11 20 5655 https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/ec1154044e81de268438ee12fe932344.pdf 0e029f17242bed854547f9f80d637d9a PDF Text Text THE St. John’s College Annapolis, Maryland GADFLY A Talented Polity December 13, 2023 Vol. XLV, Issue 5 �Letter from the Editor CONTENTS Λόγος : news reports & narratives regarding immediate campus life Recap: KWP’s The Duchess of Malfi by Vivian Miyakawa 3 Recap: Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind by Vivian Miyakawa 3 The Philosopher’s Phone by Tamar Pinsky 4 ΣυμπόσιονÊ:Êcontrasting opinions on various topics for thought A Plotinian Reading of the Myth of Ganymede by Luke Briner 6 ΠόλιςÊ:Êvoices of the community, including poetry, cartoons, etc. Dear Polity, Please enjoy our fifth and final issue of the semester! I want to extend my deep personal gratitude to our entire staff for all the hard work they’ve done, and especially to our managing editor, Mr. Nichols-Kaufman, our layout designer, Ms. Nghiêm, and our photographer, Ms. Poppleton. And thank you, readers, for your enduring support and care. Semester Wrapped by Vivian Miyakawa 13 The SJC Mystery #5: Rocking the Boat by Bennett “Ahhhh” Scott 14 Noodles:“They’ll Never Find Me Here!” by Tamar Pinsky 15 How Ethereal Bisexualism Ruined Obama by Dr. Benjamin Raymor Maier 16 The Waffliad by B.A. Scott 18 Translation of Baudelaire’s “Le Balcon” by Luke Briner 26 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF exultation by Natalie Goldman 27 The Seraph by Luke Briner 27 MANAGING EDITOR THE STRUCTURE Luke Briner Editor-in-chief THE GADFLY STAFF COVER STAFF ΠόλιςÊserves as a platform for elevating voices in our community. Here we find letters to the editor, columns, cartoons, and submitted pieces. 2 Luke Briner El’ad NicholsKaufman Meliha Anthony Vivian Miyakawa 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. Abigail Poppleton Tamar Pinsky Louis Rosenberg Benne Sco YOUT CONTRIBUTORS Students Reading Newspapers in the Woodward Hall Library Tuyết-Nhi Nghiêm Natalie Goldman Dr. Benjamin Raymor Maier �THE GADFLY Λόγος December 13, 2023 Recap: Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind By Vivian Miyakwa Actors Kasdorf & Mnisi; Photo by Segyung Jung Recap: KWP’s The Duchess of Malfi By Vivian Miyakwa Fondly described as a three-hour revenge tragedy fever dream, The Duchess of Malfi was truly a show worth experiencing yourself. The passion, preparation, and care that went into this play permeated through every scene, capturing the audience’s attention and leading them along through every twist and turn. A quick summary is hardly enough to do justice to the full dramatic hilarity of the plot, but for those who didn’t get the chance to attend, it’ll have to be enough. The Duchess of Malfi tells the story of the Duchess, who falls in love with her steward Antonio, and marries him, bearing three children. Betrayed by the spy Bosola, the Duchess attempts to flee Malfi with her family, but is ultimately unsuccessful. Her brother, Ferdinand, the Duke of Malfi, falls into a fit of rage after finding out the Duchess has gone against his orders. In his anger, he orders Bosola to strangle the Duchess, her maid, and her two youngest daughters. After this, he goes mad with guilt, and the audience laughs as we watch him spiral further and further into insanity. In the end, as is typical to a tragedy, everyone dies. The play ends in absolute carnage as the actors take immense glee in reenacting dramatic death scenes, relishing in the drama of their dying words. This play was fantastic, and the dedication was palpable. The talent at St. John’s College is immense, and I feel so lucky to witness such an incredible labor of love performed by my fellow members of the Polity. Thirty plays in sixty minutes. An ambitious (and chaotic) goal, but these talented actors managed to pull it off. I got there at 7:00pm, right when the doors opened, and was greeted with an improv performance by priest pirates performing exorcisms with Euclid’s Elements. A little dumbfounded, but thoroughly enjoying myself, I watched as my classmates made absolute fools of themselves in front of an audience. The audience was king, and they, the court jesters. As the skits began, the audience began yelling the numbers of which script they would like to see next. Actors rushed about in a frenzy, preparing for whatever scene they were going to perform next. The skits themselves were a fantastic mix of inside jokes, pure chaos, and existential dread. With titles such as “They Raised the Price of the Washing Machines,” “Clown Car Traffic Stop,” and “Assholes in Seminar,” each number was a portal into a totally unique scenario. Each skit felt complete even in its brevity, and the various lengths and complexities kept everyone laughing and engaged. This whirlwind of a show ended right as the last play was finishing, and the satisfaction in seeing all thirty skits completed had the audience whooping along in a standing ovation. After the fun was over, the jovial theater group encouraged viewers to return the next day with the promise of four new skits. All in all, this was such a fun event and everyone had a much-needed laugh. Photo by Ranger Kasdorf 3 �Λόγος THE GADFLY The Philosopher’s Phone December 13, 2023 which was Sophomore Lindsay Irmiter’s situation for the past two weeks. By Tamar Pinsky I meant to write this article last night. I watched videos on YouTube for four hours instead. One would think that had I not had access to YouTube, I would have the article written by now. But I am not so sure—I could find another way to procrastinate. Yes, that is right, I would procrastinate by cleaning my room, or scribbling nonsense on paper, or staring at the wall. Where there is a will to avoid doing work, there is a way to avoid doing work. I have this idea that if I abstained from all technology, I would become the most productive person in the world—but that is not the case. Sorry if you were hoping for some timemanagement tips now, but I think it would be a little too meta for me to be procrastinating writing an article about procrastination. No, I want to talk about the supposition that smartphones and the like are a no-good, time -wasting addiction. I’m not sure how many people actually consider them to be such. But I do know that there is at least some contemplation about the idea—enough to have people participate in the No Phone Day a month ago. Okay, so let us suppose that smartphones waste time and shorten our attention span. I am not going to argue that they do not harm us in this way, rather that their benefits outweigh the harms. When you go without your phone, what affects you more: the fact that you can no longer scroll through Instagram reels, or the fact that you have no way of contacting your mother? Actually—maybe that was a bad question, because…well, do you ever really go without your phone for more than a few hours? Unless your phone is broken, and you cannot get it fixed and so you are forced to go without it— 4 It’s the dream! Right? No more mindless social media gobbling! All time can be dedicated to reading and homework! The opportunity to be the perfect student has arrived! Nope. For Irmiter it was more of a nightmare. Sure, in the beginning she recounted feeling isolated and FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and Instagramcravings—but then she adjusted. The withdrawal symptoms (can we call it withdrawal?) faded within a few days, and they were hardly the worst part of not being able to use her phone. The worst part, for Irmiter, was not being able to stay in contact with people. “No one checks their emails,” she told me. “Everyone uses text.” If that sounds like a silly complaint to you, think about how much you use your phone to make plans with people, or to contact friends and family who do not live on the same college campus as you. Should those phone usages really be dismissed as unnecessary, or even harmful? I do hope that you did not answer yes to that question, but even if you did, surely safety remains a concern for you. Is it not silly to toss our phones aside in disgust when they can be necessary for ensuring our protection? Maybe protection is not the primary concern if one spends all one’s time in one’s room, or at least within the confines of St. John’s campus. Maybe. But Irmiter does not spend all her time in such limited quarters. (Shocking, I know! I do hope you are like Irmiter in this manner; it is good for you.) Over Thanksgiving break, Irmiter went home to visit her family, and on the way back she took the train. “It was scary,” she said, “having to take the �Λόγος THE GADFLY train as a single female, and not having a way to reach out if something were to happen.” Irmiter recognizes that people managed to live their lives and ride trains without phones back in the day, and that having access to a phone is a privilege. But that does not mean that one is spoiled by using a phone as a safety measure — in this day and age, the dangers are greater, so how could one say that one is wrong to take a proportionally greater precaution? Not having a way to reach out is dangerous, and it strips one of one’s independence. As Irmiter said, “I was forced to rely on other people. I had ask to borrow someone’s phone to call my mom. I had to have someone Uber with me so I don’t ride alone.” For most people, college is the first time in which one is given real independence. “Having that independence taken away,” Irmiter said, as a young woman out and about in the world, “is difficult.” Phones are not just a matter of dawdling the hours of the day away; they are a useful tool for keeping yourself safe. In a sense we are privileged to have phones to help us contact others and stay safe, and we take them for granted sometimes—as Irmiter painfully found out. But is it not a greater privilege to denounce them? How fortunate are we that we have access to something so powerful as a cell phone. They provide a means of staying safe, communicating with loved ones, and yes, I will even include entertainment in this list of benefits. Over 50% of people in emerging economies do not have smartphones. And we complain of excess! That is not to say that one should ignore eight -hours-a-day screen times. You know what they say —“too much of a good thing...” It can be tempting, if one feels addicted to one’s phone, to want to jump to the other extreme and banish oneself from it for all time. This sort of temptation is in line with ideologies we may be exposed to as St. John’s students. Many a philosopher wishes to reject that they have a body; they want to focus instead on the mind, or the soul, or god. They want to quit cold turkey, because that would be easier than trying to have just a little. They cannot have just a little, because then they would lose control and have a lot. They think that they are in control by abstaining, but in reality they are still a slave. For if they were truly in control, they would be able to moderate themselves. This is not to say that the pleasures of a phone are as vital as the pleasures of the body. Rather, that December 13, 2023 we should enjoy the benefits of phones in a mindful, limited way, given that it is difficult to function in society today without one. (Is it a problem with society then? Maybe the entire world is addicted, and I’m so deep into my own addiction that I write this article to justify it.) But just because we have more amenities than what our parents had, it does not mean that we are addicted. Our parents had more than what their parents had. Technology is continually advancing, the world is always changing, and we have to change to keep up with it. Some of the change is good, and some of it is bad, but if we want the advantages of the good we will have to deal with the disadvantages of the bad. I am thankful that I can call my friends and family whenever I want and feel at ease when I go out by myself. I am also thankful that I have a means of procrastinating for the sake of a little enjoyment and relaxation. Of course I will always need to work against the desire to procrastinate too much—but that will happen whether it is phone procrastination, television procrastination, radio procrastination, and so on, back in time of technological developments. There will always be something to prey on our basic desire to be lazy. And if you are feeling particularly lazy today, here’s a TL;DR (”too long, didn’t read”, a summary) for you: Phones can be useful. It is best if you use them with care. 5 �THE GADFLY Συμπόσιον A Plotinian Reading of the Myth of Ganymede1 By Luke Briner With love’s thousandfold joy the hallowed sensation of your eternal warmth floods my heart, infinite beauty! O that I might clasp you in my arms! … Upwards! Strive upwards! The clouds drift down, yielding to yearning love, to me, to me! In your lap, upwards, embracing and embraced! Upwards to your bosom, all-loving Father! —Goethe, “Ganymede” (trans. Wigmore) In Book I of Plato’s Laws, the Athenian Stranger, while discussing the social dangers of a lack of discipline with respect to pleasure, makes the following remark concerning the myth of Ganymede: Certainly we all blame the Cretans for the story of Ganymede; we think they are spinning a yarn. Since their laws were believed to come from Zeus, we think they added this story about Zeus so that they could claim Zeus’ authority for their enjoyment of this pleasure too.2 This, 1 of course, indicates the general December 13, 2023 historical reality that the myth was used, by people of Plato’s own time and by many others after it, as a kind of license to licentiousness—as a divine example of, and therefore a powerful sanction and glorification of, sexual perversion.3 This is naturally a great stain on its overall legacy and modern image, and it’s that very fact that has led me to the endeavor of this paper: to lift it from the darkness and scandal that have become attached to it, and to demonstrate that a different, brighter, and spiritual reading of it, through the philosophical perspective of Plato’s own great follower, Plotinus, is possible. In order to proceed in an orderly and rigorous fashion, I will take the following steps. First, a thorough understanding of the myth as originally present in Greek storytelling will be determined, so that its initial rendering can be brought into contradistinction with those of later periods (I). On the basis of this contradistinction, we will be able to dismiss those later renditions of the myth that contain the additional content that served as the inspiration or justification of the kind of perversion that the Athenian Stranger rightly condemns, and thereby set up the thus-purified essence of the original for a fresh and more spiritually edifying reading (II). We will then move to an analysis of the hermeneutical method of Plotinus, as well as that of Plato insofar as it naturally serves as a foundation for the understanding of his own (III), and from there at last apply that method to an actual interpretation of the myth itself (IV). I The first literary references to Ganymede are found in Homer: two in his Iliad,4 and one in his Hymn to Aphrodite.5 In the former, he is described as a Trojan prince, the son of Tros, who, being “the loveliest [κάλλιστος] born of the race of mortals,”6 was lifted up by the gods to their supernal abode “to be Zeus’ wine-pourer, for the sake of his beauty [κάλλεος], so he might be among the immortals.”7 In the latter, the “[g]olden-haired [ξανθόν] Ganymede”8 is depicted as being “snatched up”9 by Zeus himself This essay is a significantly revised and expanded version of one published in Gadfly XLIV.8 under the name “A New Platonic Reading of the Myth of Ganymede.” It has been accepted to and will be published in the Winter 2024 issue of Animus, a peer-reviewed undergraduate classics journal at the University of Chicago. 2 Plato, 636c-d (trans. Griffith). 3 To be clear, the perversion I personally refer to is pederasty in particular, although the Athenian Stranger is unfortunately talking more broadly about all homosexual relations here. The point stands regardless, however, since I intend to argue that the myth can be interpreted in an entirely spiritual, and thus in an entirely nonsensual, way. 4 Homer, Iliad, V.265-267, XX.230-235. 5 Homer, Hymn to Aphrodite, 202-217. 6 Homer, Iliad, XX.233 (trans. Lattimore). 7 Homer, Iliad, XX.234 8 Homer, Hymn to Aphrodite, 202 (trans. Shelmerdine). 6 �Συμπόσιον THE GADFLY December 13, 2023 Image: “The Raising of Ganymede” by Gustave Moreau, 1886 7 �THE GADFLY Συμπόσιον “because of his beauty [κάλλος],”10 and is thus allowed “to live among the immortals and pour wine for the gods in the house of Zeus, a wonder to see, honored by all the immortals as he draws the red nectar from a golden bowl.”11 12 There are, therefore, four essential elements to the Ganymede myth according to the original Homeric texts: 1) Ganymede’s κάλλος, 2) the special admiration of that κάλλος by the gods, 3) his apotheosis on the basis of that admiration, and 4) his subsequent vocation as a beloved wine-pourer of Olympus. Other, now commonly-referenced elements of the myth are, then, only grafted onto the original. To take two instances of this as expressed in major later writers, Ovid describes Jupiter transforming himself into an eagle in order to carry Ganymede up to Olympus and Juno’s subsequent jealousy,13 and Apuleius describes him as a shepherd before his ascent.14 II By our comparison of the authentically Homeric depiction of the myth and the depictions of other, later writers, we may already perceive a clear disparity between the target of the Athenian Stranger’s condemnation and the content of the myth in itself. Importantly, in all three Homeric references to Ganymede, there is no mention whatsoever of his age. It’s certainly possible that Ganymede is a younger man simply by virtue of his beauty and his status as a prince, but there is nothing that can or should lead us definitively to the conclusion that he’s actually a minor. In fact, Homer never even describes the relationship between Ganymede and Zeus, or between him and any of the other Gods for that matter, as overtly sexual in any way. According to Shelmerdine, “the hymnist [of the Hymn to Aphrodite] does not speak directly of an erotic 9 December 13, 2023 relationship between Zeus and Ganymede. The first clear reference to the two as lovers is in Ibykos fr. 289 (6th c. B.C.).”15 And again, Nichols Jr., in a note in his version of Plato’s Phaedrus, asserts that only “later renditions of the tale make Zeus fall in love with him [Ganymede].”16 Hence modified versions of the myth depicting Ganymede as a minor or his relationship to Zeus as pederastic, or interpretations of the myth so modified, can be seen as entirely discardable by someone seeking to make their interpretations of classical Greek myths primarily upon the original Homeric sources (someone, importantly, like Plotinus).17 This view is beautifully corroborated by Xenophon’s Socrates when he argues that “in the case of Ganymede, it was not his person [σώματος, i.e., body] but his spiritual character that influenced Zeus to carry him up to Olympus,”18 deriving his name from γάνυται (to be glad, to take joy) and μήδεα (counsels, arts) and thus determining that he was “not physically but mentally attractive.”19 From these considerations, it becomes clear that the Athenian Stranger, in condemning the Ganymede myth, in reality doesn’t necessarily condemn it in its original essence but only the common, later renderings of it that permit or glorify the social perversion that he sees around him. We ourselves, then, are free to condemn those renderings and perversions alongside him while recapitulating and reappropriating the myth in its original form for a less ignoble purpose. III Now Plato himself, far from condemning mythology universally, “creates a mythology of his own.”20 Although it’s his original “reformed mythology and by no means the objectionable old inherited religious legend which he wishes to enthrone,”21 he clearly recognizes that myth, in and Homer, Hymn to Aphrodite, 202. Homer, Hymn to Aphrodite, 203. 11 Homer, Hymn to Aphrodite, 202 12 I’ve chosen to ignore the story of Tros and Zeus after Ganymede’s ascent as related by Homer in Iliad V.265-258 and Hymn to Aphrodite 207-218, as it’s outside the scope of my current inquiry. I believe that I’m justified in doing this because it’s consistent with the freewheeling interpretive approach to myth that Plotinus himself takes throughout the Enneads and which I’ll go on to emulate. This will be developed more thoroughly in Part III. 13 Ovid, Metamorphoses, X.155-161. 14 Apuleius, The Golden Ass, XI.8.15-16. 15 Shelmerdine, The Homeric Hymns, 135-6, n. 202-217. More precisely, she refers to Ibykos’ (overtly pederastic) Gorgias. 16 Plato, 255c (trans. Nichols Jr.), n. 126. 17 Clark, Plotinus: Myth, Metaphor, and Philosophical Practice, 157-158. 18 Xenophon, Symposium, 8.30 (trans. Marchant). 19 Xenophon, Symposium, 8.30. 20 Edelstein, “The Function of the Myth in Plato's Philosophy," 466. 21 Edelstein, “The Function of the Myth in Plato's Philosophy," 478. 10 8 �Συμπόσιον THE GADFLY of itself, 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.”22 For Plato, myths are by no means 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. This fundamental appreciation of the pedagogical efficacy of mythology is, in fact, precisely what informs his conviction that “gruesome and overtly immoral tales about gods and heroes were corrupting.”23 If myths are, by their very nature, capable of easily resonating with and thereby of influencing the characters and perspectives of those who hear them, then it is of the utmost importance to ensure that those myths which actually are heard tacitly contain beneficial rather than harmful lessons. Hence his claim that “all the battles of the gods Homer made…must not be accepted in the city,”24 rather than being a universal repudiation of mythology as a pedagogical mode, is actually made on the basis of his recognition of its undeniable efficacy, and therefore of his earnest desire to have only the very best myths told to impressionable minds.25 Plotinus, as a follower of Plato, wholeheartedly concurs with his master’s view that myths may serve as highly valuable tools for the communication of philosophical and spiritual truths. He writes: But myths, if they are really going to be myths, must separate in time the things of which they tell, and set apart from each other many realities which are together, but distinct in rank or powers, at points where rational discussions, also, make generations of things ungenerated, and themselves, too, separate December 13, 2023 things which are together; the myths, when they have taught us as well as they can, allow the man who has understood them to put together again that which they have separated.26 Calvo perfectly captures the sense of this passage when he writes that, for Plotinus, “[t]he 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.”27 The μῦθος, in dealing with “the unseen and unexpectable,”28 is capable of expressing the Eternal in the temporal and grounding the esoteric λόγος with an immediately engaging πάθος, and therefore of rendering the content of otherwise highly difficult doctrines not only understandable but personally relatable. In this, however, Plotinus dares to go further than Plato, and happily subjects not only Platonic but many traditional (again, primarily Homeric) myths to metaphysical exegesis, and does so with a remarkable, sometimes even startling pragmatism. He uses mythical narratives 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,29 or, similarly, confining his analysis to a particular moment of a myth without referencing its broader narrative context. Hence, to give only a few specific examples, he represents in different places both Zeus30 and Kronos31 as the Intellect, Aphrodite as “the Soul at its divinest”32 contemplating the Intellectual Realm, and the generational struggle between Uranus, Kronos, and Zeus as the hypostatic procession from the One to Intellect to Soul.33 Sometimes his method advances to the outright 22 Smith, “Plato's Use of Myth in the Education of Philosophic Man,” 13. Clark, Plotinus: Myth, Metaphor, and Philosophical Practice, 150. 24 Plato, 278d (trans. Bloom). 25 Plato, 278d-e. 26 Plotinus, III.5.9. Important to note here is that while Armstrong, whose translation of this passage is given above, puts it under chapter nine, the standard MacKenna translation puts it under chapter ten. Although the MacKenna translation of this particular passage is remarkably powerful and poetic, as it is generally throughout the Enneads, I found the Armstrong to be so much clearer that I’ve decided to use it instead. 27 Calvo, “Myth and Exegesis in Plotinus: How to Divide and Recompose Words and Things,” 87. 28 Clark, Plotinus: Myth, Metaphor, and Philosophical Practice, 154. 29 Calvo, 84. 30 Plotinus, III.5.8. 31 Plotinus, III.5.2. (trans. MacKenna). 32 Plotinus, III.5.2. 23 9 �THE GADFLY Συμπόσιον manipulation of the content of traditional myths to suit his own purposes. Perhaps the most striking example of this is found in his discussion of the receptivity of ύλη to είδος in the Kosmos,34 wherein he claims that “the sterility of Matter, eternally unmoved, is indicated by the eunuchs surrounding it in its representation as the All-Mother [Cybele].”35 36 With respect to this passage, Armstrong remarks that “the allegorical interpretation of the eunuchs who surround the Great Mother given here seems to have no parallel….[i]t is so far-fetched and so exactly adapted to Plotinus’s own distinctive doctrine of the absolute sterility of matter that it may well be his own invention.”37 We observe, then, Plotinus freely and unscrupulously appropriating exactly those sorts of myths which Plato explicitly repudiates, and yet him doing so with the intention of achieving the very same pedagogical end as Plato. Ordinarily there might be a significant tension between their two approaches given this fundamental disagreement on the salvageability of traditional myths. I suggest, however, that the myth of Ganymede in particular, having been determined as completely morally unobjectionable when brought back to its original, Homeric essence, is in a uniquely favorable position to be accepted as the material for philosophical interpretation by Platonic as well as by Plotinian standards. IV With this foundation now laid, I proceed to my ultimate claim that the myth of Ganymede may be interpreted as the spiritual ascent of the Plotinian Soul to the Divine Source from which it proceeded. I will develop this claim in accordance with the essential elements of the myth enunciated in Part I of this paper. The κάλλος of Ganymede, which serves as the basis of the gods’ unique favor for him and therefore ultimately in his apotheosis, can easily be interpreted 34 December 13, 2023 as the κάλλος of the unblemished Plotinian Soul that serves as the basis of its own apotheosis. Plotinus asserts emphatically that, in order to “ascend again towards the Good, the desired of every Soul,”38 that Soul must submit itself wholeheartedly to those purifying rituals which prepare it and make it actually worthy of such an ascent. “Never did eye see the sun,” he reflects, “unless it had first become sunlike, and never can the soul have vision of the First Beauty unless itself be beautiful. Therefore, first let each become godlike and each beautiful who cares to see God and Beauty.”39 In essentially what, then, does such purification, such self-beautification, such “Likeness to God”40 consist? For Plotinus, as for Plato, it must consist most fundamentally in virtue, in ἀρετή;41 it is only by the attainment of a genuinely virtuous character in the present, material world, i.e., of civic virtue, that the Soul prepares itself for the subsequent acquisition of higher, more spiritual forms of virtue,42 and thereby ultimately for a union with the authentically Divine.43 Hence the famouslydescribed “inner statue” of the beautiful or selfbeautified Soul is described as possessing the “godlike splendour of virtue,”44 with this itself being the most important prerequisite for that Soul’s union with the Supreme. Ganymede, therefore, who is brought up to Olympus “because of” or “for the sake of” his own beauty, may serve as a clear-cut representation of a Soul that finds itself in this purified, radiant state, and therefore that also finds itself rising up to its original, beatific Source above. It’s also not impossible, on this basis, to conceive of some connection between Ganymede’s description as “golden-haired” (ξανθόν) and the way that Plotinus speaks of gold (χρυσός) as an illustration of the native beauty and worth of the Soul itself.45 An important clarification must be made here with respect to the distinction between the Good (τὸ ἀγαθὸν) and Beauty. Plotinus shifts constantly Plotinus is undoubtedly following upon Plato’s account of matter/space in Timaeus, 49a-b here. The identity of this “All-Mother” as Cybele is indicated by Clark on Plotinus: Myth, Metaphor, and Philosophical Practice, p. 157. 36 Plotinius, III.6.19. 37 Plotinus, Enneads, Vol. III, trans. Armstrong, 288-289, n. 1. 38 Plotinus, I.6.7 (trans. MacKenna-Page). 39 Plotinus, I.6.9. 40 Plato, 176a-b. Plotinus quotes this passage at the beginning of his tractate “On Virtue” (I.2) that I’m about to discuss. 41 Plotinus, I.2.1. 42 Plotinus, I.2.3-5. 43 Plotinus, I.2.6-7. 44 Plotinus, I.6.9. 45 E.g., Plotinus, I.6.5., IV.7.10. 35 10 �Συμπόσιον THE GADFLY between two distinct meanings of Beauty throughout the Enneads: the Beauty of the utterly transcendent Good in and of itself, or καλλονή, and the Beauty as actually, determinately existent within IntellectualBeing, or τὸ καλὸν.46 On the one hand, we read that the Good in itself is “beyond-beautiful, beyond the highest,”47 with everything secondary to that Good being merely beautiful, and that “beauty is that which irradiates symmetry rather than symmetry itself and is that which truly calls our love,”48 and thus, since symmetry is a characteristic of Intellectual-Being, that true Beauty must be beyond Intellectual-Being itself. On the other hand, we read that “Beauty without Being could not be, nor Being voided of Beauty….[h]ow then can we debate which is the cause of the other, where the nature is one?”49 Most fascinatingly of all, Plotinus also claims that “The Good, which lies beyond, is the Fountain at once and Principle of Beauty: the Primal Good and the Primal Beauty have the one dwelling-place and, thus, always, Beauty’s seat is There,”50 seemingly implying that Beauty is simultaneously, in the very same thought, totally at one with the Good and merely its derivative. The question this naturally presents to us in our analysis of the Ganymede myth, and thereby of the ascent of the Soul generally, is this: if the Soul prepares itself for an ascent to the Divine by beautifying itself, then precisely what kind of Beauty in the Divine does that Soul-Beauty correspond to, and thus ultimately rise to in actuality? Will it be to Beauty qua Being (τὸ καλὸν), or to Beauty qua Beyond-Being (καλλονή)? We can venture an answer to this question in two closely-related parts. First, within the context of the confusion surrounding the distinct ontic and supra-ontic natures of Beauty featured in Plotinus’ system, we may observe that, regardless of the precise point of delineation between the two, there must be a clear mode of procession of the former from the latter, and therefore there must also be some analogous mode of procession from the former to the latter for the Soul. Insofar as the Soul December 13, 2023 derives itself from Intellectual-Being, and insofar as Intellectual-Being—whose “self and content must be simultaneously present”51—posessess and thereby is τὸ καλὸν, then the relatedly-beautified Soul will be worthy of uniting with it. Likewise, insofar as the Soul derives itself directly from the Good,52 and insofar as that Good is also the Beyond-Beautiful (καλλονή), then the relatedly-beautified Soul, which is now also unified with the Beauty of the Intellect itself,53 will in turn become worthy of uniting with it. The Soul, therefore, is capable of ascending to each of these levels in accordance with its own degree of beautification. Second, with respect to the specific narrative of the myth of Ganymede in relation to these considerations of Beauty, we might say that the particular level of the Soul’s ascent that Ganymede’s own ascent represents is determined by precisely what status we consider him to ultimately have on Olympus—i.e., whether we consider him as the winepourer of Zeus specifically (as the Iliad relates) or of the Olympian gods generally (as the Hymn to Aphrodite relates). I venture that the former case lends itself to the Soul’s ultimate union with the Supreme Good since the Good is also the transcendently One,54 set apart entirely from the multiplicity that Intellectual-Being implies,55 while the latter accordingly lends itself to union with that very Intellectual-Being, which Plotinus beautifully describes as “one God and all the gods, where each is all, blending into a unity, distinct in powers but all one god in virtue of that one divine power of many facets.”56 Finally, then, we may take Ganymede’s ultimate vocation as a wine-pourer, either to Zeus in particular or to the Olympians in general, as representing the Soul’s own absolute absorption into the Divine, so that Soul itself becomes the wine, not only the offerer but the offering, outpouring its whole essence into the all-perfect Source from which it once proceeded. As Ganymede pours out “red nectar from a golden bowl” for his doting master(s), so the Soul, 46 Rist, Plotinus: The Road to Reality, 63. Plotinus, I.8.2. 48 Plotinus, VI.7.22. 49 Plotinus, V.8.10. 50 Plotinus, I.6.9. 51 Plotinus, V.3.1. 52 Rist, 65. 53 Plotinus routinely insists that the Soul must ascend first to the Intellect, and only then to the Good (I.2.7, I.3, VI.7.36, etc.). 54 Plotinus, V.1.8., VI.9., etc. 55 Plotinus, V.3.10. 56 Plotinus, V.8.9. 47 11 �Συμπόσιον THE GADFLY December 13, 2023 overcome with “wonderment and a delicious trouble, longing and love and a trembling that is all delight”57 at the sight of the Divine Beloved, longs to be “molten into one”58 with that Beloved forevermore. Pictured right: Jupiter and Ganymede, from 'Game of Mythology' (Jeu de la Mythologie), print, etched by Stefano della Bella, designed by Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin (MET, 18.48.2-19) Bibliography. Apuleius. The Golden Ass. Translated by W. Adlington. Harvard University Press, 1915. Clark, Stephen R. L. Plotinus: Myth, Metaphor, and Philosophical Practice. University of Chicago Press, 2016. Calvo, José María Zamora. “Myth and Exegesis in Plotinus: How to Divide and Recompose Words and Things.” Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities 9, no. 2 (August 18, 2017). https:// dx.doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v9n2.08. Edelstein, Ludwig. “The Function of the Myth in Plato’s Philosophy.” Journal of the History of Ideas 10, no. 4 (October 1949): 463-481. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2707185. Homer. Iliad. Translated by Richmond Lattimore. University of Chicago Press, 2011. Homer. The Homeric Hymns. Translated by Susan C. Shelmerdine. Focus Books, 1995. Ovid. Metamorphoses. Translated by Justus Miller. Harvard University Press, 1916. Plato. Laws. Translated by Tom Griffith. Cambridge University Press, 2016. Plato. Phaedrus. Translated by James Nichols Jr. Cornell University Press, 1998. Plato. Republic. Translated by Allan Bloom. Basis Books, 1968. Plotinus. Enneads. Translated by A.H. Armstrong. Harvard University Press, 1967. Plotinus. Enneads. Translated by Stephen McKenna; Revised by B. S. Sage. Encyclopædia Britannica, 1952. Rist, John M. Plotinus: The Road to Reality. CUP Archive, 1967. Smith, Janet E. “Plato’s Use of Myth in the Education of Philosophic Man.” Phoenix 40, no. 1 (1986): 20-34. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1088962. Xenophon. Symposium. Translated by E. C. Marchant. http://data.perseus.org/texts/ urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0032.tlg004.perseus-eng1 57 Plotinus, I.6.4. Plotinus, I.6.7. 58 12 �Πόλις THE GADFLY Semester Wrapped By Vivian Miyakawa As the 2023-24 fall semester comes to a close, winter break shines on the horizon and many Johnnies begin to reflect on the successes and pitfalls of their first few months of a new school year. This joyous time of year also intersects with what may be one of the most highly anticipated events for millions of people worldwide: Spotify Wrapped. There is nothing I love more than eagerly shoving my identity into sanitary, cheerfully corporatized boxes that tell me what my “listening character” is. (Just for the record, I’m “The Mastermind”). So, while brainstorming article ideas for the next issue of the Gadfly, I figured I’d give the people what they want: more categories to point at and laugh as they go “that’s so me.” Take some time to read through these types of Johnnies and decide which stereotype fits you the best. 1. TheÊRoomÊJohnnie Starting off the list strong, The Room Johnnie is an endearingly playful term for that one roommate who just doesn’t seem to ever leave your room. Room Johnnies are generally introverted, choosing to study in the comfort of their own dorm rather than a more public setting. You’ll never see them at social events, but their Ancient Greek skills are probably off the charts. 2. TheÊOverworked I’m certain we’ve all felt like this at one point or another, but The Overworked seems to be in a constant state of panic. Somehow, it feels like every one of their tutors has assigned them three essays at once, and their language homework is several pages of translating incomprehensible texts. They live off of vending machine coffee and three hours of sleep, and you’re pretty sure their only hobby is studying. 3. TheÊPhilosopher The Philosopher is just a little bit too in love with Plato. In fact, you wonder if they’ve secretly got a thing for ancient philosophers. (I mean, I don’t blame them for it, but Theophrastus is more my type). Somehow, every point they make during seminar connects back to the Republic. The Philosopher absolutely has a giant copy of Plato’s collected works, and manages to weave his beautifully crafted logic into any sentence imaginable. To be fair though, for all you know, 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. December 13, 2023 they really may be the second coming of Socrates. TheÊHedonist There’s nothing wrong with indulging every once in a while, but The Hedonist looks for every excuse to party. Whether it’s Friday, Saturday, or even a random Tuesday, you can be certain there’s something going on in their dorm room. They’re a fantastic person to have fun with, and keep any situation light, but studying with them is bound to turn into an hour-long gossip session. TheÊOlympian The Olympian lives on the erg. They get up at 5:00 a.m. every morning and proudly display their boat race ties at any chance they get. They’re definitely obsessed with intramurals, and never miss a single game of pickup volleyball. The gym is aptly named for this person, because it truly is their temple. Unlike most Johnnies, in a naval academy uniform, they could definitely pass for an abnormally smart Middie. TheÊ“Plague-Ridden” Remember that one person who got sick at the beginning of the year and has never seemed to improve? The “Plague-Ridden” really lives up to their name, because they constantly have a case of the sniffles. From Covid, to bronchitis, to a case of the common cold, this student can never catch a break, and can never breathe out of their nose. TheÊTutor The Tutor is that one friend who is just obnoxiously smart. They’re the golden child of the school, the perfect replica of a Johnnie and blessed by Athena herself. Their questions are insightful, their essays are well-written, and their seminar points are perfectly eloquent and add unforeseen layers of depth to the discussion. Luckily, it’s hard to dislike The Tutor, because they are always willing to help you through any assignments you have. TheÊ“CursedÊbyÊAphrodite” Ending the list on a lighthearted note, the “Cursed by Aphrodite” has probably gone through at least four relationships in just the first semester. As soon as you’ve found out who they’re dating, they’ve broken up again. Just as quickly, though, they’ve already bounced back with someone new. Constantly pining, this person needs to be careful, because avoiding exes in such a small school is near impossible… 13 �Πόλις THE GADFLY December 13, 2023 The SJC Mystery #5: Rocking the Boat By Benne “Ahhhh” Sco Some nights, I can’t tell when I’m asleep and when I’m awake. Everything has the same feeling to it, as if I could slip right through what looks like solid matter, could start drowning in this reality. My dreams involve these infinite successions of halls, doors, forests, always connected by an unending path. I run and I walk and I turn and I stop and I get nowhere, nowhere, nowhere at all. And then the pounding starts. There’s a rhythm to it, a metronomic thumping. I know it’s fists. No matter how it sounds, it is always something beating, trying to get in, hands filled with blood and ready to tear me apart. It gets so loud that I wake up, but I’m in yet another place, running. I have to wake up again and again and again and it gets so bad that even when I’m back in the real world (is this the real world?), I still try to wake up just to make sure. I could always tell that I’d gotten back by the silence, by the lack of pounding. And then… well, you saw: the pounding came into reality. I haven’t seen clearly whatever it is that’s following me. To prevent it from just becoming another classic ‘shadowy figure hunting down isolated man,’ I’ve decided to call it ‘The Friend.’ Is 14 that cute? Or does it just make things worse? I’m not even sure if The Friend’s real. How could it not be real? I see a figure out of the corner of my eye and something, goddamn something has to be pounding on my door! It’s probably best to take an almost ‘quantum’ approach to this Friend fellow: they do not follow any evident rules of time or space (I cannot predict when that dread feeling ripping at my heart will start and make me flee home), they do not have a clear manifestation (but there’s something physical there), they are merely an interpretive tool. A goddamn metaphorical demon. The only clear signs I find are messages. I’ll wake up from a succession of nightmares and find a note written in my handwriting saying…well it doesn’t matter what they say. They all accuse me. That’s what matters. And I find them elsewhere too: on chalkboards, in the margins of books, on little pieces of trash. They’ve only been getting more intense, more violent. Jesus. I swear I can hear footsteps in the street right now. Just woke up from another set of dreams (I started in my childhood home, then my highschool, both seem to be coming up more. And a dark road. I outran them all.). I couldn’t see at all for a moment, �Πόλις THE GADFLY just about ready to throw up. It got worse and worse, that thin acid pooling in my throat. I turned my head to puke and stopped. My door is open. I still haven’t gotten out of bed. I’m writing this just to prove I’m not dreaming. God, please let me be dreaming. I’m gonna have to step out into the dark and close it. Fuck. Well, you can see it as well as I can (if you even exist any more): the note’s still there. I threw one of my books at the door and it didn’t close all the way so I had to get up and relock it. I tried to sleep more afterward. Not sure if I did. The eternal darkness does not help with time keeping. Whether I slept (am still in the same dream or not), I just now got up and opened the blinds, letting in the streetlight. The room’s empty. I found a little note left behind in the usual bedside manner: For a heart so foul, greater purities are needed. In formal response to the demon who’s currently haunting me: FUCKÊ OFF. Thank you <3. But I’m not here to tell you about a damn silly note. I’m here to tell you why I’m sitting, staring at December 13, 2023 my door, my room a mess with the bed and the desk stacked against the doorframe. I checked the lock and the door opened. I checked the other way. The door still opened. I tried back and forth and back and forth and the door always opens. The lock is entirely broken. I don’t want to check the front door, but I already know. All the gates are open. I need to get out of here. Here’s to trying: Noodles: “They’ll Never Find Me Here!” By Tamar Pinsky 15 �Πόλις THE GADFLY December 13, 2023 How Ethereal Bisexualism Ruined Obama By Dr. Benjamin Raymor Maier “Looking back, it’s embarrassing to recognize the degree to which my intellectual curiosity those first two years of college paralleled the interests of various women I was attempting to get to know: Marx and Marcuse so I had something to say to the long-legged socialist who lived in my dorm; Fanon and Gwendolyn Brooks for the smooth-skinned sociology major who never gave me a second look; Foucault and Woolf for the ethereal bisexual who wore mostly black. As a strategy for picking up girls, my pseudointellectualism proved mostly worthless; I found myself in a series of affectionate but chaste friendships.” –President Barack Obama, A Promised Land We used to be a country. It was not long ago where the average American could go to college, find a job, raise a family, and then retire comfortably. However, President Obama’s autobiography tells a different story: one of tribulation, struggle, and broken hopes. If there ever was a promised land, we no longer live in it. The American dream has woken up from its naive slumber to a darkened room filled with deceit, deconstructionist philosophy, and elusive romantic prospects. I cannot fully describe the state of our decayed country but I can tell you where its sickness started: the University. As undergraduate students, it is in our young pride and pretentious delusion that we think we have a shot with “the smooth-skinned sociology major” or the “ethereal bisexual who wore mostly black”. But it is not just our stupidity which stops us from dating the ethereal bisexual—it is the bisexual’s Dasein which destroys us. What do I mean by this? We do not live in the world of our grandfathers and grandmothers—we are an abyss away from traditional notions of boy, girl, dating, true love, and affection. To understand romance in the modern University, we need a new language for a changed reality. Our discourse requires Dasein to describe the vibe of “Being-here” in the spiritualsphere which is unique to the ethereal bisexual. At first, President Obama appears as a cringeworthy 16 romantic who simply does not understand women. However, a proper understanding of Dasein shows that Obama is no amateur— he is a poet who captures the primordial encounter between the worldly masculine and the ethereal, divine feminine. Take a closer look: THEÊCULTÊOFÊTHEÊMALE “[I]t’s embarrassing to recognize the degree to which my intellectual curiosity those first two years of college paralleled the interests of various women I was attempting to get to know.” Here, Obama shows the original connection between intellect and the erotic—now lost to the modern undergraduate. However, this connection was already decaying in Obama’s time. As we can see the 1980s were much like our own time: filled with strange new philosophies, absurd courtship rituals, �Πόλις THE GADFLY and mysterious women. For Obama, intellectualism was not erotic but only a vehicle to crash into the women he loved regardless of whether they noticed. He never stood a chance. Philosophy, genuine questioning, and erotic love thrived when it existed outside the Academy but by the 80’s, it had been buried six feet deep under a mountain of administrators, codes, and endowed professorships. In the absence of philosophy, a young man left to his own devices returns to his base instincts: he tries to date women. THEÊDIVINEÊFEMININE “. . . Marx and Marcuse so I had something to say to the long-legged socialist who lived in my dorm; Fanon and Gwendolyn Brooks for the smooth-skinned sociology major who never gave me a second look; Foucault and Woolf for the ethereal bisexual who wore mostly black.” Notice the adjectives that Obama uses: “longlegged,” “smooth-skinned,” and “ethereal.” For him, these women are goddesses no less perfect than Pallas Athena. However this line brings out a deeper image: feminine Dasein and man’s struggle against it. Men are entirely lacking in a rich internal world. For them, nothing can seriously be considered beyond what is in the world. You see it in their obsession with material possessions, communal pride, strength, and quick gratification. Even their pseudo philosophies such as stoicism and the “Bronze Age Mindset” indicate a deep spiritual poverty in the male character. They exit the material world in so far as they can die: they turn off their pain and dopamine receptors and sink into the abyss of their labor. However, the ethereal bisexual and the long-legged socialist are able to have a genuine appreciation for the true, the good, and the beautiful. They understand the joy of the small things and the wonder of great art. They recall the warmth of their grandmother’s home and the sonorous echoes of deep canyons. Men have objects but women have Dasein—they are here in the world in a spiritual sense. Furthermore, they reject what is meaningless and perishing and embrace what endures beyond man’s stone and bronze hubris. Obama, constrained by his heteronormative condition, poetically recognizes that God has given women a “divine feminine” that he cannot access. December 13, 2023 THEÊFRIENDÊZONE “As a strategy for picking up girls, my pseudointellectualism proved mostly worthless; I found myself in a series of affectionate but chaste friendships.” Embarrassing. If Obama read more Foucault he would see that even friendship can be a prison. But Obama does not blame the University for his barbarism and wasted condition. Instead he poetically opens up man’s abyss and discovers the loss of his own Dasein against the feminine. But what does this mean for the average undergraduate man? Should we seek out the ethereal bisexual’s Dasein? We cannot seek—Most men who have loved an ethereal bisexual woman know that it never ends well. I myself have even had my life ruined by one1. Perhaps the only answer we have is that we shouldn’t use books to pick up women. This is unfortunate because sexuallycharged reading is the St. John’s business model. However, I am only a Doctor of romance—what would I know about keeping a college profitable? Dr. Benjamin Raymor Maier Endowed Chair in Sexual Ethics at the Bell Hooks School for Understanding Women at the University of Austin Co-host of the Bro Scogan Podcast PhD in Romance and Sports Medicine Dr. Benjamin Raymor Maier 1 Likely an allusion to a 2021 lecture given by Dr. Maier How I Learned to Stop Caring and Love Tinder. There is scholarly debate on whether the “bisexual” in question was real or simply hyperbole to characterize the perils of dating bisexuals. It is possible Maier concocted the life ruining bisexual in reference to A Promised Land but the connection has never been proven. The majority of scholars maintain that Maier was referencing a real person in his life. 17 �Πόλις THE GADFLY The Waffliad By B.A. Sco One does not expect, looking across a dying bonfire at an only recently familiar face, to go on a great quest, but Fate, with her thin fingers wrapped always round our throats, is a trickster and joker; do not trust her simple eyes, for behind them lies life, death, and The Waffle House. In the weeks leading up to 11/20/2023, Waffle House had come up at least half a dozen times in conversations with the most disparate of people. It is, after all, a place steeped in lore: The Waffle House Index used to measure how bad a natural disaster is by how many Waffle Houses are closed and/or destroyed in an area, the “Can I please get a waffle” 18 December 13, 2023 video (two women fighting behind the counter, no one responding to the desperate plea for a delicious treat), Jesse Pinkman immediately going to a Waffle House after being released from custody in Breaking Bad, the general aura of the place (the rival restaurants—IHOP, Denny’s—have a liminal feeling to them best confronted at around 1 a.m.; this feeling is most certainly pumped straight in from Waffle House, a place so unreal it makes my head spin). Still, it was strange that it should be mentioned so much to me in particular; I had only been to Waffle House once before, and that was a long time ago. I was 13 years old. My grandmother was a tall, redheaded, and very very Scottish woman. How she ended up living in Memphis, Tennessee is an entire saga of its own (she once described my grandfather as a Cadillac: once you’ve had one, you can’t drive anything else; how a woman so strong willed didn’t drive him farther North is a different question), but she did and she was a great fan of the �Πόλις THE GADFLY local institutions: Barbecue at Rendezvous (there are not better ribs on this side of the Mississippi, in both directions), Elvis and Graceland, and, as you can guess, Waffle House. She frequented her nearest location so often every waitress knew her (she’d written to management about getting two waitresses promoted; Southern hospitality took everything from there). She took me one fine June day (anyone who knows Memphis will know what I mean by fine, that rare and perfect balance of drowning and burning). We sat at the counter. I don’t think I’ve expressed well enough the character of my grandmother for you to understand how shocking it was for me to see her sitting surrounded by white and yellow tile at an American deli style counter: her Scottish accent had not faded in the slightest (advertisement was pronounced ad-ver-tiz-ment), she smelled always of hair products (she had been a flight attendant, so beautiful that they ignored that she got motion sickness so bad she had to lie down every time they took off and landed), and she was tall, so very tall. Ordering waffles, bacon, eggs? Well, none of the words even made sense coming out of her mouth. Tell you the truth, I barely remembered the food because of the simple shock of seeing Grandma Fief applying her so precise European manners to grease and fat. That was the only time I visited Memphis before my grandmother died, leaving everything haloed in childhood and mystery (gold and silver respectively), including that little diner where we had eaten. It had been, then, at least 8 years since I had been to Waffle House when I asked our resident food reviewer, Audrey Fox, to come with me (she not having any idea why such a journey might mean anything special to me). We agreed that such an institution is best suited to the witching hours. We planned to set off around 11 p.m. and get home by around 2 a.m. Now, Ms. Fox and I have done a food review together before, but, my dear reader, it is important to note that going into this—standing across from each other at the bonfire, watching the logs she had just thrown in slowly burn, me talking with my roommates about the merits of boats and seduction, her presumably talking with her friends about something entirely different (I’d like to think they were discussing the meaning of God in a quantum mechanical world; they were probably talking about what alcohol they were going to buy at the Mini Mart)—that we were not close friends (she will December 13, 2023 hopefully not take offense at my saying this and maybe even confirm it). We shared two classes (where it’s very hard to befriend me because of my eccentricities (read: being an ass)) and had hung out only a couple of times (largely for Gadfly-related reasons). I knew her middle name and she knew mine and that was about as far as things had gotten. [DB:] I expected our relationship to change over the course of this adventure (it was a three hour, utterly mad journey); when I finally returned home six hours late, barely able to think straight, our connection would be entirely changed. We met in the gym parking lot at 11:13 p.m. It was a clear night, not too cold, the parking lot already slightly empty for the holiday break. We got in my little silver Subaru Impreza (Sube-sube is their name). I was to be in charge of music on the way there and Audrey on the way back, so I made the safe choice: indie so basic that it’s just a constant flow of sad acoustic guitar and the indie-girl accent (some people call it “cursive singing,” but I can’t read cursive (I almost failed fifth grade)); for all the anonymity of my indie, Ms. Fox was already making fun of it. Now, the phrase we decided on by the end of the night for what formed (and forms) the basis of our conversations was ‘Psychological torment.’ Every time Audrey saw even the slightest weakness in me, her teeth dug into it: I am a terminally awkward person and was tormented for preparing questions that we might talk about during the ride, I try too little and too much to relate to people and was tormented for anything resembling an admission of fellow-feeling, I mentioned high school and was tormented for talking about it every damn time we speak. But do not worry my dear reader: I torment her back. Any mention of a past lover? Immediately met with a reminder that she has a talent for choosing the people worst for her mental state. [DB:] An allusion to once having been in a choir? Struck down with reminders of the agonies of our music class sophomore year (her section was quiet, shy (do your best to forget that my section was even worse)). Talking about being Irish and Italian? She did not hear the end of everything she did being because of Catholic guilt. It was a verbal warzone of a drive. The road itself took us skirting along the edge of Baltimore. I hate driving in that city for so many reasons (speeding tickets, speeding tickets, speeding tickets), but it was different nearing midnight. The pale skeletons of cranes over the 19 �Πόλις THE GADFLY harbor, the rows of buses waiting for the morning, the tunnel with its hum of yellow-white light, all reminded me of my love of industrial decay. [actual dialogue?:] Ms. Fox and I had a long discussion about that love: I first became aware of it in Topeka, Kansas, a city so empty and dun that it should cause nothing more than aesthetic disappointment. But I was not disappointed. I loved it. The empty streets. The awkward and decaying buildings. The way not a single person stayed permanently in my mind. On those dusty avenues, I realized just how widespread that feeling was for me: my love of brutalist architecture, liminal spaces, analog horror. The philosophers are welcome to disagree with me, but I think the classical binary of aesthetic appreciation into beauty and sublimity has become outdated; in the grey concrete, the perfectly repeating windows, the inhumanity of such places I found a certain new pleasure, something which felt like disgust and comfort twisted together. By such a violent denial of reality, modernity seems to have circled back upon itself: driving along those empty Baltimore highways, I felt as if I were witnessing raw being (could I call this estimonia? Being-happiness?). I knew, even if I tried to be subtle about it so I wouldn’t be made fun of too much, that I was going to Waffle House in pursuit of that very feeling. And, after 51 minutes of driving through the emptiness, we arrived. When we pulled up, however, there was a problem: no one else was there. There were two workers inside and not a soul in the parking lot. We immediately felt guilty: were we going to subject service workers to an even more crushing existence just to make us food that we did not really need? But, after much Gen-Z guilt (Audrey’s, of course, being 20 December 13, 2023 Catholic-coded), we decided to go in. [DB:] Our guilt only got worse when we entered and the first thing one of the workers said was: “I’m only serving take out right now.” But we had come so far to reach the holy land. We would not be stopped at its doorstep. We, by fate or by choice, stayed. The worker who spoke to us first hardly talked the rest of the time. But the other worker? We the food reviewers have agreed: she alone made our experience worthy of five stars. “You have beautiful hair. And you,” turning to Ms. Fox, “have a great smile!” Audrey proceeded to teach her about basting eggs, “and I, you know, I’ve been drinking soda recently. I’ll be on that health grind again soon, but that sounds good.” She grew up just North of Baltimore, “and I love where I grew up. There are ducks that walk on the streets. And every month they have a first Friday. Oh it’s so cute!” She ended up recommending us a restaurant (Supermercado Campos) and giving us metal forks (they were out of plasticware). Not once did she seem disingenuous (Ms. Fox theorized that once you reach a certain point of exhaustion, the customer service mask slips off). The actual environs of this conversation went something like: white tile, white lights (spherical), white lights (flat), grey counter, silver refrigerators, silver-black grills, black-silver waffle irons, white and blue booths, white and grey tables, red chairs, black and yellow tiles in a band near the ceiling, and, above that band, a long succession of posters in black, red, and white: BURT’S CHILI, WORLD’S LARGEST SERVER OF T-BONE STEAKS, AMERICA’S BEST CHICKEN. It could have been one of the most estimonian locations I had ever had our server not been so kind (would I have preferred it if she had been distant? If she hadn’t been there at all? Is the end of this taste of mine a world where people exist only in passing as brief as can be?). It was not at all how I remembered it, but it still felt right, as if the place had grown in proportion to my own maturing from a happy child in a sunlit and loud restaurant to a bedraggled 20-something in a dark and empty institution, grasping at human straws. But the food smelled good, so it couldn’t be that different. When we left, we thanked both the workers profusely. Back out in the cold (always getting colder) night, I had Audrey stand for a photo in front of the sign. In the background, I could already see both the woman so kind and the man so quiet having retreated to their corner table, waiting for their shift �Πόλις THE GADFLY to end, just to be replaced by yet another set of smiling faces. Not being able to eat at the Waffle House proper, we figured we might as well find somewhere reasonably interesting to sit. I was imagining an overlook (we had come over a hill at one point during our drive and had both gasped at the wide spreading of city lights); we drove around quite at random. Was this the moment when Fate’s noose was tightening? Were there right and wrong paths down those suburban roads and amongst the trees? Or was the outcome inevitable? I am no counterfactual oracle. All I know are the plain truths: we ended up in a parking lot right next to a lumber yard. [DB:] A forklift operator was moving stacks of wood and a few people went in and out of cars on the other end of the lot, but for the most part it was just us in the dark. The female reader will note something: I brought Audrey to a prime “murder spot.” Murder spots are dark, isolated, quiet places which my female friends have all told me that I should avoid taking anyone to if we are not close friends, but something in my tiny brain loves the calm, the removal from civilization despite being surrounded by its concrete and asphalt. This particular murder spot was made even worse by a large drainage ditch abutted by a long line of trees in front of where we parked. At one point during the night, I couldn’t stop thinking about something (tall, pale, bony, with a face all jaw and tooth) coming out of those dark woods. In defense, we left our soft music playing and all the lights on as we moved into the back seats to eat. Now, my car is not very large on the vertical axis; Audrey and I, however, are. Even with the seats down, we ended up slouched on our opposite sides of the trunk, trying quite desperately to be comfortable (failing). At the least, I hope seeing me just trying to fit my legs into a comfortable position and ending up twisted like a twonk-pretzel made the experience less unsettling for my companion (I would contend that the recent trend of ‘icks’—a man chasing a ping pong ball, doggy paddling, having a tote bag, etc.—is secretly a blessing in disguise for men: many icks emasculate you so much that you lose all semblance of attractiveness, but also any appearance of threat; my little awkward legs could not hurt a soul twisting the way they do). I suppose this is the point where I ought to review the food: Ms. Fox, far more professional than I, said “it’s everything you could want from a place December 13, 2023 like this.” Her sandwich smelled great, the hash browns were warm and simple, and my waffle was alright.…Honestly? I’d be lying to you if I said it tasted alright to me: I didn’t really taste the waffle at all. I tasted 2013. In middle school, my mom and I would go skiing almost every weekend (I stopped going in high school to do Speech and Debate (Audrey is booing me for this, I’m reminding her that she also did S&D)). We had plenty of traditions in those days: watching American Pickers and the History Channel at night (this was the prime era of Egyptian pyramid oriented conspiracies), our favorite sections of the mountain (North Star to me is not a guiding point but a bumping ride through the snow), and breakfast. We were almost always at the sort of hotels which can be found all across America: the sheets smell even stiffer than they feel, the carpet is grainy, the provided shampoo and conditioner is a mess of vaguely nice smells (but vaguely nice in an exact way. I once ruined a date being so distracted by the other person smelling like this). Breakfast in such places is always continental (the continent is evidently without much culture). I would sleep late and deep in those hard beds (puberty; no one warned me I would grow eight inches in a year; no one warned me I wouldn’t be able to stand some days); my mother, blessing that she is, would go downstairs and make me a waffle. Now, these waffles were large and puffy while the Waffle House serves a tamer, shallower breed, but the flavor (syrup, whipped butter, batter) is the exact same: unnaturally sweet and smooth, as if you were tasting dull yellow. Eating in my car in the middle of Nowhere, Maryland, I felt myself a decade prior amongst overstarched sheets and the glare of sun on snow (and realizing that I can now speak of my life in decades), thanking my mother for this waffle. So, honestly, I am probably not qualified to speak to the quality of the food. I really enjoyed it and wish we had one closer to us, but that would probably kill all the mystique of the thing (maybe it’s better to keep what we love at arm’s length). We ate it all and packed it up. I went out into the night and started to shiver (everything colder because of what I was wearing: Audrey had told me that I couldn’t dress how I am wont to do and had to appear ‘normal’; I do not own normal and warm clothes), trying to find a trash can, but there wasn’t one. I saw 21 �Πόλις THE GADFLY a cat run by, yelling at me, but it didn’t seem to know where I could dispose of our plastic leftovers. So I ended up throwing our extra syrup and bags in the back seat. I got in the front, said something (certainly rude) to Audrey, and put the key in. It was time to go home. I pushed the brake and twisted the key. The car did not start. It blinked (it blinked a lot: every damn icon I could think of blinked), the lights turned on, music played, but the car did not start. We both groaned. My car had never died before. Why does this have to be the first? What the hell does one do in this situation? I’m not social! I’m not handy! I wasn’t going to ask for help nor was I able to handle it myself. Between profuse apologies to Audrey, I called my mother. I didn’t mention anything about skiing or waffles, just asked for help in the exact same tone of voice as I had used then. She reminded me that we have AAA. So I called them next. They were very kind and helpful: they would send out a dispatcher and get everything fixed up. They said it would take an hour and forty minutes. We would, all told, be there for the next five hours. We sat in the front seats, the car slowly going colder with each passing hour. There was only one thing to do with so much time: tell stories. I, probably about two hours in, fell back on one of my favorites: the worst date of my life. I was a senior in high school. My Speech and Debate team was at UC Berkeley for a tournament. I was in charge of making sure a few younger students stayed safe when going to Trader Joe’s late at night (the question of who would give me responsibility is a legitimate one). While we were looking around the ice cream aisle, a girl came up to me: Sonya Aheavy (yes it’s a made up name, you want to do better?). I knew her: she went to the very expensive private school close to my 22 December 13, 2023 house; we had briefly interacted two years before and never since. We got to talking (read with a wink). I, like most men of any age and not of absurd beauty, had rarely been hit on. So for Sonya to come up to me, give me a little flirt, and then ask for my Snapchat? I was taken aback. I was flabbergasted. I was stunned. I was (synonyms). I said yes, absolutely, of course, yes she could have it. We messaged back and forth for the rest of the trip. We decided to go on a date the weekend after we got back from California. Now, a reasonable person might say there were plenty of red flags leading up to this date; I would kindly respond: A man who is not used to seeing any flags at all is a poor interpreter of their meaning. The reddest of these banners was that she asked me to meet her at Southglenn (she didn’t want her father to see me and that’s not even the bad part). For those of my readers who did not grow up in the very specific suburbs of Denver, Colorado where the name Southglenn means anything, I will translate: Southglenn is the movie theater/restaurant/fast fashion area where all the late middle– and early highschoolers hang out. Even 17 year olds abhor it. But I met her at Southglenn anyways. Problem was, I had been in charge of planning the date and I had planned something quite in the opposite direction. We got in the car and 15 minutes into the half an hour drive, conversation was already dying. By the time we got to our location, it needed a coroner. Now, for anyone who ever visits Denver, Colorado, I would highly recommend Karma. It’s a lovely asian restaurant on Broadway with garlic edamame that my entire family dreams about (so spicy! So smooth!) and a great interior (dark in every way, the same fish swimming in the small tank for years on end). I would not, however, recommend taking someone on a first date to one of your favorite restaurants and having that date go horribly, leaving you to remember it every time you return to what had once been such a wonderful place for you before. I do not recall a lot of the date (repressed, suppressed, thrown deep into some dark vault of my mind), but I distinctly remember us struggling so much for conversation topics that we end up