32
20
5655
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/54815c11156313e19e233ee4f6e50521.pdf
c7b1515bac22b13c9eed7d0a86fa4cd8
PDF Text
Text
The
St. John's College Independent Weekly
Volume X, Issue 11
Gadfly
Annapolis, Maryland
December 13, 1988
�'89
�move seems to confirm government
release Mandela
Col.
Seineldin rebelled at a munitions
outside the
of Buenos Aires.
was the most serious of the three
rebellions in the past 20 months
re~;pc)ns;e to
rose.
Shorts
Pakistan's President
cabinet last week. She also
the martial
Zia-Ul-
pn~a<:'.cessc)r
Bush named Carla Hills as his choice for
Hills was the
secretary of HUD under Ford.
was indicted
r-------
L _________ _
Tbe
��oeJLOv'ed mistletoe
turn up everymistletoe is one
Hostess' favorite no111olav
not fear its •m.--.-r.._,, .. .,,,hT
Miss
among some
Year's Eve kiss is an excuse to kiss everyHostess must
Miss
����is a shame
are women who are enthusiasthe sports program,
their energy
need
thc~m~)eli.res
interested
in the Sun-
��------------·---------·--~-,
later.
�PIM
Business .M.anaj:i:er:
Advertising .M.~m~tger:
Sports Editor: Yanni Pa1)adlapoullis
Art Editor: Elizabeth
Circulation Director:
Business Staff: Nora
Art Staff: Beth Heinberg
Production: Sean LaRocca,
Cover by:
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>The Gadfly</em>
Description
An account of the resource
Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
thegadfly
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
12 pages
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
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/.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Gifford, Ray (Co-Editor in Chief)
Catania, Sara (Co-Editor in Chief)
Title
A name given to the resource
The Gadfly, Vol X Issue 11
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1988-12-13
Description
An account of the resource
Volume X, Issue 11 of The Gadfly. Published December 13, 1988.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Vol. 10 #11
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
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Gadfly
Student publication
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/cc9cd34abb93b2b3ed1b1a73b5a294b9.pdf
f0ad9aafa196fac8d3391d5432ec9d5d
PDF Text
Text
�2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The "-"''"""""""'". .
pate in the seminar as a "guest leader."
As a matter of
we
for greater
H'--''11"'"'"'''' from lobbyists -- six were
role, IU'-"'"'·'LA'
Bereano
I think that a discussion of Ethics and Politics in 20th Century America that docs not include the
role and
of l~t-.n,rH"rC
concerns over Mr.
tion.
Horo,rynn
and pro-choice, pro-gun
............. -<.:;..\.ALL
-~.U•L~A.
pro-Marx
and anti-Marx -- and we also are not
afraid to listen to all sorts of _LL~-~
kinds
. . . .. _ , , . ,
seminar.
We did not, for
those ~~ .. .-.~.A
cx:am,p1~:::,
I have been
about your
concerns about Mr. Bruce Bcreano's
involvement with the Ethics and Politics
seminar and wanted to
!T
7-
�by Th~!odore l\krz '89
In
111P1resid<!nt Bush delivered his budget
-----~'"'"""''for the fiscal year 1990 to Conlast
The resemblance to
on a kinder and
Bush claimed to have
steps to solve some of his
nr1mrtiS(!S in the areas of child care,
care for poor mothers, education, the
hc•mjeh.:~ss, inner-cities and the environment. It
to be more
gloss than substance. The money allo~u.u~.u~J•~i•. for
rose
1%. The budQ'.c~t
billion. As
it is unclear how
Bush will make the needed additional
the Gramm-Rudman~,.,n...,.,,,.,... ,.
that Mr. Nunn would like to see someone
else
like former Sec. Frank
who is less familiar with the
wc>rkmc!s of Congress. These critics say
that
extent of Mr. Nunn's influence
over Mr. Carlucci made him the defacto
Sec. of Defense. President Bush has said
that he still stands behind his nominee
and has seen no evidence backing
of the
Tower.
gress is in recess this week so the Tower
vote will have to wait at least until next
week.
111The
for the criminal trial of Oliver
sworn in at the end oflast
week. There was~ ..,.. ,.~·~,
~
who had not seen or read of
u .••
. . . . ,.,.
:onurr•ess;io1nal investigation in
and
pros1cc1J.ti1on continue to spar over what
evidence will be allowed. The
Dept. has tried to limit North's access to
documents due to national security concerns. The defense has claimed that such
moves may violate North's
process. US District
Gesell estimated that the trial
4-5 months.
111Speaking before the American Bar
Association, Chief
asked Congress to consider .......... ...
kinds of lawsuits allowed to be
in
federal court Ile claimed that the 1:cdconlin ued on page 7
With defense contracts.
a
senator for 24 years, was himself once the
-A••"-u.uI<.1.u of the Armed Services Committee. Some Tower defenders have accused committee chairman Sam Nunn
of
the vote in order to
Sun.-Thurs ll-12midnight
Fri-Sat 11-lam
�zation dedicated to
18 Market Street
Annapolis Maryland 21401
whether Mr. Gorbachev will be
to receive the support of the Politburo and the Soviet
he __ ,,,_,,,,_,.
needs to be successful in <.:.n·1a1 ... ~
from
built up to economic reform.
�St.
Ann~polis.
..
21401
9
���8
to
THANKS TO THE DONORS
blood. Itwasthefirsttimewe
a while. This feat is
The blood drive will be
the
from 11:00 to 5:00 next Tuestotal time
hour.
Student
around campus to schedule
Lew Foulke
�ratio."
"No it's
not. I
up the
terms
abstraction"
"covert
abstraction" for further use in distincA
Mr. Tuck
up
with the new number lineis the 1n:WllCL':l·
there
mentioned the fact
number line
Old-Fashioned
Shakes & Sundaes
1-301-269-5665
------,
�Gigi Escalante '92
"We have the
have the
shooters.", said Tamara Wilson '91. The
question is, which team will win in this
Women's All-Star Game. Team~~·---~•~ ...
LauraWebncr'90, MostValuable
and Maureen Hatch '92,
M.V.P., chose their team members.
on Wcbner's team
was Claire
Morgan
Erika
McConnell '92 and Mary
'92. The
White Team led by Hatch was composed
of Wendy Wischeart '92,
Duvoisin '89, Sue Haines
Wilson '90 and Claire
uus.;.
It was an aggressive start to
referees
a
seconds into the game. Wfr•h.-,,,. ..
made the first shot. It seemed like
Wilson's comment was correct, the Blue
had
shooters. But Mauthat fact and stole the
one
her
almost
shots and to
around
Force."
With renewed
the White Team
make the next
by
Tamara Wilson. But even with three
the score gap continues to
widen with the shooting precision of
Webner and Morgan. With less than four
minutes left in the game, White is down
10
-- score 31-41. The
a shot by Mary Spidle.
1:03 left and the score stands at 43-35 in
favor of the Blue. But White refuses
give up. White
the last b
of the game; Tamara
stealing t
ball and passing to Wiseheart who mak
the shot.
Although White had the "last
in this
Blue still won 43-40.
virtues of the Women's . . ..__.,ll!IJ•r•.
marked this All-Star game. It was .u.!1.!re·JQ:...·
sive while
a jovial,...,.....~-·-···
tion described
"By
the most fun and cn:1m~m~irn1··
game of the season."
:LJ' ......
teams.
in herself this first
White team co.nunuau,
out from Blue oblivion into
basket.
"Hatchet" Hatch
~._
first half. Yet with
with the
'-4 .....
....................
"No
No Foul!" were
called from the sidelines in response to
defense of
After 10-minute
Duvoisin dominated the baskets
the score to 8-10. This
momentum to start the smooth
and mean
machine of IIatchWischcart. Their
moves
...,, .. '"'"''~r·r1 the Illuc Team: Wiseheart
the ball
fast
Pic1k.en.s. A.D.
111The first annual Women's
.ua.u1..1•l-l\..l seemed to be a success.
the
for the
and the sweatHowevcr, I want to repeat that I'm
winter.
games have been """'"
watch from a ~~~~.,~ ...~-'
well.
1
1-
11
"""'
move onto outdoor
break for several
move on to Ultiyou can
the way,
Fine,
.- ••.u;-·~ on the shin-
U"-"l'l..'-llU'"-H ., .....11v\..11.
111The
intramural schedule is
round robin
the men's teams
We will be
0. Wischcart" arose from spectators
after an
Wiseheart from
the far side of
basket to Hatch.
Close to the end of the first
the
White lead suffers an "AsmuthAttack" as
Asmuth scores,
to be
rattled by Wiseheart's
Laura "Silk" Wcbner also threw a
wrench in the I Iatch-Wischeart scoring
machine with more smooth baskets.
The first half ends with a score of 18Blue
Duvoisin opens the
second half with a basket
the
score to a dose 16-18.
With eleven minutes left to the game
and White
calls
a time-out to assess the game. Conclusion:
zone defense with some-
a new
for women on
Handball.
u .... ,._,,.4..,,.,-u,i..:.
184 MAIN
St.
II
263-8744
MON. - SAT
10- 10
SUN. 12-6
All groups listed $1 .00 ott with this ad
�Professional
Hair Stylist
For Women &
�'
year.
So ... Valentine's
with it tend to be
3
8.30 a.
0 d
~~'ETD
j
·E
ouµ,
XE
9500 Co er
Sara
J'n><.!1.1clio11: Gigi
Escabnte,
Ingmire, Jill Ingram, Robby Nease,
Theresa Klunk
1980,
Cadjly
distributed free to over 550 '""'·~'"'""'
as
offices
the St. John's Santa fe Campus,
tutors emeriti and members of the board of visitors and governors.
Tax
contributions may be
to
Cadjly by making
checks payable to St. John's College and specifying as donation to the
paper. Send checks to 11Je Cadjly .
for display advertisement prices and
the business
263-2371 ext.
subscription available
$28.10.
Friday. All submissions should be typed
signed by the
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>The Gadfly</em>
Description
An account of the resource
Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
thegadfly
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
12 pages
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
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/.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Gifford, Ray (Editor in Chief)
Catania, Sara (Editor in Chief)
Title
A name given to the resource
The Gadfly, Vol X Issue 14
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1989-02-14
Description
An account of the resource
Volume X, Issue 14 of The Gadfly. Published February 14, 1989. (Handwriten note indicating correct issue number.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Vol. 10 #14
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
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Gadfly
Student publication
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/c501a7c37cf33920e64a675f481185d5.pdf
d42dc3e2885a2513099d50f81321a8e0
PDF Text
Text
��that it will increase
and investment.
on whether such
�us.
(301) 267-876
USE'). RARE'"
AND
0Ul OF PRINT BOOKS
38
WEST STREET
ANNAPOLIS. MARYLAND
THE GORDONS
JEFF
2 401
�the St.
"talk with tutors about their
�Members and Friends of the St.
You are invited to attend
Schedules will be
of the oral examinations of seniors on their
on the bulletin board in the mailroom and FSK
1. The audience must arrive before the scheduled time for the examination to
ex:aml1rnmg committee and the student to be examined
in time for the examination to
���Giffo:rd'89
15th and 16th ,.,..,,,. ...,-i,,,p'""'"'
mc)n:1rc:ns convened their ,..,...,,,.,,..,~. '"'
��t
i t
initial decision. She stressed
the
Committee did consider the letters duriors."
Even with student's voices entered
feel that their
students were
never instructed as to what their letters
needed
:reveal
have been
101nnstc>n. Seniors
Heavner
Letaw remain
censed over the Instruction Committee's
decision to dismiss Miss Giovannelli.
Their defense of her is
and
three
Senior essays were
where someone else left
Letaw. She wonders
would ever dismiss her.
Mr. Heavner,
re<1p1~ointm<~ntprocessin~'-''.'-''"A·
st11m~m:s
are better eam1ppea
the '-"-'AJ."-""-'-oetter Viray· tor CJriti.ci5>ms of tutors
contends that
seminar co-leaders and archons exist for
this""',., ...,..,,"'"'""'
gene:ral we
can teach and who cannot," Mr. Heavner
main offense taken
students
seems to be the lack of consideration
shown to their views.
ag;:un:st the
Qu.es1non whether we Virant to
says Mr. Sachs.
Miss Brann also
should be
·Fabulous Sandwiches"
Real Old-Fashioned
Shakes & Sundaes
��Munir Hussein, President
David Lucas, Secretary
Andrew Pietrus, Treasurer
because
more aware and
Mr. Verdi sticks
manual rule ..._._,...,,~~A&~P~
minors at school functions.
stated
-i-n11c "'''"'".'i,r the enforcement of this rule has
been stronger. For examtpl•e,
<;:if"niTln1{J ... .i...... 'VA.l'V.l
Jennifer Johnston
Scott Anderson
Dylan Barth
Sapna Gandhi
Shelley Nicoll
Scott Young
Paul Speck
Kurt Ruzits-Redfield
Campbell
Chase Stone
Humphreys
East Pinkney
Paca-Carroll
West Pinkney
Off-Campus
Off-Campus
The evening commenced promptly at 7 :30 PM in
in attendance. Several items of interest were discussed.
1ll M,irket Street
Arwapoi1s Maryland 21401
268-1
5
�1989
facilities or
an
��Zuckerman will deliver his annual
Tristan
Wt.~dn,esc1ay evt~n1mz. Feb-
was made to St.
Scofield to
students. ~o::>nc~Ia
students
....,.,., ..hrn·vH·p in summer programs
sum:1le:m(~nt their academic
are interest-free and repaymonths after
nP,nn.P<;:T
for fine wines and spirits
87-89 main street, annapolis, md
263-2888
WIDE SELECTION
OF FOREIGN AND AMERICAN BEERS
�calante '92
the com'92 and
·u-..,. .,...,,..,.TI,,,,."' of Steve
Duvoisin's '89
tennis arm, the mind for strategy of a
chess
and the endurance of
rowers
Powers '92 and Padriac
Taaffe '91. If the
levels
.u....,,..... ..,.., ..... , m1teIJl1gc~rnce, and
in an annual tournament. He would like
im:orporat:ed into the
H H
on ou
��Layout
Christine
Business Manager: Garfield
Advertising Manager:
Eggers
Information Manager: Renee DeBlois
Art Editor: Elizabeth deMare
Business Staff: Nora Briody, Ravi Rao
Circulation Staff: Akiba Covitz
Artist-in-Residence: Theresa Klunk
Production: Renee Deblois, Gigi Escalante, Sean L'lRocca, Robby Nease
Cover
Jeanne Duvoisin
Printing
St. John's College
Shop
no rs.
Tax deductible contributions may be given to Tbe Gadfly by making
checks payable to St. John's College and specifying it as a donation to the
paper. Send checks to
Gadfly.
For display advertisement prices and information,
business
manager at 263-2371 ext. 320. Yearly subscription available for $28.10.
Deadline: 5 p.m. Friday. All submissions should be typed and signed by
the author.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>The Gadfly</em>
Description
An account of the resource
Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
thegadfly
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
20 pages
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
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/.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Catania, Sara (Editor in Chief)
Gifford, Ray (Editor in Chief)
Title
A name given to the resource
The Gadfly, Vol X Issue 15
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1989-02-21
Description
An account of the resource
Volume X, Issue 15 of The Gadfly. Published February 21, 1989. (Handwriten note indicating correct issue number.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Vol. 10 #15
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
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Gadfly
Student publication
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/2b2a65c0279b5c4f3ec053ebd80e2e8f.pdf
15e0e5e5bf592384dbcb73e60603cdbb
PDF Text
Text
�--------,
I
I
________________ J
�����does the current re;1mJ01nt·
ment ""'"'"",..."""'" diminish moral courage,
but it
as to
whether base motives
these decisions. These
which have been . . . "".,,..,.,. . ,..;;"'""
dubious resentment, false ,.,.~.. ~,·~~
""'"I-"'''-""-',,, .. · More gI<tSr1rnit
end these
tures.
���start to warm up for the band
the
of their first set. After
first
set of songs the house was
cra.w11mi:! over chairs to get
to open
�All groups listed
<Iii
1
I
w
00
�~:~ ~~-l'l--t'l :~t·t)t:t
268-1115
��Ou1
THE GORDONS
JEFF
�nomads.
�iJlember PIM
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>The Gadfly</em>
Description
An account of the resource
Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
thegadfly
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
16 pages
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
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/.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Catania, Sara (Editor in Chief)
Gifford, Ray (Editor in Chief)
Title
A name given to the resource
The Gadfly, Vol X Issue 16
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1989-02-28
Description
An account of the resource
Volume X, Issue 16 of The Gadfly. Published February 28, 1989. (Handwriten note indicating correct issue number.)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Vol. 10 #16
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
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Gadfly
Student publication
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/b839126aa969523720e44e3edea0f16b.pdf
eda4d393a1b76a35d3a5097beee79c99
PDF Text
Text
�des
direct ways
emit useless com1Jla.in1ts
to present evidence of an exitsnng
lem and assess the evidence re:<LSc>ma.m
so that a resolution can be found.
One rn".l•11r-.rPr•r ..... rP11
=M•r11"·•"""' 1".r.
emnlc>v much
reason, and effort in reaching
""""'""'""'·... ..,..,....,.,
solution. Neither the
students nor the tutors seem
present to address this
nessed
the lack of u.1..:1•.1.v1;~uic
Hostess would
this a freak occurrence
been
similar in a Marriott
cookie as well as the ice cream earlier
in the
Now that this has been
-i-r.. • ......,..,,. 1"" in-.. ,..,. ....~ 1-.-i--t-,....1-i-. 0 attention of the
r---------- ----------
_____ ,
36 West Street
Hours:
Mon.-Thurs. 7:30 am - 7:00 pm
fn.
Sat.
7:30 am - 7:00 pm
am - 3:00 pm
I
26s-1631
carry-out
I
I
I
coupon
___
I
I
I
I
I
_,I
�1989
to the
of the port of
the Trans-Alaskan
at Prince William
has been a reduction
an increase in the
Coast.
The worst tanker disaster in
occurred when the Amoco Cadiz .., ..... ·-v ......
1978
JI.A.
Soviet Elections
the first
elections in the
of the Soviet
a number of
candidates defeated the offical
Communist
candidates. Elections
for
seats in the
.l:'a1~un1ertt, which will have
seats. While Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev has said that he
the
1989 semester:
a)
student with five unexcused
class that meets three times
four unexcused absences in any
~e:mtna1r) that meets twice
unexcused absences
am:oniauca11v be
absence
for
class.
student on absence pr1ooauon
TJlTIMon••nf"••1"C> an additional two _..,.,..,,,_A,A'-'-'"'
the class which he or she is
tion will be asked to leave
without
refund of any fees.
sttad<:~nt on absence or•ooauon
one
who incurs
unexcused
absences in another class to
that class will
to
...................... JO...... without refund of any
fees.
our economic
not.''
�them.
If a student is
l:rr~latm!, he has every
.l'is;:!~tlng flared between Druse Moslem
militiamten and
troops in Beirut.
Hundreds are
have been
killed in the
three
weeks ago.
of Kosovo last week
the death of at least 21 civils
2
The Albanians
onott:~stinR constitutional cn:amzes
of the
r.r.n.,riinr•,p has exercised
years. There are 1. 7 million
of a
popus
Albanians in Kosovo
lation of two million.
AU:nc~uQn the
of Kosovo lies
one of the six retmlJtic:s
197 4 Constitution had
million in restitution
to
of the 37 sailors killed in
the missle attack on the USS "' ..~_,, ......
New York
�5
�87-89 main street, annapolis,
263-2888
Artist in Residence: Theresa
Production: Robby Nease, Sean LaRocca
Cover by: Heather Park
Printing Done
business
sul,sci:iption availabile for $28.10.
by
�6
Three
The
there car ain't work:i .... n
in their infinite
dom still sanction the
of that
where we could also
or which
as relative pronouns.
Did you ever wonder whence the
word universe arose? Some
priopnanon of the term for use in
sct~ibing a one-line
Latin
~
is. But
a
or
arrive
next week as we continue on our voyage
throm!h the etvmolocosmic universe.
lJSF'). RARF
(301) 267-8761
ANO
0U1 OF PRINT BOOKS
E
BOOKS PLUS. INC
38
WEST 5TREf"T
ANNAPOLIS. MARYLAND
21 40
THE GORDONS
SAM
Co-Editors: Octavio Paz, Sr. and Octavio Paz,
Assistant Editor: Octavio Paz III
Business Manager: Octavio Paz
Advertising Manager: Octavio Paz V and Adam Eggers
Circulation Manager: Octavio Paz,
Information Manager: Dr. Octavio Paz, M.D.
Business Staff: Octavio Paz, J.D., LlB, PhD
Circulation Staff: Octavio Paz, D.D.S.
in Residence: Octavio Paz, D.V.M.
Production: Mrs. Octavio Paz and the Paz children
Cover by: Theresa Paz
Octavio Paz by: Santa Paz
Paz's Suits by: Johnson's and Paz's Ltd.
Paz's Hair by: Vince Paz qualucci
Paz Bros.
Co.
JEFF
PAULA
Founded by Octavio Paz, The Openfly is a family review published
yearly and distributed free
over 550 students and faculty of the
Annapolis campus as well as the offices at the St.John's Santa Fe Campus,
tutors emeriti and members of the board of visitors and governors and
Octavio Paz.
Tax deductible contributions may be given to The Openfly by making
checks payable to Sara Catania and Ray Gifford.
For display advertisement prices and information, call Octavio Paz.
Yearly subscriptions from Mr. Paz are available for $28.10. Au1to~tpt1ed
photos of Mr. Paz are available for a small fee. Coming soon: The home
game version of The Labyrinth of Solitude--good fun from the Paz family
to your familty.
Deadline: March 31, 1990. All submissions should be typed and
�~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~5
*
�~
I
4
The
Ii
second
The fo11owina
the
twice, and
is not such a class that can be called
or if that class does carry a
name of' 'seminar'' and the absences are
3, said member of the
part shall be
without exception,
Three
�,_Llo_.11,.,....
3
is rumored
considering turnimz himself into
Moreover the excessive
and warm beer seem to
have had an 'adverse effect on the health
of the Indian-born novelist.
Ronald
nominates Meese
In a
move last week Ronald
named Edwin Meese to the still
Cabinet post of
of Urdose to the
.._.._.._ ... j;::,.......
Meese nomination and
never pass the Senate confirmation
Meese himself is ...,,. ..... ,.,.....
dollar cost for the thrift bailout could be
earned within six months if zealous fin.
are followed.
Call
Eves & WA-"*Anas
DON'T COMPETE WITH
A KAPLAN STUDENT-BE ONE
came as Assistant Dean at
'-''l....•u.1;.;;~i;;;; where in one week Verdi
the students for
money to rehis basement.
Reaction from '"'"'l.J._ ....., ..
and hostile. House "IJ'-"'-·""-'-A
�2
Three
The
Readers:
Hostess.
You know her.
knows
man. It was at a party. Just one
how those rhinestone ankle bracelets
were makin' her
like the last
shot in a bottle
and I said to
co1mn1er1t H-i-h,,,. .. ,.,.,.,~.,. of steroids use had
an effect on his sexual prowess.
from 1978 conand asked about Pickens' prowess
~v1ember
PIM
has also been fined Ii 'iOO bv the
Assistant Deans Office for his steroid use.
As he deaned his desk
Pickens shed a tear,
Ort.t"'ri t·nrP to the
that he has
up as coach
investigative reporters Octavio Paz and Octavio
Paz,
owns a 5% stake in
The mtc::>rn1at1.on
H SPEED
on our XEROX 9
St. lohn's tutor Edward
c ... ,,....-nUJ
��
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>The Gadfly</em>
Description
An account of the resource
Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
thegadfly
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
6 pages
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
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/.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Gifford, Ray (Editor in Chief)
Catania, Sara (Editor in Chief)
Title
A name given to the resource
The Gadfly, Vol X Issue 18
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1989-04-04
Description
An account of the resource
Volume X, Issue 18 of The Gadfly. Published April 04, 1989.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Vol. 10 #18
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
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Gadfly
Student publication
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/bd9ba1dad2eecaaf47562a5924a194e2.pdf
30215fd928fa6a10eee7a06ccb44e518
PDF Text
Text
��Panamanian leader N 01nc~ga
assassinate the entire
exc:ha11ge for U.S.
irnre(~·alav summit with Prime Minister
Thatcher.
Thatcher for her resolve
short range nuclear missiles
His remarks
mt:enaea to widen the
sure not to modernize the missiles.
Gorbachev also announced
USSR would end
of enriched
�1-301-269-5665
�( 301) 267
').
AND
Ou
OF PRINT BOOKS
THE GORDONS
JEFF
------------------,
Mon.-Thurs. 7 30 am - 7 00 pm
7:30 am - 7:00
Sat.
8:00 am - 3:00 pm
L----------------------
_
_J
�All grours listed
S1 00 oH with this ad
��ACROSS CLUES
1.
3.
by Suzanne Bauer,
�Professional
Hair Stylist
For Women & Men
;J: PRIN( f r;f(Jf<(,f STRff T
ANNAPOl I'.:> MAR'r I AN[ J 214UI
M()Nl>AYTHl<l >Ali'R(>A., luAM
i>M
�had a
even
themselves to
duetotheAmazons
... .a.,-1,p,,,....,...
comand Ms.
the 'Nads.
6 Furies. The
St . Annapolis.
communication, and team ..... ,..,-.,,~•~......... ~~
the Furies went to town
Anita Burkham '92 was the
handcrafted
student 1.0.
�18 Market Street
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
268-1
5
�Chase Stone
Pinkney
East Pinkney
Humphreys
._ H H SPEED 0
XEROX
or cur ROX 9500 Copier
money back
probably right, but, after Tristan
collecting budget
Delegate Council.
college needs
Founded
is
independent student review
published weekly and distributed free to over 550 students and faculty of
the Annapolis campus as
at the St. John's Santa Fe
board of visitors and goverCampus, tutors emeriti
nors.
Tax deductible contributions may be given to The Gadfly hvm<>ldna
checks payable
as a donation to the
paper. Send checks to The Gadfly.
For display
business
manager at 263-2371 ext. 320. Yearly subscription available for $28.10.
Deadline: 5 p.m. Friday.
submissions
and signed by
the author.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>The Gadfly</em>
Description
An account of the resource
Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
thegadfly
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
12 pages
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
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/.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Gifford, Ray (Editor in Chief)
Catania, Sara (Editor in Chief)
Title
A name given to the resource
The Gadfly, Vol X Issue 19
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1989-04-11
Description
An account of the resource
Volume X, Issue 19 of The Gadfly. Published April 11, 1989.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Vol. 10 #19
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
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Gadfly
Student publication
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/708f4ae07054fee544f4d52e4ac2991a.pdf
64665a019ed26dd66165ed8f089e158d
PDF Text
Text
------------------
----~
�commemoration. But my most
the latter are of the
St. Annapolis. Md.
�had
Iatmc:ne:a t1u11g~:r Strtl(es• to demand indepe:na~em::e from the Soviet Union.
Later in the
Minister
Shevardnadze visited the area and criticized the excessive use of force. The
chief
have taken root
that the Soviet local au1tnc>rities
to resort to force to solve conflicts.
Pro-Choice March
once
sider the 1973 Roe versus
abortion. District
estimated that
the march while or1z.arliZ-
be
curtail Roe versus Wade without overtmrrung it, and in effect undercut the
nr~ov11stCm!i> wn1c:n1gillrurar1tee abortion as a
which the conservative members
court believe are an
intrtn1~erne11t of the
branch.
��1989
six
in
senior year.
The rationale behind this
discuss the
while the tutoffi(~etm~ts would discuss the dimenof parts of the Parthe1cc>nc)gr·ao1nv of its friezes.
whole of the
and .. .-...rtin·m
this segment to be discussed
are two Chinese
would be ass:1g;ntea
mt~Ioav
Prconios~ll-
Freshman Year
rre:snrnan year there
visual arts seminars, both
w~;cr1ssea
in terms of Platonic
...,.u...... . ,...,,...,.., ................. belief. Non-visual
r---------------------------,
Hours:
Mon.-Thurs. 7:30 am - 7:00 pm
Fri.
7:30 am - 7:00 pm
Sat.
8:00 am - 3:00 pm
L--------------------
_ _ _ _ ...1
nation and its effect on the peroep1tion
�---------------------
USE'). RARF
301) 267-876
ANO
Ou1 OF PR1NT BOOKS
38 WEST
STREE'T
ANNAPOLIS. MARYLAND
THE GORDONS
SAM
JEFF
2 40
�...
feel that such a broad
increases
anxieties
Of interest to students in the 1.... .,,-h-l,rf-iinn
Committee document
a
tea~cn.er;
gram;and5.~~rus1n~1ty
ness to the needs
• ._ .. ____ L;on:urnJ.-
H
on
�more than
is nossible
without the second. The dilemma is
reminiscent of one
central themes
of Aristotle's Nicbomacbean Ethics:
n-p,pn,nni
now
years before the .Entlai1c:ipatioin
Proclamation in the United
Czar
Alexander II undid the social institution
of serfdom in Russia. Unlike here in
.Afne1ric:a. the issue of
freedom
was not part of a nrr,::•'lli-•,...
but
�F
Somewhere
its C1e:s1gine1~s
maintainers have followed the axiom in
novel How Green
,.....,..,,...,.,.,.,.....,,,.,..,,..,, .. ri•tt-1,-.. . iti..:•"'
FEDERAL
~Vll'GS
OA.NK
�'91
Scot Maclean '91
Dave McNeil '89
Maureen
'91
(] Y
F
G
u
S C AN
T
I
I
ACROSS CLUES:
sium
VINCENZO
PASQUAlUCCI
Professional
Hair
For
&Men
131 PRINCE GEORGE STREET
these
Luu•1u-•n.1:...
and Socrates discuss name
Homeric character's son
21. One of the musical modes forbidden
in the .
24. Mentic:::m<:~d
20.
U.'-1,JUJl..P.U.'-
MARYLAND
MONDAYTHRU SATURDAY
21401
10.AM-7PM
world reknown for fine wines and spirits
87-89 main street, annapolis, md
263-2888
said
up with
in
WIDE SELECTION
OF FOREIGN
AMERICAN BEERS
�Pr~onos~:tl-
• ...._..........
,,&
Year
the visual arts
would make to the current
program
the inclusion
two
visual arts seminars. The first seminar
discuss Vermeer's A u/ ,,,......,,...,.
various artists such
Klee would be assiru:i.ed.
seminars would be
year.
will be
the author
�present instances
where ''characters were not co,nIJLec:ttruz
with each other and their situations.
effec1111,7n~n·ao µ~nn.n~.~ 1 and The
to,~eu1er because there is a definite contrast. One is
low
and sedate while the other is
can have such a nonchalant
imminent death.
A
,.,tt._,h,,r1.,.
M17n~nuo µ~~h·~~/7J
mention that no one should worry since
do so
given The Gadfly by making
specifying it as a donation to the
Robby Nease
Cover
Beth Heinberg '89
Printing
St. John's College
Shop
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>The Gadfly</em>
Description
An account of the resource
Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
thegadfly
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
12 pages
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
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/.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Gifford, Ray (Editor in Chief)
Catania, Sara (Editor in Chief)
Title
A name given to the resource
The Gadfly, Vol X Issue 20
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1989-04-18
Description
An account of the resource
Volume X, Issue 20 of The Gadfly. Published April 18, 1989.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Vol. 10 #20
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
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Gadfly
Student publication
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/5c224109072ddd16f6fb0281607ab4fb.pdf
0859223d3bb49f9f507ec7aba458a6dd
PDF Text
Text
�Foucault
�NAME _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
~
ADDRESS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
CITY ________________ STATE _ _ _ _ __
TEL _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
~
�All groups listed $1
oo
ott with this ad
��---------
�AND
Ou~
OF
THE GORDONS
SAM
JEFF
��131 PRINCE GEORGE STREET
21401
MONDAY THHU SATURDAY 10 AM 7 PM
��flicts.
From the editors:
Carin Calabrese
Zoe
elected co-editors
We wish them
realize
tn1emtse1v<:~s into.
��
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>The Gadfly</em>
Description
An account of the resource
Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
thegadfly
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
12 pages
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
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/.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Gifford, Ray (Editor in Chief)
Catania, Sara (Editor in Chief)
Title
A name given to the resource
The Gadfly, Vol X Issue 21
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1989-04-25
Description
An account of the resource
Volume X, Issue 21 of The Gadfly. Published April 25, 1989.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Vol. 10 #21
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
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Gadfly
Student publication
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/aae53d98b9634618d28ac3ee7c61be1b.pdf
5bd0ea554ed2f4e60d95abb4b5175b09
PDF Text
Text
�Dear .Editoirs.
The
that OOCU1Pied
Adler lecture was an
While I ·am sure that
senior class meant it in the
it
is hard to understand how no one involved in the stunt considered the difference between the traditional 1n1·prnn"ll.
and then
of
which had been
half an hour of
cute little audience
ap1pe:ued at three minute
ieaum.g up to the finale in which the
curtain was op en.ea. reivec:lluuz 1tne
of the senior class drinJdng
1
cafe.
This little scene, with no further
of the lecture
indifference to the
a
of which senshould have at least
some awareness. I wish that someone
had
into the sound booth and
�1989
------~~~~~~,~~~~~·~~~~~~~1b.e
Theodore Merz '89
Year in Review
The most significant
in
the world during the past nine months
has been the extraordinary changes takplace in the Soviet Union.
Gorbachev's attempt to reform
cal and economic structure of the
Union has lowered the perception of a
military threat from the East and
mean that the cold war is finally over.
U.S. will have to alter the ideological
stance set forty years ago which identified the threat of Soviet expantionism as
the primary foreign policy goal. The
effects of a declining perception of that
threat will have wide ranging effects; for
example ithas been essential to the politi·
cal cohesion of the NATO member states.
With the signing of the INF
the
Soviets troop withdrawal from Atimamstan, and the announcment
troop reductions in New York last
there can be no doubt that real
is
Soviet Union. Conservaas Reagan said, "trust but
seem incapable or unwilling to accept
the changes as substantial •• prc!te1rrtr12
instead to see them as attempts
Soviets to sow seeds of strife
the
Atlantic Alliance or to rebuild their economy for a renewed effort at world dominence. The liberals, on the other
seem to view the changes
the Soviets
as attempts to become "more like us,
and as a resultless ofa threat.
that even if Gorbachev's reforms were
intended to
a ctemc>cratiic,
talistic state we would
of interest with the Soviets. Both of these
positions
the
fact that we
no
world domi-
is an example
technology to Japan while
imbalbenefit from an enormous
ance. Pressures toward isolationism and
protectionism will augment if the public
perceives that the U.S. is being taken
advantage ofbythe Pacific Rim countries.
Afteryears of economic growth, those
countries seem to be experiencing politiIn South
radical
cal
are calling for
the reunification with the North (a nation
which managed to
half of South
Korea's cabinet not long ago) and the
pu.ru5mnrie1u of former President Chun.
reo:1.cume. to the Recruit
senior government
has brought down the gmren1m1ent
Noboro Takeshita and unJlea:she:ct
lie outcry
in Japanese
events in
of these nations seem to
show that the economic growth which
ca1:>ito:ills:m fosters leads to oom1ca.I
forms on the Western
In
student demonstrators with the support
of workers have called for more democracy in massive marches on Tiananmen
in
It is a remarkable
,....,.... ,..,,,. oonsialenmg that
in
cte1nm1st1·atic)ns led to
or death in the past.
The
of Middle
to end Hezbollah's control over the
...,,.,,..,....,... areas of West Beruit where the
toreu.?n hostagc:!s are believed to be held.
In
America, the Sandinistas
appear to be calming down after a decade
in power.
peace
launched
Prize winner Oscar
to be,,,,,, ........... ....
Arias of Costa
momentum after a
start.
the five Central American
for
vUJl'-A.ll.3.
exipn!ssect its desire to see Gen. N c1n<::l!a
In El Salvador recent elections
the conservative
closely associ..........." ......J .... of the
.....,..,....... :,..,. have
we once did.
The new conflict between East and
West will not focus on the NATO·· East
Bloc rift but between the Western democracies and the emerging economic
•nrii~h the U.S . .u..aJ:-u,11;,,&'-"'"'·
the Soviet Union has
prc)m.im!nt role in
Mi:nister Shevardnadze travelled to
f-'llll.r.,,
mt:en1ae:a to undermine
'"' .. , ..,...,.,.t-1,. financial
to accept IMF restrictions. He is now weaker than ever.
demands
ctetorest:ation of the
Amazon Basin area.
As Europe awaits the end of all trade
barriers in 1992 the mood in the U.S.
resembles the
relative inBush
difference of the 1950's.
suceeded Ronald
as 41st president and
became ooi~e:a
IJ'VIJ ...,.......... ~,
handcrafted jewelry
15% off with student 1.0.
continued on page 4
�President Emeritus
( 30 1
USf')
AND
0~J1 OF PRINT BOOK">
38
ANNA~OLIS
saries.
Sources:
New York Times
ST STRFf
T
MARYLAND
THE GOROONS
SAM
JEFF
2
401
26 7 8 7 6
1
�1989
ap·pn~c1:ate
Gifford '89
Catania '89
Thank you and "'..................... ""·
This is our
editors
readers it is
to think that
have been treated to over 600 pages
The
over the
but
true. We
would now dictate that
on11oso1;>ru,c about the accompurpose and
the
been a success.
rrc~au.crnu?.
The
r--~-------------
-..r. ....
;
D
Ill
Ill
I lours:
Mon.-Thurs. 7.)0 am - 7:00 pm
Fn.
7:30
Sat.
8:00 am - 3:00 pm
- 7:00
-----.,
his and Maua crossword
�demo sessions
Color of Black Music" and H2trg;ra\re
rehearsal
it is dear that
fuses the traditional sound
not
angry if someone made such an
attempt.
a
nare11thlet1,caJ comments: Mr.
,L• .,
appeJUat:i011s that each side of
"""~'"' ...'°'"'"" to use is
JL .......... ,.....
All groups
�•
�limitations or errors or
what the student had said. Leo Strauss
admired that
in Mr. Klein and
remarked that he
lacked the
patience to excel in that way. His usual
in class was to lecture for about
or twenty
and then to
invite discussion. Much more than
au~estilon v ...,.......,'"""'. these discus-
r
��boat went under the
catch the end of the cata"'"'""'.... ''""'"'""' oohed and
some of us learned about rP~~r11no
nautical charts to avoid
$40 for 8 two-hour classes
�wants to read this.
the artist now?
There are so few correct
ways
the word
remember me. Yellowis
The trick
131 PRINCE GEORGE STREET
ANNAPOLIS. MARYLAND 21401
MONDAY
SATURDAYlOAM 7PM
�-Leo Paul
for his ........ +.,.,..,....,.,,.;i,;...,,,,,,
work this year with the sports program.
Nate Herz
Garfield Goodrum
Silver
• -""'""'"' ""'""' Turner
Linda Hamm
The Student life Committee would
like to remind students of the rules govthe use of the
Loud music
its use for those who
Ken and Helen Colston
Re:siderntru;sis;t~1ts.and
the Director of Residence will continue
to
these
which have rebeen
and
Director of Residence
Assistant Dean
Assistant Dean
'-'\J'.1..,1•u.11.
All.anbr~C>olk..
will be held Monmtv
19th.
in FSK lobby.
that tutorials
laboratories will
cancelled on
unless rescheduled
your
continue to meet.
�-.
be
one for ea.ch of us
25 Mother
26Vessel
e
�coordination. He also instructed us in
the truth that, while mercy may have a
in our lives, it has no place on the
ba1r.tmlint:on court. With our eyes on the
h.e;a.ven.lv
each shot will be a sure
one.
handball, he introduced us to
the Ark of the Covenant.
to
Saviour vnust have
Word, although
Word
"Hey man, let's play team handeffident saviour need not have
twelve apostles, our Mr. P. had but four:
Llnda Hamm '89, Tamara Wilson '90,
·-~H~,·- Duvoisin '89, and Anne Panta'89.
Another Saviour "must have" are
commandments. Since 10 seems to be
the number
so has he:
uv•l.4ll... .::11,
2.Thoushaltnotolaveth
3. Thou shalt not nairasseth ..,.......... ,.........
complaints.
4. Thou shalt not playeth football Wi
Messrs. Silver, Monoghan,
Papadopoulos, and Sterling if tho
wisheth to haveth a healthy knee.
5. Thou shalt not placeth bets beyon
one's means, although thou think
it to be a "sure thing".
6. Thou shalt not distinguisheth be
winning and losing.
7. Thou shalt not haveth a referee
can stay awake an entire soccer
8. Thou shalt not playeth man-to-man:'
defense against Claire Morgan or
Zone defense against the Amazon.S.
9. Thou shalt not hitteth the gym lightS
with
if thou does not
wisheth to
the A.D. a six-oa.ctc.
10.
.a. .lll\JU •uu11..u.
the women's handball field.
Both men's and women's Novice 8
crews from St.
recorded
finishes in
at Baltimore in the 'VVJU"-J:•"-
The men's
seconds behind
onds behind nr5;t-tl~1ac:e
St. John's rowers also comwith more experienced rowers in
shells, with the women
over
club's tur1ctrais1ing
purchase of new
�''The µ1-:i1-..ratrr11rJh1r"
''Titter''
apt reflection
acter.
�Lucas Secretary
Andrew Pietrus Treasurer
Sandro Battaglia
Paca-CarroU
East Pinkney
West Pinkney
Off-Campus
Kurt Ru:z10:-.ru~rie1a Off-Campus
Aaron Rosenbaum Off-Campus
2 in the Conversation Room. The delegates
tonowin2 commenced:
Th:rou1gh the~ mc)uth of Carloss Chamberlin, Eliot Duhan thanked the DC for their continued
su1ppc)rtth:ro11gt1otlt the year. In an effort to continue his re1=1uUlti<J•n
reciue:ste:a $200 to
·11embe' PirJ!
) 263-23
273
Frid
~ HIGH SPEED QUALITY XEROXING
Thiswm be kept at the
int:erf$te:d to sign up for the
on CLJr XEROX 9500
~op1er
in the Conversation Room at 7 :30 PM.
EdU:ors-in-Chlef: Ray Gifford and Sara Catania
Brooks
Business Manager: Garfield uo>Odru1m
Adverdslng Manager:
Circulation Manager: Carin Ulllabres;e
Information Manager: Renee DeBlois
Business Staff: Nora Briody, Ravi Rao
~u·cu11au1onStaff:
Covitt
Kurtz
Layout
Barber
Printing Done at St. John's College Print Shop
Founded in 1980, The
published weekly and distributed
the Annapolis campus as
as
Campus, tutors emeriti and members of the board ?f visitors and governors.
Tax deductible contributions may be given to Th.o r.:n.r'.11tl11
checks payable to St. John's College and specifying it as a donation to the
paper. Send checks to The
For display advertisement prices and information, call the business
manager at 263-2371 ext. 320. Yearly subscription available for $28.10.
Deadline: 5 p.m. Friday. All submissions should be typed
the author.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>The Gadfly</em>
Description
An account of the resource
Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
thegadfly
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
16 pages
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
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/.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Gifford, Ray (Editor in Chief)
Catania, Sara (Editor in Chief)
Title
A name given to the resource
The Gadfly, Vol X Issue 23
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1989-05-09
Description
An account of the resource
Volume X, Issue 23 of The Gadfly. Published May 09, 1989.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Vol. 10 #23
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
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Gadfly
Student publication
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/a70c1ae25f1bb3aa56514d9916aa1df5.mp3
f738049c30cd46b826e1e47014093258
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
wav
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
00:35:58
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
James Madison : the founder of American founding
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of a lecture given on April 17, 2018 by James Ceaser as part of the Dean's Lecture and Concert Series.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Ceaser, James W.
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
2018-04-17
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
Madison, James, 1751-1836
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
20014434
-
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/76e7c305efb438d8dc1376d2da766723.mp3
824e14eeefac493fed8363612195ed47
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.)
01:17:38
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
Visual Arts Panel
Description
An account of the resource
Audio recording of a tutor panel given by tutors Alison Chapman, Krishnan Venkatesh, and David Carl on April 3, 2026 as part of the Dean’s Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean’s Office has provided this description of the event: “What is a portrait? The English word comes from the Latin word protrahere, ‘to draw forth,’ ‘to drag forward,’ ‘to bring to light,’ ‘to produce for inspection,’ while the main component trahere comes from an Indo-European root -tragh—that is cognate with our words tract, traction, trawl, drag, track, trace. What does a portrait draw or drag forth?—a human being, a self?—and what are those? In books, we can see how writers like Chaucer or Montaigne ‘portray’ individual people with words that can capture a distinctive interiority—but how can paint or a photographic image do that? Does a portrait have to have eyes, or even a face?—indeed, are there any portraits without human figures? In this panel discussion, three tutors (Alison Chapman, David Carl, and Krishnan Venkatesh) will attempt to approach these questions by talking us through a small selection of pictures.”
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Chapman, Alison
Venkatesh, Krishnan
Carl, David
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
2026-04-03
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
Portraits
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1606-1669 -- self-portraits.
Velazquez, Diego, 1599-1660. Las Meninas, or The Family of King Philip IV.
Modigliani, Amedeo, 1884-1920. Portrait of a Polish Woman.
Ogden, Perry, 1961- , Francis Bacon's 7 Reece Mews Studio photograph.
Bacon, Francis, 1909-1992. Painting after Velazquez's portrait of Pope Innocent X.
Bacon, Francis, 1909-1992. Portraits of Isabel Rawsthorne.
Picasso, Pablo, 1881-1973. Portrait of Gertrude Stein.
Picasso, Pablo, 1881-1973. Weeping Woman, or La Femme qui Pleure.
Warhol, Andy, 1928-1987. Marilyn Diptych (1962).
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SF_ChapmanA_et_al_Visual_Arts_Panel_2026-04-03
Friday night lecture
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/8fb595d9b86cd6c5bc71e28ae91715e4.pdf
d809f11a2bd35c833ebd091045e8f6c3
PDF Text
Text
Colloquy
�A Note from the Editors
Contents
On Being a Stranger 12
On Play 20
Translations 30
Memoria 46
List of Works 59
Acknowledgements 60
The Graduate Institute is St. John’s Wild West. We’re not nearly as old as the rest
of the College, and we’re not as tightly bound as the undergraduates. We come
into the College from very different situations, and we have jobs and families to
attend to. We feel that one role Colloquy must take is to be a place where we can
grow closer together. We’re hoping Colloquy leads us all to reach out across the
program, not just the seminar table.
Colloquy is still so new a publication as to admit trial and experiment. Our first
issue was spring 2017. In this eleventh edition, we continue to preserve, as we
did in the first issue, the end of the semester toasts to the students and tutors.
We include the précis for Kelly Custer’s Master’s essay to recognize its successful
defense, and to offer a model for future candidates to have some sense of how to
go about writing them. We invited all the G.I. to submit brief pieces on the topics
“On Play” and “On Being a Stranger” to carry on St. John’s democratic tradition of
dialogue. We received submissions from alumni, including the founding editor of
the journal, Bonnie Naradzay. We are proud to include a Latin, Spanish, Russian,
and Arabic translation. We hope you appreciate the thought and labor that went
into this edition of Colloquy.
Most of all, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to Emily Langston,
Kashya Boretsky, and Diana Villegas for all their assistance, as well as the Graduate Student Council and the alumni for their continual support of the G.I. community. And of course, we would like to thank our contributors.
Abdullah Wadood and Jesse Clagett
Fall 2022
1
2
�Reflections of the Revolution in Britain
Benjamin Crocker
Like periscoped sheep, the palace hordes startled back and forth, lunging
the gates, devices bobbing - flopping above the fray into which they all tumbled.
They scuffled to meet, but mostly just to prove-their-meeting-of, the new King.
By chance, I had been working in Wiltshire the day before, Thursday
September 8 - the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s passing. Mid-conference at an old
Wiltshire estate when news of Her Majesty’s death broke, my first observation
was that no one quite knew what to do.
That would be good, I thought.
But down there at Buckingham it was a dog show indeed. Those journalists stampeding like marked cattle. The sheepy public surging forth to wherever
fear of missing out and royal opportunity might intersect.
And when the standard went up, and out he came, stooped and sartorial,
to meet his public, he might have had cause for bewilderment
At dinner that evening the staff stood to attention, some silence was enforced, a vigorous shout of ‘Long live the King’ rang out, and esteemed colleagues
made fine, concise addresses of tribute and remembrance. A wonderful young
couple seated opposite me had hurried to buy black. I was relieved.
For Charles III more often than not shook the hand of a mind tethered
not to royal affection, but to its own demented voyeurism. The King looked not
into the warm eyes of the old empire, but to the cold glass lens of the new one.
But the milieu was otherwise unshaken by the day’s earthquake.
This was mourning as spectator sport. Which of course isn’t mourning at
all. Only one in a hundred, nay, maybe a thousand, had the decency to wear black.
The liquor flowed as on any other night. The conversation was light, serious, silly, and profane by turns - as on any other night. ‘I feel a deep sadness’, a
wise colleague had the decency to say, in private, amidst the oblivious bonhomie.
And through it all, the BBC - and every other Tom, Dick and Harry with a
microphone - kept vigil. Vigil in the way a hamster keeps vigil at its wheel. Constant, monotonous, unchanging, dumb.
Our coach to London the next day took neither longer nor shorter than it
should have. No one was flocking to the capital to grieve in public. But it seemed
no one was staying home to grieve in private, either. I was dismayed.
There were some flickers of hope. Two American flight attendants had
hurried down after their shift, pinned their wings to a rose and moved diligently
toward the fence to pay their respects. “That’ll end up in landfill, love” - it didn’t
take long for the locals to burst their bubble…
On every billboard between Heathrow and Whitehall her face alternately
shone with youth or glowed with wisdom. Westfield presents Queen Elizabeth in
Black and White. Surreal.
Arriving at the hotel, I scoffed down whatever was in sight and hurried
across the road to the Palace. What were the odds that I would be here, on that one
day out of 35,000 others in the span of the second Elizabethan Age?
I could have the privilege of mourning - not just for the Queen, but for
the spectre of grace and diligence that emanated from her reign. For my Grandfather, who served in her Army, played the piano bequeathed by her family, and
migrated between two of her realms. For the people for whom she meant more
than I could ever know - the war wounded and widowed, the people who tied
3
ribbons, baked cakes and trained dogs for shows, who dressed smartly and hung
her portrait proudly in dusty halls on dusty plains, in dusty farming towns, in the
dusty country I grew up in.
Another beautiful young woman dressed in black strode stoically through
Green Park, fighting the tears that burst forth regardless. And though I caught but
glimpses of them, I can say that those women knew how to mourn.
But I’m not so sure about the rest of us.
I’m not sure we knew what clothes to wear, what posture to hold, what
pace to step, and what manner to speak in. I’m not sure we understood that solemn pageantry and sacred ritual are to be more experienced, less packaged into
clips and discussed over dinner.
4
�
In the span of the Queen’s reign, and contra her steadfast grace and majesty, what remains of her Empire has indeed undergone a profound revolution.
The Romantics
Lest that revolution in Britain not be conspicuous for any speed or
bloodshed, it shall ever be for the sake of propriety slowly surrendered, for decorum gradually lost.
Ten-thousand daffodils along the margin of a bay
would in my time have all ceased to decay,
and Daisies become a worthier flower to adorn
an epitaph desiring that we mourn;
for if my Words have any worth at all
then perchance they would outlast us all.
But times being as they are, I think I’ll write
only for myself, and no distant reader’s delight.
Melissa Moore
No modern master Taylor could possibly hope to weave
prettier patterns of discarded themes,
nor any serious painter withstand not being privy
to such a place as Kubla Khan decreed.
It was a painted poem, upon a painted canvas
that first set in motion things outlandish
and though it was quite beautiful and refined,
in the end it took a lifetime to wash away the brine.
Though the crystal chill overcomes the burly winter birch
—coats with downy flake limbs where songbirds perch—
though all this world should be condemned to fire and to ice,
I doubt that either Burns or Frost suffice.
Beware, young friends: Tam O Shanter’s good mare’s
advice, a red red rose with thorns, ensnares,
for she is long gone, and yet here you stand
for all the world a much luckier man.
The past is filled with beauty – this truth no one will deny –
and the future appears stark before the nostalgic eye,
but words do not belong to those who say them best
and life spent lost in memory is life best laid to rest.
Though in this race the many may surpass me
and though their words through many ages may outlast me,
I’d rather turn my words to wind during the run
than become Swift only to be called Donne.
5
6
�
He’s This, She’s That
Louis Petrich
Can he be rhymed off straight from facts—writ pat?
Can she be rhymed off straight from facts, stared stone?
In love with seas, curled brains, dared skin, pink wilds--
Her friend long-haired, longed tame, with dog she keeps.
“I have love for you, friend,” she pares, “that’s it.”
Yet love dared pick him and pertains, phone-laired.
As clouds paint skies her evanescent smiles
(Her dog would like him more, licked treat to treat.)
subscribe words lit from distant hands, stealth lips,
Legs chickening, fingers satiate, spell out
for don’t bit stars do infinite of black?
fools’ fated fallings in across hearts’ hacked
Her missives vibrate overtones and sips
divide. How quaint quilled perks do punt all doubt
of overtures that salve somewhat heart’s rack
of cursive character: see!
and spur his plenty done more jointed years.
unstop her soundings, scored not his who fears!
Not fooled enough, still wet, issues grotesque,
for schooled she goes in art of raising cheers
girl-curious t’anoint boys amouresque.
He might as well be spinning silk to straw.
Imagination cleaves to jewels that claw.
7
couplings blacked
Core falling yearnings turn parts mortal-tasked
and creasing bent to pleasing master mirrors,
equipage buffed to bluff dusk, youthful masked.
“Life’s flash I steal, my wares achieve!” she rings.
Imagination husbands armful things.
8
�9
10
�| On Being a Stranger
11
12
�on being a stranger
you can spend your whole life chasing authenticity and find out you don’t know
the meaning of the word
a stranger in your own skin; not at home in yourself
you can’t see yourself in
five years
(or in love)
(or as a parent)(or happy)(or not in pain) when
you can’t see yourself
in a mirror
there’s a fog over everything. it’s hard to realize you’re the only one who can’t see
right
things look different from that perspective
you don’t know what’s wrong but
you’ve always felt like an alien
(ever at arm’s length)(your ways are strange)
every movement: like in a nightmare, trying to run
your limbs feel Wrong
untethered
the world bends away underneath you
there, but not there
you get very good at losing yourself to survive
staring too long at the flames would mean acknowledging you’re on fire
no one else sees it
you can’t explain it
all you can do is look away
the easiest place to lose yourself is in other people
sometimes, they’ll let you
sometimes, they like it
(they like You)
13
14
�it’s as addictive as anything else you can lose yourself in completely
a total abnegation
disintegration
you’ll swear it’s transcendence
there’s a special brightness in the eyes when the fog clears
an appreciation for how much there is to see
and a thirst to see it anew
how do you share what you learned on the other side? merely having been there,
it’s alienating
how can you explain what it is to feel Wrong to those who have always felt
right?
