam Smith, religious values, all of two women.” Or
you might say: “But this is an apolitical school!
There’s no place for explicit agendas in our hallowed
halls.” To both of you I say: goddamn liberals. I will
not be intimidated by your critical and theoretical
views. If this college won’t give it to me, I’m gonna
get my red-blooded all-American experience the truly
conservative way: handshakes and controversy. And
where better to do it than the most disgustingly freethinking event of the year: the BLT party (Standing
for: Black tie for self respecting individuals with
values; Lingerie for the corrupted youth; and Togas
for whatever weird Greek influence Percy Jackson
had on this generation).
My first handshake of the night was before we
even left the apartment: Benjamin Raymor Maier, my
roommate. He was dressed like the worst man in Las
Vegas, neck and collarbones and a little bit of chest
out too. I might have judged him edging on lingerie
showing that much skin, but as soon as I shook his
hand I knew: this is a black tie man, this is a politician
of the grand old ways, his elbow at a perfect ninety
degrees, giving a strong pull in and a pat on the arm.
By God, I’d vote for him and his invasions. When
asked, midshake, who the worst deity was he said:
“Xenu. The bad guy’s bad guy of Scientology.” With
that, we departed.
On our way to the cesspool, I happened upon
our old friend, Helen Felbek, Madam President of the
Delegate Council. Her shake was a bit soft, very
sober, and a little too tall (which has nothing to do
with my own height or insecurities). When asked what
the worst part about America is she said, “Americans”
and tried to laugh it off as if it were a joke, as if she
wasn’t getting the privilege of living in the greatest
8
country on earth, God bless us. The only good thing I
can say was that her outfit showed none of this
licentious ardor so common to European youth.
From my disappointing encounter with “our”
president, we turned into a back alley clearly labeled
‘No freshmen or sophomores,’ a requirement which I
could get behind: keep ‘em out, what do they know of
our way of life? The music was tolerable and the
lighting was dark. Frankly, I felt threatened knowing
such alleys exist in my good community. But I
swallowed my worries for now and got to work
shaking hands.
Ian Glueckert was dressed like an intern at a
real estate agent’s retirement party and shook my
hand the entire time we talked, but at least his answer
to ‘What’s the worst element’ (insincerity) was
passable. James Dormer, on the other hand (it was
actually the same hand), is a man who knows the right
number of pumps: not too much, with a good rhythm
as he told me about how we should outlaw mullets.
Ranna Kisswani—a woman who knows how to rig
elections—had a strong hand and a strong shake, a
strength of conviction supporting her belief that we
ought to annex Canada (this view got her broken up
with once). The worst thing Joshua Tague has ever
been described as is ‘A Gentleman’ and he’s got the
facial hair for it. John Teague made me feel like I was
being welcomed into some secret lodge with a pull-in
shake and the promise that “You want to change but
what’s always changing is you.” Carter Brown was all
positive vibes: asked if his hand might be shaken, he
said “For you, of course,” and proceeded to tell me
every detail about his life. This is where things went
downhill. Tait Geijer, with all his eight extra years of
life on most of the people he was surrounded by,
could shake a god given hand with that wide palm, but
I still don’t trust him (he said he’s never had a bad
date). Logan Arendt shook my hand twice, once
weakly, once strongly, while trying to justify it by
being “distracted” (what kind of man’s man gets
distracted when confronted with the most important
thing this side of defending his country: a
handshake?). Catherine Row had no tension in her
wrist (am I a god damn royalist meant to kiss your
hand?) and found absolutely no sexual tension in
language class. Bridget Mace was dressed in a way
that would have made my grandfather—a veteran,
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mind you—wonder whether fighting on the beaches
had been worth it, and only emphasized her
unamericanness when asked “What’s the worst place”
by answering “Cairo, Illinois.” Allyson Brink looked
me dead in the eyes and said: “Jesus? Not for me” and
smiled with too much enthusiasm (this is a woman
who prefers the company of addicts to that of God!).
My night had started as an up and down sort of
thing, but by this point, I was floundering and so too
was the country I love: is this what we had come to?
No one except me even saluted when the cops came to
tell us to quiet down. There was ass and alcohol on all
sides (neither attached to any particular persons
because none of this counts as slander and, though
committed to the bit, I am not a snitch). I saw the
world spinning, felt my hand tingling, and in my ears
was ringing. Were these not the people who had read
scripture? Aquinas! Augustine! Aristotle! Would they
approve of this? Where had it all gone? I had come in
October 12, 2023
pursuit of patriots and had let them all slip through my
fingers. I looked around and all I saw were hands with
cigarettes, with bottles of booze, clasping at each
other and not in a handshaking and god fearing
manner, no, clasping in a sexual manner! The music
was drowned out by laughter and screaming. What
could I do but run? Run out into the dangerous streets
of Annapolis, all on my own, fleeing for my life, my
virtue! As I stumbled out of that accursed place I saw
those signs on the wall and I knew, I knew all at once:
No freshmen. No sophomores. No freshmen. No
sophomores. It was junior year that corrupted people.
It was being enabled! Enabled into the cult of
satanism and baby eating! The corruption of calculus.
Of French. Of natural laws! My dear underclassmen
readers, flee, flee while you still can: save your hand
for shaking, not the devil’s work of vanishingly small
love triangles. And for all those lost to the corruption:
you have my thoughts and my prayers.
“All Handshaking is Entirely Platonic” (Plato photo credit: Britannica; artistic credit: BS)
9
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October 12, 2023
Club Spotlight: The Platypus Affiliated Society
By Tamar Pinsky
You already do plenty of reading here at St. John’s,
but have you considered doing more? There’s a new
reading group this year, a chapter of the Platypus
Affiliated Society, that is a great place to learn about
the Left and Marxism from a non-authoritative lens.
Come have discussions with your peers, whether you
have previous experience with the subject matter, like
archon Benjamin Kay does, or not at all—either way
your presence is appreciated.
WhatÊisÊtheÊPlatypusÊreadingÊgroup?
That is a more complex question than you might
think. I didn’t come up with it—we are connected to
a larger organization which has chapters at many
university campuses across the US, as well as some
in Germany and Austria.
this can be real, I’ve read my Darwin! This is
ridiculous!” Then one day he went to a zoo in
London, and he found himself proven wrong by a
platypus there.
Just as Engels felt failed by Darwin, the Platypus
reading group is about adjusting your approach when
your schemas for understanding the world around
you fail you, as they often did in the history of
Leftism.
WhatÊdoesÊtheÊreadingÊlistÊlookÊlike?
We are reading what Marx read and what he
responded to, so a lot of Enlightenment era works.
Right now we are reading Kant.
HowÊdidÊtheÊPlatypusÊorganizationÊstart?
WhatÊsortÊofÊJohnniesÊareÊyouÊlookingÊfor?ÊHow’sÊ
theÊgroupÊgoing?
It started back in 2006, in response to questions like
“why does the Left seem so incoherent?” They are
not overly utopian or political, rather their approach
involves going through the narrative of how people
understood the Left throughout history.
Obviously this is not going to appeal to everyone—
with the extra reading and a couple of hours on your
Saturdays. It is best when there is a consistent group
of people so the conversations can continue each
week, which we have been having.
HowÊdidÊyouÊbecomeÊinvolvedÊwithÊthisÊsociety?
WhoÊ isÊ theÊ archon?Ê WhenÊ andÊ whereÊ areÊ theÊ
meetings?
Last year, someone put up a poster about the Platypus
reading group at Georgetown, DC. It turned out that
it was Christian Cameler, the partner of a tutor at St.
Johns, Ms. Picker. I drove with Mr. Cameler to the
reading group on weekends.
WhyÊisÊitÊcalledÊPlatypus?
Some universities will have groups with very serious
sounding names – not to say that the Platypus group
is not serious, rather, the silly name is representative
of the fact that we are not trying to give a dogmatic
approach.
There is an actual funny story behind the Platypus
name as well. In the nineteenth century, Friedrich
Engels, Karl Marx’s collaborator, read in the
newspaper about a new animal discovered in
Australia, the platypus. He thought, “there is no way
10
I (Benjamin Kay) am the archon. Email me at
bhkay@sjc.edu if you have any questions. We meet
in McDowell 31, from 2:30-1:00 on Saturdays.
AnyÊlastÊwords?
If you have any interest, you should show up! There
is no expectation that you have any prior knowledge.
We are planning on having a guest lecturer soon, so
look out for that. We are also going to have some
film screenings like the French-German movie from a
couple years ago called The Young Karl Marx and
other biopics, if you would rather not work more
reading into your schedule.
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THE GADFLY
October 12, 2023
Freedom, Responsibility,
and the Liberal Arts
By Stringfellow Barr
Pictured at right: the modern St. John’s College
logo/seal, adopted in 1937. →
EDITOR’S NOTE:
“Freedom, Responsibility, and the Liberal Arts” was
a lecture delivered by Stringfellow Barr in 1938 —at
the dawn of our Program as we know it today. This
lecture was later produced in the Gadfly in 1981—the
paper’s second-ever year at the College—and is
produced again here now. -LB
T
he other day an interesting and curious gift
arrived at St. John’s College. It was a design in the
form of a circular seal, and it was the work of a
Harvard man who admires the educational program
which this College has undertaken and who chose to
express his admiration by designing this symbolic
seal. In the center of the seal is a pair of scales, or
balances. Around it in a circle are placed seven open
books, representing the seven liberal arts. And around
the open volumes is lettered the motto, FACIO
LIBEROS EX LIBERIS LIBRIS LIBRAQUE. I
suppose the motto may be fairly translated: “I make
free men out of boys by means of books and
balances.” The punning on the stem of the Latin word
for free is a serviceable pun now that liberal
education is confronted with a world-wide decline of
liberalism.
Like most liberals today, I am disturbed by
the rise in many parts of the world of government by
violence as a substitute for government by reason and
consent. But unlike most liberals I know, I am much
less disturbed by the overthrow of free government in
states that were once democratic than I am by the
confusion of the liberal mind in states like ours which
are still technically free. You may argue that
confusion in the liberal mind disturbs me because I
know that such confusion is normally followed by the
overthrow of free government. I agree that this is
what normally happens; but even if you could assure
me that “it can’t happen here,” I should still be
disturbed by the present state of liberalism. Because I
agree with those who founded our Republic that what
they and we have called free institutions cannot alone
and of themselves make men truly free. Free
institutions are a means to an end, not an end in
themselves. The end is the freedom of individual men
and women.
The real meaning of liberalism lies in the fact
that man possesses free will, and that he is really and
fully human only when that will is freely exercised.
Because he possesses free will, he has the power to
choose, to decide. You can prevent my exercising of
my free will, so far as politics is concerned, by a
number of methods. You can seize the government
and close the polls. Or you can keep the polls
ostentatiously open, and post armed men at them to
see that I vote Ja in any plebiscite you hold. Or you
can tell me to vote as I like but that I will lose my job
if the wrong man wins. Or you can refrain from
threatening my livelihood but see that I am kept
misinformed through a censored press, so that I will
“freely” choose the things you want me to choose. Or
you can let me have all the information I want but see
to it that my education is so defective that I lack the
intellectual capacity to interpret the information when
I get it. The last method would be the subtlest. For I
can lose the freedom of my will just as surely through
ignorance as through being sent to a concentration
camp, and I shall have the added disadvantage of not
knowing I have lost it.
Don’t misunderstand me: Concentration
camps are not merely disagreeable; they are a
genuine check on the freedom of the will; they
genuinely close out certain choices. All I am saying is
that keeping out of concentration camps is not
necessarily achieving freedom. Neither is having
access to an uncensored press. Neither is having the
rights of free speech and free assembly. These things
merely widen the choices a free will may make if that
will has learned to use and follow reason. It is
11
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THE GADFLY
because of these distinctions that the founding fathers
of this republic insisted on the necessity of liberal
education.
The daily papers suggest that Hitler and
Mussolini [this lecture was delivered in 1938] are
doing most of the choosing, most of the deciding,
most of the willing these days. The day’s news
suggests that liberal democracies are paralyzed. If
they are, it is because we twentieth-century liberals
have missed the point of our own faith. We have
slithered into the belief that liberty meant being left
alone, and nothing else. We have come to no longer
distinguish between authority and tyranny. We have
forgotten that the mind that denies the authority of
reason falls under the tyranny of caprice. We have
forgotten that he who will not answer to the rudder
must answer to the rock. We have therefore allowed
totalitarian dictators to take out a copyright on words
like authority and discipline, although their tyranny is
a caricature of authority and their terrorism is a
caricature of discipline.
It is high time that those Americans who
value liberalism should restate their faith in it, not
negatively as we so often do these days, but
positively; that we freely and gladly assume the
responsibilities of liberty as well as its privileges. For
though most liberals today are soft, there is nothing
soft about liberalism. I spoke in one of these radio
talks of the famous funeral oration which Pericles
made over the Athenian dead. At a crucial point in
that oration, Pericles boasts of the relationship
between the free Athenian and the laws he made and
lived by. Last month I asked a New Program student
[the New Program—our Program—was introduced in
1937] to reduce this paragraph to a single sentence,
and this is what I got: “We reverence the laws and the
laws respect us.” I think he did a good job. Pericles
was proud of Athenian freedom and insisted it was
worth dying for. Our ancestors shared that pride and
that insistence. But they and he were proud, not of the
absence of discipline or authority, but of the fact that
in a society of free citizens discipline and authority
are self-imposed. I too should insist they were worth
dying for. But I should not want to die for an external
discipline imposed on me by tyranny; nor should I
want to die for the right to be without any discipline
at all.
We liberals have erred, I suspect, through
asking too little. We have asked for what animals and
small children want, but not what free men and
women require. We have shouted hysterically for
12
October 12, 2023
freedom of speech, a free press, and free assembly,
while one by one these freedoms have disappeared in
one modern state after another. And we have asked
ourselves fearfully whether we too would lose these
freedoms. But we have not demanded, as our
ancestors did, both for themselves and their children,
a mind free from ignorance, an awakened
imagination, and a disciplined reason, without which
we cannot effectually use our other freedoms or even
preserve them. We have demanded, quite properly,
the right to make our own mistakes, but we have not
demanded the capacities that would enable us to
understand our mistakes when we have made them.
I think this Harvard friend of ours, who has
tried to express his conception of what St. John’s
College stands for today, has stated something
essential for you and me to understand, not merely
because you and I belong to the College which this
seal of his celebrates, but because you and I, like him,
are free American citizens. I am sorry my translation
of the motto he has furnished is so dull: “I make free
men out of boys by means of books and balances.” I
have lost the magnificent Latin punning: FACIO
LIBEROS EX LIBERIS LIBRIS LIBRAQUE. These
strong Latin words remind us of words the Latins
gave us. For we liberals cannot exercise our liberties
without knowing how to deliberate. Without that
power, we are children. Fortunately, there are books
that record for us the deliberations of men who
outgrew childhood, who knew how to weigh, to
balance choices, to decide. These books are models
of analysis, in which issues are clarified, so that real
choices, deliberate choices, can be made. They
propound and propose alternative solutions to
problems that are still with us under different guise.
And the different books state alternative issues
against each other.
And there are not books alone to help us.
There are balances. Balances and other laboratory
instruments which teach us to measure, to compare,
to discriminate, to combine, to understand. The
liberal arts, the intellectual arts that liberate the mind,
operating through these same books and these same
balances, liberalized and humanized our fathers, and
their fathers before them. They can liberate our
children too. They can make free men out of our
children, teach them to live in a liberal democracy,
and to make real choices, after due deliberation. Then
our children would understand liberalism, where our
own sloth and incomprehension have left it languid,
vulnerable, irrational, and therefore hysterical.
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October 12, 2023
How to Survive the Dining Hall in 13 Easy Steps
By Anonymous
1. Don’t fall into the trap of eating the only thing
that looks good (e.g., a hot dog) every day.
Vegetables are important!
2. Speaking of vegetables, however, avoid the
squash. Best get veggies from the salad bar.
3. But be careful regarding the salad bar!
Sometimes items will be rotten. Also, there’s
plenty of cross contamination; if you have an
allergy, beware.
4. For non-salad bar items as well, be very
careful if you have an allergy. (Speaking from
anonymous personal experience! Unless you
need an excuse to skip seminar.)
5. If you don’t have an allergy, but still have
dietary restrictions, make sure to check out
the vegan and gluten free mini fridges.
There’s also a kimchi mini fridge, by the way,
if you need more spice in your life.
9. And the effort they put into desserts is
admirable. You can always count on the
vegan desserts to be good, as well as the ice
cream (not vegan, sadly), and the fries (not
dessert, technically).
10. You can also always count on the juices to be
good—not the coffee, though.
11. Speaking of coffee, there’s also the coffee
shop as a nice option if you are not feeling the
dining hall. The prices are pretty good—and
there’s also pick-3.
12. Or if you are feeling the dining hall but not
the loudness of your fellow Johnnies, there
are greenies so you can take food out.
13. Or, you know, you could just go to Chipotle...
6. Condiments are another way to add some
spice to your food. Don’t be afraid to steal
the ketchup from another table. (Though
make sure to ask politely first.)
7. Be polite to the staff as well! “Appreciate the
fuck out of Chucky!” And don’t use your
hands instead of tongs, or put buttered toast in
the toaster, unless you’d like to get scolded.
8. Also don’t use the cups for anything other
than drinks—but speaking of cups, isn’t it
great that they use sustainable ones? And that
they recycle and compost!
Students Eating in the Randall Hall Dining Hall
with Bow-Tie Waiters
13
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October 12, 2023
Why Waltz?
By Vivian Miyakawa
“Grapes, cheese, crackers… anything else?”
“Apples!” my roommate exclaims as I quickly jot
down her requests in my Notes app. After taking her
order, I whirl around to fix my lip gloss in the mirror
and blow a kiss goodbye as I skip out the
door. Ziplock bag in hand and dressed to perfection,
I am headed to another St. John’s College waltz. On
my way there, I run into some friends. Amidst of our
flurry of compliments, I’m asked if I plan to dance
the night away. Jokingly, I crack a smile and hold up
my bags. “My roommate says I’m not allowed to
dance until I bring her back some snacks.” Giggling
ensues as they immediately comprehend the
importance of my mission. Rushing through the
doors, I meet a friend working the snack table and let
her grab me “fresh snacks” from underneath the
table. I take a small amount of each offering and
shove it in the Ziplock. The music swells in the
background as I gaze upon the delicacies before me.
Babybel cheese, mini croissants, Ferrero Rocher
chocolate—yes, we are truly living the high life.
Waltz Party, A View from the Balcony in the Great
Hall of McDowell Hall
14
Three Students Seated with Bowls of Food
Proud of my foraging victory, I rush back up the
stairs of my dorm and hand the food over to my
roommate, who is working diligently on an essay.
Once I’ve made my way back to the waltz, I
am ready to do some dancing. I grab a partner, put on
a smile, and let myself get lost in the music. I try to
recall my Tuesday waltz lessons, and count steps in
my head. I’m a bit of a clumsy dancer, but I have so
much fun every time. After twirling across the dance
floor for a few songs, another friend elbows me in the
side. “How come you haven’t been dancing this
whole time?” We laugh together for a moment, then I
find my way back to the snack table once more,
where the same people who had just witnessed me
shoving copious amounts of chocolate and cheese
into my bag are still deep in conversation.
Eventually, I head up the stairs and lean against the
balcony, watching the dancers from above. I look
around to see alumni couples holding on to each
other, perhaps reminiscing on their own time at these
waltzes. Smiling to myself, I think about the sheer
number of reasons people have for attending the
waltzes. From snacks, to conversation, to dancing, or
even just being an observer in the moment, there
really is something for everyone to enjoy.
�πόλις
THE GADFLY
October 12, 2023
The SJC Mystery #2: Location,
Location, Location
By Benne “Worked in Real Estate for One
Summer” Sco
I
n my pursuit of the stone’s meaning, I’ve
garnered plenty of theories: it’s a freemason
symbol; it’s an astrological sign; it’s an
Icelandic rune. I have gone so far as making
my first Facebook post (ever) and got responses
including: it might be an ornamental version of 羊
(yang), meaning goat in Mandarin (this was quickly
rejected by the next comment); it might be Ij-H-C,
someone’s initials in the Dutch alphabet; it might be
the logo of a Greek house (a naval academy hit
piece?); it might be Sintic or Mongol or Ogham
script; it might be a stone mason’s mark, though a
little bit elaborate; it might just be the shape of a stick
shift. Some people shrug and say it’s just a prank.
Some people look at me with genuine fear and make
me promise never to take it off campus.
My life rule from the last article (don’t do
anything that would start a horror movie) might be
said to have a parallel, but stronger postulate about
the world at large: All bad vibes converge. So how do
you find out about the accursed stone? Pursue all
other sources of discomfort, dislike, and disgust and
eventually you’ll find something related. Luckily, if
there’s one thing this college excels at, it’s spooky
locations. Since you and I are such good friends my
dear reader, I figure I ought to take you on a little
tour of some of my favorites:
Under Pub Safe: If you happen to need a
break from talking with the wonderful folks at public
safety (the only people who know more about badvibe locals on this campus than I), just step out that
door, take a quick right and then another and there
Examining the stone itself more has only
made things worse. It’s made of the same stone as
used in parts of McDowell and all across the quad. It
doesn’t fit perfectly into its hole; instead, it has
roughly hewn sides but a perfectly flat bottom. The
symbol is carved almost too perfectly in comparison
to the slipshod jaggedness of the edges. I sat (during
a party, music and voices blasting) staring at it and
realized: some of the tiles of this type are smooth,
some are rough. The tile that the stone is in is a
perfectly smooth tile. The stone itself, though, has a
rough top. So was the stone cut out from a separate
tile and then put into this one? Who would put it
there? Is it intentionally ambiguous? I can’t find
dates; I can’t find reasons; all I can find are more and
more ambiguous pieces of information. You see the
problem? I’ve got a lot of theories, but no hard
evidence. So I did what any good (para?)normal Trees by the Side of Pinkney Hall, St. John's College,
Annapolis, Maryland
investigator does: went entirely off the rails.
15
�πόλις
THE GADFLY
you go: a storm cellar door. This one requires a little
bit of work to open and close, but once you’ve waded
your way into the darkness, you’ll be swallowed up
in the sort of shadow where you know there are walls
nearby, just not exactly where. The unfortunate thing
is that you’ll find (with the help of a flashlight or
some simple flailing around) a lightswitch. Turn it on
and surprise: it’s literally just a room with pipes. Not
that exciting and a little too risky for my tastes.
The Pit: Is this one scary? Kind of? More just
disgusting. Imagine me (wait no imagine me a little
taller than that I promise I’m 6 feet tall) and my
roommate, two Western boys in an East coast world,
headed to the gym. Just outside of the entrance is a
rectangle of bricks with a sheet of rusted metal on
top. If anything says “Two 20 year old boys are going
to be curious about me,” this screamed it. So I took
the tetanus risk and lifted the sheet. Light barely cuts
across one side of the hole at a shallow angle, leaving
all else black. There’s water running some ten or
fifteen feet below. My roommate points his phone
down the hole and turns on the flashlight. Roaches. A
hundred of them. At least. They all run towards the
bottom of the hole and you can hear it, the ghastly
bug on bag stampeding. I promptly say “Fuck that”
and put the top back on. We moved on with our lives,
doing our best not to have nightmares. I checked the
pit again recently and found no roaches. I don’t want
to know where they all went.
Under Mellon: Now for the place I hate more
than anywhere else in the world! Under Mellon
(down a not very well hidden stairway), there’s a
door. According to you and public safety, I’ve never
opened that door and never will, but if it just so
happened to be open one night, you would most
certainly find the heebee-jeebee-est spot on campus. I
opened the door and knew one thing: this space is
bigger. Much bigger than all the others. So big that
any light I used was swallowed up, leaving me in a
half formed hall of concrete and dusk. The first thing
16
October 12, 2023
you see upon entering are chairs, stacked upside
down and right side up and every other direction, all
brown and black and tan and most certainly hiding
something on the far side. There are pianos too,
perfect for playing single, unexplained notes. The
floors and walls are unchanging grey and the ceiling
is all pipes. Reality does not have a heavy hold on
this place; there’s always something there, just out of
reach. But it’s not just the long hallway: there are
attached rooms and a doorway that breaks up the
space. There is no way to see everything around you,
no way to look around every corner. All you can do is
venture deeper into the deep, deep dark.
Honorable mention: The random door from
Gilliam that leads to a one story drop? Classic.
Under the Yellow House: The yellow house
on the Southwest side of campus is all dissonance:
why, amongst the tall brick walls aspiring to colonial
grandeur, is there this little prairie home with its
wood sides and white trim? I’ve never been inside.
I’ve never seen anyone come in or out. It’s
supposedly the alumni house. All that matters to me
is that, on the parking lot side, there is yet another
storm cellar door.
And you won’t believe what I found there (am
I getting better at this clickbaiting stuff?). Check out
the video for a bad vibes compilation and a special
discovery (I’m laughing, aren’t you?):
�πόλις
THE GADFLY
October 12, 2023
Swish: Motion of Fish By Ella Jacky
Moss, rocks, tank, fish
Tranquil, serene, fins that swish
Sleek, shine, sway, flow
Everchanging, moving slow
Fins, rotate, fore, rear
Swirling in a cyclic sphere
Down, push, up, swoop
Never-ending eight-shaped loop
In flux, gills pulse
Contract, expand, now convulse
Fins slip, skim, swim,
Spinning over, now again
All times, shift, change
Yet ever same; wonder strange
Motion quick and motion slow
Fish in constant ebb and flow
Fins, sheer, sheen, thin
Twirling gently, sudden whenTail shift, now flick
Fluid, flashing, turning quick
Arched bend, left, right
Swift through water, swimming flight
Beats pulse through spine
Even rhythm, keeping time
Waves bend, move, shift
Lilting meter, cadence swift
Swish, slip, dart, slide
To a corner, buggy eyed,
Peer out, eyes shift
Goggling, staring, rhythmic drift
Swirl, fins, front, back
Jaw is gaping, mouth is slack
A Tree and the Dock on College Creek,
Annapolis, Maryland
17
�πόλις
THE GADFLY
The Rose
By Kurtis Bleakley
How Tender is
The sweetness there,
The fragrance of a rose,
Lasting for a moment,
Inhaled through the nose
How precious that I, and I alone,
In a hair’s breadth of time,
Can take unto myself this eternal beauty.
What wonder you are, flower!
Delight to the eye and the breath,
Would that you could last forever,
With your fragrance of a rose
I wish for a love like you, sweet flower,
A delightful love,
A love to capture world entire in its embrace,
A love to make beauty become all things.
And a love to make the godly and the beautiful a
wondrous union,
And love that loves all love, and all loving and lovely
things therein,
But I already have that,
Because of this moment and that fragrance of a rose.
18
October 12, 2023
Noodles 02:
“The Overly
Optimistic
Crosswalk
Bu on”
By Tamar Pinsky
�λόγος
THE GADFLY
October 12, 2023
Eva Brann, circa 1986
A special colloquy was organized honoring the now-retired icon of St. John’s College.
19
�THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
OF
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly is the
student newsmagazine distributed to
over 600 students, faculty, staff, and
alumni of the Annapolis campus.
Opinions expressed within are the
responsibility of the author(s). The
Gadfly reserves the right to accept,
reject, and edit submissions in any
way necessary to publish a
professional, informative, and
thought provoking newsmagazine.
Submissions sent to the Gadfly
should either be in Google Docs or
JPEG format. The deadline for
Pictured: The Gadfly Office (Photo by Luke Briner)
submissions is the Friday prior to
publication.
For more information, contact us
via email at lbriner@sjc.edu.
60 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
Images without a listed source are from the St.
John's College Digital Archives.
St. John's College owns the rights
to these photographs.
�
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The Gadfly, Vol. XLV, Issue 2
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Gadfly Vol XLV Issue 2
Gadfly
Student publication
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https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/6230a0358f64187551ffb84302937446.pdf
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PDF Text
Text
the Gadfly
St. John’s College
Annapolis, Maryland
BACK TO SCHOOL SPECIAL
September 25, 2023
Vol. XLV, Issue 1
�Letter from the Editor
Dear Polity,
Welcome and welcome back!
As we all embark on this new academic year together, it’s the sincere hope of mine that the Gadfly is able to serve as a worthy and
exciting representation of the life, thought, and spirit of our College.
In the pursuit of this ideal, we’ve made some changes to the organization and publication of our content, which is always intended, as
our Staff Handbook says, to “encourage discourse between all facets of our community.” Most notable among these changes is the introduction of the Collegian, the Gadfly’s new weekly newsletter which you’ve probably already seen around campus a couple of times
by now. Spearheaded by our wonderful managing editor El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, the Collegian will help to more frequently and
dynamically engage with our Polity in between the much more substantial issues of the Gadfly proper, which we’re now intending
to publish on a regular triweekly schedule. We’ve also adjusted the organization of content within each Gadfly issue itself: the Logos
section will be more heavily emphasized overall, and the Symposium section will now be focused on writing of a definitely academic
style, leaving more personal and purely introspective essays to the Polis section.
We hope that you enjoy our first issue of the year, and all issues to come!
Luke Briner,
Co-editor-in-chief
Contents
λόγος
New Year, New Dean
Registrar Resignation
Housing Troubles
συμπόσιον
Selections from "Notes on Dialogue"
Thoughts at the Beginning
A Critique of Dialogue
3
4
6
7
10
14
Cover
anonymous
(Digital archiveS)
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
luke briner
MANAGING EDITOR
el'ad nicHols kaufmann
StAFF
Meliha Anthony,
Anna Dayton,
Natalie Goldman,
Will Marchman,
Vivian Miyakawa,
Tuyết-Nhi Nghiêm,
Tamar Pinsky,
Louis Rosenberg,
Bennett Scott,
Felix Tower
layout
Bridget mace
πόλις
Getting Personal
22
From the President: The Value of Civic Engagement 24
Advice on Summer
25
Dog-Day Cicada
26
The Betrothed
27
SJC Mystery #1: The Stone
28
Review of the Freewrite Drafting Tool
30
Freshman Bodies and Freshman Souls
33
Finds from the Archives
34
2
�λόγος
the Gadfly
September 25, 2023
New Year, New Dean
well: a staff member, a board member, a student, a tutor.
She and the president need to work very well together.
Eva Brann has a famous quote that maybe she never said,
By LUKE BRINER
"The president attends to the existence of the college, the
dean to the essence." What is our essence? How do the
This July 1st, Susan Paalman succeeded Joseph many individuals who make up the college come together
Macfarland as dean of our undergraduate Program in to become one college? I think a lot about Socrates and
Annapolis. Her first year as dean will mark her 26th his question in the Republic about how two ones come
overall at the College. Found below are several questions together to make one two. It's mysterious and beautiful.
posed to her regarding her new position and her responses.
What was the process of becoming our new dean like?
It was like being initiated into the Mysteries... Ok,
maybe not that dramatic. I shadowed Mr. Macfarland
last semester, having been released from one teaching
station (sorry, freshman lab! You know I love you). Ms.
Demleitner and I met regularly also, and I attended the
board meetings along with Mr. Macfarland. I attended
lots of other meetings and got to know a bit more about
what makes things tick at St. John's. Everyone was so very
helpful to me. I'm especially grateful to Ms. Demleitner
and Mr. Macfarland, who were both very generous with
their time and advice.
What about your new position as dean excites you
most?
St. John's has formed my adult life; I came here when I
was 28 years old. I am more grateful than I can say that I
am now in a position to be a leader at this place that has
meant so much to me. So, just the fact that I am here in
this role is very exciting to me.
What does it mean to be a good dean, and especially
the dean of a college like St. John's?
Are there any colleges "like St. John's"? (Sorry, I couldn't
resist.) A good dean needs to have some sense of what the
good is, in general and for this community. She is a listener
and a learner, especially at St. John's. A good dean takes
what she has heard and learned and makes the decisions
that need to be made, with the good of the community
in mind. This takes a combination of pulling back, to
take in what is happening in the community, and acting
decisively, so things that need to be clear are clear. "The
community" includes so many people in so many different
worlds that a good dean needs to be able to hear everyone
What do you think the most pressing issues at St. John's
that fall under your jurisdiction as dean are, and how
do you intend to address them?
I've begun a conversation about a possible honor code.
This is part of a larger conversation that Mr. Abbott
has also been engaging in: how do we hold on to our
humanity in the face of the technology that could
threaten it. We have available to us aids and tools that,
ironically, could cripple us if not considered wisely. St.
John's is as vulnerable as anyone to this danger. We are also
particularly well suited to examine this problem and take
it on with thoughtfulness, care, and thumos [spiritedness].
Do you have any beginning-of-the-year message that
you'd like to convey to the student body as a whole,
and/or to freshmen in particular?
Dive into the program with spirit and help each other
with kindness and grace!
Photo: Meliha Anthony
3
�the Gadfly
λόγος
Registrar Resignation
Leaves Students Spooked
By TAMAR PINSKY
Students received their much-awaited class schedules
on the evening of Tuesday, August 22nd. Some of these
schedules, however, were still subject to change. Some
of the schedules contained groupings of students oddly
familiar to those of previous years. . Other students
reported experiences less extreme, yet still notable: a
switched class, or a seminar resembling last year’s.
Why did schedules come out so late? Why have
there been so many last-minute fine tunings? Why have
students been re-clustered into already used clusters? The
absence of a registrar seems the popular scapegoat.
Many individual experiences are attributed to the lack
of a registrar—whether correctly so or not. They add to
the idea that the school has suffered due to the previous
registrar’s resignation, which is also not necessarily correct.
The previous registrar and the previous assistant
registrar resigned in the beginning of the summer due to
personal reasons. Because of the quantity and type of work
that had to be done, however, they worked after hours as a
contract employee. They were, however, not the only one
who took on the laundry list of responsibilities: transcript
requests, organizing convocation and graduation,
arranging and adjusting tutor and student schedules, and
arranging don rag and senior oral schedules.
The registrar’s work was completed with the help
of Ms. Latham, Ms. Stevens, Mr. Beall, Mr. Abbott, Ms.
Lico, Ms. Waters, and Ms. Francis.
The work also could not have been done without
the Santa Fe registrar and assistant registrar, Julie Romero
and John Martinez. There is certain software and training
vital to doing the registrar’s work, and thus their specialty
was much appreciated.
Normally, the registrar and assistant registrar would
complete this work such that class schedules are done
in early August. This year, because the work was thrust
onto a multitude of faculty members, the first drafts were
a couple of weeks late. However, they did not come out
extremely late, for the school in fact prefers to send them
out only a couple of days before classes start.
Creating class schedules is hard work—one must make
sure that no one is in a core group with anyone in their
previous core groups, that there is a reasonable gender
balance, that each class contains only students from other
Jacki Thomas, previous registrar. Photo: Tamar Pinsky
4
September 25, 2023
�λόγος
the Gadfly
core groups who were in none of their other classes, and
that no student has a class with a tutor they previously
had. Adjusting schedules is difficult too—sometimes
classes must be moved due to conflicting schedules, and
sometimes students request a class transfer—however,
class transfers are not allowed in the first three weeks of
classes.
Because of the difficulty of this work, there were cases
in which not all these requirements were met regarding
scheduling. For Sophomore Sophia Derico, several of
these standards were not met. Her core group this year
is identical to the one she had her first year, with the
addition of two more students. However, she no longer
shares music with these five students—she got switched
into a different class, taught by her freshman Greek tutor.
Meanwhile, her math class got moved back a day, because
it had been scheduled to take place during the weekly
Sicut Sing. And to top it all off, both her Greek and math
classes this year are shared with another core group, so the
same eleven students dominate both.
But not every case, such as simply having familiar
faces in one’s class, can be ascribed to the absence of the
registrar. It is inevitable that there will be some repeated
combinations of students year to year, given St. John’s size.
In other words, the schedules were affected by the
absence of a registrar, but perhaps not as much as they
might have seemed to be so.
September 25, 2023
The registrar’s work also comes with certain legal
requirements due to its confidential nature. Because the
registrar is entrusted with dealing with students’ personal
information, not just anyone could take their place.
Furthermore, it is ideal for the registrar to know the tutors
and students to perform their role optimally—it is best if
the registrar stays at the school for a long time.
Particularly at a school like St. John’s, where the
students do not register themselves for classes as they
do at most colleges, the importance of the registrar is
more apparent. Many universities rely almost entirely on
machines for their registrar work, but perhaps that would
not be fitting for St. John’s. As Assistant Dean Mr. Abbott
said, to think that the situation St. John’s is facing might
suggest the need for machines is the kind of thinking that
makes “the world come to an end.”
Instead of placing hope on machines, both the Dean
and Assistant Dean have expressed hope that they will
find a new registrar soon. It is hard to predict exactly
when that will be, but they are optimistically searching.
Perhaps the registrar is of the sort that one does
not realize how important they are until they are gone.
They are the “nuts and bolts,” as our Dean, Ms. Paalman
called them, that Johnnies may neglect in the face of the
contemplative, speculative questions they tend to focus
on.
Cartoon: "Noodles," Tamar Pinsky
5
�λόγος
the Gadfly
Housing Troubles
By VIVIAN MIYAKAWA
The sticky summer heat slowly gives way into fall,
marking the beginning of a new school year. Groups of
wide-eyed freshmen enter their residence halls for the
first time, squaring their shoulders and preparing to live
life with a roommate...or two?? Generally, freshmen at
St. John’s College live in doubles, with the occasional
room built for a triple. However, this year brings a unique
housing situation for most incoming freshmen. Campbell
Hall, a dorm traditionally housing freshmen, has been
under construction since the beginning of the summer,
leaving less space for many incoming Johnnies. Situated in
the midst of historic downtown Annapolis, St. John’s isn’t
exactly known for its ample dorm space, so this ongoing
building renovation forced freshmen into whatever
housing happened to be available.
Unlike most years, every residence building on
campus houses freshmen, and doubles have been
converted to triples as dorms overflow with students. This
unique situation adds even more change to the generally
tumultuous beginnings of a school year. Curious to gauge
the Polity’s reactions to these developments, I interviewed
a variety of students, asking them their opinions on the
housing situation and recording their thoughts.
Humphrey’s Hall is a freshman dorm generally
known for its spacious rooms; a healthy mix of doubles
and triples. This is perhaps the very trait that made it the
prime candidate for stuffing even more freshmen into one
6
Side View of Campbell Hall
with Circular Window and Bushes
September 25, 2023
residence hall. When interviewing students from different
floors of this residence hall, most mentioned that they
“expected smaller” and that they were “preparing for the
worst” when they heard about this year’s changes. Keeping
your standards low is a surefire way to satisfaction, but
unfortunately, not even the lowest of standards could
make the Humphreys bathrooms seem appealing. With
about one third more students than anticipated, the
bathroom has truly become a “communal” space. The
three showers and two bathrooms stalls are often crowded
and dirty, and large globs of hair tend to block the drains.
Work orders are plentiful as amenities such as soap, toilet
paper, and paper towels are prone to running out within a
few days. Luckily, as mentioned by more than one resident,
including Ms. Greer, the Humphreys 2 RA, the mold on
the shower curtains isn’t the only thing “growing on them.”
A sort of begrudging fondness for this lively community
has sprung from the less-than-ideal conditions. As put by
Ms. Greer, “intentional community building and regular
gatherings are crucial to fostering a sense of friendship
and community,” and the tighter spaces brought on by the
housing changes certainly help facilitate that process.
However, things look a bit different for the few
freshmen living in typically upperclassmen dorms.
Freshmen from Pinkney Hall experience a much smaller
community, mentioning feeling as if they “don’t know
many of the people in their hall, and aside from the other
freshmen on their floor and their RA, they “have no clue
who is living with them in the biggest dorm on campus.”
In a similar vein, Ms. Bain, the RA for the freshmen
living in Chase-Stone, also noticed a sort of separation
between the freshmen and upperclassmen, specifically in
regards to the Chasement. In the past, it wasn’t generally
used as a place for study, but freshmen living there have
“taken advantage of the blackboards and comfy couches,
turning it into a standard common room.” Ms. Bain
mentions that even with the small amount of pushback
from some upperclassmen, she believes that “having
integrated dorm buildings is generally positive, it allows
for the blending of all of the classes which is nice and good
for our college community.”
In the end, it is likely that housing will return to normal
with the completion of the Campbell Hall remodel, and
that nothing will fundamentally change, but hopefully
this temporary diversion from normalcy has left a positive
impact on the people it has affected.
�συμπόσιον
the Gadfly
September 25, 2023
Notes on Dialogue (Selections)
Stringfellow Barr
EDITOR'S NOTE:
“Notes on Dialogue,” an essay written by one of our
Program’s founders, Stringfellow Barr, has become both
a foundational text for gaining insight into the nature
and intent of the College’s educational model, and the
subject of a contemporary controversy among students
and faculty over exactly how present it should be in
our academic lives at large. Central to this controversy
is the fact that, while Summer Academy students and
freshmen introduced to the College through the recently
established Pritzker Program do read it, other incoming
students do not. Why just them, and not the others?
Should all incoming students be required to read it, or
no one at all? In order to stimulate this debate, as well
as to complement the two other similarly-themed essays
featured in this issue’s Symposium section, some of the
most important sections of the essay are produced below.
-LB
_________________________________________
Perhaps the first obstacle to writing even these random
notes on dialogue is that the very word, dialogue, has
been temporarily turned into a cliché. Everybody is loudly
demanding dialogue, and there is not much evidence
that most of us are prepared to carry one on. Indeed, to
borrow a traditional phrase from professional diplomats,
conversations have deteriorated. But both radio and
television, whether public or commercial, remind us daily
that a lonely crowd hungers for dialogue, not only for
the dialogue of theatre but also for the dialogue of the
discussion program.
***
[B]abble is a ghost we cannot lay, the ghost of dialogue.
We yearn, not always consciously, to commune with other
persons, to learn with them by joint search. This joint
labor to understand would be even more exciting than
the multiplication of our gross national product or the
improvement of our national defense or even than the
elimination of war from the face of the earth. For we can
never live wholly human lives without a genuine converse
between men.
***
It seems possible that the most relevant sort of
dialogue, though perhaps the most difficult[…]to achieve
is the Socratic. For this difficult form of dialogue, there
are luckily a number of models in Plato's Dialogues. To
model [our] dialogues on those that Socrates incited
and took part in is a dangerous counsel of something
precious close to perfection. But I would merely urge
that Socrates' behavior "in dialogue" is a good star to
hitch one's wagon to. At the minimum, it is a good
guide to the reefs on which most really good dialogues
are wrecked. All these reefs welcome hungrily those who
substitute the kind of discussion Socrates called "eristic"
as a substitute for the kind he called "dialectic." In Book
I of Plato's Republic Thrasymachus uses eristic; Socrates,
dialectic. Thrasymachus' purpose is to win points and to
win applause. The purpose of Socrates is to try, through
dialectical discussion with Thrasymachus and others, to
understand better the essential nature of justice. Each of
the two men makes a choice of weapons appropriate to
his purpose. The rising voice, the personal accusation, the
withering scorn, the crushing sarcasm, the panic at the
possibility of being out-maneuvered, the sweating, the
unaccustomed blush of a normally unblushing champion
sophist, the volubility that tries to shore up a crumbling
argument and to ward off the disgrace of refutation, the
love of one's own opinions precisely because they are
one's own, the vanity that replaces love of truth with love
for victory are all exemplified by Thrasymachus. What
Socrates displays towards Thrasymachus is courtesy. He
treats him not as an enemy, but as a valued colleague in
the mutual search for understanding. Socrates is, as it
were, the personification for purposes of discourse of the
love for one's neighbor that Judaism and Christianity
prescribe. And the same love sometimes infuses his
courteous questions with irony, because such irony
helpfully invited Thrasymachus to rid himself of the false
opinions he harbored. So he is never fearful that he will
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September 25, 2023
"lose," precisely because he is not trying to "win," and does introduced with an (ironic) apology. Since [students are]
not meet these flat opinions with other flat opinion, but trying to see more deeply into current problems but are
with the ironical question.
free of the burden of imminent, practical, political action,
Just as we are taught to hate not the sinner but the they might profitably stay "drunk" longer than the King of
sin, especially if it is our own, so Socrates never attacks Kings and his royal counsellors could risk staying.
Thrasymachus. Indeed, he never attacks his ignorance
The Socratic dialectic has another code of manners than
and presumptuousness. He merely dissolves the opinions the dinner party, where religion and politics are sometimes
Thrasymachus spouts so loudly, so rapidly, and so volubly. forbidden for fear that rising passions may damage "social"
That Thrasymachus recognizes the mortal danger in intercourse, and where interrupting a speaker and even a
Socrates' questions and, indeed, that painful scalpel, long-winded empty speech, is forbidden. In dialectic, a
irony, that Socrates uses on on his opinions
quick question is analogous to "point
(and consequently, given Thrasymachus'
of order" in political assemblies. "Do I
pride of authorship where his expressed
understand you to be saying . . . ?" always
opinions are concerned, on himself, his
has the floor.
honor, and his fame as a sophist) comes
Even these thumb-rules may seem
out in Thrasymachus' sarcastic allusion
guaranteed to produce bedlam. And,
to "your famous irony." That Socrates
indeed, when they are first tried,
knew that his irony "put to the question,"
they generally do produce it. But
a euphemism the Spanish Inquisition
inexperienced dancers on a ballroom
would later in history use for the act of
floor and inexperienced skaters on an
torturing the accused, is shown by his
ice rink also collide. Experience brings a
likening himself to a gadfly that stung
sixth sense in Socratic dialectic too. The
the noble steed, the Athenian democracy.
will of self-insistence gives way to the
That the steed knew too is shown in Plato's
will to learn.
Apology, where Socrates was sentenced to
In
dialectic,
"participational
death for putting Athens to the question.
democracy" consists in everybody's
The many dialectical conversations
listening intently; it does not consist in
in Plato's Dialogues suggest several rules
what commercial television calls equal
of thumb that might be profitably used
time. When a good basketball team has
by [students], or at least more frequently
the ball, its members do not snatch the
followed. One hesitates to suggest rules
ball from each other but support the
of thumb for a kind of discussion that is
man who has it, and the man who has it
essentially spontaneous. But it is hard to
passes it to a teammate whenever a pass
see how these particular rules could stifle Portraits of Stringfellow Barr is called for by the common purpose of
spontaneity:
the team. But in dialectic, as opposed to basketball, the
The exchange of declarative monologues tends to be "opposing team" is composed only of the difficulties all
dialectically unproductive. The effort to be too complete men face when they try to understand. The point is that,
is often self-defeating. An adumbration often contributes in dialectic, it does not matter whose mouth gets used by
more to dialectic than a rotund speech. Brevity stimulates the dialectical process, provided all are listening intently
dialectic.
and exercise the freedom to interrupt with a question if
I take it that Herodotus' "anecdote" that the Persians they do not understand. On the other hand, reading or
deliberated while drunk and decided while sober implies writing while "in dialogue" is a grave offense against the
that in the early stages of a dialectic exchange a "wild idea" common purpose of all, not because they diminish the
is often more fruitful that a prematurely prudent opinion. number of speaking mouths but because they diminish
The imaginative and the unexpected are frequent the number of listening ears. (Doodling and smoking are
ingredients of Socrates' style, though they are often permissible aides to listening!)
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Whatever the touted merits of pluralism in
democratic society today (and pluralism is, minimally,
better than shooting each other with mail-order submachine guns or even than legislating on religious
beliefs), the agreement to disagree is a disgraceful defeat
if it means surrendering the hope of agreement through
further dialectic. Even Socrates, on rare occasions,
countenanced postponement of the struggle to a more
propitious occasion.
Perhaps the first rule of Socratic dialectic was laid
down by Socrates: that we should follow the argument
wherever it leads. Presumably, this means that some
sorts of relevance that a court pleading should exhibit
(and, even more the forensic eloquence that pleading
encourages) are irrelevant to dialectic. The deliberate
manner, and even more the ponderous manner, are
mere impediments. The name of the game is not
instructing one's fellows, or even persuading them,
but thinking with them and trusting the argument to
lead to understanding, sometimes to very unexpected
understandings.
The chairman [of the Fellows of the Center for the
Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara]
recently abandoned the practice of recognizing speakers
in the order in which their raised hands requested the
floor. The abandonment of this device, so necessary in
parliamentary procedure and even in small committees
if they have not learned to discuss dialectically, was an
immense step towards Socratic dialogue. The chairman,
[like St. John's tutors] now has the more delicate task
of intervening, preferably by question, only when
he believes that there is a misunderstanding or an
unprofitable (not a profitable) confusion, a confusion
that in his judgment bids fair not to right itself.
[Students], however, will need to be close listeners,
in the event that we take Socrates' advice; we shall,
indeed, have to be closer listeners than we now are. We
are likely, if we meet that obligation, to attain to a level
of friendship that not many men attain to. Aristotle,
we may recall, held that friendship could be achieved
on three levels. The lowest level is that of what we
Americans call "contacts," a level on which two men are
useful to each other and exchange favors and services.
On a higher level, two men can find pleasure in each
other's company: they amuse each other. On the highest
level, each man is seeking the true good of the other.
September 25, 2023
On that level [students] would be, even more satisfyingly
than now, seeking in common to understand. We share
the friendship, or philia, that Aristotle thought must exist
between the citizens of any republic if it was to be worthy
of men. It would certainly exist, and without sentimentality,
in any genuine republic of learning. And it would heighten
the courtesy that any good and rigorous dialectic demands.
There is only one, final rule of thumb that I would offer:
When free minds seek together for greater understanding,
they tend to move, as the mind of Socrates so characteristically
moved - with playfulness and a sense of the comic. This,
perhaps, is because men are most like the gods when they
think; because, nevertheless, they are emphatically not gods;
and because, for godlike animals, this fact is so thoroughly
funny. The truly relevant jest is never out of order, so long as
we can pursue our dialogue with high seriousness and with
relevant playfulness.
Were we to apply the ten rules of thumb sketched above,
we would certainly produce many of those brief interludes of
bedlam when dialectical collisions occur, even though these
moments of vocal static would decrease in length and in
number as we gained practice with free dialectic. Such static
is not dialogue's worst problem. Plato and Shakespeare both
speak of the mind's eye, that eye that alone sees intellectual
light. I suggest there is a mind's ear too, a listening, mindful
ear. I suggest that the chief reason that conversations
deteriorate is that the mind's ear fails.
Stringfellow Barr and Students in Conversation
Seated at a Table in the Coffee Shop
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Thoughts at the Beginning
Robert Abbott
I have been working on this essay off and on for six months.
My intention was to address the confusion and antipathy
that occasionally arises when someone runs up against
our college’s unusual way of doing things. Over the years
I've heard many questions on the verge of fermenting into
outright indictments, and I wondered if I could take them
as opportunities to clarify what we do and why. Why is
our Program so demanding? Why should the tutors have
a say outside the classroom as well as in it? Why should
the students be granted more freedom here than at most
other schools? These are real questions and the teacher
in me wanted to see them lead to a deeper understanding
in myself and others of our communal life here. But
something about the form the essay took did not seem
right to me, so I put it aside.
I found a second beginning when a recently
graduated senior pointed out a passage to me in Eva
Brann’s book of aphorisms. Here is Ms. Brann’s advice:
“Citizen’s Imperative: Always act as if you were then
and there founding a community, be it of two or two
hundred–in conducting conversations, in enacting
routines, in mounting critiques.” She goes on to say that
this is how Plato’s Republic gets off the ground. Bearing
that in mind, I would like to go back to the beginning
with you and ask a question about our own college.
What is required to nourish a community dedicated to
the reading of great books? I can think of at least four
conditions and will spend most, but not all, of this essay
describing these to you. (There is a Gadflyish conclusion
you should not miss.) These four conditions are in
addition to those required for any residential college e.g.
a campus, sufficient funding, etc. I am wondering what
is needed specifically for our project, which might justify
our unique way of doing things.
First Condition: an environment that grants
dignity to the endeavor of reading the great books, inside
and outside the classroom. Exploring the mysterious
depths of the great books elicits strong and varied actions
and reactions from readers. Shock, disgust, boisterousness,
hilarity, fear, anger–these typical responses, and their
10
consequences, could all easily be censured in ordinary life.
But as a teacher knows, they are all part of the circuitous
path the soul takes on its way to understanding, and
should be dignified with tolerance and attention. There
are many ways to fail to grant this dignity. One could read
The Brothers Karamazov in a laboratory, and after every
chapter be hooked up to an electrocardiogram, given a
thermometer, required to fill out a survey, and asked what
reactions you had after hearing certain words or phrases.
If you lived in such a lab, your thinking, speaking, and
feeling would only be recognized as a generic quantity.
Being reduced to a number is never dignifying. If you
read The Brothers Karamazov in an amusement park, on
the other hand, which is the opposite of a laboratory, you
might be encouraged simply to enjoy yourself. St. John’s
the Amusement Park would provide plenty of distractions
from–or easily digested explanations of–the great books,
plenty of carefully managed encounters, plenty of fun,
but you would never be deeply moved or driven to think.
Our college is opposed to both of these extremes and all
their disguised variations. In both of them a student is
an accidental addition to the apparatus of measurement
or production of entertainment, rather than an essential
agent in their own education.
Many of our fellow readers over the centuries have
read the great books under duress, alone, in less than ideal
circumstances–often in prisons resembling a laboratory or
a funhouse. Some of the writers of the great books lived
this way. Their communities did not directly support the
reading of great books and yet the books did their work,
often acting as a refuge to their readers and writers alike.
It is useful to remember that fact in dark times. But in this
essay I am interested in defining a community in harmony
with the requirements of the great books, one which
makes it possible for people with little or no experience of
them to give them the sustained attention they repay.
Second Condition: a community that encourages
its members to take time to separate themselves from the
present moment. If the college did not actively encourage
students to step away from the present, however urgent
and fascinating, it would be at odds with its central
activity–returning to books written in the past, even the
recent past, and taking them seriously on their own terms.
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Herodotus is, among other things, very interested in
understanding the world-historical situation he finds
himself in, the ascendancy of the Greeks over the
Persians–but he does this by first going back in time, far
away in place, and deep into the minutiae of seemingly
unrelated cultures, such as the Egyptians’ belief in a
cat’s compulsion to run into a burning house, or the
Ethiopian practice of burying their dead in sarcophagi
of translucent crystal and setting them up around the
city. Somehow the things of others help us to see our
own. Herodotus’ broad and ennobling curiosity should
be a model for us at the college–we who read about the
immoveable earth and invisible electric fluids. I say this
is a necessary condition not only because the members
of our community should maintain an idiosyncratic and
useful esprit de corps but because there will come a time
when you realize what a strange thing you’ve done by
coming here and you will not be reassured if someone
tells you that our college is really not so different from
everywhere else. It is not like anywhere else, and your
first sallies beyond our walls will make that very clear
to you. Sometimes this happens, as it did for me,
while you are a student, which is why so many of us
have occasionally wondered if we’ve come to the right
place. You might pose that question because you have
maturely recognized the magnitude and strangeness of
your choice. As I say, it will not help you then to think
that you haven't done anything strange by coming here.
You have. And you can come to understand and own
that wonderful and courageous choice, both while you
are a student, and afterward, when you truly begin to
need your education and the books that gave it to you.
Third Condition: a community that refuses
to promise what it cannot deliver and what the books
themselves say is difficult to achieve. I mean wisdom.
If we were at a college for nursing or mathematics
or boat-building, we would be more than justified–
perhaps ethically required–to promise to deliver certain
skills, and give some assurance that we were qualified
to do so. By contrast, what we are doing at our college
is more obscure and difficult. Neither our tutors nor
our books promise to make students wise. Yet we all
seek, vigorously and hopefully, to understand what
lies beneath the superficial appearances of nature and
culture. It takes a great deal of experience, dedication,
and knowledge to sustain such an endeavor. That is the
September 25, 2023
work of our tutors, not simply to pass along the skills we
may have, not to turn students into numbers, and not to
entertain you. Instead, we are like guides to an island that
shifts its location depending on who is going to visit it. We
have the conviction and the ability to crew the ship, but we
must rely on much more than rote formulas, manuals, or
maps to do it. The college itself must be the sort of place
that is suspicious of educational models that emphasize
training or entertaining because our aim is different. We
want to keep alive an activity that dies when training and
entertaining become widespread. This activity of ours
has all sorts of wonderful side-effects, including, perhaps,
mastery of a skill, or deeper understanding of an idea, or
greater depth in a feeling, but it is in itself a wilder, less
determinate impulse.
Fourth Condition: a community of free
independent thinkers who believe that reading the
great books is the primary reason they are here, and that
everything that might go along with that project, such as
obtaining a degree, is of secondary importance. I know it
may seem obvious, but this needs to be said. We could have
begun this imaginary exercise by making a degree-granting
college a first principle of our experimental founding, in
which case a great books program is just one possible
core curriculum among many–software installed on an
indifferent mainframe. But if the germ you cultivate is
the reading of great books, you would see a very different
organism develop, one that is only partly contained by the
four-year frame of a small liberal arts college. You would
see a life of reading, thinking, and speaking that begins in,
but ultimately exceeds, that frame. Please note, I did not
say that this community of independent thinkers should
imagine that there is nothing more important than the
great books. Reading the great books is a preparation for
the things in life that are even more important than the
books. If we are to tackle those greater things later, then we
should read these books now.
At one of my weekly Tuesday lunches last year, I
asked how the college was like, and unlike, a city. We do
not exist simply in order to keep existing, as most cities do.
We have a central purpose that defines us. We are here to
read and discuss great books. When that purpose vanishes,
the college buildings may stand, but our college will not.
It seems to me that our college can, with effort, live up to
these ideals, and remain the sort of community the students,
tutors, and alumni have always known, not by following the
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beat of the cacophonous drums of higher education, but by
paying attention to our own melody and letting each part
of this place find its harmony within it.
There is an important question I’ve left looming. I
know it’s easy to scoff at it, but I will ask: what is a great book?
After all, does it really matter if you can say what one is in the
abstract when there are so many piled up for us to read? I’d
encourage you to spend some time thinking about it–even
if not too much time. Look at the stack of books, posters,
blogs, texts, captions, and zines you’ve already read. Do you
have the conviction that there is such a thing as a book that
stands shoulder height above the others, some great book
worth spending far more time on than your average artifact
of human thought? Part of what allows us to set aside the
usual trappings of higher education–historical context,
received opinions, course goals, pedagogical models, etc.–
is the simple trust that entering into conversation with a
great book will take care of what all those things are trying
to do, and much more besides. If you have never studied
at another college or university, it is possible you do not
realize how rare and unimpeded the education at St. John’s
is. At most colleges, you would be enmeshed in a carefully
constructed web of defined expectations before being
allowed even to smell, let alone touch, a great book. When
you find yourself complaining about how little recognition
your opinions receive here, or how unpredictable class is,
or when you find yourself wondering why students at other
institutions are seemingly so content with their clearly
defined benchmarks of success, remind yourself that we are
aiming at the individual’s freedom to learn, and freedom
almost always generates a healthy level of disagreement and
democratic turbulence.
I’d like to change tack. I’ve been describing the
enduring principles of our community and now I’d like to
turn to their opposite: contemporary threats. (This is the
Gadfly’s bite.) The first threat is the abandoned classroom.
Absences at the college last year were shockingly high. This
is partly because the rules during COVID were relaxed and
many students found themselves taking more days off than
permitted. To put a medicinal spin on it, we need a dose of
strong medicine. The work we do here is cumulative, not
because you are accumulating information but because you
are learning with others through conversation. Whenever
you fall out of that conversation, returning to it is more
difficult. We don’t attend class because we have done
good work or because we are well prepared. Instead, it’s
12
September 25, 2023
just the opposite: we attend classes together in order to
do good work. Most of the work around here happens
in the classroom and the conversations that spill out
of it. It will get easier to go to class if you are in the
habit of going to class. The dean and I have agreed that
the enforcement of the attendance policy this year will
closely adhere to the written requirements in the student
handbook. Please recognize that the bar has been reset
to the place it should be, and falling below it will likely
result in absence probation, withdrawal from your class
or from the college altogether.
The second contemporary threat to life at the
college is the universal, often intrusive presence of
digital technology and the internet. Again, if I think
only of the reading of the great books in conversation,
digital technology presents specific threats to that
endeavor. Social media encourages our social anxieties.
We want to be leisurely interlocutors; we find ourselves,
instead, judging and being judged in often terse,
superficial phrases. Digital communication accelerates
the rate of conversation, reduces its complexity,
increases its emotional freight, and too often preserves
what should be ephemeral. Disreputable websites make
cheap opinions available at every turn. AI churns out
vapid prose without thought or effort. Ubiquitous and
distracting internet access discourages coherent and
sustained presence of mind. Tutors and students alike
have voiced concerns about how habitually they allow
themselves to be distracted from the activities they really
love and most want to pursue. I’ve noticed that these
habits have affected me and perhaps you have noticed
something similar in yourself as well.
This year, I want to provide ways to think about
and step away from digital technology. There will be
a few scheduled forums on Tuesday for us to discuss
this matter over lunch. I’m sure many of you disagree
with my dire assessment of the Internet Age and I’d
like to know why. I’d also like to discuss more radical
measures. Can we imagine a wi-fi free dorm for those
interested in a less digital life, or an honor code to
define our opposition to AI writing? As a less radical
beginning, there will be one or more “Phone Hotels”
on campus where you can safely leave your phone for a
few hours to experience untethered life. If you would
like encouragement to participate in this experiment,
we will hold a No Phone Day in October during which
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you can try out the hotel. Finally, I will be organizing
a few more “Writing Jails,” as they’ve come to be called,
at which we can write together, silently, without the
pestering blur of wi-fi. I know the name rubs some
people the wrong way, but it is homegrown (and surely
tongue-in-cheek), and further, true, that in order to
write, some of us really need to confine ourselves to the
task. More information about these will be available
soon.
There is a chance that my efforts at reformation
will be misunderstood as merely reactionary or
nostalgically anachronistic. I wish you to understand
that I propose such measures as radical interventions
aimed at nourishing the roots of the educational
endeavor. Here is a passage from a recent book about
the struggle with those technologies that undermine
one of those roots: our attention. “Whereas all
previous tools and media have had effects that
September 25, 2023
gradually and indirectly acted on our self-understanding,
digital technology acts straightforwardly on us; as
attention is the single most intimate expression of who and
what we are, digital technology is a spiritual technology.”
That was Antón Barba-Kay, an alum of our college, in his
recent book, A Web of Our Own Making: The Nature of
Digital Formation, (Cambridge, 2023). What is uniquely
threatening about digital technologies, he says, is that they
make our attention “the subject of their measurement,
control, and (self )design.” If what he says is true, and I
think it is, we have a pressing responsibility to guard and
cultivate that precious part of us, our attention, however we
can.
Robert Abbott
Assistant Dean
August 14, 2023
Students and Tutor Seated at Seminar Table
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A Critique of Dialogue
Luke Briner
Last spring, Yale’s Sterling Professor of Law Robert C. Post
delivered a lecture entitled “Citizenship, Undergraduate
Education, and Great Books.” The lecture’s goal, as
enunciated by Post, was to examine “how the essentially
political project of preserving democracy might be
connected to the distinguished educational project at St.
John’s.”1 His eagerness to pursue this specific enquiry was
attributable to his growing anxiety over the fragility of the
world's current political order, and of the degeneration of
political life and discourse in America in particular. “In
my lifetime,” he reflects, “I don’t think I have witnessed a
political atmosphere more angry, more poisonous, more
baleful.”2 In setting out to examine the relationship between
the general political project of preserving a genuinely
democratic society and the particular pedagogical project
of preserving the educational integrity of our College,
Post thus hoped to arrive at a richer understanding of
what makes real dialogue so valuable for our society, and
thereby of how to implement and preserve such dialogue
most effectively in our society.
This was obviously a very admirable endeavor,
and was just as obviously based on an accurate assessment
of the deplorable state of contemporary political life in
America. As I listened on, however, despite the clarity
of Post’s reasoning and the nobility of his intentions, I
couldn’t help but find myself disagreeing fundamentally
with several of the conclusions that he arrived at, especially
concerning the nature of dialogue and its political and
pedagogical efficacy. I propose, then, to take up the same
enquiry that he did, and, through my own independent
line of thinking, to state as respectfully but as decisively as
I can the reasons for my differing perspective on dialogue
both in America and at St. John’s.
To accomplish this in a clear and orderly way, I
will proceed as follows:
1. “Citizenship, Undergraduate Education, and Great Books.” Delivered March 24th,
2023.
2. Ibid.
14
I. Explication of the nature of dialogue in itself.
II. Exposition of the fundamental issues of dialogue so
understood.
III. Review and critique of the opposing perspectives of
Plato and Karl Popper with respect to the nature and
issues of dialogue.
IV. Review and critique of Post’s own perspective, both
in itself and as through the lens of the broader debate on
dialogue explored in the previous section.
V. Application of my view of dialogue so developed to the
pedagogical philosophy of St. John’s.
VI. Conclusion.
I.
§1. The word dialogue is derived from the Greek διάλογος,
which is itself made up of διά (through) and λόγος
(typically and most relevantly word or reason).
Two interesting conclusions about dialogue proceed
immediately from this simple etymology. First, with
respect to διά, its meaning as through indicates the object
of predication’s nature as existing in a passive relation to
another object; i.e., that which is gone through must be
gone through by something other than and extrinsic to
itself. This implies that dialogue, whatever it is, exists not
as an independent and active entity in itself, nor as its own
end, but either as a medium through which some other
entity or activity operates and finds its being, or otherwise
as a means by which some other end is attained. To be
through λόγος indicates an object outside of that λόγος
which is the primary actor and/or end in relation to it.
Second, with respect to λόγος, its dual meaning as word or
reason shouldn’t be understood as a simple coincidence,
but as essential to the nature of dialogue itself. Words,
without the strict, universalizing discipline of reason,
would be nonsense; and if that’s what we wanted to
describe, then we’d be better off using words like διαλαλιά
(through babble) or διαἦχος (through noise). Likewise,
reason itself, without the interpersonal medium of words,
would be mute, dumb, unconveyable; and the necessity
of its conveyability in at least some sense is evident
from the meaning of διά, which it’s joined to. Again, if
we intended to describe something purely mentalistic
and self-contained, we'd be better off using a word like
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διανόημα (through thought in itself ). Hence the fact that
λόγος, with its multiple connotations, is the word that’s
used, should lead us to the conclusion that the proper
sense in which dialogue must be taken will have those
respective connotations incorporated into and manifest
within itself. The λόγος of dialogue is at once rational
and the means by which the content of its rationality is
conveyed.
§2. This λόγος can be further divided into two distinct
but highly intertwined categories, which I’ll designate
as the syllogistic and the dialectical. By the syllogistic I
mean the formal mode of reasoning that consists in the
combination of a major and minor premise for the sake of
producing a necessary conclusion. This is the foundation
of all serious rational thought. By the dialectical I mean
the method or movement by which a manifold of
individual, often contradictory syllogisms are swept up
into a dynamic unity wherein each particular’s premises
and conclusions constantly interface with those of all
others in the endeavor to arrive at a greater, more holistic
understanding underpinned by yet fundamentally
greater than the sum of its parts. The individual steps of
the dialectical movement can be seen as in themselves
syllogistic, i.e., involving ground-level deductions based
on previously-given conclusions, and the final product
of that movement can usually take the form of a single,
perfect, culminating syllogism. Such a culmination,
however, is made possible only by our ability to compare,
contrast, comport, and ultimately unify syllogisms within
the context of an all-comprehending tapestry of rational
intercourse existing independently of any one individual
component, and, most importantly, in which “the result
of an untrue…knowledge must not be allowed to run way
into an empty nothing, but…grasped as the nothing of
that from which it results—a result which contains what
was true in the preceding knowledge.”3 This is the kind
of dialectic championed by Socrates throughout Plato’s
dialogues, which Barr describes as “something precious
close to perfection,”4 Sachs as “something that the greatest
of philosophers have all talked about and practiced,”5 and
Plotinus as “the precious part of Philosophy.”6
3. Hegel, The Phenomenology of Spirit, §87 (trans. Miller).
4. “Notes on Dialogue” (1968), p. 2.
5. “The Heart of the Program” (2004), p. 3.
6. Enneads, I.3.6 (trans. MacKenna-Page).
7. I.e., the Laches.
8. I.e., the Republic.
September 25, 2023
§3. A further aspect of dialogue’s general nature demands
explication. We’ve already seen that διά’s conjunction
with λόγος indicates that this λόγος must act primarily as
a medium or means for something extrinsic to itself. But
this, in conjunction with the dialectical nature present
within that λόγος, leads inevitably to the conclusion that
dialogue must be social. It’s possible for dialectic to be
conducted by a single individual, since its very nature
implies the comprehension of syllogistic multiplicity under
a greater unifying rational principle, i.e., the mind itself.
But the fact that dialogue involves not the dialectical in
itself but the dialectical as an intermediate implies that it
is simply the mode of and occasion for the interconnection
of multiple minds. This is, again, why the meaning of
λόγος qua word is so important: it’s only through such
that the intercommunication of minds that dialogue’s διά
so obviously demands can actually take place, or, in other
words, that the content of the one’s rationality can be
transferred to that of the other, and vice versa, for the sake
of a greatly enriched dialectical process shared by both at
once.
§4. This is dialogue qua medium; but dialogue qua means
(to an extrinsic end), within the context of the social nature
just described, remains as variable as the possible occasions
and uses of dialogue as such a medium. It’s this fact that
makes dialogue so versatile, so useful in so many different
situations: dialogue is only the mechanism by which the
ultimate object of its dialectic is pursued, and this object
can be anything that its participants want it to be. So
Socrates and his interlocutors seek out the true nature of
Courage in one dialogue7 and that of Justice in another8,
and a healthy democratic body calmly deliberates over the
merits and faults of a manifold of policies with the intent
of determining the efficacy of each, and also at the same
time over those of the overarching political values and ends
informing and directing all such policies. In every case the
actual goal of a dialogue is outside of itself, and if that goal is
ever definitively reached, then it, whose being is constituted
by its pursuit, will negate itself in its own completion.
§5. All this being established, I finally define dialogue in
and of itself as the dialectical process conducted by two or
more persons through the medium of rational discourse for
the sake of an end extrinsic to that process.
II.
§1. Dialogue so understood, however, immediately runs
into serious real-world issues. To begin with, its threefold
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nature (i.e., the syllogistic, the dialectical, and the
social) necessitates a threefold discipline, or more
exactly a submission to the necessary conditions of
each that must be met in order for the whole to be
realized concretely. The syllogistic demands that the
formal structure of its own logic is carefully followed,
the dialectical demands that all the content of such
rigorously-structured syllogisms is kept in continually
graceful and well-balanced motion, and the social
demands that all persons intending to participate in
such motion are shown the respect and consideration
that they, both as contributors and as human beings,
are inalienably entitled to. But “the laws of nature,” as
Hobbes observes, “...of themselves, without the terror of
some power to cause them to be observed, are contrary
to our natural passions…[a]nd covenants,without the
sword, are but words and of no strength.”9,1⁰ Since,
then, we’ve already determined that dialogue has no
such power, it follows that it’s incapable of actually
enforcing its own rules.
§2. This naturally leads to the implication that dialogue,
left simply to its inherently defenseless self, will provide
the very grounds for its own self-contradiction,
subversion, and destruction. An absolutely,
unqualifiedly free dialogue will almost always allow
an individual participant to shirk the discipline(s)
essential to its being, and this initial violation, since
left entirely unchecked, almost invariably leads to the
total denigration and dissolution of the originallyposited dialogue itself. This naturally causes it to take
the form of a worthless and belligerent chaos—the
opposite of everything that dialogue and its dialectic is
and should be. Barr calls this self-engendered antithesis
the “eristic,”11 derived from ἔρῐς (conflict or discord).
Moreover, if dialogue in and of itself, i.e., unqualifiedly
free dialogue, is seen to be defenseless to the point of
September 25, 2023
self-contradiction and self-subversion, then the ultimate
efficacy and stability of all systems founded upon it must
be called seriously into question.
III.
§1. Perhaps no one ever grasped the essence of this fatal
flaw more clearly and sought to rectify it more decisively
than Plato himself. “Too much freedom,” he reflects,
seems to change into nothing but too much slavery, both
for private man and city.”12 This agrees perfectly with our
own understanding of the existential threat to dialogue
contained within its own content—or, maybe more
precisely, its lack of actual, active content, of ἐντελέχεια
(self-preserving being). The eristic that proceeds
naturally from the inherent impotency of dialogue’s
dialectic is tyrannical in that it, upon the very basis of
a totally unrestricted mode of political organization,
itself constitutes that mode’s annihilation—it plunges
all members into a hostile free-for-all in which only the
strongest(-willed) may “prevail.” Hence Barr correctly
takes Thrasymachus, “whose purpose [in the dialogue]
is to win points and to win applause,” as an eristical
antithesis to the always-courteous Socrates, whose own
purpose is simply “to try, through dialectical discussion…
to understand better the essential nature of justice.”13
§2. Now if “the greatest and most savage slavery” proceeds
naturally “out of the extreme of freedom,” then the
obvious thing to do in order to best preserve the actual
benefits produced by freedom would seem, as it did to
Plato, to be to create bounds for it, to qualify it so that
the eristical-tyrannical elements which would otherwise
ferment within it are eliminated or kept at bay. For
Plato, this in practice means the active reproach or nonallowal of things such as harmful music15 and poetry16
or heresy and blasphemy17—anything that (at least in
his own opinion), if allowed to go unimpeded in society,
9. Leviathan, p. 99 (Britannica Great Books edition, Fuller version).
10. I feel justified in making use of this passage despite the fact that the term “laws of nature” is alien to my own argument because it’s clear that such laws consist essentially
in the same kind of reason that’s absolutely essential to it. As Hobbes explains in Pt. I, ch. XIV (p. 86) of the Leviathan, “[a] law of nature, lex naturalis, is a precept, or general
rule, found out by reason, by which a man is forbidden to do that which is destructive of his life, or taketh away the means of preserving the same, and to omit that by which he
thinketh it may be best preserved.” Obviously the broader contexts of our arguments are different, but the sense in which we’re thinking about reason in itself here turns out to
be quite similar.
11. See “Notes on Dialogue,” pp. 2-3.
12. Republic, VIII.564a (trans. Bloom).
13. “Notes on Dialogue,” p. 3.
14. Republic, VIII.564a.
15. See Laws, II.659c-660a, III.700a-701c (trans. Griffith-Schofield) & Republic, III.400a-403c.
16. See Laws, II.659c-660a & Republic, X.607b-608b.
17. See Laws, X.
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will naturally cause society to degenerate into the
anarchical freedom that flings itself into tyranny at the
first opportunity. Obviously we, as modern and more
culturally enlightened people living in the real world,
don’t need to go as far as Plato did in the strictures he
proposed. But the innermost kernel of his perspective,
viz., that an absolutely free social organization must be
conditionally closed in order to preserve the true good
of its own freedom and to prevent it from becoming
entirely closed through self-engendered collapse, seems
not simply worthy of serious consideration but correct
outright. This is shown by the force of all the preceding
arguments.
§3. Plato is, of course, not without his detractors. Chief
among these is Karl Popper, who coined the nowfamous term paradox of tolerance in the astonishingly
uncharitable critique of Plato featured in his Open
Society and its Enemies18. For Popper, this paradox,
whose maxim is that “[u]nlimited tolerance must
lead to the disappearance of tolerance,”19 is used by
Plato to justify an unconscionable regime that is
“fundamentally identical with”20 totalitarianism. “The
enemies of freedom,” he claims, “have always charged its
defenders with subversion,”21 and therefore a genuinely
free society must never resort to such justifications,
whatever the cost.
§4. As an alternative to Plato’s program, Popper
advances an ideology he calls “protectionism.”
Although having “nothing to do with the policy of
strict non-intervention (often, but not quite correctly,
called ‘laissez faire,’”22 protectionism nevertheless
promotes a highly free society in which the state has as
18. See The Open Society and its Enemies, n. 7.4, p. 546.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid, p. 87.
21. Ibid, p. 88.
22. Ibid, p. 112.
23. Ibid, p. 6.
24. Ibid, n. 7.4, p. 546.
25. Ibid, p. 109.
26. The ridiculous idea that the Platonic society is somehow absolutely or unconditionally restrictive is instantly refuted by the passages given in nn. 15-17, as
well as, for instance, the entire character of the Ion. As explained in III.§2, Plato
isn’t opposed to all poetry, music, etc., or with them in themselves as art forms,
but only with what he considers their grave social misuse and abuse. On the
contrary, the qualified use of such art forms, as directed to the betterment or at the
very least not to the detriment of the πόλις is approved of and expounded upon
throughout the Republic and the Laws. And again, we obviously don’t need to advocate for the precise degree of limitation that Plato does, but only the underlying
rationale that informs such limitation; and, in the current context, the fact that all
of this is a matter of degree at all is enough to effectively challenge Popper.
September 25, 2023
little influence as possible on the education and dialogue
of its members. This, and Popper’s perspective as a whole
on this matter, is founded ultimately upon his conviction
that “[the] story that democracy is not to last forever is as
true, and as little to the point, as the assertion that human
reason is not to last forever, since only democracy provides
an institutional framework that permits reform without
violence, and so the use of reason in political matters.”23
§5. There are three major problems with Popper’s position
so understood.
First, and most fundamentally, it is indistinct from that
of Plato’s—or, to put it another way, the very essence of
Plato’s is contained latently within his own. Popper himself
explains, in response to the Platonic paradox of tolerance,
that he advocates for “a government that rules according
to the principles of equalitarianism and protectionism;
that tolerates all who are prepared to reciprocate, i.e.
who are tolerant.” But this in itself is an admission that
an absolutely free society, being incapable of even this
noble kind of reciprocal intolerance, is not at all feasible,
and therefore that it’s necessary to impose some sort of
subjective, external conditions upon that society in order
to ensure its continued well-being; and this is exactly the
view that we’ve seen Plato to propound. It’s all well and
good for Popper to talk about how “it is…difficult to
determine exactly the degree of freedom that can be left to
the citizens without endangering that freedom.” But the
fact that the Platonic society is by no means absolutely but
only conditionally restrictive, and that such restriction is
derived from the exact same rationale of the restrictions of
the Popperian/protectionist society, necessarily indicates
that the relevant differences between those societies are
themselves only of degree and not essence.
Second, Popper himself admits that it’s entirely possible
for the restrictions that his own protectionist sensibility
is willing to sign off on—which, again, are made on
essentially the same basis as the Platonic belief that he
abhors—to be incapable of preventing the total collapse of
democratic society, and moreover that he sees no serious
problem with this. He writes:
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[S]hould he [the protectionist democrat] live
to see the day when the majority vote destroys…
democratic institutions, then this sad experience
will tell him only that there does not exist a
foolproof method of avoiding tyranny. But it need
not weaken his decision to fight tyranny, nor will it
expose his theory as inconsistent.27
Thus Popper’s democrat, incapable of simply
introducing some further reasonable limitations on
manifestly dangerous elements threatening national
dialogue in order to actually preserve it in its essence,
finds himself in the ridiculous situation of proving
himself as the oh-so-noble champion of democracy by
allowing it to die in front of him.
Third and finally, Popper fails to recognize that,
although “only democracy provides an institutional
framework that permits reform without violence, and
so the use of reason in political matters,”28 the very
establishment and preservation of that institutional
framework requires a political impetus outside of such
reason. Again, reason, according to Popper himself, is
“an intellectual link between man and man, a medium
of universal understanding”29; but we know well enough
by now that such a medium is unable to preserve itself
on its own and therefore equally unable to preserve any
of the institutions that are built upon it. True dialogue
is of course greatly valuable for society, but the actual
preservation of its integrity, i.e., the guarantee that
all its participants submit to its necessary threefold
discipline, is necessarily not due to dialogue in itself
but the subjective, partisan valuation and enforcement
of it by an extrinsic and unilateral power.
From these considerations it’s clear that the intolerance
of intolerance, as enunciated by Plato, is entirely
necessary and right.
27. Ibid, p. 124.
28. Ibid, p. 6.
29. Ibid, p. 130.
30. “Citizenship, Undergraduate
Education, and Great Books.”
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. Ibid.
18
37. Robert C. Post, “Managing Deliberation: The Quandary of Democratic
Dialogue,” Ethics, p. 654.
38. Alexander Meiklejohn, Political
Freedom: The Constitutional Powers
of the People (1965), p. 7
39. Robert C. Post, “Between Governance and Management: The History
and Theory of the Public Forum,”
UCLA Law Review 34 (1987): 17131835.
September 25, 2023
IV.
§1. With all these observations at our backs, let’s finally
return to Post’s own thinking.
Post’s primary concern throughout his lecture, and—in
his view—the cause of “the hell created by mistrust and
polarization”30 we’re unfortunately experiencing today,
is “extreme partisanship.”31 Since this extreme partisan
attitude refuses “to wheel and to deal”32 in the traditional
way with those across the political aisle, it’s antithetical
to the very nature and project of liberal democracy. “We
cannot enter politics,” he argues, “without encountering
those who disagree with us, and perhaps who disagree
with us radically,”33 and our political agonists cannot
be thus encountered without the mutual recognition of
“something in common that’s more important than [our]
disagreement [i.e., the very system of political dialogue
now in place].”34 “Politics is not like war—politics is the
art of living together despite differences. In war, we seek to
exterminate the other; but in politics, we abjure violence…
we seek to win while remaining bound to the rules to the
law that defines appropriate political engagement.”35 Since
the fundamental rules and ideals of liberal democracy
as an institution therefore transcend all other possible
disagreements that may occur within or upon the basis of
them, “political ideology” itself for Post “counts for much,
but it does not count…cannot count for everything.”36
§2. Further valuable information concerning Post’s
perspective on this matter can be extracted from his
1993 paper “Managing Deliberation: The Quandary
of Democratic Dialogue.” In this wonderful paper, Post
dedicates himself to the analysis and refutation of what he
calls “the ‘collectivist theory’ of the First Amendment,”37
which consists in the belief that the Amendment’s
ultimate goal is not personal autonomy in and of itself
but the ensurance of “the voting of wise decisions,”38
and therefore also in the belief that the conditional
limitation and moderation of public dialogue is not only
constitutionally permissible but necessary and good in
itself.
Post begins his treatment of this theory by observing
that it’s basically “managerial,”39 in the sense that “the
[political] meeting is regarded as an instrumental
organization designed to achieve important and specific
social ends, and its rules and regulations are deemed
constitutionally justified insofar as they are necessary for
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the attainment of these ends.”40 Public discourse, for the
collectivist, is like a town meeting—and just as a town
meeting, with its clear rules for appropriate language,
brevity, general decorum, etc., “is free to resolve as it
wishes items properly presented for decision, but…
is not free to abandon the shared assumptions of
function and procedure that constitute it,”41 so it’s
only reasonable that national discourse should have an
analogously moderated order for the sake of producing
a politically and intellectually enriched polity capable
of self-preservation and beneficial democratic decisionmaking. This position seems sensible on its face; Post
is quick to point out, however, that although such a
moderated order is perfectly suitable for something as
small-scale and limited in scope as a town meeting, its
application to national discourse would necessitate that
“the framework of democratic decision making remains
fixed and beyond the reach of citizen self-government.”42
And yet this must imply a State that “stands in
contradiction to the central project of collective selfdetermination”43 insofar as it “displaces that project for
the sake of heteronomously imposed norms.”44 If such
a contradiction exists, then it must obviously follow
that “the democratic function of public discourse is
inconsistent with government regulations that suppress
speech within public discourse for the sake of imposing
a specific version of national identity.”45 Hence Post
concludes this argument with a warning: “[i]f we create
organizations of heteronomy, we shall all, sooner or
later, be condemned to inhabit them. We shall become
the subjects of a power not our own.”
§3. I disagree with Post’s position so understood in two
fundamental ways.
First, it appears to me that he, like Popper, does not
satisfyingly address the basic existential problem that
dialogue of any kind, and especially dialogue qua
political discourse, faces in either his lecture or his
above-examined paper. An absolutely free dialogue,
again, has no means of actually defending itself against
the anti-dialogical behavior and sentiments that will
40. Robert C. Post, “Managing Deliberation: The Quandary of Democratic
Dialogue,” Ethics, p. 658.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid, p. 659.
43. Ibid, p. 660.
44. Ibid, p. 661.
45. Ibid, p. 665.
46. Ibid, p. 678.
September 25, 2023
inevitably come onto the scene. In such cases the survival
of that dialogue, i.e., of democratic society, can only ever
be attributed to some power or agent extrinsic to the realm
of dialogue itself. This is necessarily the case because, if it
were intrinsic to dialogue, i.e., only a certain conviction
or position within a conversation, then it would again
be incapable of seriously dealing with something that
is antithetical to the very existence of that conversation,
and thus that has no interest in following any of its
necessary rules. Reason is effective only against itself.
The most rational and beautifully expressed argument in
the world is worthless when met with irrational or antirational forces; and this is exactly the situation we face in
America today. If we fail to fully acknowledge this fact,
then we do so at our own peril. Therefore some active and
determinate moderating power other than dialogue itself,
i.e., a heteronomous power, is necessary.
Second, it seems as though Post doesn’t appreciate that
liberal-democratic society, and the ideology upon which it’s
founded, is no less fundamentally partisan, no less a single
subjectively-decided mode of political organization, than
any other. Actually, he doesn’t even appear to be fully
conscious of this fact. His claim that “political ideology…
counts for much, but it does not count…cannot count for
everything” is especially telling. By phrasing the matter
in this way, it’s clear that he doesn’t consider liberal
democracy to be ideologically-founded in its own right.
Instead of perceiving that the very valuation of democratic
dialogue, i.e., the conviction that such is a beneficial
social practice that should be introduced and abided by,
is itself profoundly ideological, and is therefore partisan in
the sense of being unable to coexist with fundamentally
contrary ideologies within the same society, Post appears
to view the conventional mode of liberal-democratic
discourse as non- or supra-ideological, and in fact as some
kind of universal, impartial, value-neutral substratum
upon which ideologies then grow and interrelate. This is a
common and manifestly false perspective. The ideologies
which do genuinely exist and coexist within the context
of liberal-democratic dialogue only do so because they are
all fundamentally on the same side as it—because they are
only minor permutations of one major partisan ideology,
and are therefore capable of actual intercourse and
compromise within the context of that major ideology.
Hence, for instance, different parties are capable of
coexisting peacefully with each other because (or maybe
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insofar as) both fundamentally agree with and submit
to the overarching ideology of liberal democracy itself.
The same principle also holds for things like different
(non-fanatical) religions and cultural backgrounds.
This is, in fact, exactly why multiculturalism works,
and is one of the real virtues of our current mode of
political organization. But the same is not and cannot
be the case between, for instance, liberal democracy
and fascism. There can be no common ground, no
substratum, no mutually recognized principle, no
friendship, no dialogue between these two. They are
utterly irreconcilable, and are thus in a perpetual state of
war with each other. And it’s this fact, viz., that fascism
is so morally repugnant and so violently irreconcilable
with the ideals of our own and of any civilized society,
that makes its exclusion, suppression, and elimination
reasonable, necessary, and just. “Extreme partisanship”
in this sense is therefore not only not bad in itself
but actually the foundation upon which a genuinely
tolerant, cosmopolitan, and dialogue-rich society must
rest.
V.
§1. Viewing the kind of dialogue featured in the St.
John’s Program as a model or microcosm of dialogue in
broader American society is a long-standing tradition,
not the least for figures like Post. We may now do the
same by applying some of the general insights we’ve
arrived at to dialogue as it manifests specifically at St.
John’s.
§2. The ultimate goal of our education at St. John’s,
and of liberal education generally, is to prepare us for
the acquisition of personal moral excellence. This is
obvious by the fact that it’s clearly neither erudition in
itself (if it is, then why would the College deemphasize
grades, and why would we bother involving ourselves so
heavily with the messiness and uncertainty of our kind
of dialogue at all?) nor any kind of technical skill (if it
is, then why not just go into STEM or trade school?).
Nor is our education even capable of making us good on
its own; making anyone good is probably impossible,
47. Letters From a Stoic, Letter
LXXXVIII (trans. Campbell).
48. Eva Brann, “A Manifesto for
Liberal Education” (2015).
49. For a more detailed account of
this, see my essay “What’s the Good
20
of a Liberal Education?” in Gadfly
XLIV.1.
50. Stringfellow Barr, “Education:
Now and to Come: Liberal Education:
A Common Adventure,” Autumn,
1955, Vol. 15, No. 3, p. 306.
September 25, 2023
and even if it is, one look at the character of our student
body shows that it’s most certainly not possible by this
means. Instead, liberal education is a worthy practice
only insofar as it “prepares the mind for the acquisition
of moral values.”47 This is accomplished by the student’s
sincere engagement with the trivium and quadrivium,
which we study most of at St. John’s, and, specifically at
St. John’s itself, with the Great Books and the dialogue
through which we approach them. By submitting
ourselves wholeheartedly to the dialogue of the classroom
in the investigation of “what is elementary in all subject
matters,”48 we’re slowly given the inner tools by which we
might become more virtuous and fully realized human
beings; and this is something infinitely more valuable to
ourselves and to society than simple scholarly or technical
training.49
§3. An important and interesting distinction needs to
be made with respect to dialogue’s place in this system,
however. We’ve already observed (I.§4) that dialogue qua
means is simply the mechanism by which the ultimate
object of its dialectic is pursued. If this is true, however,
then it’s clear that the goal of St. John’s is not the goal
of dialogue itself. Its goal is to fully understand its
object; our goal, conversely, is to use the pursuit of that
understanding as a method of social (the third and most
characteristic nature of dialogue) and thereby ultimately
of moral discipline, regardless of whether we actually end
up understanding the object itself or not. This is why Barr
writes that “[t]he [great] books really are ‘to chew on,’ not
to master.”50 It is not mastery in itself, but the discipline of
our communal, dialogical endeavor toward mastery that
constitutes the essence of our education.
§4. The fact that dialogue is used simply as a moral
discipline rather than as an instrument for ascertaining
intellectual truth puts an even greater emphasis on
the necessity of actually preserving that dialogue. If
classes are allowed to be constantly derailed by the
Thrasymachuses among us, then we aren’t just deprived
of a good conversation, but of the very content of our
own education. It’s possible that the desperate struggle to
reestablish order can itself be educational, but this must
be true only in very specific circumstances and is in any
case not what should be generally accepted. What we’ve
already said concerning the necessity of an extrinsic,
unilateral moderating power capable of enforcing the
threefold discipline of the dialogue while not interfering
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with any of its actual syllogistic and dialectical content
thus holds especially true here; and this is, in fact,
the exact role tutors should play in the classroom.
The tutor’s purpose is “not,” of course, “to give
information, nor is it to produce the ‘right’ opinion
or interpretation”51; but this doesn’t at all contradict
their proper activity of ensuring that dialogue remains
“cooperative and respectful, not competitive,”52 i.e.,
of ensuring that the eristical is never able to get a
considerable foothold. The St. John’s classroom must
be a place where all students feel unconditionally
safe and heard. Thus while the actual subject-matter
of the students’ dialogue should rarely be interfered
with, the structure within which that dialogue must
necessarily take place should be very actively and
jealously guarded. In summary, tutors should “guide
the conversation.”53 Likewise, good students should
commit themselves scrupulously to the discipline of
dialogue and actively seek to preserve and promote its
necessary structure as much as possible through their
words and conduct, understanding that it’s only by
means of such submission to its strict order that the
freedom promised by the Program can actually be
acquired.54
VI.
§1. To recapitulate: my main contentions are 1) that
dialogue is not an end in itself, but only the medium
and/or means of something extrinsic, 2) that dialogue,
being in itself incapable of self-preservation, requires a
similarly extrinsic power in order to defend it from the
eristical and to enforce its own necessary conditions,
3) that Plato’s position on democratic dialogue is
fundamentally correct, while those of Popper and Post
are fundamentally flawed, 4) that modes of political
organization based on democratic dialogue are in
themselves every bit as partisan and ideological as any
others precisely because of their valuation of dialogue,
and must be esteemed and defended accordingly, and
5) that the protection of dialogue as it exists both in
American life in general and at St. John’s in particular
51. Statement of the Program, p. 5.
52. “Learning Through Conversation
at St. John’s College,” 2015.
53. Ibid.
54. For a more thorough account of
this position, see my essay “Thoughts
on the St. John’s Class” in Gadfly
XLIV.4.
55. “Citizenship, Undergraduate
Education, and Great Books.”
September 25, 2023
necessitates the active, unilateral restriction of things
antithetical and irreconcilably opposed to its very nature
and being.
§2. I’m aware that these contentions will be very
unpopular. But it’s my sincere concern for the state of
our country, and my sincere love for our Program here,
that compels me to put them forward strongly anyway.
I have no interest in flattering myself, my colleagues, my
tutors, or my fellow citizens with the unrigorous and even
complacent appraisals of dialogue that I unfortunately
think have become very common. In fact, I think that
seriously examining and challenging the philosophical
foundations which those appraisals often seem based
on is the truest way of respecting both myself and them.
At the very least, I think I’ve done a Johnnie-like thing
by questioning such a sacrosanct ideal of our country
and College, and I can only hope that, in doing so, I’ve
managed to be even the littlest bit like those great figures
of our Program insofar as they, as Post rightly celebrates,
“display both respect for their interlocutors and at the
same time the determination to assert their own ideas.”55
Marble head of a philosopher,
1st or 2nd century CE
21
�the Gadfly
πόλις
September 25, 2023
Getting Personal
with the Program
Tuyết-Nhi Nghiêm
It’s a new year, and a new start ‒ certainly for freshmen, but
upperclassmen should not think themselves excluded or
immune from beginnings. The first questions I long to ask
everyone I meet on this campus are: If you have chosen to
come to this college, why? What do you believe the core
purpose of the program is? Will you allow yourself to be
changed?
I suppose it isn’t fair to ask so many questions of
someone who is still a stranger without answering them
myself, but I’m not sure that those answers are clear to
my own heart yet. I can tell you this: I fought for three
hours with my father, shouting and sobbing, to come
here. Others with strict, traditional parents, especially
those from less stable foreign countries, may understand
this without further explanation. I had been accepted
into a prestigious, competitive, well-known school for
computational neuroscience, setting me up to graduate
with plenty of internships under my belt and a well-paying
job lined up. In my father’s eyes, I was throwing away the
small fortune he had painstakingly saved since before my
conception to support a child’s full education. I was, and
still am, incredibly privileged to have even been able to
consider coming to this college. Because of this continued
pressure on me by practically all of the adults in my life to
justify studying here rather than a more traditional school,
made worse by the fact that the school is on the other
side of the country from what I knew as home and thus
necessitated abandoning not only my parents’ dreams for
me but abandoning them physically as well, the questions
of what the heart of the program is really meant to teach
are ever-present in my mind.
I spend a lot of time with the Program ‒ in classes,
obviously, but elsewhere as well. I am trying to understand
It truly, and each time I reach for it, this old fox twists and
turns out of my grasp. Every once in a while, the Program
and I, butting heads once again, walk down the grassy
hill to the small docks. Under the clear stars and over the
creek’s restless whispers of “πάντα ῥεῖ,” I beg the Program
once again to give me answers. What are we doing here?
What is it all for, and was everything I sacrificed to be here
22
Students Crowd around a Tutor during a
Dissection of a Sheep Heart in Junior Laboratory
even remotely worth it? Can the Program save anyone?
How can it be that a Program which I want to believe is so
perfect leaves us as such imperfect people?
None of us came here as perfect students or perfect
Program readers, obviously ‒ even less so as perfect
humans. Maybe no such reality exists for any of the ideals.
We have to be meant to learn something, though; it can’t
be just talk without growth. It is clear that what we are
learning are not the languages in themselves, or calculus
for its own sake, and certainly not that plants contain fire.
The school promises to “make free human beings out of
children by means of books and a balance”. Can anyone
that can sophistically talk their way through anything then
be called free? If so, the college is merely producing tools
without guidance, which can bring evil to the world just
as readily as they may do good in it. If the Program is to be
seen as a good in this world ‒ which I believe is necessary
to justify its continued existence and the adoration that
many of us hold for it ‒ then it must leave us with some
guidance regarding what we should go out into the world
to do as well.
The obvious answer would be that dozens of our
readings center around ethics and virtue. These are
almost always my favorite readings, because they allow me
to believe that what we are doing on this beautiful little
�συμπόσιον
the Gadfly
campus matters. They allow me to believe that after
my four years here, I will exit our bubble as a better
person. When I look around at all of these people I
love working together to understand texts that I love, I
catch a glimpse of what this place is meant for.
On the other hand, if I take a step back from my
attachment to these people I adore, I hesitate to say
that we have all been made better. So many of us,
myself included, still fall so short of the ideals of a
responsible citizen and individual that we have read
about. I am far less active and involved in various clubs
and activities than I ought to be, less learned in current
political happenings, and less frequent in bringing
people joy than I was in my past. I work far too much,
partially out of an overabundance of wanting to be
prepared for whatever may come my way and partially
due to a touch of avarice. Little dramas and gossips
still find hold here, even in what I believe is one of
the strongest communities that I have seen. We fail
in our responsibility to each other in tiny ways all the
time, evidenced by the frequent messes left behind in
common kitchens or after events. There are far more
extreme examples, too: our significant substance use
problem, most especially with smoking addiction and
its iron grip on our “campus culture,” even if we try to
brush it off as a joke; the continued malicious thefts of
food of people with medical conditions from common
kitchens, even after explanatory notes of the severity of
the crime were left; the theft of hundreds of dollars of
club equipment; the cases of sexual assault or greater
which are reported each year. These occurrences,
even if unique in specific details, I am sure are regular
occurrences generally in this college’s history. Perhaps
the nature of humans is too corrupt for any community
to be perfect ‒ again, perhaps ideals will never exist in
reality. The books that we read and the subjects we talk
about, however, are intended to work towards freeing
us from such things. We know better. We choose to do
worse. We spend years and years learning through the
Program, and we spit in its face again and again as we
go.
I wonder how many of us genuinely take the Program
seriously. The gravity of the Program, the weight of
what we have set out to do, hits me at times, but it is so
easy to let that fade away when I am preoccupied with
other things: work, fun, social conformity, etc. Perhaps
September 25, 2023
that means that it doesn’t really loom so large, or it would
naturally stay more present in our minds.
Every fiber of my being rejects this notion, however.
The Program has to be grand and life-changing, or else
I will never come to terms with my personal gripes with
it. I will never be able to forgive it for what I lost. More
specifically, I will never be able to forgive myself for my
futile foolishness. And so I need the Program to change
me. This school was not the most affordable, not the most
prestigious, not the most comfortable, not the easiest of
my options. I chose it anyway, believing that it could teach
me something that few other places could, in a way that no
other place could. It is the only reason I can conceive of to
come to a college so far off the beaten path and so contrary
to the conventional “wise choices” for higher education.
I hope that my fellow students share most of my
sentiments about our task at hand. The Program demands
so much of its students that entering into it without being
deeply passionate about and trusting in its power seems to
me as foolish as bailing a body of water which one does not
know the bounds of. But if we are all here for the same core
reason, and if we all want to grow through this Program,
shouldn’t we live and breathe it; not just by dedicating so
much time to it, but by holding it in our hearts as we decide
daily how to conduct ourselves in this world? Even if we
continue to fall short, at least we’re making small steps. At
least the weight of the Program is carried with us in some
sense, even if it is only the source of some guilt and not a
full change of actions. At least we can say that what we have
spent or will spend four years of our short lives studying
leads us to be better to each other, better to our community,
better to our world. This is perhaps not someone that every
college student can claim (certainly not finance majors).
The last question that I sometimes want to ask as a
part of my initial torrent of them, although I fear it coming
off as rudeness: If it is the case that you did not come here
ready, and more than that, desperate to be changed, then
why did you bother?
23
�the Gadfly
πόλις
From the President:
The Value of Civic
Engagement
Nora Demleitner
During the spring’s inauguration ceremony, I laid out
my vision for St. John’s College as a place that “sustains
its unique spirit and continues to set itself apart from
other institutions of higher education—and that we
keep leaning into our distinctive curriculum while
responding to the needs of our time, remaining relevant
for the next 100 years and beyond.” Part of that vision
includes championing “an atmosphere where students
have a strong sense of belonging, and they are set up for
success as participants in civic life and the workforce;
an environment where we are engendering responsible
citizenship and lifelong learning...”
I believe there may be no better way to accomplish
this than to support opportunities where students can be
of service to others. Since joining the college, I have been
continually impressed with the community volunteer
efforts of our students, many of which are longstanding,
such as Project Polity’s tutoring sessions for local Annapolis
youth, community cleanups and pantry drives. The Food
Recovery Network, a partnership between students and
staff of the dining hall, last year donated more than 2,500
pounds of food to Annapolis Light House, a homelessness
prevention center. Volunteering has also had its place on
campus, for example when tutors, students and staff team
up annually to create and maintain a campus rain garden
with native plants.
Beyond enhancing the College’s reputation in the
Annapolis community, these opportunities are a great
chance to make the program come alive. You can apply
skills such as listening and working together that are at the
core of our program’s pedagogy in the real world. You’ll
be amazed what you have learned and how applicable it is
to situations on and off campus. Civic participation also
provides opportunities to think about the values you read
about in the classroom – virtue, beauty, justice, friendship
– and how they relate to you as an individual, and the
greater community.
Being of service to others is a way of clarifying personal
values, finding purpose and meaning, and learning about
one’s place in the larger community. That civic engagement
can take many forms, such as the community service
examples above, but it can also mean getting involved in
a nonprofit foundation, or in support of a cause you are
passionate about. This sort of work can help you find your
strengths, perhaps even figure out a career path, and build
skills that will serve you throughout your lifetime.
I want you to know that the College sees what you are
doing – and we support it. If you have more ideas for ways
to serve the community, bring them forward. I regularly
interact with community organizations who ask for
Johnnie support because of the impressive way in which
you comport yourself. I couldn’t be prouder of all of your
community efforts, and they, along with the education
you receive here, are truly the foundation for a meaningful
life, meaningful work, and better world for us all.
Scott M. Buchanan Leading a Community Seminar
24
September 25, 2023
�the Gadfly
πόλις
Advice on
Summer Vacation
Bennett Scott
Dear fools,
What is the divine truth of a summer vacation? The
hottest days of your youth spent rollerblading till your
knees bled, your knees burning as you jumped in the
over-chlorinated pool, the bug bites layered on the backs
of your knees distracting from your youthful four square
crushes. All those wonderful knee-oriented days are gone;
now your summer days are: working at the local coffee
shop, ripping on your vape out back with Pam (20 years
serving coffee and not once employee of the month), and
being hit on by men who are old enough to be your father
and apparently wouldn’t mind if they were. The nights are
filled with drinking and trying to be friends with people
you haven’t been friends with since high school and,
during a lucky witching hour or two, trying out some new
drug and gazing off into the distance of your car’s ceiling.
(If you’re new here: welcome, you’ll understand in about
three weeks.)
Let’s be frank with each other: it was a boring summer.
When people ask you what you did, you’re embarrassed.
Sure, you tripped acid for the first time, went on a date
with that 56 year old Italian mobster, and even managed
to rug-burn your knees, but it’s just not the same. You
know me, dear reader; I’ve always got a solution for you.
Lie. Just straight up lie about what you did this
summer. And not just one lie (coward), but as many as
you can juggle in that little sun-bleached head of yours:
To your Greek class, you spent the summer curing
cancer with unheard of new methods based on a
vision you had in a dream (that image of your ex-threetimes-removed partner surrounded by a halo of birds
repeating “Oogabooga” at you over and over had to mean
something!).
To your math class, you worked as a bouncer/
bartender/much-requested-but-rarely-seen-dancer at a
strip club by the name of The Swooch’s Gentlewoman’s
Club (you, however, went by the name Bach It Up and
exclusively danced to his Suites in Major) where you led
the newest trends in seduction (not to let the cat out of
the bag, but it involves putting a cat in a bag).
September 25, 2023
To your tutors, you were hiking the Appalachian
trail with nothing but a sawn off toothbrush and the
clothes on your back in pursuit of a spiritual experience
(the spirit has spoken: you are to become a goat herder
and Christian rapper).
To your “we ate once together” friend, you may have
murdered three people or maybe you didn’t there isn’t any
definitive evidence guess you’ll never know, Jeremy.
To your crush, you (weren’t doing anything, never
have a crush on anyone at St. John’s College it’s a horrible
idea, we’re all idiots, romantic idiots who’ll eat you alive
without realizing it or very much realizing it and you
won’t know what you’d like to believe as you lay crying on
Augustine’s Confessions).
And when everything threatens to come crashing down
at a party with everyone there, you’ll realize reconciling
the timelines is the most entertaining part: “No no no
don’t worry sorry I forgot to tell you all the full story of
my summer so yes I was working at Swoochie’s at night
while I was curing cancer during the day and going to the
Appalachians on Tuesdays where I might have murdered
one person and murdered the other two at the club during
a bar fight and buried them in the lot out back (4571 E.
Plimpton Street, Detroit MI 48127) which is now also
where I’ll be setting up my combination goat-field and
church/soundstage, yeah it was really a great summer huh
and I know I’m so cool and hot and have lyme disease
from the hikes so don’t you want me huh don’t want to
date me now Mr.—(Shush. Don’t have a crush at SJC).
Remember: Dead men tell no tales (hidden
underneath a thick layer of pepper and dead fish in the
dirt lot where you last saw your mobster boyfriend), but
you sure can. So why not tell interesting ones?
—B.S. (Not for BSing)
Students Sitting in Sailboats on College Creek
25
�πόλις
the Gadfly
September 25, 2023
Neotibicen canicularis: Dog-Day Cicada
100 decibels? Are you sick-a-da noise?
Louis Rosenberg & Vivian Miyakawa
It’s another beautiful day on campus. The weather is
perfect for reading, with soft hints of sunlight glancing
through the trees, and not a single gust of wind to disturb
the pages of a busy student. Settling down, freshmen crack
open The Odyssey while seniors tackle the works of Hegel.
On this lovely afternoon, productivity comes easy. A lull
falls over the quad as everyone settles in, reveling in the
peaceful simplicity of studying outside.
It starts with a hum. A simple background noise, akin
to the gentle buzzing of honeybees or the quiet whir of
fluorescent lights. It blends in with the rustling of the
trees, hardly noticeable to anyone who isn’t seeking it out.
Slowly, the humming builds. Students are pressed to pay
attention to their readings, attempting to tune out the
now obnoxious drone of continuous noise. The buzzing
sounds frantic now, getting louder by the second and
showing no signs of stopping. An irritated Johnnie whips
out their phone, grumbling about cicadas. In what may
well be a futile attempt to guilt-trip these singing insects,
they navigate to a website that records noise levels. As soon
as the page is opened, the screen spits out an outrageous
number. One hundred decibels. The very same volume
as using a lawnmower or operating a jackhammer. As the
students reluctantly retreat to their dorms for a quieter
study space, they’ll grumble these questions to themselves
as they trek up the stairs: How on earth can such small
bugs make such loud noises? And why are they absolutely
everywhere?
Annual cicadas can be spotted throughout the fall at
various points in their adult life-cycle: singing from the
trees, disrupting classrooms in Mellon, and dying on the
ground. These cicadas are distinct from their periodical
brethren both in their lifecycle (they emerge every year
while periodical cicadas emerge every 13 or 17 years) and
their appearance. Species that emerge annually are larger
than periodical cicadas and possess relatively wider bodies.
Their carapaces are generally patterned in various shades
of green, brown, and black; their eyes are black or brown
rather than the bright red of periodical species. Many
annual species closely resemble each other, however, and
identification of specific species is further complicated by
26
the significant variation within each species’ patterns.
One of the more common annual species in Maryland
is the dog-day cicada, N. canicularis. They come in three
primary color morphs: green with black markings, brown
with black markings, and predominately black. They are
smaller than some other species which may otherwise
be mistaken for them, such as the lyrical cicada, but are
still fairly large insects at 1.5 to 2 inches in length. The
adult form of cicadas is the most easily recognizable to
the routine observer, as the nymphs spend all of their time
underground. Adults begin emerging in mid-summer
and fly, mate, lay eggs in plant stems, and yes, sing, until
early October. Though each year will lead to at least some
new adult dog-day cicadas emerging (hence the common
reference to “annual cicadas”), each individual of this
species is thought to have a life-cycle lasting around 3
years.
The characteristic singing of cicadas is among the
loudest of any insect species, often building to more
than 100 decibels, which is comparable in volume to a
lawnmower. Their song is used to attract females or, for
some species, repel rival males. Sound is produced from
cicadas’ tymbals, which are located in a cavity between
their first and second body segments. When the tymbal
is vibrated by a cicada’s abdominal muscles, it produces
the start of the song, and the sound is amplified to its
extreme volume by resonation chambers in the thorax and
abdomen. In part because of the variation between songs
of different N. canicularis specimens, it is suspected that
they often hybridize with other cicadas in the genus. Still,
dedicated listeners can often still identify cicadas based
solely on the sound of their chirping. Next time you’re out
on the quad, you should give it a try.
Sources:
https://bugguide.net/node/view/12461
https://lanwebs.lander.edu/faculty/rsfox/invertebrates/tibicen.html
https://extension.umd.edu/resource/cicadas-maryland
“The Evolutionary Relationships of 17 and 13 Year Cicadas,” R. D. Alexander
and T. E. Moore (https://orthsoc.org/sina/c700lam62.pdf ).
�πόλις
the Gadfly
September 25, 2023
The Betrothed
Luke Briner
I.
As I walk weeping through the shaded vale
That seeks to swallow me in arid night
And would but for that faint-aetheric light
Which rare and sweet illumes the somber pale,
May I keep tight this consecrated veil
Wrapped ‘round me, and, so wrapped, obscure the sight
Alike of extern eyes and false delight
And fix my view above by its curtail.
O veil, true cultus of obscurity!
Beloved, I desire to be unknown
Unto this world and all its surety
If only I one day before your Throne
Might find my peace at last, and if to me
You will vouchsafe eternally your own.
II.
Allow me, then, to breathe in the perfume
Of your true Name, ambrosial as the flowers
Of Lebanon or henna-braided bowers
Of fair Ein-Gedi in resplendent bloom,
And, so enrapt, with joy myself consume
In fainted love of that enthralling Power
Which in you flows innate and from you showers
Upon your servants’ Idyll-famished gloom;
Ah, that I might, my Perfect One, return
My borrowed fragrance to your native Seat
From which my second race made sad adjourn
And back to which I long now to retreat,
And knelt before you, solemn and supern,
With it in trembling awe anoint your feet!
III.
See how my spirit cries out for your reign,
Sublime as that of David, who through force
Of Prodigy by Providence endorsed
Made Israel’s two Kingdoms his domain,
Or Pallas, Genius-Sired of Heaven’s Plane,
Who, condescending from her lofty Course,
Contrived by puissant Wisdom to enforce
Upon her namesake State her golden Rein;
As they exalted came to the command
Of subjects bound in gracious unity,
May you with sovereign soul and sceptered hand
Deign to reside triumphant over me,
And I, thus made your own new-conquered land,
Become at last by your yoke truly free.
IV.
With Longing such as this I ceaseless pray
In silent speech, my gaze cast humbly down
By meditations cumbrous as the gown
Which curtains me from the encroaching fray
And keeps me on the much-benighted Way
That leads to and is lumined by your Crown
Whose sacred shine dispels all mortal frown
And hints the dawn of amaranthine Day;
As I make my way down that lustral aisle,
Good egress of this sad-appointed place,
Allow me unto you to reconcile
My heart, so long unworthy of embrace,
So I might look, at the end of my trial,
At last with eyes upraised upon your Face.
V.
O Face, which with a smile can comprehend
The nameless ecstasies of the Divine—
O Face, whose contemplation is a wine
With which no worldly spirit could contend!
Wrapped now in your own arms do I transcend
All past-held pain, all reason for repine,
And, finding in you all that was once mine,
Achieve by new Beginning my true End.
Before I was, you Were, and but for you
I’d have no life, nor have desire thereof;
For unto you and you alone I flew,
My only wish to find you here Above,
And joined again in Consummation true
To melt away in your all-perfect Love.
27
�πόλις
the Gadfly
September 25, 2023
The SJC Mystery #1: The Stone
Bennett "The Stone" Scott
In middle of the journey of our days
I found that I was in a darksome wood—
The right road lost and vanished in the maze.
I live by one rule: never do anything that could start a
horror movie. It singlehandedly prevents all manner of
foolish decisions: sex in the woods at night: no; exploring
dangerous abandoned buildings: NO; using a ouija
board to summon your recently deceased neighbor while
insulting that neighbor’s elderly widow: NO.
But I am young, dumb, and stupid, which means I
already qualify for a horror movie by simple right of being.
So, just this once, I want to try something: The Stone.
If I’ve ever been anywhere haunted, it would be
the St. John’s College, Annapolis campus. The college
bookstore was a morgue during the civil war, people have
been drowning here in College Creek for centuries, and
there is something most certainly devilish in this muggy
East Coast air (it’s the cigarette smoke that you just blew
into my face). And The Stone? The stone is bad vibe
overdrive.
Walk up the brick path from the front entrance,
pass the first building (McDowell, my old friend,
hello, didn’t you burn down in a fire?), and come to a
quadrangular space we call the quad (innovative). On the
southwest side of the upper lawn is The Stone, hidden
amongst the gray, a small disk carved out of the slate
ground. Pick it up. Turn it over. Now, you are looking at
The Symbol.
The Symbol is best described as four tallies, the
second having a twist attached below, and a large curve
on the far side (Bad description? Read till the end of the
article to find out how you can see it! And your boy! At
the same time!). To me it looks like a really messed up
moose ridden by my dad, mom, and me. My psychoanalyst
would like me to unpack that; I will not.
So what is The Symbol? If you ask around, even
the witchiest looking students (stick and poke tattoos,
teeth earrings, self-administered haircuts) can’t tell you,
28
responding to all inquiries by wondering aloud if they
should leave the college. You can try asking the internet
too. But posts on Reddit and other, somehow sketchier
websites have received only mocking responses, net -2
upvotes, and an ad for hot moms in my area (I don’t care
what they need right now while their husbands are gone,
do they or do they not they know what The Symbol is?).
Even contemplating The Symbol while absolutely out of
my mind on entirely legal experiential substances led only
to a vague sense of foreboding and the urge to order Papa
John’s. So, having tried everything, I was forced to pull
out the big guns: get over my social anxiety and ask our
head librarian and campus historian, Penelope Earrose.
Bennett Scott: Dr. Earrose, thank you for taking
the time to meet with me.
Penelope Earrose: Of course! I love nothing more
than getting to talk to students about college history and
thus being given a fleeting moment of freedom where I
actually get to do my job and interact with other human
beings rather than just stare into the dreadful empty face
of my computer all day.
BS: Great. So when was the current campus of St.
John’s founded?
PE: Well, work on Mellon was begun in 1742, but
[entirely interesting information has been cut here to get
you to the heart of the matter:]
BS: So do you know anything about The Stone?
PE: Sorry, the what?
BS: The Stone. The small disk on the quad with
a weird symbol on it? This weird symbol. [Draws The
Symbol.]
PE: Well, no, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything
like that. We’ve got some old documents that you’re more
than welcome to sort through for any explanations, but
that…well to tell you the truth, Mr. Scott, that symbol just
doesn’t look right.
BS: Thank you for your time Dr. Earrose.
PE: Of course.
BS: [Leaves the office, walks out the front of the
�συμπόσιον
the Gadfly
September 25, 2023
library, promptly:] Well, fuck my one idea.
So then, my search continues. If you have any information regarding The Stone, The Symbol, or anything even
vaguely related, please send me an email at: bascott@sjc.edu. If there’s anything helpful, I’ll try to include it in the next
article.
Also! In an SJC first, there will be a video series associated with this column; the first video is already up; go
check it out for more details on this mess I’ve gotten myself into:
(All my videos will be uploaded to this channel (BSMysteries), so check it out!)
29
�πόλις
the Gadfly
September 25, 2023
Review of the Freewrite Drafting Tool
John Teague
In the spring of 2023, I pulled the trigger on a used Taylor
812ce I had been eyeing at a music store in Baltimore.
This particular instrument had been on my mind since
my sophomore year in high school: made in America,
new V-Class bracing, beautiful inlays. It manages to be
articulate without sacrificing the great tone of the more
traditional dreadnought, making it a fingerstyle guitarist's
dream. This particular model stood unadulterated
from any electronics, and its rudimentary simplicity
encouraged rudimentary practice. Unamplified sets
harkening back to distant memories of folk music in the
Sangre de Cristo mountains, where I worked a summer
exploring and presenting that country. Despite the
seemingly impossible combination of both jargon and
abstractions of my description, the guitar managed to
touch me spiritually, invigorating my practice habits. I've
improved more in a partial year of fine guitar ownership
than I would in a decade of noodling on my old acoustic
at my previous rate. Learning tunes and techniques from
their bluegrass inceptions to their more modern nu-folk
consequences, I've immersed myself in something more
than a music style, a certain folkish worldview and all
its accompanying philosophies and mannerisms that
gradually change a personality. While the cause of this
30
was my will (I think), I remain troubled by a realization
that my musical and personal development was only the
consequence of my enthusiasm for a new purchase, a state
of mind also witnessed in Funko Pop mongers and MCM
universe enjoyers.
With that experience showing me that virtue can, in
fact, be taught, I made another purchase - ASTROHAUS's
Freewrite Drafting Assistant. It markets itself as a 'digital
typewriter,' the gateway to distraction-free writing. I
checked the package tracking with some excitement,
wanting to hold and feel the aluminum chassis in my hand,
to hear the satisfying clacks of the MX Brown mechanical
switches. Now that it has arrived, I can confirm that it
does, in fact, feel great in my hands and that writing with it
is a novel and enjoyable experience. It has fewer electronic
functions, so its reduced EMF radiation probably has
a less harmful effect on my genetic fidelity (I write as I
smoke a cigarette). My state of mind as I write this review
is as advertised. Instead of switching tabs or listening to
music I feel a cool autumnal breeze and hear the sound
of lapping water on ships' hulls. I'm writing this relatively
quickly, a good sign that I'll get the improved output I was
looking for.
John M. Christensen, Director of Admissions, Seated at Desk Typing
on a Computer Keyboardon a Computer Keyboard
�πόλις
the Gadfly
This article’s pretensions fall away when I am led
into the next part of any review, whether or not I'd
recommend the Freewrite. To answer that question, I
of course have to ask myself the question 'for whom?'
which in this particular instance, begs an inquiry
into the psychological effects of the Freewrite on a
consumer in a society where things like 'distractionfree' are taglines for overpriced, metrosexual-adjacent
gizmos that simply give back to the human experience
the peace of our previous simpler existence. An inquiry
which, in a just world, would fill a small tome your
correspondent is currently unable to write with his
overstimulated, mildly ADHD-ridden (can I get meds
for this?) brain. I personally avoid taking responsibility
by complaining about the prevalence and aggression of
modern advertising, annoying at its best and maddening
at its worst. It is product as spectacle that got me into
this mess and so it must be another one that potentially
gets me out.
- Quick aside, have you seen these iPad babies
recently? God, that sh* makes me want to vomit. That's
not to say I would ever say anything bad about mothers
who, of course, are blameless in all instances.
Something someone once called Product Excitement
Syndrome (hereafter called PES) has come on the scene
as a very lucrative state of mind to be induced into the
atomized consumer. Lacking church, family, good books
(maybe movies), desire for social change, nationalism,
or general hope the mind struggles in a search for some
unattainable mystery to apply itself towards. When freed
from worrying about complex strategies for the tracking
down of the tribe's next mammoth, the resultant bored
consciousness instead tracks down information about
another other, ideas of wealth and success, and fantasizes
about the procuring of one of those distant philoplutarian
offerings of the megaconglomerates and especially
about the presentation of one of those products to the
consumer's friends and 'loved' ones. One suffering from
PES, interestingly, does not especially fantasize about
the changes to the quality of his life entailed from the
procuring of product, especially recently (admittedly, I
would probably have been frothing at the mouth for a
Model T, but an iPhone? ‘Come on, Man!’).