talking about why we had chosen these specific outfits for this date (I was in a pink shirt with birds, she was in a colorful polka-dot, a pairing made to give headaches) and her incessantly referencing One Direction (I might have hated them an unjust amount, sure, but constantly bringing up something your date does not enjoy? Not my recommended strategy). On the drive back we �Πόλις THE GADFLY could barely manage more than a few sentences back and forth. She did, however, mention that “you wouldn’t even know how to drive my car if you got in it.” Now, you’ll recall that Sonya went to the very expensive private school, so naturally I assumed that her car was from the 23rd century, relied on telekinesis, and had its own personal AI. So when we got back to Southglenn and she asked me if I wanted to see her car, I, against all good judgement, said absolutely. When I got in, I was wholly disappointed: it was one of those early electric BMWs. Sure, it was fancy and maybe even worked a little differently from a normal car, but it had a steering wheel, not some telepathic link! Problem was, now that we were in her car, Sonya was suddenly very talkative. I was deeply confused: why was she all of a sudden talking so much? What did she want? Why prolong our suffering? After much reasoning about the human soul, I realized: she wanted a kiss. Sure, it had been a bad date, but some people are lonely and need that sort of thing (Sonya was proving far lonelier than anticipated). So I leaned over and kissed her. It was like kissing a mannequin. She did not move. At all. Lips, hands, body, all perfectly rigid. I pulled away. She said, looking me straight in the eye, “You need to get better at kissing. You kiss like a fish.” My pride was drawn, quartered, fed to the birds, and those birds promptly shot out of the sky and fed to the very fishes that I apparently kissed like: how could this horrible, no good, awful kisser tell me I was that bad? Was she right? Would she have been better off kissing one of the fish at Karma instead? Frankly, my ego hasn’t recovered (it’s been four years). But here, once again, is the problem: she was still talking. She was talking even more. We just had a bad date and a bad kiss and she decided that all of it was worth extending?? In one sense, I am not proud of what I did next; in another sense, I am very proud of what I did next (I felt like McGeiver). I kissed Sonya again and, in the midst of my fishy lipping, grabbed the door handle (it worked just the same as in normal cars) and pulled. I was already one foot out the door as the kiss ended. I said, “Well, that was great, thanks so much, have a wonderful day,” and immediately stepped out. While I ran (in embarrassment, in fear) to my car, I heard a honk behind me. I knew it was her, but when I looked back, I did not expect such a devilish smile. Later that night, she texted me: “Hey! I had a great time today! But next date, I’ll pay. When would you like to go out again?” I know that even the worst dates deserve responses, but I couldn’t December 13, 2023 bear to. I ghosted her. That story (with full dramatics) only took about 15 minutes to tell. You can imagine what hour after hour of weaving such webs back and forth would do to us. The natural mania of late night conversation—honesty cannot be had so easily in the sun—overtook us, made worse by the madness of the situation (you know it’s a mad, mad, mad world when a man so damn ironic as I start speaking from the heart). [DB:] In the interests of not saying too much, my journalistic commitment to laying everything bare must be held back at this moment. Just know that if you ever want to get me talking, you just have to strand yourself with me in a parking lot between the hours of 1 and 4 a.m. After 5 hours, our assistance showed up. He was a random man in a grey hoodie (was he always awake, working at this hour?). He connected what looked like a large phone to the battery and asked me to start the car. It worked. I practically erupted. Audrey and I slapped hands, screamed, laughed. I thanked the AAA man over and over. I thanked him even when he was out of earshot as we drove down the road. We were back, baby! Now, the observant reader will do some math: we left for The Waffle House at 11:15, drove for about an hour, and then were in the parking lot for five hours, drove an hour back, putting us at 6:15 a.m. But I promised that this saga would end six hours late: 8 in the morning. But would I ever lie to you dear reader? No, I would simply withhold information (a life strategy, even if my therapist says otherwise). We were in fact back at the college by 23 �Πόλις THE GADFLY 6:15, but I had already promised to give Audrey a ride to the train station at 7:30. On our way back (driving through the Baltimore tunnel, music droning) we had agreed that after all we had been through, we could make it a couple more hours. We started walking back from the parking lot. Almost everyone’s lights were out (I have plenty of questions for those rooms which weren’t dark). For a moment, we stood on the quad, looking up at the blank windows. I had the urge to scream, but Audrey convinced me otherwise: some other less exhausted time. We found the rest of the city just as dark. I wondered, my feet catching on the bricks of the sidewalk, whether anyone heard us outside their window and wondered what we were up to. I tried to think up possible scenarios: late night Monday partying, but we were both stunningly sober; drug dealing, but we walked with no such secrecy or confidence; recent escapers of a murder spot? Well, that was fairly close. But I don’t think anyone in their right mind would have given the correct answer. Walking so quiet, we had no destination, not wanting to wake our roommates at whatever the godless hour may be (despite my roommates’ penchant for 5 a.m. alarms). So we just kept going, following Prince George straight down, looking in the windows at all the empty places and dark rooms. I feel like I ought to recognize a fair few of the cars which park on that road, having lived there for more than a year, but everything seemed rather distant and hazy in the street lamps (though less hazy than before: they’ve replaced the purple lights with white lights that buzz like all hell). Eventually, we could go no more: we were at the bay. 24 December 13, 2023 I always want to be able to look out across the bay into some great blue yonder, that sublime vastness evoked from Homer through Melville and onto us. But you can always see the opposite side, even at night (those great towers of steel and red lights flashing, reminding you that this is merely a small, small piece). The ocean is something I have always loved, running into it every chance that I got as a child, coming back to my parents practically blue with cold. So, on most days, that enclosed little piece of the grey mother only frustrates me. Things were different on this night. We sat down on a bench which had been forcibly moved closer to the bay. Waves beat a slow rhythm against the wood and the mega yachts alike, a calm pulsing of: hush, hush, hush. The air was not salty, not even all that humid. It lacked almost everything I love so much in the ocean. And, suddenly, that was okay; after such a long night of memories (for you, dear reader, they seem so short and simple; for me, they were each and every one a wrenching of my soul back and forth in time), I could look out on the water and say, quite honestly: it reminded me of nothing at all. It merely existed. The slow bobbing of the boats, the way moonlight caught on the shallow ripples, even the border made by the far side, I could look at it all straight on, unflinching. One day, all this too will become memory, associated with the nostalgia of my “college days” and some beauty of youth that I am entirely unaware of as I live it; even in writing this, I am condemning myself to think of these very words and associations each time I return there (I am burning the forest such that you might know how much it meant to me); for that moment, I was simply there. Audrey and I did not talk so much. For all of our long night together, there was still that gap between us (represented here by a couple feet of bench space). I am not sure if this is maturing or simply giving up, but I have come to accept that gap. Yes, I had learned plenty about her (looking over for a brief second, smiling a little) and she had learned even more about me, but did I feel understood? Did I feel I understood her? Could I somehow say: this is her? Could she say: this is him? How could she know? She did not know my favorite novel, did not know my worst fears, did not know my greatest regrets. And then? If we kept confessing all night long? Would there be any more closeness? I looked back at the bay. No, I am not so sure I believe that anyone could cross that gap. �Πόλις THE GADFLY Out of the black sky and waves, the sun began to rise. At first, there was only greyness, but soon I was reminded of the failure of all poets: who could speak back into being this succession of pink and gold and red, twisting upon what thin clouds remain after the cold night, the effusion which goes so far beyond simple color, calling up some animal instinct that makes us want only to stare (animal instinct for what? Is there, in the animal’s soul, also a form of beauty?). All I can say is: I smiled at each new bursting wave of light, spreading so gently across everything. It had been so long since I had seen the sun. After a while, I looked back at Audrey and said, “We should get some breakfast.” So, lucky as you are my friend, you get two food reviews in one: we decided on Naval Bagels. First, we had to stop by the Fox’s Den (not the restaurant, the den of Ms. Audrey Fox) and pick up her bag (I spent my entire time staring at the front door, wondering why it doesn’t fit its frame in the slightest). By the time we were back out on the street, the sunrise was already fading into a pale blue. The rolling of the suitcase behind us seemed to call the whole world back to life. There were people running. There were voices in windows. Of course, there were no signs of life on the St. John’s campus, but that’s how it always is. We threw the bag in my trunk and got in. My car started this time. Naval Bagels was much calmer than I am used to, probably because we were there before 7 a.m. on a random Tuesday (the grind!). The highlight for me is always the large whiteboard they have on the far wall. This time, I noticed that they include, amongst the birthdays and fun facts, high and low tide times. What a horribly oceanic city we live in. In time’s interest, we ate while I drove us to the train station. I am a two bagel sort of guy, always getting one sweet and one savory. I had veggie cream cheese on pumperknickel everything and a booster (peanut butter, honey, bananas) on cinnamon raisin. The bagels have a nice chew and the cream cheese is smooth. There’s a wide selection for the adventurous and reliability for the anxious. Do I wish we were sitting in a deli surrounded by old people with a poster of Guy Fieri fading on the wall? Yes. But we had places to be (spending yet another hour in my little subaru). For a while, we were worried that we would not make it to those places in time (poor planning despite having, quite literally, all night), but I will not December 13, 2023 try to create false last minute tension for the reader: Audrey made it to her train home for Thanksgiving and I, after a long ride home in silence and walking down those brick sidewalks once again, made it back to my apartment and hobbled up to my room, not a hero and not really victorious, but very, very tired. I pulled the blinds on the full-fledged brightness of the day and got in bed. Normally—as Audrey and I discussed during our time in the parking lot—I am a very bad sleeper, rolling back and forth for what seems to be hours (thinking about how things could have been, could go). But, for some reason that I’ll leave to the reader to figure out, I fell straight asleep, feeling quite full and content. 25 �Πόλις THE GADFLY December 13, 2023 Translation of Baudelaire’s “Le Balcon” By Luke Briner Mother of memories, mistress of mistresses, O you, all of my joy, and all my servitude! Remember those caresses of such darling ease, The sweetness of the hearth and twilight’s charming mood, Mother of memories, mistress of mistresses! The evenings lightened by the ember’s gentle heat, The evenings on the terrace, veiled in vap’rous rose, Your heart to me so kind, your breast to me so sweet! Imperishable words between us oft arose, The evenings lightened by the ember’s gentle heat. How beautiful the suns in those warm evenings grew! How deep is space!—how powerful the heart’s intent! O all-beloved Queen, as I reposed on you, I thought that I breathed in your blood’s perfuméd scent. How beautiful the suns in those warm evenings grew! The darkness had surrounded us as though a wall; Yet my eyes found yours even in the creeping shade, And I drank in your breath, delight and poison all! And your feet in my worshipful hands sleeping laid. The darkness had surrounded us as though a wall. I know how to recall the joy of bygone days, And reminisce as I lie nestled in your thighs; For where should I seek your unbothered beauty’s haze But in that place where your sweet heart and aspect lies? I know how to recall the joy of bygone days! Those fragrances, those oaths, those kisses without end, Can they be found again in voids we cannot see, Just as the the morning sun into the sky ascends, New-purified in the deep chasm of the sea? —O fragrances! O oaths! O kisses without end! 26 �Πόλις THE GADFLY December 13, 2023 exultation By Natalie Goldman Give more of your Down-trodden heart— The fibers deserve to be Rewoven into a shape that fits you. Nothing I see could ever Strike me as fate struck you, Hand across the face And pretty with blood. Nothing to me is necessary, Not even thank yous made of mist and glamor. I couldn’t imagine a tenderer burden Or one more worthy of exultation. The Seraph By Luke Briner As when in Shamayim’s supremest height, Refulgent crown of all created things, The Seraph veils itself with trembling wings Before Jehovah’s all-confounding light, And—too abashed to bear the awesome sight— Instead to him in solemn chorus sings Or raises serenades with golden strings In worshipful and self-effacing fright, So I, O Love, of yet less worthy race, Turn from you conscience-stricken and afraid, And, not deserving to behold your face, Conceal my own in sin-engendered shade, Compelled from this obscurer, paler place To venerate the Good from which I’ve strayed. 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 PDF format. For more information, contact us via email at lbriner@sjc.edu. 60 COLLEGE AVENUE ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401 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. � 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&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;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. 28 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, Vol. XLV, Issue 5 Description An account of the resource Volume XLI, Issue 5 of The Gadfly. Published December 13, 2023. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Briner, Luke (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 2023-12-13 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' writings--Periodicals College student newspapers and periodicals St. John's College--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Gadfly Vol XLV Issue 5 Gadfly Student publication https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/d8b33cb3fcc11ee9043aa7889d122f71.pdf ee61fc6d6e114976144ffc338c6c1855 PDF Text Text Thursday May 2 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication From the polity On the Commencement Speaker Controversy On April 5th, the senior class received the announcement that Mark Roosevelt, outgoing allcollege president and president of the Santa Fe campus, had been invited to deliver the commencement address for the Class of 2024. This was meant with a nearunanimous disapprobation. While his name had appeared on the ballot of possible commencement speakers—at the urging of the administration—he received by far the fewest votes. And yet he had been invited all the same. To be clear, the senior class does not in any way seek to disrespect President Roosevelt. This is not an issue of personal grievance, or any reaction to his actions during his tenure as president of the Santa Fe campus. We recognize the great work he has done in guiding our sister campus through the pandemic, and in his establishment of a fund for tutor pay—an issue which was brought to the fore just this year. Notwithstanding, we of the Class of 2024 feel disrespected, as if our choice, once solicited, was ignored. The motivation for selecting President Roosevelt as our commencement speaker was not communicated to us beforehand. Certainly, he ought to be honored for his work, and had such a justification been presented to us beforehand, our class would likely have little objected. It has been pointed out to us that St. John’s is not a democracy, and that, though we could advise, the ultimate choice of speaker lies with the administration. We recognize this. There is little doubt that factors of which the student body knows little play a great role in selecting the commencement speaker. Nor do we wish to accuse anyone in the administration of malice or malintent. Nevertheless, the manner in which the choice was made this year, manifestly against the wishes of the Class of 2024, stings. President Roosevelt will be our commencement speaker. Yet we hope that future years will bring greater transparency as to a process whose outcome so closely concerns the graduating class. Charles Dang Vol. II Issue 11 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis An editor’s fond farewell to the collegian Parting Remarks on Free Speech, and Thanks to All Who Made this Paper Possible. As many of you may already know, this is to be the last issue of the St. John’s Collegian. This is not because I feel like there is no longer a need for such a paper; on the contrary, I think weekly reporting is incredibly important. However, as I am going to be taking on the editorship of the Gadfly next year, I will not be able to edit the Collegian at the same time. I hope, however, to continue the tradition of up-to-date, relevant, and quick news in that more venerable publication. As this will be the last issue of the Collegian, I wanted to take a moment to write about something that has become increasingly important to me as I have become more involved in student journalism. When I developed the idea for the Collegian, I hoped to fill a gap that I saw in campus news reporting. Little did I realize that it would create an opportunity for the expression of something that would give a far greater benefit to the College: a forum for presenting their opinions on topical, pressing issues when they were relevant, and not long after questions had been resolved. In the single, short year of the Collegian’s operation, we had opinion articles on a proposed honor code, the College Creek Connector, smoking policies, tutor reappointments, menstrual products on campus, the administrative response to the pertussis outbreak and the commencement speaker selection. I often hear from campus leaders that they feel that students need to reach out to them directly more often with their concerns, since they cannot know what students are thinking about without direct communication. Likewise, I often hear students who are less engaged with campus politics surprised that they haven’t been notified about something as important as an infectious disease outbreak or the construction of a bike path on campus. Certain students would have had, and would have discussed, issues like these privately regardless of whether or not there was a forum to print them in. However, the existence of a newspaper which lets opinions like these be published makes these conversations move from private gossip to communal discourse, and gives them a concrete communal impact instead of merely fostering discontent with the state of things as they are. There have been moments this year when the question of what should be published in a paper has been up for question, due to concerns from the College administration. Obviously, there are limits to the benefits of the published word: direct attacks against Polity members, or false information would not build a stronger, more informed community. However, it is of utmost importance that all other speech, even if it might seem offensive or overly critical of the administration, should be allowed published. Even if it touches on a sensitive topic which might create controversy, like sexism in the College, it still contributes a kind of discussion that is much better held in the open, than in unhappy mutterings behind closed doors. I hope that moving forward, students continue to submit controversial articles to student publications, and that college leadership continues to facilitate their publication. After all, we have the first amendment right to publish with or without College oversight, but a collaboration between administration and students makes the paper stronger. As this paper comes to its end, I would like to thank all the people who made it possible. First and foremost, I want to thank Taylor Waters, who has worked with me even when I am running behind deadlines to make this the best paper possible, and to print in a timely manner. We haven’t always agreed on what is fit to publish, but she has always been immensely helpful and supportive of this paper, and it could never have existed without her. I would also like to thank Michael Jordan in the print shop for accommodating tight time schedules and always printing very promptly and putting up with my strange formatting issues. This paper would also not be possible without its contributors, and I would like to thank them all. In particular, I am grateful to my frequent contributors: Caleb Briggs for his entertaining articles, Andy Manne for their assorted cleverness, Natalie Goldman for her wonderful arts reviews, Helen Wagner for her well-considered opinion, Tarik Mahmud for his whimsy and poetry, Helen Felbek for her excellent reports, Allyson Brink for her column, and the Sage of Gorman Street for his wisdom and enlightenment. Now, the drama’s done. The Collegian is finished, but the work of campus journalism is just begun. I bid farewell to you from this page, and hope to see you, and all your opinions, reports, and essays, once more, with the start of next fall, in the pages of the Gadfly. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 5/2: Aristotle: On the Soul, III, 1–13 5/6: Plato: Phaedrus, beginning–257 Sophomores: 5/2: Shakespeare: Macbeth 5/6: Shakespeare: King Lear Juniors: 5/2: Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, Articles of Confederation, see official list for selections 5/6: Articles of Confederation, see official list for selections. Seniors: 5/2: Heidegger: Introduction to Metaphysics, see official list for selections 5/6: Heidegger: Introduction to Metaphysics, see official list for selections Friday, May 3: Intramural marathon and On the Body Lecture, 4 p.m., outside Temple Iglehart Saturday, May 4: Reality Weekend Music in the Park, 1 p.m., back campus McDowell Live, 8 p.m., Great Hall Sunday, May 5: Hydrathon, 3 p.m., Boathouse Energeia Release Party, 8 p.m., Great Hall Tuesday, May 7: Spring Collegium, 7 p.m., Great Hall Thursday May 9: Yearbook & 814 Magazine Party, 9:45 p.m., Quad Friday Night Lecture: No Friday Night Lecture Page 1 �Thursday May 2, 2024 St. John’s Collegian Proposal to Replace the Copernicus Illustrations in Mellon Hall In the penultimate week of my senior year, I must confess there is one thing that still weighs on me, one straw that threatens to break the proverbial camel’s back. And that straw is the series of mathematical illustrations in Mellon Hall across from the fishbowl. I have walked this hall a thousand times, and each time I have at the very least cast a glance towards these paintings, and with every glance something has been building inside of me that I cannot keep silent any longer. The painting representing Copernicus’ heliocentric cosmology sits fifth from the left, between Ptolemy and Galileo. Unlike the other seven, the Copernicus illustration is not representative of a mathematical diagram present in the original text, nor is it particularly mathematical in nature, rather it only gestures vaguely to a picture of a heliocentric cosmos (which, at the risk of sounding overly pedantic, isn’t even accurate, since Copernicus himself did not put the sun at the exact center of the planets’ orbit, nor did he consider the planets to be precisely concentric with each other). And what’s more, the illustration depicts seven planets, despite the fact that Neptune would not be discovered until a full 200 years after Copernicus’s death! With all this in mind, and given that the artist, Neil Harpe, still appears to be alive and active, I propose that he be contacted and a new painting be commissioned. And since far be it for me to critique without offering a remedy, I have also included four suggestions for potential replacements, in order of perceived suitability. 4) Copernicus’s demonstration of the Earth’s threefold movement in Book 1, Section 11, of On The Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres. If we want a diagram from Copernicus, this is probably the best option. While it still isn’t as explicitly mathematical as the others, it does at least show up in the original text, and provides an intuitive illustration of how Ptolemy’s ecliptic translates onto a heliocentric model. 3) Newton’s proof of Kepler’s second law in Book 1, Section 2, Prop 1 of The Principia My personal choice for the most elegant mathematical proof on the program, an incredibly mathematical proof on the program, an incredibly influential and widely known diagram that is arguably the pinnacle of ancient astronomy. Of course, this would mean that Newton would be represented twice in the collection, but I think one could argue that, given his influence, he is deserving of such an honor even among other program authors. 2) Kepler’s recalculation of the Earth’s orbit in chapter 24 of Astronomia Nova. While this is admittedly not as widely recognized as the other suggestions on this list, no student of the history of astronomy can deny the importance of the diagram where Kepler first demonstrated the nonuniformity of the Earth’s motion. This is also one of the few parts of the Astronomia Nova that students study in more or less unabridged form. 1) Minkowski’s space-time hyperbola in section 1 of Space and Time. This is my number one suggestion for one simple reason: currently there are two freshman diagrams, two sophomore diagrams, three junior diagrams, and only one diagram from senior mathematics. Replacing Copernicus with Minkowski, whose geometric representation of spacetime has arguably eclipsed even Einstein's original account in terms of needed recognition. Thus ends the rant of a jaded senior, four years in the making. If you have not been roused into action by this article, I hope you have at least been entertained. Troy Herner-Brown A Letter to the Junior Class Dear fellow Juniors, In 1937 when the New Program was instituted at St. John’s College, there were only two books on the reading list written by Americans: The United States Constitution, and The Federalist Papers. It was not until the late 1960s that Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn received the distinction of being the only book of American literature to be included. Very soon, we will have our seminar on this book—from which, according to Hemingway, “all modern American literature comes”. My reason for publishing this letter is simple. I want to communicate a message: read the damn book. It is well known that Huckleberry Finn is an eminently skippable seminar text. This is not because of its difficulty, dryness, or the disinterest of students in its story or message. Most who do not read the book do so because of its length and location in the seminar reading list at the end of the year. It is easy for tired, burnt-out Juniors to phone this one in. Don’t do it! Besides being fun to read, full of wit, adventure, and colorful characters, Huckleberry Finn grapples with some of the major questions which are not only at the heart of American life, but life as a human being generally. Twain does this in an unexpected way. Unlike Homer, Virgil, Dante, Milton, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Austen, and Eliot, Twain’s great book does not center on a great figure or event—even the magnitude of a Dorothea Brooke, Falstaff, or Don Quixote is absent from the novel. Huck Finn is a poor, half-literate boy, the son of the village drunk, who must navigate his way through a series of adventures rafting down the Mississippi river through Missouri and Arkansas. Apart from his unusual cleverness, he is unremarkable. He does not engage with moral, political, and philosophical questions in the way Kant, Locke, and Jefferson do, nor even like Elizabeth Bennet, Will Ladislaw, or Milton’s Adam. Like most of us, Huck regularly engages with the big questions of life in humble, unrefined, messy circumstances. You will find little that is self-evidently philosophical in Huckleberry Finn, but I hope you will see that even in the back woods, even for someone at the bottom of the social ladder, there are big questions which must still be asked and answered. On a practical note, I encourage all of my fellow Juniors to begin reading now, not only so to successfully finish the book, but to provide adequate leisure to enjoy reading it. To the Seniors, I do not wish to impute any shame to those who did not read Huckleberry Finn last year. You may count yourselves absolved if only you undergo the penance of going back and reading the book in full. Vol. II. Issue 11 Garner Finds Peace, Whimsy in New Home After being kicked off campus last week, Kirk Garner has happily moved into the little cottage made of books at the back of the Old Fox garden. He is integrating well with his new community, befriending the birds, squirrels, fairies, and garden gnomes who call Old Fox their home. During the afternoons, he enjoys making tea for his new friends, or gathering nuts and berries to share with them for dinner. “It is a much more whimsical lifestyle than I’m used to,” Mr. Garner states. “There are several magic dwarves who visit me, although I’m unsure whether or not they’re the class of 2028.” He has also begun planting a community vegetable garden in collaboration with local gnomes. He’s discovered a sense of peace in the garden which he’s never felt before. “It’s a place of true freedom of expression,” he says. “I wish everyone could experience this kind of joy.” He hopes that you’ll stop by to visit him next time you’re at Old Fox. Mr. Garner would also appreciate any orange peels and apple cores that you can spare for him to flavor his stews. Mr. Garner’s favorite things to read in his new home are The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, and Martin Luther’s speech from the Diet of Worms. You can also catch him listening to his favorite Grateful Dead concert, Fox Theater Atlanta 1977. If you’re lucky, he might even give you a bite of stew. Helen Wagner Aphorism of the Week Madness is the only way to immortality by oneself. That is why it is called madness. About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Charles Dang Jackson Green Whoop-jamboreehoo! Jackson St. John Cliffe Kingston Green Troy Herner-Brown Helen Wagner Page 2 � 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 St. John's Collegian</em> Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.<br /><br />Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College 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. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian 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. 