(always belonged?)
but you’re trying You on for size
feeling your weight under yourself
and it feels good
like every grand journey, it’s about finding the way home
Siobhan Petersen
It must be said that every evil in some way has a cause. For evil is the absence of the
good, which is natural and due to a thing....
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, First Part, Question 49
I went to San Antonio to collect a writing award recently. TSA treated
me with contempt. As I saw the lights of D.C. (my only home) from up above, I
wept for a reason I do not know why. I asked an older gentleman if I could sit next
to him while I waited for the connecting flight. He agreed. As soon as my butt
touched the seat, he got up and left. When I arrived at San Antonio at noon, the
woman at the hotel counter told me check-in was at three. I wasn’t welcome, her
stern stare scolded. So I walked to a Whataburger without a sidewalk in sight. All
my belongings were on my back. I didn’t want to be mugged. I hoped that someone would pick a fight with me just so I would be noticed, but I didn’t even get
that. This city is made for metal and rubber, not flesh and bone. I hid behind a
pillar of an abandoned building to get out of the sun and out of sight. A homeless
man had the same idea. The soles of my shoes began to reek of hot tar. The crosswalks are spaced out in twenty-minute intervals. Ten-lane highways separate
the sidewalks the width of my thumb. Every building is an island surrounded by
asphalt seas. A haggardly man passes me by on a bicycle, the only other pedestrian. He told me a word of wisdom, but he went by too fast in an accent I couldn’t
understand. The sun began to seep into my clothes and turned into sweat. I need
some sleep. I need to rest. I returned to the hotel disheveled and waited for an
hour in the lobby. The woman at check-in eventually acknowledged me and
apologizes profusely. I pretend that it is no big deal. Earlier that week I learned all
my old friends have been excluding me. I couldn’t hold my grief much longer. So
I searched for someone to talk to. I called my younger brother and asked him if he
was free. He opened his lips to inhale. I wept. God is stretched very thin here.
Abdullah Wadood
15
16
�Ex Cathedra
By Mephibosheth
Today started like any other day for Jay: he got up early and sat around on
his bed playing on his phone or turning on the TV to watch some of his favorite
shows. By all accounts, he was just like any other young man, that is to say that
he was lost and yearning to find a purpose in his life, bouncing from interest to
interest, job to job, and major to major as he attempted to strike out on his own,
away from the ever-scrutinizing eye of his parents.
Unlike his younger counterparts, however, Jay had something which
set him apart from all others, he had a disability—not just any disability, but one
which required the use of a bulky power wheelchair. Being that his condition had
been with him since birth, he knew no other form of transport, and had easily
come to accept both the chair and side effects of his condition. Although he was
occasionally taken by bouts of loneliness and alienation due to the limits his chair
imposed on him, it would not be an exaggeration to say that he and the chair were
one in spite of all this.
As he waited for his nurse to arrive, Jay began to turn over a myriad of
thoughts about his life, his future, and the problems that he caused his family
as a result of his disability. Usually the television assisted in drowning out these
thoughts long enough so that he would not be consumed in sadness, it helped,
but not for very long—his mind always returned to the ever-present conclusion
that he was a burden; the conclusion that all of his studying, all of his attempts
at work, his phobia of the outside world, would lead to life passing him by as he
stood inept and cowardly staring it in the face.
You see, Jay cared very much for his fellow human beings, but because his
condition limited him so severely as to the enjoyment of various natural things
which do not particularly concern those who do not suffer from physical disability he had grown to hate nature. It reminded him of everything which separated
the cripples from the non-cripples, the invalids from the valid. He preferred the
cold, calculating world of electronics and technology. This world was, to him at
least, more relatable, especially since he depended on that world to live his daily
life.
So it was, then, that after turning over all of the questions of the universe
and existence inside his head that Jay’s nurse finally came. Her routine was simple: she would change Jay, help him put on his leg braces, help him put his clothes
17
on, pivot him into his chair, and finally strap him in so that he would not fall over
while sitting. After this their routine would continue as most others’ would: he
would have breakfast, brush his teeth, and decide what to do for the day.
Everything seemed to be going well until Jay suddenly felt a sharp pain in
his back, almost as if someone had stabbed him. It wasn’t unusual that he would
rub up against the back side of his seat or catch his shoulders on the metal backplate of his chair, so he had initially thought nothing of it. As the day went on,
however, his motion became more and more restricted, and he noticed that the
chair was slowly and painfully enveloping him within itself.
What is going on? There must be something wrong with the chair or me. It shouldn’t be
this way. This shouldn’t be happening.
But try as he might Jay could not escape the inevitable and he was eventually completely subsumed by his own chair. He could feel that he had been enveloped by total darkness, but as far as he could discern he was able to speak normally and without impediment. Around this time late in the evening was when
his nurse would come back in order to serve him dinner and put him to bed.
When his nurse finally came he wasn’t exactly sure what was going on,
so when she opened the door he greeted her as he normally would “Hi, Catie, it’s
nice to see you again today,” Jay said.
“It’s nice to see you as well, Jay. Are you ready for dinner?” replied Catie.
“Yes, I’m super hungry,” responded Jay.
Catie didn’t seem to notice what had happened to Jay. She acted as if
nothing was wrong. It was just as if it were any other day.
Jay noticed that although he was surrounded by darkness he could still
see outside of his chair and move his hands just enough to drive to his room to
await his food. As Jay ate, the material enveloping him within his chair would
recede as he raised the spoon up to his mouth, only to re-envelope him in its
darkness when he put the spoon down. The same thing happened as Catie gave
him his daily sponge bath. Jay was really beginning to question his reality. This
was made all the more worrisome for him as Catie proceeded to lift his entire
chair and place it in his bed.
Jay was very distressed, but he never actually said anything to anyone
18
�because he was afraid that he would inconvenience those around him and add
to his status as a burden. He lived out all the rest of his days invisible to himself,
but treated as if he were still there by others. It was this fact that really made him
wonder whether he was right all along to think that his feelings of alienation
were, in fact, correct. In the end, however, it didn’t really matter if Jay had actually become one with his machine, because society saw him simply as his machine
and nothing else.
He was doomed…
| On Play
19
20
�21
22
�23
24
�“On Play”
Ansley Green
Oh to play… All I want to do all day is play! The fresh outside air, the endless
possibilities, it is hard for mom to get me back inside. The imagination runs wild
with possibilities, nothing is off limits, the world is huge and for the exploring.
What would make me want to stop all this play?
Time does not stop for happiness. The play no longer is free. Consequences come
into play. Competition clouds kindness, but also spurs on greatness. Keep playing
and you can make it big. Keep playing and you can be famous. Keep playing and
you can be rich. Can’t you?
I see the young women play, who have dedicated all the years of their life to excel.
They gave up lighthearted playing for a fierce competition and love of sport. They
have made it to the level all other little girls dream of. They are on the big stage,
playing for an audience now. They play exactly the same amount as the men, the
yellow ball zinging back and forth at speeds no slower than the others. They play,
rackets flying when anger comes in. They play, tears streaming over stretched
smiles when the victory comes. They play, but for what?
They play so they can have a prize purse 1/3 of what the men’s is. They play so they
are rewarded at a fraction of what their friends are rewarded…for the exact same
play. There is no lack of money at the upper levels. The tournament organizers are
not broke. They have just broken the system. Playing is no longer fair. Playing is
no longer full of limitless opportunities. The air is less fresh here. The system is
broken. The play is over.
The little girls realize that this is not uncommon. This unequal reality is not
contained to one game. If tennis was called golf was called basketball was called
surfing was called skiing was called soccer was called hockey was called wrestling
was called boxing was called running….it is still the same. Keep fighting, they
say. Look, we have equal pay now, they say. What was the cost? Why was the battle
so steep? Who will stand up for the others?
Who will keep the girls in play?
25
26
�Anne Carson translated this fragment 286 from Ibykos, an ancient Greek lyric poet, and then proceeded to use the structure of the fragment (on the one
hand….. on the other hand….. nay, rather….. ) to experiment with other texts,
including pages from Kafka, the FBI file on Berthold Brecht, two pages from
the owner’s manual for her new microwave…. See: Nay Rather (Volume 21)
(Cahiers) Paperback – February 15, 2014. For one I experimented with Plato’s
Meno and for the other Schrödinger’s What is Life? - Bonnie Naradzay
Aporia
Ibykos fragment 286, using only phrases from Plato’s Meno
The torpedo fish?
I am quite perplexed.
On the one hand,
anyone who touches it feels numb.
On the other hand, the human soul is immortal:
at times it comes to an end, which they call dying,
at times it is reborn, but it is never destroyed,
and one must live one’s life
piously.
Nay rather,
the statues of Daedalus run away if not tied down.
But now the time has come for me to go.
27
What is Life?
Ibykos Fragment 286, using only phrases from the epilogue of Schrödinger’s What is Life?
To say “Hence I am God Almighty,”
on the one hand,
sounds both blasphemous and lunatic,
the closest a biologist can get
to proving God and immortality at one stroke.
On the other hand, in the Upanishads,
Atman equals Brahman
in perfect harmony, mystics
somewhat like the particles
in an ideal gas.
Nay rather,
in a gallery of mirrors,
like the way Gaurisankar and Mount Everest
are the same peak seen from different valleys,
I see my tree
you see yours
obviously only one tree.
What the tree in itself is,
we do not know.
28
�| Translations
29
30
�
إن األعلى من األسفل واألسفل من األعلى
IPA: /innəl ʔala’ mən as su’ful was su’ful mənəl ʔala’/
“Lo and Behold! The highest is from the lowest, and the lowest is from the
highest.”
The phrase is found in Islamicate hermetic texts, most notably the “Emerald Tablet” and the “Secret of Secrets”. The first word, /innə/ , doesn’t translate
to anything in particular in English. Usually it’s translated as “Indeed”. In Arabic,
it is used as an intonation or particle attached to the subject to emphasize what’s
being said. “Lo and Behold!” does not usually translate well when using /innə/
since /innə/ can be a very everyday word, but this particular line is describing
something beatific so I thought it was fitting. I think also the simple affirmation
“Yes!” could work, but that is too literal. The next word, /al ʔala’/ means “The
Highest”. It is usually translated as “The Most High” but I think that is clunky.
The Islamic tradition attributes ninety-nine names for God. /al ʔala’/ is one of
them. Arabic doesn’t have copulas (“to be” words) in the present tense. They are
grammatically implied. /mən/ is a preposition meaning “from”. /wa/ is the conjunction “and”. And /as su’ful/ means “The Lowest”. I have used the apostrophes
in the IPAs to indicate a sound short of a full glottal plosive.
Abdullah Wadood
31
32
�In the last two lines of his Ode on a Grecian Urn, Keats writes:
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”.
I found these lines so formidable that I decided to try to translate them
into my mother tongue: Spanish.
Here is the result:
“Belleza es verdad, verdad belleza. En la tierra
Sólo esto llegáis a saber y no necesitáis saber nada más”.
Now, two comments. In Spanish, a definite article—la, el—always precedes the noun in order to link its meaning with a referent, unless it is a proper
noun1. In this case, I omitted the articles before the nouns belleza and verdad even
though, strictly speaking, the poet did not present them as proper nouns. This is
incorrect in academic or formal writing, and awkward in informal conversation,
but it is not unheard-of in poetic forms. I chose to omit the articles because they
would somehow steal the attention of the listener. I think Yeats would want us to
focus on the nouns.
On the other hand, you may notice that I used vosotros instead of ustedes to
translate “ye”—hence, llegáis and necesitáis instead of llegan and necesitan. Vosotros
and ustedes are both second-person, plural, personal pronouns. In Spain, the
former is used in informal contexts and everyday parlance, while the latter is
mostly used when speakers are total strangers to one another. In Latin America,
however, ustedes is the standard usage in both informal and formal contexts, and
no one uses vosotros either in everyday conversation, nor in academic or professional environments. But there is one place where vosotros still lives: Catholicism.
The Bible uses vosotros throughout and in Mass the priest addresses the congregation with vosotros. Vosotros conveys an ancient and awe-inspiring tone which is
how I believe Yeats’ Grecian Urn would speak.
And that is all ye need to know.
Luis Sánchez
1 In “María no vino a la fiesta”, the proper noun is not preceded by an article while in “el
cartero llegó tarde” the definite article proceeds the noun.
33
34
�Молюсь оконному лучу—
Он бледен, тонок, прям.
Сегодня я с утра молчу,
А сердце—пополам.
На рукомойнике моем
Позеленела медь.
Но так играет луч на нем,
Что весело глядеть.
Такой невинный и простой
В вечерней тишине,
Но в етой храмине пустой
Он словно праздник золотой
И утешенье мне.
I am praying to the window light—
It is pale, thin, and straight.
Today I am quiet since morning,
And my heart—it is split in half.
The copper of my washbasin
turned green.
But light plays on it there,
So fun to touch.
So innocent and simple,
In the evening silence,
But in this empty temple
It is a golden holiday
And it is solace for me.
Анна Ахматова, 1909
“Из книги Вечер”
Anna Akhmatova , 1909
From the book “Evening”
I chose to translate this poem because its mood and feelings it evoked were
relatable to me. The praying to a morning light with a broken, or perhaps just a
confused, heart gives an idea of a new beginning taking time for adjustment. The
speaker finding joy in a golden evening ray reinforces that change takes time,
despite initial and underlying feelings of loneliness and despair. There is comfort
and beauty to find after time has made things change, depicted by the light which
dances still on the copper of the basin which has turned green. The days still pass,
time goes on, and peace can replace despair. I focused on meaning rather than
keeping true to meter for this translation.
Ansley Green
35
36
�Seneca, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales
Seneca, Moral Epistles for Lucilius
CXII. SENECA LVCILIO SVO SALVTEM
Letter 112. Greetings! To my dear Lucilius, from Seneca,
Cupio mehercules amicum tuum formari ut desideras et institui, sed valde durus capitur; immo, quod est molestius, valde mollis capitur et consuetudine
mala ac diutina fractus.
Volo tibi ex nostro artificio exemplum referre. Non quaelibet insitionem
vitis patitur: si vetus et exesa est, si infirma gracilisque, aut non recipiet surculum aut non alet nec adplicabit sibi nec in qualitatem eius naturamque transibit.
Itaque solemus supra terram praecidere ut, si non respondit, temptari possit
secunda fortuna et iterum repetita infra terram inseratur.
Hic de quo scribis et mandas non habet vires: indulsit vitiis. Simul et
emarcuit et induruit; non potest recipere rationem, non potest nutrire. ‘At cupit
ipse.’ Noli credere. Non dico illum mentiri tibi: putat se cupere. Stomachum
illi fecit luxuria: cito cum illa redibit in gratiam. ‘Sed dicit se offendi vita sua.’
Non negaverim; quis enim non offenditur? Homines vitia sua et amant simul et
oderunt. Tunc itaque de illo feremus sententiam cum fidem nobis fecerit invisam
iam sibi esse luxuriam: nunc illis male convenit. Vale
I want1, by Hercules, that your friend be formed, as you desire, and educated2; but he, as someone very hard, is stuck3, really, what is more troublesome,
he is stuck as someone very soft and broken4 by a consistent and bad way of life.
I want to refer you to an example from our art. Not just any vine supports
a scion;5 if it is old and consumed, if it is weak and thin, either it will not receive
the shoot, or it will neither nourish it nor apply itself to it nor will it cross over
into the quality and nature of it. And so we are accustomed to cut it off above the
earth, so that if it doesn’t respond, a second chance could be tried,6 and, again,
the second attempt7 would be sown under the earth.8
This man, concerning whom you write and enquire, does not have the
strength9; he indulges his flaws10. He wilts and grows stiff at the same time. He
is not able to receive argument11, he is not able to nourish it. “But he wants to12.”
Don’t believe that. I’m not saying that he’s lying to you; he thinks he wants to13.
For him, excess makes appetite14; Quickly, he will return to favour with it. “But he
says he is put off15 by his life.” I wouldn’t deny that. For, who is not thus put off16?
Men at the same time both love and hate their flaws. And so, we will judge17 him at
that point when he shows18 us that excess is now hateful to him. But right now, for
them the matter is poorly agreed.19 Farewell.
Walker Rogalsky
37
38
�Endnotes
1
It is not Seneca’s desire or Lucilius’ desire that makes Lucilius’ friend
unable to be bettered.
2
Educated here is institui, in meaning ‘in’ and stitui being from statuo
meaning ‘to set something’ which is where English gets statue and status. This
means primarily ‘to set something in.’ It’s where English gets institute or institution from. But it takes on two very interesting secondary meanings for this letter.
It can mean ‘to plant’ and ‘to educate.’ That is, the same way knowledge or virtue
is ‘set in’ someone, a plant is ‘set in’ the ground. I‘ve kept the Latin word order
here because it is telling that Lucilius‘ desire is between the friend being formed
and educated. It seems like Lucilius’ desire is ‘set in’ the possible passive activities of his friend.
3
This is the passive form of capio - ‘to take.’ The subject is the friend; the
friend is seized and the durus is in apposition to the implied subject being the
friend. This is an interesting use of capio. It implies two things, namely that the
friend has been seized, very much like our word seize which implies the no longer
functioning of a mechanism as in ‘seized up.’ It is also the word a Latin speaker
would use, as in English, to say a plant has ‘taken root.’ Thus foreshadowing for
our upcoming plant analogy. But both of these meanings together along with the
durus (hard) being in apposition to the implied subject make me feel as though
his friend has grown stuck, but by his own agency. Indeed we do not have any
agent in the ablative for the passive verb in these clauses that contain capitur. But
it would not be out of the question to say that the consuetudine mala ac diutina
could be used as the agents for not only fractus but also capitur. This only further
corroborates the fact that this friend has taken root or been seized as very hard or
very soft by his own agency.
4
Broken here is fractus. This is a nominative thus is playing the same
grammatical role as durus (hard) and mollis (soft.) It is fascinating that he is
seized as something not only very soft but as something broken too. It is strange
to think of something very soft as being broken because typically very soft things
are malleable and thus not easily broken. This is not so in the case of the friend.
This strangeness implies that the state of softness and brokenness of the friend is
not physical. His character is soft i.e. it cannot endure pains, and thus broken by
his consistent choices which form his way of life i.e. his (mala) consuetudine. This
is also foreshadowing for the luxuria which is the friend’s exemplary fault or vice
39
which is a result of his being soft and thus not being able to endure pains.
At first Seneca thinks him very hard which means unchangeable or recalcitrant in
his error. But then says he’s very soft which has a common moral meaning of not
being able to endure pain. The alternation between very hard and very soft seems
to mean that he is unchangeable because he is very soft and thus unable to be
formed like water or clothing. This all seems to be an allusion to Aristotle’s Ethics
wherein hardness and softness concern moral character in relation to enduring
pains; it doesn’t seem that Lucilius’ friend has attained the mean between hardness and softness; Aristotle at 1150b calls luxury a certain kind of softness.
5
Here the vine (or root plant) is Lucilius’ friend. I do wonder if the scion
(the cutting that is being grafted on to the base plant) is Lucilius. In order to
understand this analogy, we should first look at what grafting is: “Grafting is a
technique that joins the tissues of two plants together so they continue to grow as
one plant. In viticulture this technique allows grape vines to express the desirable varietal characteristics of the scion (upper part of the joined plant) in the
fruits, while developing or keeping the root system of the rootstock (lower part
of the joined plant).” So, the new plant seems to be an image of the friendship
between Lucilius and his friend. The scion is Lucilius and the root plant is Lucilius’ friend. This is probably the case because if the grafting is successful i.e., the
friendship is possible, then Lucilius’ friend, the root plant, will be able to take on
the desirable characteristics of Lucilius, the scion. This is very well corroborated
by Seneca‘s idea of the exemplum wherein virtue is achieved by being close to and
imitating someone virtuous. This is most clearly articulated in Letter 6. Also, any
grafting needs to be done between organisms of the same species, so it seems
likely that Seneca is talking about two people here, not one person and some
abstract qualities.
If Lucilius is the scion and his friend is the root vine, we might wonder
whether Seneca is the gardener. It may be “their art,” but it could be theirs in
different ways.
6
The Latin here is temptari possit secunda fortuna. Temptari, the passive
form of temptare, is where English gets ‘to tempt.’ It has a fairly broad, though
consistent, semantic range. It means roughly ‘to test,’ ‘to prove,’ ‘to try’ but mainly by touching, that is, by direct experience. It can be used not only as in, ‘to try
one’s enemy in battle,’ but also ‘to feel the pulse of.’ This is an excellent word for
the sounding out of character through friendship that this analogy is depicting.
Secunda fortuna is the subject of the complementary infinitive temptari through
possit (is able.) Fortuna on its own means ‘chance,’ ‘fate’ or ‘fortune’ but with
40
�secunda it means ‘good fortune,’ but also ‘second chance.’ Secunda means literally
‘second’ but also means good, a carry-over from a second i.e., following wind
being always a good one for sailing, so secunda came to mean good especially
with things determined by chance like the wind. Here it means most prominently
‘second chance,’ but can also mean good fortune is able to be tried again. Another
interesting possibility for secunda fortuna is ‘a following state’ because secunda
can mean ‘following’ and fortune can mean ‘fate’ or ‘state’ or ‘condition.’ Thus
if at first the root plant doesn’t have a following condition, it’s possible to try a
following condition. It’s quite possible Seneca means all three possibilities for
secunda fortuna.
7
Second attempt here is repetita which is where we get ‘repeat.’ It comes
from re, which means ‘to do again’, like English, and peto, which means ‘to seek,’
but especially to make an attack. This agrees very well with temptari in bringing home the harsh, if not violent nature of sounding out someone’s character
through friendship. This is not a pleasant experience for either the root plant or
the scion, although it does seem like it can be beautiful. This corroborates the fact
that the friend is soft, that is his character can’t endure pain.
8
There is some ambiguity here concerning whether the cutting will be
grafted to the root plant below the earth or simply sown as its own plant in order
to root itself. ’Sown’ is inseratur which can mean either ‘to graft in’ or ‘to plant in.’
The purpose of growing grapevines is for the grapes. Grafting allows the variety
of the cutting (scion) to produce fruit more quickly than if simply planted in the
ground. But if the root is no good, one can just plant the cutting in the ground on
its own, and although slower, it will produce fruit. This is opposed to if the root
vine is old and weak, in which case no fruit will be produced. It seems likely that
Seneca is saying here that, after the first attempt, if the root is no good, just plant
the scion directly and throw out the root. That is, if the new plant is the friendship of Lucilius and his friend and we can assume the fruit is virtue, then if the
root is bad and won’t take the favourable qualities of the scion which means that
the friend is of a sufficiently bad character to not take to the friendship of Lucilius, then it is best to let the friend go if virtue is the goal. This letting go also seems
like it would be painful for both.
9
‘Strength’ here is vires which can also mean ‘vigour’ or ‘virtue,’ it is
derived from vir which means man and it is where English gets ’virile’ from. It
is plural which seems to imply there are many qualities his friend is missing in
order to accept the graft. This can also mean, although grammatically unfeasible,
41
’you are green‘ or ’you flourish’ from the Latin verb vireo which is derived from
the word for green viridis.
10
Flaws’ here is vitiis which is most directly translated as ‘vices,’ but ‘vices’
implies a kind of Christian meaning that I don’t want to invoke. A vitium is any
quality in a particular thing that gets in the way of a that thing naturally tending
toward its end.
11
‘Argument’ is here ratio where English gets ‘reason’ and, you guessed it,
ratio from. I didn‘t want to use ‘reason’ because it brings to mind a kind of Enlightenment era notion of the activity of the intellect. Argument is a better notion
although it sounds worse. Because of his poor moral state, it seems like Lucilius’
friend is not able to accept any argument or reason, let alone to live according to
it and nourish it in his life.
12
’Want’ here is cupio. It is the word that begins the letter, although Seneca
is speaking then, not Lucilius’ friend. Seneca says that he wants that the friend be
educated but that the goal of the desire is impossible. The friend says he wants to
be educated but the goal of the desire is impossible, and it is impossible for the
same reason as why Seneca‘s desire is impossible; namely because the friend‘s
moral state doesn‘t allow the desire to be chosen.
13
Here we can see that Lucilius’ friend’s desire and reason are not in accord, that is, he is ignorant of his desires, but he doesn’t know that he is ignorant
of them.
14
Stomachum illi fecit luxuria, translated literally is ‘luxury makes the
stomach for him.’ Luxuria is where we get luxury from but they are by no means
semantically identical. Luxuria means literally the rankness of trees or plants.
It is that strong smell that comes off vegetable matter. But figuratively it means
moral decadence. A very apt word! This phrase is difficult. It should be taken in
two ways. First, it is as when one eats too much and is disgusted with food because
of the discomfort. Yet as soon as the excess leaves the stomach, the disgust will
return to desire. Secondly, it implies that the excess, the expression of the flaw
in character, produces the whole unnatural process of excess enjoyment, disgust,
excess enjoyment, etc.... His character makes his actions, and his actions make
his character because he is unable to accept reason which is the only thing capable of presenting with him an alternative to his vicious cycle.
42
�15
’Put off’ here is offendi it means literally ‘to be hit.’ This is frequently
used to describe military action and goes well with the harsh and violent language Seneca gave us when describing the grafting process. This seems to imply
that pain will be part of life regardless of whether one is stuck in viciousness or
becoming virtuous and thus cannot be a good reason for choosing either.
16
This seems to mean that anyone, should they think back on their life, will
recall some cause for pain and regret. Thus it is not sufficient reason to believe
that someone wants to become virtuous, for all people feel this way, both those
who do and those who don’t want to become virtuous.
hard and soft, soft and broken at the same time, he loves and hates his flaws. He
is feverish, and it’s his soul that is sick. Only by choosing to become virtuous, and
the pain that comes with that can he begin to come back to health. But he must
choose pain in this instance rather than just feel it, because there will be pain either way. By choosing he will begin to exercise his reason, and thereby be able to
accept arguments and nourish them in conversation with Lucilius. But right now,
he is stuck, so it seems the gardener recommends that this root plant not be used
for grafting.
17
’We will judge’ here is feremus sententiam. This idiom means literally ‘we
will carry opinion’ but it has a very particular usual meaning. It is used for voting,
and especially voting in the comitia, where the people would vote on who should
be magistrate. They would vote twice with time in between, so that the magistrate
would be able to change his way of life or not based on the first vote; see Cicero’s
On The Agrarian Law 2.11. This is very similar to the way Seneca describes the
grafting process having two chances.
18
’Show’ here is fac fidem which means literally ’make faith.’ Normally this
means to convince or persuade, but with an object clause it means to show or
evince. That is, with an object clause the proof is more obvious and less subject
to interpretation. This is similar to how temptari, used earlier, requires a kind of
experience for proof. So it seems like Seneca and Lucilius will need the friend to
start living as though excess (luxuria) is hateful to him rather than just saying it.
This seems to require a choice on his part.
19
This is a difficult phrase to translate. The Latin is: nunc illis male convenit. Convenit is where English gets ’convenient.‘ It comes from con which means
‘together’ and venio which means ‘come.’ The ‘them’ is the friend and luxuria.
The issue in translating this phrase is that it is impersonal, so the subject is the
situation. The impersonal meaning of convenio means: ‘it is agreed upon,’ ‘there
is unanimity with respect to something,’ or ‘the matter is decided.’ Also, it is not
a simple negation; the adverb is male which means ‘badly.’ This phrase seems to
put the friend and the faults on the same level, as if they are to agree to something
together. This is strange because they are his faults, to put them on the same level
indicates that his faults have as much agency in his life as he does. This is absurd
because his faults are him how could they not agree? What this likely means is
he is not in agreement with himself. He wilts and stiffens at the same time, he is
43
44
�| Memoria
45
46
�Students at the Graduate Institute who elect to write a Master’s Essay undergo an oral examination upon completion of their essay. Each examination begins with the student reading a précis
of their work. This fall Kelly Custer successfuly defended his Master’s essay titled Following the
Logos of Plato’s Phaedo.
Following the Logos of Plato’s Phaedo
October 5, 2022
Kelly Custer
In my undergraduate years, I worked in a restaurant, during which time
the most frequent question asked of me was what my major was. Immediately
after my answer that I was a philosophy major followed the question, “What are
you going to do with that?” My response was always, “Prepare for death.” While
I cannot recall how many people pushed me to answer just what preparing for
death entailed, it was no doubt only a few. The lack of follow-up questions was
favorable for me as it is doubtless that whatever stumbling and blush accompanied response I might have given was as unmemorable to me as it must have been
for anyone else.
Philosophy as the preparation for death and itself the practice of dying
and being dead is the dominant theme of Plato’s Phaedo. Who could not help but
share in Simmias and Cebes’ initial perplexity and outrage upon hearing such a
definition of philosophy? Socrates’ first task in the Phaedo involves his explicit
answering of how philosophy is akin to dying, which sets the stage for the ensuing
speeches and arguments of the Phaedo. One of the primary contentions of my
essay is that it is equally in Socrates’ treatment of his young friends, his attending
to their souls through philosophical speech, and his attempt to persuade them
to spend their lives taking care of their own that we see just what philosophy as a
preparation for death consists of – the care of our souls. And as all great endeavors that bear the balance of life and death, the care of our souls is not without
danger.
The primary question of my essay is what such dangers in the Phaedo are
and how Socrates and his young companions follow the logos of their conversation to a place of safety at the dialogue’s conclusion and the end of Socrates’ life.
But before discussing my essay with those at this table, who are the first recipients of my gratitude for the time you have taken to read my essay and are now
prepared to spend with me as we enter our own dialogue guided by the richness of
Plato’s Phaedo, I would like to offer a few words of thanks and dedication.
To Mr. Kalkavage for the guidance of my writing and thought as you
patiently encouraged me as I started and stopped, often fumbling with awkward
hands in the attempt to pick up and follow my logos throughout the completion of
47
48
�this essay.
To my parents John and Julie who never once asked a young and confused, but albeit, earnest philosophy major, “What are you going to do with that?”
but always trusted and had faith that there is no greater task than the care of one’s
soul.
To my wife Martha who shares my soul and whose love and patience
never wavered as she often disproportionately shared me with the Phaedo among
many other books, the seminar table and those who sat around it, and the conversations that never end.
And last and in no way least, to my son, Yohannes, to whom this work is
dedicated. In the brevity of your nine weeks of life, your every movement, facial
expression, and sound reminds me that you have a soul and that it is in my care
but more importantly, that the art of fatherhood is to persuade you to become
master of your own.
49
A Toast to the Tutors
May 22, 2022
Andrew Graney
Should we do this at Galway?
It’s hard to believe my time here at St. John’s is coming to an end. What
is the “end” of St. John’s College? Is it our happiness? I think Aristotle would be
happy if it was, as long as that happiness was in accord with virtue and right reason, whatever that means. And while I chuckle to myself a little as I say, “whatever
that means,” I think it gets to the heart of something important about St. John’s. I
heard that phrase with some frequency during my two years here— from students
and tutors alike. After one person asked what a particular author was saying, or
trying to say, another might offer up a passage he thought would be helpful, read
it, and then, realizing he might not have actually understood it, would say that
three-word phrase. This, I find, has been a way of keeping the conversation both
light and serious. It’s funny, but it also shows an openness that is key to education
at St. John’s.
We all came here to ask questions and read books in conversation with
one another. When done right, it’s a remarkable thing. The books are in conversation with one another, and we, with one another, are in conversation with those
books. That funny phrase, “whatever that means,” reveals how we actually want
to have those conversations. We do not come to the texts, or each other, with premade answers, but instead have genuine interactions. We all go by our honorifics, including the tutors, because we are all trying out figure out what “it” means
together. We help one another, guide one another, wrestle with the texts together.
Instead of being told what something means, we have a conversation about what
it might mean. We listen and have our minds changed. It’s no small thing to have
one’s mind changed, and sitting at the St. John’s seminar table graciously grants
us that gift.
You can risk yourself here. You can say, “I don’t know.” You can ask questions that have been on your mind for years or questions you had never thought
of before, of concepts entirely new to you. Through conversation, we grow. Our
minds, like knives against a whetstone, become sharper, more penetrating. We
have a chance to come into hard to reconcile complexities and revel in them
without reducing them. As I said earlier, we say, “I don’t know,” but that “I don’t
know is not an “I don’t care,” nor is it a throwing up of arms and giving up, (even
if we might want to sometimes). It’s not a stagnant “I don’t know,” but a moving
50
�one—in every sense of the word.
We laugh, we agree, disagree, get confused together, and perhaps even enlightened.
Thank you, tutors of the GI, for cultivating this environment, for allowing all of this to happen. Thank you for guiding us in our confusion, for giving
us room to be confused. Thank you for letting us think for ourselves but not by
ourselves. As Aristotle said, “man is by nature a political, [i.e. social], animal.
Through hosting the big questions of life, you, the tutors, help us to come into our
very natures, become more ourselves. Keeping your minds (and hearts) open,
you open us.
So, friends, please join me in raising a glass.
And here’s to the tutors: thank you for all you do.
51
A Toast to the Master’s Degree Candidates
May 22, 2022
Louis Petrich, Tutor
A few weeks ago I took the pleasure of reading some poetry of Robert
Frost in the company of my seniors. Despite the middle portion of their college
careers having been muddied by Covid, they made a clear, joyous end of it in
American poetry. That got me wondering how character keeps buoyant, avoiding nausea, while crossing rough seas to rocky shores. What follows are some
thoughts of mine offered apropos of your new characterization as masters of the
liberal arts—the wonder of it, given the contrary winds that blow. “Thoughts
of mine” warrants this note: as always when I rise to speak I owe my would-be
height to the authors I have been reading of late with you—Emerson, Thoreau and
Whitman, Melville and Nietzsche—and with students like you—Baudelaire, Flannery O’Connor, and always Shakespeare. Much importing we have done. Their
voices stand out or blend to make my present solo a chorus. Let that suffice what
is owed, so as not to appear a smuggler.
You chose this college. You might have spent somewhere else your many
hours, and somehow else your means to live. You maintained a bright and forward disposition when even the offspring of Whitman were given to cranky sighs
at life’s unaccountable swings. I can’t chalk this up to youth, as I might with my
seniors, for not all of you are young, unless, as they say, “in spirit.” That’s a word
we have much encountered together—spirit: in the eagled flight of aphorisms,
while dancing the dialectic, or feeling massaged by expert rhetoric. Right now, as
fits our poignancy, let spirit appear as poetic stressing in those final feet of Frost’s
“The Road not Taken”: I took the one less traveled by,/ And that has made all the
difference.” With legs young or old you took that road, you seekers of knowledge,
and on it your spirits altered. You learned how to listen and speak to the ever-living questions, booked lonely and communal, invisibly active, resolutely cheerful,
unpretentious, patient; living dangerously, like an endangered species in this
angry culture that hastens to harpoon and drain, Ahab style, whatever offends its
fragile members. But as for your style, you players with lightning, let your future
comportment manifest all the difference this road (open to many) makes to its
few faithful takers. So may your faces impress the many, when they see how sympathy, generosity, and courage give you looks of readiness to expand your days,
your moments towards eternity.
Isn’t it remarkable (speaking of readiness) when the lines we were given
to read in high school (our salad days, green in judgment) come readily back
in adulthood so transparently good? For it’s often the reverse case: we return
52
�to youthful occupations or pleasures and ask: “how could I ever have liked this
stuff?” This prompts me to ask if a confession of this kind will ever be encountered over the books you have been reading on the Program? The sighing of such
words would have to issue from a depleted kind of character, not yet heard without gainsay among your predecessors. That being so, don’t be afraid to look back.
It won’t send your Eurydice to hell or turn you to a pillar of salt. It is part of our
convalescence and manifesting of health, that while bound to the perils of life we
go on conducting the air-born music and grounding the fires of the sky. As water
cuts into rock, let life’s learning cut into life’s hardness—silently, subtly—shaping
the very character of the times we inhabit. So does an open road, overgrown with
waiting, admit the impression of our cultivating passage.
In my fall preceptorial with you, I looked back at my first literary heroes
to see how well they would hold up to my autumnal needs. I was met by my Eurydice, face to face and accompanying me upward still, after forty years. Although
the American “enterprise” (Thoreau’s favored word for it) was approaching the
abyss in the 1850’s, he and his fellow transcendentalists sang—then as now—of
shining dawns and springs, of love for their fellows rooted in love for themselves,
and even as an assassinated president’s coffin toured the states, they conducted
stars earthward and flowers they sentenced rising—for all time. And that’s not
just me succumbing to fine words, for one who tried to put on the attire of Emersonian idealism but couldn’t make it fit man’s cannibal-fed fierceness—Herman
Melville—even he found a good use for a cannibal’s coffin, carved with the tantalizing possibility of heaven and earth’s mutual design: that use being to keep one
calling himself “Ishmael” alive to tell the incredible true story of Moby Dick. Why
should we in our preceptorials harken back to the tellings of Moby-Dick, Walden,
or Song of Myself, unless the tellings have like uses as that carved coffin?—to keep
us well-sounded, ready to be picked up on the dark seas by bereft sailors searching for characters manifestly buoyant, however much alone, possessed of speech
able to name things forever current, though not in purchase, yet much in need.
And as for that great white whale pursued by Ahab, who went lining the
oceans with questions untallied: is their finding each other on the open seas so
incredible, when today we find ourselves lingering on high scenic old roads, not
at all the current effacing efficiencies plotted for all on the plains?—when we hear
our latent words come from what depths of undiscovered country to breach the
surface between our facing infinities? The little things we’re made of can do what
we most long to do. Isn’t that remarkable? And so here we are, where we most
long to be. We have taken the most signal ways across the wanderings of our kind
to arrive here and measure up. Like that German philosopher, canvassed behind
a big mustache, who says, “Let us color our own example ever more brilliantly,”
you too have stepped aside from the ugly, the accusatory and reproachful, the
partial improvers and punishing equalizers, to paint your canvass as one whole,
53
and to make it beautiful. Remember well the practice, how to draw aside from
incessant clamoring to color your example by attention to the exemplary. Whether whaling or sitting by the fire, there’s a line tightening around the neck, but
remember how life’s breath, made aware of what’s out there, would fasten in its
finitude only on what’s tasteful and terrific. A familiar paradox obtains here, of
looking away in order to be looked at, of stepping aside from the world in order
to come back to the world—still having to live, still having to think—of saying “no”
to make room for a vast encompassing “yes.” Let that character obtained as yours
be bold to manifest its inherent case for treading today’s less traveled road of the
liberal arts.
Like that fellow treader, Parker by name, trying to know himself in one
of Flannery O’Connor’s late stories (boy did she ever know about that line!), his
entire body he covers with random tattoos; but God—because Parker asks for God
when all he has left unpainted is the blank skin of his back—God comes in answer
to color the whole of his back in a tattoo of brilliantly byzantine design. Well, you
asked for it when you took this road, and in brilliant color and design it’s got your
back now. Whatever grumblings or fears may front you piecemeal, we’ve got your
back now—wonderfully looking, masterfully reaching ahead.
Let us then raise our glasses, and in reach of these towering trees that
give us back breath enough to hold out against wind and rain, let us drink to
the brilliant masters of the Graduate Institute, class of 2022, manifestly goodly
different.
54
�A Toast to the Tutors
Summer 2022
Chase Waller
As I have reflected on the past four summers which I have spent at St.
John’s, the big question, which I and probably my classmates have been asking is:
What did I get out of this? What have I gained from my time with these amazing
tutors reading these texts? Plutarch credits Solon with the following words:
“The future that bears down on each of us is variable and determined
by unknowable factors, and so we consider a man only happy when the
gods have granted him success right up to the end of his life. However, to count anyone happy while he is still alive and faced with all the
uncertainties of life is as unsound and valid as proclaiming an athlete the
winner and crowning him while the contest is still in progress.”
So I guess, by Solon’s calculations, I can’t thank the tutors for making me
happy. Hopefully, the gods will grant me success up to the end of my life, but that
privilege seems reserved for a small percentage of people. And I will corroborate Solon’s claim further by saying that St. John’s, in one sense, has not brought
me happiness. I am more confused now than I ever have been in my whole life.
“About what?” you may wonder. About everything! About justice, and love, and
education, and history, and parallel lines, and God, and everything. It’s chronic!
It never stops. St. John’s has effectively ruined certain things for me. I feel like
I haven’t answered a question in four years! When I drive down an open road I
see a Lobachevskian parallel and have to pull over and take a nap. I have grown
to be tepid– I struggle to assert anything because I feel so lost in the vast world of
wisdom and knowledge and story. This state is not happy. Sometimes it’s angry.
I feel like Thrasymachus, barging into the dialogue and demanding that people
listen to what I am saying, even though what I am saying falls apart so quickly.
And yet, in another sense, St. John’s has brought me some of the greatest
happiness in my whole life. I have made friends every summer I have been at St.
John’s. I have cried every summer I have been at St. John’s. I have laughed every
summer I have been at St. John’s. The list goes on, but the full range of emotions
has been readily available, and I have embraced each of them openly with others.
What else can you do when presented with truth and beauty?
So, to answer the question, I would like to thank the tutors for what I feel is the
most important thing that I have received from St. John’s (and that which might
55
cause me to disagree with Solon): simply the ability to listen.
Every time I sit in class I look at the tutor and wonder to myself: “how can
they listen to this conversation, having themselves read and re-read the text so
much more than me, having themselves so much more background information
about the text, having themselves thought so many more years than I about these
things, having lived so much more life than me?” How did you, tutors, listen to
my confused attempts so patiently? Why do you reject time at the beach during
the summers to sit in a classroom and continue the dialogue? It is an act of love,
and I am so grateful. You taught me how to listen carefully, and to dignify every
person by that very act. It is tremendously profound.
I hope, like you, the tutors, to be able to willingly enter confusion and
difficulty over, and over, and over again with excitement, and generosity, with
an ear for everyone (including the authors) and with the extreme compassion to
listen.
Furthermore, by your example, I have learned how to listen to and thereby love myself. When I came here, I was in a crisis. I didn’t know what to do. I
used to berate myself for every little mistake I made. I still don’t know what to do,
and I am still in a crisis. But now, thanks to my tutors and my friends, I know that
I am not alone, and I know that I don’t have to beat myself up for not knowing.
Not knowing is part of the fun. And just as I want to be like the tutors in loving
others by listening to them and valuing what they say, I want to learn how to do
the same for myself. Just because I don’t necessarily come to any grand conclusions, doesn’t mean the ideas in that pursuit are worthless.
I will conclude with this: when I first read Notes on Dialogue, the strangest
precept to me was that we were not to take notes. I thought it strange because I
wanted to remember the ideas in the conversations we had. But in my time here,
I saw that it was actually extremely profound to fully listen to someone, without the distraction of trying to write anything down, making full eye contact. It
makes sense to me how full attention to someone’s words will give you a much
deeper appreciation for their ideas. And though I might not have a record of that
idea on paper, what I do have is an intimate experience with the person, having
given their words due thought, and having let them convince me. In that sense,
the ideas become more a part of me when I encounter them in this way than they
would have had I recorded each and every one of them on paper. Every conversation was a relationship; every conversation changed the way I think in some way.
I don’t need them all on paper because I think for me that would just be a temptation to return to the ideas and use them for something other than what they were
meant for. Perhaps, it is better to just listen, and in so doing, to love.
So, to the tutors, here’s to you for teaching us how to listen and to love.
May we follow your example and thereby learn how to embrace confusion, argument, paradox, and complexity for the sake of perhaps seeing something true.
56
�A Toast to the Master’s Degree Candidates
Summer 2022
John Tomarchio
As God cast Adam and Eve out of the garden of paradise, so we gather
here today as you cast off from this our island of misfit toys, to finish out your
intellectual life among infidels and barbarians, some your nearest and dearest.
And when you propose to them to spend 2 hours some Monday night after work
discussing a 17th century metaphysical poem on the vanity of erotic desire; or
a geocentric account of the solar system; or the arguments of an ancient Greek
drinking party for and against pedophilia, they will think you a misfit for even
asking, and they will be right.
So, what will be left for you to do but retreat to the secret chamber of
your soul where your heavenly Father alone will see what becomes of the seeds
that Holy Mother College, like a good sower, has scattered there. True, some of
those seminars fell on the hard parts of your soul and were devoured forever by
the birds of pride and prejudice. Other seminars fell on the shallow parts of your
soul and sprung up quickly, even eagerly, only to wither before searing rays of
cross-examination. Still other seminars were choked by the thorns and thistles
of daily cares, for the G.I. Johnny does not live on Seminar alone! BUT, some of
those seminars have fallen on good soil, and taken root, and if cultivated, will in
time yield fruit 30-fold, or 60-fold, even 100-fold.
And if then you should remember us, your Tutors, send a check earmarked for Tutor compensation, for Tutors can’t live on Seminar alone either.
So, please raise your glasses, my fellow Tutors, to those about to brave life after
Seminar: may it never befall us!
57
58
�List of Works
Cover
Midnight in the Studio
Jesse Clagett
Digital transfer of 16mm cyanotype
59
Acknowledgements
Pl. 24
A winter afternoon in Kentucky IV
Jesse Clagett
Black and white print
10” x 8”
Cover, Jesse Clagett
jesse.clagett@gmail.com
6 Melissa Moore
27 Bonnie Naradzay
bonnie.naradzay@gmail.com
Pl. 9
Capulin Volcano, NM, I
Aschely Vaugh Cone
Oil on panel with hard gesso surface
10” x 8” x 1”
Pl. 25
The Gyre
Jules Spiese
Color pencil on paper
7 Louis Petrich, Tutor
29 Jesse Clagett
9 Aschely Vaughan Cone
https://www.aschely.com/
31 Abdullah Wadood
Pl. 10
White Arch I
Aschely Vaugh Cone
Oil on panel with hard gesso surface
10” x 8” x 1”
Pl. 29
Thinking Pre-Socratic
Jesse Clagett
Digital transfer of 16mm photogram
Pl. 11
Cast Fossil and Carson Cover
Aschely Vaugh Cone
Oil on panel with hard gesso surface
10” x 8” x 1”
Pl. 45
Capulin Volcano, NM, VI
Aschely Vaugh Cone
Oil on panel with hard gesso surface
10” x 8” x 1”
Pl. 21
Found at 4000 ft. in the Appalachians
Jesse Clagett
Black and white print
11” x 14”
Pl. 47
White Arch II
Aschely Vaugh Cone
Oil on panel with hard gesso surface
10” x 8” x 1”
Pl. 23
And if it’s cold enough
Jules Spiese
Color pencil on paper
Pl. 58
A winter afternoon in Kentucky III
Jesse Clagett
Black and white print
10” x 8”
3 Benjamin Crocker
25 Jules Spiese
26 Ansley Green
10 Aschely Vaughan Cone
33 Luis Sanchez
sanchezmo.luis@gmail.com
11 Aschely Vaughan Cone
35 Ansley Green
14 Siobhan Petersen
37 Walker Rogalsky
rogalsky.walker@gmail.com
16 Abdullah Wadood
abdullahwadood.com
17 Jose Gabriel Coronado-Flores
gabecoronado66@gmail.com
21 Jesse Clagett
22 Jesse Clagett
23 Jules Spiese
https://www.jspiese.com/
24 Jesse Clagett
45 Aschely Vaughan Cone
47 Aschely Vaughan Cone
48 Kelly Custer
50 Andrew Graney
52 Louis Petrich, Tutor
55 Chase Waller
57 John Tomarchio, Tutor
58 Jesse Clagett
60
�
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
Colloquy
Description
An account of the resource
A student-run journal for the Graduate Institute community of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. The issues feature essays, art, poetry, interviews, and more.
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
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.
31 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
Colloquy, Fall 2022
Description
An account of the resource
Volume XI of Colloquy, published in Fall 2022.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Clagett, Jesse (Editor)
Wadood, Abdullah (Editor)
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
2023-02
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
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
English
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
Colloquy_Fall2022
Graduate Institute
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/6b1d1ff7fbd5280f7b407e6b8f7a56fa.pdf
fc2bf17325b13a143423eb2a471908a1
PDF Text
Text
Colloquy
1
�2
Poems
2
On Seeing
6
Translations
22
Essays
32
Interviews
62
Memoria
76
�Let ter from the Editors
This edition of Colloquy is dedicated to Ms. Langston for her
dedication to the Graduate Institute.
We would like to thank: the Graduate Student Council for
the funds to make this edition of Colloquy possible; Kashya
Boretsky and Ms. Langston for their continued belief in our
publication as an indispensable ex tension of the G.I. community; Ms. Kraus for her lofty vision and wise counsel as our
editorial advisor; and all those who submit ted.
We welcome the new associate dean Mr. Boyle, and Colloquy’s
new Editor-in-Chief Stephen Borsum, and wish them well.
Farewell,
Abdullah Wadood and Jesse Claget t
Editors, Spring 2023
1
�The editors regret misprinting Ms. Moore’s The Romantics in the Fall 2022 issue. We apologize to Ms.
Moore for the error.
The Romantics
Melissa Moore
Ten-thousand daffodils along the margin of a bay
would in my time have all ceased to decay,
and Daisies become a worthier flower to adorn
an epitaph desiring that we mourn;
for if my Words have any worth at all
then perchance they would outlast us all.
But times being as they are, I think I’ll write
only for myself, and no distant reader’s delight.
No modern master Taylor could possibly hope to weave
prettier patterns of discarded themes,
nor any serious painter withstand not being privy
to such a place as Kubla Khan decreed.
It was a painted poem, upon a painted canvas
that first set in motion things outlandish
and though it was quite beautiful and refined,
in the end it took a lifetime to wash away the brine.
Though the crystal chill overcomes the burly winter birch
—coats with downy flake limbs where songbirds perch—
though all this world should be condemned to fire and to ice,
I doubt that either Burns or Frost suffice.
Beware, young friends: Tam O Shanter’s good mare’s
advice, a red red rose with thorns, ensnares,
for she is long gone, and yet here you stand
for all the world a much luckier man.
The past is filled with beauty – this truth no one will deny –
and the future appears stark before the nostalgic eye,
but words do not belong to those who say them best
and life spent lost in memory is life best laid to rest.
Though in this race the many may surpass me
and though their words through many ages may outlast me,
I’d rather turn my words to wind during the run
than become Swift only to be called Donne.
2
�Song for My Son
Kelly Custer
Pushing your bassinet
Over the colors of autumn,
To the hum of the river
And the rattling shrieks
Of passing trains,
Our song is Peripatetic.
There,
In your wide-eyed babbling
And gentle coo,
Speaks a word
Swaddled within a word
That commands my soul;
For in it, your own calls out to me.
Always,
We return to the sitting room
Where you stare up at the ceiling,
Sorting light and shadow,
Forgetting and recollecting,
And I descend into your infancy,
Knowing that what remains of my life
Is devoted to that music of guiding you
Up that dimly lit road of manhood.
It too will pass,
That as a man,
You will descend to my bed of old age,
Watching me sorting light and shadow
On the screen of memory,
Forgetting and recollecting.
And you will know the music to make
To guide me to that eternal light
In which the song of father and son
Abides.
3
�Love Lesson #2
Louis Petrich
I don’t.
Hold me against you? No.
How could I?- grateful sooner
this way to show off true
than bend that way like men
likewise to you-
they try . . .
and dare turns my head,
too-this cureless weathercock!
If suff’ring things conjunctively
means less of me, more shining you
should burn like sun
(whom some do brave while others block)
you could ask me
(of skin not feared)
to ply the screen directly to my heart,
which lonely lunged unribbed
and sucked for life your airs-so fool-proof cast I’d fake
blood rarefy, head duck
eyes pool in hiding shades
submitting bidden black
to steep in past my shame.
If only good
first light could clear
my head looked up
and satisfied-horizon lush on fire to burning heights
would staff gypped hands with here I am!—
no pitied anxious down-turned swipes
4
�where you’ve tumbled
men to stand ‘em,
where men tender
women ‘till churned.
How darling quips me-no things but words
abuse me—O,
you owe me red
pledged avid lips
that will so press
to plumb part dumb
partaken yes—
apps nosing come,
eclipse lips’ quest-pent pleas but singe,
to suture wounds-amor fati-egged edging doom.
Blood errs feet first.
Throat thirsting moans
rude proof of writ
unauthored: moon’s.
Shook spear’s clapped love
spoons picklock tongue
long lied true spoked
round wicked depths.
5
�On Seeing
6
�On Seeing My Own Face Disappear
Jeffrey Boatwright
There is an extraordinary moment in Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida; he’s struck with the recent grief
of losing his mother. He sits alone looking through
photographs. The photographs, at first, seem to fail
him. He says as he begins to look, “I recognized her
differentially, not essentially. Photography thereby
compelled me to perform a painful labor; straining
toward the essence of her identity, I was struggling
among images partially true, and therefore totally
false. To say, confronted with a certain, ‘That’s almost the way she was!’”. There is one photo, however, - a photo Barthes is too dignified to reproduce in
his book – in which this pain almost falls away. He
writes, “There I was, alone in the apartment where
she had died, looking at these pictures of my mother,
one by one, under the lamp, gradually moving back
in time with her, looking for the truth of the face I
had loved. And I found it”. Barthes is luckier than
many of us.
I can make no claim to having such an experience as Barthes’. Photographs have almost exclusively revealed nothing to me, and left me with a
feeling of disgust. However, I recently, much to my
own shock, had significant interaction with a certain
photograph. It’s more accurate to say “I remember”
a specific photograph that has become significant.
I don’t have the photograph in front of me, nor do I
possess it in any way. I couldn’t even say where the
photo is at this point in time, or in whose possession.
However, thinking about this photograph – last seen
now more than a year ago – I’ve been able to begin
to disentangle the trouble this photograph has been
causing me.
To give the basic “content” of the photograph
(a word I use with distaste), it’s a photo of my father,
grandfather, and grandmother at my parent’s wedding. My father is in the middle, in a kind of tux, or at
least a coat with a tail. This coat tail extending from
his back to somewhere around his knees makes my
father look oddly short: short legs, small torso, large
head. My family may be on the shorter side, but this
photo makes my father look proportioned in a way
he never has been. My grandfather – now gone over
twenty years at the moment of writing – stands to
my father’s right, the left side of the photograph. He
stands a bit taller than my father, by no great measure, however, and a bit rounder. A curious gap in
my memory of this photograph is my grandfather’s
facial hair. I can easily remember (a word chosen
quite deliberately) him both clean shaven and with
a small greyish beard. Here my memory seems to be
at play, showing me my grandfather as I most immediately recognize him, clean shaven, rather than as
he most certainly would have been that day, bearded.
My grandmother stands to the left of my father, even
with the help of her shoes she remains the shortest of
the three. She has a smile on her face that’s as honest
as you’ll ever see. A day she always wanted to see was
happening. There’s enough joy on her face to make
anyone jealous.