The situation is not really as vain as I'm saying,
though. Sometimes people afflicted by PES are really
trying to find a beautiful life. Purveyors of fashion try,
September 25, 2023
with varying degrees of earnestness, to embody some
idea of material quality with selvedge jeans or Goodyear
Welted boots. So-called 'barefoot shoes' sell the idea of a
natural life halfway convincingly. It's just that I can't wrap
my head around all these lifestyle choices being driven by
profit motive, especially when the product embodies ideas
that your correspondent sees as 'good' or 'sustainable,' It
seems like whatever goodness I can sense in those ideas is
being violated, bringing superficiality to things that really
ought to be taken seriously. This is where the Freewrite
Writing Assistant comes in.
The instruments specific to the art of idea-sharing
are progressing, getting faster and easier to use, resulting
generally in better ideas that are more fun to digest.
There's no way to write or distribute any kind of rigorous
metaphysics treatise or witty postmodern novella on a
stone tablet etched in cuneiform. Recent technological
developments, however, are mostly centered around the
general easing of life itself, rendering obsolete previous
tools with single functions by introducing complex
multi-function tools: think of the smartphone replacing
a cell phone, camera, notebook, library, et cetera into a
palm sized brick of literally unimaginable utility. This is
all well and good (arguably) when considering the total
efficiency of the person, but considered individually the
functions seem to be compromised, not to mention the
weird thing that happens psychologically when you can't
actually grasp the tool you’re using. I can’t conceive of
a cell phone camera ever being of higher quality than a
proper DSLR (even when considering ease-of-use: a
cell phone will always have some kind of interface in
the way, keeping you from taking your picture). All of
the improvements to writing the Freewrite offers are a
result of the simple re-establishment of a unique tool
for a particular function. The function in question is
notoriously tedious, as hundreds of millions of students
will testify, and so the FreeWrite finds a particularly roomy
niche to occupy. Typewriters, so obsolesced, have not had
the advantage of adopting the technological innovations
designed for quality-of-life improvements for writing on
laptops, and so ASTROHAUS simply decided to apply
those improvements -nice keyboard, digital storage, wi-fi
backups- to a nevertheless simple machine.
But there are people who'll read much further
into the FreeWrite than this, arguing something like
‘distraction-free writing is the only way to truly write and
31
�πόλις
the Gadfly
laptop writers must needs be either poor, unaware, or a
Philistine. The FreeWrite™ has not only freed my mind,
but also my soul’(the author begs you forgive this less
than flattering portrait of a PES-inflicted FreeWrite
enjoyer, the truth is that he, in fact, at one point held
opinions regetably similar to those of the caricature he
describes). Those afflicted by PES perceive a large divide
in society of people who perceive the valiant struggle the
FreeWrite engages in and the slobbering masses, unable
to articulate a thought due to TikTok brain. The irony
of this sentiment distresses me greatly. Writing, thought
materialized, should be as self-aware as possible. The
compromising of so basic a foundation shakes the whole
building, and simply put, I won't trust you if you think
this product is going to purify your thoughts.
And yet, as I've learned through my guitar
purchase, the human spirit seems to be lamb-like enough
to potentially be benefited by PES. For argument's sake,
let’s say that regular writing is a substantial enrichment
of a personality, like music. Would not this character,
so maddened by the FreeWrite, wind up actually being
a better person for it, assuming his blistering rage puts
him at the keys? And would not the regular ‘distractionfree’ lengths of time gradually ease his troubled soul?
And then, won’t he have actually accomplished his idea
of himself: a little-stimulated, thoughtful, little guy with
a big writing portfolio? It’s this thought thought that
just drives me crazy about the FreeWrite.
The best argument I have for purchasing the
FreeWrite is the fact that I wrote the first draft for this
article ~1500 words, in a little over two hours. For me,
this is lightning pace. But really, this wasn’t due to any
mystical encouraging by the mechanical keyboard or
imparting of wisdom by the aluminum chassis (both of
which are, again, really nice) but instead the smallness of
the screen preventing me from going back to what I had
previously written while I was drafting. I didn’t realize
this, but the reason I used to write at a snail’s pace was
because I would go back up and make edits whenever
I would get stuck on a sentence, which I now realize is
a huge waste of time. I really don’t think the FreeWrite
is necessary to induce this, though. You could simply
zoom in on your text document or have good habits or
something, but for me it took buying a cringeworthy
32
September 25, 2023
typewriter. Besides the embarrassment of my failure
to come to this realization by myself, the reality of the
contrivance of my improvement shakes my security of
humanity’s ownership of the fine arts. If I do wind up
becoming a better writer, it will be the result not of my
nature, nor my will, but a rather funny little object.
So, do I recommend ASTROHAUS’s FreeWrite
Drafting Assistant? Perhaps. Even though it’s quite
overpriced it does seem very nice. I think the improved
feel of the act of writing will increase my output. If that
kind of thing matters to you or you just like the look of
it, go ahead; it will probably be what you’re hoping for.
Why would I even want to recommend or dissuade from
buying it? It’s like you’re asking me to inform you how to
be more like myself. But if you go out to purchase one, I
beg of you to think of the consequences and recommend
you come up with some sort of coping mechanism to
handle the stress of battling with your identity.
Small writing desk (bonheur-du-jour).
Martin Carlin, c. 1768
�πόλις
the Gadfly
September 25, 2023
Freshman Bodies and Freshman Souls
The following list is reprinted from a 1982 issue of the Gadfly.
Bryce Jacobsen
The reasons, both physical and metaphysical, why everyone ought to become involved in our sports program are many.
1. We have the best athletic program of any college in
the country.
2. Exercise is good for the body... unless you sprain an
ankle, or something like that.
3. Most of us feel better, are more alert, and can get
more work done if our bodies are healthy and our
souls relaxed.
4. Friendly competition is one of the really fun things
in life. It is good for your soul.
5. Your circle of acquaintances will be greatly enlarged.
This is good for the soul, provided you can separate
the wheat from the chaff.
6. You will learn to accept, and bear with, thousands
of split-second decisions from the officials, a few of
which are wrong. This is very good for the soul.
7. Do you like to strive for, and achieve, specific
goals? If so, consider our College Blazers. They are
much sought after, and the pathway is clearly laid out.
Striving for goals is good for your soul.
8. It is probablly true that more pure fun occurs in the
athletic program than in any other area of the college.
Fun is good for your soul.
9. If you get involved in team sports, and become a
"good team player," you have realized that there are
things in the Universe that are more important than
your ego. That is good for your soul.
10. The benefits of exercise and friendly competition,
learned while one is young, should be maintained for
the rest of your life... i.e., they should become habitual.
For virtue, as the Philosopher said, is a habit.
11. You will get to know numerous Alumni, Tutors,
and Staff members who participate in the program.
This is good for your soul, or ought to be... provided
that they are the proper sort of role models.
12. Our showers are the best at the college; always
plenty of hot water.
13. Are you bothered by, or worried by, tobacco fumes
in the air? Come to the gym. The whole building is a
nicotine-free zone.
14. If you perform some sort of heroic deed on the
athletic field, your name will be mentioned in our
weekly column. Heroes are always acclaimed. But do
not be carried away by this. Remember that "the paths
to glory lead but to the grave."
15. A high percentage of our best students are active
participants in our program.
16. Those who play, stay.
17. The gym is not particularly well-equipped, as
gyms go. But it has washers and dryers, and a cokemachine... and I will explain to you, if you ask me,
how you can get yourself in tip-top physical shape,
without any equipment at all.
18. You can sit in an old-time barber's chair in my
office... you can pump yourself up or down, and adjust
the slope high or low. Where else can you do that?
19. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
20. It is better to light a candle, than to curse the
darkness.
So there you have it.. twenty good reasons why you should participate in our athletic program. If you are not
convinced by all this, come and talk with me... I can probably think of some more good reasons. Or better yer, ralk with
the upperclassmen. They will tell you all sorts of strange, interesting and wondrous things.
Bryce Jacobsen
Director of Athletics
The Gadfly - September 9, 1982
33
�πόλις
the Gadfly
September 25, 2023
Finds from the Archives
This room has since undergone a "vibe shift."
Can this thing please come down from the attic?
Students Playing Table Tennis in the Basement of Paca-Carroll House, c. 1941
34
�πόλις
the Gadfly
September 25, 2023
Finds from the Archives
They say this student still has
that look on his face.
Students with Suspended Weights in Laboratory Class
35
�THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
OF
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly
is the student newsmagazine
distributed to over 600
students, faculty, staff, and
alumni of the Annapolis
campus.
Opinions expressed within
are the responsibility of the
author(s). The Gadfly reserves
the right to accept, reject,
and edit submissions in any
way necessary to publish a
professional, informative,
and thought provoking
newsmagazine.
Dean John O. Neustadt Seated on a Tree Stump
Playing with a Dog on Campus, c. 1940
Submissions sent to the
Gadfly should either be
in Google Docs or JPEG
format. The deadline for
submissions is the Friday prior
to publication.
For more information, contact
us via email at sjca.gadfly@
gmail.com
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
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St. John's College Digital Archives.
St. John's College owns the rights
to these photographs.
36
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
�
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Gadfly Vol XLV Issue 1
Gadfly
Student publication
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PDF Text
Text
the Gadfly
St. John’s College
Annapolis, Maryland
Year's End
Annapolis Cup 2023
Croquet Played, Hats Worn,
Champagne Drunk, Storms
Thundered, Middies Beat, a
Jolly Good Time Had by All
May 30, 2023
Vol. XLIV, Issue 10
Inside the Mitchell
Museum Rebranding
Interview with Director
Peter Nesbett and Manager
Jenny Cawood
Who Forms Kunai?
Lessons from As You Like It
How to Have a "Hot Johnnie Summer"
+ much more
�Logos
Contents
Croquet Played...
Inside the Mitchell
Project Polity
Marathon Interview
Museum
Symposium
Lessons from As You Like It
An Ode to Viking Portables
A Freshman Seminar
Polis
Who Forms Kunai?
Song of the Clovers
A Grievance of Gilliam
To Seniors, from a Man Who Knows
Tobacco Smoking Chants
Up in Smoke
Sex and the City
Renewal
The Rise of AI
"Melody of St. Cecilia" Translation
Opiliones (Harvestment)
4
8
11
12
16
17
20
22
24
26
28
30
31
32
33
34
36
38
Staff
Editor in Chief
Managing Editor
Daniel Nathan
Luke Briner
Meliha Anthony
Helen Wagner
Louise Harden
Jenna Lee
Dolan Polglaze
Jackson Wojnowski
El'ad Nichols-Kaufman
Audrey Fox
Bennett Scott
FEATURING SUBMISSIONS FROM
Ranger Kasdorf
Ben Maier
Will Marchman
Ezra Melchor
Tuyết-Nhi Nghiêm
COVER
2
Lysithia Page
Louis Rosenberg
Molly Sprout
Rose Zhang
LAYOUT
Bridget Mace
Cooper Ussery
Alayna Raymond
Letter from the Editor
“What should be the significance of a year?”
Given life on a college campus, where each year can
seem especially distinct and separate from the last, this
question bears some attention. This idea of mining for
the significance of something as pedestrian-seeming as
a particular block marking the passage of time has been
wedged in my head for a couple months now—in fact,
this past April, I even brought it to President Demleitner
during an interview the Gadfly jointly conducted with the
yearbook. The thought of what "makes" a year first came up
in a conversation with my mom while I was back home in
Georgia during spring break, which, of course, was right in
the thick of tax season. It had been a successful year for her
small business but a problem still stood: now she’s gotta
do it all over again. Another whole year, all over again:
grinding it out, stacking paper, early mornings, late nights,
rude clients, a new unsolvable problem everyday—easy
enough to want to say no thanks. Anyways, I continued to
bring the question up to more people: a handful of friends
while quad booling during Prank weekend, Mr. Abbott I
believe, Nancy Calabrese down at the health center, while
meeting my extraordinarily drunk neighbor at my new
apartment for the very first time, and now you, our loyal
Gadfly readership.
But what does it really matter to us to start something
and finish it—to pick a path, head down it, and reach your
destination? Simply put, how should we think about the
significance of accomplishing what we set out to do—to
put your heart, soul, lungs, and liver on the line in August
and make it out alright on the other side come May?
It seems natural enough to judge a year by basing it off
how good our life seems by the end of it, how well time has
THE STRUCTURE
Logos typically holds news reports and narratives
of immediate relevance to the Polity. The purpose
here is to develop a shared reservoir of information
relating to campus life and the community.
Symposium offers the opportunity for our readers to
thoughtfully consider contrasting opinions regarding
a particular topic.
Polis serves as a platform for elevating voices in
our community. Here we find letters to the editor,
columns, cartoons, and submitted pieces.
�λόγος
the Gadfly
treated us: Has this year been good to you? Were you just
lucky? Making all the green lights whenever you were in a
car or maybe getting bumped up to first class for free on
a full flight. Are you better off now than you were a year
ago? Maybe not, and your year hasn’t been too hot, and you
got audited by the IRS and by some stroke of supernatural
sorcery, your dog miraculously gained the ability to speak
fluent English and the first thing he said to you was “I don’t
love you.”
It’s easy to want to try and weigh our successes against our
failures, to pit what we feel against what we think against
what we know, to give in to rushed judgments and those
little unswattable gnats of doubt and worry and all our
worst instincts put together, buzzing around our heads at
a million miles per hour, ricocheting like birdshot fired
inside a bank vault or a bunch of rubber balls dropped from
a very tall height.
But a year is a milestone, not a benchmark. And if you ask
May 30, 2023
anyone what a year, or really what a school year, means, I’d
bet they'll tell you something like “Well, when school starts
it’s the beginning, when the school year ends it’s the end.”
Practical. Undeniable. Possibly revolutionary.
Maybe that’s all it is, maybe a year can’t be truly summed
up simply by recounting how you felt about this person
or what you thought about this or that thing that may or
may not have happened. A year is defined by what you do
with that time, not what you didn’t do, just as you can’t
judge a year from your doubts, worries, failures, regrets,
shortcomings, near-misses, head-on collisions, nor your
mistakes. In some way, all that really needed to be said is
“From August 25th, 2022 to May 12th, 2023, we were at St.
John’s College in Annapolis, MD, getting our degrees, and
learning how to learn. What a year.” H.A.G.S
—Daniel Nathan
Editor-in-chief
3
�λόγος
the Gadfly
May 30, 2023
Croquet Played, Hats Worn, Champagne Drunk,
Storms Thundered, Middies Beat, a Jolly Good Time
Had by All
Dispatch from the 2023 Annapolis Cup
El'ad Nichols-Kaufman
The conspirators in Lincoln’s
assassination
were
on
trial,
Confederate ships were still fighting
on, John Wilkes Booth had just died,
but in May of 1865, the New York
Times had a far more important
piece of breaking news to report on:
the introduction of croquet to the
new world. An article called it “the
last introduced out-door game, that
supplied the much-needed want of an
amusing exercise where the two sexes
could be equally interested. Though
we miss in this country the smooth
English lawns where its practice truly
deserves its other name of ‘out-door
billiards’ it bids fair to be naturalized
among us, with most desirable results,
for the promotion of healthy exercise.”
While your dear correspondent
cannot speak to the implication that
this is the first sport that the sexes
“could be interested,” nor to the level
of exercise provided by croquet, he can
certainly say that the venerable Gray
Lady had the right priorities in those
days of the sport’s infancy. Who cares
for politics, intrigue or conspiracy
when red has, in one turn, run the
alley, gone rover and staked out black
while blue is still two wickets out?
What greater excitement, or to use
the Times’ phrasing, amusement or
interest, could be generated in an
afternoon’s diversion? The Annapolis
Cup is, as usual, evidence for the truth
4
Aerial view of the croquet fields and assorted spectators
of this matter.
This year’s game finally returned
to our home court, one that truly
does miss the quality of the smooth
English (or Navy) lawns. After last
year’s diminished affair at the Naval
Academy, nearly everyone was glad
for the game to return to its proper
home, where Johnnie hopes cannot be
dashed by too finely cut grass or overly
aggressive caddies. Our fair campus
was transformed for the event, with
fences springing up from the ground,
tents sprouting overnight and the
ignoble porta-potties springing into
existence.
Despite the good will brought about
by the return of the match to our
campus, some student dissatisfaction
remained in the days leading up to
the match. Some planned policies,
such as a proposed rule forbidding
students to re-enter the event, drew
student ire. Many complained that the
planning for the event lacked sufficient
student feedback, leading the Delegate
Council to pass a resolution calling for
more student voice in planning, and
to changes made to event policies in
response to these student pressures.
In general, the match looked a little
different this year. The game was closed
off to the wider Annapolis community
this year, meaning its attendance
was limited to Johnnies, Middies,
Alumni, and an odd assortment of
others that managed to find their way
into possession of tickets. As your
correspondent joined the trickle of
overly punctual Johnnies at 10:30,
the division between said parties was
mostly clear, with a few exceptions. It
was rather like a game in itself: “That
young couple with the preposterously
�the Gadfly
λόγος
extravagant hats must be alumni,
while the remarkably bulky and square
young man must be a midshipman…
but what about the guy over there in
the Panama hat and the designer shirt?
Special townie? Unusually composed
Alumnus? Navy man with a sense of
style?”
After realizing it was an hour and a
half too early to see any croquet, your
enterprising correspondent slipped out
to grab some brunch, before returning
for the grand opening ceremony.
Alumnus Hardison Wood, a former
croquet player or “rusty wicket” led
the formalities, which began with the
Navy color guard and the Freshman
chorus (or at least as many of its
members who actually attend) singing
our nation’s anthem penned by our
fellow Johnnie. This was followed
by mercifully short remarks by local
dignitary Mayor Gavin Buckley, good
natured speeches on our rivalry by the
Superintendent of the Naval Academy,
who spoke mostly nobly, and President
Nora Demlitner, who spoke entirely
nobly.
The centerpiece of this event was, of
course, the presentation of the teams.
The Midshipmen’s pompous parade
came first, each player in their croquet
whites accompanied by a caddy
wearing the Navy dress mess with the
May 30, 2023
horrendous golden cummerbunds.
The Johnnies did not fail to respond,
entering in the color inverted
equivalent of the Midshipmen’s
uniforms, with black replacing their
white and orange replacing their
black. The ceremony was concluded
with a rousing rendition of the croquet
hymn, “Johnnies as We Play Croquet,”
sung to a new and inoffensive melody.
With that, Ms. Demlitner took the
ceremonial first shot, that so-called
prime mover of the Annapolis Cup,
and the games were on.
All around, the crowds of onlookers
milled, with fairly little attention
given to the croquet game. Despite
Some members of the Annapolis croquet team, the Imperial Wickets, pictured here
with Annapolis President Nora Demleitner
5
�the Gadfly
λόγος
the riveting nature of said game, it was
competing with many other diverting
amusements. This writer witnessed
picnics so elaborate, they would have
better belonged at a state banquet in
a palace than the humble lawn of our
august institution. There were hats
so fantastically baroque that they
featured birds with smaller hats upon
them. There were bands so exuberant
that the famously staid and respectable
townsfolk of Annapolis couldn’t help
but dance along. With sights such as
these, who could watch croquet?
As it turns out, your humble writer
could. The first two games were well
played, with Navy just barely beating
out the Johnnies in the first match,
closely followed by a Johnnie triumph.
However, as the third and fourth game
began, the skies began to cloud. A few
bursts of rain left all spectators well
drenched, but the games played on
until claps of thunder sounded in the
distance, and ominous voices boomed
out over the field ordering all present to
evacuate and find shelter. Reluctantly,
the crowds dispersed, with Johnnies
and some alumni staying on the quad
for hours afterwards, presumably
lamenting the inconclusive game.
Before you too, dear reader, despair, I
must let you know they did not need
to wait long for the resolution. That
very evening, even before the waltz,
the message was sent: the match shall
resume tomorrow!
The following day a much smaller
crowd gathered upon the college green
to observe the game. There were no
May 30, 2023
rowdy Navy caddies, fewer inebriated
alumni, and unfortunately no
particularly interesting headwear. This
was a different crowd, one not coming
for the spectacle; it was the dedicated
hard core of croquet fans, and they
wanted to see the game. And see they
did, dear reader. The third game was
quickly won by the Midshipmen, and
the fourth was handily taken by the
Johnnies, leaving the fate of the cup
down to one, decisive, momentous,
game. Everyone present gathered
around the pitch as tensions crept
upwards, excitement flared, spirits
rose, Midshipmen did push ups upon
failed shots and balls went rover one
after the other. In a brilliant series of
moves, Johnnie players Tom Ni and
Kaden Marshall pulled through from
The victorious vs pose for a picture with their hard-earned Annapolis Cup
6
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May 30, 2023
the tight game at the last minute to
stake out and secure the Annapolis
cup.
After this, of course, came the
celebrations and obligatory farewells:
Navy sang their utterly unmemorable
song about blue and gold and American
imperialism, while the Johnnies
responded with the angelic polyphony
of Sicut Cervus. There was then an
awkward pause as the Midshipmen ran
to the Naval Academy to retrieve the
cup, which they foolishly had assumed
would not be necessary. With the
arrival of the cup, it was discovered
that the Midshipmen had desecrated
this venerated Annapolitan idol: they
had included upon its ancient list of
victories false claims of a Naval victory
in 2020 and 2021, when no games
were played. This revelation, however,
was not enough to mar the general
jubilation taking place on the field.
The game was back on our campus,
the event once more drew a crowd,
traditions were revived, the Johnnies
triumphed: in short, all was right with
the world once more.
Tom Ni hoists (or maybe heists?) the Annapolis Cup
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May 30, 2023
Inside the Mitchell Museum's New Exhibit and Rebranding
Lysithia Page
Interview with Director (of Possibility)
Peter Nesbett and Manager (of Artistic
Inquiry) Jenny Cawood [Editor’s
note: These are their actual job titles
according to the St. John’s College
website.]
LP: What’s the story behind the
show, “The Open Museum”?
PN: There was a museum director in
Sweden, a guy named Pontus Hultén,
who took a concept that Umberto Eco
developed called The Open Work. He
published a book by the same name in
1962, and he took that thinking and
applied it to museums. So what does
that mean? Museums have typically
been spaces that are intentionally
designed to protect and conserve
their cultural property and artifacts.
At some point in their histories, they
became contemplative places. Hultén
was pushing against that. This was the
early-mid 60s. Society was opening
up and he was really interested in the
museum becoming more participatory
and democratic. He did a show called
“SHE—a cathedral,” which became
a landmark. It centered on a massive
sculpture by French artist Niki de
Saint-Phalle. She’s deceased now,
but she worked on these large-scale
ceramic mosaic figures, and built
a giant mosaic figure in the space
through which visitors entered the
exhibition by going through the
vagina. It was an example of what he
called “The Open Museum” —the
museum as a space of production and
process, so the artists were actually
making and constructing these things
8
Peter Nesbett pictured in front of the Mitchell Art Museum
in the space, which became a sort
of immersive environment for the
visitor. For us, reviving Hultén’s idea
of the Open Museum is about opening
back up to the broadest community
possible with the idea that the space
is for them. The most extreme way of
doing that, it seems to me, is to actually
allow them to define what the space
becomes in a very literal way, allowing
them to mark the walls. So it becomes
this “community-unfolding” that
is also an accumulation of different
sensibilities and interests. I’m really
interested in the social dynamic that
unfolds—what reverence people hold
for other peoples’ contributions or
not, or the dialogues between peoples’
contributions. Will there be some sort
of “call and response”? Will there be
people altering each others’ work?
Will these things coexist, intertwine,
or morph together? Given that St.
John’s is so grounded in conversation
and text, what does it look like to
individualize your voice? That’s the
first question that’s raised when you
start to communicate by drawing on
a wall. And then, those questions that
are relevant to all the books and texts
we encounter over the years—how
do we have conversations with others
that are absent? You’ll be going in to
make a mark in response to somebody
that was there a week earlier, and not
present when you’re making your
reply, but it’s a public conversation
that’s taking place over time. And
then back to what I was just saying
about how people relate to each other
through mark-making—what are your
responsibilities to the community
that’s being formed?
JC: Also important to note, we’re
going through with a rebranding of
our identity, which will go hand-inhand with the concept of “The Open
Museum.” We’re making it feel closer
to our identity with the change from
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the ‘gallery’ to ‘museum.’ People are
not coming into a commercial space.
They’re coming into a space where
they can interact with art, and with
curiosity being at the forefront.
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Going forward, I would say, one of the
tools we’re going to use in both making
decisions and thinking about how
they connect to the life of the College
is through a question bank. We’re
building it. We met last week with
PN: In 2012, the then-named what we’re calling the ‘Committee in
Mitchell Art Gallery received national Question’—
accreditation as an art museum.
We’re one of only five visual art
LP: [Chuckles]. I love that.
museums in the state of Maryland to
have accreditation. We’re a relatively PN: —and the core of the idea is
small institution, only 2,000 square to identify the persistent questions
feet. So, to have that accreditation is that arise from readings, but also
phenomenal, and we’re very proud of questions beyond them as well. We
it. By claiming ‘museum’ in our title, don’t want to take the questions and
we’re claiming that.
illustrate them through the creation
of exhibitions. It’s more to be fully
LP: When did you decide to make cognizant of conversations taking
these changes for the image of place on campus and make decisions
the Mitchell Museum, and how within that frame of reference. I don’t
long was the vision for the change think the connections are going to be
“percolating”?
literal. So, probably no exhibitions on
PN: We were founded in ‘89 and the Odyssey. What I really like about
the name has been the same ever this is the idea that questions provide
since, and the identity as well hasn’t “entryways.” One of the problems
changed. People were very open to this with the art world and museum
new change, and that might have to do culture is that they try to attract an
with the new leadership on campus. I audience based on the reputation that
feel that there’s new reinvestment in has accrued to the artist’s name, but
the role of the museum. Visual arts if you don’t know who that artist is,
aren’t part of the Program. It used to there’s just no way in. It results in a
be—in Santa Fe—but not anymore. blockbuster mentality. But if you can
Here, I think the relationship between use those questions that so many of
the Program and the visual arts has us relate to, then you can pull more
prompted lively discussion over the people into the work.
years—there are some very strong
feelings on both sides. The museum
LP: Do you remember any of the
has landed in the midst of that
questions generated last week?
conversation.
PN: It’s funny—the group naturally
started thinking of questions related
LP: I’ve always been curious about to the arts.
the process by which the Mitchell
Museum plans out future exhibits. JC: One of my favorites: “Is there
How does that work?
something inherently terrifying
PN: I can’t really speak to the past. in created things?” And we cited
May 30, 2023
Antigone, The Book of Job,
Frankenstein for that. Another one:
“Is the crucifixion everlasting, or was it
a moment in time?”
PN: We were talking about “liveness”
in art—whether it’s alive or not.
Whether it’s constantly unfolding,
constantly in a process of becoming.
JC: Right. And with that, someone
asked, “Are there men in that horse?”
And he cited the Trojan Horse as a
piece of art.
LP: That sounds like an idiom in
the making.
JC: [Laughs] Yes, definitely. And the
final one I wanted to bring up: “What
is the virtue of works that make us feel
bad?” Like, why does a tragedy get an
Oscar every year?
PN: Another favorite of mine: “Can
art protect us?”
JC: And we were thinking of Achilles’
shield in the Iliad. It was passed down
from the gods and Homer spends so
much time to describe it.
PN: There’s this artist named Cannupa
Hanska Luger who was involved in the
Dakota Access protests at Standing
Rock. He made these sculptures that
were used as shields—dozens and
dozens of them that they used in the
protests. They were literally protecting
people.
JC: It’s been a very fruitful project.
PN: We’re going to continue
convening. Almost everyone who was
there wants to continue with it. I see
9
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it as a multi-step project. Some of the
questions will need refining, and then
we’ll need to sort them, and then we’ll
have a growing question bank.
JC: The perspectives will change as we
invite different people to come in.
PN: The other thing is that we’re
going to refresh our website, and
treat it more like a magazine. We’re
going to lead with commissioned
essays by professional writers, as well
as encouraging students to write for
us as well. So, some of these questions
might be the lead title of a piece
that somebody is commissioned to
write about. The core of what we’re
going to do will be continuing to
hold exhibitions and performances
in the gallery and hopefully outside
the gallery too. The gallery itself is
designed as a rectangle, and what I
really love about it is that the corners
are porous—it’s like a leaky box. And,
in general, museums are trying to be
more transparent. We’re constantly
thinking of the context in which
people are going to be seeing works.
JC: For me, too, the architecture itself
is like a living thing. It lets light in, it
lets breath in. It reflects the ethos of
what you’re trying to do when you
discuss art—you’re trying to breathe
life into things and have life breathed
into you by the encounter with beauty.
That’s why it’s so special to have a
space that is almost like an organ,
like a heart—maybe something that
has gills. This space breathes. It has so
many possibilities.
LP: Just one last question. Recently
there has been a movement among
environmental activists in which
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they deface works of art with soup
and super glue. Was this trend on
your mind when you began putting
this exhibition together?
PN: Nope. Not consciously. We toggle
back and forth between regarding
things in the outside world and things
specific to St. John’s. We had a meeting
with some of the people from the
library, and one of the staff-members
was saying how they employ workstudy people in erasing the marginalia
in the books. I was thinking, “Oh, I
love marginalia.” But it drives them
nuts at the library. So that conversation
had an impact on this project [“The
Open Museum”]. It seems like there’s
this human urge to…to…
JC: —Express. And make marks. Just
to briefly speak on my inspiration and
background—I noticed when I was a
Johnnie (this was before I discovered
visual arts—that happened after I
attended Marchutz and then got my
masters in art history and fine arts in
France), I detected this urge to respond
to the things we read. So, with that in
mind, Peter and I have been developing
an education program for our workstudy students. Also, we’re no longer
calling them “guards.” They’re going
to be “hosts.” What’s at the forefront
for us is visitor experience. We’re
going to work with our freshmen to
create a positive environment. Then,
we’re going to provide opportunities
for sophomores to give tours for our
visitors. The juniors will have the
opportunity to learn curatorial skills,
and we’re hoping that seniors can act
as mentors if they choose to stay with
us for the whole four years.
PN: We’re going to create a visitor
experience that is much more
May 30, 2023
conversational, much less “talking at
you.”
JC: Just like at St. John’s, we want to
talk about things that matter deeply to
people. If visual art is a catalyst for that,
great. That’s what we want. I'd say that,
after studying art history and painting
in France for around four years, I
am particularly passionate about
bridging the gap between theory and
practice, i.e., analytical vs. emotional
engagement with art. Too often, this
is a divide that keeps people needlessly
confused by each other in the arts,
and I am happy to be sort of uniquely
situated to address this issue with my
work. I think, too, that creating an
understanding between the thinkers
and doers of art will translate into
how we, at the Mitchell Art Museum,
conceptualize our relationship with
our students. In other words, we are
here to inspire them, so that they have
intellectual and emotional responses to
art—and hopefully, really, a wonderful
mixture of the two.
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May 30, 2023
Project Polity: Putting the Program in Practice
El'ad Nichols-Kaufman
On a warm and sunny Sunday,
dozens of students milled around on
back campus, at the unusually early
(for Johnnies) hour of 10 am. There
was no scheduled intramural game,
nor was there a party gone unusually
long: instead, the event drawing the
small crowd was a campus clean up
and rain garden planting, just one of
many such events that Project Polity
has organized this year. This particular
event was in collaboration with Ms.
Benson and the Garden Club, and
combined an annual planting of
perennials provided by the city with
the cleanups that the club has done
every weekend.
Project Polity can be easily
overlooked on this campus: its events
are not visible in the same way waltzes
or plays are. However, they have
been engaged in many events that
immediately impact the Polity and
its wider community, both in their
weekly cleanups and tutoring and in
their larger events, such as the canned
food drives held each semester or the
rain garden planting.
The cleanups are a good example of
the kind of impact project polity has,
said Project Polity archon Luke Briner,
“Our clean-ups involve a handful of
volunteers spending 45 minutes to
an hour picking up litter and debris
in places around the campus that
would benefit from it most.” Each
week, members gather on Saturdays
on the quad to go down to the creek
and gather garbage that washes up
on the shorelines. These cleanups
were begun by environmental group
Sunrise St. John’s last year, but after
that group collapsed, Project Polity
picked up the slack, and continued
to work on keeping the creek and
the wider campus clean. With this,
they also continued to work against
the apathy that sometimes circulates
around student responsibility to keep
the creek clean.
“I’ve heard…it’s not worth cleaning
because it wouldn’t make a difference,”
said Erin Allen, a frequent participant
in the cleanups. “I know how easy it is
to feel that way; cleaning a few yards
of shoreline probably isn’t going to
help the pollution problem of the
Chesapeake Bay at large, and we’re
constantly hearing about things out
of our reach making the world worse…
College Creek is a quirky little body of
water that is uniquely our own, and if
we don’t care for it, who else will?”
This attempt to encourage the Polity
to care about take action on issues
impacting the world around us and
the wider community underpins much
of Project Polity. “I always think back
to our informal slogan, ‘the program
in practice,’ and I think of that as the
lodestar of what I want to do, and what
I think we should do as an organization
and as a college,” said Briner. “We have
a program that we talk about having
the power to shape our character, and
instill virtue, or at least the thought of
virtue, in us. To have that, and then to
not care about it enough and not put it
into practice would be a waste.”
Many Johnnies seem to agree,
and Project Polity has grown and
expanded to new service projects. This
past semester, the group added to their
roster an Easter food drive, in which
students went around to houses around
Annapolis and collected canned food
to donate to the lighthouse shelter.
This complements a similar project
done by the group at Halloween.
Briner explained that the group is now
building back up to where it had been
in the past. “In previous years, Project
Polity would have multiple large
events throughout the year…but for
the past year or two, we stopped doing
that… for this semester, I wanted to do
something, so we wouldn’t just have
one event at the beginning of the year,
and keep making the kind of impact
we want to see.” On the whole, the
food drive was very successful, with
Project Polity Vice-Archon, Madelyn
Minor, reporting that a total of 1,129
lbs of food had been collected.
In addition to the food drives,
clean ups and tutoring at the Stanton
center, Project Polity has joined in
collaboration with local nonprofits to
start a chapter of the Food Recovery
Network, picking up leftover food
and taking it to the lighthouse shelter.
These new efforts, however, are just
the beginning, as Briner hopes to keep
working to expand the club. “We just
want to keep working on finding ways
of engaging the community…I’m glad
we have the projects we do, but I’m
looking forward to doing more things
that promote a better polity and
people caring about these issues.”
11
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A New Pheidippides For Our Time
An Interview with Amateur Marathon Finishers Logan Arendt and Andrew Selway
Helen Wagner
Why am I interviewing you?
Did you run the whole way?
AS: We made a bet with some friends LA: We did four minutes running and
that we could run a marathon entirely one minute walking. And we just did
untrained.
that for five and a half hours.
LA: I was in my friend’s room, and
I just kind of said, off the cuff, that
I could run a marathon without
training… and Jake Rowley asked me
to put my money where my mouth is.
Andrew got roped into it the next day.
AS: I thought that I was going to
maybe run fourteen miles, and I didn’t
even think I could do that, because I’ve
never run before—but that was my
goal. But Logan was always planning
on doing the whole thing.
LA: Yeah, because I had like 65 dollars
total bet…and I have zero money, you
know?
AS: He planned on calling his mom to
ask for money to pay off the bet.
LA: You don’t have to include that in
the article. But that was the plan. I was
gonna run 26.2 miles, no matter what
happened, in six hours. That was the
bet.
Where did you run?
LA: The Navy track.
How long is the track?
LA: A quarter mile, so we had to run
105 laps in total.
12
of gatorade—until I felt sick—and
I ate a bunch of carbs. I called my
friend Joshua Tague (he’s a runner),
and I told him “I’m gonna try to run a
marathon tomorrow,” and he thought
Was there a point during the it was hilarious. But then he was really
in go mode. He said he would show
marathon when you regretted it?
up at 1 pm the next day and finish the
Both: No.
race with us, however much was left.
LA: Everyone was saying that we had So he showed up with ten or twelve
no chance of doing it, for like, weeks miles left and he just stayed with me
leading up to it. And in the days leading the entire time and encouraged me to
up to it everyone kept coming up to me keep going.
and asking about the marathon and
Did you have any anti-cramping
saying there was no chance we would
techniques?
do it, and I was actually convinced
AS:
I ate a bunch of bananas right
that if I was gonna finish in under six
hours, it was going to be actual hell on before.
earth and unbelievably impressive and
difficult—kind of like a Hail Mary LA: He ate bananas because—and I
or something. And it did suck, but it quote—”monkeys never cramp.”
wasn’t the most difficult thing I’ve ever
done in my life.
AS: I know it’s weird, but this baseball
player said monkeys never cramp…so I
What is the most difficult thing just ate a lot of bananas, and I didn’t
cramp!
you’ve ever done in your life?
LA: I don’t know. I wrote my entire
freshman essay in 24 hours.
How would you describe your
mindset going into the race?
Do you achieve feats like this AS: Going into it, I thought it would
suck so much. We were walking
often?
LA: I don’t know if I do these things together and talking about how no
frequently, but when I told my parents one believes in us but we have to try
that I did the marathon, they weren’t our hardest…so part of it was that
surprised. They thought it was a very no one believed in us and I wanted
to come back like a champion. But
Logan thing to do.
around the seventeenth or eighteenth
mile I wanted to quit—I was actually
How did you prepare?
AS: The night before, I drank a bunch determined to quit. I was so tired that
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I was running with my eyes closed. But LA: [under bated breath] That’s true.
I kept going because I didn’t want to
watch from the sidelines while Logan
Did you have any witnesses?
finished the race.
AS: Yeah—When we were running,
lots of people came to see us and bring
What motivated you to keep us snacks.
running?
LA: I just wanted to be able to tell LA: For the last mile and half, a bunch
everyone that I ran a marathon of people showed up and ran it with
without training. Because the reason us. That was definitely a moment I’ll
people made this bet with me was remember for some time.
that they don’t think it’s possible.
But immediately after I made the bet, AS: Even people I’m not even tight
I googled “can you run a marathon with, like, people I’ve only talked to
without training” [laughs]…and it three times, they came and brought us
didn’t really say no…but every article granola and apples. Oh, that reminds
said that it’s a bad idea—and that it’s me—we were about ten miles in,
extremely prideful to think you can and Logan had some old bread in his
do it. So, proving the internet and backpack—
all my friends wrong was a pretty big
motivation.
LA: I had some bread from the dining
hall from the night before.
AS: It actually never clicked in my
mind that a marathon was that big of a AS: …so Logan had some crusty bread
deal…I genuinely never realized that— in his backpack—
LA: Well it’s not that big of a deal. LA: On the record, the bread was not
[aside] You don’t need to include that crusty. It was from the night before.
we think it’s a big deal.
AS: On the record, it was stale and
crusty.
AS: I don’t really run in my life. I’ve
walked a lot, though. Over the summer
LA: Andrew, stop; she’s recording this.
I was walking insane amounts, like
30,000 steps. So I thought, well, maybe
So Logan had some bread of
if I jog a little bit…
ambiguous quality in his backpack.
LA: Not everyone thought it was AS: Yeah, he had some crusty bread,
impossible. Some people actually cost and after the tenth mile, I ate it, and
me a lot of money that I could have it was one of the most delicious and
made in bets because they were telling beautiful things I’ve ever eaten in my
everyone that they thought I could do life.
it.
AS: No one said that about me,
though.
LA: It was angelic.
May 30, 2023
losing so many nutrients, I took one
bite of bread and my knees almost
buckled.
LA: For the next couple miles we were
only talking about how good that
bread was.
AS: We were like medieval peasants
who, like…stumbled across some
wheat…
LA: Off the record, we did liken
ourselves to medieval peasants.
[Editor’s note: Nothing’s off the
record at the Gadfly]
What
were
the
physical
repercussions of running that far?
LA: I did have trouble changing the
angle of my knees.
AS: Bending them?
LA: Yes.
AS: To give a scope of the actual agony
we felt, Logan kept saying his knees
hurt—but I kept saying, “I’m weak.”
I just felt weak—frail and weak. After
about the seventeenth mile my soul
was falling apart.
LA: Now I just have to hobble
everywhere.
AS: Yeah. Everyone on campus is
laughing at us. We’re supposed to be
champions but everyone is laughing at
us.
LA: I feel like an old man.
AS: ‘Cause I was so hungry, and after AS: But for the first hour I had a
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runner’s high—I felt the air on my twenty dollars…
skin and I thought “wow, the Naval
academy is beautiful…” It was really a LA: Put that on the record.
sense of elation—
AS: As long as it’s enough to get pizza
LA: For the first hour.
afterwards.
AS: After that I was just staring at the
ground seeing the same thing over
and over again, just the white line on
each side, for the next four and a half
hours, just thinking about how that
line continued…not thinking about
anything else.
LA: I think that if I could ever be
convinced to run a marathon again, it
would not be on a quarter-mile long
track. It was a little maddening.
One more question: how has the
St. John’s program prepared you
for this accomplishment?
Herodotus claims that, during the LA: That’s a good question.
Battle of Marathon, Pheidippides
ran from Athens to Sparta and AS: Wow.
back, which is about 150 miles
each way. After your experience,
LA: Lemme think.
do you have any insight about the
validity of such a claim?
AS: I don’t think anyone could run AS: …has it?
that far.
[silence]
LA: Maybe if he drank a lot of
LA: I mean honestly just, just reading
gatorade.
all these…great books. It’s easy to forget
that normal humans wrote them, you
Now that you’ve accomplished a
marathon without training, what’s know, and that normal people like us
can do great things, too.
next?
AS: Ironman. If you give me twenty
Wow. Anything to add, Andrew?
bucks I’ll run an Ironman. If anyone
out there wants to bet me ten or AS: Nope.
14
May 30, 2023
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May 30, 2023
Successful marathon runners Logan Arendt (left) and Andrew Selway (shirtless)
15
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May 30, 2023
Lessons from As You Like It
Dolan Polglaze
I
did not want to play Orlando at first. I thought he
was another of Shakespeare’s simple comedic lovers.
I knew him as the boy who indiscriminately carved love
poems on trees, and who was hopelessly in love with a
woman much wittier than himself. Admittedly, most of
these reservations about Orlando originated in the fact that
I had played Orlando once before when I was thirteen years
old. It was the second Shakespeare production I had ever
acted in with my local youth theater troupe. At thirteen,
I had very little life experience to justify or understand
Orlando’s disposition. For one thing, I had never been in
love, so Orlando’s feelings about Rosalind did not make
much sense to me. Secondly, I think I was scared of playing
Orlando—a fear that only now I have become cognizant
of. This second time playing Orlando, however, I realized
that such a fear existed in me back then at thirteen and
continues, even now, to inhabit my body and mind.
What was I afraid of ? I was afraid of playing a man who
cannot help but be utterly candid with the world. Orlando
is vulnerable and honest in a way that Rosalind is not, not
because he chooses to be so, but because he is earnest in his
pain and earnest in his love. Being earnest in pain was and
is something I am comfortable with, but earnest in true
matters of the heart —in matters of love—I find much more
difficult. Back in my early teenage years, Shakespeare was
the axis around which I learned to understand and express
emotion. I loved playing characters like Macbeth, Hamlet,
or even Richard III not because I found them admirable,
but because I felt I could inhabit the kind of vulnerability
necessary to play a tragic character. Tears would well up in
my eyes when I stood to deliver “Is this a dagger which I see
before me…?” And I felt myself one with the intentions and
pain of the falling and fallen Macbeth. But when it came
to playing characters like Orlando, I struggled inwardly.
Orlando cannot hide behind the mask of insanity, madness,
or murderousness. Orlando is simply there: open, loving,
honest.
When rehearsals first began for KWP’s production of
As You Like It, I felt myself slipping into the safety of the
masked performer. My words would stop in my throat,
even before they left my mouth, and I felt my speech failing
16
to connect with the other actors on stage. I was worried
because I felt the same fear returning that I had experienced
at thirteen. But I’m older now: I know now what it means
to be in love and to crave honesty from the world. I felt
that now I at least had the experience to substantiate my
becoming Orlando. But it was still a struggle. In rehearsals,
I especially struggled with the scene where Orlando runs to
put his love poetry on the trees in the forest of Arden. I could
not stop my mind from thinking the lines, and I could not
allow them to come from my heart. There was some kind
of blockage, for I felt that I could not allow Orlando’s pure
feeling for Rosalind to be the intention of the scene. Our
director and my friend, Birdi Mueller, sensed my struggle.
We had several talks about what it means for an actor to play
the mask: to act from the mind rather than the heart. I am
deeply grateful for her guidance throughout our rehearsal
process because she helped me realize something essential
about acting and being: the words do not have to sound any
specific way—there is no form or mold of Orlando asking
to be filled. Orlando is the man I birth in every moment
on stage through my creative action. In this way, there is
no expectation for who Orlando or any other character in
the play ought to be. Acting is the process of trusting that
your creative act, in every moment on stage, is enough—as
long as you are vulnerable. I think Orlando taught me this
lesson more than anything else. When he runs on stage to
hang his poetry, he says, “These trees shall be my books, and
in their bark my thoughts I’ll character.” I think this is a
huge moment for Orlando because he finally sees himself
as worthy of expressing his thoughts and feelings. There is
no shame in Orlando in this moment, for he has trust in
his own heart and the creations that honestly come from it.
I think all of us who were in the play encountered moments
of serious reckoning with our ability to be vulnerable on
stage. Birdi was constantly there, from the foundation
upwards, to make sure that all of us were always aware of
where our hearts and bodies were onstage. Words fail to
express the gratitude I feel for our creation of As You Like It,
and for my fellow actors. I hope it is just for me to thank—
on behalf of all who worked on the show—everyone who
came out, sat in the darkness of the auditorium, and trusted
us with this play. Thank you.
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the Gadfly
An Ode to Viking Portables
I
n a previous Gadfly column I bemoaned the scourge of
badly-designed books which nest in great numbers in
our campus library, with their shameless misappropriation
of classic art and bizarre typographical blunders1; having already presented plenty of negative examples in that piece, I
intend now to turn the polity’s attention to a certain little-appreciated series of classic paperbacks which, to me, ought
to be held up as the gold standard of modern book design.
The Viking Portable Library2 was a series of paperbacks
published during the latter half of the 20th century (primarily, it seems, during the ‘80s) which endeavored to
showcase the major works of great authors in sleek, uncumbersome volumes. Now, I use the perfect-tense verb were,
which in a sense is inaccurate; the Viking Portables appear
to still be in print at time of writing, with more or less the
same contents as the ones which I intend to discuss here.
But these modern editions suffer from an aesthetic blandness which, though less egregious than that of the Penguin
Classics, makes me keep them at a distance. Their covers
are typically all text, occasionally with a reproduction of an
engraving of the author (tastefully adjusted to match with
the volume’s color, unlike the as-is approach which the Penguin Classics take), and while this is certainly inoffensive
as far as book covers go it doesn’t catch the eye enough to
motivate anyone to collect them, despite their being marketed as a full set. But for a brief, shining moment in the
‘80s, the Viking Portables achieved perfection with a series of covers which took the novel, if more expensive and
time-consuming approach of using bespoke photographs
not in the public domain, rather than already-extant images.
I was first introduced to this series while seeking out a copy
of Don Quixote for use in my Junior Seminar. This search led
to my purchasing of The Portable Cervantes, and since then
I have ravenously sought these Portables out at every used
bookstore–both physical and virtual—I can find. The thing
May 30, 2023
RANGER KASDORF
which strikes one most immediately is the photographs
used for their covers, which either depict a place relevant
to the author or obliquely point toward the contents of the
author’s major works. The cover for The Portable Cervantes,
for example, is a stark, sparse scene of a field at dusk, with
a windmill on the horizon, while The Portable Mark Twain
sports a jagged and striking image of a white picket fence.
Best of all, besides their actual content, observe the size of
these photos: they are massive, and unrestrained, not cut off
by a field of black with a title and a name. The block of text
giving the volume’s title, along with the portrait of the author, is made part of the larger photograph, dropped on top
of it, not isolated from it as with the Penguin Classics earlier discussed. These photos aren’t just for the front cover, either; they wrap around the entire book, from front to spine
to back, lending a striking beauty to each of these volumes
that is well above the industry standard for paperbacks.
1. A friend of mine recently brought to my attention that her Dover Thrift edition of Pride and Prejudice misspells the author’s name on its back
cover as “Jane Auslen”.
2. Published by Penguin, so at least we know someone there has a knack for design.
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May 30, 2023
Notably, the photographs used are almost always bereft of
people; the only exception I’ve yet found is The Portable D.H.
Lawrence, in which a man with his face obscured can be seen
walking on a rooftop in the foreground. Overwhelmingly,
the focus is on nature (the flock of birds seen on The Portable
James Joyce, the crescent moon on The Portable World Bible3),
architecture (the quaint Victorian street on The Portable Oscar Wilde, the New York lamppost on The Portable Saul Bellow), and, occasionally, already extant artworks (the gargoyle
on The Portable Rabelais, the fresco of God on The Portable
Dante). The aim seems to be to depict the things which inspired the poetic minds of these authors, and, by presenting
these inspirations in full, vibrant colors which permeate each
book’s entire exterior4, to impress upon us the enduring relevance of their subjects. Melville may be gone, but the sea
which inspired him continues to inspire now; Twain may
be gone, but there is still humor and mischief to be found in
things as innocuous as picket fences; the authors of the Quran,
the Rig-Veda, the Dhammapada—they may be long gone, but
the moon which passed over their heads and made them yearn
for the divine is still here, as awe-inspiring now as it was then.
Lest anyone accuse me of shallowness—of being more interested in the aesthetics of reading than in reading itself—let
me make it clear that the Viking Portables maintain their high
quality even once you get past their covers. Across them, there
is an evident and strong desire to give as broad a picture of the
author, not just as an artist but as a person, as is possible within the pages of a "portable" volume. The Portable Mark Twain
contains all the fiction that you’d expect from a Twain anthology, but its final hundred pages are dedicated to Twain’s letters, including a short and quite profane one sent to “The Gas
Company”. The Portable Melville contains only brief cuttings
from Moby-Dick, and opts to include some of his less-celebrated works, his letters, and even his own personal notes (including, tantalizingly, his thoughts on Don Quixote). The Portable
D.H. Lawrence doesn’t include a word of Lady Chatterley’s
Lover, as if to implicitly suggest that the work’s value is already
so widely-known that it would be senseless to waste any pages
reaffirming it; the collection instead spends the bulk of its pag3. A collection of excerpts from a wide swath of major religious texts, the aim being to give an account of theology from across the world rather
than of just the ones known in the West.
4. Note, meanwhile, that the author portraits which appear on each cover are minuscule compared to the photos, and are always in black and
white, as though to suggest it is more important that we see what inspired these authors–and, at the same time, the art which they inspired–than
that we see the authors themselves.
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es on Lawrence’s novellas, poems, and travelogs, all accompanied by notes from the editor adamantly defending their
choices. Even The Portable Cervantes, which indeed consists
almost entirely of Don Quixote, crams two of the author’s
other novels and his farewell to life, Foot In Stirrup, into
its 700-some pages. Not a single selection feels perfunctory; all in these volumes is placed with plain intent. Things
which might have been left obscure to all but the most devoted of scholars are placed in open, readable view for the
public, and the result is a series which earns its greatness
not only through the already-great works contained within, but from its greatness even amongst other anthologies.
I think that what attracts me most to these editions over
other, similar anthologies is the sheer creativity on display:
many of the cover photos used were taken by the late pho-
May 30, 2023
tographer Joseph Marvullo5, and while some were taken
for unrelated purposes and then used by Penguin for this
series—like “Midnight”, which appears on the cover of The
Portable World Bible—most, such as the aforementioned
windmill picture and the image of Thomas Jefferson’s home
used on The Portable Thomas Jefferson, appear to have been
taken expressly so that they could be used on these volumes.
Through playful suggestion and strategic use of symbols,
these covers manage to evoke their contents much better
than any seated portrait of the author. This, combined with
the careful attention paid to the selections in each volume,
gives the sense that this series was created by people with
immense affection for the authors whom they anthologize.
Oh, and in case this seals the deal for you: yes,
they’ve still got the cute little penguin on them.
5. In preparation for writing this piece I attempted to learn more about Marvullo, and found that though he does have a small but passionate following online, including a Facebook page which regularly posts his work, he hasn’t gained the level of fame and renown which his photographs
clearly merit. Somewhat ironically, the first Google search result for “Joseph Marvullo” is a picture of a photography model of the same name. It
seems, then, that these Viking Portables were the most exposure he ever got.
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May 30, 2023
A Freshman Seminar
Rose Zhang
T
he door closed.
And there I was, sitting on the Johnnie chair,
confined in this room with these twenty-three people for
the following two hours. I skimmed around the table:
silence. The smiles disappeared the moment the door
closed; everyone’s faces looked as grave as if they were in
the presence of Socrates, who was about to take the poison.
My tutors exchanged eye contact and the one further
from the door began. The question was crisp and short, but
not the silence that fell afterward. Something came into my
mind instantly during the silence. Yet the words halted at
the tip of my tongue, refusing to leave my lips. I wavered.
Why is it taking so long for people to say something? Then
what I have to say must be wrong.
I held myself back and leaned back on my chair, spinning
my pen underneath the desk. Maybe, I should just say it.
So I straightened my back and leaned forward towards
the table slightly, not too much, lest it’s conspicuous that
I wanted to express something. Just before I opened my
mouth, someone else ejected a statement. As he finished
his sentence, I couldn’t help myself but feel disappointed. It
was irrelevant to the opening question, in fact, completely
off the mark.
I felt compelled to say something in an attempt to forestall
the discussion from derailing furthermore. I looked around
the seminar room; it had fallen into silence once again. The
silence lasted for merely twenty seconds, but it felt as if two
minutes.
Ah, everyone else also realizes he said something off the
mark. I assumed. It gave me a sense of relief. Right after my
assumption, the guy sitting next to me opened his mouth.
“Yeah, I completely agree…”
Perhaps, I am the one who missed the mark completely
instead and misunderstood the question instead of them.
I quickly scribbled the thought I had down in my
notebook and leaned back. Resting my feet on the table’s
railing, I pleaded that someone would say something that
20
either sparks my interest, my inner intelligence that seemed
to be nowhere, or profoundness I’ve yet to discover. As
I leaned my chin on my hand and looked away from the
tutor who just finished his sentence, I realized the guy
sitting across the table from me had been staring at his book
intensely for the past ten minutes; I wondered what he had
to say. I would call him out, but I haven’t spoken since the
seminar started, so I subtly stared at him in hope that I may
dragoon him into speaking. But after fifteen seconds of
staring at him, I resigned, he was still looking down at his
book, he was probably not feeling well today.
My vision slid smoothly across the room like a rolling
camera. In other words, I tried not to shift my vision
too abruptly to avoid making eye contact with someone
unnecessarily. As I went across the room, my attention
stopped on the girl who hasn’t spoken since last month. I
do hope she talks today. That paradoxical feeling and greed
wanting to hear more from the quiet people yet reluctant
and terrified to share what I have has started to breed a
monster called guilt within me.
Just then, my core member introduced an insightful
inquiry, yet someone who followed up his question did not
even follow up his question, they went off, utterly leaving
the question he asked unanswered. A sense of indignation
rose inside me, towards my own inability to speak up and
follow up his insight for fear of judgment and towards the
ignorance of the people who diverged the discussion and
ignored his insight. Alas, the seminar proceeded without a
break and my mind staggered to keep up with this race that
forced me to move on.
Suddenly, something the tutor asked sparked my interest,
but people kept talking and talking. I waited for the right
time to speak, but no one gave me a single space to step in.
Was it that I needed to make space for myself instead of
waiting?
This time, another student brought up an interesting
point, and I wanted to point to a passage that might help.
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Might. Not directly helpful. I opened up the book to the
page, and it was ready in front of me, I just needed to speak
up. And at that moment, my tutor said, “There’s a passage
that might help.” My heart sank with despair and leaped
with exuberance. I was flattered that I was about to quote
the same passage as my tutor did, but disappointed I missed
my chance to talk and possibly shine in the seminar.
Finally, I had a question. Again, it wasn’t directly relevant
to the current discussion of our seminar like the passage
I wanted to quote earlier, so I waited. And waited. And
waited.
Different topics skimped across the table, and agreements
and disagreements clashed with one another like bumper
cars. The guy who enjoys talking in dichotomy went on
his long four-minute speech again, and I lowered my head
lest someone sees me rolling my eyes. The girl fond of tying
connections between the seminar readings and the lab
readings articulated another brilliant point.
The discussion went on, like a tree branching out
endlessly, perhaps at times pointlessly.
It has proceeded in an antipodean direction from our
opening question. The perturbation grew as the time ticked
by and the question I had began to burn inside of me as if it
ate me up little by little, nibbling my organs from the inside
out. I couldn’t wait any longer; the discussion was going
around in a circle anyways. I leaned forward and opened
my mouth, someone immediately cut me off. In my dismay,
I leaned back on my chair. Was it not obvious enough that I
wanted to speak? Turns out it was to the guy sitting next to
me. He gave me a sly smile and asked loudly, motioning his
hand to me, “Did you have something to say?”
I asked the question, with textual support. But the class
fell into silence. Utter dead silence. After one or two short
remarks, the conversation went back to the topic before my
question. Ignored. Again. Why am I even surprised?
The poor reciprocity of the classroom, the tension and
chaos beneath the tranquil surface when we all flipped
through the pages for textual evidence was like a storm
underneath the ocean that is unseen from the sky.
I pulled up my sleeves a little to look at the time: 10:02.
Just then, the girl who sat next to the tutor asked a question,
followed by a sigh from the guy who sat next to me. Yes,
that one person who asks a question when it’s past ten.
I skimmed around the room. And obviously, no one
wanted to answer her question. I felt bad. But I dare not
to entice the rage of my peers. People either looked down
May 30, 2023
at their book or their feet or scribbled something on their
notebooks in an attempt to avoid making any eye contact
with her. Meanwhile, she looked around the table like a
meerkat, hoping someone would absolve her perplexity.
A person spoke. And then the discussion became heated
up and ignited the pugnacious instinct within the avid
teenagers who think they own the world. Regardless of my
passion, it was already past ten for me to take part in it.
A rambunctious chatter went past the corridor and
followed by the room falling into silence. My core member
who sat next to me tapped his leg with the pen in his hand
impatiently, he already had his book and notebook closed
and held in his other hand, ready to burst out of the room
once the tutor announces the end of the seminar.
“That’s for it for today.” The tutor’s serene yet stern voice
pierced through the silence. Smiles returned on students’
faces, chatter arose, and the sound of book closing and
the chairs creaking filled the room. It felt like chaos, but a
different type of chaos from the one during the seminar.
I closed my book and notes and gathered my pens.
Smiling, I bid goodnight to my tutors while dying a little
inside. Swiftly, I went down the other side of the stairs of
McDowell so that I may minimize socializing to slip back
to my dorm unnoticed.
On my way upstairs I paused before the window of
the staircase; through the window I could see the lit-up
planetarium, the field, the night sky, and the stars.
Did I have a good seminar? I do not know. The line
between good and bad seminars gradually blurred
throughout the semester. But for that moment, it didn’t
matter much, just that I survived tonight’s seminar. And I’ll
survive the next seminar too.
21
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the Gadfly
May 30, 2023
Who Forms Kunai?
By LOUIS ROSENBERG
Full disclosure: I’m not an athlete—I have not yet
participated in an intramural or Kunai game, nor do I plan
to start attending. From the outside looking in, I wouldn’t
have expected myself to have a stake in anything remotely
relating to Kunai. But I find that I do; the debates around the
purpose of the group hit at my heart in a way that demands
personal investment. Indeed, I’ve considered writing an
article in this vein since the fall of last year, though it was
only the recent articles about Kunai that emboldened me
to do so.
FUN.” Two weeks later, however, the demographics Kunai
was intended for shifted. Opening with “HellllooooOoo
ladies and theydies!!!!!” as the salutation, it stated that
“Kunai is a space for women and nonbinary people of the
college to learn and play sports!!” My problem with these
early communications is, I would hope, evident: not being
cisgender is not the same as being nonbinary. And this was
the origin of my complaints. Then, when I looked on the
St. John’s College website, I found that Kunai was—and, at
the time I’m writing this article, still is—merely described
on the “St. John’s Traditions” page as “the women’s sports
The earliest email regarding Kunai that I could unearth league in Annapolis.” While I’m not sure on whom the
in my inbox arrived in early September 2021. Addressed onus for correcting this falls, it firmly solidified my distaste.
to the Polity, it opens by explaining the group’s purpose: Though there is obviously overlap between all three of those
“Kunai is a sports group that is open to all women and non- descriptions, there are also important differences; each
cisgender members of SJC. We play SPORTS and have definition fundamentally refers to a different set of people.
"Garden Archway and Iglehart Hall" c. 1910
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May 30, 2023
Now, to the credit of whoever is running Kunai this year,
they have been more consistent with their messaging. The
first emails of the year stipulated once again that it is open
to women and non-cisgender members of the polity, and
nothing since has contradicted that. (Most emails now,
later in the year, have been addressed simply to “KUNAI
Polity.”) Still, even that verbiage bothers me. I don’t really
want to be included in a group by sole purpose of my
history of transition—it feels othering. It is tied to the same
problem I encounter often in LGBT+ specific groups: I
find it difficult to connect to people based solely on a single
shared identity—especially when that is an identity that I
don’t hold particularly dear to me.
My experience with transness is that of being trapped on
a knife’s edge between invisibility and excessive visibility.
I don’t want to have my history so broadly aired (yet
another reason I considered not submitting this piece for
publication), but at the same time I am often neglected,
as in the conflicting Kunai emails from last academic year.
Yes, I am not cisgender. But I am still a man. Although I
understand that my path to manhood has been different
than that of most other cis guys, I resent when others bring
up that distinction on the behalf of me and other trans men.
And while I recognize that I write this from a place of some
privilege—as someone who transitioned as a child, I am to
some degree removed from the struggles of the beginning
stages of transition that might draw another trans man to
an environment such as Kunai—I also write this from the
place of pain that those chronic distinctions elicit within
me.
I do not seek to use this piece as an argument for some
specific change, because I do not know how I could provide
an easy solution. With debates over wording, it ultimately
comes down to whose comfort we are prioritizing, and
if many people are drawing benefit from this current
determination of who forms Kunai, I could not argue in
good faith that it should change. Of course, given the nature
of the question itself, it’s incredibly difficult to know exactly
who is benefitting from Kunai, and from what aspects.
Detail of "The Month of June" by Claude III Audran,
c. 1726
entails some degree of sensitivity to others’ judgements of
said identity. And when definitions of gender itself can be
so nebulous, there is also necessarily some wariness when it
comes to critiquing turns of phrase that others have chosen.
Is it not better to err on the side of inclusivity? I suppose,
but I would also argue that there remains some kind of issue
as long as one is erring at all.
I know that navigating discussions of gender can be difficult
for many, including myself. Fighting to have your identity
recognized—as trans people so often must—inherently
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May 30, 2023
Song of the Clovers
Tuyết-Nhi Nghiêm
Desperate to escape and hungry to learn, curious and brazen,
I came to college and in the kingdom of ancient books
I made the great mistake that all philosophers do:
I begged the world to make sense.
And so I sought Truth in texts immortal,
Telling myself that these authors were wiser than we—
Until I arrived here, kneeling on burning asphalt,
Weaving weeds into the crown of a king.
Wondering:
What kind of life could the ancients have lived,
That they would learn what we cannot from our own?
The wild mane of the earth whispered:
We were there. They were there. You are here. Soon, you will not be.
All that they had, is still yours—
You have only paved the road ever further from what you need.
The golden hearth that those who opened their hearts have lit for you
you abandon to stand knocking on the gates of fortresses cold.
Like a silly dog you run far from the ones who need you most,
chasing after what you cannot have until it is too late, and you are lost.
You will hear your heart break and in the midst of the Silent Howl,
the words of Epictetus: be not disturbed; think of a clay pot.
Indeed, he and the clay pot shared in their nature the great fate of ending.
Yet I ask of you this: Did a clay pot ever carry me on its shoulders?
Knit its fingers together to shadow a bird on the wall for a bedtime story?
Any fool who can see their child or wife as a clay pot does not know,
could not know, the truth of human nature, you want to say.
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May 30, 2023
Ask yourself this instead: Do you truly believe that Epictetus never knew loss?
That he did not know love, and the dangers that come with it?
Even Socrates knew the glory of lying on the grass, surrounded by friends;
even Aristotle could not neglect that none would choose to live without it.
Learn then, that the cruel reward of a life full of love is infinite loss;
the work that remains is only to return what you relished, and carry on.
Only you will not learn it now, you couldn't if you wanted to,
the philosophers have tried but cannot save you with what they learned.
You can read all you want, talk all you want, write all you want;
the Silent Howl is the only teacher you will at last understand.
When you emerge from the other side of the black rivers of loss
you will know, with searing clarity, the price of holding clay against bones.
You will wish you never had to learn this lesson, inevitable as it was,
and yet you know that its weight will tighten your every embrace.
You will see that you had to leave, that you had no choice,
that all this damage was born out of a duty to yourself.
You will at last learn to ask the right questions,
and that doing so will teach you more than any answer can.
Why the towering trees? Why the lowly weeds? Why the wilting flowers?
Why the hare, who must be hunted, and the fox, who must taste blood?
Because, the texts can only ever guide you deeper into the mysteries.
Because, this is the only way the Truth can enter your stubborn heart.
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the Gadfly
May 30, 2023
A Grievance of Gilliam
By WILL MARCHMAN
Recently, the Gilliam kitchen was so filthy—reeking of fish, rotten milk, eggs,
vaguely greenish-gray leftover slop in the fridge and other unimaginable horrors that
coated the walls of the fridge, the drain of the sink and the bag of the trashcan —that
it caused 3 students to vomit. This was the result of months of minor decisions and
mistakes. Perhaps, one day, someone placed their leftovers in the fridge. Absorbed
with their schoolwork reading about Kant’s thoughts on ethics, and filled up by
the ever delicious dining hall food, it gradually slipped their mind that there were
still leftovers, until eventually the memory altogether disappeared. But the leftovers
didn’t: they kept sitting there, stinking more and more each day.
Or, perhaps, someone made delicious cookies. They made much batter, and while
most went to the cookies, much also remained stuck to the bowls and spoons they
dumped in the sink and the rest fell all over the counter. Neither the dishes nor the
counter were cleaned, of course, as it’s only a bit of mess; they’ll get it next time
(they didn’t).
If you ask a St. John’s student to define virtue, they may say “knowledge,” or give
well-thought out reasoning for any other answer, but as Aristotle says in the Ethics,
“we are not investigating the nature of virtue for the sake of knowing what it is, but in
order that we may become good, without which result our investigation would be of no
use” (1103b30). If the denizens of Gilliam can’t so much as not dump rotten milk
in the trashbag or leave moldy food in the fridge, why should anyone care what they
have to say about virtue?
I exhort my fellow future Gilliam residents to not follow the bad habits of the
current residents. Clean the kitchen (and while we’re on it, clean your pubic hair
out of the shower! Why should adults need to be told this?!)!
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May 30, 2023
"The Kitchen" by James McNeill Whistler, 1858
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May 30, 2023
To Seniors, from a Man Who Knows
Dear Seniors,
You will soon depart these halls into the real world and
you, amongst all the panicked need for a job and a place
to live, are certainly thinking to yourself: how do I keep
doing this forever? You look at the library, the seminars,
the smoking area, thinking about all that we share here
(sometimes decent discussion, mostly addictions), and
realize that you never ever want to leave. Your world is built
for chalk and blackboard, for the constant taste of the same
oil on the dining hall food, for the random bursts of energy
that people get for certain texts (golly, I never would have
guessed you, Ms. Schnapplebautum, who have been silent
all year, would suddenly speak for the entire seminar on the
Constitution). My dearest friends, do not worry, I have a
secret just for you: you can keep doing St. John’s College
for all eternity.
How, how can I enter such a promised land? The simple
route (the UChicago to tutor pipeline) is not open to all
of us (and maybe you don’t want to play on the national
croquet team and come back every year or work at your
college job at an Irish Pub into your 40s or become heavily
involved in the alumni association or donate all your
money to a funding campaign with a 1984-esque slogan
(Warring with tradition is peace)). Do not fret, for you
need not attach yourself forever to the physical grounds
of this institution; you need only accept one thing: all
knowledge is SJC knowledge. All math is Euclid, all
philosophy is Plato, all politics is Aristotle. You’ve already
done all the learning you’ll ever need to do, everything else
is superfluous. Go into corporate board meetings ready to
refute your colleagues with you Aquinasian logic (actually,
Janice from HR, we can’t get rid of snacktime fridays
because that would go against God’s beauty); have a Socratic
28
question for every occasion (sorry officer, but before I can
answer that, we would need to give a clear definition of
what triple homicide even means); treat every presentation
as an Apollonius demonstration (so far as the quarterly
reports well haha I actually had some questions on this one
so that’s great). And don’t just limit yourself to legal and
professional interactions: I’m certain your family never
wants to stop hearing about the insanely wrong scientific
theories that you’re studying over Thanksgiving dinner (it
balances out your cousin Brad’s insistence about facts not
caring about feelings). You can do SJC at the grocery store,
at daycare, at your lowest point (there’s something conic
sectional in the gyration of a stipper’s hips and the swirling
of ice in your glass, something parabolic in your downfall).
It’s simple, really; St. John only stops when you let him.
Remember my brethren, as you go out into the wide wide
( Jesus there are more than 500 people?) wide world, you
weren’t here to free your mind; you were here to acquire the
strangest and most scholastic set of biases known to man
(and mostly men). Hasn’t it been one of the most wonderful
experiences you could ever have?
—B.S.
P.S. And if you’re one of the people whose senior
boyfriend/girlfriend/partner/friend-with-benefits-who-isdefinitely-not-using-you-to-get-over-their-ex is graduating:
you can pay tribute to their memory by picking up a new
one in classic Johnnie fashion (bum a cig off them then ask
an almost abrassively personal philosophical question).
—B.S.er
P.P.S.
A request has been delivered to me from editors on
high that I be more sincere. You’re smart. Do an esoteric
reading of my sarcasm.
—B.S.est
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May 30, 2023
29
�πόλις
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Tobacco Smoking Chants
Ezra Melchor
Tobacco smoke enchants
Long-fingered licking, writhing–
Caressed well, smooth strands
Stroke, don’t tempt.
We are only friends.
“I am not a capnolagniac”
I hear myself say.
Even if I was there are other
reasons to enjoy a pipe.
30
May 30, 2023
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May 30, 2023
Up in Smoke
By MOLLY SPROUT
As one could guess from the title of this article, I am here
to speak about smoking. And before the scoffing starts let
me preface this by saying that I am a smoker myself. An
incredibly heavy smoker actually. (A half to a full pack per
day, Marlboro Golds, in case you were wondering.) But this
article is not pro-smoking.
Smoking at St. John’s is a staple, as I am sure everyone is
aware. But it is not simply the mere act of smoking that is so
satisfying and key to the whole phenomena. It is smoking
in full view of the public, with friends, creating bonds,
sharing stories. This social aspect is what makes the “I
only smoke when drunk” or “I only smoke after seminar”
people so common. There is something incredibly special
about smoking a cigarette with a group of friends during a
pseudo-intellectual conversation.
Obviously removing the ashtrays did nothing to solve this
problem, and realistically, it worsened it. Another problem
was created out of admin’s “solution” so it’s clear that
passivity doesn’t and won’t work. But with admin clearly
trying to phase out smoking on campus, and public safety
menacing one’s free will to smoke a cigarette, reinstating the
ashtrays is most likely off the table.
So where do we go from here? Absolute warfare against the
cigarette litterers. What most effectively prevents littering?
Immediate physical danger to yourself and others. We need
consequences. I propose that we pour gasoline over the
quad so that if someone decides to toss away a cigarette butt
on the ground everything will go up in flames. You, me,
everything. Nothing would end the problem of littering
quicker than just one incident of someone burning the
campus down.
But, then, what makes this such a problem? What is
inhibited or worsened by others choosing to smoke?
Because I’m certainly not about to defend the “secondhand smoke” believers. No, I contest that the real problem
here is littering.
Walking onto the quad should be a lovely experience. It
is a place to see friends, enemies, old men in hats, and the
occasional baby. But, that is effectively ruined due to the
blight of tossed cigarette butts. As we are all well aware,
the ground on campus—especially on the quad—is often
absolutely littered with them. I step out to the quad for my
daily appearance and I am up to my KNEES in people’s
cancer-stick trash. It has become apparent through this
problem that people no longer find it to be an obligation
to throw their cigarette butts into the trash cans, which are
well-apportioned on the quad especially. And with that, we
must come up with a solution.
"The Smoking Fire" by Giovanni Battista
Piranesi, c. 1761
31
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May 30, 2023
SEX AND THE CITY
By BEN MAIER, Ph.D
The Summer of Love is upon us. Are you ready, student
at St. John’s College? I admit it's very difficult to prepare
for a Hot Johnnie Summer or a Hot Long-DistanceMonogamous Relationship Summer. Both possess their
own unique challenges which the Great Books haven’t
prepared us for. Luckily, I am a “love doctor” of sorts and
have extensive experience practicing in this area. In this
article, I will provide some cures for the love-sick polity
during this season of romance.
Rule #1: Be Attractive
Now this tip doesn’t necessarily mean “be hot.” Beauty is
in the eye of the beholder and it flows through every kind
of body, personality, and form. Just because you don’t have
gold doesn’t mean your copper is any less valuable. Whether
you’re in a relationship or not, you need to leverage your
assets to achieve the best romantic outcome. The best way
to do this is to give your best attributes to someone who
has none. Do you have a warm and loving personality? Find
someone emotionally distant. Do you have commitment
issues? Find a nice syrupy partner who will stick to you
no matter what. Are you having trouble with your long
distance relationship? Just find someone closer. To put it
simply, find your opposite and you will always attract!
Rule #3: Get Realistic (or How I Learned to Stop
Worrying and Love Tinder)
Statistically, there is at least one perfect person for you
out of nearly 8 billion people on earth. However, you are
statistically very unlikely to ever meet this person. This is
especially true if you can confine yourself to a population
size as small as St. John’s College. Therefore you need to
start thinking bigger if you even want a chance of finding
an adequate match let alone “the One.”
As a professional, I recommend downloading an arsenal of
dating apps in order to maximize your potential romantic
matches. After all, nothing beats a cozy Friday night of
endlessly swiping through Tinder, asking “what’s your
favorite color?” to twenty different people (and that’s
just if you’re lucky). Now I know that dating apps are not
for everyone. If you’re looking for a more organic way to
find a match, I recommend pulling up to every possible
social scene in the DMV area: Anne Arundel Community
College classes, Navy football games, dive bars in DC,
religious services for religions you don’t believe in, Towson
fraternity parties, illegal street races in Baltimore, etc. Do
not be afraid to throw yourself against the barn and see if
you’ll stick! Now, these options may not always be available
if you do not have a car. Romantic success requires sacrifice
and getting a car loan may be necessary before your time at
Rule #2: Meet the Right Person
This next rule doesn’t apply to existing relationships… St. John’s ends. If this is too burdensome, you can always
unless you’re in the market for another. Now imagine this: just start going door to door.
it is a hot summer day and you run into a cute stranger at
your local cafe (they’re even reading your favorite book). Nothing is impossible in the world of romance. Trust me,
You summon the courage to talk to this person: first, you I’m a doctor.
start talking about the book (let’s say Don Quixote), then
you start to discuss virtue, the golden age, and how to find Yours Truly,
beauty in a world that doesn’t seem to care. You begin to feel Dr. Benjamin Maier
a real connection with this person…can this conversation P.h.D in Romance and Sports Medicine
please last forever? Now keep dreaming, Don Quixote,
because this situation would NEVER happen in real life.
32
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May 30, 2023
Renewal
Luke Briner
As Phœbus in his day-defining train
Succeeds Diana’s melancholy wane
And by the dance of each encircling hour
Illumines every bloom and bending bower
And consecrates all nature pure and new
With fair Aurora’s sweet-perfuméd dew,
So may my spirit, sunk in ceaseless night,
Bear witness someday to that early Light
Which once I saw with yet-undarkened eyes
And long again to see before me rise,
That I may by a resurrected sense
Return to my primeval innocence,
And, basking in its new-exalted shine,
Renew in me that which was once Divine.
33
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May 30, 2023
The Rise of AI: The Doom of Liberal Arts Students
(According to Some Techno-Skeptics)
[Or: A Thought from a Simulatedly-Worried Custodian]
[Dear fellow cave dwellers,
There has been much talk about (read: my roommate
won’t shut up about) a new system, a new technology:
ChatGPT (gasps of horror from the crowd please). I decided
to do what we all fear to do: engage with modernity. I have
asked this little demon in a box to produce an article based
on my previous writings for our beloved Gadfly. Here is
what it delivered (with commentary in brackets (I promise
is not just sarcasm used as a coping mechanism to make fun
of AI for writing an article that’s probably better than the
one I wrote)):]
whether Alexa prefers Bach or Beethoven [Truly a Johnnie
connection: flexing knowing Being and Time and having
taken sophomore music when the relation between the two
is tenuous at best].
Gone are the days of wrestling with the great texts of
Western civilization. Why read Homer when we can have an
AI recite the Iliad with perfect pronunciation and dramatic
flair? Who needs to pore over Kant's "Critique of Pure
Reason" when AI can effortlessly churn out critiques that
will put us to shame [some of us might be into that]? We
may as well swap our parchment and quill for a laptop and
a charger, because our days as the custodians of intellectual
Dear fellow Johnnies and Janies,
As we gather in the hallowed halls of St. John's College, inquiry are numbered [we truly are custodians if we have to
where the liberal arts reign supreme [quote: every other clean up this shit].
Friday night lecture], it is only fitting that we address a
matter of utmost urgency: the impending doom of our The technocrats will argue that AI will enhance our academic
existence [wordy, do better next time]. Brace yourselves, pursuits, liberating us from mundane tasks and freeing up
dear friends, for artificial intelligence (AI) is on the rise, our time for deeper contemplation. But let's be real, my
and rumor has it that it will soon replace each and every fellow St. John's enthusiasts. What fun is a symposium
one of us.
without the passionate debates, the misinterpretations,
and the occasional misquotations [This is why I’m no fun
Picture this [I too remember trying to write a freshman in class]? Who needs a deep understanding of metaphysics
essay]: a world where AI-driven machines outperform when we can rely on AI to regurgitate complex theories in
us in philosophical dialogues, outwrite us in essays, and neatly summarized bullet points? [Doesn’t complete the
outanalyze us in seminar discussions. A world where sequence of 3 questions, clearly did not study the Rhetoric.]
Euclid's geometry is executed flawlessly by AI algorithms,
rendering our protractors and compasses mere relics of the AI will undoubtedly excel in logical reasoning, but can
past. Oh, the horror! [Oh, relics of the past are kind of the it capture the ineffable beauty of a Kantian sublime?
point.]
[Transition whiplash, neck still recovering.] Can it revel
in the absurdity of a Dadaist artwork or get lost in the
Forget the Socratic method, folks [Damn it, the machine labyrinthine depths of a James Joyce novel? We humanists,
almost got my style on this line]. Soon, it will be the Siri with our inherent irrationality, are uniquely equipped to
method. The Oracle of Delphi will be replaced by an AI appreciate the quirks and idiosyncrasies of human creativity.
oracle with a British accent, and instead of wrestling with AI may be smart, but it lacks that certain je ne sais quoi that
Heidegger's "Being and Time," we'll be reduced to debating makes us, well, human. [This is where ChatGPT goes totally
off the rails in simulating the good ol’ B.S.: it’s programmed
34
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May 30, 2023
to give you happy endings and make
you feel like it’s not going to replace
you, I promise! I’ll say the doomer
thing that it won’t: we’re all screwed.
Might as well enjoy the weather before
our nuclear winter of the soul.]
So, my dear comrades, let us cling to
our books, our parchment [Why did
it latch on so much to this outdated
writing utensils joke?], and our
spirited discussions. Let us revel in
the messiness of our humanity, even
as AI marches on with its calculated
precision. Remember, the liberal arts
are not just about knowledge; they
are about the human experience, the
struggle to understand our place in
the cosmos [Something which AI
could never ever simulate except this
one time in this article where it is
simulating my understanding of the
universe].
And when the day comes that AI
knocks on our classroom doors,
seeking admission to the hallowed
halls of St. John's, let us greet it with
open arms [admin is asking if this
counts for the diversity quota]. For
in the clash of silicon and soul, the
heart will prevail, and the Gadfly shall
continue to buzz with its satire, wit,
and unabashed love for the quirky,
flawed, and ever-surprising [now it
completes the three points! Twice!
Also: don’t get overexcited. We here
at the Gadfly are quite abashed in our
love of:] human intellect.
"Intelligence was Mine! I Became the Buddha" by Odilon Redon, 1896
Yours sarcastically,
B.S. (But not the AI version, I promise)
[Yours truly,
B.S. (The AI version, I promise)]
35
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May 30, 2023
Translation of St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s
“Melody of St. Cecilia”
Luke Briner
I contemplate in joy, O most beloved Saint,
The God-illumined path remaining after you;
Still now I think I hear your dulcet music faint;
Your melody empyreal to me rings true.
Hear now the plea of my soul in its sin-stained dearth:
Upon your virgin heart allow me to repose,
That sacred lily which shone forth upon the earth
With Phœbic brilliance that none could long oppose.
O chastest Latian Dove, throughout your earthly life
You sought no bridegroom but the sole-begotten Son;
He chose your soul for Union with Him as His wife,
About her sensing the perfume of virtues won.
Yet then a mortal in th’effulgence of his youth
Did breathe in that perfume, O white, Elysial flower!
To pluck you in your tenderness so pure and couth
Hence gave Valerian all of his heart and power.
Forthwith he orchestrated lavish nuptial meals,
His palace ringing all throughout with sumptuous song;
But your unblemished heart continued its appeals,
Their holy echoes rising to the Saintly throng!
How did you persevere, from Fatherland so split
And seeing next to you this mortal suitor frail?
Without doubt this bereavéd life you longed to quit
And in Eternal Unity with Christ prevail.
But no—I hear your lyre’s Seraphic cords resound,
Voice of your Love with accent so Ambrosial;
Unto the Lord you sang with that most holy sound:
“Of Purity, O Jesus dear, keep my heart full!”
Incredible abandon! Melody divine!
By that ætheric song do you reveal the Love
That fears not and forgets itself as it reclines,
Like a sweet child, on the Heart of its God above.
36
In th’azure vault appeared the Star of Vestal Light
Who came forth to illumine with her timid fire
The Truth, unveiléd to us by the lustrous night,
Of that pure Love which spouses Heavenly acquire.
And yet Valerian dreamed of less perfect Joy:
Your love, my Saint, is all to which he would attend;
His union to you he did heartily enjoy,
E’en as you taught him that with Death Life need not end.
“My friend,” you said to him, “there’s always close to me
An Angel Godsent who safeguards my Purity;
And even as I fall asleep he does not flee,
But blankets me in Heaven-plumed security.
At night I see his countenance Supernal shine
With brightness sweeter than the rosy smile of Dawn;
It seems then to reflect the radiance Divine
Of that Face which all poor souls long to gaze upon.”
“Show me,” exclaimed Valerian, “this Dæmon strange
In order that I may know if your oath is true;
For otherwise you must not doubt my love shall change
Henceforth to awful rage and hatred toward you.”
O Dove hid in the hollow of the stone from sight!
You did not fear at all the Hunter’s crafty art;
The Face of Jesus showed you its euphoric Light;
The Holy Gospel rested firm upon your heart.
To him you spoke in swift reply with sweet air:
“My holy guardian will grant you your desire;
You will behold him soon, and he will then declare
That to win God you must cast this life to the fire.
But ere you do, to Baptism you must submit,
So that it may incense your soul with holy White;
The true God must henceforth Himself inhabit it;
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His Spirit must be your heart’s Life and guiding Light.
Th’Incarnate Word, Whom God and woman did transmit,
Allows his Blood, in His Love for you, to be shed;
You must now at the Banquet of Life go and sit
In order to have Christ, our Heaven-issued Bread.
Then shall the Seraph be inclined to call you kin,
And you’ll view in your heart his Lord’s exalted Seat;
He’ll make you quit these earthly shores awash with Sin
And see his own home, Being of Eternal heat.”
“Within my heart I feel new passion start to swell,”
Exclaimed the nobleman, to fresh excitement flown.
“I wish for the true God inside my soul to dwell;
Cecilia, my love at last will earn your own!”
And then, draped in the vestments of true Innocence,
The Angel unto him his visage deigned to show;
He gazed enraptured at his mighty radiance
And saw the beauty of his forehead’s gentle glow.
That Seraph brilliant held out a fresh bouquet,
A congregation of white lily and red rose;
In the Elysian fields these bloom beneath the rays
Of that prolific Star from whose Love All arose.
May 30, 2023
“O spouses Heaven-bound, these flow’rs of martyrdom
That crown your brows!” so spoke the Angel of the Lord;
“No voice could ever sing, no lyre could ever strum
The Glory which now comes to you as God’s reward!
I sink into my Sire and contemplate His charms,
But Martyr I can’t be, no matter how I try:
By persecuting fire or ruthless mortal arms,
Despite my ardent will, I cannot ever die…
Of Purity the Angel has their ample share,
And their august state God immutably assures;
But to your nature He one special boon has spared:
You can at once be wracked with suffering and pure!
You see the holy symbol of Virginity
In these sweet lilies which to you the Savior bring;
You’ll be with halo crowned by His own high decree,
And an exalted song will you forever sing.
Your chaste companionship will many souls upraise,
Who shall henceforth all husbands but the Lord reject;
You will see them ascend in an ecstatic blaze
Unto the Throne, in the abode of the Elect.”
Cecilia, please lend me your sweet melody;
There are so many souls that I long to convert!
I wish, like you, to give my life with spirit free
And offer up to God all of my mortal hurt.
Allow me just a taste of that true Fatherland,
Abandon and good fruit which all the faithful earn;
I hope that someday you will take me by the hand
And let me fly with you, here never to return!
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May 30, 2023
Opiliones (Harvestmen)
Picture Eumaeus, but with six more
legs!
By LOUIS ROSENBERG
“Daddy longlegs.” It’s a terrible name, honestly, for not
only does it come off as vaguely euphemistic, but it also is
basically meaningless. Depending on who says it, they may
be referring to cellar spiders (family Pholcidae), harvestmen
(order Opiliones), or even crane flies, which are quite far
from either set of arachnids that the term would call to
mind for most Americans. (The crane flies usage appears
to be most popular among the British.) This article is about
animals in the order Opiliones, which are often referred
to as “harvestmen” (if not the dreaded “daddy longlegs” or
even “granddaddy longlegs” in select parts of the United
States) but are also known as “harvest spiders” or — my
personal favorite — “shepherd spiders,” as they supposedly
resemble shepherds standing on stilts to observe their
flocks. The order name itself comes from the Latin word for
shepherd. I won’t go more specific than the order for their
taxonomy, due the broad similarities across and general lack
of available information about different species within the
order.
The bodies of harvestmen are divided into two segments,
but the gap between the segments is not very distinct,
so to the casual observer they’ll appear to have a unified
body. They molt several times, but usually complete their
lifespan within a single season, without an overwintering
period. As adults, most species will mate to produce
offspring, but females in some species can reproduce
through parthenogenesis. Mating occurs through direct
intercourse rather than through presentation of a sperm
web like spiders do. While harvestmen are typically found
alone, they sometimes form large aggregations, thought to
reduce water loss (for they desiccate easily), defend against
predators, and assist in mating.
Contrarily to urban legend, harvestmen are not the most
venomous animals in the world — they aren’t venomous at
all. Indeed, they tear apart their prey instead of injecting it
with venom and drinking it up like spiders do. Consuming
both live and dead prey, they make for excellent pest control
and are harmless to humans. Be a good human and do your
Now, harvestmen are arachnids, but not spiders; though best to be harmless to these little guys in return.
commonly mistaken for spiders, they are actually more
closely related to scorpions. Their most notable feature is
their long, slender legs, from which their bodies dangle
suspended when they are in a resting position. Each leg can
detach to help them avoid predation, but once removed
they do not regrow. There are scent glands located between Sources
the first and second leg pairs, with the secretions being used • “Broadsides from the Other Orders: A Book of Bugs” by Sue
Hubbell
as a defense mechanism when faced with hungry predators.
• https://www.burkemuseum.org/collections-and-research/biolThere may be additional uses for the secretions, though —
ogy/arachnology-and-entomology/spider-myths/myth-daddythe chemical compound differs by species, and if it may
longlegs-kind-spider
serve as a fungicide or even a pheromone for some species is • https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/ent-68
still being studied. The second leg serves as a sensory organ • https://bugguide.net/node/view/2405
as well, for harvestmen are practically blind, only able to • https://knowablemagazine.org/article/living-world/2020/theungentle-joy-spider-sex
distinguish between intensity of light.
38
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May 30, 2023
"Le bucheron" by Charles Nègre, c. 1857
39
�THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
OF
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly
is the student newsmagazine
distributed to over 600
students, faculty, staff, and
alumni of the Annapolis
campus.
Opinions expressed within
are the responsibility of the
author(s). The Gadfly reserves
the right to accept, reject,
and edit submissions in any
way necessary to publish a
professional, informative,
and thought provoking
newsmagazine.
Submissions sent to the
Gadfly should either be in
Google Docs or JPEG format.
For more information,
contact the editor via email at
djnathan@sjc.edu
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
Images without a listed source are from the
St. John's College Digital Archives.
St. John's College owns the rights
to these photographs.
40
�
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Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
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The Gadfly, Vol. XLIV, Issue 10 [Updated version]
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Volume XLIV, Issue 10 of The Gadfly. Published May 30, 2023.
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Nathan, Daniel (Editor-in-Chief)
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St. John's College
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Annapolis, MD
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Gadfly Vol XLIV Issue 10 UPDATED
Gadfly
Student publication
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https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/05af47580d2ce400efdeff27860d9256.pdf
978ee467d0264302f4d275b462fdea23
PDF Text
Text
St. John’s College
Vol. XLIV, Issue 3
the Gadfly
Annapolis, Maryland
Oct 13, 2022
�CONTENTS
From the Editor’s Desk:
Dear Polity,
Logos
Updates From the Newsroom
Phishing Attack
One Shot Night
Building St. John's
How to Oktoberfest
Finds from the Archives
Symposium
A Reflection on Athletics
Sunrise on the Severn
Like St. John's Like Seminar
Freedom in Paradise Lost
3
4
5
6
8
10
Pick your Poison
Representing Student Interest
What St. John's Makes Me Do
Johnnie Men's Fashion
Horoscopes
Polity Communications
18
20
21
22
26
28
Polis
12
14
15
16
Here lies another busy issue of the Gadfly. Do with it what you will
but please bear these pleas in mind: (1) The Symposium section is
especially important and delightful this time around, pay mind to it
and take inspiration from its sucess to form your own submissions
for the next symposium topic (which has to do with the nature of
our acadmic program), (2) Take the imperative at the end of page
3 seriously and you will be rewarded (there is a philosopher on the
page), and (3) Don’t forget to write in with any questions, thoughts,
communications, or submissions that you might have.
The best way to reach us is by email: either at sjca.gadfly@gmail.
com or cekoch@sjc.edu. Submissions for the next issue will be due
a bit before Halloween, let's say the 24th. Spooky submissions are
appropriate.
Hope you enjoy the issue!
Sincerely,
Craig Koch
THE STRUCTURE
Logos typically holds news reports and
narratives of immediate relevance to the
Polity. The purpose here is to develop a shared
reservoir of information relating to campus life
and the community. The Managing Editor for
Logos is El'ad Nichols-Kaufman. His email is
eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu
Symposium offers the opportunity for our
readers to thoughtfully consider contrasting
opinions regarding a particular topic. The
Managing Editor for Symposium is Luke Briner.
His email is lbriner@sjc.edu
Polis serves as a platform for elevating voices
in our community. Here we find letters to
the editor, columns, cartoons, and submitted
pieces. The Managing Editor for Polis is Daniel
Nathan. His email is djnathan@sjc.edu
THE COVER
Photo of Delegate Council President Tom Ni,
taken by Liz Dowdy
2
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
THE STAFF
Audrey Fox
Craig Koch
Daniel Nathan
El'ad Nichols-Kaufman
Helen Wagner
Isa Kiedrowski
Jenna Lee
Liz Dowdy
Luke Briner
Meliha Anthony
Bridget Mace
Paolo Medelius
Helen Felbek
SUBMISSIONS
Paolo Medelius
Joe Bennet
Kai Gyorki
Madame T
Jordan Kammeyer
Leah Lasell
Amos Elwell
Tamar Pinsky
Naina Wagh
�{student life}
Updates From the Newsroom
by El'ad Nichols-Kaufman '25
Farewell to Arcadia
Arcadia. The name is simultaneously very
specific: a rugged region in the Peloponnese,
home of wild Pan, and also incredibly broad:
it is the mythical no-place of the countryside,
an everlasting pastoral golden age of shepherds,
nymphs and satyrs. Both senses of the name,
with their respective toughness and tenderness fit
Cadie, our beloved campus dog who passed away
last summer.
At a ceremony remembering Arcadia, Chris
Krueger, our former athletic director and
caretaker of Arcadia, talked about these qualities
in her. “She was tough, tough on people,” he
recalled. “She demanded attention and exercise.”
But she was also extremely tender, always noticing
when people were down and giving them the
attention they needed. Taylor Waters, Director
of Student Services, and longtime companion of
Arcadia, described her as “very emotionally aware.
She would lean up against your foot, if you were
feeling upset.”
The ceremony, which was moved indoors
because of the threat of rain, was well attended,
with students overflowing the Assistant Dean’s
office into Mellon’s halls. After remarks by
Krueger, and a short concert of Arcadia’s own
singing, the assembled Johnnies sang Sicut Cervus
as a final farewell to the six million dollar dog who
meant so much to our campus.
“Cadie helped crack us out of the ways we get
trapped as Johnnies, where we get too stagnant,”
explained Krueger. “She taught us to pay attention
to something dynamic, moving and alive.”
Health and Wellness Center
Officially Opened
Students meet dogs, learn new things (how shocking!) at the
Health and Wellness Fair.
The quad was unusually busy for a Wednesday at lunch. Some
students flocked to tables set out with journals, stickers, tiles and
markers, cookies, Public Safety paraphernalia and various health
and wellness materials, while others lavished attention on visiting
therapy dogs or practiced yoga.
This event, which included information from community
partner, St. John’s Health and Wellness Center and Public Safety,
was part of a wider effort to reach out to students and make
community wellness more visible for Johnnies. “We’re trying to
make the campus a little more aware of what resources are available,”
explained Danielle Lico, Executive Director of Campus Health and
Wellness. “We’re trying to get people to engage in taking a break
from the day in and day out of being on campus and having the
opportunity to decompress a little bit. Having that opportunity for
students to get more health education is really what we’re aiming
for.”
Along with outreach to students, the event also featured the
official opening of the Health Center’s new home, in the lower level
of Randall. “We wanted to do something to signify we moved,” said
Lico. “It’s such a great improvement over what we had previously.”
Ms. Demlitner gave a short speech thanking the health center staff
for their work, and then proceeded to cut the ribbon over the stairs
down to Randall’s “Garden Level” with the appropriately oversized
scissors.
The health center’s new space, which will allow for an additional
exam room, more space for mental health support, including a room
for larger group meetings and a mindfulness room, and extra offices
has been in use since the beginning of the year. Johnnies are all
welcome (and encouraged) to drop by, ask about what services are
offered, and get to know what kind of physical and mental supports
are available for student health on campus.
See page 27 for accompanying photos.
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
3
�{campus Security}
Start of the Year Phishing Attack
A Lesson on Cyber Security
by Paolo Medelius '26
On August 21st, the day before
many students would step onto campus
for the first time, a phishing attack hit
the SJC community. The attack, which
targeted all SJC users, consisted of
fraudulent emails sent from SJC email
accounts to users in the SJC Microsoft
Global Address List, the database
in Microsoft Outlook that allows
members of an organization to find
emails of other members in the same
organization, in this case those with
an @sjc.edu email. The initial, most
harmful attack consisted of two emails
sent from a former student’s account.
The first email told students they had
two Microsoft 365 email accounts
at higher education institutions and
needed to verify the correct one, and
the other offered false part-time job
opportunities. In both cases, there were
links to separate sites asking students to
input sensitive information including
their SJC emails and passwords. From
this attack, around 35 SJC students
compromised some of their sensitive
information.
During the first attack, the IT
department became aware of the
issue. Its first actions were to delete
the phishing emails from the inboxes
of SJC emails, disable the accounts
sending the emails, limit the number
of recipients a sender could email at a
time, require the affected students to
change their passwords, and notify the
SJC community of the ongoing attack.
While the attack continued with more
fraudulent emails being sent out from
different SJC accounts, no one else fell
victim.
The IT department later required
all SJC users with an @sjc.edu email
to change their passwords. Further,
it investigated the SJC network and
4
found that no data was taken from the
college’s system, and no malware or
other malicious software was present.
The only information taken was the
information the victims provided.
Following this attack, the IT
department plans to make some
system changes to protect cybersecurity in the SJC community. The
limit the IT department imposed on
the recipients a sender could email
at a time was an important measure
to reduce the efficacy of cyberattacks. A limit has stayed in place,
but the exact limit is changing, and
extended emailing permissions may
be granted to privileged accounts.
The IT department is also working
to empower individual users. The
IT department will likely require
students to implement multi-factor
authentication on their accounts in
the future. It also plans to increase
its communication with the SJC
community and provide information
on different cyber-attacks, training
users to be able to identify and protect
themselves from different attacks.
This effort to empower individual
users reflects an important aspect of
cyber security that was utilized to stop
the phishing attack. While the systems
the IT department has in place are
important for protecting against
cyber-attacks, the phishing attack was
only effectively stopped when students
were made aware of it so that they
could avoid it, and the IT department
was actively monitoring for fraudulent
emails and deleting them. Managing
the risk is often the best way to
protect against cyber-attacks, and
users serve a significant role in doing
this effectively. Frank Anastasio,
Chief Information Officer of the
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
Information Technology Services
at St. John’s College Annapolis,
emphasized that “An important piece
of risk management is making sure that
people who can be affected by the risk
understand what the risk is. That’s no
different with whether we’re talking
about a cyber security risk or the risk
of a fire in a dorm room.”
In the case of fraudulent emails,
there are some specific actions users
should take to protect themselves.
The first step should be to slow down
and take the time to identify some
red flags. A high sense of urgency and
spoofed links or email addresses (links
and email addresses which resemble
verified ones but differ slightly in their
spelling) are common indicators of
fraudulent emails. Links and email
addresses can be cross-referenced with
ones verified in a separate internet
search or from another valid source.
Further, if the sender of an email
claims to be a certain person, but the
content of the email suggests that it
was not actually from that person, that
person should be contacted separately
through a verified contact to confirm
whether he was the sender. The
college will never ask for an account
and password and/or other sensitive
data via email. If a user encounters a
fraudulent email in their @sjc.edu
account, there is an option on the
email to mark it as phishing. This helps
prevent other users from becoming
victims of the attack.
T
ips from IT!
· Keep up-to-date antivirus
software installed on devices.
· Update all software so that their
individual security measures are up
to date.
· Create complex passwords, use
different passwords for different
accounts, and make sure to use a
password manager software to store
passwords.
�{Campus Tradition}
One Shot Night
A Night with The Board Game Club
by Joe Bennet '23
It’s Friday night, September 9th,
just after the close of our all-college
seminar on Chekhov's The House with
the Mezzanine. On any other Friday
night at this time, a regular meeting
of SJC Board Game Club would just
be getting underway in the coffee shop
in the basement of McDowell, right
under the feet of those stragglers in
the Great Hall who had stayed lurking
late into question period following
a lecture. But tonight the club had
planned a special assembly. In those
spaces usually filled with Bananagramers, Azul-ists, Seven Wonders-ers,
Captain Sonar-izers, Mars Terraformists, and board and card gamers of a
dozen other monikers, a new species of
gamer cavorted in their place: the Table
Top Role Playing Gamer. The Board
Game Club, in their magnanimity and
charity, had elected to host once again
their annual One Shot Night.
For those unacquainted with
one shots and TTRPG’s in general,
a brief synopsis will follow: a role
playing game (as the name might
suggest) requires the adoption of an
alternate persona by each participant.
They design these characters in the
constraints of a specific game system,
and these player-characters then engage
to problem solve, navigate hostile
environments, andcraft a narrative.
Generally a session is run by a “game
master” who describes the setting
these characters find themselves in
and facilitates their interaction within
it.The game master sets a scene, plays
out the roles of all the other characters
of the world, and listens for how each
other participant hopes to respond.
Often, this is as simple as wanting to
walk across a crowded room or spend
some money in a store. In resolving
more complicated wishes, cases with a
significant chance of failure, the game
master might demand a die roll and
set a threshold for success. This roll
might be modified by a character’s
inherent abilities (e.g. a thief is likely
more capable with lock-picking tools
than a battle ax) or circumstantial
bonus (it’s easier to sneak around at
night, easier to shoot accurately in
daylight). After determining success
or failure, the game master describes
the consequences of the attempt
and the players respond to the new
development in turn.
Generally a game master has a large,
overarching story they work through
with their players over the course of
weeks or months of play sessions,
called a campaign. These campaigns
pick up each session where the last
left off and are contributing to a single
massive narrative. For those seeking an
experience more akin to a short story
than a sprawling epic, an alternative
format exists: the one shot. In a one
shot, a game master crafts a narrative
that can be worked through in a single
night of play rather than demanding
the commitment of a full campaign. At
One Shot Night, just such a collection
of games were played.
As people arrived, each game
master gave a brief synopsis of the sorts
of experiences players could expect in
advance, players selected the table
they were most interested in, and,
over the course of a few hours, strange
stories bloomed. In one corner a group
of adventurers explored an ancient,
ruined temple, finding themselves
fighting bandits, cultists, and strange
creatures in an old school dungeons
and dragons game. Meanwhile, across
the room, a session of Bluebeard’s
Bride was being run. This gothic horror
game saw each player take on the role of
a distinct piece of The Bride’s shattered
psyche as she struggles with the terrible
revelations of her husband’s horrifying
crimes and with the continued
expectations of being a monster’s wife.
I decided to sit down and try a system
I had never heard of before: Paranoia.
In this comedy sci-fi game each player
took on the role of a “Troubleshooter”,
an agent of the omnipresent, seemingly
omniscient, supercomputer which ruled
our reality, and upon sitting down I was
handed the wildest character sheet I have
ever seen.
Everyone present, at each of the tables,
got to contribute their unique impulse
to contriving entirely new lines of story.
Not even the game masters knew where
their players would steer the worlds they
had crafted, how they would react to the
threads of intrigue presented. Something
novel and totally unpredictable was
derived from the coming together of
each of these little pods of players, and
for the most part it will be lost again as
we find ourselves more and more distant
from that night. The experience will
become memory, and the memory will
grow stale and erode. Regardless of how
meticulous my (corporately mandated)
note taking is, most of the night is already
gone from me. But on any given night
such cultivation of tale could happen
again. Something different can bloom,
just as new and beautiful and exciting
as the last. So I recommend seeking out
your own experience of this; get some
friends together, force one person to be a
game master and another in the group to
bring snacks. It’s free, it’s legal, it’s goofy
and nerdy and it’s one more small way of
bonding to make it through the night.
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
5
�{campus history}
Building St. John's
Buildings Past, Present and Future
by Elad Nichols-Kaufman '25
St. John’s campus has changed
drastically over the years. New
buildings have risen, old ones have
been renovated and repurposed, and
offices, dorms and classrooms have
shifted across the campus. This year,
returning Johnnies may have noticed
a fairly substantial shift in office
arrangements, as well as continuing
renovations on campus. The health
center has moved to the lower level of
Randall, many student services have
been concentrated in the Hodson
house, and career services have moved
to Mellon.
Danielle Lico, Executive Director
of Campus Health and Wellness,
explained that the Health Center
began these shifts in response to the
increased need for mental health
services and a lack of space for basic
healthcare. “What became particularly
evident, especially as we were returning
back to campus from Covid, was the
need for more and broader mental
health service… We needed the space
to be able to deliver those services.”
The health center had been using
the second floor of Harrison, which
was built as an apartment, to provide
some additional space, but it was not
ADA accessible.
Lico explained, “We had two nurse
practitioners who were sharing an
office space, and one exam room that
was doubling as a vaccine space and
a testing space… As we were coming
back, we saw that the options were to
decrease the services we offer or find
a space that could accommodate our
needs.”
Once this problem was identified,
the administration began searching
for space to move the health center.
Randall’s lower level already had sinks
6
and available, accessible space, so it
seemed like the natural space to use,
precipitating the move of other offices
previously in Randall.
“From there, it was all a domino
effect.” said Ally Gontang-Highfield,
the College Treasurer, “Once we
decided that we wanted to move
services, the most important thing was
to get as many services ADA accessible
as possible. The first thing was moving
the Health and Wellness Center…
From there, we decided to move as
many student services together as
possible. Student accounts, IT, and
financial aid, all those things we tried
to consolidate in the Hodson house, so
students would have a one stop shop
for all services.”
That, however, meant offices in the
hodson house, like career development,
also had to move, ending up in Mellon,
where they could be more visible to
students on a day to day basis.
Accessibility Issues:
These renovations, however, only
begin to address longstanding student
complaints about accessibility. Many
of the historic buildings on campus
cannot be made accessible without
damaging their historic character, and
other changes to buildings that can
be renovated may be too expensive
for the college. Some buildings
have undergone renovations that
make them partially accessible in
the past few years, such as the first
floor of Pinkney and the elevator
connecting the first and second floor
of McDowell. However, even though
these are technically accessible, they
require difficult and circuitous paths to
reach, and often have difficult terrain
on the paths towards them. “We are
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
looking to improve all the buildings,”
said Gontang-Highfield. “It’s really
a resource issue. We’re looking at the
library… We’re looking, if and when we
get the money to renovate Campbell,
to install an elevator.”
Campbell Hall, which except the
basement is currently completely
inaccessible, had accessible bathrooms
installed, as required by code. The
building has an elevator shaft, but
never had an elevator installed, and
thus would require major renovations
to install an operational elevator and
make the building accessible.
Bigger Changes in the works:
Larger upgrades to buildings,
specifically dorms, are currently being
planned. Campbell is first on the list,
but financial and planning obstacles
still remain. “It was our hope to try
and tackle that next year,” stated
Gontang-Highfield, “But it’s definitely
a resource question.”
At the Board of Visitors and
Governors meeting this summer,
members discussed trying to find
funding sources as well as the
difficulties posed by closing the
building for the entire year, requiring
an equal number of housing slots
on a campus that’s already short on
housing.
“We’re sorely aware of the problem
of housing in town,” explained
President Nora Demleitner. “The
question for us is how do we create
more residential space?” Demleitner
said that she hopes to build another
residence facility, but that there are
even greater financial obstacles to that.
Building costs have gone up drastically
over the past few years, and it is not
certain if current streams of revenue
�and fundraising can provide the
necessary funds.
Last year, the Pritzker Foundation
pledged to match $1 for every $2
donated to the college for up to $25
million, resulting in a total possible
revenue of $75 million, to be split
across both campuses for physical
campus improvements. In Santa Fe,
the money is planned for renovations
to the Peterson student center and
sustainability improvements, like
moving entirely to solar infrastructure
by 2023. In Annapolis, the money will
go to more transformative projects,
primarily for dorms. “It’s 37.5 million
dollars for our campus,” explained
Demleitner, “and that sounds like
incredible money, but unfortunately
it’s not enough. So even with the
Pritzker money, we’re going to need to
continue fundraising.”
Campus Future:
These projects all play a role in the
broad campus master plan currently in
the works, which hopes to guarantee
more stability for the campus. “We
want to stop changing spaces from
dorms to offices to dorms,” said
Demleitner. “That’s expensive.” This
plan will connect to other values of the
college, like a smaller environmental
impact. “We’re looking for architects
who will help us do it in a sustainable
manner,” explained Lico. “How can we
reduce our impact on the environment
and improve our use of resources?”
Demleitner concurred, “We want to
do the right thing.”
Demlitner also noted that for the
future of the college, student input
will be vital. “We encourage everyone
to share both concerns and things
that work well. Sometimes we assume
certain things should be changed,
even though some of you might say,
‘don't touch that!’ I have no idea how
you are using space at midnight, or six
a.m. I’d love to get feedback on these
things, because you are the ones who
use them.”
Front View of McDowell Hall with Cupola, circa 1930-60
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
7
�{campus life}
How to Oktoberfest
A Lesson in Festival
Article by Helen Felbek '25
After a two-year forced hibernation
due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the
Oktoberfest in Munich started on
September 17, the same day Reality
and the Waltz committee hosted St.
John’s annual Oktoberfest.
When this tradition started at St.
John’s is not easily deduced. But based
on some older editions of the Gadfly,
the party was already a staple in 2004.
Back then, however, it was run by
Reality only (and apparently, a whole
pig was roasted).
Since it seems rather unlikely for
Oktoberfest to disappear as a standard
part of the college’s social calendar,
I thought it might be suitable for
attendees to at least be educated on
the history of Oktoberfest and the
customs surrounding it.
The first Oktoberfest was held in
1810 as a wedding commemoration
between the Bavarian Crown Prince
Ludwig and Princess Therese of SaxonyHildburghausen. The festivities began
on October 12, 1810, and ended on
October 17 with a horse race. The
event is still held in the same location,
Therese Green (Theresienwiese). The
exact reasons why Oktoberfest was
repeated in the following year are
unknown. However, I assume the
event was probably enjoyable enough
that even people from around the
world – Bavarians in Munich, just like
college students in Annapolis – have
always looked for an opportunity to
be merry (and drink). These days the
folk festival lasts up to 18 days! Why
Oktoberfest starts in September is
rather profane: the weather is just
nicer in September…
Since the new alcohol policy has
taken effect, the event's focus has
shifted from drinking as much beer
8
as possible to having a good time and
proving one’s endurance and dance
skills at the polka competition.
Since it is widely known that the
taste and quality of American beer are
nowhere close to the beer traditionally
served at the real Oktoberfest, I deem
this new development an improvement
for students’ taste buds. Still, Students
over 21 did not forgo beer completely.
For four dollars, Johnnies could
choose one of five different beers.
Columbine and Pantalone by Kandler
Considering that one “Maß” (i.e., one
liter or 34 liquid ounces) of beer cost
13.80 Euros (i.e., 13.83 USD) at this
year’s fest in Munich, the four-dollar
Johnnie alternative seems much more
agreeable.
During the day, flower crown
making and hair braiding was
offered for people to spice up their
evening wear, especially since most
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
attendees were not owners of actual
traditional garments (such as Dirndl
or Lederhosen). Alongside the two
aforesaid activities, non-alcoholic
apple cider, doughnuts, apple fritters,
and authentic German pretzel buns
were offered. At around seven pm,
and in fashion with quite the Johnnie
delay, the polka competition started.
After forty quite sweaty, but also very
entertaining minutes, two freshmen
(Ms. Ransohoff and Mr. McKenna)
won flowers and eternal glory.
At nine pm, the waltz officially
started. Johnnies, following their
fashionable trend, tended to arrive
late while the midshipmen arrived too
early. After some initial problems with
the music, the waltz went smoothly.
I was, however, encountering many
students puzzling over the waltz being
held in September and not October.
Regardless of its origins, Oktoberfest
has been a great commercial success:
6.3 million people visit Oktoberfest
annually and spend 1.110 Mio Euro.
They cause 1,615 police operations
and drink 7.3 million liters of beer.
As far as I know, our Oktoberfest
luckily did not cause public safety
interventions of any kind. Apart from
1813 (war with Napoleon), 1854 (the
cholera epidemic that killed 7,370,
including the king's mother Therese
whose wedding started the tradition),
1866
(Prussian-Austrian
wars),
1873 (cholera), 1914-1918, 1923
(hyperinflation), 1939-1945 (World
War II), 2020 and 2021 (Covid), the
Oktoberfest in Munich has been held
every year since its inception in 1810.
Even though St. John’s Oktoberfest
might not come close to this impressive
record, rest assured, it will – according
to tradition – return next year.
�{campus events}
Oktoberfest Photos!
photos by Liz Dowdy '23
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
9
�Finds from
the Archives
St. John's Coffee Shop
circa 1950
A lively bunch of students communing in
the coffee shop to eat, drink, smoke, and
discuss. Isolated students carrying out their
own studies, or grabbing their goods and
then running off to their own business,
are not spotted here. Does this version of
the coffee shop strike you as superior to
the coffee shop of today? Would you like
something like it to return? Are you happy
with the shop as it stands?—Write in and
tell us!
Student's Playing Baseball
on Back Campus , McDowell
Hall and Smokestack in the
Background
circa 1941
There is a contingent among the student
body who believe that we ought to
play baseball at some point in the year.
Whenever the conversation is brought
up, one problem is always encountered:
where? In this photo, we see one possible
answer. Some may still worry for the
windows of Randall, Campbell, and
Mellon, but the lads of the photo are
not even wearing gloves. They are all of
one mind and under one command: the
command to play ball.
10
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
�The Exterior of Chase-Stone House under Construction
1963
Chase Stone under construction. I wonder if anybody has been taking pictures of
Mellon?
T
his week's Finds are once again sourced from the
submissons of senior Sachin Stanislaus. Everyone
give it up for Sachin! If you would like to be applauded
like Sachin, consider submitting your own finds to us at
sjca.gadfly@gmail.com.
Friday Night Lectures
Freshman
Plutarch’s Swarm, Joe Macfarland, 2017, Christopher. B. Nelson
Lecture
Plato's Theory of Ideas, Eva Brann, 1979
Aporia on the woman question in Plato's Republic, Mary Townsend,
2019
Sophomore
Vergil's Aeneid and Augustine's Confessions: Reading, Writing, Being
Human, Sarah Ruden, 2020
Junior
Hiding behind Geometry: Analysis and Synthesis in Descartes and
Spinoza, Joshua Parens, 2021
Leibniz's Monadology and the philosophical foundations of nonlocality in quantum mechanics, James Beall, 2015
Senior
Gender, Intersectionality, and Marx’s Value Theorys, Sarah Vitale,
2021
Discernment of the good : on Michelangelo and Kierkegaard,
Anthony Eagan, 2018
The telos of Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling, Richard McCombs,
2016
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
11
�A Reflection on Athletics at
St. John's College
Leah Lasell
In 2006 after the birth of our first child, Madeleine,
Mr. Lasell and I decided that we should attend our first
Guardians basketball game with her. Madeleine was
sleeping in her baby carrier and since she was so young, we
assumed she would just sleep right through the game. But
those buzzers are loud, so she woke up and wanted to be
held. At some point in the middle of the game, Mr. Lasell
was already on the court, and the captains asked if I could
go in. I needed to hand Madeleine off to someone to watch.
I looked down the bench, there were four or five students
there, and then there was one more student, Mr. G.
Imagine the student on campus that would be most
awkward holding a baby, then make them sweaty, smelly,
and slippery from a vigorous half of Guardians basketball.
Now imagine handing them your six-week-old. That is what
I did. He stammered. He tried to give the baby back. The
baby tilted. I ran onto the court before Mr. G’s protests
were louder than Madeleine’s. Like the children in the
Republic, she needed to be held not just by Grandmas, but
by Guardians.
Why did I hand Madeleine to Mr. G? I don’t know. (And
believe me, I asked myself that on the way home!) But in
that moment, it felt right. We were all out there pushing our
limits in the physical world, trying to do things with our
bodies that we didn’t quite know how to do: pan thumos,
ou techne! (The motto works equally well for parenting,
by the way.) Intramurals at St. John’s give many students
the opportunity to find out how alien our bodies can feel
and slowly make them feel less alien as we learn new skills.
Usually, we do this by throwing a basketball, kicking a soccer
ball, or tossing a frisbee, but sometimes it might be holding
a tutor’s crying newborn. By doing this we learn how to
situate our own bodies in space and with respect to others,
we learn how to get open for a pass, dodge an elbow, juke a
defender, shoulder someone off a ball, take a hit, assert one’s
physical position, cradle a ball and occasionally a baby.
We also learn how objects move in the world, how balls
spin, how objects fly, how objects fall to the ground, and
how the traction on the ground affects one’s speed. In
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the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
Galileo’s Two Chief World Systems he has his interlocutors
call up countless experiences with moving objects.
Galileo’s experiments are based on recollected experiences
of a lifetime of playing: hoops, bocce, soccer, spinning,
throwing, and catching balls. One of the few biographical
facts that we now know about Galileo as a child is that for
his 9th birthday, he received a soccer ball. Evidently, he put
it to good use.
Thanks to Title 9, I grew up in an era where there were
ample opportunities for female bodied athletes. My highschool and college had as many opportunities for me as it
did for males. Recently, I had a conversation with a Johnnie
from Korea and asked him what it was like in Korea. His
sense is that girls don’t have nearly the same opportunities
in Korea as they do here. I’d love to hear from other
international students, what was it like where you grew up?
Did your high school support everyone’s athletic interests?
Unfortunately, as an adult, the opportunities for femalebodied athletes to play are much smaller than they are for
males. At the local gym, there is pick-up, but there are no
women. Occasionally, I’ve been able to join a co-ed league.
Even if there are rules about how many women are on the
court or field, if the game is on the line, the women will
rarely see the ball. When women do see the ball, the older
men and better athletes who have learned how to play
recreational co-ed will modify their play for the women,
giving them a bit of space to do a move to get their jump
shots off; the young guys with less experience, the ones who
are trying to prove themselves, will slide tackle a woman in
the open field or slam the ball down into her face as they
block her jump shot. I appreciate both, though the former
leaves me a bit chagrined and the latter a bit angry.
Over the last ten years or so, I’ve had the opportunity
to play at St. John’s in the Intramural league. I do okay at
basketball and handball, at least in the B quarters. Here a
former varsity basketball player who once trained to be a
professional women’s baseball player, can keep up with men
and even occasionally outshine a player who hasn’t done a
lot of sports before. On the soccer field, the story is a bit
�more disappointing. I’m simply not fast enough and don’t
kick hard enough to go head-to-head with the players who
dominate Intramural soccer. If I am dribbling the ball in the
open field, a young man will catch up with me and steal the
ball. This is a (near) certainty. On the soccer field, I accept
that while I am a good athlete and I have worked hard
at developing my soccer skills, I am also a female bodied
person with some of the differentiation in ability that goes
with that. I have enjoyed almost every minute of playing in
adult co-ed leagues and Intramurals, but they are not the
level-playing field that Title 9 cultivated and now protects
for female bodied persons.
Kunai soccer gives me an additional opportunity to be
the athlete that I worked hard to become. Here I have a
chance to keep control of the ball, to do a cool move and
fake someone out, to step into a challenge, and maybe, just
maybe, get a chance to score. It has been a blast to come
out and play over the last few weeks with the community of
young women, womxn, and non-cis men. I still get beat, but
at Kunai I am beat because I am facing a better athlete and
not because of my sex.
Madeleine is now 15. She now has three siblings each
of whom have spent hours on the sidelines of St. John’s
athletic events. Madeleine and Penelope have both played
Intramurals and Kunai and enjoy coming out when they
can. Oscar and Hugo are still too young, but they like
talking about thawing permafrost, Pokemon, and electrical
experiments with anyone who is willing to listen on the
sidelines. Both of our daughters are athletes. Our sons are
too, if you count chess and Rubik’s cube solving. But all
of them, if they choose to come to St. John’s, will have an
opportunity to play sports. I love that about our school.
All Photos are from the Digital Archives, see the back cover for more information.
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
13
�Sunrise on The Severn: A
Partial Picture of Rowing
Jordan Kammeyer
It’s 5:55am. The long, straight sidewalk to the boathouse
is illuminated by the glowing heads of the St. John’s street
lamps. The light just reaches the swathes of fog on the
soccer field, and I can see dark figures cutting across the
damp grass. There are a few brisk walkers along the path
in front of me. I, too, move quickly, both to get warm and
to shake off sleep, the memory of my cozy bed still fresh in
my mind. Reaching the boathouse, I descend the splintery
wooden stairs and enter the brightly lit room with boats
and oars lining the walls and ceiling. The worn wooden
floor is already covered with people stretching. If the walk
in the cold air didn’t wake me up, this place of early morning
energy certainly does. I go up to the whiteboard, move the
magnetic popsicle stick with my name on it from “not here”
to “here,” and begin stretching with the team. The number
of us depends on the day: sometimes there are as few as
ten or twenty and sometimes there are close to fifty of us.
The latter is more often the case at this early date, when the
horde of eager novices hasn’t yet been whittled down by the
hardships of rowing. Their hands are not yet blistered, the
dock is not yet frost-covered, and the novelty of the task
and the hour still motivates them to wake up when all of
campus except a lone Public Safety officer is asleep.
The moon is gleaming low and bright in the dark sky
when we get out onto the water. It lightens as we take a warmup lap on the Creek, the little twig of water connecting to a
branch of the Severn River that our boathouse shares with
the Navy. A heron flies by, and a glance into the water reveals
several delicate and ghostly white jellyfish. Our coxswain,
cramped in the hollow at the stern, is the only person who
can see forward as the rest of us move ourselves backwards.
We make it under the bridge through the just wide enough
opening, oars almost scraping against the columns. As we
pass through, the clack of the oars hitting the water echoes
against the concrete surface above and around us.
After passing the stately Navy boathouse with its fake
swans on their dock and going under two more bridges, we
finally reach the River. Our long row starts here, and on a
good day, we make it past the Route 50 bridge with ample
14
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
time to return. By now, the sunrise is in full force. The sky is
lit with a pink warmth that makes the evening’s golden hour
seem gaudy in comparison. The water is an expanse of black
undulations like hammered metal in motion, each indent
dipping and lifting and flowing, each soft peak touched by
the color of the sky. Our strokes work with the water, the
oars submitting to the natural flow of forward-and-back
as we skim along the surface with grace and speed. The
shell makes a narrow, shallow cut in the water that leaves a
neat wake, leaving a barely discernible trail moments after.
Maybe all of this is waxing poetic, but the activity of rowing
begs this sort of attention and appreciation for your own
actions and surroundings.
This little description barely scratches the surface of the
experience of crew, but the beauty of the sport and the early
morning practices is something that too few Johnnies get
to experience. Of course, it’s also not beautiful in certain
respects—unless you happen to find raw blisters and
sore tailbones beautiful. Despite the physical and mental
challenge of pursuing the perfect stroke, the experience of
using pure bodily power to guide a vessel across water is a
unique display of elegance—well-worth getting out of bed
at an ungodly hour.
Sunrise on the Severn by Tim Mewmaw
�Like St. John's, Like Seminar
Amos Elwell
I invite you to join me in considering the intramural or plays comparatively poorly? This is answered most
game as a physical seminar.
easily when we consider neither
Seminar, the mental
seminars nor intramurals to be
one, might be described
demonstrations of individual
as two hours where all
proficiency. The best seminar is
Johnnies sit around a table
not one in which one individual
and discuss a text that
makes major breakthroughs that
(hopefully) everyone has
are significant only to them;
read. It might more aptly
rather, I say, it is the one where
be described, though, as
the group progresses furthest
a communal synthesis of
(and there are many debatable
individual readings. This
ways of measuring this progress).
individualized framing is
The best intramural game, then,
produced because of our
is not when one individual scores
different worldviews and
every point or has the best game
experiences—reading any
of their career—I would go as
book, each person in the
far as to characterize this as the
room is going to view it
worst possible way of gauging
in light of the things they
intramural success. Instead, I
have experienced, which
suggest we view intramurals
vary drastically among
from the team’s perspective:
participants. Thus, the
how much progress is a captain
challenge of the seminar,
inciting in their teammates?
from my perspective, is
How much growth is coming
to, as a team, consider
from the most novice player?
many interpretations in
How excited are people to be
the struggle for communal
around one another, to be on
understanding.
This
a team together? How many
understanding is not
people got to touch the ball
homogenous, nor should
or meaningfully contribute
it be. Circumstantially, the
to this game? We only set
seminar must agree about,
ourselves up for frustration
Discus Thrower, John J.A. Murphy
say, a framework, but it is not
and disappointment when we
the case that everyone in the room must understand the text consider the intramural game as a stage set for individual
in the same way as one another. What is more important domination or display of skill.
is understanding, then politely agreeing or disagreeing
If seminar or intramural games are routinely
with, other’s interpretations made in light of their unique disappointing or frustrating for you, I suggest approaching
experiences.
your next game or seminar with the following statements
Intramurals, the physical seminar (or so I propose), in mind. The exercise of the seminar classroom is to see
has much the same challenge. While in seminars we might how communally a group can further their individual and
encounter folks with an extensive knowledge of the book’s collective understandings. The exercise of the intramural
subject matter, in intramurals we find folks who have game is to see how interactively, considerately, inclusively a
played and excelled at a certain sport throughout their group can play. Give it a try.
life. What, then, am I to do as someone who knows little,
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
15
�A Reflection on Freedom in
Paradise Lost
Luke Briner
Is there greater freedom in obedience or disobedience in
Milton’s Paradise Lost?
What needs to be laid down before anything else as we
attempt to answer this question is the fact that Milton’s
God has endowed every one of his creatures with perfect
and unalienable freedom of will: “[f ]reely they stood
who stood,” he explains to his Son, “and fell who fell”
(III.102). It’s this freedom of the will that gives rise to the
very dichotomy between obedience and rebellion, as well
as their moral significance, since it’s only by the existence
of a genuine ability to will one thing rather than another
that agency could be ascribed to the actor. Moreover, God
goes on to explain that, even if he has foreknowledge of
the future, it “had no influence” (III.118) on the fault of
those that have rebelled, and so necessarily implies the same
holds for those who persevere in obedience; commitment
to either decision is entirely up to the individual, and
therefore the consequences of either decision themselves
belong solely to the individual.
We can now examine the natures and circumstances
of both obedience and rebellion throughout the epic.
Obedience consists simply in the active alignment of one’s
own will to the will of God; and this is the condition of
the angels in Heaven, and of Adam and Eve before their
Fall. Since all things proceed from the creative power of
God, and since God has a particular intent for each of his
creations individually and in kind, this conformity to his
will is in practice simply conforming to the nature that
he created us with and intends us to keep. Disobedience,
conversely, consists in the active contrariety of one’s will
to the will of God, occurring whenever a desire or passion
for something other than God becomes stronger than the
will to follow it. This pursuit of another object other than
God’s will is the basis of rebellion, and consists specifically
in jealousy of God’s Son in Satan’s case (V.654-662) and in
the desire for pleasure, praise, and knowledge in Eve’s case
(IX).
Now the consequence of obedience is vast and unending
happiness, while the consequence of disobedience is a
16
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
life filled with suffering and despair. The angels obedient
in Heaven are said to experience Beatific joy simply by
experiencing God as he resides and acts in his “pure
Empyrean” (III.57) within a transcendently lovely Heaven
(see I.684, III.61-62), thus showing that Milton’s God must
be seen as the Supreme Good. Likewise, Eden was originally
created as an incomparably beautiful “Heaven on Earth”
(IV.208), and Adam and Eve themselves in their newlycreated state were a “[b]lest pair” (IV.774), taking idyllic joy
simply in worshiping and serving their blessed Creator. Hell
and the post-Fall Earth, conversely, are nothing more than
degenerations from these primordial conditions brought
about as the inevitable punishments for disobedience. The
suffering experienced there, however, while on some level
ordained by God himself, is just as if not more profoundly
seen to come from the sense of regret and shame which
naturally arose from that disobedience, as is seen in Satan’s
agonizing self-doubt and remorse at having ever rebelled in
the first place (IV.18-113, IV.846-849, IX.455-493, etc.),
and Adam’s lament at having freely chosen to so flagrantly
contradict God’s command for him (X.720-860).
From this alone, it’s not difficult to see the faultiness of
the logic behind disobedience against God. Since Milton
represents his God as the Supreme Good, the pursuit of
any end other than or in contradiction to the nature or
will of God would be nonsensical and self-harming. Such
a pursuit would be so nonsensical and self-harming, in fact,
that it would denote a real sort of unfreedom on the part
of the actor. Since, as Plotinus observes, “[e]ffort is free
once it is toward a fully recognized good,” while “servitude
lies in being powerless to move towards one’s good, being
debarred from the preferred path in a menial obedience”
(Enneads, VI.8.4), the lessening of one’s own participation
in the Supreme Good must be understood as a very real
kind of subjection. But this is exactly the situation that
Satan and the rebellious Adam and Eve find themselves in,
and so they reveal themselves in their disobedience not to
be heroic revolutionaries or noble knowledge-seekers, but
ignorant children who have tragically thwarted their own
�ultimate happiness by the pursuit of inferior goods at the
expense of the absolutely superior.
We also don’t need to trouble ourselves here with the
question of whether free will really exists when all our
actions are dictated by the pursuit of the Good in this
way; again, we are assured by God that he “formed them
[his creations] free, and free they must remain,/Till they
enthrall themselves” (III.124-125), but, since God is the
supreme Good, we’re still safe to think of an action which
would deprive them of that Good as unfree in precisely that
sense of self-enthrallment as a result of a rash, ignorant, but
wholly self-willed decision.
For the same reason, we must understand obedience to
God, either in the case of the loyal angels or Adam and
Eve before their Fall, as a realization of freedom, in that
choosing to follow his supremely good will is precisely the
means by which their most perfect happiness is attained.
Since, again, God has made all his creatures wholly free to
make whatever decisions they will, the decision of those
creatures to persevere in obedience to him who intended
such indescribable goodness, beauty, and love for them, is
quite as free as any other decision that they could make. In
fact, we should actually see those who persist in a perfect
state of obedience as being freer than otherwise, since
obedience to the will of the Supreme denotes a clarity
of vision and will on the part of the obedient one, and,
in attaining beatific communion with that Supreme by
precisely that means, they achieve their end more perfectly
than in any other case.
It follows necessarily from all of this that the idea of
disobedience being in any way “more free” than obedience
is textually and philosophically incoherent. Not only does
obedience to God in no way contradict freedom, but, on the
contrary, the two concepts are fundamentally intertwined
and complimentary: freedom is the necessary prerequisite
for obedience, and obedience is itself the means by which
we achieve the supreme Freedom of communion with the
Supreme Good. Therefore, those that have persevered in
their obedience to God are not only as free as the rebels, but
actually far freer, since it’s through their obedience that they
preserve their union with the all-transcendent Perfection,
and, in doing so, earn a Beatitude that “no eye has seen,
nor ear heard” (1 Cor. 2.9). Conversely, the disobedient
have become miserably unfree, even when rebelling in the
name of “freedom,” since they have in doing so deprived
themselves of their own Good by the senseless pursuit of
inferior idols.
This, we might venture, is exactly what Milton wants to
communicate to us: on one hand, the profound connection
between freedom and obedience, and, on the other,
the ruinous consequences of the misunderstanding and
misuse of freedom in the pursuit of inferior ends or in the
sophomoric, idiotic rejection of obedience itself. Let us,
then, conclude as Adam finally does, that “to obey is best”
(XII.561).
The Rebuke of Adam and Eve
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
17
�{Campus Pollution}
Pick your Poison
Helen Felbek
As a previous writer in the Gadfly has posited: “At St. having to walk through a cloud of cigarette fumes.
John’s, nicotine usage—cigarettes, more to the point—is
On a personal level, I am sure I would find a way to
an oft undertaken habit. A lifestyle to some. A cultural get around the smoke and breathe freely, but I can’t help
flashpoint to others. School spirit to many.” While I but notice that it seems close to impossible to have a
personally cannot fathom what reasons would compel conversation on this topic, which is puzzling to me since the
students to put their health at risk (it is probably not about polity prides itself on applying the seminar-style discussion
wanting to fit the stereotypical “sensitive philosophy student” to non-program topics. Non-smokers who complain about
trope), I do have to admit that I am biased in the sense that the negative externalities of consumption or even dare
I have never smoked in
to question the general
my life and probably will
culture
surrounding
never take it up. So, it
smoking on campus are
may come unsurprisingly
easily portrayed as uneasy
to the reader that this
killjoys who are in league
opinion piece is clearly
with the administration.
anti-smoking. But it is
Maybe the reason for
anti-smoking for probably
this inability to have an
different reasons than you
open-ended conversation
are expecting to read.
about smoking culture
We are all adults here,
has something to do with
in a country that is the
the fact that some polity
epitome of liberty – or so
members are addicted to
it claims – thus, it should
nicotine. Perhaps it is also
obviously be up to each
connected to the hubris
individual to conduct
that some young people
some sort of “cost-benefit
seem to have when it
analysis” for themselves
comes to their own bodies:
and decide to take up
“Oh, this substance is
the habit of smoking
potentially harmful and
or not. It is also each
addictive? No worries,
person’s individual choice
I’ve got it under control.
to decide on how they
I could stop if I wanted
want to indulge in their
to!” Just because we are
habit. Well, the school’s
privileged to enjoy a
smoking policy is limiting
liberal arts education does
the options – at least
not mean we are above the
to a certain extent – by
trap of failing to examine
Smoking Peasant by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
“banning” smokers from the
our own weaknesses or lapses
quad and forcing them to less inviting spots on campus, in judgment that we so readily condemn in others. It is
such as the “fern lounge” or whatever it is called these days. basically the same problem that we encounter when it comes
But people still decide to ignore the admin’s rules and to an unhealthy diet or lack of sport. I definitely fall into
smoke on the quad and around campus anyways, and while the trap from time to time, especially when tempted by the
the rebellious teenager in me understands the urge to show sugary vegan chocolate chip cookies offered in the dining
an authority figure that their threats (of fines, suspension hall. I could also imagine that if the administration makes
from the residence halls, and suspension from campus) are smokers feel like persona non grata, it is understandable why
not taken seriously, the fresh-air fanatic remains annoyed at the fronts on either side are entrenched and no dialogue
18
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
�seems possible. With the risk of sounding like a full-blown
relativist, it is also, frankly speaking, quite hard to stay factbased and “rational” when it comes to questions of tastes
and preferences.
A question beyond tastes and preferences, though, is
the environment. Tobacco plants are mostly grown in
monocultures and require massive use of water, largescale deforestation, and the over-use of pesticides, which
usually also tend to lead to contamination of the air and
water systems. In addition, a single cigarette contains
many harmful or even poisonous substances like tar and
nicotine. One littered cigarette has the potential to pollute
up to 50 liters (13.2 gallons) of groundwater.This is the
rough equivalent of flushing the toilet 8.25 times! When
confused for food, the butts pose a risk to wildlife (or in
the case of our campus, the bunny rabbits and concerningly
tame squirrels).
But what about e-cigarettes/e-vapes? They have been
advertised as a cleaner alternative to traditional cigarettes
and often do not even contain nicotine. But that does
not mean that they are less harmful to the body and the
environment. All e-cigarettes or vapes have a battery that
is needed to vaporize the liquid. These batteries are usually
lithium-ion batteries, meaning they contain rare earth
lithium. The same one that is needed for smartphones or
electric cars. Even if you do not care about the precarious
working conditions and breaches of environmental
laws under which lithium is mined, you should at least
consider what it means to throw away an e-cigarette. Most
e-cigarette batteries contain up to 0.15 grams of lithium.
In comparison, an average cell phone battery contains 2-3
grams of lithium. This means that the lithium used in 1320 disposable e-cigarettes is equal to one cell phone battery.
This is alarming since lithium is becoming increasingly rare
and is crucial to fuel the “green economy.” Most single-use
e-cigarettes have a battery that could technically be charged
but is just designed without a charging outlet. Additionally,
e-cigarettes are most often disposed of in nature or in
domestic waste, which, while more convenient than proper
recycling facilities, means that the lithium contained in
the batteries cannot be salvaged and reused. In the UK
alone, two disposable e-cigarettes are being thrown away
per second. This equals approximately 10 tons of lithium
ending up in landfills. This would be enough to make circa
1200 electric car batteries.
Another aspect of Johnnie's smoking culture that must be
reckoned with is the fact that much time at St. John's is spent
leisurely in discussion, often around a table on the quad or
enjoying the sunshine around town. Situations like these
are where many Johnnie smokers got started and to this day
light up. So, how are the dangers of nicotine consumption
and the Great Books program related? Well first, why do
we read the so-called Great Books? This is most likely a
question that every single student in the 85-year-old history
of the “New Program” has asked themselves (maybe even
while smoking). Ultimately, the answer to this question is
unique to each person, but I am going to suggest to you the
conclusion that I have reached: I believe that the program
is supposed to have an effect on the “soul” of the students
and therefore have a lasting impact on their behavior, their
life, and their future. This, of course, does not mean that
the program automatically makes everyone a “good person”
(What does “good” even mean?!). Far from it. It should,
however, mean that everyone has a willingness to examine
and reevaluate their stances and engage in open-ended
conversations on all sorts of topics – including topics that
hit closer to home. This might be initially uncomfortable
but is in my opinion absolutely necessary.
I know that smoking is not a problem unique to this
campus and that the ignoring and breaking of rules
surrounding smoking could probably be applied to many
other things such as underage drinking or cannabis
consumption. The great books and this very expensive
liberal arts education seem, however, obsolete if we are
unable to synthesize what we do in class with what we do
outside of class. I think it would very much be in the spirit
of the program, as well as the college, if we could return
to having a conversation about controversial topics such
as recreational design and what kind of culture should be
conserved and celebrated at the college – and for what
reasons. I get people who haven’t chosen St. John’s just
because of the Great Books program but also because of
its size, social makeup, location, traditions, history, clubs,
tutor system, parties, and maybe even its student's affinities
for drugs, alcohol, and nicotine. But I don’t think that
critically examining dangerous traditions is going to send
any of us packing to any other Great Books program like
those at UChicago, Columbia, or Hillsdale.
In terms of protecting the environment, it would be
great if we could bring back ashtrays on campus. But in
case this is too much of a PR disaster for the college, I (and
the bunny rabbits) would be delighted if smokers could be
more mindful when it comes to cigarette waste and might
consider carrying a portable ashtray (Buy it on Amazon, if
you must…). And those few e-cigarette smokers, perhaps
consider getting refillable and rechargeable ones. The best
thing for the environment (apart from quitting) would be
the following: reduce your consumption. Don’t switch to
equally harmful alternatives. And don’t defend your harmful
addictions with the simple claim that smoking belongs to
the college, because the true core of the program is the texts
and the discussion-based learning, not the cigarettes.
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
19
�by El'ad Nichols-Kaufman '25
Representing Student Interest
{On the DC’s Role in Campus Community?}
The campus is once again embroiled in vigorous polity. The complaints about smoking are an easy example:
discourse on what is in the student interest, and what no one has the right to give others lung cancer, and the idea
the college administration, and the students, should do that the administration is somehow taking away freedom
about it. These arguments are not new, touching subjects by prohibiting smoking on much of campus is ridiculous.
both superficial, like the alcohol and smoking policy, and Complaints on the alcohol policy seem similar: like it or
serious, like accessibility, inclusion and environmental not, the drinking age in this country is 21, and the idea that
the administration’s compliance
impact. They have lost none of their
with this law, and thus not allowing
vigor in the past few years, reaching
free alcohol at parties or requiring
every corner of campus, from
IDs at New Years, is destroying
boisterous complaints in the dining
college culture is strange. Is our
hall to decorous discussion in SCI
polity so dependent that we cannot
forums, from tutor discussions to
function as a community of learners
administration conferences, and
without free alcohol? Likewise, the
even to the much reviled Delegate
idea that Mellon’s renovations or
Council.
school sponsored extracurriculars
In the last issue, Junior Delegate
are bad for campus culture seems to
Daniel Nathan published an
follow the same thread of thought.
article claiming that the Delegate
This thought, which lies at the core
Council, or DC, has been entirely
of Mr. Nathan’s essay, seems to stem
deaf to student discourse about
from the idea that any action of the
administrative changes over the past
administration creates a culture not
few years. The administration has
directly arising from the students,
overstepped itself, he argues, and
and thus destroys the “vibrancy of
its “presence threatens to drown
the discourse, along with the depths
out the freedom” of the campus. If
of meaning we find in each other
the DC listened to student interest,
they would stop the process Politics in an Oyster House, 1851; Fanoli after Woodville and within the texts.”
This is patently untrue. The
in which so-called “organic,
authentic culture is scrubbed and digitized,” and take administration’s actions all contribute to campus culture,
“responsibility to regain” some kind of “freedom.” This whether intentionally or not. If the administration allows
argument seems to be based on two assumptions that seem smoking on the quad, they are encouraging one kind of
rather problematic: one, that the current St. John’s culture culture, while if they prohibit it, they are building another.
is somehow inferior to what it has been in the past because Neither is more authentic, with more of a claim to “true
of the administration's actions, and second, that the current student interests.” These issues, while certainly contributing
Delegate Council has somehow been complicit in this. Not to how our community sees itself, are not an imposition
only are these assumptions problematic, but they also seem of values from above, but rather an example of how the
to overlook the real issues facing this campus, which the administration prompts, responds and reacts to ongoing
student discourse, and how our community sees itself in
DC and administration have failed to act on sufficiently.
I have only been at St. John’s for a little over one full year, light of these decisions.
The DC has been very engaged with these issues in the
and so I suppose I am one of “those that came after” and
thus cannot properly understand St. John’s, but I find many past few years. I remember budget hearings derailed for up
of the protestations against the “slights to the intangible” to an hour over arguments about what the administration
that the administration has supposedly been using to squash really means with the new alcohol policies, or what we can
student freedom silly, and frankly, to be distractions to do about their limitations on parties or open mics, and
issues that more directly affect our lives as members of the even some discussion of free donuts. Our members are
20
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
�{Student Opinion}
students, who have the same concerns
as any other students, and participate in
the same discussions and arguments. The
problem with the way the DC operates is
not the lack of discussion on issues that
students care about, but rather the lack
of meaningful action on the issues that
actually impact the polity most.
A good example of this is the problems
with accessibility on campus. Most of
the buildings on campus are not ADA
accessible, and those that are have other
practical obstacles to mobility. I’ve often
heard students complaining about these
problems, and the lack of administrative
action on them. In a recent interview with
members of the administration, I heard
that there are many conversations on the
topic, but not much immediate, concrete
action planned due to a lack of funds and
an ignorance of what practical steps can
be taken. This is a place where the DC can
truly take responsibility. I hope to lead an
effort to reach out to people with mobility
issues, identify the specific difficulties
with each building, and reach out to the
administration with specific and detailed
requests for practical, actionable changes,
rather than vague declarations on the loss
of campus culture.
This kind of practical action is necessary
if the DC wants to make itself more
than the glorified budget committee it is
currently known as. The DC has taken
actions on the things that really matter
to students, both small and large, before,
like President Tom Ni’s effort to keep
gender neutral bathrooms in Mellon, and
needs to do more of this to truly take up
a positive role in campus discourse. There
are so many issues facing the campus,
from the aforementioned accessibility
issues to those of inclusion and equity,
to changes made to the program, or the
lack of housing on campus, which could
be addressed with a more action minded,
and community aware, Delegate Council.
This is the kind of real change we need
to see on the DC, which only needs a bit
more commitment from its members to
be realized.
What St. John's Makes Me Do
by Naina Wagh '24
St John’s is making me such a
brilliant sophist! Not only can I lie to
others, but even to myself to serve my
end. I’m not sure what that end is. I
came to desire to seek truth, but now
I seek the appearance of seeking truth.
I think if my desire remained honest,
I wouldn’t mind seeming foolish to
others, as long as I held the belief that
I was succeeding in finding something
true. But that desire has been altered,
partly because every new text I read,
I use to understand myself and partly
because I am surrounded by people
who have that same desire for truth.
As much as we claim that St. John’s is
a bubble—marching to the beat of its
own drum—it is merely a reflection of
the “real world” the college sets itself
apart from.
Hypocrisy festers in the ideals of “no
competition” and self-containment.
I find myself in a competition to be
noticed by my tutors and peers. There
are no grades or exams to quantify my
worth, but the very public displays
of engagement with the texts still
require me to compete. When I
make a clever remark I will think, “I
am better than you—expressing my
thoughts is sufficient, because to be
humble is to be wise.” I enjoy the silent
agreement of my peers and tutors. I
spend hours trying to understand that
Euclid proposition, rejoicing in the
pleasure that thinking brings to me.
I distinguish myself from anyone else
who doesn’t enjoy Euclid as much as I
do.
In glorifying the Program as the
means to seek truth, I realize that
I have learnt not to fully disagree
with the authors I dislike. Aristotle.
Aquinas. I suppose it is good that I
have developed that sense of looking at a
text objectively. When I read over and over
again how women are inferior, I put my
womanhood aside to fully “understand”
what is being said. I engage with or simply
don’t respond to bigoted opinions in
order to seem objective. I explore whether
emotions are more superior to rationality
while setting my emotions aside. I suppress
my rage and sometimes even forget that it
is there.
I cannot wholeheartedly invest myself in
any one aspect of St. John’s—mathematics,
study of language, theology, etc. I only
learn enough to slowly develop a personal
language with which I comprehend
myself and categorize my small world into
universals and specifics. I like to think that
with each year I am changing for the better,
learning better to seek truth—but that one
kid I found annoying during Freshman year,
I still find annoying in Junior year. I attribute
growth only to myself. I am a liar. You are a
hypocrite. Maybe we are both ugly. Maybe
all this truth seeking is self-flattering. After
all, “I seek truth” is a pretty bold claim,
especially when making it to oneself.
The Devil's Darling by Thomas Rowlandson
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
21
�{the chiton}
Breaking Down the Archetypes of Johnnie Men’s Fashion
(and their implications)
Kai Gyorki
I am a firm believer that what you wear tends to be a pretty good indicator of who you are. As we get dressed for seminar
we beg the question, ‘am I the kind of person who will wear a Lil Peep national tour t-shirt from 2017 in front of Mr.
Schulman?’ The answer alone can say a good deal about us. Naturally, as I looked around the quad I saw that mens fashion
at St. Johns tended to fall into camps. Not as simple as preppy, or jocks, no far more nuanced than that, and at the same
time maybe less nuanced as well. I spent the past week breaking down the major archetypes of Johnnie men’s fashion, and
categorizing what it may mean about the person wearing it.
The Dark Academia Johnnie
A preferred uniform of Johnnie men, they call it dark academia, I call it over priced vintage slacks with their dad's old
sweater. Throw some loafers on and he is ready to go and paint the town a muted gray! This brand of Johnnie can be seen
drinking black coffee, smoking pipe tobacco, and explaining Proust to a somewhat terrified freshman girl on the quad.
The High School Uniform Johnnie
I’m not sure if they decided that their Catholic boys' school uniform is the height of fashion, or if they just never thought
about it in the first place, but one thing I do know is that rain or shine, Monday morning or Friday night, this Johnnie will
be wearing a polo shirt and a choice between khaki shorts or pants. Do their boat shoes give them super speed? That can be
the only explanation for why they always beat you to class. They know Latin, they finished half the year's seminar readings
over the summer. Unfortunately they will probably use that as an excuse to talk over you in class. They can be found almost
nowhere except the dining hall, library, and in an argument next to the coffee station after seminar.
22
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
�The School Swag Johnnie
This Johnnie is constantly adorned in school merch. Drinking water? It's out of a school water bottle. Looking for
their keys? On a school key chain. Is it starting to get chilly? Don’t worry, he will offer you his SJC quarter zip. If he’s
an RA he’s a good one, he always comes to soccer games, and he will genuinely care about winning. He’s a bit weirded
out by Madea, and does not understand the appeal of poetry. He probably would have enjoyed state school more, but
somebody has to have school spirit. This Johnnie can be found drinking out of one of those fancy water bottles, and
going for a run.
The Suddenly Shirtless Johnnie
Why does this Johnnie exist? I do not have the answer to that. But he does, and I am not a fan. This Johnnie is a bone
chilling addition to the quad on Friday night at 11:45 pm. He can be found standing alone staring out at the field or if
he’s getting crazy, wrestling someone on the ground.
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
23
�The Ugh Johnnie
Maybe worse than any other Archetype listed, this Johnnie is one to be wary of. He can be identified
by his many layers, wide legged pants, the mismatched jewelry that he clearly does not take off in between
outfits, and occasionally, cracked nail polish that he absolutely asked a girl to do for him as a move of
seduction. If you see him at a party, RUN. He will undoubtedly try to get you to listen to Alex G with him.
He may seem like just any guy heading to mini, but there is something in his core that is rotten and scary.
Whatever you do, don't listen to his sound cloud, that’s how he gets you. He can be found walking to the
smoking area, drinking before his 1pm class, and being incredibly emotionally unintelligent.
The Suit to Class Johnnie
This Johnnie’s day to day wear includes a blazer. This archetype goes further than the precedence of
high school uniform Johnnie, there is something sinister here. He won’t just interrupt you in seminar, he is
here to destroy your ego in class, his goal is to be a constant reminder of your inferiority. His actual affect
however, is usually a reaction of mild annoyance. He knows all the dances at the waltz, he quotes readings
we will not study for another year. He can be found making a woman tear her hair out in frustration, talking
to tutors while they try to get to their cars, and I have to assume taking their suits to be dry cleaned.
24
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
�Tamar Pinsky
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
25
�{stargazing}
THIS MONTH IN HOROSCOPES—SEPT 2022
ARIES
Madame T
(March 21 - April 19)
pooky season is upon us, Aries. Time to pick a Halloween
costume. What will you be? There are endless options…
Will it be scantily clad Socrates or a raunchy Elizabeth
Bennet? Each layer of polyester brings with it a new
personality. The one you have on right now is working well,
but for Halloween you can really let loose. All those years
ago you left a trail of viscera out of Nebraska, but your new
face as a young philosophy major in Annapolis has thrown
everyone off your trail. Where once a full grown, grizzled
man with a body count of 19 stood, now stands a 20 year
old lad who has much to learn about the nature of things.
Isn’t it funny? This Halloween you can be an escaped lunatic
dressed as a Johnnie dressed as a gaping minion.
S
TAURUS
(April 20 - May 20)
leanse yourself. Drink the College Creek water.
Become pure.
C
GEMINI
LEO
( July 23 - Aug 22)
eware the creek this season, Leo, lest you encounter
nautical peril… The water is vast and cold. There
has never been something so uncaring as to whether
you live or die. The inky blackness is full of worms and
small fish (maybe even jellyfish?) Eventually you will
also be full of worms (again, maybe even jellyfish). This
acknowledgement of your watery grave does not change
the outcome, Leo. The water calls to you, an ancient beast
sings her songs to you, luring you in. You’ve managed to
fight it for this long, but she’s growing stronger- more
persuasive. She tells you such awful things, she’s lived
through mass extinction and she’ll do so again. You are
the only one who is aware of the countdown, Leo. She
won’t tell anyone else. Maybe it’s because she’s afraid,
maybe it’s because she likes to watch your panic. Let's
stay away from the creek for a while.
B
(May 21 - June 20)
You’re very lonely, Gemini. You feel very isolated in your
old age, the weather makes your joints ache. Your body feels
hollow and brittle. You sit outside and watch for storms in
your solitude. The newscasters and tornado warnings can’t
predict what's coming, not like you can. Maybe that’s why you
always end up feeling alone. This curse disguised as a blessing
drives people away. If you didn’t have to be cursed with the
ability to predict the weather maybe you’d have a family. Your
wife would come back, you could even play with your son
again. Damn that wizard and his monkey's paw dealings…
Maybe join some clubs, it’s a great way to meet new people.
CANCER
( June 21 - July 22)
omespun holidays ahead, Cancer! Your loved ones
might be overwhelmed by your seasonal needs but
fear not- a cocoon is just what you need to keep them close
and comfy- and you’re just the crafty crab to do it! As we
all know, your innate ability to shoot streams of silk from
a secret hole that all Cancers are born with will help you
make a perfect, snuggly swathe for your besties this fall.
It is a cheap, heartfelt gift that everyone is sure to love as
the temperature drops! Your gift will let you wrap up your
friends and family in a manner that will keep them very
cozy, and close to you, forever. And ever. And ever.
H
26
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
VIRGO
(Aug 23 - Sept 22)
ou’ve been waiting for Fall, Virgo. Finally, time for
sweaters. Finally you are safe in your shell, covered
from the ever critical eyes of your peers in a veneer of
cashmere and denim. Pick some apples, post pictures of
leaves, no one can judge your mandatory fun time when
you’re wearing your silly little boots. Everyone loves that
you enjoy things on a schedule. Everyone loves that you
try to force them onto this same arbitrary schedule. All
the warmth that everyone around you deprives you of
can be easily replicated by a $6 coffee drink.
Y
LIBRA
(Sept 23 - Oct 22)
appy Birthday, Libra. Finally, you get to be the
center of attention, and you don't even need to
publicly air your relationship drama. Isn’t it great to be
celebrated? At least at a surface level, you’re just now
starting to realize maybe you don’t like the attention…
Maybe having everyone think about you all the time isn’t
a good thing… The walls have eyes here, Libra. You are
so seen. You always have been. There are no secrets in a
300 year old building, the pipes groan under the weight
of your sins.
H
�SCORPIO
(Oct 23 - Nov 21)
hus ends your Hot Girl Summer, Scorpio. That’s ok,
though. You’re versatile, you’re adaptable and hot
and full of good things. Finally, time for Witchy Woman
Winter. You’ll peak here, after all, goth is trendy now. We
won’t mention that you bullied all the alternative kids in
your high school, that’s behind you. Besides, you helped
them build character. Right now your Amazon™ fishnets
overlaid with a Shein top embossed with the logo of
famous goth band ‘AC/DC’ is the talk of the town.
T
SAGITTARIUS
(Nov 22 - Dec 21)
he stars tell me you’ll be meeting your dream woman
soon, Sag! She’s a strong feminine energy (maybe
a water sign?) Based on the positioning of Venus, this
will be a great romance, full of wonder and adoration.
Mars’ position relative to Saturn dictates that she’ll be
at least 7 feet tall, with great leathery wings spanning
about 9” across. Her cloven hooves alert small mammals
to her presence, and though they may try to run, they’ll
never be faster than her. Her empty goat-like eyes are as
hypnotic as her teeth are dull, but don’t be fooled, she has
a hell of a bite. Many have met their end at her unhinged,
dangling jaw, even more have barely escaped to tell the
tale. Be open to meeting new people this month, Sag, you
don’t know when you’ll finally meet the Pine Baroness of
your dreams.
T
CAPRICORN
(Dec 22 - Jan 19)
he memories will fade soon, Capricorn. It won’t
always hurt, just for now. Eventually it will only
sting. When you’re reminded of it in the hum of a car
going past your window, or the color green. There is a
relief in knowing that wounds scar over with time. Just
don’t think too hard about the people who put them
there. Thinking too hard is what got you here. These bars
now hold you like she once did. Your patron smells this
month are buckwheat and gasoline. They remind you of
her, too. Everything seems to… At least she can walk free,
even if it means you’re due to ascend to the throne of
wood and wire. The brine drips into your eyes and down
your face before being absorbed by the fabric over your
face. They’ll flip the switch soon. An audience grows
around you. Finally, maybe in the clutch of the electricity
pumping through you, you’ll be able to forget it.
T
AQUARIUS
( Jan 20 - Feb 18)
s we settle into the new semester, you’re starting
to notice something is a bit off with your living
situation. Sure, your roommate is nice enough, you two
are friendly, but something about that boy they keep
bringing around just rubs you the wrong way. Maybe
it's the way that they lurk outside your dorm till one of
you lets him in, maybe it's his strong disdain for Italian
food (I mean who doesn’t like garlic bread?!?) It could be
something about how he treats your roommate… They
always tell you they had the most romantic date, moonlit
walks, picnics by the water, and archives of old poems
he's memorized. Who memorizes poems nowadays?
Your roommate always gets back at odd hours, right
before sunrise (despite you telling them MANY TIMES
that you have a 9am, and the precious bit of sleep you get
is not to be interrupted). And let's not ignore the hickeys
your roommate is always flaunting. Something about
that guy just really sucks.
A
PISCES
(Feb 19 - March 20)
he accident was years ago, Pisces. We’re all hoping
someday you’ll move on. Please move on, we can’t
continue with you in this state. We promise we won’t
forget you. We’ll see you in sunsets and in butterflies and
in rainbows or whatever the hell else Wikipedia says the
dearly departed appear to us as. Wikipedia didn’t mention
anything about this. There’s a reason you’re always cold to
the touch, Pisces. The trail of ectoplasm that drips from
your heels is becoming a real hazard. You appear to us only
in mirrors and bodies of shallow water, it’s getting more
and more difficult to communicate. This is our last effort,
the horoscope column of the school newspaper is our
last resort before we have to start talking to priests.. You
should really try talking through your unfinished business
with a friend or therapist.
T
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
27
�Polity Communications
Delegate Council Clarification Gadfly Corrections
The DC would like to clarify the reference to
'the missing $30,000 of allocated club funds' in the last
Gadfly issue in Mr. Briggs' article on the reform party.
DC had approved the full $80k in expenditures for Fall
2021. However, we only acquired the receipts for about
$50k of the $80k in expenses. Nonetheless, according
to the signed checks and bank statements, we could
account for $80k. However, about $30k did NOT have
physical receipts to back them up. But, because we had
the checks, we know who got paid and reimbursed, so
there was a trail. Most importantly, we can guarantee
that most of the money was spent by the clubs in the
interest of the students.
Grace Songeun (Delegate Council Treasurer) '24
A
Correction of the Editor's
Ignorance
Hey Craig, who did the finds from the archive thing?
It says they don't know why that tree is called the Liberty
tree and to write them if you know, but there's no name.
It's because it was the Annapolis Liberty Tree lol. Like
the Liberty Tree in Boston. The Maryland Chapter of
the Sons of Liberty met there before and during the
revolution. I have more info if need be.
Sarah Thyer '25
PS. I (Craig Koch) normally write the captions for
Finds, and I was happy to find out all I did about the
liberty tree from Ms. Perkins and Ms. Thyer. The usual
address to contact for anything related to the Gadfly is
sjca.gadfly@gmail.com, though you may also always
write me with any questions, corrections, or concerns
(cekoch@sjc.edu). The emails of the managing editors
may also be found below the table of contents on page 1
if you would like to contact them.
28
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
There was an error in the last issue of the
Gadfly. The photos on pages 5, 18, and 19 were the work
of Meliha Antony rather than Liz Dowdy, who was
properly credited for the cover and the photos on page
7. This was corrected in the pdf that was sent out, but
unfortunatley the error stands in the print edition. As
you'll see below, there was also an error in dating one of
the photos in Finds. My apologies for the mistakes.
Craig Koch '23
From an Alum
Here’s why it was called the Liberty Tree:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/pmextra/
oct99/25/pmliberty25.html. Graduations were held
under the tree so it had extra significance for St. John’s
students.
Regarding the bookstore, that picture is from the 70s,
not the 50s. My classmate, Mary-Hannah Jones, is seated
on the couch. She started with the class of 1977 but
graduated in 1978.
It was wonderful to see our class picture featured in the
Gadfly. A bunch of us were on campus this past weekend
for our 45th reunion, and we haven’t changed a bit.
Julie Perkins '77
�Danielle Lico, Norma Demleitner, and Joe Macfarland celebrate the opening of the health center, photo by
Meliha Anthony '25
The beloved Arcadia, photographed by Ruby Miller '23
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
29
�THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
OF
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
Founded in 1980, the
Gadfly is the student
newsmagazine
distributed
to over
600 students,
faculty, staff, and alumni
of the Annapolis campus.
Opinions expressed within
are the responsibility of
the author(s). The Gadfly
reserves the right to accept,
reject, and edit submissions
in any way necessary to
publish
a
professional,
informative, and thought
provoking
newsmagazine.
The Poet Virgil in a Basket by Lucas van Leyden
P
hoto details (From top left to the bottom right):
Students Barrel Rolling on Back Campus during
the First Real Olympics, 1951; Evan G. Canter, Eugene
E. Wise III, Thomas E. Wischer, and Students Playing
a Game of Tug of War during Reality, 1982; Barbara
Oosterhout, Sarah Covington (Crooke), and Students
Playing a Game of Tug of War on Back Campus during
the First Real Olympics, 1951; A [St. John's College]
Women's Basketball Game with the United States Naval
Academy, n.d.
30
the Gadfly / Sept 22, 2022
Submissions sent to the Gadfly
should either be in Google
Docs or JPEG format. The
deadline for submissions is the
Friday prior to publication.
For
more
information,
contact us via email at
sjca .g adfly@gmail.com
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
�
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The Gadfly, Vol. XLIV, Issue 3
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Gadfly Vol XLIV Issue 3
Gadfly
Student publication
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https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/15a964652357ea4ed1688e815fb032eb.pdf
ab8b00721328206278e2cf8abb6e99c2
PDF Text
Text
St. John’s College
Vol. XLIV, Issue 2
the Gadfly
Annapolis, Maryland
Sept 22, 2022
�CONTENTS
From the Editor’s Desk:
Dear Polity,
Logos
Interview with Rachel Fleming
All College Seminar
The Reform Party
The Achilles Rager
Finds From the Archives
Symposium
Thinking Straight
Pride in Coriolanus
St. John's Heritage
Polis
Delegate Council and Its Discontents
September Horoscopes
Film Review
Seminar Fashion
Polity Communications
3
5
6
7
8
10
12
16
18
20
22
24
27
THE STRUCTURE
Logos typically holds news reports and
narratives of immediate relevance to the
Polity. The purpose here is to develop a shared
reservoir of information relating to campus life
and the community. The Managing Editor for
Logos is El'ad Nichols-Kaufman. His email is
eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu
Symposium offers the opportunity for our
readers to thoughtfully consider contrasting
opinions regarding a particular topic. The
Managing Editor for Symposium is Luke Briner.
His email is lbriner@sjc.edu
Polis serves as a platform for elevating voices
in our community. Here we find letters to
the editor, columns, cartoons, and submitted
pieces. The Managing Editor for Polis is Daniel
Nathan. His email is djnathan@sjc.edu
THE COVER
Photo of Christopher Turney, taken by Liz Dowdy
2
the
Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
In this issue you’ll find an interview with the new athletic director
Ms. Fleming, a report on the SCI’s first all-college seminar (which
I hope you all attended), a mysterious message from the “reform
party,” a fascinating and helpful “reflection on the notion of straightness” by Mr. Gu, a consideration of Shakespeare's Coriolanus, a
reflection on Homer and family history, a movie review of The Man
Who Killed Don Quixote, a horoscope (if this offends your sensibilities, as it partially does mine, I encourage you to attend the observatory whenever it is open next and to write in about what the stars
seem to be saying to you), the long awaited seminar fashion article,
and a colorful reflection on the nature and purpose of the Delegate
council by the newly elected Daniel Nathan. There are also two original comics, one by Cassie Desmond and the other by Tamar Pinsky.
It’s quite the packed issue, and I’m happy to share it with all of you.
Don’t forget to write in with any questions, thoughts, communications, or submissions that you might have. The best way to reach
us is by email: either at sjca.gadfly@gmail.com or at my own email
(cekoch@sjc.edu). Submissions for the next issue should be in no
later than the 1st of October, though earlier is much better.
Sincerely,
Craig Koch
THE STAFF
Audrey Fox
Cooper Ussery
Craig Koch
Daniel Nathan
El'ad Nichols-Kaufman
Helen Wagner
Isa Kiedrowski
Jenna Lee
Liz Dowdy
Luke Briner
Meliha Anthony
SUBMISSIONS
Caleb Briggs
Cassie Desmond
Gabriel Hess
Jack Webb
Madame T
Ranger Kasdorf
Sachin Stanislaus
Sarah Lieberman
Tamar Pinsky
�{student life}
Interview with Rachel Fleming
Rachel Fleming is the new Athletics Coordinator at St. John's Annapolis campus
by El'ad Nichols-Kaufman '25
How does it feel to come into this
kind of administrative role, being
the athletic coordinator, after having
graduated from Saint John's? What
does coming back to campus feel
like?
In my first few days coming back
and starting to see the students on
campus, even though their faces
were unfamiliar, they still had the
familiarity of Johnnies, and it really
felt like being back at home. Every
corner I would turn around, there
would be something that would make
me feel a lot of joy.
I think one thing that's really made
me have that perspective, is that
during the pandemic, I took a hard
reassessment of what I wanted to do,
in terms of career. The pandemic really
made me think about who I wanted to
be surrounded by, and what I wanted
most for myself and my family. What
it came down to was community, and
I can't think of any better community
than this one.
What's been going on in your first
few weeks? What have you been
working on during the transition
into this role?
Well, there's a lot of time spent
setting up my computer. I’m assessing
inventory; things that we have, what is
still the same?
I think making connections with
the students, with young alumni is
really important, as well as with our
volunteer coaches, coaches that are
important to our teams. [I’ve been]
working on those relationships and
keeping them strong and healthy. I
was reaching out to a lot of them and
making sure that they knew who I was
and that whatever they needed, I could
help them with.
Then there's a lot of administrative
stuff: setting up gym assistance and
the management of the different
sports leagues. There's more that goes
into that than you would really expect.
For students like me who might
only see you being a referee at soccer
games, could you explain what a day
at your work looks like now?
It's interesting because I think [my
work] kind of relates to the many
different bosses that I have. On the
one hand, I have my administrative
hat: I'm trying to liaison for the
administration and make sure that
we're able to adhere to guidelines that
they have and understand exactly
what the makeup and relationship is
between, say, the athletic budget and
overall administration.
There's also meetings where I’m
working with advancement or donors
and things like that to build programs,
and then there's communications for
all those marketing things that we put
out, as well as admissions.
There are a lot of different little
things, but the thing that I'm most
happy about is that every half an
hour to 45 minutes some student will
step into this office. They just plop
themselves down on the couch and be
like, “So, how's it going?”
We always just have a very lovely
conversation and I might ask them
about class, they might tell me about
Hegel, or they might talk about their
Don Quijote seminar. To me it's just
so satisfying that I get those little
interruptions through my day. That's
one of the reasons I think why it’s just
so nice to be back here, I think the
students are the best part.
the
What are your ideas for the athletic
program? What kind of traditions
are you planning to preserve and
build? Do you have any plans you’re
working on?
The one thing that I will strongly
adhere to is the intramural program.
The intramural program runs itself. It
is a well-oiled machine at this point,
and I have been just so impressed
by the captains’ diligence, by their
leadership and knowledge of the
student body and what it takes to
come out to a game and understanding
what it's like to be a freshman coming
to the campus. That's not just coming
out to a sport, it's becoming part of the
community. So that's one thing that I
want to maintain.
I'd say I aspire to increase our
participation. I would love to see more
women and non-cisgender students
come out to play sports for the
intermurals with co-ed teams.
I want to see more participation in
terms of them being the ones on the
field at the end of that game when it's
close and tied. I want to see more of
the spirit of the Coed league.
And that’s just for intramurals,
because I have to take a step back
and remember that I'm not just the
intramural person, I’m the athletic
coordinator, and I'm the head of the
athletic department, so I can't just be
thinking about that one program. I
have to think about the whole picture.
One of the ways that I really want
to bring that into focus is that I want
to increase Kunai participation. It.
Kunai has the unique ability to bring
out players, people who don't mind
goofing off a little bit, but also don't
mind kind of leaving it all in the field
as well, even if it might feel like a silly
Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
3
�thing to do. It has this ability to allow
the people who play to be competitive
and also have a really good time.
I really enjoyed the first practice
that we had. One of the changes that
I made was that I asked my sister, Ms.
Lasell, to come join us because she has
a lot of soccer experience. So, our first
practice/scrimmage was focused on
learning the skills for 20 minutes or
so, and then we scrimmaged. I think
it's that ability that kunai has to slow
things down a little bit, and not throw
people into a game immediately.
Kunai has this ability to say hey, we
can stop and we can take a different
path for learning. I think it's really nice
that the captains that are in charge of
Kunai right now are really thinking
about the people that are coming out
that maybe are a little nervous to come
to Intermurals, or they want a space
where they can kind of be goofy easily,
or they are just really wanting at the end
of the day to walk off that field and feel
really good about what just happened.
I think that's one of the things that I
really would love to encourage and
make sure it grows and becomes more
fruitful, and that we get more freshmen
out in that environment because it's its
own community.
The other thing that I'm overseeing
is our historical sports that we
compete in. Crew and sailing, croquet
and fencing, those are also part of my
oversight. I want to hone in on those
as the sports that have us go places. It's
not just about competing, it's about the
process over the entire semester of the
season of preparing yourself for that
race. I want to revisit that as a person
because it's been a while since I've been
in that environment and remember
why those things are so good to have,
especially as part of the Saint John’s
program. That's something that I
would never want to take away from a
student, and I want to make sure that
everyone understands that they have
4
the
the opportunity to do that.
Listening to the students is really
important for me, having been a
student itself. Really thinking about
how to help individuals in terms of
their reasons for maybe being shy to
come up sports or being shy to come
to the gym and trying to reach more
people in that way.
My next question is a little bit of a
cliched one, but I like asking anyway
because I think it's one of the things
that I find most interesting about our
athletic program is that there is this
sense that it is strongly enmeshed
with the academic program. I would
like to ask what you think the nature
of that connection is and why it's so
important for Saint Johns to have
the kind of driving athletic program
it does?
People talk about the classroom as
a collaborative environment where
you're creating ideas and you're
building on this idea and you're coming
to this intangible thing that you've sort
of collected upon, and the athletic
program is absolutely reflective of
that. Both in its structural integrity
and that we as a community and you
as students have built something
so cohesive. Through agreement,
disagreement through collaboration
and conversation have come to this
point. We know what we want as
students and as leaders we can provide
it for the incoming freshmen.
One thing that I always think about
when I think about athletics is why St.
John’s students make such awesome
athletes is that they're willing to take a
risk. They're willing to come out to a
game or try a new sport even though
they don't have prior experience.
They're willing to make mistakes
because in the classroom they've
already done that. They have that
experience of putting themselves out
there, putting an idea out there, going
Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
up to the board and demonstrating a
proposition, even though they're not
quite sure of the ending or how it really
works. That vulnerability makes a
wonderful athlete. That's why we have
such a great participation rate in our
athletic program. So really, I think it's
the St. John's academic program that
actually makes the athletic program so
great.
What would you like to share with
Johnnies about yourself, and about
your vision for the athletic program
as you start in this position?
I would say one final thing about
myself. I spent six years as a stay-athome parent full time. That’s the
hardest job, and you really see just
how much work goes into having a
child grow from a baby to a child to an
adult. When I see the freshmen arrive
at campus I realize just how much
work their parents put into them
getting there, how much work that
they probably put into getting there,
and to make their parents proud.
But what I really want to see is them
trying to make themselves proud, and
St. John’s with a great place to start.
You don't have to do specific things
that people are asking you to do.
You can really just ask yourself: what
do I like to do, what am I interested
in? What really speaks to me in the
program? You might surprise yourself.
The other thing that I've thought
about alot as a person going through
life and having life’s challenges happen
is that it's really important you realize
you're going to make mistakes. The
best word of advice I got when I was
applying for this job was from Leo
Pickens, who was the athletic director
when I was a student and he said, “I
made every mistake in book.”
That, to me, was probably the best
thing a mentor could have said, as
someone who had such a long span of
leadership at school. It really allowed
�me to think, “hey, OK, it's OK to do
that.” I think that's something I've
really brought to this job because I
know that I will also make a lot of
mistakes. I'm going to try my hardest
not to, but it doesn't always result in
the best outcome.
I think it's important, when you
see someone come out on the athletic
field or at the gym and they're trying
to make a shot and they miss over and
over again, to congratulate them on
trying, on being able to let themselves
do that, allowing that vulnerability
and coming out and not being afraid
of missing half their shots, missing all
their shots, but just trying.
Just sort of that ability to take
chances, to give it a go, it's something
I really, really want to get across to the
students. Especially now, after this
pandemic has happened. There’s a sort
of feeling, If I do something wrong, is
everything going to blow up? What's
going to happen? I just want students
to know it’s OK. It's OK to try things.
{student life}
SCI hosts first All College Seminar
of the year
An opportunity to learn like none other
by El'ad Nichols-Kaufman '25
A
beloved St. John’s tradition has
returned to Annapolis this fall.
On Friday, September 9, the Student
Committee on Instruction, or SCI,
hosted their first All College Seminar
of the year, on Chekov’s “House with
a Mezzanine.” This unique St. John’s
event, which fills in for a Friday night
lecture a few times every semester, is
a unique opportunity for students of
all classes, tutors, and members of the
administration to gather together to
discuss a great work.
Ella Harel, one of the archons of the
SCI, explained that after a pause on the
seminars in 2020 and 2021, the return
of the tradition feels significant. “In my
freshman year, all the college seminars
were really formative, because it was
so helpful for me to have the example
of the upperclassmen. I also think it’s
such a beautiful display of community,
everybody comes together, irrespective
of what class they’re in, or if they’re
faculty. It’s such a nice gesture of
communal learning.”
Several freshmen attending the
seminar also had a chance to learn
from upperclassmen and tutors. “It
was super informative, and a good
reference. It was fun to see how people
who’ve been at St. John’s longer really
talk with each other,” said Sidney
Solomon. “There was a lot more
silence.”
Sasha Peterson agreed. “People
thought a lot more about what they
were going to say, so there wasn’t
much repetition, and we made a lot of
progress in understanding."
Although the most important
element to these forums is polity
participation, the choice of the text
matters too. Harel explained that
“usually the members of the SCI will
all throw something out. I suggested a
poem, and another person suggested a
Chekov poem, and then we just have
a conversation. All the works that are
suggested are always super interesting.
There’s also considerations about the
formatting of the all college seminar.
We only have an hour and fifteen
minutes, and we also want to keep
the reading on the shorter side, since
people have so much homework to do.
I think what we look for is a shorter
source that is packed with things to
discuss.”
Chris Turney, a member of the SCI,
summarized the importance of the
seminars succinctly. “You get to talk to
underclassmen and tutors alike. It gives
you a sense of the greater community
outside the “daily grind,” so to speak.
There’s something big here, and great.”
The SCI celebrates a successful All College
Seminar
the
Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
5
�{student life}
A new party aims for change
The face of change at St. John's College
by Caleb Briggs '25
Mr. Joshua Bozorth (A25), the official ‘face of
Reform’
O
n September 2nd, the polity
held its annual Delegate
Council elections for sophomores and
upperclassmen. Our elections have
long been non-partisan affairs that boil
down to little more than voting for
those candidates with the best name
recognition. This, however, may be
on its way out as a new intra-campus
political party, the Reform Party, has
taken root in the sophomore class. On
September 2nd, in an uncontested
election, the Reform Party won 50
percent of the seats for Sophomore
Delegates. Mssrs. Alexander Paden
and El’ad Nichols-Kaufman both
won handily in Friday's election. Mss.
Helen Felbek and Rylee Bain won the
other two seats. Felbek signaled her
support for the Party’s platform, while
Bain declined to comment. Outgoing
Delegate Mr. Jackson Green is also
known to support the Reform Party.
But what is the platform that the
6
the
Reform Party runs on? “Reform” is the
resounding answer given by Chairman
Peter Quinn of the Reform Party.
When pressed, he did elaborate slightly
by saying, “reform and change.” When
asked “why this ambiguity?”, Quinn
insists it is nuanced and that it fits in
with the Reform Party’s desire to be
the party of change.
Further prodding for concrete
details revealed that the Reform Party
aims to change the Delegate Council's
structure by redistributing powers
among the officers of the D.C. to
streamline the bureaucracy. Paden also
expressed the wish to “implement a
note of [Reform] Party members [on
the ballot] so people can vote down
the ballot in future elections.” Fellow
Reform member Nichols-Kaufman
suggested a “party song” for the
coming campaigns and rallies.
Anger also seems to be a reason for
the party's success. “Aren’t you angry?
Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
Don’t you want change? Vote Reform!”
was the campaign call of Paden
before his victory on Friday. Indeed,
both he and Nichols-Kaufman have
expressed frustration with the D.C.’s
slow legislative pace and the ongoing
mystery of the missing $30,000 in
allocated club funds. Whether their
calls for change will be heeded remains
to be seen. While the party has done
well among sophomores, they have
only garnered 13 percent of the seats
on the D.C. Thus, the passage of their
agenda will rely on their success in
caucusing.
The party’s success leaves many
wondering about numbers. As
evidenced by Quinn’s statement,
it appears there is no record of the
number of members within the party:
“Membership is a fickle thing. Our
ranks grow hourly. What matters
is that our people turn out to vote.”
When asked further if he had actual
numbers, he declined to elaborate.
The future of the Reform Party
remains murky as it is hard to pin
down exact levels of support, and if
they have much of a plan outside of
their calls for “reform and change.”
Perhaps the Reform Party is a new face
of the non-partisanship that has long
been a staple of our political system at
St. John’s. Everyone wants change for
the better and without those pesky
details regarding how to enact it, the
Reform Party looks very attractive.
�{campus events}
The Achilles Rager
photos by Liz Dowdy '23
the
Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
7
�Finds from
the Archives
Liberty Tree
-1999
A tall tree outside the Barr-Buchanan
center that used to occupy a large area
of front campus. It was sadly torn down
in 1999 by Hurricane Floyd. I have
been unable to find why it was called
the liberty tree (though it is consistently
referred to as such)—if you happen to
know, please write in.
Student Seated on Couch
Reading "Newsweek" in
the College Bookstore
A look into the bookstore as it stood in
the 1950’s. Leather chairs, a comfortable
couch, modernist coffee tables and what
feels like twice as much space. I hear that
the chess club has been petitioning for
the chess board to return.
8
the
Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
�Portrait of the St. John's College Class of 1977
1977
The 70’s were far out, but they need not be far away. In this image we see the class of
'77 pose together. How is the graduating class of this year? How is it different? Can
you spot anyone in the photo who reminds you of a current student?
T
his week's Finds are brought to you by senior Sachin
Stanislaus. Everyone give it up for Sachin! Speaking
of giving up things you found, does anyone know if they
found the life-size cardboard cutouts that went missing
from Randall? Let us know!
Friday Night Lectures
Sophomore
God and Ostrich's: Queer Birds in the Book of Job, Ron Haflidson,
2020, Annapolis
Junior
The Problem of Absolute Knowing, Abraham Greenstine, 2015,
Annapolis
Freshman
The Virtue of Recollection in Plato's Meno, Peter Kalkavage, 2015, St.
Michael's College
Senior
The (Plato's) Cave, and the cave beneath the cave, in Hegel's
Phenomenology of spirit, Jonathon Hand, 2014, Annapolis
Reading Plato's Meno Online, William Braithwaite, 2020, Graduate
Institute Summer Lecture Series
The Pursuit of Happiness: Four French Thinkers on Our Restless
Quest for Contentment, Benjamin Storey, 2019
the
Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
9
�Thinking Straight
A Reflection on the Notion of Straightness
and Postulate 4 in Euclid's Elements
Lijun Gu
M
any of us are surprised and unsettled when we see
in Lobachevsky’s geometry that two straight lines
can asymptotically approach each other while remaining
parallel. It seems to violate two fundamental notions that
we have taken for granted: straightness and parallelism.
Lobachevsky has demonstrated that the latter is closely
intertwined with a postulate. The question now is: what
about the former? Can the notion of straightness stand on
itself, or does it also depend on a postulate? These questions
are the subject of this short essay.
Let us start with the concept of perpendicularity and ask
the following question: when two straight lines meet and
make adjacent angles, what are the possibilities in terms
of the angle amount? Three possibilities, among others,
readily present themselves.
1. two equal adjacent angles
2. two unequal adjacent angles that add up to two right
angles
3. two adjacent angles, equal or not, that do not appear
to add up to two right angles from a certain privileged
view
will make either two right angles or angles equal to two
right angles.”
Now the question is: what about Possibility (3)? At the
first glance, the very formulation itself seems strange, for,
did we not just cite Proposition 13, which states that when
two straight lines meet, they will form angles that are either
two right angles, or equal to two right angles? Wouldn’t
this conclusion automatically rule out Possibility (3)?
Yet, this possibility is precisely what Postulate 4, which
states that “All right angles are equal,” is hinting at. Since a
postulate is a request, one is free to either accept or reject it.
If we choose the latter, then we are left with the possibility
that not all right angles are equal, some may be greater or
smaller than others, even though they are all right. We
will illustrate the implications of this rejection with the
following figure:
Of these, Possibility (1) appears as a definition, namely
Def. 10, which states:
“When(ever) a straight line set up on a straight line makes
the adjacent angles equal to one another, each of the equal
angles is right, and the straight line standing on the other is
called a perpendicular to that on which it stands.”
Possibility (2) is demonstrated in I:13, which states:
“If a straight line set up on a straight line make angles, it
10
the
Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
In the above figure, all lines are straight lines as defined
in Definition 4. Then, according to Proposition 13, the
angles at B add up to two right angles, and so too do the
angles at C. However, if we reject Postulate 4, then we’ll be
left with the possibility that the “two right angle” amount
�at C could be unequal to the “two right angle” amount at
B. Therefore, to a person at B (the privileged view), even
though the angles at C are called right angles, they might be
greater than the right angles at his location, namely those at
B. The same holds true for a person at C if we make his view
the privileged one. To him, even though the two angles at
B are called right angles, they might appear to be smaller
than the two right angles at his location, namely those at
C. Hence, we can see that without Postulate 4, we might
end up with a situation where even though the intersection
of straight lines makes adjacent angles equal to two right
angles, these right angles might appear from a privileged
view to be unequal to other right angles produced by the
same process. The apparent absurdity of Possibility (3),
therefore, disappears.
Now we introduce Proposition 14, which states:
If with any straight line, and at a point on it, two straight
lines not lying on the same side make the sum of the adjacent
angles equal to two right angles, then the two straight lines
are in a straight line with one another.
If we use the same figure, this proposition can be
summarized as the following: if line segments BC and CE
make angles equal to two right angles with CD at C, then
BC and CE will be in the same straight line. Similarly, if
FB and BC form angles that are equal to two right angles
with AB at B, then FB and BC will also be in the same
straight line. To put it differently, the straight line FE
won’t bend at B or C. This is the converse of Proposition
13 and it connects an angle amount (two right angles) to
straightness. Following this proposition, we will now apply
the same connection to what is said on the previous page.
Since to the person at B, the “two right angles” at C appear
to be greater than the two right angles at his location, we
can assert, based on the above proposition, that the line at
C does not appear to be straight to him. Similarly, to the
person at C, the line at B does not appear to be straight to
him since the angles there appear to be smaller than two
right angles at his own location. The straight line FE will
then bend at B or C, depending on which view is privileged.
This assertion holds true even though both A and B can
each simultaneously claim that the line is perfectly straight
at their own respective locations, and rightly so.
From this we can draw the following conclusion:
The straightness of a straight line cannot be readily
considered universal.
It is merely a local phenomenon.
To put the above in a slightly different way: the universal
characteristic of straightness of a straight line is merely the
result of a postulate. In other words, that a straight line
is straight along the entirety of its length is true only if we
accept the postulate that all right angles are equal.
This, of course, is a rather surprising conclusion and has
far reaching implications. For example, if straightness is a
local phenomenon, then how many straight lines can one
draw from a given point to a given point? If one can no
longer be certain about that, it leaves open the possibility
that between two points, multiple straight lines can be
drawn. If this is the case, what happens to the "two straight
lines with the same extremities cannot enclose a space,"
which underpins the validity of Proposition 4 of Book I of
the Elements? If Postulate 4 plays such an important role
in this early part of the Elements, can one still claim that
the first 28 propositions of the book belong to the absolute
geometry?
Even if we leave aside these implications, the strange
conclusion itself feels offensive to us. After all, if the lines
that form these angles are straight lines, will the straightness
of these lines itself not guarantee that all the right angles
they form are equal, regardless where they are? To translate
this into a more formal formulation, shouldn’t the being
of straight lines (the “lying evenly/equally”) and their
mutual interactions (the inclinations) be consistent with
each other? In other words, shouldn’t a straight line’s “lying
equally” lead to its “inclining equally” toward another such
line? And since equality is a universal concept and does not
vary according to locations, wouldn’t it be reasonable for
us to expect that the former equality (equality of the lying)
should universally lead to the latter equality (equality of the
inclining)? It is this type of reasoning which often makes
us feel that we are entitled to the following two statements:
that straight lines form right angles universally, and that
right angles generate straightness universally. Now, however,
the
Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
11
�we have come to see that it is not necessarily the case. The
“lying equally” does not necessarily lead to the “inclining
equally” because without a postulate, the “lie equally” itself
becomes a problem. To put it differently, underneath the
“lying evenly” lies a postulate.
This conclusion seems to be validated by the strange way
in which Proposition 14 is formulated. For, Euclid could
have simply said “If two lines intersect each other making
two adjacent angles equal to two right angles, the two lines
will be straight.” However, such an enunciation would grant
straightness to the lines universally. It is perhaps telling that
Euclid instead chooses a formulation which directs our
attention to what happens at a point, namely the location
at which the right angles are formed.
In his Theory of Parallels, Lobachevski demonstrates in
Proposition 17 that a straight line maintains its parallelism
at all its points. The implication of this proposition is that
the universal characteristic of parallelism can no longer be
taken for granted without Postulate 5. His Proposition
16 only shows parallelism at one point, namely point
A. Whether the rest of line AH is parallel to DC is not
certain. It has to be demonstrated. Our discussions here
show that similar things happen to straightness and its own
relationship to a postulate. For, just as parallelism loses the
certainty of its universal characteristic without Postulate 5,
so too does straightness the certainty of its own universal
characteristic without Postulate 4.
This close connection between parallelism and
straightness should not surprise anyone. For, our discussion
starts from the being of straight lines and proceeds to their
mutual interactions, whereas Lobachevski starts with the
interaction among such lines (cutting or non-cutting)
and proceeds to their being (they seem like curves). These
discussions are the converses of each other.
Composition (No. 1), detail
Piet Mondrian
12
the
Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
�Pride in Coriolanus
Luke Briner
A
mong all of Shakespeare’s tragedies, Coriolanus
has consistently been one of his lesser loved. This
may be due in no small part to the ethos of its main and
titular character, a Roman of distinguished blood and
spirit named Caius Marcius. Bestowed with the name
Coriolanus after spearheading a bloodily successful battle
against the tribe of Volsci at Corioli, he proceeds to embroil
himself in a bitter political clash with the Roman people
and their tribunes with a brusque imperiousness not seen
in Shakespeare’s other great tragic figures. Here we have
none of the melancholy, soliloquizing self-invention of
Hamlet, the half-mad desperation and heartbreaking
self-destruction of Lear, or the metaphysically meditated
ambition and amor fati of Macbeth, but only the frank
and inflexible conviction of a pedigreed patrician born and
bred for the field of battle and filled with disdain for the
common people. It’s precisely this character which all of
Coriolanus’ enemies, and even some of his friends, cannot
help but call “proud” throughout the play, and it’s also this
“pride” that serves as the basis and catalyst of its tragedy.
What’s the precise nature of this “pride,” and, further, how
can we understand the way in which pride might shape the
narrative landscape of the play as a whole?
We’ll start by examining the ways in which Coriolanus
is described as proud throughout the narrative, and then
comparing and contrasting these with the actual behavior
and speech of Coriolanus himself. We can begin with the
opening scene, where we observe a revolutionary rabble of
Roman plebs, spurred on by an apparent food shortage,
airing their grievances against the patriciate in general and
against Coriolanus in particular:
Cit. 2. Consider you what services he has done for his
country?
Cit. 1. Very well; and could be content to give him good
report for’t, but that he pays himself with being proud.
Cit. 2. Nay, but speak not maliciously.
Cit. 1. I say unto you, what he hath done famously he
did it to that end: though soft-conscienced men can be
content to say it was for his country, he did it to please
his mother, and to be partly proud; which he is, even to
the altitude of virtue.
We can compare this directly with what the tribune
Sicinius Brutus remarks to Junius Brutus later in that same
scene:
Sic. Was ever a man so proud as is this Marcius?
Bru. He has no equal.
If we take these testimonies of Coriolanus’ character at
face value, then we should naturally expect him to be an
egotistical glory-seeker in spite of his competencies; and
this is certainly the view which the people and especially
their two tribunes maintain throughout the narrative. But
this idea of Coriolanus being pridxeful in the sense of being
vain or glory-seeking can be immediately dispelled by the
fact that he explicitly expresses his discomfort and even his
disgust at being praised or celebrated, and consistently acts
accordingly. When, for instance, he is breathlessly praised
by his fellow generals Cominius and Titus Lartius after the
battle at Corioli and is actually given the name Coriolanus
by them, he bluntly expresses his desire not to be celebrated:
Pray now, no more; my mother,
Who has a charter to extol her blood,
When she does praise me grieves me. I have done
As you have done,—that’s what I can; induc’d
As you have been—that’s for my country:
He that has but effected his good will
Hath overta’en mine act. (Act I, Scene 9)
Note how this runs directly contrary to what the citizen
claimed about him earlier concerning his attitude toward
his mother and country. Further, he displays the exact same
attitude when acclaimed by the Roman senate after his
return from the campaign, immediately getting up to walk
away as Cominius is again about to sing his martial praises,
the
Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
13
�and after remarking that “I had rather have my wounds to
heal again/Than hear say how I got them” (Act II, Scene 2).
It’s impossible on these grounds to maintain that
Coriolanus is in any way driven by a desire to preen his
ego with fame or praise, even that of those he genuinely
respects, much to the contrary of the “popular” view of him
throughout the narrative. It’s precisely this disregard for
esteem and disgust with flattery that allows us to understand
him as “proud” in a quite different way. Coriolanus comes
off as an almost perfect manifestation of Aristotelian
pride, or magnanimity, in that he “thinks himself worthy
of great things, being worthy of them” (Nicomachean
Ethics, 1023b1-3). He only believes himself to be superior
to others insofar as he actually is demonstrably superior
to others. This is the whole foundation of his conviction
that he shouldn’t have to humble himself on the streets
to the plebs of Rome in order to obtain the consulship
offered to him by the Senate. Being born to and educated
by the upper echelon of Roman nobility, and being such a
transcendently excellent warrior that not even his bitterest
enemies contest the fact, he reasons that he should simply
be able to assert, without any rhetorical games whatsoever,
his right to the position and obtain it accordingly. There
is, strictly speaking, no ambition in this pursuit to him; he
simply desires his “own desert” (Act II, Scene 3), and so he
only “claims what is in accordance with his merits, while the
others [vain or unduly humble people] go to excess or fall
short” (Nicomachean Ethics, 1123b12-14).
This magnanimous pride, moreover, is exactly the
thing which sustains and perpetuates the very excellence
which serves as the ground for his greatness throughout
the play. We cannot imagine, for instance, that he would
have achieved the incredible martial renown he did at
Corioli if he was not exactly the kind of person who would,
despising the cowardice of the common soldiery, break
out into indignant eloquence and charge in against the
enemy himself even as his men cower in fear (Act I, Scene
9). Further, his very disregard for the praise of others, and
his outright disgust with the praise of those he views as
unworthy, contributes to his character rather than takes
away from it. He does only what he believes to be proper
and right, regardless of the opinions of lesser souls: “honor
from casual people and on trifling grounds he will utterly
despise, since it is not this that he deserves, and dishonor
too, since in his case it cannot be just” (Nicomachean Ethics,
1124a10-13).
Is his disdain for the plebs and their tribunes not
understandable? These democratic forces throughout the
play are far from displaying nobility of character or loftiness
of intention; on the contrary, they consistently show
14
the
Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
themselves to be vindictive, ignorant, and unreasonable.
We’ve already mentioned that the common soldiery,
directly contradicting the orders of Coriolanus, abandoned
him to die alone within enemy walls. Further, it is they who,
inflamed by the incendiary and demonstrably insincere
rhetoric of their tribunes, retract the votes legitimately
given him by them for consul, and are thereafter whipped
into such a frenzy that they call for his death (Act III,
Scene 1). But “[w]hat,” we must ask with Coriolanus’ noble
friend Menenius, “has he done to Rome that’s worthy
death?” (Ibid) His chilly attitude toward the people
notwithstanding, he has done absolutely nothing deserving
of the slighest corporal punishment, let alone of being cast
into destruction from the Tarpeian rock; this is purely
the artifice of the tribunes, who are manifestly seen to act
out of malice and ambition. The feeble fickleness of these
plebs is even more glaringly seen after Coriolanus’ death
sentence has been converted to one of banishment, and
he has subsequently joined the Volsces in revenge against
Rome; it’s easy for us to imagine their look of glassy-eyed
vapidity as they, after their unanimous cries for banishment,
complain to each other thus:
Cit. 1. For mine own part, when I said banish him, I said
‘twas pity.
Cit. 2. And so did I.
Cit. 3. And so did I; and, to say the truth, so did very
many of us. (Act V, Scene 1)
In fact, we might in this sense consider the people
themselves to be the truly glaring example of vain pride
throughout the narrative. It’s they who, agitated by their
tribunes, conspire to oust Coriolanus for no other actual
reason than his lack of cringing, gushing submissiveness
toward them, and in spite of the fact that he is perhaps
the ablest person to lead in the entire country. Is this not
frivolous, self-sabotaging egotism, that unjustly banishes
such a manifestly competent man simply because they
aren’t as esteemed by him as they would like? A discerning
and modest citizenry, we might venture, would be able
to see past Coriolanus’ lack of warmth toward them, and
understand that it would still likely be in their best interest
to have someone as competent, strong-willed, and immune
to flattery as him leading them.
Coriolanus’ disdain for the plebs is then not baseless
aristocratic bigotry, but an entirely justifiable opinion given
his first-hand experiences with them. He disdains them
not simply because they are common, but only because they
have behaved deplorably toward him; in short, he judges
them not so much by their blood but by merit: “your
�people,” he remarks to Brutus, “I love them as they weigh.”
(Act II, Scene 2). It’s only because they actually do behave
as “dissentious rogues” that, changing opinions like the
seasons, “call him noble that was now your hate,/Him vile
that was your garland” (Act I, Scene 1) that he considers
them as such.
We must therefore think of Coriolanus as an actually
anti-tyrannical figure. For, as Plato observes, tyranny comes
about through the dialectical degeneration of democratic
sentiment, in that the clamoring of the people for liberty
from all authority whatsoever allows for silver-tongued
rhetoricians to manipulate their sentiments to their benefit
(Republic, 563e-564a). Coriolanus, in showing no regard
for the opinions of the people and having no desire even to
manipulate them, but doing only what he himself believes
is proper and honorable even if doing so is extremely
inexpedient, displays a character diametrically opposed to
that of the tyrant. He is rather a timocratic soul living in
a democratic age, and it is his uncompromising devotion
to his timocratic values that leads to the tragedy of his
banishment and its bloody consequences; as H. J. Oliver
puts it, “[i]n this play…we have the tragedy of a man whose
flaw, in conjunction with his virtues and in the very special
circumstances of the story, leads to his downfall where a
lesser man might have survived.”1
But this fact might cause us to question more deeply
whether Coriolanus actually persists in his magnanimous
pride, and so in his virtue, in and throughout the tragic
events brought about by it for the very reason that it violates
the precepts of political expediency. Certainly Coriolanus’
stubbornness and refusal to stoop to the common guile of
politicians is the essential component to the very excellence
of his character; but the question may be legitimately
asked whether, in his very refusal to do what would be
necessary for him to attain leadership in Rome, he actually
does wrong, and thereby abandons the claim to general
virtue necessary to have genuine magnanimity in the first
place. Just as we can think of the plebs as being guilty of a
truly vain pride in their refusal to accept a clearly superior
individual as their leader regardless of his lack of affection
for them, perhaps we might also think that Coriolanus
is guilty of a deeper sort of pride which, while certainly
holding fast to a certain kind of virtue, nevertheless doesn’t
grasp the expediential necessity of lowering itself for the
ultimate good of society as a whole. If we consider virtue
as a mean between extremes (Nicomachean Ethics, II.8-9),
then we might wonder whether Coriolanus’ refusal to make
distinct his true self and his appearance to the people, and
in that sense to actually be more of a Machiavellian figure
(see The Prince, ch. XVIII), itself errs to too great of an
extreme. Moreover, can we say that his virtuous pride is
maintained even after he decides to vengefully lay waste to
his own homeland after joining the Volsces? Or is precisely
this action necessary in order to preserve his honor?
We can see clearly now the way in which pride in each of
its forms, the one seeming to shift like Proteus into the other
and back again depending on the way we tilt our heads,
shapes the entire landscape of the tragedy, and especially
the personality which is the catalyst and centerpiece of it.
The great complexity contained therein, we can observe,
consists not so much in the internal metamorphoses of the
soul found in other Shakespearean figures, but rather in
the precise nature of a resolute and uncompromising soul,
and of the tension that such a soul produces when forced
to confront a world whose constitution is fundamentally
at odds with its own. It is, however, the incredible
ambivalence of this very nature and this very tension that
makes Coriolanus such a compelling character to me, and
Coriolanus such a compelling play.
Coriolanus with Veturia and Volumnia at the Volscian
Camp, detail
Circle of Agostino Masucci
or Philippe de Champaigne
notes
(1) Shakespeare Quarterly, Winter, 1959, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Winter,
1959), p. 59.
the
Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
15
�St. John's Heritage:
A Message from the Past
Helen Wagner
I
will begin this article with a candid but indisputable
statement: you would probably not have lasted very long
in the Trojan War. Picture yourself on the ancient battlefield,
facing Diomedes in no-man’s-land, his spear poised with
its long black shadow ready to usher deathly mist across
your eyes. Your fate is upon you. You, like Glaucon in book
VI of the Iliad, are suddenly called upon to recite your
family heritage, hoping to find something in common with
Diomedes and escape your death. But you are not up for the
challenge. Thus, I posit, you will meet your end.
Could you tell Diomedes the names of your greatgrandfathers, grand-aunts, and first cousins twice-removed,
to convince him that you are not enemies but “sworn
friends from our fathers’ days till now?” (Fagles, VI.277)
Probably not. In fact, it seems to me that most of us twentyfirst-century-dwellers (myself included) are woefully
disconnected from the lives of our ancestors. We know of
grandparents and cousins— the low-hanging branches of
our mental family trees— but beyond that we’re not too
sure. This should be remedied, if possible: surely there is
a wealth of personal inspiration to be found by exploring
our bloodlines. This was the case for me when I did a bit
of genealogical digging this summer. In fact, my discoveries
might also be of interest to the St. John’s polity: they led me
to the very cobblestones of this campus.
It all started right before move-in week, when I was
staying in an old family home outside of Annapolis. My
sister found a book in the attic with the St. John’s seal on
the front. It was a transcript of the dedication ceremony of
Henry Williams Woodward Hall (Now Barr-Buchanan)
on June 18, 1900. What was a hundred-twenty-year-old
Johnnie artifact doing in my family’s attic? Curious, I sat in
a humid gazebo and read the book cover-to-cover.
It was a veritable historical jackpot, including a speech by
Thomas Fell, a former College president, and a dedication
address by John Wirt Randall, for whom our own dear
Randall Hall is named. Randall indulged in a pages-long
meditation on the College namesake, referring to John the
Apostle as “[most] suggestive… of the relationship between
a scholar and a teacher.” “All scholars,” he said, “should
take him for an example of thirst for knowledge, docility
to instruction, pureness of life and strength and beauty of
character.” Interspersed with praises of the College were
gems of Johnnie lore (like Lafayette’s famed appearance in
the Great Hall), old photos of campus (included below),
and even a statement recorded from George Washington
on a 1791 visit to the College (then called King William’s
School). He proclaimed himself highly satisfied with our
Cassie Desmond
16
the
Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
�young school, wishing for its “progress to perfection…
manifested in the morals and science of the youths who are
favored with [its] care.”
As I partook blissfully in these intellectual riches, my
earlier question rose again in my mind: why was this book
in the attic of my Annapolitan ancestors? I’d never heard
before of Johnnie family ties. But then I came across a list
of ceremony attendees and jumped to see Summerfield
Baldwin, a thrice-great grandfather from whom I take my
middle name. What was Summerfield doing at St. John’s
in 1900? Further digging through genealogies unearthed
a revelation: Henry Williams Woodward, for whom
Woodward Hall was named, was Summerfield’s great
uncle—my own distant ancestor. An 1820 alum, he was “a
frequent sojourner under these trees, and a student of this
College,” said President Fell in his dedication. Two hundred
years before me, a man of my very blood walked these
cobbled streets, studied in the classrooms of McDowell,
sang in the Great Hall, and I had no idea until now. Like
Glaucon with Diomedes, I stood in front of my new school
thinking myself worlds apart, but discovered instead that
our histories converge, that we have been friends “from our
fathers’ days till now.”
Reading Homer in conjunction with my discoveries this
summer has given me a new appreciation for family history.
It feels that, by studying the past, I can get to know these
men and women, feel a kind of kinship with them which
crosses the centuries without regard for the distance of
time. Suddenly, I feel that my life reaches far into the past,
back before I was born—that it began years ago with my
ancestors and will continue through my descendants. My
life is made longer—not shorter—by an awareness of time
on either side of me. Perhaps you would feel that way, too,
if you looked into your family’s past.
I realize, though, that it is a great privilege to have
written records of your family. Maybe oral stories have been
passed down instead, or maybe your family isn’t related to
you by blood. But we do have one ‘family’ in common here:
the ancient ranks of the St. John’s polity itself. Our school
may be small, but it is old, and our true size is an extension
through time rather than space. Great crowds of Johnnies
roam the centuries before and behind us. Take a moment to
look into the College archives, or even just to contemplate
the portraits on the walls of McDowell Hall. A bit of
sleuthing could turn those old strangers into familiar faces,
friends with whom you share this school. We are used to
gathering wisdom from the past— we do it every day here.
But how often do we stop to listen to our own past, allowing
it, too, to be our muse and teacher?
I will leave you with one such message of yore, given to us
by President Fell in 1900, as he contemplated the future of
our College. He is speaking to you:
“[Let us] indulge the pleasing, the delightful hope that
from within these walls, the light of science will go forth,
and pervade every corner of the land, illuminating the
minds of the rising generation, and imparting to posterity
those blessings which learning and culture never fail to
bestow.”
We are his posterity. Let us receive those blessings from
the past.
Cassie Desmond
the
Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
17
�The Delegate Council and Its Discontents
{What is the "Student Interest"?}
Daniel Nathan
W
e also accept the responsibilities, delegated to us by
the College, which include: (a) the representation
of undergraduate student interests to the Dean; and the
communication of the actions done in pursuit of those
interests to the Student Polity,” the preamble to the
Constitution of the St. John’s College Delegate Council
reads. Seven more responsibilities are named after that—
all of them banal, practical, and imitating the stultifying
language of Officialdom and Bureaucratese par excellence.
Responsibilities taken on by the Delegate Council
(DC) include the expected budgetary matters “(c) the
management of funds available to the Student Polity,”
but also the obscure and ominous “(f ) the creation and
management of Polity Law.” (Polity Law anyone? Ever
heard of that? I hadn’t.)
The constitution’s sixteen dense pages (which will
soon undergo review and amending) outline policies on
membership, elections, and procedure for the DC. Drafted
in 2019–the last innocent
year of the Before time—
when we were wide-eyed
and carefree, simply
wading and bobbing
around in the lightly
crashing surf, worried
merely about the rise of
fascism in America and
the creeping infiltration
of Big Tech into our daily
private lives, unaware of
the shark lurking beneath
the surface that lay in
wait.
We should’ve seen it coming. We should’ve noticed the
Jaws theme song.
No one anywhere could have foreseen the seismic shift
that the world would soon endure. And at St. John’s,
those delegates who drafted up the document did not
enjoy the hindsight we have now. But the necessary and
essential changes made by the college during the height of
the pandemic (i.e, zoom classes, mask mandates, weekly
testing etc.) would also lead to a fundamental shift in the
tone of the administration’s involvement with the student
polity. Community organizers hover at waltzes. Admin-
18
the
Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
hired bartenders turn a profit shelling price-gouged
seltzers. Significant portions of Mellon have been closed
for renovations for over a year (part of a $75 million
campaign in campus improvement projects, which will
no doubt only further disrupt the learning and college
experiences of future classes after us.) The smoking policy is
both draconian and rarely enforced. The alcohol policy has
turned students away from the quad and into their liquored
dorm rooms. Sanctioned extracurricular announcements
from Rachelle Munsey unrelentingly flood the inboxes of
the entire polity (with no way out). Covid safety measures
are nearly nonexistent as students still test positive nearly
every week. The list goes on and on—imminent danger
right alongside inconvenient, incomprehensible minutiae.
Many of the changes to the culture of St. John’s are slights
to the intangibles—a community facilitator checking
IDs at New Years on Wednesday nights does not end the
tradition, people still go, but rather, the administration’s
presence threatens to
drown out the freedom
and lack of inhibition of
the unabashed drinking
song
tradition—and
critics are not hard to
find.
Many in the current
Senior class, who had a
semester and a half under
their belts before the
pandemic swept the rug
out from under them,
bemoan the changes. “It
did not used to be like
this. Before we went online, we were allowed to be college
students and pretty much do what we wanted and we
were still treated with respect.” one Senior told me. Elias
Christian, a recent graduate of the class of 2022, wrote last
spring, regarding the administration’s ban on “unofficial”
open-mic events at the Boathouse, “I loved the old St.
John’s and the freedom of expression it allowed its students
and the self-possession and prudence it assumed in them…
This new paranoiac Prohibitionist culture being more like
philosophy daycare for 18 year olds.”
It may be near impossible to put one’s finger on the
�New and returning delegates are sworn in
photos by Liz Dowdy
pulse of the polity’s general sentiments. But these days, if
you were able to, you’d find that pulse to be irregular—an
arrhythmia growing between those who were here Before
and those that came After.
As organic, authentic culture is scrubbed and digitized,
so too is the vibrancy of the discourse, along with the
depths of meaning we find in each other and within texts,
and so goes the basis for Johnnies’ inquiring urge. With
disillusionment and discontent on the ground, the DC
has a responsibility to regain its footing and take “item
(a)” to heart: “the representation of undergraduate student
interests…and the communication of the actions done in
pursuit of those interests to the Student Polity.”
But the term “student interest” is slippery. It’s both
vague and subjective, an abstract lodestar that is meant
to be wholly comprehensive and yet still subject to shifts
in public opinion. Student interests cannot be met by
simply providing funding to clubs and kowtowing to the
administration. Pursuit of the student interest should mean
truly advocating not just for those who attend schoolsponsored club meetings but also those whose interests lie in
the intangibles—the culture, the discourse, the community,
being a college student and doing what you want while still
being respected.
Knowing what “student interests” really mean—what
they really are—seems to be a sore unknown amongst the
polity and is therefore understandably lost on the Delegate
Council. The term requires something of a conscious
consensus amongst students on what sort of things they
want from their college experience, what sort of things
they oppose, and what they want done about those things.
An issue arises, however, when students simply don’t have
much of a “student interest” at all.
Discourse on campus seems to be lacking when it comes
to subjects like these—those of polity-wide importance, for
meaningful change, in a non-objectionable direction. Voter
turnout this year has been abysmal, hovering around one
third for each class’s delegate elections. Worse maybe, is the
fact that for three out of four classes, only four students ran,
guaranteeing candidates automatic wins just by signing up.
One of the problems that adds to the silence is that while
discontent is high, disaffection is probably higher. Many
don’t know what they’re missing out on, or that they’re
missing out on anything at all.
What can be done? Well, it should start with our elected
representatives, reevaluating what “student interest” really
means and finding a consensus regarding what that “student
interest” really is. Venues in which members of the student
polity can communicate their questions, comments and
concerns, their discontent and disaffection, their objections
and their interests, to the DC are few and far between. The
Delegate Council would do well to establish a recurring
forum for this type of discourse between itself and the
student polity they represent. From the outside looking in,
and as most see it, the Delegate Council seems to exist to
fund clubs and not much else, but it can do more than that
and it can be more than that. And under President Tom
Ni, it should do more to address student interests. And as a
recently elected Delegate for the Junior class, I’ll sign on to
that—whatever it may look like.
the
Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
19
�{stargazing}
THIS MONTH IN HOROSCOPES—SEPT 2022
Madame T
ARIES
(March 21 - April 19)
elf care is important, Aries. Let someone else take care
of you for once, because when you don’t, you work
yourself into conniptions and make it everyone else’s
problem. You are truly God’s toddler. Just let someone
get you a baggie of goldfish and tuck you in. Drink your
apple juice and calm down. Sometimes the best thing
you can do is let someone placate you.
S
TAURUS
(April 20 - May 20)
return to Annapolis means one thing to you, Taurus,
and that is to drain your bank account. Do not let
the sushi devils tempt you, the mercury poisoning is not
worth the two minutes of serotonin that from the $18
dragon roll you just scarfed down. It’s crunchy, sweet,
and soft body won’t hold you in any way that matters.
No amount of imitation crab ever will. Please Taurus, be
strong, be strong for mother.
A
GEMINI
(May 21 - June 20)
on't text him.
Don't.
LEO
( July 23 - Aug 22)
e know you didn’t do the seminar reading, Leo.
Don’t even bother acting like you did by picking
apart other people's points when you have no idea what's
going on. People would like you more if you tried to be
quiet. Maybe you would like you more if you just tried
to be quiet. Self love is a fickle mistress, and your mask
is cracking.
W
VIRGO
(Aug 23 - Sept 22)
appy Birthday, Virgo! Your perfectly curated
personality and stable energy are why people love
to hang out with you. Or maybe it’s when that visage
melts away. There is no party like a Virgo party because
halfway through the night, the top shirt button comes
undone and you devolve into a feral animal. To watch
you slip into an insanity of your own making is a treat
within itself.
H
D
CANCER
( June 21 - July 22)
ou’re visibly overwhelmed to be back on campus,
Cancer. As much as I’d love to yell at you for making
the rest of us nervous by proxy, I don’t want to make you
cry, so I’ll be nice. Put on a sweater, Cancer. Make sure it’s
tight, you need all the security that polyester can provide
you with. You are to St. John’s as a small, awful dog being
carried in a Micheal Kors bag is to a middle aged white
woman. You are loved and supported here, even if it’s by
someone really, unbearably annoying.
Y
20
the
Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
LIBRA
(Sept 23 - Oct 22)
ake a nap today, Libra. Better yet, cut out this
column, tape it next to your bed and then take a nap
everyday. I promise you won’t miss any drama, as you
(the center of all of it) will be off enjoying your long prewinter hibernation. Finally, the rest of us can get some
work done as you take some time for yourself. Get a face
mask, get a Starbies(™), just leave the rest of us the hell
alone.
T
�CAPRICORN
SCORPIO
(Oct 23 - Nov 21)
elcome back to campus, Scorpio. Are you enjoying
the freedom? Does shoplifting nail polish from
the CVS make you feel cool? We can tell you had a long,
hard summer on Daddy’s yacht, because you’re drinking
as if you’re a soldier fresh out of the trenches, praying to
a long dead god so that maybe one day you can forget
those awful sounds. Maybe one day you’ll be clean of the
blood spilt, the gunpowder that stains your face. Maybe
one day you will feel whole again. Probably not, wanna
go to CVS?
W
SAGITTARIUS
(Nov 22 - Dec 21)
ou’ve been looking for a sign to go a little insane this
month, Sag. This is that sign. Buy that awful, gaudy
hat. We all know you won’t wear it, but sometimes that
is what you need to do. Write a physical letter to that
cute girl in your lab class, she will not write back. But this
isn’t about her. Whatever awful little thought is eating at
you, indulge it. Sure it might ruin everything but won’t
it make a funny story? Isn’t the point of life to traumatize
yourself for the amusement of others? Actually, maybe
try therapy.
(Dec 22 - Jan 19)
ust because Jesus Christ was a Capricorn doesn’t
mean that you’re above the law. Humble yourself this
month, Capricorn. The Romans may be closer than you
think. Try being more giving this month, it won’t save
you from the cross, but people will think you’re less of
a jerk.
J
AQUARIUS
( Jan 20 - Feb 18)
our creative streak will not go unnoticed, Aquarius.
Unfortunately it will be noticed in more of an “Oh
my god can you believe what they wore to the waltz?” type
of way, rather than a talent scouting scenario. Sometimes
less is more, Aquarius. How many statement pieces do
you really need for a Target run? I promise you the Uber
driver does not care. Maybe that’s a good thing, though.
The world is very dull (thanks, Capricorn.) Maybe some
color is a good thing.
Y
Y
PISCES
(Feb 19 - March 20)
ow are all those resolutions holding up, Pisces?
You promised this would be the year of healthy
relationships and no nicotine. I believe that you believe
that you’re doing well, but you can’t ‘microdose’ on seeing
your awful ex. Sometimes you just need to go whole hog
into something, Pisces. You’ve never had issues committing
to anything else, might as well capitalize on it.
H
the
Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
21
�{film review}
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
Ranger Kasdorf
“The film had become a legend, and I think financiers don’t
want to deal with legends, they want to deal with solid
things. There was talk of a curse, the curse of Quixote. It’s
absolute nonsense – but it made financiers very nervous.”
—Terry Gilliam, interview with BBC Culture.
T
erry Gilliam, do you know what the "sunk-cost fallacy"
is?
That cruel little question was the opening line I wrote for
this piece back when I was in a much nastier mood. That
nastiness was brought about by Gilliam's 2018 film The
Man Who Killed Don Quixote, which continues to occupy
my thoughts and slash at my mind like a wine-skin five days
after seeing the film. For though there is a lot to like about
this film, it is also, in many respects, utterly baffling. After a
few good nights of sleep and indulgence in other such vices,
I’ve mellowed out, and I now recognize it would be unfair
to open a review of a film–particularly one which, in spite of
its flaws, I quite enjoyed–with a reference to its infamously
tortured development history. For all the punchiness and
acerbity of that opening line, it’s undeniably a cheap shot,
and it’s not as though there’s nothing interesting to discuss
about this film besides its 29-year gestation period.
Still, it’s hard to resist mentioning it. Terry Gilliam was
trying to get Quixote off the ground eleven years before
I was born, and he finally succeeded the same year I
became old enough to vote. In the late ‘80s, when Gilliam
apparently first read Don Quixote, he was a decade past his
film debut, the beloved and eternally memetic cult classic
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and was now well into
a lucrative career making movies with actual budgets
and all-star casts and ambitions beyond making college
students laugh. He already had collaborations with Robert
de Niro and Robin Williams under his belt, and would go
on to work with superstars like Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis,
and Johnny Depp. His oeuvre would end up containing a
set of films so diverse you’d think each one was made by
an entirely different person were it not for his trademark
knack for absurdist comedy, which he’d honed during his
time in the Flying Circus.
And yet, amid all of this acclaim and boundary-pushing
and flesh-pressing, Gilliam still had, in the back of his mind,
the desire to adapt this dusty, centuries-old novel. I suppose
it’s easy to understand what made the book appeal to him,
considering that his debut was devoted to lampooning the
22
the
Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
Arthurian mythos, but it’s still remarkable just how hard
he pushed to bring Don Quixote to the screen. The fact
that Gilliam continued to resurrect this project over and
over when he had so many other, flashier, more lucrative
irons in the fire, and that he still remained unbroken for
almost three decades despite the production’s reputation
as "cursed"–that can only point to this being a labor of
love. And the fact that, against all odds, Gilliam eventually
succeeded at consummating his love–that The Man Who
Killed Don Quixote exists at all–makes me reconsider my
invocation of the gambler’s fallacy three paragraphs ago.
S
o let’s start again. Let us think no more of how long it
has taken our guest to arrive, for now he is here; let us
see what sort of company he provides.
The premise of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote involves
a young filmmaker named Toby (played by Adam Driver at
his very most heelish), on location in Spain to film a Don
Quixote-themed insurance commercial. We immediately
understand Toby’s character from his behavior on set and
ridiculous white-suit-white-fedora-white-silk-scarf combo:
he is the archetypical fauxteur, full of artistic ambition but
too insufferable and incompetent to capitalize on it, prone
to big promises but unable to fulfill any of them. There is
a wonderful closeup on Toby’s face during a meeting with
his production crew and superiors; as we hear the others
at the table throwing out their own suggestions for how
to improve the commercial, we see Driver’s eyes darting
around restlessly, intimating perfectly the character’s inover-his-head anxiety.
As Toby tries to leave the meeting, he is urged to stay
by his boss (played by Stellan Skarsgard), who buys him a
DVD from a street merchant in an attempt to inspire him.
That DVD turns out, serendipitously, to be one of Toby’s
old student films–an adaptation of Don Quixote, as it
happens. After seducing his boss’s wife to gain access to the
DVD player in her hotel room, Toby watches this old film,
and is immediately struck by the face of the actor he had
gotten to play Quixote–a Spanish carpenter named Javier
(played by Jonathan Pryce). He decides then and there that
finding this man will allow him to breathe life back into
his current project and, newly invigorated, gets right back
to sleeping with his boss’s wife, until the boss comes back
to the hotel room and Toby is forced to sprint down the
hallway nude, DVD in hand.
�are a joy to watch. At this point we are fully teed up for a
fun, off-kilter riff on Don Quixote, perhaps with something
to say about the nature of literary adaptation. And, well, we
sort of get that first part; much of the rest of the film consists
of Javier and Toby wandering around aimlessly, recreating
individual episodes from the book. In that regard, the film
excels; it’s a sheer delight to watch so many of the novel’s
funniest moments play out on the screen. But in the context
of the rest of the film, these scenes suffer from a persistent
feeling of purposelessness.
Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce
The next day, Toby sets out on a motorcycle to find
Javier, and discovers that he is being held captive by an old
woman in the country as a sideshow act: “The Real Don
Quixote.” The method-acting techniques Toby apparently
encouraged him to use during filming have resulted in
Javier fully believing that he is Don Quixote, and when he
mistakes Toby for Sancho Panza, he immediately insists that
they set out on an adventure. In his excitement, he starts a
fire, prompting Toby to mount his motorcycle in a panic
and zip back to the shoot, where he is soon arrested by the
local police and tossed into a squad car–along with the
merchant who sold him the DVD. En route to the police
station, however, the car is stopped by none other than
Javier, who, just like the knight he believes himself to be,
takes it upon himself to free these unjustly imprisoned men.
Disaster ensues, both cops are killed, the merchant escapes,
and Driver ends up at the bottom of a nearby valley, hiding
underneath a discarded mattress and shouting incoherent
profanities.
The events described in the previous four paragraphs
take up the first forty minutes of the film, and at this point
I have nothing but praise. For one thing, the film's casting
is note-perfect. Johnny Depp, Ewan McGregor, and Jack
O’Connell were all cast at one point for the role of Toby,
but I can’t imagine any of them turning in a performance as
engrossing as the one Driver turns in here. This was the same
year he starred in Spike Lee’s BlackKklansman, and while
in that film Lee chose to reserve the actor’s more profane
talents for the scenes where he had to pretend to be a white
supremacist, here Gilliam gives him every opportunity to
let loose, and the result is ecstatic–all volcanic rage and fullthroated F-bombs.
Jonathan Pryce, meanwhile, is impeccable as Javier/Don
Quixote; he plays the role with exactly the kind of manic
sincerity called for, and the scenes of him remaining fully in
character as Quixote while Driver refuses to be his Sancho
T
he biggest problem with The Man Who Killed Don
Quixote is that it is really two movies: one about
a director suffering from artistic ennui and in need of
inspiration, and the other a straightforward adaptation
of an old book. Either of these films would be fine on
their own, but instead the former has been grafted onto
the latter despite the two having nothing to do with one
another. Considering how hard Gilliam fought to get this
film made, it’s unclear watching the finished product what
made him feel so strongly that this story needed to be told.
For a film so entrenched in the text of Don Quixote, there
is remarkably little commentary on the source material; at
most, there is subversion, but it is subversion lacking any
evident purpose.
And yet it occurs to me now that, in searching for some
big statement, I may have failed to meet this film on its
own terms. Perhaps what Gilliam aims for is not any kind
of analysis or deconstruction, but instead simple narrative
pleasure. The film’s final scene epitomizes this: Toby, now
convinced that he is Don Quixote, does battle with three
giants, and though this scene has absolutely nothing to
do with what his character went through at the start of
the film, it’s thrilling to see someone who was once such a
jaded, shallow prick valiantly battle these giants with utter
sincerity.
Ultimately, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote definitely
feels like a film that took three decades to make. It is
grossly overlong, and much of it is messy and overthought,
indicative of a script that underwent a few too many rewrites
and tweaks. But though it is undeniably confusing, selfindulgent, and at times meandering and boring, it is also
so achingly earnest and creative that I can’t help but be glad
it exists. It is, at time of writing, Gilliam’s last feature film
to date, and if it ends up being the final film of his career,
I don’t think you could ask for a more satisfying note to
end on. Ride on, Don Guixame; though I may not fully
understand your passion project, I have no doubt that it
turned out exactly as you wanted it, and I hope it satisfies
you just as much as it mystifies me. Vale.
the
Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
23
�{the chiton}
Seminar Fashion
Sarah Lieberman
A
ttending Seminar is a ritualistic
activity in nature. For many
years, the students of St. John’s College
would get dressed to the nines, pour
into their Seminar classrooms at 8pm,
suck on the end of a cigarette as they
discussed the night’s reading, and then
spill out onto the quad for a further
discussion of the text.
As time went on, we lost many of
these traditions. Though I am willing
to admit that not all loss is bad: It is
probably best that we no longer smoke
indoors, and there are many benefits
to having Seminar at 4pm. However,
some members of our community have
also stopped dressing up for Seminar.
Is this an unfortunate loss of tradition,
or perhaps a helpful shift towards the
prioritization of comfort in class?
I decided to ask the polity what
they thought. I asked 45 students
whether they preferred seminar attire
to be more formal or more casual:
80% voted for formal, and 20% voted
for casual. When asked how many
Seminars they themselves dress up for
17% said they dress up for 0-25% of
their classes, another 17% said they
dress up for 25-75%, 39% of students
said they dress up for 50-75% of their
Seminars, and finally 26% confessed
they dress up for 75-100% of their
classes.
Many of the students agreed that it
gave them something to look forward
to during the week. Rachel Hauben
(‘25) says, “I love dressing up for
Seminar, it gives you something to look
forward to and have fun with.” Other
students appreciate the ceremonial
aspect. Agnes Galvin (‘23) reports, “I
love the ritual of getting dressed up for
seminar! I really missed it last year with
24
the
Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
Joseph Padgett
my 4-6.” However, some students just
don’t have the energy. James Reeher
(‘25) states, “I think it’s a lot of fun,
and when I’m feeling up to it I love to,
but most of the year I'm too tired.”
Many students are also selective
about the Seminars they choose to
dress up for. When asked whether or
not they were more inclined to dress
up for seminars on texts they enjoy,
75% of students answered yes, while
only 22% answered no. So the next
time you are in seminar, be sure to
take notice of the students who went
the extra mile. Now when it comes
to dressing up for Seminar, you must
decide for yourself: a fun tradition to
take part in, or a rigid and outdated
chore? Acacia Burnham (‘24) sums
up her opinion on the matter in one
word: “Mandatory.”
Pictured on facing page:
Top left: Jack Webb and Acacia
Burnham
Top right: James Reeher and Josh
Bozorth
Haein Cho
Bottom: Naina Wagh, Hannah
Glick, Antonina Schlussman, Allegra
"Danger" Hall, Acacia Burnham,
Silas Pillsbury, Carter Brown, and
Lillian Naill
�the
Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
25
�Tamar Pinsky
26
the
Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
�Polity Communications
To whom or what it may concern,
A Daily Rosary
I am not certain that it is proper to claim that the
Gadfly is distributed to "Alumna", as is so done on the
publication's cover. Perhaps wiser men know otherwise,
but I believe that as a noun preserving Latinate
declension, "alumni" is a more proper forum, as the plural
of "alumnus" (or, "alumni and alumnæ" if you must make
it unmistakably and emphatically clear that women also
read).
A
"Alumna" may signify there is a sole reader who is not
a student, faculty, or staff, and who is female; if this is the
case, consider introducing an indefinite article. It may
also signify, though a neuter plural, at least two readers
which are inanimate and without force, like midshipmen.
In shameful esotericity,
Jack Webb.
Members of the Society for the Restoration of the Royal
Charter of Annapolis proclaimed the ascension of His
Majesty, King Charles III, on Sunday, September 11th,
2022, at 11 am. God Save the King!
—Anonymous
s many of you already know, for the past couple
of weeks a daily rosary has been held on weekdays
during the lunch hour in Mellon 208. Why is it held in
such an inconvenient location at such an inconvenient
time with such inconvenient frequency?
The location can easily be explained. There is very little
availability of classrooms in McDowell during lunch.
As for the time, it is one of three possible times which
make sense. The rosary could be held at 8:30 before
classes begin, in order to strengthen us and prepare us for
the day. It could be held after 4:00, when all classes have
ended on non-seminar nights, so as to refresh our spirits.
But by holding it during lunch, we refresh ourselves from
morning classes, and prepare ourselves spiritually for
afternoon classes.
Why is the rosary held five days a week? First of all
it must be said that no one is required to come every
day. Whether you commit to one day a week, two days,
three, or only come occasionally when your schedule
permits, you will be doing a good thing. It is the strength
of the daily rosary that, with the people who compose
it differing every day, the one constant is the continual
giving of glory to God. Our rosary is conceived as a
means of worship offered not primarily on behalf of
individuals but of the college as a whole.
But the rosary depends on the people who attend,
the more the better. If you are interested, please come
by Mellon 208 any day Monday-Friday. We will begin
at 12:25 and end around 12:43. If you would like to
commit to coming regularly on certain days of the week,
please email me or add your name to the sign up sheet.
If you have never prayed the rosary before, come a few
minutes early and I will show you everything you need
to know.
Our Lord has ordained that His Blessed Mother be
the instrument of His final victory over Satan. Please
come and be a part of it. If you have any questions or
concerns, email me at gchess@sjc.edu or talk to me in
person.
Gabriel Hess
the
Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
27
�THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
OF
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
Founded in 1980, the
Gadfly is the student
newsmagazine
distributed
to over 600 students, faculty,
staff, and alumna alumni
of the Annapolis campus.
Opinions expressed within
are the responsibility of
the author(s). The Gadfly
reserves the right to accept,
reject, and edit submissions
in any way necessary to
publish
a
professional,
informative, and thought
provoking
newsmagazine.
Submissions sent to the Gadfly
should either be in Google
Docs or JPEG format. The
deadline for submissions is the
Friday prior to publication.
For
more
information,
contact us via email at
sjca .g adfly@gmail.com
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
28
the
Gadfly / Sept 22, 2022
�
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The Gadfly, Vol. XLIV, Issue 2
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Volume XLIV, Issue 2 of The Gadfly. Published September 22, 2022.
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Koch, Craig (Editor-in-Chief)
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St. John's College
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Gadfly Vol XLIV Issue 2
Gadfly
Student publication
-
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de82beb67fb7a06ebe262a9ab18cf75e
PDF Text
Text
the Badfly
St. John’s College
Annapolis, Maryland
THE EVIL ISSUE
April 24, 2023
Vol. XLIV, Issue 9
Satire requires a clarity of purpose and target lest
it be mistaken for and contribute to that which it
intends to criticize... or something I guess
whatever who cares.
�Contents
Κακά
Berating Enemies
Constant Incontinence
Our Johnnies, Fair Johnnie
Puzzles? You gotta figure it out
You Absolutely Gotta Hand it to 'Em
Finds from the Internet Pt. 1
From the Globe Theatre
Lit Crit
An Address from a Harrowed Seeker
"Grandiloquence"
Language Games
Finds from the InterWEB Pt. 2
Misandry Exposed
Sheba Gets a LinkedIn
Finds from the Archives
Phèdre Translumination
The Badfly
Letter from the Editor
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
13
14
15
16
17
20
21
22
23
O
h my god if I have to spend one more minute procrastinating
putting this issue together I’ll freaking explode. THIS IS THE
BADFLY. It’s like the Gadfly but not good. Wait no. It’s like the Gadfly
but evil. Like if Mario would read the Gadfly, then Wario would be a
Badfly guy. It’s like good and evil, God and Satan, heaven and hell. So,
anyways then, welcome to hell. If you cretins want there to be a more
robust, informative, and respectable Letter from the Editor, then you’re
missing the point which, I mean, of course you would. Shut your trap,
strap in and shut off that really loud part of your brain that’s so constantly self-centered and insecure and anxious. Just for fifteen minutes at least,
allow yourself a minute away from having to be you and give yourself
some freedom from Freeing your Mind.
Imbibe in some good old fashioned it’ll-melt-your-heart and warmyour-soul satire, it’s good for you. If you can’t even do that, then you
shouldn’t even be at, you shouldn't go here, I-i-i, you shouldn't study philosophy at all and should probably be at comedy school, learning how to
laugh and about being funny in general. Maybe then you’ll actually start
doing the goddamn readings. To leave you with one final thought before
I explode, Energeia should really doing an evil issue like we do. It’s such
a good idea that I decided to mock up what a Badfly-esque turn for our
school’s lit mag might possibly look like, totally free of charge of course.
Anwyas, gotta go. Get bent! Never stop partying! And if you haven’t
already this week, call your mom she’d love to hear your voice!
–Daniel Nathan, Editor-in-chief
Staff
Editor in Chief
Managing Editor
Daniel Nathan
Luke Briner
Meliha Anthony
Dolan Polglaze
Jenna Lee
Bennett Scott
Helen Wagner
El'ad Nichols-Kaufman
LAYOUT
Bridget Mace
EVERYTHING ELSe... who's to say?
2
�κακά
the Badfly
A Guide to Being a Great Small
College Gossip
Do you, a student of a small liberal arts college, find the
existential torments of philosophy passé? Does the dread
of life outside this entirely unrealistic bubble leave you
cold? Have you stopped being impressed by what dozens
of white men have died for? My dear, I have a solution to
your woes: small college gossip (SCG). Do it loudly, do it
everywhere, but most of all do it well.
The mathematics of SCG are an exercise in human
madness. In theory, a larger school ought to have more
events and therefore more things to gossip about, but
woe to the disbeliever when I say: SCG is exponentially
more common, more potent, and more strange. What’s
more, everyone knows everything about everyone (you
can go an entire year at a school of 3500 not knowing you
have caused bitter divides amongst your classmates; you
cannot go a day at a school of 350 without knowing your
classmate’s opinion on your lunch (passable this time,
though everything you eat seems to be brown)). Rather
than label this social environment a cesspool, take it as an
opportunity. Here’s how:
Startling: All SCG should be personally, ethically,
and maybe even ontologically startling: every phrase
should strike the listener into a state of disbelief so intense
that they begin to doubt their religion. (It’s all about those
marked nouns: Yeezy, Jeffery Dahmer, dead-man’s-kiss.
My ears should be tingling)
Violent: Hearing that two people broke up is boring
(WASPs come and go!); hearing that a person was
defenestrated from the third floor of a dorm during a
breakup is gold (look at Molly go!).
Common: The great benefit of a small school is that
everyone is forced to know each other on sight; abuse this
by making every single aspect of your stories something
everyone has in common: teachers, locations, boyfriends.
(An orgy becomes far more relevant when it happened on
my favorite table in the dining hall.)
Public: All your classmates, teachers, even the person
you’re gossiping about is bound to hear what you said,
so why not stand in front of the largest lecture you can
find and clearly state that Ms. Thoroughgling’s fursona
was seen selling LSD to the president of HEDCAT
April 24th, 2023
(Historical European Dancing Club with Added Techno)
at a swinger’s event last week.
Respectful: Remember, gossip is like having a
roommate: respect for everyone involved is in the rules
and those rules are meant to be shattered by inviting 17
people over to do lines off of the windowsills.
Putting it all together, let me provide you, my lovely
reader, an example of pure SCG: Did you know the person
who signs their articles B.S. (what an asshole move, as if
we all know your initials) drank so much scotch during
class (McDowell 24) last week that he stood up, smacked
one of his classmates, and promptly declared himself king
of the newly freed nation state of Middle-Scotland (he
pissed himself shortly thereafter)?
Take it and run, you little demons with tote bags.
Your gossip girl,
B.S.
3
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the Badfly
April 24th, 2023
The Yellow Pages?
Freshmen Class Suspected of Committing Vile Acts
with Program Texts
The freshman are wildin’ out. Water-damaged copies of
program books have been turning up around campus with
similar yellow staining on the pages and an all too familiar
raunchy smell. At first, it was only one or two books here
and there turning up in this mysterious condition. But
then the floodgates opened. A Euclid or two, acrid copies
of Thucydides, and an assortment of dialogues by Plato;
all covered in piss and smelling like yellow death. When
Aristotle’s Politics came around, the freshman reacted with
vigor…and urine. No one knows for sure how the tradition
got its feet off the ground, but the freshman have been
pissing on their books like nobody’s business, and it does
not seem like they will be stopping anytime soon. Taylor
Waters had this to say: “I get it. Some program authors said
some things that audiences of today find upsetting. But just
because Aristotle was a huge slavery guy that doesn’t mean
it’s right to check out every copy of Politics from the library,
urinate all over them, and then return them. Even though
they eventually dry out, we’re still stuck with the issue of
the smell.”
A Comedy Joke for Laughing Purposes Targeting Students at
St. John's College, a Liberal Arts College in Annapolis, Maryland
What’s the difference between a Johnnie and a block of dry ice?
Dry ice is cool when it smokes.
4
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the Badfly
April 24th, 2023
Our Johnnies, Fair Johnnie, Ever Beaten Down
I love the brick everywhere
I love the history in the air
I love how everyone is kind
Kind of delusional and kind of blind
Blind to how kind of delusional we all are
I love the rampant delusion the most by far
I love how our school is like a polity
Nay not a polity
A city for Our name not substance
A place to stand and babel as we will
The housing filled with mold and rats
Drug addicts and cheap virtue bought by brats
I also love these young great minds
I just love how they think
They think they are great
I love how these great minds tend towards hate
In the name of a sympathy: sick, serpentine
I love how much we love to agree in each debate
I love how saying this makes many a reader’s eyes roll
I love how kind hearted but cutting truth means less than
honeycombed placating words
I love how freed minds can entrap their own soul
I love how all the nihilism, hedonism, dogmatism,
generalism is taking its toll
I love how freeing minds from reality was never the goal
I love how when two do disagree
I love how they go round and round
I love how we love how our voices sound
It’s akin to beauty reflected in a pool
Although anymore I’m not so sure there is much beauty left
in this our school
I love how two can take differing sides
I love how those sides are defended well and strong
How the debate can be so tediously long
How so many flowery words are said on both sides
How both sides can happen to be so wrong
I love how useless we all are
I love how so many of us will go so far
I love how going far relates to relative accounts
I love how little to many our education amounts
I love that some will sweat and toil
I love how some little shits were just planted in richer soil
5
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the Badfly
April 24th, 2023
Seminar Quotes Mix and Match
By ANNA MARGULIES
Can you guess which quote goes with which seminar text? Using the list of texts down below, match the quote with the
freshman reading!
1. “They’ve got training and muscles and that’s all that they can trust.”
2. “It’s not like he’d drive him to the airport…that’s true love.”
3. “Owning a bird is kind of a collaborative art."
4. “They actually tried that in the Soviet Union. It didn’t work.”
5. “Socrates would’ve loved Full House”
6. “ If he does anal it’ll be to all their benefits.”
7. “Killing an entire civilization is a bad use of resources.”
8. “Polyamourous or whatever his name is”
9. “It could is but not be.”
10. “Lindsey Lohan’s dream was to be mentioned in our seminar.”
11. “There’s a fair number of imbeciles here.”
12. “I’d rather be a good bath-man than a poor busser.”
13. “Socrates lives the philosophical life–he doesn’t get involved in politics
and he doesn’t care about his family.”
14. “Stop reading and maybe start actually doing things.”
15. “Did you just say murder is wrong? Do you have a citation for that?”
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________
_______________________
<<<
The Republic The Peloponnesian War
Clouds Parmenides
Apology Theaetetus
Phaedo Sophist
Oedipus Tyrannus and Oedipus at Colonus
Nicomachean Ethics
Medea The Symposium
6
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the Badfly
April 24th, 2023
The Class of 2023’s Magical Four Year Dry Spell
Here’s a hearty congratulations to the Senior class of
2023. Four crazy years have passed by, and after making it
through unprecedented times with some unprecedented
interruptions to boot, none of y’all have ever had sex. This is
quite the achievement and every member of the graduating
class should feel proud that they could do their part in
securing this towering achievement. Weird how 90% of
the class of 2023 is bisexual yet no one can really know
for sure. How did they manage this triumph? Was their
ability to completely avoid any sex relationship for four
year based on something like fear? Watched anime? Found
r/asexual? Found Jesus? Or was it some soul-shattering
internal pathos? Or SSRIs lowering the libido? Or was it
just simply by having absolutely no game at all? Exactly
what made this accomplishment possible is really anyone’s
guess, but one cannot help but feel pride in this St. John’s
class and their sexual incompetence and inadequacies. The
current freshman, sophomore, and junior classes can only
sit in stargazing awe and hope to one day be so lucky as
to scale heights and taste a victory as sweet as this. So far
though, the Junior class does seem to still be going strong
in their involuntary celibacy with only one more year to
go left at St. John’s. It can’t be counted short of miraculous
that the entire graduating class will be sent off, whether it
be to grad school or to their parents' basements, pure and
chaste. Here are some surefire tips for avoiding sex so you
TOO can feel like you’re a part of the class of 2023: Tell
your crush your favorite Jewish joke, argue with them about
your favorite Catholic theologians no matter how little
they care, sprint everywhere you go on campus, interrupt
any woman who attempts to speak in seminar, expound
upon the virtues of the “motion of the ocean, not the size of
the boat,” challenge people to rap battles in the dining hall,
cry publicly and violently, get a girlfriend or boyfriend, be
pro-life, be yourself.
7
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Selections from
SJC Twitter Pt. 1
8
the Badfly
April 24th, 2023
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whorescope
whorescope
aries:
this is your month to be a slut
taurus
believe it or not, slut.
gemini:
slut. what else.
cancer
sluuuuuuut
leo
slut
virgo
sllut
libra
slut
the Badfly
April 24th, 2023
Bobby Shmurda
at the Globe Theatre:
A Shakespearean Translation
of a Trap House Classic
And Truey on some hot n****
Liketh I talketh to Shyste at which hour I did shoot n****s
Liketh thee seen him twirl, then that gent dropeth, n****
And we keepeth those 9 millimet'rs on mine own block, n****
xAnd Trigg’r that gent beest wilding, that gent some hot n****
Tones known to beest busy with those glocks n****
tryeth to runneth down and thee can catcheth a shot n****
Dashing through these wages til i passeth out
and sh'rty giveth me neck ‘til i passeth out
I prithee, god, all i doth do is cash out
and if 't be true thee ain't a ho
receiveth up out mine own trapeth house
scorpuo.
youll be surprised by this but, you know what never mind.
dlut.
sagittsrius
virgin. and youll always be.
capticorn
wrong number
9
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the Badfly
A Straussian
Esoteric Reading
of Daniel Pinkwater’s
Snarkout Boys
An Essay Reconstructed from the Memory of
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman
I suppose I ought to explain how I came into possession of
this essay fragment. It’s the kind of story that really could
make an essay by itself, although not the sort of scholarly
essay suitable for the Gadfly, more the kind that middleaged women would get on email lists they sign up to after
hearing the writer interviewed by Scott Simon on NPR,
and then chuckle lightly as they read the writer’s amusing
anecdotes about life, in an acceptable, middle class manner.
Anyway, this is not the essay about how I received the essay
you are reading, but rather the introduction to said essay, so
I will proceed.
I was sitting in the Gadfly office one day, eating a banana,
when the strange man entered the room. I suppose I ought
to explain: I often eat bananas when I am suffering from
writer's block. Really, any fruit will do, but there’s something
special about bananas, perhaps it is the color. Anyhow, I was
sitting there, eating my banana, when a very short, strange
man walked into the room, wearing a long trench coat and a
hat pulled down over his face, and he smelled rather funny.
This was not the strange thing about him; this is St. John’s,
after all, and that description can fit about a third of the
men on campus. What was strange was his voice, once he
opened his mouth. It was high pitched, rough and strained,
almost like the voice of a rat who happened to be a retired
mezzo-soprano for the Hoboken Light Opera Company,
but had since taken up smoking and had just been startled
by a particularly quiet hairless cat.
“Read this,” he squealed, “It’s for the GADFLY.” You
could hear the capitals in his voice. He tossed on to my desk
a typewritten manuscript, which began thus:
10
April 24th, 2023
An Esoteric Reading of Daniel
Pinkwater’s “Snarkout Boys”
By R.G.
Daniel Pinkwater, like most
of the great philosophers of his
time, was constrained by societal
pressures of his age. Indeed, the
heavy persecution of philosophy
that lay under the currents of
the social movements of the XXth
century prevented him from sharing
his profound thoughts with the
wider world in the way his position
as a Great Mind would best transmit
truth to the widest number of
people. Rather, he wisely chose to
hide the true meaning of his works
between the lines of his so-called
“fiction,” providing the truth to
those who are able to examine the
intricate webs of absurdities and
contradictions
he
constructed.
Indeed, an esoteric reading, if we
may call this sort of examination
thus, is the only possible accurate
reading of the text, and the only
way we can deduce the Truth hidden
within his “novels.”
In no place is this more evident
than his 1983 magnum opus “The
Snarkout Boys and the Avocado
of Death,” truly a Great Book
deserving of wider recognition.
Many scholars have interpreted
in the typically modern way,
reading the external meaning and
claiming through their dangerously
progressive
and
historicist
arguments that it appears to
be a text encouraging juvenile
delinquency,and highlighting the
apparently largely chaotic and
unordered nature of the universe
from the perspective of disaffected
youth. However, a closer examination
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the Badfly
of even just the opening lines
reveals a fundamentally different
interpretation that is closer to
the Truth that most of the Moderns
have missed.
The very first sentence features
Pinkwater’s
political
and
educational tone. He writes “I
thought that going to high school
was going to be a big improvement
over what I was used to. It turned
out to be the opposite.” If viewed
from the lens of commentary on
liberal education, this is markedly
similar to the views of Plato in
his dialogues. Something inherent
in the view of a high school
(note the use of the word high
to indicate a position of moral
and
intellectual
superiority)
indicates that the elevation given
by liberal education is one that
runs against the grain of our
increasingly nihilistic society,
and one that the uninitiated, from
his position of modern vulgarity,
might see as the “opposite of
improvement.” For as the great
scholar Leo Strauss once said,
“Liberal education is liberation
from vulgarity. The Greeks had a
beautiful word for ‘vulgarity’;
they called it apeirokalia, lack
of experience in things beautiful.
Liberal education supplies us with
experience in things beautiful.”
Pinkwater is here explaining the
importance of liberal education
by highlighting its resistance
amongst the vulgar, of which the
protagonist Walter Galt and his
friend Winston Bongo are soon
revealed to be a part of.
At this point I had read enough to realize this was not
quite appropriate material for the Gadfly. I raised my eyes
April 24th, 2023
from the page to the short, oddly scented man who was
looming under me, and stated as much.
“Have you considered another publication?” I asked
him. “Perhaps the Imaginative Conservative?”
“I already tried them,” he squelched, “the subject matter
seems right up their alley. For some reason they won’t answer
my telegrams. If you won’t accept it perhaps I should turn
to the T—o F–h.” He named a particularly disreputable rag
that sometimes circulates around campus.
“Good heavens, no! Not in ten thousand years will
those Abecedarian Bashi-Bazouks gain a single contributor
under my watch!” I coolly responded. I have, after all,
a journalist’s sense for a scoop, even if I do say so myself,
and could not allow any such an article to be passed to the
enemy. I returned my eyes to another page and continued
reading, to give the appearance of a collected calm necessary
to strike the proper balance of fear and reverence in a writer.
The text I stared at continued
Pinkwater’s views on modern
liberalism’s inherent nihilism are
manifest in his use of the character
Uncle Flipping Hades Terwilliger,
whose name doubtlessly derives
from the maniacal Dr. Terwilliker
of Theodore Geisel’s cinematic
Aristotelian
commentary,
the
5,000 Fingers of Dr.T, which I
have analyzed in a previous essay.
Terwilliger is first discovered in
the movie theater, dressed in a
checkered suit and a straw hat,
eating a pickle, and describing
his habit of attending the movie
theater in the small hours of the
morning every night for the past
three decades, all well known
attributes of civilization. He is
later said by the Chinese butler
Heinz “to have a tendency to
vanish,” illustrating the elusive
nature of the Good, represented
by
Terwilliger’s
affinity
for
the high arts and civilization,
which is remarkably similar to
the Platonic understanding of
11
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the Badfly
the evils of Nihilism. As Strauss
said, “Nihilism is the rejection
of the principles of civilisation
as
such,”
and
Uncle
Hades
disappearances and reappearances
represent the continuing power
of civilization, but also the
increasingly convoluted ways in
which nihilism pushes them away.
Indeed, the following passage is
highly illustrative:
“‘Uncle Flipping vanishes fairly
often,’ Rat said. ‘He disappears
in a variety of ways. For example,
once we heard a muffled shriek in
the night, and he was gone. Another
time, there were heavy footsteps
in the library, after which he
vanished.’
‘Yes,’
Saunders
Harrison
Matthews II added, "and there
was the time he vanished, and we
found an envelope containing five
grapefruit pips under his pillow.’
‘My favorite was the time we
found a stuffed monkey in his
place,’ Aunt Terwilliger said.”
The variety of ways in which
Terwilliger vanishes correspond
esoterically to a variety of
problems
facing
the
Truth
underpinning
our
civilization,
similarly to the aforementioned
fixation with avocados. One is
reminded of the great closing
lines of his earlier work, Young
Adult Novel, which reads “‘It has
no moral,’ said the Honorable
Venustiano
Carranza
(President
of Mexico, ‘It is a Dada story.’”
Further, one can manifestly…
12
April 24th, 2023
I was interrupted at this point by a sound of screaming
from the BBC sub-basement. I, of course, was not frightened,
I knew it was likely those same feral young children who
roamed the suburbs last semester messing around in the
abandoned computer lab, but my guest seemed perturbed.
The man looked around nervously, grabbed the manuscript
and rushed towards the door, tossing over his shoulder a
business card. I called after him to wait, but to no avail. He
disappeared into the gloomy Annapolis afternoon, and all
I had was my memory of this manuscript, and this business
card:
Make of this mystery what you will, but I believed,
and still do believe, I was temporarily in the presence of a
true, certified mad genius, of a kind I had not seen since
I first encountered my ex-barber on Maryland Ave. The
essay, of course, in the mere fragments I managed to read
was mediocre, but since he was threatening to give it to our
dunderheaded cercopithecus–like microcephalic baboons
of rivals, I figured I should at least preempt their publication
by a little, a difficult fate given the irregular publication
schedules of the Gadfly and the non-existent schedules
of those iconoclastic nincompoops. Thus, I was forced to
publish it in the Badfly, although I mean to emphasize it is
meant entirely seriously, as all great works are. After all, in
the words of Pinkwater himself in the Snarkout boys, “My
wig may be uncool, but my jive is solid.”
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the Badfly
Address from a Harrowed Seeker
My Fellow Americans (not for long),
I think we can all agree: The U S of A has hit its high
point. We peaked in middle school and now we’re 32,
working a dead-end desk job as our husband spends all
our money on some sort of new age pyramid scheme that
threatens the stability of Democracy over Reddit. Where,
we say to our George Washington bobblehead—where,
oh where did we go wrong?
The answer, of course, is the 1800s. From Mar. 1, 1803
to Jan. 4, 1896, we added a grand total of 29 states to
this, our most wonderful union, racking up some true
American classics like California, Florida, Texas (the
unholy trinity). There were gold rushes, there were wagon
trains, there were big open plains full of opportunity and
God and dysentery. There was slavery and the civil war,
but there were also those fun bikes with one big wheel
and one tiny one. We were, in the phrase of every middle
school history class, living out Manifest Destiny.
And we must do it again.
April 24th, 2023
The observant reader will notice one small problem:
What land remains to manifest our destiny upon? Is
he about to suggest we annex Canada and Mexico,
undoubtedly sparking WWIII and the imminent
mutually-assured nuclear annihalation of all humanity?
God, I wish we would. But, since my mother forbids me
from ending yet another species, I submit here a novel
proposal, a way to get our American groove back. I present
to you: Infinite Manifest Destiny.
Step one: de-settle all of the states west of the
Mississippi, forcing massive population centers back East
(put all that gold back in ground!).
Step two: Manifest Destiny, remix: new states (Tall
Utah from border to shining border), new religions (the
new, even newer book of Mormon with extra special,
super secret fourth Heaven), and new fashions (cowboy
chic is back, baby!). Remember the Alamo? No, redo the
Alamo.
Step three: Rinse, repeat, etc., et al., ad nauseum.
There will be no stagnant economies, no political
deadlock, no Colorado—only adventure and the wicked
tan and blue expanse of our great frontiers. America will
be great again (again, again, again).
Lovingly yours (unless you’re from anywhere West
of Tennessee),
B.S.
13
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the Badfly
“Grandiloquence”
An exquisite dichotomy is drawn
Between myself and the ordinary.
Stationed on my island of uniqueness
And the weight of my trust fund that devitalizes my shoulders
What a paradoxical interconnection–
The ontological war within my soul,
And the virtuousness I effortlessly accumulated.
Others tell me that my appellations are gaudy,
But the axiomatic nature of my calligraphic philosophies
Only are able to precipitate pleasure within my mortal physique… even to the females.
My colloquial confabulations and exemplary discourse
Effectuates me to philander with perfection,
Which merely expedites my capacity for unadulterated perspicaciousness.
Equating my heightened mindset to a form of inconsequential beauty,
And my disdain for individuals who cannot possibly clasp my champagne problems.
They are simply not accustomed to pay attention to my high-level pedagogy.
How contemptible!
How disconsolate their benightedness is,
Incapable of achieving a cognizance of my perplexity
Of being born in the wrong generation.
Then again,
My epiphanies are not befitting to those with mild skill–
Only to the most voracious audience of readers who venerate and envy
The ostentatious vault of my vocabulary.
After all,
My audacious ignorance of my nepotism and privilege
Only puts my esoteric brain above the median citizenry.
14
April 24th, 2023
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the Badfly
Language Is What You Make It
When You Have a Can-Do Spirit
Have you ever noticed how many different meanings the
English word can has? Of course it can be placed between a
subject and a verb to indicate ability (an example that can be
seen in this sentence), and there are subtleties and nuances
and myriad use-cases for this way of using can: there is a
great difference between “Linda can juggle” and "Linda can
now leave.” But that’s only the beginning. And here’s where
things get really wild. A can can also be a cylindrical piece
of metal, often aluminum, containing food or drink or any
number of other consumables. If you work at the factory
where that food or drink is made, and your job is to bring
that food or drink from a package other than a can into the
cans (a process commonly known as canning), then your job
is to can; if you complain to your boss about the factory’s
working conditions, he might request your silence by telling
you to can it; if your complaint causes him to relieve you
of your duties as one who is employed in the field of cans,
then you’ve been canned; and if, while you're out drowning
your sorrows that night the police arrest you for, let’s say,
disorderly conduct, they will throw you into The Can. The
Can is also an colloquial title given alternately to restrooms
and to the waste receptacles contained therein, which are
commonly made of porcelain and are filled with water. In
the 1960’s, the bulky headphones which young people used
to listen to records also began to be called cans; many such
young people listened to the artist Can’s first album on
those cans in 1969. In another, more crude sense, can can
refer to a person’s posterior; pluralized, it can also refer to a
woman’s chest. One particularly vulgar film producer who
scoped out a starlet for his film based on the size of her cans;
furthermore, one might say of his film, once it is finished,
that it is in the can.
Can is a conjunction, a noun, a location, and a verb
three different ways; it is one of the most versatile English
words in common usage. It is a model of efficiency; even the
French verb faire, the meaning of which is infamously vague
and implacable, is still confined to just one part of speech,
and will never come to be an alternative to, say, nouns like
yeux and cravat.
And yet for every word as multifaceted as can, English
has so many more words which hold just one meaning,
April 24th, 2023
and which are only ever used in one kind of situation, like
tintinnabulate or diaphanous or gynecologist. These words
would do well to follow can's example. I pray we may be
released from these words, and simply give their meanings
to some other more common and easy-to-pronounce
words. Then, the English language may be condensed from
hundreds of thousands of words to a mere thousand—
imagine it, comprehensive dictionaries which could be
carried around in your back pocket! Or, perhaps, we could
venture to carry the practice further and reduce English
down to just one word—one singular, glorious, infinitely
useful multitude-containing word. Just think of it—if
someone were trying to learn English as a second language
they could simply be told that one word, and that its
meaning is all. Then, at last, the English language would
make sense, and all those blabbering trickster poets would
have to throw away their Thesauruses (which, by the way,
cannot fit in one’s back pocket) and find real day jobs.
-Ranger Kasdorf
15
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Selections from
SJC Twitter Pt. 2
16
the Badfly
April 24th, 2023
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the Badfly
April 24th, 2023
Railing Against the Johnnie Man,
Being One with the Johnnie Man
French philosophies are fine—they’re fine—but I just
really don’t buy into all that idyllic airbrush bullshit of
dog whistling himbo German idealism. Wiping my brow
against the stress, this philosophy of striving fools errands
has become the de facto focus of the “Very Serious Men,”
basically the furrowed brow intelligentsia types. (Ok…
Nietzsche is an outlier).
Great French thinkers have a long, storied tradition—
from Descartes and Voltaire to Rousseau and the Jacobins,
from beheaded Lavoisier and Pascal and the snot-nose
of Rimbaud to the dead boys-becoming-men smoking
& writing poetry & dying in the trenches during those
thirty years of war, then you’ve got Sartre and the vixen de
Beauvoir and Camus rolling his boulder and Barthes and
Deleuze and Derrida and creeps like Foucault and heroes
like Foucault and Baudrillard inside the simulation, and on
and on. But it’s those kings like Robespierre and those gods
like Napoleon and the writers of Charlie Hebdo and the
narcissists Macròn and Le Pen that make all the idealism
just silly and childish enough to maybe believe in. All the
skinny young men, radicalized and dressed in all black, who
start fires and flip cop cars over mild, seemingly reasonable
tax reform and slight increases to the national retirement
age, are just an extension of the unencompassing energies
of a sort of Enlightenment age Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité
crapshooting, with their own little bits of terror and civil
disobedience and what they call “tasteful” pedophilia
thrown in. Philosophers, poets. psychoanalysts, and evil
tyrants alike—not much changes amongst the men. God
bless those sweet, naive idiot savant contrarians with their
pies-in-the-sky and their heads-in-the-sand and their
minds-in-the-gutter. Who cares if they’re pedantic when
you can just as easily shrug them off all the same.
But Camus…well, Camus is special for those of us who
are idiots. Oh yes, the idiots love him because he thought
like what teenagers imagine a really smart person to think
like and his big literary advancement was to try to write
about life like it was really real. Born in Africa a white
man, he was good looking and knew suicide was awesome,
and said you gotta try it, and he perfected the incel hero
archetype (think De Niro in Taxi Driver) which we’ve all
come to love to pretend we hate, butthen he died in a car
crash and never got to actually kill himself. Yep, the idiots
can more than stomach old Camus, tucking all his thinking
into compact lumps of id>ego>superego bite size sugar
clumps. His novels are filled with goofy good kids gonebad-gone-worse (worse here meaning “became interested
in existentialism”). Worse yet, he founded a school of
thought he had the absolute gall to call “Absurdism,” which
is basically just post-Christian ambition with a big stinking
ego in the way, all about the tedium of big hills and how
awesome being liberal is. Sure thing, all us idiots can’t help
but love him. It’s like Beatlemania for the intellectually
infirm who have no friends and who seriously think they
may be a once-in-a-generation type penetrating genius,
with the insight and mental agility to delve deeper into the
truth of it all than everyone else around them. That’s the
type who loves him. I love him. I’m the type. Them and me.
But it’s that wackjob Hegel’s views—typical German
freak that he is—about dialectics and historical progress
that truly turned up the dial for idiots who love to think,
leaving behind for them principles of dress-up and playacting: a child pretend sword-fighting with imaginary
pirates on the grassy high seas of a suburban backyard with
a pool with a deepend and diving board and a little prefab
treehouse off to the side. This is the hero Hegel envisioned
unintentionally, always there in the back of his mind and
written in between the lines of his texts. That’s the whole
“genius” of his whole deal: a bean-counting spirit goading
mankind into believing they have souls and that God is
no longer a god. Taking infinity down a notch so we can
“punch up,” putting it on the same metaphysical plane as
fucking Ouija boards and the Catholics saying their hail
Marys or whatever. In this method, even Hegel’s prudish
insane homeboy quirks do not hold up well in the harsh
light of gray days, and this style of philosophical worldbuilding feels incredibly and unforgivably out of date and
not suited for the short attention spans, the algorithms, and
the Singularity of today.
ANYWAYS—I’m worried that they’re gonna be
so enamored by the reckoning of Homer, ancient public
domain like all the tales of the Brothers Grimm. What if
I’m the only one not content in the whoring out—or the
whoring in—of the biblification of that epic. An end of a
17
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the Badfly
April 24th, 2023
spectrum. They’ll think I am just thick and dull and cynical his childhood where mushrooms restricted by the FDA
and crazy and I will think they’re out of their damn gourds and chips made from unheard-of ancient grains were
in autism, all the while my autism is thoroughly in my considered junk food and dessert was one of those gross
gourd.
slabs of wrinkly fruit leather that only come in like apricot
Their delicate and polite prodding of themes— or kumquat flavor, and being told by himself that he is a
symbolism or some other nothing-burger concept which wunderkind because doing math makes him feel like he just
was fucking invented long after the scribes behind these got pussy for the first time and he made it to the advanced
trig classes in high school with no black kids who he was
canonical texts were
scared of (and he was scared
dead and buried in the
of them all).
ground forever beneath
the dirt. Now I’m just
BUT I will be there
bracing for some lisping
to hit back. At St. John’s
anemic
sweater-boy
College, the only moral
to feign third-eyeism,
option is to fight back.
divorcing himself from
Torch them, bully these
the ordained academic
fools, create new slurs, show
disposition of solipsism.
them a piece of the real
Opining on the topic of
world where it’s actually
War with ultra-smug pity
lame and embarrassing to
for the fucking Achaeans
want to go to Grad school,
(?) in condemnation of
show them the truth no
the Trojan army (???).
matter how much it may
And he’ll insist on the
hurt their feelings and how
senselessness of most
funny it their reactions will
war and the justice of
be. When encountering the
others; thinks the misery
Johnnie Man, it’s better to
is good sometimes and
be adamantly against them
other times it’s bad; he
than to not care and be
can say; yep, he knows
tacitly on their side.
whether a war was good
Is it a duty to remind
or bad, with or against
the Johnnies they’re super
reason and logic, which,
annoying and lame? To
after all, he got from his
very little fanfare or sense of
Sunday School lessons
humor at all from them, and
and after-school specials
with puzzled looks of hatred
and whatever his parents
and blind-hatred disgust, the
taught him and whatever
answer is probably yes. We
The Editors of the Yearbook forgot to put this in the Yearbook.
he thinks is right and Also, the Editors of the Yearbook are the same as the Editors of the can’t just sit here and take
good and ought to be,
it. Even for those skeptical
Gadfly, who are currently Editing this Issue.
m i s ta ki n g / c o n f us i n g
of the power transfers, they
“reason” and “logic” with
can’t deny the weight that
the unrelenting wellspring of sheer raw force feels so good in our hands in that dogma, that tradition,
contained
in
the
entitled,
booger-tasting, that moral certitude. No Vatican II controversy’ll get me
dandruff-smacked, transition-lensed power of will.
down. Jihad won’t neither. Even the snipping at my own
Especially if he (and he always is) given to temper Bris couldn’t get me down. Your God doesn’t scare me.
tantrums, and a few years of homeschool, and parents Your God’s softer than a teddy bear. Hell, he couldn’t even
who fed him health-conscious organic diets throughout hurt a fly. I bet my dad could beat up your God.
18
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the Badfly
ANYWAYS—the statute of limitations for the worst
kind of misery and unimaginable human suffering seems to
be like 80, maybe 85 years at most but I doubt the sickest
of crimes could indict those behind the cellophane sheen
of some good old-fashioned dogma. And sweater-boy
might try and practice all his dogmatic sure-footedness
with elite elitism, bringing up the League of Nations or the
victories won by all of mankind at the Geneva Convention.
Apparently, 1949 is the year we learned that killing is
wrong. My imaginary foe argues that human rights,
(incontrovertible? Bro please) didn’t really even exist, at
least in any legal matter, before some town in Switzerland
said they did.
Our Johnnie Man, unsocialized pretentious douchebag
freak that he is, sweater-boy till death does him part,
loves hierarchy so much that he thinks that a one-world
government is reasonable and honestly believes that people
who attend the World Economic Forum at Davos want to
end poverty and don’t want to bleed the middle class dry,
and that New World Order puts the order in “Law and
Order.” He believes the World Bank is “dope” and thinks
NATO is “based.” The destruction and death and decay
are irrelevant when it comes to defending Englightent
Liberalism. Everyone knows that.
The Johnnie Man often converts to Catholicism during
Sophomore year and is probably considering getting his
Masters degree in philosophy with a focus on theology in
Grad school—either at Columbia or University of Chicago
most likely. Neither the miracle of finding God (who he
found during his sophomore year seminar readings) nor
the miracle of getting laid for the first time (which, funny
enough, also occurred during his sophomore year), will
make him realize he will eventually have to get a real office
job and have real responsibilities some day. Real life is fake
as hell for the Johnnie Man. As are women’s thoughts and
feelings. Any philosophy written after the 19th century is
also fake. But Socrates actually once said what Plato said he
said and Jesus walked on water and healed leprosy so help
him god.
Using the last gasp of air for the white boy grindset, he’ll
probably bring up feminism as “for women” and politics as
“not helpful,” even though he’s sick of all the politics as usual
and probably either wants to Make America Great Again or
calls himself a Marxist and a Communist but is anti-China
and says real communism has never actually been tried
and most likely voted for Bernie in the primary and then
Biden in the general. But he’d rather focus on something
April 24th, 2023
more real and relevant to our day in age, like Ancient Greek
Mythology and French poetry from the 17th century.
You can often see him drinking boxed wine at Quad
Bools, twitching and having convulsions when called
upon to present in Math or Lab class, talking outside with
someone after seminar complaining about how no one in
his class understood the text but him, either eating at Pip's
or lining up at the dining hall for dinner at like 4:45, going
home with Freshman girls after parties, and displeasing
God and sucking the air out of all rooms he enters or some
other bullshit like that I don’t know. He’ll judge you and
he’ll make fun of you to your face. He’ll say you’ve come
such a long way since freshman year because “you used to
be so bad in class” and now you’re just average.
To combat this evil energy just tell everyone he’s antichoice or anti-vax or something. There is the risk that he’ll
just admit that he actually is and the fake rumor you started
will have been for nothing. Title IV his ass. Never let the
worst guys you know win. Give him an inch, he’ll have
somewhere in between four and a half and six. Can’t stand
him. I’m him. I'm the Johnnie Man.
19
�κακά
the Badfly
April 24th, 2023
SHEBA GETS A LINKEDIN
Let him disrupt me with the bytes of his metrics!
For your paradigm shift is more solutions-oriented than a Bolshevik;
Effective is your altruism;
Your content is king.
Analyze my back end - let us touch base!
The guru has grabbed my low-hanging fruit.
We will circle back and ping you!
We stand in solidarity with your customer journey.
Equitably do they leverage you.
I am very data-driven, but holistic,
O Thought Leaders,
Like Sam Bankman-Fried,
Like Brexit.
Do not marginalize me because I am a bot,
Because I am born of an algorithm’s loins.
My company culture was toxic;
They tested my emotional bandwidth,
But I have Korean facial masks, so it’s okay!
Tell me, you whom I friended on Facebook,
Where you empower emergent game-changers,
Where you microdose illicit nootropics;
For why should I reinvent the wheel,
Going forward in these unprecedented times?
20
�κακά
the Badfly
April 24th, 2023
21
�κακά
the Badfly
April 24th, 2023
A Translation of Phèdre (excerpt from Act I, Scene 3)
Oenone
Ah! Oh! Ah! Oh! Ah! If it has you to puff your ruby, rose,
beetroot redness all blushed and burning, so much burning
and twitching all kinds of red colors of a super shut silence,
Which of your own problematic ills still and has yet
turns sour and embittering nasty flavors to a taste of your
medicine, all violence,
Rebellious insurgent rebel from a far way galaxy to all our
needs and careful attention, should be deaf emerging and
erupting to all our speaking speech and discourses,
Do you wish to intend and want without pitied mercy to
let it go and leave to terminate exploding [the star of ] the
ends of your days in separate divorces in continuous forces?
What red hot raging heat of a passion is central upon the
bounds, limits, marks of a terminal ticket kiosk to the
central beginning middle and that end of their full meal
and driving courses?
What spells and charms bewildering and bewitching or
what baneful poison of a sore canker had been drying up
and shriveling the bountiful and tasteful sources?
Voids, Abysses, and All-Engulfing Shadows for thrice times
had been obscured in black befuddled darkness the dome
above known as heaven blue skies,
Everything from and since [that] sleep is [not] entering an
opening between your big not blue eyes;
And the day has thrice times had been in hunting season
shooting to chase away and after the night of nighttime dim
darkness in cloudy covered disguise,
Everything from and since [that] your bodied bony corpse
and carcass frame languishes to yearn without nourishing
full-size, king-size McDonald’s French Fries.
To what frightful and fearful ghastly horror image of
presence the intention and goal do you in a collar leave
leading to seek attempt to tempt such a size?
From what top righteous and upstanding stance on and
regarding yourself do you [have the audacity] to dare such
pleasurable temptation to attempt in rise to the prize?
You offensively insulted in trespassing that you shall not
pass the Good, Sweet, All-Powerful, Omnipotent God
Almighty and Almighty Gods authorizing authors of your
life.
You traitor in the trade to betray espoused spouse of a so-
22
called lover to whom and which the belief of faithfulness
in praying faith you had in deposits and dregs been tied
around and all-together in binds rife and full of bitter strife,
You traitor in the trade to betray that is to say and finally
after all that at last your bratty pipsqueak childish brats so
unhappy,
That you precipitate in downpour and ascend down to
the core underneath deeply within below a tool yoke
that enslaves animals and creatures strictly rigorous and
painstaking yanking so snappy.
Reflect and wander in contemplation that a very and same
day will satisfy in thrill, delight, love, and pleasure their
maternal motherly lady mother,
And pray sign, seal, and deliver it back in returning and
rendering a small gap of hopeful expectancy to the male
bratty pipsqueak brats of the strange unknown other,
To this cocky, fierce, all-pride mind opposing enemy militia
of yours, of your leaky red-dark gory bloodstream of blood
coming out as red blood cells,
This son of a female dog bratty brat that an Amazon
swinging jungle like freaky Tarzan had carried over opening
doors and shoulders taking in and by its broadside pickup
corner,
This dopey Hippolytus…
JOHNNIES WANTED
for hazardous journey, no wages, bitter
warmth, long minutes of complete sunshine,
constant fun, safe return probable, honor and
κλέος in case of success.
Ernest Tacks-a-Ton
60
College
Ave.
�κακά
the Badfly
April 24th, 2023
23
�THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
OF
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly
is the student newsmagazine
distributed to over 600
students, faculty, staff, and
alumni of the Annapolis
campus.
Opinions expressed within
are the responsibility of the
author(s). The Gadfly reserves
the right to accept, reject,
and edit submissions in any
way necessary to publish a
professional, informative,
and thought provoking
newsmagazine.
Freshman Kirk Garner's mother Rikke, a former defense
contractor, can't resist making a move on
Gadfly Editor-in-chief Daniel Nathan.
Submissions sent to the
Gadfly should either be
in Google Docs or JPEG
format. The deadline for
submissions is the Friday prior
to publication.
For more information, contact
us via email at sjca.gadfly@
gmail.com
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
Images without a listed source are from the
St. John's College Digital Archives.
St. John's College owns the rights
to these photographs.
24
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
�
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Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
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The Gadfly, Vol. XLIV, Issue 9 [Badfly issue]
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Volume XLIV, Issue 9, special Badfly issue of The Gadfly. Published April 24, 2023.
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Gadfly Vol XLIV Issue 9 Badfly
Badfly
Gadfly
Student publication
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/98cc987f7bbf8dcf01cfef1273dc42e8.pdf
dc9977008b977581185b8fdfb66389fa
PDF Text
Text
the Gadfly
St. John’s College
Annapolis, Maryland
March 1, 2023
Vol. XLIV, Issue 8
�Contents
Logos
Delegate Council Herald Report
Campus Renovations
Student Opinions on Housing
Johnnies of Color Cookout
Letter from the Editor
3
5
9
11
Symposium
The Scientific Necessity of Heartbreak 12
The Need for Pretty Books
13
The Myth of Ganymede
16
Polis
Considering Kunai
Not to be Pendantic, But...
On Uncertainty
Being Kind?
Love, Counterintelligence
Organic Vinegar
Epistle from a Worried Thinker
"The Song of Ganymede"
"Song of Songs": Translation
A Teriyaki House or a Teriyaki Home?
20
22
24
25
26
28
29
30
32
34
The Love Shack was a sex shop back in my hometown of Atlanta,
GA. I remember being 11 and asking my mom to stop by whenever we passed it. It looked like an old Abe Lincoln-esque cabin and
had bright purple railings. Being 11, I only knew it was for adults
and I wanted in; and being the mother of an 11 year old, my mom
never stopped. I still have never gone in, and nowadays, I’m not
sure I even would. But in the same spirit of that curious and naive
11 year old, I offer you THE EROS ISSUE.
Inside, you’ll find bad dates and heartbreak, a restaurant review,
updates on next year’s campus housing situation, and much more.
Valentines Day might’ve passed, but love, I assure you, is still in the
air.
Daniel Nathan,
Editor-in-chief
Staff
Editor in Chief
Managing Editor
Daniel Nathan
Luke Briner
Meliha Anthony
Helen Wagner
Louise Harden
Jenna Lee
Dolan Polglaze
Jackson Wojnowski
El'ad Nichols-Kaufman
Audrey Fox
FEATURING SUBMISSIONS FROM
Rylee Bain
Ranger Kasdorf
Louis Rosenberg
Nat Martin
Audrey Fox
Charles Dang
LAYOUT
Bridget Mace
Cooper Ussery
COVER
Felix Tower
2
THE STRUCTURE
Logos typically holds news reports and narratives
of immediate relevance to the Polity. The purpose
here is to develop a shared reservoir of information
relating to campus life and the community.
Symposium offers the opportunity for our readers to
thoughtfully consider contrasting opinions regarding
a particular topic.
Polis serves as a platform for elevating voices in
our community. Here we find letters to the editor,
columns, cartoons, and submitted pieces.
�λόγος
the Gadfly
February 6, 2023
Delegate Council Herald Report
Rylee Bain
Once again, we have been busy, busy bees over on the
Delegate Council. During our meeting on January
31st, we heard a report from Ms. Maddie Minor about
the goings on in the Alumni Association, notably the
Odyssey program is going well. An amendment to the
SCI was passed to make the charter align with how the
club currently operates. Budgeting time followed, for sake
of brevity only budgets with notes will be listed, the rest
will be in the BOB below: In our most recent meeting on
February 14th, we held the SCI freshmen representatives
and after hearing from three representatives we elected Ms.
Millie Ransohoff and Mr. Ian O’Donnell. We then moved
on to passing the Budget Omnibus Bill or the BOB:
Our next meeting was on February 7th, which began
with a report from me! We had a lunchtime forum about
campus renovations–Mr. Chris Thomas wants hardwood
floors and he wants them NOW! Then once again it was
time for budgeting:
3
�λόγος
And that’s what you missed on… GLEE!
Best, Rylee Bain
Polity Herald
4
the Gadfly
February 6, 2023
�the Gadfly
λόγος
Campus Renovations
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman
Plans to Renovate Campbell,
Move Coffee Shop and Bookstore Move Forward
Campbell Hall, like many of the dormitories on campus,
is not in a good condition. It has not been renovated
substantially since it was constructed in the 1950s, and
is showing its age. While the worst cosmetic issues were
dealt with by renovating the bathrooms last summer, and
the building may seem to be in better condition from a
student perspective, the underlying issues remain worse
than ever.
“Campbell has radiant heating from the floors from
the fifties,” explained College Treasurer Ally GontangHighfield, “and a lot of those pipes for the radiant
heating are corroding, so whenever there’s an issue with
the heating, they have to drain all the water out of the
building, and when they try to fix it, the pipes crumble.”
The hall’s electrical systems are also failing, and installing
modern heating and cooling would require upgrading the
transformers around the building, involving a great deal
of excavation.
February 6, 2023
In short, Campbell is a mess. It has been first on the
list for renovations for some time, and the possibility
of doing substantial renovations on it has been raised
at several of the last Board of Visitors and Governors
meetings. However, rising construction costs seemed to
put a definite stop to any plans at the last meeting, with
the alternative of smaller projects done on the building
over the summer and over the course of several years
proposed instead.
“Before escalation costs and inflation, we thought
the renovation would be three or four million, which was
already more than we had to spend on the building, but
after all the escalation costs, we found it would probably
be more like 10, or up to 15 million,” said GontangHighfield. “At the November board meeting, I told the
board I didn’t think we could do it… Karen Pritzker, who
was at the meeting, started talking to Mark Roosevelt
about the dorm, and offered to fund the entire renovation.”
The funding came through a $15 million gift from
the Jay Pritzker foundation, in addition to the $25
million already committed by the foundation as part
of the Pritzker challenge, a grant matching funds for
other campus projects. The gift comes with one major
stipulation: the project must be completed as quickly as
possible, to interrupt campus life for as short of a time as
possible.
St. John’s College Campus Master Plan, EE&K Architects
5
�λόγος
Wider Campus Changes Proposed
With this opportunity to
renovate Campbell also comes the
opportunity to do wider-reaching
renovations. “Most of the money
is going to the infrastructure of the
building, all the HVAC, heating and
cooling… Our plan was to put in
an elevator for ADA accessibility,”
said Gontang-Highfield, “but since
we are taking the building down,
this is an opportunity for us to ask:
is everything where it should be, or
are there things that would be better
served by relocating to Campbell?”
The current proposed plans
include moving the coffee shop
and bookstore to the basement of
Campbell, and splitting the basement
of McDowell into a faculty lounge and
a student common space, featuring a
small kitchen and vending machines
where the current food service
counter is. The mailroom, which
currently is also in the McDowell
basement, would move into the
basement of Humphreys Hall.
The decisions to shift the use
of so much space on campus came
quickly, but not without planning
or community feedback, explained
Andrew Romiti, chair of the Campus
Planning Committee. “There are
ideas that have been floating around
for a while, like the bookstore, and
suddenly there were a lot of things
to decide and big questions about
what else we could do. We were
already hosting forums and trying
to gather feedback from an array of
constituents in the community. We
mobilized to that in the first week or
two after hearing the news.”
6
the Gadfly
Plans for moving the bookstore
have been raised frequently over
the years, in response to the current
location’s inaccessibility, lack of
visibility and small space, and seem to
be generally agreed to by most people
involved in the planning process.
However, plans for moving the coffee
shop have raised more debate on
campus.
February 6, 2023
For example, I hold the meetings
here that I would have held in the
fishbowl. So this year, the coffee shop
has been very well used, very lively,
and perhaps overcrowded. I think
people who have been attending to
this question for a while think that’s
an abnormality… We’re hoping to
create far more life than the coffee
shop has had in the longer view.”
Gontang-Heighfield gave several
additional reasons for the proposed
move for the coffee shop.“ We have
known for years that the coffee shop
gets by down there. There’s lots
of traffic during the day, because
students like to have a place to meet,
or to study, but not many people
actually buy things down there…
We’ve heard all of our students go
to Old Fox Books, instead of our
coffee shop, and we’ve been trying
to figure out why that is, and how we
can serve students better here. Our
architects also thought that it would
be a lovely idea to help activate the
spaces we’ve just renovated… Having
Campbell Hall
the coffee shop by the bookstore gives
“The moving of the coffee a central hub feel to the entrance to
shop was probably the move that Mellon, which is really an entrance to
had the widest range of opinion, campus.”
explained Romiti. “There has been
a longstanding concern that the
Finding Housing Space
coffee shop is underutilized, and that
coffeeshop life is not the same as it
While renovating Campbell
used to be… In 2009, the last time
there was a master plan, back then provides many opportunities for
they were already looking to move other campus improvements, it also
the coffee shop… there was some has the potential to create a major
concern, even then, that there was housing shortage. The building has
a need to revitalize the coffee shop. seventy beds, making up over 18% of
We’re in a peculiar position now, all the beds on campus this year. With
because the only active public space limited opportunities for expanding
available right now is the coffee shop. housing space, the administration
had to find creative solutions.
�the Gadfly
λόγος
“I heard rumblings about it
in late November, and I kind of
panicked, because seventy beds is a
lot, and I wanted to make sure we had
some kind of plan,” explained Taylor
Waters, Director of Student Services.
“So what I did is I looked at every
residence hall, and I counted every
bed we have… and that number came
out to 382, and I said, okay, where
can we squeeze any other beds. So I
took some common rooms off, made
a bunch of triples for the incoming
class, and then added about 30, 35
more beds… That’s when we sent out
the first email about housing. Then I
took the total number of beds, which
was about 340, 350. Then I blocked
off the current freshman class, since
they’re required to live on campus,
and then the incoming freshman
class… And then I did the proportion,
how many rising Juniors and rising
seniors, and then we had a total of
55 beds for rising Juniors and rising
seniors who wanted to be on campus.
But we had 123 rising juniors and
seniors who wanted to be on campus
after submitting their form.”
The number of rising Juniors
and Seniors who want to live on
campus has exacerbated this problem.
In the past, the college has tried to
encourage more upperclassmen to
live on campus than wanted to, but
this year, record numbers of students
submitted their names for housing
on campus. Waters explained that
the announcement of the renovations
may have contributed to this. “I think
some students may have panicked,
and thought, ‘oh no, I haven’t even
started looking, so I better submit my
form saying I want to be on campus.’ I
have gotten a fair number of students
who have written to me back and said
that they don’t want to take their
spots on campus.”
Even so, there is a need to
increase the number of housing
slots. Gontang-Highfield said that
the college has been exploring all
possible options. “What we’ve done
February 6, 2023
is we went back and looked at several
other spaces we’ve been considering
with architects, to see whether we
could convert some of the common
rooms into dorms… we also renewed
the lease we have on this apartment
building on Prince George Street, so
that building we mostly had tutors
in… so we’ll have a number of beds
for students there. Together with
the common spaces, we should have
as many, or more spaces as we had
available last year.”
Waters concurred, explaining
that she “started with 382 beds before
taking off Campbell, and now we
have almost 380 beds. The issue is
that we have more juniors and seniors
than ever before who want to live on
campus. Our ability to house people
is just about the same as it has been,
only the demand is so high… I would
like to remind students that a lot
more students will get on campus
than they think. Ms. Lico and I have
been working hard to make as many
spaces as we can.”
Student Response
Campbell Hall Lounge, 1954
All these changes could have a
deep and far-reaching impact on the
campus proposed, and many students
know it. Besides the practical changes
to how amenities are placed around
campus, there are also changes to how
our spaces around campus will look,
which is very important for students
who live and study in these spaces.
Some students have decided to make
their voices heard in these matters.
“I
found
myself
getting
increasingly frustrated about how
little respect the renovation projects
have for the historicity of the
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campus,” explained Catherine Greer,
Class of 2025, “and I’ve seen this
frustration in the people around me,
and how there’s a lack of attention
to detail for how comfortable and
homely spaces feel here… and I think
at some point I got tired of being
someone to complain about… there is
actually something that can be done,
people need to figure out how to use
their voices and speak about these
issues that deeply impact our lives
and the future of our campus, and so
I decided it was time for someone to
do something about it. Since I cared
so much about it, I figured I should
do it myself.”
Greer has been hosting forums,
in collaboration with the Delegate
Council, focused on the aesthetics
of the college, although many
concerns about housing have been
brought up as well. Many students
have raised frustration about a lack
of communication, feeling stranded
by the administration as important
decisions are made that shape dayto-day life on campus. “I realize
that there’s a greater issue behind
everything,” said Greer, “that is that
there’s a lack of communication
between the student body and the
administration and the people who
are making these decisions about
the school, where it seems there’s a
disconnect in what our vision is for
the future of the school.”
Waters
agreed
that
communication could be better, but
noted that the administration is doing
everything they can to help students
find housing and let their voices be
heard in the design process. “The roll
out of the announcement was poorly
done, and we acknowledge that. Even
though I sent out five emails between
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December and January, it didn’t hit
people until they got their lottery
numbers… the whole college could
have been giving more information
this whole time… In the future we’ll
communicate about these sorts of
things much more clearly.”
In both planning and housing,
plans are being made to be more
receptive to student voice. Romiti said
the campus planning committee still
welcomes feedback, especially now in
the critical period as the last elements
of designs are being finalized. “I think
February 6, 2023
it's been right to mobilize on both of
these fronts, aesthetic and functional,
because now is when major decisions
will be made that determine both
of these factors… I’m happy to hear
from students in any way. Anyone
should feel free to just reach out to
me, at least just as a focal point: I
can hear things and have discussions
one on one, I can bring them to the
campus planning committee, or I can
just direct people to other individuals
in the college that could help them
with their questions.”
One of Campbell's Iconic Windows
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February 6, 2023
Student Opinions on the Housing Situation
Jackson Wojnowski
As most of our readers know, next year there will be a
shortage of living spaces on campus due to the upcoming
Campbell Hall renovations. As a result, more juniors and
seniors will need to live off-campus than usual. Here, we’ll
see what some students have to say about this matter, an
event that reminds us that the pursuit of knowledge and
the cultivation of the mind can often be inconvenienced
by the happenings of our larger political community, some
of which are born of necessity, and others of chance.
However, before going into those statements, a quick
note is in order: several students expressed concern that
Humphrey’s would be under renovation as well next
year and thus add further awkwardness to the housing
situation, but as Taylors Waters incidentally answered to
an email inquiry, “Randall and Humphrey’s will remain
first-year resident halls” for next year. With that said, we
move onto the views of our fellows.
“At the very least, it sucks for campus culture,” said
Finn Yekple, a rising junior who will be living off-campus
of his own desire.
“A lot of the discussions Johnnies do have happen
after class hours—because everyone lives on campus,” said
Rebecca Hile, another rising junior who will be living
on-campus next year. She, a domestic student, further
expressed concern regarding how the policies would affect
international students.
These concerns were substantiated by Helen Felbek:
“I’m concerned because I have to return to my home
country, Germany, over the summer because I have an
internship there lined up…and I just feel like with the
housing, that means that many things have to happen
during the school year, likely basically right now…and that
is very stressful because I know I won’t be here to make
arrangements.”
Regarding what help the college is offering for such
concerns, Ms. Felbek explained that the international
student coordinator, Kidus Kebede, has said that "while the
college can’t give us legal advice. He expressed willingness
to guide us through the process [of securing housing],
which is kind of a relief because he was an international
student when he was a student here. Which is a nice thing.
And then also this idea of being able to have some of the
Dorm Life in Campbell Hall
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furniture from Campbell when it’s
going to be closed.” However, her
point of concern was most pointedly
the timeline, which the college is not
able to help.
Another student, who wished to
remain anonymous and who will be
living off-campus next year, expressed
different concerns. “I am very much
used to living in boarding schools,
so basically I never had a [private
living situation] that I needed to
care for…I am excited for the chance
to get more cooking done…but I do
very much want to live, or continue
to live, on campus because it is very
convenient for me, and there’s no
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added cost whatever, so it’s kind of
disappointing…also, there seems to
be an increasing number of accepted
students that kind of squeeze out the
dorm rooms, and that feels kind of
not right to me.”
Going along with all these
concerns, there has been at least one
unexpected upside to all this: a limited
number of sophomores who wish to
do so are being allowed to live offcampus. Referring to her fortune in
the lottery system, rising sophomore
Molly Sprout said “I got one of the
lowest numbers possible; it was 130,
so because of that I’d have to live in
a poor-quality [used as a euphemism
February 6, 2023
for a harsher phrase] double…so I just
thought why not pay for a situation
that I’m gonna enjoy more.”
Of course, this conciliation leads
much to be desired for many. Said
rising junior Fiona Guinness, who
personally will be able to live oncampus next year, “I really wish there
had been more of an effort, especially
early on, to accommodate students
who weren’t going to be able to get oncampus housing-because I have a lot
of my friends who all are very much
panicked..given how freaked out they
are, how much they’re struggling to
get housing…it’s difficult to watch
them go through it.”
Johnnies of Color Hosts Annual
Black History Month Cookout
Meliha Anthony
Johnnies of Color hosted a campus cookout for the
polity on Feb. 11 to commemorate Black History Month.
Students gathered on the quad to enjoy a variety of foods,
including burgers fresh off the grill, mac and cheese, hot
dogs, cornbread, and other assorted snacks and drinks. A
firepit completed the atmosphere, where attendees roasted
marshmallows while laughing and talking in the middle of
the quad.
Johnnies of Color aims to “create a space where
[students], primarily students of color, can find each
other and talk to each other,” according to Linda Bellamy,
the co-archon of the club. Bellamy and her co-archon,
Stephanie Harris, formed Johnnies of Color to create this
safe space where students can address the issues on their
minds, whether or not those issues are specific to their
experiences as students of color.
The cookout is one of the club’s main events of the
year.
“Last year, we only had two weeks to plan the
event,” Bellamy said. This year, the archons knew to plan
further in advance, starting about a month before the
cookout, with more of a goal and vision in mind. The
10
process involved mainly budgeting, timing, and enlisting
the proper help from students who work with student
coordinator Rachelle Munsey. Then, of course, the day
of the event involved the actual process of setting up and
cooking the food.
To Bellamy, the additional planning this year, as
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February 6, 2023
opposed to last year, made the event
run more smoothly and successfully.
A greater number of people were
able to enjoy the food and stay for
longer. Bellamy also describes this
year as being less stressful than last
year, with the additional planning,
expressing gratitude that everything
went according to plan. Bellamy also
enjoyed seeing people who might not
typically interact socialize with each
other during the cookout, hoping
that the event might be able to spark
new conversations and create a fun,
comfortable atmosphere.
“I’d say it was very successful,”
Bellamy said.
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February 6, 2023
The Scientific Necessity
of Heartbreak
Helen Wagner
Dear reader, have you known heartbreak? Have you suffered
the pain of a failed love? Has it changed you? Has it changed
you for the better? It has, I’m sure. I’d venture to say it must.
Just as the breakdown of hypotheses (and the formulation
of new ones) drives scientific progress, heartbreak seems
an essential step towards a true and honest conception
of love. Whether or not you’ve experienced heartbreak, I
know you’ve read the Symposium, so let me remind you of
Diotima’s Ladder of Love. She tells Socrates,
This is the right method of approaching the ways of
love or being led by someone else: beginning from these
beautiful things always to go up with the aim of reaching
that beauty. Like someone using a staircase, he should go
from one to two and from two to all beautiful bodies, and
from beautiful bodies to beautiful practices, and from
practices to beautiful forms of learning. From forms of
learning, he should end up at that form of learning which
is of nothing other than that beauty itself, so that he can
complete the process of learning what beauty really is.1
How could it fail us without pain?
Each step in our journey toward true love must be
a heartbreak. Every time our conception of love collapses
on us, we create a new one, improved by the knowledge
gained through pain. It is on these ruins that we build our
understanding of love: we learn the truth through the
constant failure of ideals. This is the scientific necessity of
heartbreak, although in science, of course, the emotional
stakes are much lower. Scientific progress, too, is only
made when hypotheses are broken. After an experiment
has run contrary to current expectation, we can learn
where we are wrong and improve our understanding
accordingly. Diotima has convinced me that love must
work in a similar way: just as science runs on failure,
love runs on heartbreak. Consider these lines of Rilke’s
poem, “The Man Watching,” where he imagines an Old
Testament man, wrestling with an angel:
Whoever was beaten by this Angel
(who often simply declined the fight)
went away proud and strengthened
and great from that harsh hand,
that kneaded him as if to change his shape.
Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,
by constantly greater beings.
Thus, says Diotima, we will move from loving
individual beauty to loving the form of Beauty itself.
But how will we make this journey? What will drive us?
Something tells me that it will be painful. As we ascend
Diotima’s ladder, each rung represents a realization that our
previous conception of love was incomplete. We cannot
move from individual to universal love without learning
that “the beauty of the body is something petty.”2 How
could we learn this unless the beauty of the body failed us?
Just like the man in the poem, we will grow by
being defeated. But defeat is painful, and the paradigm
shift brought about by a broken heart is never an easy
process. But take comfort! If you’ve been down that road
of pain, you are on the right track. You are learning how
to love. And, if you’re lucky enough to have avoided it
so far, remember this: it will come. But it will make you
better. Brace yourself.
1. Plato, Symposium, trans. Christopher Gill.
3. Rainer Maria Rilke, “The Man Watching,” trans. Robert Bly.
2. Ibid
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On the Need For Pretty Books, and the
Plethora of Not-Pretty Books RANGER KASDORF
S
t. John’s College calls its curriculum the “Great Books
Program,” and as catchy as this label may be, it seems
like something of a misnomer. Are books really what we
study here? The works of Homer and Plato predate the
invention of “books'' as we now know them; the plays of
Sophocles and Shakespeare were meant to be performed
onstage, and only appear in their leather-bound or
paperback volumes incidentally. Bach’s St. Matthew
Passion and Mozart’s Don Giovanni cannot just be read in
order to appreciate them properly; they must be heard.
Certainly the program contains works which are
unequivocally books, as opposed to scrolls or tablets or
oral traditions. But, in practice, what St. John’s cares most
about as an institution is not books, but texts—texts whose
true forms lie beyond our reach, forcing us to use imperfect,
typo-prone, mass-produced volumes to access them.
And yet it cannot be denied that all but the most
aesthetically ascetic of Johnnies do care, at least a little,
about books as well as texts. There is a certain thrill—oft
unremarked upon but undeniably felt—associated with
the selection of a particular incarnation of a Program text.
Reading a book for seminar means spending a lot of
intimate time with whichever particular edition you’ve
picked out, and if it’s a particularly long reading—a lengthy
over-break novel, or a dense philosophical treatise to
which the Program dedicates a month (think the Republic
or the 353 page Don Quixote reading which opens up
Junior year)—you’ll want it to be a book which, for lack of
a better term, feels good. That might mean a decades-old
paperback with yellowing pages and some watercolor
painting on its front, or a sturdy hardcover which eschews
all pop and color in favor of good old-fashioned muted
earth tones. The decision one makes at this point reveals a
certain kind of personal taste which, unlike one’s favorite
food or music, is rarely ever expressed, nor even noticed.
But I’m convinced all at St. John’s will know what I am
talking about.
"And yet it cannot be denied
that all but the most aesthetically ascetic of Johnnies do
care, at least a little, about
books as well as texts."
Many of us, upon first coming to campus Freshman
year, might buy a new, school-bookstore copy of a certain
text out of desperation—my closet is, at present, clogged
up with shiny Freshman-year copies of Harvey and
Lavoisier with phosphorescent pages and covers so glossy
they border on greasy—but certainly, given the choice, the
average student would prefer a nice, unpretentious vintage
volume1 every time2. But if I’m indeed correct about the
1. There could be any number of reasons for this: perhaps it’s the quality of the paper (which, in older paperbacks, tends to be coarser
than modern editions, and easier to make notes on); perhaps it’s the famous “used book smell” (a phenomenon which, though some
may scoff at it, is undeniably real); perhaps, as a generation raised with the slogan “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” always ringing in our ears,
we find it more prudent–not to mention frugal–to use already-extant books, rather than drive up the demand for new ones. Perhaps we
simply feel more comfortable supporting a struggling local bookstore than we do feeding even more money into an institution that's
already taking $30,000+ from us every year.
2. This dichotomy has resulted, for me, in a personal custom which I imagine some readers of this piece will recognize in themselves.
This is the division of all of one’s books into two groups: one, full of well-loved books kept within easy reach on the bookshelf and by
the bedside, and another, full of books owned purely out of obligation–textbooks, manuals, translations of Dante inferior to the one
kept in the first group but potentially useful for a paper, etc–kept hidden like the mad woman in the attic, stowed away in closets, in
cars, even at parents’ houses, and only ever retrieved on the rare occasions which demand them.
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universality of this little-acknowledged aesthetic
discrimination among bookish types, then this would
mean that a sizable chunk of the St. John’s College
Annapolis campus prefers Penguin Classics—and that’s a
conclusion which I’m not quite ready to accept.
Now, as far as their content goes, Penguin
Classics are perfectly serviceable, especially if your intent
is to read them once for seminar and then return them to
the library and never think of them again, rather than
display them proudly on your shelf. They use solid
translations of non-English works, and they present the
reader with helpful footnotes. They are generally wellconstructed: they use ink which does
not easily fade and paper which does
not offend the fingers like the glossy
photostock used by popular magazines,
though their spines are so prone to
cracking that if I saw a classmate at
seminar with an uncracked Penguin
Classic I’d assume that everything they
said for the rest of the night was a bluff.
From what little I’ve heard
people say about them, they seem to
have a reputation as the “Ol’ Reliable”
of modern classics editions. Still, I’ve
always been a little down on Penguin
Classics for the admittedly petty reason
that I find their covers hideous.
However solid the pages
between the covers of these volumes
may be, they outwardly exhibit a ghastly
contradiction
in
their
design
sensibilities: they are at once uniform in
their typography (always that same efficient, conservative
font in the same shades of white and orange on the same
field of soothing black) and utterly lawless in their visuals,
leaving them in an aesthetic dead zone: any pleasing
visual distinctiveness is deadened by the dogged
adherence to the template, and any joy which might be
gained from the volumes’ uniformity is eliminated by the
apparent lack of discernment in the choice of images for
their covers. For works of philosophy and other
nonfiction prose, the go-to seems to be to use the most
widely circulated portrait of the author, often the one
which appears on the author’s Wikipedia page. For plays
and novels, meanwhile, the practice is to pick any random
painting or photograph which even remotely suggests
14
February 6, 2023
the content of the work–sometimes a painting explicitly
depicting a specific scene or character, but most of the
time not. There is no visual cohesion between these
images; set two Penguin Classics next to each other and
odds are good that their covers will be from two
different artists, likely in two different mediums,
perhaps from two entirely different centuries, even if
the two authors of the books themselves were
contemporaries. The Penguin Classics edition of
Macbeth features Henry Fuseli’s chilling sketch of Act
IV, Scene I (Macbeth being shown apparitions by the
witches)–which is fair enough–but their edition of The
Comedy Of Errors is fronted by a
cubist painting by Jean LambertRucki, seemingly unrelated to the
actual play beyond its vague
suggestion of the concept of “twins”.
The most egregious example I’ve yet
seen is the Penguin Classics edition
of Eliot’s Middlemarch, which
features William Henry Fox
Talbot’s photograph of a bust of
Venus, presumably in a hackneyed
attempt to hint toward the novel’s
fascinating examinations of the
nuances of womanhood via the
most obvious and generic symbol of
femininity in the Western artistic
canon.
Ι’m sure I’d have no quarrel
with these editions if their fronts
bore only the book’s title and
author; this would lend the editions
a soothing sameness, a sense that they all belong to a set.
But the inclusion of these arbitrarily picked images,
thematically incongruous with the books which they
claim to represent and visibly incongruous with one
another, makes the entire series a mess of contradictory
noise that insults the wonderful words contained
within. To my mind, this aesthetic inconsistency places
Penguin Classics among the most disposable of trade
paperbacks: they look fine on a shelf, but horrid when
held in the hands, and will certainly be the first to go
when it comes time to trim the fat in one's personal
library. In this way they are much like the spiral-bound
construction-paper manuals handed out by St. John's
for tutorial and lab classes–utterly utilitarian, useful for
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as long as one needs the information
within, but otherwise unremarkable,
and easily discarded once that period
passes. They may contain great texts,
but they are hardly Great Books; in
truth, they are only a few rungs up from
a printed PDF. Still, every Seminar, I
look around the table and inevitably see
at least one Penguin Classic, blaring out
at me with its orange-creamsicle-in-atar-pit color palette and its publicdomain portrait of the author with a
mild expression on his face, alongside
more charming, pulpy editions from
the ‘60s and understated hardcovers
with the dust jackets removed, prized
possessions and family heirlooms.
To be clear, Penguin Classic are
not the worst of the worst when it
comes to paperback cover design; that
honor would likely go to the infamous
Dover Thrift Editions, which more
closely resemble educational DVDs
than they do books.
And that’s to say nothing of the
various design blunders committed by
Hackett Publishing, from their
embarrassingly hack stunt-placements
of quasi-relevant 20th century American
cultural figures on editions of Ancient
Greek plays–Elvis Presley on the
Bacchae, James Dean on the Oresteia,
JFK on the f*cking Theban Plays–to
their use of a font which is just a few
stray lines away from being Microsoft’s
Papyrus on their edition of Hesiod’s
Theogony.
Indeed, personal experience
seems to back me up on these judgments; I have heard plenty of classmates groan over how ugly these more egregious editions
are, and have rarely seen them used in Seminar without
some snide remark being made about them. It’s not hard
February 6, 2023
to see why Penguin Classics are more
popular; their color scheme is broadly
appealing, and, setting aside the images which take up the bulk of their covers, that logo is damn adorable. If Penguin Classics are cheap plastic folding
chairs from Walmart, Dover Thrifts
are oil barrels from the local scrapyard; even if all you need is a place to
sit, it’s easy to see why the former are
preferred over the latter. But without
these inferior covers to indirectly flatter them, the charms of the Penguin
Classics–for me, at least–swiftly vanish.
Perhaps all this strikes you as
needless snobbery; after all, a true appreciator of literature ought to be more
interested in what’s in between a book’s
covers than in the covers themselves. I
must admit I feel a bit silly writing this,
and I’m sure that whoever put up that
poster in the McDowell coffee shop
calling the Gadfly’s contents “pretentious blather” is feeling quite vindicated in their accusation if they’re reading
this. Still, I’ll end this piece with an
earnest inquiry: am I alone in this desire that my books look outwardly as
gorgeous as they inwardly are? Is my
cringing at what I perceive to be low-effort book design a frivolous overreaction? Please do reach out to me with
your thoughts on the matter; I am genuinely curious. Perhaps someone will
offer me a perspective which I have
never considered, and will convince
me that a book’s cover design is of less
significance than the edibility of the
plastic wrap around a brick of cheese.
If I am so persuaded, I may soon cast off my collection
of well-loved paperbacks in favor of the ethereal PDF
file, and abandon myself to a more monastic way of life.
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A New Platonic Reading of
the Myth of Ganymede
Luke Briner
I’ve been thinking a lot about the myth of Ganymede
recently. While I immediately find it a very beautiful story
about a beautiful and virtuous man lifted to the height of a
divine and immortal embrace, the carnal perversion which
has historically found justification or at least solidarity in
it is undeniable. The Athenian, in Plato’s Laws, condemns
the myth wholesale on these grounds, considering it to
be nothing but a license to licentiousness invented by the
Cretans.1 Given this, though, I can’t help but wonder if that
darkness surrounding the myth can’t be overcome, and if a
different, brighter reading of it isn’t possible.
In order to proceed to this kind of reading, three
preliminary steps need to be taken: 1) the formal exposition
of the myth as originally presented; 2) the refutation of
an entirely negative interpretation of the myth on the
basis of the sexual perversions that are read in it and have
proceeded historically from it; and 3) the development of
the interpretive mode by which a higher reading is possible.
1) The first literary references to Ganymede are
found in Homer: two in his Iliad,2 and one in his Hymn to
Aphrodite.3 According to Homer, he was a Trojan prince,
a son of Tros, who, being “the loveliest4 born of the race
of mortals,”5 was lifted from the earth “so that he may be
together with the immortal ones, as wine-pourer for the
gods in the palace of Zeus.”6 Upon this Homeric foundation,
additions to the story were made by others: Ovid, for
instance, describes Zeus transforming himself into an eagle
in order to carry Ganymede up to Olympus,7 and Apuleius
describes him as engaged in shepherdry before his ascent.8 9
2) We can then already see a disparity between the
basis of the Athenian’s condemnation of the myth and the
myth itself in its bare, original form. In all three Homeric
references to Ganymede, there’s no mention whatsoever
of his age. Certainly he’s a younger man, but by no means
necessarily a minor—he’s only spoken of as Tros’ son. Nor
is anything overtly sexual, let alone pederastic, described
16
between him and Zeus. Hence versions of the story
depicting Ganymede as a minor or his relationship to
Zeus as pederastic, or interpretations of the story so
modified, are superfluous and discardable. This point is
corroborated by Xenophon’s Socrates when he argues
that “in the case of Ganymede, it was not his person10 but
his spiritual character that influenced Zeus to carry him
up to Olympus,”11 deriving his name from γάνυται (to be
glad, to take joy) and μήδεα (counsels, arts; thus he’s “not
physically but mentally attractive”).12 And again, Nichols
Jr., in a note in his version of Plato’s Phaedrus, asserts
Ganymède, Gustave Moreau
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that only “later renditions of the tale make Zeus fall in love
with him [Ganymede]” at all.13 The Athenian, therefore,
doesn’t necessarily condemn the myth itself but only the
common interpretation of it which sanctions or glorifies
perversion, and we’re free to condemn it alongside him
while reappropriating the myth itself for a more worthy
purpose.
3) Now Plato himself, far from condemning
mythology universally, “creates a mythology of his own.”14
Although it’s his original “reformed mythology and by
no means the objectionable old inherited religious legend
which he wishes to enthrone,”15 he clearly recognizes that
the myth, as a didactic and dialectical instrument, can “aid
in making the interlocutor receptive to arguments and leads
him to these arguments by offering him insights to be tested,
insights often about 'worlds' with which he is not familiar.”16
We see this in the tales that Socrates tells in the Republic,
the Phaedrus, the Laws, etc. For Plato, myths themselves are
not substitutes for or directly connected to the truth, but
the right interpretation of the right myths can lead us to the
truth more easily than otherwise. Plotinus agrees with Plato
that myths may be used for the sake of clearly and powerfully
expressing to the mind grand truths which would otherwise
be difficult to grasp or attach oneself to. For Plotinus, “[the]
myth divides in time what is transmitted in the discourse
and separates entities from each other which in reality are
united, meaning that the myth takes back to the past—
from an origin—things which are in the present.”17 The
myth expresses the Eternal in the temporal and grounds the
esoteric logos with an engaging pathos. In this, however,
he takes a broader view than Plato, and happily applies an
exegesis of metaphysical allegory to common myth with
remarkable utilitarianism. He uses mythical situations or
characters to illustrate whatever philosophical situation he
finds himself in, even if that means using the same character
to represent different things at different times or isolating
a part of one from the whole;18 hence, to give only a few
specific examples, he represents Zeus as the IntellectualPrinciple19 or the Supreme Good,20 Aphrodite as “the Soul
at its highest”21 striving toward the Intellectual Realm, and
the generational struggle between Uranus, Kronos, and
Zeus as the hypostatic procession from the One to Intellect
to Soul.22 Ordinarily there might be a serious tension
between these two approaches given Plato’s reluctance
to interpret allegorically the basically objectionable and
dangerous content of many common myths. But seeing as
the Ganymede myth in particular has had the objectionable
scum stuck to it washed away (section 2), I suggest here that
it’s foundationally pristine enough to serve as the basis of
a safe and fruitful allegorical interpretation which, though
overtly Neoplatonic in metaphysics, still satisfies the strictly
Platonic condition of genuine educational value described
earlier.
I venture, then, that Ganymede’s ascent to Zeus
may be read as the spiritual ascent of the Soul, animated
by Love, toward the Intellectual-Principle, the Divine.
1. 636c-d. To be clear, the perversion I personally refer to is pederasty
in particular, although the Athenian is unfortunately talking more
broadly about all homosexual relations here. The point stands
regardless.
2. V.265-267, XX.230-235.
3. 202-218.
4. Κάλλιστος; i.e., beautiful, good, virtuous.
5. Iliad, XX.233.
6. Hymn to Aphrodite, 203-204.
7. Metamorphoses, X.162-169.
8. The Golden Ass, XI.8.
9. I’ve chosen not to mention the story of Tros and Zeus after
Ganymede’s ascent as related by Homer in Iliad V.265-258 and HtA
207-218, as it’s outside the scope of my current interest. I feel justified
in doing this because it’s consistent with the style of allegorical
interpretation which Plotinus uses and which I’ll go on to follow the
example of. This will be developed in section 3.
10. Σώματος; i.e., body.
11. Symposium, 8.30.
12. Ibid.
13. n. 126, 255c.
14. Edelstein (1949). “The Function of the Myth in Plato's
Philosophy.” Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 10, No. 4, p. 466.
15. Ibid, p. 478.
16. Smith (1986). “Plato's Use of Myth in the Education of
Philosophic Man.” Phoenix, Spring, Vol. 40, No. 1, p. 13.
17. Calvo (2017). “Myth and Exegesis in Plotinus: How to Divide and
Recompose Words and Things.” Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary
Studies in Humanities, Vol. IX, No. 2, p. 87.
18. Ibid, p. 84.
19. Enneads, III.5.
20. Ibid, VI.9.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid, V.8.
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February 6, 2023
Ganymede’s own relative youth in the first place may be
seen as representing the “youth” of the Soul itself, which
has by “a voluntary plunge”23 descended from its fixed
station Above into the generative and degenerative world
of Becoming. This can also apply more generally to the
procession of the World-Soul from the Intellect.24 If it’s
accepted that Ganymede was engaged in shepherdry as a
mortal, I take this as the Soul’s development of Virtue by
directing the chaotic flock of its own internal faculties and
inclinations through Reason,25 and generally of overcoming
the struggles brought on by the multiplicity of the world.26
I therefore take the ascent of Ganymede itself, being
ordained by Zeus, as the favor incurred by the Soul by its
“attaining Likeness to God” through Virtue so developed.27
If it’s accepted that Zeus took the form of an eagle in order
to bring about that ascent, then I understand it either as
simply a more specific illustration of the general divine
exaltation given to the virtuous Soul, or as representing the
way in which visible, earthly things serve as a foundation
for the dialectic which eventually transcends them.28
Finally, Ganymede’s ultimate residence with Zeus and all
of Olympus as a wine-pourer may be read as representing
the Soul’s own absolute absorption into the Divine, such
that that Soul itself becomes the wine, not only the offerer
but the offering, flowing back into the Source from which
it once proceeded. Thus is the divine eros of the Soul at
last fulfilled, freed from the loneliness and suffering of the
world below and united to the Beloved forever.
The Dream of the Shepherd, Ferdinand Hodler
23. Enneads, IV.7.5.
24. Ibid, V.1-2.
25. Ibid, I.4.2. Also see Plato, Phaedrus, 246d-247b.
26. Enneads, I.2.
27. Ibid, I.2.1.
28. Ibid, I.3. Also see Plato, Symposium, 209e-212a.
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February 6, 2023
In the spirit of the newly-renamed Mitchell Art
Museum's reopening, I (on behalf of the rest of the
layout staff ) want to extend an invitation to write,
draw, paint, or otherwise create something in the
space on this, the last page of this issue's συμπόσιον
section. While a symposium in the classical sense
certainly involves a lot of listening to others'
opinions, it also requires the participation of all, and
submitting to the Gadfly can only take one so far. So
to that end, please: do your worst!
—Cooper
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February 6, 2023
Considering Kunai
By AUDREY FOX
Dearest Polity,
I write to you not to facilitate argumentation, nor to assert
upon you what I consider to be a “correct opinion.” I wish
solely to convey my thoughts and experiences surrounding
the recent discussion on Kunai’s role here at the college.
All I can ask is that you meet my words with compassion
instead of problems. As a tutor once told a friend of mine
who was complaining about all those stories Socrates tells
in the dialogues: how are we to understand one another if
we do not have a means to share our experiences?
I will not go into too much explicit detail about what we
discussed at the forum, for I want to protect the members
who were brave enough to be vulnerable about their
experiences. Instead, I’ll speak on my own. Unlike the
classroom, the field and the court are the domains of the
body. We all would like to think we have more control
over our bodies than is the reality. I mean in the most
literal sense: I think it should not be that hard to kick a
soccer ball with control, but then I try and find it much
less intuitive than I expected it to be. This is an experience
common to us all, that our bodies have limits, and mastery
over sports are things people will dedicate their entire lives
to. I want to add a further complication: not only do we
have limited control over the physical movement of our
bodies, but we also have even less control over how those
bodies are perceived by others. This complication is for me,
and for other members of Kunai, something that makes
participation in intramurals difficult—especially when your
body does not feel your own. People watching you move,
people examining how well you exert yourself at a sport—
that can be a daunting, almost debilitating thought for me.
And I refuse to dance around the subject: the presence of
cis men at intramurals can exacerbate this experience. I
do not mean that cis men are actively trying to make my
20
participation hard, but that the world of sports has been
historically and culturally built around the standard of
men, and when I am playing a co-ed game my body and I are
facing that comparison. This difficulty is especially hard for
non-binary and trans members of our athletic community,
and Kunai serves not just as a place where we are tolerated
but a space where we actively recognize and appreciate each
other. The saddest part of the forum was the multitude of
trans and non-binary individuals who spoke about this
very feeling of finding Kunai to be a place where they felt
comfortable moving their bodies, yet this feeling was often
ignored and met with little compassion by those advocating
for including cis men in the group.
I also do not believe that this is an active consideration for
cis-male intramural attendees. The forum was open to the
public; anyone who wanted could attend.
Yet
we
only had one cis-male attendee who expressed that his
motivation for being there was to observe—the rest were
people who have participated in Kunai. It is apparent to me
that if there was anyone who did not feel included in Kunai
they would have been at that forum. As one Kunai member
aptly put it: the road to athletic success for cis men, even
for the inexperienced, has been paved by the existence of
St. John’s College intramurals. They do not need Kunai,
and if they do need something like Kunai, it is not our
responsibility to provide that for them. Ms. Fleming said
she is happy to accommodate suggestions on different
options for inexperienced players.
Again, I do not think that the cis men of the college have
any active malice towards us. However, I do not think that
there is any active concern either. When I watch our A team
basketball players get into borderline physical altercations,
I am amazed at how tunnel visioned people can get at
intramural games. Is this what it means to be a competitive
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February 6, 2023
animal? Do I have to forsake my care for others in the name
of the game? I often look back on a game and sometimes
find that I did not like how aggressively I was playing. Yet
I am often praised for my aggression. I have fun, and get in
a good exercise, but I am constantly left with the question
of whether this is the only way to engage in sports. So, for
those of you who want to know what Kunai is, I will tell
you at least what I think it is. I would like to consider it
an experiment in competition, not determined by skill or
masculine physicality, but instead by compassion and active
concern for those we are playing with. If you find that idea
to be a sign of weakness, then I think you also might want
to start evaluating what competition means for you.
21
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Not to be Pedantic,
But...
By CALEB CLARK
“Not to be pedantic, but…”
Have you ever heard someone say this in class? Moreover,
have you ever heard someone say this, then continue to say
something incredibly pedantic? Have you ever said this?
Why? In fact, what does it even mean to “be pedantic” in
the first place?
say X, but that would be cruel, so I won’t.” But what really
interests me here is the fact that the stock phrase “not to be
pedantic…” is but one of many in a rotating cast of phrases
that students at St. John’s always seem to start their points
with. You may have heard some variations of these others:
I’m not sure if this is correct, but… OK, it seems to me that…
Sorry if we’ve already addressed this, but… etc. etc. etc. The
compulsion to ritually apologize for whatever it is you’re
going to say/do is so strong it can make a seminar feel like
listening to two hours of Stolen Land Acknowledgements.
Maybe the only way to avoid this whole conundrum is
to simply be unapologetic about it all: trust your own
judgment. If you think something is relevant, go for it. If
you think you have an understanding of the topic at hand
that might be incorrect, it doesn’t matter. Say it like you
mean it.
Being a pedant, being pedantic, peddling in pedantry,
these are all—to put it bluntly—dirty words. After all, the
common image we all have of a pedant: someone who is
uptight and anal, predisposed to miss the forest for the
trees, someone who frequently revels in minute corrections
for the petty joy of appearing superficially more intelligent
than whoever it is they’re correcting, whose general vibe is
best summed up by the phrase, “Um Actually,” is obviously
something to avoided. No wonder, then, that people go out
At this point I’d like to admit something. If you couldn’t
of their way to avoid being perceived as pedantic.
already tell by the general tenor of this article, I’m
But let’s not kid ourselves. This halfhearted measure, a something of a pedant. Instead of engaging in an apologia
lukewarm gesture to the possibility of being pedantic—or for myself or my brethren (who I take no responsibility for,
worse, annoying—does by no means achieve its desired I must add) I’d instead like to tell you a short anecdote.
end, i.e, that of not coming across as pedantic. If anything, I’m in Junior Math, we’re talking about Newton. Someone
this prelude only serves to draw attention to itself, putting makes a point. “Not to be pedantic,” I say, trailing off,
the idea in your own head into everyone else’s, giving your catching myself in the act. Trying to salvage the situation,
classmates the ability to revel in the irony of it all (at your I decide to lean in—to totally own it. “Actually—no—to
own expense, of course). If this insertion is so self-defeating, be pedantic…” and so on. This gambit, that of shamelessly
then, why do people continually feel the need to adjoin it accepting the shortcomings of whatever it is you’re going
to whatever pedantic thing they’re going to say? In fact, it to say and saying it anyways—in short the advice given
seems like it’s almost required to say this, as if in apologizing above—has its dark appeal. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work.
for the crime you’re about to commit, you absolve yourself. As it turns out, neither apologizing or refusing to apologize
for your crimes can absolve you of the act. Who'da thunk.
Perhaps this pre-emptive mea culpa is nothing more than
a particularly graceless attempt to trojan horse whatever Up to this point, I’ve taken the necessity of “being
point they feel is so damn relevant that they can’t help but pedantic” as given. “Caleb,” you might say, “you could
not bring up, akin to the old rhetorical move, “I would just not be pedantic, you know. Sidesteps the whole issue
22
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February 6, 2023
at hand, really.” Well… (ok, I lied earlier, this is where the
pedantry apologia starts) … not really. You see—this is
where I’m destined to lose some of you—who gets to decide
what is and isn’t pedantic? Perhaps it’s easy to identify—
like pornography you just “know it when you see it.” The
way I see it, pedantry has two defining characteristics. The
first comes down mainly to tone—how politely are you
insisting on a given distinction? The second comes down to
the relative magnitude of the distinction being drawn.
These two obviously feed upon each other—the more
insignificant the distinction at hand, the more of an ass
you’ll come across as for insisting upon it.
The thing is that different words have different meanings,
and even more so in dense philosophical texts. In short,
some distinctions matter. I’m by no means advocating for
insufferable language-policing (as the foremost proponent
of what I like to call enlightened pedantry, I insist that
manners always come first) but I think it’s at least worth
considering that a conflation of two separate concepts in
seminar might lead to confusion and poor understanding.
The fact of the matter is that a lot of the texts that we discuss
are hard. If anyone claims to fully understand a particular
author—to pick a totally random example, Kant—they’re
either delusional or trying to sell you something. For
two hours, you and around 20 other people are going
to be grasping around more or less in the dark, and a lot
of what you say is going to be shrouded in uncertainty
and ambiguity. If you had a full understanding of all the
concepts of a text and their relation to each other, you’d
know whether or not a distinction between concept A and
concept B is substantial or just rank pedantry.
In this environment of collective confusion, it becomes
clear why it is that so many start off their sentences by
apologizing—they don't really know whether or not the
point they’re going to make is right or wrong, whether
or not their correction is meaningful or pedantic, but
something within them has led them to believe that it has
value, that the discussion would better if it the point was
made as opposed to not. They might be wrong. So what.
We’re all living on stolen land, anyways. What’re we going
to do about it? Give it back? To whom? Move elsewhere?
Fat chance.
23
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On Uncertainty
By CHARLES DANG
It is as true in life as in nature that uncommon clarity
often quickly follows utter chaos. A tempestuous storm
leaves behind a world which glistens under a shy sun, who
peaks his face from behind the cloudy curtain as if to ask
whether the worst is over, and in the stillness finds his
issue reflected all the better. So too may Reason find laid
bare the battlefield of conjecture, for want of that cloud of
ever-shifting confusions and conundrums which inevitably
gather around us all with time. There is—if but for a
moment—clarity, as if our warring doubts have set down
their arms and declared an uneasy truce, finding amidst the
blood and bruises a reprieve sadly won, if not from ultimate
concord, at least from temporary exhaustion.
necessary to procure them, and whatever pleasure–even
great!–such truths may bring bears with it this blemish.
Yet truth, however bitter, is still truth; and for all our
reticence toward those truths we find most repulsive, even
they are a far preferable prize to the unending tempest of
uncertainty. War may be fought in ordered ranks, each
side advancing towards the other in strict formation, their
strategy and aim foremarked by their commander. But so too
may the ultimate clash turn ordered ranks to general chaos;
and in the roar and choking dust all rational thought is lost
to the present struggle with foes both real and imagined.
Could anyone adduce the sovereignty of Reason to explain
their actions in such a fray? No–no more than could one
In this silence one may find a world laid bare of pretense. In claim that a drowning man clinging to scattered timbers,
such untempered light, those problems of life toward which who through heaving seas finds himself cast at last upon
we had once fruitlessly bent all our mental faculties now slip a friendly shore, owes his deliverance not to mere chance
apart like a child’s simplest playground knot, and one is left but to the superior abilities of his intellect in matters of the
to wonder whether Newton had not been onto something stars.
when he formulated his third law. But hard-won clarity is
clarity, nonetheless. Whether it is the clarity one desires There are times in our lives when Fear and Doubt usurp our
is another matter entirely, for though the philosophers highest mental seat, and from it conjure an endless litany
may claim that Truth is the same as the Good and likewise of formless truths with which to torment us. Uncertainty
most pleasing, life far more often finds us to thrust away is their native earth. Its bountiful furrows spring forth that
an unpleasant truth and to embrace a pleasant lie; and bitter harvest which Reason in her exile can only view
for every piece of knowledge that rests sweet against our aghast, helpless to act until that moment when she can cast
tongue and sets our heart aflutter there is one which cuts in those twin jesters from her rightful place. And thereupon
its acidic tartness and gives us fleeting glimpses of our final, the enemy is routed. The battle won. There is only left to
lifeless state.
count the dead; and though it may be found a pyrrhic
victory, the sure knowledge for which such struggle was
Rarely is the knowledge for which we have engaged in great waged will in the end serve a far better stone on which to
internal struggle unaccompanied by such bitterness. That on walk than any uncertain ground.
which we may easily lay our hands, whether pleasant or not,
may readily be taken up or discarded as our mood inclines.
Those truths, however, for whose effluence great wars must
be won are inalterably bound with the sting of the effort
24
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Being Kind? Miss me with
that Bullsh*t
this is what happens when you’re willing to humor an
inappropriate interaction. This led me to question myself.
How far was I willing to let the creepy conversation go
before I left the situation on my own accord? Because I
know for a fact that at the moment I did not have any plans
to. I certainly wanted to, but my own fear of coming across
as a rude woman stopped me. This moment terrified me.
By ANONYMOUS
Not just because I was afraid for my own safety, but mostly
because I did not allow myself to prioritize my own wants
With such a vagueness to the purpose of this college, one all for the sake of a man’s feelings.
must find out for themselves exactly why they ended up
going here. After a semester and a half I have come across Bringing it back to the question of kindness and the possible
a few possible answers: to become a free thinker, to be able dangers of an excess of it, I encourage any readers to look
to come to my own conclusions, to be more open-minded, within themselves whenever they are pushing themselves to
and definitely to become a better person. And with my own be nice to the world. Is it because you think that everyone
bias stemming from my ( Johnnie alum) mother, I include deserves a certain level of it, within measure? Or could it
kindness as being a part of that pursuit of goodness. And be that you are afraid of what will happen to your image
while I certainly do not plan on forgetting the drive to be if you are not outwardly kind? Because realistically, from
kind, I might be making a few revisions to what that means my own experience, coming across as strong (and possibly
a little bitchy) has much more value than coming across
for me personally.
as kind without limits. In the spirit of the St. John’s, a life
Being a woman comes with a lot of extra responsibilities. walked all over is a life not lived for yourself or for your
While I was not surprised when I got my first period, I own sake and care. Martyrdom is just a glorified version of
was in fact quite in awe at the limits a woman encounters self harm that helps absolutely nobody. It doesn’t help these
in trying to be nicer. Like many young girls, I was quite disgusting men—unless help can be defined as a license to
good at being warm to strangers around me. I was a bit of a be predatory—it does not help the world, and it certainly
pro in the realm of smiling, asking how their day is going, does not help you.
not avoiding eye contact, and sometimes even flirtatious
giggling. But still in the stages of becoming a woman of
my own volition, I’ve been stopped short in my attitude
towards the world, and for good reason.
As many women can relate, I recently had a less-thanpleasant situation with a #man. After being openly warm to
a bartender, eleven years my senior, I was told by someone
else that he “could not stop staring at my tits” and that while
he would like to get to know me, he really just wanted to
kiss me. Horrified, I quickly left the situation. I should add
that I got out of this situation because my best friend, who
happens to be a non-smiling and generally intimidating
man, happened to come across this interaction and was
willing to intervene on my behalf.
While I’m well aware that this is not my fault just because
I was being “nice” to some older man, I do know that
25
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Love in the Time of
Counterintelligence
By NAT MARTIN
How an international student found
herself with a government agent
We all have stories about love and casual dating and the
modern conception of it that comes out of a technologically
and politically aware world. My friend’s story may serve as
an example of this to some, or as a warning to others. On
November 11, 2022, my friend, let’s call her Alexa, went on
a weekend getaway with a government official—unknowing
of the danger that existed alongside it. There were signs of
danger leading up to this harrowing event.
“I understand that as an international political figure, in
the past and present, and who comes from a country with
a political alliance with Russia, I ‘must be cautious of what
I say and what I do in this country,’ but I never thought
that this rule should be applied to my dating life also,” said
Alexa. “When I went out with Duke, I had expected that
we would have our differences considering that he’s 31 years
old, but I was hoping that I would get a sense of what a
mature relationship would be like. Never did I think that I
would experience something this fucked up.”
I thought that it was cool and something exciting.” Alexa
then exclaimed, “He had three phones, and they were all
the newest iPhones!”
rom the beginning, Duke told Alexa about a special date.
F
This special date was the date he wanted to plan with Alexa
when he was moving into his new apartment, and this was
denoted as a special andsacred date by Duke. Alexa thought
it was because she could finally visit him—he could not
have her over at his previous place for unknown reasons.
He was insistent on him seeing her this specific weekend,
the weekend of November 11th, 2022.
ow, reader, it is common sense to mistrust seeing someone
N
for the first time outside of a date context. Here, Duke
faulted in being mindful of the safety precautions Alexa
wanted to take to feel protected.
“My roommate, from the beginning, always warned me
of getting into Duke’s car. She said that I could not trust
Duke’s interests were all too conveniently aligned with strangers and their motives. When I told her of my weekend
Alexa’s political life. He knew much about the current getaway with Duke, she was insistent that I take an uber to
events of her country. He asked, from the beginning, about Duke’s place,” said Alexa. “When I told Duke that I would
Alexa’s family and her political ties to her country. He even take an uber, and asked for his address for that uber, Duke
warned her that he would need to add her to a United States became very aggressive over the phone. He told me that ‘a
government database.
good relationship cannot be formed on mistrust.”
“ I was sitting in his Mercedes, and he was in a suit after work;
in his suit, he turned to me and took my hand and said that
he would need to add me to a database. After that date, he
connected with me on LinkedIn. From there, I found out
that he has worked in the Government’s many intelligence
agencies and had a lot of experience in counterintelligence.
26
lexa was thus coerced into a trip to an unknown address
A
in Washington DC. When she arrived at this place of great
mystery in anticipation, she was greeted by a polished,
cleansed, and disinfected white apartment, which reeked
of chlorine and bleach. It was empty except for some boxes
and a Twin XL-sized bed in the middle of the bedroom.
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February 6, 2023
No personal items were displayed, and the only thing in the Th
e starvation did not end in the morning for Alexa.
fridge was a chilled white wine. The eyes of Alexa scoured
the rooms for signs of life.
“In the morning, Duke woke up and took a three-hour
shower,” explained Alexa intently. “I wanted to be focused
“I had skipped lunch in the dining hall because I was on returning home to Annapolis, but the lack of energy
expecting a feast of take-out accompanied by a promised stopped me from putting my things in my bag. How could
film showing.” Alexa was mistaken. “When I asked for I gain the energy to step out the door when I couldn’t even
food, I was met with a glass of wine, and another; before stand to pack my things. Once his shower was complete, he
I knew it, I had finished the bottle. Hunger pains stopped smugly carried out a huge cup of black coffee. No cream, no
me from passing out from the usual tiredness that alcohol sugar. Hunger and coffee? The recipe for tortuous anxiety.
brings. I complained and told him we should get food, and We then drove an hour to a parking lot where food was
it was 11:00 pm already. He said he had a very tiring day supposedly close-by, but then he made us walk an hour to a
and that we should get breakfast early in the morning, so bagel shop.”
we slept instead.”
Here, Alexa was fed a bagel and a black coffee, the only
sustenance she received while on her weekend getaway with
US Counterintelligence Official Duke. She was dropped
off at the Campbell parking lot shortly after this bagel shop
experience. When she arrived on campus, it was 7:05 pm.
She was five minutes late to dinner. As she was wondering
where to get food, Duke sent an enticing picture of Indian
take-out with the caption: “You could’ve gotten this if you
had stayed just a day longer with me.”
“Looking back on this experience, nothing seems
coincidental anymore. How can a person who is wellversed in my country’s political affairs be a part of the
US Intelligence Agency and have an undying thirst for
knowledge about my country? As a side-effect to my hunger,
Duke was attempting to see if I would reveal information
about my family’s political ties. I believed I was falling in
love, but he was just trying to turn me into data. I am more
than that.”
27
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the Gadfly
Organic Vinegar, Perfect
for Salad Dressings*
February 6, 2023
to their scorpion-like appearance, but they are in fact more
closely related to spiders than scorpions.
Vinegaroon anatomy is quite fascinating. Despite having
eight eyes (one pair of eyes in the center of their face, and
a cluster of three eyes on either side of their head), they
nearly blind. Rather than traditional pedipalps, they
*Please do not actually eat vinegaroon are
have large claws, which they use to hold their prey. When
frightened, they may adopt a threat posture, spreading
juices.
their pedipalps, raising their abdomen, and waving their
“tail” (more accurately, their caudal filament). The caudal
By LOUIS ROSENBERG
filament is dotted with little hairs, and it’s used as a sensory
organ, along with their front two, antenniform legs. Their
The cardboard box was dotted with ventilation holes other six legs are used to walk; they are poor climbers.
and labeled on two sides with neon stickers: “LIVE
ANIMALS.” I went to pick it up from Public Safety. After Vinegaroons are also sexually dimorphic, so we know that
showing the officer my ID card, he grabbed the package but Vincenzo, our specimen, is a female. While it would be
didn’t hand it over right away. “You know, it says it contains awesome to have a bunch of little baby vinegaroons, that
live animals. Can you tell me about that?” I froze. PubSafe would force Vincenzo to meet her doom: after vinegaroons
terrifies me in the best of circumstances — I enter Pinkney complete their elaborate courtship process and then lay
through the back doors specifically so I don’t have to walk eggs, they carry their egg sack for two months, and then
by their office to get back to my room — and I really didn’t guard their offspring until after their first molt. Because
want my package confiscated when I had paid $34.96 for the mother does not feed during this process, she typically
expedited shipping with a live-arrival guarantee. “It’s for dies of starvation shortly after her young leave. We’ll let
Insect Farming Club,” I said, hoping my shaking voice didn’t Vincenzo live out her full lifespan (which can surpass 7
make me sound suspicious. “A vinegaroon.” Realizing he years) — she doesn’t need that much commitment.
probably didn’t know what a vinegaroon was, I continued,
“I mean, a whip scorpion. Like a scorpion, but they spray
acid.” In case that sounded too outrageous, I continued,
“Acetic acid. It’s like a mist of vinegar, not really dangerous.”
Despite the stress, I was given the package, and retreated
back to Mellon to get the insects settled in their new home.
Giant vinegaroons, or Mastigoproctus giganteus, are large
arachnids found throughout Florida, the southwestern
United States, and much of Mexico; this species is the
only whip scorpion found in the United States. As the first
part of their common name suggests, they are quite large,
with a body length often surpassing two inches (and made
even more intimidating in appearance by their large legs,
pedipalps, and claws). And their ability to spray a mist of
approximately 85% acetic acid from a gland at their rear
gives them the name “vinegaroon.” They only do this when
agitated, however, and are essentially harmless to humans.
The term “whip scorpions,” which refers generally to animals
classed in the order of Uropygi, like these arachnids, alludes
28
Vincenzo, in a temporary feeding container, deciding
if she wants to eat a mealworm. Note the antenniform legs with which she feels it out.
�πόλις
the Gadfly
February 6, 2023
Epistle from a Worried Thinker
on Sexual Education
Dear Companions of the Flesh (Or: Dear Fuckers),
If we take our Plato seriously (and we do), the ‘erotic’ is an essential part of the liberal
education. Socrates is more often in pursuit of a good time than a good life, entire
dialogues dripping with flirtatiousness and sex appeal (Thrasymachus you blushing
dog, you). The Symposium is no mere drinking party; it is an intellectual orgy. For
our favorite party philosophers, Eros is not an aloof philosophical concept, it is the
person on the couch next to you (or the snub nosed man on someone else’s couch).
On the opposite end of the program, we’ve got Freud, a man who, if he did not
invent more kinks than anybody else, certainly named the most.
So central is sex to the Western tradition, one wonders, why isn’t there a St. John’s
Sex Ed class? (God knows y’all need it.) From hot and heavy Helen and Paris to
Aristotle’s sperm, from Satan in Paradise Lost (no sex, he’s just hot) to Nietzsche’s
heroic incelness, students could sex their way through the Great Books. We could
all go through Odysseus’s journey: a years-long pursuit of another’s touch.
With all this philosophical weight that Eros has, I hope you will grant me one tiny,
minor, little request: Never speak of sex in class. Don’t mention it, don’t explain it,
don’t ask about it. It’s weird and gross and I know that Phedre is using Hippolytus’s
sword phallically, and I know that Patroclus wearing Achilles’s armor is like them
being inside each other, and I know that familial relationships are difficult when
you’re betrothed to the son of the brother of your mother who’s also your father’s
mother, Antigone. I get it! No one isn’t noticing it! (Except that one time you said
Apollonius is the most erotic mathematics ever done; no one else was noticing that.)
But the moment someone says ‘sex’ or ‘penis’ or ‘As a virgin…,’ we lose ourselves to
the horrific duality of over-intellectualizing childishness, giggling our way through
Oedipal complexes and homoerotic analyses.
If only it ended there. Lab is filled with laughs at the sucking of vacuums, the
rubbing of PVC pipes, the ‘balls’ drawer. I see the red lights in your windows; I hear
everything through these thin walls; I know what happens in these bathtub rooms.
You ruin classrooms with the McDowell challenge; you ruin the Great Hall playing
smash or pass on the presidential portraits; you ruin my life with sex. Everything
would be so much better if I could imagine every last one of you as a disembodied
mind.
Kindly—and for my Protestant ethic—just don’t do it.
B.S.
29
�πόλις
the Gadfly
February 6, 2023
The Song of Ganymede
Luke Briner
I.
I sing of Love and Love attained,
From worldly loneliness detained
To ravished Height of Heavenly embrace,
Brought up by God-inspired flight
So won through his affectioned sight
Of mortal Virtue’s hard-acquired grace.
By such Assumption was I made high Jove’s beloved thrall
And glad attendant of Olympus’ immortal Hall.
II.
Hear now of how I was before:
Meandering that hazy shore
Which Phoebus greeted early in his blaze;
Although by scion’s blood its heir,
I felt as if a stranger there,
And on more lofty birthright set my gaze;
For while in common fondness joined to my familiar sire,
A Union with some greater Parent yet was my desire.
III.
I tended then unto my flock,
Unruly brood of Nature’s stock
Which only by the staff went not astray;
By that ennobling toil sought I
To prove e’en to the distant Sky
My merit to be freed from th’earthly fray.
So hoping, so essaying, and so fixed in high repine
Did I outstretch my aching, prostrate heart to the Divine.
30
IV.
And then I was by new sense struck,
As though by eagle’s talons plucked
As prey submissive from the lowly grass;
No fitful breeze of Aeolus
Or Dæmon tutelar was this,
But Presence of true Otherwordly class.
By Godly Inspiration was I then, in great amaze,
Upswept forthwith from gloom terrene t’ward new World’s
jocund blaze.
V.
I higher rose than any peak:
Parnassus, where the Sibyls speak
The words of Heaven unto its lost own,
Or Ida blessed, on Cretan isle,
Which Rhea made the domicile
Of my Lord ere he claimed his native Throne;
Those summits seemed to point toward a higher summit
still
And urge me to chase the Beloved with more earnest will.
VI.
Soon I had vaulted o’er the Sun
As a triumphant Phaëton
Who earned Supernal sanction thus to rise
By Hubris not but spirit poor
And ardent longing to adore
That kindred Light scarce flashed before my eyes;
So by Empyric wing I flew ‘bove each enmattered Sphere
And scraped the primum mobile in which Kosmic turns
inhere.
�πόλις
the Gadfly
February 6, 2023
VII.
Yet as I gazed upon the Whole,
Work of the Universal Soul,
A Whole far greater was revealed to me:
That Presence shed its pluméd form
Which it to me before had worn
And burst into the Heav’nly Apogee.
The sudden Transformation lifted me, with it entire,
From Hylic bond to that Beyond to which I did aspire.
XI.
There is in this Elysium
All Being in its perfect Sum
Resounding in a grand polyphony;
I melted in its serenade
And felt my self begin to fade
Before the Beauty that enveloped me.
In Bacchic exultation, drunk with Love, I was led t’ward
My highest télos, the embrace of my Eternal Lord.
VIII.
O long-lost Joy now pure and free!
O All-Transcendent Ecstasy!
How can I with these mortal words covey
The Unity Empyrean
And Consolation held therein
Imparted unto me that blessed day?
At once, at last, did I in that Apotheosis high
Find an Ambrosial balm for every earth-exacted sigh.
X.
He held me to his bosom tight,
And there, at the end of my flight,
I poured out everything I had to him;
I was myself his nec’trous wine
And consort made henceforth Divine,
A homecoming glad from excursion grim.
By noble spirit and above-set mind have I thus won
A perfect Union with my God, no longer two but One.
31
�πόλις
the Gadfly
February 6, 2023
Song of Songs: Book 8
translation by El'ad Nichols-Kaufman
If only you were like a brother to me, nursing at my mother’s breast,
finding you outside I would kiss you, and no one would scorn me.
I would lead you, I would bring you, to the house of my mother who would teach me,
I would give you to drink spiced wine and juice of my pomegranates.
His left hand under my head, his right hand embraces me.
I make you swear to me, daughters of Jerusalem,
do not wake and do not rouse love until it pleases.
…
Who is that rising from the desert, leaning on her beloved?
Under the apple tree I woke you,
there your mother conceived you,
there the one who birthed you conceived you.
…
Put me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm,
For as fierce as death is love, as hard as Sheol is jealousy,
Its sparks are sparks of flaming fire.
Many waters could not quench love and rivers could not flood it,
If a man would give all the riches of his house for love, they would scorn him utterly.
…
We have a little sister, and she does not have breasts,
What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?
If she is a wall, we will build on her a silver battlement,
and if she is a door, we’ll bind on her a board of cedar.
I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers,
Then I was in his eyes like one who finds peace.
32
�πόλις
the Gadfly
February 6, 2023
…
A vineyard Solomon had in Baal Hamon, he gave the vineyard to its keepers,
Each would bring from his fruit a thousand pieces of silver.
My vineyard is mine before me,
the thousand are for you, Solomon, and two hundred for the keepers of its fruit.
…
You who sits in the gardens, friends are listening to your voice,
let me hear it.
Flee my beloved and be like a deer, or a young gazelle on the mountain of spices.
33
�πόλις
the Gadfly
February 6, 2023
A Teriyaki House or a
Teriyaki Home?
By AUDREY FOX
Infamy lives on in the DTA. For what must be centuries,
eons, ages older than time itself, a certain Annapolis
location has served our hungriest Johnnies. It has gone by
many different names: Sakura, Rockin Roll Cajun, and
the most recent—Teriyaki House on Main Street. The
mythology surrounding this location has weighed on me
since my freshman year. How could one restaurant serve in
such multifaceted ways?
the most bang for your buck, as you get teriyaki over rice,
gyoza, California rolls, and veggies all together. The other
specialty roll we ordered, the “Crunchy Tuna, Hidden
Dragon,” was particularly good. While I found the food
to be tasty, it was nothing extraordinary. The prices were
cheap but not as affordable as other downtown options.
The bento box, again, is the most utilitarian choice, as they
range from $15.95-17.95.
I’ve heard tales of wayward nights that could only be
supplemented by eel rolls, of impossible geometric
demonstrations coming to light only under these very
fluorescents. I had visited the restaurant when it was still
Rockin Roll Cajun and found it to be an elusive space.
There had been two different music sources playing
different songs, and a jukebox app where you could pay to
play even more music. I could not let this be my first and
only impression of the location, and especially since they
rebranded, I wanted to see how things look now. The spirit
required that I investigate such sanctified grounds and learn
what makes this the night spot it is.
However, I find that this place does fill a very specific niche in
the Johnnie restaurant repertoire. The space itself is hard to
describe. There seems to be three different interior aesthetic
themes happening, and none of them work well together.
The most off-putting was the nautical decorations sparsely
distributed around the otherwise neutral room. I get that
we are in Annapolis, but that doesn’t mean every restaurant
needs to have a helm mounted to the wall. As Daniel and
I were eating, we were trying to get a read on what exactly
the atmosphere of the place was. We were talking about
it so much that we even tried to distract ourselves with
some forced gossip, but to no avail. It was so sterile, yet so
overwhelming in its lack of theme. The atmosphere is that
there is no atmosphere, dare I say liminal.
Alongside me was none other than the benevolent editorin-chief himself, Daniel Nathan. Parched we were, so our
immediate inquiry was about their selection of “juices.”
But alas! They have not yet acquired a “juice” license, so
this would not be a recommendation if you’re looking
for freshly squeezed juice. We left to find some and came
back to eat. We ordered a plethora of food: two specialty
rolls, gyoza, and a teriyaki bento box recommended to us
by two underclassmen who we ran into upon entering the
restaurant.
However, there is a place for such locations in a college
student's life. Sometimes, after a long day of doing
schoolwork, I don’t want to go to a “restaurant.” I just want
to grab some tasty food. This is the place to go on days like
that, as the space frees itself from any true framework and
allows us to make it what we need it to be. If you’re planning
on taking a special someone here, I would caution that this
is a third or fourth date location. Again, there is no “vibe”
at all about this place. If you’re looking to impress, find
The food was overall fairly good, though one of the rolls, a something else, but if you need a quick, reasonably priced
spider roll, was a little underwhelming. The bento box had meal, this is the place to go.
34
�πόλις
the Gadfly
February 6, 2023
35
�THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
OF
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly
is the student newsmagazine
distributed to over 600
students, faculty, staff, and
alumni of the Annapolis
campus.
Opinions expressed within
are the responsibility of the
author(s). The Gadfly reserves
the right to accept, reject,
and edit submissions in any
way necessary to publish a
professional, informative,
and thought provoking
newsmagazine.
Submissions sent to the
Gadfly should either be in
Google Docs or JPEG format.
For more information,
contact the editor via email at
djnathan@sjc.edu
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
Images without a listed source are from the
St. John's College Digital Archives.
St. John's College owns the rights
to these photographs.
36
�
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The Gadfly, Vol. XLIV, Issue 8
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Nathan, Daniel (Editor-in-Chief)
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Gadfly Vol XLIV Issue 8
Gadfly
Student publication
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/6e30886e3a0094203084fe1cbca320c2.pdf
d3384d59c9e18b9123db250cdbceb9e4
PDF Text
Text
St. John’s College
Annapolis, Maryland
Vol. XLV, Issue 5
November 21, 2022
the Gadfly
�CONTENTS
Logos
3
4
6
8
10
11
10
St. John's College Football Gameday
McDowell Lives!
Club Spotlight: Energeia
Board of Visitors and Governors
Bug Business
Quite A Man, Quite A Hat!
Bug Business
Symposium
Finds From the Archives
ξένος, pt. 2
Language Is Like Restoring a House
The Subversion of Identity
Joy, Beauty, and Terror
12
15
16
18
20
Questioning Questionable Lectures
Amsterdam: Film Review
Tutor Submission: Onyx Moon
Good Hill Haunting
The Crane
Odyssey Translation
Bubble Boy
22
24
25
26
28
30
31
Polis
From the Editor’s Desk:
Dear Polity,
I have a very bad cold. I do not feel very well. I have been consuming
equal parts DayQuil and air. My day is suffering and my night is
pain. But the Gadfly is done, and it is in your hands now. I hope that
you enjoy it and that you have a wonderful thanksgiving break.
The theme for the next Symposium section will be time and temporality. Reflections over what it means to take a break, inhabit a
moment, fear the future, recall the past, and whatever else time is
signifcant for are welcome. Submissions will be due just a bit before
winter-break, December 9th is probably as late as it can be without
making our (newly bolstered!) layout team mad.
Send all submissions, questions, or concerns to either myself (cekoch@sjc.edu) or the gadfly email (sjca.gadfly@gmail.com).
Make sure to be nice to your parents; they've probably missed you.
Sincerely,
Craig Koch
THE STRUCTURE
Logos typically holds news reports and
narratives of immediate relevance to the
Polity. The purpose here is to develop a shared
reservoir of information relating to campus life
and the community. The Managing Editor for
Logos is El'ad Nichols-Kaufman. His email is
eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu.
Symposium offers the opportunity for our
readers to thoughtfully consider contrasting
opinions regarding a particular topic. The
Managing Editor for Symposium is Luke Briner.
His email is lbriner@sjc.edu.
Polis serves as a platform for elevating voices
in our community. Here we find letters to
the editor, columns, cartoons, and submitted
pieces. The Managing Editor for Polis is Daniel
Nathan. His email is djnathan@sjc.edu.
THE COVER
2
Illustration by Zeinep Kyzy
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
THE STAFF
Meliha Anthony
Luke Briner
Liz Dowdy
Helen Felbek
Catherine Greer
Louise Harden
Craig Koch
Bridget Mace
Paolo Medelius
Daniel Nathan
El'ad Nichols-Kaufman
Dolan Polglaze
Louis Rosenberg
Helen Wagner
SUBMISSIONS
J.H. Beall
Emily Caswell
Henry David Hills
Ranger Kasdorf
Zeinep Kyzy
Sibyl Kushnir
Paz Daniela Ortiz Santa María
Adam Powers
Lainey Rendelman
Lee Tague
�{St. John’s College Football Gameday}
Injury Casts Cloud Over Hard-Fought Naval Victory
Navy Snaps Two Game Losing Streak With Overtime Victory Against the Temple Owls
by Adam Powers '24 and Lainey Rendelman '26
October 29—Backup quarterback
Xavier Arline’s overtime rushing
heroics in Navy’s 27-20 victory
were not enough to prevent being
overshadowed by the news Sunday
that the injury suffered by starting
quarterback Tai Lavatai in the first
quarter would be season ending. The
veteran starter, a Junior, suffered an
unspecified left knee injury late in
the first quarter after being hit from
behind while running with the ball
when Arline came in to replace him.
Neither quarterback, though, was
able to get the offense into gear as the
Midshipmen were only able to manage
224 yards of total offense–a problem
that has been haunting the team all
season. However, an excellent first
half defensive performance, anchored
by Senior LB John Marshall, allowed
the Midshipmen to jump out to a
strong 13-3 lead going into halftime.
Marshall, a former Gonzaga standout,
had a career day, raking in 11 tackles,
5 pass breakups, 2.5 tackles for loss,
and a sack. However, Temple turned
the tide in the second half thanks to
a stellar performance from Junior
WR Amad Anderson Jr. and a strong
showing from true Freshman QB
E.J. Warner, son of NFL legend Kirk
Warner, who continued his series of
impressive, mercurial performances
this season. Late in the game, the
Owls drove 66 yards in under a
minute and a half and tied the game
at 20 with a 22-yard field goal with
1:08 remaining in the 4th, forcing
the contest into overtime. Xavier
Arline’s 23-yard touchdown run
on just the second play of overtime
gave the Midshipmen the lead, and
it was a Dashaun Peele interception
that clinched the Midshipmen their
third victory of the season.
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
3
�{Campus Life}
McDowell Lives!
Dr. Funkenstein's Psychedelic Garage Funk Experience Brings Down the House, Slays
Satan, Saves the Day; Hain Cho ('25) Slings Atmosphere and Spins Discs in DJ Set
Photos by Bridget Mace '24, Interviews by Daniel Nathan '24
“ELECTRIC. All caps. Wish they boogied down like this at the academy.
Wish we could transfer.” - Some Midshipman
Josh Flippo ('26) - Keyboard, Logan Arendt ('24) - Guitar, Chris Turney ('24) - Drums,
Hannah Chavers ('24) - Vocals, John Teague ('24) - Bass, Andrew Selway ('24) - Guitar
4
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
�“Have you been in there? You haven’t? It’s actually cool.”
- Some Freshman to another Freshman
“Hannah [Chavers] is an insane singer. When she
said nobody move, I felt moved.” - Some Other
Midshipman
“Surprisingly, it [the vibe] was good in there.”
- Dashiel Buyske-Friedberg ('23)
“There seems to be something distinctly European
about DJing.” - Craig Koch ('23)
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
5
�{Club Spotlight}
Getting Literary With the Archons of Energeia
An Interview with Allyson Brink (A24) and Kelly Kane (A24)
by Daniel Nathan '24
DN: Can you describe for me what
Energeia looks for in a submission,
whether it be poetry, prose, or art?
AB & KK: We want to highlight
the polity’s strengths artistically, in
whatever format a submission comes
in. Throughout both of our times
working for Energeia, we’ve noticed
that each batch of submissions tend
to have general themes, reacting to the
world at large and the current culture
of campus of the given semester. We
look for the poetry, prose, and art that
we, and our review staff, personally feel
is the most gripping, refreshing, and
rings the most true of the community’s
current state.
DN: What originally attracted the
both of you to Energeia, and what
made you decide you wanted to be
archons?
AB & KK: When we joined as
freshman, school was online and
campus was closed for the most part.
We were interested in ways to get more
involved in the creative side of St.
John’s while being online, so we started
attending the submissions review
meetings on Zoom. When campus
6
reopened, we attended meetings in
person and became acquainted with
the new archons. Working closely with
them, we had a lot of fun creating a
publication we each found vital to
the college’s artistic life, which led us
both to engaging a lot in the creation
and management process. We both
made mental notes of wanting to be
archons, so we were sure to attend all
the meetings and get on everyone’s
good side, masterminding our ways
into leadership.
DN: What are some initiatives that
you have taken as archons that differ
from archons in previous years?
AB & KK: As you’ll notice when
this semester’s edition comes out,
we’ve decided to significantly cut the
amount of submissions we accept.
In the past, Energeia had increased
the length of each issue, which could
get overwhelming for both editors
and readers. We’ve taken a lot of
inspiration from editions from 20162018, which were shorter and allowed
readers to spend more time with each
piece. We’re also playing around with
new layout designs and ideas for other
content we can create that will keep
Energeia a “household” name, if you
will.
DN: I presume you’re somewhat
well-versed in the history of the
publication: What are some of the
ways that Energeia has changed over
the years?
AB & KK: In the 80s, Energeia
published a Fall issue which consisted
of prize-winning work from the
previous year, while the Winter
and Spring issues were dedicated to
the current art that the polity was
making. In the 2010s, we published a
lot of prose and academic essays, but
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
we’ve since cut the length allowed for
submissions, leading contributors to
opt more towards poetry and short
prose. We’ve seen all kinds of mediums
published, from math proposition
demonstrations to pottery to music
scores. Of course, poetry, prose, and
two-dimensional art have remained
consistent contributions to our
publication.
DN: That leads me to my next
question: What do you hope for the
publication's future moving forward?
AB & KK: We’d love to see more
variety in our submission types –
the bolder, the better. We strongly
encourage thinking outside the box
with submissions. Think: collages,
math and lab proofs, translations in
ANY language, three-dimensional
art, tattoos, etc. With the call for
more mediums, we’ve been working
on engaging the polity more between
releases. Before COVID, Energeia’s
presence wasn’t as prevalent as we’re
now pushing for it to be. We want to
see our stickers on all bottles, copies
on all coffee tables, and everyone we
know showing up to events. As we
expand our empire, we’re crossing the
�bounds from physical to digital. Along
with the announcement of zines next
semester, people can anticipate a
website where we could potentially
take digital submissions.
DN: This latest Winter issue comes
out soon: Did you notice anything in
particular about the submissions for
this issue? Are there any prevalent
themes that stuck out in the polity’s
contributions?
AB & KK: We tend to get a lot
of similar themes for every edition.
We see a lot of cigarette motifs,
invocations of Genesis and the
Greek, and (sometimes concerning)
depictions of depressive slumps and
alcoholism. Other than that, each
AB & KK: Daniel, please. Be
round of submissions may or may not f*cking for real.
have specific themes depending on
what’s going on in the world and in our
You can expect to see the Winter
community. For example, last year we 2022 edition before Winter break.
noticed a lot of cicada imagery as the
reemergence from the soil took place.
DN: Can we expect campus events
put on by Energeia, such as the open
mics, to continue?
AB & KK: Yes! We’re planning
another party for the Winter edition
release, as well as more events for next
semester.
DN: My final, and perhaps most
important question: Why won’t you
publish Gore Vidaniel?
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
7
�{campus life}
Board of Visitors and Governors Meets
Inflation, Enrollment and Campus Renovations Discussed
by Elad Nichols-Kaufman '25
The fall meeting of the Board of
Visitors and Governors was hosted in
Santa Fe in early November this year.
This semester, rising inflation and
its implications on plans to renovate
the physical plant of the campus
and compensate faculty and staff, as
well as national trends in enrollment
and mental health dominated the
conversation. The conversation largely
focused on the college’s list of seven
institutional priorities, which include
maintaining a balanced operating
budget, maintaining full enrollment,
improving student supports and
retention rates, ensuring that students
from all backgrounds feel at home at
St. John’s, the Freeing Minds campaign,
meeting the Pritzker Challenge, and
developing the Program through
faculty development, curricular review
and revisions, and new offerings.
With an already balanced budget
for the 2023-24 academic year,
much of the discussion focused on
maintaining this financial position.
“We’ve gone through our existential
crisis, and now we’re a small liberal arts
college facing the difficulties of a small
liberal arts college,” explained Santa
Fe President Mark Roosevelt at the
Board’s plenary session. However, the
path towards keeping college finances
stable appears difficult, since there has
been a decrease in tuition revenue per
student thanks to improved financial
aid, and the college’s endowment has
suffered due to poor performance on
the stock market.
In addition to this decreased
revenue, costs have also increased. Ron
Fieldings, Board President, explained
that costs continue to rise for the
college like for all private businesses,
while the college cannot increase its
8
revenue like a business. “Productivity
is not going to go up, because of the
nature of St. John’s. Tutor productivity
hasn’t improved since Socrates, but
they still need to be paid a 21st century
wage.” Faculty and staff salaries are
still lower than at most comparable
institutions, and must be adjusted for
the high levels of inflation over the
past year. To fund this, the board voted
to raise tuition by 5%. While this is
below inflation, it is still a substantial
increase for students, and may require
even greater increases in financial aid
offered by the college. 71% of students
at St. John’s already receive needbased aid, the most of any of the Small
College Consortium, and thus the
college receives increasingly little of its
funding from tuition and fees.
Instead, the college must turn
increasingly to philanthropy to
fund its operations. Board members
highlighted the success of some
fundraising initiatives, with nearly
a hundred million raised from the
Freeing Minds campaign, primarily
directed towards the endowment,
as well as the ongoing efforts to raise
funds to meet the Pritzker Challenge.
Even here, however, inflation takes
its toll. The Pritzker funding, which
is meant to go towards campus
improvements, will not be able to fund
all the more extensive renovations
initially considered for the Annapolis
campus, with all discussion over
constructing a new residence hall
tabled. Even renovations to existing
buildings in great need of repairs
will be impacted. The renovations to
Campbell Hall, which were initial
estimated to cost around $4 million,
may now cost between $8-10 million
due to rises in construction cost. The
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
college now plans not to shut down
Campbell for a year to perform the
most substantial renovations, but
instead to run the renovations over the
course of two summers, and continue
housing students in it during the year.
Other major concerns of the board
were student enrollment and retention.
The national “demographic cliff,” the
phenomenon of their being, for the
first time in United States History, less
people of college age each year than
before, was mentioned frequently.
Santa Fe met, and Annapolis exceeded,
the enrollment goals for this year, but
total applications went down, and
further decreases are expected. Austin
Lignon, a board member, explained
that the decrease in applications has
been seen nationally at private colleges,
it is limited to certain demographics.
“The demographic cliff really means a
demographic cliff for white students.
We need to find ways to increase our
reach.”
Student retention has improved over
the past few years, although graduation
rates are still below the college’s goal.
Particular improvements have been
made for students who receive Pell
Grants: ever since 2017, Pell Grant
recipients have been graduating at an
equal or higher rate than the college
average. Annapolis President Nora
Demlitner explained that the college
has been working to implement many
different programs to support students
throughout their time at St. John’s.
“We start with the Prtizker Bridge
Program, and we work to continue
attentions to students. We’ve built one
of the best wellness centers for a small
college in the country, and moved the
Health Center to the lower level, or
as some like to say, “garden level” of
�Randall… Students are facing more
mental and physical health challenges
than any generation before, we need to
offer better mental health services.”
The Annapolis campus recently
underwent the accreditation process
by the Middle States Association
of Colleges and Schools, and the
notes from that accreditation also
informed the board’s discussions. The
accreditors were largely positive, with
reaccreditation recommended without
any requirements, also recommended
stronger focus on diversity and
inclusion, as well as more research by
faculty and better data management.
President Demlitner indicated a desire
to work on these recommendations,
as a way to maintain the intellectual
rigor of the program in the 21st
century. “We’re a distinctive college,
and we need to work to keep ourselves
distinctive.”
{Student art}
Mr. Sterling in Sketch
Quite a Man, Quite a Hat!
by Zeinep Kyzy '24
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
9
�{Bug Business}
Bug Bulletin
What’s Red and Grey and Spotted All Over? Lycorma delicatula!
by Louis Rosenberg '25
On a day not too long ago, in
a dining hall a bit too familiar to
most Johnnies, Lycorma delicatula,
commonly known as the spotted
lanternfly, initiated a heated debate
about the role of humans in addressing
invasive species. The prosecution
(read: those in favor of squishing those
unfortunate bugs they encountered)
argued that the bugs posed a threat to
agricultural and logging industries and
that — without established natural
predators in the infested areas —
their vigorously rising populations
could outcompete native species,
causing further ecological harm. Those
speaking in defense of the spotted
lanternflies asserted the innate value
of so many insect lives outweighed the
harm they might do. Further, killing
individual bugs would likely not be
enough to stave off the infestation.
Now, chances are that just one
decade ago, no one at St. John’s would
have been thinking about spotted
lanternflies — like most Americans of
that time, they probably would never
have heard of the species. Indeed, it
wasn’t until late 2014 when the insect
first arrived in the United States.
(Native to parts of China, the bug
had also established itself in Korea as
an invasive pest earlier in the 2000s.)
And it is only in the past few years
that the spotted lanternfly has more
broadly entered public discussion.
A Google Trends analysis shows
searches for “spotted lanternfly” peak
annually around September, with that
peak search volume increasing to its
all-time maximum this year. Those
seeking information on the spotted
lanternfly are most frequently located
in Pennsylvania (where the pests
first appeared), followed by other
10
Northeastern states (where they are
currently most prevalent), but their
range is rapidly expanding into the
Midwest, leading to more recent
searches in that area as well.
But what do we know about
spotted lanternflies? Let’s start with a
look at their taxonomy — they belong
to the family Fulgoridae (also known
as simply lanternflies), and in turn
to the infraorder Fulgoromorpha.
Fulgoromorpha are commonly known
as planthoppers because they tendto,
when startled, hop off of the leaves
they feed on. Like other members of
this infraorder, spotted lanternflies’
mouthparts have evolved to allow
them to pierce plant stems and suck
out the sap. Damage to the host plants
can sometimes occur as a result —
vineyards are at particular risk, for
the insects especially enjoy eating
grapevines.
Spotted lanternflies are also
gorgeous animals throughout their
lifecycle. Their forewings (which, as
for most planthoppers, are held in a
tent-like shape over the back when at
rest) are grey with black spots, with
red coloration on their hindwings and
antennae and, for females, the rear
end of their abdomen. They can reach
slightly more than an inch in length,
with females generally larger than the
males Starting in September of each
year (which likely explains the annual
peak in public interest in the bugs),
adults lay thirty to fifty eggs at a time,
with the mass of brown eggs covered
in a waxy grey coating for protection,
staying dormant through the winter.
Once they hatch, the nymphs are black
with white spots for the first three
instars before gaining red coloration
for their fourth instar. Adults can be
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
found starting in the summer months,
and they generally survive for four or
five months after their final molt.
Naturally, human intervention can
cut their lives short — and you may
soon be faced with determining a
spotted lanternfly’s fate, for they have
already been spotted in Maryland,
albeit not yet in Anne Arundel County.
Should you see a spotted lanternfly,
you should report the sighting to the
Maryland Department of Agriculture
through their online form.
Sources:
https://mda.maryland.gov/plantspests/Pages/spotted-lantern-fly.aspx
https ://trends.goog le.com/
trends/explore ?date=today%20
5-y&geo=US&q=%2Fm%2F012lb9lt
h t t p s : / / w w w . n p r .
org/2022/08/18/1118049864/what-apest-spotted-lanternflies-are-spreadingin-the-u-s
h t t p s : / / p hy s . o r g / n e w s / 2 0 1 4 11-entomologists-vigilance-newlylanternfly.html
https ://www.researchg ate.net/
publication/275651706_The_Wild_
Wonderful_World_of_Fulgoromorpha
https://www.sciencedirect.com/
topics/immunology-and-microbiology/
planthopper
h t t p s : / / w w w. c a b i . o r g / i s c /
datasheet/110524
�Finds From The Archives:
St. John's and the Peace Corps
Helen Wagner
I am of the opinion that every Johnnie ought to know
about the Peace Corps. Not only is it an intriguing option
for postgraduate work, but the Corps and the College
are, in fact, old friends. Let me tell you the story.
In case you’re not familiar with it, the Peace Corps is
a government agency that deploys volunteers abroad to
provide support and assistance to developing countries.
Perhaps you’re planning to join after you graduate—a
number of Johnnies do. But the Corps’ connection
to St. John’s runs deeper than that: In the 1960s, it
partnered with the College to create an experimental
training program for its incoming overseas volunteers.
A bit of archive digging brought me some gems: reports
and reading material from the program, as well as a few
photos of volunteers on campus. I was intrigued: what
sparked this partnership?
The reports highlighted the value of St. John’s
educational philosophy as preparation for the Peace
Corps. The Corps had experienced a few years of success
after its establishment in 1961, but its members sensed
something lacking in the training program. A 1965 report
in our archives says that, prior to the collaboration with
St. John’s, “There had been little opportunity in some
programs for the trainee to stretch his imagination.” 1 Like
many modern universities, the old training was lecture-based
and composed of separate-track disciplines. But this kind of
instruction did not translate well into the real world. The
report states, “[W]hen the Volunteer goes to his overseas
assignment, there is no one there to lecture him; he is on
his own. The key to his success is individual initiative and
responsibility.” There was a disconnect between training
and reality. So, how to remedy this deficiency? The Peace
Corps believed that St. John’s offered a better approach to
education— one that would smoothly translate to actual
fieldwork. See this excerpt from the same report:
This summer’s program is a special attempt to move
away from separate track, one-way instruction to a
program in which trainees can think, question, and
participate instead of just listen. Our aim is integration:
a single faculty, and one program built around common
principles of education. Seminars have replaced
lectures; books on India and America, among them
epics of the east and west, have become the substance
of the seminars. 2
The rest of this initial report contained more detailed
plans and reading lists for the summer curriculum, sprinkled
with some healthy praise of the College and many beautiful
words on behalf of the Great Books. One piece about
St. John’s was especially eloquent. It described how our
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
11
�deeply, a little more carefully, a little more humbly,
about themselves and their assignments, America
and the west, India and the east, the world and its
terrifyingly complex problems.”
5. “[N]ot to violate the spirit, integrity, and
motivation of the trainees— however deep or
shallow— by unwarranted and unnecessary
intrusions, however well intentioned.” 4
own Program was founded to reclaim the essence of liberal
education amid a “crisis” of the American College. The Peace
Corps, sensing disorder in a fragmented world, wanted a
similar innovation in thinking. See this excerpt:
The American College, it was felt, faced a crisis. [It]
seemed dismembered, an unconnected series of specialties
and specialists, each arguing for supremacy…In short, the
essential role of a liberal education—to make free men—
no longer seemed the primary aim of the American
college. It was to recover this goal that the new program at
St. John's was founded…The world today reflects a similar
crisis. Its ideologies and competing systems, its political,
cultural, religious, social and economic specialties are
also disordered. The violent arguments amongst them are
what we call war, cold and hot; the mildest form of the
argument is what we call cross-cultural shock. Whatever
the term, it seems clear that these specialties require the
kind of understanding and unity that will make peace
and pluralism possible. 3
The final report also included a list of the St.
John’s tutors involved—among them Jacob Klein and
Eva Brann—as well as feedback from participating
volunteers, a report by the director, Philip A.
Camponeschi, and a commencement address by Klein.
Camponeschi, in his report, said something wonderful
about the value of seminars that I feel compelled to
share here:
Unfortunately, the term seminar is often
misunderstood; it is sometimes looked upon as so
much intellectualizing, or simply as a technique.
Divorced from its aims and ends - and they are
never fully realized - a seminar is just a talk session.
Not that there is anything wrong with good talk.
Thus, in response to these parallel crises— both academic
and cultural disintegration— the partnership was formed.
The final report on the 1965 summer program states its six
goals (some of which I’ve paraphrased):
12
1. To give volunteers good practical training in Indian
poultry (their specific area of fieldwork).
To acquaint them with Hindi.
2. To teach the volunteers about India’s “heritage and
traditions; its religious, political, economic and social
problems; its life and customs.”
3. To teach the volunteers about their own country, its
contemporary problems, and its Western roots.
4. “To do all this in too brief a time, in ways that would
encourage them to think a little more freely, a little more
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
notes
(1)“Training Program Statement,” India XVI, St. John’s College: Peace Corps
Training Program, Annapolis, MD, June 1965.
(2) Ibid.
(3)“St. John’s College Evening Seminars,” India XVI, St. John’s College: Peace
Corps Training Program.
(4) Philip A. Camponeschi, “Report of the Director,” India XVI, Final
Report: Peace Corps Training Program, Annapolis, MD, June 18-September
10, 1965.
(5) Ibid.
�And even bad talk has its purgative value. But a seminar
is more than that. It has, as it were, two complementary
aims. The first is the pursuit, discovery and examination
of assumptions - in a book, an action, an idea, even so
quixotic an idea as the Peace Corps. The second is what
happens to the student or trainee in the process, the
opening and deepening of the mind and imagination. 5
Jacob Klein’s commencement address was eloquent in its
entirety, but here is one excerpt I particularly loved. He is
speaking to the recent graduates of the training program,
volunteers who are about to serve in India:
The horizons of your lives so far have been circles[,]
the identical center of which is our common heritage,
conscious to us in varying small degrees and never
apprehended by us with complete clarity. Our heritage
is in the main of Greek and of Christian origin.…
Superimposed upon these Greek and Christian
foundations, stemming, in part, directly from them and,
in part, breaking away from them,is our all-pervasive
scientific habit of mind which colors all our thinking
and feeling, no matter how great our ignorance of
science and its principles may be. This then is the
common center of the horizons in which you have been
living — more or less securely encircled — so far. But
now the circles of your lives will swell and will become
ellipses - if you permit me to stick to my geometrical
simile. You will have not one center but rather two foci
to gravitate around. One of these foci will be the center
I have just been describing, but the other focus will be
the invisible source of Indian life that will surround you.
While tending consciously and unconsciously to your
own focus, you will at the same time be pulled in work,
in play, in rest and in enforced inactivity - toward that
other focus, and as a result of these contrary motions
you will be out of focus altogether- unless you find the
inner strength to pursue calmly your new elliptical path.
I can’t help but think of Euclid’s Prop III.5, which says
that two circles cutting each other will not have the same
center. In Klein’s analogy, these two circles are the American
and Indian cultural experiences. They are not merely cutting
each other, but combining and merging into an ellipse: the
complex experience of one individual. The two separate
centers— the foci of the ellipse— must suddenly coexist.
Though we aren’t Klein’s original audience, we can take
note of his wisdom, too. Each of us comes from our own
experiential circle, and as we meet new people and expand
the horizons of our lives, we must take into account the new
foci of our growing ellipse.
If our archives are complete, it seems the St. John’sPeace Corps partnership only lasted about two years. After
the India reports in 1965, there are records of two more
summer programs in 1966—one of which was in Santa
Fe. The 1966 Annapolis program was for the Philippines,
while Santa Fe trained volunteers for Bolivia, Ecuador, and
Venezuela. I was not able to discover why the partnership
was discontinued after this: perhaps St. John’s had served
its purpose in reinvigorating the Corps, and was no longer
needed. Perhaps the Corps changed its priorities. Either
way, these two years of collaboration seem to have been
richly rewarding, and their records in the archives provide
a wealth of interesting reading. Unfortunately, I cannot
include it all here. Throughout are some scans of the written
records, as well as some pictures of the Annapolis program
in our digital archives.
Citations for material from the Digital Archives can be found on the back cover
the Gadfly / Sept 22, 2022
13
�How Language is Like
Restoring a House
Dolan Polglaze
Somewhere in the dwindling days of August, a friend
quoted a poem to me that has been drifting in and out
of my mind ever since. The poem is short and taut: it
strikes one head-on and feels somewhat like the blow
of a hammer. It is called Lightenings ii, and is written
by Seamus Heaney, an extraordinary Irish poet who
uses language in a way I have never before encountered.
Heaney is a master sculptor of language, and his poems
are brilliant examples of what it looks like to fully narrow
one’s attention on the specifics of physical sensation
and force. I have specifically chosen to write here about
Lightenings ii for this reason: the poem speaks tangibly
of language as an intentional action, and calls our
attention to the gap—sometimes narrow, sometimes
vast—between sensations and the words we choose to
express them. Let us take the poem two stanzas at a time:
knowing one’s door is both latched and barred against
whatever is outside. In the second stanza, the work
becomes finer. Someone is checking the straightness of
the “lintel, coping-stone, and chimney breast.” A lintel is
the support that stretches across a window top to support
the wall, and a coping stone is the highest stone in a wall.
Verifying the verticality of the walls and chimney breast
is essential to ensuring the structural life of a house. It
is a precise act, requiring attention to minute variations
and an acute awareness of the future. I say that ensuring
the straightness of the walls is an act of future-looking
because in such an act one is looking to build something
that will last. Such work must be sufficient for the house
to persist long after our labor on it has ended. Let us take
up the last two stanzas:
Roof it again. Batten down. Dig in.
Drink out of tin. Know the scullery cold,
A latch, a door-bar, forged tongs and a grate.
Relocate the bedrock in the threshold.
Take squarings from the recessed gable pane.
Make your study the unregarded floor.
Touch the crossbeam, drive iron into a wall,
Hang a line to verify the plumb
From lintel, coping-stone and chimney breast.
Sink every impulse like a bolt. Secure
The bastion of sensation. Do not waver
Into language. Do not waver in it.
As the first stanza begins, we can see someone
at work. “Roof it again. Batten down. Dig in,” he
begins arduously. We see someone sweating from the
difficulty of re-roofing a house, securing it against the
unpredictable sky. The second line shows that there is a
certain roughness to this period of restoring the house
against the harsh outside; things are in motion and
nothing is settled. There is only a tin to drink from, and
the scullery kitchen—normally a center of warmth for
any home—is cold. Yet even in this time of re-building,
there is strength and conviction. The listing of “latch,
a door-bar, forged tongs and a grate” in the third line
emphasizes the presence of security, the comfort of
14
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
This third stanza brings us firmly into the earth, to
the foundation on which the house is built. A bedrock
is the ground of any created thing, and relocating is
surely no easy task. The bedrock is often the image of
the absolute foundation of all things, the first place on
which all else is built. In the second line, our vision is
quickly reflected upwards, towards the triangular gable
pane, which is usually the highest window in a house.
Here also the restorer is verifying the squarings (angles)
of the window in order to check whether the window is
rectilinearly sound or not. The description of the house
ends with a study of the floor, directly opposite of the
roof where we began in the very first line. At this point,
the poem is entirely charged with descriptions of force.
�The strength and power needed to restore a house is
immense: “Batten down… Touch the crossbeam… Drive
the iron… Relocate the bedrock.” These actions require
physical strength, power, conviction and time. Yet the
quality—goodness—of labor is paramount: to properly
restore a house, the actions of pure force—of roofing, of
driving iron, of toiling with one’s entire body—requires
a certain delicate attention and care.
As we reach the final stanza, we are no longer talking
about physical action; force is now a mode of human
impulse. Impulse seems to be somewhere between
endeavor and action. It is like endeavor in that it is a sort
of inward motion, but unlike endeavor in that an impulse
seems to possess a clarity that mere inward motion lacks.
Yet an impulse without a mooring is transient and passes
away in the tumult of desire. This is why the imagery of
sinking our impulses like a bolt strikes me as profound.
It calls us to secure our convictions in the same way that
one secures a structural beam out of the desire to secure
the future of the house. Yet, anyone who has sunk a
bolt into wood knows that it is destructive to under or
over-tighten a bolt— likewise, one must also sink their
impulses with a fine-tuned sensibility of the necessary
force. Every impulse is a call to commitment, a call to
sink and strengthen our unfolding sense of what must be
secured in ourselves.
Heaney’s call for us to commit to the full reality of
our experience culminates in his final meditations on
language. “Secure/The bastion of sensation./Do not
waver/Into language. Do not waver in it.” He likens
sensation to a kind of fortification, drawing forth the
thought that we must secure our trust in our sensations.
Perhaps Heaney is causing us to recognize that the sum
of our experience—which arises both inwardly from
impulses, and outwardly from sensation—is all we’ve got,
and so we must commit our trust to it. With language
too, although it is perhaps the greatest weakness of
human beings, it is also our greatest strength. When
Heaney says, “Do not waver/Into language. Do not
waver in it,” perhaps he means this: Do not allow the
structures of language to sway you from the inimitable
intricacies of your impulses and sensations, but when the
time does come to commit to speech—and it inevitably
will come—commit fully. Like the restoration explored
earlier, if absolute care and a fine-tuned awareness of
the force necessary for ensuring the strength of the
house is not present, the house will not stand. Thus,
there is a strong sense of quality and security required in
building. Likewise, in regards to language, Heaney asks
us to consider how important it is that we approach our
speech with these same sensibilities: we must not waver
in the ideas we deem worthy of being secured. As the
house must be made strong for its inhabitants, so our
language must be made to stand strong and unwavering
in the whirlwind of our ever-confused experience. Our
speech must be an intentional and forceful action—
the action of placing our trust in the security of our
language-house.
I would like to end with an open consideration of
language that this poem has lately stirred in my mind.
Reading Genesis and Job again for my preceptorial, I was
struck by the difference of the creation story as told in
both. In the former, God’s creative force is embedded in
his identity as a speaker, whereas in the latter, the same
force comes from his identity as a builder. We are all
familiar with the opening lines of Genesis: God’s use of
language seems to draw things into being from the watery
darkness of the pre-light cosmos: “When God began to
create heaven and earth, and the earth then was water
and waste and darkness over the deep and God’s breath
hovering over the waters, God said, “Let there be light.”
And there was light.” I have always regarded these lines
as a sort of paradigm of absolute speech: in Heaney’s
words, perhaps we could say unwavering speech. Now
compare those lines of Genesis with God’s speech to Job
about the same creation:
Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?
Do you know who fixed its dimensions
Or who measured it with a line?
Onto what were its bases sunk?
Who set its cornerstone
When the morning stars sang together
And all the divine beings shouted for joy? (38:4-7)
It is striking how Heaney’s poem seems to so closely
echo these lines from Job. God relays to Job the Genesis
moment as if He was but a house builder all along: God
laid the foundation stone, measured the straightness
with a line, and sunk the base through His creative
language. God secured what was worthy of battening
down, sinking the impulses most worthy of enduring
through the chaos. Perhaps God’s first speech was the
very first house.
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
15
�The Subversion of Identity
Sibyl Kushnir
Within our current political climate, the question of
how to ground queer politics is more urgent than ever. The
political climate looks dire in this country, and to speak
personally, the future is scary from here. I’ve been trying to
think through what is necessary to ground a queer politics
for a while. For whatever I say here, I’m mostly a scared girl
who’s read a few too many books and wants to share. I’ve
read the following authors in the hope of answering my own
questions, and I hope that by showing you through some
prior critiques of earlier attempts at queer politics, I can
provide something of use, or of interest. At the very least,
this isn’t a recent question as far as our history goes: it’s been
the focus of both Foucault’s History of Sexuality Volume 1,
and Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble. In past movements for
the queer liberation, the issues they identify are frequently
in orbit of the related concepts: intelligibility and identity.
The movement of sexual politics in Foucault’s time was
largely a reaction to a perceived prior repression. In the
Nude Wrestling Women, Leonhard Kern
16
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
Victorian age, it is said, we hid the truth of our sexual desires
from ourselves. Only recently have we allowed them to come
to light in speech. This speech must be multiplied, and our
understanding of our sex must be clarified—although its
truth (the “truth of sex” as he puts it) will always remain
a secret we cannot fully grasp. Thus, we must continue our
investigation indefinitely.
It’s with this paradox that Foucault starts his
investigation: despite sex (and the desire it entails) being
positioned as a secret we can never fully uncover, ever more
numerous modes of inquiry are being brought to bear on
it. It is hypothesized that during the Victorian age, a sort
of puritan cultural law had descended and repressed any
sexuality other than the married, heterosexual norm. This
is referred to by him as the repressive hypothesis—the idea
that cultural norms around sexuality took the form of a law
of prohibition. That is, everything abnormal was prohibited,
or driven out of view. Most importantly: sexuality was
excluded from speech; it was not something that could
be asked about nor could it answer. Our sexualities were
hidden, made unreadable, their truth obscured. In order to
bring them back into intelligibility, to understand ourselves,
it was necessary to speak constantly of sex.
Upon further examination, however, it becomes apparent
that during the Victorian age there was not so much a
repression of sexuality. Instead, we can find the roots of the
same search for a “truth of sex” that we see in Foucault’s time.
During the Victorian age, sex seemed omnipresent. It was of
great medical and psychiatric concern (sex was introduced
as a potential cause or cure of illnesses), there was an
ongoing campaign against masturbation (and methods to
stop it), social dynamics in families were structured around
unspoken, but present, sexuality. All this of course being
part of a questioning of sex, an attempt to make sex speak—
in a different tone, certainly! But nevertheless, dating back
to the Victorian age there can be traced an apparatus with a
purpose of producing truths about sex.
What Foucault is tracing is the genesis of a scientia
sexualis—attempting to make scientific inquiry of sex,
producing (rather than discovering) truths of it that are
ordered and intelligible. These truths often were truths
about us—that is, the fact of one’s sexual desires and habits
were constituted as a part of one’s very person. Think of how
�the descriptor “gay” conjures a certain image when thought
about, how it is reveals something seemingly essential to
the person it is applied to. As much as it tells you what it
is, it also excludes what it is not—both the heterosexual,
but also those who are not gay “correctly.” This makes
more sense when applied to something like transition: my
masculine style of dress does not suggest I am putting a
whole lot of effort towards “becoming a woman,” despite
the implications of my identity. In a certain way, I’m doing
something wrong—I am here, but I am a logical defect,
somehow or another excluded from the term meant to
encompass me.
With those examples we have grabbed the roots of what
“intelligibility” is. Inquiries into sexuality in search of a
“truth of sex” are seeking out truths that can correlate ideas
to people – the idea of a trans woman is used to identify
a set of people in the world and exclude those who don’t
fit the idea. One “passes” or not based on the actions one
takes—nobody is looking at me for some kind of eternal
womanly essence, just checking to see how I look and act.
So, to be intelligible then: this is to act in such a way that
accords with the classification-idea one identifies as.
The issues with forming a politics around intelligible
identity may be already clear: intelligibility is predicated on
the exclusion of the unintelligible. A political movement
which constitutes itself around a certain identity has locked
itself in: this identity cannot change and develop to reflect
the actions taken by the members, nor can it work to the
benefit of anyone who does not fit the standards it sets.
Throughout the 1900s, feminist movements were divided
over the question of whether or not trans women were part
of the same struggle, or even oppressed at all. Though it
would seem all involved were women, the way womanhood
had been made intelligible was in such a way that could
exclude trans women.
The intelligibility of identities is founded on a relationship
between an ideal and the actions one takes. One’s actions,
to remain intelligible, must remain in agreement with that
idea. I am not that idea, though – none of us are– whatever
idea I may be compared against as a defective mode, it is
my actions that are being compared, my actions that reflect
backwards and constitute who I am. Identity was never the
original: as Foucault understood, its genesis was predicated
on an inquiry into and categorization of actions. What is
primarily me is my actions, whether they correctly reflect
what my identity should be or not.
The alternative to a politics based on identity is a politics
based around actions. Identity is a limiter: in order to
remain intelligible under an organized framework of sexual
identities, I lock myself out of certain actions, and I lock
myself out of developing—my identity cannot change.
But queerness and politics both seem to be places where
change is essential—to lock myself down like that would be
untenable. By organizing ourselves around shared actions,
rather than shared identities, identity itself can be set free
to flourish and change with the free play of forms of life.
So, while we don’t have much of a choice about being
categorized, we seem to be always under the sign of one
identity or another. Paradoxically, our way forward is a kind
of a non-action: refusing to be determined by the marks of
one’s identity, making it consistently unclear through one’s
actions the “truth” of one’s identity. In not actively striving
to “be,” we may find a way to disrupt the apparatus of our
classification.
Émilie, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
17
�Joy, Beauty, and Terror
Luke Briner
There are many times when I’m overwhelmed, at the
experience or even the prospect of joy, by a suffocating, allconsuming terror; crushed by the awareness of the beauty
of life whenever I turn my attention to it. When I'm pained
by the very existence of anything with the innocent sheen of
childhood, not because I think it’s bad, but exactly because
I think it’s too good—because the very idea of being present
to it is too heartbreaking to me. When I feel that simply
living in the world is something impossibly heavy to bear,
not insofar as it’s ugly, but insofar as it’s beautiful. When real
beauty presents itself to me as something so inconceivably
vast and terrible that to give myself up to it would be to
cripple myself beyond recovery. When the bright, happy sky
open wide above me, or the autumn leaves blowing gently
in the ambrosial gold of the late afternoon sun, or the sweet
innocence of a children’s book where nothing truly bad ever
happens and where there’s always a happy ending, or the
simple, unconditional love of my family, knocks the wind
right out of me—skewers me with such a violent, crippling
sadness that the only thing I’m able to do is skulk away to
my dorm, put down the blinds, and sit there alone in the
dark, trying to distance myself from what I’m feeling and
from what made me feel.
But why this terror? Why, when I experience things I
recognize clearly as joy and beauty, am I consumed with
melancholy and dread? If it’s true, as Plotinus observes and
as I believe, that the Good is “the desired of every Soul”
(Enneads, I.6.7), then what account can I give to myself for
my apparent aversion to that very Good, to the very things
that I actually value above all else?
Since I’ve had these feelings my whole life, I’ve had my
whole life to investigate them. In fact, the very attempt
to work out the psychological and spiritual mechanics of
them has become a common way for me to distract myself
from the pain of actually feeling them. What I’m confident
enough to say about them here and now is that they arise
not from joy or beauty in themselves, but from an inability
to dissociate them from evil, their contrary. This occurs to
me in three forms: the evil within myself, the evil within
others, and the evil of the world itself. By “evil” I mean
not just immorality, but whatever desecrates or destroys
beauty and joy. By “beauty” I mean anything I understand
18
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
to be truly Good, and by “joy” I mean both the present
experience of beauty, and the oblivious, happy innocence
which can accompany it.
Now by “the evil within myself,” I mean the everlooming threat of my own ignorance or moral deficiency
threatening to ruin any kind of true joy I come into
contact with, provided I ever allow myself to be fully open
and present to it. The reality of this threat is confirmed
to me by a consistent series of actions and consequences
throughout my life. Whenever I’ve really given myself
permission to be immersed in the joy of any given moment
or situation, it’s resulted in shame, rejection, and regret.
And each instance of this throughout my life has appeared
to me as a polluting stain, irremovable and degrading
my very value as a human being, as that Scottish Lady
with virile ambition so unchecked and “soul so potent in
crime” (Baudelaire, “L’Idéal”) found out. What’s especially
disturbing to me is that it doesn't even have to be something
conscious—actually, it rarely ever is. I live in constant dread
of becoming like that fate-blighted Theban, undone by
inescapable ignorance in spite of the best intentions. The
fact that I’ll always end up doing something wrong when I
give myself any leeway to be present with joy fills me with
a deep reluctance to engage with it at all. To do so would
necessarily be to let my vigilance over myself slacken, and so
would risk ruining that joy by the smallest misstep, which I
would be bound to make. Innocence, then, is so crushing to
me because it reminds me that I feel I’ve lost my own.
By “the evil within others,” I mean something very
similar to what I’ve just said about myself, only extended
to human nature as a whole. I know that great capacity for
evil I so clearly see within myself is equally present in others,
and I’m fully aware of the sordid, abysmal depths that we
can and do sink to if we permit ourselves to. This makes the
world to me not simply a dangerous but profoundly tragic
place—one where even the most perfect innocence can be
brutally and mercilessly beaten down into nothing at any
moment, for any reason, and by anyone. The sadness I feel
at joy, then, is in this sense a product not of the joy itself,
but of the fact that I’m unable to get the thought of how
painful the desecration of that joy would or will be. Human
depravity at large, combined with the awareness of my
�own unique capacity for, and, indeed, apparent tendency
toward that depravity, is why I’m so often uncomfortable
around others. I usually can’t shake the feeling that every
interaction, no matter how small, is nothing more than
an opportunity for sin. And even in the rare cases where
that opportunity isn’t actualized, the dread of it being
actualized at any moment, for any reason, and by any
party, thereby ruining any innocent, wholesome joy there
was, always accompanies me. I observe, then, a dialectical
instability in joy: its juxtaposition with evil not only causes
unbearable melancholy at the very beholding of it, but it
also, in its carefreeness, inevitably produces the very evil
which it consequently enters into juxtaposition with. The
moments when our hearts are absolutely open are exactly
the moments when the securing sanction of Conscience
loses its sovereign power over it, and so when we hurt others
and ourselves the most.
Finally, by “the evil of the world itself,” I mean the even
more fundamental circumstances of life that naturally and
inevitably lead to joy’s negation and pollution. For even if
human nature was perfect, my own and that of others, the
certainty of death’s hellish dart finding its mark in the end
is still just as certain. The world itself, in its inexhaustible
vastness and variety, serves both as the foundation for all
beauty and as that very beauty’s immutable executioner. This
is perhaps the deepest and truest cause of my terror. Here,
joy is necessarily something ephemeral, something that,
even in its most jubilant Spring, can’t help but foreshadow
the abyssal Winter which will inevitably follow. I’d certainly
like to believe that there’s another, infinitely greater Spring
waiting beyond that Winter, but I’m not sure I’ll ever truly
be able to. If I did, then I doubt that I would have most if
any of my present terror, given that what I’m terrified of
is exactly joy’s ultimate dissolution. I realize that the very
ephemerality of joy makes it something even more precious
and beautiful; but the more precious and beautiful it
becomes, the more painful the consciousness of its ultimate
loss becomes. I find myself hopelessly trapped between
beauty and death, the one informing and accentuating
the other. I fear death, but I fear it because in thinking
of it I’m able at the same time to contemplate the utterly
overwhelming beauty of life, of which death is a negation.
On the other hand, I’m only able to recognize beauty
for what it is precisely by my awareness of that ultimate
negation. The tragic fragility of the state we find ourselves
in is itself the content of its beauty, and that beauty is at the
same time what makes that fragility so tragic.
All this is what makes me desperately want to be numb
to myself, to distract myself from the overbearing presences
of joy and beauty—to cut myself off from the world and
from my fellow human beings, and, in a perfectly safe and
controlled environment, pursue what I think is worth
pursuing without ever having to ever truly open my heart up
to That which I know is always there. But this is futile, and I
know it. I can’t hide or distract myself forever. I know in my
heart of hearts that someday, at the end of everything, I’ll
have no choice but to face joy and beauty in their absolute
fullness alongside evil and death in their own. In that great
and terrible and beautiful Moment, when I finally open
myself up to it all, I know beyond knowing that I will see
the bright, happy sky, and the late afternoon sun, and the
children’s books, and my family, and I will weep, and I will
understand what I was always meant to understand.
Spinario, Antico (Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi)
"Longing," Luke Briner
May I speak to myself now as to that
Husband astrayed, whose tortured, homesick heart
Beat ‘gainst his visage artful and complex
As savage curls of that Ogygian drink
Crashed down upon the crags, with salty mist
Commingling with his every bygone tear.
Poor vagabond, is that the marriage left
To you? I urge you, get you up, and go—
Return to your dear Ithaca, who, sat
Before the loom, weaves divers shrouds of Love.
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
19
�ξένος, pt. 2
Paz Daniela Ortiz
Santa María
As my first semester at St. John’s comes to an end,
something that I’ve found outrageous is the lack of
conversation, even of attempts at starting one, about
feminism. Finding myself at the early centuries of the
Western canon, I suppose I half-expected that seminar
conversations would not touch upon this topic for the sake
of sticking to notions present in the texts at hand; what I
did not expect, however, was the relief—almost glee—with
which any interpretation that could be remotely considered
as stemming from a place of feminist criticism was avoided
or otherwise immediately shut down.
For all the time spent discussing justice, whatever
this strange concept means based on what we manage
to understand from Platonic dialogues, it seems that
Johnnies struggle to connect this notion to the handling
of womanhood in the other texts in the Program, happy
to attribute any perceived misrepresentation or blatant
unfairness to the author’s historical or cultural context and
thereby dismiss any further conversation or criticism.
Even if we put up with the evasion of debates of this
nature, little is done to counter this in extra-academic life,
or even in casual conversation. Events like the Pangaea
Potluck and Hispanic Heritage Month go on to show that
celebrations surrounding diversity only attract Johnnies’
attention because they offer something, whether that be
food or entertainment. Based on several conversations,
first-hand information and attempts at dialogue, it appears
that our apathy is undeniable, inescapable, glaring.
The rest of the world does not wait for study groups to
catch up to what happens in it. The Mahsa Amini protests
in Iran are still going on, and human rights groups claim
that more than three-hundred people have been killed. As
alleged free-thinking adults, shouldn’t there be something
we ought to be doing to, at the very least, raise awareness
about it?
I do not feel familiar enough with the stories of the Irani
women taking part in the protests in order to recount their
narratives to you at the present time. Instead, I will recount
that of certain women from my country with the help of
my notebook and pen. With them, I’ve drawn some people
whose faces I want to share with you.
20
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
The first woman I’ve drawn is 82 years. He was from
Huancavelica, Perú. The 31st of January this year, she was
beaten and suffocated to death by her neighbor because she
refused to have sexual intercourse with him. Her name was
Linda Valentina Condori Huamán.
This woman’s name is Sharoom Berusca León Jara.
She was 23 years old and from Lima, also in Perú. Her
dismembered and burned body was found inside a cave.
Her partner killed her on the 20th of March, 2019.
The next woman’s name is Sonia Ascate Chumpitaz.
She was 39 years old, also from Lima, and eight months
pregnant. The 13th of April she was beaten, disfigured, and
then killed by her partner.
The following woman's name is María Marleny Abad
Reyes. She was 34 years old and had four young children.
On the 21st of last June she was killed with a machete
wielded by her partner in front of her five year old daughter.
Further, this woman is Jessenia Rosmery Ramos Perez.
Despite being only 23 years old she had three children. On
the past 5th of July the father of her children beat her to
death because he found out that she had had an abortion.
Finally, this woman’s name is Silvia Saavedra Sangama.
This past 5th of September, her former partner broke into
the place where she worked and shot her in the head in
front of her daughter.
These are just six victims of the thousands of cases of
femicides registered in Perú every year, most of which have
been caused by a current or former male romantic partner or
other family member. None of these women have obtained
justice yet. If I were to draw the faces of the 70 women who
have been killed this year alone, I would run out of ink.
And if I were to draw the faces of all the women around the
world who have suffered from gender violence, the world
would run out of paper.
Despite the huge advances the fight for gender equality
has made, there’s still thousands of cases like the ones I’ve
mentioned happening all around the world, not just in my
country, but literally everywhere. Being a woman, in spite
of your age, sexual orientation, race, religion or occupation
means being constantly in danger of being assaulted, hurt,
and killed.
So we ask ourselves in seminar, “what is justice?” We
will turn to different definitions and endless discussions,
but if I were to speak from the heart, I’d say that for me,
justice—a little of it, at least—can be found in dignified
representation. In that arena, we Johnnies have a lot of work
to do.
For the women who have died victims fighting gender
violence, victims of a system designed to violently oppress
them, rest in power. We remember them.
No justice, no peace.
�Original Work by the Author
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
21
�{Free Speech and Justice on Friday Eve-
Questioning Questionable Lectures
El'ad Nichols-Kaufman
Lecturers enjoy an odd position at St. John’s. At a
school that likes to frame every learning opportunity
as a conversation filled with questions, lecturers
are provided the chance to speak, in statements, for
an hour of their own specific findings and views.
In general, most of them approach this in the same
questioning spirit, and the atmosphere of question
and answer period provides that same ability to
examine their lecture from different people’s points
of view. Still, lecturers hold a larger platform than
any one tutor or student, and thus have an unusual
position of power granted to them by the college
as an institution. When the college recognizes
someone with the honor of giving a lecture, it is
in some way recognizing something special about
their thoughts, questions and beliefs. To some
extent we recognize the power of a lecture slot as a
place of respect or honor, like when we recognize
the dean for the first lecture of the year, but as
students, we largely fail to question the choice of
Scholars at a Lecture, William Hogarth
22
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
who the college chooses to honor in this way.
I was prompted to examine the granting of this
power by a recent lecturer. His lecture itself was
not the problem—it was rather unremarkable—but
rather his wider views on the world posed a challenge
to my understanding of the power granted by a
lecture slot. This lecturer has a past of anti-semitic
statements, arguing that the Catholic church was
justified to kidnap six year old Edgaro Mortara, a
Jewish child, since it was really the “the rescuing
of a Christian child from the custody of those
who would have defrauded him of the inheritance
that he was promised in Baptism by teaching him
to deny Christ,” or that the holocaust was really
an attack on the Christian God, as if for him the
racial hatred of Jews was not cause enough to
condemn it morally. As a Jewish student, this made
me uncomfortable, but as a Johnnie, I wondered
whether I was in some way obligated to ignore, or
at least put aside, these statements. After all, are we
not meant to confront difficult ideas from difficult
thinkers at this college, and address arguments
of writers in good faith regardless of what their
writers might have said in other contexts ?
This thinking , which allows us to examine texts
that we may find problematic, is deeply ingrained
in St. John’s culture. This is not only a concession
necessary for the function of the program; it lies
at the center of the very concept of a Great Books
education. The texts on the program are not great
because we like them or agree with them. Any kind
of growth we experience through discussing and
analyzing them should not, indeed cannot, come
simply from the strength of our affinity to their
authors.
The question at stake regarding lecturers,
however, is not whether we should be willing to
grapple with their difficult ideas. There are people
who believe things that I find repulsive, and it
doesn’t do any good to pretend they don’t exist.
Rather, the question that perplexes me is how
our willingness to approach difficult and even
morally abhorrent views comes into play with the
power inherent in the Friday night lecture. From
�We Have the Exhibition to Examine, William Heath
the lecturer’s unusual position of honor comes a
connection of the lecturer’s thinking to the college
itself. It is not that the college is actually endorsing
their opinions, but it is endorsing their intellect
in some way, saying that their thoughts are worth
engaging with, and that they are worth listening to
with the greater attention provided by the lecture
format By receiving a lecture slot, the lecturer is
also receiving an endorsement by the college of
their authority as a thinker.
This brings us to something which may be
obvious, but I think is important to state: it is vital
that we hear and examine thoughts we disagree
with. However, that does not mean that we should
automatically accept the intellectual authority
of those who think these thoughts. We should be
able to examine these two concepts separately,
and be able to agree with someone’s ideas without
recognizing their authority as a thinker, while also
being able to disagree with someone’s ideas while
recognizing their intellect.
With this, the college’s responsibility in
selecting a lecturer still remains uncertain for me.
If the college really is granting this power and
recognition to lecturers, the choice of lecturer is
an incredibly important, and delicate one. If the
college recognizes someone whose thoughts have led
them to hold repulsive opinions, it is in some way
recognizing those repulsive opinions as legitimate,
if not necessarily as correct, through its authority
as an institution. These opinions may be acceptable
to examine on their own, but if the college as an
institution recognizes them, it jeopardizes its own
mission as an institution. As a Jewish student, if I
sense the college endorses thinking that leads to
personal attacks against me and my community,
that damages the credibility of the college and the
program itself.
I do not feel like I am absolutely qualified to
judge what thought is worthy of being recognized
by the college, but neither do I feel that there is
any one person in the administration who is so
qualified. I see no easy way to absolutely determine
what is worthy of being honored by a lecture.
Maybe it is easy for me to declare that a lecturer
should not be honored when I feel personally
insulted, but even there my own personal feelings
may be getting in the way of the kind of detailed
meditation necessary to determine whether or not
the speaker should be invited. The best I can do now
is hope for further examination and consideration
of this issue, and encourage the rest of the polity to
think about it with me. As a community which is
constantly concerned with virtue, it is collectively
our responsibility to look at who we honor, and
what kind of thinking we see as worthy of our own
consideration.
Man and Woman in Attitudes of Distress, Henry Tresham
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
23
�{Black Box Reviews}
Amsterdam: Are Big Names Enough?
Ranger Kasdorf
I refuse to believe that David O. Russell’s latest
film—or at least this version of it—was ever actually
pitched. I can certainly believe that somebody at
some point long ago pitched a movie about the
Smedley Butler affair, a strange and obscure little
piece of American history ripe for dramatization,
and I can even believe that part of that pitch
involved casting Robert de Niro as Smedley Butler.
But Amsterdam—the 134-minute ensemble-periodpiece-cum-celebrity-orgy with more top-billed actors
than letters in its title—is the kind of film that can
only be the result of a long, long roll down the side
of a mountain of Hollywood cynicism, accumulating
more and more A-listers, money, and delusion before
finally barreling into theaters with a soft thud.
This kind of writing is admittedly outside of my
comfort zone. Each of my previous film reviews for
the Gadfly have been earnest analyses of films which—
flawed though they are—I view as respectable works
of art whose ideas deserve some sort of good-faith
engagement. But if Amsterdam has any ideas worth
engaging with, they are certainly not the ones the
filmmakers had intended. This is not a film about
undying friendship or prevailing justice or any of
the other themes which it so desperately wants to be
about; what Amsterdam is really about is clout. It’s
about a director taking a mediocre, unpretentious
script and stuffing it with stars until it chokes to
death on glitter.
24
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
The marketing for Amsterdam shamelessly uses the
film’s cast as a major selling point. Indeed, it would
seem to be the only point worth selling : I saw the
trailer countless times in the months leading up to
the film’s premier, and yet when I invited friends to
see it with me I could only tell them I was pretty sure
it was a murder mystery, and, based on the use of Ten
Years After’s “I’d Love To Change The World” in the
trailer, that it was set in the ‘70s. But though the basic
premise of the film eluded me, I could say, without
any uncertainty, who was in it.
The remarkable thing about Amsterdam’s cast is not
merely that it has a lot of stars; it’s that they are stars
with completely different backgrounds, amounts of
experience, and—let’s be blunt here—levels of talent.
Long-established and widely-respected legends like
Robert de Niro and Christian Bale are given equal
billing with fresher faces like Rami Malek and Anya
Taylor-Joy, as well as off-genre wildcards like Chris
Rock and—most bafflingly—Taylor Swift. The result
of this names-drawn-from-a-hat approach to casting
is an ensemble which is much less than the sum of
its parts. Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and Anya
Taylor-Joy are all thrilling here—Bale especially—
and even Rami Malek and Chris Rock provide some
memorable moments. But these performances, strong
though they are when taken individually, clash
hideously when taken together.
Although it’s the aim of an actor to make the
�audience see them not as themselves, but as their
character, the truth is that audience members
have a knee-jerk response to seeing an actor they
recognize, and the way they process the action of
a scene will inevitably be affected by how familiar
they already are with the actors involved. A skilled
director can use this effect to their advantage;
Steve McQueen’s excellent Twelve Years A Slave
wisely cast the beloved Brad Pitt as Canadian
abolitionist Samuel Bass, making the audience
trust him automatically even before they find
out that he wants to help free Solomon Northup
from slavery. But in Amsterdam, there is no such
intent. To borrow an observation from a friend
who accompanied me to the film’s premier, it very
often feels like an amateur theater production in
which the director keeps bringing people onstage
but forgets to have them exit. Director David O.
Russell just doesn’t seem to know what to do with
his actors much of the time; every scene is just a
hazy mess of recognizable faces, all pulling focus
from one another and ultimately making the
viewing experience incredibly dull.
Amsterdam’s box office performance appears
to have borne out my criticisms; the film cleared
a piddling $28 million at the box office compared
with its $80 million budget, a considerable amount
of which I imagine went towards securing its cast.
Certainly, Amsterdam is far from the first film to
lean on its A-list stars, but it’s hard to think of
another recent film that did it so flagrantly and was
punished so severely for it. 20th Century Studios
seems to have overplayed their hand here, perhaps
assuming that Amsterdam was too big to fail and
sinking an embarrassing amount of money into
it, only to be met with a round rejection from the
movie-going public. There is a lesson to be learned
here, and it’s one I hope Hollywood takes note of: if
you want to get butts in seats, you need more than
just a long list of famous people on your poster. If a
film does well, it will be because it had something
to say, because it pushed boundaries, because it
captivated people—not just because it had Taylor
Swift in it.
{Tutor Submission}
Onyx Moon
J.H. Beall
He died “East of here under an Onyx Moon”
in an older time. We have not seen his like
since. This is a letter from the Dark
Ages, of a place and time it is better
not to know. What is the wind coming to?
Or from? Which is the orb that rises North
of a convergence of tracks, dark rails
shining, seeming to have their own light.
We know in our minds these thin strings, barely
luminous, do not meet. But what does the mind
know, really? It is the heart that teaches us
dread. There is a mist in the sky in place
of stars. What compass can tell us, we
do not believe: the false convergence of tracks,
the true convergence of meridians, the pale
skin of a girl we knew once, becoming flame.
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
25
�Good Hill Haunting
Shirley Jackson, As It Turns Out, Has Written Things Other Than The Lottery. Who Would’ve Guessed?
Emily Caswell
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, and
adapted for the stage by F. Andrew Leslie, hides the
horror from you as long as it can. Right as it’s too late
to save her, we realize Eleanor Vance (Ranna Kisswani)
is the real force haunting the play and that the house
has already gripped her. This realization is the thrust of
Director Megli Micek’s production. Once it happens, the
audience remembers back to her strange moments earlier
passed off as character quirks. The terror of Eleanor is
snuck into the play, and it is terrible when it arrives.
Ranna Kisswani’s performance is the most gripping,
most chilling in the play, and she delivers it without
holding anything back. Compared to the surreal way she
talks in the latter half, and the intensity of her screams, her
delivery in the beginning feels regrettable. All the actors
suffer from what I call “actor-voice” at the start of the
play, Ms. Kisswani being no exception. She warms up as
her character gets closer to the brink, but I would’ve liked
to see her speaking more naturally with Theodora (Sarah
Lieberman) who is implied to be a love interest (more on
that below). The main four characters, Eleanor Vance, Dr.
John Montague (Wyatt Sweeney), Theodora, and Luke
Sanderson (Griffin Kearney) are shown to quickly develop
a cheerful, joking way of talking with each other. But the
actors carried their conversations without real laughter or
fluidity, and the lack made some scenes feel wooden. There
were moments, though, where the characters interrupted
each other, and those moments felt like genuine people
having a genuine conversation. Ms. Kisswani nailed the
26
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
delivery of Elanor’s most tragic moment when she asks
to go home with Theodora. Theodora’s initial warmth
has been growing colder throughout the play and at this
moment we see Eleanor open up. “I’m serious, Theodora.”
These words carry real weight, and later I thought back to
that scene and wished that Eleanor could have gotten her
escape. Theodora, however, at first rejects it as a silly joke
and then just walls herself off completely.
Sarah Lieberman excellently portrays that responding
chill. She does however continue to speak in a similar
tone throughout the play, giving the performance a
slightly artificial feel.
Griffin Kearney does a similar thing. His character
is constantly cracking jokes, but they are almost all told
in the same voice regardless of the scenario. While the
audience member suspects the jokes are meant to come
off as confident and suave (Mr. Kearney’s fine sweater
vest points in this direction), the surprising similarity
between his tone and Arthur Parker’s (whose character
is more of a joke than not) makes this hard to realize. A
more relaxed, sarcastic tone would have helped make his
character stand out.
Wyatt Sweeney’s performance was more dynamic,
but I think his portrayal could have been weirder. Dr.
Montague often has lines at the end of scenes, often ones
with troubling implications. When Mr. Sweeney says
these lines, he speaks like a character thinking aloud,
which would best suit the character’s eccentricity if it
carried through to all the rest of his lines. Well, almost
all—there are several parts where the character is on
autopilot, interacting with Mrs. Montague (Rachel
Schuman)—and increasing the eccentricity when he’s
earnest would only magnify his deep hatred. We would
learn that his absent-minded philosophical way of
speaking is more honest, and that he enjoys being around
these three relative strangers more than his own wife.
Rachel Schuman and Mirek Jungr are very funny, and
provide an excellent adversary for us to side with against
the cast’s main four. They don’t do very much except
be annoying, but they entertain and provide a certain
variety that makes the next scare scarier. Ms. Schuman
speaks in the style of high-theater, but it works with her
character. She exuded false confidence, which is just who
�Ms. Montague is supposed to be. Mirek Jungr is much
the same. These characters make me wish the other actors
were in contrast to them even more—more natural and
dynamic. Mrs. Dudley (Aviel Honey, Avery Laur) is also
very funny, her extreme, over-the-top seriousness gives an
opportunity for the main characters to bond and have
something to laugh at. Mrs. Dudley is actually giving us
fair warning of the house’s dangers, but the absurd way
she tells us is funny enough that we can look past it (as
the characters do themselves).
The scares throughout the play are fairly well done,
but only once did they really make me jump. A door
slam behind me was surprising and unsettling, and I
think the production could have utilized the boathouse
balcony. They did use the attic space well to make the
whole building shake, which was very effective. The music
was excellent when present, and in fact could have been
even more present without being too much. There were
some issues, like the lighting cutting in and out for some
reason. I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but its
effect was more distracting than eerie. Aside from this
flickering, the lights did have some clearly intentional,
good moments.
Overall, The Haunting of Hill House delivered an
interesting portrayal of loneliness. If the actors had been
able to be a bit less like actors, I think this portrayal could
have been even more convincing than it was. Nonetheless,
the intense conclusion of the play shined through despite
this, and the bleakness—the evil of the house—was felt
throughout the boathouse.
Cast of the Haunting of Hill House
Back: Aviel Honey, Rachel Schuman,
Silas Pilsbury, Joseph Bennett, Mirek Jungr
Front: Griffin Kearney,
Sarah Lieberman, Ranna Kisswani,
Wyatt Sweeney
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
27
�{Fiction}
The Crane
Lee Tague
Yesterday evening I thought about my reasons to go
on living. I thought about those reasons because I was
thinking about my reasons not to.
My body had become accustomed to the subtly wearing
jolt one feels when walking along a set stone path. My
mind no longer took in the clip clop of my cracked faux
leather shoes. I was supposed to carry on. I was supposed
to just stay on a path. A path that would supposedly take
me to a place I was supposed to go.
For some reason, I left that path and my body followed
with me. That constant shock wave disappeared, replaced
by a blanket of unnumbered blades of grass embracing my
every step. Before my eyes lay a small field, at its end was
a series of small buildings made of once deep red bricks
now washed away by the flood tide of countless Sun-filled
days. Not a soul around. Behind me, near that path, a
rush of automobiles came in a scattered cascade of sound,
growing quieter with each step. To my right a thin tree
line nestled itself against a hill and faded along its crest; I
directed myself towards its edge.
Sunset was drawing near, and needles of light pierced
the wave of broad green leaves swaying in the air up above.
The calming sight inspired me. I felt able to breathe. I
kept moving forward.
In the failing warmth of the day, my body felt
comfortable, warmed but not hot, it was enjoying the
light exhale of wind against its cheek. I was off in my
thoughts. The tree line came upon me faster than I had
expected, and my feet were confronted by a rather steep
but not unnavigable hill which led to a river.
Going downhill, I thought about my reasons for living,
because I was still thinking about my reasons not to. My
feet reached the bottom, and they weren’t so sure where
to go next. So, they just kept churning forward; they took
turns: up, down, up, down, but always forward.
Until, I noticed a little dock tucked between a thick
collection of cattails, willow trees, and an assortment
of water grass. My feet took me out onto the bleached
gray wood. The dock’s dead boards reminded me of
home for some reason. Such ugliness in that lumber. The
familiar feeling of walking on wooden planks made me
comfortable.
28
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
My eyes looked out on the quiet river, a brilliant fire
burning on its surface; its model, the Sun, hung up above.
My eyes moved slowly from detail to detail. I took in the
whole of my view, but I was still. I was still in my mind. I
was still mulling over my reasons to not live, so my mind
wandered over my reasons not to do that.
For some reason, my head turned to the right; with my
head turned my eyes, and with my eyes I saw something
that brought me back from my reasons not to anymore
and my reasons not to do that. On another dock, made
of those bleached planks, the form of a slender Water
Crane stood still, basking in the final rays of the Sun. I
didn’t think about much, aside from my days of fishing
as a boy and the hatred we had for such birds. You see,
a Crane hungers, and that hunger drives them forward
at a constant rate. In that hunger a Crane can deplete
an entire pond or small lake of life. Cranes are constant,
steady, efficient fishermen and stark competition can
build hatred. That was the boy me; the me of now, at
least of yesterday, wasn’t concerned with the comings and
goings of a Crane. I thought the Crane was beautiful, in
an ugly sort of way.
My head turned back to the water, carrying my eyes
onto the calm scene. I thought more about my reasons.
They were good reasons, I thought. So, the Crane and
I stood still there for a long time. I wondered what the
Crane was thinking about. My suspicions came true. The
corner of my eye caught motion. Turning my head and
eyes, I took in a strange dance.
In a sudden leap, a flutter of wings, and a splendid
circular motion, that for some reason I desired to have
gone on and on, the Crane demonstrated masterful its
grace.
Flying forth from the water, plucked from its world,
a silver form reflecting the light of the Sun was torn
from its once tranquil reality and thrown onto those dry
planks. It felt like a long dance, but it wasn’t. Time just
slowed down. I was focused on them. I know the nature
of animals well. I feel that nature in my self. I know the
hunger to take. I’ve taken life, just like the Crane, just like
this flopping silver form. Regardless of what I knew, the
scene was unpleasant to watch, but once you witness the
�start of such a thing it demands to be seen through to the
end, one way or another.
The silver form had little hope. It rested in the center
of the dock. Its shining body slowly drying out under the
beating of the setting Sun. Its sides working up and down
in a frantic and shocked motion, unsure why it could no
longer feel the reassuring breath of life. The silver form,
for all its struggling, went nowhere. The nature of its
situation was coming into view:
The silver form would shake and flip, then cease; in its
ceasing the Crane would pluck it from the dock testing its
resolve, testing its reasons. The silver form would struggle
inside the mouth of the Crane until it was dropped back
to the planks. Standing over it, the Crane would let it go
still and when all the silver form’s motion was gone, the
Crane would lunge, piercing its body with its grotesque
slender beak.
Then nothing. The scene would pause. The Crane
constant, the silver form still. Then the frantic motion.
Back to the mouth. Back to the planks. Piercing. Pause.
Over and again.
But with time the silver form seemed to forget some of
its reasons. The shaking became weak, the flipping ceased
entirely. Back to the beak. Into the air. Towards the Sun
up above. The nature of the silver form’s situation beamed
down on its now still body, reflected into my sight.
My head turned back to the water, it was growing dark,
the Sun was gone, only a burning horizon lingered. I
thought about my reasons. They all seemed good at the
time.
Young Man on a Riverbank, Umberto Boccioni
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
29
�{Lost in Translation}
Henry's Homer's Odyssey
Henry David Hills
Hello, I am one of your Greek assistants this year.
Although I know the other Greek assistants to be very
qualified persons worthy of their positions, I am the only
one named Henry. You do the math.
Translating is a sad work, especially when it’s poetry
being translated. It’s an impossible job to capture the
feel of the original language—its sounds, its rhythms—
which influences us on a level deeper than many think.
Add to this so many words lost in translation, and you’ve
got yourself a doozy. In truth, I can’t give you Homer’s
Odyssey. Only Homer can do that. I can only offer you
what little I know of it from my limited and brief exposure
to it: Henry’s Homer’s Odyssey.
So, here’s how translating a line goes for me. Take
the first one of book ix, “τὸν δ ̓ ἀπαμειβόμενος προσέφη
πολύμητις Ὀδυσσεύς” which I’ve rendered as “And in
response, Odysseus much-shrewd:”. I always tell my Greek
assistance clients to start with the subject, then to go to
the verb. Simple. Ὀδυσσεύς—“Odysseus”. προσέφη—
“answered” (literally something like “toward-spoke”).
“Odysseus answered.” And we go from there. τὸν is a
masculine singular accusative definite article—we call it
“the.” Homer uses “the” substantively very often, so it could
also be taken to mean “him” in this instance. “Odysseus
answered him.” δ ̓ is short for δέ, a particle which connects
thoughts together. It could mean “and,” “but,” or even go
untranslated. I used “and.” “And Odysseus answered him.”
“Homer” “wrote” in dactylic hexameter. And since
I regard anybody who translates poetry into prose as
someone making a grievous mistake, if not an outright
moron (and this goes for J.R.R. Tolkien’s translation of
Beowulf. Sorry, Tolkien.) I decided to use the dactylic
hexameter of the English-speaking world: iambic
pentameter. That’s how I ended up with “And in response,
Odysseus much-shrewd:”. I had to cut out some words
to fit the meter, of course. My translation doesn’t stress
Odysseus’s act of responding as much as the original, nor
does it preserve the original word order, nor does it specify
to whom Odysseus responds. Homer meant for these
small details to be included, otherwise they wouldn’t’ve
been written. So, I’ve butchered his hard work and danced
on his grave just to bring you a chip of the grand work he
made. You’re welcome.
So that’s how I translate a line of Homer. Rinse and
repeat five-hundred-and-sixty-five times over, and
you’ll have the entirety of book ix, which I hope to have
completed sooner than later. In the meantime, please
enjoy the provided 28 lines (although it’s technically 27.5
lines if I’m being honest).
30
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
“Oh lord Alkínoös, renowned by all,
a noble thing to listen to such bards
as this, his voice as though it were of gods.
For deem I no end gratifying more
than when a fest may hold secure the realm,
and meal-guests listen to a bard and sit
on benches, tables full of bread and meats
among the host, and the wine-man, drawing drink
from mixing-bowls, bears wine and fills the cups.
This looks to my wit a thing most beautiful.
But your heart is bent to beg my pitiable
cares, that I yet, lamenting, groan the more.
In that case, what tell o’er I the first? What last?
The sky-realm gods have giv’n me many cares.
But now will I reveal my name, that you
may know, and when I flee the ruthless day,
I’ll be your guest-friend, though my house lies far off.
Laërtēs’ son Odysseus am I, well-known
by all for craft; my fame to heaven goes.
I dwell in shining Ithaka; there’s a mountain,
leaf-shaking Néritos, jutting out;
around are many islands close together,
Doulíkhon, Sámē, tree-full Zákynthos.
Mine isle lies low and far into the sea
toward western-gloom – the others far toward east
and sun –
a jaggèd place, but good as a nurse. Oh, I
can’t see a sweeter land...
Still Life, Georg Fiegel
�{Notes From The Hermit}
Bubble Boy
Paolo Medelius
“Bubbles” constrain their members to specific,
collective experiences while reinforcing the attraction of
such experiences, and the common negative connotation
of bubbles comes from the fact that those in one tend
to become isolated from certain beneficial experiences
outside their bubble. I live in a bubble and have since soon
after I first arrived here. Mine is a version of the St. John’s
College bubble, and many of us live in our own version of
this bubble. Our small campus provides not only for the
simple needs of the so-called Room Johnnie, but also for
the more extensive needs many of us have as well. It is a
powerful and compelling form of solipsism, and therefore
it is worth investigating.
There are two main questions I’d like to pursue: 1.)
How fulfilled can we be inside this bubble? And 2.) To
what extent does being inside this physical bubble isolate
us from certain non-physical experiences? As a mode of
investigation, I’ll describe my own bubble.
My bubble first includes the essential destinations
on campus: my dorm in Humphreys, the dining hall,
my classrooms, and the most direct paths between these
places. Slightly less often, my bubble includes the gym
for exercise and jiu-jitsu, the Chasement for unspecified
extracurriculars, and McDowell for swing dancing. It
allows me to “touch grass” so to speak, usually through
gardening, playing soccer, or sunbathing. I am probably
on the more active and involved side when compared with
most Johnnies, but there are still many parts of campus
that I rarely frequent. For example, my bubble includes the
path in front of McDowell only once a week when I walk
to the BBC for Gadfly meetings, and it includes the coffee
shop only when I’m there to meet with someone.
While my bubble provides for most of my general
interests to some extent, the virtue of it lies in something
other than what I actively pursue. While I enjoy many of
the activities that I’m involved in on campus, and while
I appreciate my bubble for supplying me with the means
to take part in them, it is not any of these extracurricular
activities which really satisfy and fulfill me. Even in the
moments when my general interests are entirely satisfied,
I find that the majority of my fulfillment depends on
effectively pursuing those interests that I explicitly came
here to pursue: the St. John’s program and my own
education within it. This, I think, is the real concave limit
of my bubble to me.
Looking at it this way, I begin to love my bubble. Not
only does it provide for my “extra” needs in a way that’s for
the most part satisfactory, it also reminds me of the limited
fulfillment my “extra” needs can provide in comparison
to what I’m truly here for. Further, I do not feel isolated
from or that I’m missing any beneficial experiences that
may exist outside of my bubble. I assume that if those
experiences did exist within the bubble, they would still
pale in comparison to the curriculum and the experience
of seriously engaging with it.
Putting aside my flight of academic passion, I do still
require other sorts of fulfillment. Often this involves
some form of socializing, but I think this is best done on
campus anyhow, perhaps because others spend so much
time here in their own bubbles as well. Again, I find that
I love my bubble not only for what it does for me but also
for what it does for others. Perhaps this love, along with
my low evaluation of extracurricular interests, makes me
into something of a Room Johnnie. It feels like that may
be the way my progress is leading me. Even if this is so,
though, it is a life that I’m choosing for myself, and one
which the bubble in its extracurricular provisions always
challenges. There are always extracurricular activities
and satisfactions available on campus, and how far one
goes in indulging in them determines something about
the breadth of one’s bubble. Whatever choice each of
us make, however, it is my assertion that it is always a
voluntary one: we may all be bubble boys, but we are also
boys within a bubble of our own choosing.
I believe this voluntary decision is the virtue of the St.
John’s College bubble. The path to dedication to the Great
Books and perhaps even to becoming a Room Johnnie is
a just one, with constant opportunities to reevaluate one’s
interests. At the time of my writing, I have not stepped
foot off campus in four weeks, and this decision feels most
free, just, and fulfilling. I am a bubble boy, and I smile at
that fact.
Bubble Boy,
Max Anthon
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
31
�THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
OF
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
Founded in 1980, the
Gadfly is the student
newsmagazine
distributed
to over
600 students,
faculty, staff, and alumni
of the Annapolis campus.
Opinions expressed within
are the responsibility of
the author(s). The Gadfly
reserves the right to accept,
reject, and edit submissions
in any way necessary to
publish
a
professional,
informative, and thought
provoking
newsmagazine.
Works Cited for Finds From the Archives in order of apperance:
Unknown, “Students Building Peace Corps Huts by College Creek and the
Beneficial Hodson Boathouse, Annapolis, Maryland,” St. John's College Digital
Archives, accessed October 21, 2022, https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/
show/5122.
Unknown, “Students Working with Peace Corps Volunteers, Students Seated at
Seminar Table, and Students Eating in the Randall Hall Dining Room,” St. John's
College Digital Archives, accessed October 21, 2022, https://digitalarchives.sjc.
edu/items/show/5134.
32
the Gadfly / Sept 22, 2022
Submissions sent to the Gadfly
should either be in Google
Docs or JPEG format. The
deadline for submissions is the
Friday prior to publication.
For
more
information,
contact us via email at
sjca .g adfly@gmail.com
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
�
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Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
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The Gadfly, Vol. XLIV, Issue 5
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Gadfly Vol XLIV issue 5
Gadfly
Student publication
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/fefbfe98f9ca40724fdadb4a6f593e66.pdf
5d8116dacd4c84d954108bbb713b0338
PDF Text
Text
St. John’s College
Vol. XLIV, Issue 4
the Gadfly
Annapolis, Maryland
Nov 3, 2022
�CONTENTS
From the Editor’s Desk:
Dear Polity,
Logos
Updates From the Newsroom
Dispatches From the Boat Show
Bed Bugs
Hop to It!
Halloween Photo Spread
Symposium
The Part and the Whole
The Pursuit of Selfless Learning
To Those Who Have Suffered
Thoughts on the St. John's Class
Defenestrate Your Time Pieces
ξένος, pt. 1
3
4
8
9
10
Guide to Local Second Hand Stores
Review of Acqua Al 2
Monthly Horoscopes
22
24
26
Polis
12
14
16
18
20
21
The Gadfly is looking to increase its staff! If you're interested in editing, design, or simply helping to do the work that makes the Gadfly
run, please reach out to me at cekoch@sjc.edu. We are especially
looking to increase the staff for Logos and design.
That announcement aside, there are three notable facts about this
issue: (1) Finds From the Archives has been interpolated into the
Symposium section, (2) the Symposium section is themed around
the nature of our academic program and students' experience with it,
and (3) there is a contest on the back cover drawn by Cassie Desmond.
Submissions for the next issue will be due on the 18th so that we can
get an issue out before Thanksgiving break.
Hope you enjoy the issue!
Sincerely,
Craig Koch
THE STRUCTURE
Logos typically holds news reports and
narratives of immediate relevance to the
Polity. The purpose here is to develop a shared
reservoir of information relating to campus life
and the community. The Managing Editor for
Logos is El'ad Nichols-Kaufman. His email is
eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu
Symposium offers the opportunity for our
readers to thoughtfully consider contrasting
opinions regarding a particular topic. The
Managing Editor for Symposium is Luke Briner.
His email is lbriner@sjc.edu
Polis serves as a platform for elevating voices
in our community. Here we find letters to
the editor, columns, cartoons, and submitted
pieces. The Managing Editor for Polis is Daniel
Nathan. His email is djnathan@sjc.edu
THE COVER
Photo of Polis Editor Daniel Nathan, taken by
Craig Koch
2
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
THE STAFF
Audrey Fox
Cooper Ussery
Craig Koch
Daniel Nathan
El'ad Nichols-Kaufman
Helen Wagner
Isa Kiedrowski
Jenna Lee
Liz Dowdy
Luke Briner
Meliha Anthony
Bridget Mace
Paolo Medelius
Helen Felbek
SUBMISSIONS
Madame T
Nalini Venugopal
Paz Daniela Ortiz Santa
María
�{student life}
Updates From the Newsroom
by El'ad Nichols-Kaufman '25
pangea hosts global potluck: eating
around the globe
The quad was thriving on Friday, October 21st, with a plethora of
flags criss-crossing it over crowds of Johnnies busy eating new foods,
arguing over the identification of national banners, and standing
in line for even more food. This was no mere Friday on the quad,
but a special potluck hosted by Pangea, our campus international
student organization, to help students share their culture through
the universal language of food.
“I would like Johnnies to broaden their view through this and
learn different cultures so that we can be more understanding of
each other and be respectful,” explained Hyojeong Lee, Pangea
archon. “The theme of this event was language. For some people,
English is not their first language, so they make mistakes, or
mispronounce some words. I want polity to recognize that there
are diverse cultures and languages and be more understanding of
each other. I hope through these kinds of events, we would learn to
respect each other's different cultural backgrounds.”
Pies made glory won: Baking club
holds a pie off
Pastry baking may be a knack according to Plato, but the
combined baking forces of St. John’s proved that at very least pie
making may be an art. A variety of delectable pies were served up
to a panel of distinguished judges including our own dean and
assistant dean on October 14th, ranging from traditional apple pie
to creative varieties with spices and peppers. A dessert consisting
of homemade apple compote, ricotta, apples and puff pastry by
Regean Yang, A ‘25, won first place. “I just made a pie that people
liked,” explained Yang, “and it made me happy that people liked it.”
Bed Bugs Invade: A Learning
Opprotunity
Bed bugs recenetly attempted a seige on Pinkney. Signs point to
their defeat. Read more on page 8.
Delegate council passes
budget
At the meeting on Tuesday, October 18th,
after weeks of budget hearings, the Delegate
Council approved the Budget Omnibus Bill for
club spending in the Fall 2022 semester, funding
28 clubs for a total of $36,369.96. This was
substantially less than the Spring 2022 budget
of $58,474.82, but spread more across more
clubs. The average budget for this semester was
$1,298.93, and the median budget was $841.35.
Waltz Committee: $4000
Energeia: $3908.38
King William Players: $3659.69
Polo: $3510
Reality: $2587.81
The Gadfly: $2050
Platonic Players: $1805
Prank: $1500
Gardening Club $1400
Jiu Jitsu: $1400
Sewing and Mending: $1257.87
Film Club: $1150
Yearbook: 978.36
Insect Club: $975
HEMA: $721.7
Tea Eater Association: $682.40
Project Polity: $534
Alexander Hamilton Society: $515
3D printing Club: $500
Board Game Club: $486.38
Sinfonia: $452.48
Purls of Wisdom: $451
Orthodox Catholic Fellowship: $430
Gaming Club: $370
Baking Club: $344.99
Shammai: $319.9
Storytellers Guild: $300
Pangea: $80
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
3
�{Gonzo Journalism}
Some Captains Don't Even Need the Water
A Dispatch from the Boatshow
by Daniel Nathan '24
It was just past noon on Saturday,
October 8th, and the skies were
mostly clear as the sun peeked
through just enough to warm the crisp
autumn chill. Hurricane Ian had made
landfall about a week and a half prior,
devastating much of the Florida coast,
while higher than usual winds and a
steady onslaught of cool rain blanketed
much of the eastern seaboard for days
on end. After nearly a week of cruel,
oppressive weather, the sky had finally
opened up just in time for opening
day at the 50th annual United States
Powerboat Show.
My editor Craig Koch and I made
it down to the docks and bought our
tickets, running us $25 apiece. There
were very few of the typical uppercrust, boat shoes and white-sweatertied-around-the-neck,
Republican
Party donor WASPs that you would
expect to find at an event centered
around a hobby strictly for the affluent,
or at the very least, well-off.
Exasperated parents with alcohol in
hand (almost every adult in attendance
is already drinking by half past noon)
were followed by their children.
Some younger parents, including an
inordinate amount of blonde men,
had noticeably more energy and life in
their eyes, and brought along tantrumprone toddlers—who screamed at the
top of their lungs or violently cried
while their guardians ignored them
without a care in the world. Meanwhile
the more seasoned parenting vets,
including a crazy majority of bald
guys with beer guts, slight limps,
and thousand yard stares, brought
along their obviously forced-to-go,
extremely bored-looking teenagers,
ranging from obvious lacrosse players
to kids in Dickies carrying skateboards
4
and wearing Bladee sweatshirts.
Staring out into the tranquil
harbor, at around an hour past noon,
Craig pointed out an out-of-water
powerboat to me, maybe a twenty
or thirty footer, sitting atop a parked
trailer. Towering ten feet or so off
the ground, a bearded, heavyset man
in sunglasses wistfully sat near the
cockpit of the boat. His face had the
raw determination of a man in control
of his own destiny: solemn, upright,
stoic, and proud. Craig turned to me
and out of a brief silence, said to me “I
guess some captains don’t even need
the water” in a soft deadpan. His
comment, banal as it may have been,
was striking at the core—at the nerve
center—of the subconscious of those
submerged in the deep blue American
middle and their reliance on the
aspirational fantasies of leisure and
luxury. It shot through, piercing the
symbols and trappings, the status that
came along with the storied, mythic
ethos of the boating lifestyle, “Come
for the show and leave with a lifestyle,”
a slogan of the show goes.
As we headed back through the
main drag of the grounds, we cut our
way back towards the tents. At one of
these tents, two middle-aged blonde
women sipped coffee from Yeti brand
mugs. They’re suntanned and have
big aggressively white, dentist’s office
smiles painted on their faces. Studying
the pair, their salesmanship is an art
of seduction—subtle and friendly
and without a hint of the usual loan
officer’s sleaze and shiftiness. From the
outside looking in, the success of their
approach seems to be predicated by
the fact that they present themselves
as peers to the “Boat People” i.e., wellmannered, educated, and wealthy. I
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
couldn’t help but see yoga moms with
deep pockets who wanted to dive
back into the workforce after a messy
divorce, whose choices for their new
career path were between either multilevel-marketing Keto diet supplements
or this. They were eager to talk to
anybody who had any degree of that
unmistakable, impossible to describe
look of disposable income in their
eyes. That is to say, they did not wave,
nor smile, nor acknowledge in any way
our presence as we approached. Craig
and myself were not, it seems, visibly
“Boat People,” to say the least. We had
each tried to dress relatively sharply to
blend in to the Boat Show crowd, but
I still ended up with muddy Nikes, a
ratty sweatshirt, and wind-tossed hair.
Feeling adventurous, and somewhat
slighted by not being waved at, I wanted
to antagonize these almost-definitely
predatory lenders. I approached the
two bank representatives and asked
them “C’mon, how many people ruin
their financial status by financing a
boat?” They looked up and one of
the two ladies replied flatly “Not very
many, no.” in a deep, almost southernsounding, Marylander accent, her lips
�puckered almost all the way shut to
enunciate the tightness of the long ‘o’
sound like ‘oowh.’
“You have to be pretty financially
set to even get approved. And it
really is such a great investment,” the
lender continued. Even through her
polite tone, I sensed her indifference.
I thought she’d at least scowl at me; I
mean, I was leading her on. I wanted
her to tell me to “screw off,” or at least
sigh and roll her eyes in annoyance.
But no, she was cheerful and direct
as was her professional, public-facing
duty. Caught off guard in my failure
to properly incite mischief, I found
myself suddenly feigning genuine
interest and experience in boating to
her as I replied “Oh, so they have to vet
you then?” The lender responded in
the affirmative, somewhat unenthused,
and it became apparent that talking
to the marine lending ladies wasn’t
gonna be as much fun as I’d hoped
it’d be. No “gotcha” journalism here,
only “unwarranted antagonism and
compulsive lying” stuff around here.
After that, we found ourselves in
the tents again, ticket holders and
vendors blurring together, all of them
vaguely and uncomfortably smiling.
The customers and salespeople at
the booths swayed awkwardly, their
knees locked and their arms crossed at
their chests, their shoulders hunched
and stiff, and their eyes nervously
darting around the hostile, dimly-lit
fluorescents of the FEMA-relief-styled
canopy. It felt cramped but vacuous,
and the looming shadow of the
vaulted ceiling looked like the sky does
in Montana.
Everyday household necessities and
appliances were being sold as ways to
improve your boating hobby, like the
way toy train enthusiasts “ooh” and
“ahh” at tiny, scale model replicas
of windmills. The tents were selling
the sort of merchandise one would
expect to find at any large big-box
store: attachable back massagers for
the back of your captain’s chair, hightech electric grills, air conditioning
units (do boats not have central AC?),
humidifiers, supply kits of emergency
rations filled with non-perishable
canned foods and freeze-dried,
military-style MREs (Meals, ready to
eat), Roku-capable smart TVs, toilets
and holding tank systems, closet
organizers, Irish wool blankets, themed
wallpaper, hand-crafted faucets, door
knobs, and cabinet handles, etc., et al.
What was promised here seemed to
be a home away from home: a place
or, more accurately, a “thing” that you
enjoyed predominantly because it
wasn’t home. It was somewhere where
all the comforts of the suburbs met all
the thrills of the sea; a place where you
could finally drink and drive.
One of the more boat-centric
booths belonged to a business called
Nauticalite, which advertised “steel
backlit, BlueTooth controlled signs
& custom lighting solutions to yacht
owners,” according to their webpage. I
asked the man standing by the booth if
there was anything he wouldn’t print
for a customer and he told me that
as long as they paid him, he’d make
whatever the customer wanted. Now,
to answer your question, the dirtiest
boat names the company’s owner had
ever been requested to make signage
for were “Wet Dream” and “Dirty
Oar.”
Unimpressed with the vibe in the
tents thus far, Craig and I decided
to make our way across the gangway
to the other side of the City Docks,
where the porta-potties and food and
drink options were outside Pusser’s
Caribbean Grille and the Fleet
Reserve Club. Plastic tables and chairs
outside the restaurants were filled with
an energy unlike what was happening
back at the tents on the main drag.
Older couples, obviously drunk and
only questionably in love, leaned on
the restaurant’s outer walls and slurped
chilled oysters that were doused with
hot sauce and lemon from paper plates.
The smell of smoked beef filled the air
as patrons buzzed and shouldered their
way through the thickening crowds.
Showgoers traded in their cash for
draft beers and Painkillers, Pusser’s
signature three-level cocktail. Craig
and I walked up to the bar and ordered
two level threes: two drinks, with three
shots each. Craig got the orange crush,
and I got the Painkiller. The bartender
looked us up and down suspiciously as
we handed our IDs over—just another
instance of our visibly not belonging at
the Boat Show.
With drinks in hand, we headed
away from the restaurants and towards
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
5
�the back lot of the show. Along the
way, we spotted another tent, this one
comparatively busy and seemingly
well-visited. This was the tasting tent:
holy house of free samples, boutique
liquors, and wines. Inside, they offered
tasting from a handful of start-up
brands, including a small batch gin
from California that “didn’t taste like a
christmas tree,” as one fellow showgoer
noted; a chardonnay, pinot noir, and a
rose petal-flavored rosé from the up
and coming winemaker Josh Cellars;
and Moscow Mules made with a
premium house-distilled vodka.
Not all too ripped, but getting there,
we left and walked past the cigar truck,
which seemed to be already shuttered
for the day, and finally, tucked all the
way in the back, Craig I stopped at
yet another large tent. A first for the
Boat Show, the Fishing Spot which
sold poles, lures, reels, aquatic-styled
art prints, and marine life-themed drifit shirts (which are abundantly and
unfailingly sold in every vendor tent
at the Boat Show). Just why people
would want oversized, lifelike fish
6
posing in action shots printed on their
SPF t-shirts and outerwear beats me.
Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On)
the Dock of the Bay” was playing
softly from the speakers overhead
as we approached a man smoking a
cigarette. Craig mentioned something
to him about how this was the only
fishing-related part of the show, and
how he’d thought fishing would be
a more featured part of the Boat
Show. I asked him something about
smoking a cigarette. He proceeded
to emphatically complain to us
about how there’s no more cigarette
smoking in hotel rooms even though
he’s always smelling pot smoke in
them, and about how everyone these
days think cigarette smokers are just
“deplorables,” his pitch rising, as Craig
and I hesitantly nodded our heads
and tried to repress our cracking grins.
A lively conversation all in all, we
expressed to him some not-all-that
feigned solidarity and bid him adieu.
I was hungry now, so we headed
back to the food options to grab a pit
beef sandwich. After waiting in a short
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
line, with the good omen of smoked
meat being carried through the air,
I paid my $12, grabbed a tinfoilwrapped sandwich from the tray, and
looked around for an empty table.
It was around 2:00 PM now, and the
outdoor seating options outside the
restaurants were still buzzing—not
to mention their patrons buzzed—
and there wasn’t a free table in sight.
So, finally, after scanning the patio,
I caved and asked a lonely, pleasant
looking, middle-aged woman in a
red polo shirt if I could join her at
her table. She told me to help myself
and introduced herself to Craig and
myself as Christine. We exchanged
some thoughts on the size of the
crowds—she comes every year due
to her job and this was the lowest
turnout she’d ever seen. Christine told
us her job was with BoatUS, one of the
nation’s largest recreational boating
advocacy and services group and an
annual sponsor of the United States
Powerboat Show. I asked her about
changes that have happened to the
world of boating since the pandemic
had started, and Christine said that her
employer had actually seen an increase
in recreational boaters after Covid hit.
On the other side of that increase, she
also told us that many of the boats that
were purchased during the pandemic
had been repossessed soon after, Many
new boaters that could no longer pay
their leases (or just didn’t care to)
didn’t even bother to put up a fight;
they knew they couldn’t keep up
with their payments, and sometimes
even called BoatUS to come repo the
boats for them so they could scurr the
docking fees.
Both Chrisitne and myself were
finishing up our sandwiches by this
point and her lunch break was almost
over, so we decided to head our separate
ways. Since the sandwich was less than
filling, Craig and I popped outside the
Boat Show grounds and over to Chick
�& Ruth’s for a quick, more substantial
lunch.
Back at the show, Craig and I
walked along the docks, looking for
the perfect mega-yacht to take a tour
of, the sun launched high in the midafternoon sky. On the docks, beside
each of the dozens of top-of-theline behemoths, was a podium and a
velvet rope, where showgoers could
line up for a tour of the yachts. Onto
the unholy conflagration of affluence,
privilege, and time to kill, visitors
excitedly waited in line to experience
the Leviathans, to imagine themselves
casually manning the cockpits and
cinematically staring out from the deck
into the empty Chesapeake skyline.
Many of the boats for sale looked
similar, though extravagant: imposing
in presence, sleekly designed, sheening
white exterior, dark tinted windows,
and two story high sails. But one
stood out: a brand new 61 foot Sirena
58 luxury yacht with max speed of 30
knots and an asking price $2.4 million.
I waited in line with a man named
Steve who looked to be in his late
forties, early fifties maybe. After no less
than five minutes, a family of four with
two toddlers descended down a narrow
flight of stairs and hopped off. Steve
and I kicked off our shoes and the sales
rep led us aboard. We headed up to the
cockpit, and Steve regaled me with the
superiority of Volvo boat engines—
the one the Sirena had—and its builtin Dynamic Positioning Systems. I
had zero clue about boat engines or
boats altogether, and tried to say as
much, but Steve carried on with his
spiel, admiring the thrusters, joysticks,
Garmin electronic Fishfinder, and
navigational displays. Deciding I’d
keep following Steve, my guide kept
on, eyes wide—a cross between a
rural, one-room museum curator and
a kid in a candy shop. We went to the
front of the yacht, where Steve tested
the tactile security of some ropes and
opened storage hatches, assuring me
that they seemed airtight and that he
was overall impressed with the Sirena
but not all that blown away.
Down two flights of stairs, we
checked out her interior cabin. The
inside was tight but immaculate
down to each detail, a sort of modern,
minimalist luxury micro-hotel room
you’d expect to find in Hong Kong or
Helsinki. Stylish teak lined the cabin
walls, and two chic, off-white sofas
and a pear-shaped faux wood coffee
table centered the room’s feng shui.
Off from the main living room were
two bedrooms, one with a master bed
and the other with double fold out
twin beds, both with dimmable LED
strip lighting. Tucked into a corner
was a washer dryer unit, and one of the
Sirena’s three (!) bathrooms.
While Steve and I were jumping
on the king-size master bed to test
the springs, I asked him how he knew
so much about boats. He stopped
jumping, climbed down from the bed.
He pulled out his phone, and after
a long, awkward minute of scrolling
through his camera roll, he showed
me a picture of his very own boat. It
was his baby, he said, flipping through
carefully lit shots like a proud dad
showing pictures of his son in a little
league baseball uniform. She was 30
feet long, he said, and he had bought
her for just under a million dollars
a little over 10 years ago. It was his
baby indeed; a source of pride and
care and hard work paying off. Steve
didn’t seem like some entitled, wealthy
CEO-type at all; he was humble and
proud and he spoke of his boat like it
was a trophy—a trophy he’d earned.
I congratulated him on his beautiful
boat and we headed back upstairs to
the main deck. As we lept off the yacht
and back onto the dock, I wished him
all the best and told him to enjoy the
rest of his Boat Show As much as
I had wanted to knock the boaters
for all their excessive materialism,
environmental indifference, and
their posturing and status-seeking, I
couldn’t find it in me to knock Steve.
Steve wasn’t one of these people, I told
myself. Steve was different. Maybe,
even, more of the boaters at the show
were different; maybe they all were.
Around 5:00 PM, as the sun was
hunkering down, and the Painkillers
had nearly killed all the pain, Craig
and I walked away from the tents in the
main drag, through the gates, and away
from the Boat Show—comfortable, at
least, if that’s all I could say. I may not
ever be a captain on the water, but I
will be the master of my domain.
What I realized, then, after leaving,
was that the boating lifestyle was really
more of an idea here, rather than a true
product. Ads here show, they don’t
tell. The boats themselves are a blank
slate; a sturdy, white hull nearly devoid
of real substance. A boat, then, was
nothing more than just another place
where something akin to relaxation
can take place, a symbol of status that
tells us you A.) own a house, and B.)
also own a much smaller, floating
house that also moves.
But it makes sense that after nearly
two years of watching our lives play
out before us on zoom and our
smartphone screens, people seem to
be content now more than ever with
simple voyeurism. Spending tens or
even hundreds of thousands of dollars
on an unnecessary expense, like a boat
(not including upkeep and accessories)
is a swing big enough to financially
ruin you if the markets don’t tip your
way, and the sense is that people are
just increasingly not up for the risk.
Craig and I, like many others it seems,
came for the show, and left with the
lifestyle we already had.
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
7
�{campus Security}
Bed Bugs
What are those?
by Louis Rosenberg '25
What’s the difference between Cimex
lectularius and a vampire? There’s no
vampires at St. John’s!
On Oct. 24, a smattering of
students from across floors 2, 3,
and 4 of Pinkney Hall received an
ominous email from Jennifer Cline,
the Coordinator of Student Services:
“Important Notice! Please Read.” In
it, Cline explained that a professional
service was being hired to treat rooms
affected, or at risk of being affected, by
bed bugs. Students were informed that
they would have to launder all of their
fabric items on high heat — using a
provided 50 dollar balance to their
OneCards, which would be sufficient
for 20 loads of laundry — and then
stay out of their rooms from 9 a.m. to
8 p.m. on Oct. 26 as Home Paramount
Pest Control treated the rooms. The
Conference Room in Mellon Hall was
reserved for affected students, with
snacks and drinks also provided.
Although the infestation is an
unfortunate occurrence, it does
provide the polity with an excellent
starting point for learning about bed
bugs. It is first important to establish
that the common name “bed bugs”
technically describes not any one
species, but rather all bugs in the family
Cimicidae. All bed bugs are wingless
and have a flattened, oval body shape;
as hemipterans, they are also known
as true bugs. They are considered
ectoparasites, meaning that they
harm the organism they rely on for
survival but dwell outside their host.
Of the over 100 known Cimicidae
species, which fall into 24 different
genera, most do not use humans as
their primary host, instead feeding
off of birds or bats. Indeed, only two
species routinely use humans as their
8
hosts: C. hemipterus (the tropical bed
bug) and C. lectularius, the most likely
candidate for the Pinkney infestation
and the species most laymen mean
when they talk about bed bugs .
Obviously, for a group of insects
to become a true infestation (as has
developed on our very own campus),
they must reproduce. Cimicids are
interesting in this way, for they all
reproduce by way of “traumatic
insemination,” an uncommon form
of copulation that has nonetheless
evolved independently in a variety
of invertebrates, though it has been
most extensively studied in C.
lectularius and related species. In
traumatic insemination, rather than
impregnating the female directly via
her genital tract, the male pierces her
body cavity using his hypodermicstyle genitalia. Female cimicids have
developed a spermalege to make this
approach more successful — that is to
say, their abdominal wall has evolved
to redirect the males’ sperm from
their body cavity back to their genital
tract. Even though the spermalege
reduces the risk the insects face during
copulation, traumatic insemination
inherently comes with danger, and
thus C. lectularius females have been
observed to travel away from groups
including a disproportionate number
of adult males, leading to (assuming an
ample food supply) the expansion of
the bugs’ range.
Thus, in part due to this strange
way in which they reproduce, bed
bugs and their offspring can create
major infestations, especially in close
quarters. Due to their distaste for heat,
the bugs usually spread via fabric items
which are carried from room to room,
rather than traveling on human clothes
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
or bodies. And as the unfortunate
St. John's students who reside above
and below the affected rooms were
informed, the bugs are apparently also
able to navigate between floorboards
to avoid extermination efforts.
Indeed, getting rid of bed bugs is no
simple task. “Bug bombs” (devices
used to fill a room with a fog of
insecticides to control an infestation)
are usually ineffective for bed bugs,
and the bugs themselves can survive
for multiple months without food.
Thankfully, professional exterminators
— like those being called in by the
administration — do have several
effective techniques for getting rid of
bed bugs, such as heating surfaces to at
least 120°F and applying insecticides
on a smaller scale.
Though it might be just a small
comfort to the affected Pinkney
residents, bed bugs are considered
neither dangerous (barring an
uncommonly severe allergic reaction
to their bites) nor a vector of disease.
And, if all goes well following the
extermination, the infestation on our
campus will finally be controlled, and
all members of the polity can rest easy
at last.
Sources:
https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/
bedbugs/faqs.html
https://doi.org/10.1093/ae/55.4.244
https://entomolog y.ca.uky.edu/
ef636
Insect Biodiversity: Science and
Society, Volume 1 by Robert G. Foottit
and Peter H. Adler
https://www.scientificamerican.com/
article/top-10-myths-about-bedbugs/
https://www.biolog yonline.com/
dictionary/ectoparasite
“Important Notice! Please Read”
email by Jennifer Cline
�{Campus Sockhop}
Hop to It!
photos by Liz Dowdy '23
the Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 22, 2022
9
�10
the Gadfly / Sept 22, 2022
�photos by Liz Dowdy
the Gadfly / Sept 22, 2022
11
�The Part and the Whole:
Conversation for Connection
Nalini Venugopal
In his “Notes on Dialogue,” Stringfellow Barr makes
the bold assertion that “the most relevant sort of dialogue,
though perhaps the most difficult, for twentieth century
men to achieve and especially for Americans to achieve is
the Socratic.” Conversation is an integral part of the day to
day interactions of human life, and in a way that has only
become more true since Barr first penned these notes about
St. John’s College. It feels as though our generation has
been oversaturated with discourse—growing up with the
internet means finding an answer to a question simply by
typing it into a search engine. But just as I’ve found reading
physical books to be whole and comforting and real in a
way that reading online never could be, I’ve been touched
by the beauty of undistracted physical conversation in
the classroom. There’s something powerful in face-to-face
communication. But the problem is, classes haven’t been
as wholly satisfying and freeing to my mind as I expected
them to be based on my thoughts on conversation. That’s
partly due to the fact that Socrates is a high standard
to be holding anyone to for conversation, but there’s
another aspect to it that also puzzles me. Most of the time
the conversation seems to a hold a tension within it that
confused me, but I found that Barr illuminated it best in his
comparison of Thrasymachus and Socrates in the Republic.
He frames them both as making “a choice of weapon
appropriate to his purpose.” Thrasymachus brings “the
rising voice, the personal accusation, the withering scorn,
the crushing sarcasm, the panic at the possibility of being
out-maneuvered, the sweating, the unaccustomed blush of
a normally unblushing champion sophist, the volubility
that tries to shore up a crumbling argument and to ward off
the disgrace of refutation, the love of one's own opinions
precisely because they are one's own, [and]the vanity that
replaces love of truth with love for victory,” while Socrates
brings “courtesy” to Thrasymachus. This laying down of
weapons in the name of of a common aim is an admirable
one, but one hard to realize when faced with what can easily
be seen as blatant sophistry.
12
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
He highlights the importance of experience in improving
our conversational skills, writing that “experience brings
a sixth sense” to Socratic dialogues as the “will of selfinsistence gives way to the will to learn.” To truly be able to
engage well in conversation, we have to focus on it rather
than only on ourselves. To me, one of the most poignant
things Barr advises us to let go of is the “subconscious
suspicion that we are really saying precisely nothing, and
that this nothing will stand up as conversation only if we say
it elaborately.” We need to trust that what we have to say is
valuable, and likewise treat others like what they have to say
is valuable. Barr says in one of his rules that students must
learn to be good listeners for each other,and that if we do so
we are likely to “attain a level of friendship that not many
men attain to.” This is a friendship based on mutual respect,
on the idea that everyone’s ideas are equally worth hearing.
When we come to the classroom, we are united by a
shared goal of truth, and conversation is a beautiful means
towards that end. But then each individual is called on
to do the hard work of becoming good at dialogue, an
experience we’re all having together. Barr highlights the
need for the “will for self-insistence give way to “the will to
learn. Learning is the goal that we share, and when we walk
into a classroom not only do we have to embrace the shared
goal of learning, we have to release ourselves from the
desire to be right or to know more than the people around
us. One of the easiest lies to believe is that intelligence is
a measurable trait, especially if one grew up in the typical
educational system - grades and comments and feedback
from the teacher are everywhere, and it can be really easy
to slip into a competitive mindset. Here, though, at least on
paper, there’s no curve to be graded on—everyone is equal
in class, and all of a sudden we’re being graded on skills
like confidence and eloquence. But listening is more than
just passively letting other people talk while you formulate
your next thought or flip through the book. It is an act of
friendship, of philía,, or love (specifically among friends).
What does it mean to listen from a place of love?
�In his book The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis meditates on
philía and identifies it with a moment of connection,
“when two or more of the companions discover that they
have in common some insight or interest or even taste
which the others do not share and which, till that moment,
each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden).”
This, to me, is the beauty of Philosophy. I still find pieces of
my soul reflected in words written by people who are long
dead who looked nothing like me, people who, if they knew
me, would be shocked and upset at the idea of me having
opinions on their work. But ideas and words can transcend
perceptible differences like race and sex, and I can have rich
conversations with the text in spite of the fact that I live in
a different cultural context than them. Reading the Great
Books is already a practice in looking at the ideas of the
past, the ideas that shaped Western culture as it is today.
But as an American with a hyphenated identity, I find that
there are Indian parts of me that don’t fit with Western
culture, and that when I look at the history of the West
and America I see it differently because I see the ideas that
were used to justify the oppression of women and people
of color, and sometimes engaging with these texts seriously
feels like a disrespect to the people who fought for my right
to be in the classroom. I have to learn how to hold the ideas
separate from how I feel about them to be able to engage
with them seriously to a degree that makes it really clear.
But that’s true for everyone to some degree - even if you are
privileged, the program covers enough topics that there will
be topics that make you feel things strongly - whether it’s an
author validating a belief you already hold or challenging
something you thought to be true - our emotions will
be part of the process of conversation, and that’s ok. But
when it comes to the classroom, each of us brings our own
personal conversation with the text to a room where we
team up with fellow thinkers to seek truth and answers
and beauty and knowledge for the sake of itself, and that’s a
powerful thing, because we each have a wealth of different
experiences that have impact the way that we think and
interact with texts. But how do we keep ourselves from
that self-insistence that Barr speaks of ? How do we keep
our feelings from inhibiting our search for truth.
I believe we must begin with earnest self-reflection. If we
are to free ourselves from self-insistence so that we can be
free to engage with delight with learning, we must remove
competition and comparison. That frees us to listen to
others more effectively and openly, because rather than
focusing on the judgements we’re making of their points,
we can focus on how their points contribute in their
own unique way to the shared destination we’re traveling
towards. At the end of the day, the things we say in class
should only matter as stepping stones towards a goal. They
are not merely reflections of us or our intellectual abilities.
Tutors are there simply as sharers in the same goal who have
more familiarity with the ideas than us, so they have more
wisdom in guiding the conversation. There’s something
scary about learning as an active process after the rote
“knowledge in, knowledge out” experience of academia
that many of us had. We are being asked to engage with
ourselves, the text, and other people, to learn through
experience and reflection rather than showing up with our
finest work to be judged.
Academic validation was really important to me growing
up. On top of the fact that I simply wanted to do well, many
people just assumed my intelligence because I was Indian
rather than lauding it the way they did with my peers of
other races. I see that on countless levels, just in the field of
academia. As a woman, when I expressed my intelligence
assertively, it was discouraged by teachers who were holding
me to higher standards of kindness than the boys in my class
simply because girls are expected to be kinder than boys.
My little brother is nine years old and tells me stories of
how he talks to his teachers in school that shock me, both
in his audacity in saying what he says and the positivity of
the teacher’s response. I have to unlearn the complex image
of myself that I have in the classroom, and because I’m a
woman of color I have a lot of social lenses I can examine
that through. But it’s dangerous to think that if you have
been more privileged in the classroom that exempts you
from these issues. Everyone comes into the classroom with
baggage, simply by nature of living and learning for any
amount of years before joining higher education. It’s hard
work to leave that baggage at the door and simply engage,
but it’s vital if the class is to be truly unified in pursuit of
truth.
Students Performing an Experiment with Suspended Weights; n.d.
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
13
�The Pursuit of
Selfless Learning
Catherine E. Greer
It is easy to mistake the St. John’s education as a thing
founded upon the acquisition of book-knowledge. More
often it is something so much more than that: a thing
founded upon human knowledge. It is not that this book
knowledge, our reading and examination of the Great
Books, is any less significant or integral to our program. But
our collective drive to build a truly meaningful relationship
with and understanding of these texts is only possible
alongside a desire to understand those who came before us,
those who are around us, and those who will come after us.
We must strive not only to study a text well, but through
studying it to also study other people: how we live together,
and learn together, and grow together.
Without this simultaneous sensitivity to those around us
our education at St. John’s would, effectively, be meaningless.
When we sit down together around a table, whether it be
in seminar or lab or music, we are committing to learning as
a group. We are no longer individuals pursuing knowledge
Students Building Peace Corps Huts and the Beneficial Hodson
Boathouse; 1965
14
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
out of self-interest. We take on the responsibility of being
present and engaged for the whole class, tutors and students
alike—and our search for knowledge must not seek only
to propel our own selves forwards but to be an offering
for all else who desire to learn. To remain self-concerned
and apathetic towards the learning of our peers cripples
the very core of our program, the method of discussionbased learning that is meant to dissolve the barrier between
learning and teaching and unite them as a common pursuit.
This way of learning and engaging with others is a skill
that can only be strengthened through genuine effort to
understand how best to learn alongside others. Much of
our program confronts questions about human nature
and human interactions. These questions must not remain
cold and removed from us, merely words on paper to be
discussed with superficial interest. They are questions that
could push us to better understand the people around us,
to continuously question and reform how we treat others
and understand the human mind and spirit. It is through
this pursuit of understanding human beings that we can
learn to listen rather than simply to speak, to become open
to differing perspectives, to gain patience and compassion
for those who have fallen behind or those who have not yet
learned to bring others along with them.
The focus on learning together rather than individually
is vital to the spirit of the program, but also the most
challenging to practice. Each of us upon entering St. John’s
has some goal that propels us forwards and sets us apart
from other students. It is easy to become consumed by
the self-interest of knowledge, to desire your own growth
and expansion more strongly than you desire the same
for others. Even more dangerously are we plagued by
competitiveness, to not only be motivated by self-growth
but by a drive to become better than those around you, to
become the best. But these motivations are a hindrance to
true learning and engagement with our program. We must
focus on prioritizing the success of each student sitting with
us around the table. Their learning becomes our learning,
just as much as ours becomes theirs.
�In our classes, and in seminar especially, there is a
necessity for selflessness in a way that many other methods
of learning do not ever demand. We must come to
understand that our presence in class, our careful reading
of the texts and the conversations we conduct on them, are
not for our own sake alone. Each time we speak in class it
is to further the understanding and knowledge of every
person present in the room: and we must present our ideas
selflessly, with the hope that we might build upon not our
own knowledge but the collective knowledge that forms
when people seek to learn together. There must be an egodeath of sorts: the “I” dissolves and is replaced by the “we”,
represented by the class itself as a living subject and a single
force of knowledge-seeking. It no longer matters whether
it is you who asks a certain question or makes a significant
point—it becomes important only that it was said, not that
it was said by you or by another. And in this relinquishment
of a selfish pursuit of learning, we become infinitely more
open to growing in our understanding of those around us.
It is only in this mindset that a seminar can truly create a
depth of knowledge that is collective and inclusive rather
than individualistic and exclusionary.
We have a unique opportunity here to focus our learning
on far more than the acquisition of knowledge or the
improvement of skills. Our learning encompasses human
things as well. As we read the Great Books and engage
with these texts and our peers simultaneously, we must
seek to strengthen our knowledge of human beings so
that we might better live and learn alongside one another
and work collectively towards positive growth and mutual
understanding. The pursuit of this human knowledge is
a companion to the selflessness required of seminar. One
grows from the other, and together they strengthen not
only our study of the Great Books but our personal spirits
as well, building a foundation of compassion and sensitivity
to human beings.
Students Pulling Other Students in Wagons on Back Campus during the First Real Olympics;
1951
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
15
�To Those Who Have
Suffered a Crisis of Meaning
Dolan Polgaze
It is difficult to explicate the full meaning of what I
am about to say without divulging the story of my own
personal life over the past three years here. Yet, because
such a story would be both too immense and too personal,
I will simply begin by saying this: I have suffered from, and
most likely will again suffer a crisis of meaning during my
time at the college. There are various reasons why one will
inevitably come to find themselves, at least once, in front of
the formidable face of utter un-inspiration. I confess that
when I found myself at such a moment, it was terrifying, in
the fullest sense of the word. For, somewhere in the course
of pursuing my deepest questions, I exhaustedly ground
to a halt, only to look around and become aware that the
horizon before me was entirely devoid of meaning. It felt
as if the innumerable questions I had been pursuing—
questions of goodness, evil, bodies, and God—had only
led me to despair. The events of my own life which brought
on this crisis of meaning were most likely different from
the events of your life which have perhaps stirred in you
the same intellectual and emotional apathy. The Program,
I’ve come to realize, is a complete mirror of who you are at
any specific moment in your life. The more earnestly you
engage with the books, the more clearly you are reflected
back—not only because of the content of a reading, but
also because of the sheer difficulty of the work. For from
difficulty of any kind arises an invitation for one to behold
themself exactly as they are, not as who they imagined
they had become. Thus, if one day you look in the mirror
of these books and the image that looks back at you is one
of personal despair, where do you turn? I ask this question
with utmost sincerity, for I believe this is something seldom
discussed here.
Yet, crisis or no crisis, the world at the college goes on.
And so, when I found myself confronted with this crisis
of meaning, I knew, however painful, that it was a calling
for me to change my thinking. In an attempt to regain
inspiration, I spent months circling in vain around this
question: can one really make themselves interested when
there is no will to be interested? I say that this was asked
16
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
in vain because I realized far later that this question was
pointing me in the wrong direction. I believed then and
still believe now that the act of true interest—of focusing
one’s attention completely—is a spiritual activity. Yet, I
had somewhere gone amiss in how I was defining interest.
To explain, let me take you back to my senior year of
highschool: then, I was overjoyed with the prospect of
coming to St. John’s because I had a love of community
and earnest conversation. However, the driving idea which
inspired my coming to the college was a faraway notion that
I was somehow going to become a better human being by
being here; I had lofty ideas of the self I wanted to attain.
A Student Reading in McDowell Hall by a Portrait of Jacob Klein; n.d.
�And throughout my first two years here, these ideas still
inhabited my convictions. The aspiration of wanting to be
a better person by being here is not itself unadmirable, but
I realize now that such ideals are wholly incomplete. If one
is only guided by a vague expectation of becoming a better
human being by studying Euclid, or Leibniz, or reading by
the Bible, or by singing Palestrina, I will venture to say that
such a transformation of self will never come about. I am
realizing now that the way to be changed by the program
is to fiercely and fully take interest in the particulars at
hand, and for now, to leave aside expectations of bettering
oneself. In the aftermath of the crisis of meaning which
struck me last year, I had nothing to hold onto, because I
had never let myself be completely vulnerable in the face
of the particulars. The universal idea of becoming a better
person is not a substantial idea, and in times of despair, you
won’t be able to hold onto it. Yet, if you truly take interest
in the work for the sake of itself, eventually and without
even noticing it, you will be changed, but only because
you relinquished the very hope and expectation of being
changed.
I am not trying to merely draw a pedantic distinction
by encouraging the act of turning one’s attention onto the
particulars in order to find inspiration. Perhaps this is the
effect of Junior year on me, but I realized recently that if
I don’t have the courage to be vulnerable with the details,
I will drown in the vastness of my ideals. But what does
it mean, for example, to be vulnerable with mathematical
particulars? I am thinking of Leibniz’s calculus and the fact
that we are asked to suspend our imagination of all that we
know in favor of considering the endeavor of a single point.
If we are to follow Leibniz’s prompting, we have to think
of the point as having a primary desire, a want to move
in a certain straight line. In order to turn my attention to
such inconceivables, I must surrender myself wholly to the
particulars at hand: faraway ideas of who I want to become
won’t help anymore. Likewise, the same applies to God: it is
not that God is simply found in the particulars, but rather,
that if you surrender to the particulars, you are as likely to
sense the Divine in Genesis as you are to sense him in the
endeavor of a point. This nakedness of mind and heart,
which I call vulnerability, is the courage to let go of your
hope of becoming a better person in favor of a much truer
striving: the striving to care, with all the depth you can
muster, about the specifics of this world. I am not trying to
claim that this is a complete antidote to a crisis of meaning,
for nothing is ever easy, and life always gets in the way. I
am only writing this to share what I have learned through
my own encounters with despair: you will, with grace,
become stronger if you take the time to turn your attention
off yourself and towards what is small in the immensity of
experience.
Emily Martin (Kutler) and Three Female Students Studying in A Dorm Room in Campbell
Hall; circa 1954
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
17
�Thoughts on the
St. John’s Class
Luke Briner
What’s the nature of the St. John’s class, and what attitude
should we, as members of the St. John’s community, take
toward it? These two questions are points of great dissent
among students and faculty alike, and the way in which
each person answers has radical effects on how they behave
in their classes and what they intend to get out of them.
Recognizing this, I’ve felt the desire to formally work
through both of them, looking to the philosophy of the
College itself as well as the firsthand experience of myself
and others. I hope that by setting out on this inquiry, and by
attempting to shed light on the principles upon which our
classes seem to be based as well as their natural consequences
for our own behavior, I can help the Polity come to a clearer
and more beneficial understanding of them, or at the very
least deepen the discourse surrounding them.
I take the first and ultimate principle of the Program to
be “the liberation of the human intellect.”1 This liberation is
not simply freedom from previous ignorance or bias, but is,
more profoundly, the achievement of a self-consciousness,
mental autonomy, and intellectual virtue through the
sincere application of one’s mind to what’s most essential
and worthy within itself. Our method for achieving this
ultimate kind of liberation is the study of Great Books.
Since these books, as Buchanan observes, “communicate
with great skill ideas that human experience has taught us
are important,”2 and thereby allow us to “tune in on the
Great Conversation that we call civilization,”3 The hope
of the program is that their sincere and sustained study
will produce in the student the eminent qualities of “an
educated man—that is, one who has learned to read, to use
his mind imaginatively and rigorously.”4
I take the second principle of the Program to be that this
liberation is to be pursued communally. “Liberal learning,”
as Brann observes, “is by its nature conversational….the
student is not the passive recipient of knowledge but an
active participant in a common search.”5 By participating
in this search, we do more than simply “tune in” to the
Great Conversation the each text is a part of; instead,
we actually simulate our own conversation around the
18
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
Books themselves, and thereby give our ourselves a the
opportunity to exercise our minds in a way that surpasses
the limitations of solitary thought. Since classes thus
centered around dialogue and intellectual community can
“reach insights far beyond the views of any of its members,”6
the Program makes them the sole vehicle of our education;
our colleagues are made our very means of liberation, and
we’re made theirs.
Accepting these principles, the ideal nature of the St.
John’s class seems to me to take a clear shape, as does that
of each individual student. Recognizing that their ultimate
objective is the liberation of their own minds and that
communal dialogue centered around Great Books is the
way to achieve this, the ideal student will work as hard as
they can to promote the health of that dialogue. They’ll
understand that the conversational Whole is greater than
themselves and that their good is to be found only within
the Whole, and will therefore always act in accordance
with what’s best for that Whole. If each student submits
themselves to this responsibility, the class becomes its own
organism: a living, breathing order where insights spring
forth as naturally as water from a font, and where “harmony
is actual and immediate, and where its sustenance and
growth seem possible.”7 Such is the ideal of every class,
and each student should recognize working toward the
realization of that ideal as their highest responsibility.
However, by virtue of the very communal and voluntary
nature of our classes, many if not most classes will fall short
of this ideal. Nevertheless, if liberation remains our ultimate
end, and if communal inquiry around Great Books is our
only means to achieving that end, then the fact that this
very achievement is rare and unreliable puts our entire
education into jeopardy. An understanding of the natural
fragility of communal learning seems to be the foundation
for the Programs’ reasoning behind the institution of
tutors. Just as a polyphony, in order to achieve the supreme
interpersonal and suprapersonal Beauty it’s so capable of,
requires a conductor to keep each part in its place and
preserve the nómos of the whole, so too the intellectual
�polyphony of the St. John’s class requires an authoritative
presence capable of setting and enforcing its own necessary
nómos.
If this is right, then it seems to me that the identity
of the tutor as a laissez-faire facilitator is usually greatly
overemphasized. Tutors should not, as Luchene notes,
“merely facilitate conversations.”8 Rather, they should
“guide the conversation, sometimes steering it in a particular
direction, sometimes listening and letting it take its own
course, and occasionally, steering it around an unpromising
detour.”9 If tutors were merely facilitators or democratic
participants, then they would be just another student;
but the tutor should be an authoritative figure capable of
acting outside the specific context of the conversation in
order to always steer it in the right direction. If they aren’t,
then the intellectual chorus of the class will lack a true
conductor, and will therefore be exposed to the danger of
falling into anarchic cacophony without any clear direction
or correction. We should, then, resist the temptation to
interpret the Statement’s assertion that “the primary role
of the leaders [tutors] is not to give information, nor is it
to produce the ‘right’ opinion or interpretation” (p. 5) as
claiming that tutors simply shouldn’t assert anything in
class, but instead carefully distinguish between the two
modes of assertion that the tutor is capable of operating
within. While tutors should of course avoid dogmatic
assertions about the text insofar as they are simply another
participant in the conversation, they should actually at the
same time quite dogmatically assert the bounds within
which that very conversation must take place, e.g., keeping
it “cooperative and respectful, not competitive,”10 and
ensuring that no one person takes away from everyone else’s
education by their obstinacy or negligence.
I want to add to this my conviction that students who
participate too much in class are worse than those who
participate too little. While both cases do a disservice to
the class, the nature and intensity of the two are entirely
different. For while silent students harm the class passively
by withholding contributions they might have improved
the conversation with, the student who dominates
conversations actively derails and often outright destroys
the very communal cohesion and equity which a successful
class requires. If this is true, then I can’t help but question
why many tutors and the College itself tend to review and
grade silent students more harshly than toward students
that refuse to ever be silent, given that the latter is farther
from being a good citizen in an intellectual pólis than
the former. The “sons of pride”11 in our classes should be
humbled, not enabled.
On the same principles, we should view with
skepticism Barr’s suggestion that interrupting colleagues
in conversation can be acceptable or even beneficial.12
Perhaps in some exceptional cases a few quick interjections
might really be a “point of order”13 in dialogue; but this is a
dangerous precedent to set generally. Internalizing the idea
that interruption is acceptable will inevitably lead most of
us to feel bolder in crudely interrupting others, which only
causes disorder, and resentment.
Likewise, we should be very careful about how we
take Kalkavages’ exhortation to “not despair”14 when
conversational degeneration occurs, since, he claims, it’s
a part of the way in which “we learn the art of using our
freedom.”15 While certainly some space should be given
in which classes may do better or worse, since openness
and spontaneity is the lifeblood of dialogue, this must be
kept firmly within the realm of genuine dialectic rather
than allowed to degenerate into eristic. Our freedom,
our liberation consists not in the ever-looming threat of
devolving into anarchical bickering, but precisely in the
sustained and enforced existence of a real pólis between
ourselves and our colleagues.
What I want to communicate through all of this, and
above all to myself, is the necessity of taking responsibility
for our own education. What we give to the Program is
what the Program will give back to us, and if we wish to
have better classes, we must begin by holding ourselves
to the supreme and universal standard of academic and
conversational excellence. Let me, and let us all, then, aspire
to this standard, and to more liberating classes for everyone.
notes
(1) Statement of the Program, p. 3.
(2) “Now and to Come: Liberal Education: A Common Adventure,”
The Antioch Review, Autumn, 1955, Vol. 15, No. 3, p. 302.
(3) Ibid.
(4) Ibid, p. 304.
(5) A Manifesto for Liberal Education, 2015.
(6) Statement of the Program, p. 5.
(7) Luchene, Beginnings of Community, 1999, p. 4.
(8) Learning Through Conversation at St. John’s College, 2015.
(9) Ibid.
(10) Ibid.
(11) Job 41.34.
(12) Notes on Dialogue, pp. 3-4.
(13) Ibid, p. 4
(14) “Winged Words: On the Importance of Reading and Discussing
Great Books,” 2003, p. 15.
(15) Ibid.
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
19
�Defenestrate Your
Timepieces: An Invitation to
the Present Moment
Helen Wagner
Any observant (i.e. good) Johnnie is aware of the absence
of clocks in College classrooms—perhaps painfully aware,
during long moments of morning lab; perhaps blissfully,
when an exhilarating seminar runs overtime. Maybe you’ve
also given some thought to the value (or lack thereof ) of
this practice. For my part, I think it’s wonderful. The lack of
timepieces during class allows us to be fully present to our
work, without the distraction of checking the clock — in
other words, without the distraction of the future. But the
mere practice of clockless classrooms is not enough. It’s too
easy to surreptitiously check your watch during seminar, or
to disengage from your tutorial as you wait for the 11:30
bell. If we truly want to embrace a clockless academic
experience, we need to change the way we think about time.
That is, we need to think less about it. Perhaps an awareness
of time is actually antithetical to doing good work.
We can all agree that we do our best work when we
are most focused. We must be free of distraction—and
the future is one such distraction. If we want to enjoy the
present (the only real time in which we exist), we must think
of the future as little as possible. In fact, this was the topic
of a recent Saturday morning seminar hosted by Professor
Patrick Deneen. The reading was an essay by Wendell Berry
called “Leaving the Future Behind.” Berry argues more
eloquently than I. “Actual work that is actually good,”
he writes, “requires us to give our minds entirely to the
present… to be distracted by the thought even of finishing
the work, or by the thought of the clock or a deadline, is to
work badly, and often to be in danger.” Good work requires
presence in the present moment.
This timelessness should extend beyond our classrooms
and into our personal studies. Although we have deadlines,
we will actually work better and more efficiently if we give
up all thought of reaching them. J.D. Salinger would agree:
in his novel Franny and Zooey, he quotes the Bhagavad
20
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
Gita, saying, “[w]ork done with anxiety about results is
far inferior to work done without such anxiety, in the calm
of self-surrender…They who work selfishly for results are
miserable.” It’s counterintuitive: to achieve our goal, we
must forget about it. We must make our work more about
the process than about the results.
We all know how it feels to lose track of time. Since
we’re Johnnies, it was probably thanks to a good novel or
a particularly thrilling geometric proof. Maybe it was a
two-hour phone call with a friend that felt like 20 minutes.
Maybe it was such an exciting intramural game that you
were surprised to hear the whistle for halftime. Whatever it
was, though, you were fully engaged in the activity in front
of you—that’s why you never thought about the clock. It
feels good, doesn’t it? Forgetting time also seems to come
along with a sort of refreshing self-forgetfulness: your eyes
are open to the living world around you, and you look
outward instead of in. Wendell Berry puts it this way: “To
be dead to oneself is to be alive to the work. It is to be alive
in the present, the only time we are alive, and to continue to
live there, so long as we don’t look at the clock.”
Consider this article an exhortation to forget about the
clock. Embrace the empty space on the classroom walls.
Take off your watch for seminar. When you read, put your
phone across the room from you. If you need to stop at a
certain time, set an alarm and forget about it until it goes
off— allow yourself to get lost in the book. Trust that your
morning lab will end at its appointed moment, then banish
the thought from your mind. You are here, now, with work
in front of you and thinking to do. Strive, then, to forget the
future. Do not let it steal you away from the present.
�ξένος, pt. 1
Paz Daniela Ortiz Santa María
Seemingly endless F-1 VISA documentation. An airplane
flight that can last anywhere between four and thirty-six
hours. The first footstep into uncharted land that quickly
morphs into a new life. Ask any international student and
they will have different answers to the question: “when did
you first begin to feel like an outsider?”
Although officially our student VISAs would label us
as non-immigrants, we are aware of our status as such—I
am, at least. During my time here I have been called an
immigrant, an expat, a displaced; all of these used to point
out the foreignness they perceive in me. An outsider, a ξένος.
Yet, I wonder, what lies underneath this notion of “the
other”? Is there intellectual curiosity, perhaps? Or is there
a need for validation that the unknown is unknown for a
reason?
The current political climate in the United States
makes this discussion more relevant than ever due to the
presence of previously silenced voices and perspectives.
Social justice causes such as anti-racism, intersectional
feminism, indigenous environmentalism, heavily rooted in
philosophical and political theory, are finally occupying the
space they deserve at the at the center of the conversation.
What does that mean for a “talking college” such as ours?
Coming to St. John’s, I was aware of the richness of
its curriculum as well as the extent of its limitations. It is
not novel to point out the lack of BIPOC, non-cis male
perspectives in the reading list. Nonetheless, when a large
block of the college’s brochure is the percentage of the
student body that is made up of international, non-white, or
non-cis/heterosexual students, I believe that administration
and the student body itself should make more efforts to
counter the non-diverse perspective of the curriculum.
Curiosity should be the center of any education, and
especially of a Great Books education. Curiosity for what is
presented, yes, but also—and more importantly—for what
is not. It requires curiosity for the hidden, the purposefully
not-shown. The absence of historically silenced and
underprivileged voices needs to be seen as an opportunity
to amplify those voices in the present time, to create spaces
for them to be heard in our community, to celebrate the
diversity of our student body.
Social notions such as race, gender, class (among others)
aren’t contemporary. They have always been present because
the notion of “the other” has always been present, and they
deserve a place during class discussions and seminars. Being
critical about the way these notions are portrayed and
handled by the authors of great classics, in my opinion, has
for too long been seen as taboo, or wrongly perceived as a
violation of the rule of not bringing any outside knowledge
into the conversation. We are a school with one major
taught to all students in the same way for several decades.
The grandness of the experience lies in the unique twist one
can give to a debate.
And it mustn't end there. As an international student,
and having spoken to many of my international peers, I can
say with certainty that there is infinite passion to be found
in us when it comes to the places we grew up in, our cultures,
what we call home. Dare to be the guests for a change, if not
physically, then in conversation, and ask questions about
that which you don’t know. We are all someone else's other.
What that means and whether it is a pleasant experience for
either party involved depends entirely on you.
Students Sending Messages by Morse Code; n.d.
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 22, 2022
21
�{Trash or Treasure?}
An Incomplete Guide to Local Second Hand Stores
Helen Felbek
The seasons are changing and perhaps you are looking for
a new fall wardrobe. Or you realized that a themed event is
just around the corner and have to come up with a creative
costume. Before you rush to order something on Amazon
with the hope of receiving it the next day due to their prime
delivery services, you should consider buying second-hand.
The environment and your wallet as well as B&G are going
to thank you.
While the most affordable and sustainable option
would be to just re-wear clothing, this is not always an
option (particularly when an event calls for items that
are more likely to be used once than they are to become
closet staples). Of course, you could try to come up with
a so-called “closet costume” that doesn’t require you to
buy additional costume pieces (that you might never wear
again) but if you can’t or don’t want to do this, you can refer
to this (incomplete) guide to local second hand stores.
The most affordable options in Annapolis are most
likely the LMS Compassion Place on West Street and the
Goodwill Superstore (also on West Street). LMS is located
0.7 miles away from campus while Goodwill is farther away
(1.6 miles). Goodwill carries everything that you would
expect from a big thrift store of its kind meaning a big
variety of women’s, men’s, and kid’s clothing. They also carry
decoration and furniture (which might not be too relevant
unless you want to dress up as Lumière from Beauty and the
Beast). Goodwill also carries bedsheets in case you want to
just go as a ghost or maybe sew your own costume. They are
however lacking in the accessories department. Also, note
that there are no changing rooms anymore.
LMS is significantly smaller and has a more limited
range of clothing. Their assortment also changes less often.
They do, however, have a wide variety of interesting ties
and lots of shoes that are often in a better condition than
at Goodwill. They also often have a nice variety of formal
wear. But shoppers beware: LMS has quite limited opening
hours and usually closes at 4 pm. They also seem to lack a
changing room. Note, that they have rather limited opening
hours (it usually closes at 4 pm), and they apparently lack a
changing room.. To my knowledge, they also do not have a
changing room.
If you have a bigger budget, you could consider some
other second hand consignment stores in the area. In and
around Annapolis there are three of them: Honeysuckle
quality consignment, Return to Oz, and New To You
22
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
Consignment Shop.
Honeysuckle is the farthest away as it is located in Arnold
on Governor Richie Highway (4.2 miles from campus)
which means that you would need a car to get there. I
personally do not think it is worth the hassle as it mostly
carries very basic items. They carry quite a variety of items
(including bags and shoes as well as outerwear and formal
gowns) but given the rather high prices nothing really
stands out. They also only carry women’s and children’s
clothing. It is probably not the place to shop for an event.
Return to Oz on 2011 West Street is still walkable if you
are willing to walk 2.6 miles. They sell women’s, men’s, as
well as children’s clothing. They sell slightly more ‘higherend’ clothing compared to Goodwill but still at a reasonable
price point. The shopping experience is a bit annoying as
all of their racks are so full that it is virtually impossible to
look at a piece of clothing without something falling off its
hanger. They are relatively size-inclusive. Usually, they have
interesting jewelry. Note: they close relatively early at 5 pm.
Lastly, there is New To You Consignment Shop on 1916
Forest Dr which is like Return to Oz approximately 2.6 miles
away from campus. I would say that this store is in terms
of price-performance ratio the best option in Annapolis if
you are interested in women’s clothing (because they only
sell women’s clothing, shoes, accessories, and decoration,
and homeware). They have a huge selection of shoes that
are in good condition and have very interesting-looking
hats. They have a special rack with special deals which do
not differ from prices at Goodwill. Out of all the stores I
visited, this might be the most size-inclusive one.
On the pricier side, we have two consignment stores:
Belle me and Muse on Maryland Avenue (0.1 miles from
campus) and One Petticoat Lane (0.9 miles from campus)
Belle me and Muse resells designer goods like Channel
and Dior. Their sizes are very limited (mostly XS and S) but
they have a big variety of shoes in pristine condition as well
as sunglasses and berets. They only carry women’s clothing.
One Petticoat Lane is in West Annapolis (close to
Graul’s Market) and is slightly more affordable than Belle
me and Muse. Over two stories the store presents women’s
clothing as well as accessories like jewelry, bags, and shoes.
The owner organizes special events for seasonal changes or
holidays.
If you are more interested in vintage pieces and are also
willing to spend a bit more, I have three vintage stores for
�you that also carry clothing. Evergreen
Vintage and Treasure vintage are right
next to each other on Maryland avenue
(0.1 miles from campus). Both of them
offer a student discount for St. John’s
students. Vintage Treasure does not have
an official changing room as of now but
if you ask the owner, she will allow you to
use her storage room which is obviously
a bit messy but does the job. Vintage
treasure has a large assortment of women’s
headwear as well as jewelry. They do not
carry a lot of men’s clothing but usually
have some military jackets. The pricing
is a bit more affordable than evergreen,
however, the pieces are usually not sized
at all.
Evergreen carries men’s and women’s
clothing but the women’s wear selection is
bigger. They also carry some shoes and hats
as well as gloves and scarves. They have a
nice (but smaller than Vintage Treasure’s)
collection of jewelry. Evergreen has a
changing room, and the sizing is very clear
as they write the measurements of each
garment on the price tag.
The vintage store with the biggest
assortment of clothing is clearly All The
Rage Vintage on 208 West Street (0.8 miles
from the college). They carry women’s and
men’s clothing and have a big selection of
western boots. It is the most expensive of
the three vintage stores. They have a nice
selection of belts and jewelry too. Further,
they have a nice selection of outerwear
as well as kimonos and undergarments.
The owners organize special events for
seasonal changes or holidays. If you are
looking for a place where you can spend a
lot of time in and care about the shopping
atmosphere this might be ideal for you.
On campus, student activities
sometimes organize clothing swaps which
are a great option too since they are truly
circular. They are also the most affordable
and the most accessible because you do not
even need to leave campus. If you missed
the last one, you might think about trying
to organize one yourself with friends or
people on your floor because: “One man's
trash is another man's treasure”.
From left to right: Rage Vintage, Return to Oz, Goodwill, and Evergreen Antiques/True Vintage
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
23
�{Review of Acqua Al 2}
An Italian Menace Descends on Annapolis
Audrey Fox
I’ve always been wary of “high dining” Italian restaurants.
If it’s not the family run joint on the Main Line—the
kind I’ve been to at funeral receptions—I have pretty low
expectations. The “family owned” restaurant is a concept lost
to the Main Street Annapolis dining scene. No one seems at
home in the storefront sprawl of downtown restaurants—
none of that Olive Garden “When you’re here, you’re
family,” am I right? Jokes aside, what sort of impression does
this lack for a welcoming dining experience leave us? Some
of you are away from home for the first time ever, trying to
find spaces that you feel welcome at and build a new sense
of community. For those of us who are seasoned veterans
of the Annapolis lifestyle this is an ongoing struggle—I
can’t even say I’ve truly found a place to eat here where I
truly can forget I’m at a restaurant. Eating together is one of
our most important social habits. However, that does not
mean that it is always explicitly for pleasure that we eat with
each other. Sometimes, an important business meeting will
take place over lunch—which does not add pleasure to the
eating, but will (hopefully) add pleasure and anticipation to
the meeting. Going out to eat can serve a practical purpose,
but primarily it is an occasion! It is meant to be fun, to
take up a few hours of conversation, and make me forget
I’m spending money (to my social, and the restaurant's
economic benefit). Stave off Marxists! There is always space
for criticizing the restaurant industry, but if it’s here to stay
I at least want it to be worth my time.
I’m remembering a story: I was going somewhere
unimportant while my Uber driver went into detail about
how to go crabbing off the campus docks. He told me
that when he was younger he would do this all the time,
but now they no longer permit such activities. I may have
been coming home from a party actually, I think it was
dark out. All that I remember is the expressions of his
voice, methodically explaining how to tie up a whole raw
chicken to lure the crabs. Emphasis on methodical, but
with a hint of nostalgia and pleasure. Why am I thinking of
this? a difference between going to a restaurant compared
to seeking food relying on your own devices. On one hand
it seems much more of a practical experience, yet the soft,
inward joy in his voice suggests otherwise. Maybe it’s similar
24
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
to when I would go huckleberry picking and fishing with my
family. Oftentimes there would be no huckleberries to pick.
We always returned the fish to the water. Why does this feel
the same? It is more primary. Not primitive, but primary.
There are numerous social levels that contribute to a dining
experience, while seeking food on one’s own requires little
structure in place for its enabling. But we don’t do it just
for nutrition—there is socialization and the pleasure of
the food. Food plays a different role during the hunt versus
the restaurant, yet it seems to be a primary center for the
activity. In other words, the food is not the main aim but
rather the common ground we base an activity off of.
My apologies to the reader for such high brow tangents!
Let me get to what you really are here for, my thoughts
on the restaurant. The interior was comfortably crowded
as my party arrived there around 9 pm. The lighting was
soft and relaxing, and the decor, while very nice, was not
overwhelmingly nice. Appropriate for the Annapolis
audience in my opinion. We started off with a bottle of
San Pellegrino to set the mood and the Strozzapreti Al
pomodoro. For those of you unfamiliar with the Italian
language, those are fresh ricotta cheese balls with a tomato
sauce over them. They were rich yet not overpowering, and
went wonderfully with the house made bread. I got the
Fusilli Lunghi ai Mascarpone e Funghi–a corkscrew pasta
with a mushroom and parmesan sauce- which I think is best
described as warm and rustic. The flavor was simple, but
simple in the way most amateur cooks could never aspire to.
Others at the table got the house made Gnocchi (the Topini
Sugo Verde) with a pureed parsley basil rosemary sauce. It
was a refreshing sauce paired with the pillowy Gnocchi.
Overall the prices were very reasonable for the pasta entrees.
Around $16 was the average. The other entrees were more
expensive, but the pasta options were vast and definitely
more than filling. On the other hand the espresso we got
after our meal was $5 each, a little overpriced for just Illy.
We ended the meal with tiramisu, which was well made and
had the distinct flavors I expect from the dessert. It was a
surprisingly homey experience wrapped up in the guise of
fine dining. I recommend this place for a special night out
(perhaps graduation) or to take visiting family members.
�The sign for Acqua Al 2. It (and the restraunt) can be found on Main Street at door 236.
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
25
�{stargazing}
THIS MONTH IN HOROSCOPES—SEPT 2022
Madame T
ARIES
(March 21 - April 19)
all means velour, Aries!!! We love to see it! Not
only is it a wonderful texture, but the way light is
reflected off of it makes you look like a beautiful, exotic
fish. Better yet, due to the blue corn moon that is fast
approaching this November, all Aries’ are required to
have a secret sexy velour day. Wear your velour inside
out, no one else deserves to know what you’re wearing.
November dictates that it is just you, alone, with the
chafe of polyester against your sweaty, naked body.
f Nebraska, but your new face as a young philosophy
major in Annapolis has thrown everyone off your
trail. Where once a full grown, grizzled man with a body
count of 19 stood, now stands a 20 year old lad who has
much to learn about the nature of things. Isn’t it funny?
This Halloween you can be an escaped lunatic dressed as
a Johnnie dressed as a gaping minion.
F
o
TAURUS
(April 20 - May 20)
he weather may be frightful, Taurus but your
wardrobe naught be! This season both the position
of Mars and the most recent Vogue say that high waisted
pants are all the rage. Pair this with a very small shirt,
creating a fleshy vortex above your naval. That millimeter
of skin is where fashion happens!!!! The mites in your
skin are using this strip as a runway for all this season's
hottest microscopic fashions. They want to thank you
for contributing such a vast and beautiful venue.
T
GEMINI
(May 21 - June 20)
Vests are going to look so good on you this fall, Gemini!
A humble puffer vest let’s others know that you are hiding
many fun and naughty secrets (mostly foreign oil). Let others
know that your torso is cold but your big, tough, brawny
arms are strong and impervious to cold with a dashing little
leather number.
CANCER
( June 21 - July 22)
ring it on, big boy
B
26
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
LEO
( July 23 - Aug 22)
t’s a balmy 60 degrees this November, Leo! Leather is
all the rage this season, but you’re a man of principles,
a man of ethics. You are haute couture. And what is high
dressmaking if not an outfit that is made only for you?
Why slaughter a cow? Cows are all so similar, but you’ve
never seen two identical people. Authentic leather is a
rare commodity but you’ll make it work. This season skin
is in! Other peoples, your own, second hand or custom
made, the Haus of Bubba Sawyer is QUIVERING.
I
VIRGO
(Aug 23 - Sept 22)
he sun sets across the vast, dry wasteland that once
was Annapolis. Anything that once lived here is long
gone. Except you. In your government issued sweaters
and your cutest pair of dungarees you brave the desolate
world outside your bunker. The ash burns your skin as
you emerge from your den, your gun weighs you down
as you set foot outside for the first time in what feels like
weeks. It’s warm. It’s unbearably warm. You feel your skin
burning, you go to take off the sweater, its woolen weight
is crushing you. The burning is intense, you go to retreat
to safety, but the bunker is closed. Despite your screams,
despite the pounding, they can’t hear you. The heat is
overwhelming. Your skin blisters as the ash raining from
above burns holes in your clothes. This season, dress for
the worst.
T
LIBRA
(Sept 23 - Oct 22)
ou’ve been walking these streets so long, Libra.
Singing the same old songs, you know every crack
in these dirty sidewalks of Broadway, where hustle is the
name of the game and nice guys get washed away like
snow in the rain. There’s been a lot of compromising
on the road to your horizon, but you’re gonna be where
the lights are shining on you like a rhinestone cowboy;
riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo, receiving
cards and letters from fans you don’t even know and
offers over the phone. This November is serving Glen
Campbell’s 1975 hit country-pop single.
Y
�SCORPIO
(Oct 23 - Nov 21)
appy birthday, Scorpio! Here's to another year of
raising hell on earth. Another year older means you
should try something new. This is the year you feel like
an adult. Let's get you some professional clothes, maybe a
suit. The orbit of Saturn and also the most recent runway
by Moscinio dictate that you should absolutely not buy
anything in your size. This month, big is beautiful! When
you go for your suit fitting, do not let the haberdasher
measure you, instead, pull out the polaroid photograph
of David Byrne in ‘stop making sense’ video that all
H
SAGITTARIUS
(Nov 22 - Dec 21)
all is a time of change, Sag. You’ve been doing a lot of
reflecting recently, and you’re starting to finally realize
what you really want. No no, not that stupid day dream
where you have a loving wife and two beautiful, well
behaved children. Not the one where you’ve finally paid
off your philosophy major debt, either. You want spice in
your life. Stability is for chumps. They say dress for the
job you want, and you should take this to heart, Sag. You
want to make art! You want to dance! Your fantasy is to
live the life of a clown. You want the oversized shoes and
the undersized car, you long for the comradery of other
silly, goofy jesters. You deserve to commit to this career,
Sag. Let’s get you a flower that sprays seltzer water.
F
CAPRICORN
(Dec 22 - Jan 19)
ou’re abstract, Capricorn. Just because other people
don’t know what they want doesn’t mean that you
don’t, and you refuse to slow down for those who won’t
catch up to you. Your fall wardrobe should reflect this.
This season, jumpsuits are in. Black and white, long
sleeved jumpsuits are the most fitting thing for your body
type as dictated by the epicycle of Mars in relation to the
moon. You also know you can’t dress for success without
a statement piece though, which is why this season brings
in both capes and masks. A pop of color is also a MUST,
try a red tie for that real ‘business bitch’ look. Do not let
others tell you you’re dressed like the Hamburglar. You
know in your heart they are wrong. I’m lovin’ it.
Y
AQUARIUS
( Jan 20 - Feb 18)
older weather means it is time to finally shoot
your shot, Aquarius! You’ve been planning this a
very long time, and based on the position of Venus I’ve
been told that you are more likely to succeed than you
think. You were built for attrition, Aquarius, your battle
prowess and bloodthirst guarantee that you’re destined
to conquer the residents of Paca. Your past attempts have
left many dead and more wounded, but this time the
stars are on your side. Dress for the spoils of war, you’re
going to want all the loot, wine and women you can carry
(cargo pants maybe?)
C
PISCES
(Feb 19 - March 20)
his season in couture is giving nature. You are the
Gardens of Versailles. You are the Hanging Gardens
of Babylon. Monet himself is moved to tears by your
beauty. You are full of so many new and exotic animals,
beautiful plants blessed with flowers and strange fruits.
You are fertile and there are secret trees that contain so
much knowledge within you; but it is a deadly knowledge.
You are vines, you are birds, you are the abstract concept
of a ‘mother nature’ we have long since abandoned. This
month the stars dictate you should wear only strategically
placed oak leaves. Adam and Eve are GASPING!!!!
T
the Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 22, 2022
27
�THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
OF
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
Founded in 1980, the
Gadfly is the student
newsmagazine
distributed
to over
600 students,
faculty, staff, and alumni
of the Annapolis campus.
Fill in the speech bubbles and send us a picture of your creation to enter the
running for a $15 gift card! The winning submission and meaningful runner-ups
will be printed in the next issue.
Opinions expressed within
are the responsibility of
the author(s). The Gadfly
reserves the right to accept,
reject, and edit submissions
in any way necessary to
publish
a
professional,
informative, and thought
provoking
newsmagazine.
Submissions sent to the Gadfly
should either be in Google
Docs or JPEG format. The
deadline for submissions is the
Friday prior to publication.
For
more
information,
contact us via email at
sjca .g adfly@gmail.com
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
Excavation by Willem de Kooning
28
the Gadfly / Sept 22, 2022
�
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The Gadfly, Vol. XLIV, Issue 4
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Gadfly Vol XLIV issue 4
Gadfly
Student publication
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PDF Text
Text
the Gadfly
St. John’s College
Annapolis, Maryland
THE NATURE ISSUE
February 6th, 2023
Vol. XLIV, Issue 7
�Contents
Logos
Delegate Council Herald Report
Questions With Helen Felbek
Dispatches from the Inauguration
Symposium
Ms. Seeger
Reflections on Monet
Life, Death, Void, Harmony
The Procession of Life
Letter rom the Editor
3
5
7
10
12
14
16
Polis
Know Thyself
Letter from an Anxious Learner
" Lines from the Marlboro Trail
Before Rain"
"A Moment"
"The Spider's Narrative"
"Nature's Metronome"
Horoscope
18
20
21
22
23
24
26
Staff
Editor in Chief
Managing Editor
Daniel Nathan
Luke Briner
Meliha Anthony
Dolan Polglaze
Louise Harden
Helen Wagner
Catherine Greer
El'ad Nichols-Kaufman
Jackson Wojnowski
FEATURING SUBMISSIONS FROM
Deesha Arabatti
Rylee Bain
Madame Quiznos
Lainey Rendelman
Bridget Mace
Nat Martin
DEsign Director
COVER
Felix Tower
Behold! 2023’s second issue of the Gadfly is here. Inside these pages
you’ll find a host of new and experimental changes to our school paper
with regard to our staff, design, and content alike. This is also the first
issue in which I have the honor of serving as Editor-in-chief. I invite you
all not only to read the thoughts, opinions, and reflections of your peers,
but also to engage and interact with what they have to say: stir the
polity, create discourse, gossip and talk your shit—take our namesake
and truly be a gadfly. Because what’s this paper’s purpose if not just that?
This issue’s cover is a way for all of us here at the Gadfly, who tirelessly
think, and type, and click, and take pride in our school and our paper, to
admit our faults, admit we study philosophy, and, most important of all,
continue to admit as much criticism from the polity as you’ll give us. In
recent weeks, the Gadfly has been called a foul nest of faux
intellectualism, corruption, prentention [sic], and nepotism. Well, if we
must commit to nepotism, let it be a nepotism for all. Submit your
pieces. Write your stories. Share your opinions and interests. Make
yourself known and make your voice heard here in the pages of this
publication. For posterity. For your future. For however long it takes
people to eventually throw a copy of the Gadfly in the trash—probably
two weeks, approximately.
I’d also like to take this space to thank our new staff writers who have
dove right in and contributed immediately and immensely to the
construction of this issue. As you might’ve already noticed, we are also
undergoing an exciting and only slightly ongoing redesign. So get the
word out: writers, come write. Artists and graphic designers: come do
art. Our meetings take place every Sunday at noon in the King Williams
Room of the BBC. If you’re interested in submitting your writing or art
to the Gadfly, please reach out to me at djnathan@sjc.edu or our
Managing Editor Luke Briner at lbriner@sjc.edu. And remember—
tyranny, aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, and even democracy all die in
darkness.
– Daniel Nathan
THE STRUCTURE
Logos typically holds news reports and narratives
of immediate relevance to the Polity. The purpose
here is to develop a shared reservoir of information
relating to campus life and the community.
Symposium offers the opportunity for our readers to
thoughtfully consider contrasting opinions regarding
a particular topic.
Polis serves as a platform for elevating voices in
our community. Here we find letters to the editor,
columns, cartoons, and submitted pieces.
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February 6, 2023
Delegate Council Herald Report
Rylee Bain
With the new semester comes a renewed Delegate
Council. Gone are the days of the Ni administration and
in our first meeting on January 10th, new officers and
freshmen delegates were sworn in. They are as follows:
President Helen Felbek, Treasurer Grace Jang, Secretary
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Herald Rylee Bain :), Delegate
Lainey Rendelman, Delegate Nicholas Hoo, Delegate Ali
Shawamreh, Delegate Millie Ransohoff.
Τhis meeting wasn’t all fun though, after the council
approved Felbek’s choice for Polity Attorney, junior Ranna
Kisswani, we swiftly began the impeachment process for
junior delegate Ahan Sagreiya. After enacting executive
session Mr. Sagreiya was impeached for absences, with a vote
of 11 ayes and 5 abstentions. We also saw the reintroduction
of the Constitutional Review Committee, given that
the review didn’t pass last semester, and the Institutional
Memory Committee, headed by junior Adam Powers. To
end the meeting, the freshman delegates made a plea to the
council, asking for the repair of the beloved foosball table in
the Campbell basement, but with no obvious solutions, the
meeting was adjourned.* In our second meeting, we swore
in the three sophomore delegates and one junior delegate
elected by an Ad Hoc election to fill the seats vacated by
the officer elections or impeachment, they are as follows:
Delegate Devin Sexton, Delegate Louis Rosenberg,
Delegate Maliha Anthony, Delegate Oscar Gonzalez. And
just like that, the spring budgeting season was open.
After budgets, President Felbek announced the new
members of the Constitutional Review Committee: senior
Sachin Stanislaus, junior Adam Powers, sophomore Louis
Rosenberg, freshman Ali Shawamreh, and of course, yours
truly, Herald Rylee Bain. Former DC president Tom Ni
joined us via video call in his position as one of the Board of
Visitors and Governors Representatives. Mr. Ni proposed
a plan to visit the Santa Fe campus within the next week to
conduct an undercover report about the state of the campus,
having the DC cover all costs, around $1000. Given that
this was so last minute and Mr. Ni was planning on going
without co-representative Charlotte Greenwaves-captain
Nicholas, the plan was voted down and Mr. Ni would have
to return to campus and write his senior essay. We will help
fund a trip next year when there is actually a BVG meeting
and both reps can attend. In our latest meeting, on January
24th, we heard a report from the SCI’s Chair, Ms. Chloe
Steer, on their latest forums and the most recent All-College
seminar, which unfortunately had lower numbers than
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usual. The SCI charter is also in flux, and will hopefully
have an amendment hearing at our next meeting. With
that, Ms. Steer was able to leave and I wish she had taken
me with her because of the next agenda item, budgets and
charters. Yikes. Three new clubs were chartered including
FUTSAL, JSPN, and the St. John’s Orchestra, and even
more budgets were heard.
As your Herald, I look forward to giving you all the hot
goss of the DC as well as some truly helpful information.
Email me if you have questions @rebain@sjc.edu.
*I would like to note that a new foosball table is in
the works, a generous parent would like to donate theirs.
Things are happening for my freshmen movers and shakers.
Council of the Gods, Giocomo Zaboli
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February 6, 2023
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(Almost) 20 Questions with
DC President Helen Felbek
Bennett Scott
Q: Who are you?
A: I’m an international student from Germany and
I’m a sophomore. That’s it.
What inspired you to become president?
I’ve been on the DC since my first month at SJC. I just
felt that the DC was a very powerful institution to impact
the college in a positive way through budgets and other
ways, but that it wasn’t fulfilling its potential. I was hoping
with an officer position to fulfill that more.
What are your major goals as president?
I hoped that I would be able to shift the DC to be a
more welcoming and supportive environment for archons
so that they at least are not concerned about coming to
delegate meetings and feel comfortable reaching out to
the DC. Making sure they feel that it’s not arbitrary what
the DC is doing. This can be achieved through a shift
in mindset and target actions like publishing criteria for
budgeting. That hasn’t been possible this cycle, but I’m
hoping to use this for the first term next semester. Less
concrete, I’d like to make the DC more visible to help the
administration and polity better communicate. We had
our first housing forum this past week and I thought it
was quite successful. We wrote up post-its and gave them
to the admin and they were happy to receive them.
What do you see as your role at SJC as president?
I hope that my role could be a facilitator because I feel
like many students either don’t want to or don’t have time
to talk to the admin or don’t feel it’ll lead to anything.
So just having an open ear. I think individual students are
their own best representatives, but I want to be a dedicated
voice for the student body, freshman, my own class, and
upperclassmen (if they want to talk to me).
How has SJC changed you?
It’s hard to talk about causation, [but] I think that the
college has made me more thoughtful, more confident to
be more involved, take agency, and get things done. But
also more stressed.
February 6, 2023
What program author would you have dinner with?
I would like to have dinner with probably Socrates,
but I would also be super annoyed by him.
Who needs to get involved with the DC?
Really, anyone who has ideas. Just criticizing is a first
step, but I think if you have ideas, that’s important. Not
even being an officer, just coming to the meetings. We
want to bring back the culture of the observers being able
to participate in the meetings. Even a half baked idea, like
a vision for something, we’d be able to figure [it] out.
What are the most important issues for the polity
right now?
Most immediate is the renovation of Campbell. While
there is a lot of potential there, there’s a lot of dangers.
It will challenge on campus students a lot and [also] the
role of the DC. We should also remember that while this
isn’t ideal, it’s important that the college keeps progressing
like being more welcoming for people who need ADA
accommodations. On a different level, for the first time
this year, enrollment in the U.S. has dropped. Admin is
doing this all the time, but the student body should be
thinking about our identity.
What sort of problems should people bring to you?
The easiest ones are like the practical ones like starting
a new club. I should be the first person you contact, and
Woodward Hall Library in the Snow
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I’ll send you an email with the template. With other
problems like housing or safety, these are all things the
DC can think more about. We can’t offer solutions, but
we can be a platform for solutions to tell the admin.
What’s the best way to get in contact with you?
Email, but I really don’t like emails. Just see me around
on campus and tell me. If I have time, we can talk.
What is your relationship to the Reform party?
Well, I am a member of the Reform party, and their
candidate for DC president. I didn’t really understand
what they wanted initially–it started off as a joke, right?
But I figured that it’s very important that there are people
who care about the DC who aren’t on the DC. I felt like
in that sense our interests were definitely aligned, even
though I don’t agree with everything.
What is your bottom priority at SJC?
Playing croquet.
Who are you most excited to work with?
What has been really fulfilling is when people I’ve
never talked to, especially freshmen, come up to me and
talk to me about things like how to charter a club. It feels
pretty great.
Do you feel any tension with Nora, seeing as you
are both presidents of SJC?
I talked to her for the first time this Wednesday about
housing. She listened a lot. She’s mostly just observing,
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February 6, 2023
but she’s very knowledgeable and very good at all she’s
doing.
Do you have higher political aspirations after
this?
No.
What’s the worst part of being president so far?
Because I take my job seriously, I get very worked
up and stressed about things. Even though I knew
it was a demanding position to hold, it’s still a lot. I
think I should turn off my phone [sometimes], but my
phone addiction has become worse cause I’m checking
my email all the time.
Do you tell your family members that you’re the
president in the US?
When I told my parents, they told me I should not,
so we don’t really talk about it.
Will you abolish the Gadfly?
Well it’s not really up to me. I think that’s a
collective DC thing. [Delegate Adam Powers, from
across the coffee shop: We’ll do it!] If the DC stopped
receiving funding or we got rid of their charter, that
would abolish them, but I would veto that.
Fun fact?
Did you know Nora comes from the same region as
the PM of Bavaria?
Thank you, Madam President.
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February 6, 2023
Wes Is Moore: Dispatches from the Inauguration
Jackson Wojnowski
On Wednesday January 18th , around one o’clock, the
inauguration ceremony of Wes Moore, Maryland’s 63rd
Governor, took place.
Moore, who campaigned on the mission-statement
“Leave No One Behind,” was sworn in on the Bible that
had belonged to Frederick Douglass. The occasion will
be known nationally as the inauguration of the USA’s
third black governor, ever, and the first for Maryland.
These points just-said are some of the meaningful and
pertinent facts that permeated the event, though along
and intertwined with these, there was much else to be
observed.
As Moore himself said, “This journey has never been
about ‘making history.’ Today is not an indictment of the
past; it is a celebration of our future.” Here addressed in
the terms of past and future, this broader question of what
to focus on and to what degree showed forth throughout
the inauguration.
For the ceremony, the majority of the public assembled
on Bladen St., though there was reserved seating in the
Lawyers Mall as well. Men in crisp suits and women in
lovely coats, along with those in sweatshirts and favored
sweaters, sat in white fold-out chairs on the street and stood
on the sidewalks to the sides. A plurality of the crowd, if
not a majority, were Black. Many vigorous handshakes were
given as individuals and groups exchanged greetings and
snapped pictures with each other. State police patrolled
around, some with K-9’s. Reporters, like myself but with
lanyards and microphones, went around asking attendees
what this inauguration meant to them. A media stand had
been erected between Lawyers Mall and Bladen St, which
prevented those on Bladen from seeing the podium where
the Governor and others would give speeches; instead,
two large projectors had been set up at the front of the
street, along with two more further back. The weather was
unseasonably warm. After walking around and observing
for a bit, I began to inquire into the thoughts of those
assembled.
I saw an elderly man who seemed to be particularly
sagacious, and so I first interviewed him.
Who was he?
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“Hi, my name is Paul Chalmus, and I’m a retired
letter carrier, artist, cartoonist… master gardener,
paleontologist… I used to fly planes… And believe it or
not, I used to be in politics back in the '70s.”
Where was he from?
Well, his earthly home is Baltimore, and his
intergalactic home is “somewhere way out there…
there’s no English word to describe where I came from.”
What did this inauguration mean to him?
“It means a lot. It’s a new day. It gives me hope. All
things may be possible, hopefully good things. I feel
some positive energies about this one.”
Was this ceremony a step in the right direction for
American politics?
“Well, I’m looking beyond the ceremony actually.
We have been taught to praise these ceremonies. My
heart starts beating when they get in there and start
going to work. They’re gonna have ceremonies,
parties, all this kind of stuff celebrating the occasion.
I understand all of that. But those same moneys could
be used for housing, new roads, this and that…you do
what you have to do for this ritual; I’m ready for the
action….That same money could feed somebody, or fix
somebody’s house….if I were elected right now, right
this moment…I’d say, ‘Ok, thank you for electing me,
let’s get started. No party or whatever.’”
Delores White-Rose, an elderly woman who
appeared equally sagely and who had retired from
a career as a government auditor, had this to say as
regards the significance of the inauguration:
“Their things that they’re saying they’re gonna
do as you swear them in—people need to pay close
attention to the words that’s being read and what
they’re saying ‘I will do.’ It’s for the people that voted
for them—they make it an open forum for the people
to hear… Now you can hold them accountable.”
Regarding these promises that she would hear from
Governor Moore, Ms. White-Rose had her concerns:
“Even with Governor Wes Moore, and I have a
high respect for him… He can come, and he can be
the governor, but he can only say what we should do;
because if these rest of these people who are in office
don’t pass it, it’s not gonna get passed, and that’s not
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February 6, 2023
right, and that’s not fair to the people who quote-onquote they are supposed to be representing.”
Mr. Chalmus and Ms. White-Rose had other, more
particular worries on their minds as well, which they spoke
of in-depth on their own accord. Ms. White-Rose spoke of
community violence and how, in her estimate, the removal
of dissuasive laws and penalties is dangerous, while Mr.
Chalmus had this to say as regards our relationship with
the Earth:
“And here’s the sad news that you didn’t ask me, and
the scientists aren’t jumping on it fast enough. We are
rapidly approaching what is called ‘the point of no return,’
and it’s right around the corner… We take so much life
here on this planet for granted. And we’re in trouble. We
really are… You may have come over here and opened up
a can of worms.”
With these points in mind, I awaited the governor’s
speech. Various musical ensembles, including the
Contemporary Polynesian Arts Group, a local high
school choir, and a Latin-American music group,
performed in front of the State House and through the
speakers and projectors. A man and his wife, also on the
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older side, swing-danced to the Latin music, and as
the proceedings became delayed, 21 minutes into the
afternoon and past when the ceremony was supposed
to start, I overheard the remark, “I got a Manchester
United game I gotta watch at 3 o’clock!”
Eventually, the proceedings began. An invocation
to God Almighty was made, thanking Him for Wes
Moore’s victory; numerous people in the audience
held up their hands to the Lord. Lieutenant Governor
Aruna Miller, introduced by her children, told her
story of immigrating from India, weaving in the values
of compassion, empathy, and being one’s authentic self.
Oprah (yes, Oprah Winfrey) praised the character
of Maryland and that of Wes Moore, and retired
Lieutenant Governor Jaime Martinez joined in the
latter. A Nineteen Gun Salute was performed, along
with a flyover by the Air National Guard 104th Fighter
Squadron.
After all of this, the newly inaugurated Governor
spoke. To string some of the major points along:
“It is time for our policies to be as bold as our
aspirations and to confront the fact that we have been
offered false choices. We do not have to choose between
a competitive economy and an equitable economy….
We do not have to choose between a safe state and a
just state….We do not have to choose between giving
our children an excellent education and an equitable
one….Those whose shoulders we stand on would
ask us to view today not as a celebration—but as an
opportunity. An opportunity to lead with love…this is
our opportunity to build a state that those who came
before us would be proud of, a state that leaves no one
behind. That is not a slogan; it is a fulfillment of a
hope. It is our mission.”
Along with this general rhetoric came specific
resolutions, such as a $15 minimum wage (immediately
relevant to us Johnnies!); the protection of the
Chesapeake Bay and the addressment of air pollution;
and putting Maryland on track to generate 100 percent
clean energy by 2035.
These last two points in particular remind me of
Mr. Chalmus’s concerns, as well as Ms. White-Rose’s
reservations. I asked some people afterward what they
thought about Wes Moore’s ability to accomplish his
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resolutions.
“I think he has a very aggressive and a very important
agenda, and it’s very ambitious, and I commend him for
that, but the bottom line is it has to be paid for…and
then without raising taxes, it’s all about prioritizing and
reevaluating the funds to be able to make things work. So
I wish the man well; I really do,” said Paul Blitz, the chiefof-staff for a Maryland state delegate. He also expressed
uncertainty regarding Moore’s clean-energy resolutions.
Regarding his confidence in the words of the governor,
Colby Price, a fellow member of the media, had this to
say:
“We [my partner and I] were able to have a sit-down
conversation with Wes Moore last week, and from what
I got from it, he seemed very genuine…he seems like he’s
genuinely a nice person…and that’s what politics needs
right now…he cares about the state, and so I think he’s
gonna do a great job.”
Though the future, which as Mr. Chalmus reminds
us will either vindicate or contradict these resolutions, is
not yet known, the wholesome jubilation of the ceremony,
and the palpable joy and optimism of the crowd, is still in
itself worth noting. As another attendee remarked,
“We’re just happy to be here to enjoy it with others…
It means a lot to all of us here in Maryland. We believe
they’re going to be a lot of changes that will affect the
broader spectrum here of this state, so that’s why we’re
here to support it.”
(Photo credit to Meliha Anthony, excepting Oprah)
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February 6, 2023
Personality Profile – Ms. Seeger
Meliha Anthony
For Ms. Judith Seeger, learning is a lifelong process. Seeger
has been part of the St. John’s community since 1989,
spending much of that time as a tutor at the Annapolis
campus, a couple years teaching at Santa Fe and four years
as assistant dean here in Annapolis. She has taught the
entirety of our Great Books program through multiple
times and speaks with a sense of wonder and curiosity
about the texts and subjects that we immerse ourselves in.
“I don’t have a lot of difficulty admitting that I don’t
know something,” Seeger says. Previously, she worried
about becoming too comfortable with the program texts,
fearing that she would lose her ability to model the process
of learning to students. “It turned out to be something I
didn’t need to worry about, because it never happened,
never got even close,” she says. “Nobody can be an expert in
everything we do here... In that respect, we’re all learning.”
Before becoming a tutor at the college, Seeger spent
years traveling and living in both Brazil and Spain with
her husband, who is an anthropologist. With a doctorate
degree in romance languages and literature, and a
dissertation on oral traditional ballad, Seeger took the
opportunity to engage in interactive field work, collecting
and recording stories and ballads while abroad, “[as] sung
and told by people there.” She recalls the difficulties of
living in the jungles of Brazil and having to adjust to a
new culture. Ultimately, she and her husband decided to
depart from their lives as expats in Brazil, along with their
two young daughters, partly due to their lack of a large,
engrained family and a solid community while living in
such a family-oriented society.
Given her self-proclaimed unconventional academic
background, Seeger was surprised when St. John’s College
granted her an interview to become a tutor. Even more
surprising was their job offer. Prior to her time as a tutor,
Seeger had only taken an introductory level philosophy
course, and the only program text she had previously
been exposed to was Don Quixote—which was, of course,
originally written in Spanish. Her lack of exposure to the
Great Books program intensified some aspects of her
experience as a tutor, and Seeger views continued learning
10
Ms. Seeger, Zeinep Kyzy
to be an integral aspect of her job.
“This has been a fabulous education,” Seeger
exclaimed. “I have learned so much coming here and I
really appreciate that. That’s kind of my story.”
While debating what it might mean to have a
favorite text—“Plato drove me crazy. Does that mean it
was my favorite?”—Seeger admitted her deep love for
Rabelais, author of Gargantua and Pantagruel, and her
disappointment when his work was removed from the
program.
“We had a wonderful preceptorial. Can you imagine
having a preceptorial where you just sit and laugh? Or a
class? I mean, we just howled,” Seeger says.
Seeger is now retired, but still occasionally teaches
classes when asked to. She keeps busy in her summers
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and spare time, spending time with her grandchildren,
working at her family’s summer camp, and practicing Tai
chi, among other activities. She has also been trying to
learn Arabic for some time. The language first sparked
her interest while reading Maimonides’ Guide to the
Perplexed; and, her daughter’s husband is Palestinian and
speaks Arabic.
“I thought it would be polite to learn some,” Seeger
explains.
Seeger recounts one final story from her tenure
as a St. John’s tutor: when she convinced Pete Seeger,
her husband’s uncle and the storied folk singer, to
come perform at the college. The entire Francis Scott
Key auditorium was filled with students, staff, and
February 6, 2023
townspeople who came out to see him perform, and
given the weakness of his voice at that point in his
career, the audience filled in where Pete Seeger couldn’t,
collectively singing his iconic songs for him.
“It was amazing. I mean, he’s a master, right? He
just is,” Seeger said about the singer.
Of everything Seeger has learned through her
experiences, the common thread seems to be a sense of
humility.
“Be generous. Listen to people. Hear them, as
much as you can,” Seeger says. “We talk here [about]
our texts—‘what is justice,’ ‘what is virtue’—one of the
things you learn very quickly is you will never know the
truth. You just won’t, because there isn’t a single truth.”
Scene from "Don Quixote", Mather Brown
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February 6, 2023
Reflections on Monet’s
Impressionist Landscapes
Catherine E. Greer
Often we find ourselves gravitating naturally towards art
that depicts the human form above all else. Whether it be
depictions of stories, regal portraits, or intimate glimpses
into lives we have never known, the human form revealed in
art presents an opportunity to see our own selves reflected
back to us as a work of created beauty. This reflective
nature of art can at times remind us of the simple beauty
of living or the endless capability of human spirit, and at
other times remind us of the depths of darkness into which
we can sink. To view your own form in art reminds you
of the persistence of human nature, and brings you closer
and closer to recognising the power of the human mind to
create and bring beauty into the world.
In many ways it is harder to discover that human spark in
art devoid of any image of the human body itself. However
beautiful and skilled a work of art might be, there is a great
difficulty in recognising the reflective nature of art when
its image is that of nonhuman things, like objects captured
in still-life or sweeping panoramas of mountain ranges and
forests. But no art is ever truly devoid of the human, for
even without an image of our own bodily forms there is a
human hand that labored for many hours over each stroke
of the brush or pencil.
Recently, I have become fascinated with art that depicts
the natural world and reveals the quiet but wondrous
serenity of landscapes. The French painter Claude Monet is
known by many for his Impressionist depictions of the world
around him. Though he worked with the human figure in
many of his pieces, he is best known for his unquestionable
fascination with, and deep love for, the natural world and
its landscapes. He seemed to have no sense of prejudice
against any aspect of nature, for he pursued with equal
care and sensitivity both thoughtfully cultivated and
manicured gardens as well as the wild contours of free and
untouched land. Monet was one of the original figures of
the Impressionist movement, which brought a particular
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Landscapes of the Ile Saint-Martin, Claude Monet
method of painting to the art world which focuses not
on the precise accuracy of detail but instead on capturing
the “impression” of its subject. Monet’s landscapes are
recognisable for the way in which he utilizes broad and
relaxed brushstrokes that carry a sense of movement
and continuous evolution, focusing on capturing the
prevailing spirit of a scene rather than displaying each
aspect in the sort of minute detail that freezes a moment
in time. There is something peculiar and unique that
comes to light when the world is depicted in such a
way—something deeper and more precious than its mere
accurate image is revealed. Something far more essentially
human is captured in Monet’s Impressionist landscapes,
as if the soul of the place itself is opened up to the viewer.
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The landscape is shown as if through the eyes of the artist
himself, but not the eyes of the senses in the same way a
realistic landscape might reveal the sensory perception of
a place. It is a spiritual sight, which perceives the part of
nature that is alive and moving and always changing. These
paintings become, in a way, reflective, as if they contain not
only the soul of the place but also the soul of the artist who
was driven to capture the particular sense of wonder that
only the beauty of nature can evoke in mankind. When I
stand in front of Monet’s paintings of the earth, I feel his
own reverence shining through in every wide and visible
stroke of the brush. It seems to me as if Nature herself spoke
to him, and thereby found her way into the imaginative
vibrancy of these soft and ever-shifting scenes.
February 6, 2023
I think we often struggle as human beings to recognise
spirit in things which are not also human. We see depth
most clearly in those who move and think and feel as we do,
because that is where it is easiest to see ourselves reflected.
But the world around us is not devoid of spirit: Nature, too,
has soul, and if only we knew how to look for it, we could
see that we are far more deeply connected to it than we
might think. Perhaps by looking to art, where another has
already seen that spirit of nature and sought to capture it for
others, we can learn to look with deeper care and sensitivity
to the natural world and discover for ourselves a kinship
with the quiet yet prevailing soul of the earth.
Landscapes of Vernon, Claude Monet
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February 6, 2023
LIFE, DEATH, VOID, HARMONY
D o l a n Po l g l a z e
T
he theme of this issue is centered around questions
of nature, and so, in considering what to present, I
want to share some thoughts which arose from last week’s
All College Seminar. We read and discussed the first of
Rilke’s Duino Elegies, which, as a whole, is a ten part
poetic examination of human despair: its origins and its
comforts. In my mind, the elegies are connected intimately
with questions of nature and life, and the sorrow into
which human beings are born. The elegies take the form of
a lament, which although gives life to despair, never fully
plunges the reader into its darkness. Rather, the elegies are
a full and clear picture of how and where we might seek
belonging.
I do not wish to give a full exposition of the first elegy,
instead I would like to piece together some thoughts that
were born in the seminar in order to share them in writing.
Our seminar began right where the poem begins: the
first line asks, “Who, if I screamed out, would hear me
among the hierarchies of angels?” In response, the opening
question asked: why does the poet scream out? What is his
lament? The beginning lines are subsequently filled in as
Rilke goes on to say that as human beings, we are stranded,
uncomforted, in a cosmic picture that is not always kind or
welcoming of human despair. We cannot turn to angels, he
says, for they would crush us with their terrifyingly greater
being, and we cannot turn to other humans, or even animals,
for they “note that we’re not very securely at home in the
interpreted world.” From this beginning, the question of the
elegy begins to take shape: where do human beings turn in
their time of need? Where do we find true comfort in times
of lamentation? We observed in the poem that Rilke seems
to think that our constant expectation of finding a beloved
is not a fruitful way to seek the existential comfort that we
crave, and even worse, such endeavor distracts us from our
greater need, which is also the greater need of the world.
He says that by being continually on watch for the arrival
of someone whose love might be a comfort, we neglect
what needs us in the world. “The springtimes needed you.
14
There were stars counting on you to sense them.” But we
don’t give ourselves to the springtimes, and we don’t sense
the stars, not fully. Looking for a beloved seems to be the
act of removing from ourselves the responsibility of our
own despair, hoping that another’s love for us will be great
enough to alleviate what is ultimately our own. If we could
allow ourselves to be there for the springtimes and stars, we
would have to learn to love what cannot love us back in the
same way, for nature is not a person who feels and touches
as human beings do.
"Being left alive and alone in
the absence of someone who
has departed from our lives
is the depth wherein our
sorrows may become fruit for
future growing."
A
fter this point in the poem, Rilke makes a transition.
Our seminar focused most heavily on what follows.
Rilke ceases speaking of the lovers, and quietly implores his
heart to listen as the saints of old have listened. Yet we cannot
listen to God, not even nearly, he claims. God’s voice would
annihilate our being. Yet there is one help left to us: it is the
voices of those who have died— the voices of those who
he describes as having forsaken “the meaning of a human
future,” who must necessarily have cast aside their name
“like a broken toy.” Rilke makes it clear that the dead don’t
need us; they are in a realm separate from our own. Rather,
he leaves us with the question of whether we need them—
whether the comfort of the living is entirely contingent on
the dead and the spaces they leave in their wake. He ends
the poem by telling us that as Linus, the mythical son of the
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ancient musician Amphimarus, passed into the realm of the
dead, a void was created. In one version of the myth, Linus
was also a musician who was eventually killed by Apollo for
claiming to be his rival. Rilke’s invocation of Linus is the
synthesis for many of the themes of the first elegy. Rilke ends
by saying that in this void left by Linus’s death a harmony
was left ringing. This musical vibration is the very thing that
now “enraptures, consoles, and helps us.” He seems to want
us to see that there is one thing to which human beings can
turn to find comfort in despair: the harmony left ringing in
the absence of someone now gone. Our seminar spent most
of our time focusing on what Rilke means in these final
lines—why is it that we must turn to the music of the dead
in order to find comfort, especially when our despair arises
from the very fact that we are living beings? We considered
the possibility that what Rilke says could apply just as well
to someone who is not necessarily dead, but has passed from
our lives in a significant way. Rilke calls this absence a “deep
February 6, 2023
mystery,” and says that we depend upon such mysteries in
order to grow at all. Being left alive and alone in the absence
of someone who has departed from our lives is the depth
wherein our sorrows may become fruit for future growing.
We need the dead because, unlike a lover, they don’t need
us; the relationship is entirely one-sided. In absence, we
must reflect back upon ourselves because we have no one
to see us. Rest and comfort can only be found in a departed
human being precisely because there lies, in their passing,
a beauty that is not terrifying (like that of an angel or of
God). The departed are our only way to approach and be
enraptured by a bearable and comforting Divinity, and the
only way by which our sorrow can be transcended. There is
a great comfort in the musical chord that stretches between
the one leaving and the one left behind.
Elegy, from "Fifteen Etchings Dedicated to Sir
Joshua Reynolds" by John Hamilton
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February 6, 2023
THE PROCESSION OF LIFE
Luke Briner
L
ife is war. When I look out at the world around me,
I usually see little else but a savage, seething mass of
conflict and suffering, in which necessity compels us to
crush others in our blind, desperate striving after a chimeric
happiness, and in which we will inevitably be crushed by
that of others in our turn. I think Voltaire sums up the
situation well:
"All conscious beings are born under the same law—
Our lives are pain and swiftly swallowed by Death’s maw.
The vulture savagely assaults its timid prey,
Feasts on its claw-gored limbs, the cruel spoils of the fray;
All’s well for it, it seems; but soon, an eagle stern
Flies forth to tear apart the vulture in its turn;
The eagle is unskyed by arms that humans wield,
Themselves becoming on the dusty Martian field
Blood-spattered, mangled heaps which hurt beyond all words
And serve as nought but hideous food for hungry birds.
Thus all across the world do Nature’s children cry,
For pain conceived and by each other made to die."
Excerpt from the “Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne.” My translation.
B
ut how have we come to this sorry state of affairs? What
principle underlies this conflict that dominates Nature,
and how did life as we know it proceed from that principle?
It seems to me that we can understand this turbulent
procession of life as being a natural consequence of the
unity of every being’s desire, and the unity of the object of
that desire itself. In the first place, if we assume that “[e]
very art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and
16
pursuit, is thought to aim at some good,”1 and that “no
one wants what is bad,”2 then every being naturally strives
toward the highest happiness that they can perceive
and tries to avoid whatever would deprive them of that
happiness. The ultimate realization of this striving would
then consist in the perfect union between that being and
the perfect Good in which happiness must consist, such
that its desire is entirely fulfilled and thus annulled as
long as that union prevails.
But the world we inhabit now is bereft of the
conditions which Good must necessarily have, and so is
incapable of providing us with That which alone could
meaningfully or permanently satisfy us. The Good is
One,33 but the world is endlessly multiplicious, such that
beings are hopelessly separated from each other both by
mind and by body, unable to ever truly know each other.
The Good is eternal and immutable,4 but the world has
only the perpetual restlessness and mutability of disparate
moments in endless succession.5 Hence we, while
consciously or unconsciously doing nothing but striving
for the all-unified Good, are at the same time utterly
separated from that very Good by the natural disunity of
the world in which we live. We are all Tantaluses, forever
reaching out for that which we cannot hold.
Thus “all is vanity and a chasing after wind.”6 At the
same time, however, it’s this very vanity that has produced
and continually sustains Nature. It’s only because “the eye
is not satisfied with seeing, or the ear filled with hearing”
7
that living things are compelled to always move from
one thing to the next, are always attempting to do or get
something which would bring them closer to the state
of primal happiness which cannot actually reside in this
1
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, I.1.1094a-97.
2
Plato, Meno, 78b.
3
See Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy, III.10.25-27; Anselm, Monologion, ch. 1-2;
Plotinus, Enneads, V.1.8-10, VI.9, etc.; Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I, Q. XI, A. 3-4.
4
See Plato, Timaeus, 27D-28B; Boethius, ibid, V.6; Plotinus, ibid, III.7; Aquinas, ibid, I, Q.
X.
5
The Oneness of the Good necessitates its eternity and immutability; they’re pulled
out specifically here only for effect.
6
Ecclesiastes 1:14.
7
Ibid, 1:8.
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world (since the supreme Good which alone would be
capable of providing that happiness is unattainable in it).
Hence reproduction, and so also evolution. These are simply
the result of the natural tendency of living things to chase
sexual gratification and to extend their own sense of being
through the begetting of offspring,8 and the consequent
struggle between those offspring for survival, with different
forms of life emerging and differentiating themselves by
virtue of their success in that struggle.
February 6, 2023
soul, an identical desire, and we are only different from
each other insofar as we have each evolved different means
of chasing that desire. Every one of us is a microcosm of all
Nature in that we’re identical to and direct descendants of
its original principle of striving after the Good.
This conclusion is at once beautiful and heartbreaking
to me. If we are all the same soul united in the same desire
for the same End, then how could the fact that fighting,
brutalizing, killing, and devouring each other is the
necessary consequence of that very kinship be anything
but a tragedy of the grandest scale? Maybe all we can do in
response to this, then, is have compassion for our kindred
even as we steel ourselves for our inevitable conflict with
them. And maybe if we do this with a grave nobility equal
to the darkness of that conflict, we might find some way to
rise above it at last.
Clasped Hands of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, by Harriet Goodhue Hosmer
If this is true, then we are all alike to each other not only
in the simple sense that we share a unified desire for the
Good, but in that the exact same desire is literally passed
down from one to the other through the endless process of
procreation. We are all spiritual kin, animated by the very
same longing, and only differentiated from each other by
the consequences of the evolutionary procession brought
on by that very longing. I am, at my core, exactly the same
as any other human being, or a cat, or a tree, or the smallest
blade of grass. We are each in possession of an identical
8
Plato, Symposium, 206c.
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February 6, 2023
Know Thyself
I guess it was just too complicated for us to wrap our
heads around. Instead of feeling confident and prepared
when I stepped out on the court, I only felt bewildered.
It is incredibly disappointing that a club based around
By LAINEY RENDELMAN
empowering people who typically do not have a safe
Kunai, by its very nature, is the most exclusive club on space to play sports would play into the exact stereotypes
our campus. Prohibiting all cis-gendered men, a group it hoped to help avoid. If the point of Kunai is to learn
that makes up fifty-three percent of our student body, the rules of the sports which we are going to play together
Kunai started as the women’s equivalent of intramurals. Its competitively, then this version of Kunai has failed.
creation was made necessary by the segregation of genders
in the athletic department. However, today’s intramural
program is fully integrated, yet Kunai remains. Given
Kunai’s original purpose is superfluous, Kunai is now
marketed as a safe and welcoming environment for female
and non-cisgendered students to learn how to play the
sports we play in intramurals.
Sports have been a big part of my life since I was a little
girl, and, thus far, the environment at Kunai has been as
toxic as any that I have ever had the misfortune of being a
part. When I walked through the door, all the stereotypes
about being a non-cis-gendered male in athletics were
immediately pinned on me in big bright letters. I was
expected to be slow, helpless, confused, timid and weak.
When it became clear through the way I played that I
did not fit those stereotypes, I was criticized for playing
too aggressively and “negatively” affecting the culture of
Kunai. I used to play varsity volleyball and basketball in
high school but quit because of events which made me no
Interior of Iglehart Hall Gymnasium
longer feel safe to be in the gym. It is also not something
which I choose to tell everyone I meet, nor should I have
to. An environment in which sports can be played with less
These expectations were not all that turned me away from
of a focus on winning and more of a focus on having fun Kunai. Frankly the “safe space” did not feel safe at all. In my
is something of which I would love to be a part! However, first games at Kunai, I was belittled, shamed, and excluded.
the culture at Kunai feels much closer to encouraging The club seemed to serve an insular and unwelcoming
incompetence and discouraging learning how to play the group of friends who wanted a place to play sports with
sports in question.
each other but exclude everyone else. This attitude was
As the intramural netball season approached, Kunai exclusive to Kunai; I have never experienced anything like
began taking a day each week to play netball and learn the this at intramurals, especially not from a captain. If Kunai is
rules. I was excited to be learning and looked forward to a safe space, then why do I and others find ourselves feeling
having the opportunity to go into the intramural games so uncomfortable and unwelcome? It was intramurals, not
having learned the rules of netball beforehand. That way, Kunai, which created the welcoming and encouraging space
I could be confident and well prepared. You can imagine I needed. If Kunai is supposed to be a safe space to express
how frustrating it was to discover that the game taught yourself and play sports, that is not the space it has become.
at Kunai was completely different from the one we play
Cis-gendered men are generally not welcome at Kunai,
in intramurals. Why was Kunai netball so different from but recently a curious phenomenon has emerged: The
intramural netball? Simple. The rules were dumbed down. athletic director now resorts to using men to bolster the
1
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ranks of Kunai. At recent Kunai meetings, over 6 different
cis-gendered men have joined in order to fill out teams. In
addition, the primary ref for Kunai is a cis-gendered man.
If no one in Kunai is imperiled by their presence, why have
these offers to be included not been made to the rest of
the polity? If the purpose of Kunai is to be a safe space for
people who want to play sports, then that is what it needs
to be, regardless of gender. There are plenty of cis-gendered
men who have never played sports or may have an invisible
reason for a safe-space, just like me. A cis-gendered man
who has never participated in athletics before and wants to
learn before going to intramurals should not be robbed of a
safe space to do so. No one should be excluded from a safe
space unless they are actively doing something to destroy or
disrupt the safe space; no space is safe if one feels that they
must constantly justify their presence.
Why is it that Kunai is guaranteed Friday afternoons
in the gym, the most in-demand and desirable court time
available? As it stands now, the polity has consistently
demonstrated a lack of interest in Kunai. Notably, so have
many of its captains. Only four of the seven official Kunai
captains regularly attend their own club, and most weeks
Kunai is unable to support 5 v 5 basketball. Compare that
to pick-up volleyball, which is attended regularly by 20-25
students from 8:30-12:00pm on a school night. Low Kunai
attendance proves that the integration of intramurals has
worked, and that Kunai is no longer serving its purpose as
the safe inclusive league it pretends to be. There is a reason
that people must be begged twice a week to come, and that
most days there are not enough people to play a game of
netball or basketball.
I have been attending Kunai for an entire semester, and
I can say with confidence that it is the least welcoming
group on campus, not just for cisgender men, but for
everyone. This op-ed is not my first attempt to broach
this issue, and I had no interest in voicing these concerns
in such a public forum. Sadly, I have been compelled to
do so by necessity. I have raised these concerns numerous
times with Ms. Fleming in hopes of opening a dialogue.
But there is an unwillingness to discuss any changes to
Kunai. Ultimately, in my opinion, Kunai is enabling and
supporting antifeminist, exclusionary, and gender-based
stereotypes that have no place at St. John’s. It is time for a
change, whether Kunai realizes it or not.
Male Students Playing Basketball in Iglehart Hall
2
February 6, 2023
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πόλις
February 6, 2023
Letter from an
Anxious Learner
By BENNETT SCOTT
Dear friends, dear sophists, dear all those hateful of the
world,
This institution of ours prides itself on a shared, intensive
curriculum. We trade majors for souls and specializations
for explaining ourselves to Uncle Bill every Thanksgiving
(he nods a little too much when I talk about geocentrism
and natural-slaves). Even though some days in the classroom
can feel pointless, it’s all meant to feed into some ‘bigger
picture’ which we are too blind to see: the ‘Great Books
Program’ has been planned for us and we’re along for the
cultish ride (no Kool Aid, thank you, we have donuts).
We take ourselves so seriously that there is no room for
something quite dear to me: absolutely useless courses.
Students Pulling Other Students in Wagons
20
Where is the random geology course for English
majors? Why is there no Cultural requirement fulfilled
by a random jazz class or upper level philosophy courses
on post-post-postmodernism? When can I take the allimportant Scientific Thought in South-South European
Immigrants to Scottish Communes on March 13th,
1812? (I would take this course.) Where is the joy of
nothingness?
Nay, we have been too long deprived of true vacuity! In
the face of such a useful education, we must reclaim our
right to uselessness! How? A second seminar based on
my revolutionary new Useless Books Program. Meeting
from 10:02 p.m.-12:34 a.m. from Monday into Tuesday
(on the opposite side of campus from normal seminar)
and Saturday into Sunday (to prevent our heathenish
and Godly tendencies in one fell swoop), we shall dive
deep into ancient goat-for-wheat exchange documents,
the catalog of ships, and Finnegans Wake. Senior year, of
course, will be everyone’s favorite: The Perks of Loving
a Scoundrel (Seduction Diaries, #3), The President is
Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson, Jesus and
the New Math: 2+5=5,000. All seminars will begin with
an opening exclamation. Grades will be awarded after
each point using gymnastics-style score cards (bonus
for including outside sources). The annual essay will be
balanced with the pseudo-annual (occuring once every
366 days) presentation where students are invited to
say as little as possible in 10 minutes (in the tradition of
certain French philosophers). No more shall we suffer
under the weight of our useful degrees; no more shall we
bear the burden of improving ourselves; no more we say,
no more! From the ashes of productivity we shall rise into
the promised uselessness once more, cloaked in inanity.
All interested tutors need not apply.
—B.S.
�πόλις
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February 6, 2023
Lines from the Marlboro Trail
Before Rain
Dig another hole into
the muddy dark;
coax a grass-limbed green hopper
onto a kneaded palm.
Granite dust is white without sunlight,
electric in its own tiny storm,
but the rain holds its breath above us
as the leaves turn over.
Thunder is my hammer on a rock
and the forest breaks open.
– HELEN WAGNER
21
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A Moment
As golden Twilight, remnant crone of Dawn,
Shines forth her wrinkled, melancholy smile
And turns ambrosial the wide, open field
Before the creek, as if to kiss goodnight
Each of the trees and every blade of grass,
And as the age-tinged leaves, learnéd too late
Of Autumn’s amber elegy, at last
Fall to the earth in gentle, bittersweet
Repose, I cannot help but think of how
Each of those little lives alike cry out
For God, and how each of those little deaths
Reflect the very same grief-tainted Love
That I know in my heart of hearts I’ll face
In those Last Moments that one day must come.
How could I claim distinction from the least
Of these? How could we possibly not be
Alike unhappy atoms cleaved, bereaved
Of a primeval Whole forever lost
To us, alike enunciations of
The same primordial Sigh of desire?
Beholding these my fellow-souls, my kin,
United in our Love and in our pain,
I am undone with care, and suffocate
Beneath the desperate need to embrace
The All too beautiful for me to bear.
– LUKE BRINER
22
February 6, 2023
�πόλις
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February 6, 2023
The Spider's Narrative
I saw a spider in the corner of my room the other day.
Sure, I could expel it, but look how delicate her home is.
As her web grows, I could hear the careful tapping of a wind
chime,
Or, is it a vibraphone?
No… it’s a kalimba.
Her melodies get louder and louder,
Rocking me to sleep.
Songs sang in the minor key,
Like the melancholy echoes of a priest singing in the pews of an
empty church.
Usually it would make me blue,
But today it paints me marigold.
As I now have gained a power,
A power that weaves melodies of my own.
– DEESHA ARABATTI
23
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πόλις
February 6, 2023
Nature's Metronome
Prose fragments from a summer
working in a state park
By HELEN WAGNER
Never is there a moment twice-lived. Some are halflived, but never twice-lived.
—
Yesterday at work I spent the afternoon observing the
comings and goings of a family of phoebe birds who had
I often measure change by summers. No matter what their nest in the tollbooth. When they’re perched, eastern
has occurred in the intervening months, Junejulyaugust phoebes have a way of flicking their tails up and down
blesses my calendar like a comma in a run-on sentence. I am that looks like the ticking secondhand of a clock. It’s not
grateful for this. It is here, in the stillness of the in-between, so regular, though; just once, for a moment, twice again
that I take inventory of myself and the movements of my a while later, three times quickly and once slowly. A bird
life. The backdrop never varies—Mount Monadnock, the needs no way of telling time. She has no appointments to
town of Jaffrey, the trees and the mica and the road to keep. Her tail is less like a metronome and more like the
my grandparents’ house. I measure myself against these flutter of leaves, the flash of light on water, the folding of a
landmarks and somehow find myself changed.
butterfly’s wing. Nature has its rhythms, but some moments
are best left unmeasured. The phoebe knows this.
—
—
This summer, I have become a birdwatcher. Nevermind if
I only know three species by name. I am not knowledgeable,
When I came into work on Saturday, Cindi told me that
but I believe I am qualified for the title by this simple fact: the phoebes had lost a hatchling. She must have found it
I watch birds.
when she opened the tollbooth.
I know little about eating habits or migration patterns,
“It was dead,” she said, “The mother threw it out of the
but I know that the wings of a turkey vulture wobble when nest. See that stick in the ground there? I buried him.”
it catches the wind, and that blue jays are vicious dive
The stick stands in the dirt beneath the One Way sign
bombers. I’ve spent a morning watching a mother build where the phoebe always perches. I wonder if she knows
her nest under an eave. I’ve watched young cooper’s hawks where her child has gone. Is she troubled? I can never tell;
bathe in puddles in my driveway. I’ve seen phoebes grow her song is always the same. What kind of mother can
from hatchlings to fledglings to flyers, and now I watch the watch her child die and let someone else bury it? Maybe
place where their nest used to be. I am no ornithologist, she threw it out of the nest to make space for her healthy
but I’ve found that observing God’s creatures is good for young. A bird does not sow or reap or gather into barns, but
the soul. Call me a birdthinker when the philosophizing death is in her world, too. Death is in her world, but there
outweighs the binocularizing—I’ll take any title, so long as is no room for it among the living. She is already so full of
it justifies a few of these aimless musings.
living—sunshine and beating wings and the wet squirming
of beetles in the mud—and death has no place there, so she
—
must throw it out. Let the dead bury their own.
I watch the stick poking unnaturally from the wet earth.
Worry, I think, is not for the forest.
Birds do not mourn their dead or erect strange monuments
in the ground or fear the future. Only people do that.
24
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I do not write this as an old woman, looking back on
a life of wisdom and truth. I am young, full of ambition,
often full of that confusing anxiety that, as Wendell
Berry says, tells me I should somehow be elsewhere than
I am now. The peace I sense on the mountain is not the
wisdom and rest attained by a long lifetime. It is a glimpse
of some deeper meaning, an inner life which I access only
sometimes, a safety net which I hope to grab and take with
me into adulthood. Perhaps it is the last few wonderments
of childhood bubbling through the hardening skin of life.
It is a living memory of security and truth that I want to
bottle up and pour over myself, like Bradbury’s dandelion
wine, to thaw the ache of adult anxiety.
Sometimes, down here at the bottom of the mountain, I
February 6, 2023
have the itch to be up in the rocks where the air moves and
the land unfolds like a forested atlas below me—up there in
the wind, instead of down here in the leafy stillness, staring
at the same trees and the empty road for hours at a time. I
get tired of waiting for the crush of gravel under someone
else’s tires, of handing them maps while they head up into
the clouds and I stay here.
But then someone walks past on his way down and says,
“that looks like the fucking life,” and I look down at the jewelpurple plum in my hand and the novel in my suntanned lap
and the wooden rocking chair leaning against a rock and I
say, “yeah. It is.”
It is. And the phoebe sings her agreement.
And it is.
Bird, Hakusanjin Hokui
25
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February 6, 2023
THIS MONTH IN HOROSCOPES
ARIES
(March 21-April 19)
Love is in the air, Aries! Oh Christ, it’s in the air. It is a thick, all encompassing smokescreen that fills your lungs. It’s hard to breathe, the smoke in your eyes
makes you cry but the feelings don’t go away. You feel heavy. Your lungs burn as if
your organs are being stretched and mangled inside of you. It itches. Your insides
itch. You scratch, but it gets worse. Why won’t anyone help you? You scratch. Dear
lord, war is hell. You draw blood from your tender stomach, your organs still itch.
You scratch deeper and deeper, till finally you can itch your lungs. Your comrades
surround you in terror. You’ve disemboweled yourself. Oh the humanity! You live,
you continue to scratch. The pain is endless, but the itching moreso. God won’t let
you die. There are no atheists in foxholes, Aries.
GEMINI
(May 21- June 20)
You’ve been doing a lot of self reflecting, Gemini. You don’t really even
want a relationship, you long for personal freedom.You long for a herd of like-minded individuals but also a strong sense of individuality. You long for the dark carnival.
You wish to ravage the streets of the midwest covered in grease paint and smelling
faintly of vomit. You and your new found pack of Juggalo homies will provide you
with the excitement you so desperately crave in your day to day. You will come to
understand things you once thought impossible to grasp, like the Great Milenko,
and magnets. Faygo and rhymes flow freely in your close knit squadron of freerange porch clowns. Connection is temporary, but 1989 Detroit based horrorcore
group the Insane Clown Posse is forever. Whoop Whoop.
VIRGO
TAURUS
(April 20- May 20)
It’s easy to get caught up in the overwhelming loneliness, but the sooner
Taurus realizes that community is more beneficial to them than romance, they’ll
be unstoppable. Community is hard to find as an adult, though. Sure you have coworkers and maybe even college friends, but that’s temporary. You’ll outgrow each
other soon, and you will once again be alone. Is it wrong to outgrow what you once
loved? It’s painful to think that a person who once knew you better than you knew
yourself will one day be a complete stranger to you. Sometimes you think you understand the curse of immortality. We’re all born alone and we all die alone, you
know that, but it doesn’t make it any nicer to hear. The warmth is temporary, but
you might as well enjoy it while you can. You could also invest in a weighted blanket, at least simulated touch is better than what you’re getting now.
CANCER
(June 21- July 22)
Cancer, now is the season of plague. You are a destructive force as of late.
Cuffing season awakens something dark within you. You deserve this! Slay! Forget
anyone you may hurt along the way, it’s high time you go out and get what you
want. There is a hunger deep inside you, Cancer. It is constantly growing, an endless
gnawing in the pit of your stomach. You’re full of dog teeth. You are ravenous, a long
and cold winter has made you cruel. Is it cruel to survive? One must do all they can,
self fulfillment is the only fulfillment you can rely on. Looking out for you isn’t bad,
it is self preservation, and therefore the most powerful form of rebellion.
(Aug 23- Sept 22)
Roses and chocolate are always nice, but the Virgo in your life can only be seduced
by one thing. In the USNA Archives lies the story of the USS Eldridge. October,
1943 was when everything changed for the Virgo in your life. Half a dozen sailors
merged with the ship, limbs akimbo poking out of the walls, melted into military
grade steel. When the news broke, it was played off as yet another story of a Veteran
who had lost his mind, making up nonsense about aliens for attention. Everyone
knows that being honest about your alien encounters makes a social pariah out of
you. You hide this dark secret- you hide the truth. You know acknowledging the
Philadelphia Experiment will get a target placed on your back. Dear lord, you just
want to be seen. Your Virgo wants you to ask them about what they’re hiding, they
want assurance that you are not a spook, but rather an empathetic ear.
26
LEO
(July 23- Aug 22)
You have a secret admirer, Leo. Although having someone confess their
unyielding attraction towards you is undoubtedly the ego boost you needed to get
through the week, the stars tell me that nothing good will come of this union. The
only one to benefit from this relationship would be your divorce lawyer. You may
think you’ve met draining people before, but never like this. Every moment spent
with this prospective partner feels like an eternity and not in a good way. You didn’t
know the sound of someone’s voice could make you truely violent before this. It
feels like a Manchurian candidate situation. This person will leave you waking up
next to them every morning wishing you were dead. Sometimes the crushing loneliness is better than rushing into something with someone you tolerate at best. You
should not relate to The Mountain Goats the way you do. Save yourself years of
livable hatred and a cirrhosis diagnosis, reject Capricorn.
�the Gadfly
πόλις
February 6, 2023
February 2023, The Romantic Edition
LIBRA
(Sept 23- Oct 22)
As any Johnnie will tell you with a ghoulish delight, Humphreys used
to be a civil war hospital, complete with a morgue in the basement. If you’re ever
in Humpreys too long you’ll feel the hands. She’s cold, when she speaks it usually
gets dark. The air is thick and still. Her eyes are somehow both empty and full of
a thousand dying wishes, like a dead fish. She is the most beautiful woman you’ve
ever seen. Her teeth are crooked and her hair is neat, you know she’s around because
all the hair on the back of your neck stands on end. You’ve never been so intrigued
by anyone before. You know she knows how you feel, she knows everything about
you, but based on the retrograde of Uranus, now is the time to put your feelings out
there. Verbalization is always nice, Libra, I’m sure the Humphreys ghoul will think
so too.
SCORPIO
(Oct 23- Nov 21)
Tis the season, Scorpio! Based on the position of Jupiter relative to its distance
from the zodiac, you will find your soulmate this month! If February comes and
goes and you remain alone and despondent, sucks to be you, I guess #SAD.
CAPRICORN
(Dec 22- Jan 19)
with Madame
Quiznos
SAGITTARIUS
(Nov 22- Dec 21)
You don’t miss her, you’re just horny.
You’re ready to be hurt again, Capricorn. It’s cliche, but Valentine’s Day
makes you sentimental. Maybe you haven’t felt loved in a while, maybe never, but
seeing everyone else do it sure does make you at least miss the chase. You need
something to work towards- conquest is your middle name. Your eyes have drifted
towards a certain Leo in your life. Their self confidence, sense of humor and passion
gives you butterflies. As an earth sign, you’re particularly prone to overthinking,
which could be catastrophic in this scenario. You need to learn to just go for what
you want when you want it. Shoot now, question later. Better yet, really dig your
heels into this one. You can make it work. You have to make it work. Anything less
is a personal failing on your part. Maybe the goal isn’t happiness, maybe it’s merely
knowing that you did the impossible and stuck out till the end. That makes you
better than everyone. This month, romance your Leo, till death do you part.
AQUARIUS
(Jan 20- Feb 18)
Happy Birthday, Aquarius! How does it feel being another year older?
Look into your own eyes. Are you wiser or just tired? Maybe age doesn’t change
everything. At least you have your birthday wish, right? The one time a year where
a cold and uncaring god can actually hear you. Another year of pain and hardships
is to be cleansed in the fires of a pink, paraffin torch. The smoke that threatens to
set off all the alarms in your dorm carry your plea for peace into the heavens. It goes
unheard. They all do. But you’re nothing if not persistent. Maybe it’s not that the
gods don’t care, maybe they’re just busy. Yeah that feels better. You’re not irrelevant,
everyone else is just too busy. You can do no wrong. Enjoy your cake.
PISCES
(Feb 19- March 20)
Forget romance, Valentine’s Day is for the boys, Pisces! You’ve been hard at work
down at the factory, but while you’ve been doing overtime, your gang of rowdy
boys have been getting themselves into much trouble. There’s a big rumble down
at the park tonight, and they instigated it. It’s gonna be a rough one, too. Bottles
and chains, all because you were too busy trying to make ends meet to focus on
your band of troubled yet well meaning rapscallions. It’s been tough since Pa and
Mama died, but you’ll be damned if those kids end up in the system. You can make
this work. You have to make this work. You have to do it for Johnny. Make more
time for your pals, Pisces, God only knows when they’ll accidentally end up killing
a rich kid, ultimately leading to two tragic deaths of those you hold dearest, forever
altering your kid brother’s sense of childlike wonder.
27
�THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
OF
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly
is the student newsmagazine
distributed to over 600
students, faculty, staff, and
alumni of the Annapolis
campus.
Opinions expressed within
are the responsibility of the
author(s). The Gadfly reserves
the right to accept, reject,
and edit submissions in any
way necessary to publish a
professional, informative,
and thought provoking
newsmagazine.
Submissions sent to the
Gadfly should either be
in Google Docs or JPEG
format. The deadline for
submissions is the Friday prior
to publication.
For more information, contact
us via email at sjca.gadfly@
gmail.com
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
Images without a listed source are from the
St. John's College Digital Archives.
St. John's College owns the rights
to these photographs.
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
�
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Gadfly Vol XLIV issue 7
Gadfly
Student publication
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PDF Text
Text
St. John’s College
Vol. XLIV, Issue 6
the Gadfly
Annapolis, Maryland
January 16, 2023
�CONTENTS
From the Editor’s Desk:
Dear Polity,
Logos
3
4
6
7
Polity Communications
Linking Communities of Learning
How to Lose Your Mind
Blister Beetle?
Symposium
On Time and Eternity
An Open Letter to Infinity
A Call to Idleness
8
10
12
Hedda Gabler Review
The Gadfly Told Me to Do It
Some More on Smoking
Observing the Wild Beast
Translation of Baudelaire's L'Idéal
14
16
19
21
19
Polis
THE STRUCTURE
Logos typically holds news reports and
narratives of immediate relevance to the
Polity. The purpose here is to develop a shared
reservoir of information relating to campus life
and the community. The Managing Editor for
Logos is El'ad Nichols-Kaufman. His email is
eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu
Symposium offers the opportunity for our
readers to thoughtfully consider contrasting
opinions regarding a particular topic. The
Managing Editor for Symposium is Luke Briner.
His email is lbriner@sjc.edu
Polis serves as a platform for elevating voices
in our community. Here we find letters to
the editor, columns, cartoons, and submitted
pieces. The Managing Editor for Polis is Daniel
Nathan. His email is djnathan@sjc.edu.
THE COVER
Photo of Isa Kiedrowski at the Reform Party
Convention, taken by Meliha Anthony
2
the Gadfly / λόγος / January, 2023
This is my last issue as editor-in-chief of the Gadfly, Daniel Nathan
(djnathan@sjc.edu) will be taking over after me. It's been a pleasure
to read, discuss, and arrange the talented work many of you have
contributed to the paper during my tenure. My favorite memories
are the ones were something published in the Gadfly led to a discussion outside of it, or when a student with something to say came inquiring about the Gadfly with the happy hope that there was a place
for them to say it. I have also especially appreciated the contributions
made by Tutors and administrators; it's good when a campus paper
is more than just its students.
I'm sorry that releases haven't been as consistent as I hoped they
would be, and I'm also sorry about the inconsistency of certain
features of the paper. I would have liked it if there could have been
a song or movie review in every issue, a tutor spotlight at least every
other, a consistent listing of the many wonderful lectures related to
what students are reading at the moment, and a much busier use
of the 'Polity Communications' page. I'm sure you all have your
own wishes too. In parting, I'd like to suggest that you puruse them
through the Gadfly with verve and vigor--stay robust and questioning, keep the paper from becoming lazy, and remind it by your own
efforts whenever it is.
Sincerely,
Craig Koch
THE STAFF
Audrey Fox
Cooper Ussery
Craig Koch
Daniel Nathan
El'ad Nichols-Kaufman
Helen Wagner
Isa Kiedrowski
Jenna Lee
Liz Dowdy
Luke Briner
Meliha Anthony
Bridget Mace
Paolo Medelius
Helen Felbek
SUBMISSIONS
Bennett Scott
John Teague
�Polity Communications
L
etter from a Concerned Polity Member
Dear All Concerned Members of the Polity,
As many of you know, Campbell Hall is set to be remodeled this coming
year. Truly and honestly, I’m happy for the future freshmen who will get to
enjoy these sparkling new facilities. Now, I am a great supporter of the college;
I think what we do here is contrarian and classical and liberal arts and St. John’s
and maybe even Great Books. But I think we, as a collective polity, should
take a moment and ask ourselves: Are these the changes we want to make?
This college is representative of tradition, of the great learning of old (est.
1696 1784 1937). What traditions will remain for us after such renovations?
What mice will scratch in the walls? What fire hazards will remain? What
Civil War ghosts will be accidentally summoned on 8/18/2027 at 2 a.m. to
the third floor bathroom in a ritual between five Febbies, a copy of Euclid,
and a knife? Let me tell you: none.
They shall gut these halls and they shall gut us too! This education is not
just about what happens in the classroom, what happens in the books, what
happens in the Great Hall; it’s about what happens in the dorms, in the dining
hall, in the bathtub rooms. Those are the places we weep and bleed together,
those are the places where we educate the entire person. If we allow ourselves
the luxury of renovated dorms, we shall become like Thucydides’s Persians
without the desert: soft, weak, unable to maintain our empire against the
seafarers next door. To suffer through a freshman dorm is to grow one’s soul
to face the challenges ahead: Junior lab, Senior math, the acute urge to go to
the University of Chicago. If we let these renovations occur, freshmen will
grow up with proper heating, functional windows, equal access, no mold in
the walls. They will live like human beings! You know where I had to live my
freshman year? Santa Fe.
Boycott the Campbell renovations (and Mellon too).
In your best interests,
Bennett Scott (B.S.)
the Gadfly / πόλις / January, 2023
3
�{campus life}
Linking Communities of Learning
BLAST Provides Seminars, Connections between Anne Arundel Community College and SJC
by El'ad Nichols-Kaufman
Like most Johnnies, I had never
given much thought to Anne Arundel
Community College (AACC), our
neighbor in Arnold. Certainly, I knew
it existed, I had passed through it on
the bus to Baltimore many times, but
I never gave it any particular thought.
That is, until Mr. Haflidson, who
was my seminar tutor my Freshman
year, reached out to me about
covering a partnership between St.
John’s and AACC funded by a grant
from National Endowment for the
Humanities, or NEH, that had been
going on since 2019. He told me that
there would be two seminars hosted
for students from both colleges, to
bring together AACC students who
already had experience with liberal arts
seminars through the program at their
school with Johnnies.
This intrigued me, since I have
often been concerned by the way that
St. John’s creates a barrier to a great
books education that is inherent in
the structure of a private, expensive
liberal arts school, and the idea that
the college has been participating
in a program looking to expand the
reach of this style of education in our
own Annapolis community was quite
exciting. I knew I had to attend one of
these seminars, and share as much as
I could about the program while also
learning from the other attendees.
A little bit of snooping, and a few
recommendations from Mr. Haflidson,
pointed me in the right direction,
and I began to trace the story of this
program. In 2019, our Associate
Dean for Graduate Programs, Emily
Langston, and the Dean of AACC’s
school for Liberal Arts, got together
and applied for an NEH grant, and
received $100,000 over the course of
4
three years. “The seminar came about
because I and others read a piece in
Inside Higher Ed that drew attention
to the possibility of NEH grants for
collaborations between community
colleges and four-year institutions,”
explained Langston. “St. John’s already
had some connections to AACC,
primarily through alumni teaching
there. I asked a recent GI graduate
who was teaching there to introduce
me to the Dean of Liberal Arts, Dr.
Alicia Morse. She and I started a
conversation and it quickly became
clear that interest in developing
a closer relationship between our
two institutions was strong on both
sides – so the two of us got to work
on developing the program and
applying for the grant.” The money
went towards bringing faculty from
AACC to St. John’s for three twoweek summer sessions to participate
in seminars and learn from Johnnie
faculty about how our program works.
After this, the AACC faculty would
return to teach great books versions
of their classes, creating a small great
books program embedded within the
community college. The program was
called BLAST, or Bridge to the Liberal
Arts through Primary Source Texts,
and also provided AACC students
a tuition discount of $4,000 a year if
they wanted to transfer to St. John’s.
Erica Beall, a tutor at St. John’s
who participated in these trainings,
explained how the program works
at AACC. “AACC faculty who
participate in the grant use their
experience in the joint seminars with
tutors to develop great books seminarbased versions of the classes that they
teach, most of them in the humanities,
as a kind of miniature great books
the Gadfly / λόγος / January, 2023
program embedded in the AACC
degree program. Students who take
these classes receive the same credit
for those courses that they would for
those same courses offered in a more
traditional format (generally lecturebased, or a combination of lectures,
discussions, and group work).”
At the seminar I attended, which
was on the short story Love by Clarice
Lispector, I got to meet many of
the students who’ve had a chance to
participate in these courses, almost all
of whom were very enthusiastic about
participating in a great books seminar.
Once the seminar took off, the AACC
students displayed a Johnnie-like
energy in their discussion. Margaret
Kirby, a tutor at St. John’s who led
one of these seminars and participated
in the summer sessions, noted this as
well. “I often didn’t know whether the
student who was speaking was a St.
John’s or an AACC student.”
This kind of commonality, the
bond formed by meeting other
students of the liberal arts in a great
books program, was truly something
special, and it was quite exciting to
see it shared with another college
in the Annapolis community. Beall
explained that in many ways building
this connection is groundbreaking.
“The aim here was to make a robust
liberal arts program available in the
setting of a community college, which
is in some ways a really revolutionary
idea… Our understanding of liberal
education is that it's for all human
beings, so we're rejecting the notion
that certain students and certain
institutions simply can't engage in the
kind of intellectual activity that we
do at St. John's. Instead, there are two
basic assumptions behind the NEH
�grant: first, that there are community
college students who would want
exactly the kind of learning we do at
St. John's, if made available to them;
second, that there is nothing about
the community college setting that is
inherently incompatible with learning
through discussion of great texts.
Thus far, the results at AACC would
suggest that our assumptions were well
grounded.”
The program is ending this year,
but it has left an infrastructure of
great books education at AACC,
and the beginning of a closer
relationship between the colleges. “I
hope we can foster the connection
that’s been established between our
two campuses,” said Kirby. “The
AACC BLAST faculty have been
wonderful collocutors in our summer
seminars... I’d like to see whether we
could sponsor further seminars or
study groups involving students from
the two campuses. The St. John’s
students who participated made
the AACC students feel welcome
and contributed enormously to the
success of the seminars and the visits
as a whole. I thought our students
created an atmosphere and set a tone
that made it easy for us all to work
together fruitfully. It’s easy to become
a bit insular, and this kind of activity
reminds us that we’re part of a larger
land.”
Untitled, Clarice Lispector
the Gadfly / λόγος / January, 2023
5
�{Club Spotlight}
How to Lose your Mind
An Interview with Kai Gyorki (A25) and Owen Healy (A25)
by Daniel Nathan '24
DN: The club is called How To Lose
Your Mind: A comprehensive guide to
narrative insanity. What exactly…is it
that you do at the club?
KG & OH: We do a warm up of
writing and Taylor Swift. When the
chanting starts, the words move like
the thick molasses flood of 1919.
DN: Is narrative insanity the
objective of the club or is it just an
accidental by-product of what y’all do?
KG & OH: Absolutely objective.
Don’t know if we’ve gotten there
vector orange left.
DN: How many members/regular
participants does the club have?
KG & OH: Owen and I are there,
mostly.
DN: Would you like more people
6
to show up for meetings? If so, what
will you threaten if attendance does
not increase?
KG & OH: Neutral on new
members. However, we have very
strong ties with the administration, so
disenablement is on the table.
DN: What do you hope people will
get out of their experience at How To
Lose Your Mind? Corollary: What
are you getting out of your experience
thus far?
KG & OH: We want them to feel
purity moving through their heart,
once again like the great molasses
flood of 1919. I’ve been getting a lot of
information about the great molasses
flood of 1919; we think it's both the
solution and the problem of our
current times.
the Gadfly / λόγος / January, 2023
DN: When and where do y’all
meet? How can people get involved if
they are interested?
KG & OH: Mellon 212,
Wednesdays 7:30. Unless the weather
is bad or either of us have an essay due,
or we are not there.
DN: In your heart of hearts,
when all is said and done, and the
encumbering trappings of alienation
and modern life are torn away, when
the world has ended but life still goes
on, when the birds cease to chirp, and
all that you’ve got left to prove you’re
truly alive is the steady beeping of the
heart monitor: Are ya having fun?
KG & OH: We find this question
offensive and unnecessary.
�{the entomology beat[le]}
Blister [beetle]? I hardly know her [beetle]!
by Louis Rosenberg
Shortly before the first frost of
the season, I was headed towards the
boathouse when I spotted a large
beetle meandering across the sidewalk.
It was an odd-looking bug, with its
thorax and head tiny compared to
its bulbous abdomen — the strange
proportions paired with its undersized
elytra made it look as if its bottom
half had accidentally overgrown
the rest of its exoskeleton. It was,
however, a beautiful incandescent
black, and its bumpy antennae were
moniliform, resembling strings of
beads. I recognized it immediately
as a blister beetle (a member of the
family Meloidae), specifically an oil
beetle (of the genus Meloe), and thus
resisted my eternal desire to pick
her up. (Because of the specimen’s
large size and the uniformity of
its antennae segments, it was most
likely a female — males are typically
smaller in size and have a distinctive
“C” shape partway down each
antenna.)
Meloe is one of the best-studied
genera within Meloidae, but even
so specific information on the
differences between species within
the genus is hard to come by. Clearly,
however, though these beetles lack
hind wings and have small elytra
that overlap at the base, they are far
from defenseless. They can secrete
hemolymph containing cantharidin,
a chemical which can cause serious
damage to tissues it contacts. Humans
can die from consuming a dose of
less than 5 mg/kg, earning it a “super
toxic” classification by the EPA.
(Animals are at risk, too, particularly
farm animals that might accidentally
consume whole beetles in their feed.)
Cantharidin has historically been
used not just as a poison but also as a
purported aphrodisiac. Though there
is no evidence that the chemical works
in that manner for humans, males of
some other beetle species will consume
it after being secreted by blister
beetles; the cantharidin transfers to
the female during copulation, and the
eggs she lays will thus be coated in it
for protection.
While defense mechanisms like these
are certainly oil beetles’ main claim to
fame, this genus also possesses many
other fascinating features throughout
their lifecycle. Most notably, these
beetles are hypermetamorphic — they
go through more distinct stages in
their metamorphosis than the usual
complete metamorphosis. While the
larval instars of other beetles might
differ mostly because of their sizes,
larvae of Meloe species are markedly
different between instars. In their first
instar, they are known as triungulins;
they are quick-moving and capable of
secreting chemicals that mimic female
bee pheromones. After a male bee
arrives, drawn in by the pheromones,
the triungulins cling on to him until
he finds an actual mate, at which point
they climb onto the female bee and
follow her back to her nest. The larvae
then feed on the bee’s eggs and honey,
becoming progressively less mobile
with each molt until they finally
become active — if still clumsy —
beetles. Adult beetles feed solely
on plant matter.
A few days after I first spotted
the Meloe specimen on the
sidewalk, I saw her again, this
time with dangerous hemolymph
oozing out of her joints: she had
been crushed, probably just by
someone passing by. Thus ended
the life of the first oil beetle I
ever saw in person — her refined
defenses sadly no match for a
human boot.
Sources:
https://bugguide.net/node/
view/303
https://bugguide.net/node/
view/181
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.
org/item/105984
Insect Biodiversity: Science and
Society, Volume 1 by Robert G. Foottit
and Peter H. Adler
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.
gov/compound/Cantharidin
http://digital.outdoornebraska.
gov/nebraskaland-magazine/don-tmess-with-oil-beetles
ht tp s : / / b u g g u i d e . n e t / n o d e /
view/149682
the Gadfly / λόγος / January, 2023
7
�On Time and Eternity
Luke Briner
I’ve been thinking recently about how the human
condition prevents the fulfillment of human desire in any
lasting way. When I withdraw into myself and look, I see at
my very core a ceaseless, desperate, all-consuming yearning
for something that does not and cannot exist in this life—
for a Wholeness, a Unity, a Perfection which the dustbeladen crucible of a world that we inhabit, fettered as it is
by the disunion of individual moments, couldn’t possibly
allow for. I long ultimately for Beauty, but am only strung
along from one instance of Beauty, one beautiful thing, to
another, forever unsatisfied, if only because I know there’ll
always be other beautiful things which this or that current
one doesn’t already contain within itself. I long for Peace,
but this life promises nothing but an endless and futile
toil. Here, all strive for the same End and are set against
each other in exactly that striving, with the very fact that
this End is in reality unachievable being the guarantee
of the perpetuation of that same struggle ad infinitum.
Considering all of this, I’ve come to hold always before
me the idea of some other, higher Life—one in which
these unhappy limitations are transcended, and all is at
last wrapped up in the perfect, loving Totality which alone
could ever truly fulfill the soul.
This Totality that I have in mind is the same one Plotinus
does as he explains his view of Eternity in Ennead III.7. He
understands Eternity not as a simple going-on without
end, but rather as a perfectly self-concentrated Unity: a
single, absolute Moment, an “Ever-Being” (III.7.4) which
already encompasses within itself everything that can be
encompassed. Mere perpetuity, or the indefinite goingon of something, isn’t Eternity, since the very fact that in
perpetuity a thing moves into something—the future—
from something else—the past—implies not Unity but
only restless movement from one ephemerality to another.
Such movement belongs to things of Becoming and not
Being, since it necessarily involves a “continuous process
of acquisition” (ibid), whereas to truly be “comports never
lacking existence and never knowing variety in the mode
of existence” (III.7.6). Being can never acquire anything
because it never lacks anything, and, by virtue of its Unity,
is “self-identical throughout, and…is one undistinguishable
thing” (ibid). Eternity, then, as consubstantial with this
Unified-Being, is “a life limitless in the full sense of being
all the life there is and a life which, knowing nothing
8
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / January, 2023
of past or future to shatter its completeness, possesses
itself intact forever” (III.7.5). “To the notion of a Life…
all-comprehensive,” he tells us, “add that it never spends
itself, and we have the statement of a Life instantaneously
infinite” (ibid). As ceaseless perpetuity in the realm of Time
produces an infinite set of infinitely small yet disparate
moments, Eternity, contrarily, sums all of those moments in
one fell swoop, resolving the entire indeterminate infinity,
and everything that could possibly be contained therein,
into one immutable, indissoluble Whole. Eternity is the ∫
of the All.
Having its identity in the “archetypal world” (V.1.4) of
Authentic Being, Eternity is held in “the true Golden Age,
age of Kronos…the place of every soul” (ibid), of which
Time is nothing but an imitation. I understand “the place
of every soul” here as denoting that world as the supreme
télos of all things which find themselves here below. There,
and only There, may the true Repose which my heart yearns
for so desperately reside. Only There may the Tantalean
struggle born of a shattered, degenerate life at last melt
away into the all-embracing Love that I can’t help but feel is
where we’ve come from and where we must at last return to.
But if Eternity is the “Repose-There” (III.7.2), then how
did we get here, to this reposeless, Time-afflicted world?
How did it come to be that Time, Eternity’s “representation
in image” (III.7.1), proceeded from its Parent in the first
place, and what is its nature having thus proceeded?
Plotinus argues that we can’t define Time as movement,
whether in the sense of a single definite movement or
movement in general, since it “in either sense…takes place
in Time” (III.7.8) and therefore can’t be Time’s essential
characteristic. Nor can we accept the Aristotelian account
of Time as a measure of movement (see Physics, IV.12),
since this would require the measure of the measuring
magnitude itself, “because only when the standard
shows such an extension can the degree of movement be
appraised” (III.7.9). This would lead to a situation in which
movement is measured not by a definite magnitude but
only by the abstract numerical value estimating it; but “it
is difficult to see how an abstract figure can perform the
act of measuring” (ibid). Further, even if such a figure
could measure movement, it doesn’t get us any closer to a
meaningful understanding of what Time actually is, since
“no measurement by anything is necessary for its existence;
�measured or not, it has the full extent of its being” (III.7.10).
The measurement of a thing by some arbitrary value has
nothing to do with the essence of the thing in itself, and the
thing would go on existing in the same way without such
measurement.
Time, rather than movement itself or the measure of that
movement, is to Plotinus “the Life of the Soul in movement
as it passes on from one stage of act or experience to
another” (III.7.11). Before the emergence of Time, there
was only the serene Eternity of Authentic Being, the Divine,
reposing in its contemplation of The One from which it
itself proceeded. But since “all existences, as long as they
retain their character, produce…some necessary, outwardfacing hypostasis [metaphysical substance] continually
attached to them and representing in image the engendering
archetypes” (V.1.6), this Being, even in its own peace and
upward-facing contemplation, had also within itself “an
active principle…one set on governing itself and realizing
itself ” (III.7.11). This principle, in its ambition, sprung
forth from its Parent and became Soul, the third and final
hypostasis. Soul, so self-differentiated, in its own turn had
“an unquiet faculty, always desirous of translating elsewhere
what it saw in the Authentic Realm, and it could not bear
to retain within itself all the dense fullness of its possession”
(ibid). In order to release this self-concentrated fullness,
and in order to make for itself an external representation of
that Realm, it created the universe that we currently inhabit,
having “laid aside its eternity and clothed itself with Time”
(ibid) to do so. In doing this, however, Soul lost its endemic
Unity, and condemned itself forever after to a struggle to
once again attain it, thus creating endless succession and
action. Time, therefore, is simply the product of the Soul of
the universe “seeking to draw Being to itself by a perpetual
variety of production and action and…circling in a sort of
ambition after Essential Existence” (III.7.4).
I share, as we all do and as the All does, in Time, and
so also in its wistful, struggling nature. I can’t help but feel
like I’m only a lost, scared child, bereft of my Mother and
desperately trying to do anything that I think might help
me get back to her. I don’t know if I ever will. But in any
case, let me at least come to terms with my own longing—
let me, if the God-shaped hole inside of me will never be
filled, at least work out its dimensions, and recognize at last
that if there was ever anything that could fill it, it would be
in Eternity.
"Time" Luke Briner
Unhappy moment when became all moments disparate,
We since then damned to termless toil, bereft of native Whole,
The consequence of that most tragic act of primal Soul,
Whose extern appetite produced new world degenerate.
O Dido of more Cosmic enterprise, All-claiming Queen
Who sallied from Eternity, endeav’ring to impose
In lower Sphere similitude to that supreme Repose,
Thus spawning Time, coeval with the Universal scene,
Yet now a conqueress no more but exile self-imposed,
Who in perpetual Disunity is kept enclosed
And sits despondent by that restless stream of her design:
Dear Mother, let me sit beside you there; don’t scorn my love;
And if you find a way to make return to Rest above,
Give me the grace to rise then with you, your hand holding mine.
By the Waters of Bablyon, Arthur Hacker
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / January, 2023
9
�An Open Letter to Infinity
Dolan Polglaze
Dearest —— ,
Given the time that’s elapsed between our parting,
my intent in writing to you isn’t even clear to myself. In
advance, I only ask your forgiveness for the clumsiness of
my language, and for my reliance on my own temporality as
the unit of my emotional experience.
Knowing how to make these new beginnings is always
difficult, especially since no beginning is ever truly new,
and the person I feel myself to be now is probably just
the compounded clutter of failed epiphanies and dusty
revelations. Even now, I’ve already begun to speak in
words that you probably don’t understand. What do you
know of beginnings? What do you know of endings? Do
you understand how nails grow and hearts break from the
pressure of closeness? These are the afflictions of temporal
beings, not infinite ones. But nevertheless, I don’t know
any other words to use: the certainty of my own beginning
and ending prevents you and me from ever entirely
speaking in the same terms. You know this is the fault of
my communication, and always has been: that I don’t know
how to speak straight-up and in ways you’d understand.
Why? Because I have no choice but to fear the closeness of
communication, the true nakedness it requires. Nakedness
has always scared me, even though I pretend it doesn’t.
And why shouldn’t it? It’s the first thing we lost when we
gained time. When something’s lost, I really don’t think
that it can be recovered in the same way. That’s probably
why we started calling nakedness “vulnerability,” and why
we say vulnerability when really we just mean love, plain
and simple.
A thought about love: Now and then I spend my nights
recalling my final moments of infinity before I was born—
really, I’m just trying to grab onto something that I could
recognize in this temporal form I now hold. It has occurred
to me that love might be a holdover from the before-times,
even though the only “truths” I know about love are what
I’ve read in college, and even these various descriptions
don’t seem to cohere into a singular idea or experience. I am
frustrated that Socrates told me that philosophy is an erotic
ascent (towards what?) because I am a twenty-year-old
man, and everyone telling me that book-reading is erotic
has either forgotten what it feels like to be held, or they’re
barking up the wrong tree. “I’m not putting all my eggs in
one basket,” a friend told me yesterday in a conversation
10
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / January, 2023
about his lover, and that struck me as good advice. But
these promoters of erotic philosophy keep demanding
I put all my eggs in one basket—their basket—and I’m
really getting sick of it! I know that you understand love
better than I ever did, and I burn up in that thought.
You have the advantage of being infinite, and I have the
advantage of dying one day, which, although a meaningful
fate, still offers me no clarity on love.
It seems this has become a letter on my feelings about
love. That wasn’t my intent. In many ways, though, it
makes sense, since love and time are born of the same
mother. You, infinity, are that mother. And the father
too, probably. Perhaps I’m wrong to assume you know
nothing of temporal existence, but if I am wrong, I’m
wrong in the same way a child is wrong in assuming
his parents cannot understand him, even though both
originator and offspring are made of the same stuff. And
if you and I are irreconcilable to each other, truthfully, I
know that it is not because of lack of sight on your end,
but because of the simple fact that I cannot, for the life
of me, remember what happened before I was born. I am
a being born entirely of my beginning, a being defined
constantly by the flicker of my walking shadow. This is
not an excuse for my clumsiness in trying to reach you
all these years—I only mean to tell you that I have never
given up hope of trying to reach you again, despite the
infinite déroulement between me and you. How could
I give up? Even when estranged, a child’s desire to find
belonging in their parent is never fully extinguished. I
seek you—we seek you—not from a desire to cast our
minds forever into the darkness which springs from
separation, but rather from the impulse of our contrary
being. I will never understand why we cling to the things
that are so opposite our existence, those things which we
can never really hold. I cannot hold you, my friend, even
though you are somewhere deep, deep within me.
Perhaps I spoke too harshly earlier about love— it’s
only that sometimes I feel angered by those who claim
to have found you in philosophy. Sometimes I fleetingly
glimpse you there, but mostly I find you in myself, and in
the way that I don’t make any sense to myself. Pascal thinks
my humanity is delicately caught between magnanimity
and utter baseness, and that recognition of this fact will
�lead me back to union with the Divine. But I don’t know if
he’s right about this. Infinity, I am led to you—in the dark
hours of the night and in the gallery halls—by the surging
I feel in my breast when I think about how my ribcage, my
teeth, and my skin are products of some infinite voice at
the beginning of time. Then how can I not love you when
such is my origin! I feel rapture at this thought. Rapture
and rejoicing at my finitude which has the courage to write
you this letter, even now.
You have done me a great kindness in keeping me
suspended between finitude and yourself. It is in this
distance that I think love is born. I see it between human
beings too—we fall in love with each because we see, in
the other, the longing for the infinity that each contains.
Sometimes there is sorrow in this tension, but mostly there
is beauty.
I fear that this letter has become more for my own sake
than for yours, so I will leave it here, for now. I will write to
you again, maybe in a decade.
Yours always,
——— .
Pair-Case automation watch, Peter Mounier
Time, Enea Vico
Casement to Infinity, Arthur Hacker
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / January, 2023
11
�A Call to Idleness, or
Nihil Facere Aude
Helen Wagner
Hey! You! Yes, you, the one with three half-finished nonProgram books on your nightstand. Or you, reading poetry
in the lunch line. You, there, with headphones in for the
two-minute walk between Humphreys and the dining hall.
You, watching YouTube on your phone while you brush
your teeth. Even you, solving differential equations in your
free time. Whoever you may be, I have a request. It’s quite a
simple one, really. Only this: STOP THINKING.
Easier said than done! you tell me, and I would agree.
How often do you even allow yourself silence? How long
can you go without doing something, making something,
intaking some sort of information, before you feel guilty and
unproductive? (And while we’re at it, why is unproductive a
dirty word?) It seems, especially in an intellectually rigorous
community like our own, that we must always be using
or improving our brains. Philosophy, concentration, and
conversation are the highest of virtues, while lollygagging,
daydreaming, and general lying around are deadly sins. But
I believe it’s important, maybe even vital, to rest our minds.
Just like a physical workout, a mental workout requires
resting time in order to be effective. And that’s what we
are doing in the Program—hardcore intellectual crossfit.
We can only spend so many hours in a row cogitating the
definition of life. Giving our maximum concentration
to Leibniz for an entire afternoon at 49 West will burn
us out if we don’t stop to order a cup of tomato soup and
look out the window for a few minutes. The other day, a
friend told me that she’d read 90 pages of Augustine in one
sitting. I opened my mouth to congratulate her on a fruitful
study session, but she went on to say, “It felt wrong. I don’t
think you should read that much at once of something
so meditative.” I realized she was right. A book like the
Confessions is so contemplative and rich that it must be
taken in small doses if we really want to get something
out of it. We are working our brains so hard most of the
time that we often don’t seem to realize this: just because
we aren’t physically fatigued doesn’t mean we don’t need a
break.
By “break,” though, I don’t just mean picking up a novel
for the afternoon, solving a crossword puzzle, calling a
friend, listening to a poetry podcast, watching TV, or playing
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the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / January, 2023
sudoku on your phone between Greek exercises. These
things are wonderful, and much of our free time ought to
be dedicated to such lighthearted activities. But they are still
activities. There must also be moments when we’re simply
doing nothing. How often do you lay on your bed and stare
at the ceiling? Not enough, I’d venture. Cognitive rest can
be just as important as sleep: when you do something that
doesn’t require full mental attention (like staring at the
ceiling), your brain’s Default Mode Network (DMN) is
active. The DMN is associated with introspection, memory
processing, and even creativity—if you’ve ever thought of
a solution to a problem seemingly out of the blue, or been
struck with inspiration while zoning out in the shower, that
was probably your DMN at work. It’s not good for you to
strive for total concentration all the time; this part of your
brain does its job best when you are daydreaming.
We also must remember that we cannot fill an overfull
mind. When I was younger, my piano teacher used to stop
lessons early when she thought she had given the class
enough information. “The cup is full now,” she’d say, “and
we don’t want it overflowing.” She knew that our brains
could only process so much new material before it started
falling out of our ears. Our minds are like sponges in this
sense: if oversaturated, they will not accept anything more.
We need time to internalize knowledge with the help of
the DMN (which also handles information storage). This
is why we need mental downtime. Erwin Straus writes in
“The Upright Posture,” “Indeed, only the empty hand, like
the beggar’s hand, can receive. Emptiness is the condition
by which our hands can be filled.”1 Perhaps the mind is
similar: it must be empty in order to be filled.
This summer, excited to make the most of my free and
empty days, I read too many novels in too short a time
and suddenly found myself sick of reading. All I wanted
to do was lay in the sun with my eyes closed. “I’m tired
of thinking,” I remember saying to myself. I realized then
that I could not always be consuming information—even
literature, even for fun—if I never gave myself time to zone
out. Words become worthless if gobbled up for their own
1 Erwin W. Straus, translated by Erling Eng, “The Upright Posture,”
Phenomenological Psychology, SJC Freshman Lab Manual 2022.
�sake—it must be some form of literary gluttony. I’d had
an overdose of reading, and I had to remedy it. I learned
that even little things like eating a meal in silence, taking a
trip without bringing a book, splashing into a cold lake and
suddenly laughing—these are good medicine for too much
thinking. You must remember that you can float on your
back in a swimming pool without having any particularly
edifying purpose other than cooling off and watching the
clouds. You can walk in silence without your headphones.
You can lay stretched on the couch staring into the fireplace
for two hours after dinner, achieving absolutely nothing at
all, not even finishing your book.
Walt Whitman expresses this soothing of intellectual
fatigue in one of my favorite poems, “When I Heard the
Learn’d Astronomer.”
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns
before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add,
divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured
with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.2
How soon, unaccountable, we become tired and sick!
How weary we sometimes grow of contemplation! Let us
follow Whitman’s quiet footsteps into the stillness. Let us
rest our minds.
As I write this, the new year approaches. Resolutions
accumulate in well-intentioned piles in the corners of my
mind. Promises of fresh starts and renewed productivity
beckon alluringly from my blank calendar. New lists of
goals and dreams spiral out of my ears.
But I pause for a moment to ask this question: will I give
myself space to breathe this year? I ask you the same thing.
Will you continue working your mind, filling it with books
and movies and conversation? Or will you stop thinking for
a moment? Will you dare to do nothing?
Let your mind marinate. Vegetate. Roam. Space out.
Leave room for boredom. Stare through a window. Take a
solitary walk. Sit for a while and be a living being. Nothing
more.
"Recovering from Ontology," Helen Wagner
I am wracked with words,
whispering wraiths and shades
that jibber
Being
into emptiness.
Substance, Material, Potential, Form
flit to and fro;
Entelechy tumbles past and dissolves into pieces
against Death’s windshield.
Actuality and Potentiality
—locked in carnal embrace—
pay me no mind,
while Existence gives Essence a wily glance
and darts away,
scattering like dust in the late afternoon sun
which pours
through Reality’s kitchen window.
The Immaterial thumbs her nose at Matter and flounces off
into thin air,
leaving me
(a thinking body)
nauseous and reeling
with ontological vertigo
until I step outside,
blinking,
on a winter afternoon.
I feel cold snap at ears and nose,
watch sun on cobblestones,
walk into the wind,
and steady myself
with the touch
of the living world.
2 Walt Whitman, “When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer,” Poetry Foundation, accessed December 8, 2022, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/
poems/45479/when-i-heard-the-learnd-astronomer.
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / January, 2023
13
�{Hedda Gabler Review}
Sympathy for the Devil, But Make it Feminism
Lysithia Page
Hedda Gabler is a difficult character to play.
Hedda is a clever young woman recently married to
a bumbling academic. She is disgusted with her new
situation in life. The source of her strife is some cocktail
of money problems, ennui, and domestic claustrophobia.
Most of all, Hedda’s circle of associates is akin to a
psychological isolation chamber. None of her fellows—
three male consorts and a frenemy from her school days—
understand her.
This “angel in the house” wants to burn it all down.
It’s easy to write Hedda off as either a malignant person
or a victim of her circumstances. She is, of course, both.
How do we understand people who respond to their
sufferings by carrying out horrific acts? To what extent
should we condemn them? Hedda Gabler reignites ageold questions about justice and mercy, gussied-up for
Ibsen’s Victorian audience with the portrait of a lioness
strangled in whalebone. (If you, reader, have any insight
into these matters, I exhort you to flag me down on the
quad and share your remarks.)
Sophomore Magnolia Vandiver’s Hedda was equal
parts cutesy and sinister—wiggling her eyebrows,
nuzzling her companions with about as much warmth
as a boa constrictor, beholding the destruction she has
engineered with a prim upturned pucker. At one point,
she let out an abrupt chuckle at an unnaturally insistent
octave. Imagine a church bell co-opted by gremlins.
The hair on the backs of my arms stood up. Vandiver’s
performance called to mind that unfortunate subgenre
of horror films in which porcelain dolls come to life and
chop their owners into bits.
My favorite scenes of the production were ones in
which Hedda toyed with meek Thea Elvsted, played by
freshman Quinlyn Bright. Their dynamic was right out of
any Animal Planet documentary detailing confrontations
between predators and prey. Especially effective was
Vandiver’s and Bright’s deployment of touch. As Vandiver
snaked her arms around Bright’s back and curled her
hands in Bright’s hair, the energy in the room tensed in
anticipation of what could become the consummation of
either a seduction or a hunt. My only request for Bright:
speak up! There were a few times when I couldn’t quite
14
the Gadfly / πόλις / January, 2023
catch what she was saying.
Director Alayna Raymond (senior) clearly knows
her audience. Play-goers could not help but notice
the resemblance between Hedda and other conniving
antiheroines in the Program who elicit sympathy but
spurn redemption (read: Medea, Clytemnestra, Lady
Macbeth). At this school, moreover, the caricature of the
muddled scholar is comedic catnip; the character Jörgen
Tessman, played by Mirek Jungr, did not fail to provide. I
wish I had started a count of his huffs and guffaws while
I was watching the play. I never knew there were so many
ways for someone to clear his throat. Jungr’s fuddy-duddy
buffoonery is delightful but not really convincing, and I
find that with this character, I don’t care about ‘convincing’
in the slightest. “I sympathize with Jörgen, but I hope I’m
not as naive as he,” said freshman Ian Rossamondo, who
was seated in the front row. “He doesn’t know what kind
of a woman [Hedda] is.”
How were the other men? Senior Wyatt Sweeney
does Byronic brooding well, but we already knew that.
His Eilert Løvborg—a previously “bad boy” aristocrat
attempting to put his debauchery behind him—was
credible. And, of course, the crown of vines Sweeney
wore during the final bows was a sweet nod to both the
text of the play and the actor.
Sophomore Jack Domanski’s Judge Brack was a
marvelous surprise for me. His kindly, reserved presence
through most of the play seemed like a paternal
equivalent to the warm pleasantries of sophomore Rachel
Hauben’s Juliana Tesman and diligence of freshman Eden
Kammeyer’s Berta (nice Cockney accent, by the way!).
I initially thought that these three characters would
serve as beacons of civility and stability in the ensuing
catastrophe. In the case of Judge Brack, golly, was I wrong.
And for those of you who haven’t yet seen or read Hedda
Gabler, that’s all I’ll say about him!
After the show, I kept thinking about the particular
brand of evil that belongs to beautiful people, i.e. the Ted
Bundys of the world, who fully recognize and wield the
power of their delicious company, like Kalashnikovs of
charisma. Then again—perhaps I, like many people, just
romanticize bad decisions, and grand gestures of infamy
�are really just expressions of confusion. Generally,
with horrific acts, I wonder what happens in
the soul of the perpetrator which motivates the
perpetration. Could that happen in your soul? My
soul?
My sense is that Ibsen meant for his title
character to be more than an aberration of nature
constricted by the feminine ideal, inevitably
bound to erupt. It was certainly entertaining to
watch this Hedda play, by turns, the puppeteer
and the bulldozer; even so, we have to remember
she traipses through life like the rest of us mortals,
who must pay the penalty for transgressing the
rules even before even having learned what the
rules are. “I don’t think she has a plan. She’s
making it up as she goes along,” senior Birdi
Mueller, another audience member, said. For this
reason, despite immensely enjoying Vandiver’s
flamboyant malevolence, I found myself craving
more intimations of Hedda’s humanity. (Yes, I
recognize that what I have just stated contradicts
my early characterization of Hedda as a lioness
of a woman. I contain multitudes.) The real
undercurrent of agony that flows through Hedda
Gabler is the thought that the protagonist, though
she possesses considerable gifts, is still just a person
who loses her way and then loses everything.
As the magnanimous Robert de Niro once
said, “The saddest thing in life is wasted talent.”
Somebody get this poor woman a drink.
Medea, William Wetmore Story
Soap Bubbles Jean Simeon Chardin
the Gadfly / πόλις / January, 2023
15
�{We Should Be As Annoying as Socrates}
The Gadfly Told Me To Do It
Daniel Nathan
First off, let me preface this by saying I am definitely
not doing a commentary about this newspaper at all.
No, the gadfly I’m speaking of is Socrates’ as he stood
before the court in Plato’s Apology—although the
pages of this paper do offer vital ground and, maybe
more importantly, an actual physical space with which
to gadfly (v.) - “to provoke and annoy as you go about
seeking truth.” That is, to agitate, annoy, and create a stir
within the polity, stinging those buzzed on comfortable
routines of truth. What is neat is made crooked; what is
simple is deliberately complicated. The overall purpose
of the gadfly isn’t dissent, but it is the outcome the
gadfly aims for in the immediate, practical sense. So,
all I ask is that you consider with me dissent as a sign,
not of sickness, but of health amongst the polity. But
you may object, “Come on, does our polity here at St.
John’s really need that?” I don’t know, you decide. Are
you satisfied with your pursuit? Are there ways to more
effectively foster truth in our community? Is campus
culture even that deep?
As all students at St. John’s (should) know by now,
Socrates spoke before the court in defense of his life.
His was not merely an effort to save his life, but also, in
a wider sense, his livelihood: the examined life which
he advocated for, where one might find those qualities
specific to each and every form and the conditions that
necessitate and constitute each and every soul, where
that tip-of-your-tongue, deep down “thingness” lies,
for lack of a better term—that quality which makes
Socrates not only a man and a teacher but also a
Socrates.
In his account, ancient Athens was like a “horse
which was somewhat sluggish,” which “needed to be
riled up by a sort of gadfly.” (30e). Here, let’s consider a
“gadfly” basically as a shorthand for a dissent-monger,
and this dissent and the related monger are good, or at
least reaching towards the good. But examples from our
own not-not-dystopian day and age have proven that
the good can be hard to come by, like a ghost whose
presence is felt but we all only pretend to see: disruptors
in Silicon Valley have racked up quite a laundry list of
harm done to the social fabric with their algorithms
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the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / January, 2023
and public trust violations and income inequality;
Marxist revolutionaries did some similar stuff too. As
did the United States’ effort to “spread democracy”
in the Middle East—”spreading” referring to hostile
military occupation and the word democracy more
accurately meaning “in line with United States’ global
economic interests,” in what it saw as the developing
world, not to put too fine a point on it. As did those
patriots at the Capitol (Don’t let me lose you here)
who brought 4chan into the real world, materializing
the national mood of paranoid psychosis during the
pandemic, which had been merely digital for many up
until that point. And some say that those of us who
marched in the streets six months prior to that day
caused our fair share of harm too. What I mean by this
is simply that we all just believe in the truths that we
experience as true and we reject out of hand, wholehoggedly, any truth which does not cohere with, nor
correspond to our own conceptions of our experiences,
built up like scaffolding around some present reality.
This thinking is natural though; it is also exactly what
Socrates considered to be base.
But what I can’t help myself from thinking about
though is just how sort of pathetic Socrates’ version of
dissent-mongering seems to be according to his own
metaphor. The gadfly's function as a silly, disregardable,
and easily disposed of provocation artist—like a guy
who is impeccably learned in the art of retort and saying
“Well, actually”—is not the role Socrates thought the
gods assigned it. Not a crackpot in a tinfoil hat, nor an
idiot on a soapbox, but rather, on the level of the heart,
the gadfly is like a troll basically. A good kind of troll
somehow. Not the guy on a college campus who sits at
a foldout table with a sign that expresses a controversial
hot take, challenging passersby to prove him wrong so
he can get a clip of him “owning the libs” and “dunking”
on those wayward, naive evil woke sheep. This
character is no gadfly, to be clear. These types are too
lonely and sad to pursue any truth outside of their page
views. Let’s take a more virtuous, charitable depiction
though: a gadfly with only good faith to spare, in
which the source of the polity’s agita actually offers,
�via the pursuit of truth and knowledge, the promise
of a meaningful relief from life’s unavoidable ills.
Leading the metaphorical horse to the proverbial
water or so it goes I guess.
It’s a case in which being annoying is the point,
demanding full-throated, unapologetic (not a
pun) engagement with the public due to just how
unbearably irritating and ultimately unavoidable the
gadfly’s frequent yet low-frequency stinging really
could be. While the simple troll’s pursuits come
from a sort of jolly sadism, the gadflys’ is sourced
from a place of virtue, however vulgar and tacky its
methods may seem on the surface at first.
Pursuing truth proved uncomfortable and awkward
for the Athenians, even making Thrasymachus blush.
And eventually some saw it simpler to just swat the
gadfly down and get it over and done with, rather
than have to deal with Socrates’ nonsense—to have
to take him seriously.
The gadfly, to Socrates, is easy to mock because
its positions are often easily mockable. Clearly. But
in taking the mantle of those positions, Socrates saw
a higher, deeper truth lurking, refusing to give way
and accept the way the world worked according to
the Athenians; he knew there was little to be found
in their comfort. Sending back the steak not because
it was overcooked but because the plate was empty.
What he aimed to persuade others into was an activity,
i.e., thinking critically (an inherently annoying thing
to have to do) which required participation (which
is often undesirable) which meant effort (the worst),
thus calling the polity out from their sleep. So then,
trying to think about what sort of “sleep” one might
find here at St. John’s, why not do our best to heed
the old man and break a shibboleth or two?
Regarding this “sleep” the gadfly exists to disrupt,
could it, in any way, be possible that we at this college
find this “sleep” somewhere in the texts of the canon?
“What?? B…b…but!!” Even further, do these grand
narratives somehow serve as a way in which the
polity uniquely makes its bed (with all its—we’ll call
them quirks) for which it will later have to lie in? An
article in the previous issue of this paper praised the
cultural bubble of St. John’s. But can one culture’s
truths be commensurate with another’s? Is truth still
truth outside the bubble one finds to contain truth?
Is that even the right way of thinking about truth?
“What is virtue?” you ask the Chick & Ruth’s
waitress during her twelfth hour into a sixteen hour
double shift. This is annoying, and she will be annoyed,
I assure you. But, I ask…is it noble? Well, it’s a really
embarrassing thing to do, and I will mock you, and I’d
say to you don’t do that—but dammit if I don’t want
to say that Socrates would have maybe considered it
bordering on gadfly-adjacent territory at the very least.
What should being a gadfly really look like? What
should it feel like? When everyone in your cultural
bubble—all the Great Minds—eat and sleep and read
and work and live like you do, must they also necessarily
think like you do?
I imagine a broad-shouldered Midshipman—a
paragon of fitness and health—wearing his dress white
uniform, which he says means something, (I can’t
prove it does not), while standing next to St. John’s
student, looking sickly and unseasonably pale and
wearing literally their father’s falling-apart fleece from
his college days forty years ago. The key markers and
identifiers are there—the “uniforms,” I’ll call them—
are clear: the juxtaposition is apparent. We get it. And
so I’ll ask then: do both the Midshipman’s and the
Johnnie’s “uniforms” mean anything? Do they matter?
If they do, then, whose meaning matters more? That is,
if we want to say one of them must matter more. Well
the question begs itself at this point: who, then, truly
matters more—who is more vital—to the functioning
of a free and open society? Who should the polity
regard themselves with? Those who pursue truth or
those who enlist to defend it—the gadfly or the horse?
I don’t know. Again, you get to decide.
This example is only half serious. I don’t suspect this
is the sort of respectable truth that we like to regard
ourselves as pursuing. But still, we should concern
ourselves with thinking, even when it appears vulgar
and tacky. Pressure must be applied to even our
conceptions of what seems safely bland and banal, if
not normal. Really, why should life be the way it is? Or
rather, why do we conceive of life the way we currently
do? Should we continue this way of thinking or should
we change our approach? Can we muster up the strength
to monger us some dissent in a direction towards the
good like Socrates taught to? Pastoral visions of perfect
the Gadfly / πόλις / January, 2023
17
�postulates won’t do. Reality, even our great books, aren’t so neat as to be inhuman, and neither are we; certainly this
article isn’t. But even with basic things that we can assert our autonomy upon and dissent from do exist here in our
bubble. Doing this will hopefully create meaningful exchange but also affect material change in however simple and
small a way it may; whether it be in choosing what we read, what we could or should think, how we could or should
behave and conduct ourselves, and fine…I’ll say it…where we could or should or (if we’re being honest) probably
shouldn’t smoke.
In the shape of our daily lives at this college, and for those who come here after we’ve gone, maybe we can be more
like Socrates’ gadfly; and hopefully in some small ways, we can succeed where Socrates tragically failed—hopefully
we are not killed off. All too often the ways things happen to be at the current moment are interpreted as absolute
outcomes—with ourselves as mere passive observers and spectators, not much more than ticket-holders—and so we
overlook most of what we encounter in life, and treat it all as undeniable—as duh’s—as matters of fact, as just another
symptom of life at a small, northeastern-ish liberal arts college. But what we may think is true, as we all (should)
know, is neither in fact nor in essence, anything near “truth.” Who do you wanna sting?
A literary argument on the second tier, Honore-Vicorin Daumier
18
the Gadfly / πόλις / January, 2023
�{Campus Culture and Its Future}
Some More on Smoking
John Teague
The most surprising thing about the smoking
debate at St. John’s College is the emotional hostility
that surrounds it. As an infrequent smoker myself,
I was shocked to learn that a personal activity could
generate so much controversy. Ms. Felbek has recently
complained about the hostility around this issue as
well, and, in a move towards cooperation, I would like
to attempt to reintroduce the spirit of lightness that
moves public discourse towards levity and productivity.
That spirit of lightness, however, must wait for me
to briefly address some of the overblown arguments
I’ve heard against smoking. First, one does not walk
through ‘clouds of smoke’ as they move through the
quad. Even before the new smoking policy was instated,
the amount of smoke in public areas of the college has
always been moderate. To avoid smoke, one simply
has to avoid the people smoking. Secondly, the health
risks of infrequently inhaling secondhand smoke
outdoors are minimal. Research published regarding
secondhand smoke refers to constant, heavy smoking
indoors, such as in the home. Merely catching a whiff
of smoke does not result in a measurable risk of cancer
for any but the sickliest. Thirdly, the smell of tobacco
smoke, while subjective, is generally not unpleasant. It
smells somewhat similar to a campfire, and everyone
likes campfires.
Going past all this, while most people’s concerns
about smoking rest in its effects on the body, few
consider the effects on the soul. After interviewing
many people, I have chanced upon this story.
After the founding of Kallipolis, there was a group
of people whose mixtures of bronze, silver, and gold
in their constitutions fluctuated so frequently that a
permanent position in the class system would cause
disaster for the entire city. They would mill about,
unproductively engaging in pointless or even harmful
discussions. They were generally too boredom-prone to
do hand labor and too wrong to make any important
decisions. The philosopher king, even in his infinite
wisdom, could not conceive an appropriate place for
these people. So, after a few years of these people being
a drain on society, he cast them into the wilderness.
They fled to the caves, where Nature sheltered them
from the elements.
Although they could scrounge together a meager
existence foraging and sleeping in the caves, their
memories of the luxuries of their past life made such
a life unbearable to them. They realized they needed
to form some sort of society to regain their previous
advantages. They held a meeting in one of the caves
to establish some sort of constitution. A cacophony
ensued as they nitpicked, redirected, and ignored each
other’s points. As they attempted to deliberate, they
made many gestures as they spoke and often moved
their hands to their mouths. As they were losing hope,
the dark cave was suddenly illuminated by a bright
white light. A silence fell over the room as everyone
recognized the divinity in their presence. Instinctively,
the whole crowd knelt down to pay respects to God,
who, in his infinite charity, came as a bringer of dignity
to these creatures. He spoke in a loud, clear voice:
“I have provided all of Man with fruit from the earth
and fishes from the sea, but not all can be sated from
such a simple diet. For you I leave another gift: the
tobacco plant. Use it that you may steady your hand
and focus your mind.”
The bringer of fire and wisdom produced a number
of tobacco leaves and placed them on the hearth. As the
cave filled with smoke, the people knew calmness and
deliberation. The elders sat around a stone table and
successfully drafted a constitution for the people of the
caves. All were joyous, their troubles had abated. The
next morning they raised themselves up out of the cave
and into the sunlight.
The next few years saw great advancements in the
political and logistical infrastructure of the town.
Technology improved rapidly, and with it came
advancements in the consumption of nicotine. Society
developed three different ways to smoke the tobacco
leaf: in cigarettes, cigars, and pipes. The three methods
reflected three relationships one has with tobacco. One
is moved either by his appetite, his want of distinction,
or his rationality.
It is plain to see how cigarettes correspond the
the Gadfly / πόλις / January, 2023
19
�appetitive part of the soul. Cigarette smoke is inhaled,
taken into the body like food. Cigarette smokers in
particular are struck by nicotine addictions, often
going outside to take smoke breaks many times during
a workday. The consumption of nicotine for cigarette
smokers is analogous to the consumption of food, and
must be undertaken at regular intervals, often forming
a routine. Cigarettes’ association with sex is also
undeniable. The post-coital cigarette has been a part
of culture for as long as cigarettes have been around.
They are used to heighten the sex appeal of characters
in film. A cigarette smoker experiences the craving and
sating of his appetite much more intentionally than
those who don’t smoke them and therefore must be
more wise when it comes to such matters.
Cigars, meanwhile, are an extension of the gloryseeking part of the soul. The cigar is more concerned
with the external, with the un-inhaled smoke forming
into impressive billows. Obviously, the phallic
symbolism of the cigar has been well documented as an
effective mode of power projection. The cigar smoker
creates for himself a visual gravitas, a demand for others’
attention and respect. Cigars are used for celebration,
as accompaniment to distinctive accomplishment.
As a more expensive way to consume tobacco, one
elevates himself above the proles with a more luxurious
smoking experience. The cigar smoker enhances class
distinction by consuming an imported luxury good,
using the problematic nature of cheap third world labor
to great effect.
For those who prefer to attempt to rationalize
their nicotine addiction, pipes are the smoking mode
of choice. We associate pipe smoking with wisdom,
visualizing it as the pastime of tweed-wearing Oxford
men, inducing a necessary occupation of the hands
while the smoker’s minds work out the puzzles of the
Universe. The pipe’s yonic form clearly imitates the
smoker’s relationship to knowledge. The way the pipe
takes in tobacco is the same as the way its smoker takes
in information, and both tobacco and preliminaries
are inflamed by the pipe smoker into something new:
a reasoned account. The pipe is truly a wondrous
invention for philosophy.
With these new implements of smoking discovered,
the refugees were able to build a great society.
Opposed to the focus on industrial growth of other
civilizations, the tobacco smokers were content to live
lives characterized by leisure, tradition, and rigorous
discourse. They made for themselves a college at which
they could exercise their minds studying the formative
works of their literary tradition. This is the same
college where, thousands of years in the future, we find
ourselves at today.
Tobacco Pipe with Case, ca. 1740
20
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / January, 2023
�{Thoughts on Johnnie Science}
Observing Living Beings The Wild Beast
Helen Wagner
With the end of the first semester, the freshmen have
completed their biological studies in Observing Living
Beings, and my first beloved green lab manual is worn
and underlined and slightly falling apart. Basking now
in the highlight-colored glow of Driesch and Aristotle’s
wisdom, I want to take this opportunity to meditate
on the nature of how we approach science at St. John’s.
It seems to me that studying science is like studying a
living being.
Perhaps over Christmas dinner you described the
college lab curriculum to a curious relative as the
“History of Science.” This terminology manages to
neatly quell and dissuade any further questions, for
example: why do we even learn all this outdated stuff ?
What is the value of considering the universe as Ptolemy
saw it when the scientific world has moved beyond this
perspective? But is “History of Science” really the best
way to explain what we do here? The qualifier “History
of ” seems redundant when I consider that science, by
nature, is a process. Studying its history is inherently
wrapped up in studying science itself as it moves and
breathes and changes over time. Thus, we must observe
it as a biologist observes a living being. As the biologist
is to the animal, the St. John’s student must be to
science itself.
But what exactly does this mean? First, we should
understand what it means to study an animal. How
does a biologist go about his work? Driesch writes of
the unique problem of the biologist:
The biologist is almost always in that strange plight
in which the physicist would be if he always had to
go to volcanoes in order to study the conductivity of
heat, or if he had to wait for thunder-storms in order
to study electricity. The biologist is dependent on the
specificity of living objects as they occur in nature.
Studying animals through scientific, ostensibly
empirical means is difficult precisely because they
are alive. We cannot isolate them from their living
existence the way that a physicist can isolate electricity
from a thunderstorm, for example. As soon as we
interfere or interact whatsoever with a given animal
subject, whether by dissection or some other form of
experimentation, we are changing—often killing—the
very life we hope to understand. Driesch explains that,
thanks to this problem, much of biology can be chalked
up to simple observation and description. He writes,
“We now understand why pure description, in the most
simple sense of the word, takes up such an enormous
part of every text-book of biological science.” Anyone
who’s read Theophrastus and Goethe can attest: pages
upon pages describing the intimate workings of plants
are tedious but necessary. In order to understand a living
being, we must observe it as it lives. We must see how
it acts when it is left alone in its natural environment.
We must watch it move. Aristotle showed plainly that
he understood this by dedicating an entire volume to
The Movement and another to The Gait of animals.
Many biologists have used vivisection to understand
the movement of internal organs— movement which
would be unobservable through dissection. Harvey
learned much of the information in De Motu Cordis
through vivisection: he would not know how the heart
worked if he hadn’t seen it pump blood. To understand
living things, it is essential that we study them while
they are alive.
Students of science are in the same predicament
regarding scientific inquiry. Like an animal, the body
of scientific knowledge changes and grows over time.
To understand its development, we must watch it in
action—in the wild. This means reading authors whose
work has been superseded by new developments.
Modern science textbooks would not explicitly agree
with Aristotle that creatures whose blood is hot, thin,
and clear are “[n]oblest of all” and “suited alike for
the development of courage and intelligence.” Nor
would they explain the growth of plants in terms
of pure and impure fluids, as Goethe does. Even
Driesch’s vitalism—the darling of many a Johnnie,
myself included—has been considered obsolete by the
scientific community since the ‘30s. Modern textbooks
would soberly discuss photosynthesis, adenosine
triphosphate, enzymes, substrates, red blood cells, and
DNA. And they would be right—in terms of current
science, at least. But science changes. The prevailing
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / January, 2023
21
�cosmological view among scientists until the 1950s was
the Steady-State model—a theory that the universe
had no beginning. But you wouldn’t find that in any
21st-century textbook. Now the most widely accepted
model is the Big Bang Theory, which states that the
universe did begin, approximately 14 billion years ago.
So how can we truly go about studying science, this
strange chimera that one moment says the universe has
no beginning, and the next that it does? We must hold
it loosely enough to account for such changes in human
knowledge. We must at the very least acknowledge that
textbooks cannot teach us how it really works: they
are ossified collections of facts which do not reflect
the living movement of science itself. Studying science
solely through textbooks is like trying to understand an
animal with only footprints and photographs.
At this college, I would argue, we do not study
physics, chemistry, or biology for their own sakes.
Instead, through these disciplines, we are studying
the process of scientific inquiry itself. If we simply
wanted to understand the workings of the world as we
know it, we would not spend hours reading scientific
theories which have since been replaced or improved
upon. Textbooks would suffice to keep us up-to-date
on the latest facts. But, if we want to understand how
science actually works, textbooks will not do. Current
facts and theories are only a snapshot of the great,
beautiful, breathing beast of Scientific Inquiry herself.
She lumbers through the halls of History searching for
knowledge, ears alert, nose to the ground, sometimes
drunk on success but nourished primarily by her many
failures, which keep her walking in the right direction.
Her tail occasionally bumps into an ecclesiastical
pedestal and shatters fragile and cherished religious
tenets which the Church usually later discovers weren’t
too important after all. Her fur is a tangled mess of
broken hypotheses and crossed-out equations; her
gait meandering and full of questions; her cry a halfarticulated attempt to explain the movement of the
heavens. Many have tried and failed to capture her,
tying her down across the sterile lab table of absolute
truth, only to see her waste away from starvation or
wildly break through her bonds, destroying her captors’
conception of truth in the process. She is the enemy of
anyone who tries to contain her, but the darling and
friend of the true scientist: the one who recognizes
her wildness, who gets on hands and knees in the dirt
and watches her quietly from behind a tree, no rope
or harness in sight. If the scientist truly knows how
to approach her, he will walk forward and reach out,
feeling her warm breath on his fingers, and perhaps she
will even eat from his open hand if in his palm he holds
the right morsel: a single, honest question.
The Repast of the Lion, Henri Rousseau
22
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / January, 2023
�{Student Translation and Commentary}
Translation of Baudelaire's "L'Idéal"
Luke Briner
It will not ever be these beauties cursory,
The shabby children of our late, debaséd time,
Dressed up from head to toe in girlish levity,
Who will know how to sate a famished heart like mine.
To Gavarni, anemia’s bard, do I thus leave
His warbling troupe of dolls, on sick, uneven keel,
For I will not among those roses pale receive
A flower that recalls my sanguine-red Ideal.
What my heart truly needs, with great, Tartarean depth,
Is she in crime so virile—you, Lady Macbeth,
The dream of Aeschylus, in blust’rous climate born,
Or you, dread-mistress Night, by salvaged Art composed,
Who solemnly contort, in stately strangeness posed,
With Titans’ mouths so sculpting your bewitching form!
COMMENTARY
The two themes I tried to communicate most clearly in this translation are, first, the contrast
between the impression of weak superficiality which Baudelaire gets from many of the women around
him along with the powerful, dominating spirit of the women he idealizes, and, second, the contrast
between the modernity of the former and the antiquity of the latter. The first two quatrains of the
poem introduce and subsequently reject the first group while alluding vaguely to the second, with the
following two tercets formally introducing examples from it.
I generally stayed faithful to the original French with two major exceptions, both made in order to
more clearly convey the themes just mentioned. I decided to render line 3, which literally from the
French goes something like “these feet with brodequins (high shoes), these fingers with castanets,”
as “dressed up from head to toe in girlish levity” in order to focus on, with more universality, the
idea of gaudiness and frivolity which Baudelaire aimed to communicate with the specific examples of
brodequins and castanets. Likewise, in line 12, literally something like “or you, great Night, daughter
of Michelangelo” I decided to replace the reference to Michelangelo with “by salvaged Art composed”
in order to universally convey the Renaissance’s spirit of rescuing and reviving the ways of an older—
and to Baudelaire, maybe better—time which Michelangelo was an embodiment of. One additional,
smaller deviation also worth noting is my decision to replace the French’s “beautés de vignettes,” or
“beauties of vignettes,” simply with “beauties cursory,” with the same reasoning as my translation for
line 3. I’ve preser ved Baudelaire’s original iambic hexameter and rhyme scheme.
the Gadfly / πόλις / January, 2023
23
�THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
OF
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
Founded in 1980, the
Gadfly is the student
newsmagazine
distributed
to over
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faculty, staff, and alumni
of the Annapolis campus.
Opinions expressed within
are the responsibility of
the author(s). The Gadfly
reserves the right to accept,
reject, and edit submissions
in any way necessary to
publish
a
professional,
informative, and thought
provoking
newsmagazine.
Submissions sent to the Gadfly
should either be in Google
Docs or JPEG format. The
deadline for submissions is the
Friday prior to publication.
For
more
information,
contact us via email at
sjca .g adfly@gmail.com
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
24
the Gadfly / Sept 22, 2022
�
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Gadfly Vol XLIV issue 6
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St. John’s College
Vol. XLIV, Issue 1
the Gadfly
Annapolis, Maryland
Sept 5, 2022
�CONTENTS
Logos
From the Editor's Desk
3
The Johnnies Come Marching Home 4
Finds From the Archives
6
Symposium
On Governance
8
What's the Good of Liberal Education?12
Polis
Etiquette for Johnnies
14
Smoke Without Mirrors
15
And They Gave Her a Fork
16
When Vineyards are Yearning Again17
Freshmen Bodies, Freshman Souls18
Polity Communications
19
THE STRUCTURE
Logos typically holds news reports and
narratives of immediate relevance to the
Polity. The purpose here is to develop a shared
reservoir of information relating to campus life
and the community. The Managing Editor for
Logos is El'ad Nichols-Kaufman. His email is
eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu
Symposium offers the opportunity for our
readers to thoughtfully consider contrasting
opinions regarding a particular topic. The
Managing Editor for Symposium is Luke Briner.
His email is lbriner@sjc.edu
Polis serves as a platform for elevating voices
in our community. Here we find letters to
the editor, columns, cartoons, and submitted
pieces. The Managing Editor for Polis is Daniel
Nathan. His email is djnathan@sjc.edu
THE COVER
Photo of the Achilles Rager, taken by Liz Dowdy
2
the
Gadfly / Sept 5, 2022
Contact Us
You can contact us by email at sjca.gadfly@gmail.
com or you can visit our office in the lower level of the
BBC (Room 110). Office hours will be announced in
a public email here shortly, though there will always be
a submission box outside. Submissions, suggestions,
comments, questions and concerns can be sent to us
in any manner you please, although we can't promise
we'll publish all of them. If you're interested in working
for or with us, please reach out to the email above or
to our Editor-in-Chief directly at cekoch@sjc.edu.
If you live within 5 miles of campus and would like
a physical copy of the paper delivered to you, email
us! If you live or work on campus and would like a
physical copy of the paper delivered to you via campus
mail, email us! If you're interested in design, layout,
art, photography, writing, thinking, organizing, or
decorating, email us! If you're interested in eventually
becoming a part of the Johnnie historical record,
email us! If you have nothing better to do on the
weekend, email us! Otherwise, have a good day, and
enjoy our paper.
THE STAFF
Audrey Fox
Cooper Ussery
Craig Koch
Daniel Nathan
El'ad Nichols-Kaufman
Isa Kiedrowski
Liz Dowdy
Luke Briner
Meliha Anthony
SUBMISSIONS
Bryce Jacobsen
Michael Jeramaz
Robert Abbott
�D
From the Editor’s Desk:
ear Polity,
You have found yourself committed to a year of study, community, and, if you’re lucky,
illumination. For much of the year, you will be alone—fixed in a chair, laid in bed, or otherwise at
rest and restricted. You will be reading great books. In them, you will find the dead leftovers of great
minds. When you first try to give life to their markings, you’ll find yourself faced with a picture show
of shadows and echoes. It is important that you take these apparitions seriously: you should learn the
shape of them, their names, and their order of appearance. You should have a memory for what you read.
At the same time, you must hate the memory that is nothing more than succession. You must crave the
song itself and the harmony it sings.
To this end, you have many advantages over those cave dwellers who are otherwise so ‘like us.’ The
movement of dialectic—so terrifying to those who were born bound and still—is perhaps familiar to
you, exciting. Since childhood, you have been able to note the movements of your own body, voice,
and ear. You may even have recognized your own deficiencies and sought to correct them by forming
an account of the error and then rehearsing the position again, seeking new possibilities and new grips.
If you have ever done this—if you have ever realized the capacity for confusion that differentiates you
from the brutes—it is possible that you also found within yourself a new and surprising interest: λόγος,
speech, and what it is others can teach you in conversation.
Your ability to discover this love on your own is your greatest advantage over those cave-dwellers
who cannot speak but must have speech imputed to them by one who can (515b). Not only can you
utter sounds which name something greater than your reference, but you can talk with another and
realize what binds you in agreement and what splits you apart. You can hear the song of thought and
you can tell when it fails. Your education at St. John’s is an opportunity to practice this ability. For at
least some of the time, though, you will find that your body and your voice fail you and that you are no
better off than those in the cave who do nothing but sit and watch whatever is thrown in front of them.
This is what we call doing the reading. When you find yourself like this, you must have a memory and
remember what it is you’ve done all your life: you have moved or been moved and you have sometimes
sought to make sense of those movements. In reading, you must do the same. But since the written word
is dead and cannot move itself, and since you cannot move the text by the powers of your body or your
voice, you must engage the text with your mind and find the song—the νοῦς, the arrangement—that
makes the markings musical. Talking with others aloud after attempting this quietly on your own will
always help the song become clearer, and your fellow learners will always help you find notes that you’ve
missed. Through speech with them, the song itself will become clearer. Or, changing very little: through
διάλογος, νοῦς.
Working towards this end is the purpose of The Gadfly. We are a paper for you to speak through
and to speak with. Please, then, converse with us throughout this year and write us whenever you see
something in the magazine that warrants a printed reply, let us know when there is an event you think
we ought to cover, submit your opinions or your researches, and generally dare to share and discuss
what is shared. In short: treat The Gadfly as a continuation of what is best about St. John’s. Not just an
attempt at reporting or distributing, but a project concerned with life and the continual attempt to live
it well and with the right amount of color.
Sincerely,
Craig Koch
the
Gadfly / Sept 5, 2022
3
�{campus culture}
The Johnnies Come Marching Home Again
by El'ad Nichols-Kaufman '25
I
t is a sight this campus has seen
almost 230 times, and remains,
in a way, novel at each one of them.
The chaos of move in day: from
the multitude of baffled freshmen
searching for their next orientation
session to the scores of upperclassmen
trying to lug minifridges up four
flights of stairs; followed by the lull
between arrival and convocation, and
then the frantic energy applied to the
waltz, first seminar, and the beginning
of classes.
This year, too, the sight was familiar,
although some changes to the polity
still stood out. The most obvious of
these are the changes to the physical
footprint of campus, which has shifted
beneath our feet over the summer. The
health center has descended to more
expansive quarters below Randall,
and administration offices are shifting
around from building to building.
Parts of Mellon are still turned inside
out as a construction site, and at the
Board of Visitors and Governors
meeting this summer, more substantial
renovations to dorms were discussed.
Less visible, but even more
notable to returning Johnnies, are
the new members of the College’s
administration. Our new assistant
dean is Mr. Abbot, who has long been
a member of the polity and has written
an article for another section of this
issue, and our new athletic director
is Rachel Fleming. The contributions
of the college’s administrators to the
daily life of the average Johnnie may
not always be clear, but their impact
on campus is unmistakable, and it
will be exciting to see our new leader’s
footprints.
4
the
Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 5, 2022
More intangibly, campus life is
not quite the same as last year, either.
Across the classes, the social and
academic mood on campus is positive.
“Socially, it feels like St. John’s is back,
in a way that it didn’t feel like at the
beginning of last year,” explained Peter
Boersema, a junior. “I’m on the quad
right now, and this is how I remember
it last year. These conversations are
going to go on for a long time… I’m
excited about the year.” Academically,
Connor Robinson, a sophomore,
concurred with the sentiment. “The
first seminar was the best I’ve ever had,
and the second one was really good.
I'm cautiously optimistic about the
year.” Magnolia Vandiver, sophomore,
explained further, “Having new tutors
helps me see my classmates in a new
way.”
For the freshmen, of course, the
newness of it all comes across rather
differently. The simple absurdity of St.
John’s is a change more drastic than any
of the polity’s internal realignments.
“St. John’s is a unique place,” explained
Jonathan Teagan, a freshman. “I have
never seen more nerds in one area
since Comic-Con.” It’s comforting, at
least for this sophomore, to know that
with all the changes, even if they are all
for the better, the Polity’s identity as a
place of intellectual curiosity, academic
interest and social strangeness still
stands strong.
The Bull
by Franz Marc
�{campus events}
The First Waltz of the Year
photos by Liz Dowdy '23
the
Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 5, 2022
5
�Finds from
the Archives
F
inds from the Archives is a new addition to the magazine that will run in every issue. The intention of it is to offer
the readership an ability to enjoy parts of St. John’s history that they otherwise might have missed while also
encouraging us to realize and remember parts of that history as sources of inspiration. All items are from the Greenfield
Library’s digital archive and are searchable by the titles given in bold. In the lower right hand corner of the second page,
we've included a list of past lectures that relate to what students have recently read or shortly will read. Enjoy!
The Perils of St. John's
1965
The Cover Page of The Modern Theatre Group's The
Perils of St. Johns. The music was composed by a tutor, Mr.
Michael Littleton, while the book and lyrics were written
by students. Alex Valk orchestrated. The full text of the
play is available online. It looks like it must have been quite
the production.
6
the
Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 5, 2022
Charlotte C. Barham and Ellen M.
Swinford Playing Baseball
ca. 1981
Two St. John's students enjoying America's past time, with
one of them looking to have just scored a run.
�The Collegian: Senior Prank Lyrics
1975
The title page of the lyric book for the Senior Prank of
1975 in the normally quite serious Collegian. The songs
for Junior and Senior year are particularly amusing.
Jacob Klein Leading Tutorial
ca. 1960-1970
Boxing Club program
1991
A flyer for a fundraising dance put on by the St. John's
Pugilist Society. Included with the item is an essay: Toward
a National Championship: The Metaphysics of Boxing.
Friday Night Lectures
Freshman
The Heart of the Program. Annapolis; Joe Sachs; January 17th, 2004.
Sophomore
Jerusalem and Athens: The Family Drama in the Bible and Greek
Thought. Annapolis; Ronna Burger; November 8th, 2019.
Junior
The Death of Don Quixote. Santa Fe; Cary Stickney; September 21st,
1990.
Senior
On Not Hating Hegel. Santa Fe; Cary Stickney.
Mr. Klein leading a well-dressed class in tutorial.
On Reading Hegel Before the Age of Eighty. Santa Fe; Janet
Dougherty; October 8th, 2004.
Hegel's Logic of Desire. Annapolis; Peter Kalkavage; March 24th,
1995.
the
Gadfly / λόγος / Sept 5, 2022
7
�On Governance
Robert Abbott
I
have been thinking about the work of the Assistant
Dean, and more broadly, the work of the faculty who do
not teach in the classroom–but have some other office. This
essay is in part concerned with the right use of words so I
may as well be gin by saying that the word “officer” is
an important one around here. It comes from the Latin
words opus (work) and facere (to do), and originally meant,
“someone who has a duty to do.” It also implies that the
one occupying the office does so temporarily before passing
off the work to someone else. “Officer” is the term we use
to name those responsible for steering the College: the
presidents, the deans, the treasurers, and College-wide
officials. You can read more about who they are and what
they do in our guiding document, the Polity, found on the
College’s website or in the Assistant Dean’s office.
The collection of such people at other institutions of
learning is usually called The Administration. That phrase
is not found in the Polity at least in that sense, but it has
become usual in our everyday speech. It used to be frowned
upon around here and I still do frown when I hear it.
“Administration” connotes a large, impersonal bureaucracy
when we should be referring to only a few individuals, not a
collection of furniture. Another reason not to use it is that
unlike the plural “officers,” “administration” is a singular
noun, and implies that there is a collective will behind
it. The leaders of the College should be individuals with
separate minds, opinions, and spheres of responsibility, not
constituents of an overarching, impersonal organization
promoting a unified message. “Administration” comes
from the word minus, as in “someone who is lesser than
someone else, a servant.” An administrative servant might
sound rather useful to you in your busy first few weeks here,
but I hope to show that you should not want one. (A more
idiosyncratic point: when I hear the word “administer” I
think of being given a shot in the arm, or worse, a formulaic
survey.)
It may seem so, but the purpose of this essay is not to
instigate a linguistic reformation–though we should
8
the
Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 5, 2022
always take great care about the way we speak. The purpose
of this essay is rather, as I said above, to think about the
responsibilities of those who lead the College. If it is not to
administer, what exactly is their work? I used a word that
might more closely approximate it, “to steer.” As many of
you know, I used to be a crew coach, and so I am partial
to nautical metaphors. Perhaps if I use a different word
for “steer,” a word with an even older etymology than
“administration” or “officer,” my metaphor will be more
like a definition. That word, “govern,” ultimately comes
from the Greek word kubernan, “to steer.” One name for
what the officers of the College are doing is governance, or,
steering.
A rudder, as James writes in his epistle, is a very small
agent with a very great effect. All sorts of interesting and
contradictory things can be going on inside a boat, but it
goes where the steersman steers it. This is sometimes how
the College works. Perhaps there is a question about what
is to be done involving controversial and complex issues.
When should we wear masks indoors? Should students be
required to purchase alcohol for parties? What honorifics
are to be used in the classroom? After all the conversation
inside the boat, a decision must be made. Part of the officers’
work might be to make that decision.
But something about this metaphor doesn’t sit quite
right with me. Maybe it describes the way things look but
doesn’t explain the way they are. For instance, it doesn’t
answer a rather crucial question: how did all these people
get in the boat in the first place? And for that matter, why
do they remain? Why don’t they each build a boat, jump
ship, and steer their own course? Though I began this essay
by wondering what the work of the College’s leaders is, I
have arrived at a new question: what cohesive principle
underlies the College community, without which there
would be no one to lead?
It might be helpful now for you to be told or reminded
of a practice the faculty has. Every month we gather as a
body–fifty or so people–and have a meeting. The meeting
�The Spirit of Knowledge
by Henry Fuseli (1798)
the
Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 5, 2022
9
�Man and Boy Walking Down Village Road
by Jan van Goyen or Paul Liender
is overseen by the president, and the faculty discusses
whatever needs to be discussed. Sometimes there are matters
of pressing concern. Is Freshman Advising an effective way
to help students begin their education at the College? Is
listening to a book the same as reading it in the traditional
way? How ought tutors be involved in the admissions
process? Sometimes there are more theoretical questions.
What is the role of the practicum in the laboratory? How
might we think about the readings in Senior Language
as a whole? Is the College flourishing? All of these were
questions discussed this past year. Meetings are lengthy
and wide-ranging, and the conversation often opens
unanticipated lines of inquiry. We speak in a spontaneous
and candid manner.
These sorts of conversations also occur in the committees
responsible for discussing more specific matters: Campus
Planning, Athletics, Financial Aid, Admissions, etc. If you
10
the
Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 5, 2022
were to listen in on these conversations, you would find
that no topic is too small or too large for serious attention.
After all, what might seem to be a small matter is often
linked to something greater. The faculty once considered–
before digital media made their appearance–whether the
coffeeshop should sell newspapers. This rested on a more
fundamental question. What kind of attention should
we encourage the students to cultivate: an immediate
concern with the contemporary situation of the world
or a settled contemplation of the fundamental questions
underlying it? There are things to be said on both sides of
this question, and they were. You would find similar and
seemingly “administrative” questions considered with great
seriousness over the decades the New Program has existed.
Should there be a book drop at the library? Should the
College maintain a scholarly journal? In what way should
we represent ourselves to prospective students to convey
�honestly and economically our essential aims and character?
What is the optimal number of students on each campus so
that we nurture a true community?
This last question was taken up when ground had not
yet been broken for Spector and Gilliam. The president
held a public forum so that students could be informed of
the plans to build two new dormitories and discuss what
effect this might have on the community. Some students
were concerned that more housing would mean a larger
student body. It has turned out that the size of the College
has only slightly increased, while more and more expensive
housing in Annapolis has pushed many students to live on
campus. The new dorms have accommodated that change.
This kind of forum arises as needed but there are standing
bodies in which matters of concern are regularly taken up
by students. The Delegate Council, the Student Committee
on Instruction, and the Committee on Student Life all have
their role to play in governance.
As I use that word again, “governance,” I am left with
the same uneasy feeling. It does not capture what I have
described above, particularly when I consider that the
cohesive principle I am trying to grasp is present not only in
formal deliberative bodies, but in informal conversations,
at unscheduled times, and in private–standing in line at the
dining hall, running into each other on the quad between
classes, or conversing over the dinner table. It is both a duty
and a feeling, an activity and an expectation, an honor and
a joy. I believe I can name it more correctly by adding a
simple but meaningful prefix to our previous designation.
The special atmosphere we breathe around here is selfgovernance. You might think that self-governance is a
delimited right to have a say over particular aspects of one’s
well-being (such as health care) or one’s work (such as the
classroom). But that is not the kind of self-governance that
envisioned and built the College. Nor is self-governance
merely the right to be heard or the right to representation.
That would be the right to be a constituency—a paying
or paid passenger on the boat. Self-governance is a way of
deliberating about, taking care of, and acting for the whole
good of the community of which one is a part. It is the
reason we stay in the boat, and when it is lost, we will go
our separate ways.
You can now see why the notion of an administration
acting as a servant to its master is so alien to the College.
We are meant to govern ourselves. We do not need servants,
and we do not want to be masters. Students too are meant
to be self-governing individuals responsible for thinking
about and caring for the whole. (You can find the Student
Polity at the back of the Student Handbook.) We are not
alone in attempting this way of life. The Athenians might
recognize us as cousins–gossipy, inquisitive, perpetually
active, not always effectual, deeply interested in what is best,
questioning the limits of what is possible, preserving what
we know to be fragile and hard-won traditions, knowing
that it is a difficult but beautiful thing to rule and be ruled. It
is a fragile form of government and not necessarily the best.
It isn’t really a definite “form” of government at all, though
those who care about self-governance conscientiously
observe the written and unwritten conventions that sustain
it. Besides being a shared activity, self-governance is, as I
said above, a feeling. It is not a transient pleasure or pain,
but an educable conviction like pride or shame, a bonedeep sensibility, something you both cherish and expect,
like fine weather in May.
By way of a humorous coda, I’ll share something I
learned about the office of the Assistant Dean while I was
reading the Student Handbook (available on the website).
Towards the middle of the Handbook there is a helpful list
called, “Whom to See about What.” The last item to see the
Assistant Dean about is, “Anything not handled by anyone
else.” It is wise to have such an indeterminate provision in
one’s constitution. As you talk to upperclassmen, tutors,
and staff, you will naturally figure out “whom to see about
what” and get to know your community at the same time.
I encourage you to ask questions of those you meet, just as
you would in the classroom. And should you ever not know
what to do with your question, please feel free to drop by
the office of the Assistant Dean.
the
Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 5, 2022
11
�What's the Good of a
Liberal Education?
Luke Briner
A
s the first cracks of the new year’s dawn finally make
their way above the summer’s horizon, and as a new
class of wide-eyed freshmen set their feet on those ancient
red bricks of ours for the first time, filled with anxiety
and anticipation for what our College will bring them, it
seems important now more than ever to ask what exactly
we intend to accomplish at St. John’s. What, we must ask
ourselves, is the good of a liberal education?
Advocates of liberal education often argue at the outset
that it’s devoid of any external, material, utilitarian end.
This is pretty apparent from the constitution of liberal
education as a whole; by dipping our toes into virtually every
facet of human life through the seven Arts of the trivium
and quadrivium,1 we’re intentionally prevented from
concentrating on any particular field or trade with concrete
application. But these advocates argue that the lack of this
kind of good is precisely liberal education’s strength. Ms.
Eva Brann, in her Manifesto for Liberal Education, provides
an explanation for this lack of utilitarian intent:
“[I]n education utility is impractical. Eventually
almost everyone had better become a this or a that….
but parents and the world owe the young some (let it
be four) clear years for becoming not a this or a that,
but for learning to be a human being, whose powers of
thought are well exercised, whose imagination is well
stocked, whose will has conceived some large human
purpose, and whose passions have found some find
object of love about which to crystallize.”
If we aren’t learning to “become a this or that” but “to
be a human being” on the level that Ms. Brann describes,
then clearly liberal education is intended to bear internal
rather than external fruits, its aim being the excellence of
the human being in themselves rather than in this or that
particular sense. What must be explained next, then, is
exactly how this sort of excellence is fostered. By carefully
considering and questioning “what is elementary in all
subject matters,”2 students tend to and are intended to begin
asking the deeper philosophical, moral, or simply human
questions that underlie life. In this dialectical deepening,
12
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Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 5, 2022
the line between the examination of a text or idea and
the examination of the self blurs. It’s the student’s active
presence to this blurring that makes it possible for them to
fundamentally change their perspectives and characters;
dialectic and dialogue on what is elementary in our thought
is necessary in order to interface with what is elementary in
ourselves. This is precisely why Socrates remarks to Meno
that a state of deep questioning and perplexity is necessary
for the improvement of our thinking and our lives,3 and why
Mr. Stringfellow Barr writes that “we can never live wholly
human lives without a genuine converse between men.”4
But something is wrong in supposing so straightforwardly
that liberal education brings about the moral betterment
of human beings. While I agree that the purpose of liberal
education is to bring this about, I confess that I’ve become
highly skeptical of its actual ability to do precisely that. We
can talk all we want about liberal education being in the
business of “freeing minds,” as one of our own College’s
slogans proclaims, or generally of creating excellent human
beings; but even a cursory observation of liberal arts
students makes clear that many if not most of us are far from
actually living up to that standard. Taken as a whole, I don’t
believe we’re any more temperate, courageous, prudent, or
just than any other random swath of human beings, in spite
of us likely having spent a great deal more time reading and
discussing fancy old books than they have. By this fact alone,
it’s clearly no guarantee, nor is it necessarily even probable,
that our minds will be “freed” and our characters improved
in the way that we’ve considered. But if liberal education
has no practical utility, and if even the internal benefit it
boasts of is infrequent at best, then its moral value must be
extremely limited. Socrates’ question about whether virtue
really can be taught seems to be the right one, since people
can turn out morally deficient even after the most excellent
education.5 As Seneca held that “[p]eople prone to every
fault they denounce are walking advertisements of the
uselessness of their training,”6 so I hold that people who fall
short of every ideal that they set for themselves are walking
advertisements of the same.
�Moreover, other forms of education operate under the
assumption that “each tree is known by its own fruit” (Luke
6.44). For instance, engineering schools aim to generally
produce good engineers, and schools that fall short of
consistently achieving this are rightly considered failures.
But if the same principle holds for liberal education with its
end being to produce truly, fundamentally excellent human
beings, shouldn’t we consider it a failure too, considering
it falls short of achieving that end for most of its students?
Even when we consider cases where liberal education
comes off best, with the student truly blossoming into
excellence by submitting to its discipline, its efficacy still
seems questionable to me. In such cases, we need to ask
whether the student’s character was changed by it in the
sense that it was a true efficient cause, or whether they
already had noble intentions beforehand, which they then
simply realized through it. If it’s true, as Ms. Brann says, that
“it is flabbily inflated and implausible to talk of teaching
students to think—no one can do that,”7 then while liberal
education is capable of facilitating the improvement of a will
already sincerely invested in its own moral improvement,
it isn’t capable of instilling that will itself in them. But if
this is the case, then liberal education is in a sense morally
redundant, since it only really helps those who already have
the earnest will to become better people through it. In
other words, the moral efficacy of liberal education appears
to be limited by the fact that it can only help those who
care about it in the first place—which is itself due to a prior
moral will—and so cannot convert a non-moral to a moral
will; at the very least, it hasn’t been made clear that this
conversion is directly possible.
We must ask again, then: what’s the good of a liberal
education? What’s clear enough, at least, is that the
relationship between liberal education and excellence
of character is not a causal one—the former in no way
necessarily leads to the latter, despite the latter being the
former’s professed benefit. But even though there’s no causal
relationship between them, it remains that liberal education
at least potentially has great benefit insofar as it allows
for and facilitates the development of a genuinely moral
character. Since liberal education points not outwardly but
inwardly, and intends thereby to focus the students upon
their own selves, it gives the student the ability to genuinely
determine what they believe to be the Right and the Good,
independent of any other consideration—to ground
themselves upon a foundation that they have intentionally,
organically, and rationally developed. And if this remains
true, then perhaps it isn’t actually necessary that we begin
our liberal education with the explicit will to become an
excellent human being in order to actually become one
through it, but only with the will to take the actual work
of that education, i.e., dialogue and dialectic, seriously—to
open our minds and our hearts to it, and to sincerely give
ourselves to the terrifying and delightful perplexity that
noble character and moral conviction can at last burst forth
from. If we’re able to do just this earnestly and resolutely,
then a deeper transformation of the moral character seems
feasible, since it remains true that it’s only through dialogue
and dialectic that the grounds for such a transformation is
possible.
This, I venture, is the true good of a liberal education:
that it alone, out of all the disciplines of the world, has
even the possible capacity of helping us to develop this kind
of will. Liberal education, therefore, is a worthy study for
human beings, as Seneca reflects, “[n]ot because it can
make them morally good but because it prepares the mind
for the acquisition of moral values.”8 And if it’s true that
the development of genuinely moral character does in fact
remain the exclusive domain of liberal education, then it
turns out after all that such an education is indispensable
for living a good life, since it’s only by the fruit of the
dialectically-achieved self-understanding and self-mastery
that it provides that a truly moral character can be achieved.
If this conclusion has any shred of truth in it, then
the most crucial factor in determining whether any of us
actually derive any good from our education at St. John’s
is ourselves. If we give ourselves to our Program, then the
Program will give itself to us—and, on that principle, we
can choose for ourselves whether to chisel our inner statues
until the “godlike splendor of virtue”9 begins to shine from
it, or to squander some of the choicest and most formative
years of our lives. Let’s, then, try to emulate Socrates and
become devoted midwives for each other and thereby for
ourselves, giving birth not only to great ideas, but to great
souls; and, in doing so, do honor not only to ourselves but
to the very pursuit of Wisdom. Let us try to become living
testaments to the good that a liberal education can still have.
notes
(1) The trivium consists of grammar, rhetoric, and logic; the
quadrivium consists of astronomy, music, geometry, and arithmetic.
Together, they make up the Seven Liberal Arts which our own
Program, and liberal education in general, is centered upon.
(2) Brann, A Manifesto for Liberal Education, Thesis Two.
(3) Plato, Meno, 84b-c.
(4) Notes on Dialogue, §2.
(5) Meno, 93a-96d.
(6) Letters From a Stoic, Letter CVIII.
(7) A Manifesto for Liberal Education, Thesis Three.
(8) Letters From a Stoic, letter LXXXVIII.
(9) Plotinus, Ennead I.6.9.
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Sept 5, 2022
13
�{campus opinon}
Etiquette for Johnnies
Isa Kiedrowski
T
echnically, I suppose a better title would have been
“Etiquette- and Manners-Based Customs and
Traditions at St. John’s College,” but that’s a mouthful,
and your average reader would have already skimmed on
to the next article already. Other discarded titles included
“Sit Down, Shut Up, Start Talking: A Guide to Classroom
Manners,” which didn’t have quite the tone I was going for,
and “Yes, You Should Stand Before The Lecture Begins.”
And while one might think some of the etiquette at
St. John’s belongs to the “Cult of Antiquity,” I would
like to posit that it does not. Respect has yet to become
unfashionable, after all. Archaic though some of these
customs may seem, at the end of the day, they are all rooted
in plain good manners.
Tutorials
You may have by now noticed that we address each
other by last name and honorific. While it is permissible to
occasionally slip up and call your friend by their first name
in class, there is one rule you must forever observe: Ms.
Brann is never to be called “Eva.” Ever. I saw a freshman do
it once. Only once. He was never heard from again.
I recently read that answering the call of nature, as it were,
is discouraged during tutorials. Technically, that is true. But
don’t sacrifice your bladder for your tutorial. You will be
of far less use to everyone if you spontaneously combust
during your music class.
Lectures
Stand at the beginning. Stand at the end. Avoid looking
at your phone in the middle.
Waltz Parties
Dancing and etiquette have always been deeply
intertwined. So much so, in fact, that it warrants an article
of its own. Dancing was once the social activity to top them
all, and it came with its own set of rules, regulations, and
conventions devoted to ensuring that all involved had at
least a tolerable time. Some were useful (the notion that
“cutting in”—simply tapping a fellow on the shoulder to
borrow his partner—is the height of rudeness, and ought
only to be employed in extreme circumstances), others cruel
(that a girl who realizes that she is unpopular ought to spare
everyone the trouble of her presence and go home, to “look
around for other worlds to conquer”), and others that were
definitely a product of their time (dancing more than twice
with the same partner could be considered tantamount to
announcing one’s engagement). Some of these rules have
trickled down to us, others have been mercifully abandoned.
A rule I really wish I didn’t have to bring up involves
hands—namely, their location. Suffice it to say that hands
should not wander from their standard positions. Trust me
when I say there’s no way your hands got there by accident.
Not only does it make one run for the smelling salts, but it
could also devolve into a Title IX case.
Yours truly also happens to be of the opinion that Waltz
Parties would be greatly improved by the addition of dance
cards, but that is a discussion for another Waltz Committee
meeting.
Seminars
We’re getting back into the swing of post-Zoom things,
but it bears reminding that the mute button no longer
exists. This means that one unfortunately cannot mutter
Reality
snide things under one’s breath. It also means that it’s
I don’t think etiquette has ever applied here. So you have
easier to talk over one’s classmates again. I certainly don’t
want to cause anyone any more anxiety than they already my permission: go hog-wild if you want. Maybe hold the
have, but please remember that your classmates have things door on occasion, though?
to say as well. “I’m sorry. Please, do go ahead,” is always a
good response if you find the beginning of your sentence
colliding with the middle of someone else’s.
Technically, seminars have no end time, hence the
seminar last year that lasted three hours (apologies if the
wound is still fresh). There is no good way to end a seminar
reprinted from
early if you aren’t a tutor.
The Gadfly Vol XLIII, Issue 02
14
the
Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 5, 2022
�{smoke without mirrors}
Smoke Without Mirrors Year 3:
Your Annual Report on Nictoine and New Beginnings
Daniel Nathan
A
t St. John’s, nicotine usage—cigarettes, more to the
point—is an oft undertaken habit. A lifestyle to some.
A cultural flashpoint to others. School spirit to many. From
the legends of smoking in seminar to the ten minute (not
necessarily a smoke, but effectively a smoke) break during
long lab, cigarettes have long been a St. John’s staple. Will
it stay that way? Can it stay that way? Before that, some
context.
First, they came for the mango Juul pods, then it was
the menthol cigarette ban, then there was the initial order
banning Juuls altogether, which a federal appeals court
temporarily blocked. “They,” of course, is the cold, paternal
hand of the FDA. Over the course of last few years, there
has been a wave of anti-smoking and anti-vaping policy
enacted by Washington directed at lowering usage amongst
America’s youngest and hopefully halting the rise of
addiction amongst susceptible zoomers. From the lowering
of nicotine levels in cigarettes to tightening restrictions on
fruit-flavored and sweet-smelling vape products, an old
crusade is being renewed, harkening back to the days of
the Big Tobacco lawsuits of the late 90s and early aughts.
These lawsuits—many of them class action—swung public
opinion firmly against Big Tobacco and severely hamstrung
the industry’s influence and stature, and, not to mention,
cost the largest tobacco corporations billions, which they
are still paying out to this day.
Fast forwarding to the present, not only have new
technologies such as vapes and other electronic cigarettes
revolutionized the tobacco industry, but nicotine use has
risen steadily and staggeringly in recent years. These discreet
“smokeless” alternatives have rushed the market over the
last decade or so. A 2018 study conducted by NIH found
that over 37% of 12th graders had tried vape products, a
9% increase from the previous year, and trends indicate
that without substantial intervention these numbers will
continue to rise.
Since students returned to campus in the spring of 2021
after the initial wave of Covid and shutdowns during the
pandemic, there have been a slew of changes on campus
enacted by the college’s administration. The ashtrays around
campus and near the quad were removed and smokers were
driven into their huddled masses, confined to the grassy
knoll beside the Campbell parking lot and bordering the
Paca-Carroll dorms. During the summer semester of 2021,
students were even threatened with fines and expulsion
from on-campus living if they were caught smoking outside
the approved smoking area. Though few students faced
this wrath, the message had been sent loud and clear: any
sort of cigarette culture at St. John’s—like at many other
institutions—was a thing of the past. And if it must stay,
it will be tucked far, far away, where no can hear you or see
you or God forbid smell you.
But as 2021’s fall semester began, complaints soon started
to roll in from residents of Paca-Carroll that the odor of
cigarette smoke was wafting into dorm rooms. Thus, the
smoking section was moved once again to the spot where
it now lives and breathes and will most assuredly die: the
desolate puka shell necklace of chairs and ashtrays wrapped
around long-dead grass, tucked in between the tennis courts
and the gym. What I have so graciously dubbed: The Most
Depressing Place on Earth. The current smoking section
goes by many names. Originally called the Fern Lounge
by admin, this name did not stick, and some enterprising
individuals started to refer to it as Wolf Mountain, or by its
full territorial title: Bone Tree at Wolf Mountain. Simple,
sleek, elegant. But whatever the name may be, it now rests
as the one and only designated (key word) spot to smoke on
campus—a second designated spot technically does exist
behind Spector hall, near where Buildings and Grounds are
located, which may as well be off-campus.
Nevertheless, for all you smokers and non-smokers
alike, you teetotalers and vapists, the important thing is
to remember that there is a new year upon us, and You
Have Made It. Whether it was through the rejection
letter from Brown or due to a somewhat suspicious love
of western intellectual heritage, you are here. And through
the ups and downs, the pulling out of hair and the tugging
of heartstrings, we are all in for another year at St. John’s
College, whatever that may entail. So, smoke ‘em if you got
‘em.
the
Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 5, 2022
15
�{and they gave her a fork}
Greetings!
(And a review of Bread and Butter Kitchen)
Audrey Fox
T
he pursuit of an Annapolis Foodie is trite and
contradictory, a bit of a paradox one might say. “All
Annapolis Foodies are Liars!” I shout as I proceed to enjoy
an overpriced salad in the warm industrial lighting of some
wine bar. So take what I say with a grain of salt, or perhaps
a whole fistful, if you’re willing to follow an assuredly blind
guide.
Before I get into the particulars, my overall review of the
Annapolis food scene is thus: it’s a scam, rarely worth your
hard earned dollars! Thomas Jefferson would be rolling in
his grave. No pursuit of happiness left in Annapolis, only
total disappointment. However, for the sake of you, good
reader, I wish to take you down the treacherous path of
optimism and seek as many worthwhile dives in order to
keep your hard working brains and well-restrained mouths
satisfied for this coming year.
You’re going to have to forgive me, good reader. My first
review has two outstanding issues that I must confess before
continuing. One: as I am writing this review in order to
prove to my magnanimous editors my critical capabilities
and appetite, the contents will be supplied mainly from
memory and not from a recent restaurant trip. In the
future, I hope to provide more details and accurate meal
prices for my reviews. Two: the location of said restaurant
is in Eastport, not Annapolis. Please do not fret! It is within
walking distance, and the directions I will now give.
It’s 8am on a Saturday, and while you usually find dining
hall brunch a satisfying enough meal, today it’s just not
going to cut it. You don’t just want breakfast food, you are
craving comfort, you are craving warmth, might I say–joy?
Joy is not always found in dining hall brunch. So you gather
the troops together, coaxing hungover friends from their
dens as a mother goose to her goslings does, and you lead
them off campus onto the treacherous streets of Annapolis.
You head down Main Street, towards the docks. You’re
going to go down Compromise Street and lo and behold a
bridge! Well you and your comrades cross this bridge and
come to Severn Ave and make a left. From there walk a few
blocks down to Second Street and make another left and on
the right side of the block, dear reader, you’ll find a favorite
spot of mine called Bread and Butter Kitchen.
At first glance it does not seem very impressive, just
a small, unimposing place by the Eastport docks. But I
promise you there are few breakfast joints as good and
16
the
Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 5, 2022
Bread and Butter Kitchen
303 Second Street, Suite A
410-202-8680
breadandbutterkitchen.com
Open all week from 7:30 AM-3:00 PM.
affordable as here. The atmosphere is cozy, a few tables inside
plus a bar overlooking the water. On nice days they have
outdoor seating and a seemingly endless stream of middle
aged men with ponytails to play guitar for the guests. I’ve
personally always come here in the dead of winter, and
nothing beats walking inside after crossing the nefarious
bridge with its icy breeze. All the breakfast options are
great. I’d recommend either the southern chicken biscuit
sandwich or the pancakes (with blueberries). The biscuits
are freshly baked and absolutely divine. I am a northerner
myself but a southerner I’ve gone with hath hailed them a
proper biscuit. Most of their ingredients are sourced locally
and they make a majority from scratch–including their
delicious chorizo gravy and their sausage. Hands down, I’ve
never had better breakfast sausage. They include a variety
of vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options/substitutions
on their menu, which is rare to find at Annapolis casual
dining establishments. In my experience, they also have an
extremely friendly staff who will always take the opportunity
to chat when the restaurant isn’t too busy. On the beverage
side, nothing remarkable. They serve Open Sea’s Coffee
which gets the job done but is definitely not worth the trip
out. They do have an impressive bottled beverage selection,
such as local kombucha and bottled sodas, but again I’d be
going there for the irresistible food, not the drinks.
I think Bread and Butter Kitchen is more than worth
the trip out. In fact, I think it would serve any Johnnie
well to get away from campus if only for the morning. A
walk slightly outside one’s usual trodden path is a fabulous
way to chance upon something different and maybe even
exciting (God willing). My final words: break out of that
stifling routine and get you and your friends going on a
little culinary adventure!
�{poetry}
When Vineyards are Yearning Again
Michael Jeramaz
In the valley where an angel naps
You’ll see her shining eyelids asleep, perhaps
And the calling of a noble wren
When the vineyards are yearning again.
How small is the sky! The lining fatal
Like a blanket over a baby cradle
While purple mountains sit proud intermission
Goodbye to you songbird who flew on our wishes.
But all this lasts when the angel’s heart beats
When all woodland creatures get to their feet
When echoes are stretched and singing reborn
When young Boys and Girls choose to transform.
So in the beginning of my second life
I’ve planted some sunflowers in my strife
Like how wine from a grape has forever been
All when vineyards are yearning again.
the
Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 5, 2022
17
�{johnnie athletics}
Freshmen Bodies, Freshmen Souls
The reasons, both physical and metaphysical, why everyone ought to become involved in our sports program are many.
I list a few:
1. We have the best athletic program of any college in the
country.
2. Exercise is good for the body... unless you sprain an
ankle, or something like that.
3. Most of us feel better, are more alert, and can get more
work done if our bodies are healthy and our souls relaxed.
4. Friendly competition is one of the really fun things in
life. It is good for your soul.
5. Your circle of acquaintances will be greatly enlarged.
This is good for the soul, provided you can separate the
wheat from the chaff.
6. You will learn to accept, and bear with, thousands of
split-second decisions from the officials, a few of which
are wrong. This is very good for the soul.
7. Do you like to strive for, and achieve, specific goals? If
so, consider our College Blazers. They are much sought
after, and the pathway is clearly laid out. Striving for
goals is good for your soul.
8. It is probably true that more pure fun occurs in the
athletic program than in any other area of the college.
Fun is good for your soul.
9. If you get involved in team sports, and become a “good
team player”, you have realized that there are things in
the Universe that are more important than your ego.
That is good for your soul.
10. The benefits of exercise and friendly competition,
learned while one is young, should be maintained for the
rest of your life... i.e., they should become habitual. For
virtue, as the Philosopher said, is a habit.
11. You will get to know numerous Alumni, Tutors, and
Staff members who participate in the program. This is
good for your soul, or ought to be... provided that they
are the proper sort of role models.
12. Our showers are the best at the college; always plenty
of hot water.
13. Are you bothered by, or worried by, tobacco fumes
in the air? Come to the gym. The whole building is a
nicotine-free zone.
14. If you perform some sort of heroic deed on the
athletic field, your name will be mentioned in our weekly
column. Heroes are always acclaimed. But do not be
carried away by this. Remember that “the paths of glory
lead but to the grave.”
15. A high percentage of our best students are active
participants in our program.
16. Those who play, stay.
17. The gym is not particularly well-equipped, as gyms
go. But it has washers and dryers, and a coke-machine...
and I will explain to you, if you ask me, how you can
get yourself in tip-top physical shape, without any
equipment at all.
18. You can sit in an old-time barber’s chair in my office...
you can pump yourself up or down, and adjust the slope
high or low. Where else can you do that?
19. All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.
20. It is better to light a candle, than to curse the
darkness.
So there you have it... twenty good reasons why you
should participate in our athletic program. If you are
not convinced by all this, come and talk with me... I can
probably think of some more good reasons. Or better yet,
talk with the upperclassmen. They will tell you all sorts of
strange, interesting and wondrous things.
original article by
Bryce Jacobsen
former Director of Athletics
The Gadfly - September 9, 1982
18
the
Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 5, 2022
�Polity Communications
D
ear Polity -
For this year of the Gadfly, we will be trying something new. Here,
in the Polity Communication section, we want to publish your
thoughts, concerns, letters, and announcements. This section will
be an opportunity for you to directly communicate with the Gadfly
staff and our writers as well as the wider St. John’s community. Think
of it as a cross between “letters to the editor” and a community
message board.
If you have something you’d like us to include here for the next
issue, please send it to sjca.gadfly@gmail.com by September 10th.
Sincerely,
The Gadfly Staff
the
Gadfly / πόλις / Sept 5, 2022
19
�THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
OF
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly
is the student newsmagazine
distributed to over 600 students, faculty, staff, and alumna of the Annapolis campus.
Opinions expressed within are the responsibility of
the author(s). The Gadfly
reserves the right to accept,
reject, and edit submissions
in any way necessary to
publish a professional, informative, and thought provoking
newsmagazine.
Submissions sent to the
Gadfly should either be
in Google Docs or JPEG
format. The deadline for
submissions is the Friday prior to publication.
For more information,
contact us via email at
sjca .g adfly@gmail.com
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
20
the
Gadfly / Sept 5, 2022
�
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Gadfly Vol XLIV issue 1
Gadfly
Student publication
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e5a5689d2c2db688076f1bf96ca5905d
PDF Text
Text
St. John’s College
Vol. XLIII, Issue 12
Annapolis, Maryland
May 23, 2022
�CONTENTS
From the Editor’s Desk:
Dear polity,
Logos
Chris Krueger Interview
Making Memory at Marathon
e Bug Club
SJC Club Re ections
Sailing Trivia
Graduation Pictures
3
6
8
10
14
16
Symposium
ings United and Unities
18
Polis
Polity as Polyphony
Chess Club
Robert Morris Inn Review
To Veto, or Not to Veto
Senior's Last Words
Program Contest Results
22
24
25
28
30
36
THE STRUCTURE
Logos typically holds news reports and narratives of immediate relevance to the Polity. e
purpose here is to develop a shared reservoir
of information relating to campus life and the
community.
Symposium offers the opportunity for our readers to thoughtfully consider contrasting opinions regarding a particular topic.
Polis serves as a platform for elevating voices
in our community. Here we nd letters to the
editor, columns, cartoons, and submitted pieces.
THE COVER
Photo of Mr. MacFarland at Marathon, taken by
Meliha Anthony '25
2
G
/M
23, 2022
e marathon has been run and the time for rest is at hand!
In this end of the year issue, we look back at the course that
we’ve run, the legacy of Chris Krueger, the opinion pieces
that have warranted reply, and the accomplishments of our
various clubs and activities. We also enjoy several lasts: the
last of restaurant reviews, the last of the senior’s words, and
the nal results of the last Gad y contest.
It's been a pleasure to be your campus newsmagazine
through this year, and our staff looks forward to being so for
you again next year.
Enjoy your summers, and be ready to run again come
August!
Sincerely,
Craig Koch
THE STAFF
Bibhu Chapagain
Catherine Elizabeth Greer
Connor Shin
Cooper Ussery
Craig Koch
El’ad Nichols-Kaufman
Isaac Vail
Josephine Dowd
Liz Dowdy
Luke Briner
Lysithia Page
Meliha Anthony
M. Elwell
Michael Jeramaz
Nat Martin
Rose Zhang
Zara Brandt
SUBMISSIONS
Alicia Bravo
Joseph Richard
Brandon Garcia
Louis Rosenberg
Caleb Duttion
Madelyn Minor
Cassie Desmond
Michael Jeramaz
Daniel Han
Noah Jones
Dante Perotto
Rei Osmani
Elsa Risgin
Rose Zhang
Gen DeMajistre
Sheba Delaney
George Kalandadze
Tom Ni
James Beckwith
Tuyết-Nhi Nghiêm
Jonah Donis
Will Payne
Joseph Padgett
�Making Memory at the Marathon
A Farewell to Heroes
by El'ad Nichols-Kaufman '25, photos by Meliha Anthony '25
I
t is appropriate that we, as students of the past and scholars
of the present, end our perennial intramural pursuit of
athletic arete, excellence, in what may loosely be called a
Marathon. I do not mean this in the sense of the common
conception of the myth of Marathon: Pheidippides never
ran from Athens to Marathon. ere was no shout of “Joy,
we win!” ere was no dramatic death before the archons
of Athens. e myth of the marathon materialized from
writings of Lucian and Plutarch centuries a er the battle of
Marathon or the legendary run of Pheidippides passed into
the misty mires of the marches of memory, obscured by the
clouds of forgetfulness.
e truth, or at very least the version of the happening in
Herodotus’ History, is rather different, and perhaps seems
superior in its suitability to the style of farewell that this
year’s Marathon entailed. Before the break of battle, with
the fate of Greece still in the balance, Pheidippides bid his
rs farewell to his city’s citizen soldiers setting off to their
own efforts for the polity, and ran from Athens to Sparta,
an even further length than those marvelous 26 miles
to Marathon of myth, in just a day and a half, to spur the
restive Lacedaemonians into action.
e Spartans were
moved by his message, and with his mission completed, he
bid them his second farewell and ran back to Athens, but
was met along the way by the god Pan, primordial prince of
pasture and woodland. e god challenged the Athenians
impiety: “Why do they not worship him, when he has
helped Athens so much?” With this warning in mind,
he bid a third farewell to Pan and proceeded homeward,
hopping across Hellas to Attica. Upon arrival at Athens, he
shared the message of Pan, and the pious polity proceeded
to build a shrine to the god of the wild.
As sportspeople, we do not push ourselves to death, as
in the supposed rst running of the Marathon, for a cause
already won. We push ourselves to victory, whether it be
against the Persians or for the will of god, or for honor
and fame, or for pious love and passion, and if it requires
speed or endurance beyond human capability, only then
do we undertake the superhuman task set before us. is
passion for victory is what Mr. Macfarland, our noble Dean
and Guardian (in more ways than one), addressed in his
lecture. In the end, we need an arbitrator to reconcile the
fundamental pretext of sport, which in Macfarland’s words
is: “that you de ne the goal as simply as possible, so that
the prize can go, without ambiguity, to the one who is best
at that single action,” and the passions of sport, that “let
our bodies show themselves forth—the passions of love,
shame, fear, spirit, anger,” all for victory. What makes our
sports different from the crisis of chaotic con ict is the
presence of this judge, “our Aeneas,” who in a divine role
helps our city stay strong with its own competition by
balancing these passions and pursuit of the best. In our
case, the third farewell, from the god Pan, comes rst, as
our judging divinity, Chris Krueger, was given a noble
salute. It is difficult to overstate Kruegers’ contribution to
the competitive college athletics of our polity, and far more
capable hands than mine have written his praises, so I will
not attempt any further here.
If we, a Polity of Pheidippides, have begun with the
legendary third farewell, it is only appropriate that we
proceed to the second. Unlike Pan, whose farewell is a
nal one, the Spartans do not disappear from the text, but
their future presence is precipitated by a noble goal, the
glorious goal of gaining glory in defense of Greek liberty.
Our dispersal of honor and glory need not await the end
of a Spartan superstition about the moon: the heroes
who receive college blazers may participate directly in the
ultimate contest of the marathon. At this marathon, our
most committed athletes attained their goal, and stood
as examples to the rest of us Johnnies who seek athletic
excellence, and provided us our own reason for pursuing the
passion of sport. is is the last game of the year, so it is a
temporary farewell of sorts, but this recognition of athletic
achievement motivates us to eagerly await the next season.
Chris Krueger prepares to present a deserving student with an intramural blazer
G
/
/M
23, 2022
3
�A er blazers were awarded to Aidel Townsley, Ian
Howell, So a Martin, and Peter Boersema, the race itself,
the great run, took place. Each of our intramural teams had
to run 30 laps of approximately a third of a mile, alternating
runners each lap. Students and tutors alike raced around the
winding course across the expansive lawns of back campus.
For over an hour and a half, the teams traced this track time
and time again, until all thirty laps were completed. Rather
ironically, considering their conspicuous absence from the
battle of Marathon, the Spartans nished 29 laps rst, only
about 20 seconds before the Druids, with the Hustlers,
Guardians and Greenwaves giving equally spirited attempts.
e atmosphere at the end was generally celebratory- all the
teams, regardless of placement in the race had a full year
of victories to rejoice in, but before they could break off to
celebrate individually, one nal farewell was called for.
e rst farewell of Pheidippides was to his fellow citizens
setting out on their own quests, striking their own paths.
is, in turn, was the last farewell of our marathon. Our
seniors, our beloved leaders and elders of our community,
must take leave of us, and we take leave of them. On the
nal, 30th lap, all of the seniors set out together, departing
from the cheering crowd on one last wandering walk. Of
all the farewells that naturally come with the end of the
year, this most constant and most certain is yet the most
bittersweet. In setting out on this walk, they are bringing
to an end one world, their world as students, and student
athletes, at St. John’s, and opening another larger, more
wonderful and frightening world of possibilities.
Participants engage in group stretching before the
race begins
Intramural captains and Mr. MacFarland finish the
first lap of the race in leisure
Christopher Ford distinguishes himself
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23, 2022
Cynthia Wu shows off her newly acquired blazer
�The Legacy and Achievement of Chris Krueger
An interview with Chris Krueger
by Craig Koch '23
participants had been doing quite a
bit of the work to get games running,
to referee games, and get club team
practices running.
is seemed too
burdensome given how demanding
the academic program is and how
complicated it can be to play your
peers over and over again and then
go have to live so closely together.
Moreover, it seemed to me that the
students had disagreements about
direction and tone of the program and
You are now a well-loved staple these disagreements were holding the
of the college, but how was it when program back.
you rst arrived as Athletic Director
During your time here, how has
in 2016? What was the state of the the Athletic program changed? Are
Athletic Program like then?
there any changes, additions, or new
When I returned to the college in initiatives that you enacted and are
2016 to run the athletic program, the especially proud of ?
people participating in the program
Bryce Jacobsen, athletic director
were as passionate and engaged as any and tutor from 1958-1986, said that
Johnnies I have known. In that way, nothing generates excitement like
it was the same as now, but beyond a close race, and when I returned, I
that important and encouraging tried to tune the program a bit more
observation, my other immediate toward an emphasis on competition.
impression was that there were far fewer I didn’t necessarily want people to
people participating than I expected focus on winning as the only—or
would have interest in the program. even as the primary—aim, but it did
For context, in 2015-2016 (the year seem important that there be a venue
before I returned), 205 people enrolled for pushing oneself and one’s peers to
that year had participated in some work as hard as possible to improve.
aspect of the structured programing Competition encourages that.
during their time at the college. As of
I think that it is easy for many
today, 342 students who are currently people to shy away from trying as hard
enrolled have participated in some as they can—maybe because it can
aspect of the program while they have seem self-important or silly, or maybe
been enrolled, including over 260 this because it can feel futile or scary—but
year alone. is is important because I believe that competition can lead
so many Johnnies over the years have to many rare and wonderful things.
said some variation of “If it weren’t for
e most signi cant of these things
the athletic program, I wouldn’t have is that competition o en yields great
stayed here.”
bonds of friendship, which is always a
ese numbers don’t really paint kind of growth. It’s also simply fun for
a picture, though. When I arrived, most people to compete, and I tried to
students told me that the student emphasize the fun, or at least whimsy,
of the program, too. Competition
doesn’t have to mean training or
aggression, necessarily, and early in
my time here I tried to encourage the
program toward a competitive balance
that served as many people as possible.
As for changes that I am most
proud of, I will take an easy way out.
I know that some of my decisions are
occasionally controversial, and it is
undeniable that under my leadership
we haven’t always been balanced
perfectly. But one thing I think
no one would argue with is that
while I have been here the physical
infrastructure of the athletic program
has been dramatically improved.
Some examples are that the court
was refurbished (a project 20 years
overdue), there are two new crew shells
and a new coach’s boat, there is a ton
(maybe literally) of new equipment
in the weight room and cardio room,
we have vastly improved volleyball
systems, and we have nice new soccer
goals. And that’s not even the whole
list. Obviously, this is a team effort
from college leadership—especially
the treasurer, the assistant dean, and
the entire B&G crew. I can’t possibly
say enough how absolutely essential
their support has been generally and
especially with regard to these physical
improvements.
Oh. Also Stringfellow Ball.
Stringfellow Ball forever.
Intramural captains and gym
assistants do a lot to ensure that
the athletic activities of St. John’s
are well-attended homes for
exercise, healthy competition, and
socialization. What has the host
of captains, gym assistants, and
athletic participants who have
passed through the College under
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5
�your guidance meant to you?
What a hard question. e students
here are all inspiring. I am so grateful to
have gotten to work so closely with so
many exceptional people. How much
people care about what they do here is
really rare. You’re right to note that the
gym assistants, boathouse stewards,
and the captains are especially
signi cant to me. So many people give
so much of their time and their heart
to the athletic program—the captains
especially—and I feel so honored and
humbled by their willingness to not
only have me along for the ride, but
also to trust me (sometimes) to guide a
program that means so much to them.
St. John’s is o en quite bookish and
can sometimes be so to such an extent
that there is hardly anything le in
student’s lives but books, dust, and
vague ideas. How have you understood
the role of athletics and exercise within
such an institution? What role do
you take athletics to have in liberal
education?
Broadly speaking, I just think
physical activity is good for people.
For one thing, our bodies can be so
demanding and distracting, and it is
useful to tire them out and quiet them
down—especially when we want to be
thoughtful, attentive, and maybe even
studious. at’s not the whole story or
role of athletics at St. John’s, though.
I have o en thought of our athletic
program as Seminar’s Long-Lab.
rough athletics, we can test out
what has been discussed in class—we
can explore in practice what we have
been thinking about virtue and justice
and truth, and we can wrestle in realtime with tyranny and explore the
essence of friendship.
True liberal education seems to
me to require a kind of depth- nding
exploration of the way humans
interact in the physical world. We
need to know how far we can go with
the ideas we have and systems we use.
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I think athletics generally, and team
sports in particular, provide a terri c
microcosm in which to explore the
scope of human freedom.
One of the great things about
intramurals is the opportunity for
glory. Are there any feats—either
your own or others—that stand out
to you as especially glorious during
your time here?
Every day in our athletic program
someone overcomes something. ey
hit a personal record in their deadli ,
or they row their fastest 2k on an erg.
Or maybe they score their rst basket
of their rst goal, or they go on a threeball run or execute their rst cap-size
recovery. Maybe they make a crucial
tackle in Reasonball, or maybe they
win their rst bout on the fencing strip
or just hit that pesky golf ball reliably.
Maybe they lose their temper and foul
someone and apologize and maybe
they are forgiven. Every single time
someone overcomes, it is delightful
and glorious. e greatest and most
glorious feat is when someone does the
hard work of being better.
Are there any parts of the Athletic
program that you’re especially going
to miss or that you would like the
community to pay special care to
maintaining in your absence?
is is another really hard question.
I will miss most the raw energy and the
deep, serious care. I hardly ever have
a conversation with someone who
doesn’t care deeply about our shared
project. It is continually astounding
how much people care. And this isn’t
just true about the athletic program. It
is true about the college.
As for special care…I will share what
may be my most controversial opinion
about St. John’s. Here it is: the academic
program is not, in itself, what really
makes St. John’s special. I think what
really makes St. John’s exceptional is
how careful and coherent the college
is and how the curriculum permeates
23, 2022
the life of the college. is happens
largely because of how seriously the
students and tutors take their time
together, how much time the students
and tutors spend together, and of
course because everyone reads the
same books, but it also happens more
generally because of the things we
choose to engage in as a community
outside of the classroom and that fact
that so many of these things could
“scale up” easily to involve everyone at
the college. It seems to be an essential
aspect of the college that so much of
what happens here is intended for the
entire community and that so much
of what happens relates back to the
academic program.
Of course, what I just said is also
one reason it can be really hard to
be here: the life of this college is rich
and complicated and challenging
and sometimes infuriating because
the scope of what we do together is
so broad, and we all arrive here with
different experiences and perspectives.
ere can be so much pressure. In this
context, one critically important thing
about the athletic program is that it
brings the community together in new
ways, and it provides a way to blow off
some steam, but not via something
that is quite rightly thought of as a
divergence or distraction from the
essential life and work of college.
I guess what I mean to say is this:
I hope care is taken that the college
remains coherent, that people
continue to share their lives with each
other freely and deeply despite the
difficulty and imperfection of doing
so, and that the community continues
to choose not to let St. John’s become
like everywhere else.
I believe I can speak for the
community at large in saying that you
will be dearly missed. Before parting,
though, I wanted to ask you if you had
any last words or advice that you’d like
to leave in the minds and hearts of
�those reading this interview. Do you
have any such words?
anks so much. I will miss being
here and sharing so much of my life
with all the wonderful people here.
But I am reticent to offer advice so
broadly and without knowing who is
reading this.
I’ll share a story. When I was in
freshman chorus, toward the end of the
spring semester, one of my classmates
was reading Aristotle instead of
singing. I mean he was clearly and
de nitively not even pretending to
sing. His head was down, and was
emphatically mouthing the words to
himself because there was so much
noise and distraction in the room. It
wasn’t even the seminar reading. e
tutor noticed this classmate of mine
wasn’t singing, and the tutor slammed
the lectern with a st—in time with
the beat, of course—and pointed the
baton at the student. As if casting a
spell, while the rest of us kept singing,
the tutor shook the baton at the
reading student and bellowed, their
voice rising over the whole chorus:
“SING, DAMN IT!”
I think that’s great advice. Just sing,
damn it.
Ok, I’ll take that advice. Here’s a
kind of extended corollary to that
tutor’s exhortation: take advantage
of the opportunities before you, and
don’t let a little disharmony stop you.
e Polity,
on Chris Krueger:
Simply "Best Boss Ever". I gained a lot of self-esteem
and con dence from him. He always encouraged me to
participate in athletic events where I overcame some of my
fear. As my boss, he was slow to anger. I'm pretty sure he's
an anointed saint in disguise. I will miss him very much
and words will never explain how much I adore him.
—John Sori
I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed all the
interactions I had with Chris Krueger. He brought a
great attitude to intramurals and really made me feel like
we were playing to have fun. His casual attitude and fun
humor really broke through my nervousness to participate
when I went to play intramurals for the rst time.
—Gabriel Fernandez-Ramsey
Chris has been such an incredible mentor to me,
especially during our planning of the Annapolis Cup. We
all know that he has his thoughts about croquet, but he
worked tirelessly to make sure students could experience
this event. We have had conversations about how I can
be an effective leader and I know his advice comes from a
place of genuine interest. He is always open to chat during
my Gym Assistant shi s and offers fresh perspectives
(they're very much needed when I get in my head about
stupid things). I think Chris sees the value of student
leadership in a way that other admin gures o en do
not. He involves students in the planning, execution, and
re ection stages of projects. He makes you feel like your
voice matters. He makes it known that he cares.
—Mia Kobylski
Chris threads the leadership needle perfectly. He is
authoritative, prepared, and assertive without sacri cing
an ounce of casual friendliness. It's a tough line to walk,
and a skill that proves essential in keeping intramurals as
open and unintimidating as possible, while providing a
space for challenging and competitive athletics.
—Max MersmannJones
Chris always had the answers to any questions I had
for him, and his calm and patient demeanor really helped
me settle into both intramurals as well as working as a
gym assistant. When I rst started refereeing, I viewed it
as a painful chore, but with Chris’s guidance, it became
something I looked forward to. He will be greatly missed
by the polity and we are lucky to have been able to
get to know him during his time here.
—Oscar Miller
Which brings me, nally, to the secret and real subject
of my speech: the loyal prince who presides over our games,
our Aeneas on the elds and in the temple [Iglehart]. For
everyone who knows him knows that he has, truly, a pious
love for our community, for all of us here. For we, too, in
the heat of the moment, driven by love of victory or fear of
shame, driven by inexplicably strong friendships with our
teammates, and by deep, if temporary, antipathy for our
opponents—especially the Hustlers—we, too, are liable
to confuse bad luck with injustice, or good luck with the
blessing of the gods; we, too, discover unseen strengths in
ourselves and, at the same time, become foolishly forgetful
of our frailties. For which I, for one, am enormously
grateful for Chris’s considerate, compassionate leadership
for the last six years. It is no exaggeration to say that all of
the championships, all of the laurels, which you, we, have
striven for, and occasionally won, are truly his.
—Mr. Macfarland from his "On e Body" Lecture
Chris Krueger is the last good Johnnie
—Devin VanGorden
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�Creepy? Crawly? Cool!
SJCA's New Bug Club Provides a Space for the Entomologically Curious
by Zara Brandt '25, photos by Louis Rosenberg '25
L
ouis Rosenberg (A25) has been
fascinated by insects since he was
a child.
“I’ve always been a bug person. I
used to catch carpenter bees…and
pet them in my hands. I would catch
millipedes and pill bugs,” he said.
“ ey’re just so cool.”
Shortly before winter break of 2023,
Rosenberg approached his classmate
Tabby Rutledge (A25) about forming
an insect farming club at St. John’s.
His idea was met with enthusiasm, and
the Bug Club convened for the rst
time in early February. Currently, he
says, over two dozen Johnnies receive
regular Bug Club emails, and meetings
have a consistent turnout of ve to ten
people.
Club meetings involve caring for
and observing the insects, as well as
insect-related activities which have
ranged from cra s to bug pinning.
Rosenberg described a recent
symmetrical painting project.
“We would paint on half of a sheet
of paper, so you would fold it in half,
and then when you open it up it would
be sort of mirrored on the other side.
Which works really well with bugs,
because they’re symmetrical,” he
explained.
e club is currently raising
two species: Halloween Hissing
Cockroaches and silkworms. ough
the community of bug breeders is
tight-knit and supportive of hobbyists
like the Bug Club, the niche interest
in insect breeding can make insects
difficult to source. Rosenberg
purchased the Bug Club’s insects from
sellers on Facebook and Ebay. He
believes that there ought to be more
acceptance and interest in insects,
which are both inherently interesting
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and valuable to science.
“ ere is something really neat
about the animals that people hate,”
Rosenberg said. “And there’s not
really a good reason…it’s just the sort
of ingrained, ‘those things are gross.’
But they’re not, they’re really cool,
and useful…a lot of insects are valuable
pollinators, or they help out in the
ecosystem.”
Rosenberg was happy to share
information about the Bug Club’s
current insects. e Halloween Hissing
Cockroach—a
ightless, striped
insect, one of about twenty hissing
cockroaches native to Madagascar—
probably creates its distinctive hissing
sound as a defense mechanism and as
part of the bug’s mating ritual.
“ ere are a few theories…it's a way
of being scary to predators,” he said.
“ ey have different spiracles, (what
they expel the air from to make the
hissing sound)... if you block [one set
of them], the female doesn’t mate with
the male cockroach.”
e variety of silkworm which the
23, 2022
club is raising is bombyx mori, a highly
domesticated species with its origin in
the traditional silk industry of China.
e species has been cultivated by
humans for so long that it has lost its
ability to y, a fact which Rosenberg
nds uniquely fascinating.
“I like to tell people they’re really
screwed-up bugs... You know we don’t
think of bugs as something that can
be domesticated, but these really are
domesticated…to the point that they
can’t even y anymore,” Rosenberg
said.
John Hollowed (A25), who has
been a member of the club since its
inception, emphasized the historical
and economic importance of
silkworms.
“Caring for insects has been a
part of society for a long time. at's
why silkworms have been such an
important choice,” he said. “Silk has
shaped so much culture and impacted
trading.”
Hollowed indicated that part of
the value of raising silkworms lies
in developing understanding of the
resources and effort that goes into the
production of silk.
“People o en overlook how much
work goes into acquiring silk, they just
know it’s expensive,” he said. “Getting
to work with silkworms, you really
see that it's an insane amount of time
that goes into acquiring a very small
amount of silk.”
e silkworms require regular
care as they are growing, and they’re
nicky eaters: Hollowed explained
that the silkworms can only survive
on mulberry leaves. Members of the
Bug Club can sign up to be part of
the bug care schedule, and they check
on the insects twice a day in rotation
�according to their availability.
“A lot of [the work] is going to be
continually feeding… And this whole
time we’ve been keeping track of the
number of molts, because they molt
a certain number of times before
they spin [their cocoons],” Hollowed
explained. He added, half-seriously,
“harvesting the silk…is going to be an
absolute nightmare.”
e traditional method of silk
production involves boiling the
silkworm cocoons with the caterpillars
still inside them, and unspooling the
cocoons in a single strand. But the club
plans to harvest the silk once the moths
have hatched. is will compromise
the quality of the silk since the moths
excrete enzymes which damage their
cocoons in order to hatch.
“With the piece-silk method, you
have to spin it, so it’s less strong and
generally less so as well because it’s
lots of little pieces,” he said. “We are
considering doing the normal silk
[harvesting] method in the future, but
we want to let these silkworms breed,
so that we don’t have to keep buying
eggs.”
Rosenberg plans to continue
expanding the Bug Club in the Fall of
2022. He hopes to do more outdoor
insect-trapping, including mothtrapping using food bait and lights, to
observe wild insect behavior.
“We also are planning to branch
out, and get…a lot of interesting beetles
and mantids,” Rosenberg added. “So
it just depends on what the club as a
whole plans to do. But we’re de nitely
planning to sustain our current
colonies, and hopefully branch out to
new ones.”
Hollowed admits that Bug Club
isn’t for those who fear insects or
don’t have any particular interest in
interacting with them.
“But if you enjoy looking at insects,
and remark every time you see anything
interesting outside,” he added, “we’ve
got interesting bugs, and there will
continue to be more interesting bugs
that you can care for, and…watch.”
Rosenberg extends a wholehearted
invitation for members of the Polity
to join the Bug Club, or at least drop
by and look at the cockroaches and
silkworms, housed in Mellon 210.
“We’re very fun, it’s very chill and
low commitment,” he said. “If you
don’t sign up to care for the bugs, it’s
no pressure and you can still stop by
any time. ”
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9
�St. John's Club Summaries
Report writer in order of apperance: Elias Christian, Conor Flynn, Alayna Raymond (x2), John Teague, Troy Brown, Your Imperial
Wickets (Mia Kobylski), Conor Flynn, Craig Koch (x2), and Peter Boersema (photo by Tim Mewmaw)
Energia
his year Energeia, the long-time on-campus literature
and arts magazine, produced two issues as usual – one
for each semester. With a general focus on generating more
awareness for Energeia this year a er the break in campus
culture during the online era, we made an effort to be loud
about who we are and actively engaged with the Polity. e
year saw the emergence of a Twitter and Instagram presence
(in conjunction with the rise of SJC Twitter Campus) for
Energeia, as well as many ever-present signs and posters
that urge submissions. We hosted one open mic, one
holiday jazz release party (courtesy of a partnership with
the Jazz Coalition), and one sticker contest, as well as a
Shakespeare read-along and a rolling call for audio-visual
submissions for our Instagram (while we work on a website
and a reliable archiving process.) We also produced two
sets of our popular stickers, again one for each semester.
Between essay writing periods, the COVID-19 outbreak,
and budgeting difficulties, we were not able to host as many
events as we would have liked in the second semester, but we
are con dent that Energeia is very much alive in the Polity
as a force for platforming poets and artists in as many ways
as we can. We hope that it will continue to grow its presence
on the Annapolis campus and to develop as a trusted venue
for creative expression, whether through our issues or our
events, in years to come.
T
Food Recovery Network
W
e have worked within the student body and local
community to build infrastructure for the systematic
and team-based recovery of food surpluses—both from
campus and local venues—resulting in the distribution of
over 1,500 pounds of surplus to Johnnies and people in the
Annapolis community!
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23, 2022
Project Polity
P
roject Polity had been somewhat dormant over the past
two years due to the pandemic. Aidel and myself had
reached out to the previous club archons separately over
the summer with the hope of bringing it back into campus
life. In doing that, we were able to revive the club and
run an incredibly successful canned food drive led by our
dear intramural captains. We also had a steady turnout for
tutoring at the Stanton Center, where we helped children
with the homework and building academic skills. ere are
many other events that we weren’t able to accomplish this
year, but we will certainly be pursuing next year (reach out
to me if you have particular service projects you’d like to
do!)
Our club slogan is ‘ e Program in Practice’. It is our
belief that when one receives a liberal education, and are
consequently impressed with the notions of what it means
to be a good person, we ought to be practicing these ideas.
We serve each other in the classroom through listening and
considering objects of virtue, friendship, and happiness. By
helping the greater community, we can share these ideas
beyond ourselves. A liberal education is not a solitary one;
it requires community. Project Polity is meant to be a vessel
through which students can practice the human good and
share in a greater sense of community. Please consider
coming out to tutoring and volunteering next year.
“Compassion and love give meaning to our activities and
make them constructive” — e 14th Dalai Lama
�Student Jazz Coalition
T
KWP
K
WP has experienced enormous success during this
school year. Despite the lack of an auditorium, we were
able to put on six different productions with incredible
polity involvement and reception. ere are many talented
and passionate espians on this campus that help imbue
meaning, humor, and beauty into the art of theater. Special
thanks needs to be extended to graduating senior Ellie
Laabs, whose dedication to this cra has inspired so many
students. She has been an impressive archon for this club,
maintaining its health over the pandemic, directing many
successful shows, and keeping the love of theater alive
and well. It has been an honor and privilege to learn from
and work with her as well as everyone else involved in our
productions.
As a nal means of commemorating our work, here is a
list of our productions, along with their talented directors.
he Student Jazz Coalition rose from the dead this year.
As last year and the year prior’s graduation proved
devastating to the continuation of club, the Coalition had
to be refounded almost from scratch in the Fall semester,
and what a time we’ve had. A er a month of preparation,
our rst performance was at Collegium, where we played
“On the Sunny Side of the Street” and “Chim Chim Cheree” for the Polity. As archon, one of my favorite memories
was an audience member’s exclamation that “wow, jazz is
awesome!” e Coalition has always been an important
access point for the Polity’s experience of an incredibly
large and sophisticated genre of music.
Second semester came around with big plans. Since
the beginning of the Coalition’s renewed life, I’ve had a
conception of a “Jazz Lounge” a er lecture, a way for me to
share with the Polity the genre of music I love as a way for
them to relax and wind down a er a tough week of class.
We wound up putting on two of these wildly successful
events. ere was massive attendance and we played for
hours. Looking out on the crowd, I could tell everyone
was having a lot of fun. Other than that, we played at the
Croquet Waltz, at Lola’s, and during Admitted Student’s
weekend.
As the most senior members of the Coalition are
Sophomores, this group has a long time to achieve any longterm goals we set out for. Expect more lounges, waltzes, and
live sessions in the future! Here’s a running playlist of every
song the Coalition has played so far:
Exit the King by Eugène Ionesco
Directed by Joseph Richard
Our Town by orton Wilder
Directed by Ellie Laabs and Birdi Mueller
Pride and Prejudice adapted by Jon Jory
Directed by Alayna Raymond
Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind
Directed by Wyatt Sweeney
Antigone by Sophocles
Directed by Enkh-Od Batzorig, Ann Burke, and Levan
Kiladze
Almost, Maine by John Cariani
Directed by Benjamin Kay, Natalie Kreppner, Ian
Howell, Jordan Kammeyer, Birdi Mueller, Allegra Hall,
Aviel Honey, Nick Rabalais, and Ellie Laabs
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�Christian Fellowship
A
welcoming and open space where Johnnies can gather
in faith, mutual support, dialogue, and encouragement
in areas of student life, mental health, and in a life of selfgiving and service.
Athletic Tournaments
R
Juggling Club
J
uggling club meets every week to practice and perform
juggling, all skill levels are welcome from expert to
absolute beginning. We have also gone to juggling-related
events off campus and we hope to do more of this in the
future.
ay Matsumoto helped to host two tournaments
this year with an experienced and less-experienced
bracket for each tournament. e sports were ping pong
and basketball and each event drew over 40 participants.
Albert Yang took the ping pong crown in the experienced
division, defeating Craig Koch 3-2 a er a reset of the
bracket. Hannah Beversluis won the honor of rst in the
less experienced bracket. In the 2v2 tournament, Craig
Koch and Mike Mayo took victory in the A-team bracket
a er going down 8-0 in the nals and Jacob Lees and Brock
Neese took victory in the B. e events were a joy, and
they were a good opportunity for Johnnies to ex their
competitive selves.
Croquet
2
021-2022 was a building year for the team. We went
from only having four members at the end of last year to
about een. e fresh talent shown by the underclassmen
secures a bright future for this game on campus. Having the
Annapolis Cup return in any way possible was the main
goal. Although the trophy went to Navy, every player gave
it their all on the court. We hope that the Cup will draw
more interest in the club and keep the tradition alive a er
its hiatus. Our lone senior, Connor Shin, showed incredible
leadership and spirit. He will truly be missed by all on the
team.
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A-team 2v2 Champions,
Craig Koch and Mike Mayo
Ping Pong
Champion, Albert
Yang
�covering campus activities (especially Friday night lecture),
and a dedication to making the paper bi-weekly so that
it can serve as a reliable home for announcements and
communications.
I’m very excited for e Gad y’s future, and I look
forward to sharing it with all of you.
The Gadfly
T
he Gad y has had a very successful year. e paper has
consistently featured interviews, reporting, serious
re ection, tenuous opinion, photography, poetry, ction
and artwork. ough we were not able to release as frequently
as we would have liked to, the issues were consistently wellreceived and read throughout the college community. We
were able to publish 12 issues in print during this year,
and, since we print about 200 copies each time, that means
that we’ve published and distributed around 2400 copies.
O entimes, these copies can be spotted on the desks and
tables of Johnnies throughout the land, and such a sight, to
me at least, is always a welcome and warming one.
A new feature of the Gad y this year was the addition
of regular columns and contests that rely on submissions
from the polity for their life. Songs Sung, Songs Lo ed,
started by myself (Craig Koch) and Nate Talbutt, was the
longest running of these and saw 9 articles through to
publication by 9 different authors. e Black Box, a column
for all things lm, television, or otherwise inside of a black
box, saw an inaugural submission by Ranger Kasdorf that
inspires con dence for the future of the column. And Mx.
Anthon, in the last issue, announced the beginning of a
new column (What Does is Mean?) that aims to bring
the Gad y back to its roots as a home of communication
by offering translations and poetry that the community
can read and reply to. And, on the side of the contests, we
saw two contests through to the end, awarding $150 in
gi cards and receiving an impressive array of talented and
thoughtful submissions. e hope is that opportunities like
these help to make the Gad y common and exciting in a
way that it is not if it is always the same people writing their
same things.
A few ideas I have planned for the year ahead are these:
the addition of intramural correspondents, the addition of a
dedicated editor and designer for each section of the paper,
a continuation of tutor spotlight, a greater commitment to
Crew
T
his year’s crew seasons, as with so many things this
year, were in some ways gratifying and in some ways
frustrating. Returning to the boathouse in the fall for the
rst time since 2019, there were only a handful of veteran
rowers, and none with experience as coxswains. e team
was blessed, however, with an unusually large crop of novices.
Although the work was not always easy, it was a great deal
of fun to watch their improvement. Unfortunately, due to
a convergence of factors, we weren’t able to compete in any
regattas.
We returned in the spring with a smaller group of rowers,
who had the opportunity to learn sculling and try out some
smaller boats. We also enjoyed holding the Ritter Cup, an
intramural regatta on College Creek. e team and I are
looking forward to next fall, when we’ll likely be able to
compete in some regattas against other schools and clubs.
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�Sailing Trivia
Madelyn Minor and Jonah
1. What does FJ stand for?
A) Fast Jumper
B) Facetious Jester
C) Flying Junior
D) Fraudulent Juvenile
2. Which is NOT a position you can hold on an FJ?
A) Helm – In charge of the tiller, the main sheet, navigation, and strategy;
sits in the back; may or may not be skippering (barking orders).
B) Crew – In charge of jib sheets, centerboard, hiking, wing on wing,
watching the helm’s blindspots, bailing, and other odd jobs.
C) Second Crew – In charge of staying out of the way, and sometimes the
music.
D) Powder Monkey – In charge of the artillery. Probably a hostage.
Expendable.
3. When you ___, you turn the stern of your boat across the wind. (Choose
all that apply)
A) Jibe
B) Gybe
C) Jybe
D) Gibe
4. Maximum speed of any displacement monohull – commonly called its
hull speed – is governed by which simple formula?
Hull speed in knots equals…
A) 1.34 x the weight of passengers and cargo in pounds
B) Centerboard length in feet x squared mast height
C) 1.34 x the square root of the boat’s length at its waterline in feet
D) Moon phase x skipper’s zodiac
5. Why is the horizontal spar attached to the mast called the boom?
(Choose all that apply)
A) It was named a er Charles Boom
B) It's derived from the Latin bombus
C) Back in the 1600's, sailors smuggled gunpowder across the Atlantic in
their booms
D) Boom goes boom (you go splash)
6. Which colleges have hosted the regattas SJC competed at this year?
A) William and Mary, University of Delaware, Washington College
B) Princeton, Navy, Loyola
C) University of Hawaii, Columbia, ueen’s University
D) Virginia Tech, University of Pennsylvania, and the last one we hosted
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�7. What kind of “look Mom, no hands!” sailing is actually doable (and
fun!)
A) Boomless Sailing
B) Rudderless Sailing
C) Sail-less Sailing
D) Sailor-less Sailing
8. Which is the correct response to your boat capsizing?
A) Make like Dumbo and roll that baby back to the docks
B) Contemplate the nature of perfectly circular rotation. If nothing is
being displaced, is it still a type of motion?
C) Repent
D) Climb over the gunnel as it heels until you’re standing on the
centerboard in fully-capsized position; use your weight to pull the boat back
upright, scooping your partner up into the boat in the process; as it rights,
climb back over the gunnel and aunt your perfect absence of moisture to
your drowned rat of a partner
9. Which is NOT a creature the SJC sailing team faces when sailing in the
Severn?
A) Navy boats
B) Disarmingly beautiful sunsets
C) Herons
D) Boredom
10. ree of these are generally advised against during a regatta. Which of
them should you totally do?
A) Do penalty spins around your least favorite team
B) Steal your opponents’ wind
C) Port-tack the eet
D) Feed the seagulls
11. What does the sailing team do when the weather’s too bad for sailing?
A) Sail anyways!
B) Chalktalk in the Boathouse!
C) Hiking tournaments!
D) Walk-the-plank tournaments!
12. Red Right Returning is used to remember what?
A) at you keep red markers on starboard when entering a channel from
an open body of water
B) at gingers are always correct, so take back what you said about them
C) Which color is the opposite of green, which direction is the opposite
of le , and what Penelope thinks Odysseus has been taking his sweet time
doing, husbands amiright
D) Nothing. I made it up
Answers located on the back cover of this issue!
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�16
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�L D
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�Things United and Unities
uke riner
P
roposition VI of Proclus’ Elements of eology1 attempts
to prove that “Every multitude consists either of things
united, or of unities”:
in no respect whatsoever in e One, then such a multitude
would necessarily possess no oneness, no unity of its own.
But a multitude entirely divorced from self-unity by its
non-participation in e One, and thus being “in every
It is evident that each of things many will not be itrespect indeterminate,” will be either pure nothingness or
self multitude alone, and, again, that each part of this
pure manyness; it must be either one or the other, since it
will not be multitude alone. But if it is not multitude
is again prevented from any middle ground, being barred
alone, it is either united or unities. And if indeed it
from any sort of de ned or determinate quantity or limit to
partakes of e One it is united; but if it consists of
itself. If it had a certain limit to itself, some clear quantity,
things of which that which is primarily united consists,
then it would, for that very reason, have to be participating
it will be unities. For if e One itself exists, there is
in some respect in e One, which the multitude we are
also that which primarily participates of it, and which
entertaining does not. But neither of these possibilities—
is primarily united. But this consists of unities: for if it
pure manyness or pure nothingness—can be right. For “if
consists of things united, again, things united consist
each is many, each will consist of in nities without limit,”
of certain things, and this will be the case to in nity.
since a limitation implies a determinateness to quality and
It is necessary, however, that what is primarily united
being, which comes only through participation in e One.
should consist of unities. And thus we have discovered
But this would mean that each and every multitude in the
what we proposed at rst, [viz. that every multitude
world would be in nite, extending inde nitely throughout
consists either of things united, or of unities.]
the entire universe and beyond. But this is absurd, since
the multitudes in the world in every case possess a certain
Let’s break this proposition down, so that we might limit and dimension. Likewise, any multitude being a pure
better understand the point being made. First and foremost, nothingness is obviously absurd, since it would contradict
what is the distinction between the “things many” and its own existence ceasing to anything at all. us it is
“multitude” he sets out with?
necessary to admit that all multitudes participate in e
Since Proclus begins by positing the “things many” and One to a certain yet not perfect degree, since that which
only then proceeds to clarify that such things do not belong participates perfectly in
e One is not a multiplicity
solely to multitude alone, it is evident at the outset that at all, but is in fact simply e One Itself. is is, in fact,
things such as these are constituted partially by multitude, what Proclus proves explicitly in his second proposition,
and are thus a whole of which multitude is only a single affirming that everything “which participates in e One
part. Proclus explains this nature precisely in the very is alike one and not one.” Hence Proclus’ assertion at the
rst proposition of the Elements, enunciating that “every
notes
multitude partakes in some respect of e One.” is is (1) Translation by Peterson.
itself evident by the fact that all things can be understood (2) As Proclus goes on to prove explicitly in EoT props. XXI-XXIII.
as a one, that is, as a single, comprehensible being or entity,
due to their participation in e One, just as things which
possess the quality of beauty do so by their participation in
the Beauty that presupposes and presides over each and all of
them2. If, then, there was some multitude that participated
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�outset of proposition VI that “each of the things many will
not be itself multitude alone.” If by “things many” he simply
means those beings which possess some multitude—which
is every being that is not simply e One—then clearly
each of those things must also participate to some degree in
e One, and thus will not be only multitudinous.
We thus proceed to the other distinction which the main
body of the proposition is constituted by. When Proclus
argues that “every multitude consists either of things united
or of unities,” how are we to understand the one as opposed
to the other, so that we can suppose all multitudes to consist
either in the one or the other?
All beings are made determinate by virtue of their
participation in e One (props. I, III), and “if indeed
it partakes of e One it is united” (prop. VI). But since
they each derive their particular oneness and thus their
determinacy from e One, then necessarily the multitude
that they also possess along with their oneness—since
they participate in e One only partially—can only be
constituted by other things in the same way participant
in e One. For if the constituents were not participants
in the same way, then they would participate perfectly in
e One, or in other words simply be e One; but this is
impossible, since e One cannot make up the multitude
of something else. Or otherwise they would be nothing
at all, since they would not be e One nor a participant
in It; but this is also impossible, since nothingness cannot
constitute any existent thing. us, every determinate thing
has its multitude constituted by things of the same nature
as itself. Take, for instance, a tree: the tree is understood as
a thing, that is, as a single, determinate being possessing its
own identity and distinctness from other things, by virtue
of its participation in e One. But while this is the case,
we are simultaneously able to analyze the tree and divide it
into different parts such as the branches, leaves, and trunk,
and understand the tree to be constituted by each of these
parts. e multitude of the tree, then, consists in things
united, insofar as each of the parts we know the tree to be
divisible into are understood primarily in their identity as
constituents. But we can think of these parts in a different
way; instead of thinking of them simply as constituents
of the whole, we can also think of them individually as
their own determinate thing, that is, as their own unities.
is is the meaning of our claim that the multitude of a
determinate thing is made up of other determinate things;
our very ability to recognize the branches and leaves and
trunk of the tree as distinct and unique things in themselves
is proof of this fact.
We have, then, three distinct modes or levels by which
we can conceive of each determinate thing. ere is, rst,
the thing’s primary identity, which it attains by virtue of its
participation in e One. Second, there is the multitude
underlying and constituting the thing, which the central
identity of the thing may be dissolved into. ird, there
Cotton Panel, ca. 1800, artist unkown
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�is the determinate identity of each part of the multitude
that the rst thing is in that way constituted by. In this way
the primary thing can be thought of either as consisting in
“things united” or in “unities.” If we conceive of the primary
thing simply, then its constituent multitude will simply be
things united in it; however, if we consider each part of
the constituent multitude in themselves, then we realize
them to be just as determinate as the primary thing, and
thus unities in themselves. To use our earlier example, there
is rst the tree itself, then the branches, leaves, trunk, and
so on, and nally there are each of those parts taken in
themselves as their own unities.
Plotinus concurs with this view of the relationship
between unity and being at the outset of his tractate “On
e Good, or e One” (VI.9.1)3:
It is in virtue of unity that beings are beings. is is
equally true of things whose existence is primal and
of all that are in any degree to be numbered among
beings. What could exist at all except as one thing?
Deprived of unity, a thing ceases to be what it is called:
no army unless as a unity; a chorus, a ock, must be
one thing. Even house and ship demand unity, one
house, one ship; unity gone, neither remains thus
even continuous magnitudes [which] could not exist
without an inherent unity; break them apart and their
very being is altered in the measure of the breach of
unity.
divided in the same way into things united, which can be in
turn thought of as their own unities, and so on ad in nitum.
While a branch of the tree can be isolated as its own unity
independent of its part as constituting the tree, the branch
can also be divided up in the same way.
But since each thing can be divided to an in nite degree,
then it seems that the thing would in a sense be constituted
by a kind of in nity, at least in potentiality and within its
multitude. But if it’s true that “there is no being constituted
of in nities without limit” (prop. I), then how can this be
possible?
We need to be careful here and clarify distinction
between indeterminate and thus in nite multitude, which
Proclus has clearly admitted to being absurd, and the
potentially in nite extension or division of determinate
beings into other determinate beings. As opposed to the
former absurdity, this latter idea is founded precisely in the
determinate being which things nd in and through their
participation in e One. It is of course true that we can
endlessly repeat the three levels of unity, since all beings
contain a degree of multitude, and the things united in this
multitude are themselves unities, are themselves beings;
but, by that same token, we are never, in this inde nite
delving into the unities of unities, conceiving of anything
indeterminate, or, in other words, anything which does not
participate in e One, this participation giving all things
their determinacy and unity. For the primary multitude is
itself a being by virtue of its unitary identity, and the things
united to make up that primary being are themselves unities
and thereby beings. us, no matter how much we divide
beings into their individual constituents, we will always
be conceiving of things which are both multitudes and
participants in e One, which is precisely the composition
of every being. erefore, the sort of in nity which comes
from our division of unities into things united into other
unities is not the sort which Proclus nds to be absurd,
since that absurdity is only found in nonparticipant rather
than participant multitudes.
In order to be a being at all, it is necessary to possess a
self-concentrated unity which aggregates all constituents
into a single identity; if there was not this centrality, then
there would be no one being, but only an indeterminate
multitude. is is, as Plotinus emphasizes, just as true for
things which we commonly understand as more explicitly
an aggregation of multitude as for anything else. Since all
things can be divided into the diversity of their multitudes,
since all things must, by participating in e One, possess
such a multitude along with their primary oneness, then it
doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about an army, or a
ock of birds, or a tree.
But what is also clear from this formulation is that these
three “levels” we have established are inde nitely repeatable.
notes
We know that this must be the case by virtue of what
has been established concerning the impossibility of an (3) Translation by Mackenna.
indeterminate multitude. Since all things having multitude
can be understood as unities in and of themselves, or as
a part of a greater multitude with the same determinate
nature, then every being can be divided into unities. And
each of those unities can be subsequently themselves be
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�Head Against the Light (The Artist's Sister)
by Umberto Boccioni
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�Polity As Polyphony
Luke Briner
W
hen I re ect on the incredible wealth of educating
and edifying experiences I’ve been fortunate enough
to have over the course of my sophomore year, the idea that
has impressed itself most continually and intensely upon me
is that of concord, of the beauty and marvelous goodness
which can arise from the effective organization of parts in
relation to the whole. is idea is rendered most plainly
and most wonderfully in the singing that I’ve done in my
music tutorial, as well as in the St. John’s Chorus. When we
get together to sing, I feel that I am giving myself—or at
least my voice—to a display of order which brings forth a
majesty of beauty far exceeding anything which I would be
capable of on my own, and yet one which I am deeply and
irrevocably intertwined. Despite the fact that I am only a
single voice out of many, and that my voice is, as a citizen
of a musical polity, strictly required to obey the letter of
the score’s law in lockstep with its fellow citizens, this act
of conformity feels not oppressive but supremely liberating.
I am contributing in such a way to the performance of the
piece as a whole that I am, at the same time, basking in its
very wholeness, witnessing, spellbound, a living, breathing
organism of beauty, not from without, but from within, as
one of its own organs.
is is already signi cant enough. But what really
compels me about this sort of concord is precisely the fact
that we observe it not merely in music as such, but in a great
many parts of life, and in virtually every aspect of our life at
St. John’s in particular. e model of our entire education
is predicated clearly upon this exact principle. What is
seminar, what are any of our classes, except for an intellectual
polyphony, with every participant their own melody line
set with the task of aligning itself not only with each of its
fellow lines individually, but with the accumulated whole?
e majesty of polyphony is necessarily founded upon
the amiable relations of each line to all of its fellows, with
every such relation giving miraculous rise to an entirely new
hypostasis of sound greater than the mere sum of its parts,
with each such hypostasis itself entering into friendship in
the same way with every other giving rise to the supreme
glory of musical experience as a whole. Likewise, a good St.
John’s student understands themselves to be fundamentally
subordinate to the goals and well-being of the discussion
as a whole, and accordingly endeavors to contribute to
that discussion in a way that’s fruitful not merely for
themselves, but for the entire class. e insight which the
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class produces communally through the earnest but selfeffacing contribution of each of its members is the great and
unique fruit of our educational model; and, most crucially,
our tasting of that fruit is simultaneous with our effort to
cultivate it.
We observe the same phenomenon at play in our polity
as a whole. e polity is an organism which is continually
produced and sustained by the effort of each of its members
individually and by the subsidiary groups constituted by
them, and which is made beautiful by the effective harmony
of all such parts with all others. One person devotes
themselves to administration and politics; another writes
industriously for the pleasure and education of the polity;
another enlivens and colors campus life by theater, music,
and art; and another gives themselves to supporting and
serving the community. Each one of these, and each group
or club or scene they are members of, are organs of the one
great organism, are melodic lines which, however beautiful
they might be on their own, realize their highest potential
as a unique participant in and contributor to the polyphony
of our whole Polity. Each giving up to the whole what gi s
they might have, and receiving from the font of that whole
exceedingly more—this is, as Plato so rightly concluded,
the essential condition of Justice, and for the polity just
as much for the song. is thought continues to move me
every time I really sit with it.
Now someone might raise the objection here that I
shouldn’t so rmly subordinate the part to the whole and
the individual to the community, and, moreover, that I
shouldn’t ascribe beauty to the whole in itself but rather
to the parts themselves which constitute that whole.
Zuckerkandl notes, a er all, that polyphony is characterized
primarily by “emphasis on ‘the many within the one’” ( e
Sense of Music, p. 139), not the other way around, and it is
the Many which gives rise to beauty, not the One; therefore,
each part, each individual, shouldn’t feel so strictly yoked to
the whole and the community, and should focus far more
on themselves; this, they might say, is what it really means
to think polyphonically.
But while the foundations of this way of thinking
are fundamentally correct, it nevertheless misses the
more crucial point that the many is only beautiful when
it is comprehended as a One. Polyphony is, naturally,
characterized primarily by “the many in the one” rather
than “the one in the many,” but this doesn’t do anything
�to alter the fact that we can only appreciate a polyphony
as a single thing, regardless of the multitude it might
contain within itself. Even if the melodies are legion and
all exceptionally beautiful, we appreciate them all only
when we hear them as a whole, and only when each of them
agree with each other sufficiently to give rise to a whole
that is beautiful. is is a necessary move if we wish to
bring about the greatest beauty, since it is the consonance
between the parts which is always more beautiful than each
part on their own. It’s therefore necessary for all parts to
conform strictly to the whole, and for the well-being of
that whole to be their active goal and priority. Moreover,
it is precisely this fact that leads Zuckerkandl in the same
chapter to note how melodies must conform to a rigorous
set of rules in order to control the dissonance that could
occur between them, even as they maintain some of their
own freedom and uniqueness. Likewise, our good consists
most completely not in our own individual good but in the
good of the whole, and to reject the strict regulation which
is necessary to maintain that whole would be to degenerate
from polyphony to cacophony and from polity to anarchy.
With this point especially in mind, it should be obvious
that I have so far been talking only in terms of the ideal,
and that our own actual Polity o en falls appallingly short
of that ideal. ere are many students who, even in their
second year, display an almost incomprehensible inability
to not be burdens to the group discussion; people whine
like spoiled children over the most basic Covid prevention
measures; and, just below the surface, there is a disgusting
underbelly of gossip, drug abuse, sexism, racism, and sexual
assault, which has made me, if no one else, extremely angry,
and hesitant, if not ashamed, to actually be with most of
my peers.
e situation is made all the more frustrating by the fact
that we have actively chosen this disharmonious ugliness,
have actively chosen to stain our polity and thereby each
of us as individuals; all that’s necessary for us to change our
course and achieve the great consonance of which we are
capable is to recognize our duty to each other, to modify
and improve our behavior and attitudes accordingly, and to
accept and respect the rules which would help everyone live
safer and happier lives here. It is, in fact, precisely this kind
of resolution which the freedom of our minds as students
of the liberal arts actually consists in, rather than in myopic
egotism or in simply reading a lot of very nice books and
learning how to talk pretty—the purpose of studying the
liberal arts is to learn to become an excellent human being,
not a shameless, self-absorbed sophist.
But the cause of that frustration can also be the source
of our hope: we are fundamentally free to recognize these
truths, and to improve ourselves and thereby our whole
community. If a liberal education is not capable of granting
us the ability to do this if we commit ourselves to it, then
no form of education can. Let us, then, recognize our duty
to the whole and the supreme beauty which can be found in
our absorption in it; let us work to make our polity a more
beautiful polyphony.
Singing Angels by Jan van Eyck
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�Chess Club
Michael Jeramaz
2
021 was an exciting year for chess fans, as the long-awaited
world championship match between champion Magnus
Carlsen and challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi nally took
place in Dubai. Proof of the event’s sensational popularity
is the record breaking viewership it garnered on multiple
streaming platforms. Chess clubs and bars alike were packed
around the world, with fans playing along at home while
rooting for their favorite player. I fondly remember the
electricity of this time, and my eagerness was vented during
my participation at chess club. Beginning only last semester,
chess club is a young but consistently popular club. Raking
in an average of eight to ten people, the club was populated
by players of varying levels. Some people had never played
chess before, while others had a more extensive background.
e environment was relaxed, as it took place in the evening
a er a long week of classes. Playing was typically free form
with some games being competitive while others were more
casual. More experienced players sometimes took time to
teach beginners, and these lessons proved educational for
everyone involved. e culture of chess club was one of
openness and inclusion. People would spontaneously join
and leave the club whenever they pleased. At the same time,
the club established consistent participation with the same
people by the end of the semester. We ended the year with
pizza and drinks and played a game on a Mega board chess
S
24
set. Players of differing skill levels were partnered together,
leading to an imbalanced game with many twists and turns.
A er a few hours, with both teams holding a winning
advantage at some point, the game concluded hilariously
in a draw, marking an ironic albeit satisfying conclusion to
chess club’s inauguration. Club founder, Daniel Han, has
this to say about his experience as archon: “Next year, I
hope chess club will have more lessons without losing its
relaxed environment and will be able to organize an allschool tournament. I was proud to have started this club
because people had talked about doing this since the time I
was a freshman, but it never came to fruition until this year.
I am deeply grateful for the support and encouragement
that people at chess club have given me. Without their
consistent participation and help, chess club wouldn’t have
been possible. I can leave the college having shared a game
that I love and am happy to know that this club will continue
and be le in great hands a er I graduate.” Despite being
1400 years old, the game of chess is in the midst of a massive
popularity boom, moving the game from an intimidating
monolith of intellectualism to a game which can be enjoyed
casually by a wider audience. e club’s goal is to emphasize
the game’s approachability while maintaining the epic
struggles and wonders which have captivated and drawn so
many players to chess.
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�One Journey ends, and another begins, at
the Robert Morris Inn
Connor Shin
W
hether I like it or not, this is my nal restaurant
review for e Gad y. I knew that for my nal
article, it’d have to be something special, and I’m happy
to report that the hour-long drive to a sleepy Maryland
port town was totally worth it. e trip itself could take
up an entire article in its own right, with me and my two
roommates encountering an old ghter jet in a random
municipal airport off Route 50, literal hordes of adorable
rabbits hopping around picturesque waterfront houses in
Oxford, a chance conversation with the ex-virologist owner
of a beautifully-restored Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, and
one of the most gorgeous sunsets you can nd anywhere
on the Eastern Shore. Lest I get swept up in sentimentality,
I should mention the actual destination of my ambitious
expedition: the Robert Morris Inn, the oldest full-service
inn in the country.
I’ll try not to get sidetracked with the rich history of
this 312-year-old establishment, but the fact that the likes
of author James Michener, George Washington (yes, that
George Washington), and the Founding Father who lent his
name to this inn have stayed here should tell you that this
place has some serious pedigree. You’ll be eating the food of
Chef Mark Salter, whose experience runs the gauntlet of a
ve-star hotel in Switzerland, the Scottish Salon Culinaire,
the James Beard Foundation, and everything in-between.
Stepping into the inn’s tavern is akin to walking out of a
time machine; the walls and ceiling are lined with thick
mahogany wood, which makes entering during a bright day
quite jarring, as your eyes will need a few seconds to adjust
to the drastic change in light level. You’re greeted with the
warm, welcoming scent that old, wood and brick buildings
seem to always possess, as well as the sight of a spotless 18th
century dining room that wouldn’t look out of place in a
John Trumbull painting. It’s worth trying to reserve a seat
during off-hours, but not just so that you can take the time
to appreciate the beauty of this traditional tavern in relative
peace. Not only does this place ll up pretty quickly, but
the restaurant appears to only possess a few servers for the
entire dining room; while they all are friendly, competent,
and eager to please, it appeared as though they struggled
at times to deal with the sheer number of tables that
became full during the dinner rush, to the point where my
companions sometimes had to ask multiple times over the
Robert Morris Inn
14 North Morris Street, Oxford, MD
410-226-5111
www.robertmorrisinn.com
Open for inside and outside dining SundaySaturday at 7:30 AM-11:00 PM.
Prices: Small dishes $6 to $18, main dishes
$9 to $42, desserts $10.
course of half an hour for small requests like re lls and extra
sauce.
Besides the occasional lapse in service, I can safely say that
my comrades and I had the time of our lives. Since this was
going to be a one-time experience, we settled on ordering
a smorgasbord of dishes to share. In total, we ordered
the mixed green salad ($15) and spiced blue cat sh taco
($17) appetizers, the sh’n’chips ($25), Sri Lankan spiced
Scottish salmon ($32), and Robert Morris Inn jumbo
lump crab cake ($39) entrées, and the apple and blackberry
crumble, sticky toffee pudding, and Smith Island cake (all
$10) desserts. Before this banquet was laid out before us,
we were already blown away by the simplest of starters: a
free basket of bread accompanied by a smattering of butter
is something you’ll get at any restaurant worth its salt, but
this bread in particular was dangerously tasty, with the
tiniest hint of sweetness in the crust and a gentle warmth
that permeated every slice. Shamefully, we were tempted
enough to breach a cardinal sin of a multiple-course dinner,
and emptied the bread basket in mere minutes. Only by the
grace of God were we able to nish the rest of our dishes
without feeling more stuffed than a anksgiving turkey.
Our two appetizers quickly arrived a er our display
of carb-related gluttony, with the salad conveniently
portioned out on multiple plates in advance. e salad itself
contained many ingredients that I’d normally try to avoid,
namely asparagus, dried cherries, toasted walnuts, and
crumbled goat cheese. Somehow, perhaps with the aid of
a subtle lemon-thyme vinaigrette, I found myself unable to
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�avoid polishing my plate of this refreshing, perfectly-mixed
salad. e tacos, too, were a resounding hit, with one of my
colleagues stating that these were “the best sh tacos [she’s]
ever had”. is was actually my very rst time eating cat sh,
and the spice of the sh’s seasoning was evenly balancedout with the smart application of cotija cheese and sliced
avocado. e sh itself was aky, tender, and very meaty for
a white sh, with not a hint of shiness that plagued the last
seafood tacos that my unfortunate friend was subjected to.
For a centuries-old institution, this unorthodox addition to
their menu is a must-try item.
I’m happy to report that the entrées, too, were universally
well-received. e beer-battered cod arrived neatly arrayed
on a bed of buttered garden peas and hot shoestring fries,
all of which complimented each other perfectly with the
addition of some much-needed tartar sauce. e batter
didn’t overwhelm the naturally-mild cod in the slightest,
but added a slight maltiness and crunch that characterizes
top-notch fried sh. e peas, too, were cooked to just
the right consistency, as was the generous serving of fries.
When my Sri Lankan-style salmon arrived, my palate was
both surprised and blown away by the unique avors that
I haven’t experienced anywhere else. A colorful painter’s
palette of cauli ower mint purée and cilantro crema
added complex layers of sweetness and umami avor to
my buttery-smooth piece of top-quality salmon, and the
accompanying sides of spicy vegetable pakora and crunchy
cucumber ribbons provided the perfect palate cleansers for
this excellent example of an o -overlooked cuisine. Perhaps
most importantly, Chef Salter knows his Maryland recipes
just as well as a true Old Line State native, if his he y 8
oz. crab cake is anything to go by. With the unconventional
accouterments of a spring vegetable hash drizzled with
lemon butter sauce, and a tangy tomato-chili jam in lieu
of boring cocktail sauce, it’s no wonder he managed to beat
the famed chef Eric Rippert at a crab cook-off at New York’s
Le Bernardin. Even without these delicious additions, the
crab cake itself can rival the best that Annapolis has to offer;
if you want a crab cake with plenty of plump, sweet meat,
held together with the merest fraction of seasoned ller,
then you really can’t go wrong with this particular dish.
Just when my friends and I were basking in the relaxing
a erglow of a lling, tasty meal, our homemade desserts
arrived like clockwork. First up was the apple and blackberry
crumble, with a pecan streusel topping and a scoop of vanilla
ice cream on the side. e chunks of fruit within were sweet,
crisp, and not too runny, while the streusel added a layer of
nuttiness and crunch that contrasted nicely with the so
interior of the dessert. Gathering a bit of fruit, a chunk of
streusel, and a dollop of ice cream into one spoonful might
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take a bit of effort, but is absolutely worth it for the full
experience. Unlike the metaphorical crumbling Smith
Island cake from my fever dream of a Bad y article, the
Robert Morris Inn’s rendition of this pancake-like yellow
cake, with pencil-thin lines of decadent chocolate fudge
running across its length, maintained a satisfying rigidity
throughout, even while three voracious diners ate chunk
a er chunk out of it. With a generous dollop of sweet
Chantilly cream on the side, this meticulously-cut wedge
of cake appeared to have come straight out of the well-worn
pages of an old waterman’s cookbook; it was almost a shame
devouring this picture-perfect example of Maryland’s state
dessert. By the time we reached the sticky toffee pudding,
our little group was skeptical that we’d be able to nish the
entire thing. Indeed, the sweet smell emanating from this
caloric nightmare of moist sponge cake, toffee, butterscotch
sauce, and vanilla ice cream was almost enough to get us
to throw in the towel; yet at the same time, it beckoned us
to take one bite, then another, then another. If anything,
the toffee pudding was gone even more quickly than either
of its accompanying desserts; maybe the fact that it’s one
of Chef Salter’s signature dishes has something to do with
its addictive and satisfying nature. In the end, myself and
my two roommates le the Robert Morris Inn even more
happy than when we entered; no small feat, considering
how much fun we had just reaching this colonial oasis on
the serene shores of the Chesapeake.
Normally, I’d end the article with a nal word on whether
this restaurant is worth your time and money, but I think
I’ve made my position on the Robert Morris Inn pretty clear
already. is very well could be the last restaurant review I
write for a while, so I’d like to give a formal farewell while I
have your attention.
For my rst three years at St. John’s, I never read a single
issue of e Gad y. Come senior year, and I still had no idea
that I would ever spend sleepless nights deliberating upon
proper adjectives to describe a tasty pickle, or the right way
to convey my disgust for a disastrous risotto. When I nally
caved to peer pressure, took the leap, and started to put my
culinary critiques to paper, I never expected to receive so
much support from the Polity for my restaurant ramblings,
whether it’s from classmates conveying their appreciation
for a particular joke, or faculty members tracking me down
between classes to request a review of their favorite hangout
spot. is whole experience has been quite eye-opening
for me, since I didn’t think that I had the chops to write
anything that people would actually care about. Over the
course of writing articles this year, I’ve experienced the
best that Annapolis restaurateurs have to offer, some of the
worst misses and disappointments, as well as whatever the
�hell my dining hall “review” was. is summer, I’ve decided
to take my culinary interest one step further, by working
in the kitchen of a small hotel in the south of France to see
whether this career path is something worth pursuing. I’d
be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about my future, but I’m
also pretty damn excited, too. My only regret is that I don’t
have more time to write about all the restaurants I haven’t
yet had the chance to critique, but I suppose that’s a good
metaphor for life itself… or something cliché like that.
Before I sign off, I’ve got a favor to ask of all of you
who will be coming back next year: don’t let these reviews
die. I’ve been thinking for a while about whether I should
pass the torch to a particular Johnnie, but I believe that
every single one of you has plenty to say about the food that
you enjoy and hate on a regular basis. Whether just one of
you decides to take the time to write about your favorite
restaurants, or if a dozen of you want to rag on some
infamous local spots, I’ll be content that, against all odds,
I managed to actually start something worthwhile at this
college.
C
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�To Veto, or Not to Veto, That Is The Question
Tom Ni
W
hat are the duties of the President? In accordance with the Charter and
Polity of St. John’s College, the Student Polity established for itself a
government representative of all polity members. As our instrument of governance,
the Delegate Council accept the responsibilities delegated by the College. Elected
by the entire Student Polity as Chairman of the Delegate Council, the President has
been entrusted with the authority to ensure the ful llment of those responsibilities.
Among those responsibilities are two: the management of funds available to the
Student Polity, and the sanctioning of all student clubs, organizations, committees,
and activities, and their regulations. Unlike Delegates who represent only certain
constituents, namely their class, my duty is to the entire Student Polity. is
principle is the foundation that anchors all my decisions.
I strive to support all student organizations to ful ll their essential functions.
However, there is a multitude of factors that needs to be considered in the
appropriation of funding. Part of the Orthodox Christian Fellowship’s late budget
in question is an item titled simply “Charity.” e Archon later explained the
request was intended to purchase both food and supplies that will be distributed
to Annapolitans in need as care packages. is is undoubtedly a noble proposal.
However, given there’s only just a month le before the semester ends, the Archon
did not detail a plan that is satisfactory. Several delegates and I did not have the
con dence in the effective implementation of the proposal.
e item also raised bigger questions concerning the essence of DC funding and
charity. An action’s potentiality to achieve good does not necessitate its realization.
ere are many ways DC funding could be appropriated to bene t the Polity. I
can approve purchases or funding for certain overdue renovations on campus that
will undeniably bene t everyone. But is it my duty to approve them? Shall they
take precedence over requests that ful ll essential club functions? Should I approve
funding for individual clubs to donate in their name? What about a donation
from DC representing the entire Student Polity? What classi es as charity? How
money is spent is just as important as what the money is spent for. ere are a lot
more nuances to endeavors aiming to achieve certain good. ey all differ, and this
complicates the appropriation of funding for them.
I believe there is a difference between charity and service. Service requires
an active effort driven by morality. Service to others, especially to the wider
community, is commendable and should be encouraged. I believed that it would be
more appropriate and rewarding to have a fundraiser or food drive it this instance
instead of requesting funding to purchase everything. I stated on record that I
would approve essential purchases needed to help OCF organize such projects, and
I will personally support them. However, some failed to see the necessity to make
such a distinction.
Some continued to debate for the original proposal and cited other passed
budgets. Budgets are reviewed individually on their own merit, and the amounts of
other passed budgets that are completely different in nature shall have no relevancy
here. I rarely vote as I preside over the meetings and decide the results of voice votes.
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�Almost all budgets are passed unanimously, and had delegates disapproved of the
other budgets, where were the Nays? Is the necessity to approve this particular item
grounded in duty or self-righteousness? e council should remain objective away
from passions. A er considering all the factors, I concluded it’s not appropriate
to approve the item and voiced my official objection before the vote. Many other
delegates concurred. is was the rst vote of the year that required a division of
the house, and the item did not reach a 2/3 majority. e item only had the simple
majority required to pass to the President for the opportunity for a veto, at which
point I exercised my right to reject the proposal.
It would have been much easier—and much more popular—for me to conform
to the pressure of the DC. Why should I even veto spending that is not from my own
money? How could I not have known the misrepresentation about me that would
spread among the polity? ere is nothing for me to gain but misunderstanding. But
I would dishonor my Oath of Office if I yielded to such fear. e most vocal voices
on DC do not necessarily represent the majority of the polity nor understand our
duties. I make myself accessible to all constituent classes to the best of my ability.
I have instituted an office hour that the Herald will help address DC matters. I do
not take the authority entrusted by the Student Polity, especially the power of veto,
lightly.
e proposal would likely set a precedent. Given there’re still many questions
regarding charity that weren’t adequately addressed, and this late submission did
not present a viable plan, it was my duty to veto the item. I ask my peers to have
faith that I will always, a er much deliberation, carry out my duties in the best
interest of the Polity.
I commend Mr. Nichols-Kaufman’s effort in voicing his opinion and bringing
attention to the issue of service. However, it is very disappointing that students are
nally interested in service and care about what their student government does, only
a er a sensational headline and news of my controversial decision. e controversy
seems to have brought a decidedly personal element: some students have begun to
speculate and question my character, believing that I am against service projects.
Most elections were uncontested, and no one ran for the SCI Secretary and Junior
Rep positions this semester. How many students have devoted some time to serving
the polity? Issues that received the most attention this past year were underage
alcohol policy, smoking policy, and donuts. Indeed, I would hope that a er all
the readings about virtues, we would have a better understanding of morality and
service.
One need only look and will nd that our polity does not lack public servants
or opportunities to serve. Mr. Flynn runs food drives collecting le over food and
bringing them to those in need. Talents like Ms. Bates and Ms. Taylor donated the
proceeds from the sale of their artifacts at the Ukrainian Festival. e a erschool
tutoring program at the Stanton Community Center under the leadership of
Ms. Townsley and Ms. Raymond. May these students be inspirations to all of us.
However, our enthusiasm for service cannot exist only when it receives attention.
We must remain steadfast in our commitment at all times. e reward for service
should be in the virtue of service itself. I look forward to supporting all projects that
abide by this principle. Project Polity is a DC chartered organization speci cally
established to engage the Polity in meaningful service to both SJC and the greater
Annapolis community. It manages various volunteer projects and provides support
and guidance to new initiates. I would like to encourage all members of the polity
to partake in its projects.
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�Senior's
Annotating Phaedrus
Caleb Dutton
My written words embarrass me,
My simple mind with whom I plea:
You must refrain from markings plain,
For Socrates shuns summary.
My bold black pen made heavy stain,
Tempted by margins nigh the main
Columns of speech and argument,
Whose condensed thoughts I scratched in vain.
is reaction shows improvement.
Four years removed, I know I meant
To blaze a path straight through that book;
Now so discourse in the indent.
One lesson from this school I took:
To ask, not state, why my soul shook.
May questions come where e’er you look,
May questions come where e’er you look.
New York Jazz
George Kalandadze
Monk was laying down his elbow-chords in the corner.
We could taste love and oak on our lips —
e light was dim, and the outside
Tickled in the 32nd bar.
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�Last Words
A home can be anywhere.
Alicia Bravo
H
umans seek stability in any environment. If we feel safe
enough in that stability, we start to make a home.
Even the most desolate, rocky, barren crag of cracked land, at
the edge of a cliff, can start to feel like home if you live there long
enough.
And the people you bond with in that wretched, shitty place
become that much more integral to your survival. You eventually
begin to consider them family.
I would go so far as to say that I consider St. John’s my family.
e analogy that comes to mind of my experience at St. John’s,
with the people in my class in particular, is that we are on board
a submarine during WWII. We aren’t even midshipman - we just
somehow ended up here and decided to fuck around and nd out
what exactly is going on. e submarine is archaic, the equipment
is faulty, there’s leaks everywhere, and we’re 20,000 leagues under
the sea. We’re trapped in this tiny metal tube with no way out for
months - and yet, we have each other. Even when someone says,
“hey, someone just shit in the control room”, we think to ourselves,
“well, that’s just how it is in a submarine sometimes.”
I love this school. I love the people I have met here, even if we
haven’t gotten particularly close. I love being able to sit on the quad
and chat with anyone. I love the people I have had the fortune to
grow close with - I love them ercely, wildly, unabashedly. I love
what the program itself has given me - con dence, the ability to
express my opinions without the anxiety that someone will not
care what I say, an appreciation for the pursuit of knowledge and an
appreciation for beauty in things that before I would’ve considered
unimportant. I feel more comfortable and more “myself ” here, at
this college, than I have anywhere else.
Has it irrevocably messed up my brain? Probably. Would I go
back in time to myself, freshman year, scared out of their mind and
riddled with the intrusive thoughts that I don’t belong here and I
never will, and tell them not to come here?
Absolutely not.
To make a long story short St. John’s for mother fucking ever, bitch.
θα μου λείψεις <3
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�Ode to a Dying Highlighter
Sheba Delaney
O thou good and faithful servant
In your guise of garish pink,
How lightly bore your burden
Of emphasizing ink.
As plodding mind moved wearily
rough seas of deepest text,
You always helped me ascertain,
Just what I might say next.
rough years of conversation
At this very chatty school
You've proved your worth in helping me
To sound like less a fool.
And now you draw your nal line
Of faded, weakened hue,
I'll not forget your constant help
And what I owe to you.
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�“I will always remember the time Mr.
Braithwaite took my freshman math
class stargazing. We stood in front of
the ptolemy stone and watched the sky
for most of the night. A few of us even
managed to stay up and watch the sun
rise; after which, Mr. Braithwaite took us
to breakfast at Chick n’ Ruth’s.”
"If I can graduate, anyone can"
"Albania rocks"
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�"I am slain"
"I will miss the people and this place a great deal"
“Hey just so you know for future reference Alaska’s abbreviation is AK
and Arkansas’ is AR. Keep your head up, Annapolis.”
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�"You people have stood in my way long enough!
I'm going to clown college."—Homer
“Ask me about my attendance”
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�Program Contest Results
1. Joseph Padgett
Aria on Newton's Principia III.6
e full score of Mr. Padgett's aria is included on pages 38 and 39
of this issue, and the QR code to the le can be used to listen to a
recording performed by Birdi Mueller and Rose Zhang!
2. Brandon Garcia
Ballade of the Duel at Alton, Illinois
Ballade of the Duel at Alton, Illinois
Between MM. Lincoln and Douglas
(Being also an Homage to Cyrano de Bergerac)
36
Lightly I toss my stovepipe away,
Calmly upon the public let fall
A silence impressed by ordered array—
en start the address, and to work withal!
A Carthusian in the churchly hall,
A Cicero now, arrived from Rome!
I dally awhile with you, jackal,
en, as I nish my point, strike home.
Oh, for more time! You are pale and gray—
You stutter, you cower, you cringe, you bawl!
Ha!—and I parry your last essay:
So can the turn of a phrase forestall
Truth with its honey, deceit with its gall;
us does the turn of my musing roam
Free, for a time, till the clocks recall,
en, as I nish my point, strike home!
Where shall I carve my turkey? Nay,
Better for you to have shunned this brawl!
Here, in your thought, where sophistries lay?
Your grammar, worn like a mismatched shawl?
Hark, how my words ring musical!
Mark how my tongue oats, light as the foam,
Ready to drive you back to the wall,
en, as I nish my point, strike home!
Refrain
Sir, pray that God, Who is Lord of all,
Strengthen your soul, for your time has come!
Beaten at length, your mind is asprawl—
en, as I nish my point...strike home!
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�3. Cassie Desmond
Meno's Missing
ing
3. Rose Zhang
Crime and Punishment
Honorable Mention
Honorable mention goes to Tuyết-Nhi Nghiêm's poem, Hektor's Helmet,
included in full on the back cover of the issue to preserve spacing as much
as possible.
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37
�38
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�Hektor's Helmet
Tuyết-Nhi Nghiêm
Noble Prince Hektor of Troy
man-slaying,
horse-taming,
helmet-shining
Prince Hektor,
reaches for his infant son before he goes to die,
and he cannot hold his child.
Not with the violence of the battle eld.
Cannot look at his baby with his mighty crimson horsehair plume,
Cannot hold him close with the skull crushing arms of a warrior,
Cannot pray for his son's future with the voice that roars commands outside
the walls of Troy.
To coddle this precious child,
Our great soldier must set his bronze helmet, bright with sunlight, in the dirt,
He must laugh a golden laugh with his wife,
So that his face is handsome and not savage.
en, only then, can our noble Prince Hektor,
wife-loving,
child-tossing,
family-protecting
Prince Hektor,
Kiss this child's clean cheeks.
For the arms that swing an infant up high must be those of a father
and not a killer.
I weep for the tenderness of this moment.
I wonder at the power of it,
A father washing the war off of himself before he walks to his child.
How would our lives have been different,
Had our fathers healed their wounds before having us,
before holding us?
THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
OF
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
Founded in 1980, the Gad y
is the student newsmagazine
distributed to over 600 students, faculty, staff, and alumna of the Annapolis campus.
Opinions expressed within are the responsibility of
the author(s).
e Gad y
reserves the right to accept,
reject, and edit submissions
in any way necessary to
publish a professional, informative, and thought provoking
newsmagazine.
Submissions sent to the
Gad y should either be
in Google Docs or JPEG
format.
e deadline for
submissions is the Friday prior to publication.
For more information,
contact us via email at
sjca .g adfly@gmail.com
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
1C. 2D. 3AB. 4C. 5BD. 6A. 7B. 8D. 9D. 10B. 11B. 12A.
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�
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Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
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The Gadfly, Vol. XLIII, Issue 12
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Volume XLIII, Issue 12 issue of The Gadfly. Published May 24, 2022.
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Koch, Craig (Editor-in-Chief)
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Annapolis, MD
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Badfly Vol XLIII Issue 12
Gadfly
Student publication
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THE BADFLY
Photo by Elizabeth Dowdy, A’23
“I just feel like I can't even trust the administration anymore! Are we a joke to
them? Standing on the quad cluelessly, hands empty, hips still? Expected to
chat with my fellow peers naturally?”
Where are the Hula Hoops?, pg 13
St. John’s College
Vol. XLII, Issue 01
Annapolis, Maryland
April 30, 2021
�{expose}
Investigation of the Migrating Johnnie Chairs
Rose Zhang
D
ear Mr. Morris,
In my last email, I told you
about the strange phenomenon I’ve
most recently encountered. Students
have repeatedly reported the odd
occurrence in room 305 of Mcdowell
Hall: no matter how they take away
the chairs from that room, 305 always
ends up with more chairs they began
with. There are rumors spreading that
the building is haunted.
So I have begun my research
according to a group of student’s
bequests upon the “migrating chairs”
in Mcdowell Hall. And I’m very
pleased to inform you that I have
made tremendous progress in this
investigation.
While the Johnnie chair has its
unique aesthetic, nevertheless, I find it
unpleasant to sit in for a long period. I
still cannot fathom how each of those
chairs costs around 300$ (although
I’m not certain of this information
since I heard it from a fellow student’s
remark.) I always thought the chairs
had souls in and of themselves, as
they would make noise at the most
inconvenient time in class, or fall
backward. But my apologies, I digress, I
shall refrain myself from expostulating
about the questionable quality of the
chair I find myself sitting in.
After I finished my work, it was past
midnight. As I walked through the
Great Hall, however, I could hear the
sound of a chair, or multiple chairs,
scratching the floor. The sound came
inconsistently. Remembering the
investigation on hand, I went upstairs.
And my intuition was correct, for the
sounds were true, coming from room
305.
2
Yet, when I opened the heavy door,
the clamor immediately ceased. I
promise you, I am not making this
up, Mr. Morris. A chill went down my
spine. The silence was alarming.
There was nothing abnormal
about the classroom. It was perfectly
organized, the blackboard still filled
with the math demonstrations,
nothing more. I closed the door and
decided that I had misheard out of my
fatigue.
As I walked out of the McDowell
hall through the empty quad, I saw the
most unbelievable thing: a Johnnie
chair moving across the field. It was
too far away for me to judge if it was
being carried by a person, floating in
the air, or sliding across the ground.
But it was certainly moving.
For the sake of the time being, I
will save you the pain of all the details
and add them up when we meet in
person. I caught the chair. It moved
in the most disturbing way possible,
like a cockroach. I rather it moved like
a cat or a dog, but no, it slid around
as if a huge wooden cockroach. SO
much that it made me think whether
the chair was possessed by the soul of
a cockroach. (Yes, I am aware bugs do
not have souls for they are unable to
contemplate. Thank goodness it did
not have the form of a chair and a soul
of a cockroach, can you imagine that?)
When I grabbed the handle of the
chair, it screamed at me.
“What do you want?” It yelled
hoarsely at me. It didn’t have a facial
feature, but it was certainly the chair
Isa Kiedrowski
the Cadfly / May 20, 2021
�speaking.
“You’re a walk… I mean crawling
Johnnie chair?”
“Yes, if you have eyes, which you do,
and a sound mind, hopefully, you do,
if you’re a Johnnie, that’s obvious isn’t
it?”
Seemed like the chair wasn’t a
happy chair. I wondered whether it
sat through the Nicomachean Ethics
seminar at all. Or maybe that’s exactly
why it wasn't happy. I questioned why
all the chairs end up in room 305,
and what it was doing on the quad. It
didn’t answer me. I asked why chairs
seem lifeless during the day, why they
can move and speak. It evaded my
question by asking me what I meant
by “chairs,” “what does it mean to be
a Johnnie chair,” and “what defines
life.” Certainly, this particular Johnnie
chair has mastered sophistry better
than the Sophist himself. Seeing that
the chair would not cooperate with
my inquiries. I dragged it down to
the basement of Mellon and tied it up
there.
Indeed, conversation is helpful with
most problems, and that is what we
practice at the college. But sometimes
violence has more efficacy in dealing
with bloviating and obstinate souls
like this one.
If you happen to know anyone who
has a saw or even a candle (those fake
ones work too) please let me know. I’m
determined to figure out the end goal
of these Johnnie chairs. As I’m typing
this email out, this Johnnie chair is
stomping its leg violently behind me.
I need to go and tighten the rope. I’ll
see you soon.
Yours,
M.J.
Car Horns Go Brrrr....
Daniel Nathan
T
he time is perpetual 8:22 a.m
— I know this. A symphony
of infinite car horns will soon blast
off incessantly in the near distance,
redistributing their decibels and
spreading their soundbites evenly
amongst each and every pair of ears
in the greater Annapolis area. This
ill-defined caravan of middle-aged
defiance lurches itself forward, in an
unidentifiable protest procession,
doing slow-moving laps around the
Statehouse, circling the drain.
Awaiting the imminent audio
barrage of bad drivers, I try craning my
neck to check the clock hanging on my
wall, but I’m still too groggy and braintoo-empty to logic my way through
reading anything analog or to wrap my
head around the concept of minute
hands. So just like everyone else these
days, I make the jump and go digital,
scanning for the beacon of my stateof-an-art AM/FM alarm clock radio
that I think might still be plugged in.
It is. Although, showing 8:29 a.m, the
light-up display proves me a liar, with
a neon red glow staring back at me like
the eyes of the Mothman. In exactly
one minute, I know, my alarm will
go off, playing the soothing sounds
of drive-time commuter radio Two
morning shock-jocks fading in and
out of static, relaying lukewarm hottakes and light-hearted verbal jousts,
slinging overeager zingers at one
another. But I won’t be able to hear
the lively back-and-forth on 105.7
The Groove through subwoofers and
bullhorns, blaring “We’re Not Gonna
Take It”, scorching straight into my
window, into my soul.
Consider it waking up au naturael,
as they say, blindingly bright and
blisteringly early. Like how a rooster
is able to wake up on the whims and
wisdom of Mother Nature. Except
in this case, I’m the rooster and my
Mother Nature is “fed-up with Biden’s
radical socialist agenda” and drives
a four-cylinder Honda Odyssey
minivan with dust-plated rims and
the muffler removed. And boy, oh
boy, does she have a bone to pick with
the Maryland State Legislature. All
through my days and night(mare)
s, I await the 109 dB shelling — the
Morning Hate — indignant and selfrighteous bombardement, pumping
my skull full of chaos emitting from
some sort of protest about some
sort of issue, co-opting some sort of
boomer anthem like “Born To Run”
or just about anything by Twisted
Sister. These aimless chest-thumping
car horns, sounding off at-scale at
least a hundred-fold — a metric, by
the way, that I’m sure J.D Power is
not keyed into come awards season—
seep into the rhythms of my deep
unconsciousness.
The sound screeches, the blasts
banshee, the buzzing blurs, the clamor
clangs slouching into sonic silence.
And just like that, starting right on
the dime, at 8:30 a.m, the honking
starts up back again for another shift,
and the horns kill me: an I.V. drip of
an F sharp note needled straight into
whatever’s left of my eardrums.
the Radfly / May 20, 2021
3
�{interview}
Where are the Hula Hoops?
A commentary on Coffee on the Quad
by Linda Bellamy, ‘24
O
n 1 April, students on campus were alerted to a
new social event on campus. “Coffee on the Quad”
was introduced to rekindle the tradition of post-seminar
conversation. The email announcement for the event
advertised hot coffee and, in an unexpected win for
enthusiasts of aerobics and Polynesian culture, free hula
hoops.
As crowds of students gathered on the quad to participate
in the hula hooping, they were horrified to discover the
toys absent — missing, non-existence, unbelievably
not there! Wye Knee-Man (A’23) expressed his ire with
the catastrophe: “I just feel like I can't even trust the
administration anymore! Are we a joke to them? Standing
on the quad cluelessly, hands empty, hips still? Expected to
chat with my fellow peers naturally?”
Now, students flock regularly on Monday and Thursday
nights in hopes of one day being surprised by the presence
of the beloved plastic rings. “It's the nostalgia for me. As
children, my friends and I did nothing but hula hoop and
sip Capris Suns,” Peter Pansyndrome (A’21) said. “I mean
there was no need to socially distance and I didn’t have to
wear a mask. But still the sentiment remains.”
Students have decided to take action, and organizer
Audrey Fox (A’24) is mounting a campaign to Boston-TeaParty the quad. “The gist is to make your cup of coffee, take
a few sips (it's not not bad), and then dump it all out,” Fox
said. “Give me hula hoops or give me death.”
If the hoops are ever actually offered for student use,
some foresee a bright future for the toys’ inclusion in the
Intramurals program. Some Polity-members see them
becoming the next big Covid-safe sport on campus. “I
honestly think this could replace Stringfellow Ball,” Oscar
Gonzales (A’24) said.
{short story}
Fabella Oculāris: Monitum ad
Caulātōrēs
Joseph Richard
Olim, invidō sub aspectū hominum divōmque voluptāte; in mediīs
partibus vitiūm meūm; paulō ante futurās rēs, talpulam invēnī canēntem aviās
hās Milesiās:
“Ἐν ἀρχῇ, in principio?” inquit talpula mea, “saltem ab initio monstra
complura notissima nocte tē visum venerunt; triangulī, orbia, coni omniō
assilentēs undique, salientes, cacābant, cacābant, cacābant quasi pullī infernō
raptī sine pullāriō.”
“Ecce, mī puer,” ea narratitat, aspiciēns vultum meum, “oculī tuī quibus
tibi vidērī possum; geōmetricīs in verbīs, ‘circlī’--” hīc rīdēns, “dīcuntur.” Tum,
parvissimīs eī manibus, amōre et mollītiā, rēpente contractāvit vulsitque
oculōs meōs ut haec dēmōnstret. Talpula, torquēns intrā oculā digītā ei,
clāmāverat sīc:
“Oculī! Lūmina animī; deūm cor; horreum gāzārum.” Deorsum,
sūrsum oculōs torquēns meōs. Statim, statim complānāvit meōs oculōs!
Sannā malā, dixerat:
“Timeō geometricōs, et vim ferentes; et sic, tibi oportet Π. et Ψ.
Λοσοφῳ.”
4
the Badfly / May 20, 2021
Timothy Treadwell
Looking like a lasagna
Had integrity...
Bridget Mace
�{interview}
At the Speed of Fast
Speed Reading At St. John's Takes On New Meaning
by Daniel Nathan, ‘24
W
ith a tuft of blondeapproaching grey hair; eyes
with a glint like a tire fire, refusing
to adhere to any commonly known
conception of a color wheel; and the
moxie and gusto of a boulder, history
has been made. Freshman-turnedalumnus, Lurk “Junk” Grok (A21) has
recently reached new heights of brain
function, shattering the school record
for the fastest speed-run through the
entire catalog of the St. John’s College
program. Some say he reminds them of
Heinrich Himmler, some say a meanspirited Tom Petty, and some say he’s
the human embodiment of a Chrysler
PT Cruiser — the reality likely exists
somewhere in the intermediate.
The previously held record
of 8 months and 21 days, set in
1953 by a student named Alfred
Existentialisman (A53), was, until
now, thought unbreakable: an
insurmountable Triumph of the Will,
the spirit, and body. But this Lurk
Grok is fast — blink-and-you’ll-misshim fast. From the Iliad to Phaedrus
through to Genesis and Tempest on
to Don Quixote and War and Peace
culminating finally back around again
to Phaedrus, his journey through the
arc of the Western canon took him a
mind-bending, God-destroying time
of just 22 hours and 42 seconds to
complete.
Noticeably exhausted after being
put through the nearly day-long
ringer, Grok remained even-keeled
as classmates (or colleagues, as he’d
refer to them) popped bottles of
$8.99 champagne, spraying and
soaking the celebration in boozy foam
residue. Reigning in all plausible hints
of emotion and/or sentience, the
speed-demon spoke of his seemingly
inhuman feat with stoic restraint,
flashing his trademark dead-eyed
charm/smarm.“I am not illiterate,
therefore I read. Please leave me
alone.” he said, spittle flying from his
mouth as he spoke, watering the grass
and saving the planet, doing his part to
stay ever environmentally conscious.
To shave precious milliseconds
off his time during the speed-run,
Gork methodically paced his already
shallow breathing, and held his
bladder (successfully) throughout the
trial’s entire duration, as best he knew
how. Electing to eat only Adderalls
and whatever leftover bits of food
were stuck in his teeth from previous
meals, the speedster was able to remain
dialed in and undisturbed by anything
besides speed and his utter need for
it. Maybe even more astonishing, the
longest break Grok allowed himself
was a sneeze while reading Aristotle’s
Metaphysics, which lasted .4 seconds,
through which he kept his eyes open,
defying biological notions and baffling
a panel of medical experts.
The newly-minted graduate let it
slip that he found Marx’s Capital,
which he read in 12 seconds flat, to
be the text that he most thoroughly
enjoyed reading during the run,
referring to it as “a wonderfully fun
and inane little parody of political
thought” and “Satanic dribble.” The
runner-up for his favorite texts would
have to be The Decline Of The West by
Oswald Spengler, an elective reading
for Seniors, which he called “fucking
electric,” followed closely behind by
One Hundred Years of Solitude and
The Disappointment.
In the meantime, the school now
expects an influx of underprepared,
starry-eyed new students to try their
own luck speeding through the Great
Books in time-trials, though there are
doubts as to whether this new record
will be broken any time soon. Scoffing
when questioned about the longevity
of his status atop the leaderboard, Grok
sure doesn’t think his spot will be going
anywhere. “What’s Next for Lurk
‘The Junkman’ Grok?” seems to be the
question now occupying everyone’s
minds. When asked what he had in
store for himself, as a champion and
now a graduate, moving forward after
his towering triumph, the wunderkind
replied, “First Disneyland, then the
World.”
Isa Kiedrowski
the Crapfly / May 20, 2021
5
�ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE
OF
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
For more information,
contact us via email at
sjca .g adfly@gmail.com
“
Every field that you think exists as a
separate task in the world is actually
made up of everything that we study,
it's made up of all of the components
of a liberal education”
- Rachel Gordon
“
I feel like St John’s has empowered
me. Every single tutor is like, “why
would you think that you're not
capable? It doesn't make any sense”
Ms. Brann told me sophomore year
‘We don't need more assertive people
in the world, you're fine the way that
you are’”
- Elsa Ordahl
W
e wish our seniors the very best
in their future endeavors, and
will miss their presence on campus.
Submissions sent to the
Gadfly should either be in
Microsoft Word or JPEG
format. The deadline for
submissions is the Friday prior to publication.
Opinions expressed within are the responsibility of
the author(s). The Gadfly
reserves the right to accept,
reject, and edit submissions
in any way necessary to
publish a professional, informative, and thought provoking
newsmagazine.
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly
is the student newsmagazine
distributed to over 600 students, faculty, staff, and alumna of the Annapolis campus.
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
Submissions sent to the
Gadfly should either be in
Microsoft Word or JPEG
format. The deadline for
submissions is the Friday prior to publication.
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
OF
THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
the Gadfly / May 20, 2021
Opinions expressed within are the responsibility of
the author(s). The Gadfly
reserves the right to accept,
reject, and edit submissions
in any way necessary to
publish a professional, informative, and thought provoking
newsmagazine.
For more information,
contact us via email at
sjca .g adfly@gmail.com
ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
6
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly
is the student newsmagazine
distributed to over 600 students, faculty, staff, and alumna of the Annapolis campus.
�
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The Gadfly, Vol. XLII, Issue 04 [The Badfly]
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Gadfly
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Text
THE GADFLY
Photo by Lysithia Page, A’23
“And to let every word every chapter speak for itself has been one of the biggest
ways I've changed with patience, kindness, and openness.”
What is a St. John's Education?, pg 4
St. John’s College
Vol. XLII, Issue 04
Annapolis, Maryland
May 20, 2021
�From the Editor’s Desk:
CONTENTS
Logos
As the year crawls to a close, changes abound. Seniors graduated last
Sunday, and this is the final day of classes for freshmen.
Art with a Heart
What is a St. John's Education?
3
4
Symposiun
How Personal is Too Personal?
6
Polis
Polity Poetry
Forks
The Song of Class Unity
Badfly
Where are the Hula Hoops?
Fabella Oculāris
At the Speed of Fast
Migrating Johnnie Chairs
Car Horns Go Brrr....
7
8
10
12
12
13
14
15
The first part of this issue is a regular Gadfly. We pondered the
passage of time with graduating seniors, and reported on Mitchell
Gallery happenings. There is, of course, the usual motley of opinion,
poetry, and musings.
Notably, within the second half of the issue, we have printed the
Badfly. Lovingly crafted just once a year, the Badfly is the only satire
publication of St. John’s. Some advice: if you count yourself a sensitive soul, proceed with caution. Like that one person in seminar, we
don’t hold back.
Our multitude contains multitudes. In these pages, members of the
Polity rejoice, lampoon, and reflect. As in the Athens of Pericles’
funeral oration, there’s something for everyone.
Sincerely,
Lysithia Page
P.S. Everytime a Polity member submits something to sjca.gadfly@
gmail.com, a gadfly sprouts its wings. So do that!
THE STAFF
THE STRUCTURE
Logos holds news reports and narratives of
immediate relevance to the Polity. The purpose
here is to develop a shared reservoir of information relating to campus life and the community.
Symposium offers the opportunity for our readers to thoughtfully consider contrasting opinions regarding a particular topic.
Polis serves as a platform for elevating voices
in our community. Here we find letters to the
editor, columns, cartoons, and submitted pieces.
The Badfly is a satirical reflection of the regular Gadfly operations, providing members of
the staff and Polity with an outlet for comedic
expression.
2
the Gadfly / May 20, 2021
EDITORS
Lysithia Page
Elizabeth Dowdy
Alayna Raymond
LAYOUT BOARD
Cooper Ussery
Nathan Martin
Diana Villegas
GADFLY STAFF
Linda Bellamy
Britt Lamson
Isabella Kiedrowski
Daniel Nathan
Dagny Kulkarni
Joseph Padgett
INTERESTED IN WRITING
FOR THE GADFLY?
EMAIL ALAYNA
RAYMOND AT
AKRAYMOND@SJC.EDU
�{community}
Art with a Heart
Johnnies hold community art exhibition
by Jonah Donis, ‘23
T
he end of spring semester brings
many milestones in its wake:
graduation, Don Rags, fair weather,
and community art. For the past
31 years (barring pandemics), the
Mitchell Gallery has showcased the
artistic endeavors of the community
by showcasing Polity art on the walls
of the gallery. All artistic mediums
are welcome and this year there was
a dynamic range of artwork, ranging
from resin statues to painted rocks,
black-and-white photography to oil
paint on canvas. Particularly exciting
is what the seniors submit, not only
concluding their time on campus,
but also vying for the Charles Vernon
Moran Prize.
Since opening The St. John’s
College Community art exhibition
31 years ago, the Charles Moran Prize
has been a highlight of the exhibit.
The award goes to the senior who
“exhibits a mastery of technique and
original thought.” There were many
contenders for this year's prize from
Adam Schulman’s painted sketches of
his animated work, Virginia Deaver’s
loose painted canvas titled Armor,
Sera Johnson’s Bedford landscape, and
Sophia Cote’s ceramics and drawings.
The prize was awarded to Sophia
Cote’s Tea Set, a 7-piece ceramic tea
set made with found wood, wire, and
of course, clay. Although there can be
only one winner, every senior deserves
a round of applause for the work and
dedication they put into art. Looking
forward, the new academic year will
no doubt bring many new student
creations through the plethora of
resources available in the dark room,
pottery, and art studio.
Sofe Cote (A21)
Tea Set, 2021
Ceramic, found wood, wire
the Gadfly / λόγος / May 20, 2021
3
�{senior perspective}
What is a St. John's Education?
On making free adults
by Alayna Raymond, ‘23
Isa Kiedrowski
W
hen a senior at any institution
looks back on their education,
they may reflect on things like classes,
grades, social life, or job prospects.
While it is certain that St John’s seniors
do partake in these sorts of thoughts,
there is an aspect to their reflection
that takes on the spirit of inquiry
fostered at the College — What is the
Program? What does it do for us after
4 years? The straightforward response
may be “a liberal arts degree,” but the
seniors with whom I spoke did not
once provide this answer. Instead,
what ensued was a conversation that,
by virtue of its existence, encapsulates
what the Program does for people who
have finished it.
by emotionally-packed laughter. Of
course, they had more to share.
Gordon spoke to the general change
she experienced over the four years: “It
was a transition from thinking about
the world and how all of these books
may be applied to the world or applied
to outside situations. And then by
the end of senior year, I think about
myself and my identity and who I
am, and the books, they guide me in
understanding that. And I think about
myself in relation to others, rather than
just myself in relation to the world.”
“I think for me, it's like a long
instruction in openness and letting
things penetrate into you, and how to
completely open up to other people
and other people's ideas and the books
first spoke with Rachel Gordon that you're reading, and letting it just
(A’21) and Elsa Ordahl (A’21). They become part of you,” Ordahl added.
came onto the call teary-eyed following
their final Sicut Sing and last day of
his sort of openness was also
tutorials. Funnily enough, the first
mentioned in my discussion with
response to the question “How would Rediet Worku (A’21), who spoke
you define a St John’s question” was about it in relation to approaching the
“one long therapy session” followed texts. “I remember ferociously taking
I
4
T
the Gadfly / λόγος / May 20, 2021
notes in freshman seminar, but now
I just allow myself to completely be
immersed with the text, and not judge
the text be it positively or negatively
before I encounter it,” Worku said.
“And to let every word every chapter
speak for itself has been one of
the biggest ways I've changed with
patience, kindness, and openness.”
The final senior I spoke to
mentioned this openness anecdotally.
“I've learned to be less demanding of
others. One thing that happened in
a freshman seminar, this was not my
seminar, but what I heard was that
someone brought up Percy Jackson,
during the Illiad seminar or the
Odyssey seminar. And you know,
if you heard that as a freshman or
sophomore, you would say, ‘Oh, that's
ridiculous, why would you do that?’
But then you start to consider it, well,
maybe this, that is the only thing they
know, at the time. That's how they
want to join the conversation,” said
Bao Le (A’21)
T
his cultivation of character did
not come without its challenges.
Worku spoke to her own personal
growth extensively in our conversation:
“There is in no way anything that
makes me similar to the person who
walked in at convocation. And I think
we all know this at St. John's. But I
didn't maybe understand that at some
points, because change, right, like in
physics, when you're turning direction,
you face inertia. And that resistance,
when I felt that within, I thought ‘No,
perhaps I'm not really meant for the
Program.’ But that resistance has been
key in interacting with things I never
thought I'd be capable of interacting
with.”
�Le also reflected on the change he
perceives in himself.“ The point is to be
challenged in things you're not ready
to be challenged by,” Le said. “I was
not ready to be a student of philosophy
or liberal arts. When I joined I was
a STEM kid through and through,
but somehow I've managed to write a
senior essay on Plotinus.”
Senior essays are a culmination of
thoughts and experiences accumulated
over the four years students spend
with the Program. Gordon expressed
that the senior essay offers students the
opportunity to develop an intimate
awareness of their own thoughts, or,
in other words, to know themselves.“
I feel like writing gives you such an
interesting metric for where your mind
is in relation to what you're learning or
what you're reading about,” Gordon
said. “ I think it's just so interesting
the way we all came to our senior essay
topics. It's an expression of who we are
as people.”
A
s this chapter closes in the lives of
our graduating seniors, I wanted
to know what wisdom they could
impart upon both their past selves and
Johnnies going through the process.
“
Don't rely on the program to
change, I think that would be a
good thing to say to my younger self,
that I definitely did change me, don't
get me wrong, but you can't go in here
expecting that you'll come out, you
know, the perfect human being that
you want yourself to be. That's not
what the Program does. The Program
is here to force you to change yourself.
That you have to look within and see
that you're missing things. That you
thought you knew everything, but you
don't.”
- Bao Le
“
So the first thing is, do not take the
resistance to mean something is
wrong, embrace it, be uncomfortable
every single way. Because that shows
you're changing, right? Someone
was telling me that when a child is
coming to like some big step, they're
in distress for some time, and they
don't know how to express it so they're
always crying. And I think mentally
we experienced that at the College,
because you're continuously in
positions that challenge you. So truly,
allow yourself to be uncomfortable.
There isn't anything wrong with you,
there isn’t anything wrong with your
interaction with the program. Give it
time, sit with it. And that will transmit
itself to the joy part as well.”
- Rediet Worku
continued on page 11
the Gadfly / λόγος / May 20, 2021
5
�How Personal
is
Silas Pillsbury
Too Personal?
I
’ve often struggled with this problem at St. John’s: When
first reading a text, I can’t help but relate the book to
my own experience. I don’t know how to read something
without somehow making it about me. However, I don’t
think this inclination disqualifies my philosophical inquiry
— I have a vivid memory of walking into the Barr-Buchanan
Center and seeing a plaque on the wall stating that all great
books are about the readers. I would like to essay as to what
this plaque’s message means, and how I can make use of such a concept in my studies at St. John’s.
Montaigne seems like a good place to start in answering this question. A writer who believes in highly personalized
essays, Montaigne has much to say about the value of experience. In his essay On Experience, he says, “There is no
desire more natural than that of knowledge. We try all ways that can lead us to it; where reason is wanting, we therein
employ experience, which is a means much more weak and cheap; but truth is so great a thing that we ought not
to disdain any mediation that will guide us to it.” If experience is so lacking, books must teach us something about
ourselves that would otherwise take an entire lifetime to learn through activity. Socrates says that he neither knows
nor supposes that he knows, and thus will not foolishly assume himself to be making a just decision when he really
is not. Thus he is better off than those who know nothing and think they know something. This seems true to me,
but arriving at this conclusion would take an entire lifetime — I can’t imagine culling such an idea from only a few
experiences. Learning the extent of my ignorance would take very many failures.
Now when it comes to failures, I often hear my classmates complain that their seminars fail by venturing ‘too
far from the text.’ I appreciate what they are saying, and indeed sometimes an entire seminar goes off the rails into
the muck of petty arguments, but I believe this not a great danger. There is danger, I think, when we treat a text as
something greater than the reader. When we regard it as something written not by mortals but by untouchable idols,
we turn its wisdom into rhetoric. Words themselves become less tied to experience, opinion, or past knowledge, and
rather more so to other words. We can foolishly think we understand what we mean while circular definitions will and
must abound, and semantics, instead of being genuine attempts at meaning-gathering, become pointless. In short, we
must put the text level with our own experience, lest we turn the text into sophistical trickery instead of real wisdom. I
don’t mean to say by this that personal experience is an equal source to the texts at St. John’s, but rather I find it helpful
to imagine how I myself could have discovered what is being written, and thank God I did not have to on my own.
Thus my final question: if great books are about us readers, how much of the books should we try to remember?
Often when writing an essay for an assignment, I find I’ve misremembered large portions of the text or interpreted
sections with faulty logic. With time, the passages seem to reveal themselves, whereas some words fade back into
obscurity. What at first seemed the most important paragraph in the whole book may lose significance, and instead
my concentration may bend towards other portions. I may read one of Achilles’ speeches, thinking the weight of the
whole book rests on it; upon rereading it, I find my entire perspective isn’t consistent through the text, and I have
to start again. I often find that as soon as I learn a single plotpoint, I find myself having to rework or even forget an
entire point of view. Sometimes the text will recommend a better point of view, but more often than not, I am left
more confused than I was before. And I don’t mean to say I can’t articulate my previous opinions, but rather I can’t
remember what it was like to believe them. In the midst of this, I am forced to adopt new opinions, and make the
book be more about me, but not the version of me that is a vessel for muddled, stuck opinions, but rather the mode of
personality that is deeply invested in interpretation and growth; when the text will not explain itself, I choose how to
explain it, and I learn the consequences of my reasoning whenever I return to the text.
In this way of thought-challenging and reason-tempering, great books that change minds aren’t about our beliefs,
opinions, or sense of identity — they are about the soul that expounds and lives out these ideals. Personal anecdotes
are ineffective in class discussions not because they’re too personal — they’re not personal enough! Personhood is not
reducible to anecdotes or opinions, and if we focus on the specific units of identity, we may forget the self that does
the living. Instead, we should be ever striving to understand the part of self that creates ideals, instead of assuming our
opinions are us. We are challenged to forget our short-sighted perceptions of self, and instead cultivate a more holistic
and free identity.
6
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / May 20, 2021
�{poetry}
{poetry}
Passings
Doorman
Louis Petrich
George Kalandadze
Expect this not, to live for long.
Less some, more others, never one.
You translated our quantities,
not meant to be right known by race
of men Prometheus much loved.
Fire evens odds with hope that way.
My hopes partake of seeing you
brace black that knocks out being there;
although his lithe dumb plunging tongue
roots mounds behind come due—so long
forfended dipping climb!--we few
will savor every taste fortuned!
Pray next our passage free beget
surpassing new, us promise-paid:
as always, beggars, woman-bathed.
In this brief stay, O darlings, stood
you all my love, near licked, fell bent-but wonderful--upright again!
Fine word, again. Necessary,
by physics gaming finitude.
Once more the bell rings on,
The street sound shuffles through the door,
They come and go, hats, umbrellas, heels and brooches.
Swinging doors create the storm,
Of wind, of perfume, of rainy floor.
And there he stands with posture strong,
And smiles to all who come so close.
But in his mind, there are no smiles,
No sun is shining, nobody’s crying.
The time now strikes past quarter eight,
The king abandons his good faith.
The yokes of clothes in suit and ties,
Are left behind in dungeon dark.
Up the stairs, into his room
Where sorrow dwells beneath the tombs.
He enters, puts the mask aside,
No smile is needed, when there’s no eyes.
And drifts as if the steam of tea,
Into the homely malady.
--Louis Petrich, May, 2021
{poetry}
το του παιδος σπηλαιον
Avery Laur
i cast shadows on these dimly
lit walls so that my
youth and innocence may only
know safety and comfort with
the world i give them
the Gadfly / πόλις / May 20, 2021
7
�{elements of etiquette}
Forks
Isa Kiedrowski
So…which fork do I use?
“I don’t need to learn about etiquette; after all, it’s just about which fork to use, and stuff like that.” This phrase could
probably be found on the list of “50 Signs That Point Towards Civilization’s Inevitable Decline,” right up there with
“What decline of civilization?”
I will say this but once: etiquette is not merely about which fork to use. However, knowing which fork to use is part of
table manners. Which in turn is part of etiquette. So there.
And let me be clear: you do not need to know which fork to use. Very rarely will you find yourself in a life-or-death
situation and think, “Sink me! I wish I knew which fork to use!” Fortunately, the Spanish Inquisition is over,1 so your
chances of being brutally murdered for not knowing how to use cutlery are markedly lower.
But I will point out: St. John’s produces a high volume of PhDs. And should you find yourself venturing into academia,
you will inevitably have to deal with faculty dinners, or at least a few functions at which you will be faced with forks plural.
And while you’re staring at the blinding array of silverware before you, your rival for tenure has smoothly picked up his fish
fork and is tucking in to the slightly overcooked trout with lemon sauce. And you know who appreciates good manners?
The department chair. Now, I’m not saying tenures have been lost over this, but I’m not saying they haven’t.2
Having suitably terrified you with professional suicide by fish fork, let’s examine the dizzying array of cutlery which
awaits you in the real world. Observe the diagram below, presenting your worst-case-scenario: the 12-course dinner,
numbered for your convenience.
1. Escargot Fork—two long, pointed tines aid in
dragging the hapless gastropod from its garlicky, buttery
lair. The shell is clamped in tongs (not pictured), while you
wrestle with your appetizer. The snail’s revenge comes when
you spill garlic butter all over yourself.
2. Fish Fork—used, as one might expect, for the fish
course in conjunction with the fish knife (opposite side of
plate, fourth from the left). Contains four inward curving
tines.
3. Lobster Fork—it’s your third fish-related fork, but
don’t despair. Not to be confused with a buttonhook, it will
help you get all every morsel of lobster or crab out of those
claws. Theoretically, a medium-sized buttonhook could
perform the same job.
4. Entrée Fork—four equal tines, used to spear one’s
entrée (whatever it happens to be) before delivering it to
the mouth.
5. Meat Fork—the Main Fork. The Fork of Forks, if you
8
the Gadfly / πόλις / May 20, 2021
will. It’s the fork we all know, and the one you’ll be spending
the most time with during your meal.
6. Salad Fork—has a cutting edge to allow larger pieces
of salad to be broken down on the plate, rather than in the
mouth, where the process unfortunately resembles cudchewing. Not to be confused with the Lettuce Fork (see
below).
7. Ice Cream Fork—a delightful spoon/fork combination,
for the express purpose of eating ice cream. Let us never call
them “sporks” again.
8. Dessert Fork—Salad Fork’s dainty, prettier cousin.
Also comes with a cutting edge, this time for breaking cake
into attractive, bite-sized morsels.
9. Oyster Fork—a small, thin fork with three sharp
tines. Traditionally for eating oysters on the shell (although
slurping is considered by some to be more fun), it is also
used for other types of shellfish, at which point it becomes
a Seafood Fork.
�Isa Kiedrowski
The rule of thumb for what order to use the forks is from the outside in, ie. left to right. The order in which you would
use the above service is a bit more complicated, beginning with the mother-of-pearl caviar spoon on the far right, and then
moving through forks 1, 9, 2, 3, 4, 7, 5, 6, 8.
Some honorable mentions—oddly specific forks.
Terrapin Fork—like an ice cream fork, but for turtles’ insides.
Toast Fork—a wide, flat fork for the express purpose of serving toast.
Butter pick (honorable mention)—not a true fork, since it consists of one narwhal-horn-shaped tine. Used to impale
and transport butter pats.
Strawberry Fork—three very long, very sharp, very deadly tines pierce strawberries to be dipped in the topping of
choice. Whipped cream is a personal favorite.
Fruit Fork—two tines, used for the cheese and fruit course of those meals where one does under no circumstances
whatsoever touch one’s food. It will be used to spear individual grapes, the occasional piece of melon (which, incidentally,
has its own fork), or possibly hold a peach in place while one painstakingly skins it.
Pastry Fork—the manufacturers sneakily alternate between calling this a Pastry Fork one year, and a Pie Fork the next.
You only need one set, and could comfortably use a Dessert Fork instead—after all, who serves cake and pie at the same
dinner?
Pickle Fork—specifically designed for getting pickles out of jars. What won’t the good people at Oneida think of next?
Melon Fork—this ingenious implement comes with its own built-in knife, useful if you’ve got to decimate an entire
melon one-handed.
And would you believe me if I told you that we’ve barely disturbed the surface? There’s knives, and plates, and
fingerbowls, and crystal, and napkins…one gets dizzy at the very thought. We’ll be back next year, with all the stemware
the world has to offer.
the Gadfly / πόλις / May 20, 2021
9
�{politics}
The Song of Class Unity
Max Mersmann-Jones
T
he Great Depression of the 1930s brought about
Roosevelt’s New Deal. The Great Recession of 2008
has had no such wake. In the former, the working class
seized this country’s largest financial crisis and used it to
radically restructure both economic and social policy for
decades and perhaps centuries to come. The latter has rung
in an era of party infighting, identity politics, and desperate
attempts to return to the status quo that caused this crisis.
Past success and present failure in moving forward from
collapse rest on the same change: the disappearance of
unity and mobilization of the working class.
Our contemporary political arena has no place for class
politics. Labor unions which once played a fundamental
part in pressing for the New Deal are at their weakest
point since the industrial revolution. We take for granted
a system of two parties unchecked at the helm, but the last
few decades are the first time in history that the Republican
and Democratic parties have existed without labor exerting
significant force. In the absence of union presence, the
torch of class politics hasn’t been taken up by either party.
Instead, political boundaries are now drawn almost entirely
on social policy. With Democrats on the social left and
Republicans on the right, fiscal policies are, more than
ever, nonpartisan. Look no further than last November’s
election results. Joe Biden won the working-class (income
under $50,000) vote by 11% - half of what Obama won by
and less than the margin of any other modern Democratic
president. Economics are no longer a key predictor of party
affiliation. Instead, both the left and right broadcast images
of rising up against the (insert opposing political party)
elites to win a victory for the little guy. For the left, that’s
beating evil corporations and sleazy Republican billionaires
for its intersectional and underprivileged voters, while for
the right, it’s toppling coastal elites and scoring a victory
for small-town hard-working America. Neither side is
particularly wrong in this messaging — class politics are
a muddled and confusing mess with wealthy elites at the
top of both parties. When political engagement is largely
limited to checking off Democrat or Republican, the lack
of a party that truly represents class interests is felt hard.
Proponents of current party lines will argue that this
system trades class alignment for parties mobilized and
ready to take action on important social issues. That’s not
the case. Take race for example — a party system divided
10
the Gadfly / πόλις / May 20, 2021
economically would mix in Trump’s base of low-education
white rural voters with higher-education multiracial
metropolitan demographics. Our current structure aligned
on social issues may at first seem better equipped to tackle
issues of race, but without class unity it doesn’t matter. As
the way we discuss racial issues progresses, we evolve from
debating individual acts of racism (which are increasingly
widely criticized) and move towards critical analysis of
the racial power structures baked into the class system of
society.
Systemic racism is an imbalance in power, and power is
money. Structurally ignoring class politics created a socially
left party that can do little more than scold. It is incapable
of meaningfully taking on systemic racism because it is
ruled by the same power structures that set up the system in
question. It is as tactless as it is torn, a party for the protesters
and brunch getters to waste their ballots on alike. The same
process applies neatly to other social issues; injustice is
power imbalance, power imbalance is wealth imbalance,
and when both parties are ruled by the wealthy, they are
both ruled by the privileged and incapable of making real
change.
Throughout his career Joe Biden has always loved to reach
across the aisle, finding allies in fellow wealthy and powerful
Republicans.
It
took
workers
engaging in largescale equivalents of
that same process,
in the form of
labor unions, to
push for the New
Deal. The rich and
powerful
know
how to practice
class solidarity, and
until the working
class learns to do
the same, we are
helpless to reclaim
our political voice.
Isa Kiedrowski
�ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE
OF
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
For more information,
contact us via email at
sjca .g adfly@gmail.com
“
Every field that you think exists as a
separate task in the world is actually
made up of everything that we study,
it's made up of all of the components
of a liberal education”
- Rachel Gordon
“
I feel like St John’s has empowered
me. Every single tutor is like, “why
would you think that you're not
capable? It doesn't make any sense”
Ms. Brann told me sophomore year
‘We don't need more assertive people
in the world, you're fine the way that
you are’”
- Elsa Ordahl
W
e wish our seniors the very best
in their future endeavors, and
will miss their presence on campus.
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly
is the student newsmagazine
distributed to over 600 students, faculty, staff, and alumna of the Annapolis campus.
Opinions expressed within are the responsibility of
the author(s). The Gadfly
reserves the right to accept,
reject, and edit submissions
in any way necessary to
publish a professional, informative, and thought provoking
newsmagazine.
Submissions sent to the
Gadfly should either be in
Microsoft Word or JPEG
format. The deadline for
submissions is the Friday prior to publication.
For more information,
contact us via email at
sjca .g adfly@gmail.com
Submissions sent to the
Gadfly should either be in
Microsoft Word or JPEG
format. The deadline for
submissions is the Friday prior to publication.
Opinions expressed within are the responsibility of
the author(s). The Gadfly
reserves the right to accept,
reject, and edit submissions
in any way necessary to
publish a professional, informative, and thought provoking
newsmagazine.
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly
is the student newsmagazine
distributed to over 600 students, faculty, staff, and alumna of the Annapolis campus.
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
OF
ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
the Gadfly / May 20, 2021
11
THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
�
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Gadfly Vol XLII Issue 04
Gadfly
Student publication
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PDF Text
Text
THE GADFLY
Photo by Elizabeth Dowdy, A’23
“What if being really smart, and knowing a lot of books, and having all this
classical knowledge didn’t make you a better person?”
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Page 3
St. John’s College
Vol. XLII, Issue 03
Annapolis, Maryland
April 30, 2021
�From the Editor’s Desk:
CONTENTS
Logos
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ?
Hodson Boathouse Reopens
The Sicut Sing Saga
Symposiun
Dueling Systems
Machiavelli on Religion and the
Duty of the Citizen in a Republic
Polis
Socrates and the City
Water Warring
On Music
Elements of Etiquette
3
4
5
The command to know oneself is a tall order. Like Odysseus, we are
πολύτροποι — many-sided, full of twists and turns, complex. If we’re
all players acting out our many parts in our respective times, how are
we to perceive ourselves upon the stage? Discerning the being that
lies beneath our changeable qualities seems a formidable challenge.
6
7
Books and conversation help. By butting up against other minds, we
map the outskirts of our own. Despite its inherent discomfort, the
undertaking is necessary and worthwhile. In this issue, our Symposium writers examined the relationship between the individual and
the state. I encourage you to see feelingly their reflections on the
subject. Consider this request an invocation to muse.
8
9
10
12
The namesake of this publication garnered a reputation for asking
difficult questions. So too do we commit ourselves to stirring contemplation in our city. From time to time, our writers may press your
buttons. This is a reminder that you, reader, are wholly welcome to
reciprocate. May mutual loving critique deliver self-knowledge for
us all. Our eyes and ears are but an email away at sjca.gadfly@gmail.
com.
THE STRUCTURE
Logos holds news reports and narratives of
immediate relevance to the Polity. The purpose
here is to develop a shared reservoir of information relating to campus life and the community.
Symposium offers the opportunity for our readers to thoughtfully consider contrasting opinions regarding a particular topic.
Polis serves as a platform for elevating voices
in our community. Here we find letters to the
editor, columns, cartoons, and submitted pieces.
CORRECTIONS
In a report on the removal of campus ashtrays
(page 24, March 2021), we included a quotation in
which the speaker expresses that a crane was used
to carry out the removal. This phrase, however,
was hyperbolic. No cranes were used to remove the
ashtrays.
THE COVER
Pictured: James Siranovich (A’22) and Rebecca
MacLeay (A’24) from the KWP production
of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
2
the Gadfly / Apr 30, 2021
Sincerely,
Lysithia Page
Editor-in-Chief
THE STAFF
EDITORS
Lysithia Page
Elizabeth Dowdy
Alayna Raymond
LAYOUT BOARD
Cooper Ussery
Nathan Martin
Diana Villegas
GADFLY STAFF
Linda Bellamy
Britt Lamson
Isabella Kiedrowski
Daniel Nathan
Dagny Kulkarni
Joseph Padgett
INTERESTED IN WRITING
FOR THE GADFLY?
EMAIL ALAYNA
RAYMOND AT
AKRAYMOND@SJC.EDU
�WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
BERRETTINI
DEAVER
PETERSON
DENNIS-SIRANOVICH POWERS
MACLEAY
TORRES
T
onight at 8 p.m., the King
William Players (KWP) will
perform Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid
of Virginia Woolf ? The play follows a
night of cocktail-imbibing and riotous
conversation between two sets of
couples — washed-up, middle-aged
George and Martha, and the younger
Nick and Honey. The crackling
dialogue considers the slings and
arrows of married life.
Due to present health concerns
regarding the COVID-19 pandemic,
the KWP have decided to stage the
show virtually via Zoom live-stream.
Using Delegate Council funding, the
theater troupe rented an Airbnb house
in downtown Annapolis to serve as
the set. Moreover, the cast and crew
received increased Covid testing and
self-isolated so that they could work
safely together in close quarters. I
talked with some of them about the
quirks of pandemic-era theater, as well
as this particular production.
On the Play
“My general thought is that the
question of the play is like, ‘What if
being really smart, and knowing a lot
of books, and having all this classical
knowledge didn’t make you a better
person? What if these things gave
you more ability to hurt the people
around you?’” -Berrettini
“The way I see it, [the play] asks,
‘What happens when the person you
hate the most is also the person you
love the most?’” -Powers
“There’s always something under the
surface, like a wolverine claw that
comes up.” -Siranovich
Cast
Martha – Virginia Deaver (A’21)
George – James Dennis-Siranovich
(A’22)
Nick – Adam Powers (A’24)
Honey – Rebecca MacLeay (A’24)
On the Zoom Production
“I knew that I wanted it to happen
at some point. And I realized that
it’s now or never, essentially. And
then when we did get back, it was
a question of how it was going to
work with COVID. We’re lucky
enough that conditions are improved
just enough that we can stream it
and have the actors all in the room
together with proper precautions.”
-Berrettini
On the Set
“I want it to look like a tutor’s house,
where you have the accumulation of
all this knowledge. You’ve got all these
books.” -Berrettini
“I did bring in a lot of my books
because George is a history nut, I’m
a history nut. George has a trained
voice, I have a trained voice. But I’m
very, very happily married to a man,
and he’s very, very unhappily married
to a woman.” -Siranovich
Crew
Director – Sam Berrettini (A’21)
Assistant Director – Jessica Peterson
Photos and Article by Lysithia Page, ‘23
(A’21)
Tech Director – Ciel Torres (A’21)
the Gadfly / λόγος / Apr 30, 2021
3
�{athletics update}
Hodson Boathouse Reopens
New opportunities for aquatic recreation on campus
by Cooper Ussery, ‘23
N
orth of the tennis court and
west of the suburbs, there stands
a building on the banks of College
Creek. Straddling the sloping terrain
that leads to the lower field and nestled
in the furthest corner of back campus,
this building is the Beneficial-Hodson
Boathouse. The building was originally
constructed in 1934 following the
College’s commitment to diversify
campus activities and expand the
athletic program. This initiative was
part of a larger effort to attract more
students after the College found itself
in dire financial straits due to the stock
market crash of 1929. The boathouse
is an intriguing structure, with wood
shingle cladding and asphalt roofing,
setting it apart from other buildings
on campus. For many students, the
boathouse can seem forbidding and
uninviting, as the “front door” appears
almost hidden behind surrounding
trees and vegetation and the other
obvious entrances are accessible only
by traversing an intimidating wooden
ramp.
In reality, however, the boathouse
is a welcoming place for all Johnnies to
learn about and experience the wonders
of the waters. The two-story building
is broadly separated into two parts: the
first story is a boat room with racks for
canoes and kayaks lining the walls and
workbenches for maintenance built
into the wide bays’ central divider.
The second story is a banquet room
consisting of a large space with wooden
floorboards and several seating areas
surrounded by huge windows and
comfortable porches. Historically,
this room has hosted crew banquets,
scholarship luncheons, and a number
of other events, but like the rest of the
boathouse, it hasn’t seen much activity
4
in the wake of pandemic restrictions.
In more typical times, the Hodson
Boathouse is a hub of activity for
several different groups of people,
serving as home base for the crew and
sailing teams and opening its doors
for the Polity to use any of the kayaks,
canoes, sailboats, and paddleboards
during the warmer months. Students
working for the College in the
boathouse usually assist with this
process, but these students — known
as Boathouse Stewards — do more
than just clip on life vests and put
people in boats. “There were two main
stages of working in the boathouse,”
said Kasparas Adomaitis (A’23), an
RA who worked as a steward last year.
“During the season when you can
actually take boats out and use them,
you have a lot of people coming in,
and they usually require attention. We
have to get them ready, do all the safety
precautions, carry the boats out to the
water, and sometimes teach them the
basics. Then there’s the crew team, and
one steward last year would be there
at the boathouse at 6 in the morning
preparing everything.”
Stewards are also required to
the Gadfly / λόγος / Apr 30, 2021
procure boating licenses in order to
operate motor boats around College
Creek and the adjoining Severn River.
During the winter months, stewards
spend the time restoring old crew
boats, dinghies, and sailboats. “It could
get a little tedious sometimes, filing
old boat shells. It can [also] be very
physically demanding… but having
that physical outlet helps clear the
mind. Being so focused on books and
reading, and then having this physical,
manual labor is definitely beneficial,”
Adomaitis said.
“[Working at the boathouse] felt
special. It’s one of those jobs where
you actually end up working, not just
sitting there. I ended up learning quite
a bit, and the boathouse really felt
like being part of a small community,”
Adomaitis enthused. During the
Fall 2020 semester, the boathouse
was available for recreational use
by appointment from August to
November; since then only the second
story has been available for use.
However, services resumed on April
25, and students interested in working
as Boathouse Stewards should contact
Athletics Director Chris Krueger.
Photo courtesy of Maryland Historical Trust
�{johnnie lore}
The Sicut Sing Saga
Tracing the history of a returning tradition
by Dagny Kulkarni, ‘24
D
ue to high demand, Sicut Sing
has returned. After a year of
online singing, the Polity buzzes with
excitement at the rekindling of this ageold tradition. Senior Jessica Peterson,
current organizer and conductor of
Sicut Sing, recounted the enthusiasm
of her peers: “The number of people
that asked me about it was really
surprising...it was really nice to see
that it was something that was missed
by a large chunk of the community,”
she said. Unable to take music classes
as a senior, Peterson communicated
the desire to integrate music into
her experience in some way. “It’s all
about getting that well-rounded,
stereotypical liberal arts education,”
she said. “You want to be able to keep
seeing the music in everything you do.”
“I
t’s all about coming together
for the sake of beauty,” said Eric
Fricke, founder of Sicut Sing. As a
student at St. John’s from 2010-2014,
Fricke enjoyed singing Sicut Cervus in
freshman and sophomore music, and
pitied the long faces of the juniors and
seniors walking by. During his junior
year, he decided to incorporate casual
community singing into campus life.
Fricke and his classmates especially
missed Sicut Cervus, and after dance
parties in McDowell, they would
gather in the quad to sing it. Fricke
recounted how previous President
Chris Nelson asked the students to sing
Sicut Cervus, without prior notice,
at a Convocation ceremony. Tutor
Eric Stoltzfus also recalled President
Nelson creating the tradition by which
returning students sing Sicut Cervus to
welcome freshmen. “[Nelson] liked to
tell Sicut stories in his speeches about
what makes St. John’s unlike any other
College,” Stoltzfus remembered. The
ease and enthusiasm with which it was
performed inspired Fricke: “That was
when I knew we had an opportunity.
I guess that experience kind of shaped
everything, and I knew that we could
make it happen.” Fricke thus founded
the weekly event he dubbed ‘Sicut
Cervus Sing.’
Fricke chose the Pendulum Pit as the
setting for its acoustics and convenient
location. Funnily enough, after
questioning faculty members, he came
to the realization that no one knew
who was in charge of the Pendulum
Pit. He went ahead and hung up his
flyers, displaying his catchphrase:
“It only takes 5 minutes!” On the
following Wednesday afternoon, many
students and tutors came, excited at
the prospect of singing as a community
outside of class. “It celebrates the
uniqueness of St. John’s. I can’t really
think of any place in the world that
could do this,” said Fricke.
W
hile we recount the origins of
this quintessential tradition,
the question ‘Why Sicut Cervus?’
springs to mind. Retired tutor Tom
May first introduced this piece into
the Program during the academic year
1994-1995. Having led Freshman
Chorus several times in the ‘80s, May
was approached by former Dean Eva
Brann and Tutor Peter Kalkavage, and
asked to revive the class, which was
languishing. At the time, Sicut Cervus
was not part of the Freshman Chorus
repertoire.
May explained how he chose music
for the Program: “My principal of
selection was two-fold: sing pieces as
great as the works we read and study
in the other parts of the program,
and find the best examples possible in
accord with the study of the elements
of music in sophomore year.” The
discovery of Sicut Cervus was like
finding a gold mine. May recounted
his students’ excitement: “I will never
forget the student, one of our first
undergraduates from the People’s
Republic of China, who, with a look of
awe on his face, came up to me after we
had sung all 4 parts of Sicut together,
and asked, ‘“Mr. May, who was this
Palestrina?!”’. After serving as Associate
Dean for the Graduate Institute, May
resumed teaching Chorus in 2002. By
then, singing Sicut Cervus at various
events was a well-established tradition,
and had become one of the pieces that
was sung at the Senior Dinner before
Commencement.
continued on page 13
Isa Kiedrowski
the Gadfly / λόγος / Apr 30, 2021
5
�DUELING SYSTEMS
A
ccording to anthropologist Robert Dunbar, humans
can maintain stable relationships with up to 150
people. Within that group, it is reasonable to know the
characteristics of each person and value of their word. But,
as societies grow, we are faced with a modern problem: by
what means can we come to know the trustworthiness of
a stranger? Of course, should we calculate incorrectly, we
each have recourse to the legal system. However, in the time
it takes to engage the law, we lose money, time, and other
intangible goods. So then, how might we, fellow citizens
and the government alike, create standards to communally
monitor trustworthiness?
One option is to build systems based on values, and watch
to see whether any of those stated principles are violated.
If the community of Wethersfield, Connecticut values
honesty among its 26,000 residents for example, there is a
likelihood that if someone were to lie, cheat, or steal, such
labels would be attributed to that person’s name. However,
in an era characterized by mobility, a more commonly
accessible record of a person’s actions is necessary.
The U.S. and China are home to diverging systems
of this type. While the U.S. relies on Credit Risk Scores
(CRS) assigned to each citizen, China is in the multiyear
process of unveiling its newly minted Social Credit Score
system. Both systems aim to log the actions of individuals
as a means of measuring their ability to adhere to a set of
values; however, the values around which they organize and
intended beneficiaries of the system vary greatly across each
country.
WHAT WAS THE GENESIS OF EACH SYSTEM?
hat is the genesis of each system? The U.S. credit
risk system is one with roots deep in private
entrepreneurship. In 1899, Equifax, one of the “Big Three”
credit bureaus widely known today, was founded by two
brothers who compiled lists of patrons who frequented
their grocery store. They compiled the list of customers
whom they considered to be worthy of credit based on
transaction and repayment history. Other merchants
bought this information in order to mitigate the inherent
risk in extending credit to relative strangers.. Nearly 60
years later, the Fair Isaac Company, launched a credit
scoring system numerically analyzed the credit reports sold
by credit bureaus like themselves and Equifax. As a result,
financial histories were used to tabulate what is now known
as a FICO score, or a Fair Isaac Company score.
Across the globe in the early 2000s, China’s foray into
credit systems was spurred on by public demands, rather
W
6
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Apr 30, 2021
How Chinese and American Credit Scores Highlight the Relationships We have to Our Governments and Each Other
By Diana Villegas GI ‘22
than private ones. At the time, China was engaged in talks
to join the World Trade Organization; however, despite
being poised to grow after admission to the organization,
the country’s economy was stifled by rampant fraud,
corruption, and intellectual property law infringement.
In response, China made the rehabilitation of trust in the
market economy, identified the creation of a credit system
as a matter of national security, and charged the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences with the task of finding a
solution. The result was a report that lauded the U.S. credit
risk system that would act as a basis for the Chinese Social
Credit System now in use today.
WHAT IS BEING MEASURED?
part from the diverging origins of the two national
systems, one born from private interest and the other
from public, the inputs and means employed are equally
dissimilar. Prior to the U.S. FICO Score, private citizens met
with representatives of banks who determined worthiness
to obtain credit based on an imprecise and unregulated
character assessment. Following the expansion of the
newly-invented FICO system, credit scores were based on
a number of numerical factors including payment history,
length of credit history, amount owed, and newly opened
lines of credit. Notably, the factors from which we derive
scores consist entirely of empirical numbers, which are
based on values gleaned from transaction records. Ideology,
criminality, and other social factors are not taken into
account. Further, the score is updated via a computational
algorithm and is beyond the discretion of any public or
private entities.
This system, once again, stands in stark contrast to
the Chinese Social Credit System, which is composed
of records from 44 government agencies; if put in terms
relative to U.S. agencies, the compilation of information
would equate to the sum of the “IRS, FBI, EPA, USDA,
FDA, HHS, HUD, Department of Energy, Department of
Education, and every courthouse, police station, and state
agency.”1 Rather than finding a basis of measurement in
individual consumer transactions, the Chinese system is
based on the reports of government agencies. As such, the
Social Credit System is based on adherence to policies set at
the discretion of the party. Similarly, select infractions can
be pursued at the discretion of individuals within a given
agency, rather than a computer system that automatically
tabulates transactions.
Continued on Page 13
A
�W
hat duty do individual citizens
owe to their republic, that is,
a government in which citizens rely
in part or wholly on majorities of
themselves for their governance? By
what necessity are citizens obligated
to their republic? According to
Machiavelli, the republic provides
security for the common good and
the freedom of its citizens to prosper.
The fact of freedom and prosperity,
however, do not ensure a sense of
duty to one’s country, as to love
freedom and prosperity is not so
much to love their sources, but the
things they perceive to be sources. It
is easy, especially in a nation of any
great size, for citizens to attribute
their security to themselves, and to
ignore the more distant government
which is responsible for their freedom
and security on a grander scale than
directly concerns their particular life.
Yet, among the ancients, prosperity
and freedom were closely associated
with their republic, and also to their
religion, as Machiavelli points out
in Book II of his Discourses on Livy.
Religion being an understanding
of the cosmos and humans in it, it
would follow that religion would
demonstrate the proper relation of a
citizen to their republic, since religion
offers an account of what is good and
how it can be obtained. Since a republic
offers security, which is good because
it allows its citizens the freedom to
have possessions and prosper, religion
provides a larger model in which the
relationship of citizen to republic is
analogous to that of a human to the
cosmos. How good comes to a human
through the cosmos will inform how
they view good to come through their
republic.
to the ancient mode of religion, and
contrasts that strength of duty amongst
ancient citizens with the weakness
of the citizens of his contemporary
republics. According to Machiavelli,
much violence and slavery in Italy
resulted from the apathy of fellow
Christian citizens in their political
duty. Machiavelli observes Christian
doctrine to encourage humility and to
bear hardship. As a religion focused on
matters of the next world, Machiavelli
criticises its followers on neglect of
their current world, where to his view
they let bad people get away with
crimes. Machiavelli’s claim is that the
republic is the highest good in the
can appease those laws which provide
security and allow freedom. Sacrifice is
variously done through rituals, moral
codes, or the sciences, whereby an
individual gives up particular activities
and resources, like time, to influencing
outcomes. The ancients sacrificed
animals to win the favour of their gods,
so that they could succeed in their wars
and other endeavours, and modern
people sacrifice money on medicine,
thinking it will be good for them. In
both cases alike, the religion consists
of giving up something of value for
something else of value: cattle for a
victory in war, or money for a long
and healthy life. This understanding
of the cosmos as an exchange of cause
for effect aligns with Machiavelli’s
description of the republic. The
republic, by providing security for
its citizens and allowing them the
freedom to enjoy their families and the
prosperity they labour for, demands
sacrifice to ensure its preservation. For
Machiavelli, this sacrifice is most called
for in and by war. The strength of the
ancient religion was that it accustomed
men to giving blood to obtain what
they wanted, so that the transition
from animals in their appeals to the
gods to their own blood on the fields
world, and to use religion to ignore of battle was simple and natural. And
the obligations of one’s republic is though Machiavelli saw military duty
absurd. What is the nature of ancient as the primary arena of duty to one’s
religion, that it obliges its practitioners state, it would seem generally that
to their republic? Why is Christianity acting towards the benefit of one’s
different? What of modern religion, republic ensures the benefits republics
which disdains the appellage God, and confer; security and freedom to enjoy
is called atheism?
the fruits of one’s labours.
R
eligion is the individual’s
understanding of the cosmos.
There are two sorts of understandings:
the first sees and acts on the postulate
that humans can take advantage of
achiavelli praises the strength the laws governing the cosmos, and
of the duty felt by the citizens the second is Christianity, which
of the ancient republics which denies this postulate. In other words,
resisted the Roman empire, which he all religions save Christianity persist
attributes the strength of their duty in the ancient belief that sacrifices
M
W
hat sets Christianity apart
from this sort of religion, and
muddles this reasoning of citizens
being bound to do good for the
republic because the republic is good,
is that Christianity is not a religion of
exchange, but rather one of forgiveness.
Continued on Page 14
the Gadfly / συμπόσιον / Apr 30, 2021
7
�{johnnie life}
socrate
s
an d
t he
Sophia Webster
ci
ty
W
alking around Annapolis, it is all too easy to tell Johnnies apart from their Townie or Middie counter-parts. The
contrast — with the Townies’ “Simply Southern” long T-Shirts, Middies in full uniform, and Johnnies in eccentric
dress — is almost comedic. Polity style nearly defies categorization. Here are students’ reflections on the subject:
Photo by Elizabeth Dowdy, ‘23
What exactly is
Johnnie fashion?
“Not a thing. Catholic/Dude/ArtBoy, and you can’t tell them apart.”
Mohab Syounis (A’22)
“Unique, but in pretty much the same
way.”
Avery Lehr (A’24)
“Edgy.”’
Nalini Venugopal (A’24)
“Discount Camus or a little too close
to Woody Allen.”
Lukas Wieland (A’24)
“WASP.”
Jack
[Annelise Ivanescu A'24]
[Kelly Kane A'24]
“Johnnie fashion must have started
with whatever Diogenes dropped off
at Goodwill.”
Noah Zaleman (A’25)
Photo by Elizabeth Dowdy, ‘23
[Liz Dowdy A'23]
[Avery Lehr A'24]
“All SJC fashion is androgynous,
preppy, or altogether confusing.”
Chris Musick (A’22)
“Rich kids shopping at Goodwill to
look working class.”
Clare Collins (A’22)
“Everyone dresses exactly like their
soul and everyone’s soul is different.”
Carrie Cecci (A’24)
“Eclectic.”
Kate Kennedy (A’24)
Photo by Elizabeth Dowdy, ‘23
8
the Gadfly / πόλις / Apr 30, 2021
Photo by Elizabeth Dowdy, ‘23
�{poetry}
Water Warring
Daniel Nathan
Bottle of water, my dullard potion—
left too much water for not enough ocean;
a liquid world in ordinate squalor,
all for one, for corporate conquer.
Financial markets flex in flux, and flow
to reflex back to status quo;
They boom and bust, then bust to bust
Stock bubbles burst and fatten up the family trusts.
But water is life, which is stored in plastics,
produced by Dow Chemical, and padded
with government grants & relaxed taxes;
With help from the Deregulators of the state of Decay,
the fines handed down by the courts in class-action suits
have been hush-money paid
or were “clerical errored” away.
So they say , thank God for toxic sludge
and God damn the EPA
Pay no mind to the industrial fog;
a healthy life requires a healthy dose of smog.
Instead think of the views as the waves crest & crash;
the golden-glow glittering, splintering as the sea & sky scratch.
The unending blue—the breathtaking bruise of absence so vast,
gazing out at the horizon
from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
And when Nēstlē is forced to ration out its supply of unlimited water,
throes of thirst will divide the merely Poor
from the dried-out gasps of the pauper.
and so Sacred is life, so bless-ed be our water;
let us pray for our low-price, single-use bottles:
the vessel of “life” that keep it contained.
It’s never all for one,
if you’re just one of the others;
Well if water is life,
then don’t you miss when life was sponsored?
the Gadfly / πόλις / Apr 30, 2021
9
�Isa Kiedrowski
{on music}
Blasts from the Past and
Present Perambulations
Britt Lamson
“You are about to enter another
dimension. A dimension not only of
sight and sound, but of mind. A journey
into a wondrous land of imagination.
Next stop — The Twilight Zone.”
– Rod Serling
...And all music is much the same.
Music, playing forward in time but
existing from the past to be played
again in recording, is both within
and without time. Music is caught in
an indefinite realm between light and
shadow, art that carries our minds and
hearts beyond ourselves into other
worlds of our imaginations.
Blast from the Past
~
An Album Anniversary
Dave Clark
Dave Clark’s Time - The Album
Released: April 9, 1986 (35th
Anniversary)
Dave Clark’s Time is a concept
album and musical detailing a
narrative about humanity’s progress
in the eyes of the larger universe with
a featured medley of several talented
musicians and their characters. The
cast includes the likes of veteran actors
and voices Laurence Olivier and Cliff
Richards, to the inimitable likes of
Freddie Mercury, Leo Sayer, Steve
Wonder, and Dionne Warwick. The
concept behind the whole album sees
fictitious rock musician Chris Wilder
and his band transported to the High
Court of the Universe, located in
another civilization in the Andromeda
10
Galaxy. Earth’s early efforts at space
exploration have been noticed by the
High Court, and the musicians have
been chosen to represent and defend
Earth before the court and the Time
Lord Melchisedic (whose character
is inspired by the titular character
and civilization of the same name in
Doctor Who).
This whole project was orchestrated
by Dave Clark of the British Invasion
group The Dave Clark Five and David
Soames, with music and songs by Jeff
Daniels (not the actor) and David
Pomeranz. A wild ride of rock-opera
madness, theatrical magnificence,
the Gadfly / πόλις / Apr 30, 2021
layered harmonies, reflective speeches
and bombastic performances, I
recommend this album to anyone and
everyone for all of those aspects and
reasons.
�Present Perambulations
~
A Recent Album
clear and so evenly balanced that the
album — dare I say — shines brighter
than the most polished of metals.
The entire album is a danceable popLady Gaga
sensible parade with a variety of
Chromatica
influences—from 1990’s club music,
Released: May 29, 2020
electronica, pop of all eras and aspects
of musical theatre liking backing
A return to the musical stylings orchestration for a rich textural sound
of her early career, Lady Gaga’s to a simple four-on-the-flour beat.
Chromatica is a smash hit that takes Gaga contemplates what it means to
from past club and house music exist in a celebrity-idolizing world
culture, adding her signature catchy and how to achieve happiness through
vocal melodies and harmonies with healing and growth. This album is
her strong but warm lower register. highly recommended for anyone who
The mixing and parts are so clean, so has enjoyed Lady Gaga’s previous
career works and for anyone who
fancies a thumping, danceable time
or a good sit-down listen with lyrical
themes of introspection.
If you have any album
recommendations of recent releases or
upcoming anniversaries that you want
to spread the word about, please send
them to: sjca.gadfly@gmail.com
Who knows — one may even end
up in a future issue! Enjoy, and may
the music take you on astounding
journeys, from the innermost depths
of your soul to the farthest reaches of
space.
the Gadfly / πόλις / Apr 30, 2021
11
�{elements of etiquette}
On Masks
Isa Kiedrowski
E
lements of Etiquette is a column dedicated to etiquette
beyond “what fork to use.” Etiquette isn’t about rules—
it’s about knowing how to make others feel at ease, with the
idea that if everyone tries a little harder, we’ll all be much
happier and more comfortable. It isn’t only for the English
royal family, and it certainly isn’t snobbish. With that in
mind, we’ll be examining etiquette in all its forms, vintage,
modern, or medieval—whatever Miss Kiedrowski happens to
be interested in that week.
If there’s one thing to take away from this, it’s that etiquette
is for everyone. You can take or leave what you want from it,
from business cards to greeting diplomats to learning how to
write the perfect thank you note (that one isn’t optional, by the
way. Everyone should know how to write a thank you note).
And yes, we will eventually cover which fork to use.
On Masks
COVID-19—or as we were formally introduced to it,
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2—
has drastically (and, one hopes, temporarily) altered the
manner in which we interact with the world. It used to be
so simple: make introductions (gentlemen to ladies, then
ladies to gentlemen, and then only if the lady accepted the
acquaintance), shake hands, kiss cheeks if one found oneself
in certain regions of the Continent, and leave with one’s
circle of acquaintances slightly enlarged.
But in these days of physical distancing (the author insists
on the word “physical,” because although we find ourselves
in unprecedented circumstances, we are still remarkably
social creatures), etiquette has taken on a different flavor. As
shaking hands is unsafe—and quite frankly impossible from
six feet away—and kissing—on the cheeks or elsewhere—
tantamount to signing one’s own death warrant, the idea
of “good manners” has now expanded to include avoiding
people entirely, keeping them at more than arm’s length,
and of course mask wearing.
12
the Gadfly / πόλις / Apr 30, 2021
Mask wearing is currently the highest form of good
manners available to us. As wearing a cloth mask serves to
protect those around the wearer more so than the wearer
themselves, doing so signals to everyone in the immediate
vicinity (and there shouldn’t be too many), that the wearer
cares about them and their safety. And since etiquette, at
the end of the day, is more about putting those around
us at ease, rather than following an iron-clad set of rules
with kamikaze-like dedication (mind, however, that there
are still some rules the author considers iron-clad), maskwearing is a constant display of good manners.
Masks come with their own etiquette, as well. Not
wearing a mask makes one appear rather selfish (and yes,
while appearances aren’t everything, one has to admit an
awful lot gets assumed based off of them)—see above for
what wearing a mask does make you look like. One step up
from not wearing one at all is the half-hearted wearer, or
the “just for appearances.” This is the individual who either
wears their mask under their nose or chin most of the
time, yanking it up whenever someone approaches them.
While slightly less offensive than not wearing a mask at all,
the author has to admit that it still sends a message of not
taking things seriously. Since the total death toll for the
United States now exceeds that of the Second World War,
and is approaching that of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic,
it’s probably time to take things seriously, in the interest of
avoiding a death toll similar to that of the Civil War. The
author will allow herself a small slip when she says, “Just
wear the damn mask. Properly, please.”
Besides, wearing a mask does come with its own set of
advantages. Those who formerly had trouble schooling
their faces into acceptable expressions will rejoice at the
notion that this is no longer a necessity. While smiling is
nice, a mere crinkling of the eyes will suffice in getting the
message across, as one hastily crosses the street to avoid an
oncoming mask-less individual.
�continued from page 5
Stoltzfus further emphasized the
significance of Sicut Cervus as an
established tradition in recounting
the 2002 Palestrina Choir (resident
choir of St. Mary’s Cathedral in
Dublin) performance in the Great
Hall. The performers were amazed at
the attendance; students filled the hall
and leaned over the balcony to listen.
At the end of the performance, Sicut
Cervus was requested and the Choir
was more than happy to oblige. What
they weren’t expecting was for the
entire Great Hall to join in. “Loud was
the cheering and ovation at the end,”
Stoltzfus remembered. “As one amazed
Renaissance singer told me afterwards,
‘“I thought I was a rock star!”’
Fricke further commented on the
significance of Sicut Cervus as a song.
He noted that it is unaccompanied,
allowing it to be sung at any point,
given that you have the right amount of
people. However, he also emphasized
the difficulty of singing a four-part
polyphony: “It takes a right amount
of engagement and focus to be able to
do it...you have to be attentive to your
part and the parts around you.” He
also noted how the song impacts the
dynamic in a group of singers. “I think
it has a way of bringing people together,
not just because of the popularity of it,
but because when you’re experiencing
it, the parts move independently, but
in respect to each other, so that the
harmony lines up. When it doesn’t line
up, it creates this beautiful dissonance
that is also very compelling,” Fricke
explained. Additionally, the brevity of
the piece is suited to the casual singing
setting. “You show up, you sing for a
couple minutes, you feel great, and you
leave,” Fricke said.
FINAL
THOUGHTS
Articles continued from
earlier in the issue
continued from page 6
LOCKE Vs. HOBBES: What then
is to be made of these dueling systems?
To better understand the question,
it is helpful to view the dichotomy
through the lens of two competing
political theorists, John Locke, author
of the Second Treatise of Government,
and Thomas Hobbes, author of
the Leviathan. According to the
Lockean conception of government,
communities are only formed when
men give their free consent to form
ties with one another and divest
themselves of their natural liberty
so that they may live comfortably
amongst one another. Central to this
theory is the notion that government
is formed from the bonds between
men and for the sake of facilitating
those relationships. In the view put
forth by Hobbes, governments are
formed by individual consent given to
the sovereign for the sake assuring their
physical security. Thus, the relational
chain, rather than giving primacy
to peers’ relationships as seen in the
Lockean formulation, is formed by
an individuated relationship between
the sovereign and the citizen who
legitimizes him. Once the government
is established, all values and actions
necessary to maintaining the security
of the nation are subsumed by the
sovereign.
In the U.S. and Chinese credit
systems, these parallels persist. The U.S.
Credit Risk Score system, born from
entrepreneurship of private citizens,
seeks to increase trustworthiness
between citizens for ease of commerce.
The horizontal, Lockean relationship
is one between peers who consent to a
system amongst each other. As a result,
individuals with low credit scores
retain the liberty to take loans from
persons willing to issue financing.
Following the Hobbesian archetype,
the Chinese Social Credit system is
one instituted by the government out
of concerns stemming from national
security. As such, it is erected between
private citizens and their government.
Thus, while the U.S. system primarily
concerns individual spenders and
private lenders, the Chinese system
considers individuals as citizens in
relationship to their government.
Financial habits constitute a portion
of the behaviors tracked that include
any non-financial private activity
deemed relevant to national policy;
for example delinquency, traffic
violations, disorderly public conduct
are all data points included in the
score. Will the Lockean system and its
inability to account for non-financial
actions prove to be less agile and a
missed opportunity for government
enforcement of domestic policies?
Will the Hobbesian system prove
too restrictive on personal freedoms?
The result is to be played out over
time as the dueling systems renew the
familiar Hobbes-Locke debate on the
battlefield of credit scores.
1) Schaefer, Kendra. “China’s
Corporate Social Credit System.”
Trivium China, 16 Nov. 2020.
the Gadfly / πόλις / Apr 30, 2021
13
�continued from page 7
For the Christian, the republic
can not offer security and freedom
because rather than being subject to
the Christian’s control, it is subject to
God’s control. What then is the duty of
such a citizen, who owes no obligation
to the state directly? Machiavelli insists
that this sense of duty exists, nor am I
inclined to disagree. Indeed, it would
seem that in the case of the republic,
a citizen who made no demands of
his republic would be superior to the
one who, viewing their republic as a
tool for freedom, submitted to that
republic only out of desire for personal
gain.
Machiavelli describes the republic
as aimed at the common good,
since it is ruled by a majority which
suppresses the minority so that all
may enjoy their freedom more fully
than under a tyranny. In this latter
form of government, a minority
oppresses a majority and a smaller
number of citizens (the tyrant and
his supporters) enjoy security and
freedom. It is also the case in a republic
that the greed of its citizens (which
Machiavelli sees as applying equally
to all, regardless of religion) increases
the security and prosperity of the
republic. But contrary to Machiavelli’s
view, the Christian citizen is less
mindlessly pursuant of material
wealth or having a family, and more
so preoccupied with contemplation of
God. Machiavelli criticises Christian
apathy toward politics as incomplete
contemplation of God, especially
if that contemplation is to take the
form of deeds. In the vein of Calvin
or James, every Christian is obliged
to know God through action in every
part of life, and Machiavelli recognises
that politics is a part of life. Therefore
it would be remiss of them not to
glorify God through action. Examples
of such active duty might range from
paying their taxes to serving in the
14
the Gadfly / Apr 30, 2021
FINAL
THOUGHTS
military as their republic called it
forth, since in all of these activities the
Christian recognises that by rendering
to the republic what it claims from
them, they are actually in that way
serving God. Contemplating God
through action in this manner also
distinguishes the two aforementioned
sorts of religion, while reconciling
Machiavelli’s virtue with Christ’s
command. The non-Christian citizen
of the republic acts according to the
commands of his republic insofar as he
trusts his republic will provide security
and freedom to him; meanwhile, the
Christian citizen is called to act in
accord with the republic, by either
conforming to its laws or by breaking
them and suffering the punishment
decreed.
The duty of either citizen, the
one with a religion of exchange or a
religion of gratitude, does not vary
externally; both are to act with the
interest of their republic in mind, since
that interest is one which contains
their common good. The difference
between the two lies internally, where
the citizen with a non-Christian
religion has loyalty when the republic
benefits him. This occurs most of the
time, since the majority-based system
of a republic tends to favour most of
its systems. By contrast, the Christian
citizen finds their own good in doing
good for others, which broadens the
question of common good into a
more Thomistic than Machiavellian
sense. The Christian asks “How can
I love everyone?” rather than the
Machiavellian question: “What is the
minimum of love needed to secure my
personal good?”
�What is the
Polity Reading?
Freshmen:
Euripides, The
Bacchae
Juniors:
Kant, Foundations of Metaphysics of Morals
THE STUDENT
NEWSPAPER
Sophomores:
Calvin, Institutes
of the Christian
Religion
OF
ST. JOHN’S
COLLEGE
Seniors:
De Beauvoir, The
Second Sex
Philosophy and
Politics and
Theology:
Society:
Kierkegard,
Marx, The GerPhilosophical
man Ideology
Fragments
Tocqueville,
Nietzsche, BeDemocracy in
yond Good and
America
Evil
Preceptorials:
Joyce, Ulysses
Beowulf
Arendt, Life of the Mind
Dostoevsky, The Idiot
Aristotle, On the Soul
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly
is the student newsmagazine
distributed to over 600 students, faculty, staff, and alumna of the Annapolis campus.
Continuing the
Conversation:
Below are questions based on the
preceding articles to take with
you into the community:
1. Boathouse Reopens: Where
do you go to think?
2. Dueling Systems: What
would a Hobbesian-like Credit
System look like in the U.S.?
3. Machiavelli on Religion: If
two citizens act in the republic’s
advantage, is either citizen better, if one acts out of selfishness
and the other in service of
God? How can citizens fail to
place the republic as the highest
good in their lives and still be
called good?
Opinions expressed within are the responsibility of
the author(s). The Gadfly
reserves the right to accept,
reject, and edit submissions
in any way necessary to
publish a professional, informative, and thought provoking
newsmagazine.
Submissions sent to the
Gadfly should either be in
Microsoft Word or JPEG
format. The deadline for
submissions is the Friday prior to publication.
For more information,
contact us via email at
sjca .g adfly@gmail.com
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
the Gadfly / Apr 30, 2021
15
�ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE
6 0 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
16
the Gadfly / Apr 30, 2021
�
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The Gadfly, Vol. XLII, Issue 03
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Gadfly Vol XLII Issue 03
Gadfly
Student publication
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Text
Democratic
• 05
The
in
•
Reexamining 'Right' & 'Left' •
ST. Jmw's
COLLEGE•
60
COLLEGE
AVE, ANNAPOLIS, J\1I) 21401 •OCT. 15, 2013 • VoL. XXXV • IssUE 04
�02
THE GADFLY
.
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER
OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE
60 COLLEGE AVENUE
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401
SJCA.GADFLY@GMAIL.COM
Founded in 1980, the Gadfly is the student newsmagazine distributed to over
600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.
Opinions expressed within are the sole
responsibility of the author(s). The Gadfly reserves the right to accept, reject,
and edit submissions in any way necessary to publish a professional, informative, and thought-provoking newsmagazine.
STAFF
Nathan Goldman• Editor-in-Chief
Ian Tuttle • Editor-in-Chief
Hayden Pendergrass • Layout Editor
Sasha Welm • Illustrator
Sebastian Barajas • Staff
Andrew Kriehn • Staff
Robert Malka • Staff
Sarah Meggison • Staff
CONTRIBUTORS
Thomas Braithwaite
Nicholas Gazzola
Patrick Kelly
Micaela MacDougall
Tim McClennen
Pavlas Papadopoulos
Zeke Schumacher
·.'V
v
.
.
.
..
. .
. . .
..
Alurrtni .OndlJs.
"l X Then I applied to be the student representative to the Alumni AssoV V ciation Board of Directors, I didn't know anything about what I was
going to be doing, except that it would be something to do with alumni. I have
always been intrigued by our alumni; they are something of a window into the
future of the current student body.
Mr. Pickens, the Director of Alumni Relations, invited me to attend the
Alumni Association board meeting on the Friday before Homecoming. Fifteen
alumni on the Board met to talk about the College.
The first thingthat surprised me was the meeting's length- eight hours!
The second was how all in attedndance were energized, joyful, and took their
responsibility seriously- and they stayed that way all the way through the day.
They discussed a lot of different things. The main topic I want to share with
you is how they are working on reaching out to the students, and to a larger
group of alumni, seeking ways to bring both groups together more often. All
the members of the Board are working on coming up with the best ways to accomplish this goal. The Board wants us to try reaching out to them when we
feel it necessary to share our opinions and provide feedback.
It is astonishing to realize that I will be an alumna in less than two years.
Seniors have less than a year. Even the freshmen will join the Alumni in fewer
than four years!
Let's work together to make the connection stronger. Contact me or Leo
Pickens (at the new Hodson House) with questions or ideas in person or via
e-mail to find out how!
Gurer Gundondu, A'lS
gurer.gundondu@sjca.edu
leo. pickens@sjca.edu
ver the last several months, our SJC A'93 Facebook group began to buzz
more than usual for two reasons. The first was our upcoming 20th reunion- yes, now we were going to be "those old people" trespassing on campus.
The second was the College's "re-branding"/Siegelvision controversy. These
two events got some of us thinking of how much we loved and respected the
education we got at St. John's, and how many of us felt there were still enough
Johnnies in the world-if only we could reach them.
There are about 100 Johnnie FB groups already, and they all discuss what
they discuss, but the thing we could not find was a place where people were
sharing their favorite quotations from Program books and authors. Many of us
treasure these pearls decades later. We wanted to build a campfire where the
SJC spirit could gather and where people from any class or campus could share
their passion for these timeless and timely texts.
Johnnie Quote is now open for business. It's a ''Virtual Quad" where we can
share the bon mots we love, whether they are wise or sad or funny or political.
No arguments about tuition increases or re-branding. It's a lot more fun to have
it powered by everyone's enthusiasm than just by Google, so please send us
your favorites.
Share the wisdom:
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/johnniequotes
Twitter @johnniequote.
Email: johnniequote@gmail.com
O
Special thanks to classmates: Henri Nicolas, Michael Camper, Kate Rooney
and Dierdre Crosse.
Nicholas Gazzola, A'9 3
�THE GADFLY
03
The Democratic Prejudice
I
hope to have misunderstood Mr. Lacy's article ("From the self-examination. (Again, I leave aside whether the College is
Sidelines of Modernity," Gadfly, September 24). The fol- unique or in what respect. I say only that it is excellent.)
In suggesting that St. John's deny its uniqueness, Mr. Lacy is
lowing is a quarrel with what I hope is not the heart of his
calling on the College to conform to one of the great prejudicargument, but which seems to be precisely that.
Mr. Lacy admits that he is not suggesting
es of our time: the democratic or egalitarian faith, which, as such, denies greatness.
any specific change to the program. Instead,
he asks that the College change its self-un- ( ( In suggesting that St.
This conformity may, in some way, be true
derstanding- that it drop "the claim that we
John's deny its unique- to the New Program as it exists or as it once
existed. But by doing so without having disare doing something 'inherently different'
ness, Mr. Lacy is callputed the College's uniqueness, Mr. Lacy
from other schools." We Johnnies "believ[e]
ing on the College to
seems to be censoring the College on beourselves to be privileged" in our education.
conform
to one of the
half of that prejudice. This prejudice is not
Mr. Lacy's request that the College efface its
great prejudices of our without its merits, but it is nevertheless a
claim of uniqueness came as a surprise to
prejudice, and should in collegiate contexts
me, especially because Mr. Lacy makes no
time: the democratic
be
treated as such. Tocqueville, Nietzsche,
effort to contradict it and does not even state
or egalitarian faith,
Strauss, and others identified this prejuhis own opinion on the matter. His recomwhich, as such, denies dice and its dominance in our time as the
mendation is apparently limited to how the
greatness.
result of a great historical shift, a change
College brands itself, and does not touch the
that thoughtful persons could study and
truth or falsehood of the matter.
I will leave it to others to defend or discome to understand by one way or another.
pute the College's uniqueness. I would like to address Mr. These thinkers understood that the more this democratic/
Lacy's suggestion that the College deny this uniqueness, and egalitarian prejudice developed, the more it would be conthat Johnnies check their privilege, without his having dis- tradicted and offended by any notion of greatness (including,
puted the College's uniqueness and the privilege thereby con- for our purposes, the greatness of books, ideas, and authors). I
ferred. This suggestion smacks of ideology, an inquisition on cannot say what such diverse thinkers would say about a colbehalf of our era's most sacred cow. A St. John's education is lege education in our time and place. But I do think that they,
supposed to provide like so many of the teachers and students who have shaped
its students with the and continue to shape St. John's College, would highly value
tools to examine their the effort to recognize this reigning prejudice and to examine
opinions and liberate it, and thereby to free oneself from it as a prejudice, for the
themselves from faulty sake of intellectual liberty and the ennoblement of the soul.
ways of thinking. Our Whether this prejudice holds a special place in our education
opinions
include or not, it should at the very least be subject to the same examiprejudices that we nation as every other prejudice, and its prescriptions should
possess as individ- not be accepted without question.
Mr. Lacy clearly desires a great change in the substance as
uals with particular backgrounds well as the rhetoric of St. John's, although the kind of change
and life experi- he would propose remains somewhat opaque to me from what
ence~, as well as he has written. I have argued that, insofar as he critiques the
those we absorb assertion of an "inherent difference" and the concomitant
en masse as resi- sense of "privilege" without entering into the merits of these
dents of the 20th and 21st . claims, he undermines the governing principles of the Colcenturies. I do not know lege as generations of students have experienced it- the "good
whether the one is more philosophy" of education which is, perhaps, still "good mardifficult to confront than keting." I repeat: I hope to have misunderstood him in this
1
the other, or even if they are respect. If I have not, I think the two of us have lost a great
separable except in speech. I part of the common ground for discussing the purpose of a St.
do know that the St. John's John's education, and the inseparable question of its presentaCollege I attended excelled tion to potential students. +
in alerting students to the ED: As the re branding process continues, we encourage Johnnies
task, and even in helping
to keep the conversation alive in our pages. For further commenstudents begin the labor of
tary on the rebranding, don't miss page six of the current issue!
�04
THE GADFLY
ob , or
A
ttob
?
•
are not the
But here is where the similarity stops: Four lines after the
fter this column and my column from last issue, many
of my fellow students may ask some simple questions: Preamble to the Polity Constitution ends, we find Article 1,
"What does the Delegate Council do? And, if it does anything Section 2, which states: "The Delegate Council shall pursue
at all, why should I care?" Stick with me through the dry part the objects stated in the preamble, and to this end, may interof this column, and I'll do my best to provide informative and pret this constitution as is necessary and proper."
Why does this matter? Recall that the Polity Constitution
compelling answers.
begins, 'We, the students"-and we the students didn't vote
Very simply, the Delegate Council does two main things:
1) hands out about $50,000 per year
for this Constitution. We didn't "orto students on campus ( almost a year's
dain and establish this constitution
( (And if we don't care to influ- for [our own] government." We didn't
full tuition and board); and
2) picks students to represent cureven elect our representatives for the
ence our government now,
rent students to the Board of Visitors
when it is the most accessible purpose of drafting and passing a new
and Governors and to sit on the Stuto us that it will ever be, how Constitution! Did I miss the convendent Committee on Instruction, and the
tion?
can we expect to go out into
Alumni Board, amongst other things.
Remember who voted to ordain and
the wider world and engage establish this constitution? The DelThere's a lot of money at stake, and
how the entire student body is repreegate Council did. Seventeen students
our government in an efsented to the BVG and the Instruction
fective manner, a manner wrote a constitution, passed themCommittee, etc., depends on whom the
that expresses our will, oper- selves the "authority" to select a new
Delegate Council picks for the job.
Constitution, and then set it above us
ates under our consent, and all. Why is this concerning'? Because it
In my last column on this issue, I
res;oe,cts our
stressed two fundamental philosophical
clearly indicates that the Council has
considerations that call into question
used its power to "interpret this conthe legitimacy of our new Polity Constitution" so that 'We, the students"
stitution. But all too often, the philosophical does not impact actually means 'We, the 17 members of the Delegate Council
our lives-at least, not in an immediate way. So what is so bad who vote for something." You and I and every other student on
about this new Constitution? If it's better than the last one, this campus who did not vote for this new Constitution were
why does any of this matter?
removed of our right to a government representative of our
First and foremost, in the Delegate Council's most egre- will.
The old, flawed Constitution had the foresight to begin, folgious overstepping of its authority, the D.C. determined that
all the rest of us who were not on the council did not count as
lowing the preamble, with a definition of the Student
members of the Student Body.
Polity: "All undergraduate students currently
How do I know the Delegate Council does not
enrolled with the Registrar of St. John's Colconsider those students not on it not to be students
lege in Annapolis, Maryland shall be considat all? The answer lies in the Constitution they
ered members of the Student Polity."
passed. The new Constitution's preamble begins
So what do
do? \Ve
and ends with the following:
care. This college, this Pol'We, the students of St. John's College in
ity, and our own self-goverAnnapolis, Maryland, recognize: our right
nance-these are all prepato establish an instrument of governance...
rations for real life. And if we
[and] do therefore ordain and establish this
don't care to influence our governconstitution for the government of the
ment now, when it is the most accessible
Polity of St. John's College in Annapto us that it will ever be, hmv can \Ve exolis, Maryland."
pect to go out into the wider world and
The above sounds innocuous and faengage our government in an effective
miliar-patriotic, even-in its evomanner, in a manner that expresses
cation of our own American Conour will, operates under our consent,
stitution: "We, the students" is
and respects our boundaries?
our version of "We the people,"
I reiterate my challenge to the Poliand the American Constitution
ty to become involved in its direction and
clearly states at the end of the preamble that We the
government, and I call upon everyone to clamor for the rePeople "do ordain and establish this Constitution
turn of their right to self-governance. There must be a reffor the United States of America"-just like our
erendum on this Constitution, and it must be written
ovvn Polity Constitution now does for us.
to respect each of us and our fundamental rights. +
�05
THE GADFLY
LL
F
I
E E
'
•
'm still not all that used to the fact that I'm a junior. I know siasm that one has during freshman year. After you've been
I've been at St. John's for over two years of my life, but at here a while (in my experience, anyway) it can get hard at
the same time I still sometimes feel like I just got here. But times to keep that enthusiasm alive. It's good to be reminded
as I get older and move up in the years, new cadres of fresh- that St. John's is a weird, confusing, beautiful place worth bemen come to inherit the torches. And sometimes things hap- ing proud of. It's good to renew your sense of wonder and appen when my cold junior heart needs some warming; like the preciation every now and then.
Writer David Foster Wallace gave a comrecapturing of the Randall flag.
So this thing happened toward the end
mencement speech for Kenyon College
of September. I was walking back to cam- ' ' After you've been here in 2005 entitled "This Is Water" (which
a while (in my experi- you should totally go look up right now;
pus from a CVS run, intending to go straight
back to Pinkney to take a nap. But as I got
it's amazing). He begins the speech with a
ence anyways) it can
story about fish, and one says to the other
closer to campus, I was lured back to the
get hard at times to
Quad by "Love Shack" blasting from the
keep that enthusiasm something about the water in which they
windows of Randall. So earlier in the year,
are swimming and the other one replies,
alive.
good to
the Randall kids made a flag for their dorm,
''What the hell is water?" Wallace eventureminded that St.
which was subsequently stolen by the inally says that liberal arts education teaches
habitants of Campbell (Randall was none
John's is a weird, con- us how to stay conscious and not just go
too happy about it). At some point, someone
fusing, beautiful place through the motions of life; it helps us to
displayed the Randall flag from a Campbell
worth being proud of. recognize and remind ourselves that "this
is water, this is water." The Randall Flag Inwindow. All of a sudden, everyone ran out of
cident has been a part of a series of "this is
Randall and charged to Campbell to successfully take back the flag. Afterwards, they played, ''We Are The water" moments for me, reminding me of where and who I am
Champions" from the Randall 2nd window. It was a glorious and what I'm doing.
So, Class of 2017, you guys are all right. Carry the torch of
moment.
When I was a freshman, I lived on Randall 3rd. The dorm legacy proudly.
holds a special place in my heart; I am Team Randall (yeah, I
Classes of 2016 and 2014 are awesome too. Class of 2015 is
know, I spent most of my social time in Campbell, whatever). obviously the best.
This whole episode reminded me of that special sort of enthuRANDALLFOREVER!+
�06
GADFLY
Get Your Food On!
www.gastrokitty.blogspot.com
I
t has been over two weeks since Homecoming weekend, but I still remember her so vividly. The dimly-lit Coffee Shop-turned-dance-floor
reverberated with rock tunes. I heard few of the words but felt every
beat as I jived and vibed. Then I saw her-the woman in blue, dancing.
She was a short (about 5'2") and stout middle aged Latina, or perhaps
Native American. Her shoulder-length hair was black and her dress was
a navy blue, or at least so it appeared in the light. Approaching her, I
stooped over and whispered into her right ear: ''Your dancing makes me
so happy," or some version of that. All she did was smile, and give me
a look that said, "I'm not quite sure what you said; I fear that in your
slightly inebriated state it was super weird. But never mind, let's dance."
And then we danced. I never heard her voice, and against the loud
backdrop, I doubt that she ever heard mine. Yet we conversed in a gazillion words. With every hip SV\ring, arm flair, neck twitch, hair whip, foot
slide, waist thrust, wrist flick, she spoke to me and I to her. I say with
Emma Watson's conviction in Stephen Chobsky's The Perks of Being a
Wallflower: "in that moment I swear we were infinite."
Though dancing always makes me feel free and happy-like everything is all right in the world-there was something extra about my short
dance with the woman in blue. Perhaps it was because she was barefooted and I admired the guts of
someone who could do that on such ( ( 'I want to have the
a grimy, beer- and sweat-splattered,
guts to dance bareslippery floor. Perhaps it was her
foot
in a room full of
dance group hopping and interstrangers; I thought.
mittent solo sessions-belying that
she knew very few people, if any, in
'I want to dance
the room. Perhaps it was that dethe strangers. I want
spite this she danced all night long,
to
alone. I want
not shying away from the eyes of
to
whip
my
hair like
strangers; not afraid to dance with
nothing else matters.
them, and not afraid of dancing
solo. Though my feet took me away
I want to be like
as I danced \Vi.th friends and strangers alike, my eyes often returned
to her-the woman in blue, dancing. 'I want to have the guts to dance
barefoot in a room full of strangers,' I thought. 'I want to dance with the
strangers. I want to dance alone. I want to whip my hair like nothing else
matters. I want to be like you.
'I want to be like you beyond the dance floor. I want to be like you right
now in seminar.' These thoughts flitted through my mind during a Marx
seminar a few days later. There I was-arms crossed, my normally sunken forehead sunken yet further by a frown. There I was-fists clenched,
lips only slightly apart in non-speech. As I sit there, I am afraid. I am
afraid-and perhaps rightfully so-that I did not do the ..-.o,,r,,.,..,,,,
enough. I am afraid that my words will not be coherent enough. I am
afraid that I have not listened carefully enough to the preceding conversation. I am afraid that my words will be ignored; that I will dance and
no one will join in.
Then, I remember the woman in blue. I unclench my fists, massage my
forehead with my fingers, and smile. I sway slightly, imperceptibly from
side to side. I open my lips wide apart. As I offer my thoughts on Marx, I
say confidently: "Seminar is a dance party; life is a dance party and I am
the woman in blue. Shall we dance?" +
�07
THE GADFLY
•
1
'
•
1
' '
•
1
'
session, where real discussion happened, and real decisions
were discussed. They did not sit in blocks, but all mixed, and
gave every member an independent vote.
On June 19, this mixed body, which had begun calling itself
the "Commons," arrived at the hall where the Estates General
traditionally met, and found it locked and guarded by soldiers.
They simply walked down the hall and sat in an indoor tennis
would like to begin by thanking Mr. Ian Tuttle for his dedi- court. After being kicked out of the tennis court a few days
cation to "Bursting the Johnnie Bubble." Such is a worthy later, the met in a nearby church. Upon moving to the tennis
endeavor, and a time-consuming one. Reporting the happen- court, the body changed its name to the National Assembly, a
name which they kept thereafter.
ings of the world at large to our Polity helps
The National Assembly had one agenda:
to keep us relevant. It is also a big job, and one ( ( The interesting
end the pain in France. That was composed
that could benefit from a division of labor. A
thing about mod- of three parts: fund the government, feed
division of labor is what I hereby offer. I am a
ern American poli- the peasants, and restart business. When
liberal in just the way that Mr. Tuttle is a contics
is that both
they met they did not divide their seating
servative: with respect for those who disagree
·with him, and with humility in his own beliefs.
parties are now, by by estate, even though all estates were repI 1Arill try to write with this level of maturity
French standards, resented. They divided their seating by proposed solution. One group wanted to reverse
and restraint.
conservative.
any changes which had been made since the
Now, the words "liberal" and "conservalast time life was tolerable. That is: recreate
tive" have drifted in meaning considerably
since they were first coined, but I have always believed that the policies and conditions of the last time when the peasthe first step towards understanding a modern word is to un- ants had food, business was moving, and the government had
derstand its historical meaning. If one can follow the course funds. The other group believed that the present pain was an
of its change in meaning, then one truly knows the meaning inevitable successor to the previous order and that, even if the
previous order could be created and the pain stopped, the the
of the world.
In June 1789, the king of France convened the Estates Gen- pain would return. They proposed creating a previously uneral, a royal act whose most recent precedent had been in 1614. imagined order. The first group were called "Conservatives"
The French government was bankrupt, the peasants were and the second "Liberals." When they met, the Conservatives
sat to the right of the podium, and the Liberals to the left of
starving and the economy had stalled.
There was
at
level. The
wanted the Estates it. These directions prevail to this day, so whenever you hear
General to advise him on solving the problem, but even more, someone talking about the "left" or the "right" in modern polihe wanted them to lend legitimacy to any unpleasant deci- tics, whether or not they include the adjective "far" they are
sion that he felt he had to mal<:e to solve the crisis. The Estates referring to the National Assembly in France in 1789.
The interesting thing about modern American politics is
convened, and were seated in the same configuration used in
1614: the Clergy (first estate) and the Nobility (second estate) that both parties are now, by French standards, conservative.
were seated in blocks, equally close to the podium. The third The so-called liberals want a return to the policies and orders
estate (composed theoretically of everyone else but actually of the period from the end of the Second World War until... It
composed almost entirely of business men) was seated behind is very hard to say when that period ended, as each of the polithe first two. The third estate had been invited to send twice as cies was overturned one at a time. The so-called conservatives
many representatives as either of the other two, but they were claim that they want a return to the period around the end
then informed that each estate as a whole got only one vote, of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth.
nullifying the effect of their large size, except as an impedi- Now, one could argue that either side was ignorant of history,
ment to :flexibility. Not only were they shut out of the proceed- and what they claim is a return is actually a push towards a
previously unseen order. That would make that party the libings physically, they were also shut out procedurally.
The third estate started holding meetings in between the of- erals, but I am not going to discuss that here. However, I will
ficial sessions of the Estates General, trying to actually solve admit that it seems that I have just declared myself a conserthe problems of that beset the nation. Soon, members of the vative: I would like to see a return to some of the New Deal
Clergy and Nobility started joining them in these unofficial policies.+
I have spent more than three years climbing this cardboard, paper, and linen tower of ours. While I am not so hubristic as to
imagine that I have reached the top, I do make it a habit to seek
out a window at every landing. Thus I appoint myself watchman, to inform the people below, and those who look only inwards, of what can be seen in the lands about.
I
�08
THE
PRECIOUS COLLEGE
UPCOMING
VENTS
Tuesday 10/15
Kunai Volleyball
4PM
Wednesday 10/16
Reasonball
DvG, 2:45 PM
SvW, 4PM
St. John's Chorus, Great Hall
7PM
Friday 10/18
Kunai Volleyball
4PM
Lecture: "In the Wilderness:
Moses as Founder and Lawgiver"
by Prof. Ronna Burger,
Tulane University
FSK Auditorium
8PM
Saturday 10/19
Reasonball
Wv lPM
GvH, 2:45 PM
Sunday 10/20
Soccer
Gv lPM
WvH,2:45PM
If you would like to see your
event on the weekly schedule, please email sjca.gadf:ly@
gmail.com.
Smeagolvision's 4 ( ore)
Points of Rebranding
1. Reframe the current emphasis on "the Books."
Move the College's emphasis from Books to Riddles. Incorporate the ancient riddle
game into all classes, playing for life and death stakes. What does it have in its pocketses, precious?
2. Reframe negative-sounding "lack of choice" or "all-required" lifestyle.
Accentuate the positive diversity of secret paths, mountain tunnels, and food choices, which include fish, worms, beetles, fish, raw rabbits, and fish, that you alone enjoy!
3. Differentiate from other Rings ofPower.
V\Thy engage in the fight to save the embattled Rings of Power? Explain how the One
Ring is indeed "the One." And, if needed, use a suitable alternative label, e.g. My
Precious.
4. Broaden criteria for potential ringbearers beyond "needle in the haystack."
Create a narrative and supporting communications that are pitched to independent
adventurers, good burglars-yes-who are also regular hobbits who share, with other hob bits, the love of eating, drinking, and smoking. Bagginses are welcome but not
exclusively courted.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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<em>The Gadfly</em>
Description
An account of the resource
Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
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St. John's College Greenfield Library
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thegadfly
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paper
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8 pages
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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The Gadfly, Vol. XXXV, Issue 4
Description
An account of the resource
Volume XXXV, Issue 4 of The Gadfly. Published on October 15, 2013, 2013.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Goldman, Nathan (Editor in Chief)
Tuttle, Ian (Editor in Chief)
Publisher
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St. John's College
Coverage
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Annapolis, MD
Date
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2013-10-15
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St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
Type
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text
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pdf
Subject
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College students--United States--Conduct of life
Language
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English
Identifier
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Gadfly Vol XXXV issue 4
Gadfly
Student publication
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/b55e3b53a71a230c68232ee5a688288b.pdf
20848ef762e13b8b7fe3d591cef0ebdc
PDF Text
Text
Photo by Rose Pelham
�The BAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaadfly
02
The Dreams of Drumpland
I began compiling other
people’s dreams in late 2019, as the
slide into the historical era we have just
exited was becoming inevitable due to
the discovery––by certain politicians––
that even things which are blatantly
true can be contested, if only one bands
together with enough fellow deniers of
reality. With this discovery, it became
possible to justify eliminating the ultimate check against the abuse of power,
by transforming a trial into a political
contest. Consequently, the only check
that remained was that of the following
election, which was to have its integrity
defended by an entirely depopulated
Federal Election Commission, and
utterly no protection against hacking to
speak of, since this, too, proved politically inconvenient. What necessarily
followed could be easily guessed at
by any careful observer of the times,
but nonetheless looked too much like
something out of dystopian fiction for
us to believe what we were seeing.
I compiled dreams until 2023,
when I had to flee the country. With
the recent collapse of the regime, I have
finally been able to publish my collection to be read in its country of origin,
where it should appear early next year.
The following is a set of dreams excerpted from The Dreams of Drumpfland in chronological order, which my
publisher, AK Press, hopes will stimulate interest in my book.
--
The dream of a conscripted
soldier:
I was in the conference room
[of the army base] and “the Miller” ––as
we called him––had come from the
WH to give a very important lecture. A
fellow private leaned over and said to
me: “I’m very shy, but could you ask for
me how many wives does he have?”
Incredulous and a little nervous, I repeated, “How many wives?”
“Yes, that’s the right question.”
At this point, “the Miller,”
carefully feeding wheat into the left ear
of a soldier, which was excreted as a
white powder from the right, overheard
us, and turned to address me, saying, “I
have twelve wives to protect against the
threat of replacement! Do you not have
twelve wives!?”
“I have no wives,” I said,
feeling the snickering gaze of the other
conscripts upon me, as if I alone were
ignorant of some essential fact.
To this he replied: “you are
supposed to have as many wives as
possible! Everyone knows we must be
able to out reproduce our enemies!
It is the destiny of our nation that we
emerge from the deep mines with the
largest population so we may conquer
the Earth!! If you don’t have enough
wives, I can’t guarantee you a place in
the mineshaft when the war comes!
Don’t you want us to out reproduce
our enemies!? DO YOU STAND BETWEEN US AND OUR NATIONAL
DESTINY!?”
At this point, I woke up, terrified I may have shouted in my sleep.
--
A college student’s nightmare:
I was about to take my final
exam, which would decide whether
or not I graduated. I was certain I was
ready for it.
After the customary anti-cheating precautions/rituals (including all manner of searches and warnings against even so much as using your
own watch or seeing with the aid of
your own, non-standard testing-center
issued, glasses) we were told that the
test would begin. But first, we each had
to swear allegiance to the flag, individually, to make sure we were loyal citizens.
One by one, each of my classmates pledged allegiance to the flag,
our leader’s twelve fertile wives, and the
great, heterosexual Marlon Bundo––but
when the proctor reached me, I couldn’t
speak. Gasping, she shouted: “WE
FOUND THE WITCH!”
The testing room was full of
security guards, who each immediately
pledged allegiance to our national trinity, lest they be suspected of my heresy.
I was then taken down the hall
to another room, sat down in a chair,
and given a test on my knowledge of alternative facts. The first question asked:
“which is truer: a) 2 + 2 = 4, or b) 1 + 1
+ 1 = 3?”
--
An office worker’s dream:
The desert militiamen wore nothing but
leather and red hats and drove around
in spiky dune buggies that kicked up
clouds of dust. I could hear them shouting “PEACE ON EARTH! PURTY OF
ESSENCE!” in the distance. It was their
purpose to guard the nationally important deep mineshafts from boarder
infiltration.
All along the way to the
mineshafts, I left bottles of water on the
trail behind me, so I could find my way
back by the spaces they were no longer
in once other people took them. It was
very important to leave bottles of water
on the trail, but I could not remember
why, until I was stopped and interrogated by a block of very cold salt. Then I
remembered and used the warm water
to dissolve the salt and run away.
But the militiamen saw me, for the salt
signaled my location to them in the
agony of its dissolution.
But just then, I caught sight
of my friends, who would help me
escape! (How did I know they were my
friends?!)
I was on the cusp of reaching
them when the militiamen in leather
and red hats caught me.
I was taken down into the
mineshafts to be interrogated. A strange
machine with many wires was attached
to my head, so they could see what
I was thinking. They saw that I was
dreaming, and that in my dream I was
being interrogated by them with just
this machine. They said that was good,
and that I could wake up now, but I
kept on dreaming, which they said was
bad, because I meant I was disobedient.
Then I woke up.
�20
The BaRdfly
largest
New report concludes Johnnies to be
TAM O’SHANTER,
ts
ha
er
pp
da
STAFF REPORTER
consumer of
The results are in – a new report by the
Annapolis Headgear Society concludes
that Johnnies form the core consumer
group for dapper hats. Local hat vendors
described a significant increase in sales
directly proportional to the tuition drop.
As one student noted, “less debt, more
hats.”
Economics aside, however, hat enthusiasts have described an almost spiritual
connection to the cranial attire of the
community.
brimless, felt cap worn in Illyria, Etruria,
Ancient Greece, Pannonia and surrounding
regions.
“Welcome to the only place on Earth where
nineteen year-olds know that,” sophomore
Ray Goolar-Guy said. “Also, I’ve stopped
keeping count of the fedoras.”
Both students and administrators remarked
that hats are at the core of the campus culture. “We really celebrate diversity,” director
Jess Sayin said. “There are pork pies, bowlers, berets, tricorns and even a coonskin or
two.”
“I saw someone walk around wearing
basketball shorts and a Greek helmet,”
This point of pride even holds significance
local hat historian Costard Coverage
in the playful competition between students
said. “I knew I had found home.” Dr. Cov- at St. John’s and the Naval Academy. “A miderage is the author of The Phenomenology of Cephalic Apparel, to be released
by Harvard University Press in Fall 2020.
“We’re intellectuals,” sophomore Prett
Enshis said. “What more is there to say?”
Enshis then launched into a ten minute
oration on the virtues of the pileus, a
Gadfly Publishes News
Article for Once
Spector Cockroach
FINALLY
Graduates!!!
Clad in top hat and festive scarf, Freshman Leo Brooks ponders the
epistemological meaning of Book 1 of Euclid’s Elements whilst smoking a
cigarette.
�Johnnies Anger Gods After Not Pouring Libations From Last Mint Pod On Campus
52
Tutor Spends Entire Class Defending Lifestyle as
Straussian
The BangFly
�The BOOMfly
00
This Actor Had Their Shirt On Wrong the Whole Play! Here Are 10 Other Mishaps You Missed in The
Shape of Things.
sks
Johnnie chairs to be dethroned by standing de
Students vying for a seat at the table
need not fret– soon there won’t be
any to covet. Citing budget cuts and
health concerns about sedentary
lifestyles, college administrators
have decided to do away with the
time-honored Johnnie chair in favor
of…nothing. Or rather, as the marketing team has begun to advertise
the substitution, ‘standing desks’.
Johnnie Air.”
The Student Committee on Instruction has scheduled a meeting to discuss possible uses for the repurposed
chair materials. According to several
students, there is a movement to
indulge the Annapolis Ghost Tour
employees by building a big bonfire
and dancing around it while singing
“Sicut Cervus.”
ASS PERCH,
STAFF REPORTER
“More likely, we’ll probably just save
the wood for a rainy day – or the next
time a dorm burns down,” administrator Sitzfleisch Holder said. “As
for the wicker, an underwater basket-weaving preceptorial could be in
the works.”
“It’s likely we’ll raise the tables to
standing height by stacking old
books from the library underneath
the legs,” financial aid advisor Penny
Cheep-Skeight said.
Proponents of the move to repurpose Johnnie chairs have also referred to Program readings.
“This is what joining the tradition
of questioning tradition looks like,”
freshman Angus T. Yoothe said. “It’s
been on my mind ever since we read
The Upright Posture in Lab.”
Even a few tutors have publicly endorsed the standing desks.
“I mean, Socrates said it first: ‘The
children now love luxury.’ ” Tutor
O’Kay Boomer said. “And what
screams luxury more than a curved
back chair carved from aged cherry
wood?”
Regardless of the widespread approval of the decision, it is clear that
removal of the Johnnie chairs will
have significant cultural impact.
“We’re brainstorming what to rename the student blog,” junior Ba
Tumzup said. “A current favorite is the
Students and the administration are in communication over how to repurpose wood from Johnnie
chairs. According to several students, there is a movement to indulge the Annapolis Ghost Tour
employees by building a big bonfire and dancing around it while singing “Sicut Cervus.”
�The Bastardfly
---
Johnnie Bubble Ruptured
After City of Annapolis Realizes It Exists
“Hey, is anyone reading this?”
“I didn’t know it would end like this”: Don
Rags as Leading Cause of Death at the End of
the Semester
Me
mb
er o
Exp
e
f
r
i
m
Clu
ent
b
al
It’s that time of year! The weather is
crisp, the chocolate is hot, and the
christmas carols mingle beautifully with
the sobs coming from Mellon.
CONTINUED ON PG. 24
Phi
lo
sop
Someone Played
hy
archon was spotted hurriedWhat’s New Pussy- This
ly shutting locking the doors of
McDowell on Saturday mid-party.
cat 10 Times at
Sources say that flashing green lights
and the heavy coat of fog were acnicely affected by the mellow
the Reality Event! tually
mellow tones of Tom Jones. In fact,
some people found that they wantArchons Have
ed to attend a reality party for the
first time. A member of the delegate
was overheard saying, “ FiPlaced the Party council
nally, the school’s money is going to
into Severe Lock- something fucking worthwhile”.
CONTINUED ON PG. 31
down
�The BoopboOp
1
Which Johnnie Aesthetic Are You?
All Johnnies fit into one of four categories. Take the quiz and find out which Johnnie you are. This is about as
accurate as the Myers-Briggs Test.
1.
Do you come to class?
a. In your pajamas 30 minutes late?
b. In your lace cravat 30 minutes early?
c. Drunk/High
d. Only if I have my Fjall-Raven Kanken on hand
2.
How do you meet people?
a. On the quad
b. During class
c. In the coffee shop at 3am
d. On Tumblr
3.
When do you cry?
a. After every tutorial.
b. Once in the middle of seminar
c. Twice coming down from ketamine
d. Watching 500 Days of Summer
4.
Which Book describes you most?
a. The Stranger by Albert Camus
b. The Bible
c. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
d. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
5.
Which Item describes you most?
a. Chipped black nail-polish
b. Chastity ring
c. My Custom Dab Rig
d. Polaroid camera
6.
Thoughts on a higher power?
a. God is dead
b. I teach Sunday School
c. I thought I saw God on a trip
d. I don’t know if there is one, but the closest I have is Jonathan Van Ness
If you got...
1.
mostly A’s, you’re ~edgy~ as heck
2.
mostly B’s, you probably know how to waltz and you came to St. John’s because of the
sophomore reading list
3.
mostly C’s, congratulations we’ll be seeing you on Paca-quad!
4.
mostly D’s, your VSCO feed is excellent, and you probably own too many
plants
�The BAaAAaa
://
Prospies Accept Offer of Admission under Assumption that
Great Books Program Refers to YA
Novels
SCI Forums
Start Servin
g Alcohol
in Bid to Inc
rease Attend
a
nce
The meeting last Wednesday got heated when one student (two Natty Bo’s
in, started yelling at the Committee members about how “We Shouldn’t read
Plato! We Shouln’t READ PLATO! WE SHOULD NOT READ---”
ra,
u
c
s
b
O
a
r
e
m
a
C
uilds
B
t
p
e
c
e
r
P
s
c
i
t
p
n
u
Student in O
S
e
h
t
o
t
n
i
s
k
o
Immediately Lo
CONTINUED ON PG. 4
“Well, I just wanted to see if I could see the Forms as Plato talked about them,” said the student. “I
guess the universe just wanted to punish my hubris”. Keep an eye out for this bandaged student, and
try to help out your fellow egotistical johnnie! CONTINUED ON PG. 209
DID YOU FIND THE SECRET MESSAGE? HERE’S
A HINT:KEEP AN EYE ON ALL THE CAPITAL
LETTERS IN THIS ISSUE! THE FIRST PERSON
TO FIND THE MESSAGE WILL WIN A PRIZE.
SEND THE COMPLETED MESSAGE THRU
CAMPUS MAIL TO THE ONE OF THE EDITORS
TO CLAIM YOUR SPECIAL PRESSENT!
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>The Gadfly</em>
Description
An account of the resource
Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
thegadfly
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
pdf
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
8 pages
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Gadfly, December 2019 [The Badfly]
Description
An account of the resource
December 2019 issue of The Gadfly. Special issue: The Badfly.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Page, Lysithia (Editor-in-Chief)
Berreles-Luna, Athena (Editor-in-Chief)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Annapolis, MD
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-12
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Subject
The topic of the resource
College students--United States--Conduct of life
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Gadfly Winter 2019 Badfly
Gadfly
Student publication
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