2 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 St. John's Collegian, May 2, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 11 of the St. John's Collegian, published May 2, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) 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 2024-05-02 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds 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 St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue11_2024-05-02 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/37a71f24a8e5184e33c1c0c76b214763.pdf 35344e5881d68ff856170996074857a9 PDF Text Text Thursday April 25 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication From the polity Whoops! It’s the Whoop Opinion: on Pertussis By now, you’ve all heard the rumors about whooping cough on campus. For the past few months, students have been succumbing to a violent, weeks-long cough, often with fits so intense they’re left gasping for air. These are the symptoms of pertussis, otherwise known as whooping cough: a highly contagious bacterial respiratory infection which doctors have nicknamed the “hundred-day cough.” In fact, these aren’t just rumors: Ms. Lico sent an email out on April 10 confirming that there have been positive cases. However, considering how long students have had symptoms (since before spring break), it confuses me why the college waited so long to acknowledge it. Until Ms. Lico’s email, rumors of the illness were actively denied, both by the health center and by our RAs (who were told to do so by the college). But when I began to develop the same symptoms as my friends, I decided to find out the truth for myself by getting tested off campus. It was only once I’d shown the health center a positive test that they finally acknowledged it. It took another week for Ms. Lico to send her email. Why didn’t this all happen earlier? This article is an account of my personal experiences with the health center, the interactions leading up to Ms. Lico’s April 10 email, and my own opinions about the situation. In case you couldn’t tell, I’m not a trained epidemiologist. I’m just a random sophomore with a cough. But it doesn’t take a professional to ask the questions I pose in this article: why did the college deny the whooping cough rumors for so long, when they hadn’t been testing for it? And why did they delay notifying the polity for a week after I had shown them a positive test? Vol. II Issue 10 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis Collegian’s Campus news updates The Past Two Weeks on a Busy Annapolis Campus Earth Day Ivy Removal In honor of Earth Day, Project Polity collaborated with Tutor Ms. Benson to remove invasive ivy from trees on campus. In the beginning of the event the Insect Farming Club led by archon Mr. Rosenberg released painted lady butterflies. The butterfly release was originally scheduled to take place on Friday afternoon, but the temperature was slightly too low for the insects. On Saturday, the temperature reached over 68 Degrees Fahrenheit, creating perfect conditions for the butterflies to be released. The butterflies were a little reluctant at first, but at long last they spread their wings and left their cage, or as some bystanders remarked, their cave. A dozen students, who joined Project Polity and Ms. Benson for the project, received protective gear, clippers, and instructions from Ms. Benson as to how to remove the ivy. Ms. Benson explained the difference between poison ivy and English ivy. The goal of the project was to remove the invasive English ivy, as it chokes the trees, depriving them of nutrients, makes them more prone to disease and fungi, as well as increases the risk of storm damage. Student Activities & Events provided pizza and ice cream for the volunteers. Participants were shocked to find large amounts of ivy on all the tress next to the French monument and the boathouse. Ms. Benson explained the reason why there are so many vines on the trees: most tree-covered areas on campus are not real forests. Vines grow best at the edges of forest where there is enough sunlight. But humans have created conditions where most wooded areas are like edges of forest and not real forests. For months, our campus health center firmly denied the whooping cough suspicions. Many symptomatic patients (including myself) were told rather vigorously by health center staff that there was not a single case of whooping cough on campus, and that we needed to stop talking about it. Strangely, they seemed more concerned about the spread of the rumors than about the potential spread of an infectious disease. They had not administered a single pertussis test. Why were they so certain in their denial? Ms. Benson believes that learning how to remove ivy is useful for anyone because “in half an hour, you can save a mature tree. It would take 60 years for it to grow again. And a lot of people don't realize that ivy is bad for trees.” “I didn't know until a couple of years ago,” she adds. When asked about the event, Project polity’s archon Mr. Briner agreed with Ms. Benson saying, “I think we got a good amount of people and I think we made some good progress.” When I inquired further, I was unable to find any information which justified such vehement dismissal of student concerns. (Cont. on Page 2.) Ms. Benson expressed her appreciation for the participants: “It is always nice to hear what people say after they have done one of these projects. People seem kind of moved by it. They are on campus all the time, but they don't often stop and just pay attention to a tree for half an hour - after freshman year. It turns out to be just a nice experience.” Some participants remarked that removing the ivy had a cathartic effect allowing them to release stress. Others felt a little heroic as they were saving the trees from a slow death. Project Polity vice-archon Ms. Minor added (referring to the ivy) “my dad always called me a tree hugger, but the real tree huggers are no good.” If you would like to support Project Polity in the future, please join the club for the easter food drive on Saturday, 04/27 at 2 pm. Helen Felbek St. John’s Grapples with Mixed Legacy of Francis Scott Key The St. John’s College History Task Force held a panel discussing the legacy of Francis Scott Key on April 17, 2024. Students, faculty, Annapolitans, and other members of the community filed into Mellon Hall’s Francis Scott Key Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. to hear the conversation addressing one of St. John’s most notable alumni and his complicated legacy. “We know that our institution has not always been on the right side of racial justice,” said Annapolis President Nora Demleitner, as she opened the event. The event was moderated by Ms. Chanel Compton, the executive director of Annapolis’ own BannekerDouglass Museum. Panelists included Mr. Marc Leepson, author of the 2014 Francis Scott Key biography, What So Proudly We Hailed; Professor William Thomas, author of the 2020 history of freedom trials, A Question of Freedom; and Professor Mark Clague, author of the 2022 cultural biography of the Star-Spangled Banner, O Say Can You Hear?. Earlier in the day, at noon, the St. John’s campus bookstore held a book signing where community members could purchase signed books and meet Mr. Leepson and Professor Clague; Professor Thomas unfortunately could not be there due to a delayed flight. The panelists addressed a variety of topics, first explaining the origins of the investigation into Francis Scott Key. According to the panel, (Cont. on page 2.) This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 4/25 Aristotle: Metaphysics, see official list for selections. 4/29 Aristotle: On the Soul, I,1; II, 1-7, 11-12 Sophomores: 4/25: Descartes: Discourse on Method, I–IV 4/29: Descartes: Discourse on Method, V–VI Juniors: 4/25: Smith: Wealth of Nations, see official list for selections. 4/29: Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, U.S. Constitution, The Federalist Seniors: 4/25: De Beauvoir: The Second Sex, see official list for selections. 4/29: De Beauvoir: The Second Sex, see official list for selections. Saturday, 4/6: Project Polity’s Spring Food Drive, 2 PM, Quad KWP’s Moby Dick, 7 PM, FSK Auditorium. Friday Night Lecture: KWP’s Moby Dick, Written and Directed by Ranger Kasdorf. FSK, 7 p.m. Page 1 Special Note: At Shammai’s Passover Seder this week, the afikoman was found by Ian Rossomondo, who won honor, glory, and a mention in this week’s Collegian. Congratulations to Ian! �Thursday April 25, 2024 St. John’s Collegian Whooping Cough (Cont. from page 1.) The only reason given repeatedly for such certainty was that there are no reported cases of whooping cough in Maryland. Therefore, it was apparently impossible that anyone on campus could have it. Considering the fact that nobody had been tested, this logic seems backwards to me: the reported case count should not be used as a diagnostic tool. In fact, it should be the other way round: it is up to doctors to read symptoms, determine whether an infection is present, and then report it to the Health Department. That is how cases are counted. How many unreported cases are walking around campus right now? If our health center exemplifies the way medical professionals deal with potential pertussis cases, it’s no surprise to me that there were no reported cases in Maryland. I was unsatisfied by these empty assurances. Everywhere I went, I saw whooping cough symptoms. I thought, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and coughs like a duck… it probably is a duck. So I went off-campus and got tested myself. Turns out—it’s a duck. On April 4, I showed the health center a positive test, hoping they would take pertussis symptoms more seriously. They immediately gave me an antibiotics prescription to eliminate contagiousness. Since then, they have begun testing students and prescribing antibiotics. They also told me that they would ask Ms. Lico (through whom they must go for student communication) to send a schoolwide email with information about the disease, but after several days had passed she’d still sent nothing out. Isaac Boone and I went to the health center again on April 9 to inquire, and were told that Ms. Lico was disinclined to send an email out, even though we now had confirmed cases on campus. Why could this be? No About Moby-Dick: reasons were disclosed, but after another conversation with the health center she did send an email on April 10. If you think you might have pertussis, check the info that she sent out. Keep in mind that if you’ve had it for more than three weeks (as many have) you won’t test positive anymore: the bacteria will have left your system, even though symptoms continue. It’s hard to excuse our health center for denying pertussis suspicions for so long with so little reason. It’s even more concerning that the administration neglected to inform us immediately of confirmed cases. Why could this be? If we had begun testing months ago, when symptoms first started appearing on campus, more cases could have been avoided. I hope we can be more responsible in the future, for our own sakes and for those around us. [Note: on April 18, the health center also offered a clinic for TDAP booster shots, which are needed every ten years for whooping cough immunity. If you haven’t gotten yours recently, make sure you are up to date on your vaccination.] The question of whether these men who we name our buildings after owned slaves began the SJC History Task Force’s exploration into our auditorium’s namesake. The Task Force wondered who should run this investigation, and observed three different options employed by other schools while addressing similar issues, including Georgetown University and the University of Pennsylvania. Some schools handed matters over to their student body; others gave the responsibility to their history departments; and finally, some schools decided to hire a third-party outside research company. The second option was vetoed due to SJC’s lack of a history department – or any particular department, for that matter – and SJC opted for the third option, outsourcing the task but having the historical Task Force, composed of students, tutors and staff, guide the investigation. Known to his family as “Frank,” Key was a Maryland native who attended St. John’s College and later wrote the National Anthem, first called the “Defense of Fort McHenry.” The Task Force looked at Key’s role in establishing the American Colonization Society, which advocated sending all African Americans to Liberia; he also kept enslaved people himself. In his work as a lawyer, Key defended enslaved people in freedom suits, even arguing for their freedom before the Supreme Court, while also defending slaveholders and prosecuting abolitionists. This Friday and Saturday, at 7 PM, my stage adaptation of Melville’s Moby-Dick will, after two years in development, be brought to life in the Francis Scott Key auditorium. In advance of the premiere, I thought I’d answer here a few of the questions I’ve heard many people ask about my adaptation: How faithful is the adaptation? The broad strokes are there, and I keep quite a few specific scenes largely untouched, but much of it is out of order and altered to fit the needs of the stage. It is very much a different experience from reading the book. So, did you keep all those chapters about whales? I kept one of them–the biggest and the best. Is it really a musical? I heard it was a musical. There is music in it, yes. Don’t come into it expecting Broadway, though. How long is it? Approximately three hours, with a fifteen-minute intermission. Damn, really? If you’re familiar with the novel then you’ll know that’s actually on the shorter side. Helen Wagner Aphorism of the Week: Theology is the study of the Creator. Physics is the study of the created nature. Sociology is the study of the corrupted human nature. History is the study of the corrupted human nature compounded by created nature. For this reason, we do not study history at St. John's. Campus News Continued (Cont. from p. 1) the conversations and questions surrounding Key’s legacy were sparked by the rising widespread interest – nationwide and beyond – in the integrity, or perhaps lack thereof, of the important men whom buildings on college campuses are so often named after. Vol. II. Issue 10 The legacies of men like Francis Scott Key are woven into our institutions, still shaping our culture into the present day. To deconstruct these influences, we must recognize the ways their values are incongruous with ours, and persist in having conversations about it. Meliha Anthony A Collection of MomentsThe Magic of KWP’s Shakespeare Showcase Romeo, Juliet, and Caesar walk into a bar, while Falstaff is drunk and asleep on the couch. This crossover sounds like the beginning of a frankly, fantastic joke, but this wacky world became reality with the KWP’s “Shakespeare Compilation” directed by Dolan Polglaze and Jordan Kammeyer. Unrelated scenes from various Shakespearian plays were loosely stitched together by one enduring element: the bar. The aim of this show was to capture moments in time, highlighting the now, rather than the past or future, and it certainly achieved that goal. While watching, I was completely captivated, my eyes glued to the stage. Characters stumbled and laughed and screamed and cried, and while I didn’t understand the reasons for their emotions, I felt deeply connected to the feelings behind them. In the end, the KWP pulled off another incredible show. Chaotic, entertaining, and deeply confusing, I left with a huge smile on my face and the motivation to read more Shakespeare. Vivian Miyakawa Wondering where reporting on croquet is? Keep your eyes peeled for the next Gadfly for in-depth coverage! Page 2 I don’t know if I want to sit through that. I doubt very much that you’ll be bored at any point. My crew and I have taken pains to make the play as immersive as possible; I highly encourage you to just sit back and enjoy the ride. So, who plays the white whale? Well, I guess you’ll just have to come and see for yourself, won’t you? Ranger Kasdorf About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Helen Felbek Helen Wagner Meliha Anthony Ranger Kasdorf Vivian Miyakawa � 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 St. John's Collegian</em> Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.<br /><br />Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College 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. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian 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. 2 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 St. John's Collegian, April 25, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 10 of the St. John's Collegian, published April 25, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) 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 2024-04-25 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds 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 St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue10_2024-04-25 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/fda154b02efc6d042a755ac7ad4d7182.pdf 34203b7a42b21f00edafe2bc146a1429 PDF Text Text Thursday April 11 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication From the polity Collegian Publication Delay This column was intended to be filled by an article on the cases of pertussis, or whooping cough, currently on campus. Unfortunately, this article needs extra time for review and will appear in a future issue. The Collegian apologies to its readers for the delay this caused for the publication of the entire paper, and hopes to be able to publish the article shortly. In the meantime, we would like to encourage students with questions about the disease to check the CDC webpage, https://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/index.html. We hope the Polity stays healthy and safe, and takes appropriate precautions to ensure the best croquet weekend possible. The Collegian will, hopefully, resume regular its publication schedule in the next issue. Vol. II Issue 9 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis Croquet team prepares for match with navy Inside the Brilliant Minds of our (and their) Croqueteers As your faithful correspondents, namely myself and intrepid journalist Helen Felbek, were walking down front campus last Tuesday, they were enchanted by the warm sunlight lazily shining upon the flowers, and the general air of pacific Springtime of the Atlantic seaboard. This air might have a soporific effect on most, tempting many a Johnnie away from their books and into a nap on the pleasant grass of front campus. One dedicated group on campus, however, had sleep nowhere near their minds. Who, might you ask, if you had not read the title of this article, is this group? Well, ask no further friends, for the croquet team was found industriously practicing away at their art on their newly grown lawn. of playing a mean game of croquet. I asked Lane how she had been preparing for the game, and was told she was “just going to practice as much as possible.” She also made certain to send a message to the polity. “Croquet is not British.” In fact, it’s not even American: “it’s Irish.” The field was shared by Johnnies and Midshipmen, who had, in a gesture most gentlemanly, been invited to practice on our field to get a sense of our home turf. All was abuzz with activity, and your correspondents quickly set to work finding someone who could give the inside scoop on our croquet team. We made the natural choice of heading directly for the man with the most impressive hat, Imperial Wicket Angus Preston. What makes him so imperial, you may ask? Well, I asked him that myself, and was told, “the hat.” Jerome and Sunny, it turned out, were far more friendly than their military bearing might imply, although they were quite overconfident about their team’s chances. “I have zero doubts,” said Jerome. “We’re at a 100% confidence rate right now. There’s nothing that could knock that down. The whole brigade’s supporting us, and we’re feeling great.” He added that they have been preparing every day, practicing at a “secret location.” Preston seemed certain of victory. “I feel pretty confident. We have a pretty good team this year. We have a solid group of players, I think we’ll take them down.” Upon further inquiry, he informed me of the lineup for the game: “Sam and Charlie are on court one, Josh and I are on court two, Agnes and Peter are on court three, the party court. The next rotation will be Henry and Dalton on court one, Caden and Raquel on court two, and then Margaret and Ben on Court three.” My companion then asked what he does to prepare for the croquet game. “I like to listen to music,” said Preston. “Sicut Cervus?” asked Felbek. “Mostly new wave 80s,” he responded. With my natural curiosity, I had to ask what this year’s uniform will be for the team. Preston simply gave me an odd look, and said “You know, the Navy really does pride themselves on their fleets. That’s all I will say.” Drifting further along the field, we encountered two more Johnnies eagerly at work honing their croquet skills, Margret Lane, a member of the team and Meghan Scalley, not on the team, but still capable Having that fact sorted out, we proceeded across the green to a group of generally taller, more composed and intimidating individuals twirling their mallets menacingly: the Naval croquet team. Boldly, and fearlessly, your valiant writer approached them (only needing a little bit of urging from Felbek for courage) and asked for their names. Seeing this as my chance to confront power with truth, your noble correspondent asked them about the allegations that they falsely added Navy victories to the Annapolis cup over Covid and that they attempted to keep the trophy from us after our last victory. “No comment,” Jerome replied. My fellow newshound, Felbek, also had important questions to ask: “Why can’t the Navy carry their own mallets? Why do they need someone to carry them?” “That’s simply display,” Jerome attempted to argue, “of power, rank and intimidation.” Sunny ended the interview with a similar effect to strike fear in our unwavering hearts. “We have a very powerful team, with lots of strengths, made up of students from around the world. We are ready to show our talents.” With that, you faithful correspondents wandered off from the court, armed with plenty of new information about the match, which promises to be amongst the most exciting and heated in the annals of the Annapolis cup. We at the Collegian promise to keep you posted on the conditions surrounding the match on Saturday, and hopefully with an article commemorating our glorious victory. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 4/11: Aristotle: Physics, see official list for selections. 4/15: Aristotle: Physics, see official list for selections Sophomores: 4/11: Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II, Chapters 1, 2 (#12–27), 3 4/15: J. S. Bach: St. Matthew Passion Juniors: 4/11: Kant: Foundations of Metaphysics of Morals. Remainder of Section II; Section III 4/15: Swift: Gulliver’s Travels. “Advertisement,” “Letter from Gulliver,” “Publisher to Reader,” I, II Seniors: 4/11: Selected speeches of Abraham Lincoln, Fredrick Douglass and Booker T. Washington 4/15: W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk, see official list for selections. Saturday, 4/13: Annapolis Cup, 10:30 am, Front Campus. Game starts at noon. Cotillion Waltz, 8 pm, Mellon Lobby Sunday 4/14 KWP’s Shakespeare Compilation, 7 pm, FSK Auditorium. Wednesday 4/17: Francis Scott Key Book Signing, noon, bookstore. The legacy of Francis Scott Key, Class of 1796 Panel, 7:30 pm, FSK auditorium. Friday Night Lecture: All College Seminar on Diego Velasquez’ the Spinners and Ovid’s Metamorphoses Page 1 �Thursday April 11, 2024 St. John’s Collegian From the old collegian: Class of 1924: Graduating amidst change and transition In order to fill space meant for the pertussis article, I reached into the College’s digital archives for material. I thought it might be nice to see another senior class, 100 years ago, looking back on its four years. The class of 1924 graduated right after the disbanding of the military program, and their class history, reproduced here in part, reflects that time of change. On glancing back on our first three years, everything is softened as if seen through a haze, appears; the darker things are blotted out while the pleasant happenings of these years are rendered even brighter by reflection. The path that we trod as Freshmen, though at that time it seemed the proverbial “thorny path” of the “rat”; yet now, under the modifying influence of time, seems to have been at least pleasant... In our Sophomore year, we had a very efficient G.O.H. [Grand Order of Hazers, an organization which for many years flourished on campus, until the end of the military program.] and did our maternal duty towards the Freshmen faithfully and well. We now come to the Junior year, a year fraught with many important events for our class. The Junior year is the most peculiar year of the college course. It is the year which determines the success or failure of a college career; men who have not hitherto worked still have a chance to retrieve their lost opportunities. and to place themselves in a position to graduate with their class…Unquestionably, the most considerable achievement of our Junior year was the publication of the RAT TAT [yearbook]… Undoubtedly, the greatest contribution of our class to the good of the school was through the Dramatic Club… plays were presented not only at St. John 's, but also at many of the important towns on the Eastern and Western Shores… In future years, owing to the activity of several members of the Class of '24, the Dramatic Club will be a permanent feature at St. John's and a college-wide organization… Our class has always showed up well in the Military Department… At the beginning of this year, with the abolition of the old military code, and drill only once a week, apprehension was felt for the welfare of the Military Department… …We have succeeded in publishing a "Collegian " that has been declared by many disinterested parties the best ever published. I have tried to tell, simply, the story of the Class of 1924. I have doubtless made mistakes, and it is too late now to rectify them. However, we may say to the other classes… “Let each subordinate all other interests to class loyalty, and disregarding trivial differences and jealousies, work for her glory.” Come for me vol. iii Continued Conversation on Orgasms In my past two articles I have talked about pleasure solely in the context of orgasm. In this interview my friend and I discuss sexual experiences where orgasm is not necessarily the goal and pleasure as a multifaceted phenomenon. In the pursuit of orgasm, I believe that it is important to discuss the experiences that make orgasm possible. AB: When you masturbate is orgasm always the goal? Anon 2: The thing about orgasming is, it’s nice when it happens, but it doesn’t always have to happen. Sex with two people is not defined by orgasm, and that doesn’t necessarily detract from the experience, so I don’t see why it would be any different when having sex with yourself. When I masturbate exploration and pleasure are my goals, not orgasm, because it’s too much pressure. AB: What does that intentional exploration look like for you? Anon 2: Stimulation doesn’t always have to be overtly sexual for it to be pleasurable. For myself, there’s been times when I’ve been uncomfortable with how my arms, legs or stomach looked, and so when a partner touches them, I’ve shied away from both the touch and from allowing that experience to be sensual. But by consciously touching parts of my body that I’m uncomfortable with when masturbating, I’ve allowed those parts to be sensual and seen that the whole body really can bring you pleasure. I think many people are scared of their bodies and scared of touching their bodies, and they don’t have to be. AB: On the topic of touch, I know that for some people there is a feeling of “too much” that can be confused with orgasm, and/or limit them from reaching orgasm. Anon: With a partner, I’ve definitely experiencedwhat I would call being “touched-out” or overstimulation which has prevented me from orgasming. It often happens when there are a lot of different types of touch or when I’ve been touched in many different places. It might have been pleasurable the whole way through, but even still prevents me from reaching orgasm. Now I don’t think I’ve experienced it with sex toys because when I use them, I usually get straight to the point. With my own hands, certainly, because I could just spend hours touching myself if I wanted to, and that doesn’t have to be just clit or just inside, but the whole body. It can both ways though, there are sometimes when I’ve felt touched out and had an explosive orgasm, but there have also been times where I’ve reached a wall. AB: What do you mean by explosive orgasm? Anon: There are so many different types of orgasm. They can be big, small, loud, quiet, localized or radiating throughout the body. They can look so different for one person and definitely from person to person. But for me explosive orgasms build until you reach the climax and then there is a sense of utter relief and pleasure. I find the experiences of squirting and gushing in some ways gender affirming because men get to cum and I can too, but in a different way. Allyson Brink Page 2 Vol. II. Issue 9 Campus news updates Campus Gathers Together to Watch Partial Solar Eclipse Hundreds of Johnnies gathered all around campus last Monday afternoon: in blankets on the back lawn, in the Mellon observatory, and down by College creek. It seemed like the entire campus was out, eyes fixed upon the heavens, as the moon’s shadow passed across the sun. Annapolis did not experience a full solar eclipse, but much of the sun was covered, with the light growing eerily dim and the air cooling down substantially. The observatory was distributing eclipse glasses, but soon ran out, as the demand for them outstripped the supply. Still, almost everyone got at least a chance to see this dramatic solar phenomenon. DC President Ali Shawamreh Reinstated Olive Shawarma was overthrown by the combined forces of Rachels Hauben and Rozsa, Ladies of the Underquad and Overquad respectively, and Ali Shawamreh was returned to power. Limericks and Sonnets were delivered, and the return of Shawamreh was celebrated with a rousing round of Sicut Cervus. About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Allyson Brink Aphorism of the Week: Mathematics: Sometimes pornography is used because we have no patience for relationship. � 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 St. John's Collegian</em> Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.<br /><br />Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College 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. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian 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. 2 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 St. John's Collegian, April 11, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 9 of the St. John's Collegian, published April 11, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) 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 2024-04-11 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds 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 St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue9_2024-04-11_v3 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/1a97fb10e2121d3f43ebecbb1b9f880c.mp3 52cee81253de3cf4d78527d9f60c3b0c 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/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>.  <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:53:46 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 Universalisms Partially Applied: On Locke's and Kant's Racisms Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture delivered on November 14, 2008, by Robert Bernasconi as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bernasconi, Robert 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 2008-11-14 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to tape the lecture that I shall give in Annapolis; make a recording of my lecture available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Subject The topic of the resource Slave trade Race--Philosophy Race relations--Philosophy Locke, John, 1632-1704 Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804 Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context LEC_Bernasconi_Robert_2008-11-14_ac Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/34517571309a49129c2749eb14abb287.mp4 8f83ddb45929deb134268cd7aafc1b94 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 Graduate Institute Summer Lecture Series Description An account of the resource The Wednesday Night Lecture Series, hosted during the summer term by the Graduate Institute at St. John’s College in Annapolis, is a less-formal version of the college’s formal Friday Night Lectures. The Wednesday Night lectures are an opportunity for tutors and for graduates of the college who are pursuing academic careers to present the first fruits of their thinking to an attentive and inquisitive audience. The lectures, held in the King William Room of the Barr-Buchanan Center at 7:30 p.m., with a question period afterward in a neighboring classroom, are free and open to the public.<br /><br />For more information, and for a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a title="Summer lecture series" href="https://www.sjc.edu/annapolis/events/lectures/summer-wednesday-night-lecture-series" target="_blank">St. John's College website</a></strong>.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Graduate Institute Summer Lecture Series" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=31">Items in the Graduate Institute Summer Lecture Series 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 Moving Image A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data streaming video Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 01:03:10 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 Modern Technology and Modern Discourse Description An account of the resource Video recording of a lecture delivered by Annapolis tutor Lee Goldsmith on June 12, 2024, as part of the Graduate Institute Summer Lecture Series. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Goldsmith, Lee 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 2024-06-12 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Signed permissions form have been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to make an audiovisual recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John's College Greenfield Library and to make an audiovisual recording of my lecture available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource moving image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Subject The topic of the resource Humanities Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Boyle, Brendan Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context LEC_Goldsmith_Lee_2024-06-12_ac Graduate Institute Summer lecture series Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/32279ecd59b15a40cb0c6687d90564a3.mp3 ec91f70a7296b544e8d90d8976d5ec4f 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/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>.  <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:55:24 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 Francis Bacon and the Socratic Turn Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture delivered on April 16, 1999, by Adam Schulman as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Schulman, Adam 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 1999-04-16 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received granting St. John's College blanket permission to: "Make recordings of my lectures, speeches, and addresses available online. Make typescript copies of my lectures, speeches, and addresses available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Subject The topic of the resource Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626 Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context LEC_Schulman_Adam_1999-04-16_ac Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/a542b12f4a78f7a46d42b828ecbcaa34.pdf 2bc65410cf3101c56eb6f35f26376361 PDF Text Text ��������� 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 St. John's College Lecture Transcripts—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College at the Santa Fe, NM campus. 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 paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 9 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 Concept of Truth in the Book of Genesis Description An account of the resource Transcript of a lecture given by tutor Phil LeCuyer on April 14, 2023 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: "Join tutor Phil LeCuyer for a lecture on the Book of Genesis with a focus on Chapter 24." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource LeCuyer, Phillip 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 Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2023-04-14 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Meem Library has been given permission to make this item available online. 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 Bible. Genesis Truth Relation A related resource <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7745">https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7745</a> Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SF_LeCuyerP_The_Concept_of_Truth_in_the_Book_of_Genesis_2023-04-14_transcript Friday night lecture Worrell lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/7c8691672ab0013c653265ae04ca6fe6.mp3 64760d87e4c28f16c9b6f912200a9d8f 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/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. 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Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data CD Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 01:00:47 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 Rousseau's Chemical Apprenticeship Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture given on April 18, 2014, by Christopher Kelly as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kelly, Christopher, 1950- 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 2014-04-18 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Greenfield Library has permission to make this item available online. Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Subject The topic of the resource Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778. Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context LEC_Kelly_Christopher_2014-04-18_ac Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/d400f01b6f70d2cf52fe3aaa349b4938.pdf b30c4673b1f9be95f122bb769e87dc7e PDF Text Text Clima(c)tic Change: Twenty Million Hands and the Living, Wavering Globe [Mia slides] Last August, I heard an NPR discussion1 of climate change in relation to the Inflation Reduction Act, a bill designating almost $800 billion to energy security and climate change. The show’s host emphasized that, per the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the IPCC), fossil fuel usage must fall dramatically within ten years to keep Earth’s warming by 2100 below 1.5°C.2 She asked the Director of the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning, “Is this process that we’re currently following going to get us there?” To my astonishment, Ms. Stone-Manning replied, “Yes. Yes is the answer.” The unequivocal answer was surprising given the BLM’s equivocal charge: as manager of federal lands, one of its responsibilities is to award oil and gas leases.3 So, somehow, partly as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act, we will as a nation, albeit a politically divided one, meet requirements to limit warming to 1.5°C while still doling out oil and gas leases and without asking our citizenry to make substantative behavioral changes. Ms. Stone-Manning’s response reminded me of the 2015 Paris Climate Accords, which the United States initially joined, before withdrawing under President Trump and re-joining under President Biden. These Accords set as their upper target 2°C of warming by 2100 and their ideal target as 1.5°C. The latter requires a 50% cut in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. What distressed me about the 1 The show was “1A,” hosted by Jenn White. It aired on August 12, 2023. What Ms. White actually said is this: “The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has repeatedly said that the world has to phase out fossil fuels quickly to keep earth’s warming below 1.5 °C increase, which we are currently not on track to do… Time is of the essence. We have a limited amount of time – again by 2035, the UN Intergovernmental Panel says we have to phase out fossil fuels to keep the earth’s warming below that 1.5 °C increase.” Per the IPCC 6th assessment report, fossil fuel emissions need to be reduced 50% by 2030 and 100% by 2050 to limit warming to 1.5 °C by 2100. Ms. White’s imprecision is symptomatic of a broader problem: the implication that fossil fuels have to be entirely phased out by 2035 can only signify how little she has imagined the difficulty of merely reducing them by half in that time period. And, by the way, what happens after 2100? 3 An even more egregious example of such ambivalence (the word is mild) is how the United Arab Emirates, host of the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), planned, per a BBC review of leaked documents, to use that conference to pursue oil and gas deals with foreign governments. But is this really surprising when the President of the COP28 happens also to be the CEO of the UAE’s giant state oil company? 2 1 �Accords, however, was that the agreed-upon means in no conceivable way could meet that goal. The modeling studies grounding the Accords clearly showed that. In fact, annual global greenhouse gas emissions are higher now than they were in 2015.4 The Accords set 2030 as their deadline for a 50% cut; over half of that time has elapsed; and we are further from that goal now than when we started (slide).5 Fundamental reasons explain why we’ve made so little progress cutting greenhouse gases, reasons which we haven’t seriously confronted politically or socially. We may think, for example, that electric cars will save us; we even call them, falsely, “emissions-free vehicles.” This falsehood epitomizes the problem. We are too comfortable imagining vehicles have no emissions if we see no tail pipes. We forget that the missing tail pipe is actually a power plant’s smokestack. Such forgetfulness is encouraged by those who understand that part of what they’re selling is a clean conscience, moreover one which allows us to get on with our lives without substantively changing them. Even if we correct this forgetfulness, we too comfortably believe the gases causing climate change are mostly the consequence of vehicles and residences; hence the solution is electric cars and solar panels. Globally, however, ground transportation and residential sources account for only a third of annual anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Our fossil-fuel dependence goes well beyond vehicles and homes.6 4 There’s discrepancy among reported global greenhouse gas emissions, in part depending on whether only CO2 is considered or CO2 plus other gasses and actions (which collectively are called “CO2 equivalents [CO2e]”). In terms of CO2, 2022 estimates range from 36.1 (Liu, Deng, Davis and Ciais [2023] Nature Reviews Earth and Environment 4: 205 – 6) to 36.8 Gt CO2 (the International Energy Agency’s 2022 report, “CO2 emissions in 2022”). Preliminary 2023 data suggest CO2 increased another 1.1% from 2022 (https://globalcarbonbudget.org/fossil-co2-emissions-atrecord-high-in-2023/). As for CO2e, the UN’s emissions gap report (https://doi.org/10.59117/20.500.11822/43922) gives a 2022 value of 57.4 Gt. Whether measuring CO2 or CO2e, these reports agree that the corresponding 2015 value was lower (e.g., 35.6 Gt CO2 or 47 Gt CO2e). Differences in estimates may also reflect treatment of natural but extraordinary emissions, as from forest fires. For example, the 2023 Canadian forest fires collectively burned an area the size of Washington state and produced ~3 times the CO2 emitted annually by all of Canada, but some approaches would omit these sources as extraordinary and natural. Yet it is foreseeable that such sources will soon become ordinary, and whether a source is “natural” or not will have no effect on how much the planet warms. 5 Put otherwise, it’s estimated that we can afford to add a cumulative total of about 250 Gt of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere to give ourselves a 50% chance of keeping warming below 1.5 °C; we’re currently on pace to emit that much carbon dioxide within ~ 7 years. Lamboll et al. (2023) Assessing the size and uncertainty of remaining carbon budgets. Nature Climate Change. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01848-5. 6 The children’s book Petro Pete’s Big Bad Dream describes some of the dramatic changes in our everyday lives should fossil fuels abruptly disappear or not be used. It has been widely criticized as Big Oil’s attempt to brainwash 2 �In particular let me call attention to four material mainstays of modern civilization which are fossil-fuel intensive: plastic, steel, concrete and ammonia fertilizers. Collectively they require ~20% of the world’s primary energy supply and generate at least 25% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions.7 Consider all the plastic you handle every day. Consider the steel and plastic required for even an electric car. Consider the steel, plastic and concrete needed for solar-panel installation and building construction, including LEEDcertified green buildings. Consider projections that plastic production will double by 2045 (slide) and the world’s building stock by 2060. That latter is equivalent to building a new New York City every month of every year between now and then.8 Consider the immense quantities of fertilizer needed to sustain 8 billion people and their animals.9 Consider how energy-intensive food production in the western world is, where every calorie of food requires about a dozen calories of fossil fuels, and where in the United States, 30-40% of that food is thrown away.10 Consider, in short, how fossil-fuel intensive a transition to a green economy will necessarily be. Now ask yourself: what dream are we dreaming, which says we can go green without really changing? That message is loudly proclaimed by many on the left: “Let’s have a green revolution,” they say, “so we don’t have to change!” Can there be revolution without profound change? Many on the left say, make fairly minor changes so you don’t really have to change. Many on the right say, it’s all an exaggeration or a hoax, change isn’t needed; if anything, we should change back. Instead of focusing on the disagreement between right and left, notice their substantive agreement. The difference is between not changing and changing very little.11 kids. This criticism is undoubtedly true – but that doesn’t make the cascading effects of our fossil-fuel dependence, to which the story calls attention, untrue. To conclude the latter from the former is its own kind of brainwashing. 7 Smil, How the World Really Works, p. 78. 8 The NYC analogue is from Reilly O’Hara around the 10-minute mark in Peter O’Dowd’s “A ‘concrete’ solution to climate change”: https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2023/12/07/concrete-climate-change-solution. 9 ~15% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are due to livestock farming, to satisfy our desire for meat. 10 For the dozen calories claim, see Ghosh (2016), The Great Derangement, p. 147. 30-40% is the USDA’s estimate. 11 Right and left often arrive at opposite conclusions from the same premise, or, as in this case, (basically) the same conclusion from opposite premises. Such phenomena are marks that something other than thinking is happening. 3 �Should we take seriously that climate change is an exaggeration, a hoax, mere, self-interested alarmism? On the one hand, of course we should. The computer models which divide the earth into enormous numbers of grid squares and try to calculate the consequences of every significant biological, chemical and physical process in each square are beyond the critical ken of a human mind. A projection 100 years into the future requires a million billion calculations (slide). Many are simply parameterizations of phenomena we don’t understand. The interdisciplinarity upon which climate research rests is also often authority-driven – collaborative in the mode of deference more than of criticism. Major incentives to jump on the climate-change bandwagon exist, including career and funding incentives. We’d be naïve to imagine all that away, as, even more importantly, we’d be naïve not to wonder about the competence which synthesizes so much specialized knowledge, assuming we can tell what is and isn’t knowledge. On the other hand, warranted skepticism does not deliver us to the knowledge that it’s all a hoax. Far from it. We’ve had warnings, growing in clarity and urgency, since a pioneering paper by Arrhenius in 1896.12 In 1938, Callendar calculated that the planet had warmed ~0.25°C over the previous half-century due to CO2 production by fuel combustion. He then developed a basic model which predicted that around 420 ppm atmospheric CO2 we should expect ~1°C of warming relative to 1938 (slide).13 We are now around 420 ppm CO2 and we’ve had ~1°C of warming relative to 1938. Since then models have become more complicated and refined, offering high-resolution predictions of what global temperature increases mean at regional scales; they’ve added ocean and atmospheric circulation and positive and negative feedbacks; they’ve incorporated responses of the living world; they’ve even charted possible social and political responses. But the problem’s basic contours, the relation of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel combustion to planetary warming and the consequent dangers, have 12 Arrhenius’ Swedish colleague, the mostly forgotten Arvid Högbom, actually called attention to the problem in 1894, which in part stimulated Arrhenius to examine it more carefully in his theoretical 1896 paper. By 1904, Arrhenius concluded that the planet would warm due to human activities, though probably in a beneficial way. 13 See Callendar (1938) Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 64: 223 – 40, particularly Fig. 2. 4 �been reasonably well understood for decades. To some degree we’ve allowed ourselves to be distracted by seeking ever-greater refinements of the simulacra by which we make this problem visible, as if simulacra could stand in for the world where that problem must be addressed and as if the indefinite pursuit of knowledge weren’t itself a deferral of behavioral change. Accepting then that climate change is real, how alarmed should we be? After all, the world has had higher CO2 concentrations than now. The last time the planet had comparable CO2 concentrations was 4.3 million years ago in the mid-Pliocene; the planet was about 3°C warmer than now. That may not sound like a lot, given diurnal temperature changes in New Mexico of ~15°C and seasonal ones of ~20. But those 3°C corresponded to a planet many would find unfamiliar, with sea levels 75 feet higher than today, Florida a mere nub and southeastern Mexico under water (slide). Our nearest relative 4 million years ago was Australopithecus; it would be another million years before the genus Homo appeared. Obviously, there weren’t 8 billion people on earth. Human civilization 4.3 million years ago was still roughly 4.3 million years in the future – a reminder that civilization is young. Besides different atmospheric CO2 concentrations, earth has also had dramatically different past temperature regimes. It has been much colder – I’m not talking Pleistocene ice ages, but something more extreme – Snowball Earth episodes 600 to 700 million years ago when the planet was close to globally glaciated (slide). The planet has also been much warmer, including during the Cretaceous hothouse 110 million years ago and, 56 million years ago, the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, when the poles were ice-free and alligators swam in an Arctic lined by palm trees. If it comforts you to know the planet can handle much colder and warmer temperatures, if you think that means there’s nothing to worry about, consider rates of change.14 During the Cretaceous hothouse, the planet warmed about 0.000025°C per century, for a total warming of 5°C over millions of years. During the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, the rate of warming was a thousand times 14 The rates which follow are from Kump (2011) Scientific American July: 56 – 61. 5 �faster: 0.025°C per hundred years, again for a total warming of 5°C over tens of thousands of years – a warming coincident with an extinction event.15 In contrast, we’ve already warmed about 1°C in the last century, with future warming projected at as much as 5.7°C by 2100, depending on what we do (slide). That 5.7°C, equivalent to the warming which occurred over millions of years during the Cretaceous hothouse and tens of thousands of years during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, is according to the IPCC’s least optimistic emissions scenario, but that scenario is the one which most accurately matches actual cumulative emissions since 2005, predicting them within 1%.16 The, to-my-eye unrealistic, goal of the Paris Climate Accords is to limit warming to a mere 1.5-to-2°C this century. We’re banking on that, with most of us not realizing how dramatic a rate of planetary warming that actually is, to say nothing of what may happen after 2100.17 These numbers make even more sense from another angle: it took hundreds of millions of years to accumulate fossil fuel reserves which we’ve injected into the atmosphere over a few centuries (and most in one century). In terms of biogeochemical cycles, that’s a discrepancy in rates of six orders of magnitude. In short, the rate of planetary perturbation is extraordinary, especially in the context of the relative stability of climate which has pertained for most of the period civilization has flourished.18 That 15 It’s not surprisingly unclear whether or how the extinction event (which was marine) and the warming are linked. Another dramatic change in planetary temperature occurred during the Eocene-Oligocene Transition between 33.9 and 33.4 million years ago, when the planet cooled as much as 0.01 °C per century (Paleoceanography 11(3): 25166, 1996). This also coincided with a significant terrestrial and marine extinction event. 16 Schwalm, Glendon and Duffy (2020) RCP8.5 tracks cumulative CO2 emissions. PNAS 117 (33): 19656 – 7. 17 The Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events during the last glacial period are the closest analogues to our current situation of which I’m aware, in terms of scale and rate of warning. Ice-core evidence suggests that, around 11,500 years ago, the Greenland ice sheet warmed ~ 8°C in about half a century. How this extreme warming event in Greenland corresponded to the planet as a whole is uncertain; contemporaneous ice cores from Antarctica show less and slower warming. If we assume nonetheless that the warming was global in extent, we can do a back-ofthe-envelope comparison as follows: since the Arctic is currently warming ~ 4 times faster than the global average, an 8-degree warming over Greenland in 50 years is roughly comparable to ~ 4 degrees of present-day global warming in a century – well within what’s possible per current projections. The warming 11,500 years ago was short-lived, however (half a century, followed by centuries of slower cooling) in contrast to present expectations, which anticipate up to 5.7°C by 2100 and quite possibly further warming thereafter. 18 Indeed, abrupt civilization collapses, as occurred nearly synchronously with the Akkadian (Sargonic) empire, the Egyptian Old Kingdom and possibly the Indus Valley civilization, are strongly correlated with abrupt climatic shifts (e.g., Weiss et al. [1993] Science 261: 995 – 1004). 6 �rate of change is a more threatening aspect of climate change than the fact of warming. We are not just facing a world of enhanced drought and intensified storms, where the Great Salt Lake becomes an empty basin and metropolises drain dry the aquifers on which they rely and rest,19 while sea levels gradually rise and forest fires rage. We are facing a world which is fundamentally and rapidly reorganizing; where the last calendar year, 2023, was possibly the hottest in the last 100,000 years but likely won’t hold that record for long;20 where, in most of our lifetimes, the Arctic’s radiation-reflecting, heat-reducing toupee of sea ice, whose maximum extent twenty years ago was 14 million square kilometers, will disappear seasonally;21 and where, partly as a consequence of the melting sea ice, a major conveyer of heat on the planet, the Atlantic Meriodonal Overturning Circulation, will dramatically weaken or even shut down,22 fundamentally changing the distribution of heat on earth (slide). This will matter not just to us but to innumerable organisms who, like us, depend on fairly predictable patterns which already are becoming unreliable. It’s not clear that most organisms and ecosystems can respond fast enough. In the Pleistocene ice ages a primary response was migration – moving north and south and up and down mountains as ice advanced and retreated. But those migrations typically occurred over longer timescales than we face, and, perhaps even more importantly, 19 Per a recent study of ~ 75% of global groundwater withdrawals, aquifer declines have accelerated dramatically in the last 40 years for a third of all regional aquifers, while groundwater declines > 0.5 m/year are widespread (Jasechko et al [2024] Nature 625: 715 -21). Major metropolises, such as Tehran (population 13 million) and Mexico City (22 million), are seeing subsidence rates of up to 50 cm/year due to groundwater depletion, with projections that large sections of Mexico City will be without reliable water within months (which pertains already to some parts of the city; Paddison et al., 2/25/24, “One of the world’s biggest cities may be months away from running out of water,” CNN). Subsidence due largely to water withdrawal is also being measured not in inches but in feet in parts of California’s Central Valley (Dan Charles, All things considered [NPR], 7/23/21), source of over half of all nuts, fruits and vegetables grown in the US. Subsidence poses obvious risks to infrastructure, but even these risks are dwarfed by the impending, local exhaustion of freshwater in large parts of the world. 20 Schmidt (2024) Nature 627: 467. 21 When I started graduate school in 1999, a seasonally ice-free Arctic was predicted for around 2100. When I finished graduate school in 2006, a small number of studies suggested it could happen by 2050. Now it’s looking increasingly likely that it could happen in the 2030’s: e.g., Kim et al. (2023) Nature Communications 14: 3139. 22 Zhu et al. (2023) Nature Communications 14: 1245; van Westen et al. (2024) Sci. Adv. 10, eadk1189. 7 �on a planet much less fragmented by human-created barriers.23 We are currently in the midst of the 7th mass extinction event24 in earth’s metazoan history, with extinction rates a thousand times greater than background. We should worry, how much worse will it get?25 In lieu of imagining all species as rugged individuals with independent fates, we should also worry about how interconnected the ecological world is and how linked many of our fates may be. So here we are, faced with an ongoing mass extinction event and dramatic rates of planetary change. What are we doing? We are persisting in the dream that we can carry on more or less as we imagine we always have, that necessary changes are only on the fringes. Indeed, the Inflation Reduction Act sets aside $161 million to restore landscapes to historic conditions, because, according to the BLM Director, “a restored landscape is more naturally in balance… [T]hat natural cycle that has been with us for the millennia, that’s what we need to strive to restore...”26 Setting aside the question of whether nature has ever really been in balance, setting aside as well the question of what we mean by nature (slide), we still should confront the smaller question – why are we trying to restore natural cycles of past millennia in a dramatically changed and changing world? I see groups dedicated to eradicating alien species. I hear in the ecological register a disturbing echo of a terrifying political project. It really worries me. But I also don’t understand what our thinking is, to eradicate immigrant species when the scale of planetary change likely can be met for many organisms, probably including humans, only by massive 23 One political response to challenges partly due to climate change has been to reify borders – to build walls – and not just in the US (e.g., Poland’s 185-km wall on its border with Belarus; Hungary’s 320-km wall separating it from Serbia and Croatia; Lithuania’s 480-km wall, also on its border with Belarus; Finland’s proposed 1300-km wall on its Russian border; and India’s ongoing efforts to wall 75% of its 4000 km border with Bangladesh.) The Akkadian empire did the same thing, building a 180-km wall to repel migrants, in its failed effort to stave off its own climatechange-associated collapse in the early bronze age. Walls will be catastrophic not only for humans but other animals. Moreover, walls will wall in as well as wall out; in a changing world a wall will inevitably be two-edged. 24 Accepting the Capitanian as a mass extinction event in the mid-Permian. 25 Even seemingly small changes in planetary heat can have surprising consequences. A marine heat-wave of between +0.5 and +3°C in the bottom waters of the eastern Bering Sea in 2018-19 is thought to have led to the deaths of >10 billion snow crab – not because they couldn’t endure the heat, but because the higher temperatures enhanced their metabolic requirements, leading to famine and cannibalism. A water temperature change from 0°C to 3°C can double a crab’s caloric requirements in the laboratory. See Szuwalski et al. (2023) Science 308: 306-310. 26 As quoted in the NPR interview cited earlier. 8 �migration – and I wonder, what is it exactly that we’re trying to preserve, and why? Is this another manifestation of how we want to have a revolution without changing, of how we want, as it were, to spin our wheels? I observed earlier that civilization is young. In roughly 10,000 years, we’ve gone from Neolithic clusters to New York City, while the global human population has exploded (slide). When Socrates lived, the world probably hosted about 100 million people, roughly the same number as now live in just three cities: Tokyo, Jakarta and Delhi. It took all of human history to reach a billion people around 1800; and another century-plus to reach 2 billion when my grandmother was born. When my mother was born, 2.5 billion people lived on earth. When my sister was born 25 years later, there were 4 billion. In 2022 we hit 8 billion, with 11 billion expected by 2100. Let me state the obvious: this enormous growth has occurred in nearly exact conjunction with our intensive utilization of fossil fuels.27 This should impress upon us our extreme dependence on fossil fuels, even while we imagine we can painlessly switch to new energy sources without substantively changing our lives. In fact, per the Inflation Reduction Act, we plan to restore natural cycles to patterns from the last millennia, as if the dramatic transformation of earth by human activities over those same millennia doesn’t really count. If we wish to be serious about climate change, we must do much more. We must let go of many familiar things. We must understand that restoration is mostly off-the-table, or else is a nostalgic aesthetic illusion. We must stop pretending we can achieve a transformation without parallel in human history on the back of only minor inconveniences. Two paths stretch before us (slide). One relies almost exclusively on technology, whether existent technology yet to be built to scale, or technology that doesn’t even exist, in the hopes that it will deliver us from having to make substantive changes (as if technology itself weren’t a substantive change) – and, further, in the hopes that it doesn’t have unforeseen consequences, though history is rife with 27 Likewise, India’s and China’s rise as global powers is not coincidentally linked to their intensive use of fossil fuels. 9 �those consequences – not least of which is climate change. I call this path the path of techno-theology. Rather than praying to the storm god to have mercy on us, we will pray to AI.28 This path leads, inevitably, to geo-engineering – or rather, to further geo-engineering.29 For, against the backdrop of our increasing awareness of its planetary consequences, what has our massive utilization of fossil fuels become but a kind of geo-engineering? The oceanographers Revelle and Suess observed in 1957 that “human beings are now carrying out a large-scale geophysical experiment … that could not have happened in the past nor be reproduced in the future. Within a few centuries we are returning to the atmosphere and oceans the concentrated organic matter stored in sedimentary rocks over hundreds of millions of years.”30 Doesn’t such a large-scale experiment sound like geo-engineering? That is not to say it’s a geo-engineering with a master engineer in charge. Like every human endeavor it’s been some combination of chosen and fallen into, conscious and unconscious. But so will any future geoengineering be as well. I dread the day when a rogue nation or trillionaire unilaterally commits earth to another uncontrolled experiment in the name of salvation. I dread the mind-set which imagines we’re sufficiently self-present to undertake the governance of the natural world, the dominion over the universe which Bacon prophesied,31 or which imagines that dominion is instead the province of AI. I dread the ideologies, so many already in circulation, which will justify any action in terms, not of the existential threat of a changing planet, but of the absolute supremacy of human beings and of sub-groups among them. It seems to me this is the track we are most likely to follow, because of that Sirens’ song it sings to 28 This possibility is already nascent in Bacon, for example in the 129th aphorism of Book I of the New Organon, with its emphasis on the divine honors owed inventors and its claim that the benefits of these inventors’ discoveries serve all mankind and last all time. 29 My objection to geoengineering is in the metaphysical comportment underlying it, as I will discuss later. Insofar as we foresee that our actions necessarily have planetary consequences and modulate (or don’t) those actions in accordance with the consequences we anticipate, we are in some fashion geoengineers – as I am suggesting here. 30 Tellus (1957) 9(1): 18 – 27. 31 Aphorism 129 of Book 1 of The New Organon. 10 �us that we won’t have to change – though that promise is a lie, and we will eventually discover ourselves as changed as Milton’s fallen angels. Among the forms of this techno-theology is the technological creation of illusions we desire – the technological creation of a cave we like. We don’t want just to geo-engineer the world; we want to retreat from the world that is into one of our own devising. This comes to mind when I consider the Fabian allure of massive climate simulations, but no less when I consider the aptly-named Marvel Cinematic Universe. Or when I watch parents at playgrounds engrossed not by children but by phones.32 Or when I ponder why cars are so important to us, those wheeled would-be biospheres with their own entertainment systems and climate control. These are all, at least in part, escapes, caves we retreat to in order not to stare at the sun or to feel its heat. Fear no more the heat o’ the sun, thinks Virginia Woolf’s character Clarissa Dalloway as she prepares her party and contemplates her mortality; fear no more the heat o’ the sun, thinks another of Woolf’s characters, Septimus Warren Smith, even as he is about to plunge holding his treasure (slide). They’re both quoting a line from a funeral dirge in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline; and this retreat I’m describing, this techno-theological embrace of the cave, this path which I think we’re mostly following, is in equal measure that song of sorrow which declares we are afraid to live. Well we should be! It takes gigantic courage to live even a single day. That’s the techno-theological path stretching before us – the path of technological illusion and of god-like faith in technology, but also of retreat into made-up worlds, the bubbles of social media, CGI and cars, while in our hearts suspecting this also deforms us and tears us apart. The other path, the more difficult and the more hopeful one, places the burden of response and responsibility not only on technology, though we will need it, but on ourselves. It rejects that we are helpless to change or that our 32 We can no longer imagine even taking a neighborhood stroll without a computer in our pockets whose memory is millions of times, and processing speed hundreds of thousands of times, that of the computers which first put a man on the Moon. 10% of worldwide electricity generation goes into information and computing systems – according to Roy Scranton (Learning to Die in the Anthropocene), roughly the same amount of electricity as was needed to illuminate the globe in 1985. 11 �only hope of change is to convince politicians and corporations to make changes for us. We have become shockingly accustomed to imagining ourselves as mere followers and our politicians, for whom we frequently express disdain, as nonetheless leaders. They’re not necessarily leaders; in this country, they are first and foremost our representatives. The difficult, more hopeful path begins by taking seriously that they do represent us; that corporations do too; that what we behold in them is a representation of what we are. While it’s comforting and not wholly false to imagine tycoons making gzillions of dollars off of us helpless dupes, we must take seriously that what they sold us we also wanted. Let me underline this point with a recent example. Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, excited outrage last month when he blamed the public for climate inaction: “The dirty secret nobody talks about is how much all this is going to cost and who’s willing to pay for it. The people who are generating those emissions [i.e., all of us – LW] need to be aware of and pay the price for generating [them]. That is… how you solve the problem.” Setting aside the likely hypocrisy, self-interest and poor faith of Woods’ claim, we nonetheless need to hear its truth, rather than quickly condemning it as, according to The Guardian newspaper, “[an] attempt to skirt climate accountability.”33 Such condemnations are their own variety of skirting accountability. Indeed, the climate activist group 350.org specifically exonerated all of us when it used Woods’ claim to motivate a petition which read, “Fossil fuel giants like ExxonMobil are to blame for the climate crisis – not us. If you agree, add your name” (slide).34 Likewise The Guardian article cited a climate economist who compared Woods to a drug lord “blaming everyone but himself for drug problems.” But if a drug lord is culpable, does that mean drug users are not? I am alarmed by so limited a notion of freedom, according to which we accept ourselves as powerless rather than endure even a modicum of responsibility – as if freedom didn’t imply responsibility but instead was freedom from 33 I am referring to the article by Dharna Noor and Oliver Milman published on 3/4/24 in The Guardian I’m quoting their 3/15/24 email with the subject line “Exxon CEO just blamed the climate crisis on the public.” A subsequent email on 3/23/24 expanded the list of the guilty: “Last month was the ninth consecutive hottest month on record, ever. The climate crisis is here, and the culprit is the fossil fuel industry. But they are not alone – utility companies are also responsible.” Once again, however, we consumers are off the hook. 34 12 �responsibility. This desired freedom from responsibility fuels the dream that we can meet the extraordinary challenges facing us without having to change substantively. We too easily accept that our civic responsibility is to consume rather than sacrifice, to vote on occasion, to write a check to a political candidate, PAC, party or charity or, less often, to go to a protest, even while none of these demands what is more fundamentally needed: that each of us change. Our response can’t be an exception from our normal lives; it has to be what’s normal about them. The assumption that the heavy-lifting can be accomplished only by governments or corporations exculpates us. It’s not entirely untrue, which is why voting, donating and protesting matter, but it also basically assures the status quo while delivering us from having to consider how those governments and corporations truly represent us. Part of what can be recognized in those representations is despair. It seems that we don’t in our hearts believe we can change; it seems that in our hearts we accept that this representation, whether corporate or political, and despite regularly communicated contempt for it, still expresses the dark truth of who we are and of all we can become. We might as well resort to CGI creations of god-like superheroes because, despairing, we can’t imagine ourselves as powerful agents otherwise. We have more faith in technology, including technological illusions, than in ourselves. What if we were to put faith elsewhere than the technological divine? What might that look like? I have three suggestions, each both simple and on the far side of human possibility. If we take them seriously, we must also take seriously why they’re on the far side of possibility. The three suggestions are: Live small, not large. Live slow, not fast. Think differently. Rather than accepting the nihilistic premise that nothing you do matters, consider the exhilarating, terrifying premise that anything you do may matter. You may not know the ways it matters, to whom or to what. Mattering may not be reducible to meaning. But anything you do may matter, at least insofar as anything you do is matter. This is a consequence and expression of finitude. If we and our world were infinite, we could 13 �subtract or add to that infinity without changing it. But we and our world are finite; we and it must change.35 We are like that dream of Pierre described near the end of Tolstoy’s War and Peace,36 where he sees a living, wavering globe consisting of drops tightly packed together. Every drop which moves and shifts causes other drops to move and shift in turn. So it is in our lives: not one of us can move without moving something else. That seeming accident is a condition of possibility of every motion we make. Think about yourself finitely, pushing the earth to push off from it. An oil rig is not just ExxonMobil’s; it also expresses you who are but several drops away. When you drive, your gasoline has travelled vast distances, and that’s now part of your motion. That gasoline was once a fossil-fuel deposit; before that, it was a living being. Its carbon cycled many times through the food web, before getting buried and, over millions of years, being compressed and transformed into something else, which one day we sucked from the earth and transported across the globe so that the controlled oxidation of it would propel your vehicle while once again accomplishing a new transformation, spiritualizing what was once alive into the gas trees breathe and you and I exhale. Being finite means being part of this enormous web which you can’t control or fully foresee, but within which you are not without freedom or responsibility. This web, this unavoidable mediation which finitude implies, is what geo-engineering forgets. It’s arguably what Descartes forgot.37 Both secretly infinitize us; both imagine us as subjects fully present to ourselves for whom absolute agency is possible. For them, the drop each of us is doesn’t shift or get shifted by other drops but is isolatable; no web inextricably entangles us; and hence, surveying all that is, a subject can act with full consciousness. A subject can command itself to doubt; it can doubt away the 35 As recognized by Pascal: “We are floating in a medium of vast extent…; whenever we think we have a fixed point to which we can cling and make fast, it shifts and leaves us behind… Nothing stands still for us. This is our natural state and yet the state most contrary to our inclinations” (Pensées 199, ‘Disproportion of man,’ translated by Krailsheimer). Physical conservation laws can also be interpreted as consequences of the finitude of the world. 