There’s another curious facet of this photo
that remains mysterious to me. The photo seems to
be taken by someone other than a professional wedding photographer. The three of them stand off-center, and their gazes seem to be not quite directed at
the lens of this camera. It’s almost as if they were
caught between two photos being taken simultaneously. They’re standing in such a way that seems all
the more strange as I think about this photo. The
three of them are standing in a line, but at an angle
from the camera lens. My grandmother closest to the
lens, my grandfather being the furthest away, and my
father caught in between. My grandfather is almost
fading into the background, nearly at the risk of becoming lost. His grasp of my father’s shoulder being the only thing keeping him visible, keeping him
there, which is now, to say, in my memory. There’s a
sense of fight in his stance and grasp. He’s fighting
to remain an object of sight, someone to remember.
This stands out to me as a distinct quality of the man,
and this photo, but I cannot say that I have seen him
“essentially” as Barthes says, still only “differentially.”
The shock I experienced from this photograph has nothing to do with the joy on my grandmother’s face or the fight in my grandfather’s stance,
however. It was as I was simply glancing over the photograph, perhaps wondering if I’d ever seen it before,
the photo being taken a few years before I was born,
when I saw something unexpected, perhaps even unwanted. When Barthes was looking through those old
photos of his mother, he suddenly came across this
photo from her childhood and was struck in an instant with a realization: “there she is!” He saw her,
his mother’s face as he knew it, as he remembered
7
�it; he recognized it “essentially.” What I saw could
be thought to be an opposite, or, at least, something
different in kind. As I scanned this photograph from
my parents’ wedding, I was struck (likewise in a mere
instant) by what I recognized on my father’s face:
“there I am!” I could see my own face. After the shock
of this recognition, I looked at my grandfather’s face,
and there I was again. There was the same face aging,
fading, repeating until finally and totally lost to the
background.
I’m now older than my father was when
this photo was taken, only by a few years. I seem to
have acquired his face, its shape, both its roundness
at places and its edges at others. And now when I
look at my father, currently ill beyond repair, I see
my grandfather’s aging face. Just as I have taken up
my father’s face, he has taken his father’s face. What
I recognized as the essence of the faces in the photo, the essence of my own face, was its transience.
Once this wedding photo was taken their faces were
no longer as they appear in the photo, and now, as I
think of my own face, seen in my father’s, it is different than I have the ability to see. We slip away too
fast.
Just as I’m, roughly, the age my father was
when this photo was taken, he is roughly the age my
grandfather was when he died. This fact had lain
dormant in my mind until I was reading the final
volume of Proust, Time Regained, and read the sentence: “Yet death appears to be obedient to certain
laws. Often for the instance one gets the impression
that children of parents who have died very old or
very young are almost compelled to disappear at the
same age”. I read this passage sitting in my father’s
room, which now contains a hospital bed, tables
full of charts, medical equipment, and timetables of
medications. Now I understood the shock of the photograph. I was seeing the disappearance of my own
face.
What’s not contained in the photograph are
my own memories of seeing my grandfather, face
sunken, breath labored, in a hospital bed in his own
home. These are contained in no photographs; there
are no photo albums on anyone’s shelf full of the
endless associations tied to an image. And yet, this is
what is meant to see this photo of these two men, this
single face, essentially. The photograph cannot capture the essential and rapid transience of my grandfather’s face. If Proust is right, and I will not be one
to argue, this means my face moves just as rapidly, is
8
just as transient.
My grandfather has faded; my father rapidly
fading. Just the same I, too, am fading. My timely – or
untimely – inheritance will come to me when I, too,
take on the faded face of my grandfather. Then there
will only be the “Afterwards” of Thomas Hardy:
If, when hearing that I have been stilled at last, they
stand at the door,/ Watching the full-starred heavens
that winter sees,/ Will this thought rise on those who
will meet my face no more,/‘He was one who had an
eye for such mysteries’?
The “mysteries” of my own disappearing
face are not for others to consider. This photograph
from my parents’ wedding has made it a mystery for
me, and me alone. The photograph projected the future losses; the memory holds on to what it can. But
is this not the problem of seeing a photograph? What
first was the account of a grandfather’s demise, was
next a father’s, and now a projection of mine, a son’s.
And it’s this accounting of fading away that Barthes
refers to when he says: “every photograph is this catastrophe”. It is a catastrophe because no camera can
ever capture the rapid transience of a human face.
It’s as if the camera must turn away, and leave such a
mystery, such an essential reality, to the memory and
the gaze of the moving eye.
�An Apology
Leith Daghistani
I
I called you Guns until the accident. Until I watched
you being carried away in a stretcher by the other
Sailors, I only ever called you by your job title: Gunner’s Mate.
Once sensible and orderly, the misshapen
remnants of your right hand appeared to be sloppily
glued together with congealing blood. I caught sight
of the deep red weeping through the bandages before
you turned to conceal it from me. I wondered what
secret was revealed to you from within the dark hollow of your crushed bones.
As my captain told me I should have been
with you, that my presence alone would have kept
you safe, I wanted to apologize to you - to seek forgiveness - but you were already gone. I imagined that
some part of you was left behind, that maybe a drop
of blood or piece of flesh would remain in the hull of
our dark ship from which I might beg pardon.
But I was alone. The other Sailors went back
about their days, while I stood watch; savoring the
inescapable equatorial heat that lingered long after
the sun had set, sweating under the weight of my
body armor, settling my hand on the pistol holstered
on my leg, flicking the grooved steel safety catch off
on off on off on off on off on.
I remember the diesel fumes and stale cigarette smoke stifling the salt air. I remember the hum
of the engines compressing that air, and the greasy
exhaust filling my head as the ship swayed gently
in the shallow waters. But I do not remember your
name.
II
I recognize your face when we are unexpectedly reunited in the silent hallway of an office building
where unseaworthy sailors are sent to desks.
We shake hands. I am acutely aware of a narrow gap where your right index finger (your trigger
finger) should be applying pressure on my palm.
I see that the leftover sheets of your thin pale skin,
stretched taut to stitch over your reformed right
hand, barely contain the veiled flood of your estuarine veins.
I am ashamed because I am hoping that you
do not think that it is my fault that you do not have
a right index finger, even though I think that it is. I
am ashamed because I am happy that you did not lose
your right hand or your right arm or what is left of
your life, but I do not know whether your thoughts
match mine or simply mirror them.
I remember the trigger pressure required to
fire that pistol. It is normally 12 pounds, but it is only
5 pounds if I take the gun from the holster, disengage
the safety, cock the hammer, and then pull the trigger. I am ashamed because I know that I can easily
apply only 5 pounds of pressure with my right index
finger, but I am left-handed.
I cannot apologize because I do not remember your name and I cannot call you Guns anymore. I
say nothing. I do not think that we will meet again.
III
I once read that some ancient languages lacked a
word for the color blue, and that Homer’s choice to
call the sea wine-dark suggests that the world’s appearance depends on an observer’s vocabulary. I do
not know if this is true, and I do not think that Homer
would allow Ajax to forgive Odysseus if he could call
the sea blue instead of wine-dark.
I know that blood is always red. Blood only
appears to be blue in veins, which are colorless,
because light refracts through water and skin and
blood and flesh at different speeds depending on its
wavelength, which is to say depending on its color.
The red is naturally hidden from our sight by this optical illusion.
Perhaps I do not remember your name because I never called you by your real name in the first
place, or because it does not matter what your name
is, or because I do not want to. I do not know why
these things remain invisible to me.
I know that the sea really is wine-dark
sometimes, in certain places, at certain times, in a
certain light.
9
�Euclidean Geometry
A Lens to Discern Life’s Choices
Charmaine D’Souza
Dedicated to Mr. Percy Mukadam, my first tutor, who incited the joy of learning mathematics with immeasurable
incentives by way of his humanity, humor, and homemade kala khatta soda, and to Mr. Steven Crockett, who
reignited that joy once again and shows me innumerable
ways of seeing life’s journey today.
Allowing myself to revisit Euclidean geometry again
with fresh eyes has been a lesson in unlearning and
relearning. More importantly, it has also been a lesson in viewing life’s choices.
Starting at the beginning, with the definitions was a
lesson in (re)questioning and better understanding
the fundamentals. Do I genuinely know what a point
and a line are? Are they abstract concepts, figments
of our imagination, or do I see them all around me in
daily life? If I can not see them, do they truly exist?
What other abstract concepts have I made fundamental truths in my life over the years? What fundamentals have I lost sight of over the years? Reminding myself to be cognizant of these questions often
helps me recognize my priorities more clearly.
When we discussed Proposition 1: “To
construct an equilateral triangle on a given finite
straight-line”, one of my classmates spoke about
trying to guesstimate the third point of an equilateral triangle rather than construct it with a compass.
Coming from a creative background, I found his way
of viewing this proposition intriguing. Creative and
lateral thinkers see solutions so different from their
analytical counterparts. At the same time, I realized
for myself personally that while it is exciting to go
through these innumerable journeys of curiosity and
10
discovery, journeys of discovering what-is-not-theexact-point on the way to finding the exact point, it
is important to discern when to choose the off-thebeaten track and when to follow the road well traveled. The off-the-beaten track may genuinely take
me on unexplored adventures but I better pave a path
forward or remember the path back! The road well
traveled may look monotonous and unexciting to me
but can I look at it with fresh eyes? At first glance,
neither seems right nor wrong, and yet—maybe, just
maybe hindsight provides a peculiar way of perceiving past decisions. Intuition a portal into future ones.
Over the course of a few classes, I learned
that the art of constructing proofs is like playing
with building blocks; each proposition builds on
the previous, and yet not everything is related, e.g.
Post. 5 is completely different from the first 4 postulates. Once in a while, the value and relevance of
some of the propositions got a bit complex for me to
understand at first instance. Shifting my focus from
micro to macro, imagining the propositions like a
Hoberman Sphere, figuring out how they link to each
other, and reviewing past sequences of propositions
enabled me to better understand “the storyline”
and “the plot”, as Mr. Crockett called them, of the
proposition at hand. While contemplating Euclid’s
work, I realized that life is a balance of living in the
now whilst expanding one’s view to observe the past
and the future and how the present relates to them.
Sometimes we have to take a couple of steps back,
sometimes strip everything bare, and go back to the
basics, to be able to exist, build and/or leapfrog.
One of my biggest lessons was Prop. 35.
�“Proposition 35: Parallelograms which are on the
same base and between the same parallels are equal
to one another.” Euclid’s instructions to construct
and destruct this proposition were a pure delight—
taking a complex-looking problem and breaking it
down into simple parts, each I believe comprehensible even to an 8-year-old child, or the attendant
boy in Plato’s Meno. Working through the proposition on my own and then in class together, felt like
play—a LEGO box, where it was important to understand which block to add and when, and even more
exciting was learning about which block to remove
and when. As this proposition builds on a number
of key, complex propositions like Prop. 34 and Prop.
29, which in turn build on other prior propositions
like Prop. 13, 15, 23, 26, and Post.5, Proposition 35
turned out to be a barometer measuring my learning
through the semester and my true understanding of
Euclidean geometry.
The biggest value of Proposition 35, for me,
was contemplating the difference between things
being equal and congruent. Congruence is the perfect matching of something with another thing on all
aspects of comparison e.g area, shape, and boundary. Equal(ity), in Prop. 35, on the other hand, is
the matching of two things in terms of spatial area.
Discerning the value and difference of each is critical—both in mathematics and in life. In Euclidean
Geometry, deciding to play with a congruent figure
rather than an equal one could lead me down a different solution and vice-versa. Living life through
this lens can be invaluable. Discerning when something needs to be congruent with my expectations,
goals, desires, and vision, and when equal is more
than enough can be invaluable to me in living a welllived life.
11
�Seeing the Student in the Bees & Bats
of the Academy
Sydney Rowe
The Academy’s zoological catalogue provided their
authors with an armory of useful metaphors for
speaking about what was unspeakable: the student.
Socrates uses the bee metaphor as a quip at Meno
because, like a bee, Meno is impervious to teaching. It is as though Aristotle is speaking about Meno
himself when he remarks that bees ‘are incapable of
hearing sounds’ and ‘cannot be taught’, yet they are
still ‘intelligent’ (Metaphysics, 980b). As the great
Academicians squinted at the bees’ furry little heads,
they were hard pressed to see any evidence of ears;
unlike war elephants, whose ears you could see from
a mile off as they hung from those beasts who walked
through war and terror like grand matriarchs. Plato
and Socrates likely bemused themselves at the notion that bees, who are incapable of learning, are
somehow perfectly intelligent and so they naturally
would have anthropomorphized their students as
beeish creatures. Especially those hot-headed aristocratic lads who hazardously swarmed the Academy
with a lustrous appetite for eternal greatness.
Bees are all eyes. Their vision is bursting
with all varieties of violet and with militant focus they
quickly become lured by the beautiful flower of conquest. They create city-like structures which serve as
monuments to their imperial greatness. Even Pharaohs, those dark gods, see the divine in bees and
salivate at their laborious riches. As Tutankhamun’s
bound corpse was carried into its tomb, those strange
priests orbiting him softly placed a pint of honey by
his side. Like Meno, or the pharaohs, bees share in
a vacuous journey for the attainment of the vainest
riches. It is a morbid undertaking to think, even for
a moment, that those who refuse to listen can be so
grandly cognizant of their vision that it is amplified
to a deafening volume.
The Academy used bats to describe another
species of student. The most poetic moment in Aristotle’s Metaphysics mentions that we must be like
bats to be students of philosophy:
For as the eyes of the bats are to the blaze
of the day, so is the reason in our soul to the things
which are by nature most evident of all. (993b)
To the Academy, bats allude to Socrates’ dear
12
friend Chaerophon who was nicknamed ‘the bat’ in
Aristophanes’ The Birds (1296). Like a bat, Chaerophon was a most nocturnal creature who, with the
dancing Socrates by his side, would get caught up at
the agora in late night debate (Gorgias, 447b). Aristotle is suggesting that to have a fulfilling journey,
and to see what is unseeable, we must be a friend of
Socrates, like Chaerophon, and so be sensitive to his
virtuosity with a battish hearing.
Aristotle knew that bats’ large puppy dog
ears, which are perched high on their little noggins,
made them great listeners and handsomely compensated for their beady little eyes. It is this sensory
imbalance which makes them great students as it allows them to fly as if by hearing. Bats are mindful of
how sounds are reflected and refracted, like speech
in a room of glum faces, the pressure ripples into all
varieties of complicated dimensions. Bats enjoy the
abasing irony that a high pitch and vacuous screech
will often provide an equal or greater insight to those
more puffed up and operatic moments. It is through
staccato, not legato, that the incremental addition of
aural information creates a symphony of brevity. For
the bats, this is not an ear-ringing nightmare, but an
ingenious process of echolocation that allows them
to quickly gain a sense of space, even in the darkest
places, and thus reach the arc of truth.
The problem for the Academy seems that
many of their students were bees, and very few were
bats, and so the pedagogues who were housed there
struggled to shoo them towards any one truth. Both
the bees and bats had different perspectives of subject and so inevitably fell into their own destinies irrespective of their education - like day to night. Yet,
as I write this, I am becoming tired, and I feel that my
senses are getting away from me. I am beginning to
wonder if I am more of a bee or a bat. Perhaps I have
said too much and ought to pause, even if it is for
something as simple as silence, and preserve what I
have said in a question: who is more of a sphinx, Alexander the Great or Socrates?
�Reaction to Guy Debord
Nick Younes
Guy Debord is very reluctant to define the spectacle.
He prefers to describe aspects of it, and this is very
different from “definition” as I’m used to the term.
If I define absolute zero in a way acceptable
to scientists I can rest assured that my definition aids
and abets the scientific project. If I define the Super
Bowl in a way that satisfies a foreigner who has never
heard of the event, I can rest assured that I have, in
some small way, helped to make this person less foreign and more American.
But definitions like these, which expand
human capability on the one hand or make the foreign less puzzling on the other, can’t be applied to the
spectacle. According to Debord, we are the spectacle’s project and exist for all of our lives in the most
intimate possible relation to it. There is no virgin
territory into which an expansion of capability might
proceed and there is scarcely anything less foreign
than the manner in which we have lived all our lives.
This is why defining the spectacle is like trying to describe the taste of milk or point out water to a fish.
When Debord makes a close approach to
conventional definition I still have the feeling of be-
ing teased. In his fourth aphorism he says the spectacle is not a collection of images but a social relation
among people, mediated by images. This makes me
think of examples like advertising or fashion photography, the places where I learn which clothes to
wear and in what way to wear them. But nearly every aphorism in his book is an allusion to something
else—in the case of number four, to Marx saying that
Capital is not a thing but instead a social relationship between people that is mediated by things. It’s
as though Debord is daring me to imagine an example of Capital that captures its full range of influence
over the conditions of my life. But there is only one
example like that and it’s the world I live in.
In a much smaller way, I can see the inadequacy of example compared to the thing itself in Toulouse-Lautrec’s work. I see this most strongly when
I compare his advertisement for Jane Avril with his
painting of the Moulin Rouge. This painting features the same singer fixing her hair in that venue’s
mirrored walls. The advertisement is meant to draw
people into the Moulin Rouge’s theater, in French it’s
salon de spectacle. The image is crude. It is an example
that bluntly summarizes the experience patrons are
likely to have there, as they watch the woman with the
expressionless face can-can in front of a musician,
who grips the neck of his double bass with conspic-
At the Moulin Rouge, 1892-95. Oil on canvas, 123 x 141 cm. The Art Institute of Chicago.
13
�uously hairy knuckles. A black line representing the
loud music or the dancer’s thrall to it erupts from the
tip of his instrument and encircles her before returning to form the shoulder of the bass.
Jane Avril, 1893. Lithograph in 5 colors on wove paper,
129.1 x 93.5 cm. New York: Metropolitan
The painting of the same place is subtler, yet somehow more garish. Here the theatrical attraction, Jane
Avril, is literally in the background while a mixed
group of subjects pursue social relations over drinks.
Another singer haunts the foreground, also facing
away from the audience. Her shining face is alarmingly corpse-like, as though all the greenish light in
the room’s mirrors, everyone’s reflected images, were
concentrated on her skin, blasting it like footlights.
If the poster for this theater promises the audience
a straightforward spectacle, Toulouse-Lautrec’s representation of its reality is a thicket of eyelines, none
of which are directed at the entertainers. Air filled
with live music, meant to lubricate a patron’s transition from street self-consciousness to anonymous
spectator, is replaced by green haze, dotted with men
in lumpy overcoats. The women whose sexuality the
poster offers for consumption are unavailable, instead lost to the audience as they face their own concerns.
14
The woman who sits with her back to us is
arguably the focus of Toulouse-Lautrec’s visual attention. But she is far too bizarre to serve as an erotic
substitute for the disengaged singers. She is modeled from the rear, where all the composure and
fretted-over display in her outfit meet in seams. We
see how straight she sits, her body is in no danger of
finding the comfort in her chair’s backrest. Her loose
bun of orange hair makes me think of spilled intestines and her fur-lined dress reminds me of deepsea life. Were it not for one pink ear and two fingers
of a black glove hers would be difficult to clock as a
human form. The bow in her hair, meant to lengthen
her silhouette to compete with men’s hats, is shown
from its least flattering angle. We see it as a construction, the translucent black tulle that frames the flowers on the front of her head is anchored by a metal
clip sunk into her hair.
And then there is the blonde singer with the
drowned woman’s face. She stands just behind the
balustrade that cordons off these people from the
viewer. In the same way customs officials wear uniforms so you know them as authorities the woman’s
face marks her as the gatekeeper of this image and
the space it depicts.
By now, the balustrade is death and she the
spectral guardian of dead customers.
Does Toulouse-Lautrec undermine his own
advertisement? Do I combat the spectacle that reenforces and spreads the present conditions of life
when I stare at these images? Is the social relation
taking place at this moment, in this room, moving
against the spectacle, like a dérive, or are we simply
allowing these relations to be mediated by yet another image, one that furnishes us with a highbrow alibi?
�“The Aim Was Song” Explication
Roth Boaz
The Aim Was Song
Robert Frost
Before man came to blow it right
The wind once blew itself untaught,
And did its loudest day and night
In any rough place where it caught.
Man came to tell it what was wrong:
It hadn’t found the place to blow;
It blew too hard—the aim was song.
And listen—how it ought to go!
He took a little in his mouth,
And held it long enough for north
To be converted into south,
And then by measure blew it forth.
By measure. It was word and note,
The wind the wind had meant to be—
A little through the lips and throat.
The aim was song—the wind could see.
Almost by reflex, poets regale the purity and power of Nature. Robert Frost, however, blows that notion away. In “The Aim Was Song,” Frost contends that Nature—in the synecdochized figure of the whistling
wind—works blithely and produces no purposeful beauty. But when human beings (“Man” in this poem) arrive in the world, they observe, instruct, and eventually surpass Nature with something more powerful: poetry.
The artistry of Frost’s poem is on display from beginning to end. Its four quatrains contain alternating rhyme (ABAB, CDCD, etc) with enjambment occurring frequently in the first stanza, although virtually
disappearing the rest of the way (only line ten is enjambed). Equally striking is the poem’s repetition: the title
shows up twice, in lines seven and sixteen, and the phrase “by measure” makes two appearances. Finally, the
poem’s lines steadily march along to an iambic tetrameter beat with one noteworthy trochaic substitution.
It’s this trochee in line five—“Man came”—that illuminates the connection between the poem’s prosody and its content. Stanza one moves along freely enough: the regular meter and repetitive enjambment
mirror Nature unfettered by humanity’s schemes. But with the trochaic “Man came,” the meter—and our relationship with Nature—changes. From this point, the lines are heavily end-stopped: the strong hand of “Man”
reshapes—by measure, as it were—the sound of the wind. Rather than Nature’s accidental effects (the wind
caught “in any rough place”), human beings take in air, release it, and give birth to music. The movement of
the wind, of Nature, is random, and its measureless sounds have no purposeful melody. For human beings,
though, the aim was song: by imitating the movement of air we make music, or—taken another way—we make
poetry. Poetry can subvert the expectations of the senses, so much so that the wind doesn’t simply hear humanity’s audible artistry, it sees it. And by the end of Frost’s poem, so do we.
15
�PRINGLE GEOMETRY: LOGIC AND
IMAGINATION IN LOBACHEVSKI
Jay A. Gold
“It seems wonderful to all who have not yet seen the
reason, that there is a thing which cannot be measured even by the smallest unit. But we must end in
the contrary and, according to the proverb, the better state, as is the case in these instances too when
men learn the cause; for there is nothing which
would surprise a geometer so much as if the diagonal
turned out to be commensurable.”
The question I will address is, What are the
implications of the implausibility of Lobachevski’s diagrams for the validity of his geometry? In treating this question, I employ
the distinction between logic and imagination. By
logic I mean that propositions follow from postulates and previous propositions using established rules of inference. Diagrams, while they
may be helpful for understanding, are not necessary for purely logical exposition; Russell and
Whitehead’s Principia Mathematica presents its
proofs without them. By imagination I refer to the
use of images, the visual artifacts of imagination.
I cannot write about the imagination in Lobachevski without noting that he calls his new geometry imaginary. He does not mean by this a geometry
that relies on images. Still less does he mean what
we typically mean by imaginary: he does not present
his geometry as any more fictional than Euclidean
geometry. Indeed, today Lobachevskian geometry is
not called imaginary geometry at all, but rather, hyperbolic geometry.
The unsuspecting reader encountering the
diagram for Lobachevski’s Theorem 16 is apt to be
nonplussed. In Fig. 1, we are presented with a line AG
which we are told does not cut line DC, despite the
fact that if AG and DC as drawn are extended to the
right, they will intersect before reaching the boundary of the page. Furthermore, we are told there are
infinitely many such noncutting lines, which is hard
for us to imagine. If Lobachevski had attempted to
remedy this by drawing line AG asymptotic to DC, he
would have had to make DC curved, contrary to the
stipulation in the statement of the theorem that the
lines be straight.
16
Such implausibility is apt to lead the reader
to wonder whether Lobachevski’s logic must be fallacious because his images are so implausible. This may
be contrasted with an equal and opposite phenomenon that can be encountered when studying Euclid.
There are steps in Euclid’s proofs that do not appear
justified by his postulates and previous propositions,
but seem to rely upon the plausibility of his diagrams.
To take one example: In three propositions (1, 12, and 22) in Book One of the Elements,
Euclid assumes that two figures intersect without
postulating or proving that they do. For instance, at
the very outset of the Elements, in constructing the
proof of Proposition 1, Euclid describes two circles, BCD and ACE, which he says intersect at point
C. The diagram shows this intersection, as it shows
a second intersection below the first. A strictly axiomatic proof would have included a postulate or a
lemma to the effect that where the sum of the radii
of two circles is greater than the distance between
the centers of those circles, the two circles must intersect at two points. But Euclid offers no grounds
for positing that the two circles intersect at these
points. Yet once one sees the diagram of Proposition 1, one cannot imagine an instance in which two
circles would not intersect in these circumstances.
The impulse that leads us to accept Euclidean proofs whose logical basis is incomplete, because
of the plausibility of the diagrams, is, I think, the very
impulse that leads us to wonder whether Lobachevski’s logic must be fallacious because his images are
so implausible. It appears that even in mathematics
human beings can be swayed by their sensibility, and
that this can lead us to overlook the demands of logic.
The plausibility of Euclid’s diagrams, and
the implausibility of Lobachevski’s, may be thought
to imply that Euclid is describing the world in
which we live, and that Lobachevki, while logical,
is not. The diagrams in Euclid, like the Elements
as a whole, present a geometry that we can recognize; the world of Lobachevski’s geometry is in
important respects unrecognizable. But I do not
think this implication holds up, for two reasons.
First, Euclid’s own diagrams are questionable guides to the world. Lines drawn to be parallel in
a Euclidean proof, in a book or on a downloaded page
or on a whiteboard or on the Ziteboard app look parallel. But these lines actually may be considered segments of longer lines. And unless the most painstaking technology available is used to ensure that those
�lines are strictly parallel – and perhaps even then –
they will not be. If I draw two straight lines that look
parallel, and those lines are extended far enough
without bending them, the odds that they will never meet no matter how far extended – the universe
is a big place - are infinitesimal. But for purposes of
demonstration we take the lines as parallel in order
to illustrate the proof. In this sense, using Euclid’s
diagrams to illustrate his proofs is not so different
from taking the lines that are posited as parallel in
Lobachevski’s diagrams as actually parallel for purposes of proof. That is to say, the obvious skewness
of Lobachevski’s parallel lines is merely different in
degree from the unapparent skewness of Euclid’s.
The second reason for not concluding that
Euclid is a better guide to the “real” world than Lobachevski is as follows. The diagrams in both are
drawn on flat surfaces – paper pages or computer
screens. We assume that flat surfaces are the appropriate way to map the world. But as those who make
maps of the globe always have known, the attempt
to project something that is not flat onto something
that is flat unavoidably entails distortions (the Mercator projection being a case in point). So what would
happen if we were to draw Lobachevski’s diagram on
a different kind of surface? What if we were to draw
them on the surface of a Pringle?
A Pringle may be seen as a hyperbolic paraboloid (Figure 2), modified for commercial purposes. On its surface, many lines can be drawn
that do not cut a given line. Furthermore, the angles of triangles drawn on the surface of a Pringle
add up to less than 180º. So if geometric diagrams
were drawn on Pringles, Lobachevskian geometry would look perfectly sensible, while Euclidean geometry might be considered “imaginary.”
It may be objected that the universe does not
have the shape of a Pringle. My response is that we
are not in a position to know the shape of the universe sub specie aeternitatis. It is possible that a flat
surface distorts objects as much as or even more than
a saddle-shaped surface does. I note that the Figure 1
is shown on the flat surface of a page – mapped onto
it, one might say - but nobody would confuse the
photograph with actual Pringles.
Similarly, it may be a mistake to confuse the “Lobachevskian” figures drawn on two-dimensional pages – even on Lobachevski’s own pages - with
actual Lobachevskian parallel lines and triangles,
which can be presented undistorted only on a different kind of surface.
I conclude that Euclid’s diagrams appear
more plausible than Lobachevski’s only because of
the shape of the surfaces upon which those diagrams
are drawn. Hence, I say it follows that neither of the
two geometries is more real – or more imaginary –
than the other.
There is another possibility: both Euclid and
Lobachevski may be consistent with the “real” world,
albeit at different scales. Lobachevski’s Theorem 23
may be read to say that Euclidean geometry approximates Lobachevskian geometry at small scales – that
is, as p (the distance of parallelism)→0, α (the angle
of parallelism)→π/2 – that is to say, 180º, which approximates what the angle of parallelism would be in
Euclid. Similarly, the surface of the earth may appear
flat when we look only at the small area around us,
and we can sense its curvature only when looking at
greater distances. The smaller the surface, the closer the curvature approximates flatness. It likewise is
accepted that Einstein’s general theory of relativity
approximates at the scale of our ordinary experience
Newton’s theory of universal gravitation; the results
of the two theories diverge substantially only at far
larger scales. In all these instances, the small-scale
view carries the imprimatur of common sense, while
the view for larger magnitudes, while more general, to some extent at least affronts common sense
This leads me to a final subject. The point of
an axiomatic system is to derive propositions from
axioms using standard modes of inference – what at
the start of in this paper I called “logic.” Consistency
17
�with the axioms is decisive. I believe it follows that if
a theorem’s logic is sound, when images used to illustrate it appear to violate common sense, it is common
sense that must give way. It is a commonplace that
scientific experimentation can yield important truths
that violate common sense – for example, heliocentric astronomy, or the fact that an apparently solid
table is at a microscopic level mostly empty space and
subatomic particles, not to mention quantum theory. Mathematics sometimes has that in common with
science, as Aristotle pointed out. The difference between mathematics and science in this regard is that
mathematical truths, unlike scientific ones, are a
priori. They are necessary truths. In mathematics we
do not determine whether two lines are parallel by
extending them to see whether or not they meet, we
determine it with postulates and logic. Thus in mathematics, imagination, in the sense I use the word
in this paper, must yield to logic where they clash.
18
�The Floating Dream: A novel excerpt of a journey to John Barth’s Cambridge
Andrew Ross
Our male and female, husband and wife fit. Our epic story of dreaming, swimming in darkness and our birthday marriage, a hopeful and positive love for everyone.
Three stars forming various shapes and patterns, two stars. The four stars of the Orion rectangle,
Venus and Jupiter rising as the outer two stars, vertical, side and side.
Like the rise of Capella and its star, in a mirror.
The rising full Moon the last two nights, 3/6 and 3/7, the true “full” Moon the morning of 3/7. For the
full Moon of early March and early April—4/6—and the March and April full Moons of the last few years, they
surround the spring vernal equinox of March 20.
The last two nights of 3/6 and 3/7 in 2023, the full Moon the “Jupiter” top of triangles perfectly
matching the Jupiter and Saturn and Pisces mirror triangle of last year’s 2022 winter solstice. Makes us think,
the full Moon and planets and stars able to duplicate such complexity.
“It’s Easter or something,” you said.
“A drink of water.”
An image of the two of us, hugging, in a mirror, a cartoon image. I praise you, you hug me, we love the
epic story of the Universe, the relationship of male and female.
One and one, we walked through my grandfather’s Annapolis, past the brick buildings, church circle, a pub that features live music, cafes, stores, the law office of a childhood friend, new houses and Parisian
apartment complex, the library, to a friend’s house for NASA’s Space instrument.
Driving first to Sandy Point, to test the Space instrument, possibly a joke, created together with Johns
Hopkins Applied Physics lab, to decipher and codify the mathematical, physics, purpose relationships of the
stars, planets, nebula clouds, and hopefully galaxies.
“Decipher the mathematical and scientific relationships of galaxies,” you said.
“Biological.”
You took a sip of afternoon coffee. “Everchanging, that’s my code.”
“Repetition mirror poetry of unknown journey,” I said.
“Rain and waves.”
We stepped from our Naval Academy jeep and onto the sand beach of Sandy Point Park, afternoon of
my guitar songwriter uncle’s birthday.
“How old is he?”
“60-something,” I said.
We each thought of my grandfather’s Babe Ruth baseball, of great significance to my uncle, his songs,
his family my cousins. Physics, thermodynamics, water mechanics, especially of human flight, my grandfather’s life. The baseball, my grandfather’s greatest story.
Our family story. Physics and its aspects, our vocation.
We stood in the sand of Sandy Point Park beach, late afternoon of my uncle’s birthday, light rain,
wind, strong waves. Sky of grey clouds, various shades of grey, layered clouds, light rain, strong waves, the
Chesapeake Bay bridge barely visible in the rain, wind, grey. The beach a crescent of yellow sand, the sky grey
clouds, rain, the Bay’s waves strong and grey and white, the same grey of the clouds.
Light rain, wind, standing in the beach sand, the grey Chesapeake Bay bridge barely visible within the grey
water and clouds, waves against the beach, we left for the eastern shore.
We drove across the Chesapeake Bay, rain, a mist, grey. Grey clouds, grey water, the other side of the
Chesapeake Bay barely visible.
We drove to one of our favorite stores, barefoot shoes and nice athletic clothes. An herbal tea at a
favorite shop.
Driving on from Queenstown to Easton, route 50, listening to alternative music. We shopped at a
19
�Kroger, pecans, oranges, collard greens, quinoa, farro. We drove on to Cambridge, lights across the wide river
in the night.
Think of John Barth novels, The Floating Opera, Giles Goat-Boy, Chimera, Tidewater Tales, Coming
Soon !!!: A Narrative, Every Third Thought, lights across the wide river in the night. A literature of exhaustion, story, treasure, postmodern retelling, of character roles.
Tour of the downtown and out to the famous Neck District, names on roads, properties, houses. A reminder of the Annapolis play we watched, a small circular theater, about the making of William Shakespeare’s
plays into the first collected book, 1623.
Late into the night, organizing with you for our Saturday in Cambridge. The library with John Barth
historical marker and map, his apartment near Long Wharf, where he wrote The Floating Opera, where his
jazz band played.
Smoke and look at the night sky of stars and Moon and clouds.
The next morning, after my uncle’s birthday, an herbal tea at the local coffeeshop and restaurant. We
drank and talked and wrote, and we walked to the library.
The Cambridge library and John Barth’s historical marker out front, with a map of sites from his life
and novels. Inside the library, the Shore Room and shelves of books related to John Barth’s imagination fictions, philosophies, aesthetics, and literary artistic beliefs.
We read and read, husband and wife, libraries and libraries of books, including Naval Academy library and Bar-Ilan University. We read and read, letters and journals, secret writings and speeches never
given, and plays, John Barth’s unpublished collection. The Cambridge librarian leaned over our Shore Room
table and whispered, “his wife’s writings.”
Now with the secret, write words, tell thoughts and stories, entertain, we walked to the John Barth
historical marker map to Dream Wharf and the apartment he lived in—overlooking the Wharf and the docked
Floating Theater barge—writing his first novel, National Book Award finalist, The Floating Opera. We smoked.
We stood at the Dream Wharf, in front of the apartment where John Barth wrote his first novel The Floating
Opera, the empty dock of The Floating Theater barge, the novel’s inspiration, cruise ship in the background
similar to the cruise ship of Jean-Luc Godard’s 2010 film, Film Socialisme. We smoked a joint of organic
herbs.
Incredible the Wharf and Choptank River, all the sailboats, houses near the Wharf, John Barth’s first
novel The Floating Opera, Jean-Luc Godard’s 2010 film, traveling on a cruise ship.
“The herbs smell good,” I said.
“Good taste.”
“Soul.”
“Constellation design.”
“That’s the name of the herbs.”
“Dream opera film.”
[# # #]
We walked from the Wharf, up High Street, past the library and circuit courthouse, visited where John Barth
performed with his jazz band, then to the pizza place of 2013 novel Every Third Thought, across the street
from the Arts Center, for pizza and more writing. Writing for a grad school project at Chesapeake Bay University. Very creative.
Easily amused, happy, pizza and writing, memories, imaginary fictions, we left for the Wallace Trail
at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. Sky blue of sunset, we walked the wooded trail, tall trees and leaf-covered ground of winter, blue sky through dark branches, until too dark. We drove for an evening Lotus cannabis joint before Academy Street to the local Cambridge brewery, soon herbal tea shop.
“Something to wonder about,” I said.
Seat at the bar next to nice locals, audience or actors or writers or directors or characters of, on, the
Floating Theater. Floating the Choptank, the Bay, the Chester, the Severn River of herbs and playing, then
20
�Muir Street, and to the house for final smoke of the night.
In the dark, surrounded by woods, marshland, near Todd Point and Ross Neck Road, bright stars,
star patterns, lesser stars visible within the woods, forest and waterland. We smoked herbs, thought of the
sideways “V” of Arcturus, Spica, and the three-quarters Moon. The three celestial objects forming the same
mirror “V” of Jupiter, Saturn, and Pisces, winter solstice 2022, two years after 2020’s great conjunction.
Late at night, Orion behind the house, beautiful aesthetic smell of burnt herbs, we fell asleep, the
early morning of 3/12 and dreamed.
[# # #]
The next morning we packed our Jeep sport utility vehicle, and left for Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge...
21
�Translations
TRANSLATIONS
22
�A Translation of Lines 983-988 of Theognis
Quinn Rifkin
Around 1400 lines of verse have come down to us from Greek antiquity bearing Theognis of Megara’s name.
Together they constitute what is called the Theognidea, which is one of three substantial corpora that we have
from the archaic period—the other two being those of Homer and Hesiod.
It almost goes without saying that Theognis is read and studied less than Homer and Hesiod. While
we can, with minimal preparation, dive into Odysseus’ world and plight as if it were our own, Theognis’ poetry comes to sight as quite foreign to our modern sensibilities. He was a writer not of epics but of elegiac verses
that dealt with the mores and manners of his time. His foreignness was put by Nietzsche in the following way:
Theognis is the mouth piece of Greek aristocracy (On the Genealogy of Morals, 1.5).
Herodotus tells us that Homer and Hesiod gave the Greeks their gods (Histories, 2.53).Theognis, on
the other hand, shows us what a life might look like under their creations; his great themes are love, friendship, war, and change. If we wish to be students of the Greek mind, we would do well to turn to Theognis. He
can,
for example, help us to better understand what Plato, Xenophon, and Aristotle were up to in their various
writings (Plato: Meno 95c-e, Laws 630a; Xenophon: Symp. 2.4, Mem. 1.2.20; Aristotle: NE. 1129b, 1179b). So
too if we wish to be students of our own time, it should be noted that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams also
reflected on Theognis’ poetry for guidance concerning perennial questions of political life (Adams to Jefferson, 16 August 1813, 2 September 1813, 15 September 1813; Jefferson to Adams, 28 October 1813).
Besides his didactic importance, Theognis’ verses can be strikingly beautiful (yet beauty and moral
edification may be inseparable, and were surely inseparable for the Greeks). I have translated one short verse
that, I believe, exemplifies his poetic power. In these lines, Theognis conveys an abiding sentiment among
the Greeks about the significance of that ephemeral period of life called ‘youth.’ Jacob Burckhardt, in his
seminal study of Greek culture, has expressed this sentiment better than I can: “What it comes to is that youth
is the only real time of life for the Greeks, and all the rest a very dubious prolongation.”
Lines 983-988:
ἡµεῖς δ᾽ ἐν θαλίῃσι φίλον καταθώµεθα θυµόν,
ὄφρα τι τερπωλῆς ἔργ᾽ ἐρατεινὰ φέρῃ.
αἶψα γὰρ ὥστε νόηµα παρέρχεται ἀγλαὸς ἥβη:
οὐδ᾽ ἵππων ὁρµὴ γίνεται ὠκυτέρη,
αἵτε ἄνακτα φέρουσι δορυσσόον ἐς πόνον ἀνδρῶν
λάβρως πυροφόρῳ τερπόµεναι πεδίῳ.
Let us set down our dear heart in celebrations,
So long as it might still bear some lovely deeds of delight.
For quickly as a thought passes by brilliant youth:
Nor is the first rush of mares more swift,
Who bear their lord, spear-brandishing, straight into the burden of men,
Violently, while they revel in the wheat-bearing plain.
23
�بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم:
ض
ت و َٱلْأَ ْر ِ
ٱلل ّه ُ نُور ُ ٱل َس ّم َٰـو َ ٰ ِ
َ
ح
شك َٰو ۢة ٍ ف ِيهَا م ِصْ بَا ٌ
ل نُورِه ِۦ كَم ِ ْ
م َث َ ُ
ح فِى زُج َاج َة
ٱلْمِصْ بَا ُ
ُ
ِى يُوقَد ُ م ِن شَ ج َر َ ۢة ٍ ُمّبَٰرَك َ ۢة ٍ ز َي ْت ُونَة
َب دُرّ ّ ٌۭ
كوْك ۭ ٌ
ٱلز ّج َاج َة ُ ك َأَ َ ّنهَا َ
َلّا شَرْق َِي ّةۢ ٍ وَل َا غ َْر ب َيِ ّة
يَك َاد ُ ز َيْتُهَا يُض ِٓىء ُ و َلَو ْ ل َ ْم تَمْسَسْه ُ ن َار
ُن ّور ٌ عَلَى نُو ٍر
ٰ
يَهْدِى َ
ٱلل ّه ُ لِن ُورِه ِۦ م َن يَشَآء ُ
س
ل ل ِ َلن ّا ِ
ٱلل ّه ُ ٱلْأَ مْثَ ٰـ َ
و َيَضْر ِبُ َ
ل شَىْء ٍ عَل ِيم
و ََٱلل ّه ُ بِك ُ ّ ِ
24
�The “Verse of Light”, Quran 24:35
Abdullah Wadood
By the name of the God, The Most Graceful, The Gracer:
[1] The God is the light of the heavens and the earth
[2] A metaphor of His light is like a niche in a lamp
[3] The lamp is in a glass bottle
[4] The glass bottle is like a beaming planet lit from a blessed olive tree
[5] Not Eastern and not Western
[6] Its light would glow although not touched by fire
[7] Light on light
[8] The God guides to His light whom He wills
[9] And the God strikes metaphors for mankind
[10] And the God knows every thing the most
When one is about to recite the Qu’ran, he begins
with the idiom “Bismillah”, meaning “By the name
of God”. The Qu’ran adds two superlatives to the idiom, “Al Rahman” and “Al Raheem”. They are divine
names. Notice that both names are derived from the
R-H-M consonantal root. The R-H-M root describes
mercy or grace. So both names describe God’s mercy
in some way. Thus I have rendered “Al Rahman” as
“The Most Graceful”. “Al Raheem” is a bit more difficult to translate. It is an amplification or hyperbole
(“mugabalah”) of the word “rahem”, meaning one
who gives grace. So “Al Raheem” signifies the one
who is extraordinarily capable of giving grace, or the
one who gives extraordinary grace. It is connected to
the Arabic word for womb, “rahemun”. Both words
suggest creation and sustenance. Thus the image is
of a god that is extraordinarily tender, nurturing,
dependable, and motherly. Elsewhere, the Qu’ran
describes God as the strongest hand-hold and closer to one than one’s own jugular vein. Moreover, the
“Bismillah” is an expression of optimism, insofar as
an act of creation is always optimistic. No matter how
despairing, pessimistic, or sad a work of art or music
is, the fact that the artist could sublimate his or her
negative emotions then turn them into something
constructive is an expression of hope, that bad can be
transmuted into good. Otherwise, there would be no
art or music in the first place. The artist would still
be in bed.
I will now describe what I think is going on
in lines [4] and [5]. The case structure for Classical Arabic (the language the Qu’ran is recorded in)
is quite fluid. The word order for line [4] is: tree—
blessed—olive. Arabic grammar allows for the words
tree—blessed—olive to be a unity, i.e. the phrase can
be rendered as “blessed olive tree”, even though
one might usually expect the Arabic word order to
be tree—olive—blessed. But because of that same
fluidity, perhaps olive could be adjoined to the next
line, i.e. the olive does not belong to either the East
or West. However, that would be too uncommon a
rendering. English translations of the Qu’ran have
been very keen about trying to replicate the style and
the authority of the King James Bible. It’s unfortunate since that tends to unnecessarily obscure the
Qu’ran’s poetic looseness. The word “kawkab” I have
rendered as “planet” whereas older translations have
opted to use “star”. This bothers me since the Qu’ran
consistently uses a specific, unambiguous word for
star: “najm”. In the chapter about Joseph, the son of
Jacob, Joseph describes a dream where his brothers
are eleven “kawakib”—planets. In fact, the full Arabic phrase for the planets is “al kawakib al mutahayyira”, i.e. “the bewildered stars”. This is similar to the
Greek word “planet” which means “wanderer”. Both
phrases refer to the irregular movement of planets if
one assumes that the Earth doesn’t move.
When one combines lines [4] and [5] into a
single image, I think there may be a description of a
planet in retrograde motion. Because of the description of the planet’s beauty, I think it must be Venus.
25
�I feel that many Islamic authorities would be suspicious of my conclusion since the worship of deities
associated with Venus was common in Pre-Islamic
Arabia. But here we find an image of Venus that is no
longer associated with the old goddesses of Arabia,
but instead attributed to a single, unified god, who
seems to bear both masculine and feminine characteristics, transcending the old gods. Moreover, the
Qu’ran is very open about observing nature to make
conclusions about the existence of God. In fact, the
chapter entitled “Al Rahman” is solely devoted to
entice the listener to observe and ponder nature.
The Qu’ran is very sure that an honest look at nature
would necessarily lead one to believe in God’s existence; its broad appeal to natural theology has always
fascinated me.
Line [9] was interesting for me to translate.
The word in question was “yadribu”. In my opinion,
the older translations are in error when they translate this word. They translate it to “present” or “set
forth”. But the root consonants are D-R-B, meaning
to strike or to hit. The most difficult use of the word
is in Qu’ran 4:34, where the Qu’ran legalizes and
commands a husband to hit (“idribihunna”) a disobedient wife if nonviolent methods of discipline,
like talking to a friendly mediator, don’t work. Both
medieval and modern exegetes have been embarrassed by this verse: does the soft-hearted god I talked about earlier really command such things? So they
qualify the beating so that it should be light, and to
avoid leaving bruises, and to avoid striking the face,
and to not use an implement wider than a toothbrush
or thumb, and so on. It’s reported that Muhammad
never hit his wives, but he remained silent when his
followers hit theirs, so his silence indicates assent.
Anyways, the older English translators obscure the
violence of line [9] by using words like “present” and
“set forth”. More honest is to recognize the line’s suggestion of God’s sheer power, and authority.
Line [10] was difficult for me to translate.
Word-by-word, the line goes: And the God by/of every thing All-Knower. I am not wholly satisfied with
my translation here, but I tried to balance out the superlative of being the All-Knower with the rest of the
sentence’s construction.
26
�Jesse Clagett, Archway in the Alhambra, photograph
27
�Anna Akhmatova, 1911
Ansley Green
Яживу, как кукушка в часах,
Не завидую птицам в лесах.
Заведут—и кукую.
Знаешь, долю такую
Лишь врагу
Пожелать я могу.
Анна Ахматова, 1911
I live like a cuckoo in a clock,
I do not envy birds in a forest.
They wind me up—and I cuckoo.
You know, I can wish
such a fate
only onto those I hate.
Anna Akhmatova, 1911
This poem is seemingly simple, but the more you read it, the more complex it becomes. This seems similar to
the life the writer is trapped in. Inside their small life, their motions are mechanized and synchronized. Their
wings are clipped so far down that they cannot even feel envy for those who are free—it is a life that is unfathomable. However, the shift in the second part of the poem shows an awareness and an acute dissatisfaction—
that a life of precise order, led by someone other than yourself, is a life only to wish upon your worst enemy.
I chose to keep a rhyme scheme in English in the final lines of the translation to evoke a similar feeling that is
found in the Russian. The repetition of an “oo” ending in the final four lines of the Russian imitates a cuckoo
sort of sound, that I believe keeping the “fate/hate” rhyme helps to carry forward.
But—what does this poem mean to you?
28
�Francis Bacon’s Proem
Walker Rogalsky
INSTAURATIO MAGNA
PROEM
FRANCISCUS DE VERULAMIO
Sic Cogitavit;
Talemque Apud Se
rationem instituit,quam Viventibus et
Posteris notam fieri, ipsorum
interesse putavit.
The Great Instaturation
Proem
Fancis of Verulam1
Thus considered2;
And set down such reasoning with himself, which
having become known to the Living and Posterity,
he thought for the interest of them.
Cum illi pro comperto esset, intellectum humanum sibi
ipsi negotium facessere, neque auxiliis veris (quae in
hominis potestate sunt) uti sobrie et commode;
Since it had been made clear to him that the human
intellect makes trouble3 for it itself, and does not use
soberly and appropriately true aids (which are in the
ability of a human;)
Unde multiplex rerum ignoratio et ex ignoratione rerum
detrimenta innumera: omni ope connitendum existimavit, si quo modo commercium istud Mentis et Rerum (cui
vix aliquid in terris, aut saltem in terrenis, se ostendit
simile) restitui posset in integrum, aut saltem in melius
deduci.
Whence there is a manifold ignorance of matters4
and innumerable detriments from the ignorance
of matters: he judged it must be attempted with all
resource, whether in some way it was possible that
the very commerce of Mind and Matters be restored
in integrity (to which scarcely anything on earth, or
at least in earthly things, shows itself similar,) or at
least to be the better deduced.
Ut vero errores qui invaluerunt, quique in aeternum in-
valituri sunt, alii post alios (si mens sibi permittatur)
ipsi se corrigerent, vel ex vi intellectus propria vel ex auxiliis atque adminiculis dialecticae, nulla prorsus suberat
spes;
That truly the errors which have been prominent,
and which will be prominent for eternity, (if the
mind permits itself to) that one by one these very errors should correct themselves, or from the proper
power of the intellect or from the aids and props of
dialectic, there was simply no hope;
propterea quod notiones rerum primae, quas mens
haustu facili et supino excipit recondit atque accumulat (unde reliqua omnia fluunt), vitiosae sint et
confusae et temere a rebus abstractae; neque minor sit in secundis et reliquis libido et inconstantia;
For the reason that the first notions of matters, which
the mind by drinking easily and supinely receives,
puts away and accumulates (from which all the rest
flow,) are vicious and confused and recklessly abstracted from matters; and not less capriciously and
fickly in the following things and the rest.
ex quo fit, ut universa ista ratio humana, qua utimur
quoad inquisitionem naturae, non bene congesta et aedificata sit, sed tanquam moles aliqua magnifica sine
fundamento.
From which it comes about that this whole human
reason, which we use for the examination5 of nature
is not well compiled and built up, but is just like some
noble mass without foundation.
Dum enim falsas mentis vires mirantur homines et celebrant, veras ejusdem [(] quae esse possint (si debita ei
adhibeantur auxilia, atque ipsa rebus morigera sit, nec
impotenter rebus insultet) praetereunt et perdunt.
For while men admire and celebrate the false powers
of the mind, the true [powers] of [the mind] which
are capable of existing (if the proper aids are held out
to it, and it be obedient to the matters, and not impotently insult the matters) they pass over and lose.
Restabat illud unum ut res de integro tentetur melioribus
praesidiis, utque fiat scientiarum et artium atque omnis
humanae doctrinae in universum Instauratio, a debitis
excitata fundamentis.
There remained this one thing, that the matter be
29
�tried from the beginning6 with better assistances,
so that a Renewal7, excited from proper foundations,
may occur of the sciences and arts and every human
doctrine generally.
Viae autem contemplativae viis illis activis decantatis
fere respondent; ut altera, ab initio ardua et difficilis,
desinat in apertum; altera, primo intuitu expedita et
proclivis, ducat in avia et praecipitia.
Hoc vero licet aggressu infinitum quiddam videri possit
ac supra vires mortales, tamen idem tractatu sanum invenietur ac sobrium, magis quam ea quae adhuc facta
sunt. Exitus enim hujus rei est nonnullus.
Moreover, the contemplative ways closely correspond to those active, oft-repeated ways; as one,
from the start, arduous and difficult, ceases in an
opening; another, from first beginning, expeditious
and easy, leads into the remote and precipitous.
Although truly this can seem something infinite in
the commencement and beyond the mortal powers,
nevertheless, in the carrying out, the same thing will
be found sound and sober, more than that which has
been done up to now. For there is some result8 of this
matter.
Quum autem incertus esset quando haec alicui posthac
in mentem ventura sint; eo potissimum usus argumento,
quod neminem hactenus invenit qui ad similes cogitationes animum applicuerit; decrevit prima quaeque quae
perficere licuit in publicum edere.
In iis vero quae jam fiunt circa scientias, est vertigo
quaedam et agitatio perpetua et circulus.
Truly in those things which now come about the sciences, there is a certain vertigo and perpetual agitation and circularity.
Neque eum fugit quanta in solitudine versetur hoc experimentum, et quam durum et incredibile sit ad faciendam
fidem.
And it does not escape him [Bacon] how much in solitude this experiment is mulled over, and how hard
and unbelievable it should be to produce trust.
Nihilominus, nec rem nec seipsum deserendum putavit,
quin viam quae una humanae menti pervia est tentaret
atque iniret.
Nonetheless, he thinks neither the matter nor he
himself must be deserted, without having tried and
entered the way which is the only one passable for
the human mind.
Praestat enim principium dare rei quae exitum habere
possit, quam in iis quae exitum nullum habent perpetua
contentione et studio implicari.
For it is better to give a principle to the matter which
is capable of having a result, than in those things
which have no result, to be implicated with perpetual
contention and study.
30
Moreover, since he was uncertain when these things
will come thereafter to mind to anyone else, he especially used the argument, which thus far he found
no one who had applied the soul to similar considerations; he decided that the first things whatever
which it was permitted to complete, to dispatch into
the public.
Neque haec festinatio ambitiosa fuit, sed sollicita; ut si
quid illi humanitus accideret, extaret tamen designatio
quaedam ac destinatio rei quam animo complexus est;
utque extaret simul signum aliquod honestae suae et propensae in generis humani commoda voluntatis.
This was not ambitious haste, but concern; that if
anything humane should happen to him9, at least a
certain outline should stand out and an outline of the
matter which he comprehended in soul; that at the
same time some sign of his honesty should stand out
and of an eager will for useful things for human kind.
Certe aliam quamcunque ambitionem inferiorem duxit
re quam prae manibus habuit. Aut enim hoc quod agitur
nihil est, aut tantum, ut merito ipso contentum esse debeat nec fructum extra quaerere.
Certainly he regarded any ambition whatever to be
more inferior than the thing which he had before
[his] hands. For either this which was worked at is
nothing, or so much, that he ought to be content with
its merit and not seek benefit beyond.
�Notes
[1] My goal in translating is to make as literal a translation as possible and to use terms as consistently as
possible.
[2] Bacon writes the whole Introduction in third person.
[3] ‘Negotium,’ is often business and the opposite of
‘otium,’ leisure.
[4] ‘Res,’ I will consistently translate as ‘matter,’ although an alternative is ‘thing.’
[5] ‘inquisitio,’ can be directly translated to inquisition. But this word has connotations now that are
may not meant by Bacon, so examination is best.
[6] Integro was used previously as “in integrum”
which was translated ‘in intergrity’ but with ‘de intergro’ it means more specifically ‘from the beginning,’ but they are the same word.
[7] Instauratio, the title of the work.
[8] Exitus, opposite of aggressu, used above.
[9] This phrase is probably an idiom for death.
31
�Essays
32
�Stooping for Excellence in Iraqi Higher
Education
Louis Petrich
An abridged version of this essay was delivered as
an address at a conference on liberal education in
Tbilisi, Georgia in June of 2011.
Much of the talk about liberal education,
by those of us who wish to promote it at home and
abroad, tends to take up its cause with platitudes. A
listener who did not know better from experience
might think that liberal education itself were as boring as the boosting of it inevitably sounds. But imagine how this booster must sound to people who look
out the windows to see revolution spread like brushfires in the desert winds as dictators try to stamp
the fires out. Even the most interesting discourses
on liberal learning lose their attentive hold on students when the local dogs of war strain their leashes
to be let loose. Here at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, we look out windows unobstructed
by concrete blast walls, to see lush trees, fields, and
the peaceful streets of the state’s capitol; we do not
bother ourselves about the dust of the chalk that our
demonstrations of Euclidean geometry leave behind
on classroom floors, while outside leaf-blowers clear
paths of nature’s autumnal demonstrations. But if we
were given to worry whether the College itself might
be reduced to dust before the freshmen graduate,
maybe blown to bits in seconds, who would attend
to demonstrations of Euclid at the board? And what
would those demonstrations be demonstrating about
the students who did manage to attend to them?
During the 2010-2011 academic year, at
the American University of Iraq in the northeastern
Kurdish city of Sulaimani, I taught freshmen Iraqis
(mostly Kurds, and some Arabs) to read Euclid, Darwin, and Galileo as part of the two-year core curriculum of liberal arts required of all its students. Such
a curriculum is unprecedented in Iraq, unless you go
back about 1000 years. All of us who taught in the
core had to become the defenders and promoters of
its ambitious content. Each day that I taught there,
another layer of that ancient land’s dust had to be
wiped away from these authors’ books, so that eyes
distracted or even blinded by the glare of outside
events might be persuaded to read them with inter-
est and care. I could hardly blame one of the Iraqi
members of the University’s Board of Trustees for
storming out of a curriculum meeting, in defense of
the core, saying, “Not another word about Socrates!”
Even one of my American colleagues, a professor of
business management, information technology, and
applied mathematics, decided to use his copy of Euclid’s Elements as a door stop to his office—a demonstration of what he thought this great book was good
for under the torn conditions of that ancient country.
My office door continually opened to admit
one or more of my sixty or so students. For they often
came to see me in groups of ten to fifteen, to persuade
me how to teach them more effectively: We think your
questions are too hard. If you want us to succeed you
should ask easier questions. This was their way, as I
learned, to negotiate human conflicts: let one power
present itself frankly to the other power so that the
lesser may recognize its weakness and respectfully
defer to the greater. Sometimes I could find ways to
defer in good conscience to reasonable demands: “I
will give you take-home exams from now on, and you
may consult the books and work together to answer
the questions. If still you fail, there will be opportunities for extra credit.” (There were times when
we would not have gotten by without extra credit. It functioned like Allah’s mercy to sinners. They
liked that comparison.) At other times, when their
demands were not conscionable, I stood up from
my desk to tell them calmly that they should have
brought more bodies into my little office--at which
point they exited to undertake their duties in reasonable humor. They often would astonish me at having
preserved a certain sweetness of temper through the
bitterness of their history, which taught them to approach any negotiation with a show of toughness and
strength. They were quite impossible to cure of the
kind of collaboration that we call “cheating” or “plagiarism,” and which they call “friendship” or “using
the internet together.” They wonderfully possessed
a great capacity for honor, accompanied accordingly by an acute sense of wrongs done them, to be redressed, seriously. Any weaknesses of character that
they could turn to their advantage, they did, and some
of my colleagues on the faculty paid a heavy price for
weakness. It was best, as I discovered, to stand while
teaching them. One also had to know where to look
not to lose heart at the ever-present prospect and evidence of failure. As they looked out the windows in
distraction at the tumultuous affairs of their country,
33
�I made my horizon the long-term mission of the university, whose core were the liberal arts. It was there
that I tried to project my success. All the while, from
the fire and dust of Iraq and the spiritedness of my
students, I was getting an education, different from
the liberal one I was offering in books, but no less to
the purpose. Maybe more.
The streets of Sulaimani witnessed daily
demonstrations for months against the entrenched
party interests, and occasionally the streets become
violent. The two major Kurdish parties ordered
their militias to occupy strategic positions around
the city to maintain order. A Peshmerga raid on an
al-Qa’ida haven near our housing compound killed
five terrorists, a goodly reminder to restive people
not to overthrow their guardians. (The Peshmerga were once Kurdish mountain fighters who had
evolved over the years into the professional military
of the autonomous Kurdish region. The word itself
conveys “those who stand before death with a knife
clenched in their teeth.”) The faculty received daily
security reports about what to expect and where not
to go. Our contingent of bodyguards was doubled
when Osama bin Laden was killed. They sat next to
us in the vans that took us to and from the university,
their AK-47’s resting in their laps, like the briefcases and book bags in ours. One of them was trying to
learn some English, so I tried to make small talk. He
was shy, and kept looking down at his gun. We took
different routes to the university for our security. I
got to see a lot of the city that way. My students from
Baghdad found all this boring by comparison to
home. Sulaimani to them was like Peoria to someone
from Manhattan. No bombs went off.
One thing remained constant among students wherever they came from. Pressured by parents, relatives, and their own habits of mind to get
the good grades and credentials necessary to become
engineers, information technologists, or business
managers, they demanded to know why they needed
to read (for example) Charles Darwin. We are not going to become doctors or biologists, they knowingly
declared. Will Darwin be on the exam? “Yes, you are
being examined on this author,” I replied. What kind
of exam? “You may think of it as multiple choice, but
you will have to supply the choices and discuss them
in an essay.” How many questions will we have to
answer? “You may choose from among several to answer but one—but do answer it with manifold care.”
There will not be enough time. “If there was enough
34
time to make it possible for a species to evolve from
fish able to have this conversation, there will be
enough time for you to reflect on that process in the
exam.” I learned how to enjoy the students for asking
me such questions. As Pascal says somewhere, the
golden objects of learning are not always high and
out of reach but rolling around at our feet. It is only
necessary to be willing to stoop for them.
Yet all our stooping under questioning,
without picking up a satisfactory answer, then having to stoop again, and again, did not please them as
sport. Why are you always asking us about things you
don’t know? How do you expect us to know? We are
the students; you are the professor. So teach. (Indeed, the sign on my office door said, “Louis Petrich: Associate Professor in the Core.” I shall not
stand that entitled again, for we are all “tutors” at St.
John’s.) They had a point, so I tried to answer the
question they kept on asking me: Why are we reading these books? “We read Charles Darwin not to
become biologists,” I professed one day, after giving
much thought to the matter and to its rhetoric, “but
to distinguish and appreciate the different paths that
life has taken over the course of natural history. For
example, there is the life of the social insects in the
hive—materially secure, well-ordered, the struggle
for existence decided in their favor. The path that we
Homo sapiens have taken to regulate the awfulness of
life--not to be defeated by it--is a thing we call ‘culture.’ Unlike the beehive, culture is devoted to knowing the geometry of its spaces and to delighting in the
beauty of colors and forms even in the face of danger
from all sides. Have you heard how Archimedes is
reported to have died? He was so determined to finish the demonstration of one more geometrical theorem as the Roman sword hung over his head at the
siege of Syracuse in 212 B.C., that he did not notice
when it made its descent: Quod erat demonstrandum
indeed. His preoccupation with geometry (which by
the way, provided him the know-how of an engineer)
is not merely an eccentricity. Preoccupations make
us human, different from chimpanzees and rats, who
learn to solve puzzles and negotiate mazes to earn
their bananas and sweets. The choice that you face
as students at this university of liberal learning is not
between thinking forever like a biologist or an engineer. Your choice is between learning to think freely and bravely for yourselves, or not knowing how
to think at all. In either case, the sword is hanging
there, and it will fall. Yet for some things, like the
�truths of geometry, it has no edge. Think on those
things. Does not Holy Scripture say as much? We are
all being examined on the multiple choices we make
among the higher, lower, or middle paths of life.
These paths are available for inspection in literature,
philosophy, history, and biological science. What a
pity if you fail this examination. How else, than by
interrogating these books, will you know the path to
take to be judged human?”
I apologize if my professed answer sounds
platitudinous. As I said at the beginning, this is
hard to avoid, especially since I am a believer in the
answer. Yet I must report that my students continued to believe in pressing the question. And so we
contested the matter of their educations for a whole
year. You would not have read about our contest in
the news, but when I hear people talk about the outcome of the war in Iraq, I know that our contest at
the American University in Sulaimani is a part of that
whole outcome, a pretty good part, I like to think.
But judge for yourselves.
Let me tell you about a young, veiled woman named Ziza, who always sat in the front row of my
mathematics class. She never said a word but paid
strict attention to every demonstration and wrote
down whatever I said or wrote on the board. At the
end of the semester, I collected the students’ math
notebooks, in which they were supposed to practice
the art of demonstrating and to ponder its difficulties and meanings. Ziza used a ruler, compass, and
different colored pencils to draw the diagrams and
highlight the steps in the proofs, one after another
throughout Book I of Euclid. Her notebook became
a thing of manifest craftsmanship. It was, in fact, a
kind of work of art, whose making had taken many
more hours than I had intended, yet she did not reckon them up for extra credit, as others did with much
less reason. As I perused the pages of Ziza’s beautiful notebook, I felt happy, yet without quite knowing
why I should, for I could not say that she was learning
to think mathematically on her own, rather than reproducing with great care and patience the thinking
of others. When I turned to the first page to write
something appropriate in praise of her hard work
and to encourage her to become more questioning in
her learning, I saw in the center of the page a dedication, written in English and Kurdish in graciously
flowing scripts, and surrounded on the margins by
the flourishing of geometrical figures that populate
Book I of Euclid. The dedication said simply: To the
Glory of God.
Among the platitudes I was mentioning before, we often hear some version of this one: liberal
education is the pursuit of knowledge and beauty for
their own sakes, as goods in themselves. That saying
was not good enough for Ziza. I did not write anything on that first page of her notebook. I did not
write anything at all in her book. I spoke a word of
praise when I handed it back, and I added my hope
that she would keep it forever.
Many of my male students habitually carried prayer beads that they audibly fingered in class
and everywhere else. I learned to ignore the sound,
or to regard it as part of the exotic, like the call to
prayer that loudly issued each day around noon from
a mosque a block away from the university. I learned
not to go to the washroom at that time—too many
men crowding in to clean their hands before prayer.
I wondered if the pursuit of knowledge and beauty
is also a general calling to be followed by those who
hear it and recognize the need to keep something in
themselves clean for the purpose of approaching the
true.
One of my male students, Bouwar, a Kurdish nationalist, always dressed in traditional attire
(the shrwal), an elegant, trim robe with a scarf-like
belt around the waist, noble and assertive. He lacked
only a scimitar to complete the image of the tribal
leader and mountain warrior. (Weapons, by the way,
were not allowed past the two entrances through the
concrete blast walls that surrounded the American
University of Iraq. The signs proclaimed it, and the
Peshmerga were stationed there to strictly enforce
the ban.) Bouwar liked to interrupt my professing
of the things we now know about nature to ask sharp,
impatient questions that felt to me hostile to modern
science, particularly to Darwin. What’s the evidence
for that? How do they know that? Is that a fact or
just a theory? Do you believe that, Professor? Are
there Moslem scientists who believe that? He also
fingered the prayer beads as he questioned me. To
my imagination, Bouwar could have been a superbly
groomed Spartan, and I an infidel Athenian.
Bouwar wrote an essay for his history professor that he gave to me as well, since I had argued
that Darwin’s great achievement was to turn biology into a kind of history. The title of his essay was:
“The Great Deceivers.” I instantly imagined that
the essay contained an attack on Darwin and other
theorists of modern science. By the third or fourth
35
�sentence I realized that much I had imagined about
this young man was wrong. His thesis was that the
prophets were all deceivers, Mohammed being the
greatest deceiver of the lot. I was stupefied and in
awe, since these are the kind of thoughts, which uttered, get you quickly killed in that part of the world
(and in other parts, too, if less quickly). As I read
the essay, I realized where his pointed questions in
class were coming from and tending. He was covertly
digging for solid evidence to use against the authority of the prophets. With some concern for his future
well-being, I gave him and the class Galileo’s “Letter
to the Grand Duchess Christina” on how to read Holy
Scripture alongside scientific discoveries, so that the
oneness of truth manifested in nature and revelation
might be maintained by a man of reason and faith.
The little courage that calmly accepts uncertainty about how one will earn a living after studying the liberal arts ought to be all the courage one
needs to follow that calling for four years of university study. How did I dare to ask more of my Moslem
brothers and sisters?
A letter that I shall keep among my remembrances of my year in Iraq was written to me by a
young man named Bakir, an Arab from Baghdad,
which a long time ago was the center of learning
and wisdom in the West. But seven years before I
taught him, Bakir’s father and uncle were murdered
in Baghdad by a squad of Shiah during their attacks
on the Sunni, and from their home the remainder of
his family had to flee for their lives to Damascus. (I
wonder where they live today now that Syria has taken its turn as a country from which to flee.) I should
mention that the students at the American University
of Iraq all had stories to tell of death, torture, exile,
imprisonment, or the fear of these things, stories
that have been told before, so typically they did not
tell them again, unless one were new enough to ask.
Bakir wanted to return to Baghdad some day to help
make it great again. That was why he intended to
study politics at the American University in Sulaimani, where he could also write for the school newspaper, join the debate club, and give expression to
his conspicuous thymos. He could not understand
why he, Bakir, the future Sunni politician, should be
forced to study modern life science, at the center of
which he found a godless theory. This angered him.
I asked the class to consider the motto above the oracle at Delphi: Know Thyself. Where does this self
of ours come from? How shall we come to know it?
36
What is its name? Is it bred into the genes of the only
surviving species of the genus Homo, which some
scientists speculate may have exterminated the Neanderthals and other related species long ago? Is
that the story of who we are and why we are prone
to anger and violence? Bakir began to listen to the
arguments of life science when he saw the political
connections, and so one day late in the semester he
wrote me the following letter:
As long as you are our professor and are lecturing us for the purpose of a superior education,
I would like to have a public debate with you at the
university: you are with Darwin’s theory and I am
against his theory. Then both professor and student
will have the opportunity to convince the audience
about what we both believe. I don’t want—like many
students—to have a contradiction within myself. So
if you publicly refute me and convince me, I will believe in this theory. I think you can understand my
situation when I believe in something and one day an
American professor at school comes to me and tells
me that what I believed is wrong. Darwin shocked
the world by his theory, and I was shocked to hear you
say to me that I am not who I thought I was! And I
lived my life with a lie. So, imagine my situation currently. What we are going to decide is very essential,
Professor. If this is really a university where students
are allowed to have challenging personalities, then I
am glad to be one of these students. And I challenge
you.
His words made me think of a Platonic dialogue and
chivalric duel. I declined the format of his proposal,
for several obvious reasons, and instead organized a
class debate in teams of students on the question of
Darwinism.
The things that were said in that debate
made an awful mess of Darwin, which disappointed me, though it did not surprise me. But one thing
stood out from the mess. Bakir and his colleagues
were not going to be persuaded of their origin from
animals. They did not so much mind the idea of animals evolving from animals, but not human beings,
not them. From this stance they would not budge.
In some respects, they were thinking like the pigeon
fanciers in Darwin’s opening chapter of The Origin of
Species. These men proudly believed that their fancy, prize-winning pigeons were each a special kind,
instead of being varieties of one species. I felt that
this was closed-minded of my students, and in that
�respect, I had failed as a teacher of the liberal arts.
But since then, I have thought more about Bakir’s
challenge and the stance that he and his colleagues
took in that debate. His beloved Baghdad, like Socrates’ beloved Athens, had gone down the tubes from
much war and tyranny. But his human soul, like that
of Socrates, did not have to follow his city as it went
down. In that messy debate about Darwin, the students would not allow the recorded or purported
events of natural history to deprive them of a distinct
kind of soul, prized and elevated as the image of God.
To be free of stamping by the events of history—not
to be stamped out by time—may we not consider their
insistence on that freedom to be the root of liberal
learning now begun in Iraq? We must hope so. Or
else we must meet the challenge and teach them, as
once, long ago, they taught us what it takes not to be
stamped out. That challenge is bigger than you or I
thought.
37
�Xenophon’s Role in Plato’s Philebus?
A Response to Leo Strauss
Sam Hage
When Leo Strauss came to St. John’s College toward
the end of his life, he chose to lecture, not on Plato, but on Xenophon, whom he—perhaps uniquely
among scholars—considered to be the superior Socratic authority. This belief in Xenophon’s importance
influenced much of the rest of his work.
In another lecture on Plato, not delivered at
St. John’s, Strauss makes the following offhand comment:1
Whether Xenophon is not underlying one of the Platonic characters in the dialogues is a long question. I
have a certain suspicion, but since I have no means of
proving it, I will not state it. I believe that Xenophon
occurs somewhere, but I cannot prove it, as an unidentified character in the Philebus—I mean, and an
important character there.
To my knowledge, no one has ever decoded
this riddle; I would like to make my own contribution.
Virtually every Platonic dialogue is named
either for its chief speaker or its subject matter. Two
bear the name of a famous figure who is thematic for,
but not present in, the work. We thus begin each dialogue with one firm foothold, at least, before quickly plunging into its boundless enigmas. In the case
of the Philebus, however, Plato forces his readers to
contend with one puzzle before they have even turned
the first page: Why is this long and complicated work
named for a character who barely speaks? Indeed,
Philebus is so irrelevant in the latter two-thirds of
the conversation that readers are liable to forget he is
even there.
The flipside of the riddle of the Philebus’ title is the question of the dialogue’s true interlocutor,
Protarchus. Who is this man, and why does he become the spokesman for hedonism?
Socrates identifies Protarchus as the son of
Callias; scholars are quick to point out that Callias
III of Alopece—the famous and depraved aristocrat
featured in the dialogues of Plato and Xenophon—
only had two sons, neither of which could be the
Protarchus of the Philebus. They thus dismiss the
38
possibility that this could be the Callias Socrates refers to. But Plato never shies away from mixing historically plausible characters and settings with his
fanciful imagination of conversations that could not
really have taken place. Perhaps he wishes for us specifically to take note of this literary impossibility and
question Protarchus’ identity.
In hinting that Xenophon is a character in
the Philebus, Strauss could have only three possibilities in mind: that Xenophon is one of the mute and
nameless boys listening in on this conversation, or
that Plato means either Philebus or Protarchus to
stand in as Xenophon’s alter ego. It is the last that I
find most promising.
To further substantiate this conjecture, we
must look to two other unidentified “characters” in
the dialogue, Antisthenes and Aristippus. Philebus
commentators have remarked that the two major
doctrines of the dour and extreme ascetics mentioned at 44b are attributable to these men. To Antisthenes, that pleasure is simply the absence of pain;
to Aristippus, that pleasure has no genuine ousia.
(Aristotle addresses these same two famous views in
Book 10 of the Nicomachean Ethics.)
Plato began writing the dialogues upon his
return to Athens some years after the death of Socrates. This period, which also saw the founding of the
Academy, was a time of competition and controversy
over the succession of various Socratic “schools,” and
major sections of certain dialogues are devoted to the
refutation of the doctrines of his contemporaries and
immediate predecessors. But Plato—undeniably victorious in the eyes of history as Socrates’ most important successor—is selective in which characters
he features by name, and thus cements in the Western philosophic canon.
Diogenes Laertius, writing perhaps a less
biased intellectual history, places Antisthenes and
Aristippus in this crowd of prominent and consequential Socratic followers—so important that they
merit their own chapters in his Lives of Eminent Philosophers. Xenophon, too, features these men as frequent interlocutors, among the likes of Critobulus,
Hermogenes, and Aristodemus. Plato, by contrast,
mentions them almost not at all.
The list of Diogenes Laertius’ neighboring
chapter subjects is highly telling: Phaedo, Euclides,
Crito, Glaucon, Simmias, Cebes. All six have primary speaking (or narrating) roles in major Platonic
dialogues; Antisthenes and Aristippus are almost
�entirely absent. (Antisthenes is said to be present
at Socrates’ death in the Phaedo, but he does not
speak.)
Did Plato excise these two men as characters
because of some serious intellectual disagreement?
That Xenophon did not similarly exclude them suggests that Plato’s disagreement with Antisthenes and
Aristippus was also a disagreement with Xenophon
himself. The Philebus, in associating their teachings
with those “terrible” pleasure deniers, provides us a
hint as to what he might have found objectionable.
Perhaps Xenophon, unlike Plato, was enchanted by
the ascetic promise of their anti-hedonistic teachings. This is suggested, to give just one example, by
Xenophon’s highly favorable depiction of Antisthenes’ moral virtue in his Symposium, which takes
place—where else?—in the house of Callias III.
Perhaps, then, Plato meant for us to imagine
Xenophon—in the guise of Protarchus—as the recipient of his most important Socratic refutation of this
doctrine, and perhaps this is the meaning of Strauss’
cryptic remark.
In light of Plato’s habit of portraying Socratic refutations of the ideas of his contemporaries, the
drama of the Philebus is not surprising. That Plato
would find these particular teachings so objectionable as to erase their authors from his record of Socratic philosophy, however, might come as a surprise
indeed. The cartoonish portrayal of Plato is as a grim
and sinewy ascetic, diligently castigating all those
inconvenient needs and desires of the body as deleterious to the genuine good found in the life of the
mind. But a careful reading of his dialogues reveals,
again and again, the admission that pleasure is simply inextricable from human life. Human beings—
divine puppets that we are—cannot help but choose
what pleases us over what pains us; the best we can do
is train ourselves to be pleased and pained by the right
things.
No embodied creature can fully renounce
pleasure. Those who are tempted by the possibility
confront a danger not unlike that of misology, or hatred of argument, against which Socrates warns his
companions in the Phaedo. In aiming for complete
asceticism, they doom themselves to failure, and so
risk giving up the hope of moderation altogether.
They will thus miss out on what is in truth the greatest pleasure of all—the pleasure afforded by serene
contemplation of the highest things.
To make a stronger case for the likelihood of
Xenophon’s enthrallment to Antisthenes’ and Aristippus’ severe and consummate asceticism would require much more examination—for example, of Socrates’ conversations about pleasure with Antiphon
and Euthydemus in the Memorabilia. Even then, the
most we could say is that such an enchantment might
at least be plausible. Whatever his reasons, Plato, it
seems, did his best not to let them enchant another
generation of readers.
Notes
[1] My thanks to Quinn Rifkin and Joseph Keegin for
discovering, and circulating, this part of the lecture.
39
�40
Jules Spiese, The Cave, 2021, Pencil and Digital
�41
�How Might a Machine Intend?
Siobhán Petersen
What would it mean to say that a machine can
“think?” There is a sense that machines are able to
go through a logical process similar to what we describe as reasoning; this is true in very complex computing systems as well as simple electrical systems.
They can reliably generate outputs based on certain
inputs, much like a responsive sensory organism.
However, these are purely physical processes, which is typically understood to lack whatever
it is we mean when we say “mind.” A home furnace
doesn’t “know” it’s being called by a thermostat, nor
does an elevator “know” I’ve addressed it when I
press the button in the same way that you know when
your name is called, or what Paris is, or what ice
cream tastes like; the machine is wired in such a way
that a current is routed to activate or deactivate the
machine based on signals the designer has attuned it
to be responsive to.
Yet the question persists, can machines
think? Can they understand, or generate their own
goals or ideas? Can they be taught to be truly spontaneous, can they learn to feel? Or, will they only ever
be capable of that mere formal mechanized “reasoning,” with enough instructions that we can trick ourselves into seeing minds where there are none? Let
us first turn to this question.
Can a Machine Understand?
Philosopher John Searle talks about the key difference between minds that form understandings and
machines that execute formal, syntactical processes as being the ability to have intentions, which he
posits are likely to be uniquely linked to biological
life.1 His thought experiment, the Chinese Room,
compares the outputs of a computer that can have a
perfectly-convincing natural-language conversation
to a monolingual English-speaker operating on Chinese symbols by executing the instructions from a
book that contains the right answers to any prompt.
Searle grants that this setup would be capable of passing Alan Turing’s famous Imitation Game2,
and would create a convincing impression of understanding. If you provide a simple story in Chinese
about a person going to a restaurant and enjoying a
42
meal, then ask if the person paid the bill, the executor with the use of the Chinese book can reply “yes,”
despite the fact there’s nothing that logically necessitates those things both be true. This is the kind of
information we’d normally consider contextual, and
indicative of understanding and intelligence. Under
these perfect conditions, Searle asserts that no matter what, the executor still does not know Chinese
and thus can never understand anything. All they are
capable of is recognizing and manipulating the symbols themselves.
This kind of formal reasoning is different
in-kind to whatever action is happening when humans interpret. The executor is never freed from the
room to see the outcomes of their work, and so can
never learn what the symbols do. Thus, Searle argues, it stands to reason that they can never be said
to form an intention3, merely a calculation; whatever
incredibly large and nuanced set of inputs they receive, they can only use a syntactic logical process to
arrive at the correct output.
Is this actually analogous to machine reasoning? Algorithmic problem-solving bears much
in common with this account; the actual concepts
that underlie whatever the machine is manipulating
symbols in reference to are semantically “empty,” as
you can just as easily substitute the units it uses with
something nonsensical and the computer will still
follow the same logical steps.4 A concept need only
be a label here. In fact, a computer will always have
an incredibly exact, precise definition of any term,
with a definite address for that definition it can query
for information; but it will only define what it means
to the calculating system, so context is not necessary
beyond how to operate on it.
Qualitative understandings that humans possess are
not structured like this. Marvin Minsky explains this
gap as the result of a “basic fact of mind: what something means to me depends to some extent on many
other things I know.”5 We do not have rigid formal
definitions for every term we use when we speak;
minds are elastic, and our concepts are ambiguous.
A formal reasoner needs those hard definitions and
for their operands to be arranged logically, but humans are often logically unclear to outright incorrect
while still conveying the proper meaning. The computer’s connection to a question is totally intrinsic to
the asking6 – it would not have many different ways
to understand “mind,” or “know,” for instance –
whereas we have no special command over the world
�or direct connection to the information we are trying
to apprehend. We are left with a much more difficult
task: to uptake the question from our environment
and the context, and learn from our many inevitable
errors. To find any answer, we first have to invent the
question for ourselves.
Perhaps, then, the semantic process is
special to brains. What if we simulate a brain? Let
us assume that a program can render a re-creation
of a human brain as it acts in the body, down to the
level of neurotransmitting molecules even, that is
so high-fidelity that any mistakes in the model are
indistinguishable from normal variances. Searle
claims that any understanding the computer might
have is only a simulation of understanding in the
same way that a simulation of a rainstorm is not really a rainstorm; we can only ever replicate its formal
elements to make representations. Programming is
simply us elaborating an algorithm to jockey around
empty symbols, which we the creators can then attach
meanings to. The computer will never understand
the semantics of whatever it may claim to know, just
as the English-speaker will never understand Chinese.
This argument places a lot of weight upon a
specific view on meaning of “simulate.” I think Searle is correct to be skeptical of considering the mind
as separate from body, what he calls a “residual form
of dualism.” There is a deeply-ingrained assumption
that mind is both conceptually and factually independent of the body, and we should not be so quick
to dismiss that, “actual human mental phenomena
might be dependent on actual physical-chemical
properties of actual human beings.”7 However, the
characterization he proposes places mind in a purely
material realm, when in fact mind also has to do with
information. It is one thing to simulate a physical action, and another to simulate a representational action. We can better understand this by examining the
question: what is information?
Information is indeed a material phenomenon, but not itself a material. It would seem it is more
like an arrangement of states in materials that can
represent something else. When we talk of “1’s and
0’s,” “bits and bytes,” these are abstractions for the
state of many tiny switches that encode meanings;
yet computer memory is just as physical as a book.
However, information is not dependent on the kind
of states it relies on to represent; Hamlet is still Hamlet on a Kindle or etched in stone. Further, informa-
tion and representations are materially dependent;
if you destroy every copy of every version of a book,
the ideas represented in them are truly lost. We know
this is equally true of the mind; destroying portions
of the brain takes away the ability to perform mental
operations, including memory.
On the other hand, representations are themselves
unlimited – we can represent something that has
not, cannot, or will never exist without pushing the
material limitations of the medium the information
is stored in. We can describe impossible things, or
even things that would just be materially difficult
to accomplish physically, with the same ease as describing something totally mundane.
What is a human doing when forming intentions as Searle presumes we can? If we accept this
picture of information, it would appear the process
looks something like converting Action in the world
into Information, then turning that Information into
novel Action. The Information in the mind is some
arrangement of brain matter, and mental processes like perception and thought alter those arrangements in order to represent.
Simulating this process in a different medium would involve altering the arrangements of
the switches in, for instance, a hard drive, but the
underlying goal of those rearrangements would be
the same; the only difference lies in the arbitrary
encoding scheme used. The resultant act of mind is
truly virtual, in the sense that it expresses the essential feature – what a mind does in virtue of being a
mind – even when lacking the material components
that typically enable it. Thus, when we talk about
understanding or intending, the critical question
we must ask to answer Searle’s challenge is: does
a brain think, or does a mind think? If it is a mind
that thinks, then we must concede that it is neither
fully material nor mystically nonmaterial. There is
no reason to believe that a computing machine can’t
perform this process.
How Might We Recognize a Machine Intending?
Simulating a brain may be able to accomplish the
process of creating a fully-realized mind, complete
with intentions and understandings. However, that
likely isn’t the most efficient route to a conscious
machine – in fact, merely reproducing something
that we’re certain can create a mind tells us very little
about the essential nature of either thing. Humans
43
�create minds all the time via reproduction, in fact,
but we are no closer to answering the question: why
does some matter think and other matter does not?
If we want to provide an adequate account, we need
to be able to answer the Composition Problem – the
issue being that non-thinking matter can’t simply
emerge into consciousness from total unconsciousness; whatever factors enable mind must be explainable in terms of what we know about that lower level
of matter. Finding out how a machine can form novel
intentions in its own way, as itself rather than due to
its resemblance to a human, may be able to teach us
something important about ourselves as well.
In discussing the essential nature of a consciousness, we are in a way asking about the concept
of the soul. Apart from all experiences, contingencies, and even specific processes, what is that “spark”
we’re referring to when looking at another conscious
being? How might we recognize it if we saw it? The
Cartesian ideal of the soul draws a near 1-to-1 relationship between the ability to rationalize and the
“spark” that reflects the divine; an immaterial ghostin-the-machine that links us to the creator and is the
site of mentation. Aristotle proposes a more embodied form of soul as the animating force behind all life,
and thus all living things possess “psychic powers.”8
In this model, plants have an appetitive
soul, animals have an irrational soul in addition,
and humans have a rational soul on top of these.
The ability to move, grow or decay is the most fundamental, and it serves a nutritive function; a living thing’s pure striving for the means to go on
living. Sensations delineate the irrational souls of
animals from plants, but this also can include emotions and other highly-developed perceptions. Aristotle credits both of these “lower” souls with the
“originative power”9 10 that would constitute an intention; a living body must contain within itself the
ability to generate motions, and not merely move
when it is acted upon.
Aristotle separates mind and thinking into
the rational soul, believing, “it alone is capable of
existence in isolation from other psychic powers.” 11
This would seem to be accurate of machine thinking.
Computers separate purely rational syntactic processes from the need for other sorts of mentation;
but we’ve also established that, thus far, this has
prevented it from understanding and intending the
concepts rational thought can operate on. If this is
somehow the highest form of soul, are we comfort44
able attributing the term to our PC? Or perhaps it is
missing something provided by these other sorts of
soul?
Let us first consider the idea of an appetitive robot. Picture a machine sent to Mars for a
long-term research mission and given the ability to
harvest its own solar energy to power itself. Upon
landing, it runs the subroutine to set up solar panels, and continuously monitors its own battery level
to know when it’s time to go recharge. This is a sort of
“hunger,” yet it still seems to be missing something.
The Aristotelian model specifically places sensations
like hunger that create pleasure and pain in the higher irrational soul, so it’s not necessary that the robot
“feel” it so long as it has an awareness of its nutritive needs. Like any other computer, it embodies
the “rational soul,” and now has the capacity to move
by itself to “feed” itself as much as any living thing
does – expending energy it contains in order to act
as a whole – but intuitively, we’re still waiting on the
“spark.”
Is this because we don’t view this as fully
“originative?” Where is the novelty in its intentions?
Again our intuitions point us to a distinction between
merely executing prewritten instructions and intending something, but at the same time, a close examination of the ways humans make their decisions
with high-level regularity and in accordance with
causal physical laws begins to make that distinction
uncomfortably gray. Further, that would open the
door to denying that purely-irrational animals acting on instinct possess a soul or consciousness, since
these are also in a way predetermined. How might we
explain this discrepancy?
At time of writing, the robot (and any other
program) is created when a computer programmer
undertakes the representing function, supplying
their intention and understandings, for the purpose
of fulfilling their functions. A piece of accounting
software is not being written to generate novel ideas
on the nature of numbers, nor being asked to understand the cultural value of the money it records. The
designer (and later, the user) provide the program
with Information, and in response receive an Action.
It’s perhaps most accurate to say that the program is
itself a representation, at least in some respects, and
not capable of creating its own. If its been supplied
with an analogy, it is only following; it will never respond with one of its own.
We seem to be closing in on a soul. In order
�to call something a conscious mind, perhaps what
we’re looking for is that process of turning Action
into Information into new Action. It is in the Aristotelian irrational soul where this occurs, at the level
of sensations and perceptions. As discussed, a purely rational syntactic computation has direct access
to the precise meaning of any piece of information.
Otherwise, it cannot function. Words like IF, THEN,
GOTO or PRINT may leave room for ambiguity to a
human, but can only ever mean one thing to a machine – a computation can never be asked to invent
a question, because it’s never making a qualitative
judgment. Conversely, living things that sense and
respond to the environment must intuit information, must write and solve its own computational
problems, and only then can they execute those instructions.
How Do Machines Perceive?
The miracle of brains are their ability to
form perceptions of the world around them with
lightning speed, which has traditionally been an
obstacle for computer intelligence. They’re capable
of doing this using neural tissue – hardware that is
magnitudes slower than a computer chip – to perform an incredibly complex calculation that simultaneously recognizes the whole of a thing and compare
it against every other memory of other perceptions. 12
This is an astounding display of the power of evolutionary dynamics.
Already we are beginning to see machines
that make very complex perceptions and judgments,
such as LiDAR demonstrations on self-driving cars.
They are also supremely expensive, resource-intensive, and difficult to understand even for the humans
who develop them. We’ve managed to make complex
behaviors out of complex foundations, but we still
lack trust for these systems because of it. Complex
systems are inherently more prone to failure because
there’s simply more things that can go wrong. It’s one
thing for a CAPTCHA to misidentify a traffic light,
but it’s another thing entirely if your car does. Within the very specific fields that these systems are designed to operate in, we lend their judgments about
as much credence as a precocious seven-year-old at
the wheel, and that’s likely a wise decision.
One major reason programmers can’t easily
understand their systems’ behavior is because often
they did not design them, at least not fully. Fash-
ioned after the process of Natural Selection, many AI
researchers are turning to genetic algorithm design,
where random strategies and code are combined with
each other, and a pool of randomized “offspring” is
created of the most effective ones. Over many generations, powerful algorithms can be developed that a
designer could not have foreseen. The machines are
learning, in an abstract Darwinist sort of way.
Through this genetic process, it is foreseeable that we could make a machine that can change
its own source code of its own volition. Currently,
we tend to design systems with a specific purpose in
mind, and we consider that purpose foundational to
the program’s being. In Aristotelian terms, programs
verifiably have a telos; considered another way, they
do not create the problems they are tasked to solve.
However, there is no conceivable reason that a machine could not be given the power to change its own
purpose, since that purpose is ultimately a representation that can be combined and recombined on
command. It would thus be capable of altering its
goals in response to its experiences, changing Action
to Information – the mark of intelligence. Intention,
then, seems to be a form of learning.
However, if Google let loose such a program
on all their data and it managed to self-organize into
an intending, understanding and learning being, it’d
be just as unlikely to be able to explain how it did it as
we would be if we examined its code for the answer.
Already we have a hard time explaining how these
systems are making basic perceptions. Decoding
complex behavior emerging from complex foundations is, as established, inherently difficult. Further,
insofar as the machine participates in this enterprise
we call mind, it will likely have similar difficulties
accounting for itself as we do providing such an account of ourselves. As Charles Peirce put it:
[The] senses… [furnish] something more
than plain, unvarnished facts of the outer
world, [and no] direct scrutiny could enable
us to say what part of that which we seem to see
or hear is due to stimulations of the nerve-terminals of our eyes and ears and what part is a
quasi-inferential interpolation of our own
minds.13 14
This self-organizing program may be capable of consciousness, but like the brain simulation, it
wouldn’t tell us anything about consciousness; we’ve
45
�created matter that thinks, but we still don’t know
what makes matter think. The issue here is there’s
no observable gradient from complex systems that
make simple judgments to complex systems that
have bridged the gap to complex judgments; they’re
all equally black-boxes to us.
Let us look instead to nature; how do cells,
simple organisms with no individual capacity for
mind, work together to facilitate complex judgments? The aforementioned miracle of the brain is
not only one of evolution; it is a miracle of computing, using the combination of many small processes
in-parallel to efficiently ascertain information from
the environment.
Ultra-simple computer programs are also
capable of these kinds of parallel processes. Melanie
Mitchell outlines a use of genetic algorithm design on
a one-dimensional cellular automata program that
applies a handful of simple rules to determine from
one line to the next whether a “cell” will be black or
white based on the corresponding neighbors in the
previous line.15 The rules themselves are chosen
based on their fitness for answering the question,
“are there more black or white squares in the starting
conditions?”
After eighteen generations, the ruleset that
had been generated would turn all 148 of the cells
black or white in answer to this question inside 148
iterations and with 80% accuracy on the hardest cases, when the starting conditions were close to 50/50.
Its accuracy increased the larger the discrepancy,
much it would for a human “eyeballing” the problem.
nals indicating ambiguous regions. The creation and interactions of these signals can be
interpreted as collective information processing performed by the [cellular automata]…
[The] collective computation… is determined
by its overall space-time behavior, and is thus
almost always impossible to extract from the
rule table.17
It isn’t difficult to envision the use of a simple ruleset that can make this kind of judgment.
Given a black-and-white photo, a cellular automata
structure could analyze each line of pixels and begin
deriving information with little computing power.
The ruleset was derived through chance in a short
time, simply by choosing favorable traits; there’s no
reason to believe these sorts of structures can’t be
selected to answer other qualitative questions about
images, or other kinds of information sets. There’s
also no reason the squares could not be colored,
greatly expanding its possible uses. Simple computers, working in parallel, are already capable of
forming new information about their environments
in-time.
What we’re witnessing in the image, then, is
a basic and clear-cut act of mentation.
No particular simulated cell has a mind, yet in combination they’ve managed to reverse the flow of computation – turning the state of its world (analogous
to our concept of Action) into Information. Once
Information has been created by something, the raw
materials exist for novel Intentions; although these
cellular automata have not been tasked with making
decisions based on their judgment, it is now conceivable that many more of these interactions of parallel computation can use those judgments to begin
deciding. By explaining the proto-mind of simple
computers, we have begun to resolve the Composition Problem.
Who Else Computes?
What is astounding about this graphic16 is
we are seeing a machine running extremely simple
parallel computations to answer a question it has no
definitional link to. In other words, we are asking it
for a judgment:
The black-white boundary and the
checkerboard region can be thought of as sig46
What we have established is that computation is a
basic form of mind; nonintelligent matter can compute, but intelligent matter must be able to create
and resolve computations. Computing is not itself
sufficient to be a living, thinking being that forms
intentions, but it seems it is necessary for those that
are. The marker of life, intelligence, or “soul” is the
reversal of this flow – making new Information from
�Action – but is reliant on the proceeding conversion
of that Information back to Action to make that information do anything, and to act in the world.
Humans are certainly computers then, at
least in part. Animals, too, are computing. Even appetitive beings who do not have enough complexity to
support a neural system are capable of changing Information into Action; from single-cell organisms18
all the way through plants, life reads and executes
DNA instructions to constitute, feed, and reproduce
themselves.
This comparison of DNA to computer instructions isn’t merely incidental. Seth Lloyd refers
to this as one of the earliest Information Revolutions19, and that is no metaphor. DNA is fundamentally an encoding scheme for information that contains executable instructions for heritable traits,
behaviors, morphology, and most importantly the
instructions to construct the very machine that will
execute those instructions. If human speech and
digital computers are made powerful by the ability
to make recursive statements20, DNA is powerful for
the very same reason.
This is a radical proposition. Saying that
DNA is a computation entails that some matter in
nature is suitable for computing. Computing is then
more fundamental than life itself, and if it is a sort of
proto-mentation, then it firmly places the grounds
for mind outside of biology. Can we go any further
with this? What other matter computes?
The fundamental building blocks of the
universe, subatomic particles, are a candidate for
carrying information. They are themselves physical
(analogous to our previous uses of “matter”), and capable of holding arrangements of states that facilitate
interactions. For instance, when electrons, neutrons
and protons interact, they form “outputs” that consistently display structures of the basic elements,
which in turn interact to form molecules. Every
“query” between an oxygen atom and two hydrogen
atoms results in the same “answer,” a bonded state
suitable for further calculation.
Given our expanded understanding of Information
that subsists in the material and commands Actions,
it is difficult to draw a distinction here that forestalls
the conclusion that all atoms in nature compute.
Further, there are already designs for computers that
use the essential qualities of atoms and particles –
quantum and molecular computing – that present
only engineering challenges, not theoretical ones.
Just that fact on its own entails that all matter is already suitable for computations.
If atoms are a computation, what’s the computer? The universe itself, stemming back to the
likely-story of the Big Bang, appears to be an unending chain of these computations; is the universe the
computer? To our best understanding, to be a machine that executes instructions, it needs the capability to Read, Write and Address: that is, to assess
the state of a unit of information, update that state if
necessary, and to know where to go next. It’s in this
last step that we see the importance of time in computing – addressing requires futurity to use the concept of a “next,” and it needs the power to move to the
next stage of the sequence temporally and with purpose. Time is the engine that drives a computer; this
is why the most basic component of the Digi-Comp is
the clock plates, and the clock speed of a microprocessor is directly correlated with its power.
Understood physically, time is a thermodynamic phenomenon – the dissipation of concentrated energy is irreversible, and pushes the forward
motion of time. Any attempt to re-concentrate energy necessarily creates more disorder in the scale of
the universe; burning fuel to charge a battery creates
a concentrated locus of energy, but will always lose
some to sound, light, and waste heat along the way.
This is what’s called entropy, and it sets the clock of
the physical world to its drumbeat. There are ways to
speed it up and slow it down, but as far as we know,
there is no way to set it in reverse.
Every subatomic interaction results in more
entropy, just as any calculation actually consists of
three things: input, output, and time. Non-living
and non-computing matter doesn’t have much use
for time; things that only act when acted upon have
no need for futurity, they have no drives. Similarly,
a single bit in a digital computer doesn’t have use for
time either; whether it is in the 1 or 0, On or Off state
is of no real consequence to it. If, again, the physical interactions in the world are creating and using
information, the physical objects we observe are the
data points, but the driver is that which makes use of
time itself – i.e., the universe itself. It makes use of
Information to generate Actions.
Minds and living things make great use of
time, however. Time has an incredible evolutionary
advantage baked into it – for beings that deal with information, there is a massive efficiency measure in
not needing to know everything all the time.
47
�A heat pump’s capabilities are embodied in
its wiring, and it is not capable of being reprogramed
without being physically reconstituted by an external
force; but given that it’s not very complicated, this is
not necessarily an issue. A tic-tac-toe game made of
switches with a strategy pre-wired in cannot adapt
that strategy; it may be advantageous to be able to react in-time, but the game is uncomplicated enough
that this doesn’t prevent it from functioning reasonably well. Chess, however, can legally consist of 1040
possible states. A pre-wired chess machine need not
necessarily account for all of these, as any strategy
will reduce the possibility space as it goes on, but
that’s still a lot of wires.
Computers and intelligences bypass these
requirements by instead recognizing patterns and
responding according to a set of rules. By not needing
to know everything all the time, they’re able to focus
their energy and resources on making the best decision now. But this also requires some sort of time;
minimally, a memory, where patterns that have been
encountered can be applied. It needs the capacity to
change without changing the fundamental nature of
itself; it needs to be a universal machine.
When something is capable of directing
those changes itself, it is applying that memory – it
is learning – for the purpose of generating a novel
Action – it is intending. What else generates novel
actions, based on the states of information from the
past with the goal of driving to the “next?” What is
doing this under its own power, supplying its own
intentions? If these are the markers of mind, it is
again difficult to forestall the conclusion that the
universe itself is capable of it. All the capacities we
have discussed that separate computers from other
matter apply to it, and all the capacities that separate
intelligence from computers also apply. The answer
to the Composition Problem casts the raw materials
of mind out into the universe, but their completed,
complex totality is embodied as a single whole by
the universe itself. How might a machine intend? By
emulating the world around us.
48
Notes
[1] John Searle, Minds, Brains and Programs, “VI. The Many
Mansions Reply.”
[2] Alan Turing, Computing Machinery and Intelligence, §1.
[3] Intention here can be understood as a novel, self-generated impulse towards some action. Searle makes no
attempt to explore what it is to be capable of “intentional
states” and instead stipulates that humans must be capable of them. I supply this definition to account for the
“causal powers” he attributes to the mind; a thought is not
a simple If X Then Y formulation, and thus is closely linked
to understanding the context and broader consequences
of any “input,” which then factor into a decision.
[4] This is similar to valid but unsound arguments in formal logic.
[5] Marvin Minsky, Why People Think Machines Can’t.
[6] In the broader philosophical discussion, it can be said
that computing machines have a kind of Direct Reference
à la the Logical Positivists, where meaning is contained in
the referent and names essentially denote.
[7] Searle, ibid.
[8] Aristotle, De Anima, 413a20.
[9] Ibid, 413b.
[10] Aristotle’s choice of words here is particularly interesting. See Ada Lovelace Note G, “Notes by the Translator”
to Sketch of the Analytical Engine Invented by Charles Babbage; see also C.S. Peirce’s solvet ambulando, “Logical Machines,” American Journal of Psychology Vol. I, No. 1, pg. 167.
[11] Ibid, 413b25.
[12] Daniel Hillis, The Pattern On the Stone, pg. 114.
[13] Charles S. Peirce, “Our Senses As Reasoning Machines,” The New Elements of Mathematics.
[14] This idea appears frequently in the literature. See
Turing ibid, §6(4); Hillis ibid, pg. 153; Searle, “I. The Systems Reply,” ibid, Ed Fredkin, On the Soul (draft version).
[15] Melanie Mitchell, “Life and Evolution in Computers,”
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences.
[16] Mitchell, ibid, Fig. 8.
[17] Ibid, pg. 378.
[18] Notably, single-cell organisms are also capable of basic forms of mind; they are able to learn via habituation
(lessening reactions to repeated stimuli) and there is early evidence that they are also capable of Pavlovian associational learning. See Samuel J Gershman, et al. (2021)
“Reconsidering the evidence for learning in single cells,”
(https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.61907).
[19] Seth Lloyd, Information and the Nature of Reality, “The
Computational Universe,” pg. 94 – 95.
[20] Mitchell, ibid, “Self Reproduction in Computers.”
�Two Variations on a Theme
Ben Crocker
1. 200 years of Great Classic Hits: On the death and resurrection of musical invention
I delivered my first music class in a poky old classroom in North Turrumurra, on the bushy far-northern
fringes of Sydney’s upper North Shore. Blue Gums whipped noisily in blow-dryer hot breeze outside, leaves
peeling off branches and melting onto flimsy windows. Inside, sweaty, disheveled teenagers peeled themselves off the back of plastic chairs, their eyes melting onto the floor.
I fiddled around with a laptop and pushed play. For the next two minutes I strode stand-offishly across the
front of the board, turning around occasionally to sketch out what I heard: Intro; Verse 1; Chorus; Verse 2;
Chorus; Solo Break etc…
Someone had told me that when teaching Pop, I should start with Bill Haley. ‘Rock Around the Clock’ was
simple to follow. An easy guide to verse-chorus song writing. At 2 minutes long, analyzing the song would
consume little of the precious remaining cognitive powers of a room full of sweaty 16 year olds. Each consecutive segment is a simple repetition of material already heard, and the core melodic cell (think of the emphasized words in the first verse - ‘put your glad rags on) was a simple three beat hop through an A major triad.
To complete the idea, the triad is repeated with a slight rhythmic variation (and join me hon’):
Bill Haley - Rock Around the Clock (1954) [Verse 1, fragment]
There were more reasons than mere teachability to start with Bill. Rock around the clock is about 70 years
old - written a statistical human lifetime ago. Though strictly speaking Bill was a Rock-N-Roller, the runaway commercial success of his hit marked the definitive start of the ‘Pop’ era. He’d beaten the Beatles to the
starting blocks of celebrity culture by the better part of a decade: Haley’s song was the very first international
‘smash hit’, notching up 25 million sales worldwide. With ‘Rock around the Clock’, musical audiences made
their radical break with the listening culture of years past, and cruised effortlessly into the easy epoch of
consumer culture.
My Grandfather, born in the mid 1920’s, used to delight in the rickety-rockety rhythm of a Haleyesque jive.
Unable to read music, Papa had taught himself to play by ear in wartime Ceylon, later refining his art on a
piano donated to his employer, Trinity College, by Louis Mountbatten, Viceroy of India (and mentor to his
nephew Prince Philip). He would sit us at the piano as kids, delighting us by improvising with well-humoured
grandiosity on the bluesy kind of riffs that he’d heard spinning out of mid-century America.
Papa passed his love of music on to my mother, and after emigrating the family to Australia, saw to it that she
went one step better than he was afforded, by learning notation, harmony, and counterpoint as a schoolgirl in 1960’s Australia. In those days, one in every five Australians were educated by Catholic nuns, priests,
or brothers. They were stern, but famously effective teachers of classical music: Simone Young, the current
Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony, once credited her rigorous early musical education by the Sisters
49
�of Mercy for laying the foundations of her brilliant career.
This high musical literacy - the kind taught by those dedicated nuns - affords one the ability to access art of
a radically different quality to that which I taught (well, was forced to teach) upon entering the teaching profession. There’s nothing wrong with Bill Haley, of course, but there may still be great value in looking further
back in time, to discover a higher musical virtue than Bill and his Comets can bestow upon us. To keep our
timeline tidy, I’ll go back another 70 years from Haley, to the closest thing late 19th Century music had to a
runaway hit.
Anton Bruckner’s 7th Symphony was first performed in 1884. It is set in four movements, and runs to approximately 80 minutes in length. It is a magisterial work - masterful in formal construction, with a pervasive
sense of mystique. It was a breakout success, earning huge acclaim amongst the Viennese audiences who had
hitherto been lukewarm to Bruckner, preferring his contemporary, Johannes Brahms. Bruckner labored over
each of his Symphonies, revising them almost fanatically. He was known to toss completed manuscripts into
his fire, such was his thirst for sonic perfection. That perfection was not born of narcissism either. On the
contrary, his contemporaries - Gustav Mahler chief amongst them - admired him for his humility, simplicity,
and (often unnecessary) deference to others.
There was no international record market in Bruckner’s day. Not until 1913 would the Berlin Philharmonic
record the first complete orchestral work - Beethoven’s 5th Symphony - under Arthur Nikish. Still, having
won the approval of the city of Vienna, Bruckner’s 7th, was for a time - just like Bill Haley’s tune - the western world’s undisputed smash hit success. The manuscript made its way quickly to America, premiering in
Chicago in 1886.
I bring these works side by side to draw the reader’s attention to the extraordinary diminishment of relative
listening attention demanded of, and by, popular audiences between the late 19th, and mid 20th Centuries.
Whilst it is true that comparing a song to a symphony is not comparing apples with apples, we must still see
that here, with Bruckner next to Bill, we nonetheless contend with the two great hits of their respective days.
This is an important comparison to make, if we want to observe how music reflects our cultural values and
intellectual temperament as men of different ages.
To illustrate this, recall that Haley’s tune was only 2 minutes long, its core melodic material - the A Major
triad - passing in a mere second, and hovering over but one static chord. Below here, by way of contrast, is
the opening theme from the opening movement of Bruckner’s 7th. This one theme, presented first in the
cello, lasts almost as long as Bill Haley’s entire song. It has a range of two octaves. It implies a varying spectrum of chords and keys. Listening to it is rather like reading a sentence by Alexander Hamilton: One must
deploy considerable focus to hold in contention the tonal subject, as a string of conjunctions spill the ear
from subphrase to subphrase, adding to in substance, and coloring in character, the nature of the whole as it
gradually unfolds. Bruckner said this vaulting, mystical melody came to him in a dream: he woke in the night,
recognised its genius, and furiously wrote it down by candlelight.
By looking at the two melodies on paper, we can start to see that it may not be just the aesthetic - the apprehended quality of the sound, if you like - that is important in making an assessment about this music’s innate
quality. Rather, it is the formal scale of the melodic design that in the first place provides strong evidence of
how a radically more sophisticated listening experience was considered ‘mainstream’ in the late 19th century, compared to the mid 20th century.
The point I make is thus: A disinterested person could listen to Bill and Bruckner side by side and say that
the orchestra sounds more sophisticated, and though he would be right, he would be missing the point - the
point being that the music sounds more sophisticated because it is constructed in a vastly more sophisticated
50
�manner. The disinterested person is expressing a truth because he is impressed by Bruckner’s thing, but he
cannot articulate the generative source of that thing’s impression. I have sometimes experienced a variety
of this ‘correct but not known’ musical judgment at the Sydney Opera House concert hall, when, descending
from the boxes at intermission, a brooched, bare-shouldered Mrs von Posh n’ Swish gushes that the music
is ‘magnificent, just magnificent my darling’. She is not merely keeping up appearances - she detects an appreciable elevation of quality in what has unfolded. But still I could ask, “yes, Mrs Swish, but why is the music
magnificent?
Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 (1884) [Mvt. 1 - Opening (Violoncello)]
On a handful of occasions, I’ve been able to ask Mrs Swish that very question. Sometimes her response is
enlightening, sometimes faintly ridiculous. Usually it is well meaning, but somewhat confusing - a muddle of
“oh well yes the violins…and the…oh just the conductor…the way it moves…oh…OH…”
As a fan of both Mrs Swish, and the music we both like to dress up to listen to, I usually endeavor to respond with a version of the following statement: The music we love, the meticulously organized sounds now
abstracted into arch-premium cultural product, the crown jewels of Western Civilisation’s artistic heritage,
created in a blinding spasm of creative fury between the start of the Enlightenment (Bach was born in 1685),
and sputtering out somewhere between the two horrific 20th Century wars… that music is magnificent, darling, because of its quality of invention.
Our burden as consumers of music everything today is to live with a poverty of invention. In the 20th and 21st
Centuries we have become inured to repetitive sound. Aristotle might say that we have habituated ourselves
to our own paucity of sonic virtue. We are no longer disturbed by the exacting sameness of all things, in the
way that we are no longer fascinated by the exacting sameness of both factory machines and the squillions of
identical widgets they produce. The scheme of a pop song - a scheme which has accompanied our lives for 4
generations now - relies on mechanized, factory-economical repetition to meet its aims. A pop song cannot,
by its very nature, be composed, because its structure - with some rare exceptions - provides no prerogative
to work through the demands of a truly dynamic artistic picture. The pop writer does not have that artist’s
palette of infinite variables - variables which become his burden in fashioning material first to coherent 51
�form, and then into transcendent beauty. A pop song, by way of its structural confines, is merely produced:
It states, it repeats and it returns, with a minimum of rational effort. This remains true in almost all cases even when the song’s overlaid instrumental or vocal effects are of spectacularly good quality, as in the case
of Whitney Houston’s sublime ease of delivery, Taylor Swift’s remarkable capacity for emotive empathy, or
Mariah Carey’s thrilling propensity to both delight and discombobulate by way of her vocal acrobatics. There
is an invention in pop music, and in the best cases - the Mariahs and Whitneys (but not the Britneys) - it is an
admirable and enjoyable one. However this enjoyableness in performance is not remotely comparable to the
raw quality of invention one finds in high classical composition from Bach forward.
Returning to Bruckner’s melody, we are presented with one aspect of this quality of invention, and that aspect
is scale. Bruckner makes high quality musical invention possible because he opens up the imaginative canvas
with a melodic exposition of titanic proportions. The 7th Symphony claims greatness for Bruckner as a symphonist in the way that the Sistine chapel claims greatness for Michelangelo as a muralist. There is fine detail
in both, but in the first instance, it is the audacity of the idea which humbles us, the observer, before a seeming godly power of creation. Art like this suggests to the human soul that it may be capable of apprehending
so much, and so in turn sets on fire our potential to apprehend the world with unlimited awe and wonder.
This is not, however, to say that scale is the only ingredient required in the construction of high quality musical invention. Nor is a preoccupation with scale necessarily required at all. Examples abound of works both
petite in scale and rich in authentic artistry: Chopin’s piano preludes for example, or Igor Stravinsky’s petite
‘Dumbarton Oaks’. These works are by their nature confined. They have an intensity of invention, over an
expansiveness of invention.
One of the finest examples of this intensity of invention comes in a work which needs no introduction to
either the serious or casual listener. Happily, Beethoven’s 5th Symphony also provides a lovely congruency
to our journey back through music history - It pops up in another (roughly) 70 year hop back in time from
Bruckner’s 7th. Beethoven’s 5th was the breakout hit of 1808. It is a radical work. Aside from it’s well documented French revolutionary flavor, and law-breaking harmonic progression, it is also the first symphony
to use the trombone, the piccolo, and the contrabassoon (to this day, the loudest, highest, and lowest instruments in the orchestra, respectively.
But these features, wonderful though they are, don’t point us to the real locus of Beethoven’s genius. To find
this, it might be helpful to leave Bruckner behind for a moment and compare Beethoven directly to Bill Haley.
If, when we do, we restrict our criticisms to melodic ideas, we will quickly see that we can’t indict Bill with
quite the same culpability we did when we placed him alongside Bruckner. That is because, stripped to their
bare tones, there is scarce appreciable difference between the quality of Bill’s and Beethoven’s two musical
ideas. As if it needed any introduction, here is the foundational musical idea from the first movement of
Beethoven’s 5th:
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 (1808) [Mvt. 1 - motif]
Perhaps the tempo and placement gives the Beethoven a little more inherent drama. Still, there isn’t much
difference in quality between three short G’s and a long E flat (Beethoven), and the three short notes (A - C#
- E) played in sequence (Bill). The point being, that when we compare each little tune against the other, at
52
�heart, it is impossible to say which is better.
Here then must arise a question that every listener should ask themselves when trying to make a judgement
on the objective quality of any piece of music: How does a composer develop his musical ideas?
Pure musical development is the arbiter of objective compositional quality. If classical music is a kind of
church, then the composer’s sophistication in development sorts the high priests from the common folk.
Beethoven’s talent for inventive development is unrivaled. His ability to take the smallest of melodic fragments and build an uncontrived, expressive, and substantially lengthy train of musical development, is the
substance of his genius.
Beethoven’s mastery of invention is so absolute, that when we listen to the first movement of his Symphony,
we must fight our own consciousness to remember that we are dealing with a creation born of only the tiniest
of musical fragments: There is so much music here! And, its growth is so apparently organic, that one quickly
forgets its birth was indeed embryonic. We might hold Beethoven against Bruckner here, and consider the
two types of artistry at play: Where Bruckner’s claim is to the audacity of the man who sets out his broad
canvas in plain view, Beethoven’s claim is to the magician’s secret toolbox. His is the hidden intricacy of the
working unworkable. He is both artist and geometer - opening up rhythmic and harmonic space where none
by right exists.
From simple melodic material, Beethoven builds a swirling, unfurling, melodic-harmonic universe, one
coherently threaded together at every weaving turn. Assuming one’s soul has achieved some kind of sympathetic disposition, then that soul cannot help but be taken - somewhere - by Beethoven. Bill Haley’s equally
simple, and almost as meritorious melody does not develop in this way. Insofar as it does develop, it merely
repeats. This is what a modern pop song does. It confirms, comforts, and conforms to both itself and the
prevailing musical zeitgeist. It does not truly expand possibilities. It does not move the soul beyond superficial reckoning with the stated facts. Repetition without true development is reassuring, and can be mightily
entertaining, but it does not pose any kind of fundamental challenge to the soul.
Sir Roger Scruton said that listening is the process of internal dancing in sympathy to a particular musical
work. I would further say that the act of listening is the soul’s conversation with an external idea or group of
ideas - ideas not limited by the need to comprehend speech or consciously identify particular epistemological features. This means that listening to music affords the soul a unique conversational freedom.
Alongside this freedom comes a unique vulnerability, given that there is a certain passivity to the soul’s act of
listening: Once the ear ‘lets in’ the sound, there is little one can do to consciously resist both the affect and in
turn, the effect of a given musical work.
This brings us to the crux of the problem in deciding what we should listen to as human beings susceptible to
the stultifyingly mundane aural influences of the world we inhabit. If we have accepted that the soul may be
served well by objectively better music and served poorly by objectively worse music, have we now stumbled
into making the case (as surely Socrates would delight in!) for the censorship of music in the city? At the
least, we can certainly say that we have arrived at a strong justification for the individual to control the artistic
inflows to the city of his own soul.
Though we are instinctively chilled by the thought of censorship, we cannot escape the truth that Socrates
points us toward. There is an undeniable beneficial effect that musical censorship can secure for the soul,
if not for the greater good of the polity itself. This is the conclusion that scientists researching the “Mozart
effect” on babies in the womb have arrived at. It is the same conclusion realized by school principals who
make substantial early investment in childhood musical education, and seem to find a correlation in lower
53
�disciplinary issues and higher mainstream class engagement. My doctor has perhaps also arrived at this conclusion - I am assuming that’s why he plays Haydn string quartets in his waiting room!
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 (1808) [Mvt. 1 - Exposition: Opening fragment; the entire first section of the
movement is made up by the uninterrupted development of Beethoven’s four note motif]
It is also the same conclusion that I find myself daily arriving at, albeit in reverse: The more I read Plato, the
more I yearn for the calm inevitability of Mozart’s aural insight; the more I read Aristotle, the more I lust after
the explosive, creative speculation that Beethoven can draw from one tiny granular musical observation; The
more I read Rousseau… well, I don’t read Rousseau if I can help it - the gargantuan Romantic symphonies
54
�that comport with his oeuvre make for an impractical use of both the day’s listening time and my own cognitive focus.
St John’s College is a fine place to read these authors. The foundation of the ‘New Program’, which saw St
John’s return - definitively - to the great books, also coincides with that same interwar period where fidelity
to the great forms of musical composition was abandoned - definitively - by the European musical establishment. In the German speaking world, classical music’s heartland, these were the years when the steady seriousness of the listening culture was shed, in favor of both the practice of musical experimentation, and more
importantly, of the ethic of musical experimentalism. In the halls of Conservatoria the world over, ‘Weimar’,
is a name synonymous with the ethic of 21st Century musical progressivism. Its best attributes include stylistic intermixture and radical re-imagination, and its worst, the wholesale dismemberment of a beautiful
inherited tradition.
Stringfellow Barr was President of St John’s College during this same time, and with Scott Buchanan,
co-founded the school’s ‘New Program.’ In a quote posted on the walls of the building named after him, Barr
says that the books contained within the program must be ‘read listeningly.’
What a wonderfully musical thing to say!
If there is something missing from the world of music today, I would say that it is found in the mirror image
of Barr’s statement about our beloved great books. For if we are to faithfully comprehend great music, then
we must listen readingly. If we do, then we might guide our listening appetites back from the nadir of modernity’s lust for banal, repetitive aural tyranny, to a place where a studied love of great invention rules music
once more.
2. Our Music, Our Higher Selves
Beaux-Arts Chicago Federal Building
By the end of the CD era, I had worn out my sole physical copy of the great French conductor Pierre Monteux’s
1961 recording of Cesar Franck’s Symphony in D minor. The internet mercifully intervened: Monteux’s interpretation with the unsurpassed mid-century Chicago Symphony Orchestra now lives on YouTube.
Monteux and the CSO did a great service to the musical world in recording the masterworks of the western
canon during his tenure. But as they were recording Franck’s symphony at 220 South Michigan Avenue, bulldozers were moving in to the west, right behind Symphony Hall. Chicago’s iconic Federal Building was being
reduced to a pile of rubble. Like the Franck symphony, the building was a first-class cultural product from the
late 19th Century. It represented the Midwest’s premier example of the French Beaux-Arts style that had once
55
�characterized much of America’s civic architecture.
The irony was stark: Monteux, the great conductor, was beloved by American audiences. But as this great
French artist perfected his craft in America’s preeminent musical institution on South Michigan, a great
French architectural style once the darling of American city planners was being ground into dust by America’s
preeminent political institution—the federal government— across the street on South Dearborn. In the place
of the Beaux-Arts Federal Building rose the Kluczynski and Dirksen Federal Buildings and Courthouses— two
of the most menacing objects ever to dominate Chicago’s skyline.
Public square, or the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey?
With Pierre Monteux’s record still ringing in my ears, in Texas last month, I conducted Franck’s Symphony
in D Minor for the first time. It is still one of my very favorite works. Since first hearing it seventeen years
ago, I have thought about it at least once a week—sometimes for hours, but most often for a few shimmering
seconds, long enough for the 3rd movement cello melody to waft lazily through my head, or to be startled by
a heroic trumpet call momentarily piercing my horizon. It transfixes me in the same way it did listeners a
century ago: in 1899, the Boston Herald noticed that the symphony exerted a “certain weird fascination” on
the public.
For half of the 20th century, the American public shared my fascination. The New York Times reported last
year that the Franck Symphony in D was the Beatles before there was the Beatles. In that blissful time when
art still held primacy over the artist, Franck’s forty-five minutes of triumphal orchestral lyricism easily filled
stadiums in East Coast capital cities.
So, what happened? Should we despair that the music that fills today’s stadiums is of a significantly lower
intellectual and spiritual order?
The deep appeal of civilization’s greatest music lies in its beauty and elusiveness. Franck’s Symphony in D
Minor, a stunningly captivating aural picture, shows us how. It sings lustily, mourns sorrowfully, and dances irrepressibly. Its first movement moves between menacing and joyful. The second is sacred and even, at
times, medieval. The third movement drives the listener to joyful ecstasy during each and every listening.
56
�Cesar Franck (1822-1890)
Despite my long-held love of the work, I’m at a loss when trying to describe what the piece is truly about.
No one can say if it is properly Belgian, French, or German, or if it has indeed become American. Musicologists argue over whether the middle movement is sacred or secular. Composed in 1888, does it agree with
the 19th century, or does it paint that long artistic epoch with mocking irreverence?
In music, this elusiveness, the inherent indefinite in not knowing precisely what a piece is, frees us to
know what the piece does to us when we hear it. We know that the Franck uplifts us, that it unveils a cast
of noble characters and invites us to journey with them. The symphony gives us time and space to learn
who these characters are, without ever fully seeing them. We adventure with them through the two outer
movements – soaring above the clouds with the trumpets, running faster than humanly possible with the
violins, and serenading lovers with the wind instruments. In the middle, there is respite - some time to
meditate, and to pray.
These unique kinds of expressive capacities reveal a work’s innate musical potential. Great music contains
beauty without literal meaning. It presents itself as ineffable; it doesn’t tell us explicitly what it is. Rather,
it demands that we take the musical journey and work that question out on our own. We listeners must
hold ourselves in collaborative sympathy between the work’s phrases, entering its argument without ever
having its facts dictated to us by the composers. Through this process, we practice our highest reasoning
faculties—we sift truth from falsehood, tie off loose ends (thank you Plato), and habituate ourselves toward
the higher character the music presents to us (thank you Aristotle). Great music then, is dialectic. It is an
exterior harness to the soul’s self-conversation and can only reveal its ineffable meaning by way of the
rational listener’s individual agency.
This can be difficult to grasp, because it is something we take for granted, or at least don’t realize is happening when we listen to music. Consider this: a piece of music where the chords remain the same, the beat
remains the same, and God-forbid, the voice is auto-tuned to remain the same, is essentially dictated to
the listener. Listening to it requires no collaborative effort. There is no conversation happening within the
music. And without this conversation, an authentically sympathetic journey is impossible. This remains
the case even if the work’s emotive nature convinces us we are listening sympathetically to a given song.
In this way, the great works of the classical tradition are akin to the great works of classical philosophy. The
great composers lead us dialectically. In listening to the great classical works, the composers take us by the
hand in the Socratic manner—they interrogate our souls by way of the intellect in a similar way to that of
Socrates in Plato’s Republic. Through sympathetic interrogation, they encourage, aid, guide, and sometimes even cajole us to the discovery of truth and beauty, but they never dictate its terms to us absolutely.
57
�Platonic Socrates believed that bad music might beget bad people. It is on the topic of music that he provokes
one of his first—and perhaps his most memorable—dialectic expositions within Republic, when he notes that
protecting the souls of the young from corruption will require censoring the city in speech’s music.
Countenancing this notion is a tall order for citizens of free and modern societies. Allan Bloom wrote in his
introduction to Republic that his students at Chicago, Yale and Cornell “tended to be surprised that music
above all else should be the theme of [Plato’s] censorship when what seemed to them to be the likely candidates were science, politics, and sex.”
So, today faced with an orgy of sonic choices, should we defy Socrates and permit ourselves to listen to “bad”
music?
In reality, the decision has already been made. Pop, and the other gradations of “bad” music, whether they be
the shoddy imitations of classical-lite compositions, the death cults of deep-metal, or just plain lazy artistry
in any genre, are here to stay. That is ok. The world won’t be rid of their ilk, but their presence needn’t precipitate our moral disintegration either. We should listen to the music our fallen culture has generated. And,
if I dare say so, we should even enjoy it.
But we can give Socrates his due by acknowledging his wisdom. Good sense demands limits to our consumption, limits to our tolerance, and limits to how regularly we expose our children to music which we know to
dull our faculties of reason, when we ought to be enlarging them. As Socrates showed us, there is risk in exposing the young to art that encourages the destructive tendencies latent within every human soul.
When we engage in the arts in general and music in particular we should be most concerned with the problem
that Aristotle draws our attention to in his Ethics: the habituation of the soul. We need to habituate ourselves
to the beautiful, the uplifting, the heroic and noble, and that’s impossible if we’re engaging in artistic practice
that denigrates these virtues. When we choose to listen to bad music, we are habituating ourselves to life as
mere repetitions of bland stereotypes. We are, in essence, telling ourselves that we are as poor as the form we
step into as listener—as brief in intellect as the passage of a radio hit.
But when we listen to Beethoven, to Bach, to Brahms, or to my old friend Cesar Franck, we commit ourselves
to extolling human virtue, not diminishing it. We are telling ourselves that our powers of reasoning should
reach for the broad and expansive form of the great symphonists. We are telling ourselves that our creativity
might hustle to keep pace with the inventive genius of a Mozart, not a Madonna, and that our innate tendency
toward nobility might owe more to Beethoven than Britney. When we listen well then, we are telling ourselves
that we are our higher selves.
Each great art form has its innate strengths and weaknesses, and as time progresses, those strengths and
weaknesses allow each great art form a greater or lesser degree of agency in advancing or destroying our common culture. One of music’s greatest strengths is its transmissibility. Many great paintings lie behind private
walls or in public rooms in far-flung cities. In those cities, thousands of beautiful buildings which spoke of
proportion, exposed citizens to geometric truth, and gave visible life to the ratiocination of the architect’s genius, rest today as dust beneath the grotesque ego spectacles which replaced them. London is a today a visual
sewer, New York a beautiful, but ageing dame betrayed by a hundred years of vain facelifts.
But our greatest music cannot be commercially withheld in the manner of a 17th century canvas, or physically
destroyed in the manner of an early 20th Century American Railway Station. Whilst music does not escape
the destructive effect of cultural decay, it can regenerate at a comparative minimum cost. As such, it lies
dormant as the artistic skeleton key to personal and civilizational renewal in times of ugliness and decay. In
music, our higher selves are so accessible, if only we reach out to truly listen.
58
�Aschely V. Cone, Gabon Landscape I, 2022-2023. Oil on canvas, 4’ x 3’.
59
�Aschely V. Cone, Gabon Landscape II, 2022-2023. Oil on canvas, 4’ x 3’.
60
�Aschely V. Cone, Gabon Landscape III, 2022-2023. Oil on canvas, 4’ x 3’.
61
�Interviews
62
�A Portrait of Peter Nesbett
Abdullah Wadood
I wanted to call him “Mr. Nesbett”, but he insisted I
called him “Peter.”
Tuesday March 28, 2023. We two sat next to each
other at Old Fox; he ordered an Americano in a little mug. “12 ounces,” he told the woman behind the
counter. I ordered nothing myself. He asked about
the G.I.; I answered awkwardly. We talked about his
haircut, which matched the haircut he was photographed wearing back in September when he was
appointed the new Director of the Mitchell Museum.
Then we talked about Annapolis’s unaffordable real
estate. This small town, capital that it is, is just as expensive as D.C. I nodded sympathetically. I felt the
need for a transgression, a movement from niceties
to business, so I asked Peter about his previous work
at the WPA, the Washington Project for the Arts.
“Artists are atomized and marginalized,” he told me.
“They live in the shadow of the Smithsonian.”
Peter then told me about one exhibition: the WPA
rented out an empty boutique store where an artist
placed a single $8 shirt in the center. The shirt was
surrounded by advertisements which the artist carefully manufactured. “You pay for the packaging,” he
said.
The purpose of the WPA, Peter said, is to give artists
a chance. It’s been more difficult than ever for artists
to self-organize, to gather funds, to experiment and
express themselves. Everything’s been made worse
with money.
Why did you come to St. John’s?
Wow! The whole school has been doing this for a really long time. When I was in school we would start
with the primary source and then immediately jump
to what everyone else thought of it. That’s not the case
here. The challenge for me here is how to develop an
exhibition program, it’s a new challenge for me. We
have a really sweet space here. It has a modest footprint—I mean, it’s tiny—but it feels grand. The museum is reflective of the school as a whole: the campus
is tiny, but it has a grand ambition in defense of its
pedagogical approach.
I had a warm reception here. There’s a real openness
in the administration. The administration is looking for new possibilities. It really felt real. There are
places where they tell you they’ll be open but really
they aren’t. They have an entrenched art department
that has their own vision and expect you to follow that
vision. But here I’ve felt a real openness. Nora’s advice for me is to not tread lightly.
I want to find ways to make the museum relevant
to the college experience, not to imitate the great
books. I think people want or expect St. John’s art
museum to be filled with Rembrandt, but that’s not
satisfying. I don’t want people to come here to see
a piece of art and be in awe of it as if it’s a timeless,
eternal object. No. The new mission is about the ever-changing student body. So I ask, ‘How can the art
program be reflective of the experience of questioning and inquiry?’
There needs to be a reset. It’s gonna be different.
Most of the students here don’t remember what the
museum was like before; it’s been under construction. The seniors who did get to experience it didn’t
like it all that much. There was little student engagement. I want to upend the decorum.
Tell me about the exhibition where Johnnies were able to
draw on the walls. I really loved doing that. I felt rejuvenated. Really, I felt like a child.
I’m really glad to hear that. Really, I am. How do I
maintain that openness and welcoming quality moving forward? Museums are such unnatural places.
In everyday life, you can touch things, interact with
things, but not at a museum. Nothing is more freeing
than desecrating a sacred place.
When adults came into the exhibition, they were hesitant to draw on the walls themselves. They couldn’t
bring themselves to write on the walls.
[When he spoke of these things, it seemed to me his
eyes would almost well up in tears and silence overtook us.]
My first job I worked at an auction house. It was one
63
�of Van Gogh’s. It was sold for a then record-breaking
amount of money. How could a painting be valued
like this, with all this money? I turned the opposite
direction and head for the hills.
What is Art?
[I asked this question with the slyness of a Socrates. I
was really saying, ‘Oh you who are so knowledgeable
in art, tell me what art is!’]
“That’s a good question,” Peter replied nonchalantly.
He thought a bit. He couldn’t find an answer. “It has
something to do with valuing expression of what we’d
consider ‘non-art.’”
An artifact in a museum is separated from daily life.
It’s timeless in a way. It has an alien quality about
it. When market value is added to it, even more so.
When you go into a museum, there seems to be two
reasons you can’t touch the artifact. One, because you
don’t want to ruin it. And two, it’s worth a whole lot
of money. So the art at a museum is separated from
life, it has a sacredness to it. The artifact is almost
completely remote and inaccessible. So how do you
recognize art in life?”
[I mentioned Robert Pirsig’s Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. There’s a distinction between
rationals and romantics when it comes to recognizing art in life. Romantics appreciate driving a fast car
on a coastal road; Rationals appreciate the machinery
under the hood.]
“Oh, I read that book in my late teens. I wanted to
ride a motorcycle until something terrible happened
to someone I knew, which dissuaded me.”
People don’t see the art in their everyday lives, we
agreed based on our reading of Zen. Peter settled on
this answer: “You ought to be concerned with that
which sits on the edge of art and non-art.”
Why is ‘Art in Life?’ so important to you?
We value certain experiences we might otherwise
overlook. If art is too separate from our lives, we start
to believe art is only the product of skill, only made
by Michaelangelos. We become reticent about applying art in our daily lives. Art becomes highly ritual64
ized, it becomes a prescribed thing, like Halloween.
Art gives people permission.
Moral transgression makes people uncomfortable.
If separated from life, that permission never transfers, the space for transgression never opens. People
could not express themselves, for themselves. Art
makes people feel courage. It keeps things moving. I
remember I had a professor who told me to keep my
livelihood and my art separate. Yes, I know it’s a little
idealistic, but it’s true. It’s the only way to keep your
art honest.
�Interview with Peter Kalkavage
The occasion of this interview is the completion of Peter Kalkavage’s forthcoming book, Music and the Idea of
the World, to be published in 2024. The conversation has been edited lightly for clarity.
*construction noise*
Peter Kalkavage: The music of life is often interrupted in that way.
<laughter>
Colloquy: Yeah, well, the question of tone and noise is one that has been on my mind actually, so maybe we can talk
about that. I know that I’m giving a number of prefaces here, but another one before we begin. We’ve spoken before and
if you recall, I don’t have any formal musical training, so I might ask you the silly, obvious question to try to get at
the heart of something that’s technical. I’m an ideal audience - I’m the innocent reader, as you put it in the preface.
Peter Kalkavage: It’s always good to have an innocent reader. The book is like the serpent, tempting you to
eat the fruit of knowledge
Colloquy: As long as I only have to eat it once
<laughter>
Colloquy: You mention the fruit in chapter 6. I found this a really difficult chapter, the technicalities, and I haven’t
read Doctor Faustus.
Peter Kalkavage: This is the chapter on Thomas Mann and Doctor Faustus.
Colloquy: I’m curious, well, I’m coming in a roundabout way here because I’m starting at the far end of the book.
You say here, this is in reference to Heinrich Kleist’s A Puppet Theater, “The essay ends with a paradox: grace will return, along with lost innocence, only after we eat again of the Tree of Knowledge. The paradox may be Mann’s way of
reminding Germany that after its unspeakable sins, any recovery of health will require a full recognition of its descent
into hell. It will need to take another bite of the apple.”
Peter Kalkavage: Yes
Colloquy: I’m wondering, and perhaps this isn’t the best place to get into this, but when you lay out twelve-tone music
in this chapter you say that Schoenberg and Webern conceived of its development as health-giving.
Peter Kalkavage: Yes, a recovery.
Colloquy: A recovery, yes. In Mann’s novel, the nature of Faustian bargain is demonic. How is Doctor Faustus, for you,
operating in reference to twelve-tone music?
Peter Kalkavage: Excellent question, and that’s a good place to start. First of all, Mann, for one thing, didn’t
care about twelve tone music. He didn’t like it, but he threw himself into describing it with amazing accuracy.
But I think he would say that contrary to what Schoenberg and the others claimed, it was not health restorative
but something corrupting. In fact, it was the exercise of a kind of will to power over the tones, an imposition.
And maybe even, as I argue, a musical image of totalitarianism. So, yes, Mann did see that as, not necessarily
65
�adding a demonic element to music, but enhancing a demonic element that for Mann is always there.
I try not to take a Thomas Mann stance in the very opening of the chapter so I could present 12 tone music
as faithfully as I can. But then once the novel gets going, we see that its claim to health by restoring order is
precisely what Mann thinks is connected with, maybe not the source of, but definitely connected with the
demonic. Because it’s not a divine order, it’s not a good order, or a beautiful order like the order in Timaeus.
Everything Timaeus sang the praises of, Mann is inverting and making it into something devilish.
Colloquy: Is it fair to characterize twelve tone music as a human order?
Peter Kalkavage: I think one can, but it’s not the human in search of something like a right, natural order, but
rather making music what you want it to do.
Colloquy: Well, It’s interesting to me. I have some curiosity about twelve-tone music, and I guess I have for a long
time. It’s strange for me, since I’m not educated about music, I haven’t really entered into it on the intellectual level of
technique and composition. It’s more hearing it and trying to understand ‘what is happening’ and feeling that I want
to understand, so I come back and listen to it. I guess on some level, hearing it often, as an organization of sounds, but
very strange, mysterious sounds.
Peter Kalkavage: Yes, and since you and I are both students of Zuckerkandl, the key – well, I shouldn’t say key
– the idea is that all the dynamic qualities are gone. They’re destroyed. The whole point is not to have them
because it’s the dynamic qualities, as Zuckerkandl understands them, that establishes a key. That’s where a
key comes from. It comes from those pointers. And that’s exactly what you don’t have in twelve-tone. So yes,
it seems to me right to characterize as you just did as organized sound, schematic, schematized sound – and
so pitches, pitch distances, things of that sort.
Colloquy: You refer to it as “a total materialization of music”. It’s a reduction of music to acoustical pitch.
Peter Kalkavage: I think that’s right. But then it has musical possibilities that I’m compelled to acknowledge.
Colloquy: I’m interested in those possibilities.
Peter Kalkavage: I’ve been listening to Alban Berg’s Wozzeck and it’s incredible how he uses twelve tone
music to depict, express the most violent passions and events. It’s really a stunning work. He uses it to effect.
Berg, as people often say, was more successful at communicating a kind of coherence, if you will, meaning,
than either Webern or Schoenberg. I think that’s fair. The Violin Concerto of Berg I think is quite moving. In
some ways a beautiful work. But the beauty is coming from sound patterns and again not from a directionality, not what we would call a melody. It’s cerebral. It’s the cerebral character of twelve-tone music wedded
to the expression of raw passion. That’s what Schoenberg wanted. And those two things come together in
Dr. Faustus with the help of Adorno. Lots of help from Adorno. Mann was able to cast that in terms that are
humanly meaningful. Or to put another way, he makes the quest for the abstract humanly important and terrifying. The novelist can do that. It’s extraordinary how he contextualizes twelve-tone music to make it yeah
humanly important but forbidding and terrifying because of its implicit inhuman character.
Colloquy: I admit, now I want to read Doctor Faustus.
Peter Kalkavage: I once did a preceptorial on it some years back, and it attracted the musicians among the
students. It went very well. Part of that enterprise was our effort to listen to twelve tone pieces and try to hear
what’s there, as it were give them a chance, what kind of music is this, what is its goal, what in it if anything
is humanly accessible. But it was a struggle. We listened particularly to Webern who was the purest version of
twelve-tone music.
66
�Colloquy: I want to come back to the classroom, given your experience, but before that, you mentioned the cerebral
character wedded to the violent passion in twelve-tone music. At one point in Chapter 6, you say that the range of
emotional expression is limited. Is that a question of principle of construction or is this personal expression, is this
because of Webern, Schoenberg...?
Peter Kalkavage: It’s a good question. I think with the twelve tone row, no matter how ingenious you are,
no matter how brilliant, there’s only so much you can do with a schematism And if you want to express light
experiences, or genuine human warmth, you’re not going to – it’s difficult to imagine the Contessa, in the
Marriage of Figaro, sadly lamenting her fate with anything twelve-tone, or Don Giovanni and Zerlina singing
‘Là ci darem la mano’ twelve-tone. It has to be graceful. It has to be light, light as anything, and therefore very
seductive. There has to be a sweetness, a lightness, a mock innocence, maybe even a real innocence which
is certainty conveyed in the music. I just picked Mozart because he’s the most obvious example of ranges of
emotion, and he gets a pretty big range. Now, are there certain things that Mozart’s language either cannot
or does not want to express? Yes, past a certain point if violent expression comes into music, it’s no longer
music. He writes to his father, ‘everything has to be controlled. It has to be genuinely musical no matter
what the passions are doing.’ He more than fulfilled that. There’s a kind of light heartedness, a genuine light
heartedness that would be hard to convey. It’s very good for the expression of - it’s very interesting, in the
novel and I think Mann is right, it can express parodies very well. You know you can take a waltz and make it
into a twelve-tone waltz, so it’s a parody of itself. You can take conventions as Adrian in the novel often does,
perfectly conventional things, and make them into caricatures.
Colloquy: It has a mask-like quality.
Peter Kalkavage: It has a mask-like quality, yes, when it’s not the Schoenbergian raw expression, which
Adorno liked. He thought that was the music that was more honest, because it wasn’t so to speak inside of a
frame inside of the frame of something like the conventions that he and others thought were falling apart. It’s
a fascinating phenomenon – twelve tone music. I find it endlessly fascinating
Colloquy: It seems strange that this music was realized that is somehow more appropriate for melancholy, maybe
because twelve-tone does seem so cerebral. I mean, it’s not unusual at all to want to listen to certain music when you
feel the onset of a mood. There’s nothing strange about that.
Peter Kalkavage: Quite right
Colloquy: But that a certain composition of music would somehow narrow into that range particularly.
Peter Kalkavage: It’s very good for statements of nihilism. Tailored made for it. Now, in the Berg Violin Concerto, it’s genuine grief, I think, made as musical as twelve-tone music can be. He picks a row, a twelve-tone
row, that’s very friendly to triads. He manages to get consonances, as it were, smuggled in, because of the row
he picks. Every row has different musical possibilities.
Colloquy: One of the difficulties with twelve-tone, if I recall, because you don’t get that tension and release, it levels
the consonance and dissonance.
Peter Kalkavage: Yes, there are degrees. Degrees of consonances, degrees of dissonance.
Colloquy: But it’s still possible then, as you say, to smuggle it in, that it’s still possible to fashion this tension and
release within the row.
Peter Kalkavage: Well, I’m not sure. You can get transitions that are not as jagged, but you’re not going to get
67
�the equivalent of tri-tone resolving to a major chord or something like that. If you did, it was because as a
twelve-tone composer, you intended to play a joke. That would be shocking. You might shock your audience
by actually putting in a tri-tone that has a dynamic character to it that resolves. But you wouldn’t want to do
that a lot. Once and no more, I think.
Colloquy: Well, you even say it, that it has the potential to turn these significant features into clichés.
Peter Kalkavage: Yes, Thomas Mann had an interesting take on twelve tone music. I have said in general that
he didn’t care for it, but he had a more specific way of putting it. He said that in twelve-tone music, ‘I miss the
diminished seventh chord’. He’s thinking of the late C minor of Beethoven’s piano sonata with its prominent
diminished seventh chord and other things especially by Beethoven. It has its expressive power. It’s two tritones stuck together. Very often they are used for dramatic purposes. In the St. Matthew’s Passion, the crowd
screams ‘Barabbas’ they use the diminished seventh chord. And I bring that up because that goes with the
idea that there must be a tonal context so that a particular dissonance has a musical meaning. It’s not merely
dissonance. It’s a particular kind of disturbance in the field, to use Zuckerkandl’s language. So that’s what
Mann is thinking of. Mann is thinking of not so much Mozart but the 19th century romanticism and Beethoven pieces of an especially romantic character that have this high drama of the diminished seventh. But it’s
not going to work unless it’s counterposed to consonance. It has to stand out as an effect or the contrast, the
effective, pleasing, useful contrast between tension and resolution, dissonance and consonance, for that to
work. It can’t be all dissonance. Bach’s chromaticism is another case in point. You’re going to have pieces that
are intensely chromatic, but there’s a key. So, tones chromaticism is different from no key.
Colloquy: Going back to something you had said about Mann, that he thought twelve-tone music was a corruption..
Peter Kalkavage: Oh yes, and thought it had political implications that Schoenberg had no... they had no –
they were writing music that put them on the bad side of the Third Reich. It was called musical bolshevism,
cultural bolshevism – I forget what the exact term was, so it’s not as if they were (can’t hear), on the other
hand that doesn’t mean they weren’t unconsciously expressing the spirit of the age.
Colloquy: I’m interested in this idea that Zuckerkandl suggests and he does it both in Sound and Symbol and The
Sense of Music. I think actually we spoke about this in a previous conversation. In The Sense of Music he relates that
the development of harmony and polyphony coincide with the development of the concept of space in the Renaissance
and Enlightenment. He asks a question in Sound and Symbol that I take as related, “Do we perhaps take time more
seriously and know more about it than other periods because we have heard Bach’s organ fantasias, Beethoven’s symphonies, whereas other periods have not?” That we know more about time now than during a period with Gregorian
chant. There’s a progression.
Peter Kalkavage: Yes.
Colloquy: And Schoenberg thought of twelve-tone as a progression. You end your book with a discussion of Poulenc
and the return of tonality. Is the return of tonality a return to before twelve-tone, did we have to pass through it?
Peter Kalkavage: I don’t think there’s a literal going back to Mozart, but I think you can use tonality as a
general musical home in which to do creative and imaginative things. How does Poulenc do it? Very quirky
dissonances. As I say in the chapter, the dissonances are embedded in chords that for the most part have a
harmonic dynamic function. That function is somewhat muted, and this is part of what I think Poulenc intends. The dissonances he adds to these major or minor chords, it makes them colorful, it makes them interesting, the ear delights in them. There’s something intensely pleasant about dissonances well used. It really
is, at least it is in Poulenc. I mean it was Poulenc, conducting his choral music, who taught me how intensely
pleasant dissonances can be. They just sit there, and they shimmer. Often this is not all for a diabolical pur68
�pose. Quite the contrary, you want something to sound miraculous and revelatory in a good sense like the
Nativity. And so, he’s going to write music that has that scintillation, and you’re not going to get scintillation
from a major triad, so he adds dissonances. Sometimes he does this to express boundless joy and exuberance.
It adds a kind of Dionysian element to joy that you wouldn’t get from a straight major triad. It’s really astonishing. Poulenc is the one I know best in that tradition. Stravinsky also does things like this. I’m thinking of
the Symphony of Psalms. Extraordinary work, but Poulenc I know the best because I’ve conducted him and
I’ve thought about him for many years. He strikes me as an especially good example of what a lot of composers were doing in the wake of twelve-tone music - turning away from it. And I think it’s a certain kind of, I
wouldn’t call it progress as if it had been going there all along, but it was a reaction.
Colloquy: When I brought this up in our previous conversation, you said, maybe I’ll misquote you, but you said something to the effect that they are different worlds, the world of Gregorian chant, the world of Beethoven, the world of
serialism.
Peter Kalkavage: That’s what I try to capture in my book. The world is nature, the world is history, the world is
a cosmos of tones, and the cosmos of words. Those are terms from Doctor Faustus. But there’s also the world
or cosmos of an individual piece of music. There’s the world of Mozart, but there’s the world of the Magic
Flute, the world of Don Giovanni, they are very different worlds.
Colloquy: And your book is titled Music and the Idea of the World – actually, I apologize for asking this question – it
should be obvious – because I see that you’ve laid out these various worlds of music and it seems like Zuckerkandl gives
you the language to enter into them as a world. You call it a journey, but how is the whole book operating in terms of
music and the world?
Peter Kalkavage: That’s an excellent question. I must say, as you know, especially with the little conclusion I
added to the Mann chapter, that Zuckerkandl is the great influence on everything I say in the book. Not that
I’m always in agreement with him, but I’m looking at everything in terms of what he says. Because I find that
sparks fly when I do that. Thoughts come to me that don’t otherwise come to me. And so I found that very
helpful. It’s also helpful to me to think about how the tonality that Zuckerkandl is describing is not present in
Renaissance polyphony in Sicut Cervus, which is atonal you could say, on the other end. Not because it celebrates dissonance, quite the contrary, but because it doesn’t have those urgent, determinately established
dynamic qualities – tritones resolving at cadences, a key established, a key change, a key rendered ambiguous. That’s not the way they’re thinking. You have momentary regions of the center. It’s extremely flexible,
beautifully so, say in Palestrina or Byrd, and it was enormously helpful to me, always has been, to think about
Zuckerkandl’s dynamic qualities not being in full play there. It helped me in a positive way, so I could ask
myself if that’s not there, what is? What is polyphony without what we would call tonal harmony, without the
functional chords and all that. Well, what you get is Sicut Cervus, what you get is Byrd and Josquin. Those extraordinary composers that you wouldn’t say Sicut Cervus in A flat major. It would be meaningless. Is it more
or less in A flat major? Yes, but it’s not as if the chords are intending that to be an explicit structural feature. It
has a freedom. It moves in and around A flat comfortably, but it’s not as though it’s interested in going to other
keys or using relative major and minor. It doesn’t really do that. So, it’s really quite free in its composition,
governed by voice leading and the genius of the composer. But it’s different, so Zuckerkandl’s explanation of
tonality isn’t helpful when you turn to the renaissance composers and I’m okay with that.
Colloquy: You have a footnote from Adorno that says twelve tone music is contrapuntal in origin.
Peter Kalkavage: Yes, it is a return to counterpoint, that is true. And that’s played on greatly in dark ways in
Thomas Mann’s novel. And that withering thing that Adorno says, I don’t know where he got this from by the
way, I wish I knew, that Bach was a harmonist – apparently, something in one of Goethe’s letters, I don’t know.
But Adorno picks it up and so does Mann, it becomes a theme, that Bach is not primarily a contrapuntalist,
69
�but a harmonist, which means that he doesn’t go back far enough to the origins that have to be recovered.
Complete independence of parts, not subordinated to vertical structures, that’s how I would understand it,
whereas in Bach, the harmony is part of what’s gorgeous about it.
Colloquy: In the preface you mention that this book will focus primarily on the union of words and tones, and that
instrumental music requires a different kind of inquiry. How would the inquiry be different if you were approaching
instrumental music?
Peter Kalkavage: That’s a great question too. I don’t really analyze any instrumental music much in the book.
But Schopenhauer would be an excellent example of the supremacy of tones without words, of tones over
words. It’s the tones, and Nietzsche too, the Dionysian character of Tristan and Isolde is coming from the
tones, to which the words are quite subordinate. The words are at the level of the surface world of daylight,
but the tones are welling up from the depths, and they take you to the source. The words don’t. That element is
in the book, but I don’t really do anything with that, partly because my experience is mostly with vocal music
and choral music. By writing the book I learned a lot more about opera than I did before. Musical dramas have
now become a major interest for me. But I didn’t have anywhere nearly as strong an interest as I do now that
I’ve gone through the book, so it’s changed me. It does make me eager to go to instrumental works and to ask
myself: alright, you have this extended inquiry into music and words, that kind of world where the cosmos of
tones meets the cosmos of words. What about that cosmos of tone? In what sense is that a world? What pieces
would I look at? Maybe Beethoven’s late string quartets. Maybe a Mozart symphony. Certainly, a Beethoven
symphony. A Bach fugue. These would be examples that I would want. If I were going to write volume two, it
would be about the structure of instrumental pieces that I find deeply moving. Ones I love. You write about
what you love. Especially Bach’s fugues. Maybe the Goldberg Variations. That would be very hard.
Colloquy: I was listening to some of Glenn Gould’s late contrapuntal radio documentaries and it reminded me of
something Zuckerkandl says in The Sense of Music where multiple voices speaking at once produce a cacophony, but
multiple voices singing together, produces harmony.
Peter Kalkavage: I put it this way in my book: the words are riding on the coattails of the dynamically connected tones. It’s the tones that are making, what would otherwise be chaos, order. They’re distinct because
they have their careers, but the career is not in the word, it is in the tones. That’s where the continuity is. It’s
in Zuckerkandl’s tonal dynamic continuity, not in the grammar of the words. Zuckerkandl is right about that.
He picks something from Verdi’s Otello to make his case, an ensemble piece, though one could do equally
from Mozart’s Figaro.
Colloquy: This was something that I found difficult with Zuckerkandl. There’s a distinction between words that point
to the world of objects, and tone.
Peter Kalkavage: I would look at it in a more positive way. In his wonderful essay Words and Tones in Song
from Man the Musician, he talks about how tones bring out a meaning and a connectivity, a connectedness
in words, that the words can’t do by themselves. This is one of the great questions for me in the book. What
can tones do, with words, that words can’t do for themselves? I try to come back to that over and over again
whether it’s the beautiful A minor Soprano Aria from Bach, or it’s Tamino’s love song from The Magic Flute,
or Poulenc. What the tones are doing to express correspondences and a depth of meaning - not merely adding
feeling, but meaning, something in there to be experienced. Perhaps not in a fully articulate way, but nevertheless an enhancement of meaning.
Colloquy: I was largely convinced in Chapter 6 the way you presented what happens with twelve-tone, that it becomes
material. That it becomes merely sound, in a Zuckerkandl sense, rather than tone. It leads me to wonder whether or
not twelve-tone music might capitulate in the face of many of the arguments he puts to the musical experience in the
70
�early part of Sound and Symbol, trying to describe what it is that is meaningful in tones, that allow us to distinguish
sense from nonsense in their succession - that it’s not association and habit or something by the objective measure of
music. I mean, for Zuckerkandl, maybe you could measure twelve-tone music objectively…
Peter Kalkavage: He may actually say something like that. If not, he certainly could. I would agree, so, the
registering of pitch. For Zuckerkandl, as you know, tone transcends pitch, and is an immaterial aspect of
tones, which are nevertheless external, as you can’t say, ‘Well of course they have something internal. The
internal thing is our psyches.’ Zuckerkandl wants to say ‘no’. There’s really an inwardness in the external
world and music plugs into that. Akin, I think, to the Timaeus, not in the same way, but that I think it is in this
respect, that it assumes the world is somehow ensouled. That there is an interior, an inner life, and music
brings out of things. It gives voice to what would otherwise be inarticulate about the world itself, so it’s not
just self-expression, but disclosure, discovery, revelation.
Colloquy: You chose Timaeus to make that example, not Schopenhauer. Zuckerkandl might suggest Schopenhauer, at
least, he does quote him when speaking about hearing the core of the world.
Peter Kalkavage: He does, and that’s where I thought I had better put something in the Zuckerkandl chapter
about how he differs from Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer is always talking about music as self- discovery.
That the modes of will are our modes of will, and we’re finding the core of the world as our core as well. For
Schopenhauer the external world is an illusion, and for Zuckerkandl it is most definitely not an illusion. He’s
going to champion real externality of the external world. The world is not merely phenomenal. It’s phenomenal but not illusory. So that’s one difference. The other difference is the whole setup, for Schopenhauer music
is important because it distracts us from our misery by putting us in touch with the generalized passions and
soul conditions that drive us crazy. But we’re not feeling them, Schopenhauer says. When we’re listening to
music, we’re not feeling these things, we’re contemplating them. I think he overdoes that. We are feeling.
How could we not be feeling? But it’s interesting how far he wants to go in the direction of music as something
that takes us away from feeling to aesthetic contemplation. Then Zuckerkandl is going to say that he doesn’t
go for pessimism in Schopenhauer. Music is celebratory, life affirming, and the world is not an illusion and
music is not just me all over again. 41min What Zuckerkandl means by will is the will of the tones. Now does
he also mean the will of the world? I think he does, but he doesn’t get at the negative connotations, the miserable pressure of the will. You won’t find Zuckerkandl talking like that. The will is something positive. This
is crude, but Schopenhauer is more the existentialist and Zuckerkandl is more the phenomenologist. That’s
not too far off the mark, I think.
Colloquy: I do recall in the beginning of Sound and Symbol, he gives the example of the blind and the deaf, and quotes
a Baudelaire poem, Rêve parisien I think, about a soundless world. So, there is a possible world that’s actually quite
melancholy.
Peter Kalkavage: Yes, and he also says Beethoven’s misery was not, so much, not hearing music, but not
hearing the world. Not having connections with other people. There’s something poignant about that. I’ve
been thinking about this for years. It occurs to me, while I’m looking at a tree, I’m hearing the rustling of the
leaves, and how important that second experience is to my experience of autumn. Not just the beautiful look
of the trees as they change color, but the sound of the rustling, the sound of the wind. Sound, it’s what our
soul wants. We want to see, but we also want to hear. We are open in that way to the world coming to us. We are
not looking at it, it comes to us. Sometimes annoyingly when we’re trying to get work done and there’s noise.
Sometimes we welcome it because we want to hear what the world sounds like. And it’s very difficult if you
can’t hear the sound of your friend’s voices, or the sound of the voice of the person you love. There’s some
sense you are profoundly cut off.
Colloquy: In Man the Musician he lays out a possible world, the world where we understand the musician as a kind
of genius that possesses what others don’t have, namely musicality, and if there are no geniuses, then we seem to have
71
�a real absence of musical values. And that conception of music seems to be a real problem. He says in the preface of
The Sense of Music – or I took it this way, that this is why we need to have listeners able to discourse intelligibly about
music. This is why, in a sense, why he writes The Sense of Music.
Peter Kalkavage: Yes, in Man the Musician he says we have a false idea that the professionals are up there on
the stage and we are the happy receptacle of someone else’s genius. But for Zuckerkandl, the origins of music, music in its primordial stage, in its original phase, was communal. Even if you had some member of the
group standing out for a moment to sing, he represented the group and then he would come back in, such as
in early folk songs. He mentions Gregorian chants. It’s part of a communal celebration. And probably at least
implicitly, an attempt to touch the divine, the divine forces at work in nature, or the god you worship, bridging a gap by means of music, praying, celebrating. So, there’s another conception of music that’s important
to remember. But, Zuckerkandl isn’t interested primarily in folksong. It’s just important to remember that
music started there. He’s interested in art music.
Colloquy: Speaking of community, I want to get back to the classroom. Please correct me on these details, but you’ve
taught at St. John’s for many years, and you also had some hand in writing the undergraduate music manual.
Peter Kalkavage: I wrote some of the things that appear in it having to do with Pythagoreans and the Timaeus.
Other people worked on it as well.
Colloquy: Right. One thing I’m curious about, and I’m assuming this happens in the classroom all the time, what
happens when we don’t understand music? Or to put it more concretely, what happens when we don’t hear, over and
over, a theme recurring? That seems to be one kind of understanding. But in a more general sense, what does it mean
to understand music?
Peter Kalkavage: My first response is an analogy between poetry and music. Especially short poems, they can
be remarkably difficult. Do I think it is possible to be moved by that which we do not understand? Absolutely. I can read something, and I’m moved by it, but I can’t – I must have gotten something, but at what level,
it’s not at a discursive level for sure. It makes me want to go to the discursive. I want to know what is moving
me here. I have that experience with music too. Music though, has an immediacy. Poetry is in that realm of
words, so I can read a difficult poem, and maybe I’m moved by it, but my guess is that I stand more of a chance
of being moved by music I don’t understand than poetry I don’t understand. But both can happen. There’s
something about the immediacy of music that gets to us. It often has a deep effect. Sometimes we’re just utterly perplexed by what we’re hearing, and we know that.
What we try to do in the music tutorial is to listen to things carefully, sing them – not just listen to them, but
make the music, communally. Make music. It has that in common with the laboratory. You know, the animals we’re studying are pieces of music, and in this case, we get to know them by being them. So, we make
the music and we ask, ‘what was going on there?’ Things are revealed in the effort to sing a piece. Say, Sicut
Cervus, you discover why it’s hard. You discover causes. What makes it’s so difficult to learn that? It’s not the
tones, they’re pretty easy. The timings are hard. Hard syncopations. You’re singing one thing, someone else
is singing another. It’s not homophony.
Mozart’s Ave verum corpus, on the whole, is a lot easier to sing and learn. There’s an experiential element that
has to be there or we’re not talking about music. But then our discursive intellect wants to know what is going
on here. What is this thing that we call music? Well, let’s take this particular piece of music, what does it ask of
us if we are going to understand it? Do we hear a beginning that’s recognizably a beginning? Is there an end?
Do we know when it’s over? Is it just because the music stopped, or is it because something persuaded us that
there was a conclusion? What was that? What does motion even mean? This is where Zuckerkandl comes in
with his fabulous ‘what is it’ question – ‘What is music?’ ‘What is motion in music?’ And so the effort in the
72
�tutorial and it can be involved quite a strenuous effort just in listening for the things our minds are discovering in the sheet music. You can go both ways. You hear something – I’m always telling my students ‘Don’t just
go by the score. Listen to the music and if something stands out, let that be your guide.’ So, it sends you to the
score and now you want to look at causes. What produced that effect that so struck me? It can go the other way
around. I find a diminished 7th chord and my eyes and mind tell me that. Well, how does that register when
I actually hear it? What is its purpose? How does it fit into the whole? But you’re constantly trying to wed, and
this can be very hard, analytic elements with experiential ones. The idea is to get them to come together for a
fuller understanding of music. It’s hard to do. You have very different levels, not just in background, but levels
of receptivity. You really have to make an effort to hear things eventually that you’re not hearing right away.
That’s an effort. You have to be open to that, so when you say that you’re not hearing the tension in the raised
7th that Zuckerkandl talks about, well, keep listening.
Colloquy: That we have to be persuaded, that reminds me of something Zuckerkandl writes, “Such a [tonal] development makes sense only when we recognize that at certain times composers discover new meanings in tones and gradually persuade the change resistant ears to accept and understand them”. This idea of persuading change resistant
ears. This seems provocative given the argument. I would think you wouldn’t be persuaded given that we discern music
not through something like habit. Or how does persuasion happen? It’s strange at first to think that change resistant
listeners have to be persuaded to accept new meanings in tones.
Peter Kalkavage: The perceived ‘oh I didn’t know that could happen’ is not coming from something that is
merely psychological. I’m not being re-habituated, but something is being disclosed, a potential that wasn’t
there before. The best example is Zuckerkandl’s brilliant discussion of the opening of Tristan and Isolde and
the opening Tristan chord resolves to a dominant seventh chord. It resolves to a dissonant chord. And we go,
yes that sounds like a resolution. Now, it’s not the same kind of resolution you would get from a tritone going
to the five seven chord going to the one, but it does sound like a tension has been resolved. And Zuckerkandl
says does that mean we were re-habituated, that we no longer heard it as a tense chord? No, that didn’t go
away, but something new was added and it took Wagner, almost like a sorcerer. So it’s not merely psychological persuasion, we are persuaded because it is persuasive.
Colloquy: That an act of persuasion has to take place…
Peter Kalkavage: And what does it mean to be persuaded? Of course, Plato was very worried about precisely
this aspect of music, because if I could use the verb, it persuades the soul, it leads it, it can lead it down some
pretty bad roads. Certain modes contribute to disorder, other modes to order.
Colloquy: Maybe we can even be persuaded about twelve-tone.
Peter Kalkavage: Schoenberg thought we could become habituated to hearing twelve-tone as naturally as we
do tonality.
Colloquy: If twelve-tone has no tonal center or dynamic quality, then it seems like it could be the case in lieu of Zuckerkandl’s argument against associationism, that well, couldn’t associationism actually be a case for habituation and
persuasion.
Peter Kalkavage: Right, that you’d get used to it. What would it mean to catch on? Not for the intelligentsia,
because they have an ideology in play, but for regular listeners. It’s hard to… well, what do we want out of
music? What are the tunes we want to sing and why? Now, can we be habituated to music that is not good for
our souls? Yes, we can. I think there has to be something catchy there, maybe perversely so, but nevertheless
it has to be catchy, the way one speaks of a disease, it has to be something that infects because it can. It’s inside
of us.
73
�Colloquy: Twelve-tone definitely is not catchy.
Peter Kalkavage: And it means not to be. It doesn’t seem like the composers were striving for familiarity, but
celebrating… well, the unkind way to put it would be to say it’s struggling to be artsy, to be of a higher sort. But
that’s not all they’re struggling for. It could be a will to power, a forcing of a certain scheme onto the nature of
things. Although, what I come back to is twelve-tone music as music, especially when it’s done by these brilliant composers, does reveal something about the soul and about the world. Maybe not what they thought, but
one only has to listen to Berg’s Violin Concerto or Wozzeck, especially. The story and the music go together
perfectly. It’s disturbing, but artistically impressive, maybe even beautiful. The fit is perfect: truths of human
existence and the world, an authoritarian and brutal world. We’re not just reading about it, we’re feeling it. It’s
extraordinary. Berg in his twelve-tone world and Poulenc in his tonal world are both doing some very similar
things, getting to the interior of a world and of our souls.
Colloquy: There have been many musical developments after twelve tone music, say the development of synthetic sound, experiments in indeterminacy and chance operations, and musique concrete. Does Zuckerkandl still have
something to say? These are worlds too.
Peter Kalkavage: True, and then I wonder, in a platonic spirit, what do those worlds say about the people who
conceived them? But in any case, that’s another ethical, metaphysical question. Well, as you know, for Zuckerkandl: no dynamic qualities, no Zuckerkandl. So, another version of sound, pitch, sound effects, but not, as
Zuckerkandl would say, not the tone gestalts that come about only from dynamic qualities. He’s pretty careful
in his writings not to say too much about twelve tone music. He says we’ll have to see where it goes. That’s
pretty much where he is. Of course, if his dynamic quality is no longer present. What do we have to talk about
except pitch? Could that itself be a kind of musical world? Yes. Twelve-tone music is a gorgeous example of
that. There are great pieces of music written in that style. Whether I want to listen to them, I can admire them
and their structure and their aesthetic goal, I suppose, certainly their ingenuity. We really come back to the
question of what music is. That’s where I end up in the book. What is that? What can it sustain? What are the
boundaries? Are there boundaries past which music is no longer music? And how to give an answer that’s not
parochial? “Well, Bach and Mozart!” Well, but, you have to think outside the box!
Colloquy: There’s a sense with Zuckerkandl that maybe music at its height really does only cover certain periods.
Peter Kalkavage: I get a strong sense of that from him, but like I say, he’s careful not to go beyond that to make
judgments that would be hard to know. It would be hard to know what he would do with that, if there are no
dynamic qualities, then where is coherence? Where is tonality? Hard to see that would be music for him. But
it is. I think what I’m trying to say is that there are limits to Zuckerkandl.
Colloquy: But still a fascinating writer.
Peter Kalkavage: Yes. No matter how many times I read it, and I’ve used it in my class for decades, it’s always
thrilling to read the opening sections of The Sense of Music. How he gets the question of music, music as a
question, out on the table. He dares to ask simple questions.
Colloquy: Why is The Sense of Music not taught at the GI?
Peter Kalkavage: Yeah, there isn’t a musical segment. It would be interesting, maybe there should be. It is a
liberal art. I don’t know what seminar would be.
Colloquy: You say it’s the most comprehensive of the liberal arts and we’re missing this in the graduate program.
74
�Peter Kalkavage: Tutors have done preceptorials on music, but it’s not the same as a music segment that
would really make music, say music in connection with mathematics, and then there could be something with
Zuckerkandl to explore a non-mathematical approach to music.
Colloquy: Mr. Kalkavage, thank you very much for speaking with me and I hope we can talk again soon.
Peter Kalkavage: Thank you, I’m sure we will.
75
�Memoria
76
�A Toast to the Fall 2022 graduates delivered on behalf of the faculty at the
Associate Dean’s Reception, 12 December, 2022.
Sarah Benson
I know from talking with other colleagues that we can feel a bit guilty on seminar nights around dinner time
when it’s hard to be fully present with kids or partners because our minds are already absorbed in the seminar discussion to come and the phrasing of our opening questions. So, having been given a platform in the
hour just before seminar, my theme is tonight’s reading: Aristophanes. The Frogs.
For those of you reading Jung not Aristophanes for seminar tonight, here’s a synopsis. Dionysus, the
god of wine and revelry, laments the poor quality of tragic playwrights in Athens and travels to the Underworld to bring a better poet back from the dead. The poet he has in mind is Euripides, of Medea, Hippolytus,
and Bacchae fame, whose tales treat of incest, slander, and adultery and end in dismemberment, cannibalism, and infanticide. Though Euripides, with this resume, seems like the right poet to return to Athens and
edify the citizenry, the ghost of Aeschylus also shows up and gets into a verbal skirmish with Euripides. I
won’t say who wins. In the play the servant and master get mixed up, turning hierarchies topsy turvy, and
there is a chorus of frogs who croak in tragic meter. The play is a comedy. We know this from the first line,
when Dionysus’s servant offers to make the audience laugh with some tried and true fart jokes. From that first
line the play makes comedy, not only tragedy, its topic.
Here’s what I want to suggest. We too, all of us here, participate in Dionysus’s project of bringing dead
poets back from the Underworld on Monday and Thursday nights. And the mode in which we do this is in
some important ways comedic. Or it should be. I want to offer a brief explanation and praise of these comedic
elements of liberal education.
Have you heard the one about Thales and the well? I’ll let Socrates tell it. In the Theaetetus, the dialogue that examines how we can know anything, Socrates recounts:
They say Thales was studying the stars ... and gazing aloft, when he fell into a well; and a witty and amusing
Thracian servant-girl made fun of him because, she said, he was wild to know what was up in the sky but
failed to see what was in front of him and under his feet. The same joke applies to all who spend their lives
in philosophy. It really is true that the philosopher fails to see his next-door-neighbor; he not only does not
notice what he is doing; he scarcely knows whether he is a man or some other kind of creature. The question
he asks is, what is Man?
The image of the philosopher gazing at the heavens and falling down a hole or slipping on a banana
peel is kind of funny. But why?
On this I got some help from Henri Bergson, whose On Laughter is a poetics of comedy, investigating
its structure and effects as Aristotle does for tragedy.
First, Bergson says that we laugh when a character’s own rigidity brings them up short. In Socrates’s
example, the servant wouldn’t have laughed if Thales jumped into the well.
Second, Bergson says that laughter is an intellectual rather than an emotional response. In a tragedy
the fate of Thales should arouse pity and fear, but that would ruin the comedic effect. To laugh at Thales we
must be insensitive and distance ourselves from him, however briefly. Socrates uses the story to let would-be
philosophers gain some distance and laugh at themselves.
Finally, laughter is social. It is a communion of intelligences. Says Bergson, “you would hardly appreciate the comic if you felt yourself isolated from others.”
These three aspects of the stumbling block of rigidity, distancing, and the social savoring of the comic are a picture of something that we do for each other in order to learn more about the books and ourselves.
Both the Politics & Society seminar that I had with David Pierce and Joshua Laperche in the spring of 2021
and my current Literature seminar with Benjamin Pershall are ones where I was rediscovering the seminar
77
�table after time away; our Politics & Society seminar was the only class I had in person for a year and half at
the beginning of the pandemic. Last year I was on sabbatical doing my own thinking and reading. Both these
seminars were a reminder of what I find meaningful about our endeavor. What is meaningful, I see, partakes
in the comic, even when we’re not laughing. The twin virtues of seminar are to make space for other people
while also letting them get in our way. We need to trip over each other and the text sometimes to avoid the
illiberal rigidity of Thales or master and servant get mixed up and we become the servants of our fixed ideas.
Thales needs company to avoid being absurd.
I thank all of you, and our graduates especially tonight, for keeping the faculty company.
Here’s to the laughter that shows us what we are, to letting both the texts and our classmates get in our
way, and to the newest graduates. May the comic muse never desert you.
Brekekekex ko-ax ko-ax!
78
�A Toast to the Tutors, delivered 12 December, 2022.
Tanya Fuller
Good evening to the present Polity of St. John’s College I had a total meltdown today in preparing this toast, and I did not call my husband, my best friend,
nor my pastor - I called one of my St. John’s tutors (who’s name I will not call because I don’t want to embarrass her). Today I did not need a lover, a friend, or a spiritual guide; I needed a tutor. Someone who had been
in my place, read the same literature, worked the same Euclidian proofs, tussled with the forms of Aristotle
and made it out of Plato’s Cave alive- someone who could guide me back off of the proverbial cliff from which
I threaten to jump.
I told her how nervous I felt to make this toast. I told her that I did not have enough to fill the prescribed time and that I felt inadequate. And that’s when somehow and suddenly we were translated back centuries to the Grecian Isle of Ithaca. She was the grey-eyed daughter of Zeus and, well, I guess I was that man of
twist and turns, my favorite literary character - Odysseus trying to make it home.
“Courage!” - she said with eyes afire – “Free your mind of all that anguish now. Come, quick, let’s
bury your treasures here in some recess of this haunted hallowed cave where they’ll be safe and sound, then
we’ll make plans so we can win the day.” With that the tutor-goddess swept into the cavern’s shadowed vault,
searching for hiding-places far inside its depths, while I-Odysseus- hauled my treasures into the cave.
The golden evenings on the deck with my family in the cave, the shopping trips with my girlfriends
for finespun clothing in the cave, the extra hours at work with my beloved students - all the people and things
that my studies required me to stow away for a time while I pursued this MALA degree remained safe in the
cave. Once assured that I would return to my normal life soon, the tutor-goddess, Pallas Athena, daughter of
storming Zeus sealed the Zoom room with a stone and led the way with a preceptorial opening question. Why
are you here?
I started to explain why I came to St. John’s. I felt that I was writing an application essay when she
redirected me with another question, “No, why are you melted, stuck, not writing out your speech?” Then
Jung and his buddy Freud appeared, saying- it’s something from her childhood, trauma, the unconscious.
Then Madison joined in about government being a reflection of human nature, and Nietzsche yelled that
poets exploit their experiences. I began to unravel, but the tutor goddess placed her shield over me and took
a defensive stance, silencing the writers and evoking from me my WHY! I pulled myself up slowly, wiped my
tear-stained face and said: “I am here in emotional disarray because of the lions.”
“What lions?” She inquired and turned, armed with her spear.
I responded: “The ones that tell me my students don’t need great books, they can’t understand the great ideas
of history on which civilizations have stood and fallen, liberal arts education is not for my community - those
lions.” In an instance another Athena appeared, a little older than the first, and with her where great elephants and corvids swarming overhead - she whispered a poem to me- I joined in:
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
The fire that burns in me to teach my students, to guard my students, to join with them in their quest to
79
�learn returned;
And I could hear the Negro Poet, Claude McKay reciting,
I plucked my soul out of its secret place,
and held it to the mirror of my eye, …
Contemplating the strange, I’m comforted
By this narcotic thought; I know my soul.
My two Athenian tutors smiled and said – “She’s got it.”
Because I had tutors that invited me to join them on an adventure to think, and rethink, to pose
questions and search for my own answers; to learn and understand; they waited for me; they guided me; they
discovered with me; and for all of this I am eternally (we don’t know how long that is) grateful. I will return
to my community armed with the great ideas and the great books in my heart and on my shelf. Ready to lead
seminars and to tutor others that want to be liberated. I will “always keep Ithaca fixed in my mind.”
I am grateful to all of the tutors of both Annapolis and Sante Fe campus of the St. John’s College and I
invite you all to raise a glass with me, and toast to the tutors of St. John’s College, Thank you.
80
�COLLOQUY
St. John’s College, 60 College Avenue, Annapolis, Maryland
Spring 2023
Colloquy is a biannual publication of the Graduate Student Council and St. John’s College in Annapolis,
Maryland. The journal is free of charge. Students, tutors, and alumni of St. John’s College and the Graduate
Institute are encouraged to submit their manuscripts in .doc or .odt format by email to colloquy@sjc.edu.
The journal also accepts submissions of poetry, original art, and photography. Please include your name,
contact information, and the title of your work with your submission.
The views and opinions expressed in the journal do not necessarily reflect those of St. John’s College, the
Graduate Council, or Colloquy.
Address correspondence to:
Colloquy, The Graduate Institute at St. John’s College, 60 College Avenue, Annapolis, Maryland, 21401.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Covers, Aschely V. Cone
2, Melissa Moore
3. Kelly Custer
4, Louis Petrich
7, Jeffrey Boatwright
9, Leith Dagistani
10, Charmaine D’Souza
12, Sydney Rowe
13, Nick Younes
15, Roth Boaz
16, Jay A . Gould
19, Andrew Ross
23, Quinn Rifkin
25, Abdullah Wadood
27, Jesse Claget t
28, Ansley Green
29, Walker Rogalsky
33,Louis Petrich
38, Sam Hage
40, Jules Spiese
42, Siobhan Petersen
49, Benjamin Crocker
59-61, Aschely V. Cone
63, Peter Nesbet t/ Abdullah Wadood
65, Peter Kalkavage/ Jesse Claget t
77, Sarah Benson
79, Tanya Fuller
81
��
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
Colloquy
Description
An account of the resource
A student-run journal for the Graduate Institute community of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. The issues feature essays, art, poetry, interviews, and more.
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
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.
84 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
Colloquy, Spring 2023
Description
An account of the resource
Volume XII of Colloquy, published in Spring 2023.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Clagett, Jesse (Editor)
Wadood, Abdullah (Editor)
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
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
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
English
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
Colloquy_Spring2023
Graduate Institute
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/3fd48835d157fe3b3f0aa7a06b3b9345.pdf
63f7545de6eb11ee94825fcc6faa68c8
PDF Text
Text
���RAT TAT
935
PUBLISHED
B Y T H E
JUNIOR
C L A SS
of
ST. JOHN'S
COLLEGE
A N N A P O L I S
M A R Y L A N D
"On the campus an enormous tulip poplar tree, beneath
whose limbs, a treaty was signed with the Indians and
Stamp Tax protests aired, survives by grace of the tree surgeons. It was casting its shade in the day of Shakespeare
and Cervantes. St. John's men love it as men love an old
poem."
�In dedicating the 1935 Rat-Tat to
Captain D. L. Howard we make no
attempt to eulogize him; his works
speak for themselves. A friend and
ready helper of every student, we
are able only to admire him. May
this then show our appreciation.
CAPTAIN DOUGLAS L. HOWARD
(U.S.N. RET.)
�rotllfl&Mtfl
In getting together the material for this year's
Rat Tat, the staff was confronted with the problem of whether to try to make it original—different from the annuals of the past, with the success
of the book depending on whether the student
body liked the new ideas or not—or to build the
basic design of this year's Rat Tat from the best
ideas in the better liked books of this and other
colleges published during the past few years.
We chose to do the latter and have taken most
of the ideas from two books, one representing
the conservative and the other the modernistic
type. Each has its good points. In taking from
both types the staff has endeavored to follow the
middle road in annual design. By doing this we
feel that we have a book a little different from
any of those of the past. We hope you'll like it.
C A M P U S
V I E W S
A D M I N I S T R A T I O N
C
L
A
A
C
T
A
T
H
E
A
I
S
V
L
S
I
E
T
T
U
E
I
I
S
E
C
S
S
R E S
�St. John's College, 1696-1935
"The venerable Past—is past;
'Tis dark and shines not in the ray:
'Tivas good, no doubt—'tis gone at last—
There dawns another day."
OD forbid that we of St. John's should live in the past; but God forbid that we should forget
the lessons taught and examples set by those who have gone before us. Let us take from the
past all the good that we can find and apply our efforts to making the future history of our
college richer as well as fuller.
In the year 1696, this institution which we know as St. John's College was founded as the King
William School. This new school prepared young men for entrance into universities and senior colleges. After graduation from King William's, most of the daring students would make the long, dangerous voyage to England to continue their work at Oxford and Cambridge.
The school was not eighty years old when it was claimed by war for the making of firearms.
The students forgot books while the colonies won the right to fight among themselves. When peace
again reigned, the little school reawakened to find itself in a new world. America was no longer a possession of England, but a new nation; Annapolis was no longer a little fishing village, but a town of
considerable importance. The statesmen of Maryland decided that it was time for the King William
School to grow up; so, in 1784, St. John's College was created. The little brick house on Francis Street
(still standing) was vacated, and classes were held in the mansion that had been started for Governor
Bladen. That building is called McDowell Hall after the first president of St. John's. The formal opening took place in 1789, the year in which the Constitution of the United States was ratified. Students
at St. John's, in those days, knew the exploits of Washington as contemporary events. We can well be
proud of the spirit the founders demonstrated when they said:
"The said college shall be founded and maintained forever upon a most liberal plan, for the benefit of
youth of every religious denomination—nor shall any preference be given in the choice of a principal,
vice-principal, or other professor, master or tutor in said college, on account of his particular religious
profession."
The world moved on. Young men were graduated from St. John's and became great men. The
English industrial movement was taken up in this country. The boundaries of the United States spread
to the west. Sectionalism became strong. Economic and social clashes were frequent; until, at last, the
break came, and war once more was master. The peaceful pursuit of knowledge was stopped at St. John's
for a period of five years. The college buildings and grounds were used as a military post. Men died.
But the war ended and the nation was united in a stronger bond. The colleges of the country reopened.
In 1886, Dr. Thomas Fell assumed the presidency. During his term of office St. John's became
a military college. The students were awakened each morning by the sweet music of Reveille, and lights
went out when Taps were blown. The St. John's cadets paraded in Annapolis on holidays along with
the firemen, the police, the state militia, the midshipmen, the sailors, and the marines. The girls of
Annapolis argued the question of which was prettier: the uniform of the St. John's cadets or that of
the midshipmen. "Those were the good old days!"
But uniforms were not all. St. John's College rose to a high academic standing. The gentlemen
who were graduated from St. John's during this period became leaders in many fields. The college enrollment increased, and the physical equipment of the college was supplemented by the erection of a
gymnasium and two other new buildings.
Meanwhile the European pot was boiling; and, on June 28, 1914, a memorable shot was fired
in Bosnia. The men who had been trained at St. John's achieved notable records in active military
service during the Great War. Many of them laid their final gift on the altar of patriotism. For them
a memorial has been erected on the front campus.
Peace came again, but financial conditions kept St. John's from returning to its former place
among the colleges of the country. The glamour of the uniform, the drums, and the rifles could not make
up for the fact that the academic standing was "C." Enrollment decreased. Annapolitans put these words
to the tune of "The Old Gray Mare:"
"Old St. John's she ain't what she used to be
Many long years ago."
The college was down but it was not out. Major Enoch Barton Garey was made president in
1923. Major Garey was a man who dreamed dreams and carried them into fulfillment. He seemed to
have the blood of a pioneer. Military hindrances were swept aside. A faculty that was almost entirely
new was appointed. The college started the upward march that is still going on today. St. John's went
back to an "A" rating. The student enrollment increased. Money was found with which to buy several
colonial houses in Annapolis.
The march wavered during a temporary period of uneasiness lasting about two years, from the
resignation of Major Garey until the coming of Dr. Douglas Huntly Gordon in 1932. President Gordon
remained here but two years. In February, 1934, the announcement appeared in the paper that the
Board of Visitors and Governors had asked for the resignation of Dr. Gordon, and that Colonel Amos
W. W. Woodcock had been asked to accept the post.
This year we have Colonel Woodcock with us. He is one of those gentlemen who were graduated from St. John's when it was a military school and who led a detachment of soldiers in the Great
War. Those who see him are conscious of a strong personality. He is a man who has held many positions of responsibility and in them has acquitted himself well. Those who are interested in St. John's
College have high hopes of his work here; and we who have seen him begin that work believe the
hopes are justified. Colonel Woodcock would have us remember:
"The present needs us. Every age
Bequeaths the next for heritage
No lazy luxury or delight—
But strenuous labor for the right;
For NOW, the child and sire of time,
Demands the deeds of earnest men
To make it better than the past,
And stretch the circle of its ken.
NOW is a fact that men deplore,
Though it might bless them evermore,
Would they but fashion it aright:
'Tis ever new, 'tis ever bright."
�CAMPUS
VIEWS
�**»
yf
-
<• ^t^f**
._;«.-1**? *X"*"
ci • ••» C{^^
:•...'
.Si'*1!^
�"'-^ *f , , ,Y>* •??-v>>*«; ^' /• asPC^":-
W f
v .«•<-
��i
1 .c
:
•>'•
j>
«.
�ADMINISTRATION
�Board of Visitors and Governors
President Ex
His Excellency, HARRY W. NICE
Governor of Maryland.
Officio
Annapolis
Chairman
Baltimore
DR. AMOS F. HUTCHINS
Surgeon.
Vice-Chairman
WALTER H . BUCK
.
.
.
.
Lemmon and Buck, Lawyers.
Baltimore
Secretary
Baltimore
EDWIN WARFIELD, JR.
Editor.
Treasurer
JAMES A. WALTON
Annapolis
Baltimore
JUDGE WALTER I . DAWKINS
.
.
.
.
.
Associate Judge, Supreme Bench of Baltimore City.
Annapolis
RIDGELY P . MELVIN
.
.
.
.
.
.
Attorney-at-Law.
Hagerstown
J. VINCENT JAMISON, JR
President, Jamison Cold Storage Door Co.
Washington
D R . CHARLES C . MARBURY
.
.
.
.
Physician.
St. Louis
LEWIS W. BALDWIN
President, Missouri Pacific Railroad.
Philadelphia
ELMER G. PARSLY
•
Parsly Bros. & Company, Bankers.
Baltimore
CHARLES B . GILLET
.
.
.
.
The Baltimore-Gillet Company, Investment Bankers.
Baltimore
RICHARD F. CLEVELAND
Lawyer.
Washington
WILLIAM H. STAYTON
. Baltimore
CHARLES A. CUMMINS
Vice President, Consolidated Engineering Company.
Baltimore
JUDGE ROWLAND K . ADAMS
.
.
.
.
Associate Judge, Supreme Bench of Baltimore City.
Baltimore
LUTHER S. TALL
.
.
•
•
President, St. John's College Alumni Association, Inc
COLONEL AMOS W. W. WOODCOCK
President of the College
25
�His EXCELLENCY, HARRY W. NICE
Governor of Maryland
26
DR. AMOS F. HUTCHINS
Chairman-of the Board of Visitors and Governors
�CAPTAIN DOUGLAS L. HOWARD, (U.S.N. RET.)
Dean of the College
28
MAJOR EVELYN A. HARRISON
Assistant to the President
�THE FACULTY OF LANGUAGES, LITERATURE, AND ART
To teach us what men have learned before to make life richer by the creation of works of literature and art—to teach us how to reach out beyond our everyday lives into broader fields—that is the
task of this department. The professors in this field are particularly well chosen; each one is a capable
teacher, and each one has a personality that creates an added interest in his courses.
The records of these men show their preparation to be completely adequate. The interest that
the students feel shows the success of their methods. The St. John's alumni are witnesses of the results
of their work. With men like these composing the department its high standards will not be lowered.
I
Miss MIRIAM E. STRANGE
Registrar
30
Ford K. Brown. A.B., D.Phil.
(Oxford University)
Jacob B. Segall, B.L, B.Sc., Ph.D.
(Columbia University)
Richard Scofield, B.A., M.A.
(Oxford University)
Richard Kuehnemund, Ph.D.
(University of Goettingen)
Thomas A. FitzGerald, Ped.B., A.B., A.M.
(University of Illinois)
Robert W. Elliott, Jr., Litt.B, M.A.
(Princeton University)
John S. Kieffer, A.B., A.M.
(Harvard University)
Tench F. Tilghman, A.B., A.M., Ph.D.
(University of Virginia)
John T. Rodgers, B.A., M.A.
(Princeton University )
�THE FACULTY OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES AND PHILOSOPHY
This department of study has rapidly increased in importance in college work. Today a knowledge of economics and government is essential to those who are to engage in governmental or commercial activity and to those who would like to understand the social and economic world we live in.
History, philosophy, and psychology underlie the study of economics and government as mathematics underlies the other sciences. The men who teach these subjects are, themselves, active students; they are interested in the field they have chosen. They present thorough courses of high quality
and aim to develop the student's own ideas on the questions and problems involved rather than merely
have him learn a few accepted facts and theories.
Ventrees J. Wyckoff, B.A, Ph.D.
(Johns Hopkins University)
Joseph B. Kingsbury, B.A., Ph.D.
(University of Chicago)
Adam Alles, B.A., B.D., A.M., Ph.D.
(Yale University)
Myron McLaren, A.B., LL.B.
(University of Michigan)
Louis C. Hunter, A.B, A.M., Ph.D.
(Harvard University)
Julian S. Duncan, B.A., M.A., B.D., Ph.D.
(Columbia University)
John T. Rodgers, B.A., M.A.
(Princeton University)
THE FACULTY OF THE SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS
The practical value of Science stands undisputed. It was Science that raised men to positions
where they could devote their time to art, music, and literature. It was the result of scientific development that brought about the complicated organization of society that is the subject of the social scientist's study. But science, having accomplished much, is not standing still; today and tomorrow bring
new knowledge.
The members of'the St. John's faculty of the sciences and mathematics are abreast of the times.
Their courses are valauble; we dare say that no better basic courses in the sciences are offered in any
college. Work and study are demanded, but the courses are not robbed of interest thereby—rather, we
should say, the interest that is aroused makes the work and study easier, more worthwhile.
Reginald H. Ridgley, B.S., A.M., D.Sc.
(University of Maryland)
George A. Bingley, B.A., M.A.
(Princeton University)
Hermann Bernhard, Ph. D.
(University of Berlin)
Frederick W. Appel, Ph.B., Ph.D.
(University of Chicago)
Marion A. Eason, E.E.
(University of Virginia)
Paul Allen, Jr., A.B., A.M., Ph.D.
(Harvard University)
George C. Vedova, B.A., A.M.
(Columbia University)
William H. Bayliff, B.A., M.S.
(University of Oklahoma)
George H. McFarlin, A.B., A.M.
(Indiana University)
33
�C
L
A
S
S
E
S
�Edwin Kay McCrea
Stephen Philip McCrea
Donald Edward Stuart McGarrow
Elmer Lacy Meredith
David Eugene Nopper
Lawrence Joseph O'Connor, Jr.
John Brophy O'Donnell
Philip Joseph Russillo
Ephraim Roy Shawn, Jr.
Louis Ambrose Snyder
'.
Robert Noble Sosman
David King Usher
Dalton Middlekauff Welty
Frank Kennedy Wilson, Jr
Charles Oliver Wingate, Jr
Richard Sage Woodman
Waitman Burgess Zinn
Rock Hall
Rock HM
.Baltimore
Federalsburg
Baltimore
Annapolis
Baltimore
Norwich, Connecticut
y?est Annapolis
Hagerstown
West field, New Jersey
Baltimore
Funkstown
Baltimore
Baltimore
Tenafly, New Jersey
_ Baltimore
SENIOR CLASS
Seniors — Class of 1935
Charles Brooks Anderson
Allen Rexford Bradley
Frank William Conner, Jr
Edward DeLisio
John Charles Donohue
William Robert Eaton
Walter Frederick Evers
Alphonse Emanuel Farone
David Arthur Harkness
Francis Geoghegan Hurlock
Lawrence Kantor
James Richard Kelly
Angus Lamond
Robert Henry Lampee
William Calvin Lotz
Henry David McCool
Glenmont, New York
Cheshire, Connecticut
Wayne, Pennsylvania
Washington, District of Columbia
Baltimore
Chester
Baltimore
Saratoga Springs, New York
Mutual
Cambridge
East Orange, New Jersey
Thurmont
Washington, District of Columbia
New York, New York
Eliteott City
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
SENIOR OFFICERS
36
37
�ROLAND JAMES BAILEY, JR.
BROOKS ANDERSON
CARVIL REED ARCHER
Born in Chicago, Charles Brooks Anderson came to St. John's after graduating from
the Albany Academy for Boys in Albany,
New York. Extremely interested in economics, he has spent most of his time at college
working in that major, but nevertheless he
found time to devote to extracurricular activities. During his first year he was a member of the Freshman Cross Country team,
thus having an opportunity to get a glimpse
of the Maryland scenery from the cornfields
and dusty roads of West Annapolis.
Carvil Reed Archer, better known as
"Boots," hails from Bel Air, Maryland.
"Boots" entered St. John's as a transfer
from the University of Maryland. In his
first year he played on the freshman football and basketball teams. He was potential
varsity material, but he was forced to quit
all sports except baseball because of a badly
injured knee. He loves to play ball and is
quite versatile on the diamond, being able
to play almost any position. "Boots," though
not a zealous student, has spent his days at
St. John's profitably. He has made many
friends and has learned how to live easily.
He is interested in government and politics,
and has a secret ambition to represent his
community in the legislature some day.
During his senior year he was elected by
his mates in Pinkney Hall to represent them
on the Student Council. He is not quite certain of what he will do after leaving St.
John's but expects to do social work in New
York State.
Kappa Alpha; Football 2, 3; Basketball 2; Baseball 4.
Cross Country 1; Boxing 2 ; Student Council
4; Band 3; Public Affairs Club 4.
MELVILLE LEWIS BISGYER
Roland James Bailey, Jr. graduated from
high school at the age of fifteen and
registered at Washington College in Chestertown, where he passed his Freshman
year. He received a scholarship to St.
John's in the summer of 1932, and
came here that fall as a Sophomore. For
two years he majored in chemistry; but he
has decided to take his degree in the department of English. He was on the Dean's
List during his Sophomore and Senior years.
In extra curricular work he has been active;
his list includes membership in the Band,
the Dance Orchestra, the Glee Club, the
cross-country team, the Student Council, the
King William Players. He has held positions on the Collegian Staff during his three
years here and in October, 1934, suceeded R. H. Lampee as Editor-in-Chief. He is a
member of Delta Psi Omega Fraternity. He
has not yet decided whether he will devote
the remaining years of his life to journalism
or education.
Melville Lewis Bisgyer graduated from
Hames Madison High School, Brooklyn,
N. Y. He enrolled at St. John's as a social
science major. In his Freshman year he became a member of the Osier Club and also
took active interest in Intramurals, being a
semi-finalist in the Tennis Doubles and
Handball Tournaments. He was Assistant
Manager of Basketball in his first two years.
In his third year he was transferred to the
Publicity and Advertising Department for
all Athletics and in his Senior year he was
manager of this department. In his Junior
year, the Orange and Black Society of Managers was organized and he became a charter member. When the Key Society, a social
fraternity, was organized last year, Mel was
among its most enthusiastic advocates. In
recognition for his work in this group he
was elected to the position of Treasurer in
his Senior year. Other club activities which
he was active in were the Political Affairs
Club and the Boot and Saddle Club.
Osier Club 1; Political Affairs Club 4; Charter
Member Orange and Black Society 3, 4; Charter
Member Key Society 3, 4; Treasurer Key Society
4; Assistant Manager Basketball 1, 2 ; Junior
and Varsity Manager Publicity and Advertising;
Intramural Tennis, semi-finalist doubles 1 ; Intramural Handball, semi-finalist, 1, 2, 3; Member
Boot and Saddle Club 4.
Cross Country 2 ; Band 2; German Club 2 ;
Osier Pre-Medical Club 2; Dance Orchestra 3;
Glee Club 4; Student Council 4; Rat-Tat 4;
Debating Club 4; King William Players 2, 3, 4;
Collegian 2, 3, 4; News Editor 3; Editor-inChief 4; Delta Psi Omega, House Manager 4.
=fe
.t»—
38
39
�FRANK W. CONNER, JR.
GORDON KEITH BOUCHER
ALLAN REXFORD BRADLEY
Gordon Keith Boucher comes from
Grantsville, far into the hills of Western
Maryland. He brought him much of that
mountain freshness and pep. In his freshman year he played football, basketball and
lacrosse, and was elected president of his
class and pledged to the Kappa Alpha fraternity. During the remainder of his stay
here he was on the football and lacrosse
squads; and was president of his class in
his sophomore and junior years.
Allan Rexford Bradley only spent one
year at St. John's College. His first three
years of college life were spent at Wesleyan University While there he was a
member of the Alpha Chi Rho Fraternity
and spent a busy and active three years.
When he came to St. John's he decided to
spend his Senior year as a Physics major.
Allen expects to go out for the varsity baseball team this spring and hopes to fill a
regular berth. He has also shown active interest in Intramural athletics. While at
school Bradley followed a worth while
motto of his own "Always enjoy yourself
and never worry." Mail will reach him if
addressed to Cornwall Av., Cheshire, Conn.
When the Varsity Club was formed in
1932 "Buche" was among its charter members. In his senior year he was a member of
the Student Council. He has taken a great
deal of interest in his fraternity work and
was elected vice-president during his last
year.
Kappa Alpha; President of Class 1, 2, 3; Student Council 4; Football 1, 2, 3, 4; Lacrosse 1,
2, 3, 4; Basketball 1; Varsity Club.
Baseball 4.
EDWARD DELISIO
Frank W. Conner came to us from Philadelphia imbued with all her social tradition. His academic standing has at no time
been outstanding, but it has been consistently satisfactory. Frank's attributes are to
be found in his social and extra-curricular
activities. To mention them in part, we see
him as a good and loyal member of Phi
Sigma Kappa and chairman of their Social
Committee; a Kappa Beta Phi of repute;
one of the charter members of the Boot and
Saddle Club; second bass in the Glee Club,
and last but not least— a representative to
the Inter-Fraternity Council for three consecutive years.
Ed DeLisio came to us from Central High
School of Washington, D.C., with quite a
reputation for his athletic abilities. He
immediately began to work out with the
freshman football squad and easily won a
backfield berth on that team. For the three
years following he has held down a regular
berth on the varsity at a full back position
although he was kept on the sidelines during the first part of the season in his junior
year because of an operation undergone late
in the summer of that year. Ed also played
on the freshman basketball team, winning
varsity monograms during the last three
years of his college career.
As to his future—it is at present in the
hands of the Gods. A bicycle-tour of Europe at the time of this writing is under
consideration, but according to inside information it is thought that he is going to
attempt to follow in his father's footsteps,
and become an executive of The Pennsylvania Railroad.
Yet with all this to occupy his attention
Ed found time to act as president of the
Lenz Physics Club in his sophomore year
and as vice-president of the Varsity Club in
his senior year.
Varsity Club 3, 4; Treasurer 3; Vice-President
4; President Lenz Club 2; Dean's List 1, 2;
Freshman Football, Varsity Football 2, 3, 4;
Freshman Basketball, Varsity Basketball 2, 3, 4;
Co-Captain 4; Kappa Alpha President 4.
Glee Club 4; Band 1, 2, 3; Kappa Beta Phi
3; Interfraternity Council 3, 4; Phi Sigma Kappa,
Treasurer 2.
=
40
41
�JOHN CHARLES DONOHUE
WILLIAM ROBERT EATON
Some people achieve prominence on the
athletic field because of unusual offensive
ability; others because of unusual defensive
ability. Johnny Donohue is primarily a defensive player. On the football field he was
best known for his ability in pass defense
and for the way in which he got down the
field under punts.
Johnny always has been a born leader.
The fact that he was captain of four
sports in school and was habitually chosen
by the Johnnie coaches to captain the
Orange and Black teams should attest to
this. But coaches are not the only ones who
found in Donohue the ability to lead.
Johnny was also elected president of the
Varsity Club and E.A. of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity.
William Robert Eaton came to St. John's
from the Eastern Shore a shy and modest
boy, but lost no time in acclimating himself
to his new surroundings. During his freshman year he turned up for cross country
and won himself a place on the team. Since
that time he has taken an active part in athletics, playing on the football team during
his third and fourth years.
Bill went out for the lacrosse team during
his freshman year and during his sophomore year attracted the attention of Coach
Moore because of his speed.
"Biggy" loves to form schemes about how
to make money quickly, and has succeeded
on several occasions in doing just that; in
this respect he takes nothing from any "city
slicker." Besides this he likes to putter
around and experiment on any sort of apparatus that he can find. He hopes to be a
chemist and his liking for experimentation
should be a great aid to him in this undertaking.
Freshman Numerals in Football, Baskelball; Lacrosse; Varsity Football 2, 3, 4; Second All-Maryland Team 2; All-Maryland Team 3; Varsity
Basketball 2, 3, 4; Second Team All-Maryland
3, 4; Varsity Lacrosse 1, 2, 3, 4; All-Maryland
2, 3; All-American 2, 3; Varsity Club 2, 3, 4;
Secretary 3; President 4; Student Representative
on Athletic Council; Student Union Committee.
Kappa Alpha; Cross Country 1; Football 3, 4;
Lacrosse 2, 3, 4; Varsity Club.
42
LOUIS EICKWORT
WALTER EVERS
Following his graduation from Staunton
Military Academy Louis Eickwort came to
St. Johns, to show the Johnnies what a good
college man was like, and in many respects
he succeeded.
Walter Evers came to St. Johns from Baltimore City College. Walter, better known
as "Bud", served in Phi Sigma Kappa as
secretary in his junior year and as vicepresident in his senior year.
Lou has always been a good sport and
his college record is something to be proud
of, both scholastically and athletically. We
remember his four years on the football
eleven, his three years on the boxing squad
and his brilliant record in intramural, the
track, where he held a four-year championship in the hundred-yard dash.
He was a "trumpeteer" in the St. John's
Collegians of last year, and has been a
steady member of the band for his four
years. As a member of the German club he
has had the honor of being president of
that organization. In the sports light we
find Walter as a member of the Freshman
football team, four years ago, but since
then his athletic ability has been evident
in the intramural sports, particularly soccer, baseball and volley ball.
Louis a member of Phi Sigma Kappa
fraternity, and because of his intense interest in fraternal affairs, Lou has served as
inductor, and has represented the fraternity
on the Student Council.
Walter's major in college has been German and he has the highest expectations
of going into post-graduate work and later
to enter the foreign service—and we can
make a good guess as to what country.
Freshman Football, Varsity Football 2, 3, 4;
Boxing l, 2, 3; Vice-President of Class 3, 4;
Student Council 4; Phi Sigma Kappa.
43
�MORTON NORMAN FINE
ALPHONSE EMANUEL FARONE
HARRY ROBERT FERGUSON
Alphonse Emanuel Farone was born in
Saratoga Springs, New York, on the first
of December, 1912. He attended Saratoga
Springs High School and St. Peter's Academy before coming to St. John's as a freshman in September of 1931. Since then he
has confined the majority of his studious
activities to the field of government; they
have been rewarded with consistently good
grades. During his first two years he was
a member of the King William Players
and the German Club. He has led cheers
for four years and was elevated to the position of Head Cheer Leader his last year.
In the same manner did he become chairman of the Social Committee after three
years of service on the committee. His forte
is boxing; he fought in the 125-pound
class for three years and was captain during his junior year. Fast horses are his
hobby, the turn of a coin his diversion. He
is a member of Delta Psi Omega Fraternity.
Harry Robert Ferguson, of West Hartford, and a graduate of the local high school
transferred to St. John's from Trinity College, Hartford. Bob is an affiliate member
of Alpha Kappa Pi. He has majored in
Economics and intends to go into insurance when he is graduated. His activities
have not been great in numbers, but what
he did take part in he did well. In his
junior year he represented Randall Hall
on the Student Council and was instrumental in keeping the dormitory in order;
he was also, at the same time, a member
of the Randall House Committee—an organization with the purpose of obtaining
some group rule for the non-fraternity men.
"Fergy" says that he has found from experience that a study of economics is essential in the domestic as well as the business
world.
Boxing Team 1, 2, 3; Captain 3; Cheerleader
1, 2, 3, 4; King William Players 1, 2; German
Club 1, 2; Social Committee 1, 2, 3, 4; Chairman 4; Delta Psi Omega.
Alpha Kappa Pi; Student Council 3; Randall
House Committee 3.
44
MAX GLICKMAN
Morton Norman Fine came to St. John's
as a transfer from Johns Hopkins University, having previously graduated from the
Baltimore City College. In his three years
at St. John's he has been very active in all
intramural athletics, being one of Pinkney
Hall's outstanding stars. In his Sophomore
year, Mort was a member of the varsity
tennis, boxing and lacrosse squads and expects to hold a position on the tennis team
this coming season. With all these activities he has found time to assume active
membership in both the German Club and
the Osier Pre-Medical Club. In the latter,
he has been particularly interested, since
he is a Pre-Medical major. As a reward
for his efforts he was elected as secretarytreasurer of this group in his Senior year.
Max Glickman came to St. John's College from Annapolis High School as a PreMedical major. In the beginning of his
Freshman year, Max became interested in
the duties of Assistant Manager of Football. He served the Athletic Department so
diligently in his first two years that in his
Junior and Senior years he was made Football Manager and also in his Junior year
he was Manager of the Boxing team. When
the Orange and Black Society of Managers
was formed he was a charter member. Being
closely connected to the Athletic Department he was made Stockroom clerk in his
Senior year. Other activities also claimed
his attention. He was in the Collegian and
Rat-Tat staff in his second year; he has
been on the Social Committee for three
years, the Osier Club for two years, and
was in the Glee Club in his fourth year.
Intramural Soccer, Basketball, Volleyball, Football, Baseball and Handball 2, 3, 4; Varsity Tennis Squad 2, 4; Varsity Boxing Squad 2, 3; Varsity Lacrosse Squad 2; German Club 2, 3; Secretary-Treasurer Osier Club 4.
Assistant Manager, Football 1, 2; Football Manager 3, 4; Boxing Manager 3; Osier Club 1, 2;
Orange and Black Society 3, 4; Key Society 3, 4,
Secretary 3 ; Glee Club 4; Stockroom Clerk 4; RatStaff 2; Social Committee 1, 2, 3.
45
�ll .-^ .;J% ••"•
II
I
,*^f- IP
:..-••<-,,,. f
JAMES HAYS
DAVID HARKNESS
Jimmy Hays entered St. John's from
Friends School of Baltimore. During his
Freshman year he became Assistant Manager
of the Basketball team and later played center on the Freshman Lacrosse team of that
year. The calibre of his play on that team
may be judged from the fact that he was
one of the few men chosen to work with
the Varsity in preparing for the Olmpic
play-off game with Johns Hopkins. Since
this time he has played each year on the
Varsity even though he has been handicapped by a severe injury suffered during
his sophomore year.
David Harkness came to St. John's College horn Prince Frederick, Maryland,
where he attended high school. From his
first year on he has maintained a high
scholastic average, gaining a position on the
Dean's List at the end of each year.
Aside from his studies, Dave's principal
interest has been in intramural sports. For
three years and a half he played a prominent position on the S. A. E. teams, standing out particularly in baseball. In this sport
he hurled two teams to the championship.
In his senior year Harkness was selected to
act as house manager of Sigma Alpha
Epsilon and to represent the house on the
Intramural Council. Dave was also a member of the Student Council, the Pan-Hellenic
Council and the Public Affairs Club. He
was elected by his classmates to be Secretary-Treasurer of the Senior Class this year.
When the Orange and Black Society was
formed in 1934 Jimmy was one of the
leaders in the movement, for which he was
rewarded this year with the position of
Undergraduate Manager of Athletics, the
position in that organization corresponding
to president.
Secretary-Treasurer of Senior Class; Dean's List
1, 2, 3, 4; Student Council, Secretary 4; PanHellenic Council 4; Intramural Council 4; Public
Speaking Club; Sigma Alpha Epsilon; Eminent
Deputy Archon 4.
Class Historian 1; Colonial Club 3; Basketball
Manager 3; Co-Manager 4; Undergraduate Manager of Athletics 4; Freshman Lacrosse, Varsity
Lacrosse 2, 3, 4; Kappa Alpha.
WILLIAM LEANDER HERSON
FRANCIS G. HURLOCK
William Leander McDowell Herson was
born in Philadelphia. Since then he has lived
in Salibury, Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis. He graduated from Forest Park in
June of 1.931, and went to Western Maryland
for a year. He came to St. John's in the fall
of 1932 as a Sophomore. Since then he has
climbed to the position of Executive Editor
of the Collegian, been technical manager
of several King William Player productions,
led the College Dance Orchestra, and been
feature Writer and Activities Editor of the
Rat-Tat. He esteems himself the most useful man on the Collegian staff in years, and
will best be remembered for the weekly
column "Racket" which he wrote for it.
His summers he spends playing traps in
local orchestras. He will take his degree in
the Department of English. He is a member of Delta Psi Omega Fraternity.
Francis G. Hurlock, better known as
"Fran", came to us from the Eastern Shore
and has consistently upheld the fair name
of that section. Fran was graduated from
Cambridge High School and entered St.
John's on a Senatorial scholarship. He is a
Mathematics major and has been on the
Dean's List during his entire four years.
Hurlock was a member of the Phi Delta
Sigma fraternity until its disbandment at
the beginning of his Junior year, at which
time he pledged to Alpha Kappa Pi; while
a member of Phi Delt he served as secretary in his Sophomore year. He is a member of the German Club, and during his
Sophomore and Junior years was treasurer
of the now defunct Lenz Club. He has been
active in intramural athletics.
Rat-Tat 3, 4; Activities Editor 4; Collegian
2, 3, 4; Features Editor 2, 3; Executive Editor
4 Glee Club 4; Orchestra 3; King William Players 2, 3, 4; Delta Psi Omega.
Phi Delta Sigma, Secretary 2 ; Alpha Kappa Pi
3, 4; Lenz Club, Treasurer 2, 3; German Club.
3=
46
47
�LAWRENCE KANTOR
CLARENCE LEATHERBURY JOHNSON
Lawrence Kantor came to St. John's as a
graduate of the East Orange High School.
In his first year he was a member of the
Freshman football, basketball and tennis
teams. During his next three years he was
on the Varsity football and tennis squads.
Larry is quite a musician, having been a
member of the concert orchestra for four
years and also of the St. John's Collegians
during its one year's existence. He was elected as a member of the Pinkney House Committee, formed in his third year. In his
third year, when the Key Society was
formed, Larry was a charter member and
was elected as President of this group in
his Senior year. When the Squash Racquet
Club was formed this year he took an active part in it before he was forced to quit
because of a broken ankle. Larry is an Economics major.
Clarence Leatherbury Johnson is a local
product, but has been closely associated with
the campus and Kappa Alpha life. "Razz"
entered St. John's and after spending one
year left and was in the United States
Naval Academy for two years. He rejoined
us last year.
To fail to mention that Razz plays the
banjo, guitar, mandolin, and what-have-you
(provided you have the right thing) would
be neglecting his best known talent. He has
played in various dance orchestras and,
while at the Naval Academy was a member
of the N.A. Ten.
"Razz" is highly interested in the insurance business and during the past year he
and a few of his friends have opened an
agency in town. Besides doing this, he finds
time to enjoy most of the social functions
as well as doing good work in his studies.
Key Society 3, 4, President 4; Concert Orchestra 1, 2, 3, 4; St. John's Collegians 3; Football
1, 2, 3, 4; Basketball 1; Tennis 1, 2, 3, 4; Pinkney House Committee 3; Squash Raquet Club 4.
Kappa Alpha; Lacrosse 1; Football 1.
48
ANGUS LAMOND
JAMES RICHARD KELLY
Angus Lamond came to St. John's from
Central High School in Washington, where
he had made a name for himself in athletics.
As soon as he entered St. John's he was in
athletics and has made himself nationally
known through them. He played Freshman
football, basketball and lacrosse, distinguishing himself in each. In the following years,
however, he stuck to football and lacrosse
alone and with great success. In 1933 he
was picked on the All-Maryland football
squad and this past season he was one of
the team's most powerful players. "Angle"
was on the All-American Lacrosse team in
1933 and was picked to play against the
Canadians at the World's Fair that year.
Lamond is a Government major, but
intends to put his talents into the coaching
field instead of the political. While his record is outstanding for the sports that he
took part in, that is not all.
James Richard Kelly was graduated from
his hometown high school, Thurmont High,
and entered St. John's on a Senatorial
scholarship in 1931. He was a member of
Phi Delta Sigma fraternity, and served that
group as treasurer member of the Interfraternity Council during his Sophomore
year. When that group was disbanded in
1933 he pledged Alpha Kappa Pi. He has
been on the Dean's List during his entire
four years. During his first three years he
was a member of the college band. He is
a Government major and a member of the
Public Affairs Club. Jim's interest is in good
music; he frequently attends operas and
concerts in Baltimore; and he is a strong
advocate of the opera being sung in the
native tongue and not in English.
Phi Delta Sigma, Treasurer 2; Delegate to
Inter-Fraternity Council 2; Alpha Kappa Pi 4;
Band 1, 2, 3; Public Affairs Club 4.
Kappa Alpha; Football 1, 2, 3, 4; Lacrosse 1, 2,
3, 4; Basketball 1, 2; Varsity Club; All-American Lacrosse 3, 4.
49
�ROBERT HENRY LAMPEE
CALVIN LOTZ
Robert Henry Lampee entered St. John's
in the fall of 1931. He was pledged to
Delta Psi Omega fraternity in the October
of that year and was inducted into membership before the year was out. During
his four years here he has run on the Cross
Country team, played in the Band, participated in almost every King William
Player production, and written for both the
Collegian and the Rat-Tat. During his
Junior year he was elected Editor-in-Chief
of the Collegian, which position he held on
into his Senior year. During the past year
he was Treasurer and Publicity Manager for
the King William Players, a member of
Delta Omicron, the Forum and the Fencing team. Lampee is taking his degree in
the Department of English, and intends to
strike forth into newspaper work after
graduation.
Most students leave college to go out into
the cold, cold world, but Calvin Lotz left
the cold, cold world to come to College,
for after graduating from Ellicott City High
School in 1924, Cal worked for seven years
in a flour mill, grocery store and on a steam
boat before coming here. An outstanding man from the first, he has not only
gained an education at St. John's but has
quite a reputation as an athlete and campus
leader.
Although the only sport Cal had previously participated in was boxing, he learned
to play football and lacrosse sufficiently well
while in college to hold down regular
berths on both teams and has left vacant
a berth on the football team at left tackle
which will be hard to fill next year. This
year he was elected by the student body
co the presidency of the Student Council
which office he has so capably filled as to
frequently draw favorable comments from
the administration.
Collegian: Associate Editor 2; Editor-in-Chief
3; King William Players 1, 2, 3, 4; Secretary 2;
Business Manager 4; Band 1, 2. Rat-Tat: Feature
Writer 1, 2; Feature Editor 3; Fencing 4; CrossCountry 1; Henry Winter Davis Liberal Club 2;
Prince William Society, King William Society,
Delta Omcron, Delta Psi Omega, House Manager
1, 2 ; Secretary 4.
Student Council 1, 2, 3, 4; President 4; Varsity
Club 3, 4; Treasurer 4; Freshman Football Numerals ; Freshman Lacrosse Numerals; Varsity
Football 2, 3, 4; All-Maryland Mention 3, 4;
Varsity Lacrosse 2, 3, 4; Boxing Team 1, 2, 3;
Sigma Alpha Epsilon; Eminent Archon 4.
HENRY DAVID McCOOL
DONALD EDWARD STUART
McG ARROW
Henry David McCool was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, on the thirteenth of
February, 1913. He attended and was graduated from Upper Darby High School in
Pennsylvania, and came to St. John's in
1931 as a Freshman. Since then McCool has
been interested in the Collegian, the King
William Players, and the German Club. He
was a member of the Colonial Club during
the period of its existence at St. John's some
years ago. He is majoring in Economic Government.
For the past year he has been acting in the
capacity of Student Assistant to Major Evelyn A. Harrison, Assistant to the President.
It is said that his fondest memory pertains
to the hospital here where he was confined
for some weeks as a result of a hip dislocated in an automobile accident after
Thanksgiving. He intends to become a lawyer. He is a member of Delta Psi Omega
Fraternity.
In spite of the heralded decay of religion in the church, in the home and in
society, there has always been a certain group of young men who have
a great faith that the end of religion
is at least very, very far in the future. They
recognize however, that if the church is to
be kept alive as a valuable asset to humanity, it will be necessary for capable people
to carry forward its future—and who should
be more likely material than themselves.
Prominent among these people at St. John's
is Donald Edward Stuart McGarrow, better
known as "Pinky" or "Deacon."
Donald came here four years ago after
graduating from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. At that time he plunged into a
round of extra-curricular activities and yet
held his scholastic average at a high level.
For his fraternity, Phi Sigma Kappa, Pinky
has been treasurer for three years.
Lacrosse Manager 4; Assistant Manager 1, 2,
3; Rat-Tat Staff 2, 3; German Club 3, 4; Phi
Sigma Kappa Treasurer 2, 3, 4.
Collegian 1, 2; King William Players 2 3 German Club 1, 2, 3, 4.
-.W.
50
51
�DAVID EUGENE NOPPER
JOSEPH NOVEY
Dave Nopper will be remembered at St.
John's for his ability on the lacrosse field
and for his interest in journalism. Slow and
easy-going in everyday life, Dave was anything but that on the lacrosse field where
he took top honors in all the speed tests
held by Coach Moore in the practice sessions. A smooth stick-handler, a superb passer and dodger of no mean ability—as a
lacrosse player he ranks among the best.
In intramural sports Meredith stands out
as the champion horseshoe pitcher of the
college, winning the singles tournament in
this sport each year for Pinkney Hall. This
year Elmer was elected historian of the
Senior class. Next year he will study medicine and expects to become a country doctor.
But foremost in Nopper's interests while
at St. John's was newspaper work. Stumbling
into the profession by accident during his
Freshman year, he was fascinated by it.
Without hesitation his mind was soon made
up that here was the life work he was looking for. From time to time he sent articles
to the Baltimore Sun concerning life at the
college, while on Saturdays he worked regularly with the Associated Press, writing up
sporting events at the Naval Academy.
Joseph Novey is one of the few men who
completed the college course at St John's in.
three years. He is a graduate of Baltimore
City College, and has a bachelor's degree in
law from the University of Baltimore.
After working in a law office for some
time he came to St. John's and enrolled
as a Psychology major. In his three years
his name has not yet failed to appear on
the Dean's List, being in either the first
or second groups. Joe took active interest
in the work of the Collegian and RatTat and as a result of his activity was
given the King William award at the end
of his second year. When the Key Society
was formed, due to his active interest, Joe
was elected as its first president and served
it with untiring effort. When the Liberal
Club was formed last year he became an active member of this group.
Lenz Club 2; Student Council 1; Erlenmeyer
Club 3, 4; Class Historian 2, 3, 4; Osier PreMedical Club 1.
German Club; Varsity Club; Student Union
Committee; Varsity Lacrosse 1, 2, 3, 4; AllMaryland Mention 1; All-Maryland Team 3, 4;
Sigma Alpha Epsilon; Eminent Recorder 4.
Key Society 3, 4, President 3; Collegian; RatTat; King William Award; Dean's List 1, 2, 3.
JOHN ROBERTSON MAGRUDER
ELMER MEREDITH
John Robertson Magruder prepped at the
Friends' School in Baltimore and came to
college with an athletic record that was not
to be sneezed at, but he has improved it
constantly, particularly in lacrosse and intramural sports. He has played on the lacrosse team for his entire four years with
a great deal of success.
After graduating with honors from Federalsburg High School, Elmer Meredith entered St. John's in the fall of 1931 for the
purpose of learning more about chemistry,
which he selected as his major. At the beginning of his Sophomore year Elmer was
elected to the Student Council, while at
the same time taking part in the activities
of the Erlenmyer Chemistry Club, as he
continued to do during his Junior and
Senior years.
His success has not been limited to the
athletic field for his name was found
among those on the Dean's List during his
Freshman and Sophomore years. He is a
Pre-Medical major and intends to enter University of Maryland Medical School when
he leaves here.
Wimpy is a member of the Kappa Alpha
Fraternity and served as recording secretary
during his Senior year. He also is a member
of the Osier Club and other campus organizations.
Kappa Alpha, Recording Secretary 4; Lacrosse
1, 2, 3, 4.
52
53
�•
•:j- V ' - V ' - RB H
JOHN BROPHY O'DONNELL
LAWRENCE JOSEPH O'CONNOR
John Brophy O'Donnell spent a year at
Loyola College in Baltimore, then came to
St. John's after obtaining a Senatorial
scholarship. O'Donnell is indeed the man
of parts. His broad interests have resulted
in his assimilation of courses in such widely
varying subjects as chemistry, English, foreign languages and biology with equal facility. He is majoring in mathematics. He received a merit scholarship at the end of his
Sophomore year,'and in June of 1934 was
appointed to the Senior Fellowship by the
Board of Visitors and Governors. Other
activities include the Collegian, the Rat-Tat,
dramatics and the Catalyst. He reveals that
his hobby is sleeping; that he likes to write,
but is too lazy to do it; that he will go into
newspaper work or anything else where he
can get a job—otherwise he will try to
find the proverbial rich man's daughter.
He is a member of Delta Psi Omega Fraternity.
Lawrence Joseph O'Connor, III was born
in Eastport, Maryland, on November 4,
1913. He received his elementary education
at St. Mary's Parochial School in Annapolis,
and was graduated from Annapolis High
School in 1931. He came to St. John's in
the fall of the same year. Since then he
has been majoring in mathematics. At the
end of his Junior year he was awarded
the Senior Fellowship by the Board of
Visitors and Governors upon his recommendation by the Faculty. He has filled various positions on the staff of the Collegian,
including those of sports writer, feature
writer and feature editor. For a time he was
head of the Intramural Committee of Delta
Psi Omega Fraternity of which he is a
pledge. At the end of his Junior year he
held the handball singles championship and
the doubles championship with his partner.
He will, if it please God, try for an M.A.
in mathematics next year.
Collegian 2, 3, 4; Associate Editor 3, 4; RatTat 3; Assistant Editor 3; King William Players 2, 3, 4; Physics Club 2; German Club 2, 3,
4; Henry Winter Davis Liberal Club 2; Associate Editor "The Catalyst" 2, 3; King William
Award, Senior Fellow in Mathematics Delta Psi
Omega, Vice-President 4.
Freshman Basketball, Varsity Basketball Squad
2; Handball Champion 3, 4; Foul Shooting Champion 4; Lenz Club 2 ; Collegian Feature Editor
4; Rat-Tat 3; Dance Orchestra 3; Delta Kappa
Phi 3, 4; President 4; Intramural Council 4;
Delta Psi Omega.
54
ROY LEWIS RASCOVAR
PHILIP J. RUSSILLO
Roy Lewis Rascovar graduated from Forest Park High School in 1932 and has since
occupied himself with completing his college course here, in his usual methodical
fashion, within three years. Despite the
heavy schedule he was forced to adopt, he
has, by dint of his efforts, been on the
Dean's List for the past two years. Roy is
a charter member of the Key Society and
has been its Secretary for the past year. He
is a member of the Political Affairs Club,
this year's Rat-Tat staff and the Orange
and Black Society. In his first year he was
a member of the Freshman basketball squad.
For two seasons Roy has served as an Assistant Manager of lacrosse, and for one
season each basketball and football. At present he is Varsity Co-manager of lacrosse.
He has also served on the Randall House
Committee and taken active part in Intramural activities.
Philip J. Russillo is a graduate of the
Norwich Academy of Norwich, Conn. After
leaving there he went to the George Washington College of the University of New
York for a year. He came to St. John's
in 19-32 as a Sophomore. Upon entering
here he decided to major in the Pre-Medical
courses. Along this line he decided it would
be for his educational betterment if he
would join the Osier Club, which is closely
connected with Biology and the Pre-Medical sciences. Philip has been an active
worker in this organization for the past
three years. However, all of his attention
has not been devoted to this field as, in his
second year, he found time to become a
member of the Boxing team in his Sophomore year, being one of the leading fighters in the 115-pound class. Philip at the
present time lives in Norwich, Conn.
Freshman Basketball, Freshman Football Manager 1; Assistant Manager Lacrosse 1, 2; Manager 3; Dean's List 2, 3; Orange and Black Society 2, 3; Political Affairs Club 3; Key Society
2, 3; Secretary 3.
Box.ing 2; Osier Club 2, 3, 4.
55
�1
•
11?
I
•
I
EPHRAIM ROY SHAWN
LOUIS AMBROSE SNYDER
ROBERT NOBLE SOSMAN
MORRIS EZRA STONER
Roy is one of the more quiet, unobstrusive members of this year's Senior class. In
fact, the only way that one would get to
know him would be to take Chemistry. He
is always over at Humphries fooling around
with test-tubes and Bunsen burners. Oh,
yes, you can usually find him in between
times shooting a game of eight-ball in the
Student Union.
Louis A. Snyder entered St. John's in the
fall of 1931 after graduating from Hagerstown High School. His quiet good nature
soon won the admiration of his fellow
students. During his freshman year he became an Assistant Manager of basketball.
His efficiency here attracted the eye of
Coach Lentz who transferred him to the
stock room in the gym. During the rest of
his Freshman year and during his Sophomore and Junior years he could be seen
every afternoon taking care of the athletic
equipment. At the beginning of his Senior
year he transferred to the infirmary where
he finished out his college course as Dr.
Murphy's head assistant.
Robert Noble Sosman came to St. John's
after prepping a year at Phillips Andover
Academy in Massachusetts. He has followed
his love of the stage from the start. He has
been a member of the King William Players
for four years, has participated in every
production but one, which he directed, and
was president of the organization during
his Senior year. This work, together with
activities on the staffs of the Collegian and
the Rat-Tat, won him membership in Delta
Omicron at the end of his Junior year. The
stage has remained, however, his first and
most lasting love; he misses not a production in Baltimore or Washington during
the winter, and his vacations consist of trips
from Westfield to New York—theatre
bound. He thinks he may enter a dramatic
school after graduation. He is a member of
Delta Psi Omega Fraternity.
Morris Ezra Stoner came to St. John's
College as a graduate of the Stafford High
School, of Garrisonville, Virginia. He decided to major in Biology and along this
line he became a member of the Osier Club
which he has belonged to for four years,
being its Secretary-Treasurer in his Junior
year and President in his Senior year. Dramatics claimed his interest and he became
a member of the King William Players in
his first two years and their Stage Manager
in his Sopromore year. Other activities also
claimed Morris's attention as he was a
member of the German Club for three years
and the Glee Club during its initial year's
existence. He took an active interest in Intramural Athletics, being one of Pinkney
Hall's outstanding players.
As a Freshman he had a very interesting
experience. While walking to his home in
West Annapolis on the night before the
Hopkins game a carload of marauding Hopkins students picked Roy up and took him
to Baltimore. The fact that he was a Freshman football player deterred them from
trying any form of rough house. The loss
of a rat cap was the only loss he suffered,
but he mourned that as the Sophomore
Council took him in hand until he got another.
Lou was also a member of the Colonial
Club and Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity,
serving as president of the latter in his
Sophomore year.
Lenz Club 2 ; Chemistry Club 3, 4; Chairman
of Program Committee 4; Laboratory Assistant
in Chemistry 3, 4; Freshman Football, Varsity
Football Squad 2, 3.
Manager of Stockroom 1, 2, 3; Co-operative
Managers' Society 4; Colonial Club 3; Manager
of Baseball 4; Sigma Alpha Epsilon; President 2.
56
King William Players 1, 2 ; Stage Manager 2;
Osier Club 1, 2, 3, 4; Secretary-Treasurer 3;
President 4; German Club 1, 2, 3; Glee Club 4.
President of King William Players 3, 4 ; Collegian 1, 2, 3, 4.
57
�ALBERT LEWIS VIGILANTE
DAVID KING USHER
Albert Lewis Vigilante is a graduate of
Ossining High School. He decided to make
the Pre-Medical courses his major while at
St. John's. The Osier Club at once claimed
his attention and he was its Secretary-Treasurer in his second year and President during his Junior year. He was a member of
the King William Players and was its VicePresident during his first two years. The
Collegian and Rat-Tat both drew his attention and in his third year he was Associate
Editor of each publication. Al was also a
member of the German Club, being its
President in his Junior year, Manager of
the Band in his Sophomore year and he is
Presidenr of the Glee Club at the present
time. With all these activities he found time
to devote to Fencing in his first and fourth
years. In return for all these extra-curricular
activities Al was elected to Delta Omicron,
St. John's honor society.
David King Usher came to St. John's
from Augusta Military Academy. His chief
interest in the field of sports has been lacrosse, where he has held a midfield position on the Varsity for three years. As a
result of this he was elected to the Varsity
Club at the close of his Sophomore year.
In the fall and winter he has been active
in nearly every branch of Intermural sports.
In a scholastic line he started out by making the Dean's List and has been consistantly above the average ever since. In other
lines his chief interest has been his fraternity.
In his Senior year he was elected president and filled this office with due credit
to both himself and the fraternity. He has
also served two years on the Inter-fraternity Council, acting as its presiding officer
during the past year. In his Junior year he
was elected to the Colonial Club and has
also served as president of that organization this year.
King William Players V. P. 1, 2; Collegian 1,
2, 3; Associate Editor 3; Rat-Tat Associate Editor 3 ; Osier Club 1, 2, 3, 4, Secretary-Treasurer
2, President 3; German Club 2, 3, President 3;
Fencing 1, 4; Delta Omicron; Band Manager 2;
Glee Club President 4.
Henry Winter Davis Liberal Club 2; Colonial
Club 3; Interfraternity Council 3, 4; Secretary
4; Freshman Lacrosse, Varsity Lacrosse, 2, 3, 4;
Phi Sigma Kappa, President 3, 4.
58
JOHN HENRY VON DREELE
HENRY REGINALD WEEKS
John Henry Von Dreele was born in Baltimore, Md., twenty-one years ago. He attended Baltimore City College for four years
before entering St. John's in the fall of
1931.
Henry Reginald Weeks came to St. John's
four years ago after being graduated from
Great Neck High School, in Great Neck,
Long Island. He is a member of the Phi
Chapter of Alpha Kappa Pi; in his Sophomore year he served his fraternity as sentinel, as treasurer in his Junior year, and in
his Senior year as president. As a class
officer his career has been nearly as brilliant; he was elected vice-president of his
class in 1933-34, and president for this
present year. Deck, has been a member of
the All-Maryland football team for the last
two years; this came as a result of his consistent fine playing in the position of left
tackle for his entire four years in college.
Weeks is a member of the Varsity and Colonial Clubs, and is an Economic major.
"Dutch", as he is known, soon became
well known on the campus and became a
member of Phi Sigma Kappa Fraternity.
During his four years here he has shown
a great interest in his house and at one time
served as auditor. At all times he has been
a great help to the house by taking part
in the Intramural athletics. Johnny's minor
sports include ping-pong and bridge.
Ever since "Dutch" first entered college
he has desired to study medicine, and with
this in view has taken a Pre-Medical major.
He is a member and has taken great interest in the Osier Pre-Medical Club.
Alpha Kappa Pi, Sentinel 2, Treasurer 3, President 4; Football 1, 2, 3, 4; Lacrosse 1; Class
Vice-President 3; Class President 4; Varsity Club;
Colonial Club.
Osier Pre-Medical Club 1, 2, 3, 4.
59
�DALTON WELTY
FRANK WILSON, JR.
JAMES CORNELIUS WILSON
CHARLES OLIVER WINGATE, JR.
After graduating from Hagerstown High
School in 1931, Dalton M. Welty entered
St. John's. He immediately attracted the
attention of the professors with his brilliant
scholastic record. At the first quarter he
established a position for himself at the very
top which he has maintained for four years
despite the fact that he is taking one of
the hardest courses given at St. John's.
Although coming to St. John's from Forest Park High School in Baltimore, Frank
has lived with relatives in town during all
of his four years at St. John's. Nevertheless
he has taken an active interest in the activities around the college while at the same
time establishing himself as somewhat of
a student. Having somewhat of a quiet
nature about him, Frank has always been
well liked at college.
James Cornelius Wilson of Wethersfield,
Connecticut, is one of the most colorful
members of the graduating class. Jimmy
prepped at Wilbraham Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. During his Freshman year he played football and has been
active in intermural sports for his house,
Alpha Kappa Pi. In his Junior year he was
chaplain of his fraternity, and has always
played an important part in the pledging
activities of A. K. P. He was consistently
a friend to the Freshmen in their woodhunting escapades; in fact he entered into
the spirit of the affair as if he were a Freshman, but not to be too much of a pal for he
was a staunch believer in keeping the Freshman in his place and he did wield a wicked
paddle. His school spirit has never been
dampened by the failures of the teams regardless of the tide he is always cheering.
Jim is a Psychology major.
Charles Oliver Wingate Jr., one of St.
John's own sons, was a member of the
freshman football and lacrosse teams and
general all-around athlete of that year. A
heavy schedule in chemistry, his major subject, caused Buck to discontinue his participation in varsity athletics at the beginning
of his Sophomore year but did not keep the
Fooze from devoting all his spare time to
his fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and to
the general social atmosphere of the college,
for always a ladies man, the curly headed
boy from Baltimore has caused more than
one heart to flutter.
This record seems all the more remarkable when one looks over Dalton's list of
extracurricular activities for it shows that
he is not exclusively a bookworm. Music,
sports and literary work are all included in
Welty's schedule. He was awarded one of
the coveted Senior Fellowships by the Board
of Visitors and Governors last year.
During his Sophomore year Frank went
out for basketball, but confined his activities on the athletic fields during his other
years playing on the intramural teams which
represented his fraternity. Frank is majoring in Mathematics, but has divided most
of his elective courses among the group
of social sciences and philosophy.
Dean's List, 1, 2, 3, 4; Freshman Scholastic
Merit Award, Collegian 1, 2, 3; Sports Editor
2; Associate Editor 3; Rat-Tat 1, 2; Sports Editor 2; Prince William Award, King William
Award, Delta Omicron, College Band 1, 2, 3;
Osier Pre-Medical Club 1, 2, 3, 4; Interfraternity
Council, Cross Country Squad 1, 2; Senior Fellow in Biology, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, President 4.
Rat-Tat Staff 2, 3, 4; Sports Editor 3; Collegian 1, 2, 3, 4; King William Award (Silver);
Sigma Alpha Epsilon; Eminent Chronicler 4.
60
Besides his two room-mates, Buck has always been proud of his brother Ham and is
continually foregoing his own pleasure so
that he may point out his virtues.
Smart attire, snappy witticisms, and a distinctive "good fellow attitude" has accounted
for Buck's popularity and prominence on the
St. John's Campus.
Freshman Football Numerals; Freshman Lacrosse Numerals; German Club; Physics Club;
Chemistry Club Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
Alpha Kappa Pi, Chaplain 3; Football 1.
61
�J
RICHARD SAGE WOODMAN
WAITMANN BURGESS ZINN
Richard Sage Woodman has been active
in extra-curricular affairs as well as maintaining a high standing in his academic activities. He served in various capacities on
the business staffs of the Rat-Tat and Collegian, reaching the peak of his success in
his Junior year when he was elected business manager of both publications. Dick,
an A. K. P., who comes from Tenafly, New
Jersey, has been active in athletics. He
played on the tennis team every year and
was captain for the last two seasons. In his
Freshman year he began working in the
intramural department and in his Senior
year was made intramural manager. In recognition of this work he has been elected
a member of the Orange and Black Society. Woodman is a Government major
and has taken an active part in the formation and management of the Public Affairs
Club. His chief interests are the same as
his outstanding activities: Public affairs and
tennis.
Waitmann B. Zinn came to St. John's
College from Gilman Country School. He
became a member of Phi Sigma Kappa Fraternity early in his Freshman year and since
then has been promoting the welfare of
his fraternity, and also has been active in
the Osier Club, intramurals, and in the social life on the campus. He has dominated
the brothers of his fraternity with a wonderful sense of humor, and we feel that this
will be very adaptable to his later profession.
Upon being graduated Waitman, better
known as "Doc", expects to enter one of
the big medical universities and spend the
next six years of his life in acquiring a
doctors' degree. After the completion of
this period he will practice with his father.
That Waitmann is entering the medical
profession, purely for the love of it, is
proved to a certain extent by his refusal
to accept a very lucrative offer by a certain
well known automobile company to take
charge of their testing grounds.
Alpha Kappa Pi; Collegian 1, 2, Business Manager 3, 4; Rat-Tat 1, 2, Business Manager 3;
Tennis Team 1, Captain 2, 3; Intramural Staff 1,
2, 3, Manager 4; Orange and Black Society;
Public Affairs Club.
Osier Pre-Medical Club 1, 2; Colonial Club
4; Phi Sigma Kappa, Treasurer 2.
62
U
N
I
O
R
S
�James Leslie Hays, III
Edward Tyler Heise
Clarence Leatherbury Johnson
Louis Elbert Kemp, Jr
Paul Joseph Kesmodel
Charles Jacob Kibler
John Robinson Magruder
John Dudley Martin
Daniel Hutchinson Mathers
Warder Robert Nethken
Joseph Novey
William Nelson Rairigh
Roy Lewis Rascovar
Ralph Murray Schley
Richard Brooke Sellman
Morris Ezra Stoner
Albert Lewis Vigilante
Leroy Gardner Webster
Henry Reginald Weeks
Charles Tylden Westcott
JUNIOR CLASS
Baltimore
Annapolis
Annapolis
. . Hanover
Baltimore
Greensboro
Baltimore
East port
Annapolis
Baltimore
Baltimore
Ridgely
Baltimore
Baltimore
Poolesville
Garrisonville, Virginia
Ossining, New York
Deal's Island
Great Neck, New York
Baltimore
„
Juniors — Class of 1936
Carvil Reid Archer
Roland James Bailey, Jr
Melville Lewis Bisgyer
John Reeves Blakistone
Gordon Keith Boucher
James Pierce Bradley
James McCombs Brown
Thomas Linwood Carter
Charles Schoch Catherman, Jr
Garnett Yelverton Clark
Herbert Henry Eccleston
Louis Eickwort, III
Harry Ferguson
Morton Norman Fine
Frank Richard Gessner, Jr
Max Glickman
Joseph Burnham Gray
,
64
Bel Air
Hebron
Brooklyn, New York
Bushwood
Grantsville
California
Baltimore
Arnold
Cumberland
Annapolis
Hackensack, New Jersey
Flushing, New York
West Harford, Connecticut
Baltimore
Annapolis
Annapolis
Annapolis
•
JUNIOR CLASS OFFICERS
65
�S O P H O M O R E S
�Asher Hollander
Jesse W. Holmes, Jr
Calvin Lewis Horn, Jr
Charles David Hyson
Samuel Milton Ivrey
Alexander Noble Jarrell
Norval Foard Kemp
George Worthington Kopp
Asbury Wright Lee, III
Franklin Earl Leslie
Robert Levin
Robert Glyn Lewis
Thomas Frank Lusby, II
Harry Patrick Luz
Everett Paul Mason, Jr
Irvin Meginnis
William Robert Miller
Rob;rt Graham Moss
Cyril Raymond Murphy, Jr
Andrew Joseph Naporano
John Burneston Owens
Jerome Harold Farmer
Charles Francis Peace, III
Sylvester Joseph Ramos
SOPHOMORE CLASS
Baltimore
Cumberland
Baltimore
Hampstead
Annapolis
Annapolis
Relay
R,ver Edge, New Jersey
Clear field, Pennsylvania
Tow son
Baltimore
Baltimore
prmce Frederick
V/oodmere, New York
Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore
Annapolis
Severna Park
Newark, New Jersey
East port
Baltimore
Round Bay
Saratoga Springs, New York
Sophomores — Class of 1937
Willard Osborne Ash
Charles Chester Atwater
Robert Leon Boro
John Richard Bossert
Harold Leroy Brooks
John Harrington Brown
Thomas Warren Chandlee
Herbert Keith Clayton
John Raymond Cooper
Earnest Neal Cory, Jr
Lawrason Levering Crane
Thompson Faxon Dow, Jr
William Gottschalk Gideon
Ralph Joseph Giordano
Charles George Goy
Calvert Michel Haas
William Edward Harman
Charles Parish Hebb
William McDowell Herson
John Sebastian Hodges
Cumberland
Chestertown
Severna Park
East port
Washington, District of Columbia
Wye Mills
Delta, Pennsylvania
Baltimore
Baltimore
College Park
Baltimore
Portland, Maine
Baltimore
Newark, New Jersey
Nashua, New Hampshire
Baltimore
Accident
Baltimore
Annapolis
Baltimore
,
68
SOPHOMORE CLASS OFFICERS
69
�F R E S H M E N
Roscoe Conkling Rowe, Jr
Robert Bowie Sasscer
Isador Scher
Charles Schiff
Arthur Robert Smith
Robert McCawley Snibbe
Emanuel Philip Snyder
William Burns Sohn
Joseph Albert Sutton, Jr
Richard Brimmer Taylor
Milton Howard Traynor
John Henry Von Dreele, III
Lester Aubrey Wall, Jr
Richard Talbot Williams
James Cornelius Wilson, Jr
William Plumer Wiseman
Annapolis
Upper Marlboro
Baltimore
Annapolis
Oradell, New Jersey
Catonsville
Annapolis
Towson
Baltimore
Lima, Ohio
Free port, New York
Baltimore
Baltimore
Waterbury
Wethersfield, Connecticut
Danville, Virginia
•
70
�FRESHMAN CLASS
Merrill Morse Goldstein. .New York, New York
Walter McKendree Gordon
Owings Mills
Arthur Fairbanks Grace, Jr
Easton
John Frederick Gray
Annapolis
Israel Greengold
Annapolis
Todd Grier
Salisbury
Walter Robert Halla
Indian Head
Ross Warren Hammann
Baltimore
Russell Crispbell Henderson. . .Northport, N. Y.
Gustav Edward Herzer
Baltimore
Hector Ralph Hidalgo
Annapolis
Howard Palmer Hill
Baltimore
James Durham Hobbs, Jr
Annapolis
John Trenholm Hopkins
Annapolis
Louis Rosin Horn
Atlan 'ic City, N. J.
Peter Paul Homer .
Towson
Marshall Irvin Kader
Baltimore
Nathan Bernard Kantor. East Orange, New Jersey
William Joseph King, Jr
Annapolis
Charles Franklin Koogle
Annapolis
Nicholas Dayton LaHart, Jr
Boonton, N. J.
John James Lambros
Baltimore
Richard Lee Layfield
Quantico
.Annapolis
Edward Cuttle Lee
.Annapolis
Edward Harold Legum.
. Baltimore
Alvin Edward Levy. . . .
. Northeast
Charles Gerhauser Lort.
James Leonard McCully
Round Bay
William Balfour McDonald, J r . . . . Wilson, N. C.
Wilbur Bradford McLaren.Ann Arbor, Michigan
James Scott Baker Middleton
Aberdeen
Harold Ashton Milstead
Chicamuxen
Ralph M. Molter
Plain field, New Jersey
Lewis Lee Moore, Jr
Cambridge
Arthur Kurtz Myers. . . '.
Westminster
Ferdinand Henry Noble
Des Moines, Iowa
Ralph John Nold
Belleville, Illinois
William Burton Parsons
Onley, Virginia
Robert Lee Peace
Round Bay
Alan Francis Pike
Wethersfield. Connecticut
Arthur Yellott Pindell, Jr
Cockeysville
David Berry Pomeroy
Media, Pennsylvania
William Reed Quimby
Bar Harbor,Maine
James Iglehart Randall
Baltimore
Robert David Rees
New Haven, Conn.
Edward Peyton Ritchings
Annapolis
Freshmen — Class of 1938
Fred Alexander
Ridgewood, New Jersey
Eugene Angyal
Elizabeth, New Jersey
David Nathan Bacharach, Jr
Baltimore
Louis Bachmann, Jr
New York, New York
Lee Norman Baker
Baltimore
Frank Bannerman, Jr.. .Huntington, New York
Francis Elwood Barkman
Cumberland
John Nebiolo Boeris . . Glastonbury, Connecticut
John Douglas Bond
Hollywood
Ralph Childs Bowen, Jr
Cumberland
Warner Knode Brown
Baltimore
William Baltzell Burch
Baltimore
Winfield Belden Burns
Baltimore
Jacquelin Holland Bushong
Breathedsville
Harry Pattey Calhoun
Ocean City
William Steele Callender. . . Chester, Connecticut
Paul Leslie Carter
Peshtigo, Wisconsin
Samuel Salvadore Cerniglia
Salisbury
Walter Russell Chance, Jr
East port
Stuart MacDonald Christhilf, Jr
Baltimore
John Richard Conrad
Winnetka, Illinois
John William Cook
Frostburg
Gordon Croughwell Cooper
Baltimore
George Tyler Coulson. . . .Middletown, Delaware
Thomas Clay Cover, Jr
Easton
Charles Joseph Cunningham
Cumberland
Clayton Thomas Davis, Jr
Pocomoke City
Louis Dorsey Davis, Jr
Towson
Leonard Thomas DeLisio. . . .Washington, D. C.
Charles Sherman Denny, Jr
Baltimore
Carlos Austin Downs
Odenton
Richard Tilghman Earle, Jr
Baltimore
Alexander Rieman Early, J r . . . . Long Beach, Cal.
Charles Henry Bruce Edel
Towson
Henry Paul Eichacker. . . .New York, New York
Hayne Ellis, Jr
Washington, D. C.
Jack Donald Englar
Salisbury
John Gordon Evans
Baltimore
Henry Herman Fahrig, Jr
Philadelphia, Pa.
Roy Malcolm Flowers. . . .Larchmont, New York
Bernard Gregory Fold
Annapolis
Samuel Davis Foster, Jr
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Joseph Schussler Galloway
Towson
Charles Thomas Gladden, Jr
Annapolis
72
FRESHMAN CLASS OFFICERS
�Julius Rosenberg
Baltimore
William Taylor Ross
Cumberland
James Harrison Rowe
Catonsville
Henry Harrison Sadler, Jr
Annapolis
Charles Sprigg Sands
Gambrills
Vincent Scofield
West Hartford, Conn.
Mortimer A. Seidman. . . .Brooklyn, New York
John Graham Shannahan, Jr
Baltimore
Richard Fuller Shryock
Baltimore
Irving Lloyd Silver
Clifton, New Jersey
Peter Theodore Simopoulos
Newport, R. I.
Jesse Campbell Simpson
Annapolis
Everett Welcome Smith, Jr
Annapolis
Marcus Edward Smith
Cambridge
Thomas Spence Smith, Jr
Annapolis
John Ferguson Somerville, Jr
Cumberland
Edward Charles Sommer. . . .Wethersfield, Conn.
Charles Elias Stallings
Round Bay
Thadeus Francis Stankiewicz.
.Baltimore
James Alexander Stevens.
Easton
John Leslie Sullivan
Annapolis
William Tayloe
. Chatterton, Virginia
Frank Clare Taylor
. Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Ronald Leitch Taylor
. Jewell
Thomas Hart Taylor
Lima, Ohio
George Edward Thomas
Baltimore
Willard Nelson Todd
Elk Mills
Eugene Conklin Tower
Hastings, New York
Francis James Townsend, Jr
Ocean City
Robert Varley
Haw River, North Carolina
John Clark Wagner
Annapolis
John Harry Wagner, Jr
Baltimore
Richard Banks Warburton
Elkton
Richard Lawrence Waters, Jr
Rockville
Richard Wilton Wickes, Jr
Towson
Stanley Alfred Wilkinson
Hartford, Conn.
Theodore Williams
Annapolis
Vandervoort Williams
Baltimore
George Thomas Wingate
Baltimore
A C T I V I T I E S
�FRATERNITIES
�I
11
Phi Sigma Kappa
.;
!
;;.:!:V>..'Y...;.:
:
Charles Atwater
John H. Brown
John W. Brown
William Callender
Warren Chandlee
Frank Conner
John Cooper
MEMBERS
Louis Eichwort
Walter Evers
Jay Holmes
Asbury Lee
Robert Lewis
Harry Luz
Everett Mason, Jr.
Daniel Mathers
Donald E. S. McGarrow
Ralph Schley
Marcus E. Smith
David King Usher
John H. Von Dreele
Waitman B. Zinn
Warner Brown
John Conrad
Parrish Hebb
Henry Eichacker
Hayne Ellis
Charles Edel
George Ely
11
PLEDGES
Samuel Foster
Todd Grier
Howard Hill
Dinwiddie Lampton
Nicholas LaHart
James McCully
Ralph Nold
John Shannahan
Edward Sommers
Thaddeus Stankiewicz
Eugene Tower
Robert Varley
Stanley Wilkinson
Richard Wickes, Jr.
Amos W. W. Woodcock
PHI SIGMA KAPPA
78
FACULTY MEMBERS
Evelyn A. Harrison
George Bingley
Founded 1873
Chapter 1903
Chapters, 48
Flower—Red Carnation
79
�Kappa Alpha
MEMBERS
John S. B. Hodges
Cyril R. Murphy, Jr.
Calvin L. Horn
William B. Parsons
Clarence L. Johnson
Roscoe C. Rowe
Paul J. Kesmodel
Everett W. Smith, Jr.
Angus Lamond
Robert M. Snibbe
John R. Magruder
Joseph A. Sutton, Jr.
William B. McDonald, Jr.
FACULTY MEMBERS
James J. Murphy
Reginald H. Ridgely
Richard Kuehnemund
PLEDGES
William Banks
Trenholm Hopkins
Arthur Pindell
William Burch
Paul Homer
James Rowe
Stewart Christhilf
Charles Koogle
Charles Stallings
John Cook
Peter Simopoulos
Richard Layfield
Louis Davis
Baker Middleton
Richard Taylor
Leonard DeLisio
Robert Nethken
Thomas Taylor
John Evans
John Owens
Frank Townsend
Harry Fahrig
Charles F. Peace, III
George Thomas
Joseph Galloway
R. Lee Peace
Harry Wagner
Warren Hamman
Allan Pike
ALUMNI ADVISORS
William Stromeyer '16
Luther Miller '20
Carvil Reed Archer
Gordon K. Boucher
Ernest N. Cory
Edward DeLisio
William R. Eaton
Calvert M. Haas
James L. Hays, III
KAPPA ALPHA
Founded 1865
Chapter—1915
Flower—Magnolia and Red Rose
Chapters—65
81
�. ..••.,, i ,
mm
I jj
1,1 = ' 1
Alpha Kappa Pi
MEMBERS
Charles Kibler
George Kopp
Robert Smith
Henry Weeks
James C. Wilson
John Blakistone
Harold Brooks
Richard Earle
Herbert Eccleston
Frank Gessner
Richard Woodman
PLEDGES
James Kelly
Thomas Lusby
Wilbur McLaren
Albert Patrick
Robert Rees
Thomas Smith
Richard Waters
Charles Westcott
Charles Lort
Jacques Bushong
Richard Williams
Eugene Angyal
John Boeris
Douglas Bond
James Bradley
Samuel Cerniglia
Thomas Cover
Charles Denny
Robert Ferguson
Roy Flowers
Arthur Grace
Francis Hurlock
FACULTY MEMBER
Paul Allen, Jr.
ALPHA KAPPA Pi
82
Founded 1921
Chapter, 1932
Chapters, 22
Flower—Yellow Tea Rose
�Sigma Alpha Epsilon
MEMBERS
John Bossert
James Brown
Harry P. Calhoun
Garnett Y. Clark
H. Keith Clayton
Charles Cunningham
John C. Donohue
Louis Bachman
Alexander Early
Walter Gordon
Harry Gorse
Louis Kemp
John Lambros
David Harkness
William Harman
Norval Kemp
Calvin Lotz
Robert T. Miller
L. Lee Moore
David Nopper
George T. Wingate
PLEDGES
Arthur Myers
David Pomeroy
James Randall
William Ross
Harrison Sadler
Robert Sasscer
Richard B. Sellman
J. Campbell Simpson
Louis A. Snyder
John H. Somerville
Dalton M. Welty
Frank Wilson
Charles O. Wingate
James Stevens
Richard Warburton
Vandervort Williams
William Wiseman
Vincent Scofield
(affiliate)
FACULTY MEMBER
John S. Kieffer
FACULTY ADVISORS
Frederick W. Appel
Vertrees J. Wyckofi
Julian Duncan
SIGMA ALPHA EPSILON
84
Founded 1856
Chapter, 1935
Chapters, 110
Flower—Violet
�•
.
Delta Psi Omega
MEMBERS
William L. McD. Herson
Robert H. Lampee
H. David McCool
Robert N. Sosman
Roland J. Bailey, Jr.
Charles S. Catherman, Jr.
Joseph B. Gray
Irvin Meginnis
PLEDGES
Franklin E. Leslie
Harold A. Milstead
Ralph Molter
Robert G. Moss
Lawrence J. O'Connor.
John Brophy O'Donnell
William R. Quimby
Richard F. Shyrock
Frank C. Taylor
Lester A. Wall
Theodore Williams
Willard O. Ash
F. Elwood Barkman
Allen R. Bradley
W. Belden Burns
Thomas L. Carter
Jack D. Englar
George T. Coulson
Alphonse E. Farone
John F. Gray
Edward T. Heise
Charles D. Hyson
Wiliam J. King
m
m m
FACULTY MEMBERS
Robert W. Elliot, Jr.
Hermann Bernhard
DELTA Psi OMEGA
Flower—Thistle
Founded 1928
87
�ORGANIZATIONS
and CLUBS
i
Pan - Hellenic Council
T
HE keen competition between fraternities anxious to improve their organizations has
always been one of benefit to a college, if properly controlled. Unfortunately, this
kind of competition is much harder to control than that of the business variety. Marketable goods and students differ greatly. However, as the number of fraternities increased
on the St. John's Campus and as the competition between them became keener, an attempt
to control that competition was made. The Pan-Hellenic Council was formed. The purpose
of this organization was to take care of differences among the fraternities themselves, disputes between the administration and the fraternities, and any such business which required
the concerted action of the member fraternities. Two members of each fraternity are elected
to serve on the Council, which is presided over by the president of the college. The specific
duties of the Council are to determine the rushing season, to assign rush nights, and to
make and enforce rushing regulations. Infractions of the Council's rulings are dealt with and
punished by the Council. The Council is thus the sole arbiter of fraternity difficulties, subject
only to the suggestions of the Student Council and the administration.
It is not difficult to see that the judgment of the members must be entirely impersonal and unselfish if the Council is to be effective, especially since the members themselves are directly affected by the Council's decisions. If the Council has failed in its purpose
it is because the members have not dared to act as judges, but acted as fraternity delegates.
�CLARK
DR. BROWN
The Collegian
Rat-Tat Staff
Editor-in-Chief
GARNETT Y. CLARK
Activities
WILLIAM HERSON, Editor
Associate Editor
EDWARD HEISE
Fraternities
FRANK WILSON, Editor
Faculty Advisor
FORD K. BROWN
Biographies
ROLAND BAILEY, Editor
WILLIAM RAIRIGH
ROY RASCOVAR
JOHN SOMERVILLE
Business Manager
Assistant Business Manager
JOHN R. BLAKISTONE
EDWARD SOMMERS
Associates
RICHARD WATERS
LEE BAKER
90
BHHk
BLAKISTONE
T
HE St. Johns Collegian under the editorship of Roland J. Bailey, Jr., witnessed the inauguration or Colonel Woodcock and the passing of his first year as President of the College Realizing
the critical nature of the period from which the College was emerging, the Collegian refrained
as far as it could from any critical attitude and attempted to use its editorial columns for constructive comment and suggestion. This policy culminated toward the close of the editor's regime in the
advocation of such a reorganization of the administrative department of the College as to distribute the
power more fairly among the various groups closely connected with the institution
_ In the course of the past year the Collegian has published a number of Alumni issues of which
copies were distributed to all living Alumni in the interests of a closer connection between them and
i>t. Johns Ihe editor considers his greatest mechanical contribution to the Collegian to be the revision
in the make-up of its pages which lends itself to a more journalistic style and appearance
�The Student Council
Social Committee
[HE Student Council occupies a position of dignity and responsibility on the college campus. This
body is the recognized organ of effective student expression. It is to the Student Council that the
colleges officers appeal when they desire something from the undergraduates, and through the
Student Council these undergraduates may express their opinions and requests to the college authorities
and expect them to receive due consideration. The Student Council at St. John's has the duty of maintaining gentlemanly order in the dining hall and dormitories and at the college dances. The Council
hears all student discipline cases and has the power of imposing certain penalties, the more drastic of
which are subject to the approval of the Faculty Council. Our Student Council is far from being a
powerless body. It is an extremely important factor in the promotion of the happiness and spirit of the
undergraduate body. Its proper functioning is one of the best guarantees of harmony within the college.
For the year 1934-35 we were fortunate in the choice of a president. Calvin Lotz, '35, has proved
himself a conscientious and determined man for this, the highest of student offices. He has shown qualities of leadership and has fostered a spirit of cooperation between the students and faculty and within
the Student Body.
One change that we feel was an improvement was inaugurated this year. In previous years it has
been claimed that some one fraternity has managed to gain control of the Student Council and has
thereby prevented it from being truly representative of the Student Body. This year the class representatives were abolished, and no one fraternity has the opportunity to get a monopoly. The members
of the 1934-35 council are: President, Calvin Lotz, '35; Secretary, David Harkness, '35; Charles Anderson, '35; Roland Bailey, '35; Gordon Boucher, '35; Louis Eickwort, '35; William Rairigh, '36; and
Harry Traynor, '35.
In the past two years the Student Council has taken quite a few steps forward. It has passed
from a rather insignificant place into its rightful status as the leader of student life in general. It is
hoped, and may well be expected, that this process of improvement will continue. President Lotz has
found that the administration is conscious of the position of the Student Council on the campus and thaf
it is willing to deal with it as the main organ of student opinion. The Council has made several reasonable requests for changes in the college regulations and has obtained its requests from the administration. Next year's Council should realize the magnitude of its task as it assumes the responsibility of carrying forward the work of the 1934-35 Council.
NDER the guidance of Alphonse Farone, '35, the Social Committee has completed
another successful year. Whereas, heretofore the success of the Committee has been measured
almost entirely from a social basis, they were prepared to report a profitable financial gain
during the past year. Holding dances approximately once every month, the Committee presented a very
interesting and enjoyable year of dancing. For the most part, the music has been furnished by that famous
group "The Townsmen", who, because of their popularity around the campus, have practically the sole
rights of Johnnie entertainment. The decorations have achieved variety and novelty and have always
been handled in good taste.
Probably the outstanding dance of the year was the Christmas Dance in Iglehart Hall. The decorations were, as ever, pleasing and pretty, but the big surprise of the evening came in the person of Santa,
himself, who was ably portrayed by one of the students, to the delight and amusement of all present.
Santa distributed presents for the girls and received a rousing reception from all of the fair sex. The
music for this very successful occasion was furnished by the "Townsmen".
In addition to this noteworthy affair, each dance during the year has had some outstanding characteristic that made it all the more pleasant to the dancers. Some have featured lighting effects, some decorations and some change of orchestra, which, while not as popular as the regular orchestra, served to instill
a feeling of novelty and proper change.
All the success of the Social Committee is not, however, due entirely to Farone. If his other members on the Committee had not been willing to do all in their power in aiding him in his efforts, the
success would not have been so glorious. Constantly working under the handicap of limited membership, the Committee has consistently introduced each new dance as a presentation of the highest caliber.
Each of the members of the Social Committee feels that he is as much an integral part of the organization as is the Chairman, and consequently takes a very active part in all of the ventures. The element of
unity and cooperation which is so obviously prevalent in the group is probably the key to the success
that they have attained during the past year in the fulfillment of their official duties. Because of the
efficiency and ingenuity of the Committee the Student Body has taken a dedicedly new slant on college
functions and has given them the full support they deserve as an indispensable part of the life here
at St. John's.
93
�King William Players
The Glee Club
"X HE King William Players, the dramatic organization of the students of St. John's College, has
recently completed the most successful year of activity in its history. Evolving from an amateurish
group of several seasons ago the Players have developed into an experienced and highly entertaining organization. During the past few years the standard of the type of show attempted by the
Players has been raised and the company has been willing to tackle difficult Broadway productions along with the more minor creations. The reason for this very promising improvement in the
Players is the newly stimulated interest aroused by the recent officers of the group. Everyone has
been given a chance to display the hidden talents that he possesses and many discoveries have been made
through this channel.
The first attempt of the Players to get away from amateurish productions was their presentation of
that famous play by Galsworthy, "Old English". Capable and outstanding performances were given
in this play by the entire cast. Then followed "The Dover Road", by A. S. Milne, "Outward Bound",
by Sutton Vane, and "Goodbye Again", by Allan Scott and George Haight. Each of these performances was well received by the audiences. The first of these three plays just mentioned was directed by
Vernon Novicki, a former student at St. John's, who is now directing a professional group. The second
play, "Outward Bound", was under the direction of Dr. Nathan C. Starr, former professor of English
at St. John's. Several new prospective stars were discovered in this play. The final play, and probably
the most successful production ever completed by the student organization, was "Goodbye Again'.' The
services of Bretaigne Windust, the director of the original New York production, was secured for this
effort, and aided greatly in making it successful. Because of the popular reception given the play
on its Annapolis presentation it was taken to Salisbury, Maryland, the week following, and to Baltimore, under the auspices of the Baltimore Alumni, a week later.
The 1935 season continued the good work of the previous year with S. N. Behrman's "Biography" as the first play. This was followed by a popular play along more serious lines, "Children of the
Moon".
Robert Noble Sosman, '35, who has participated in every play given by the Players since he entered
College, is President of the group this year, while Robert H. Lampee, '35, also active in the Players successes, is serving as Business Manager and Treasurer.
HE Glee Club, the musical organization of the students of St. John's College, was organized
last Thanksgiving under the guidance of Mrs. M. Talbott Riggs. Because of a demand on
the part of the students that some sort of means be provided whereby they could assemble for
group singing, this action was taken. Two years ago there was a movement of this sort, and some
action was taken in the way of organizing a singing society, but because of lack of support on the
campus, the plan fell through. Lack of interest and attendance was the primary cause of the failure.
This newly-formed group, however, is quite interested in the work, and good attendance is a factor in
the quick development made by the Club.
Rehearsals are held twice a week by popular request, and for an hour and a half every Tuesday
and Thursday evenings students are given a chance to prove their merits in a group singing and solo
work. Certain fine voices have been uncovered. Mrs. Riggs praises the amazing progress made by the
Club, and is delighted that they were able to master some of the more difficult works along with the
simple. "It is not usual that a newly-organized singing body can tackle the complex passages of certain
numbers with any degree of success," Mrs. Riggs stated.
There are now twenty-five members of the Club, and the list is rapidly growing every day. The
College furnished the financial backing for the music and other matters, and the Administration has
given its whole hearted approval to the venture.
Besides the regular ensemble, there is a quartet, and a trio for popular numbers. Mrs. Riggs
feels that the trio could be used to balance any sort of program given in the proposed concert tour. The
Club has received invitations to visit several of the nearby colleges to give concerts and these invitations will be accepted in the very near future.
The officers of the Club are: President, Albert Vigilanti, '35; Secretary, Lawrason Crane, '36; Executive Committee, Max Glickman; '35, and Stuart Christhilf, '38. The director of the Club is Mrs.
Riggs. Professor George Bingley of the Mathematics Department is accompanist.
94
95
T
�The Symphony Orchestra
I
N this age when people are so used to being entertained, and when entertainment is so easily obtained, a program must be good in order not to bore the audience. The Symphony Orchestra concerts have been very good. The first concert of this year, given in December, brought forth
enthusiastic comments from those who heard it. We quote one competent critic: "The program was
extremely well chosen and, as a whole performed with skill, accuracy, and enthusiasm." Under the
direction of Mr. Adolph Torovsky, the orchestra played the overture of von Gluck's "Iphigenia in
Aulis." Haydn's Symphony No. 7 in C major, Luigini's "Ballet Egyptian," Strauss' Waltz, "Artist's
Life," and a selection from Verdi's "Traviata" were also included. The guest soloist of the evening was
Adolph Torovsky, Jr., a well known pianist and organist of Washington, D. C. In regard to this
part of the program, it can be said that it was felt that nothing more could be desired—except one or
more selections.
Other concerts were given in March and May. The director was fortunate in obtaining for all
three of these concerts the assistance of several musicians from Annapolis, Baltimore and Washington.
The soloist for the March concert was Joseph Florestano, tenor, an alumnus of St. John's at
present studying in the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. The audiences, for the most part,
have been composed of members of the faculty and their wives and interested townspeople. These, with
the few students who attend, can bear witness that the concerts were well worth while.
We feel that it is fitting to quote here a tribute paid to Mr. Torovsky during the year.
"St. John's College is fortunate, indeed, to have a man of Mr. Torovsky's caliber and personality
as the leader of its orchestra. His thorough schooling and untiring devotion to his task has raised the
level of the orchestra to a height of which he can be proud. Although considerably hampered by
the yearly changes in men, Mr. Torovsky has built up a musical tradition among St. John's men which
secures the conductor a permanent position in the annals of our institution."
In addition to the three enjoyable concerts the orchestra has played each Tuesday morning for the
chapel exercises. For this work, the members deserve praise for their faithfulness; and, all in all, considering the time, the weather, the rush, the noise, and other contributory factors, the morning music has
been good. Surely music and the organizations that bring us music deserve a high place in college life.
96
The Band
NE of the most important organizations in every college is the college band. The band of St.
John's is no exception. Since its reorganization several years ago it has grown steadily in importance to become an integral part of the college organization. It is small in size but something with which we could not very well do without.
O
The most important function of the band is to play at the athletic games both at home and away.
Here it has been a rousing influence when playing away from college, the band has made a consistently
good impression, and has been an asset in leading songs for our rooting section.
The hey-day of the band's career is always the night of the freshman pajama parade which immediately preceeds the bonfire previous to the Hopkins-St. John's football game. For years the band has
been leading the freshmen (and students) in their annual parade through the streets of the city, and
the Naval Academy, stopping to play for the governor and the midshipmen. Later in the evening,
when the students are assembled around the bonfire, the band plays the St. John's songs while the
students sing to the Gods for victory in the coming game.
Much of the success of the band is due to the efforts of Professor Adolf Torovsky who is in
charge of the band and who, though at times his task has been severe, has always succeeded in moulding into a working organization the small group of men who represent the musical talent of the college.
97
�St. John's Forum
The German Club
T
HE German Club's purpose is to further the knowledge of German life, culture and achievements in a way not always attainable in a classroom. The membership includes, however, not only
those who are studying the language but also those who may be following other courses and yet
have an interest in the civilization, rather than the political tendencies, of Germany. No knowledge of
German is necessary for membership.
At the monthly meetings held at the Brice House home of Dr. Richard Kuehnemund of the
German Department, films of travel in Germany are presented on the motion picture projector purchased this year by the club. This series has included "Along the Rhine," "Oberammergau," "Vintagers' Festival in the Palatinate" and other reels of individual cities. The programs also include short talks
on various phases of German life given either by Professor Kuehnemund or by individual members and
followed by group discussion.
Dr. Kuehnemund provides the musical accompaniment when old German student songs are
sung by the members. At other times he gives short piano recitals for the enjoyment of those present.
Typical German refreshments provide the finishing touch to one of the most enjoyable of extra-curricular activities at St. John's.
f HE St. John's Forum was formally organized on November 14, 1934, to fill a vacancy that
was very apparent on the campus. Up to that time we had had no course in public speaking nor
' any organization to encourage public speaking. Early in the school year President Woodcock got
this movement under way. He acted as temporary chairman of the group until the formal organization
was accomplished. Since that time he has continued to take an active part in the work of this group,
coaching and criticizing the debaters at the weekly meetings. The officers for this year are William Rairigh,
'36, Chairman, and Elwood Barkman, '38, Secretary.
For the first half of the year the activities of the Forum were confined to debates among the members on such subjects as: The comparative values of colleges and penal institutions as training places
for young men, the usefulness of Will Rogers as a citizen, freedom of speech in academic circles, and
compulsory military training. During the latter part of the year the Forum has engaged in several intercollegiate debates.
It is hoped that this organization will help to develop public speakers and debaters. In his coaching,
President Woodcock tries to aid the students in developing their speaking voices and in devolping their
abilities for analysing questions and formulating arguments. The aims of the Forum are high, and appearances justify the belief that much will be accomplished.
The oficers of the German Club are, Irvin Meginnis, '36, President; D. Edward McGarrow, '35,
Secretary-Treasurer; and Professor Richard Kuehnemund, Advisor.
Intercollegiate debates were held with Hobart College, Rutgers, Washington College, and Maryland College for Women. The subject for discussion in all of the intercollegiate debates was Resolved:
that the nations should prohibit the international traffic in armaments and munitions." St. John's will
defend the negative in all the debates. William Rairigh, '36, Elwood Barkman, '38, and Theodore Williams, '38, will represent the college.
98
99
�The Erlenmeyer Chemistry Club
The Osier Pre-Medical Club
HE Erlenmeyer Chemistry Club has been reorganized this year with an extensive program wellworked out to realize the Club's aim "to enjoy chemistry as well as study it." An invitation was
extended to the members of the Science Club of the Annapolis High School to become affiliated
with the Erlenmeyer organization. This was gladly accepted and thus the local membership was greatly
increased.
A complete series of motion pictures on various interesting subjects related to chemistry was booked
for the year and shown at the meetings in Humphreys Hall Auditorium. The titles included "The Production and Manufacture of Rubber," "Bakelite, a Product of the Chemical Laboratory," "Steel Manufacturing," "From Mine to Consumer—the Mining, Refining and Manufacturing of Copper and Brass
and Finished Articles," and numerous others. Following the showing of the films, individual members
were permitted to demonstrate unusual experimens for the benefit of the others present. Questions from
the audience were allowed and then the meetings were usually concluded with light refreshments prepared by several members of the club.
In addition to the regular semi-monthly meetings this year, the Erlenmeyer Club planned several
group trips to manufacturing plants in and near Baltimore. For the first of these the club journeyed to
the plant of the Baltimore Copper Refining Works at Sparrows Point.
The officers of the Erlenmeyer Club for this year are Frank R. Gessner, Jr. '36, President; Norval
F. Kemp, '37, Secretary-Treasurer, and Professors Paul Allen Jr., Hermann Bernhard and George McFarlin, Advisors.
N the last hundred years or so a new group of men and women has risen to a place of high worth
and has commanded great affection and esteem among civilized people These men and women
are the members of the medical profession. They have conquered many physical barriers to commercial and industrial progress, they have reduced the terrors of disease for the common man, they have
discovered many means of relieving suffering, they have taught us much that can help us get the most out
of the bodies with which we are endowed. High among the names of these public benefactors stands
that of Sir William Osier, a British physician and scientist who spent many of the best years of his life
in the United States and Canada, and was a member of the faculty of the Johns Hopkins Medical School
for some years.
100
1
I
The fact that the medical club at St. John's College bears the name of this man is an indication
of its worthy purpose: to promote a high attitude toward medicine among those students who choose
that profession as their life's work. During the year, the club sponsors an educational and inspirational
program which includes motion pictures, lectures, demonstrations, and tours of inspection. At the regular bi-monthly meetings, the members discuss scientific subjects of interest to them. The members of the
biology department of the college have taken a great interest in the club and have been a great help in
making it a success.
-
The officers for this year are as follows: President, Morris Stoner '35; Vice-President, Lester Wall
'37; Secretary-Treasurer, Morton Fine '35.
101
�The Varsity Club
[ OUNDED several years ago, and reorganized by some of the coaches two years ago, the Varsity Club has grown into a very successful organization of the athletes of St. John's College,
upholding clean sportsmanship and the development of physical education. The club has not
limited its efforts to the sole purpose of furthering the athletic endeavors of the College, as it has sponsored some highly successful dances, proms, and dinners during the few years of its existence.
The aim and purpose of the club is fully expressed in the preamble to its constitution: "The object shall be to maintain the highest ideal of amateur sport in College; to help promote the development of physical education; to encourage standardization of the rules of all athletic games; to urge competition and participation of all students at St. John's in athletics.
"To stand for a high sense of honor, fair play, and courtesy toward our opponents, and to act as
hosts to guests, officials, and spectators; to stoop to no petty technicalities to avoid rules, or to take unfair advantage of opponents.
The Orange And Black Society
NTIL last year the managers of the various sports at the college had no organization. Because
of this some men worked for three years and yet did not receive varsity monograms while
others became varsity managers in their junior year. The Orange and Black Society was organized by Coach Lentz primarily to remedy this unhealthy condition through an internal organization of
the managers which will insure every man who works diligently a varsity monogram and the managership of a varsity sport in his senior year.
The Society is made up of those men who have served at least one year's apprenticeship as assistant manager of some sport. The head of the Society is made the undergraduate manager of athletics
and receives a varsity monogram for his work. His duties consist mainly in supervising the work of
the other managers.
"Furthermore, we propose to help and aid in directing the athletic interests of our members, to
develop and strengthen a more substantial and practical relationship between its members, the various
other organizations on the campus, and the Alumni; to foster Intercollegiate activities in every form in
order that they may improve physical condition, strengthen the morale of the students, and form a constituent part of that education for which we were established and are maintained."
The job of selecting the managers of the various sports for the following year has been turned
over to the executive council of the Society which is made up of the varsity managers of the various
sports, the undergraduate manager, and the graduate manager (or whoever carries out his duties).
In addition to the routine duties of the managers which were carried out by the managers before
the advent of this organization, the Society has several committees which care for the visiting teams and
publicity.
Each of the members has become an outstanding exponent of this fine preamble, and each is doing
"his duty to himself, his friend, and his college." Their influence upon the morale and good fellowship
at St. John's College has been steadying and inspirational.
The officers of the Society for this year are: James Hays '35, Undergraduate Manager; Louis
Snyder '35, Secretary-Treasurer.
The officers of the club are: John C. Donohue, '35, President; Edward DeLisio, '35, Vice-President ; James Hays, '35, Secretary; Calvin Lotz, '35, Treasurer; Angus Lamond, '35, sergeant-atrarms.
102
103
�Key Society
Delta Omicron
OR the recognition of achievements other than athletic St. John's offers membership in Delta
Omicron. Admission to the fraternity is based upon a series of point awards that are made for
participation in extra-curricular activities (not including sports). Below Delta Omicron and related to it are the Prince William Society, the King William Silver Society, and the King William
Gold Society. Each one, in the order named, is a step toward Delta Omicron. Upon election to Delta
Omicron or any of the other three societies the new member receives a watch charm as a badge of his
achievement. The point requirements are kept high to make the award more significant. Two years
ago they were raised in order to counteract the effect of the increased number of student activities.
The present members are: Charles S. Catherman, Jr., '35; President; Robert H. Lampee, '35; Robert
N. Sosman, '35; Albert J. Vigilanti, '35; and Dalton M. Welty, '35.
T
HE Key Society, The Jewish organization
year. Organized in the winter of 1933,
at the Blue Lantern Inn, attended by
Gordon, and Nathan C. Starr. The Society is the
developing for some time before its creation.
of St. John's College, is entering its second successful
the Society was formally inaugurated by a banquet
two former members of the College, Douglas Huntly
result of a movement on the campus that had been
In spite of the newness of the organization, and the fact that there are no buildings available on
the campus for the club to use as a meeting house, they have enjoyed a substantial degree of success
and have functioned exceedingly well during their first two years. The Articles of Agreement which were
drawn up when the club was first organized defined the word "Society" in the finest and broadest sense
to mean not merely an organization existing for the betterment of its members, but a "constructive
force in the lives of all the members of the College."
In addition to their regular weekly meetings, the members occasionally meet for informal lectures
in a down town restaurant. Over a year ago the Society sponsored its first formal dance at the Southern
Hotel in Baltimore, which was the beginning of a list of social gatherings.
The Charter Officers of the club for the first year were: Joseph Novey, '35, President; William
Gideon, '36, Vice-President for the first half year; Milton Katz, '34, Vice-President for the Second half
year; Max Glickman, '35, Recorder; and the following members, Melville Bisgyer, Jerome Goodman,
Asher Hollander, Louis Horn, Lawrence Kantor, Lewis Putzel, R. L. Rascovar, Isador Scher, Irving Silver,
and E. P. Snyder.
Professors Myron McLaren and Ford K. Brown are advisors of the society.
104
105
�A T H L E T I C S
:
.
Delta Kappa Phi
~v II'T St. John's, those students whose accomplishments in studies have been exceptional are honored
m \y membership in Delta Kappa Phi. The object of the organizations is to offer a form of recognition for scholastic achievement. Since its organization, seven years ago, the fraternity has been
trying to gain recognition from Phi Beta Kappa, the best known and most important national honorary
fraternity, and for this reason the eligibility requirements have been kept high. To be eligible for membership, seniors must have been in the first or second group of the Dean's list at the end of their freshman, sophomore, and junior years and at the mid-year of their senior year. They must have been on the
first group at least twice. Juniors must have been on the first group at the end of their freshman and
sophomore years and at the mid-year of their junior year. The selection of new members is made by
the present members and the faculty members, Professors Elliott and McFarlin. In 1934 one junior was
elected, Lawrence J. O'Connor, who at the present time is the only member.
106
�":•.":'•,
FOOTBAL L
SB
-tvt
-7
4?
SEASON RECORD
S.J.C.
Opp.
""is m . s «m
!..v*i,*i
'
Maryland
0
13
Randolph Macon
6
0
Virginia
"
27
Swarthmore
12
0
Resume
American University
26
7
Hampden-Sydney
25
12
Shenadoah
20
0
HE largest squad in several years reported for football practice on September 6th. The Johnnies
had back a veteran line from tackle to tackle and around these five men and a veteran fullback
Coaches Riggs and Lentz built their team. For the other positions most of last year's subs and
some fine freshman material were available among the squad of 48 men who had reported by the
time of the opening of the college session.
The 1934 St. John's football team was not the best in the history of the college and it was far
from the worst. The Johnnies played a well balanced schedule, a majority of the teams met being in their class. Twice the Johnnies stepped out of their class and twice they were beaten. No excuse
is offered, for the defeats were expected before the season opened. On both occasions St. John's displayed a fine brand of football. Neither of the defeats were ignominious and on both occasions those of
the students who saw the
games were proud to say
that they were from St.
John's in spite of defeat.
The highlight of the
season was the victory
over Hopkins by a score of
13 to 6. As usual the
game was typical of Hopkins — St. John's games
with the actual ability of
the two teams counting
little. It was the fifty-second game of a rivalry as
old as the game itself and
the win places the Johnnies one game ahead of
the Jays in the series.
7
Hopkins
T
M. TALBOTT RIGGS
108
VALENTINE LENTZ
109
�RANDOLPH MACON
BOSSERT
E . D E L I S I O LAMBR'OS
Playing in a steady downpour of rain on a
muddy field, the St. John's College gridders
handed an outweighed Randolph Macon eleven
its first defeat on its home sward during the last
five seasons. The game marked the first victory
of the season for the Johnnie team and brought
the average for the season to .500 percent.
The winning points for the Johnnies were
scored on the first play of the second quarter by
Johnnie Bossert. The Orange and Black team
gained in an exchange of punts in the first quarter and then marched thirty five yards to the tally.
The St. John's defense was fine all the way while
the attack threatened repeatedly only to bog down
or fumble in the mud near the goal line. Just as
the game ended the Johnnies were on the verge
of another score as they steadily neared the goal
line on a sustained drive.
VIRGINIA
The University of Virginia grid machine, featuring a strong aerial attack, defeated the fighting St. John's eleven at Charlottesville by the score
of 27 to 6, while a crowd of five thousand
spectators shivered in the autumnal shill.
The only St. John's score came after a steady
march down the field at the beginning of the second half. Long runs by Smith and Bossert placed
the ball on the two yard line from which point
Joe Sutton carried it over on a line plunge. Bossert's place kick for the extra point failed.
Finding no hopes of tieing the score or of winning as trie result of further marches along the
ground, the Johnnies took to the air in the final
period in desperation. Several of the passes were
completed but two were intercepted by Virginia
men for scores.
LOTZ
LEE
I
*§F
' Jttf
5
SWARTHMORE
MARYLAND
The St. John's football team opened the season
in a warm humid setting on a soggy field at College Park with a 13-0 defeat at the hands of the
University of Maryland. The Old Liners won,
alternating two full teams, but had to take to the
air to get past the stubborn Johnnie defense for
both touchdowns.
Outstanding for St. John's was the play of the
veteran line. Big and rangy, the Johnnie forward
wall fought the Old Liners to a standstill on the
defensive and held a slight advantage on the offense, oftentimes causing the Johnnies to gain
an advantageous position on the field. But for
two costly errors which cost the Johnnies many
yards the score might have been different, even
considering those disastrous passes of George
Sachs, Maryland full back, who was mainly responsible for the Old Line tallies made by the air.
.LfSiD
WEEKS
ER
DONOHUE
EATON
E1CHWORT
11
110
111
St. John's regained its place in the win column
by defeating Swarthmore College 12 to 0 in a
game which was one of the featured events of the
annual Homecoming Day celebration. The score
of the game is scarcely indicative of the relative
strength of the two teams because on several occasions the Orange and Black scored only to have
the tally nullified by penalties.
The Johnnies had possession of the ball the
greater part of the game and frequently made
long marches down the field with it. Only the
fact that the backs fumbled the ball frequently in
offensive territory kept St. John's from scoring
more often.
Johnny Bossert supplied most of the offensive
punch for the Johnnies while Bob Snibbe also
carried the ball well. Throughout the game the
whole line put forth a creditable effort, but with
no man in particular standing out.
�SHENANDOAH
HAMPDEN-SYDNEY
The St. John's football team turned in another well earned victory against Hampden-Sydney by a count of 25 to 12. The game with the Tigers, which has become an annual feature of the Johnnie schedule, was not so closely contested as have been some of the tests with this team in recent years.
The Johnnies took
the lead in the first
quarter even though
they were held in
check for a considerable period by the
spectacular punting
of the Tiger kicker.
The initial score
came after a seventy
yard sustained drive
down the field when
Bossert tossed a
shuttle pass to Everett Smith who carried the ball off
tackle for six points.
In the final half
the Annapolis team
found itself and
loosed an almost
irresistible d r i v e
which, coupled with
frequent tricky passes behind the line
of scrimmage netted them a touchdown in the third quarter and two more in the fourth.
An
outweighed
but gamely fighting
Shenandoah College
football team fell before the skill of
the powerful Orange
and Black Grid machine by a score of
20 to 0 in the annual breather before the Hopkins
game.
The game was
mostly a good workout for the Johnnie
gridders who had
little difficulty in
pounding out the
win. Most of the
regulars only played
a short while. Their
places were taken by
frequent substitutions from among the freshmen contenders who were being given a chance to show off
their ability as a prospective candidate for positions on next year's team.
The feature of the game was when Warren Hamman, playing for the first time against collegiate
competition, made a touchdown on the first play he took part in. He galloped 47 yards through the
entire Shenandoah team in the best run of the day.
HOPKINS
Five minutes after
the opening of the
game Len DeLisio
crossed the goal line
for the Johnnies after taking a pass
from Bossert on the
eleven yard mark.
This was the result
of the first of several continued drives down the field by the St. John's team.
The only touchdown accomplished by the Eagles was made in the close of the second stanza, climaxing a substantial goal line drive. For the first time this season, even against the stronger opponents
met at an earlier date, the Johnnie line gave ground before the assaults of an opponent.
In the closing game of the season the St. John's eleven downed the Hopkins grid-machine by a
score of 13 to 7. The initial Johnnie score was tallied by Bossert on a short line plunge, while Cal Lotz
recovered a blocked punt to race half the length of the field for the remaining score.
Johns Hopkins,
1 with a decidedly inferior eleven, but inspired with the usuj
al "do or die" spirit
;
found in the morale
of the underdog of
a Hopkins-St. John's
football game, rose
to great heights to
seriously
threaten
the splendid record
of the St. John's
team.
However, Hopkins was unable to
cope with the superior power and better
all round play of the
Crabtowners.
The
Johnnies held possession of the ball
for the greater part
of the game and
were it not for a
fumble on the part of the Orange and Black clad team on its own fourteen yard line, it is doubtful
whether or not Hopkins would have been able to score.
112
113
AMERICAN U.
^^
;
Displaying an aerial attack w h i c h
functioned smoothly,
the St. John's gridsters downed a stubborn American University eleven 26 to
7. Three hundred
spectators sat in the
drizzling rain to
watch the Johnnies
win their third victory.
�Basketball
Varsity Basketball
SEASON RECORD
S.j.c.
Opp-
Randolph Macon
Hampden-Sydney
23
37
V. M. 1
19
Washington & Lee
Elon
Hopkins
Potomac State
Western Maryland
Washington College
Mt. St. Mary's
26
35
36
29
40
21
24
18
32
20
37
25
28
31
41
40
36
S.J.C.
Loyola
American University
Swarthmore
Mt. St. Mary's
Hopkins
Washington College
Loyola
American University
Maryland
Western Maryland
28
44
37
20
25
19
25
35
24
35
Opp.
32
21
11
27
19
24
32
19
17
34
It is customary to compute the success of an athletic team during any given season by weighing the
number of games won against the number lost, but to judge the success of the 1934-35 basketball season
at St. John's in this manner would hardly be fair. Last year the Johnnies won the State Championship
and from the five men who generally made up the starting team, only one reported back for practice this
year. Coach Lentz had two lettermen on the squad of 27 men who reported in November to try for
the team, most of whom were freshmen, and yet he was able to develop a team of which St. John's
men were never ashamed; a team which won half its games including the two with Hopkins and the
one with Maryland. Only three of its losses were clean cut; two were by a single point; while five
were doubtful until the closing minutes of the game.
It was a green team, untested, and highly inexperienced that wore the Orange and Black of St.
John's against Randolph Macon early in December. This was the first game of the season. The students
had heard reports of some good prospective freshmen players on the Johnnie squad; some of the students had watched these prospects in practice, but few were willing to pass judgment on their ability as
college players until they had seen them in actual competition. The game was closely contested with
VALENTINE LENTZ
114
115
�St. John's leading most of the way but not playing brilliantly. The Johnnie
pass work was poor and errors were numerous but beneath the faults
could be seen the makings of what some day may be a great St. John's
team. St. John's won 23 to 18. A few days later against Hampden-Sydney
the Johnnie quint showed much improvement. In the first half St. John's
played brilliant ball to run up a thirteen point lead to coast to an easy
victory.
At this point the season was interrupted by the Christmas Holidays.
The Johnnies went home for a good time, forgetting much that their
early season games had taught them and so when they went on the annual
trip to Lexington, Virginia, for games with V. M. I. and Washington and
Lee they sort of reopened the season all over again. This time however
the reopening was not so successful, for the Orange clad team dropped
a heart-breaker on the V. M. I. court and lost by a goodly margin the
following night to a decidedly better W. and L. quint.
The Johnnie supporters began to look on their early season victories
as accidents until the Johnnies sent Elon College back home after a 35
to 25 drubbing in an unexpected victory. This renewed the faith in the
home team and so the students turned out en masse for the tilt with
Hopkins a few nights later. The game was one of the fastest seen on the
Johnnie floor with both quints resorting to quick breaks frequently. Indeed, at times the play was so fast that the referee was obliged to beg
the captains to play basketball and not engage in a track meet.
Immediately after the lay-off of nearly two weeks for mid-year
exams the Johnnies traveled to Cumberland to play an exhibition game
with Potomac State College. The smooth passing Johnnie team battled
with all the ability within its command in the fast game but fell on the
short end of a 31 to 29 count. The Cumberland Times classed the game
as "one of the most interesting, cleanest, and closest contested College
games ever staged in that city." On the way back to Annapolis the
Johnnies stopped off at Westminster to drop another close one to Western
Maryland by a score of 41-40.
Following this trip the College list of ineligibility was published,
clipping two regulars and several important substitutes from the squad.
116
The remodeled team consequently dropped the next three contests before
toppling American University by a count of 44 to 21. The new Johnnie
five was improving rapidly when it downed Swarthmore College on our
home court 37 to 11 but soon regained its place in the losing column
when it met the strong Mt. St. Mary's five. The game was a battle from
start to finish but St. John's was forced to take a 27 to 20 defeat.
Hopkins was met a second time in the next game and again the
Johnnies trounced their traditional rivals, this time 25 to 19. The game
was described as poorly played with both teams off in their shooting
but superior team-work was responsible for the victory.
Washington College's tall, rugged quint again took the Johnnies
over the jumps on the St. John's floor but not to the tune of a one-sided
score which characterized the first game. The Shoremen took an early
lead which they managed to hold throughout the entire game though at
times by a slim margin to win out in the end 19-24. A few days later
the Johnnies were forced to bow again before the strong Loyola quint
in spite of a desperate second half rally. The Greyhounds led 25 to 11
at the half time but barely eked out a 32-25 win after the Johnnies managed to bring the score to 25-24 in the closing minutes of the game.
Regaining their confidence in another set up with American University, the Johnnies wound up the season in a blaze of glory by defeating the University of Maryland and Western Maryland College. The
Johnnies entered the game with the Old Liners the underdog. They were
expected to lose by a good margin to the College Parkers who have
made it a habit to win from St. John's. Maryland boasted a tall rangy
group of experienced men, but they were just another ball club to the
Johnnies, who out fought them, as they had so many other teams, and
brought back a 24 to 17 victory.
The final game of the season was a thriller from start to finish as
both teams seemed to score at will. Western Maryland seized a threepoint lead at the opening of the game which represented the maximum
advantage gained by either team at any time during the game. The lead
changed hands frequently with the Johnnies leading at the halftime by two
points. The final score of the game was 35 to 34.
117
�Varsity Lacrosse
Lacrosse
SEASON RECORD
S.J.C.
Mt. Washington
Swarthmore
Washington College
C. C. N. Y.
' ,
4
19
13
20
8
4
0
3
S.J.C.
Opp.
Maryland
Syracuse
Hopkins
Army
Opp.
8
11
2
8
3
6
Although the 1934 lacrosse season at St. John's was highly successful from the point of view of
wins and losses, it was not as successful as might have been expected if expectations were based on midseason performances. Those who followed the progress of the Johnnie ten saw a potentially great team
develop rapidly to defeat decisively a fine team from the University of Maryland only to slide back the
following Saturday and take a beating at the hands of Johns Hopkins even worse than the one it had
itself meted out to the Old Liners. But St. John's has nothing to be ashamed of. The Johnnies suffered
only one defeat at the hands of an intercollegiate ten and thus took second place among the lacrosse
teams of the nation. All agree that the '34 St. John's lacrosse team was good; the fact that it cracked
under the pressure of a championship game alone keeps it from being deserving of the title "great".
St. John's opened the season against what was probably the finest club lacrosse team ever to play
lacrosse. Certainly no team ever sported such a finished group of players as those who made up the
line-up of the Mt. Washington Club which met and defeated the Orange and Black at Homewood field
8 to 4. The Johnnies played a fine brand of lacrosse throughout but were unable to cope with the superior talent presented by the club team. Practically every substitute used by the Hillmen was a former
All-American while the regular team was a collection of the outstanding college stars of Maryland lacrosse during the last few years. The Wolfpack thus possessed the youth of a college team and yet had
the beneficial experience of many years of college play. Outstanding as the leader of the Mt. Washington
attack was Lome Guild, former Hopkins luminary, who for the third time in as many years proved a
thorn in the side of the Johnnies. His brilliant individual efforts were alone responsible for four goals,
the margin of defeat. Both teams played a fine brand of ball to show "class" unsurpassed by any
early season clash in recent years.
ANGUS LAMOND
'tain
WILLIAM H. MOORE, III
Coach
118
119
�Still smarting from the defeat of the week before, the Johnnies brought back memories of the
championship teams of not so long ago, when, with ease and grace the St. John's lacrosse team rode to a
19 to 4 victory over Swarthmore College. Only one flaw appeared in the play of the Johnnies and it
was ironed out during the half time by Coach Moore. The mid-fielders were sucked out of position by
the Little Quakers frequently and three times Swarthmore utilized an extra man on quick breaks down
the field. High point scorer for the day was Everett Smith who tallied on seven occasions. He broke
loose on the crease for passes five times while he dodged twice through the Garnet defense for individual
scores. Dave Nopper figured prominently in the scoring spurt of the first six minutes of the second half
during which five goals were scored. Five times he got possession of the ball behind the net and
dodged his man. First four times he sent accurate passes to open men on the crease, while the
fifth time he sent a bullet-like shot over the goalie's shoulder.
The frolicking Johnnies easily routed the representatives of Washington College the following
Wednesday afternoon by a score of 13 to 0. The game, which was transferred from Annapolis to Salisbury at the request of the St. John's Alumni group in that City, was played before 2,000 spectators who
crowded about the field, overflowing the stands. Unfortunately the field was of soft sand which caused
the play to be much slower than ordinarily and led to sloppy stickwork. The outstanding part of this
one-sided contest was when the attack went on a scoring spree early in the second half to set what is
probably a record for rapid scoring. In spite of the frantic efforts of Coach Moore to keep the score
down through substitutions, the Johnnies chalked up six goals in 1 minute and 57 seconds of elapsed
playing time, average three goals per minute. One goal was scored seven seconds after the face-off.
By downing the City College of New York stickmen, the St. John's lacrosse team won its third
victory of the season by a score of 20 to 3. Although the Orange and Black attack scored almost at will,
the general play of the team was below par while the stickwork was ragged throughout. The visiting
defensemen checked the Johnnie attackers well out beyond the shooting circle necessitating a dodging
type of game which did not prove a disadvantage to the versatile Johnnie team. Everett Smith was again
high scorer with six points while Dave Nopper was next with four.
The Johnnie team reached its peak against the University of Maryland when it defeated the strong
College Park ten 8 to 3. From the very beginning of play on, there was little doubt as to the ultimate
result of the contest, as the Orange and Black clad men worked in perfect unison to pump goal after
goal into the Maryland netting with an ease which was very gratifying to the Johnnie rooters. The St.
John's defense surprised all the dopesters by stopping the strong Maryland attack with air-tight play.
120
Not once was the Old Line attack able to score when the Johnnies had full strength on the field. Two
of the Maryland tallies were made with three extra men while the other was accomplished with one
extra. In the midfield Donohue stood out. But it was not any one man who was responsible for the victory but ten men working together.
On the following Monday afternoon the Johnnies coasted to an easy 11-6 victory over Syracuse.
The high powered Johnnie attack easily rolled up a five goal lead in the first quarter, placing the Orange
and Black in a position to ride to an easy triumph. Dave Nopper played one of his best games as he
dodged and squirmed his way through the Orange of Syracuse for three of the five goals netted in the
first quarter. He tied for scoring honors for the day with Kibler and Donohue who likewise netted
three goals apiece. The game was characterized by a distinct let down on the part of St. John's after
the hard game of the Saturday previous. Coach Moore gave nearly all of his squad a chance to play
at some time or another during the course of the afternoon as a total of twenty-one men saw action.
On Saturday of the same week the championship hopes of the St. John's lacrosse team were
shattered when the Johnnies met Hopkins in Baltimore and were defeated by a score of 8-2. The St.
John's team was generally off color while the Jays were "on". The result was a nightmare
for the loyal sons of S. J. C. who sat wriggling in their seats while the score continued to mount on one
side of the board seemingly without end while remaining stationary on the other. There was little
doubt that the Jays rose that day to heights which the '34 Johnnie team was incapable of rising.
On a hot late May afternoon the Johnnies closed their season against West Point with an 8 to 6
win over the Cadets. Led by Donohue's three goals, the Johnnies rolled up an eight to two lead during
the first three periods to coast to victory. Three stages were apparent in the play of the Johnnies as the
spectators saw the Annapolis team pump six goals into the Army netting in the first half, ease off in
the third period and crumple in the final quarter before the superior conditioned Army team. The Cadets staged a desperate rally in the final period, scoring four goals but were checked in time by the
fighting Johnnie team which seemed to gain its second wind as the game neared its end.
121
�F E A T U R E S
Intramural
Council
INTRAMURAL CHAMPIONS
1934 - 3 5
FALL BASEBALL
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
BASKETBALL
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
FALL HORSESHOES
Singles—Brown—Phi Sigma Kappa
Doubles—Welty - Sellman—Sigma Alpha Epsilon
HANDBALL
Singles—O'Connor—Delta Psi Omega
Doubles—O'Connor - Wall—Delta Psi Omega
FOUL SHOOTING
O'Connor—Delta Psi Omega
FALL TENNIS
Singles—Grier—Dormitory
Doubles—Kesmodel - Horn—Kappa Alpha
TRACK MEET
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
TOUCH FOOTBALL
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
Phi Sigma Kappa—(Tie)
SPRING BASEBALL
Sigma Alpha Epsilon—Alpha Kappa Pi—
Kappa Alpha—(Triple Tie)
SOCCER
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
Phi Sigma Kappa—(Tie)
FIELD MEET
Phi Sigma Kappa
122
. •:
�GRADUATION
125
�RATTING
NEW BUILDING
126
127
�HHX
i
N n n
v
�During the past year the Alumni Bulletin has been doing good work under the management of
Claxton O'Connor. Several Alumni Issues of the St. John's Collegian were sent out to over two thousand
St. John's graduates. Contacts with distant alumni are being made so that a greater unity and increased
strength will be felt.
One great activity undertaken by the Alumni Association is the Loyalty Fund. This fund includes
three sub-funds: the Boat House Fund, the Scholarship Fund, and the Clarence Wilson Stryker Library
Fund. The raising and administering of this money is under the supervision of the following trustees:
Dr. Amos Hutchins, Roland M. Wegner, Luther B. Miller, and Harry Sturdy.
The National Association feels that a great deal has been accomplished in a practical way and that
a great deal more has been done toward raising the morale among the alumni and at the college. Greater
accomplishments are expected next year—among them the completion of the boat house in time for the
Homecoming Day in November, 1935.
National Association: Luther Stitt Tall '21, President; Roland M. Wegner '24, Secretary; William
F. Stromeyer '16, Treasurer; Claxton O'Connor '30, Assistant Secretary.
Board of Directors: Dr. Amos Hutchins, Robert H. Williams, Dr. J. Murphy, Amos W. W. Woodcock, Capt. Douglas Howard, Chas. Cummins, Major E. A. Harrison, Lieut.-Col. Harry C. Ruhl, Edwin
Warfield, Edward Fell, Urguhart Dowell, J. E. Heise, Charles Burton, Jr., William Purnell, J. Carroll
John, Dr. Robt. Bier, Harry Sturdy, John Green, G. Wisner, Luther B. Miller.
Branch President who automatically are Vice Presidents of the National Association: Paul Banfield,
Washington; H. C. Hill, Baltimore; Dr. R. Welch, Annapolis; R. F. Finnell, Richmond; W. J. Jones,
Cambridge; J. Morriss, Salisbury; J. Dugan, Boston; Dr. R. Cook, Cumberland; C. W. Keefer, Los Angeles, Calif.
LUTHER S. TALL
St. John's College Alumni
I
N November, 1933, a movement was started to revive interest in the St. John's College Alumni
Association in order to promote interest among the alumni and to assist the college. The following officers were elected to serve for one year: Luther S. Tall '21, president; Roland M. Wegner
'24, secretary; William F. Stromeyer '16, treasurer, and Claxton O'Connor '30, assistant secretary. A plan
was adopted whereby the association would be organized on a national scale and incorporated under
the laws of the State of Maryland.
During the year of 1933 Branch Associations were formed in Baltimore, Washington, Annapolis,
Richmond, Boston, Cumberland,' Cambridge., and Salisbury. Each of these branches increased its activities
in the form of luncheons, dinners, and smokers, and the attendance broke all past records. The National
Association adopted a resolution that it must arrange twice a year, once in November on Home Coming
Day and again on Commencement Day in June, to entertain the alumni on the campus in Annapolis.
The Alumni Association wishing to obtain an Alumnus of St. John's as president of the
twenty-five alumni registered during the day. On Homecoming Day, November 3, 1934, four hundred
and twenty-five alumni were present at the formal inauguration of President Woodcock and at the laying
of the corner stone for the new boathouse, an alumni project. Enthusiasm among alumni over the
prospects of the college seemed to be high—reflecting confidence in the abilities of President Woodcock,
Dean Douglas Howard, and Major Evelyn Harrison, assistant to the president. The national officers of
the association were reelected at the business meeting and the organization of a new branch association
in Los Angeles, Calif., was announced.
130
�ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The staff of the 1935 Rat-Tat gratefully acknowledges the aid
of the following persons who have lent us a willing hand at all
times and without whom our task would have been infinitely greater.
MR. SIDNEY C. SCHULTZ. of H. G. Roebuck & Son
MR. LEONARD BROWN, of H. Zamsky & Co.
YARDLEY, of the Baltimore Sun
MR. HOWARD HAYMAN, of Hayman Studios
MR. LAWRENCE McNALLY, of the Baltimore News
CHARLES M. ROEBUCK
MRS. RICHARD KUEHNEMUND
MR. ALLISON TRADER
133
�ADVERTISEMENTS
�•»•,.*..•..•..•..•..•..*•••
^^
The Annapolis Banking and
Trust Company
Compliments of
The
"Every banking facility"
Annapolis Dairy Products
STATE, COUNTY, AND CITY DEPOSITORY
Company
DEPOSITS INSURED
(Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation)
Approved by the Federal Housing Administration for the purpose of extending moderization
THE ARUNDEL CORPORATION
and mortgage loans to property owners.
Baltimore, Md.
Constructors and Engineers
For detailed information apply to
and
The Annapolis Banking and
Trust Company
Distributors of
SAND — GRAVEL
and
MAIN STREET AT CHURCH CIRCLE
COMMERCIAL SLAG
Annapolis, Maryland
�THE DAILY RECORD
The Capital Gazette Press
And Why You Should Read
INCORPORATED
It Each Day
Run Right To
It is a daily newspaper containing
news of interest from all parts of the
world, furnished by The United Press and
other services. The News published in
this valuable paper is selected by Editors trained for that particular purpose.
The Daily Record also publishes each
day decisions of the Federal and State
Courts of Maryland and many other
legal items of general interest.
A wide range of commercial and
financial news is also furnished the
readers, as well as news of the activities
of the various State and Municipal
Departments.
Publishers of
THE EVENING CAPITAL
and
THE MARYLAND GAZETTE
Phone: ANnapolis 330
3 CHURCH CIRCLE
ANNAPOLIS, MD.
Subscription 50c per month or $6.00
per year.
READ'S
For All Your Drug Store
Needs!
176 MAIN STREET
Phone: Annapolis I 145
Call PLaza 3849
THE GIFT SHOP
COMPLIMENTS OF
Gifts — Greeting Cards — Souvenirs
Voneiff - Drayer Candy Co.
Etchings of Annapoils
Makers of
187 MAIN STREET
— FINE CANDIES —
Compliments of
St. Johnnies gather at the
(Next to Republic Theater)
BALTIMORE, MD.
ANNAPOLIS-CLAIBORNE
LITTLE
CAMPUS
IDEAL BARBER SHOP
FERRY COMPANY
For Good Things To Eat
Open from 7 A. M. to 7 P. M.
J. F. JOHNSON
Saturday to 9 P. M.
LUMBER COMPANY
Harry Meyerson, Prop.
36 WEST STREET
ANNAPOLIS
Annapolis, Maryland
HAIRCUTS — 35c
*•-**••-•*"*-•*'••-*-*••*-*•••*•*•••-»••*••»"*•••.•*.-*.-*-.*.-•.'•..»..•..»..•..»..*..»....,.........,„,..
>••"•"•»••••••••••*•••••*•••••••••••..•..•..•. ..••••••••••••••>»»»»«>.»..»..t.,«..*..»..|<i
�Universal Motors
BUY YOUR NEXT CAR HERE
The RAT TAT
Compliments
A Modern Annual
Hopkins
Pharmacy
Telephone: 174
Throughout its production, every
care was exercised in building a year
book which would be a credit to St.
John's College, and to ourselves.
269 WEST STREET
Annapolis, Md.
To school and college annual
staffs everywhere, we offer our completely equipped plant, our years of
college craftsman experience, willing
service and quality printing.
Zamsky Studios/ Inc
902 CHESTNUT ST.
Philadelphia, Pa.
H. G. R O E B U C K &
Official Photographers of 1935 Rat-Tat
•*"
119 W. Mulberry Street
•••••••••••••••of
SON
BALTIMORE
��
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
Yearbooks
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains yearbooks from St. John's College in Annapolis, MD. Yearbooks are sometimes referred to as the "Rat Tat", "Cicerone", or "Canvas". This collection includes all published yearbooks since 1896. Please note that yearbooks were not published every year.<br /><br />Holdings: <br />1896 v. 1<br />1898 v. 2 - 1899 v. 3<br />1901 v. 4 – 1912 v. 15<br />1914 v. 17 – 1918 v. 21<br />1920 v. 22 – 1945/1946<br />1947 – 1951/1953<br />1957<br />1982<br />1986 – 1990/1991<br />1992 – 2001/2002<br />2015/2016 – 2017/2018<br />2021/2022 - 2024/2025<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Yearbooks" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=21">Items in the Yearbooks Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
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
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
yearbooks
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 (bound book)
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
141 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 Rat Tat 1935
Description
An account of the resource
The Rat-Tat 1935. Published by the Junior Class of 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
Baltimore, MD
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1935
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
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
1935
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Clark, Garnett Y. (Editor-in-Chief)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
H. G. Roebuck & Son
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/2cb26b86d43674b03e29df89ef4723d6.pdf
3651e6e0f0a3c2ca9f7933962a81c6ca
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
Yearbooks
Description
An account of the resource
This collection contains yearbooks from St. John's College in Annapolis, MD. Yearbooks are sometimes referred to as the "Rat Tat", "Cicerone", or "Canvas". This collection includes all published yearbooks since 1896. Please note that yearbooks were not published every year.<br /><br />Holdings: <br />1896 v. 1<br />1898 v. 2 - 1899 v. 3<br />1901 v. 4 – 1912 v. 15<br />1914 v. 17 – 1918 v. 21<br />1920 v. 22 – 1945/1946<br />1947 – 1951/1953<br />1957<br />1982<br />1986 – 1990/1991<br />1992 – 2001/2002<br />2015/2016 – 2017/2018<br />2021/2022 - 2024/2025<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Yearbooks" href="http://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=21">Items in the Yearbooks Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
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
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
yearbooks
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 (bound book)
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
176, xxiv 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 Rat-Tat of Tradition 1928
Description
An account of the resource
The Rat-Tat of Tradition. Annual publication of the Junior Class of Saint John's College, Annapolis, Maryland. Volume Thirty.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Clark, S. Oliver (Editor-in-Chief)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
J. P. Bell Company, Inc.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Lynchburg, Virginia
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1928
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College own 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
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
1928
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/f5dd24448212878cb4c7eaffc4f96e5b.pdf
72de20d7f198ec7b9f7f532433dceefb
PDF Text
Text
Education of the Regime and the Soul in The Federalist∗
Charles C. Claunch∗∗
Abstract: As a general proposition, any regime requires at least some of its citizens to think and
behave in ways that, at a minimum, do not undermine the regime. That requirement points to the
need for education for at least some of the regime’s citizens. In presenting arguments for
ratification of the U.S. Constitution, however, the authors of The Federalist make no explicit
argument for such education. Despite this omission, The Federalist provides the basis for an
education in citizenship in two respects. First, The Federalist, as a work of public, reasoned
advocacy, teaches it readers not only the need for the Constitution and the meanings (or possible
meanings) of it provisions, but how to think about it and how to act in the constitutional regime
to be created under it. The authors intended The Federalist to be a continuing basis for thought,
conversation, and action after ratification. Second, by dealing explicitly with what we now call
the doctrine of judicial review, the authors of The Federalist made explicit the idea of a small
group of specially-selected people voiding acts of the legislative and executive branches of the
government. This role of the federal judiciary may be recognized as that of teacher. The federal
courts’ interpretations of the Constitution and the law are the judges’ teachings, and the officers
of the political branches and the regime’s citizens are the judges’ students. The Federalist and
the work of judges serve as an education for governing ourselves as individual souls and as a
Constitutional regime.
This essay has its origins in a master’s essay I wrote for St. John’s College in Santa Fe in
2005.1 It’s a pleasure to revisit this place with a continuation of work that I started here almost
ten years ago. The title of that thesis was “State and Soul in The Federalist.” The title of my
essay today reflects better terminology – “regime” instead of “state” – and a concentration on
and expansion of the final section of that essay.
Very briefly: in “State and Soul in The Federalist,” I explored what is required of a
citizen in the conception of the U.S. Constitution held by the authors of The Federalist.
∗
Presented at “What Is Liberal Education For? A Conference at St. John’s College on the 50th Anniversary of the
Santa Fe Campus” on 16 October 2014.
∗∗
Charles C. Claunch is a Ph.D. student in the Institute of Philosophic Studies of the Braniff School of Liberal
Arts and in the Department of Politics, University of Dallas, Irving, Texas. He is an adjunct professor of
government at Tarrant County College, Fort Worth, Texas, and at Richland College, Dallas, Texas. He is also a
Texas attorney and a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law (J.D., 1998). He completed both
graduate degrees offered by St. John’s College, Santa Fe, New Mexico (M.A.L.A., 2004; M.A.E.C., 2005).
1
Charles C. Claunch, “State and Soul in The Federalist,” (M.A. Liberal Arts thesis, St. John’s College, Santa Fe,
2005).
�2
Following up on the authors’ suggestion that government is “the greatest of all
reflections on human nature,” I used the Constitutional regime described in The Federalist to
understand both that regime and the individual “Constitutional soul.”2 In that original essay, I
made the following broad points:
1. Power can be exercised legitimately by all three branches of the Constitutional regime,
but the judiciary can void acts of the legislature and the executive; we call this today “judicial
review.” This suggests, correspondingly, that the individual can use judgment, will, and force (to
use the terms of The Federalist)3 but that judgment can exercise a certain kind of control over
will and force.4
2. The necessary and proper clause5 suggests personal liberty with a necessarily broad
reach and the supremacy clause6 suggests the acceptability of one’s acts, according to one’s
judgment, as long as they are compatible with one’s responsibilities.7
3. The discussion of the control of faction in No. 10 of The Federalist suggests control of
individual passions through (a) the development by the individual of a variety of interests, none
of which motivate his actions completely but all of which engage his attention to some moderate
degree, and (b) the reduction of time and energy devoted to any single interest, reducing the
chances of waste or of indulging in passions with regard to any single interest.8
2
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the
United States, ed. Robert Scigliano (New York: Modern Library, 2000) (“The Federalist”), No. 51, 331.
3
Ibid., No. 78, 496.
4
Claunch, 2-6.
5
U.S. Constitution, art. 1, sec. 8, cl. 18.
6
Ibid., art. 6, cl. 2.
7
Claunch, 6-10.
8
The Federalist, No. 10, 53-61; Claunch, 11-15.
�3
4. Appropriate judicial review and political acts mutually affect each other. Appropriate
judicial review provides a reasoned sense of the limits of Constitutional power in various
circumstances, and Constitutionally-minded deliberations, policy statements, and legal defenses
justifying the political branches’ acts provide grist for the mill of a well-informed and wellreasoned judicial review. This suggests that similarly, individual judgment and one’s acts of will
and force mutually affect each other. Individual judgment is used to determine the extent and
responsibilities of one’s individual liberty, and in doing so it governs one’s acts of will and force;
one’s acts of will and force and the reasons for them provide material on which individual
judgment can operate.9
5. The actions of the Constitutional convention, the ratification of the Constitution, and
the various methods of Constitutional amendment suggest the wisdom of adoption of new or
revised individual standards in the presence of outmoded or inadequate standards. They should
be changed greatly, however, only when necessary; generally, they should be changed only
incrementally. The defense by the authors of The Federalist of Constitutional drafting,
ratification, and amendment is an expression of their confidence in the capacity of the people,
together and as individuals, to use judgment, will, and force to assess and change standards in a
harmony that makes good use of liberty.10
6. The authors of The Federalist present the Constitution as an invitation to and a means
for the people, individually and collectively, to rise above their usual selves at the same time as it
tries to protect them from their failure to do so. This rise, however, requires an understanding of
9
Claunch, 15-21.
10
Ibid., 21-27.
�4
the Constitution and of the individual. Both the existence and the lessons of The Federalist
indicate that the authors believe that such understanding can be taught and learned.11
All of these broad points were developed to lead to the idea that The Federalist and
judges play important roles in the education of the Constitutional regime and the citizen of that
regime. I turn now to the final section of the thesis and my expansion of it for our conference
today.12
The Constitution makes no explicit provision for, and The Federalist makes no explicit
argument for, education. Despite the omission of an explicit discussion, however, The Federalist
provides the basis for an education in citizenship in two respects. First, the authors of The
Federalist, as a work of public, reasoned advocacy, teach their readers the need for the
Constitution and the meanings or possible meanings of its provisions and how to think about it
and how to act in the Constitutional regime to be created under it. With their detailed arguments,
the authors ask their readers to think deeply and to assess or make cogent counterarguments
concerning their government. In particular, the arguments of the authors regarding the meanings
of the more contentious provisions make it clear that after ratification those provisions’ meanings
and implications will have to be worked out in practice through day-to-day operation of the
government. The thrust of The Federalist is that the Constitution allows its meanings and
implications to unfold in time, within limits. Beyond assisting ratification, by making their
arguments, they intended to shape future debates by providing a continuing basis for thought,
conversation, and action after ratification.
11
Ibid., 27.
12
Ibid., 28-32.
�5
Second, by dealing explicitly with what we now call the doctrine of judicial review, the
authors of The Federalist made explicit the idea of a small group of specially-selected people
voiding acts of the legislative and executive branches of the government, at times against the
immediate will of the people but in conformance with the will of the people as expressed in the
Constitution. Despite their argument that the judiciary is the “least dangerous” of the branches,
the actual power of judicial review is clear enough from the authors’ discussion as a whole.13 If
the judiciary’s interpretation of the law is to be called rule by an unelected elite, it is very
indirect rule, practiced through decisions in cases raised by legislative and executive acts and
subject to limitation and change through amendments to the Constitution. If it is to be called
politics, it is an attenuated politics, filtered through the formal requirements of explaining
decisions in terms of law, and again subject to limitation and change through Constitutional
amendment. As an alternative to these negative characterizations, the role of the federal judiciary
may be recognized positively as that of teacher. The federal courts’ interpretations of the
Constitution and the law are the judges’ teachings, and the officers of the political branches and
the regime’s citizens are their students. The judges and their interpretations are one source of
understanding of how we, as a Constitutional regime and as individuals in it, may govern
ourselves.
Judges are fallible, like all other humans, and therefore their judging and their teachings
are liable to fallibility. Their isolation from the political branches and from the politics of the
people cannot isolate them from their own humanity. Judges must have and are expected to
exercise the same qualities for which the authors of The Federalist hoped in the people’s choices
as political agents—but the necessity of isolation means that they are expected to have the same
13
The Federalist, No. 78, 496.
�6
weaknesses as the rest of us, too. The issue is whether judges can be expected, in their isolation
from politics, to turn away from personal passions and illegitimate interests to a reasonable
degree, or whether they should be expected to indulge them without adequate restraint. The
mechanism described by the authors to prevent a concentration of power in one department in
which “the interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional right of the place,” has
only limited applicability to the judiciary.14 The quality of ambition required by this competition
among the branches seems incompatible with the particular quality of public-spiritedness
required of judges. By participating in such institutional ambition contests, judges would risk
setting themselves up as a third political branch that is concerned primarily with policy like the
other two branches. In keeping with the unique nature of the role and power of the judiciary with
respect to the other two governmental branches, the measures appropriate to assist judges in
performing their role are different than the measures designed for politicians.
To work successfully as judges and teachers, judges must exercise a self-control that is
analogous to the governmental self-control that they exert on other parts of the government.
Most crucially among government agents, judges must confine themselves to acts of will and
force that lie within the boundaries imposed by their Constitutional positions. Their isolation
improves their opportunity to internalize those constraints, but it does not give them the required
means. Judges must have the will and the force to do what judgment tells them that they must do
and to refrain from doing what it tells them that they must not do. They must direct and teach
without dictating. If they are successful at self-control, they teach the remainder of the
government and the people Constitutional self-control by exposition and example through their
public, reasoned opinions and through the self-control that gives rise to those opinions. Thus,
14
Ibid., No. 51, 331.
�7
well-behaved judges are also a source of our understanding of how we may govern ourselves as
individuals.
To illustrate well-behaved federal judges displaying such judicial self-control, I present
two examples of relevant judicial teaching among many attractive candidates. The first example
is Justice James Wilson’s seriatim opinion in Chisholm v. Georgia.15 The second example is the
introductory part of the opinion of Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr., in National Federation of
Independent Business (NFIB) v. Sebelius.16
Chisholm presented this question: was the State of Georgia subject to the jurisdiction of
the U.S. Supreme Court in a suit brought by two South Carolina citizens against Georgia to
collect a debt? The relevant Constitutional provision stated that “[t]he Judicial Power [vested in
the U.S. Supreme Court] shall extend … to Controversies … between a State and Citizens of
another State ….”17 Taken literally, the Constitution granted the Court jurisdiction over states in
suits like the Chisholm suit. But in answering objections to this provision in The Federalist,
Publius argued that
[i]t is inherent in the nature of sovereignty, not to be amenable to the suit of an individual
without its consent …. [T]he exemption, as one of the several attributes of sovereignty, is
now enjoyed by the government of every state in the union. Unless, therefore, there is a
surrender of this immunity in the plan of the convention [the proposed Constitution], it
will remain with the states, and the danger intimated must remain merely ideal…. [T]o
ascribe to the federal courts, by mere implication, and in destruction of a pre-existing
right of the state governments, a power which would involve such a consequence, would
be altogether forced and unwarrantable.18
15
2 U.S. (2 Dall.) 419, 453-66 (1793).
16
567 U.S. ________ (2012) (opinion of Roberts, C.J.) (slip opinion). Parts of this opinion – though not the
introduction discussed here – were the opinion of the Court.
17
U.S. Constitution, art. 3, sec. 2, cl. 1.
18
The Federalist, No. 81, 521-22.
�8
In seriatim opinions, four out of five members of the U.S. Supreme Court, including
Justice Wilson, made the “forced and unwarrantable” inference dismissed by Publius, deciding
that the Court had jurisdiction over Georgia, with one justice dissenting.19 Rather than starting
with the relevant clause of the U.S. Constitution and its implications, Wilson started with the
much broader question, “Do the people of the United States form a nation?” Wilson’s opinion in
Chisholm is a rich display of learning in philosophy and law, and it can be appreciated as a
lesson to the public about how to think about what ratifying the Constitution meant.
Amusingly, Wilson used the wording of a toast to make a profound Constitutional point.
He noted that the toast is given in the form, “[t]he United States,” instead of “[t]he People of the
United States,” and that this reflects a confusion between the artificial person, the United States,
and the natural person, the people of the United States, who “spoke it [the United States] into
existence.”20 In adopting the Constitution, the people – including the people of Georgia speaking
as part of the people of the United States – were capable of vesting and did in fact vest judicial
power over states, including Georgia, in federal courts.21
Among the lines of argument that Wilson followed, I focus here on his treatment of the
scope of Georgia’s sovereignty as a state of the United States. He argued that the citizens of
Georgia, when “they acted upon the large scale of the Union,” acted “as a part of the ‘People of
the United States’” and did not surrender their sovereign power to Georgia; rather, with respect
19
2 U.S. (2 Dall.) 419, 429-50 (seriatim opinion of Iredell, J., dissenting), 450-53 (seriatim opinion of Blair, J.),
453-66 (seriatim opinion of Wilson, J.), 466-69 (seriatim opinion of Cushing, J.), 469-79 (seriatim opinion of
Jay, C.J.).
20
Wilson, James, Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 U.S. (2 Dall.) 419, 453-66 (1793) (seriatim opinion), in Vol. 1, The
Collected Works of James Wilson, eds. Kermit Hall and Mark David Hall (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2007),
362.
21
Ibid., 362.
�9
to the purposes of the Union, they retained their sovereign power to themselves.22 Consequently,
the State of Georgia was not a sovereign state with regard to the Union.23 Later in his opinion,
Wilson argued that the Court’s decision of the case at hand was one of purposes of the United
States, so that Georgia was not sovereign for the purpose of the suit.
He further argued at length that the people of the United States intended to form a
national government for national purposes, complete with legislative, executive, and judicial
power.24 Contrary to Publius, Wilson argues that to have allowed in this complete national
scheme an exception for states to consent to be sued would “be repugnant to our very existence
as a nation[.]”25 This is an instance in which Wilson’s teaching with regard to nationhood
differed from that of Publius. As noted above, Publius saw nothing repugnant to the
Constitutional regime for states to retain sovereign immunity.
Only after following several other lines of argument to reach the conclusion that Georgia
was subject to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in the suit (and I leave the others aside in the
present essay) does Wilson turn to the meaning of the specific relevant text of the Constitution.
“[C]ould this strict and appropriated language, describe, with more precise accuracy, the cause
now depending before the tribunal?”26 The question is rhetorical, and the answer, to Wilson,
obviously negative. Note that with respect the Constitutional text, Wilson and Publius taught two
different but reasonable ways of reading the grant of power. Wilson read the grant strictly,
requiring no additional language to deprive the states of the relevant aspect of sovereign
22
Ibid., 355
23
Ibid.
24
Ibid., 362-66.
25
Ibid., 365.
26
Ibid., 365-66.
�10
immunity, while Publius read the grant in the context of the states’ historical powers,
understanding it to be limited tacitly by the states’ sovereign immunity absent specific language
denying that immunity to the states. Like the authors of The Federalist, Wilson explained the
reasons for his opinion publicly and clearly, teaching the people a particular method of thinking
about themselves and the Constitution that they had adopted. It was left to the people and their
elected representatives to decide whether Wilson’s lessons, the lessons of The Federalist, or
some other lessons would be accepted. In this particular case, the people – through their elected
representatives in the Congress and in the requisite number of states – rejected his teaching and
that of the Supreme Court majority. In 1794 the Congress proposed and in 1794 and 1795 the
requisite number of state legislatures ratified the Eleventh Amendment to exempt a state from
suits by citizens of another state or by citizens or subjects of a foreign state. This rapid response
to the Court’s decision in Chisholm is itself an illustration of the capacity of the people, acting
through their elected representatives, to react to federal judicial decisions.
Chief Justice Roberts’s more recent opinion in National Federation of Independent
Business v. Sebelius was a much more direct example of judicial teaching.27 In the first six pages,
Roberts was obviously teaching his readers certain aspects of the judiciary’s relationship to the
political branches, the people, and the Constitution. He began his lesson by pointing out that
“[i]n our federal system, the National Government possesses only limited powers; the States and
the people retain the remainder,” and by quoting Chief Justice Marshall’s observation that the
extent of the powers granted to the federal government “will probably continue to arise, as long
as our system shall exist.”28 “Resolving this controversy [the issue at hand] requires us to
27
National Fed’n of Indep. Bus. v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. ________ (2012) (slip opinion) (“NFIB”); NFIB, opinion of
Roberts, C.J.
28
NFIB, opinion of Roberts, C.J., 2.
�11
examine both the limits of the Government’s power, and our own limited role in policing those
boundaries.”29 Our concern here is primarily with Roberts’s examination of the Court’s role in
enforcing the limits of the federal government’s powers.
Roberts argued that the Supreme Court reads Constitutional grants of power to the federal
government “permissively” because it is reluctant to void acts of elected federal officials. In
Roberts’s view of the Court’s role, the Court should void such an act only when the absence of
Constitutional authority to pass the act (or, by extension, the absence of Constitutional authority
to perform an executive act) is clearly demonstrated.30 “[Policy] decisions are entrusted to the
Nation’s elected leaders, who can be thrown out of office if the people disagree with them. It is
not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.”31 On the other
hand, according to Roberts, “[o]ur deference in matters of policy cannot, however, become
abdication on matters of law…. [T]here can be no question that it is the responsibility of this
Court to enforce the limits on federal power by striking down acts of Congress that transgress
those limits.”32 By logical extension, Roberts’s argument extends to voiding executive acts that
transcend Constitutional limits, too.
Aside from his obvious teaching of the role of the people and of elected officials in the
Constitutional regime, Roberts’s argument implies that the Supreme Court and the federal courts
generally have an educational role. When an issue is presented for decision by a court, that court
must decide which Constitutional grants and limits on federal power are relevant to the issue, and
it must explain the reasons for that decision to the public. The court must then decide whether the
29
Ibid., 2.
30
Ibid., 6.
31
Ibid.
32
Ibid.
�12
legislative or executive act at issue is a transgression of Constitutional limits, again publicly
explaining the reasons for the decision. The fact that Roberts explains the role of the Court
strongly implies that he understands that for the Court to be seen to be staying out of policy
decisions and to be seen as making legitimate Constitutional decisions, it must explain its
decisions publicly and credibly. Going beyond such limited efforts to retain credibility, Roberts’s
teaching points to the Court’s role in educating the public and government officials about the
Court’s responsibilities with regard to policy judgments and Constitutional judgments. Careful
delineation of the policy and Constitutional questions and careful observance by judges of their
responsibilities with respect to those questions serve to teach the public Constitutional and
personal self-control.
It is entirely possible, of course, that the Court can make a policy judgment by mistaking
it for or disguising it as a Constitutional judgment, and it has been accused of doing so (e.g., in
NFIB v. Sebelius). The value of public explanations, as noted in the discussion of Wilson and
Chisholm, is that they provide material that government officials and the public can use to make
their own judgments in accepting or rejecting their judges’ teachings.
As the authors of The Federalist point out, if judges fail in self-control, the last resort lies
in the people themselves.33 Do people need to be made ready for such responsibility, and if so,
how? According to the authors of The Federalist, men require government “because the passions
of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.”34 Free people
require more than the constraining Constitutional regime described in The Federalist; they
require self-control. The authors of The Federalist appeal to a capacity among their readers to
33
The Federalist, No. 51, 331-32.
34
Ibid., No. 15, 91.
�13
consider their arguments. Individuals must learn, or they must be taught, even that preliminary
skill, and, as the foregoing discussion suggests, much more is required of Constitutional citizens.
They must have the capacity to choose their agents well and to observe and judge them carefully.
To observe and judge the behavior of political officers and judges with respect to the
Constitution, an individual must understand the dynamic of legislative and executive action and
judicial review as they relate to his liberty so that he may act in his rationally-directed and
rationally-constrained interests. The Constitutional regime requires self-constrained citizens who
are capable of establishing and maintaining a government that can constrain them when
necessary and a government that in turn can exercise and demonstrate power responsibly by
exercising and demonstrating self-restraint. The Constitutional regime and the Constitutional
citizen must mutually shape and sustain each other. The Federalist is a significant feature of that
mutual shaping and sustaining, speaking to the people for a conception of the Constitution and
providing a model for some of the continuing requirements of citizenship. The judiciary, as it
plays its unique role in the Constitutional regime as intermediary between the people and their
legislative and executive agents, speaking for the Constitution to the people and their agents and
providing examples and explanations for the continuing requirements of government, is also a
significant feature of that mutual shaping and sustaining.35 The Federalist and the work of judges
serve as an education for governing ourselves as individual souls and as a Constitutional regime.
35
“It is far more rational to suppose, that the courts were designed to be an intermediate body between the people
and their legislature, in order, among other things, to keep the latter within the limits assigned to their
authority.” The Federalist, No. 78, 498.
�14
Works Cited
Claunch, Charles C. “State and Soul in The Federalist.” M.A. Liberal Arts thesis. St. John’s
College, Santa Fe, 2005.
Chisholm v. Georgia. 2 U.S. (2 Dall.) 419, 453-66 (1793).
Hamilton, Alexander, John Jay, and James Madison. The Federalist: A Commentary on the
Constitution of the United States. Edited by Robert Scigliano. New York: Modern
Library, 2000.
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius. 567 U.S. _______ (2012). Slip
opinion.
Roberts, John R., Jr. National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius. 567 U.S. _______
(2012) (opinion). Slip opinion.
Wilson, James. Chisholm v. Georgia. 2 U.S. (2 Dall.) 419, 453-66 (1793) (seriatim opinion). In
Vol. 1, Collected Works of James Wilson. Edited by Kermit Hall and Mark David Hall.
Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2007.
�
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
"What is Liberal Education For?" 2014 Conference Papers
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
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2014-10
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Meem Library has been given permission to make these items available online.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF
Language
A language of the resource
English
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Meem Library
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.
14 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
Education of the regime and the soul in The Federalist
Description
An account of the resource
Paper presented October 16, 2014 by Charles Claunch at What is Liberal Education For? : a conference at St. John's College on the 50th Anniversary of the Santa Fe campus.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Claunch, Charles C.
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
2014-10-16
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
Federalist.
Education, Humanistic
Language
A language of the resource
English
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
24004524
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/17cffc358f44dbfe1062b2322a32d096.pdf
5bca238a0ff7cc3a1f9c07d4e3f0cc95
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>The Gadfly</em>
Description
An account of the resource
Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
thegadfly
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
8 pages
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
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/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Vol. 14 #1
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Clement, David Q. (Editor-in-Chief)
Klein, Amanda (Editor-in-Chief)
Title
A name given to the resource
The Gadfly, Vol XIV Issue 1
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1992-09-09
Description
An account of the resource
Volume XIV, Issue 1 of The Gadfly. Published September 09, 1992.
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
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Gadfly
Student publication
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/51b57df32342e2b55dee46904c0cb5dd.pdf
8525db312f739d7ce0c7883375924bdf
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>The Gadfly</em>
Description
An account of the resource
Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
thegadfly
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
8 pages
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
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/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Vol. 14 #2
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Clement, David Q. (Editor-in-Chief)
Klein, Amanda (Editor-in-Chief)
Title
A name given to the resource
The Gadfly, Vol XIV Issue 2
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1992-09-15
Description
An account of the resource
Volume XIV, Issue 2 of The Gadfly. Published September 15, 1992.
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
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Gadfly
Student publication
-
https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/d3d8b37fce0ee60460a116ae0f277049.pdf
9a1289c5ed65ea3d7eddfe1f0748a197
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>The Gadfly</em>
Description
An account of the resource
Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
St. John's College Greenfield Library
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
thegadfly
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Page numeration
Number of pages in the original item.
8 pages
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
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/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Vol. 14 #3
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Clement, David Q. (Editor-in-Chief)
Klein, Amanda (Editor-in-Chief)
Title
A name given to the resource
The Gadfly, Vol XIV Issue 3
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1992-09-22
Description
An account of the resource
Volume XIV, Issue 3 of The Gadfly. Published September 22, 1992.
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
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
St. John's College
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
text
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
St. John's College owns the rights to this publication.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
pdf
Gadfly
Student publication