36 Vol. IV, Part 3, Chapter XV, pp. 1064-5, translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky. 37 It’s also what our ideology of perpetual growth forgets – an ideology central to capitalism. As for Descartes, his forgetfulness was not shared by his contemporary and critic, Pascal, who regularly linked finitude and mediation (or middleness), as in Pensées 199. 14 �entire world; and having found the seat of certainty in its own thinking, a disembodied and hence definitized thinking, it can then re-create and author the world. This is Descartes’ trajectory in the Discourses and Meditations. It’s also the trajectory of technological illusion, which would replace the world that is with the illusion of a world we author.38 It’s finally the trajectory, if not task, of geoengineering. A famous climatologist39 argued that, given climate’s susceptibility to small changes of initial conditions, the so-called butterfly effect – where the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in one place contributes to a hurricane elsewhere – given this susceptibility, he said, all we had to do was “tame this butterfly.”40 Were this climatologist more of a poet, we might hear irony in his claim; but what we might hear poetically as articulating a hubristic and hopeless project can also be heard as the assignment. It imagines every butterfly can be tamed; but even more dangerously, it posits a tamer outside the web of mediations, a disembodied, decontextualized knower whose command to the legion of tamed butterflies is itself beyond the jostle of any neighboring drop (slide). Think differently. Picture yourself as a drop jostled by and jostling its neighbors. We must relentlessly re-imagine ourselves thus. We must accustom ourselves regularly to undertake the thought experiment Rousseau challenges Emile with, in the book of that title:41 “We [i.e., Emile and his teacher] go to dine in an opulent home. We find the preparations for a feast… All this apparatus of pleasure and festivity has something intoxicating about it… While the meal continues, while the courses follow one another, while much boisterous conversation reigns… I lean toward [Emile’s] ear and say, “Through how many hands would you estimate that all you see on this table has passed before getting here?” What a crowd of ideas I awaken in his brain…! Instantly all the vapors of the delirium are dispelled. He dreams, 38 We tend to confuse our mediated and necessarily partial access to the world that is with our authorship of it. Finding ourselves in a synecdoche, we assume we’re the poet. 39 The climatologist was Kerry Emanuel; he made these comments during an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air, August 1st, 2007. An audio file is available at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12421331. 40 “Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars and spreads its wings out to the south?” Job 39:26. 41 Emile, Book III, p. 190 in Bloom’s translation. 15 �he reflects, he calculates, he worries. While the philosophers, cheered by the wine, perhaps by the ladies next to them, prate and act like children, he is all alone philosophizing… [W]hat will he think of this luxury when he finds that every region of the world has been made to contribute; that perhaps twenty million hands have worked for a long time; that it has cost the lives of perhaps thousands of men…?” We must think in terms of twenty million hands and thousands of lost lives – not all of them human – and indeed those numbers are surely underestimates. Even when simply walking the placita, we should imagine that what energizes our steps were once living beings who stretched themselves toward the sun.42 We must as best we can make choices worthy of the sun-stretching creatures who enabled them, of twenty million hands and thousands of lost lives. This is not an exhortation not to live, to deny ourself life, to do nothing because there is nothing untouched by twenty million hands and thousands of lost lives. Instead it’s an exhortation to live up to those hands and lives. Derrida described such a comportment in these terms: “Il faut bien manger” he wrote, but also “il faut manger le bien”43 – which as a play on words means several things: it means, of course we must eat, but we must also eat well – and not only that, we must eat the good. We must eat the good well. We must do it because we can’t not do it. To be finite implies, inexorably, that we must eat the good, that no action is without reaction, no gain without loss. We can’t not eat the good, we can’t act in the world without the possibility of harm, we can’t self-consciously leave no trace, nor is the trace which we may leave simply up to us. So what we can’t not do let us do as well as we can (slide).44 If this is not an exhortation not to live, neither is it an exhortation to embrace extravagance, to 42 Mary Oliver’s “Wild geese” comes to mind, especially the last sentence: “Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, / the world offers itself to your imagination, / calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – / over and over announcing your place / in the family of things.” 43 See Derrida’s conversation with Jean-Luc Nancy entitled “Eating well, or the calculation of the subject” in Points, edited by Elisabeth Weber, especially pp. 277-87. 44 The French uses the impersonal expression “il faut” where I use the pronoun “we.” The “we” is problematic; there is a question of what or who “we” is, as there should also be a question of what eating is. Eating is not simply what subject does to object; eating changes both eater and eaten. The referent of “we” thus necessarily changes. 16 �pronounce, like Louis the XVth, “After me the flood.” Look to the future: look not only at the hands and lives of those who have touched what is already before you, but also to the hands and lives of those yet to come, who not you but your choices will touch. What entangles us stretches from past to future. Our actions may memorialize and prophesize. It is in this context of an imagined future, moreover one which no longer includes you or me, as well as in the context of imagining our global contemporaries who even now live lives much less replete than ours, that it makes sense to live small and slow. Put simply, if you do, you will use less and leave others more.45 What I’m suggesting may sound naïve, as if I’m unaware of the notorious problem of collective action. If each of our contributions is a mere drop in the ocean, why worry about my drop if no one else worries about theirs? This argument of apathy, however, is just the flip side of the infinitization I’m critiquing. It posits that the only options are to be infinite or nothing. Such a coarse dichotomy has long characterized our thought. For example, we have long believed we could dump waste into the ocean or atmosphere and that, in effect, it would be infinitely diluted – that the vastness of ocean or atmosphere would reduce it to nothing. But it was, in fact, finitely diluted. Slowly those drops accumulated, so that now, for example, plastic, invented in 1907, is found in every region of earth from the Himalayas to the deepest ocean trenches, as well as in our food, our bodies and our mothers’ milk, to say nothing of the atmosphere’s rising greenhouse gases (slide). This whole lecture is about taking that disproportion between nothing and the infinite, a drop,46 seriously, about admitting that yes, you are a drop, but every drop matters, you matter. The pretense that drops don’t matter expresses, in one mode, a deluded if aggrandizing infinitization, as if we count but only as infinite; but in another mode, the complement of our aggrandizing delusion, it confines each of us to a cell of impotent isolation, where our drops don’t collectively constitute a wavering globe, much less our exalted, lonely individualities a world. But there is 45 You’ll eat less good more well. “For, after all, what is man in nature? A nothing compared to the infinite, a whole compared to the nothing, a middle point between all and nothing…” Pascal, Pensées 199. 46 17 �a world, a living, wavering globe of drops, in which each of us is a single drop who matters.47 Live small and slow and think differently for that world. This advice is more dramatic than it sounds. We easily dream of circumstances which will enable us to live as we imagine we like without unwanted consequences. This is like imagining ourselves disembodied, mattering without being matter, meaning immaterially. It articulates a desire that we not be finite or mortal. I suspect that we live large and fast partly to distract ourselves from that finitude, from the death which awaits, as a substitute for the gigantic courage it takes to live even a single day. Yet such a response accelerates catastrophe. The illusion that we’re infinite, that change can happen without us changing, is not a salve for our fragile mortality but a destructive expression of it. It secretly confesses that none of us really believes we will die, as perhaps none of us really believes in climate change. There is another option: that we try to believe; that, trying to believe, we make an offering to the future and of the future; 48 that we not insist that future be ours; that we let it be someone else’s.49 The talk of a new green revolution sometimes sways this direction, but so long as it promises immense change which won’t require us to change, it’s a pipedream if not something more malevolent: 47 This may signal a return to the sacred, if we accept Amitav Ghosh’s suggestion (op. cit.): “It is impossible to see any way out of this crisis without an acceptance of limits and limitations, and this in turn is, I think, intimately related to the idea of the sacred…” (p. 161). 48 The French scholar Rémi Brague gave a lecture at St. John’s (Santa Fe) many years ago in which he identified as one of the crises of modernity the decline in the human birth rate. He interpreted this decline as expressing despair about the future, as articulating that we no longer believe in a future worth giving. I agree with such a diagnosis of despair; I agree as well that it behooves us to believe in a future worth giving, and to do the hard things such a belief demands, but, contra Brague, I think it imperative that we appreciate that the recipients of such a gift are not, and cannot be, restricted to human beings. Indeed we can no more know the recipients than the future. 49 One is always at risk of re-infinitizing the subject. Letting the future be someone else’s still secretly assumes the future is mine to yield. Even just letting the future be may fall into this conundrum. It’s reminiscent of the catch-22 in Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses, where Isaac – whose apt Biblical name invokes the possible sacrifice of both past and future – endeavors to relinquish his patrimony but can’t escape thinking that it is his to relinquish. As a result, his may still be a version of thinking infinitely, albeit in a negative mode, rather than thinking finitely. Perhaps Molly comes closer to the latter, she who “dont want nothing” (p. 97), mistrusts a divination which has become of gold rather than god, and at the end of the book keens for her Benjamin, sold into slavery and dead. But the spiritual “Go Down, Moses,” for which the book and the last tale are both named, still suggests a future organized by a promise, a promise clearly not met by the book’s end but, like Isaac’s patrimony, not truly relinquished either. 18 �a future we pretend to yield to an other while secretly and stubbornly insisting it remain ours.50 That pipedream pretends that massive solar arrays, nuclear power, windmills, hydrogen, etc., will allow us to build for the future without giving up that future to someone else;51 it pretends we can be responsible to the future without really changing our present, including without decreasing our consumption. Take energy for example. We may dream that someday it will be boundless and free, but it won’t be. Energy will always come with consequences. Its production and use will require a material infrastructure likely including fossil-fuel-intensive steel, concrete and plastic. It will generate waste, including, for nuclear energy, dangerous radioactive products whose half-lives can far exceed the history of human civilization.52 We shouldn’t overlook that hydrogen, if it’s to be our panacea, is a highly explosive panacea. And if a butterfly can cause a hurricane, what can a windmill do (slide)? Put otherwise, don’t look to get something for nothing;53 that only amounts to the illusion of a good conscience.54 Don’t trick 50 Such a situation, including its unfurling ramifications, is well-described again in Go Down, Moses, as in this passage from “The Bear” (pp.257-8): “…old Carothers’ bold cramped hand far less legible than his sons’ even and not much better in spelling, who while capitalizing almost every noun and verb, made no effort to punctuate or construct whatever, just as he made no effort either to explain or obfuscate the thousand-dollar legacy to the son of an unmarried slave-girl, to be paid only at the child’s coming-of-age, bearing the consequence of the act of which there was still no definite incontrovertible proof that he acknowledged, not out of his own substance but penalizing his sons with it, charging them a cash forfeit on the accident of their own paternity; not even a bribe for silence towards his own fame since his fame would suffer only after he was no longer present to defend it, flinging almost contemptuously, as he might a cast-off hat or pair of shoes, the thousand dollars which could have no more reality to him under those conditions than it would have to the negro, the slave who would not even see it until he came of age, twenty-one years too late to begin to learn what money was.” 51 Hence the college’s thoughtless slogan campaign tying “Building for the future” to “St. John’s forever.” 52 Iodine-129 has a half-life of almost 16 million years, for example. 53 To get something for nothing implies an infinity, while suggesting simultaneously how nigh nothing is to anything. 54 Consider carbon offset programs. The science behind these has always been suspect, with concerns about whether they can be done at the necessary scale in the right places, how long-lasting savings will be and whether savings can accurately be determined. Yet worse is the world’s largest carbon offset firm, South Pole, selling carbon credits for reductions which they knew didn’t exist (Blake, “The great cash-for-carbon hustle,” The New Yorker 10/16/23). More broadly, however, the problem lies in our failure to recognize that responsibility is always excessive. To measure and delimit it is to turn any responsibility into the alibi for irresponsibility, as we saw above in the 350.org petition. Appreciating responsibility as necessarily excessive is a corollary of understanding that what we eat, what we internalize and make our own but also at the same time destroy, is in fact the good, for the loss of which there is no compensation. The pretense at the core of capitalism (but also of prevailing notions of justice), that no loss is without compensation (whether in the mode of offsets or criminal penalties) implies irresponsibility. 19 �yourself into believing you can give to the future without giving something up.55 Here’s a more tangible form of this advice: we must pair attempts to choose energy sources more wisely with concerted efforts to use them more wisely – and specifically to reduce how much energy and matter we use. I’m ambivalent but partly glad that the St. John’s Santa Fe campus has gone solar. I’d be more glad and less ambivalent if our solar conversion were accompanied by a campaign to reduce our energy use, if our murals enjoined us to take the next step rather than extolled the step already taken (slide). Per capita energy consumption in the United States is among the highest of any nation. If we want to limit ourselves to “only” 1.5 or 2°C of warming – as dangerous as that may be – if we want to reduce global fossil fuel emissions by 50% in the next 6 years, we can’t do it without dramatically reducing how much energy we use in ways which will present real but surmountable problems. Other first-world countries56 consume per capita half the energy which Americans consume. I grant substantive differences exist between us and them, but it seems to me the most stubborn impediment to making real reductions in our energy consumption is not those differences but our unimaginative and fantastical insistence that we shouldn’t have to change. As a result, so much of the rest of the world strives to live like us, when we desperately need to live more like them. Gandhi worried in 1928, “God forbid that India should ever take to industrialism after the manner of the West… It would strip the world bare like locusts.”57 But India and China and much of the world have taken to westernstyle industrialism, and that stripped world which Gandhi dreaded is increasingly the reality before us, as the rest of the world follows our example while we refuse to follow theirs (slide). My argument for living small and slow is not just that there’s no other way to face the 55 Technology is the claw by which we bring the future closer. It’s a way of materializing time, even commodifying it. We should wonder whether the technological solution isn’t always at the expense of the future. If we admit, however, that technology is an inevitable aspect of what we are, we will also have to admit that we are always expending the future in some form. This again comes down to eating the good but endeavoring to eat it well. 56 For example, Germany and France. 57 As quoted by Amitav Ghosh (op. cit.), p. 111. 20 �extraordinary challenges before us and no better way to accustom ourselves to the lives we will eventually have to lead. It’s also not just an ethical argument about living up to twenty million hands and thousands of lives past and future. The third prong of my argument is what I’ve been saying about how the world reflects us. As much as we may want to blame governments, corporations, even capitalism, and as much as none of those are without blame, we still must take seriously that these reflect us. They express something that we must take responsibility for as our own. Our words may say, “End fossil fuels,” but our actions take for granted their ready abundance. The only way I see to change that is to change how we consume (eat), live and think. We can’t just talk about this; we have to do it. That means recognizing no one is without responsibility for our predicament. Typically, if no one is without responsibility, no one is held responsible. But I’m saying each of us must hold ourself responsible.58 Change is coming, whether we give assent or not. If we try to affirm it, we need to do more than vote, donate, protest or go solar. We need to change. This may not sound revolutionary compared to a new green revolution – but of the two (which aren’t mutually exclusive), I’m advocating the essential one. I’m not saying it will be sufficient if enough of us do our small part. Other things need to happen, including at corporate and political scales. But those things will not happen if enough of us don’t do our small part. As much as we may like to believe we are victims of capitalism run amok, of ExxonMobil, of politicians, these also mirror us. They show us versions of ourselves.59 They give us what we, at least in part, ask for. Ask for something else. Become something else. Corporations, governments and economic systems aren’t simply controlling us; they’re also expressing us. Any revolution without that admission is just a spinning of wheels. Some of the dread darkness of the political era into which so much of the 58 To suppose that I should not act until those act who have behaved even less responsibly than me is to place the burden of our collective response on those who have behaved the absolutely least responsibly. 59 My insistence, or at least invitation, that we recognize our corporate, political and economic reflections runs the risk of becoming a kind of consumption or subsumption, a gobbling up of the other as secretly, within a naïve idealism, the same; yet the other which reflects us in myriad ways need not only be our reflection, nor is it clear that in a reflection what is seen is same and not other. 21 �world is falling stems from our propensity first to alienate, then to vilify, our own reflections – while also believing that it is only those reflections which have the freedom, power and burden of responsibility.60 What I’ve said today is not just about climate change. It’s about how we are using up and running down the earth and, in parallel, exalting and diminishing ourselves. We see the earth as a pantry for us to raid; and as various stocks within it become depleted, we don’t question our behavior or assumptions but merely look for new stocks. For the most part we have not interrogated our prejudice that we are entitled to the earth, that it is ours to exhaust, that no other beings besides human beings – and perhaps even among them only some – truly matter (slide). This exaltation we’ve implicitly bestowed upon ourselves is a kind of self-infinitization, whereby even the governance of the natural world falls under our thinly secularized techno-theological sway; but in lock-step with it comes our diminishment as isolated individuals, impotent and unfree, incapable of response and of responsibility, in effect nullities. Cast between these overtly dueling but secretly linked poles of the infinite and nothing, climate change becomes an avatar of our finitude. Ignore the avatar and the threat will not retreat; but neither will it retreat should the avatar be addressed. That desired retreat follows from the false premise that our finitude is escapable. It is not. We are neither infinite nor nothing but, drop-like, between the two. We need a response which endures that disproportion rather than, through fantasy and denial, embraces one end member or the other, thereby accelerating and compounding catastrophe. Some will hear me as prophesying doom, but I am actually advocating hope – not an easy hope, not a hope without effort or struggle or loss, not an empty hope which consoles by anesthetizing, but the harder and truer hope which admits that we must change – and that we can. Something new is coming, just as it did at the end of the Cretaceous 65 million years ago in the form of an asteroid. That asteroid augured both calamity and immense possibility, the end or 60 If we live in a benighted age, the question still remains: how far advanced is the night? Could we perhaps even now be on the cusp of dawn? 22 �transformation of the dinosaurs,61 and the rise and transformation of the mammals. From it was born the once-new world we recognize and sometimes love. A thin layer of the element iridium is sprinkled across the planet, marking that event and the boundary separating a world familiar to dinosaurs from one more familiar to us. Many now claim that we’ve entered a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene. Since epochs typically last hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of years, I’m struck by the sheer optimism of that designation, which I find both endearing and repellent. How innocent and how hubristic that we think it’s an epoch! It strikes me as far more likely that the Anthropocene will have been a boundary event like the impact at the end of the Cretaceous,62 marked by a layer not of iridium but of plastic, and distinguishing yet another new world from our now-old and familiar one. This new world may not be ours. It doesn’t need to be ours. A new world which includes us can’t only be ours. Like the dinosaurs, if we63 are to persist, we must become something different, something smaller, something which, though almost as light as air, nonetheless greets mo(u)rning with song (slide).64 61 How to read “or”? Transformation may be an alternative to extinction, to an end, but it is also a specific form of the end. The first reading reads continuity where the second reading reads discontinuity. 62 The Anthropocene as a boundary event was initially suggested by Scott Gilbert, per Donna Haraway (2015) Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene: Making Kin. Environmental Humanities 6: 159 – 65. 63 Don’t overlook that the pronoun in this final sentence, despite its seeming stability, refers to things in flux. Its referent is changing (as is characteristic of pronouns). See also the footnote on p. 16 about translating “il faut (bien) manger (le bien).” 64 Every new beginning also marks a loss. 23 � 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 St. John's College Lecture Transcripts—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College at the Santa Fe, NM campus. 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. 23 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 Clima(c)tic Change: Twenty Million Hands and the Living, Wavering Globe Description An account of the resource Transcript of a lecture given by tutor Llyd Wells on April 19, 2024 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: "Climatic change demands of us climactic change. We have yet fully to admit it. Perhaps we never shall. Can we be serious about climate change? How? That's the core of this lecture, which will try to be serious scientifically, philosophically and literarily." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Wells, Llyd 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 Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-04-19 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Meem Library has been given permission to make this item available online. 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 Climatic changes Relation A related resource <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7925" title="Audio recording of lecture">https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7925</a> Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SF_WellsL_Clima(c)tic_Change_text_2024-04-19 Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/bfb5565cd09a5353c501c72bd4e4d060.mp3 9754bdcf9768c6593f5fdbfdd7dfb93f 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 St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data m4a Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:58:48 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 Clima(c)tic Change: Twenty Million Hands and the Living, Wavering Globe Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture given by tutor Llyd Wells on April 19, 2024 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: "Climatic change demands of us climactic change. We have yet fully to admit it. Perhaps we never shall. Can we be serious about climate change? How? That's the core of this lecture, which will try to be serious scientifically, philosophically and literarily." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Wells, Llyd 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 Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-04-19 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Meem Library has been given permission to make this item available online. Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Subject The topic of the resource Climatic changes Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SF_WellsL_Clima(c)tic_Change_2024-04-19 Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/fc9310f3b7761d7d361f3e64ac35eaed.mp3 019f526933d86415cb2861c44199dffa 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 St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data m4a Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 01:02:56 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 Buddhist Metaphysics? Making the Case for Enlarging Metaphysics with Mādhyamika Philosophy, or, How Emptiness is Relevant to What There is Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture given by Pierre-Julien Harter on April 12, 2024 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: “Buddhist metaphysics, especially in the Madhyamika version which insists on the emptiness of all things, has often been interpreted as anti-metaphysical. Yet, it seems that Buddhist philosophers were still after the same question Aristotle wondered about – what is it for something to be? – even when they answered that all things are empty of essence or inherent nature. Taking a detour through Aristotelian and Medieval philosophies, this talk attempts to use a more historical definition of metaphysics to argue that a similar feature can be found in both Western metaphysics and in Buddhist Mādhyamika thought, a double approach displayed in the special and general metaphysics of the Medievals and of the two truths of Buddhist thinkers. This supports reading Buddhist Mādhyamika texts as offering metaphysical accounts of reality, but also, conversely, allows us to enrich both our conception of the content of metaphysics and of the kind of activity it claims to be.” Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Harter, Pierre-Julien 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 Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-04-12 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Meem Library has been given permission to make this item available online. Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Subject The topic of the resource Mādhyamika (Buddhism) Metaphysics Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SF_HarterJ_Buddihst_Metaphysics?_2024-04-12 Friday night lecture Rohrbach lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/1f498d8c95bd2a6649a37831bb522e52.mp4 682f0714cd84458f79f989ec4f8cdebf 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/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>.  <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Moving Image A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data mp4 Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:54:50 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 Being a Book Description An account of the resource Video recording of a lecture delivered on February 23, 2024, by Daniel Harrell as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Mr. Harrell describes his lecture: "When the so-called New Program was established at St. John’s College in 1937, conversation was to play no essential role—at least if you believe the first statement of the program, written by Scott Buchanan. Where you would expect the word 'conversation' you find 'instruction' instead, as in this brief description of the seminar: Meetings of seminar groups will occur twice a week with any additional meetings that special circumstances or difficulties may indicate. There will be two instructors in charge, and the instruction will make use of a wide range of devices from explication de texte to analysis of intellectual content and the dialectical treatment of critical opinion. When I read this description, I like to think that the importance of conversation to our endeavor emerged over time: a matter of discovery rather than dictate. Has something similar happened with the importance of books to our endeavor? We have always stated this importance in terms of what makes certain books great; but what makes them books, I have come to think, is even more central to our experience of reading them, discussing them, and learning from them. Perhaps there is no way to dictate by 'great' how we come to find ourselves in these books, just as there was no way to dictate by 'instruction' how we came to find ourselves in a conversation about these books. But what makes books books? What does it mean to be a book? This is the question of my lecture. And my hope—despite the St. John’s frame I use here—is that the lecture will be of interest to any reader of books, even if it fails, by my lights, to make full sense of a book." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Harrell, Daniel 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 2024-02-23 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: Make a recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a recording of my lecture available online. Make a typescript copy of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a copy of my typescript available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource moving image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Subject The topic of the resource Books Definition (Philosophy) Meaning (Philosophy) St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context LEC_Harrell_Daniel_2024-02-23_ac Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/6c4c757e7425b577506708f80e82b7fb.mp3 f66d52c6038b9060c3f79457d1e0c46f 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 St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data m4a Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 01:23:42 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 "A Monument Without a Tomb:" St. John's Celebrates Major Scenes from Shakespeare's First Folio Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a tutor panel given by tutors Alison Chapman, Charlie Barrett, Krishnan Venkatesh, & Jay Smith as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: “In his preface to the First Folio (1623), Shakespeare’s friend and fellow author Ben Johnson described the bard as a “monument without a tomb,” attempting to capture Shakespeare’s enduring vitality as both poet and playwright. St. John’s College students know deeply the truth of these words, as the bard lives in so many parts of our campus – in our seminars, in our tutorials, and on stage in the Great Hall. In honor of the 400th anniversary of the publication of the First Folio, the Dean’s Lecture Committee is pleased to present a Tutor Panel that will consider major scenes from Shakespeare’s plays. The talks given by the Tutors will be in conversation with the scenes performed by Chrysostomos earlier in the week. We hope that members of the community will attend both events and bring their thoughts and reflections for the question period.” Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chapman, Alison Barrett, Charlie Venkatesh, Krishnan Smith, Jay 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 Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-04-05 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Meem Library as been given permission to make this item available online. Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Subject The topic of the resource Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. First folio of Shakespeare. 1623 Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SF_ChapmanA_et_al_A_Monument_Without_A_Tomb_2024-04-05 Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/d375635fcf9b833868b79b45f2256d82.mp3 976cb40f88a2f71d76f78861fc5ebbb6 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 St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data m4a Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 01:06:44 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 Modernity for Fools and Knaves: Machiavelli’s Mandragola and Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture given by tutor Frank Pagano on March 29, 2024 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: “In chapter 15 of The Prince Machiavelli famously recommends “going to the effectual truth of the thing rather than to the imagination of it.” If political writers wish to be effective, then they must act on the truth that all the world is comprised of fools and knaves. This fact turns out to be a great good fortune because the fools and knaves can be tricked into Machiavellian orders. The premise of the lecture is that we moderns have been twice tricked into the contemporary order of things. Machiavelli’s comedy, Mandragola, displays the first trick. It portrays a young man who forms a conspiracy to convince a (beautiful) married woman to sleep with him. The conspiracy includes her husband, mother and confessor. The Machiavellian conspiracy is an enterprise to subdue the Christian conscience. It is wildly successful, and the comedy ends as the conspirators happily march to church together. The second trickster is Francis Bacon. He does not openly expose his trick, but Shakespeare does in the comedy (?) All’s Well That Ends Well. It presents a clever woman who conspires to trick a willful man into consummating unwillingly their marriage. He is tricked into destroying the virtue of filial piety. The marriage is consummated, but All’s Well does not end as the Mandragola. Who are the fools?” Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Pagano, Frank N. 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 Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-03-29 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Meem Library has been given permission to make this item available online. Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Subject The topic of the resource Machiavelli, Niccolo, 1469-1527. Prince. Machiavelli, Niccolo, 1469-1527. Mandragola. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. All's well that ends well. Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SFPaganoF_Modernity_for_Fools_and_Knaves_2024-03-29 Friday night lecture Worrell lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/1d45c90cbf6f4e6a54daba5a212d8124.mp4 7932f5c4f2094eb667ece8eb76da8fdd 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/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>.  <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Moving Image A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data mp4 Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 01:02:16 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 Concept of Irony, with Continual Reference to Socrates:"</em> Kierkegaard on the Infinity of Socratic Irony Description An account of the resource Video recording of a lecture delivered on September 23, 2022, by Mary Townsend as part of the Formal Lecture Series.<br /><br /><span>Ms. </span><span class="marksasqb3usa">Townsend</span><span> is an assistant professor of philosophy at St. John’s University in New York. She is the author of </span><i>The Woman Question in Plato’s Republic</i><span> (2017) and a graduate of Tulane University (PhD, 2015) and St. John’s College (BA, 2004).</span> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Townsend, Mary 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 2022-09-23 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating: "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: make a recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John’s College Greenfield Library; make a recording of my lecture available online; make typescript copies of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John’s College Greenfield Library; make a copy of my typescript available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource moving image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Subject The topic of the resource Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813-1855 Socrates Irony Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context LEC_Townsend_Mary_2022-09-23_ac Alumni Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/23dec77e99a4ada18779cea44fcd0772.pdf 5e24be07e1375e4c8a1c440318c26140 PDF Text Text Thursday April 4 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication From the polity CSL Report: Forum on the Alcohol on Campus Last Wednesday, March 27th, the CSL hosted a forum on alcohol consumption and how it impacts our community. The focus was on consumption on campus. The use of other recreational drugs was not taken into consideration. Mr. Huntley, Chair of the CSL, started the meeting with a question pertaining to the culture around alcohol on campus asking the participants to share their assessment on whether it is a healthy relationship. Participants considered different occasions in which alcohol is being consumed: college parties and events as well as regular private consumption. Students shared their personal reasons for drinking. The main reason cited was that alcohol helps the consumer to relax and socialize more easily. Regarding private consumption, the question and concern of writing essays under the influence of alcohol was raised. There seemed to be disagreement among the attendees on whether this is a widespread issue but if it was this would be indicative of a dangerous relationship to alcohol. Participants also argued that having an alcohol problem is highly subjective and personal. Most alcoholics self-diagnose. But a college environment can facilitate a blurring of the lines especially if one has a narrow understanding of alcoholism. Many students might not be binge drinkers but sometimes scheduled (binge) drinking could be considered problematic too. Pertaining to alcoholism among the student body, there were different interpretations of whether college life causes the problems or just intensifies already existing addictions. It would be helpful to have accessible campus specific data about this. Regarding campus events, the conversation was mostly centered around the Achilles Rager. Students shared the feeling that this event seems like the most unsafe of the year, particularly in terms of Title IX violations and physical health. The main factor contributing to this seems to be the lack of experience with safe drinking among the incoming first year students who use the occasion to try out new things and might go further than they ought to. This issue is further exacerbated by the fact that they do not yet have a strong social safety net. While some participants called for a cancellation or postponement for the event, others suggested a preventative approach. This approach would include training and raising awareness among returning students about first aid and safe partying. This might also reduce the strain on the RAs (Cont. on p. 2) Vol. II Issue 8 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis Mayor presents on bike path Spoke to Students and Staff Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley attended a meeting in the Conversation Room on Wednesday, April 27th to present plans for the bike path on back campus. Along with him was Brian Cahalan, one of the mayor’s advisors, Eric Leshinsky, of planning and zoning, and representatives of the firm Meade and Hunte, who are responsible for making the plans for the bike path. Student and faculty attendance was limited, with only six students present and one faculty member, who left relatively early on. There were a few St. John’s staff members present as well. Buckley began the meeting by talking about adopting Dutch cycling infrastructure models to help address Annapolis’ contribution to global climate change. “The simplest climate solution is right in front of us,” explained Buckley, “We need to walk again, we need to bike again. And we’re not going to be able to do that without separated bike paths.” He claimed that the College Creek Connector would fill a major gap in the regional trail network, which would enable people to not only get more easily to Parole via the West East Express but would also connect to the B&A trail, forming a link all the way to Baltimore. The path, if approved, will meet campus property on the water by the Rowe Boulevard Bridge, which will have widened sidewalks to make it easier and safer for students and downtown residents to get to Graul’s. It will continue along the water until just before the small dock and boat launch, where it will join the dirt path running parallel to the creek for only about 50 feet, and then curve around behind the boathouse and up to Prince George Street. The slope behind the boathouse would be stabilized against erosion and receive better landscaping, while the living shoreline along the creek would be cleared of invasive species and replanted with native ones. A new boatshed would be built to house sailboats, and steps might be taken to improve boathouse accessibility. This would be in conjunction with other projects in the area, like a gateway park in the patch of woods off Rowe Boulevard and watercraft infrastructure at the end of Northwest Street, which are aimed at improving access to College Creek. Buckley emphasized that this plan will not happen without the College’s support and called on students to voice their opinions. “It’s not just an ask for the College, he said, “it’s an ask for the future.” El’ad Nichols-Kaufman Theater review: Much Ado About Much Ado About Nothing Last weekend the King William’s Players 2024 Season opened with a groovy production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Sophomores Eden Kammeyer and Ari David. Decked out with disco balls, flare pants, outrageous polyester shirts, and feather boas, the supremely talented cast boogied and jived their way through the two-hour show. Much Ado About Nothing concerns itself primarily with the relationships between its two main couples, Beatrice and Benedick, and Hero and Claudio, and how those relationships form and fall apart due to the deceptions of the other characters. Kammeyer and David set up this intrigue in a brilliantly colorful and campy 1970’s version of the Italian city of Messina, and they clearly told their actors to have fun with it. Full of cheeky physical comedy, sassy looks, fully committed characterization, and punchy line delivery, it was a riot from start to finish. Highlights include Ms. Rachel Hauben’s entire performance as Beatrice, her second to date, and by her own admission much superior to the first online version. Messrs. Charles Dang, Angus Preston, Ian Rossomundo, and M. Ned Haynie brought hilarious energy and impeccable comedic timing to the constabulary and watchmen. Ms. Katharine Bates played Don John delightfully cold and furious, styled to the nines in bold black and white patterns. And M. Z Larson and Ms. Sadie Lewin fell in and out of love as Hero and Claudio with heart wrenching sincerity. All in all, it was a delightful show and a fresh and funny take on Shakespeare's classic comedy. Keep your eyes peeled for posters going up for the KWP’s upcoming shows, the Shakespeare Showcase directed by Dolan Polglaze and Jordan Kammeyer, and Moby Dick, adapted for the stage and directed by Ranger Kasdorf. Andy Manne Aphorism of the Week: Silence is everywhere, yet no one has heard it so far. This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 4/4: Aristotle: Physics. I (A): 1 (184a10–184b16); II (B): (192b8–200b11) 4/8: Aristotle: Physics. III (Γ): 1–3 (200b12–202b29); IV (Δ): 10–14 (217b30–224a16) Sophomores: 4/4: Shakespeare: Hamlet 4/8: Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book I, Chapters 1–6; 15 Juniors: 4/4: Mozart: Don Giovanni 4/8: Kant: Foundation of Metaphysics of Morals. See official list for selections Seniors: 4/4: The Federalist, 78, 81 (selection); Supreme Court Opinions; Constitution, Articles III and VI 4/8: Dred Scott Decision and Dissenting Opinion, selected speeches of A. Lincoln and F. Douglas Friday-Monday, 4/5-7 Junior and Freshmen writing lounge. Opens Friday at 4 pm, closes Monday 7 am. Mellon 141 and 144. Friday-Saturday, 4/5-6 Graduate Institute Convening Weekend Saturday, 4/6: Admitted Students Day, Club Fair at 3:30 in the Great Hall Friday Night Lecture All College Seminar on "How Should One Read A Book?" by Virginia Woolf, 7:30 P.M., Great Hall Page 1 �Thursday April 4, 2024 St. John’s Collegian DC President Ali Shawamreh Overthrown, Evil Alter-Ego Crowned The Delegate Council meeting last Tuesday, the first meeting in April, ended in chaos as DC President Ali Shawamreh mysteriously disappeared. He noted that the agenda had been “highjacked” to feature an item labeled “The Magnificent Coronation of His Majesty Olive Shawarma, Righteous Regent of the St. John’s College Polity, in the Year 2024 of Our Common Era,” got up and disappeared behind one of the wooden barriers in the conversation room. CSL Report Cont. Photo Courtesy of Helen Felbek Mitchell Museum Report In his place emerged Olive Shawarma (pictured, right) who ordered a proclamation to be read announcing him as King of St. John’s College in Annapolis, in Santa Fe, in Cambridge, in Australia, in Canada, in India, and in all other places in which there is a St. John’s College to be king of; Archduke of the Paca Tub Room, etc. Lord Protector of the Delegate Council, and Defender of the Transcendental Idealism, as well as a variety of other titles. He was then crowned in a lavish ceremony and recited a coronation sonnet. The current exhibition in the Mitchell Museum only displays one piece. Entitled “Sampling a Sampler Sampling,” Polly Apfelbaum’s work challenges the viewer’s perspective. The piece is made of several different fabrics purchased in New York City’s Garment District arranged on the floor. Many of the fabric samples feature raw edges, and some of the patterns clash with each other. The originality of the piece prompts the audience to reconsider the place oftextiles in the world of art. What is art really made of? Does it change when we change our point of view? The exhibition runs until April 21 El’ad Nichols-Kaufman Natalie Goldman Come for me vol. 2 Continued Conversation on Orgasms Editor’s Note: This article is the second part of a series first appearing in The Gadfly. In my last article I settled some of the basics of orgasms with Annelise. However, I still had questions. I find that much like every person’s orgasm is different, every conversation about orgasm has new insights. This friend has chosen to stay anonymous. Before getting into the conversation, I would like to address questions I’ve heard about whether everything I wrote in the last article was true. I swear in this column to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. AB: How easy is it for you to orgasm? Anonymous Interviewee: I would say it’s pretty easy, especially on my own, but with more experience it has also gotten easier with a partner. How long does it take you to orgasm? How long do your orgasms last? Approximately 8-10 minutes, the length of the orgasm depends on factors I am unaware of, but it is usually not the sort of thing that is constricted to time. What allows you to orgasm with ease? Not only just practice and experience, but increased ability to let go of my self-consciousness surrounding it. Is there anything in particular you’ve found that has helped you with that? Anon: Mechanically, and I won’t get into too much detail—for propriety’s sake—but I’ve developed the theory of The Rule of Two; being, you can’t just be doing one thing in order to have an orgasm. You must be stimulated in at least two areas. Diversity in Vol. II. Issue 8 performance is key to success. There’s that one episode of Friends where Monica is showing Chandler how to please a woman: it’s kind of just like that. I know you said you don’t want to get into too much detail, but is this stimulation purely physical or mental as well? I would say mental for sure, it’s good to be in a comfortable environment where you don’t feel inhibited to explore what turns you on. Do you feel that your orgasms with a partner are essentially different than the ones you have on your own? Orgasms with a partner are fundamentally different because it is no longer solely your environment that you need to feel comfortable with, but with another person seeing you completely uninhibited. Reaching that state with someone else is an extremely intimate and vulnerable position to be in. I think our modern discussions surrounding sex often disregards that it takes practice and self-knowledge to be able to do this with someone. Do you think anyone is likely to have an orgasm with a partner without having one on their own? I think it’s possible. We all have our own anatomies, and some people are able to explore that with someone else first. Why do people say “When you have an orgasm you’ll just know” with such certainty? I think it has to do with the thing I said earlier about time. When you enter into an experience that exists so outside of time, that the question “Am I having an orgasm?” just isn’t on the table, and then you’ll know. Allyson Brink Page 2 (Cont. from p. 2) during that particular night. Some course similar to the “Get inclusive” course that all new and returning students have to finish every year for first aid and practical knowledge surrounding alcohol consumption could be part of this. The tenor was that the burden should not be placed on the new students who already have a busy and overwhelming orientation schedule but that it should be considered a community responsivity. Overall, students seemed to agree that in such a small community like St. John’s we need to look out for an help each other. As sophomore representative Camilla Lopez put it “what hurts the individual, hurts the whole polity.” To that end, Ms. Lico and Ms. Silver are hosting an event on addiction in general on Thursday, April 18th, during lunch in the Hodson room. Food will be provided. If you are interested in attending a CSL forum, please join us in the dining hall at 11.45 pm on Wednesday. We also appreciate student input on forum topics. Just talk to or email Mr. Huntley or me. Helen Felbek About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Allyson Brink Helen Felbek Andy Manne Natalie Goldman Are you interested in having your opinion heard? Do you want to rant and rave against articles you’ve seen published here? Do you want to amaze the campus with your superior rhetoric? Do you just want a place to review your favorite 19th century operetta? If so, then the Collegian is the place for you! Just send us your articles, and help us diversify our coverage. � 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 St. John's Collegian</em> Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.<br /><br />Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College 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. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian 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. 2 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 St. John's Collegian, April 4, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 8 of the St. John's Collegian, published April 4, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) 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 2024-04-04 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds 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 St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue8_2024-04-04_Corrected Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/d590264b6a9513b4c062a1e0b592f4ed.pdf dcab19f315dd90c2e5513eb66051497e PDF Text Text Thursday March 28 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication From the polity Vol. II Issue 7 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis Interview with Walter sterling jr. CSL Report: Forum on the Incoming Santa Fe Campus President Discusses Background, relationship between the city Thoughts on the Future of the College It’s just been the long arc of experience at of Annapolis and St. John’s This interview has been edited for length and clarity. challenges. the College. We’ve never been a luxurious institution. The first CSL forum after Spring break was held last Wednesday, March 20th. Despite the sophomore writing period many attendees were sophomores. The topic of the forum was the question of the relationship between the college community and the wider city of Annapolis. Mr. Huntley, Chair of the CSL, explained that there is a need for this forum due to recent conversations surrounding the plan of the city of Annapolis for College Creek Connector which seem to relate to this question. The conversation was also supposed to offer a space to prepare for the Bike Path Forum with Mayor Buckley and other people involved with the project to be hosted on Wednesday, March 27th. The consensus among attendees of the forum seemed to be that the college community should strive for more personal interactions with the residents of Annapolis. But the group identified a number of hurdles that might contribute to students isolating themselves from the wider city life. While many participants voiced the desire for more interactions with Annapolitans, many felt as if the city is not particularly inviting to college students. The downtown area, while walkable, is too expensive for most students’ budgets, too touristic, and the Naval Academy seems to have an overwhelming presence. But there was the acknowledgement that there are many events and resources that are useful and interesting to Johnnies such as events offered at Maryland Hall. The conversation also touched upon the concept of the “Johnnie Bubble.” One participant characterized the student life at St. John’s as a “non-secular monastic lifestyle” which many interpret as inherently insular. However, some participants argued that this monasticism should also include some outreach and engagement with the world. The argument was made that some people interpret the program and the reading list in a more action driven way than others. In the context of social engagement, the question was raised whether more students should “put the program into action” while being in college and not wait until after graduation to do so. This kind of engagement could improve relations with more marginalized groups in Annapolis as well. (Cont. on p. 2) How would you introduce yourself to the students of Annapolis? In terms of my background, I’m Walter Sterling. I’m a longtime tutor at the College. I joined the faculty in 2003, and had the opportunity to serve twice as dean, including over the past five years. I’m also a graduate of the college, graduated Annapolis, ’93, started with the class of ’92 in Santa Fe, took a year off, and then spent two years with the class of ’93. As many people know, my father is a tutor emeritus in Annapolis, and as maybe fewer people know, both of my parents are alumni of the College. So it’s fair to say that the College has been my life in a lot of ways. But it’s been important to me that I’ve had other experiences out of St. John’s. I went to graduate school in philosophy, I taught at some other colleges and universities. I left academia for a few years to work for a nonprofit in Philadelphia. I might just build on that comment to say I’ve always been restless about not being just inside the classroom, the world of books and study. As vast and important that world is, and as much as it shaped me, I’ve wanted to make a practical difference with part of my energy too. Why did you feel yourself called to apply for the position of president? Part of making that [practical difference] is doing the work that creates conditions that allow the heart of what we do to flourish, and thrive, and survive. That’s the sense of calling that connects to the work of the presidency. The way I put it in an interview for the Santa Fe New Mexican is that as a tutor, I’ve looked down the bench and seen other tutors who can do that work as well or better than I can. I see fewer people that have one foot in both worlds, deeply rooted in the mission, deeply shaped by it, but also deeply interested in budget, finances, marketing, fundraising, and all the practical exigencies. I’ve always wanted to stitch the academic and practical together, and wanted to have a foot in both worlds. How do you plan to address the some of the financial challenges the College is facing? I would say that pretty much for as long as I’ve been at the College, we have faced fiscal and enrollment We’ve always been a small place focused on our mission and the character of our community, and trying to preserve that, make it available to folks and keep it as vital as it can be, but we’ve always done that in a lean way. I would say, above all, what we need is to keep the education strong, keep the community of learning strong, so that we never want to do anything that leads to a steady weakening of the heart of what we do in and around the classroom. That’s why we’re all here. That’s what we’re trying to support, and that’s what gives us the opportunity to go out into the world and say, “come as students, come as faculty, come be a part of this ‘community dedicated to liberal education.’” That’s the phrase that starts the statement of the program that I like to cite over and over again. To keep that community strong and vital, we have to make it visible; be strong in our advocacy for it, and the difference it makes in our lives and in the world; fundraise in the name of that; and recruit students that are going to benefit from this by putting it out there for all to see and making it financially accessible to students for whom cost might be an obstacle. We’ve got to continue what we’ve been doing in recent years, which is to try to raise more money to keep up with the increasing costs of doing what we’re doing; and to continue to fight a difficult battle in contemporary culture, to show that this education is not only still relevant and vital, but that it’s needed now more than ever. Could you say more about advocating for the liberal arts outside of St. John’s, and how that fits in with the role of president? In terms of the role of president, we all know our presidents have many important roles on campus, but the presidents are also the primary face and voice of our institution to the outside world. They are the people that get in front of other educational leaders, potential friends and donors and foundations, and folks who are interested in supporting the College. They are the folks that can get a quote in an article here, or get a talk in there, etc., etc. ) So it’s always important for our presidents to be out there making the case for liberal education. (Cont. on p. 2) This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 3/28: Euripides: The Bacchae 4/1: Aristotle: Poetics, Chapters 1–19 Sophomores: 3/28: Shakespeare: Henry IV, Part I 4/1: Shakespeare: Othello Juniors: 3/28: Rousseau: The Social Contract (See official list for selections) 4/1: Molière: The Misanthrope Seniors: 3/28: Virginia Woolf: To the Lighthouse, “The Window” 4/1: Virginia Woolf: To the Lighthouse, “Time Passes” and “The Lighthouse” Friday, 3/29: Pangaea’s Soccer vs. Football game, 4:30 pm, Lower Field Saturday, 3/30: Much Ado About Nothing, presented by the KWP, 7 pm, FSK Auditorium Essay Hell, 9 pm, Great Hall Sunday, 3/31: All-Day Knit-a-thon, 1 pm, Mitchell Museum Much Ado About Nothing, presented by the KWP, 7 pm, FSK Auditorium Wednesday 4/3: Erik S. Kristensen Memorial Lecture, 7:30 pm, Great Hall Friday Night Lecture: The Value of Suffering, delivered by Gregory Freeman at 7:30 pm in the FSK Auditorium Page 1 �Thursday March 28, 2024 St. John’s Collegian Vol. II. Issue 7 Commentary on Frog and toad Bk I, Ch. i: "Spring" The indifferent raptures of a cozy bed are by no means unfamiliar to any of us. Every day, so it seems, our wonted cradle holds tightly to us, and no more wants us to leave it than we want to do so. Thus we find lethargic Toad, overcome utterly by the lulls and ablative inebriation of a deep stupor, while outside his den the yellow-green tongues of Spring flick forth from the April branches. Verdant Frog him awakes but to no avail—for Toad will not have any disturbance to his slumber, insisting that he be let to sleep until “half past May.” Polytropic Frog moves to his calendar, unattended since late Fall and still bearing the face of November. He updates the calendar—and continues to pull the pages off until he is greeted by May, which, having been shown to Toad awaking, convinces him to get up, and they take to the fresh road of Spring together. The core aporia of this chapter is the beguilement of a friend. Frog subtly deceives Toad—for what end and at what cost? Frog says that he will be lonely without Toad in the coming month if he awakes not, implying also his loneliness during the winter, which, given his surprise at the calendar’s unattended state, was borne by him in Toad’s absence. Toad, overcome by the coils of sleep, is unmoved by his friend’s pleas, which friend is moved to trickery. This trickery cannot have gone unnoticed by Toad for very long, for the environment of April is, of course, quite different from that of May. Nor is it in Frog’s interest for Toad to be thus permanently deceived—for then he would make his next hibernation in October, quite before his wonted time, which would grieve Frog no doubt. Nor is it at all the intention of Frog, a true and loving companion, to so drastically deceive his friend. Frog wishes instead to rouse his buddy in time to bear witness to the nascent verdure and accompany himself in his delight of Spring. Is it not in the nature of a true friend to want to, having enjoyed something of great delight, introduce his friend to such pleasure? Now, it’s important that College education help people with careers, but at the heart of our dedication to liberal education, the case we have to make is that almost every trend we see on a wider social stage shows why liberal education is needed now more than ever. I think, even if they wouldn’t express it in the idiom of liberal education, most people see the crises and they have a yearning for the kind of intellectual and spiritual resources that the liberal arts and liberal education are the natural home for, and we have to unapologetically carry that forward. What is the relevance of the Santa Fe president to Annapolis? In what way will your role impact us here? In a certain sense the most important role for the College officers on each campus in relation to the other campus is to maintain and sustain the health of our unified college. Our campuses only exist as part of this larger whole, and we stand and fall together, and always risk a certain kind of entropy, or a kind of benign neglect of each other. It’s our job to keep us stitched together, to continue to understand that we have one program. It takes work and a high degree of collegiality. I guess I could simplify my thoughts this way: the Let us therefore make no delay in welcoming Spring. We may learn from our tale that our greatest pleasures lie beyond our bed-covers; let us be not trapped by our idle chains, and let us venture beyond the warmth of our cozy haunt and into budding April, where the pleasant drops of Springtime ichor fall upon and reward us for our attentiveness. Let us join our friend Frog in welcoming the sunlight, and shed a little of our joy onto others. Tarik Mahmud The foolish reader conceives of Frog as a knave, a selfish deceiver who manipulates his pal for his own pleasure. But the wise reader knows that Frog has no ill intention at all in his guile, for by this little noble Interview with Walter sterling (Cont. from p. 1) What is this case? It is, to use the phrase from the capital campaign, that it’s about freeing minds. It’s about education meeting the fullest potential of our natural faculties, both to live a good life, and to give us the kind of agency to be able to serve as able, humane, skilled, self-conscious and self-possessed people in all areas of life. It’s also a requirement of citizenship in a democratic republic, and I think when we look out at the world and see constant and deepening crises that concern us on the political side, technological side, and social side. No one should pretend that liberal education solves those, but without liberal education, they’re insoluble and irremediable. So, in short, we equip our students for private and public life. lie he exposes to Toad the grandeur of a not-yet complete Spring and the largeness of the flowering April, while if Toad had remained in his languid state until halfway through the month of May, he would have beheld only the trailing tail of primaveral beauty (and would have been in grave danger of sleeping through my birthday on the tenth of the latter month). president on the Santa Fe campus, and the officers on both campuses, need to both be caring stewards of their local campus community with all of the preoccupation and partiality that that brings with it, and counteract that with constant attention to maintaining the good of the whole. To end on a lighter note, I’ll ask a question that in a very Johnnie way, can say a lot about a person: what is your favorite place to read? My favorite place to read is the library in Santa Fe, the Meem Library, which is my favorite building on campus. I find the architectural space warm but also sublime in its openness. It’s always felt to me like a wonderful place to nest and read, and uplifting place to do it. Thank you very much! I appreciate your taking the time to meet with me. About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: Thank you! El’ad Nichols-Kaufman El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Tarik Mahmud CSL Report (Cont. from p. 1) But the concern was raised that to a certain extent more engagement with the outside world would come at the cost of being less able to be an active participant in campus life as most Johnnies have the tendency to overcommit to extracurricular activities. Attendees expressed the sense that there is great value in interactions with non-students and people from all sorts of backgrounds and walks of life. How to have these meaningful interactions is ultimately each individual person’s responsibility but for some projects and issues an attempt at a collective response to this question might be necessary as well. Helen Felbek Page 2 Helen Felbek Croquet is coming up, and we are searching for people to cover the happenings around the game. If you are interested in doing player interviews, spectator fashion reviews or, actual coverage of the game itself, please write us to make sure we can give the biggest event of the year the attention it deserves. Aphorism of the Week: Corruption can sometimes be healed only by fire. That is why we sometimes have to burn our own houses. � 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 St. John's Collegian</em> Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.<br /><br />Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College 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. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian 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. 2 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 St. John's Collegian, March 28, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 7 of the St. John's Collegian, published March 28, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) 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 2024-03-28 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds 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 St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue7_2024-03-28_corrected Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/19bcfc1971eeea4e1204402fce9e1e47.pdf 7295bbc7bc9e928d0821d2720b60b589 PDF Text Text Thursday February 29 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication Vol. II Issue 6 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis From the polity Board of visitors and governors meet in annapolis A Response to And the Dish Ran Away With the Spoon Board Announces Fund for Improving Tutor Pay, Discusses Finance, Enrollment and Retention I have recently read an article written not too long ago concerning the ecosystem and possible imbalance thereof among Dining Hall cutlery. The study of this particular ecosystem and its functioning and ecological niches being still quite nascent, I find it proper to show the fruits of my own inquiries here. The question is as to the fluctuating populations of two species of spoon in the dining hall, particularly the large and rotund soup spoon (Cochlear jurulentum) and the comparatively smaller and more narrow tea spoon (Cochlear theaticum). Among various more subtle differences, we find that the most prominent morphological distinction between these species is in the shape of the food receptacle, which in C. jurulentum is far greater in volume, and more circular in shape: that of C. theaticum being, in addition to its comparative smallness, more tapered toward the anterior end, which distinction in anatomy is indicative of the disjunction of their ecological niches; this disjunction is confirmed by their separate population fluctuations, which was noted by the esteemed and ingenious gentleman Mr. Briggs. The extension of this conclusion to a predator-prey relationship, however, must be examined in more detail. While it is true that the sequential decline and rise of C. theaticum is characteristic of this relationship, it is not yet altogether clear whether this relationship is reflected also in the populations of C. jurulentum. For it remains to be seen whether the increase in the population of C. theaticum is accompanied by a correlative increase in that of C. jurulentum: the latter’s prevalence during the dearth of the former is not necessarily due to an actual increase in their numbers, but could be merely an increase in proportion. It is therefore still quite possible that the populations of these two species are largely independent of each other, and that the decline of C. theaticum is its own phenomenon. The hypothesized explanation for this decline, then, could be a scarcity of their primary food source; certainly I have found that I have been drinking more tea in the Dining Hall after C. theaticum’s reappearance. Tarik Mahmud The Board of Visitors and Governors met again on the Annapolis campus this semester from the 22nd of February to the 24th. While the board members were in town for the meeting, a rededication ceremony was held for Campbell Hall, now to be named Edensword Hall, in honor of Karen Pritzker’s father. The renovations currently underway at that building were made possible by a $15 million grant by the Jay Pritzker foundation and are expected to be completed by the end of the summer. Speakers at the event included Santa Fe president Mark Roosevelt, Annapolis president Nora Demleitner, Board Chair Warren Spector, and future Edensword RA Peter Quinn. During the meeting itself, a major announcement made was the creation of a fund for tutor and staff compensation. Spector said that in order to recognize Mark Roosevelt’s retirement, it was decided to focus on fundraising for salaries. An idea was proposed by vice-chair Pamela R. Saunders-Albin, in conjunction with Roosevelt, to create this special fund. The fund has received contributions from all the board members, and currently eight of the ten million dollars needed have been raised, with fundraising on track to meet the goal by the summer. This fund comes at a time when tutor salaries have been at the forefront of conversation in Annapolis, with a walkout held earlier this year to protest wages which have been largely stagnant since 2008, and were not properly adjusted for rising cost of living. This was especially seen to hit junior faculty members harder, due to the pay system for St. John’s tutors, where faculty receive a step increase every year at the College, which lets them progress from a minimum salary while beginning at the college to a maximum salary 1.82 times the minimum. “The most important thing to do in the short term is to raise junior faculty salaries, but in the long term, we need to raise all faculty salaries,” said Spector. Susan Paalman, Annapolis dean, who called on the board to address the issue at the previous board meeting, noted the urgency of the issue, given increased cost of living and the loss of qualified new tutors due to the low salary. She thanked the board for addressing it now, saying “this could not have come at a better time… This will give the community hope, and help us through difficulty.” This fund will allow the minimum salary to be raised to $70,000, and also allow for 2% annual increases, This Week in Seminar separate from the normal annual step increases. While this is still below inflation, it is an improvement from the previous situation in which no adjustments were made for inflation at all. The fund will also cover increases for staff, although these increases were not detailed in the board meeting. This fund should be sufficient to provide these increases for seven years, and afterwards the salary funding must be picked up by the College’s general fund. “This is vital to the future of the College,” said Spector, “I want to make sure the faculty knows we recognize their sacrifices.” Roosevelt concurred, adding that “No matter what differences there might be [between the board and faculty], they are all immaterial, compared to the enormous respect we have for the faculty.” Although the Board has managed to find a way to fund these much-needed increases to pay, many financial challenges still loom large for the College, and were discussed at the meeting. In addition to the fiscal year 2024 deficit, they are projecting a five million dollar deficit in fiscal year 2025, with increasing deficits in fiscal years 2026 and 2027. These are primarily caused by continued high costs of building maintenance and salaries, while tuition revenue is still below where it was in 2008. The College’s shift to a philanthropy focused funding model has helped alleviate this but has not been able to meet all needs yet. However, major bequests of several million dollars are expected in the next few years, which should remove some of the pressure on the college. One of the important financial considerations is the endowment, which has reached record sizes recently thanks to Hodson funds and other donations. It currently totals about $250 million. However, yields from the endowment have been lower than expected, with the seven year rate of return being 7%, lower than the passive benchmark rate of return. To address this, the board has begun a search for a new manager for the endowment. Another topic of discussion was enrollment, with incoming freshmen classes so far projected to meet goals on both the Annapolis and Santa Fe campus. In Annapolis, the target enrollment is 140 to 150 students, with 100 to 110 students hoped for in Santa Fe. Demleitner noted the success (Cont on page 2.) Upcoming Events: No regularly scheduled activities because of Spring Break. If, however, you will be on campus during the break, the following event will be occurring: Freshman: 2/29: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, Book X 3/18: Aristotle: Politics (See list for selections) Sophomores: 2/29: Montaigne: Essays, III, 13 (Of Experience) 3/18: Machiavelli: The Prince Juniors: 2/29: Locke: Second Treatise of Government, Chapters X–XIX 3/18: Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice Seniors: 2/29: Freud: Beyond the Pleasure Principle 3/18: Dostoevski: The Brothers Karamazov Saturday 3/2: Day trip to Andrew and NC Wyeth Studios, run by the Mitchell Museum. Sign up at the Museum office. Friday Night Lecture: No Lecture due to break Page 1 �Thursday January 29, 2024 St. John’s collegian Vol. II. Issue 6 Theological debate: Angelic Respona Written by I, El’ad son of Asher the scholar, son of Shimon, may his memory be a blessing. To Benettus Scottus and Andronicus Manifold and all the holy Kahal of St. John’s College in Annapolis Maryland, may the spirit of God rest upon them and may the Lord keep and protect them all. In a letter addressed to me a question of grave importance to the practical exercise of faith was posed: How many angels may fit upon the head of a pin? I am flattered by the reaching to me for an answer, a sign of great praise and esteem. Verily, I am one of the most humble scholars of the west, and not fitted to answer questions posed by such learned men, but as you have written me, I have no choice but to give some semblance of a response. The existing opinions on this are quite confounding. The Rambam says that the angels are not material bodies, but only forms distinguished from each other, which would seem to indicate that no angel could fit on a material pin. Scottus argues an angel could, however, and it is also known that Angels may touch things in contact with those they are ministering to, as it is written, and once the fetus emerges into the airspace of the world, an angel comes and slaps it on its mouth, causing it to forget the entire Torah, as it is stated: “Sin crouches at the entrance.” Thus, since the torah is a physical object in the mouth of a new born child, it can be touched by the angel as it belongs to its charge. Hence, it is possible for an angel to touch a pin, if a man be touching the pin. Mannicus, however, argues the question instead is whether an angel can touch an angel, since a pin is an angel, as it is like a needle, which has eyes. While we grant that a pin may be a needle, we ask, what do they mean by needle, must a needle have an eye? It is written that a woman may not go out on Shabbat with a needle that is not perforated, meaning that such a thing is still a needle. However, this raises an important question that must be addressed: what day are the angels touching the pin? What if this is a matter of shabbat? For an angel to reach a needle, the needle must grow relatively closer to the angel, which, as Rav Huygens teaches, means reaching for it is the same as throwing it. Throwing a needle on Shabbat is prohibited, as it For an angel to reach a needle, the needle must grow relatively closer to the angel, which, as Rav Huygens teaches, means reaching for it is the same as throwing it. Throwing a needle on Shabbat is prohibited, as it is written, Because the weavers of the tapestries in the Tabernacle throw their needles to each other when they need to borrow the other’s needle. Throwing was a labor performed in the Tabernacle; therefore, one is liable for performing it. However, the Gemara asks: it clear that they had to throw needles to each other? Perhaps they sat next to each other. The Gemara answers: It is clear that they kept their distance from each other. If they sat too close, they would reach each other and hurt one another with their needles. The Gemara asks: Perhaps, even though they kept their distance, they sat within four cubits of each other, and they would not throw the needles farther than that. Thus, we have managed to make great progress on the question: on Shabbat, no angels may fit on the head of the pin. Now, the future authorities examining this question only need to address the remaining six days of the week. Rav El’ad ben Asher Gems from the BVG meeting in About the St. John’s old collegian annapolis Collegian St. John’s first student newspaper, also called the (Cont from page 1.) of the discussion based St. John’s Collegian, ran from 1887 to 1976. Here are some finds from February 1895, 129 years ago to the month, which should be of interest to students today: “The sad drowning accident of Herman T. Wooters, a student at St. John’s, while skating in Peterson’s Cove, an inlet in College creek, between four and five o’clock, on the afternoon of January 23, cast a deep gloom over his fellow students, as well as those in the city who knew the young man.” “For the first time since it’s establishment in 1696, St. John’s can boast of a married man amongst her students. This somewhat unusual condition was brought about by the fact that one of the Juniors has taken unto him a wife. From all that can be gathered, it seems that the gentleman in question was married about a year ago, but kept the affair secret until a few days ago, when he boldly announced it... At present, the happy Benedict and his wife are living very happily, and the COLLEGIAN extends to them its congratulations and best wishes. P.S. Much speculation having arisen as to why the student married before he left the college, we beg to offer the following explanation: We are told, on good authority, that the gentleman contemplates ‘taking orders’ after graduation; in fact he has already begun to ‘dig’ into the bible. Now, he could not have advanced very far before he came to the passage ‘It is not good that a man should be alone.’ So we naturally suppose that the gentleman abided by scripture and took unto himself a helpfeet (sic).” “The second hop of the series occurred on Friday night, Feb. 1st, and was a source of pleasure to all who participated in it. The weather was down on us, but this seemed to only increase the zeal of the ‘fellows to get the femmes.’” application in helping meet these goals. “It not only completements our pedagogy perfectly,” she said, “but also answers many questions in higher education, like those on AI and discrimination in applications.” Approximately 140 people applied using the discussion based application. This year, a high rate of early applications helped improve prospects for enrollment, while a larger number of domestic applicants counteracted the decrease in international applications. Graduate admission, particularly in the low residency program, is also up on both campuses. Currently, there are 87 Graduate Institute students in Santa Fe, with another 27 in Annapolis. Retention, also a frequent topic of conversations at the Board Meeting, was also discussed, with members mentioning improved performance this year, with only a 3.9% withdrawal rate this year so far in Santa Fe. However, efforts to improve retentions are still a major focus, given the disproportionately higher withdrawal rate at the College compared to other peer institutions. Efforts to address this include continued support for the Career Development Office, which continues to offer funding through the Hodson and Pathways program, as well as host increasingly high number of events for students in a wide spectrum of fields. Additionally, the Deans of both campuses presented a planned program also called Pathways which will provide more resources for students interested in pursuing the ten most popular career pathways for students. Facilities were another major focus on for the Board, with approval being given for renovations to Pinkney over the summer after next, and a long needed IT overhaul. The Mayor of Annapolis presented information about the College Creek Connector, although the board did not make a final vote on that path. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman Page 2 The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Tarik Mahmud Once again, I am making my request for contributors: If you want a paper that reflects your interests, please write on the issues you care most about! Only through this can we continue to make the Collegian the best newspaper possible. Aphorism of the Week: We claim that we have conquered nature. If that is true, why has no one killed themselves by not breathing? �� 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 St. John's Collegian</em> Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.<br /><br />Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College 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. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian 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. 2 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 St. John's Collegian, February 29, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 6 of the St. John's Collegian, published February 29, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) 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 2024-02-29 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds 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 St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue6_2024-02-29 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/95c7c49377178d5f0c97422988757d34.pdf aae0f710b6b2279e9fdaf9da477a5e8f PDF Text Text Thursday February 22 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication Special issue: to the bvg Issue of Collegian Dedicated to Ideas, Student Perspectives As happens once or twice each year, the Board of Visitors and Governors will be meeting on the Annapolis Campus throughout the end of this week. Often, this occasion is either missed entirely by students, or treated as an inconvenience to usual use of spaces on campus. This semester, however, I hope to contribute towards changing this and ensuring student involvement in the decision making of the College. After all, the Polity is at its core a tightly knit community of learners, including, students, tutors and staff, and its governance should take into account the myriad of perspectives that compose it. In this issue of the Collegian, a variety of proposals and perspectives on the future of the College and progress that can be made going forward are presented: Helen Felbek makes a case for free menstrual products on campus, Peter Boersema reflects on enrollment, and Andy Manne reports on break housing, where the College’s decision to have a sliding scale fee should be applauded, and taken as a model for other fees on campus. For my part, I would like to use this slim column to also raise ideas and concerns students have raised in previous issues of the Collegian that I hope any Board member reading will notice, think about, and seek further student thoughts on from the many students around campus who are glad to share their perspectives. A major issue this semester has been tutor pay, which is almost universally seen by students to be low to the point at which it poses a danger to the College. Additionally, staff pay has been neglected for just as long, and makes it difficult to keep our grounds kept up, are buildings cleaned and students fed. Funding salary increases should be one of the board’s top priorities, and if cuts need to be made to student experience to fund such increases, so be it. Additionally, students have written about instituting an honor code, an issue which still divides the student body, and housing prices, where the new tiered system of pricing has drawn much ire. Concerns have been raised about how it will increase inequity on campus, breaking apart our community, and will add to the high cost of attendance. So many things, from laundry costs to meal costs, have been increasing, without proportional increases to (Cont. on page 2) Vol. II Issue 5 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis Improving Access. Improving Wellbeing. The case for free menstrual products on Campus An oftentimes overlooked issue to student wellbeing is the issue of period poverty. The NIH’s National Library of Medicine cites papers which define the term as “as the lack of access to safe and hygienic menstrual products during monthly periods and inaccessibility to basic sanitation services or facilities as well as menstrual hygiene education.”1 This issue is oftentimes not associated with developed countries. This, however, is a misconception. In the US 1 in 4 women struggle to purchase period products due to a lack of income.2 At least, residents in Maryland do not have carry the additional burden of the so called “period tax” or “tampon tax” (when menstrual products are taxed the same way as luxury good are) as period products are tax exempt since 1975.3 When we think of the issue, we usually think of demographics such as unhoused people or incarcerated individuals who encounter difficulties to access needed products. But college students too suffer from period poverty. According to a study recently conducted by the intimate health brand INTIMINA 1 in 5 (19%) female college students (from public and private colleges and universities across the country) fell forced to decide between buying period products and paying for food or other expenses.4 Additionally, nearly half (48%) said they have struggled to access menstrual products due to costs or other barriers.5 Other data by a 2021 study in the medical journal BMC Women's Health suggests that 14% of menstruating college students struggle to access period products on a regular basis.6 So, if we believe that St. John’s represents American society at all we have to assume that at St. John’s too some menstruating students are experiencing period poverty with all the negative ramifications that come with it. Thes side effects include but are not limited to health issues due to improper use of products such as Toxic Shock Syndrome and social repercussions such as social isolation which can among other things impact the ability to attend classes regularly. These negative effects even go as far as an increased risk of depression as a study published in the Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality found. Thankfully, the college has identified this issue. RAs receive some menstrual hygiene products to distribute to their residents and the Health Center offers free period products as well. This is a good start but not sufficient to fully address the problem. There is no list of how many of the nearly 6,000 universities and colleges in the US provide menstrual products at no cost but there is a growing movement initiatives. In Maryland, HB 205 requires local boards of education to ensure that each public school provide free menstrual hygiene products via dispensers. This bill went into effect in 2021.7 Anne Arundel County Public Library provides free menstrual products to patrons.8 In higher education there are no state requirements. However, in February of last year the University of Maryland proudly proclaimed “Necessities at No Cost. Period.” Sharing the happy news that fee period products were distributed to hundreds of UMD bathrooms. The cost for installation and dispensers amounted to a total cost of $135,000 with the student government contributing $48,000.9 But the University of Maryland has 40,813 at their College Park location alone.10 Thus, their cost does not compare at all to the initial investment necessary to bring dispensers to bathrooms at St. Johns’ Annapolis campus. According to the cost calculator of Aunt Flow, a women-owned company on a mission to ensure every person has access to sustainable and free period products, whose products, and dispensers I first encountered in a restroom at Princeton University, dispensers in 70 bathrooms would cost approximately $22,050 ($315 per dispenser). According to their calculations, the maintenance would be comparatively cheap with an annual operating cost of $800 (to provide 300 menstruating people with products). There are presumably some hurdles such as questions of who should restock the dispensers. But perhaps it is worthwhile to reach out to institutions that have successfully managed to establish free period product programs and learn from their expertise. It seems like a worthy endeavor as part of our never-ceasing efforts to make campus more welcoming to everyone. Helen Felbek 1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10372806/ 2 https://cdn.b12.io/client_media/HJ1wIVtI/e5c8dfb4-95f9-11ea-a54f-0242ac110003Maryland_APS_Period_Poverty_Fact_Sheet_052020.pdf 3 https://www.governing.com/archive/gov-tampon-tax-states-utah-california.html 4 https://www.forbes.com/sites/debgordon/2023/10/10/20-of-female-college-studentscant-afford-period-products new-survey-shows/?sh=218c8ce549f1 5 https://www.forbes.com/sites/debgordon/2023/10/10/20-of-female-college-studentscant-afford-period-products new-survey-shows/?sh=218c8ce549f1 6 https://www.npr.org/2023/09/19/1200291452/should-menstrual-products-forwomen-on-college-campuses-be-free 7https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2021RS/fnotes/bil_0005/hb0205.pdf 8 https://www.aacpl.net/blog-entries/aacpl-supporting-menstrual-health 9 https://today.umd.edu/necessities-at-no-cost-period 10 https://research.umd.edu/who-we-are/facts-and-figure This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 2/22: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, Books VI, VII 2/26: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, Books VIII, IX Sophomores: 2/22: Shakespeare: As You Like It 2/26: Montaigne: Essays; To the Reader, Of Cannibals, Of Cruelty, Of Repentance Juniors: 2/22: Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (see official list for selections) 2/26: Locke: Second Treatise of Government, Chapters I–IX Seniors: 2/22: Conrad: Heart of Darkness 2/26: Freud: “Remembering, Repeating, and Working-Through,” “Mourning and Melancholia” Saturday, 2/24 Friday Night Lecture: Dan Harrell: Being a Book. FSK, 7:30 pm Page 1 - - 11 am, Studio Theater: Board of Visitors and Governors Meeting Plenary Session 4 pm, Mitchell Museum: Exhibition Celebration for Sampling a Sampling Sampler 9 pm, Mellon Hall Lobby: Archon Gala Wednesday, 2/28 - 5 pm, Conversation Room: Film Discussion: Harry Smith’s Untitled Animation of Seminole Patchwork �Thursday February 22, 2024 St. John’s Collegian Vol. II. Issue 5 How Big Should St. John’s Be? On Enrollment, Budget, and Community The Board of Visitors and Governors meets here in Annapolis on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Enrollment is sure to be a subject of discussion. According to reporting from this publication, enrollment was a concern at recent BVG meetings. Last summer, President Demleitner stated that “low enrollment means stagnant class size, which means stagnant tuition, which means low compensation for faculty and staff.” (See “Board of Visitors and Governors Holds Summer Meeting”) Enrollment concerns were brought up again at the October BVG meeting in Santa Fe. (See “Board of Visitors and Governors Meets in Santa Fe” from Collegian Vol. 1 Issue 6) Enrollment is an important challenge for St. John’s. As of last fall, the college projected a deficit of around $5 million for each of the next three fiscal years. More money must be raised to close this gap even before the college can consider spending on other projects, such as increasing pay for staff and tutors. One way to do this is to enroll larger freshman classes, thereby increasing tuition revenue. This is what President Demleitner was pointing to in her summer comments. The fact that the number of high-school graduates is expected to begin declining in the next few years only makes these concerns more pressing. But enrollment growth, at least on the Annapolis campus, poses obvious issues. Seminars and tutorials already have about as many students as possible in them, so an increase in enrollment would require a proportional increase in the number of tutors. I need not mention the college’s inability to pay adequate faculty salaries, which has been much discussed this year. This year has also featured a housing shortage on campus. The reopening of Campbell Hall next year– which will by then be called Edensword Hall–will certainly alleviate it in the near term. But apartments in downtown Annapolis have become much more expensive in recent years. I see no reason for this trend to reverse. As off-campus rents continue to increase, a greater proportion of upperclassmen will need to be housed on campus. The number of dorm rooms imposes a limit on how much enrollment can increase. St. John’s can’t grow indefinitely. The student body should be able to remain at a sustainable size. We should also ask how greater enrollment would impact the nature of the college. On the one hand, a larger student body could support more diversity and a greater range of student activities. On the other hand, the admissions department must recruit larger classes that are composed of students that are wellsuited for the St. John’s program. Is the intimate nature of the campus community essential to the college’s education mission? I don’t think it is, but I’m open to hearing other opinions. If enrollment is a subject of discussion at this week’s meeting–I’m sure it will be–members of the Board of Visitors and Governors must ask and answer the question of how big St. John’s should be. This means finding a size that is both sustainable and conducive to the college’s educational purpose. Peter Boersema Correction: In last issue’s article on the College Creek Connector forum, some statements from Eric Leshinsky appeared to be responding to statements from the forum. Leshinsky was not present at the forum, and there has been no official response from the Campus Planning Committee to the city on this topic. The interview for the Collegian was conducted before the forum. . NEW CHANGES TO SPRING BREAK HOUSING POLICY FOLLOWING RELATED CSL FORUM If you were an international student, a student otherwise planning to stay on campus over spring break, or just someone who reads all of their emails, you may have noticed an email regarding changes to the College’s spring break policy last week. According to Jen Cline, the new policy stands that any student may request to stay on campus over spring break— provided that it is a last resort due to safety or financial concerns (of course including the usual issues facing international students). Additionally, while the standard fee of $150 per week remains the same, there is now a sliding scale for students whose official Estimated Family Contribution falls below $10,000. These changes are expected to be implemented on a trial basis for this upcoming break and will be evaluated at the end of the year to determine if they will be sustained. This change comes just a few weeks after the Committee on Student Life held a robust forum with students and administrators on the issue of break arrangements. Many of the students who attended conveyed an overwhelming sense of dissatisfaction with the then status quo, putting particular emphasis on the difficult position that it placed international students in. With limitations on how many hours they can work, distant and disconnected family, and potential safety risks associated with returning to their home, many international students are put in a challenging position to provide for themselves over break—much less to afford the extra housing fee. While the question of who bears the responsibility for providing housing, the college or the student, is one that bears a longer discussion, it remains that the college’s position states that as of now they cannot afford to house students over break without additional fees. Even without running the dining hall or many other services, the cost to keep buildings open and necessary staff on campus during breaks is not covered by the annual fee. In the course of the discussion a few potential solutions were bandied around: the question of host families was quickly vetoed due to logistical complications, and similarly the thought of imposing a smaller fee on all students to cover those who stay over break. The possibility of a sliding scale was received much more favorably, however, as was the overall level of concern expressed by the students present. While it is impossible to say how much of an effect the CSL forum had on the new changes, it is gratifying to see that the college is trying to meaningfully address the issues facing students. As was remarked in the forum, if the college is going to encourage international and financially disadvantaged students to attend, then they need to make a point of helping them when they struggle— something that this spring break policy will hopefully help accomplish. Andy Manne About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 400 words. A longer, journalistic piece may be up to 1,200 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Helen Felbek Andy Manne BVG, Cont. from page 1. scholarships or financial aid. The task before the board, to balance reducing the burden of high cost of attendance with the need to pay faculty and staff better is difficult, but is essential. Only this balance can ensure the future of the College, and students have many ideas how to reach it. All you need to do is ask us. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman Page 2 Peter Boersema Pensee of the Week We call our loved ones baby. What do we love more, their innocence or powerlessness? � 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 St. John's Collegian</em> Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.<br /><br />Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College 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. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian 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. 2 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 St. John's Collegian, February 22, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 5 of the St. John's Collegian, published February 22, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) 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 2024-02-22 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds 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 St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue5_2024-02-22 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly