9 20 5666 https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/e84e4bd3773c024518074c60246681e2.pdf ded2f8babefe699873be430758be15a8 PDF Text Text THE St. John’s College Annapolis, Maryland GADFLY Midsemester Madness November 7, 2024 Vol. XLVI, Issue 4 �CONTENTS THE GADFLY STAFF COVER λόγος : news reports & narratives regarding immediate campus life BVG Meeting Reagan Bottomley 3 Prank Committee Arrested TF 6 History of Energeia Natalie Goldman 8 Mr. Garofalo Interview William LeBeau 9 Shape Note Interviews Helen Wagner 11 Oktoberfest and Halloween Pictures 15 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ASSISTANT EDITORS Helen Felbek El’ad NicholsKaufman Vivian Miyakawa Tamar Pinsky Louis Rosenberg Willa Rothenberg συμπόσιονÊ:Êcontrasting essays on various topics for thought In Memory of Eva Brann 16 Molly Sprout Elaborations on Counterpoint Tarik Mahmud 18 Amha Worku The Cult of Fortification El’ad Nichols-Kaufman 21 πόλιςÊ:Êvoices of the community, including opinion, poetry, etc. STAFF Reagan Bo omley Helen Felbek Cost and Carbon: Put Efficiency First Helen Felbek 25 Distant Music Tarik Mahmud 29 Scarved Woman Molly SproutS 30 AM Radio: Spirit Halloween AM 31 Μουσειον: Franny and Zooey Gabriela Forte 32 Restaurant Review: Acqua al 2 Molly Sprout 34 Seohyun Lee Horoscope Madame Quiznos 36 Sadie Lewin robins on the railing Natalie Goldman 40 Tarik Mahmud Cartoons and announcements 41 Andy Manne Gabriella Forte Natalie Goldman Marit Hendrickson William LeBeau Lainey Rendelman Letter from the Editor In the depths of the semester, a certain madness falls upon the College. Applause rings out randomly in the dining hall, classes sit half empty until five minutes after their starting time, and seminar dress becomes increasingly eccentric (see: robes for Augustine, devil costume for acts, etc.) At the same time, the day to day operations of the College continue unchanged: the BVG meets to announce more financial struggles, Public Safety tries again to stop people from smoking on the quad, and B&G addresses the Sisyphean leaf removal project. In this issue, you will find the madness and the method together: Prank next to sustainability, Spirit Halloween next to counterpoint. I would also like to note that this issue includes a far too brief commemoration of Eva Brann, whose passing touched everyone at the College. She will be sorely missed. Your faithful editor, El’ad Nichols-Kaufman 2 Madame Quiznos CONTRIBUTORS Helen Wagner ART AND Helen Felbek PHOTOGRAPHS Tamar Pinsky THE STRUCTURE Λόγος contains news and factual investigations into issues that impact our campus community. ΣυμπόσιονÊis a space for students to submit essays that reflect on the wide spectrum of ideas we discuss at the College and in our day-to-day lives. ΠόλιςÊserves as a platform for elevating voices in our community. In our agora you will find opinion pieces, small personal reflections, poems, reviews, horoscopes, and cartoons. �THE GADFLY λόγος November 7, 2024 Board of Visitors and Governors Meet on Campus Reagan Bo omley, College Leadership Correspondent Two weeks ago, the Board of Visitors and Governors met for their fall session here on the Annapolis campus. After several days of meetings and committee hearings, the week culminated in the public plenary session on Saturday, where each committee gave its official report to the Board as found below. In the previous meeting this past June, then-All College President Mark Roosevelt stressed the importance of careful stewardship as the College looks ahead to lean financial years. This meeting under President Nora Demleitner ran much the same, with an even stronger emphasis on enrollment and retention of new students. The College is well capable of weathering the years ahead, but it must do so carefully and it can expect finances to be tight. frustration on campus last spring during the student attempt to unionize, nobody was really sure how the union would play out this semester. President Sterling is pleased to report that campus is quiet and there is no apparent unrest, while the union exists quietly in the background. Echoing Demleitner, Sterling stressed that our commitment to the Program is the core of St. John’s and must not be compromised as we seek more ways to attract student applicants. AnnapolisÊDean’sÊReport This year saw a record high enrollment for the Graduate Institute on both campuses, but the Annapolis freshman class is smaller than expected at 130 students. This decreased size is impacting the college’s financial outlook and slightly increasing the forecasted deficit for next year. The college is having some difficulty in finding undergraduate applicants, particularly among international students, whose enrollment rates fell very low this year. Much of this is expected; interest in a four-year college degree is declining nationwide, and this is especially true for liberal arts degrees. College applicants are pivoting more towards career-focused and high-salaried degrees, boxes which every Johnnie knows our college doesn’t exactly check. Demleitner stressed that we aren’t seeking to check those boxes; St. John’s must keep the Program at its core; this is not debatable. The focus cannot shift to incomes and outcomes like at many other schools, but the College must figure out how to target and reach potential students who seek a Johnnie education. Dean Susan Paalman opened her report by noting the strong retention rate of last year’s freshman class, with 86.4% returning as sophomores this year. The high retention rate as well as the high attendance at the latest athletic events and lectures show strong and enthusiastic signs of life within the college, despite this year’s small freshman class of 130. The senior class this year is also unusually large at 121 (last year had 100), largely due to the pandemic which delayed many college applications. With such a large body of students leaving the college this year, it puts increased pressure on admissions to ensure we have enough freshmen in the class of 2029 to financially support the College. In other news, the bookstore and coffeeshop in Edensword are finally opened, with an enthusiastic reception by students and faculty. Paalman had especially warm words for bookstore manager Melinda Rooney, who along with “a small army of students” and volunteers successfully managed to get the bookstore up and running in only three days before the ribbon-cutting. Even with several snags and scheduling delays, Rooney managed to set up a beautiful new space that “stokes our love of books” and proves an excellent addition to campus. Looking forward, the library is now planning to renovate the reference room, which should be another helpful support for students. SantaÊFeÊPresident’sÊReport SantaÊFeÊDean’sÊReport Coming into his new role, one of Santa Fe President Walter Sterling’s main concerns was the campus atmosphere as upperclassmen and staff returned to campus this fall. Given the divisiveness and Santa Fe Dean Sarah Davis likewise opened her report with statistics, citing a similar 83% retention rate for last year’s freshmen. This year the Santa Fe campus has 470 students, 370 in the undergraduate AnnapolisÊPresident’sÊReport 3 �λόγος THE GADFLY November 7, 2024 program and 100 graduate students. The college is planning to push more resources into Summer Academy, which is proving a “vital pipeline” for incoming freshmen. 28% of the class of 2028 attended Summer Academy, and if the program is expanded hopefully this will also increase enrollment. With the 60th anniversary of the Santa Fe campus happening this year, Dean Davis is encouraging the campus to focus on its traditions and unity as they move away from the tension over unionizing this past spring. Students have organized to read lectures by Eva Branna and Jacob Klein in well-attended events, and their library plans to host a museum exhibit about the history of the campus. EnrollmentÊCommittee Continuing the theme of financial concerns, the Enrollment Committee has been advised by their consulting firm to raise tuition costs by 4% this upcoming year, which is the same as last year. However, costs to the college are expected to increase more than 4%, and so this will not provide for all increased expenses. This comes alongside more general enrollment challenges, which are shared by many colleges. Fewer students are applying to college, less are interested in the liberal arts, and more are likely to drop out in their first year of college. This “represents a significant challenge” to colleges nationwide, and St. John’s is no different. This year we are below the committee’s enrollment goals, although our metrics for diversity across several spectrums are quite good. Moving forward, Enrollment is working on a new outreach strategy that blends new methods of advertising with empirical data from past efforts. Pinkney Hall Since the June meeting, the projected deficit for 2024 has sunk from $5.5m to $5m. Several one-time gifts to the college will help offset this, but these cannot be considered reliable sources of income. The projected deficit is $6.5m in 2025, $7.5m in 2026, and $6m in 2027. As stated by Finance Chair Richard Lincer, “we remain pretty challenged” financially. We have “exhausted all of our pots of money” in order to cover this year’s expenses, but we have managed to cover it successfully. In better news, the S&P upgraded St. John’s bond rating from BBB+ to Athis year, an excellent development that also reflects the good work the college is doing on the financial front. (According to their website, the S&P bases their metrics on the college’s relatively steady past enrollment, low outstanding debt, and the robust fundraising campaigns that recently contributed to campus renovations). This means we have been doing very well thus far, but the committee has several FinancialÊandÊInvestmentÊCommittee concerns moving forward. The smaller enrollment for this year, combined with increased allotments of financial aid and higher insurance and utility rates, presents a financial challenge that will require careful management to resolve. In response, the Finance Committee has proposed to temporarily increase the college’s draw from the endowment. This draw has consistently remained below 5.5%, and this plan would bring it up to 6%, still below the maximum 7% allowed by Maryland law. This increase will not harm the college in the short term, although it is not sustainable for a long period of time. All in all, the Finance Committee acknowledges several challenges ahead in the next few years, but has workable plans Freshmen Bow and Curtsie before President Richard to face them. D. Weigle at Convocation 4 �λόγος THE GADFLY November 7, 2024 PolityÊReviewÊCommittee The St. John’s College Polity and Charter is a 35page document that functions largely as the school’s equivalent of a constitution. This committee has found its organization highly cumbersome, along with the process generally used to amend it. It has proposed to split the Polity into one main document that is less than half the current size, and two ancillary papers for the Board to use alongside it. This is planned to help the Board “be flexible where it needs to be flexible, and frankly, permanence where permanence is needed”, according to the committee’s vice chair Joel Klein. This amendment was originally supposed to be voted on during this Board of Visitors and Governors Meeting in the King October meeting, but has since been delayed until the William Room, Annapolis, Maryland February meeting over faculty concerns. Updates on these amendments and what they might contain will be published here in the Gadfly as soon as they are FacilitiesÊCommittee released. Pinkney Hall will receive maintenance work next summer, mostly on its electrical and plumbing systems. Much of this will be to deal with ongoing moisture problems that Pinkney residents are very Scan this QR code to read the much aware of, and the plan is to resolve these by the Charter and Polity of the fall semester of 2025. Further in the future, there may College be a state grant available to partially renovate the BBC. (Maryland grants are generally not for use on dorm buildings, but may be given for class buildings or other spaces. Hence the choice of the BBC over Conclusion Paca or another dorm). On the Santa Fe campus, extensive renovations to the Pritzker Student Center In the words of Board Chair Warren Spector, “We’re are making good progress, although budget like a household that’s fixing up the house but still restrictions have caused some of the original plans to has to pay the monthly bills. We’re doing very well be cut down. Our sister campus is likewise building a fixing up the house.” Whereas in past years the new bookstore and coffeeshop space! Most notably, emphasis has always been on some repair or an extensive solar panel project (including several renovation that was imminently necessary, the EV chargers) was just completed on the Santa Fe College is now in a much more comfortable place campus that is projected to offset 100% of the with the state of its campus. While repairs do still campus’s carbon footprint. The Annapolis campus need to be done, nothing is threatening to fall apart has also applied for a solar power grant, and will and on this front there is room to breathe. Now, hopefully be able to install a set of those soon. This however, emphasis must be placed on fundraising will be incredibly helpful with utility costs continuing and donations for the general upkeep of St. John’s. to rise. Already the utility bill for the Santa Fe Enrollment and rising prices are causes for concern, campus is in the $140k range, while the Annapolis but the Board is confident that with careful campus requires $6-700k per year. The Facilities stewardship and robust fundraising it is able to steer Committee is also responsible for the History Task the College through the years ahead. Force Report, which details the history of the buildings and working of the College with a particular emphasis on how slavery has played a role in our past. This report was released to the Polity on November 1st for review and commentary. 5 �λόγος THE GADFLY November 7, 2024 Breaking News: Prank Commi ee ARRESTED TF, Investigative Reporter Early in the evening on Tuesday, October 15th, something went awry at the Delegate Council meeting held in the Mellon Conversation Room DC minutes report that at around 7:15pm, “a variety of people in sunglasses and a variety of other ludicrous costumes” arrived to present the Senior Prank budget. Minutes say that members of this committee threatened the DC President and the DC members with physical violence, and tried to blackmail the Polity Attorney. Additionally, an individual dressed as a clown dragged themselves over the table Former members of the Prank Commi ee laundering throughout this whole display as a way to intimidate money. Photo provide by author. the Council. Shortly after the beginning of the hearing, Officer Teon Wells of the St. John’s College Public Safety Office arrived and apprehended five of the six offenders. Reports say that they have been charged with several misdemeanors including: one count each of Threat of Violence against a DC Officer, one count each of Falsification of Blackmail Evidence and Slander of the Character of a DC Officer, one count each of Intent to Launder Money, and one count each of Failure to Dress like Actual SJC Students. Investigations into this matter were conducted, and the results may shock you. Security camera footage from the Chasement Laundry Room clearly show the so-called Prank Committee engaging in illegal behavior: laundering money and creating devious schemes. This footage was no doubt used by SJC Public Safety to build a case against these dangerous perpetrators. These arrests come at the heels of some damning allegations against the Prank Committee being published in the media. An article accused them of improper use of funds and creating an un-fun environment. These condemnations have been shown to be 6 Former members of the Prank Commi ee creating devious schemes. Photo provide by author. �λόγος THE GADFLY November 7, 2024 closed until they are located. Regardless, Prank seems to have met its definite end as the majority of the planners are now in custody. There will be no prank this year. Still from footage of prank commi ee member still at large. Provided by the author. Mugshots of the arrested seniors. Le to right, top to bo om: Harrison Dewalt, Cass Desmond, Emily Caswell, Rylee Bain and Isaac Vail. Photo courtesy of the St. John’s College Public Safety Office true and accurate, given these recent developments. As only five of the six perpetrators were arrested, one is still at-large. The member dressed as a clown was able to evade campus security. This investigator was able to unearth a photo of this individual from a video taken at the scene of the arrest. This fool remains free, and it seems like the investigation can’t be Walter Rausch, Chief of Security, in front of McDowell, 1977. (Photo unrelated to article) 7 �λόγος THE GADFLY Energeia: A History Natalie Goldman, Arts Correspondent Energeia is a known and loved publication at St. John’s. The Polity looks forward to its release each semester, and much time and attention is spent poring over the art and writing in the magazine once it’s been distributed. But how much is known about Energeia’s history? What were its origins and how did the magazine’s style develop over time? November 7, 2024 for this semester’s issue, next semester is the perfect opportunity for Johnnie artists to put themselves out there. Everyone is encouraged to submit, and anyone can be on the review staff. Who knows—maybe a brand-new era of Energeia is upon us. Past issues of Energeia are available to the public in the St. John’s Archives online. Energeia also has a substantial collection of physical copies of past issues, ask Ms. Ferver or one of the other Energeia archons to take you to the office and you’re welcome to flip through them. I met with junior Riley Ferver, one of this year’s three Energeia archons, to find out what she knew about Energeia’s enigmatic past. But even Ferver, well versed in the issues of old, isn’t certain exactly who first decided to publish the magazine. The oldest issue in the archives (both physical and digital) is from Spring 1982, and it doesn’t credit archons— only a simple list of editors. So, unfortunately, the particulars of Energeia’s genesis might have to remain a mystery for the time being. What is able to be studied (and is worth studying) is the gradual change in the content and curation of the magazine from that auspicious 1982 issue to the ones we know now. In its early days, the vast majority of the works that Energeia published were academic essays, with a couple of poems and a handful of translations thrown in. Aside from cover art, no visual art is featured in the early issues at all. It’s not until the late ‘90s and early 2000s that the transition into an artsier style began, and it became more popular to publish creative nonfiction pieces. Ferver then identifies the period from 2006-2014 as a distinct historical period: photography becomes a favorite medium, writing submissions include much more poetry, and academic essays became less common. That leads us from the time between 2015 to the present day. Energeia has cemented itself on campus as an arts magazine, publishing everything from musical compositions to mathematical proofs, with strong roots in poetry and illustration. While review meetings are already done 8 Covers of Energeia from (Le to right, top to bo om) 1982, 1992, 2002, 2012 and 2022 �λόγος THE GADFLY November 7, 2024 Interview with Ethan Garofalo, St. John’s New Student Activities Coordinator By Willaim LeBeau LeBeau: When I first returned to campus, I remember the discontent surrounding the lack of Donuts After Dark on Thursdays. After your first week in the office, the Donuts returned. Was it a priority for you to restore Thursday Donuts? Are there any other traditions you want to revive in that manner? Garofalo: I think that traditions are what make this campus as beautiful as it is. The opportunity to immerse yourself in this campus and its community, whose intimacy and size other institutions can’t replicate. Coming here as a GI, that’s what I recognized as making this campus so special and was one of the major reasons it appealed to me. Taking that together with my job being to cultivate an environment where students are able to maximize their experience here. Ultimately, having an occasion after class to continue their conversations and carry the night forward instead of returning home alone was very important to me. It’s about providing a space for students to enjoy their time and socialize in conjunction with their academics. I was very happy to see the enjoyment the polity felt. As for other traditions that have fallen by the wayside, I am not privy to them yet. I am extremely open to reviving traditions that help them to be proud of what it means to be a Johnnie. WL: Are there any events you have on your mind for implementing as something new this year? EG: I’ve definitely been thinking about a few things. My onboarding being in the middle of the semester has been a lot of learning how things were before my arrival. Once I have a good understanding of how the community facilitator and events have operated, I intend to explore new options and traditions that can be created. But a lot of the first month was trying to organize and uphold past events as the first priority. WL: How do you consider the role of the community facilitator as a whole? Is it reactive to the needs of the student body first, as you just described? Or is it closer to what you, individually, can innovate and provide new ideas and events for the college? EG: My role being new, this mixture of Ms. Munsey's duties and my involvement in intramurals has allowed me to be immersed in the community more than I expect past facilitators have been. I’m seeing students at the Friday fares and our weekend events, and also at their intramural games throughout the week. It’s a privilege to get a better sense of the students’ personalities and their larger social life within the polity. I think the hope is that it’s not strictly reacting but also having some insight into the soul of this campus, the overarching desires of the polity, and being proactive in providing that. WL: How do you view your relationship, and the school’s relationship, with student clubs? Entrance to the FSK, ca. 1970 EG: I went to Arizona State for my undergrad, a campus of 100,000 students. Almost all of the 9 �λόγος THE GADFLY connections I had came from different clubs and from discovering friends through our common interests. So much of my undergraduate leadership experience came from those clubs, from throwing events to drumming up attendance for intramural games. I find it very important for others to have the opportunity to develop those leadership qualities. I find that my main role with clubs is to empower them to be creative and pursue what they’re passionate about. To take my personal experience with their passion and needs and communicate that to faculty to help achieve what the students desire. So it becomes something the whole school can be proud of, by building a direct connection between students and administrators. Whether that be throwing certain events or giving underappreciated clubs the spotlight they deserve. WL: So, you’ve settled into the position a little bit, a month into your onboarding. What has surprised you the most about your position so far? What have you enjoyed the most? EG: My favorite and most surprising is definitely how personal it has become, how often I recognize faces around the campus. I started as a GI in January, so there were 4 months where I was only really interacting with the graduates in the BBC. But now, seeing and knowing so many undergraduates has really let me deepen my connection to the school. Even the simplest conversations about differences in the GI and undergraduate readings have been great. Being immersed in the campus in a very different way from my graduate experience and seeing the college in a whole new way. November 7, 2024 body. To be the person who can marry the ideas of the student body with the connections and resources of the college, you need to be open at all times to speaking with anyone. WL: You’ve inherited a group of students to assist with your work, in the past known as “Munsey's Minions”. You have emphasized the importance of your personal interest in the college and events, so what do you consider your relationship and managing style with these students? EG: They’re great. I want to do everything I can to make the job easier for all of us. A lot of that is putting my trust in them to accomplish things and that my presence is not necessary for them to succeed, I’m mostly at events to better understand the polity. I know I can lean on them and that they are just as empowered as any student to dream up events that I can help them with. They’re in an even more intimate relationship with the campus, they’re getting to know the polity better than I do, and that perspective can be really valuable in inciting change. A lot of them were here before me, working with Ms. Munsey. They’ve run most of these events before, so I can turn to them and ask “How was this done? What worked? What didn’t? How can we improve it?” and know that I’m getting a good answer. WL: Why do you think the campus needs a community facilitator? What can you do in your role to best provide that? EG: I think the best thing I can offer is my full effort. By that I mean being open to any student’s conversation and any idea that I may come across. It’s important to be able to hear and care about these things and then offer all the resources I can to help realize the needs of those students and the student 10 Grace McNeley and Charles A. Richardson Seated on Bench in the Quad during the First Summer of The Graduate Institute �λόγος THE GADFLY November 7, 2024 SHAPE NOTE SINGING: An Interview Continued from my article in the Collegian Vol. II Issue IV. Helen Wagner few weeks ago, Eric Stoltzfus hosted a session of shape note singing in the pendulum pit. Lots of singers showed up from the DC/Annapolis/Baltimore shape note community, as well as several Johnnies (including myself) at varying levels of experience. Afterwards, I sat down for an interview with some of the more seasoned singers. Once the conversation got going, it ended up turning into a full-fledged seminar— I hardly even had to ask questions. We talked for thirty minutes, so I decided to publish an abridged transcript here. Included in the interview were Susan and Richard Green (a married couple who met at a shape note sing in the 70s), RB Bartgis (a 2009 Annapolis alum), Topher Lawton and Thomas Ward (two DC-based shape note singers). A Shape note singing is a traditional style of singing with unique notation. In it, the notes of the scale are represented by four different shapes which correspond to different musical syllables: rectangles (la), triangles (fa), diamonds (mi), and circles (sol). Each shape denotes two different intervals on the scale, except for mi, which is always the seventh. At a singing, the voice parts are arranged similarly to our Wednesday Sicut Sings: each of the parts faces the others sitting in a square formation, with the leader in the middle. Leadership rotates around the room, with everyone getting the chance to choose and lead a song. HowÊdidÊeachÊofÊyouÊgetÊinvolvedÊwithÊshapeÊnoteÊ singing? RichardÊ Green: Susan and I have sung since the fall of 1979. When we were in graduate school, we went to a singing at a professor’s house, and they were singing this stuff called Sacred Harp, which we had never heard before. At the time, our understanding was that shape note singing was not widespread—it had dwindled to basically south Georgia and Alabama and maybe parts of England, but it was a very small community. Since then it’s grown quite substantially and spread all over the place. RBÊ BartgisÊ (A09):Ê Back at Winter Collegium in 2005, Mr. Stoltzfus’ madrigal choir sang a shape note piece called Samanthra (“This is My Beloved”), and it was just the weirdest craziest thing I’d ever heard. It stuck with me, and after I graduated I went to the DC shape note sings a couple of times— that was my first time experiencing it. The first time that you sit in the square and have the music hit you is really amazing. My husband and I ended up having “This is My Beloved” sung at our wedding. He was in Mr. Stoltzfus’ madrigal choir and that was part of how we met. I finally emailed Mr. Stoltzfus this summer and said, “hey—do you remember that song you sang, like 20 years ago? I wanna come back and do this for the students.” SusanÊ Green:Ê I’m Susan Green, Richard Green’s C major scale using shape note notation, with names for each note. Fa is the one and four of a scale, sol is the two and five, la is the three and six, while mi is the seven. 11 �λόγος THE GADFLY wife, and he told the story of how we started singing at the University of North Carolina. I think what drew me to it was that it was a tradition that reached back into the 19th century. My family were southern country people who always talked about harmony singing. And also just—the community was bound together by these songs and this tradition. There are so many aspects of the tradition, like standing up for the parting song and giving the parting hand— everybody would go around and shake hands. I used to love how the old men—often the strongest singers—would sit on the front row, and you’d see young kids come up to lead and when they sat down the old men would give them a dollar. Anything to make them feel appreciated. And dinner on the grounds was a big deal. There used to be a guy that would make fantastic, gigantic vats of fried chicken livers. There were so many traditions that I could talk for hours about. They happened the same way every year because everyone loved it. TopherÊ Lawton:Ê I’ve been singing since around 2003 or 2004. My first exposure to this music was actually a music camp in New England. We’d sing a little before dinner, each day of this weeklong music camp, for several years in a row. I spent about a decade chasing this music, living in place that didn’t have big singings. Finally, I ended up in DC in 2017. I found an amazing community in DC— at one point I was going to a singing every week, either at somebody’s house or in a bigger organized sing. I absolutely fell in love with the music and the community. ThomasÊWard:Ê I was almost the opposite of Topher, who said he was chasing the music. I feel like shape note music was chasing me for about a decade. I first heard a CD of shape note music sung by Anonymous Four, which was a very strange way to encounter it because they mainly sing medieval music, but they did this CD called American Angels that had a lot of shape note music. I loved it—kind of a cool piece of Americana. Several times over the course of the next ten years, I would randomly encounter some shape note music. One day, I happened across a recording 12 November 7, 2024 of the Western Massachusetts convention, which was very raucous sounding. And I thought, oh wow, people could really get together and sing this. But I didn’t know there was a whole community, around the country and around the world, of people who get together, and for whom singing is really as much about that community as it is about the music. Lo and behold, I was living in Philadelphia at the time, and there was a singing on my block that week. And I never really looked back, although it wasn’t really until I moved to DC that I really got into it. I had moved to a new city, and I didn’t know anyone, and it was a wonderful way to meet people. Singers aren’t all the same, but it’s a weird enough hobby that you find people who like the same weird thing together. That creates a real kind of community. Singing at a College Christmas party, 1950 WhatÊdoÊyouÊloveÊaboutÊshapeÊnoteÊsinging? TW:ÊA lot of people come to it for all different kinds of reasons, and have different relationships to it. This isn’t necessarily a religious thing. You don’t have to be religious to do it. You can be, but there are believers, nonbelievers, and everything in between, and I think that’s one of its strengths RB:Ê As a Johnnie, I really like this form of singing, because so much of what is done at St Johns, in the context of freshman chorus or St. John’s chorus, is �λόγος THE GADFLY more about singing traditional baroque pieces where you get together every week and practice the same thing over and over again and give a performance at the end. But this is a method of singing to teach basic music theory principles and get everyone up to speed as fast as possible. So you can sing a piece in four part harmony with basically no rehearsal, and you’re also not performing it for other people. It’s kind of the anti-St. John’s chorus. It’s also different from the music theory we study in sophomore music in particular. Shape note harmonies are based more around fifths and different intervals from what you would see in Mozart. It’s a really different way to feel it in your body and experience different combinations from you would get in Bach—this is not something you’re gonna find in the St. Matthew Passion. I find it really invigorating. Also, the shape note community is really similar to a Johnnie community. When I travel, I usually look up Johnnies in the area and try to connect with people, and with shape note singing it’s the same way. When I travel, I try to find a local group. Especially if you’re on an extended trip, it can be very overwhelming and lonely, but you can go to a town you’ve never been to before and meet people you’ve never met before, and they’re incredibly welcoming, just like Johnnies are. TW:Ê I’ve heard it described as AA for music. But really, it provides a really important support network for people looking for community. Being in a strange place, I look up and see whether there’s a singing, and that can be a really powerful thing. You meet really interesting people around the world that way. SG:Ê The thing about it not being a performance is really important. We’re singing for ourselves and each other and it’s really in the moment. When you’re singing and it gets really good, you’ll catch other peoples’ eye, and you don’t have to talk about it, and everybody is feeling it. That moment is so precious. TL:Ê On the same thread—I led a demo sing with the unitarian fellowship that hosts my local singing. We set up the chairs in a square, congregants came and November 7, 2024 sat among our singers. Many people commented on how fearless we were. I think you can carry that spirit on into your day-to-day life. What does it mean to show up, without rehearsal, and still make good music for each other and for yourself? You talk about learning things as an adult, and often there’s this fear of failure and what happens if it crashes and burns. I’m sure we’ve all been to songs that maybe didn’t work out that well, but we just keep going. On to the next one—there’s always that next feeling. I think that’s something I try to take from the music and bring to my life. This notion that it’s okay if you sing something and it crashes and burns; on to the next one! TW:Ê Also, if people are reading this and thinking, “I don’t know if I want to join this weird singing cult,” you can definitely just show up and listen and hang out. RB:ÊSt. John’s is already a weird singing cult. RG:Ê I sing in choirs, and other groups where there is more musicology applied, and more performance, but I love this, because it’s different. You sing fullthroated, the harmonies are beautiful. It supplements everything else I do. For me, they all work together SG:ÊPlus the poetry is beautiful. RB:Ê The lyrics are often things that you don’t hear about a lot in our greater culture. “Ah, young ones, you will die someday,” and corpses… and all of that. But it’s nice to get in touch with that. I’ve found myself singing a lot of shape note songs around when loved ones have passed, because when you’re feeling a lot of things those words really hit. TW:ÊI think in our culture there’s a lot of euphemism about death-- we call funerals “celebrations of life” and things like that—but in shape note music, the words provide people a way of coming face-to-face with that. SG:ÊThe words come to you when you need them. TL:Ê I’ve seen singings where the leader gets up and is vulnerable and says, “I’m not gonna be able to get 13 �λόγος THE GADFLY through this.” And you look at that front bench of tenors and they’ll support you. There might be someone who stands up to co-lead, but if not that’s okay. You’ll lead with tears streaming down your face, in the middle of this square with a wall of sound coming at you. I think there’s something cathartic about that. SG:ÊThere’s totally a dispensation to cry. I’mÊcuriousÊaboutÊtheÊleadingÊaspectÊofÊshapeÊnoteÊ singing.Ê What’sÊ importantÊ aboutÊ theÊ factÊ thatÊ everybodyÊcanÊlead? RG:Ê In a big group in particular, leading is sort of your privilege for that song, to be there in the middle and hear everybody. And everybody will lead you if you’re not getting it-- everyone wants the song to go well. If you stumble or are having trouble, it’ll get picked up anyway and go. TL:Ê We all want the song to go well, and we’re gonna put you in the center to help get that experience, because we want everybody to share that joy. SG:Ê In the old days, people—especially the older people—really wanted to bring the young people along. They would encourage the kids. When we got back into singing, our oldest kid was about 4 years old. And there was an old man, Virgil Philips, and he would sit and point at every note for her, and she really learned fast, and they would lead together. There was very much this feeling that the grandparents were helping everybody, it was very supportive. TW:Ê Yeah. If you have a guest at your house, and they don’t know the manners or conventions, it would be rude of you as a host to make them feel bad. And I think there’s the same feeling in shape note singing. It would be the biggest taboo of all to make someone feel stupid or bad for not leading a song well. That would be very much against the spirit of the singing. RB:Ê I like that the pedagogical method gets people up and running as fast as possible in the hopes of 14 November 7, 2024 being able to lead. It’s very open to getting people involved as much as possible to become better musicians. TW:Ê I’d also like to observe that shape-note singing has become a surprisingly queer space. It is really interesting, and I think maybe part of it is the welcoming spirit, and people can sing whatever voice part they want to sing. We have people who are transitioning or whose voices are changing, and they can sing any part. And you might wonder why this southern singing tradition could become this queer space, but that has been the case. TL:Ê But also, it’s a living tradition. So even more broadly it’s important to talk about that. Yes, it’s historically informed, but we’re not trying to do renaissance madrigals exactly as they would have been performed in the 1630s. There are historical antecedents to this music and you can go back to the first New England school (even before the shapes were patented in 1801). And yet, even if we’re still singing that music, we’re not trying to be just like them. TW:Ê And also it’s a living tradition in the sense that there are still composers, there are still people writing this music. There’s a new book coming out in a few months that’s gonna include a lot of new pieces. WhereÊcanÊtheseÊbooksÊbeÊfound? RG:Ê It’s a Shenandoah Valley based publication, Valley Pocket Harmonist. TL:Ê The marylandshapenote.org site has links as well. You can get the Sacred Harp, which is still in print since 1844, and they’re working on a new one for 2026. Eventually, we ran out of time for conversation and ended the interview here. Mr. Stoltzfus plans to host more singings in the pendulum pit on the first Saturday of every month. Come give it a try! �λόγος THE GADFLY November 7, 2024 Oktoberfest in Photos Wild, whirling polkas, flower crowns, dirndls and more on a beautiful October (not, as would be proper, September, but such are we Americans) evening. Photos taken by Molly Sprout 15 �λόγος THE GADFLY November 7, 2024 In Memory of Eva Brann Eva Brann, tutor, former dean, and, most importantly, thinker, passed away last week, and with her went an era of the College. I must admit that, like most current students, I never personally knew Ms. Brann. I came just in time to hear her last lecture, on memory, delivered virtually, and never spoke a word to her in person. Therefore, I cannot speak about her as a person, as she doubtless deserves. However, her writing remains, and largely speaks for itself. Perhaps the most proper way for the Gadfly honor her memory would be to reprint one of the many essays she submitted to the paper. In these dozens of articles across decades, her humor, intelligence and articulate speech come across clearly, and paint a picture of this woman who meant so much to many at the College. Below you will find an essay entitled “Finding the Words: Living an Articulated Life,” published in the Gadfly on September 28th of 2012. When the editors of the Gadfly graciously asked me to write something for their Homecoming issue, this little homily came to mind. Not that our alumni, our nurslings, need it. (For those whose Latin lags behind their Greek, “alumni” are people who have taken “aliment,” nourishment, from their school.) They, we hope, need it less than most. I wrote since I really wanted to articulate what follows to myself, its very theme being articulateness. I want to claim (returning alumni and present students are welcome to accost me on this when they see me on campus) that sixty-six-and-two-thirds percent of the world’s despondency stems from word -poverty—not to speak of much of its mayhem: think of Larry in Of Mice and Men, or Cain, or Ajax, or the Cyclops, or someone in your life. My theme here is ordinary, prolonged, unassuaged— and unnecessary—misery, the mildly grey sort. I 16 Eva Brann, ca. 1984 think that Socrates means this grey misery when he says—not really “the unexamined life is not worth living” but actually—“the unsearched-out life is not livable,” or simply, “not lived.” He’s saying that unless you lead a double life, once as just a happening and a second time re-viewed as a Telling, you’re not all there; you’re a grey shade, in Hades before your time. What he says seems to me extensible into imagining; you can re-view and search out in pictures as well as in words. It is a sort of internal myth-making, in which mere occurrences become Events. So our alumni are wandering around the campus meeting their ghosts, even where new buildings block the venues of their past. How much happier a stay for those who learned to articulate themselves to �λόγος THE GADFLY themselves and to their friends, to compose their speech, as my favorite dictionary (the Heritage) says, of “distinct, meaningful words”! Freshmen often haven’t got enough of those yet. They revel in vague unmeaning expectorations. (Last year’s battle against “Awesome” with a freshman in a seminar I’d gotten very fond of—he used to assist my elderly incompetence by finding our place in the November 7, 2024 book for me—was won, sort of, when he told me this fall that he’d be using “Glorious” instead.) But upper-class students have gained the articulateness that impresses visitors. It’s almost the opposite from talkativeness, which is practically delinked from inner speech. Articulateness seems to me to have some articulable marks: Descriptive precision replaces evaluative vagueness, brisk clarity lengthy maundering, so that saying your say doesn’t take ages. (My simile for talkwithout-end is squeezing a tube of glue: You’ve got quite enough out to do the job and then there’s another unneeded dribble and yet another.) But the main feature of articulate speech is that it comes from the inside out: The world pierces us with experiences and we project them, transmogrified into ours, back into the world. Which means that inner speech is the pivot. That’s where things eventuate, take permanent shape, and make meaning-fraught connections, or, to shift the sensory analogy, resonate— each with all. So here’s the homily: Speak to yourself and illustrate your words with inner pictures. Re-search, re-view, re-vision: relive to have lived at all. Like a Homeric being, live in similes: Try to see your activities projected on a large likeness, as the campfires in the Trojan plain appear like stars in the cosmic vault. To come down to earth: Get a thesaurus, a dictionary of synonyms. Not, Hermes help you, to find fancy alternatives to plain language. But to Ms. Brann frequently wrote le ers to the editor to the Gadfly; a remind you of the words available to collection of such handwri en le ers are currently pinned to the you for picking the one that most wall of our office, should anyone wish to see them. Above is a le er precisely articulates your soul’s on the name of Kunai. Brann o en wrote on women's sports. presentiments. 17 �THE GADFLY συμπόσιον Elaboration on Counterpoint Tarik Mahmud Considering its utmost importance to the music we study here at St. John’s, which really cannot possibly be overstated, I have found that the music program rather neglects the study of counterpoint. We are given a summary description of first species (simple) counterpoint, with some exercises, and are taught the three kinds of dissonance encounterable in Renaissance polyphony, and that’s pretty much it, unless your class was particularly interested in Zarlino. We do not cover diminished counterpoint (except insofar as it generates the aforementioned dissonances), imitative counterpoint, or even counterpoint for more than two voices (which is almost all counterpoint); not to mention the myriad other topics to be covered under the study of counterpoint which the curriculum in no way has time for, such as cadences, canons, invertible counterpoint, cadences, formulas for imitation, fifth and sixth voices, pedalpoint, and cadences. More particularly and more urgently, I find that the music program here neglects the transition from twovoice counterpoint (which is rather rare in ‘real’ compositions) and counterpoint for more voices. It is true that there is not much essentially different between them, but it is an important leap that I feel would be better attained with guidance than by chance. I must tip my hat off to Mr. Allanbrook, who, instead of thrusting harmony at us with an otherwise unintelligible notion of ‘chord progression’, tries to make us see the natural development of harmonic progression from counterpoint for as few as two voices (though I must admit my continual dissatisfaction with his dismissal of the coherence of modal harmony). However, given the insufficient acquaintance we are able to acquire of counterpoint, I cannot help but feel as though this transition could be made smoother if only we took more time with the study of counterpoint; 18 November 7, 2024 from which we could develop a sense of the seamless and necessary relation between counterpoint and harmony. Thus my motivation for starting a series on counterpoint. In this series I will take a single cantus firmus and apply different kinds of counterpoint onto it, in order to explain the different levels of complexity and textures encountered in the study of counterpoint, and the transition from coincidental melodies (‘horizontal thinking’) to a progression of triadic harmonies (‘vertical thinking’). It will by no means be completely rigorous, but will cover the main points from which I hope many of my fellow students will be inspired to study this art further. I furthermore admit that I am no master at counterpoint, so forgive me if my examples are lacking in the subtlety of those of the great composers—I trust that if I attract the attention of one looking for better examples, they will be found with ease in the works of Zarlino, Fux, Bach, and others. I hope here merely to create a concise and accessible description of the large points, so that people might be directed towards a more complete study. The first couple articles in this series will not go much further than what is covered in the sophomore manual; though I will take care to go over it carefully for those who do not have a very strong memory of it or who have not yet done Sophomore Music. First, we must define what exactly counterpoint is. Counterpoint is a compositional technique whereby two or more melodies are sounded simultaneously, generating a harmony between them. What is then required is for one to know how one might go about producing a countermelody that will accord with a given melody or cantus firmus. Once this is accomplished, one may write one’s own melodies which accord with each other. The rules of counterpoint are those forms whereby the great composers (in this case, of the Renaissance) were able to produce the contrapuntal music most suitable to their tastes. These rules remained so prominent for centuries (from the inception of Renaissance music all the way �συμπόσιον THE GADFLY through the Common Practice Period) because they were at the same time loose enough to produce an infinite variety of music, but strict enough to induce great creativity and highlight artistic genius; they simultaneously included within them the seed (whether those original contrapuntalists of the fifteenth century were aware of it or not) wherefrom the whole of tonal harmony germinated. It is thus critical for anyone studying the music of the Western tradition or composing in its style to become quite familiar with counterpoint. opposite direction to sort of ‘balance out’ the leap. This is a recommended, but not strictly necessary, movement that we should take into consideration when writing our countermelody. The first species of counterpoint will consist in writing a countermelody in a 1:1 rhythm above or below the cantus firmus. In writing this countermelody we ought to follow the general rules of writing melodies (particularly, no leaps of a seventh or a diminished/ augmented interval, and no leaps over an octave), but must in addition avoid dissonant harmonic intervals. These are intervals which are not allowed to exist between the two voices of our counterpoint. The dissonant harmonic intervals are: seconds, fourths, sevenths, and any diminished/augmented intervals2. The reason why these intervals are not allowed is that they carry with them a sense of conflict, or if not, a sense of instability. Thus, if we wish to include harmonies that sound unstable to the ear, we must be able to resolve them into stable intervals (consonances), with which resolutions we will deal later. We would also like this melody to have a unique contour, different from the cantus firmus; this will allow our countermelody to stand out as a melody of its own and not just a harmony in service of the cantus firmus. Finally, we would like both the beginning and ending harmonies to be a perfect consonance (a fifth or an octave), which will give the composition a solid start and resolute end. With that in mind, let us try to write a countermelody: I begin by introducing a cantus firmus, with which we shall work for the remainder of this series. It is composed of 16 notes, and is a simplified version of the first line of the familiar round “Dona nobis pacem”: Let us take a moment to look at the overall contour of this melody, since this will impact our countermelody. For the sake of brevity, I will assume the reader to be familiar with the general concepts of melody and scales, including the modes (Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Ionian, Aeolian). This melody is clearly in the major (Ionian) mode. We begin on the 11, with a repeated ascent of a third. On the eighth note of the melody, we descend just below the 1 to the 7, where we pause, this being the halfway point of the melody—needless to say, this 7 presents a great incompleteness in the melody. After this pause we ascend all the way up a sixth to the 5 (in the original melody, we leap up a seventh to the 6, but I have modified it here), which is the highest tone in the melody and the most intense part of it. From here we gradually descend back down to the 1. Notice furthermore that whenever there is a leap in the melody, it is immediately followed by a stepwise motion in the November 7, 2024 2 It is true that there is some subjectivity to the notion of stability. For instance, in the Istitutioni harmoniche, Zarlino argues that a fourth should be treated as a consonance. There is, however, virtually no music by reputed contrapuntalists that treats the fourth as a consonance. Zarlino does cite a passage from Josquin’s Missa l’homme armé sexti toni as a counterexample, but this one instance (in an already somewhat unusual composition) is so differentially small that it hardly seems a convincing argument to me; this fourth also immediately resolves into a third, if my ears are not mistaken. I am not aware of the “Master of the Notes” using an unprepared fourth anywhere else, and generally instanc1 These numbers should ideally have circumflexes (^) on top of es of composers treating fourths as consonances are so vanishthem. Unfortunately, this has proved impossible to do adequately. ingly small that it is always taught as a dissonance. There are If readers are concerned about this, they may feel free to draw instances where it is always treated as a consonance, but these will be dealt with later. them on themselves. 19 �συμπόσιον THE GADFLY November 7, 2024 contrary motion, specifically with a major sixth on the penultimate step. This is the simplest and most common way to make a cadence; even cadences with many voices almost always have this major sixth (or minor third) followed by an octave (or unison). There are a couple problems with this countermelody. These problems for the most part stem from a lack of independence between the two voices. In order to make these two voices sound like independent melodies, we must favor contrary motion over similar motion. Contrary motion is simply when the two melodies move in opposite directions, as in measures 5-6, while similar motion is when they move in the same direction, as in measures 13-14. Parallel motion is a particular kind of similar motion where the two melodies move together in the same direction and the same number of scale degrees, as in measures 4-5, where each voice descends a step. Oblique motion is when one voice moves, but the other doesn’t; this may be considered as one of the voices simply holding its note. Two perfect consonances are never allowed to be in parallel motion. In measures 2-3, we see a fifth moving in parallel motion (E/A - D/G), so that must be amended. Additionally, in the last two measures there are parallel octaves, which also must be corrected. It is also disallowed in two-voice counterpoint to approach a perfect consonance with similar motion, so we should amend measures 12-13. All these rules may seem daunting, but they are necessary to ensure that the two melodies flow freely and create interesting harmonic progressions. Let us try again, then: The offending voice leading errors have been amended and the two melodies go more nicely with each other. Note particularly the way the ending (called a cadence) is approached: we end on an octave and in 20 To further elucidate the separate interacting melodies, I have made a little chart using my exquisite mousedrawing skills showing the contours. This highlights the points where the two melodies are distinct, and also where they line up (as in measures 10-12). Notice the distinct contours: We could make them even more distinct if we decided to add more leaps in our countermelody, though I wanted to keep most of the motion stepwise. For those of you who have gone through Sophomore Music, I would like for you to take a look at the “stations” associated with each measure of our counterpoint. One can see that for counterpoint as simple as ours, one can still identify the basic structure of a harmony, particularly that we start and end at a “1 station” and approach the end by means of a “7 station” with various “4s” and “7s” in between. As our counterpoint becomes more complex, we will see that the harmonic structure also becomes more definite and coherent. �συμπόσιον THE GADFLY Walls of Jericho: The Cult of Fortification November 7, 2024 home, at night as well as during the day. Strangers are frequently present on campus, but they are not usually treated as a threat just because they are not known; students will talk to them or their dogs, building a community around the College that is flourishing and healthy. For my part, over the past four years I have found myself in several continuing conversations with Annapolitans about four leaf clovers, sea shanties and Kant, and the faces of Prince George Street have become quite familiar. Despite all this openness, violent crime on campus is practically non-existent,3 with the exception of rape, which unfortunately is a problem purely internal to the College, not caused by strangers, but by faces familiar in seminar, waltzes, and parties in dorms. Our open, communal college remains safe, and I do not believe this is an accident, or that the campus is simply inviting something to shake itself out of its complacency. Instead, I think this kind of openness has been vital in building the conditions of safety on campus. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman One of the more recent developments in the campus discussion about the bike path on back campus is a proposal that, seemingly, addresses many of the safety concerns students have. The idea includes building a gate on the ends of the path, and putting lights and cameras along it. It sounds like it could be a simple way to keep students safe, and thus maintain the secure atmosphere of campus, while also opening the bike path. However, even as a major advocate for the construction of the bike path, I am concerned by this proposal. The seemingly innocuous gates are, I worry, a sign of a phenomenon that has spread deep within our society, a phenomenon that St. John’s has been partially, although not entirely, immune to. This is the spread of what I call the cult of fortification, the belief that the only way to prevent the violence that appears1 increasingly prevalent in our society, is for every individual and institution to wall itself behind its own walls, and to cut off extraneous contact with wider communities, and that anything can and should be sacrificed for the sake of these “safety improvements.” A healthy society relies on trust. While at some level, the threat of violence from the state does keep order, the sword of the state cannot be, and is not, continually present. Moreover, the collaboration between individuals necessary to create anything beyond the abilities of one individual requires a kind of trust: if I believed that the only thing keeping The development of this cult can be seen in a members of my seminar from killing me and taking microcosm at St. John’s, where students generally my belongings was the presence of a police force, I share a sense of safety on their own campus that is don’t think I would be capable of investigating a unusual in today's society, and may have been more philosophical work with them. Jokes of this kind common years ago.2 Students are generally aside, there is something paradoxical about comfortable walking around the campus as their own preventing violence in a community by means of 1 Whether or not there is any truth to this appearance is an entirely violence, and to have a safe society that avoids this different question, and largely irrelevant for advocates of fortifiabsurdity, a trust between its members is necessary. cation. Nationally, violent crime rates have been decreasing since 2020, and on a larger scale are at record lows, between 1993 and 2022 down 71% according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, or 49% according to the FBI. 2 Polling has revealed a paradoxical contrast between decreasing crime rates and increasing perception of prevalence of crime. According to Gallup surveys, the percentage of Americans who believe crime is increasing went from 47% in 1993 to 77% in 2022, even though crime had decreased substantially over that period of time. A campus like ours, with no walls, shared facilities, 3 Public Safety’s annual Security Reports show, between 2018 and 2023, the only violent crimes to be rape and sexual assault, with the exception of one robbery, of someone not from the College community, in 2020, and one assault with a knife in 2019, which was an incident between two students. No violent crimes were committed by “strangers” against members of the College community. 21 �συμπόσιον THE GADFLY events like concerts and museum exhibitions that welcome in the community, invites such trust. With the exception of a few thoroughly ignored ‘no crabbing’ or ‘no pets’ signs, our campus signals to people in the community that this is, to a degree, their space. It is not just the abode of scholars who live in lofty isolation, it is a place for them to walk their dogs, to fish, to play their pipes, or to take photos. Our campus, as much as it is an integral part of the St. John’s community is also physically an integral part of the neighborhoods around the College. This mutual relationship gives a signal to people in the area that an attack on the College community is, in some ways, an attack on their own community. Further, the openness of campus shows that we are not hiding away, hoarding wealth; we are simply coexisting side-by-side with both wealthy Prince George Street and impoverished Clay Street. This lack of fortification implies, then, that there is nothing worth stealing, that our possessions are no more worthwhile than anyone else’s, and that we trust that insofar as people are concerned with the safety of their own property, they will be concerned with our safety. could be seen as patently untrue, if the objector looked, instead of down Prince George, over to Bloomsbury square, which, along with the nearby Clay Street community of the Old Fourth Ward, has a disproportionately high rate of poverty and crime for Annapolis. Spend any time on back campus, and you will see it is not the case that people from these communities never come on campus, and that our lawns are purely the domain of yachtsmen. Instead, kids from Bloomsbury square run around back campus, and adults are often crabbing or fishing on our docks. These speculations on the safety of our college are at the end of the day, mere speculations. However, I think they provide a good glimpse into the potential that an unfortified space, such as our college, holds. What we can see more concretely is what happens when public goods are sacrificed at the altar of fortification. At the College, where so far only a degree of privacy has been sacrificed for security cameras, this is not immediately obvious, but as we consider beginning the process of walling ourselves off from the world, it may be worthwhile to draw examples from a place dear to my heart, the secondary school. The objection I expect to this account of the campus’ general security is that the College is in a wealthy, relatively safe neighborhood, and that if we were in a place where crime is more frequent, no degree of building trust would keep us safe. This, however, It is a place with a good reason to wall itself off from the world. This makes a comparison with St. John’s, where the fears are largely imaginary,4 seem belittling to the very real tragedies places of these kinds have undergone in the past few years. In writing this, I do not wish to minimize the horror of any sort of school shooting. Rather, as an extreme 4 Walls of the BBC deck under construction 22 November 7, 2024 I do not mean that there are no reasons to fear, but that actual prevalence of actions of violence is minimal, and the very serious actions of violence that do occur are of a nature that cannot be addressed by fortification. For example, concerns about safety from sexual assault on campus are very real, but no amount of lighting or outdoor policing will reduce it, most sexual assaults take place in dorm rooms, and there is no correlation between darkness and assault. �συμπόσιον THE GADFLY November 7, 2024 case, I think the case of schools shows very well the way in which fortification does very little to stop problems and brings high costs. St. John’s is a small, familiar case of the cult of fortification, but one that does not give the full scope of its effects. By looking at these more extreme cases, I hope to establish more clearly the way in which the desire to be safe leads to a kind of irrational walling off with very high costs. Attacks on schools target the most vulnerable in society, and those with the most life yet ahead of them. Schooling is also a fundamental common experience in a way few things in our fragmented society are, with an overwhelming majority of Americans having attended a school, or having sent their children to a school. An assault on a school, then, feels like a personal attack on much of society. The kind of trauma caused by such an attack demands a response, and given political conditions surrounding gun regulations, this response is generally one of fortification. This can be seen most obviously in the fabric of the schools themselves. Most historic schools in my hometown, Indianapolis, have had their old wooden doors torn out and replaced with thick, bulletproof black doors that automatically lock, which are placed in pairs to create a “secure” entryway where, after the first pair of doors is opened remotely from the front office, a person entering the school has to wait for the second pair to be opened in the same way. Metal detectors are placed at the entrances to the high schools, guarded by armed police officers, and concrete bollards are placed between entryways to the building and the streets. The architectural line between school and prison becomes increasingly blurred as these developments continue, a confusion which spills over into the very operation of the school, where students are herded from one class to another, with strict restrictions on behavior in the slivers of free time they receive. When treated like prisoners, I think it is no mistake that children begin behaving accordingly. At my former high school, I have seen a process continuing Liberty Tree surrounded by a fence, 1938 throughout my time at the school, and into my younger sister’s time there, in which the prevalence of violence increases alongside fortification. As more and more control are exerted on every element of a student’s life, the more they chafe at restriction, and their expressions of individuality appear in the extreme cases they are warded away from. Further, shielding them for their own protection only breaks down any trust that might exist between them and their teachers: if a teacher treats a student as if they cannot be trusted to go to the bathroom themselves, what incentive does the student have to show their teacher that they can be trusted? Beyond the usual effects that a lack of student discipline causes to actual teaching, this effect destroys the trust necessary for education to truly take place. If students' free time is policed as harshly as their time in class, the time in class loses any special 23 �συμπόσιον THE GADFLY significance, it is just another time in which adults constrain students. There is no reason to believe that a teacher should, at that time, be concerned about you actually learning something, when the rest of the time they are mostly concerned that you don’t go outside, or talk to your friends in the hallway. This is not to say that students have only started misbehaving when schools began to fortify, that would be a ludicrous suggestion. However, I have seen, just in the years I was at school, a substantial “hardening” of school environments, and, I believe, a corresponding, subconscious, shift in attitude amongst students. This problem extends beyond the classroom, too. As outsiders are walled out, and members of the community are banned from hosting clubs for students, not to mention holding unrelated social events at the school, a wall is built between children and their community. Not too long ago, schools functioned as a kind of community center; my high school’s old yearbook is filled with mentions of concerts coming to the school, ice cream socials. This traffic went both ways, students were also encouraged to patronize local businesses and spend time in the community around them. This, however, is actively discouraged both directly by messaging from parents and teachers, and by physical walls between playgrounds and parks, locked doors for high school students at lunch, and impossibly byzantine systems for people who want to visit schools. The community is set aside as a “dangerous,” other, and the school is set apart from it. As students are walled off from their teachers within the classroom, they are walled off from their community without, leaving children to increasingly socially fragmented formative years. I do not think increasing social isolation can solely be blamed on this kind of fortification, but I also think it would be foolish to say that the two are unrelated. We then have a case where trust and social connection, and therefore education itself, has been offered as a sacrifice. What have the gods of 24 November 7, 2024 fortification offered in return? A continual increase in school shootings, with 327 in the 2021-2022 school year. Not only is the number still increasing, but our walls have not made students’ lives safer when they do happen, there were a record 81 deaths in the same year. Our very human desire to be “safe,” whatever that means, has led us on a course that has made our schools substantially worse, with no actual improvements to safety. Indeed, no wall or camera can address the causes of gun violence. The same thing can be seen in many places in our society. Government buildings, which should be an open forum representing our democracy itself, have turned into impregnable fortresses, where government stability is enforced not by collective trust of citizens, but by violent force. Our places of worship, particularly synagogues, have become unfriendly castles, in which worshippers serve the ends of bigots by distancing themselves from the wider society. What, then, can be done? Devotees of fortification might respond to this article by decrying my naivete, that I would call for us to tear down our walls and open ourselves to the brutal violence of the twentyfirst century. I do not call for us to be careless. However, I do think that senseless construction of walls, gates and cameras is not the only way, in fact should not be a way at all, to take care. Instead, I believe the College offers an image of an unfortified society, which is threatened by violence in the same way as any other small college, but by means of its trust and community, is protected without offering any blood sacrifices. This is precisely the reason I fear the construction of a gate with the bike path, it looks to be a first step towards the destruction of a precious, rare anachronism: safety built on trust. Building trust is much more difficult than building walls. However, the more I see the consequences of building walls, the more I am convinced that the difficult, painful and long process of building trust is the only alternative left to us. �πόλις THE GADFLY November 7, 2024 Cu ing Cost and Carbon: Why St. John’s Should Put Efficiency First Helen Felbek With numerous construction projects nearing completion on campus, a significant but often overlooked issue deserves our attention: St. John’s College’s energy consumption and CO2 emissions. In a way, this issue seems more secondary, some might even argue that it is a luxury problem as it does not seem to touch the student experience directly. Perhaps some even think that we should not be overly concerned with the college’s CO2 emissions if we are running a deficit in the operating budget. However, I would argue that changing the college’s energy consumption goes beyond the supposedly abstract goal of sustainability. A decrease in energy consumption could simultaneously solve a plethora of campus issues and also make our campus more attractive to environmentally conscious prospective students. While I personally believe that lowering energy consumption for the sake of decarbonization should be motivation enough, positive financial effects (i.e. saving money) as well as good press could serve as further incentives for reducing energy consumption. At this week’s BVG plenary session, the facilities chair Tia Pausic (A86) shared the plan to renovate Pinkney Hall over next summer as well as long term tentative plans to renovate the BBC. Ms. Pausic also reported on the solar panel installation in Santa Fe which is finally completed and operational. This sparked questions from board members regarding the fiscal implications of that news. The solar panel project was ignited by the results of an energy audit funded by Santa Fe’s Class of 2019 senior gift and the installation was funded by an anonymous donor. It entails the installation of 1,670 solar panels, as well as 20 electric vehicle charging stations. According to the college and its partner AMERESCO, the new energy efficiency measures, including campus-wide interior and exterior LED lighting retrofits, re-roofing and rooftop HVAC retrofits, boiler and air handling unit replacements and water infrastructure upgrades, reduce Santa Fe’s carbon footprint by 858 tons of CO2. According to AMERESCO’s calculation this is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 167 households, delivering over $100,000 in annual cost savings.1 CFO and treasurer Ally Gontang-Highfield curbed enthusiasm regarding Santa Fe’s energy bill and the prospect of making money off selling electricity. So far, the EV charging station has generated a negligible revenue and Santa Fe continues to have to pay for utilities. 1 Old heating plant, 1940-1950 https://ir.ameresco.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/568/st -johns-college-santa-fe-and-ameresco-announce 25 �πόλις THE GADFLY Ms. Gontang-Highfield explained to the board and interested visitors that the college has signed a 25year power purchasing agreement with AMERESCO. Before the project the annual utility cost was between $140,000 and $150,000 in Santa Fe. Ms. GontangHighfield is estimating savings of roughly $1 Million over the next 25 years based on an average utility escalation rate. Due to the power purchasing agreement, the college will be paying a locked-in rate which means that it will not be subject to inevitably escalating electricity prices. November 7, 2024 assumptions I made to arrive at these figures. If we assume that for the year 2023 the College’s electricity bill is approximately $700,000 we can divide this by the average price per kwh to arrive at the college’s electricity consumption. For this calculation, one first needs to determine the cost per kwh. The average cost per kwh of electricity in Maryland in August 2023 was 14.14 cents.2 But perhaps the college is paying a rate that is closer to the average residential cost in Maryand running at 16.39 cents per kwh.2 Using the cross-sector average the college’s electricity consumption would be around 4,950,495 kwh (4,950.5 Mwh) per year. Using the residential electricity cost average it would be 4,270,897 kwh (4,271 Mwh) per year. To put this into perspective, an average Maryland household consumes 10,728 kwh or 10.7 Mwh annually (number for 2023).3 In other words, using the higher number, the college consumes the same amount of electricity as 461 Maryland households. Using the more conservative estimate, the campus runs on the equivalent electricity consumption as 398 households. During the plenary session of the BVG Jack L. Kinzie (SFGI16, EC23) asked about the electricity bill of the Annapolis campus. Ms. Gontang-Highfield cited between $600,000 and $700,000 for the campuses’ annual electricity bill. For 2023, the bill was closer to $700,000. Ms. Gontang-Highfield is worried about skyrocketing utility rates in Maryland. For context, between August 2023 and August 2024, the average residential electricity price rose from 16.39 cents per kwh to 17.84 cents per kwh. This is an increase of approximately 8.85% which lies way above the overall inflation rate. During the BVG plenary session, Finance Chair Richard Lincer outlined financial challenges that make energy savings more pressing. St. John’s anticipates a projected $6 million deficit in the coming fiscal year, primarily due to lower enrollment. Despite a philanthropic funding model, fewer students will still impact operating budgets. Efficiency measures could help close budget gaps, aligning financial necessity with the environmental responsibility embedded in energy conservation. In 2022, nuclear energy and natural gas generated 75% of Maryland's total in-state electricity. Maryland's only nuclear power plant accounted for about 39% of the state's total net generation. Coal's share fell to 12% in 2022. As of mid-2023, there were three remaining coal-fired power plants which will end burning coal by 2025. Maryland uses about 40% more electricity than it generates, and the extra supply is delivered to the state over the regional grid.4 In 2023, electricity generation of 1 Mwh in Maryland generated 558 pounds of CO2.5 This number might actually be higher, as Maryland imports electricity from states with higher carbon energy mixes. With this in mind, it becomes clear that the college has financial reasons for becoming more energy efficient. From an environmental standpoint, the good thing about energy efficiency is that it necessarily goes hand in hand with decarbonization. It is important to keep in mind that beyond the fact that these calculations are imperfect estimations 2 From the college’s electricity bill, the carbon https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/ epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_5_6_a emissions of our electricity consumption can be 3 https://www.eia.gov/electricity/sales_revenue_price/pdf/ 4 extrapolated. This is by no means a perfect 5 https://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.php?sid=MD https://www.eia.gov/electricity/state/maryland/ approximation and I will outline clearly the table_5A.pdf 26 �πόλις THE GADFLY based on some bold assumptions might only make up part of the campus’s carbon footprint. I have not considered what is commonly called scope 1 emissions as I am not aware of any energy generating activities on campus. So, at best the estimates are Scope 2 emissions. Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy. They paint an incomplete picture as they do not take into account any indirect emissions (upstream and downstream) such as emissions from commuting, waste, business and student travel, etc. Using the carbon emissions data for the state’s electricity generation, we can estimate that the Annapolis campus’ electricity consumption generates between 2,762,379 and 2,383,218 pounds of CO2. This is between 1,253 and 1,081 metric tons of CO2. Our undergraduate enrollment as of fall 2023 is 484 students. This means that electricity alone means that there are between 2.589 and 2.233 tons of CO2 per undergraduate student. In comparison, the average US-American emitted 13.8 metric tons of CO₂ in 2023.6 On top of that, the college purchased in 2023 about $80,000 to $90,000 worth of natural gas. There is also heating oil in a very large tank that has not been refilled recently. This further increases the carbon emissions per student. In comparison, Loyola University in Maryland has an annual electricity consumption of 30,831,823 kwh (June 2022 to May 2023).7 In fall 2023, they had 3,987 undergraduate students.8 Using the same 558 pounds CO2 per Mwh (for 2023) we can figure out the carbon emission of Loyola university’s electricity consultation. Loyola emits 17,204,157 pounds CO2 which is around 7,804 tons of CO2. This is 1.957 tons or 4,314 pounds per student. This is not to say that the college has not already considered environmental and energy efficiency measures. With much foresight, Gillian and Spector 6 https://www.statista.com/statistics/1049662/fossil-us-carbondioxide-emissions-per-person/ 7 https://reports.aashe.org/institutions/loyola-university-maryland -md/report/2023-12-21/OP/energy/OP-5/ 8 https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/loyola-universitymaryland-2078/student-life November 7, 2024 Hall have geothermal heating. In addition, there have been efforts to reduce electricity usage by installing more efficient LED lights. Further, both Edensword and Fielding-Rumore Hall have now high efficiency variable refrigerant flow (VRF) heating and cooling systems. Edensword Hall even allows residents to have some control over localized temperatures in rooms. The campus also has building automation software (BAS) to remotely monitor room temperatures and set run times for large air handlers based on scheduled uses, reducing the amount of power spent during off-peak times. Generally, it can be said that all recent renovations have had some energy efficiency objectives and that even just replacing old systems with modern ones already increases efficiency significantly. All of these efforts are text-book low hanging fruit projects to increase energy efficiency. They might not be as exciting as Santa Fe’s solar panels, but energy efficiency should absolutely be part of any institution’s journey towards sustainability. That being said, in praxis there seem to be limitations to these energy conservation efforts. From personal experience, I can attest that the temperature in both dorm rooms as well as academic rooms is hard to control. This leads to the unfortunate situation in which it is necessary to open windows in the winter because the rooms are too hot and for some reason individual controls or distant controls fail to keep rooms at an acceptable temperature. This is problematic in terms of energy waste as well as potentially harming the energy system. Similar things could be said for the warmer months. Perhaps it is the European in me, but I would argue that the AC is too cold if I need to wear a sweater in Mellon when it is 95 degrees outside. There are still buildings on this campus that are supplied with heat from our own power plant which is apparently part of the reason for why Mellon Hall is so unbearably hot in the winter and Chase-Stone House is relatively cold. While the polity should of course be mindful of energy conservation and adapt their behavior 27 �πόλις THE GADFLY accordingly (including the obvious things such as turning off lights when leaving a room), we cannot blame residents and users alone if proper energy controls do not always lie in their hands. The campus could greatly benefit from an energy audit to more clearly identify avoidable energy waste as well as explore conversation solutions more effectively. Other colleges like University of Maryland College Park or even our own sister campus in Santa Fe have demonstrated what a difference energy efficiency can make. In the fall of 2017, the Environmental Sustainability Task Force was created at the college by thenPresident Panayiotis Kanelos to “analyze best management practices and explore new opportunities for St. John’s College.” In connection with the establishment of this task force which consisted of 18 members and met bi-weekly, the college joined the Maryland Green Registry.9 Perhaps we should consider restarting some sort of formal group dedicated to sustainability issues on campus to live up to our commitment to the Maryland Green Registry. November 7, 2024 consumers such as certain space heaters) as well as environmental training for staff, faculty and students. Other universities, such as the University of Maryland, College Park, have made energy efficiency a priority. Their recent projects are projected to save 6.7 million kWh annually, cutting energy costs by over $800,000 per year.10 We can also take inspiration from our sister campus. Even before the solar panel installation in Santa Fe, the campus’ buildings already achieved LEED certification. Beyond energy efficiency, the college continues to explore renewable energy generation opportunities. At the board meeting, Ms. Gontang-Highfield shared the exciting news that they are planning to apply for a grant that would allow the college to install solar panels on the roof of Mellon Hall. If this project comes to fruition eventually, it could be the perfect opportunity to marry efficiency and renewable energy generation to achieve the most sustainable outcome possible. But even before that, we should consider some other more immediate measures. Ultimately, the greenest and cheapest energy is the energy that is saved. I believe that energy efficiency initiatives would align with values of responsible stewardship and critical inquiry. By committing to energy reductions, we address not only financial constraints but also our environmental responsibility. In the face of rising costs and climate challenges, energy efficiency should be seen as a necessity, not a luxury. There are aspects of the Annapolis campus that make energy conservation more difficult such as older buildings with old windows that oftentimes cannot easily be replaced due to historic preservation regulations, however, there are more creative lowhanging fruits projects in terms of building improvements and energy efficiency that could be 10 https://homeenergysavings.pepco.com/md/business/customerimplemented speedily. For example, one could success-stories/university-maryland consider processing heat utilization from the kitchen to heat other parts of Fielding-Rumore Hall. Historic preservation regulations complicate things but insulation of buildings and perhaps retrofitting of insulation glass, the addition of thermal curtains or window insulating film could be considered. Furthermore, we could consider the development of user-guidelines (this could even include the prohibition of certain particularly inefficient energy 9 https://mde.maryland.gov/MarylandGreen/Documents/St.John% 27s-College-Profile.pdf 28 Blueprint for the new heating plant, ca. 1950 �THE GADFLY πόλις Distant Music Tarik Mahmud I have very sensitive hearing. I am usually quite aware of all the sounds going on around me—this AC, those people talking, that airplane, these birds singing, this clock ticking—so that things that require concentration can become tedious tasks, namely reading and listening to music. I take great effort when doing these things to remove any extraneous noises from my ears, particularly when I am listening to a piece of music I have not heard before; and become quite frustrated when the silence is broken. All this is to say, When I’m listening, I don’t want to hear anything extraneous to what I am listening to. The same goes for ambience. Though I am a great listener of music, I am also a great noticer that music ought not to be listened to excessively; I find that listening to too much music is very wearying for the ears, and I often find that once I take off my headphones after listening to much music, the ambient noise is as gratifying as the music itself. In fact, I often find myself listening to ambience as intently as I listen to music, and when that ambience is interrupted, I become quite irritated. November 7, 2024 courtyard, enjoying the splendid weather of an idyllic afternoon, when through the windows came to me the sweet notes of a piano being played. No sound in the world could have possibly been more suitable to this ambience than that piano. Nor did I listen to the piano music itself as such—but I listened to it as sound and as ambience. This reflection has led me to the interesting realization of the strange sublimation that music undergoes as it traverses the space between our ears and our brain. For music heard is not mere sound, or ‘noise’ as we call it, but something entirely different not only in attributes, but in substance; it is similar to the auditory distinction between speaking and other noises, but far less lucid in its cause. To hear music as a part of an ambient sonic environment is to make oneself forego this natural inclination and to hear the sound of music as sound rather than as music. If I have leisure, I may further explore the sublimation of music in another article, but consider for now the condescension of music to ambience and noise, which may be no less beautiful. I speak most emphatically of the sounds of nature, which are too often maimed and mutilated by vociferous industrial sounds. But interruption on the part of music presents a particularly interesting case. For the sound interrupted and the music are often both things that I would not like to be interrupted themselves, and when they do interrupt each other , there is a cruel acoustic battle that seems to take place. It seems at first that music simply does not belong among other noises—the other noises must be shut out, or the music must be turned off. On the other hand, it has occurred to me that music can not just coexist with ambience but be a part of that ambience itself. I was sitting in the Mellon Squirrel in a tree with berries 29 �THE GADFLY πόλις November 7, 2024 The Scarved Woman Molly Sprout The mornings are 40 degrees again and I am, for the 20th fall in a row, stuck hating my life for those first few hours of being awake. My bones hurt and even just getting out of bed is a Sisyphean task. All I can do is pity myself in the cold mornings, and it hasn’t even hit 32 degrees yet. But regardless of my whining about this new weather, it has birthed a new joy: seeing people in scarves. I feel largely confused about my love of people in scarves- what is it about these scarves that make people, in my opinion, more beautiful? I see these beautiful people in these knit scarves and feel back at home. But what home am I referring to? I’m from North Carolina and that makes no sense. No, the scarf phenomenon has reasons below the surface. With it being a part of female clothing in many cultures, it begs the question of why society, as a whole, moves to the scarf. Photo provided by author A few ideas: 1. The cozy woman reminds us of the mother and of home: Could a warm woman immediately bring the mind to home; to being cuddled in a blanket, to Christmastime, to warmth, to hugs? 2. The act of covering up implies something enigmatic about the woman: Could having something hidden create a mystery for the viewer? Like a present waiting to be unwrapped, does the scarved woman hold beauty and mystique unknown and desired? 3. The scarf is holy: As head coverings are used in many religions, could the scarf itself turn a woman into my Beatrice, a holy woman? Do we now want to use this woman as a vessel to God? Either way, keep being you, women in scarves! 30 Woman in a scarf from an illustration in the 1912 yearbook �THE GADFLY πόλις THE AM RADIO PRESENTS: Get in the Halloween Spirit, brought to you by Season of the Witch by Donovan AM November 7, 2024 migrate on for its summer hibernation in the bowels of a Hot Topic. Now, as for the benefits to be gained from such a venture I can personally attest. In search of the feline half of a Calvin and Hobbes costume a good friend and I braved the harrowing trek to the current Spirit Halloween next to the Trader Joes, and what a pilgrimage it was! A veritable mecca of cheap polyester and paint spattered plastic it was everything we had hoped for. It was the final hour of our quest, and we were not disappointed. A tiger costume in both sexy and footsie pajama variety? You just can't get that anywhere else and also come away with a Viking helmet, fishnet tights, and an animatronic demon witch that screams at you for good measure. I don't mean to say that it was all moonlight and corpse -flowers, however. The uber over was not cheap, and while the costume might have been so, my endlessly fickle companion was not satisfied with the figure he cut in his chosen costume and had to make a second trip. Now, imagine what could be done if we had a Spirit Halloween at our very doorstep. Easy access to last-minute costumes, plenty of decorations, and a festive campus hub for the autumnal months. No more half-heartedness, we will finally be able to live up to the gothic dark academia aesthetic that so many prospies envision for us. And if that isn't enough to sway you, consider the natural order of things. If by this time next year the old coffee shop isn't in use again, or the faculty lounge gets busy, then we may not have a choice in the matter. The Spirit of Halloween is a hard one to exorcise. It's that time of year again. The pumpkins are starting to rot on the porches. The candy is all quarter-priced, and some of the more enterprising stores are starting to pull out the evergreen and reindeer. It's the week after Halloween, and in just a scant 358 days that fateful day will come again. And next year we have to be ready. I am not saying that the polity didn't get into the holiday spirit this year: the Reality Halloween party was very well done, and sure, there are a few jack-o-lanterns about, but one night and some squirrel-bitten pumpkins simply won't cut it anymore. Where's the pizzaz? Where is the spooky spirit? Where is the twelve foot Home Depot skeleton looming over the quad?! Even the costumes are falling a little flat. If I see one more anthropomorphic fox, Star Wars couple, or "low effort but sexy variation of popular media/concept" I am going to start putting real entrails up on the walls. Of course there are still standouts, but the people who hand make elaborate program related costumes and hand draw their friend's elaborate tattoos all over their bodies aren't going to be around forever. In the age of credit card fraud and stolen amazon packages, getting a good costume is a daunting challenge— and on a college student's budget and timeframe I understand why so many of us take the easy way out. Therefore, I propose a simple but elegant solution: allow the now empty coffee shop in McDowell to follow the Image course that all liminal empty spaces with a nearby provided parking lot must eventually take and turn it into a by the Spirit Halloween. This will require very little effort, author as the Spirit Halloween will simply inhabit the space come late September, provided it is left empty save for a libation of fake blood and a child's sacrificed candy basket. And by early November it should 31 �πόλις THE GADFLY November 7, 2024 Μουσειον:“Franny and Zooey” and the Dissolution of Self Gabriela Forte How does one escape the world for a spiritual life? And, more importantly, how does one do so without falling into the same ego traps that worldly life introduces? In the J.D. Salinger book, “Franny and Zooey,” Franny Glass struggles with her place in the shallow, New-York-elite-pseudointellectual-IvyLeague realm, insisting, “I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.” She bemoans the individuality complexes of the people around her: “I’m just sick of ego, ego, ego. My own and everybody else’s. I’m sick of everybody that wants to get somewhere, do something distinguished and all, be somebody interesting. It’s disgusting.” Yet are these efforts helping her escape the world, or is she reinforcing her own ego in the process? Franny is obsessed with the book “The Way of a Pilgrim,” in which a Russian wanderer prays so deeply and constantly that the rhythm of the prayer integrates itself into his heartbeat, so that he is never separate from it. She is dedicated to achieving this herself, but the flurrying emotional torment she is experiencing seems to be inhibiting real progress. She is a wreck, spending all day sleeping or sobbing on the couch, refusing to eat, making a martyr out of herself. The feelings of repression and isolation she experiences come from a very real place—half of her family is either dead or out of contact, she was a very precocious child raised in the public eye in New York City, she is trapped around private-school academic socialites who spend their days talking about nothing—but is her emotional response enough of a rejection of these pressures? Can she escape them this way? When Franny wants to become an absolute nobody, when she wants to escape ego, is she doing it for spiritual fulfillment, or is she implicitly differentiating herself, making herself feel a little more special, a little more holy, a little less lost? She seems partial32 ly aware of the trap she is caught in, saying, “the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you're conforming just as much only in a different way.” Her older brother Zooey pushes against this notion— that one conforms no matter what, just in a different way—claiming Franny is seeking out spiritual fulfillment for the wrong reasons, and this is misdirecting her. He insists outright that she is too caught in her own head, that the work that she is doing is purely for ego reinforcement and that it will not free her from the world that she feels so imprisoned by. “I'll tell you one thing, Franny… if it's the religious life you want, you ought to know right now that you're missing out on every single goddam religious action that's going on around this house. You don't even have sense enough to drink when somebody brings you a cup of consecrated chicken soup- which is the only kind of chicken soup Bessie ever brings to anybody around this madhouse… Even if you went out and searched the whole world for a master- some guru, some holy man- to tell you how to say your Jesus Prayer properly, what good would it do you? How in hell are you going to recognize a legitimate holy man when you see one if you don't even know a cup of consecrated chicken soup when it's right in front of your nose?” While this upsets Franny, I do believe that her brother is right. Taking part in these good, beautiful things shouldn’t be done merely to differentiate oneself— the detachment from the self should come first. While the differentiation from the crowd will happen as a result of pursuing spiritual things, doing it for the sake of anything other than the good and beautiful will leave you stuck exactly where you left off, if not worse. Now, you are hyperaware of everything—how �πόλις THE GADFLY alienated you are, how “holy” you are, etc. And in this hyperawareness of the self, you miss out on the beautiful, holy things around you, those things that permeate daily life, those things so many people merely pass by. This places you more intensely in the grips of ego than ever before. So, then, how do we detach and stay satisfied? A simple, almost too simple answer seems to be to not get attached to detachment. Escaping worldly life is done for something greater than the self, and it seems that the first thing one must do before detaching from anything else is to dissolve the self, detach from the ego, and exist for the good and beautiful, rather than for the sake of being or appearing so. I am aware that November 7, 2024 there are many people who are uncomfortable with these ideas, especially after having discussed Epictetus’ “Handbook” in sophomore seminar, but I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding of how this detachment factors into our lives. I think for many it is a remedy for the self-centered lives we lead, whether we are aware of it or not. I believe that the first step exists outside of ourselves; until then, we will continue to turn a blind eye to the beautiful things all around us and remain entrenched in turmoil that we ourselves created. Student (le ) and Mera J. Flaumenha (right) reading in the Woodward Hall library 33 �πόλις THE GADFLY City of Pigs: Acqua al 2 Molly Sprout, Restaurant Critic I’d like to start this off by mentioning that Daniel Nathan (my beautiful date for the evening) and I planned on going to Harry Browne’s for tonight’s review. We made a reservation and everything, but on the way to the restaurant we passed by Acqua al 2. The restaurant had warm, beautiful lighting and was relatively full for a Sunday night. I immediately regretted my Harry Browne’s decision but ultimately decided to stick to our reservation. That is until we walked in and were met with the cold and harsh lighting of a shitty, expensive restaurant that only my grandparents would want to go to. We sat and then promptly left for what we hoped would be a better dinner. This last-minute decision—was it worth it? The environment at Acqua is quaint and intimate, despite its large space. It smells of my mother’s cooking, rich and garlicky, and has a friendly yet professional staff. It has a distinctly romantic feeling, with warm lighting that could make anyone attractive. Our hopes are high as we start to peruse the menu. The menu, might I add, is all in Italian. A part of me doesn’t like this-- it seems like a ploy to make the restaurant seem more authentic than it is, having the white liberal couples struggle and laugh to ask in a terrible Italian accent for the “penne alla vodka”. But that’s beside the point; the menu is divided into appetizers, salads, pastas, and main courses (fish, poultry, veal, steak), as well as sides (the main courses are serves a la carte). We start with a salad and are slightly disappointed not to see a Caesar option, but we are both obsessed with Caesar salads and understand the world does not always agree that a Caesar option is nonnegotiable on a menu. We ordered the “isalata di spinaci”: a spinach salad with strawberries, pickled red onion, feta cheese, and a champagne vinaigrette. The salad was not great. It was so simplistic that it was left wanting. There was nothing offensive about 34 November 7, 2024 it, but the vinaigrette was purely acidic without the necessary oil to balance it, and spinach is unfortunately not a complex-enough green to have on its own-- in my opinion. Both the onion and the feta were powerful but both being acidic again left it unbalanced. The fresh strawber- Insalata di spinaci. Photo by ries did not complethe author ment it in the way they should have, so, all in all, this salad did not impress either of us. Moving on, we ordered pasta to share. We ordered the “bucatini al mascrapone e funghi”, which is bucatini pasta in a creamy mascrapone sauce with porcini mushrooms. Again, I was disappointed. The pasta itself was cooked well, and there was nothing offensive in the sauce. But the predominant flavor was salt, without enough complexity for something 22 dollars. The mushrooms were obviously sautéed well, but I only got a vague umami flavor and nothing punchy. I wonder if the mascrapone was simply too creamy and light, requiring the use of so much salt that it drowned out all accompanying flavors. I was left thinking that I could make something of equal value myself at home for about 4 dollars, and I’m not a very good cook. For the main course we decided on the chef special, which is three smaller portions of the house steaks. On the plate was a filet mignon with a balsamic reduction, a filet mignon with a blueberry sauce, and a ribeye on a bed of arugula, grape tomatoes, and parmesan cheese. We ordered this medium rare, and all three steaks were cooked closer to rare. I don’t mind this much as I only ordered it medium rare to appease Daniel, but I did think it was odd to have such rare �πόλις THE GADFLY steaks. Starting with the filet mignon with a balsamic reduction coating it. This was a beautiful dish. It was a good steak, extremely tender and with a salt and pepper crust around it, but the star of it was the balsamic reduction. It was rich and quite sweet, and I wonder Chef special. Photo by the if I would have liked it so much if I had author eaten an entire portion of it. Nonetheless, it was incredibly good and decadent. Next, the ribeye was not bad. The actual steak was good, but the salt was a bit overwhelming without any other flavors coming out. I preferred filet mignon to ribeye, but it was still a good cut and cook. I certainly do not think I would order it as a full meal. The last steak was the filet mignon with a blueberry sauce. This was absolutely the best thing we ate. The steak was tender and rare with a good sear on it, but what I am left amazed by is the blueberry sauce. When eaten alone, it was almost off-putting and much too savory, blueberries and salt are not on their own good together. But somehow the steak with this sauce is delicious. I can’t really explain how it was so good, if I’m being honest. I prompt everyone to try it at some point, as it is nothing an amateur home chef could do without a recipe-- at least in my eyes. Lastly, we had tiramisu and maybe I am just still thinking about Luna Blu’s, but this was just okay. It’s tiramisu, so it can’t be bad, but it wasn’t anything I would rave about. Overall, this restaurant was okay. We spent 132 dollars with tax and tip included and I can’t say I would spend it again. None of the food was bad but none of the food, besides the blueberry steak, was something I couldn’t make myself nor was something that blew me away. Though, the ambiance November 7, 2024 and staff are very nice, and I think this would be a good place to have an anniversary. I wonder now if Daniel and I made the right call by switching our reservation at the last minute. Is it worth it to have a nice ambiance if the food is just kind of okay? Both of us were full and smiling when we left, despite our ambivalence about the dishes. But that may just be because we’re young and in love and got to stare at each other over candlelight for 2 hours. Either way, Acqua al 2 is certified “just okay”. Daniel Nathan perusing the menu. Photo by author 35 �THE GADFLY πόλις THIS MONTH IN HOROSCOPES (NOVEMBER 2024) Madame Quiznos As the weather gets cold and the outfits get cozy, there’s a looming sense of overwhelming loneliness as days grow shorter. I think the kids call it ‘cuffing season.’ As an astrologer, it is my civic duty to dabble in matchmaking. This month, I have a series of missed connections and personal ads submitted from around campus. I hope this will help someone find what they’ve been looking for. Yours, Madame QUIZNOS ARIESÊ(MarchÊ21-AprilÊ19) “Our hands brushed in Home Depot as we both reached for the same box of industrial grade mouse poison. I was nervous about the moral implications of using such an intense pest-control substance but when I met your gaze all my doubts melted away. Brutality cannot exist in a person as beautiful as you. I chuckled nervously, you insisted I could have it, but I was too focused on your smile. You have teeth like a military cemetery. You asked me what someone like me needed such a powerful product for, I responded, “my dorm is 200 years old,” you chortled and said, “old buildings am I right?” I saw our whole lives play out in that moment. I saw our first date, first kiss, proposal, our spring wedding, our first, second and final child. I saw them grow up, I saw us age and die, I saw us entering eternity together. This experience was so profound, I didn’t even realize that I was crying. You looked alarmed. You waved goodbye, still looking alarmed, leaving me in aisle 12, holding a box of industrial grade mouse poison. I haven’t washed the hand you touched since. I need to see you again, and I need to wash my hand. Means of contact PO box 6743.” TAURUSÊ(AprilÊ20-ÊMayÊ20) We made eye contact in line at Auntie Anne’s in the 36 November 7, 2024 Annapolis mall. Female, mid 20s, redhead. Simple as that. GEMINIÊ(MayÊ21-ÊJuneÊ20) “How dare you look at me the way you do. You are an endless, black pool that screams to me ‘welcome home, beloved!’ It makes me sick. Who are you to deny us of each other?! Do you recognize the lifetime of pure devotion and adoration that I look at you with? I am your provider and yours to provide for in turn. I have dreams about you. Last night we were in a small boat on a great sea, a marlin jumped out of the blue darkness, flopping around our raft, and gouged out your eyes. You didn’t panic, you held my face and told me you’d be ok. The sun emerged from the ocean, water poured off it, creating great waves that sent you, me and the fish flying. When I washed up on a strange shore, you were gone, it was just me and the fish, your eyes still skewered across its swordlike nose. The fish and I walked along the shore, he told me of his life in the ocean, about all the other fish he knew, about all the places he’d been. We sat in a cafe for a long time, trading stories and feelings I had never had the courage to tell anyone else. Your eyes moved around the cafe as we talked until the sun sank back down into the sea. We left, disappearing back into the ocean without paying. I woke up giddy at the thought, that should you really lose an eye, you’d have a glass one made. I would steal it. I would carry your empty gaze with me everywhere, just me and your glass eye. I don’t think I’d even need to speak to anyone again. Your eye would follow me as it did in the cafe with the marlin, I’d live a happy life, watching you watch things. Please stop looking at me the way you do, it is giving me strange urges that my therapist openly shames me for. You know who you are.” CANCERÊ(JuneÊ21-ÊJulyÊ22) “I have been in this class for 600 years. Empires have risen and fallen around me in the time since we started this one-sided multi-party lecture. My hair has grown long, I am bearded now, my nails are so long they curl upwards and around themselves in ornate, �THE GADFLY πόλις yellowing loops. My skin sags, I feel the water pooling in my wrinkles, dragging my whole body down further into the uncomfortable wicker chair. I sometimes think about my friends and family on the outside, but hoping in such an environment will only bring pain. I don’t know how anyone can bear the weight of such hellish torment. I can see my fellow captive out of the corner of my eye, scribbling something across the garish neon cover of the lab manual. I hear the light drag of your ballpoint pen as it dances across the paper, I follow the lines intensely. My sentence isn’t shortened, but I am offered some solace watching you doodle. Little animals, one weirdly realistic eye, crude characters of classmates, aimless spirals all cover the margins surrounding walls of indecipherable text. You are the tally marks that dress the stoney walls of my cells. Please never stop drawing, watching you improve daily makes my day and makes class a little more bearable.” -woman bored to death in Mellon 203 Midcentury seminar LEOÊ(JulyÊ23-ÊAugÊ22) “The essay was due 20 minutes ago. My name and cursor are the only thing on the google doc. They mock me. I went to the vending machine, where you and two other stoned-smelling dudes were rocking November 7, 2024 the machine, cursing out the snacks you had reaped but not sowed. After a particularly hard sounding slam against the glass, you turned to me, holding your shoulder, looking a bit pained and said ‘Doesn’t work’ before you and your posse headed back upstairs. I don’t even think you live in this dorm. Honestly, I have a boyfriend I’m very happy with, but you dropped your Jimmy John’s stamp card, and you were one sub away from a free sandwich, and I’d like to reunite you. Please inquire within Edensword 213.” VIRGOÊ(AugÊ23-ÊSeptÊ22) “We met in the Paca historic garden. You didn’t see me, but I saw you. I saw you in the most profound way a man can, I saw into your very essence and the beauty was blinding. You, an older gentleman with an air of wisdom about you and a very strange hat; me, a younger gentleman who longs for wisdom in an equally strange hat. I am hypnotized by your movements. You looked so assured and confident in your lack of direction, waltzing around the garden, stopping at your own discretion, unbothered by bees or tourists. Every movement was spontaneous but calculated. You moved like the wind. There was no doubt, I have never seen someone who has no ounce of doubt in their own footsteps. I want so badly to have that same kind of self-assuredness that I’m afraid only comes with age. Did you feel like this once too? Part of me thinks that no one is ever truly confident in themselves, you just get better at lying about it. But then I see people my age who seem so organized, who know themselves and what they want to be and where they want to go. Do you think they get the same bile washing up in the back of their throats when they think about the future? I can’t imagine they do, but then I guess everyone is struggling in their own small ways. Let’s roam the garden together, I have a lot of questions about growing up. PO box 32766” LIBRAÊ(SeptÊ23-ÊOctÊ22) “I didn’t understand Hegel before you. In the middle of my point about the unthinking conscience, you in37 �πόλις THE GADFLY terrupted me. Your confidence was overwhelmingly attractive as you loudly corrected me. As someone with a social life in high school, I was never able to truly dive into the building blocks of philosophy the way you were. I am so aroused knowing that this is your third time reading this book. As you continued to speak, you ended up repeating my point, albeit in different terms. We share a mind, we are of one soul, you and I; cut of the same cloth. I know every fiber of your being. Within me is the roadmap to your hopes, dreams, fears, anxieties and treasured memories. I was born with the building blocks of you deep within me. Call it recognition. I knew at that moment, as you regurgitated my words back to me in a condescending tone, using words I’m not entirely sure I knew the definition of, that I had to pick your brain, to completely understand and dissect you. I must recall what makes me myself from the elements I pick out within you. My mirror! You are the most interesting man I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. I want you. I need you. You are my shepherd, and I burn with passion at the thought of having you follow me around post-seminar continuing to explain Hegel to me, interrupted only by you blowing cheap cigarette smoke in my face. It sticks in my hair and to my clothes, it’s like I can carry you with me. I sit cattycorner to you in seminar, please reach out to me soon.” SCORPIOÊ(OctÊ23-ÊNovÊ21) “Man seeking large, abandoned mansion for the benefit of the polity. On campus living is a bore, and most of the properties in Annapolis are technically AirBnBs, empty most of the year. Me and three to seven assorted men are looking to squat in one of Annapolis’ premier bachelor pads. Ideally with a balcony or a deck, as we all enjoy chain smoking and reading very publicly. Don’t worry about utilities, one of our boys is a crafty little devil. This will be to the benefit of the polity, of course, as we’ll use it as a place to store only the finest kegs, a proverbial beer hall, open to all. The music is bangin’ and the women are thoroughly okay looking. I’ve heard tell of a similar feat pulled off my freshman year and would like 38 November 7, 2024 to see if we could do it again. Please contact hpreuben@sjc.edu should you have any information or leads on a suitable space.” Evan Gobstoob Canter, 1981 SAGITTARIUSÊ(NovÊ22-ÊDecÊ21) “I’m one of the school’s many underpaid student photographers. It’s my job to go to events and take silly little pictures for Instagram and the official website. I must sell culture, diversity and a fun yet sterile environment. Investors go crazy for that kind of thing; half a dozen thin framed, modestly dressed girls reaching across a table for a plate of vegan tacos, student athletes in action, an ethnically diverse group of longtime friends studying on the quad, the usual staples. When I edit, you’re always somewhere in the background. For a while, I wrote it off, St John’s is so small, you tend to recognize people you’ve never met. But you are in all my photos. My school-sanctioned camera, my phone, my personal social media, you are always looming in the background. You’re not even stalking, you are simply in the foreground, reading, studying, on your phone, dancing. I never catch your gaze, you’re usually captured on film only in profile- a lot of people would be very envious to have such a strong side profile, you know. None of my friends know your name, either. I’ve been asking around, too. At parties, I’ll bring up �πόλις THE GADFLY my phone, zoomed in on your grainy image painted atop my cracked iPhone 11. They all kinda shrug to themselves, no one knows who you are. The next morning, when I go to make my obligatory post party post, it’s revealed you were there the whole time. This has happened at least 6 times. Stop being a stranger, you can find me on all socials @brinos05” CAPRICORNÊ(DecÊ22-ÊJanÊ19) “We haven’t spoken, but we share a warrior’s bond. This year’s seminar has been rough, we ended up with a person who has absolutely zero filter, a handful of devout recently converted Catholics, in addition to the classic combination of ‘woman with dyed hair’ and ‘man who owns an American flag’ and a rather outspoken stoner, who will ramble for longer than anyone thought possible. We’re managing, but barely. You are my rock. We have never spoken, but I find endless comfort in your dead eyed, eyebrowcocked gaze. When you’re not around, I have no one to direct my vitriolic stare at, no one is alongside me to share my pain. Please come back to class, I understand it’s bad but you can’t just leave me here to die. Please come back, your absence is felt” November 7, 2024 very quickly go into obscene amounts of debt. To contact me, simply toss 3 to 5 small yet ornate coins into College Creek, howling drunkenly as you do so. I also have an email.” PISCESÊ(FebÊ19-ÊMarchÊ20) “We’re allowed off the yard some nights you guys hold those school dances. We met each other in the snack room, you in a plastic ghoul mask, me another sailor in a sea of matching white uniforms. You ate seed speckled crackers with a generous helping of hummus, laughing with your friend who was some sort of erotic Greek senator- honestly it was confusing, and I didn’t really care enough to ask them. I had eyes only for you, plastic clad ghost. You smiled at me on your way to the dance floor, where I saw you later, busting it down to Pitbull’s 2009 club classic ‘Hotel Room Service.’ I don’t think I ever really saw your face, but your laugh echoed throughout the Great Hall. You carry with you an infectious energy, you seem so unbothered and joyous, uninhibited. Let me take you out, we can laugh loudly and eat more hummus. Contact Midshipman C Clark, Third Company.” AQUARIUSÊ(JanÊ20-ÊFebÊ18) “Meandering and self-deprecating horoscope columnist seeking a twin flame or intense, toxic and codependent situationship. I like long walks along the sea (lie), the sound of bone on concrete and expensive cocktails from unpleasant bartenders. I’m hoping you’re an air or fire sign, but I will tolerate fellow earth signs against my better judgment. Water signs needn’t apply. My rising sign in Virgo and moon sign in Aries means that I am neurotic and pedantic but also highly argumentative and aggressive, aided by my stubborn streak from my sun in Taurus. I’m like if an abused pitbull wore a 42DDD bra, and I hope this partially excites but mostly frightens you, as Mama likes ‘em scared. My Taurus nature means that I love the finer things in life, so I hope your credit card limit is high. I do expect many expensive things, and I will feel bad about receiving them, I am also highly competitive and will try to outdo you. We will both Naval officers laying a wreath at the French Monumnet 39 �πόλις THE GADFLY November 7, 2024 The Mysterious Doctor Sajoco #4, by Sean Stickle. Originally published in the Gadfly 0n February 14th, 1995 40 �πόλις THE GADFLY November 7, 2024 Elections of St. John’s Past In honor of election day, which will have already passed by the publication of this article, I thought it might be of interest to share Gadfly covers from previous elections. 41 �THE GADFLY πόλις robin on the railing Natalie Goldman I’ve already walked by the house A dozen and a half times, Trying to find a better angle, Looking for better excuses. Not now, I whisper, telling the truth. Tulips will sprout around the front porch, A robin on the railing, and I Will eat toast, badly burned, From the inside out. The merit of mirrors is that they don’t exist Outside of houses, and that way I will never see myself Walking forth and back and forth And back before the door, wide open— Before the door has a shot To shut me out from this, My inheritance, The one I get by loving. 42 November 7, 2024 �πόλις THE GADFLY November 7, 2024 Seminar Readings Cartoons by Tamar Pinsky Your Campus This Week Friday, November 8th: · Friday Night Lecture: The Philosophical Challenges of Early Art, Allen Speight. 7:30 pm, FSK Auditorium Saturday, November 9th: · KWP Presents: The Seagull, directed by Margaret McConnell. 7:30 pm, FSK Auditorium Sunday, November 10th: · KWP Presents: The Seagull, directed by Margaret McConnell. 7:30 pm, FSK Auditorium Tuesday, November 12th: · SCI Shakespeare in the Fall: Midsummer Night’s Dream with Ms. Axelrod. 5:30 pm, Conversation Room Wednesday, November 13th: · Supplemental Course Funding (Formerly Pathways) information session. 2:30 pm, Hodson Room. 11/07 11/11 Freshmen Aristophanes: Clouds Plato: Apology and Crito Sophomores Bible: I Corinthians Bible: Romans; James Juniors and Seniors Preceptorials Preceptorials PSA on Campus Misinformation El’ad Nichols-Kaufman You may have noticed handwritten signs in the McDowell Basement reading “TRUMP WILL REMOVE FAFSA,” and include a link to register to vote. I admire attempts to inform the polity of the very real effects of this election. However, as a journalist, I feel compelled to point out that this statement simply has no factual grounding. Trump’s education plans, which include dismantling the Department of Education, are vague and destructive, and should concern all students. However, he has offered no details, and has never stated any intention to eliminate the FAFSA, which is just a method of applying for aid. During his first term, he proposed cutting billions from Pell Grant funding, ending Stafford loans and cancelling loan forgiveness. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 calls for first stopping loan forgiveness programs, like the Public Service Loan Forgiveness, the eventually the end of all federal loans, and drastic cuts to work study funding, but does not mention the FAFSA, and does not include all the programs whose funding is allocated through FAFSA. It is our duty as citizens in a democracy to remain aware of the stakes of our choices in the election. In doing so, we must take an active stance against misinformation everywhere in our community. 43 �THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE Founded in 1980, the Gadfly is the student newsmagazine distributed to over 600 students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the Annapolis campus. Opinions expressed within are the responsibility of the author(s). The Gadfly reserves the right to accept, reject, and edit submissions in any way necessary to publish a professional, informative, and thought provoking newsmagazine. Submissions sent to the Gadfly should either be in Microsoft Word or JPEG format. The deadline for submissions is the Monday a week prior to publication. Harrison DeWalt post-Wagner on a Halloween seminar night. Photo by Tarik Mahmud For more information, contact us via email at gadfly.office@sjc.edu. Photographs without a listed source are from the St. John's College Digital Archives. St. John's College owns the rights to these photographs. All illustrations and doodles without a listed source were drawn by Helen Felbek 60 COLLEGE AVENUE ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>The Gadfly</em> Description An account of the resource Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context thegadfly Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 44 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Gadfly, Vol. XLVI, Issue 4 Description An account of the resource Volume XLVI, Issue 4 of The Gadfly. Published November 7, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nichols-Kaufman, El'ad (Editor-in-Chief) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-11-07 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource College students' writings--Periodicals College student newspapers and periodicals St. John's College--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Gadfly Vol XLVI Issue 4 Gadfly Student publication https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/3bbf1109dcafa611a0ff6c89ad7ff6ba.pdf 8f8b13d9aab81724956df24c5b3e3354 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>The Gadfly</em> Description An account of the resource Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context thegadfly Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 36 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Gadfly, Vol. XLVI, Issue 3 Description An account of the resource Volume XLVI, Issue 3 of The Gadfly. Published October 17, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nichols-Kaufman, El'ad (Editor-in-Chief) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-10-17 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource College students' writings--Periodicals College student newspapers and periodicals St. John's College--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Gadfly Vol XLVI Issue 3 Gadfly Student publication https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/2770dfba3eaafaebca373fc97213d115.mp3 70f7e9e1a2a1facfa48f7b5815a46501 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data m4a Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 01:06:36 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 On Parts and Wholes in Living Things: Harvey, Descartes, and the Heartbeat Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture given by Annapolis Dean Suzy Paalman on November 15, 2024 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: "William Harvey and René Descartes famously disagreed in their accounts of what the heart is doing as it gives its characteristic beat. Both authors recognize that the heart alternates between squeezing and opening up. Harvey posits that the beat occurs as the heart squeezes closed while Descartes believes the beat happens as the heart opens up. Both have access to similar observations. How is it that they come to opposite conclusions? I'll discuss how their differing views of how to think about living things likely play a role in this disagreement. I'll examine what we have learned since their time about how the heart beats. Finally, given what we've learned, I'll ask the question: What can we say about the nature of living things?" Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Paalman, Suzy 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 2024-11-15 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 Descartes, René, 1596-1650. Discours de la méthode pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la verité dans les sciences. Harvey, William , 1578-1657. De motu cordis. Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SF_PaalmanS_On_Parts_and_Wholes_in_Living_Things_2024-11-15 Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/dee2fb6ff274920925db4b23c6df1af5.mp4 755bd884dee10b6f65d6e541f11028e8 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>.  <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Moving Image A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data mov Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:57:25 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's Wrong with History? Description An account of the resource Recording of a lecture delivered on September 27, 2024, by Annapolis tutor Zena Hitz as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Ms. Hitz offers this description of her lecture: “In a St. John's seminar, we do not approach the readings historically, that is, ‘in a context.’ Instead, we ask them questions, as we might ask living people questions, and engage them in conversation and shared inquiry. Is this simply the way we prefer to read? Or is something wrong with a historical approach to a great book? If so, what?” Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hitz, Zena, 1973- Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-09-27 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating: "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: make a recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John’s College Greenfield Library; make a recording of my lecture available online; make typescript copies of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John’s College Greenfield Library; make a copy of my typescript available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource moving image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Subject The topic of the resource History--Study and teaching Education, Humanistic Facts (Philosophy) Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context LEC_Hitz_Zena_2024-09-27_ac Relation A related resource <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7999">Typescript</a> Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/8bf8c97acefcc9adff0b2de5403d3bd8.mp3 d824bef9d922bdeb991bb251b3f4e85b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data m4a Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:59:49 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Modern Geometry Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture given by Jesse Wolfson on November 8, 2024 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: "One hundred and seventy years ago, the German mathematician Bernhard Riemann submitted a short, 12 page note for his habilitation called 'On the hypotheses which lie at the bases of geometry.' Where Euclid began by considering constructions at arbitrary scales, Riemann asked what an observer could measure in nearby regions. With this seemingly small shift, Riemann initiated a radical expansion in our conceptions of space, one that set the stage for Einstein's theory of general relativity and all that comes after, and one which continues to lead mathematicians into strange and unfamiliar new worlds. In this talk, using thought experiments, visualizations, and Riemann's original writing, I will try to lead the audience through the doors Riemann opened and into some of these new worlds that mathematicians are still actively exploring and seeking to understand." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Wolfson, Jesse 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 2024-11-08 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 Riemann, Bernhard. On the hypotheses which lie at the bases of geometry. Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SF_WolfsonJ_Modern_Geometry_2024-11-08 Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/a717b1e684ad9e325d1ea2534817085d.pdf db7f1f3bd76004dbc18ee24430e772d4 PDF Text Text What's wrong with history?1 Zena Hitz Nothing so subtly distracts human beings as an environment of vestigially thoughtful speech and uninterpretable objects of reason emitting a persistent rational gibberish. — Eva Brann, Paradoxes of Education in a Republic I want first of all to welcome back all of our alumni to St. John's this Homecoming weekend. It is a bit strange for me to give this welcome, as I am myself welcomed back, as a member of the class of 1994 whose reunion year this is. In light of that I'd like to dedicate this lecture to two of our classmates who we've lost in the past few years, each of whom we lost suddenly and well before their time. Michael Miller was a quiet student. Like many such students, his habit of silence masked serious and extensive reading, imagining, and thinking. He read large volumes of literature into the years after graduation, wrote fiction and reflections, and shared with a lucky few his thoughts in conversation. He worked as a switchboard operator at a hospital, for which he had been trained at the college switchboard (which we used to have), and was a devoted and loving husband and father. In preparing this lecture I was greatly helped by the college's para-curriculum on history, including Leo Strauss, "Political philosophy and history", Journal of the History of Ideas 10.1 (1949), pp. 30-50, reprinted in What Is Political Philosophy? (Chicago, 1957); Jacob Klein, "History and the liberal arts" and "Phenomenology and the history of science" (both reprinted in his Lectures and Essays), Harvey Flaumenhaft's lecture, "History in liberal education: Hindrance or help?" (2001) and Eva Brann's "The Student's Problem" (1967); as well as a forthcoming essay by Mary Elizabeth Halper, "Jacob Klein on the Problem of History for Liberal Education." 1 My interest in the topic was sparked by teaching the Graduate Institute History tutorial for the first time, and I am especially influenced by Nietzsche, "The Use and Abuse of History" and Husserl's The Crisis of the European Sciences, trans. D. Carr (Northwestern, 1970), as well as Husserl's 1910 lecture "Philosophy as a Rigorous Science." I did much of the reading and thinking connected with the lecture while on leave at the James Madison Program at Princeton, and was helped by conversation with the other fellows. Lastly I was aided by Liam Kofi Bright's short essay, "Facts vs. opinions" (https://sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2024/03/facts-vs-opinions.html) and by many wonderful conversations with Aschely Cone and Jordan Poyner. �Eddie Ames was what we call a transfer student. He studied aerospace engineering for three years before becoming bored and disaffected. After traveling around the country, he enrolled as a January Freshman at the age of 26. As a St. John's student he used his STEM education to help his fellow students through their Newton and Maxwell. After St. John's he enlisted in the Army, and served in civil affairs units overseas. After the Army he became a math teacher, and nursed his mother through years of dementia. He had a passion for Shakespeare and Mozart, whose work fed and consoled him until the very end of his life. For these two men, and for so many others, the College was not simply one launching pad among others. It was, or is utterly indispensable to the development of a rich and nourishing inner life, and a foundation for loving service to others. I consider it the privilege of my life to be a part of the education of human beings like them. ____________________________ Hard Times, a novel by Charles Dickens, begins with a short speech, given by Thomas Gradgrind, a father and headmaster of a school (as his name suggests): "Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!" What Gradgrind means by facts is briefly illustrated in the following classroom scene, when a student addressed as girl number twenty cannot properly define a horse. The schoolmaster turns to a another student: 'Bitzer,' said Thomas Gradgrind. 'Your definition of a horse.' 'Quadraped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-four grinders, four eye-teeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds coat in spring; in marshy 2 �countries, sheds hoofs too. Hoofs hard, but requiring to be shod with iron. Age known by marks in mouth.' Thus (and much more) Bitzer. 'Now girl number twenty,' said Mr Gradgrind. 'You know what a horse is.' The realm of facts from which this answer is drawn seems to offer accounts of matters of common experience that are concrete, digestible, objective, and correct. Numbers are used when possible. The facts range from the obvious—horses have four legs—to the hypothetically practical, numbers of teeth, how to care for hooves, how to judge age. Hypothetical practicality seems to me an earmark of a fact. I suspect in general that the realm of facts is the realm of the useful. So much is suggested in Dickens's novel. Mr Gradgrind's closest associate is Mr Bounderby, owner of the local mill, the wealthiest man for miles, identified as a self-made entrepreneur. With Mr Bounderby's help, Mr Gradgrind eventually enters Parliament. The realm of facts, it is suggested, is closely intertwined with the realm of utility, and utility with wealth and power. Mr. Bounderby squeezes as much out of his mill-workers as he can. In that way—admittedly loose and hard to explain—the realm of facts is not only a resource for various practical concerns, but a system of rule, even a kind of tyranny. In Hard Times, the realm of facts and utility are contrasted with the world of feeling, sentiment, and the imagination. Without these, the story suggests, human life will be small, impoverished, and hostile to human excellence, even to basic forms of moral order. I find this story moving, and perhaps even true to life. But the danger that facts present to the sentiments or to the imagination is not my chief concern. Rather, I want to try to understand better certain practices and principles at the College. As the newcomers to us will have begun to understand, even by now, a fact is an unwelcome offering in our conversations. This can be a surprise or a struggle to many, and a scandal to some. Most notoriously, we neglect historical facts, or 3 �"context" as it is often called. In support of our ancient practice, I seek to undermine the realm of facts as a source of explanation or understanding, as much as possible, on terms that lovers of facts—let's call them "friends of the facts"— might understand. I will begin with facts in general, but in the second part of my lecture, as my title suggests, I will turn from facts as such to specific difficulties that the study of history presents for liberal education. For now, the facts. I. A statement of fact always represents a human judgement. The fact about the weather is the judgement of a meteorologist, or the observant and experienced layperson. The fact about the year in which William the Conqueror invaded England is the judgement of a historian. The fact about what a Greek word means, or what counts as a rule of Greek grammar, is a judgement made by a philologist or a grammarian. The fact about how to get from Annapolis to Cape Henlopen, land of dolphins, is the judgement of an experienced driver. These days, such judgements may be processed and mediated by machines. Those machines are not just imitations of human judgement. They rely on human judgement, that is, they require real human judgements as inputs. Without human judgements as a basis, the machines produce useless gibberish.2 Some judgements have a kind of immediacy and concreteness that bears truth with them. I open the drawer at my freshman lab station, and there are a pair of tongs. "There are tongs in the drawer!", I proclaim. I know that it is true, as it is right before my eyes. If others are around, and doubt me, I can gesture toward the tongs, bidding all to gather near and share my immediate, overwhelming experience of the presence of tongs in the drawer. If others are not around, I may find myself alone See Shumailov, I., Shumaylov, Z., Zhao, Y. et al. AI models collapse when trained on recursively generated data. Nature 631, 755–759 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07566-y . Retrieved 10/6/2024. Open link: https://rdcu.be/dWaMe 2 4 �with my fact, a fact that others may doubt or ignore or even scoff at. "Ohhh" they say, "Tongs in the drawer! Sure! Are there also little furry goblins?" The example is silly, but my intention is serious. Judgements arising from immediate experience are perhaps the most vivid we have. And yet, that vividness— the radiance of the truth of the judgement—is not always shareable with others. If I am reporting on the contents of the lab drawers to anyone without access to the room —and there are hundreds, thousands, billions of people without access to our lab rooms—they must rely on some authority implicit in my report. Most things we call facts are not the objects of our immediate experience. Their truth is usually unavailable, and that is when we most especially use the word "fact": to communicate a claim to knowledge not shared by our audience. When we state "facts", we hide the original judgement, whether ours or someone else's, under an air of authority. A statement of fact, generally speaking, is a demand for agreement on a question when the ground or basis or evidence for the judgement is not available. Often, the reliance of factual judgements on authority does not matter very much. That is because such judgements are eminently practical. Consider the judgements arising from immediate experience that guide us through our day-to-day lives, often beneath our notice. What we judge to be in the kitchen cupboard guides what we buy at the supermarket; how many people are in the fishbowl at 10:30 guides where we will sit in between classes; the reading listed on the the official seminar list guides what we read for seminar; my judgement that I need a cigarette guides my decision to smoke one. "Go get tongs from the drawer in the lab room" may or may not mark a successful endeavor, depending on whether the underlying judgement was correct or not. Likewise, my friend in the passenger seat giving me directions to Cape Henlopen will be immediately tested as to the reliability of their judgement. If they are wrong, we will be lost or stranded; if they are right, all will go well. 5 �That certain facts are immediately tested in practice shows that my earlier claim that facts are unwelcome in our classrooms is not strictly true. It is permitted, indeed necessary, for us to offer judgements about what is likely to be true as a matter of fact, when the consequences will surface in short order: "There's colored chalk across the hall" or "I think that if we cut the fish this way, we won't damage its heart" or "The passage we are talking about is in the third chapter" or "I think that noun is in the genitive", or "That interval is a major third," or "That planarium has been cut too many times. It is dead!" Yet in daily conversation and in everyday writing, outside the college, facts are used not in this simple, practical way, but as a claim to authority on broader questions of human life, moral or political, or questions about the ways of nature. If such facts are justified, it is by further facts: "studies" for instance or "science" or "historians". Facts are the judgements of experts, presented where those experts, or their expertise, are absent. Suppose we were to answer the opening question in our seminar with facts. The tutor asks, "Why is Achilles so angry?" and a student answers: "The progressive threat response in mammals is mediated by a system that runs from medial amygdaloidal areas downward, largely via the stria terminalis to the medial hypothalamus, and from there to the dorsal half of the periaqueductal gray." Or, the tutor asks: "Why are there two stories of creation at the opening of Genesis?" A student describes a study suggesting "that the neurological networks underpinning God representations amplify human empathetic responses." "Is Don Quixote crazy?" Well,"increases in the chemical dopamine can cause hallucinations, delusions and disorganised thinking". (By the way, I did not draw on any expertise in neuroscience to write these responses—they are, of course, from Google.) I could answer in a similar style, not drawing on neuroscience, but on history. Why is Achilles angry? "The Greeks" had a "shame culture". Why are there two 6 �Genesis stories? "Philological evidence shows that there are two different authors." Is Don Quixote crazy? "Knight errantry was widely admired in early modern Spain." (Here the first claim is bullshit, the second is true, and I fabricated the third one from scratch.) What has gone wrong? First of all, as I've suggested, the appeal to a fact is an appeal to authority. Secondly, and more surprisingly, because it is an appeal to authority, a statement of fact does not convey learning at all. That a statement of fact is a claim to authority can be illustrated by two contrasts. Consider first of all matters of common experience. Oak trees come from acorns. The sun rises each morning in the east. Matters of common experience are generally available and extremely useful in thinking about things, especially with others. Now, they may not be always strictly true—how many acorns are gobbled by squirrels, and never become trees? And what assures the relation between the sun and the sky in the long term? Still, these claims are "true enough", or as Aristotle puts it "true always or for the most part." Yet I doubt we would call these matters of common experience "fact." Consider next the enunciations to the propositions of Euclid: for example, "Circles are to one another as the squares on their diameters." We spend as much time as it takes in class demonstrating the proofs that Euclid offers for these claims, and sometimes offering alternative proofs, and sometimes questioning the terms or the methods of the proof. We might describe this activity as a pursuit of truth so far as the objects are concerned. Yet I think we would not describe those enunciations, however luminously true and well-justified, as "facts." If I am on the right track, then a fact is not simply something true about the world. There are truths that we do not tend to call facts. Sometimes we examine these truths, as we do with an enunciation in Euclid. Sometimes we take them for granted, as we do with matters of common experience. By contrast, to call something 7 �a fact is a claim to knowledge, and hence, a claim to authority. When we accept that authority, and trust in the fact, we give the speaker a certain status, the status of a knower. A knower may be able to offer an explanation or justification of the proferred "fact." But the explanation is frequently also in factual terms, or an appeal to further, generic authorities: "studies" have shown, or "scientists" think. That makes a factual claim a kind of oracle: a voice from a rock that mysteriously speaks a truth, whose source we cannot evaluate or understand. So much supports our common experience at the college. A statement of fact pretends to an authority which stands outside of community of the classroom, and so it smothers the flame of serious and collaborative conversation. The questions which open our conversations are not answerable by facts. They are not, as is common in other forms of schooling, questions set to test our mastery of some material, laid out on a grid for the purposes of competitive box-checking.3 We ask real, open-ended questions, motivated by a desire to understand. The conversation might undermine the basis of the question, or begin to build a way to answer it. We may even go around in circles for a time. Only rarely does an answer emerge, and then usually only when something technical or concrete is at stake. With experience, I think it becomes obvious to most of us, if not all, that the forms of conversation opened up by the exclusion of facts are exciting, fascinating, edifying and wholesome. Forced to appeal to resources we can share, we read more carefully. When we seek words and phrases whose meaning we understand, as matters of common experience—say, "downward tendency" instead of "gravity", a term mediated by experts—we must speak more carefully and more thoughtfully. Our thinking becomes transparent, available to be heard, disputed, or added to by others. 3 On which see the wonderful discussion in Eva Brann, "The Student's Problem" (1967). 8 �_______________ Now, if we think again about our Euclid propositions, it becomes clear that what is presented in our classes as an invitation to examination, inquiry, or study can be presented as a fact in another context. Shortly, the freshman will turn to Euclid's famous proof about the relation of the sides of right triangles. It is likely to be familiar to us already, as a fact. Our fact has a pretentious title "The Pythagorean Theorem", as if that told us anything about it, and it has a snappy-sounding modernized formula: a2 + b2 = c2. What is the relationship between the factual claim, used as a weapon by know-it-alls in schools around the world, and the piece of Euclid's writing that we discuss in class? Here is a simple answer: The know-it-all's fact is dead, whereas Euclid's proposition, when a single person works through it, or several of us together, is alive. It is more alive, I think, even than my vivid experience of the tongs in the lab drawer. Like all living things, it takes time to come to understand it, and new aspects of it emerge over the course even of years. (I had a student in freshman math once who presented an alternate proof by baking cakes in the shapes of right triangles and the squares on their sides. She cut up the squares and lay them on top of one another to show their equality. Is that a good alternate proof, or not? Why not?) By contrast, a fact, when it is not simply a tool for establishing authority or jockeying for status, may point to something true, and even deeply true. But it has been dessicated, dried up, like astronaut's ice cream, and it has traveled far away from its source in a person's thinking and judgement. It might even be a mere disconnected symbol whose meaning has been lost, like a stray name tag from one of those huge and awful academic conferences, like the American Philosophical Association. In Plato's Phaedrus, which we read, by long tradition, at the end of freshman year and senior year, Socrates tells a story of the invention of writing in Egypt. Its 9 �inventor, the god Theuth, claims that it will help people to remember, but the god serving as king, Thamus, objects: For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn, by the neglect of their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them. You have found a medicine not for memory but for reminding. You furnish your students with the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they have heard many things without teaching and will therefore seem to know a lot, despite being ignorant for the most part and difficult to live with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise. (Phaedrus 275a-b, my translation.) Facts, like writing, are knowledge in storage, dessicated understanding stored up to be rehydrated or restored to life at a later time or place. They are stand-ins or representations for a living understanding, such as the active judgement of the living human being that originates it. Once put outside a person in ink on a paper, or in encoded pixels, the origin falls from view. As Socrates goes on to say, the disembodied record of the judgement is rolled around everywhere, like flotsam and jetsam on the sea, able to be claimed by anyone, whether they have the understanding it represents or not: Socrates: Writing, Phaedrus, has this fearsome quality, and is truly like painting; for its offspring stand like living beings, but if one asks them something, they preserve a solemn silence.It is the same with words and speeches; you might think they spoke with a certain wisdom, but if you question them, wishing to learn about their sayings, they always say only one and the same thing. And every word, when once it is written, is rolled and tossed about everywhere, alike among those who understand it and those who have no concern for it, and it does not know to whom to speak or not to speak. When sounded falsely or unjustly reproached it always needs its father's aid; for it has no power to defend or to help itself. (275d-276a) 10 �Is there any better description of the condition that we live in? We swim in sentences without knowing who spoke them or why. Free-floating claims can lodge in our minds, like spores. We can repeat them as if we know and understand their origins in real human thinking and judgement, but nothing will stop up our mouths and prevent us if we do not. Their automatic authority motivates us to cling to them when the going gets tough, and when we fear diminishment or loss of status. Worse than that: Our technological habits suggest that we believe that learning consists in the minimal acquisition of these dried up and dead judgements. To be used, like the directions from a global positioning system, one doesn't even have to learn the facts in question, but only to act on their assumption. Our thoughtless habits of deference and obedience to machines make it easy to forget that not only all true judgements, but all interesting judgements, originate in a living activity. We make these judgements when we get to know a subject matter by reading, study, and observation, by imagining and examining possibilities. If we do not cultivate these living activities of learning, in ourselves or in others, we risk becoming circulators of dead sound and symbol, exposed to an endless and unresolvable struggle for power and status. Of couse, it is not quite right to call facts "dead". What is dead remains so. In our study of Euclid-- or in the whole mathematics program -- we enter into the living origins of dead facts, the mathematical flotsam and jetsam in which we swim as a matter of course. We could say we "revivified" dead learning—although it has a creepy resonance, as if we were making zombies. Or we could use our founding dean, Jacob Klein's phrase, following Edmund Husserl, that what we do is "desedimentation", scraping off the deadening shell of the fact exchange, and seeing the truth of things, as vividly as if it were before our eyes.4 4 See especially Klein's "Phenomenology and the History of Science", with references. 11 �I have suggested that the most visible effect of the use of facts in our classrooms, and the most obvious complaint to make about it, is the threat that the use of authority makes to our spirit of collaboration and openness. Our careful listening, to the voices of the books and to one another's voices, is interrupted by a demand for assent. Yet this argument against facts in the classroom is too weak. I want to suggest that the appeal to facts at best distracts, and most commonly disrupts, the use of our active powers to learn and to understand. To see this more clearly, I turn at last to history proper. II. I suggest we make rough and ready distinction between scientific facts on the one hand, and historical facts on the other. (Academics use the phrase "rough and ready" when they mean "crass and incomplete.") The realm of scientific facts, to speak simply, seeks to explain everything that happens—at least, everything material—in terms of what things are made of, the most immediate causes of motion and change, and in terms of the laws of nature, laws which are often or usually mathematically conceived. One of the very greatest privileges of studying at St. John's is the privilege of thinking through, over a period of years, in great depth, the claims of this scientific realm. You who are freshmen will observe living beings, at first with just your eyes and some old books, before turning in the second semester to the mathematics of materials and attempting to see materials more closely through various contrived observations. Sophomores will work through the relation between observation and mathematics in ancient and modern astronomy, and then consider the origins of algebra, the great engine of mathematical explanation. Juniors will gaze into the heart of mathematical physics, and seniors will explore the great complications it faced in 12 �the twentieth century. Each of you, in other words, will have ample opportunity to think through the explanatory claims of science and the status of scientific fact. What about historical facts? The nature of history and historical study gets much less attention in our curriculum. Those Graduate Institute students who choose the History sequence will work their way through a set of reflections on history and its nature. Otherwise, we have an essay by Nietzsche to be read in the second semester of senior seminar, "The use and abuse of history for life." It is this essay that guides the remainder of this lecture. A warning: I will focus on points with which I am sympathetic to Nietzsche, or where he has taught me something, or where his formulation is particularly vivid and true. Yet in the end I have disagreements that would separate the view I am trying to illustrate from his. Given the short span of a lecture, a muddle may result, and the question period may be the place to try to resolve it. Nietzsche mocks his contemporaries, the historically learned Germans of the nineteenth century as "walking encyclopedias", as "dragging around with [them] a huge quantity of indigestible stones of knowledge, which then, as in the fairy-tale, can sometimes be heard rumbling around inside of [them]."5 The craze for ingesting information, facts, for a historical or scholarly approach to everything, has dehumanized them. For Nietzsche, the indifferent collection of an endless stream of historical facts is a sign of a kind of disorder, a misuse of learning. He describes Mozart and Beethoven, for instance, as "engulfed by all the learned dust of biography and compelled by the torture-instruments of historical criticism to answer a thousand impertinent questions."6 Mozart and Beethoven are composers of music. Their music is why they matter, as opposed to other central European males alive in the late "On the uses and disadvantage of history for life" §4, in Untimely Meditations, trans. R.J. Hollingdale. (Cambridge, 1983)78-79 6 Ibid. §7, p. 97 5 13 �eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Nothing about their biography explains what matters about their music. Consider another example, one that Nietzsche does not mention but one with which I'm sure he was familiar. In the nineteenth century, continuing unto the present day, scholars of Plato sought to discover the order in which Plato had written the dialogues, and so to give an account of the development of his thought. So, one might be told, some dialogues are early, others middle, and still others late, and the distinction would reflect changes in view on a more or less biographical basis— youthful idolatry of Socrates, the mature development of Socrates' ideas, the final rejection of Socrates. The motivation for the theory is not, for the most part, evidence from outside the dialogues, but rather, the apparent conflicts scholars find between various theses expressed in them. Adherents of the developmental model of the dialogues do not enter into the conversations of Socrates or the other interlocutors and so into the practice of philosophy. They cherry-pick theses and invent stories about how each develops from the other. Just as the Mozart biographers diminish unearthly music to the banalities of life, so do these scholars diminish and demean the great model for philosophical conversation and for the philosophical life. So far, we have suggested that a historical approach to books or to music might be pointless or distracting. For Nietzsche, the historical approach is worse than a distraction: it is destructive. He continues his earlier complaint about Mozart and Beethoven: Does [the engulfing and torture of the composers with biographical detail] not mean its premature death, or at least paralysis, when that, the living effects of which are not yet exhausted, is subject to curious investigation of the countless minutiae of its life and works, and when problems of knowledge are sought when one ought to learn to live and forget all problems?7 7 Ibid. 14 �"Forgetting all problems" perhaps makes more sense with music than with the dialogues of Plato. We are meant to listen to music, to perform it, to compose it, but not to study it; likewise, Plato invites us to practice philosophy, to face philosophical problems, to think about how to live—not to examine whether a moment's indigestion might have made him forget to apply something called the theory of Ideas. Nietzsche claims that 19th century Germans—"walking encyclopedias"— cannot "live", which I take to mean, they collect words without ingesting them or taking them to heart. They are not inspired to live out philosophy, to write music or poetry, but to summarize everything in a book and hold it at arm's length. By contrast, we can ingest Mozart's music as Beethoven did, composing music that responds to it on its own terms. Or we can ingest Plato's dialogues as Aristotle did: as the soil for further growth, as something in the light of which one might act, think, or create.8 Nietzsche's insight here is that a historical approach to certain figures or topics can be a kind of deliberate deadening. If facts are dead thinking, by burying art or thinking in facts, we make war on what matters. But for Nietzsche, smothering real thinking and creativity is not the only thing history does. He thinks that history, properly practiced, is essential for life. What does he mean by proper practice, and why does he think it is essential? He distinguishes three types of salutary history: monumental, antiquarian, and critical, briefly described in the passage that follows: Each of the three species of history which exist belongs to a certain soil and a certain climate and only to that: in any other it grows into a devastating weed. If a man who wants to do something great has need of the past at all, he appropriates it by means of monumental history; he on the other hand who likes to persist in the familiar and the revered of old, tends the past as an antiquarian historian; and only he who is 8 See the first chapter of George Steiner, Real Presences. (Chicago, 1991) 15 �oppressed by a present need, and who wants to throw off this burden at any cost, has need of critical history, that is to say, a history that judges and condemns. Much mischief is caused through the thoughtless transportation of these plants: the critic without need, the antiquary without piety, the man who recognizes greatness but cannot himself do great things, are such plants, estranged from their mother soil and degenerated into weeds.9 Monumental history looks to the past for inspiration. Antiquarian history looks to steward the history of a place or a community, as a way to care for that place or community. Lastly, critical history seeks to uncover a wrong of the past in order to correct it in the present and to build a different future. All three forms of history, for Nietzsche, must be undertaken with moderation. The wrong place, the wrong time, the wrong amount, would have toxic effects. All the forms of history that Nietzsche praises are a part of practical life, the life of action, driven by present concerns and in light of the future. It is evident from the tripartite division of history that he sees the value of history as political, or as belonging to a community or a political community in a special way. Sometimes he calls such a community a "culture". Monumental history matters for the formation of participants and leaders in political life, by shaping their aspirations and inflaming their desire to imitate the virtues of their forbears. Antiquarian history is a mode of stewardship. If an interest in one's ancestry is a mode of commitment to one's family, an interest in antiquarian history is a mode of commitment to the buildings and customs of one's community.10 Critical history is a mode of improving one's political community, of liberating it from something from the past that strangles its growth or its flourishing. Nietzsche, op.cit. §2, p. 72 I remember once visiting a small town in the Lake District of England called Grasmere. The church there had a custom, many hundreds of years old, called "Rushbearing". On a particular day, the townspeople brought rushes to cover the floor of the church. What was remarkable was that the historical pamphlet on the tradition contained no explanation whatsoever. They could speculate that the rushes were to cover odors or moisture, but why bring them on one day a year with pomp and ceremony? Antiquarian history prizes memory above understanding. 9 10 16 �Why would history be limited to the practical and the communal, or subordinate to what Nietzsche calls "life"? (It is difficult to see what he means by "life", but I hazard that he means the use of the active and creative powers of the mind and heart.) Nietzsche is not so much placing a limitation on history, as noticing that that a limitation is necessary. History is already necessarily limited. Consider for a moment everything that has ever happened. It is by no means all historical. What I ate for breakfast this morning, or a year ago, or twenty years ago, is not historical. It is simply a past happening. When we tell a history, we make a selection. Even if we choose to write a history of breakfast, or, even a history of breakfast in the United States in the late 20th and early 21st centures —even then, my own breakfast might not be exemplary or interesting, that is, it might fail to be of historical interest. The act of selection is made in the present in which the history is told, although of course, the selections of the past will also have determined, for instance, which books of the past have survived into the present. In his essay on history and the liberal arts, which I recommend, Jacob Klein makes this point about the necessary selectivity of history, and another point that seems to me related. Klein observes that, potentially, there is a history of absolutely anything. We could tell a history of Friday Night Lectures, a history of podiums, a history of public lectures, a history of audiences or auditoriums, or a history of receptions in between lectures and question period. I find the breadth of matters to which history can be used to be mysterious. There is not a geology of everything in principle, nor is there a science of nutrition for anything you can think of. For what kinds of inquiry is this true? There is certainly a philosophy of anything in principle, and a poetry likewise; there has also been thought to be a mathematics of everything, and a physics or chemistry of everything. 17 �Does every form of inquiry that has universal application also rely on a principle of selection? Not necessarily. Suppose there are universal and necessary laws of nature. The universality of their related sciences—physics or chemistry— might just consist in the application of laws to an unlimited variety of particular situations. In the case of philosophy, the disciplines within it are thought to have some internal ordering or other, for instance, logic lays a foundation for the study of nature, and the study of nature for ethics, in one familiar view. Our "selection", in these other disciplines, does not provide order and limits where there was previously none, but relies on an order within the discipline itself. Does history have laws? I believe that laws of this kind have been sought, and were sought with particular intensity in the 19th century. I am skeptical that they can have been found. What history may yield instead is rather matters of common experience, formulated by careful reflection on sets of events. Such a science of history, the kind that I think is practiced by Thucydides or Herodotus, Tocqueville or Tacitus, is not so much a "science" as a repository of practical wisdom, truths only as general as 'oak trees come from acorns' or 'the sun rises each day in the east.' Perhaps wealth provides for a leisured class, as Aristotle suggests in the opening of the Metaphysics, or, in the aphorisms with which Thucydides' history is larded, "war is a violent teacher"(3.82) or "it is a habit of mankind to entrust to careless hope what they long for, and to use sovereign reason to thrust aside what they do not fancy." (4.108) The works that come closest to seeking or finding laws of history on our curriculum are Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations in the junior seminar list, and the Marx readings that the seniors will begin shortly. In my current state of ignorance, I suspect that these two authors have in the end, like other historians and political theorists, have not discovered universal laws of history. Rather, they have only pointed out 18 �rules of thumb to guide large-scale practical judgement—what Aristotle called practical wisdom. Theirs is not a law-governed science at all. Now, you will have seen, at this part of the lecture I have become hand-wavy and lazy. Let me try to take a stab at one more suggestion as to why history may be necessarily a practical endeavor, rather than a theoretical one. Aristotle famously claims that poetry is more philosophical than history, since it aims at the universal: It is clear from what has already been said that the work of the poet is not to tell what happened, but the sorts of things that might and could happen, because they are likely or necessary. For the historian and the poet differ not by writing verse or prose -- Herodotus' writings could be put into verse and it would no less be a kind of history, in verse or without verse. The difference is this, that the one tells what happened, the other what might happen. For this reason poetry is more philosophical and more serious than history, since poetry is more universal, and history speaks of the particular. It is universal, then, for a person of a certain sort to say or do certain kinds of things, either as is likely or as is necessary. That is what poetry aims at when it gives names, whereas the particular is what Alcibiades did or what he suffered. (Poetics 1451a35-b10) If I am right in my instinct that there are no laws of history, so that no science of history could explain every particular, as is the ambition of natural science, history can only collect particulars. Further, it can only assemble particulars for a particular purpose, lest it be overwhelmed by a trillion irrelevant trivialities. It seems to me natural that this would be a practical endeavor, just as the multitude of facts we use in everyday life are most evident in practical endeavors. Recall at the outset of the lecture, facts seemed to have two uses: the attainment of practical goals, and the claim to authority. What is history for? To help us to think about what we ought to do. We ought to demand a transparent usefullness of any history, an account of its aims, a purpose in the present moment. 19 �III. Where does this leave us? As two of my colleagues asked me yesterday: Is history all bad? Or is it sometimes good? It seems to me that we have good reason to think that we are subject to endemic forms of distraction, illusion, and enchantment, not the enchantment that makes Cinderella a princess, but the enchantment that turns Odysseus' companions to swine. We have an inbuilt inclination to seek historical answers, such as the biographical pseudo-answers to why we find one thought or another in the dialogues of Plato. Our search for collections of irrelevant facts can overwhelm our attention and lay waste to the precious time in which we live our lives. I do not believe this search can ever be fruitful, in the absence of universal laws of history that could promise to explain all the happenings that have ever happened and all the doings that were ever done. I will confess, however, to having found history very useful in studying old books. To be so useful, it seems to me, it must help us to see what our friends, the books and authors, themselves saw. Our principle of selection, our terms of use, would then be the fundamental questions that we share with the authors of the books. In other words, when history is used well, it is subordinate to our shared interest with the books and authors, the love and zeal for fundamental questions. Until our fundamental inquiries are done, until we achieve mutual understanding with all of the humans from the past with whom we speak in conversation, it seems merely optional to seek out such nuances. For our attitude to the past is shaped by its own sort of selfish concern, the concern for how we ought to live, and how we ought to understand the world around us, in light of that concern. 20 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>.  <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis 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. 20 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 What's Wrong with History? Description An account of the resource Typescript of a lecture delivered on September 27, 2024, by Annapolis tutor Zena Hitz as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Ms. Hitz offers this description of her lecture: “In a St. John's seminar, we do not approach the readings historically, that is, ‘in a context.’ Instead, we ask them questions, as we might ask living people questions, and engage them in conversation and shared inquiry. Is this simply the way we prefer to read? Or is something wrong with a historical approach to a great book? If so, what?” Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hitz, Zena, 1973- Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-09-27 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating: "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: make a recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John’s College Greenfield Library; make a recording of my lecture available online; make typescript copies of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John’s College Greenfield Library; make a copy of my typescript available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource History--Study and teaching Education, Humanistic Facts (Philosophy) Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context LEC_Hitz_Zena_2024-09-27 Relation A related resource <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/8001">Video</a> Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/878390a9a8f683cb4951c2b93b7fa3bf.mp4 381be463e37e70dac1c5e6a6c84fb751 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>.  <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Moving Image A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data mp4 Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 01:00:05 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 Know Thyself in Dialogue with Others: A Case for Cross-Cultural Philosophy Description An account of the resource Video recording of a lecture delivered on November 1, 2024, by Bret Davis as part of the Formal Lecture Series.  <br /><br />Bret W. Davis is Professor and Higgins Chair in Philosophy at Loyola University Maryland, where he teaches courses in Asian, Western, and cross-cultural philosophy, with previous research and teaching stops in Germany and Japan. Professor Davis has published articles on numerous philosophical topics, and is the author of <em>Heidegger and the Will: On the Way to Gelassenheit</em> (2007) and <em>Zen Pathways: An Introduction to the Philosophy and Practice of Zen Buddhism</em> (2022).  <br /><br />Professor Davis offers this introduction to his lecture: “Know thyself” is a motto of philosophical inquiry not only in the West but in many traditions. What does it mean to know oneself? There are different types of self-knowledge, revealing different aspects of the self. One important aspect of the self is how our thoughts, feelings, and values are shaped by the culture and tradition in which we were raised. Another important aspect of the self is how we are capable of critically reflecting on and creatively developing our culture and tradition in dialogue with others. Our selves are both shaped by and shape our cultures and traditions. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Davis, Bret 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 Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-11-01 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In copyright. Type The nature or genre of the resource moving image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Subject The topic of the resource Self-knowledge, Theory of Cross-cultural communication Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context LEC_Davis_Bret_2024-11-01_ac Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/66634b9dab8335067748917730b1951c.mp3 28e43d170ad7baca9fb6496aedd88f70 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data m4a Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:48:59 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 Don Quixote and the Art of Reading Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture given by tutor Obed Lira on November 1, 2024 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: "What is reading? Is it an art? Few books explore what it means to read as compellingly as Don Quixote. Guided by a character who writes and reads himself into the world, the novel's numerous characters also appear to write and read themselves into dizzying stories as the book unfolds. The world, it seems, wants to read itself in narratives. To live in the world is to read the world. And yet, as we read, the book warns us that although reading ought to be edifying and delightful, it may easily prove harmful to individuals and dangerous to society. What lies at the center of this ambiguity in reading? Jests and metafictional trickery notwithstanding, the unrelenting violence depicted in the novel suggests that Cervantes might be deadly serious about a predicament that arises when thinking about reading more broadly: how are we to read the world, and what are we to do with how the world reads us." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Lira, Obed 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 2024-11-01 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 Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de, 1547-1616. Don Quixote Reading Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SF_LiraO_Don_Quixote_and_the_Art_of_Reading_2024-11-01 Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/e5291025764775174f3ffa84dd80cefb.mp3 2bc0fbcdd941f73f9c9802df20280598 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data m4a Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:55:15 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 Christian Nationalism: Through the Lense of Anthropology Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture given by Ron Duncan Hart on October 30, 2024 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: "Christian nationalism began forming in White working-class evangelical neighborhoods in the early 1970s, and this talk will analyze the cultural matrix of religion, disenfranchisement, anti-feminism, and racism that were the roots of that movement. It developed in backlash to the Supreme Court decisions banning segregation, prayer, and Bible reading in schools, followed by the civil rights legislation, the Equal Rights Amendment and the Roe vs Wade decision on abortion. Those historic changes and the growing pluralism of American society led to the religious right organizing to defeat them. Evangelicals formed a coalition with Ronald Reagan on the promise of making America great again, which was understood as code for making America White and Christian. We will look at that coalition and the continued use of the MAGA slogan to the present." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hart, Ron Duncan 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 2024-10-30 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 Christian nationalism Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SF_HartRD_Christian_Nationalism_Through_the_Lense_of_Anthropology_2024-10-30 Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/26671ac2055b2b2317950d528da8de34.mp3 e9f20c9c9e2893c36a68eee45d28deca Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data M4A Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:43:08 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 Distance, Attention and Being: Thinking About Media Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture given by tutor David McDonald on October 25, 2024 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: "Aura, for critic Walter Benjamin, is the authenticity and uniqueness of the work of art, its situation in time and space. For natural beings, the equivalent is what Benjamin calls distance. The distance of the tree, the bird, the mountain--or the human person--is its independence and stature, its unassimilable being. A medium brings things closer, diminishes the distance of beings; this is much of Benjamin's concern in his consideration of photography as a medium, as a means of "mechanical reproduction." Invoking Simone Weil's and Iris Murdoch's thinking on attention, I will develop the notion of attention across distance, and discuss the role of media, especially electronic media, in our relation to beings. Along the way I expect to say something about boredom, trauma and addiction." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource McDonald, 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 2024-10-25 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 Weil, Simone Murdoch, Iris Benjamin, Walter Attention Digital media Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SF_McDonaldD_Distance_Attention_and_Being_2024-10-25 Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/8285d7a9a0bee1a6ee3aa611c625b791.pdf f41dc79c5ec53fc939e0839991646517 PDF Text Text Created with admiration by Luke Klassen, Greenfield Library, Graduate Institute Class of 2025 (Annapolis). �Eva Brann was a faculty member at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, for over sixty years. Among her numerous written works are over twenty books and more than two hundred lectures and addresses delivered at nearly one hundred institutions in thirty-four states and five foreign countries. She held degrees from Brooklyn College and Yale University and was a 2005 recipient of the National Humanities Medal. This bibliography includes those of her works held in the collections at the Greenfield Library as of October 2024. Created with admiration by Luke Klassen, Greenfield Library, Graduate Institute Class of 2025 (Annapolis). �Table of Contents* Addresses .................................................................................................................................................. 1 Speeches ............................................................................................................................................. 4 Talks ................................................................................................................................................... 5 Toasts ............................................................................................................................................... 11 Articles .................................................................................................................................................... 12 Drafts ............................................................................................................................................... 23 Book Contributions ............................................................................................................................... 24 Books ...................................................................................................................................................... 25 Chapters ................................................................................................................................................. 27 Drafts ............................................................................................................................................... 30 Draft and Unpublished Essays ............................................................................................................... 31 Lectures .................................................................................................................................................. 33 Reviews ................................................................................................................................................... 39 Drafts ............................................................................................................................................... 43 Translated Works ................................................................................................................................... 45 Books ................................................................................................................................................ 45 Articles ............................................................................................................................................. 46 Drafts ............................................................................................................................................... 46 Other ...................................................................................................................................................... 46 Unknown ............................................................................................................................................... 49 Drafts ............................................................................................................................................... 49 *Each entry is followed by the call number(s) by which that work may be found at the Greenfield Library. Items with call numbers beginning ‘FaFi-’ are part of the Faculty Files collection and may be requested at the circulation desk. �Addresses "About the Greatness of Great Books." Address delivered at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, April 4, 2001. [FaFi-BrannE003] "Barry Mazur—Steiner Lecture." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, September 30, 2011. [FaFi-BrannE409] "Caritas Book and Author Luncheon." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, Saturday, March 16, 1991. [FaFi-BrannE319] "Chris Nelson's 20th Year as Our President." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, 2011. [FaFi-BrannE420] "Commencement: Glendale Preparatory Academy, Mesa Preparatory Academy." Address delivered at Glendale Preparatory Academy, Peoria, AZ, May 25, and at Mesa Preparatory Academy, Phoenix, AZ, May 26, 2012. [FaFi-BrannE427] "Croquet Match: Saturday, April 24, 1993." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, April 24, 1993. [FaFi-BrannE053] "Democratic Distinction: An Address to Initiates of Alpha Chapter of District of Columbia, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., May 8, 1993." Address delivered at Phi Beta Kappa Society, Washington, DC, May 8, 1993. [FaFi-BrannE067] "Do Colleges Have Something to Offer Universities Concerning Liberal Education?" Address delivered at the Association for Core Texts and Courses, Notre Dame, IN, June 11, 2013. [FaFi-BrannE441] "Does It Matter by Whom or When a Book Was Written?" Address delivered at the Caritas Society of St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, January 14, 1993. [FaFi-BrannE075] "Excellence and the Pursuit of Ideas." Address delivered at the College of Wooster, Wooster, OH, 1982. [FaFi-BrannE089] "Far Pavilions and Pig Pens Nearby." Address delivered at Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL, November 11, 1991. [program copy and typescript: FaFi-BrannE095] "For Curtis Wilson's 50th Year at St. John's." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, October 2, 2000. [FaFi-BrannE103] "For Erik Sageng: September, 2014." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, September 2014. [FaFi-BrannE526] "For Harvey Flaumenhaft." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, May 16, 2005. [FaFi-BrannE104] 1 �"For Malcolm Wyatt's Retirement." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, April 17, 2002. [FaFi-BrannE105] "For Ms. Barbara Dorsey: On Her Being Honored by the College, September 29, 2012." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, September 29, 2012. [FaFi-BrannE430] "For Robert Williamson's Induction as Honorary Alumnus: October 5, 2002." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, October 5, 2002. [FaFi-BrannE107] "For Stewart and Connie Greenfield." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, October 3, 1998. [FaFi-BrannE108] "For the Graduation of June 3, 1999, The Village School, Charlottesville, VA." Address delivered at Village School, Charlottesville, VA, June 3, 1999. [FaFi-BrannE111] "[For the induction of Laurence Berns as honorary alumnus]." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, Saturday, September 23, 2000. [FaFi-BrannE293] "For the Memorial Fun Run of Croquet Weekend: April 18, 2015." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, April 18, 2015. [FaFi-BrannE531] "For the Post-Semester Party." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, May 15, 2017. [FaFi-BrannE563] "For the St. John's College Board Retreat: November 5, 2004." Address delivered at [s.l.], November 5, 2004. [FaFi-BrannE119] "For the Students of Glendale Preparatory Academy: Who Have Read Homer's Epics." Address delivered at Glendale Preparatory Academy, Peoria, AZ, October 24, 2012. [FaFi-BrannE431] "For the Teachers of Glendale Preparatory Academy." Address delivered at Glendale Preparatory Academy, Peoria, AZ, October 24, 2012. [FaFi-BrannE436] "Graduation Address at Gutenberg College, Eugene, Oregon: June 14, 2003." Address delivered at Gutenberg College, Eugene, OR, June 14, 2003. [FaFi-BrannE127] "Great Books and the Book." Address delivered at Newark School of Theology for Ecumenical and Interfaith Studies, Newark, NJ, September 2, 1997. [FaFi-BrannE128] "Jacob Klein: European Scholar and American Teacher." Address delivered at Providence College, Providence, RI, Friday, March 11, 2016. [FaFi-BrannE505] "Jacob Klein's Two Prescient Discoveries." Address delivered at Seattle University, Seattle, WA, [May 27-29], 2010. [FaFi-BrannE445] 2 �"Keynote Address: Great Hearts Summit." Address delivered at Great Hearts Academies, [Phoenix], AZ, August 6, 2007. [FaFi-BrannE580] "Kick-off: Women's Soccer." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, September 8, 1995. [FaFi-BrannE401] "Pre-Socratics or First Philosophers?" Address delivered at the Metaphysical Society of America, Annapolis, MD, Friday, March 18, 2016. [FaFi-BrannE506] "Prologue to 'Socrates' Legacy': For William Darkey." Address delivered at St. John's College, Santa Fe, NM, September 18, 2009. [FaFi-BrannE452] "Real Olympics: May 8, 1993." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, May 8, 1993. [FaFi-BrannE303] "Reflections on Academic Freedom and Our Program." Address delivered at St. John's College, [Annapolis, MD], January 1990. [FaFi-BrannE305] "Service-Learning: Youth as Resource." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, January 29, 1993. [FaFi-BrannE286] "St. John's College Dinner Celebrating the Conclusion of the Capital Campaign and the Beginning of the Three-Hundredth Year." Address delivered at St. John's College, [Annapolis, MD], 1996. [FaFi-BrannE313] "The Permanent Part of the College: For the St. John's College Alumni Association of San Francisco, Fall 1980." Address delivered at the St. John's College Alumni Association, San Francisco, CA, Fall 1980. [FaFi-BrannE243] "The Scholastic Aptitude Test at St. John's College." Address delivered at Charlottesville, VA, October 13, 2001. [FaFi-BrannE284] "The Undergraduate Program." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, November 17, 2014. [FaFi-BrannE520] "The Uniqueness of the St. John's Program: (For the Special Plenary Session of the Board of Visitors and Governors, October 22, 1988)." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, October 22, 1988. [FaFi-BrannE358] "Uniting Students' Learning." Address delivered at the Association for Core Texts and Courses, New Orleans, LA, April 8, 1999. [FaFi-BrannE359] "Women's [Soccer] Practice Kick-Off." Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, September 10, 1993. [FaFi-BrannE401] 3 �"Women's Soccer Season Kick-Off: September 9, 1994" Address delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, September 9, 1994. [FaFi-BrannE401] Addresses: Speeches "'Changing the World'." Speech delivered at St. John's College, Santa Fe, NM, May 21, 2016. [print: FaFi-BrannE528; SJC Digital Archives: Santa Fe Commencement Programs and Addresses Collection; audio: SJC Digital Archives: Santa Fe Commencement Programs and Addresses Collection] "[Reception of an honorary degree, Iona College]." Speech delivered at Iona College, New Rochelle, NY, November 12, 2006. [FaFi-BrannE156] "[Reception of the Distinguished Alumna Service Medal, Brooklyn College]." Speech delivered at Brooklyn College, New York, NY, May 31, 2007. [FaFi-BrannE109] "Acceptance Speech: Russell Kirk Paideia Prize." Speech delivered at Circe Institute, [Kannapolis, NC], July 18, 2014. [FaFi-BrannE537] "Commencement Speech: St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland, May 18, 1997." Speech delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, May 18, 1997. [FaFi-BrannE047] "For Beate: September 29, 2004." Speech delivered September 29, 2004. [FaFi-BrannE100] "For Bud Billups[' Retirement]: September 7, 2006." Speech delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, September 7, 2006. [FaFi-BrannE265] "For Peter V. V. Hamill (2007)." Speech delivered March 17, 2007. [FaFi-BrannE106] "For Terry McGuire, Assistant to the Dean, on Her Retirement." Speech delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, June 11, 2015. [FaFi-BrannE518] "For the Presentation of the St. John's Alumni Association's Award of Merit to Martin Andrews: March 17, 2009." Speech delivered at St. John's College Alumni Association, Annapolis, MD, March 17, 2009. [FaFi-BrannE448] "In Memory of Chaninah Maschler." Speech delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, September 2014. [FaFi-BrannE539] "In Memory of Robert Goldwin." Speech delivered at [s.l.], April 24, 2010. [FaFi-BrannE471] "Memorial Service for J. Winfree Smith." Speech delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, April 20, 1991. [SJC Digital Archives: Speeches, Presentations, and Other Lectures Collection] 4 �"Reflection on Jean Davison, d. 2017, Aged 95." Speech delivered April 13, 2018. [FaFi-BrannE562] Addresses: Talks "About Ursula LeGuin's 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.'" Talk delivered at Park School of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, March 1, 2000. [FaFi-BrannE005] "Achilleian Armor and Odysseian Time." Talk delivered at Mercer University, Macon, GA, October 21, 2010. [FaFi-BrannE405] "Are the Platonic Doctrines Unwritten Because They Couldn't or Because They Shouldn't Be Published." Talk delivered at Seattle University, Seattle, WA, May 9, 2009. [FaFi-BrannE449] "Are There Adults?" Talk delivered at the Alliance for Liberal Learning, Chicago, IL, November 7, 2015. [FaFi-BrannE507] "Beauty Bare (Complete Version)." Talk delivered at Philoctetes Center, New York, NY, November 14, 2009. [FaFi-BrannE451] "Can the Reading of Literature Make Us Better?" Talk delivered at Maryland Humanities Council, Baltimore, MD, December 7, 1991. [FaFi-BrannE037] "Character and Liberal Education." Talk delivered at Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT, [April] 1981. [FaFi-BrannE040] "Civic Education." Talk delivered at St. Catherine's College, [St. Paul, MN, or Springfield, KY], 1982. [FaFi-BrannE041] "Coeducation." Talk delivered at Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT, January 1983. [FaFi-BrannE042] "Commencement Talk: Chandler Preparatory Academy, May 27, 2011." Talk delivered at Chandler Preparatory Academy, Chandler, AZ, May 27, 2011. [FaFi-BrannE406] "Communities." Talk delivered at Kentucky State University and St. John's University, Middlebury, VT, March 14, 2000. [FaFi-BrannE048] "[Concerning the 'canon controversy']." Talk delivered at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, October 16, 1992. [FaFi-BrannE006] "[Concerning the St. John's Program and the history and evolution of core curricula]." Talk delivered at Columbia University, New York, NY, March 24, 2007. [FaFi-BrannE347] 5 �"Dangers to Liberal Education." Talk delivered at Transylvania University, Lexington, KY, January 29, 2008. [FaFi-BrannE572] "Delight in Reading Homer." Talk delivered at Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, LA, September 15, 2004. [FaFi-BrannE065] "Depth Versus Complexity." Talk delivered at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA, September 16, 2016. [FaFi-BrannE513] "Difficult Desire." Talk delivered at Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, September 15, 2017. [FaFi-BrannE555] "Do the Great Books Change?" Talk delivered at the Great Books Fair, Chicago, IL, November 9, 2008. [FaFi-BrannE574] "Do You Know What an Odyssey Is?" Talk delivered at Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA, September 2, 1993. [FaFi-BrannE073] "Education in Plato's Republic." Talk delivered at Coppin-Hopkins Humanities Program, Baltimore, MD, February 1, 1989. [FaFi-BrannE078] "Eight Theses on Liberal Education." Talk delivered at Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT, Fall 1997. [FaFi-BrannE112] "Eve Separate." Talk delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, June 2005. [FaFi-BrannE087] "For a Contemplative and a Common Curriculum." Talk delivered at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, May 27, 1993. [FaFi-BrannE117] "For Laurence Berns." Talk delivered September 2011. [FaFi-BrannE411] "For the Canon of the Western Tradition." Talk delivered at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, 1992. [FaFi-BrannE115] "For the Graduate Students in Classics at Yale." Talk delivered at Yale University, New Haven, CT, October 12, 2006. [FaFi-BrannE116] "[For the Liberal Arts Colloquium at Westmont College]." Talk delivered at Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA, January 20, 2001. [FaFi-BrannE334] "Homeric Morality?" Talk delivered at Rotary Club [of Annapolis], Annapolis, MD, January 25, 2007. [FaFi-BrannE138] 6 �"Human Excellence, Jewish Excellence." Talk delivered at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, August 29, 2010. [FaFi-BrannE478] "Illiberal Education." Talk delivered at Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, MI, November 14, 2001. [FaFi-BrannE142] "Immediacy." Talk delivered at St. John's College, Santa Fe, NM, October 2014. [FaFi-BrannE480] "Is Liberal Education Necessarily Secular?" Talk delivered at Jewish Educational Alliance, Savannah, GA, November 8, 2009. [FaFi-BrannE456] "Liberal Arts in the Near and Far Future: Guesses and Hopes." Talk delivered at Catawba College, Salisbury, NC, February 1990. [FaFi-BrannE182] "Liberal Arts: The Future." Talk delivered at Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA, 2001. [FaFi-BrannE181] "Liberal Education and Multiculturalism: Friends or Enemies?" Talk delivered at University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, November 11, 1992. [FaFi-BrannE183] "Liberal Education." Talk delivered at Zaytuna College, Berkeley, CA, September 29, 2017. [FaFi-BrannE547] "Literacy, Culture, and the Shaping of Democracy." Talk delivered at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, October 1987. [FaFi-BrannE185] "Memorial for Jeff Bishop." Talk delivered at [s.l.], October 27, 2007. [FaFi-BrannE559] "Moral Teaching and Free Inquiry." Talk delivered at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis, Annapolis, MD, Sunday, November 28, 1993. [FaFi-BrannE197] "Musings on Gender." Talk delivered at Seattle College, Seattle, WA, March 1996. [FaFi-BrannE206] "Natural Connections: The Breadth of the Liberal Arts." Talk delivered at John Carroll University, University Heights, OH, May 1992. [FaFi-BrannE207] "Odysseus: Patron Hero of the Liberal Arts." Talk delivered at Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI, June 12, 2014. [FaFi-BrannE538] "On Compromise." Talk delivered at Ashland University, Ashland, OH, October 27, 2017. [FaFi-BrannE556] 7 �"On the Use of Texts in Teaching Philosophy." Talk delivered at the American College Personnel Association, Pittsburgh, PA, March 28, 1998. [FaFi-BrannE222] "Panel of the Second Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses." Talk delivered at the Association for Core Texts and Courses, [s.l.], April 28, 1996. [FaFi-BrannE295] "Panel Presentation for the First Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses." Talk delivered at the Association for Core Texts and Courses, [Philadelphia, PA], April 29, 1995. [FaFi-BrannE231] "Plato's Opinion of the Fine Arts: A Major Offensive Against Artists." Talk delivered at Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD, March 27, 2006. [FaFi-BrannE254] "Politics and the Imagination." Talk delivered at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, April 1983. [FaFi-BrannE259] "Pregnant Speech." Talk delivered at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, Washington, DC, October 28, 2016. [FaFi-BrannE561] "President's Council." Talk delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, May 2, 1992. [FaFi-BrannE294] "Principles of the St. John's Program." Talk delivered at Shalem Center, Jerusalem, Israel, January 5, 2010. [FaFi-BrannE460] "Roundtable on the Great Books." Talk delivered at the Southern Political Science Association, Memphis, TN, November 1989. [FaFi-BrannE282] "Sight Unseen: Philosophy in Greece." Talk delivered at Humanities West, San Francisco, CA, June 4, 1994. [FaFi-BrannE290] "Socrates: Antitragedian." Talk delivered at the University of Crete, Rethymno, Crete, June 12, 2012. [FaFi-BrannE428] "Some Notions About Reading Platonic Dialogues with Undergraduates." Talk delivered at Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, CA, November 2002. [FaFi-BrannE317] "St. John's College at the Turn of Its Fourth Century." Talk delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, [August] 1994. [FaFi-BrannE314] "Studying the Imagination." Talk delivered at the University of Dallas, Irving, TX, January 27, 2018. [FaFi-BrannE573] "Take No Thought for the Morrow." Talk delivered at Saint Mary's College of California, Moraga, CA, Thursday, November 8, 1990. [FaFi-BrannE330] 8 �"Talk on Homeric Moments: Great Hall." Talk delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, Tuesday, November 19, 2002. [FaFi-BrannE333] "The Actual Intention of Plato's Dialogues on Justice and Statesmanship." Talk delivered at the Notre Dame Centre for Ethics and Culture, Notre Dame, IN, November 10, 2012. [FaFi-BrannE433] "The Age of Anxiety." Talk delivered at Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT, Spring 2005. [FaFi-BrannE008] "The Being of Fictions." Talk delivered at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, November 1, 2000. [FaFi-BrannE021] "The Dispassionate Study of the Passions." Talk delivered at Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, March 30, 2012. [FaFi-BrannE437] "The Ethics of a Community of Learning." Talk delivered at Duke University, Durham, NC, March [5-7], 2004. [FaFi-BrannE084] "The Ethics of a Community of Learning." Talk delivered at Southern Oregon State College, Ashland, OR, October 1997. [FaFi-BrannE114] "The Founding and Higher Education." Talk delivered at St. Mary's College, Maraga, CA, June 19, 1997. [FaFi-BrannE122] "The Holy Woman of Pankot: Paul Scott's Towers of Silence, the Third of His Raj Novels." Talk delivered at the University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, March 2003. [FaFi-BrannE137] "The Metaphysics of Conversation." Talk delivered at Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT, Fall 2003. [FaFi-BrannE192] "The Music of Plato's Republic." Talk delivered at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Jerusalem, Israel, [January 31], 2006. [FaFi-BrannE200; corrected version: FaFi-BrannE199] "The Place of Human Values in Education." Talk delivered at Millsaps College, Jackson, MS, September 13, 1985. [FaFi-BrannE252] "The Purpose of Liberal Education." Talk delivered at [a 'small independent liberal arts college'], Tbilisi, Georgia (country), June 11, 2011. [FaFi-BrannE421] "The Role of Higher Education in a Young Jewish Republic." Talk delivered at Shalem Center, Jerusalem, Israel, January 4, 2010. [FaFi-BrannE457] "The Roots of Modernity." Talk delivered at Whitworth College, Spokane, WA, February 20, 1979. [FaFi-BrannE280] 9 �"The Roots of the Enlightenment." Talk delivered at the Claremont Institute, Claremont, CA, January 1990. [FaFi-BrannE281] "The Shallows and the Depths: Public Opinion and Private Conviction: In Memory of Paul Lowdenslager." Talk delivered at Western State College of Colorado, Gunnison, CO, October 2001. [FaFi-BrannE288] "The Tyrant's Temperance: Plato's Charmides." Talk delivered at [s.l.], [2002/03]. [FaFi-BrannE356] "The Unfabricated and Immaterial Image." Talk delivered at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, March 1992. [FaFi-BrannE357] "The University: Service to Society." Talk delivered at the Complutense University of Madrid, El Escorial, Spain, July 7, 1995. [FaFi-BrannE362] "Time in the Odyssey: (Short Version)." Talk delivered at St. John's College Alumni Association San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, August 1, 2010. [FaFi-BrannE479] "Tips for Reading Homer's Poetry." Talk delivered at [s.l.], March 2017. [FaFi-BrannE557] "Truth and Teaching." Talk delivered at [the University of Oklahoma], Norman, OK, October 1990. [FaFi-BrannE354] "Was Jefferson a Philosopher?" Talk delivered at the American Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, September [2-5], 1976. [FaFi-BrannE369] "What is the Common Good of Liberal Education?" Talk delivered at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME, April 18, 2008. [FaFi-BrannE571] "What is the Good of a Liberal Arts Education?" Talk delivered at Kentucky State University, Frankfort, KY, and St. John's University, Collegeville, MN, January 1984. [FaFi-BrannE387] "What Should Liberal Education Be in the Twenty-First Century?" Talk delivered at HampdenSydney College, Hampden Sydney, VA, October 30, 2001. [FaFi-BrannE389] "What Socrates' Death Means to Us." Talk delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, February 18, 2007. [FaFi-BrannE388] "Whose Sense? Whose Sensibility?: Jane Austen's Subtlest Novel." Talk delivered at Jane Austen Society of North America, Washington, DC, October 1990. [FaFi-BrannE393] "'Why Justice?': The Answer in Plato's Republic.” Talk delivered at Goucher College, Baltimore, MD, September 2002. [FaFi-BrannE399] 10 �"Why Read?" Talk delivered at Biola University, La Mirada, CA, March 3, 2016. [FaFi-BrannE568] "Why Study Philosophy, at Any Age?" Talk delivered at Heritage High School, Richmond, VA, October 9, 1995. [FaFi-BrannE396] "Will, Willing, Willfulness, Willpower." Talk delivered at Benedictine College, Atchison, KS, March 22, 2013. [FaFi-BrannE435] "Year Fifty at St. John's." Talk delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, September 29, 2007. [FaFi-BrannE581] Addresses: Toasts "Dean's Toast 'To the Republics.'" Toast delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, May 14, 1993. [FaFi-BrannE063] "Dean's Toast to the Republic." Toast delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, May 13, 1994. [FaFi-BrannE063] "Dean's Toast to the Republic." Toast delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, May 17, 1996. [FaFi-BrannE063] "Dean's Toast to the Republic." Toast delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, May 16, 1997. [FaFi-BrannE063] "Eighty-Fifth Birthday at Chris Nelson's: 1/28/14." Toast delivered at [s.l.], January 28, 2014. [FaFi-BrannE402] "The Toast to the Republic." Toast delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, May 15, 1992. [FaFi-BrannE063] "Toast for Chris Denny." Toast delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, May 14, 1993. [FaFi-BrannE063] "Toast for Chris Nelson." Toast delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, September 24, 2016. [FaFi-BrannE495] "Toast to the Republic." Toast delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, May 17, 1991. [FaFi-BrannE063] "Tutor's Toast to the Seniors." Toast delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, Friday, May 13, 2005. [FaFi-BrannE348] 11 �Articles "A Call to Thought." The St. John's Review 45, no. 1 (1999): 109-118. [FaFi-BrannE036; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] "A Day in the Life of a Dean." The Gadfly 18, no. 18 (March 25, 1997): 2-3. [FaFi-BrannE057; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] "A Figured Geometric Fragment from the Athenian Agora." Antike Kunst [Ancient Art] 2, no. 2 (1959): 35-37, plates 17-19. [FaFi-BrannE099; JSTOR] "A Manifesto for Liberal Education." The Imaginative Conservative, February 18, 2022. https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2022/02/manifesto-liberal-education-eva-brann.html. [FaFi-BrannE578] "A Moment's Musing on the Time of Our Lives." Hellas 3, no. 2 (Fall 1992): "Platonism, Classicism, and the Modernists": pgs. 39-44. [FaFi-BrannE196] "A Note on Apollonius' Parameter (Corrected Version)." The Collegian, Supplement, November 1962: a-i. [FaFi-BrannE210; SJC Digital Archives: The Collegian Collection] "A Note on Descartes' Geometry." The Collegian, September 1963: 61-63. [FaFi-BrannE208] "A Note on the Structure of Sophocles' Electra." Classical Philology 52, no. 2 (April 1957): 103-4. [FaFi-BrannE211; JSTOR] "A Note on the Viviani Scholium: (On the Inclined Plane)." The Collegian, March 1963: 1-33. [FaFi-BrannE212; SJC Digital Archives: The Collegian Collection] "A Pithos Burial from Aigaleos." American Journal of Archaeology 64, no. 1 (January 1960): 71. [FaFi-BrannE251; Chicago Journals] "A Reading of the Gettysburg Address." [See Lectures] "A Reflection on Service." The College (2001-17) 41, no. 1 (Spring 2016): 16-19. [FaFi-BrannE510; SJC Digital Archives: The College (2001-17) Collection] "A Slanting Light on Pride and Prejudice: For Larry Berns from Eva Brann." The St. John's Review 51, no. 1 (2009): 91-100. [FaFi-BrannE458; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] "A Way to Philosophy." Metaphilosophy 6, nos. 3-4 (July-October 1975): 357-371. [FaFi-BrannE371] 12 �"A Way to Philosophy." Thinking: The Journal of Philosophy for Children 5, no. 2 (1984): 6-12. [FaFi-BrannE373; Montclair State University Digital Commons] "A Well of the 'Corinthian' Period Found in Corinth." Hesperia 25, no. 4 (October-December 1956): 350-374, plates 52-60. [FaFi-BrannE376] "Against Time." [See Lectures] "An Anatomy of Planetary Orbits." The Collegian, April 1964: 1-28. [FaFi-BrannE010; SJC Digital Archives: The Collegian Collection] "An Early Protoattic Amphora." American Journal of Archaeology 64, no. 1 (January 1960): 71-72, plate 5. [FaFi-BrannE251; Chicago Journals] "An Early Protoattic Hydria." American Journal of Archaeology 63, no. 2 (April 1959): 1-2, plate 45. [FaFi-BrannE076; Chicago Journals] "'An Exquisite Platform': Utopia." Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy 3, no. 1 (Fall 1972): 1-26. [FaFi-BrannE091] "And Now for Something Different...: The Academic Program of St. John's College in Annapolis and Santa Fe." Conference & Common Room 33, no. 3 (April 1996): 25. [FaFi-BrannE011] "Anne's Second Chance." The College (2001-17) 32, no. 3 (Fall 2006): 22. [FaFi-BrannE015; SJC Digital Archives: The College (2001-17) Collection] "Are the Platonic Doctrines Unwritten Because They Couldn't or Because They Shouldn't Be Published." Comparative and Continental Philosophy 1, no. 2 (Fall 2009): 171-179. [FaFi-BrannE473] "Beauty Bare (Shortened Version)." Dialog: The Newsletter of The Philoctetes Center for the Multidisciplinary Study of Imagination 4, no. 2 (December 9): "Special Mathematics Issue": 1-2. [FaFi-BrannE450; Philoctetes] "Benign Interruptions in Students' Progress Toward Graduation and Postgraduate Education." Going Places: The Placement Office Newsletter, St. John's College, Santa Fe, May 1995: 1-3. [FaFi-BrannE023] "Can the Reading of Literature Make Us Better?" Maryland Humanities, Fall 1992: 4-5. [FaFi-BrannE037] "Chris Nelson's 20th Year as Our President." The College (2001-17) 36, no. 1 (Fall 2011): 5. [FaFi-BrannE420; SJC Digital Archives: The College (2001-17) Collection] 13 �"Coeducation." The Key Reporter 49, no. 2 (Winter 1983-1984): 2-4. [FaFi-BrannE043; The Key Reporter] "Commencement Address: Graduate Institute in Liberal Education: August 15, 1975." The College (1969-80) 27, no. 4 (January 1976): 19-22. [FaFi-BrannE045; SJC Digital Archives: The College (1969-80) Collection] "Concerning the Declaration of Independence." [See Lectures] "Courage Nailed Down: Plato's Laches." KRONOS 8 (2019): 57-71. [FaFi-BrannE545; Kronos] "Current Questions About the St. John's College Book List." Letters from Santa Fe, Summer 1992: 811. [FaFi-BrannE055; SJC Digital Archives: Letters from Santa Fe Collection] "Dean Brann Reaffirms Our 'Radical Venture': Statement of Educational Policy." The St. John's Reporter 18, no. 2 (December 1991): 14-15. [FaFi-BrannE058; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Reporter Collection] "Dean Brann Reveals the SJC 'Roller Coaster': Report from an Honorary Alumna." The St. John's Reporter 17, no. 2 (December 1990): 13. [FaFi-BrannE059; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Reporter Collection] "Dean's Office: Open for Business." The Gadfly 17, no. 1 (September 12, 1995): 11. [FaFi-BrannE061; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] "Democratic Distinction." The Key Reporter 58, no. 4 (Summer 1993): 2-4. [FaFi-BrannE066; The Key Reporter] "Depth and Desire." [See Lectures] "Does It Matter by Whom or When a Book Was Written?" The Collegian 5, no. 1(?) (October 15, 1993): 2-7. [FaFi-BrannE074; SJC Digital Archives: The Collegian Collection] "Eliot and Moral Values." The World and I, August 1993: 402. [FaFi-BrannE113] "Equal To?" Renovatio 5, no. 1 (Fall 2021): 15-24. [FaFi-BrannE564] "Eve Separate." The St. John's Review 49, no. 1 (2006): 71-110. [FaFi-BrannE088; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] 14 �"Excellence and the Pursuit of Ideas." Thinking: The Journal of Philosophy for Children 5, no. 3 (1984): 2-7. [FaFi-BrannE090; Montclair State University Digital Commons] "[Excerpt from Intercampus Basketball pre-game speech]." The MOONfly, March 28, 1995: 4. [FaFi-BrannE002] "Extraterrestrial Reflection." Space World, September 1985: 9-12. [FaFi-BrannE093] "Finding the Words: Living an Articulated Life." The Gadfly 34, no. 6 (September 28, 2012): 8. [FaFi-BrannE432; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] "For a Contemplative and a Common Curriculum." Shimer Round Table, no. 1 (Autumn 1997): 4047. [FaFi-BrannE118] "For Beate: September 29, 2004." The St. John's Review 48, no. 2 (2005): 20-26. [FaFi-BrannE101; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] "[For Bert Thoms]." The College (1969-80) 31, no. 1 (July 1979): 30-32. [FaFi-BrannE102; SJC Digital Archives: The College (1969-80) Collection] "Gone West." Energeia, Spring 1999: 78-83. [FaFi-BrannE126; SJC Digital Archives: Energeia Collection] "Hephaestus' World: The Shield." The American Poetry Review 31, no. 6 (November/December 2002): 40-42. [FaFi-BrannE133] "Honors and Liberal Education." The UHP Report 3, no. 8 (April 1985): 1-3. [FaFi-BrannE139] "How We Split the World Apart: The Separation of Faith and Philosophy." Renovatio 3, no. 1 (Spring 2019): 97-104. [FaFi-BrannE549] "Hundrede Hovedværker: En Amerikansk Læreplan [One Hundred Masterpieces: One American Curriculum]." Uddannelse [Education] 26, no. 4 (April 1993): 178-183. [FaFi-BrannE141] "In Memory of Constance Darkey." The College (2001-17) 28, no. 1 (Fall 2001): 45. [FaFi-BrannE150; SJC Digital Archives: The College (2001-17) Collection] "[Inaugural] Reflections on Imaginative Conservatism." The Imaginative Conservative, October 4, 2013. https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2022/07/reflections-on-imaginativeconservatism-timeless.html. [FaFi-BrannE486] "Inner and Outer Freedom." The College (1969-80) 31, no. 1 (July 1979): 43-47. [FaFi-BrannE151; SJC Digital Archives: The College (1969-80) Collection] 15 �"Intellect and Intuition." The St. John's Review 35, no. 1 (Winter 1984): 52-58. [FaFi-BrannE152; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] "[Interview with Nathan Huey]." ἱστορία [historia] 1, no. 3 (April 2016): 10-15. [FaFi-BrannE509] "Introductory Note on Distance vs. Time in Galileo." The Collegian, February 1963: 1-2. [FaFi-BrannE052; SJC Digital Archives: The Collegian Collection] "Kant's Imperative." The College (1969-80) 31, no. 2 (January 1980): 40-45. [FaFi-BrannE162; SJC Digital Archives: The College (1969-80) Collection] "Kant's Philosophical Use of Mathematics: Negative Magnitudes." The St. John's Review 48, no. 2 (2005): 49-72. [FaFi-BrannE165; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] "L'imagination dans la Cité [Imagination in the City]." Lettre Internationale, no. 20 (Spring 1989): 46. [FaFi-BrannE184] "Late Geometric Grave Groups from the Athenian Agora." Hesperia 29, no. 4 (October-December 1960): 402-416, plates 88-92. [FaFi-BrannE168; JSTOR] "Late Geometric Well Groups from the Athenian Agora." Hesperia 30, no. 2 (April-June 1961): 93146, plates 13-23. [FaFi-BrannE169; JSTOR] "[Letter for time capsule]." The St. John's Reporter 23, no. 3 (Spring 1997): 20. [FaFi-BrannE310; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Reporter Collection] "Letter to a Young Essayist." The Collegian, Autumn 2002: 17-23. [FaFi-BrannE472] "Letter to the Editor." The Collegian, June 1, 1970: [2]. [FaFi-BrannE178] "Letter to the Editor." The Collegian, December 13, 1971: 2-5. [FaFi-BrannE179] "Liberal Education and Multiculturalism: Friends or Enemies?" Vital Speeches of the Day 59, no. 7 (January 15, 1993): 221-224. [FaFi-BrannE183] "Liberal Education at St. John's College." Renovatio 1, no. 2 (Fall 2017): 95-100. [FaFi-BrannE548] "Lincoln for a Refugee." Humanitas 11, no. 2 (June 2010): 108-111. [FaFi-BrannE413] 16 �"Literacy, Culture, and the Shaping of Democracy." The Nebraska English Journal 33, no. 3 (Spring 1988): 2-7. [FaFi-BrannE185] "Love and Reason: Response to McWilliams." Social Research 54, no. 3 (Autumn 1987): 491-497. [FaFi-BrannE186] "Madison’s 'Memorial and Remonstrance': A Jewel of Republican Rhetoric." The Imaginative Conservative, June 22, 2021. https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2021/06/madisonmemorial-and-remonstrance-republican-rhetoric-90-eva-brann.html. [FaFi-BrannE577] "Mental Imagery: (The College and Contemporary Cognitive Science)." [See Lectures] "Mere Reading." Philosophy and Literature 20, no. 2 (October 1996): 383-397. [FaFi-BrannE191] "Momentary Morality and Extended Ethics." [See Lectures] "Ms. Brann on κυναι [kunai]." The Gadfly 33, no. 12 (December 6, 2011): 2. [FaFi-BrannE438; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] "Myths Versus Novels." Renovatio 4, no. 1 (Spring 2020): 55-73. [FaFi-BrannE543] "Note on the Analytical Calculus Avoided in Newton's Principia." The Collegian, February-March 1964: 33-40. [FaFi-BrannE209] "Note on the Encyclopedia Britannica Text of Copernicus." The Collegian, February-March 1964: 4143. [FaFi-BrannE209] "On the Language Tutorial: Excerpts from the Dean's Statement of Educational Policy, 1995-96." The St. John's Reporter 22, no. 2 (Winter 1996): 21, 23. [SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Reporter Collection] "On the Timelessness of the Tradition." The Imaginative Conservative, October 16, 2016. https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2022/09/timelessness-tradition-eva-brann-video.html. [FaFi-BrannE576] "Our Mortal Coil." [See Lectures] "Paradoxes of Eternal Verities." Kronoscope 4, no. 1 (January 2004): 127-129. [FaFi-BrannE236] 17 �"Paul A. Lowdenslager." The St. John's Reporter 22, no. 2 (Winter 1996): 23. [FaFi-BrannE213; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Reporter Collection] "Peter von Blanckenhagen: 1910-1990." The St. John's Reporter 17, no. 1 (September 1990): 15. [FaFi-BrannE246; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Reporter Collection] "Pictures in Poetry: Keats' 'Ode on a Grecian Urn.'" San José Studies 14, no. 3 (Fall 1988): 6-13. [FaFi-BrannE249; Scholar Works] "Plato's Theory of Ideas." [See Lectures] "Postmodern Don Quijote." Energeia, Spring 2014: 47-57. [FaFi-BrannE500; SJC Digital Archives: Energeia Collection] "Protoattic Well Groups from the Athenian Agora." Hesperia 30, no. 4 (October-December 1961): 305-379, plates 65-90. [FaFi-BrannE298; JSTOR] "Res Tene, Verba Sequentur: A Reflection on Three Questions Concerning the Re-Telling of Sacred Stories and of Myths (An Academically Disreputable Inquiry)." The St. John's Review 57, no. 2 (Spring 2016): 1-11. [FaFi-BrannE491; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Review Collection] "[Response to Kenneth Colston on Thoreau]." New Oxford Review 83, no. 5 (June 2016): 7-8. [FaFi-BrannE502; New Oxford Review] "Seventh Century Sherds from the Olympieion Area." Hesperia 28, no. 3 (July-September 1959): 251252, plate 4. [FaFi-BrannE287; JSTOR] "Socrates: Antitragedian." Philosophy and Literature 38, no. 1 (April 2014): 30-40. [FaFi-BrannE499] "St. John's College and the Beginning of the Three-Hundredth Year: Keynote Address at the Campaign Conclusion Celebration." The St. John's Reporter 22, no. 4 (Summer 1996): 13, 21. [FaFi-BrannE313; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Reporter Collection] "St. John's Educational Policy for a 'Living Community.'" Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning 24, no. 5 (September/October 1992): 36-43. [FaFi-BrannE321] "Statement to the BV & G [Board of Visitors and Governors]." The Gadfly 14, no. 20 (April 20, 1993): 7. [FaFi-BrannE193; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] "Straight Talk About the Small Independent Liberal Arts Colleges." Liberal Education 81, no. 4 (Fall 1995): "Boundaries and Borderlands": 58-61. [FaFi-BrannE324] 18 �"Take No Thought for the Morrow." Educational Perspectives 8, no. 2 (Spring 1991): 1-5. Educational Perspectives 15, no. 1 (Fall 2010): 7-12. [FaFi-BrannE332] [FaFi-BrannE412] "Teachers and Students: Intimate Distance." Energeia, Spring 2015: 34-46. [FaFi-BrannE498; SJC Digital Archives: Energeia Collection] "Teaching at St. John's College: Statement of Educational Policy, 1993-1994." The St. John's Reporter 20, no. 2 (December 1993): 16-17. [FaFi-BrannE336] "Telling Lies." [See Lectures] "The American College as the Place for Liberal Learning." Dædalus, Winter 1999: "Distinctively American: The Residential Liberal Arts Colleges": 151-171. [FaFi-BrannE009; JSTOR] "The Being of Fictions." Energeia, Spring 2002: 7-22. [FaFi-BrannE022; SJC Digital Archives: Energeia Collection] Perspectives on Political Science 43, no. 3 (June 18, 2014): 116-121. https://doi.org/10.1080/10457097.2014.917241. [FaFi-BrannE523] "The Canon Defended." Philosophy and Literature 17, no. 2 (October 1993): 193-218. [FaFi-BrannE039] "The Conditions of Exchange." International Educational and Cultural Exchange 12, no. 4 (Spring 1977): 3-9. [FaFi-BrannE050; Internet Archive] "The Elements of Science." Palaestra, Supplement, April 1968: 1-10. [FaFi-BrannE080; SJC Digital Archives: The Collegian Collection] "The Empires of the Sun and The West." [See Lectures] "The Gnomon: A Note on the 'Knower.'" The Collegian, May-June 1964: 11-38. [FaFi-BrannE519; SJC Digital Archives: The Collegian Collection] "The Golden Ages of St. John's College." The St. John's Review 35, no. 3 (Summer 1984): 59-61. [FaFi-BrannE579; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Review Collection] "The Great Gatsby in the Graduate Institute." The Gadfly 23, no. 18 (January 29, 2002): 6-8, 12. [FaFi-BrannE131; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] "The Great Tradition." Academic Questions 25, no. 1 (Spring 2012). https://www.nas.org/academicquestions/25/1/the_great_tradition. [FaFi-BrannE429] 19 �"The Imagery Debate in the Beginning of the Third Millennium." Journal of Mental Imagery 27, no. 3&4 (Fall/Winter 2003): 153-155. [FaFi-BrannE145] "The Letters Between Jefferson and Madison." Christian Science Monitor, Wednesday, June 28, 1995: 14. [FaFi-BrannE180; Christian Science Monitor] "'The Math Book': Remembering Klein's Seminal Work." The College (2001-17) 35, no. 3 (Fall 2010): 32-33. [FaFi-BrannE414; SJC Digital Archives: The College (2001-2017) Collection] "The Most Charmless Subject." The UHP Report 4, no. 3 (November 1985): 1-4. [FaFi-BrannE198] "The Music of the Republic." The Collegian, Supplement, March 1966: 1-63. [FaFi-BrannE201; SJC Digital Archives: The Collegian Collection] "The Music of the Republic." The St. John's Review 39, no. 1&2 (1989-90): "Four Essays on Plato's Republic: A Double Issue of The St. John's Review": 1-104. [JC71.P6 F65 1990; FaFi-BrannE205; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] ΑΓΩΝ [AGŌN] 1, no. 1 (April 1967): 1-117. [FaFi-BrannE204] "The Offense of Socrates: A Re-Reading of Plato's Apology." [See Lectures] "The Paradoxes of a Republican Education." Whitman 1, no. 1 (November 1978): 7-8. [FaFi-BrannE541] "The Perfections of Jane Austen." [See Lectures] "The Permanent Part of the College." The St. John's Review 33, no. 1 (Fall 1981): 81-84. [FaFi-BrannE244; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] "The Permanent Part of the College [Selections]." The St. John's Alumni Association News 1, no. 3 (Summer 1987): 3-4. [FaFi-BrannE245] "The Poet of the Odyssey." [See Lectures] "The Program of St. John's College in Annapolis, MD, and Santa Fe, New Mexico." The St. John's Review 35, no. 3 (Summer 1984): 48-55. [FaFi-BrannE297; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] "The Roots of Modernity." The St. John's Review 35, no. 2 (Spring 1984): 66-69. [FaFi-BrannE280; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] 20 �"The Scholastic Aptitude Test at St. John's College." The Gadfly 23, no. 9 (October 16, 2001): 8-10. [FaFi-BrannE283; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] "The Soundminded Schizophrenic: Living in the Just-Nowness: A Moment's Reflection on Modernity." The Gadfly 34, no. 21 (April 30, 2013): 3. [FaFi-BrannE442; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] "The Student's Problem." Liberal Education 54, no. 3 (October 1968): 369-385. [FaFi-BrannE325] The Collegian, Supplement, October 1967: 1-25. [BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: The Collegian Collection] "The Tin Star at High Noon." Energeia, Spring 1995: 32-35. [FaFi-BrannE344; SJC Digital Archives: Energeia Collection] "The Tyrant's Temperance: Plato's Charmides." Energeia, Spring 2003: 77-98. [FaFi-BrannE202; SJC Digital Archives: Energeia Collection] "The Unexpurgated Robinson Crusoe." [See Lectures] "The Venetian Phaedrus." Oratio 1, no. 1 (October 1971): 1-26. [FaFi-BrannE364; SJC Digital Archives: Oratio Collection] The College (1969-80) 24, no. 2 (July 1972): 1-9. [BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: The College (1969-80) Collection] "Through Phantasia to Philosophy." Thinking: The Journal of Philosophy for Children 6, no. 1 (1985): 1-8. [FaFi-BrannE341; Montclair State University Digital Commons] "Through Phantasia to Philosophy: Review with Reminiscences." The St. John's Review 37, no. 2&3 (Spring 1986): 57-64. [FaFi-BrannE342; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] "Tips on Writing: (Excerpts from the Fall 2017 Colloquy Symposium)." Colloquy 2 (Fall 2017): 16-17. [FaFi-BrannE550; SJC Digital Archives: Colloquy Collection] "Truth and Teaching." Energeia, Spring 1992: 1-3. [FaFi-BrannE354; SJC Digital Archives: Energeia Collection] "Universal, Not 'Catholic,' Art." New Oxford Review 82, no. 2 (March 2015): 12-13. [FaFi-BrannE532; New Oxford Review] "Utopia—: The Imagined Polity." This World, no. 9 (Fall 1984): 78-83. [FaFi-BrannE363] 21 �"Virtual Space—Real Time." The St. John's Reporter 23, no. 2 (Winter 1997): 10. [FaFi-BrannE366; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Reporter Collection] "What is a Body in Kant's System?" [See Lectures] "What is a Book?" [See Lectures] "What is Philosophy?" [See Lectures] "What is Postmodernism?" The Harvard Review of Philosophy 2, no. 1, Spring 1992: 4-7. [FaFi-BrannE377; Philosophy Documentation Center] "What is the Common Good of Liberal Education?" Energeia, Winter 2009: 83-96. [FaFi-BrannE570; SJC Digital Archives: Energeia Collection] "What, Then, Is Time?" [See Lectures] "When Does Amorality Become Immorality?" Philosophy and Literature 22, no. 1 (April 1998): 166170. [FaFi-BrannE392] "WHERE, Then, Is Time?" [See Lectures] "Whose Sense? Whose Sensibility?: Jane Austen's Subtlest Novel." Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal, no. 12 (1990): 131-133. [FaFi-BrannE394; Jane Austen Society of North America] "Why Read?" Energeia, Spring 2016: 3-8. [FaFi-BrannE530; SJC Digital Archives: Energeia Collection] "[Women's Soccer Kick-Off]." The Gadfly 14, no. 1 (September 9, 1992): 6. [FaFi-BrannE001; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] "[Women's Soccer Kick-Off]." The Gadfly 15, no. 3 (October 26, 1993): 6. [FaFi-BrannE194; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] "[Women's Soccer Kick-Off]." The Gadfly 16, no. 1 (September 13, 1994): 5. [FaFi-BrannE401; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] "[Women's Soccer Kick-Off]." The Gadfly 17, no. 2 (September 19, 1995): 7, 9. [FaFi-BrannE401; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] 22 �"[Women's Soccer Kick-Off]." The Gadfly 18, no. 1 (September 10, 1996): 5. [FaFi-BrannE167; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] "World Without Time." [See Lectures] "πρωτοαττικα αγγεια της αρχαιας αγορας ευρεθησαν τεμαχισμενα μεσα εισ αποξηραμενα πηγαδια [Protoattic Pots from the Athenian Marketplace: Fragments Found in Dried Wells]." To Vima [The Tribune], Sunday, June 21, 1959. [FaFi-BrannE299] Articles: Drafts "A Moment's Musing on the Time of Our Lives." Draft, June 23, 1992, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE196] "[Concerning the criteria for professors' tenure]." Draft, May 13, 1992, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE019] "Letter to a Young Essayist." Draft, Fall 2002, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE173] "Letter to the Editor [of The Gadfly]." Draft, October 23, 1995, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE177] "Lincoln for a Refugee." Draft, April 15, 2009, manuscript. [FaFi-BrannE476] "Mere Reading." Draft, March 1996, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE191] "One American Curriculum: St. John's College." Draft, Winter 1992, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE225] "Paradoxes of Eternal Verities." Draft, December 2002, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE235] "Post-modern-ism." Draft, 1992, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE260] "Question: Are Human Beings Ultimately Affective?" Draft, [before May 17], 2007, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE266] "Straight Talk About the Small Independent Liberal Arts Colleges." Draft, March 1995, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE324] 23 �"The Imagery Debate at the Turn of the Bimillennium." Draft, September 1996, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE143] "The Imagery Debate in the Beginning of the Third Millennium." Draft, [2003], typescript, and galley proof, 2003. [FaFi-BrannE144] "The Program of St. John's College in Annapolis and Santa Fe." Draft, June 3, 1996, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE011] "To the Editor [of the New Oxford Review]." Draft, December 12, 2014, manuscript. [FaFi-BrannE525] Book Contributions "A Portrait of a Lady." Introduction to His Monkey Wife: Or, Married to a Chimp, by John Collier, vii-xviii. Philadelphia, PA: Paul Dry Books, 2000. [FaFi-BrannE262] "For Aryeh Motzkin." Preface to Philosophy and the Jewish Tradition: Lectures and Essays, by Aryeh Leo Motzkin. Draft, 2009. [FaFi-BrannE444] Foreword to Abraham Lincoln: A Constitutional Biography (Paperback Edition), by George Anastaplo. Draft, 2001. [FaFi-BrannE120] Foreword to Space & Place: Mapmaking East and West: Four Hundred Years of Western and Chinese Cartography from the Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, and the Collection of Leonard & Juliet Rothman, by Cordell D. K. Yee. Annapolis, MD: St. John's College, 1996. [FaFi-BrannE121] Foreword to The Art of Persuasion: Aristotle's Rhetoric for Everybody, by Scott F. Crider, 5-10. Berkeley, CA: Zaytuna College in conjunction with Sandala, 2019. [P301.5.P47 C75 2019; draft: FaFi-BrannE551] "Glimpses of Leo Strauss, Jacob Klein, and St. John's College (2009)." Chapter in The Christian Heritage: Problems and Prospects, by George Anastaplo, 361-370. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2010. [FaFi-BrannE415] "Introduction: The St. John's Program." Introduction to chapter in The Liberal Arts Tradition: A Documentary History, by Bruce A. Kimball. Draft, 2000. [FaFi-BrannE153] Introduction to chapter in The Liberal Arts Tradition: A Documentary History, by Bruce A. Kimball, 455-456. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2010. [LA205.K5 2010 (Oversize); FaFi-BrannE474] Introduction to The Republic, by Plato, translated by Raymond Larson, xxiii-xlvi. Arlington Heights, IL: AHM Publishing, 1979. [ JC71.P35 1979; FaFi-BrannE154] 24 �Preface to Philosophy and the Jewish Tradition: Lectures and Essays, by Aryeh Leo Motzkin, edited by Yehuda Halper, ix-x. Boston, MA: Brill Academic Publishers, 2012. [FaFi-BrannE443] Preface to The Origin of the Logic of Symbolic Mathematics: Edmund Husserl and Jacob Klein, by Burt C. Hopkins, xxiii-xxviii. Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 2008. [FaFi-BrannE425] "St. John's Next Century." Epilogue to "A Complete and Generous Education": 300 Years of Liberal Arts: St. John's College, Annapolis, by Emily A. Murphy, 185-186. Annapolis, MD: St. John's College Press, 1996. [LD4811.S22 M8 (Reference); FaFi-BrannE322] Books Doublethink/Doubletalk: Naturalizing Second Thoughts and Twofold Speech. Philadelphia, PA: Paul Dry Books, 2016. [B105.T54 B73 2016] Essays in Honor of Jacob Klein [co-editor; Samuel S. Kutler, editorial board chair]. Annapolis, MD: St. John's College Press, 1976. [B29.E82 (Oversize)] Feeling Our Feelings: What Philosophers Think and People Know. Philadelphia, PA: Paul Dry Books, 2008. [B105.E46 B73 2008] Feigning: On the Originals of Fictive Images. Philadelphia, PA: Paul Dry Books, 2021. [BH301.I53 B73 2021] Homage to Americans: Mile-High Meditations, Close Readings, and Time-Spanning Speculations. Philadelphia, PA: Paul Dry Books, 2010. [E183.B8] Homeric Moments: Clues to Delight in Reading the Odyssey and the Iliad. Philadelphia, PA: Paul Dry Books, 2002. [PB2037.B64 2002] How to Constitute a World: Outside In, Inside Out. Philadelphia, PA: Paul Dry Books, 2017. [B29.B72 H68 2017] Iron Filings or Scribblings: Thinking Things Out. Philadelphia, PA: Paul Dry Books, 2019. [BD431.B736 2019] Is Equality an Absolute Good? Philadelphia, PA: Paul Dry Books, 2022. [JC575.B72 I74 2022] Liberated Characters: The Letters of Melissa Zink and Eva Brann. Taos, NM: Parks Gallery, 2011. [N6537.Z56 A3 2011 (Rare Books)] Open Secrets/Inward Prospects: Reflections on World and Soul. Philadelphia, PA: Paul Dry Books, 2004. [BD431.B746 2004] 25 �Paradoxes of Education in a Republic. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1979. [LA209.2.B73] Pursuits of Happiness: On Being Interested. Philadelphia, PA: Paul Dry Books, 2020. [LB1060.B73 2020] The Athenian Agora: Results of Excavations Conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Late Geometric and Protoattic Pottery, Mid 8th to Late 7th Century B.C. Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1962. [NK4647.B73 v. 8 (Oversize)] The Logos of Heraclitus: The First Philosopher of the West on Its Most Interesting Term. Philadelphia, PA: Paul Dry Books, 2011. [B224.L6 B73] The Music of the Republic: Essays on Socrates' Conversations and Plato's Writings. Philadelphia, PA: Paul Dry Books, 2004. [B395.B749 2004] The Past-Present: Selected Writing of Eva Brann. Annapolis, MD: St. John's College Press, 1997. [B29.B7 1997] The Study of Time: Philosophical Truths and Human Consequences. Eugene, OR: University of Oregon Books and the University of Oregon Humanities Center, 1999. [BD638.B727 1999] The Ways of Naysaying: No, Not, Nothing, and Nonbeing. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001. [BC199.N4 B73 2001] The World of the Imagination: Sum and Substance. Savage, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1991. [B105.I49 B72 1991] The World of the Imagination: Sum and Substance: 25th Anniversary Edition. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2017. [B105.I49 B72 2017] Then and Now: The World's Center and the Soul's Demesne. Philadelphia, PA: Paul Dry Books, 2015. [PB2004.B727 2015] Un-Willing: An Inquiry into the Rise of Will's Power and an Attempt to Undo It. Philadelphia, PA: Paul Dry Books, 2014. [BJ1461.B686 2014] What, Then, Is Time? Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1999. [BD638.B733 1999] Chapters "A Reading of the Gettysburg Address." [See Lectures] 26 �"A Tiny Essay on Taking Offense." In Falling Dog Anthology, [editor unknown], 12-13. [s.l.]: [s.n.], 1992. [FaFi-BrannE345] "A Way to Philosophy." In Thinking Children and Education, edited by Matthew Lipman, 481-490. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing, 1993. [FaFi-BrannE374] "About the Greatness of Great Books." In Liberal Learning and the Great Books: Twelve Presentations at a Conference Held April 4-5, 2001, Celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding of the Program of Liberal Studies, the Great Books Program of the University of Notre Dame, edited by Nicholas Ayo and Michael J. Crowe, 6-11. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame, 2002. [FaFi-BrannE004] "An Appreciation of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: An Introduction for Students." [See Lectures] "Augustine as Phenomenologist: A Time Diagram." Two galley proofs for Phenomenology: Japanese and American, edited by Burt C. Hopkins, 213-222 (1997), 243-252 (1998). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997/98. [FaFi-BrannE014] "Critical Reasoning and the Second Power of Questions: Toward First Questions and First Philosophy." In Critical Reasoning in Contemporary Culture, edited by Richard A. Talaska, 299-331. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992. [FaFi-BrannE051] "Cui Bono?" In Minutes of the Lead Pencil Club: Pulling the Plug on the Electronic Revolution, edited by Bill Henderson, 142-160. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1996. [FaFi-BrannE054] "Depth and Desire." [See Lectures] "Education, the Supreme Court, and the Constitution." In Is the Supreme Court the Guardian of the Constitution?, edited by Robert A. Licht, 9-80. Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1993. [FaFi-BrannE079] "Extraterrestrial Reflection." In The Philosophical Implications of Establishing Permanent Human Presence in Space, [editor not listed], 3-13. Washington, DC: Congress of the United States, 1984. [FaFi-BrannE094] "[For Chaninah Maschler]." In Memorial Tributes for Chaninah Maschler: Tutor, St. John's College, 1976-1998, [editor not listed], 2-3. Annapolis, MD: St. John's College, 2014. [FaFi-BrannE521] "Four Appreciative Queries." In The Condition of American Liberal Education: Pragmatism and a Changing Tradition, edited by Robert Orrill, 170-175. New York, NY: College Entrance Examination Board, 1995. [LC1011.K553 1995; FaFi-BrannE123] 27 �"In Memory of Ted Stinchecum." In The Habitual Vision of Excellence: A Tribute to St. John's College and Our Tutors from the Class of 1961 on the Occasion of Its 50th Reunion, Annapolis, Maryland, September, 2011, edited by Harrison Sheppard, 49-50. Scotts Valley, CA: OnDemand Publishing, 2011. [FaFi-BrannE408] "Jeffersonian Ambivalences." In Philosophers on Education: Historical Perspectives, edited by Amélie Oksenberg Rorty, 273-283. New York, NY: Routledge, 1998. [FaFi-BrannE158] "Kant's Philosophical Use of Mathematics: Negative Magnitudes." In Logos and Eros: Essays Honoring Stanley Rosen, edited by Nalin Ranasinghe, 160-175. South Bend, IN: St. Augustine's Press, 2006. [FaFi-BrannE166] "Learning to Deliberate." In Deliberation in Education and Society, edited by J. T. Dillon, 249-258. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing, 1994. [FaFi-BrannE170] "Leo Strauss at St. John's College (Annapolis)." In Leo Strauss, the Straussians, and the American Regime, edited by Kenneth Deutsch and John Murley, 31-37. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1999. [FaFi-BrannE172] "Mental Images in Cognitive Psychology." In The Great Ideas Today - 1990, edited by Mortimer J. Adler, 94-137. Chicago, IL: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1990. [AY59.G7 1990; FaFi-BrannE190] "On Translating Plato." [See Lectures] "Paul Scott's Raj Quintet: Real Politics in Imagined Gardens." In Poets, Princes, and Private Citizens: Literary Alternatives to Postmodern Politics, edited by Joseph M. Knippenberg and Peter A. Lawler, 191-209. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1996. [FaFi-BrannE230] "Pictures in Poetry: Keats' 'Ode on a Grecian Urn.'" In Contexts for Criticism: 2nd Ed., edited by Donald Keesey, 236-240. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1994. [FaFi-BrannE250] "Reflections on Academic Freedom and Our Program." In Essays in Honor of Robert Bart, edited by St. John's College, 39-47. Santa Fe, NM: St. John's College, 1993. [PB1521.E77 1993 (Oversize, Rare Books); FaFi-BrannE304] "Response." In What is Humanistic Education?: Report of a Conference of the Dilthey Society of George Washington University, edited by George Washington University, 20-23. Washington, DC: George Washington University, 1973. [FaFi-BrannE384] 28 �"Take No Thought for the Morrow." In What Is It to Educate Liberally?: Essays by Faculty and Friends of Saint Mary's College, edited by S. A. Cortright, 128-133. Moraga, CA: Saint Mary's College of California, 1996. [LC1011.W5 1996 (Oversize, Rare Books, Reference); FaFi-BrannE331] "The Perfections of Jane Austen." [See Lectures] "The Program of Annapolis, MD, and Santa Fe, New Mexico." In Toward the Restoration of the Liberal Arts Curriculum: A Rockefeller Foundation Conference, September 28th, 1978, edited by the Rockefeller Foundation, 25p. New York, NY: Rockefeller Foundation, 1979. [FaFi-BrannE296] "The Role of Higher Education in a Young Jewish Republic." In Fruits of Friendship: Seven Essays in Honor of Laurence Berns, edited by Joseph P. Cohen, 25-33. Annapolis, MD: Free State Press, 2011. [FaFi-BrannE410] "The Roots of the Enlightenment." In The Ambiguous Legacy of the Enlightenment, edited by William A. Rusher, 1-21. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1995. [FaFi-BrannE281] "The Six Silences of a Grecian Urn." In Philosophical Imagination and Cultural Memory: Appropriating Historical Traditions, edited by Patricia Cook, 167-175. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993. [D16.9.P416 1993; FaFi-BrannE292] "'The Spirit Lives in the Sticks.' Review of The Closing of the American Mind, by Allan Bloom." In Essays on The Closing of the American Mind, edited by Robert L. Stone, 181-187. Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press, 1989. [LA227.3.E85 1989; FaFi-BrannE312] "The Student's Problem." In What Is It to Educate Liberally?: Essays by Faculty and Friends of Saint Mary's College, edited by S. A. Cortright, 128-133. Moraga, CA: Saint Mary's College of California, 1996. [LC1011.W5 1996 (Oversize)] "Through Phantasia to Philosophy: Review with Reminiscences." In Thinking Children and Education, edited by Matthew Lipman, 287-297. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing, 1993. [FaFi-BrannE343] "Uniting Students' Learning." In Uniting the Liberal Arts: Core and Context: Selected Essays from the Fifth Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses, edited by Bainard Cowan and Scott Lee, 1-9. Lanham, MD: Association for Core Texts and Courses and University Press of America, 2002. [FaFi-BrannE360] "Was Jefferson a Philosopher?" In Law and Philosophy: The Practice of Theory: Essays in Honor of George Anastaplo, Volume II, edited by John A. Murley, Robert L. Stone, and William T. Braithwaite, 654-670. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1992. [KF380.L297 1991 v.2; FaFi-BrannE370] 29 �Chapters: Drafts "A Tiny Essay on Taking Offense." Draft, [1992], typescript. [LC1011.W5 1996 (Oversize)] "Augustine as Phenomenologist: A Time Diagram." Draft, March 1997, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE384] "Effie Briest: A Personal Note." Draft, November 2017, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE360] "Jeffersonian Ambivalences." Draft, [1996-8], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE296] "Learning to Deliberate." Draft, June 1991, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE374] "Leo Strauss at St. John's College." Draft, [1998/99], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE343] "Madison's 'Memorial' Concerning Religious Freedom." Draft, February 1984, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE094] "On the Timelessness of the Tradition." Draft, October 6, 2016, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE408] "Papyrus and Beech." Draft, 1995, typescript. [AY59.G7 1990; FaFi-BrannE190] "Parmenides: 'For It Is the Same Thing to Think and to Be.'" Draft, August 2017, typescript. [LC1011.K553 1995; FaFi-BrannE123] "Paul Scott's Raj Quintet: Real Politics in Imagined Gardens." Draft, January 1994, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE281] "Pursuits of Happiness: On Being Interested." Draft, 2018, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE224] "Response to Bruce Kimball's 'Toward Pragmatic Liberal Education.'" Draft, November 1994, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE230] "Seminar Questions: What Works?" Draft, February 2018, typescript. [D16.9.P416 1993; FaFi-BrannE292] "Teachers and Students: Intimate Distance." Draft, March 2013, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE158] 30 �"The Fourth Brother Karamazov: Or, 'Pavel and His Brothers.'" Draft, [2016-20], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE014] "The Idea of the Good: Plato, Republic, Books VI, VII, X." Draft, June 2018, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE054] "'The Most Beautiful of Her Works': Jane Austen's Persuasion." Draft, August 2017, typescript. [LC1011.W5 1996 (Oversize, Rare Books, Reference); FaFi-BrannE331] "The Six Silences of a Grecian Urn." Draft, [n.d.], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE521] "Thing-Love: Or, Do Cars Die?" Draft, February 2018, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE166] "Three Platonic Places—Better, Spots." Draft, [2016-20], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE004] Draft and Unpublished Essays "A College Unique and Universal." [2006], booklet. [SJC Digital Archives: Promotional Publications Collection] "Comprehended by Herodotus: How the Greek Center is Defined by Barbarian Periphery." Fall 2013, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE489] "Deaning." 1994, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE060] "Education and the Constitution." 1991, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE077] "Extraterrestrial Reflection." February 1984, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE092] "Form Numbers (Arithmoi Eidetikoi)." August 2018, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE553] "Gone West." Spring 1997, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE125] "Hegel on Time." February 8, 1993, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE132] "Higher Education: The Media and the Market." November 4, 2000, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE135] 31 �"Jeffersonian Contradictions." 1978, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE159] "Kant's Philosophical Use of Mathematics: Negative Magnitudes." 2003, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE163; corrected version: FaFi-BrannE164] "Lady Macbeth: The Tyrant's Wife." May 2016, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE512] "Liberal Education." 2017, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE546] "Mile-High Meditation: My Take on How to Think and How to Be." July 1, 2008, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE447] "Postmodern Don Quijote." [Before Spring 2014], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE487] "Res Tene, Verba Sequentur: A Reflection on Two Questions Concerning the Re-telling of Sacred Stories and of Myths." August 2014, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE566] "The Eumenides of Aeschylus: Whole-Hearted Patriotism and Moderated Modernity." [See Lectures] "The Heroine of Jane Austen's Persuasion." [Before Fall 2006], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE134] "The Tin Star at High Noon." [1994], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE344] "The Unexpurgated Robinson Crusoe." [See Lectures] "Thomas More Against His Utopia." January 1995, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE340] "What Are the Beliefs and Teachings of St. John's College?" April 1975, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE382] 32 �Lectures "A Reading of the Gettysburg Address [Expanded Version]." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, October 1968. [print: BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series Annapolis Collection] Published as an article in Palaestra, Supplement, 1968: 1-40. [FaFi-BrannE301] Revised for publication as a chapter in Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, and American Constitutionalism, edited by Leo P. S. de Alvarez, 15-53. Irving, TX: University of Dallas Press, 1976. [E475.55.A27; FaFi-BrannE302] "Against Time." Two-part lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, February 18 & 25, 1983. [print: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series – Annapolis Collection; audio: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series – Annapolis Collection: part 1; part 2] Published as an article in The St. John's Review 34, no. 3 (Summer 1983): 65-104. [BRA (Lectures); FaFi-BrannE007; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Review Collection] "An Appreciation of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: An Introduction for Students." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, May 1972. [print: BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series - Annapolis Collection] Revised for publication as a chapter in Essays in Honor of Jacob Klein, [editor not listed], 3753. Annapolis, MD: St. John's College Press, 1976. [B29.E82 (Oversize); FaFi-BrannE013] "Declaration of Independence." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, April 30, 1976. [audio: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series - Annapolis Collection] Published as an article entitled "Concerning the Declaration of Independence" in The College (1969-80) 28, no. 2 (July 1976): "Bicentennial Issue": 1-17. [FaFi-BrannE049; SJC Digital Archives: The College (1969-80) Collection] "Depth and Desire." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, August 31, 1990. [print: BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series Annapolis Collection; audio: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series - Annapolis Collection] 33 �Published as an article in The St. John's Review 29, no. 3 (1989-90): 83-92. [FaFi-BrannE068; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Review Collection] Published as a chapter in Everyone a Teacher, edited by Mark Schwen, 369-377. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2000. [FaFi-BrannE070] "For the First Time." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, [September 1], 1995. [print: BRA (Lectures); print: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series Annapolis Collection; audio: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series Annapolis Collection] "Imitative Poetry: Book X of Plato's Republic." Lecture delivered at Saint Mary's College of California, Moraga, CA, March 22, 2003. [FaFi-BrannE146] "Mental Imagery: The College and Contemporary Cognitive Science." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, September 27, 1985. [print: BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series Annapolis Collection] Published as an article in The St. John's Review 36, no. 3 (Summer 1985): 71-79. [FaFi-BrannE189; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Review Collection] "Momentary Morality and Extended Ethics: For the "Windows on the Good Life" Course at Carleton College, April 23, 2014." Lecture delivered at Carleton College, Northfield, MN, April 23, 2014. [FaFi-BrannE481] Published as an article entitled "Momentary Morality and Extended Ethics" in The St. John's Review 56, no. 2 (Spring 2015): 1-13. [FaFi-BrannE497; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Review Collection] "Music: The Representative Liberal Art." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, September 2, 1988. [print: FaFi-BrannE203; SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series - Annapolis Collection; audio: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series - Annapolis Collection] "On Problems and Questions." Lecture delivered at Rosary College, [River Forest, IL, or Greenville, SC], April 27, 1967. [FaFi-BrannE219] "On the Imagination." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, November 18, 1977. [print: FaFi-BrannE220; audio: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series - Annapolis Collection] "On the Originals of Fictive Mental Images." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, September 3, 2021. [video: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series Annapolis Collection] 34 �"On Thomas More's Utopia." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, May 5, 1972. [print: BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series Annapolis Collection; audio: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series Annapolis Collection] "On Translating Plato." Lecture delivered at Pennsylvania State University, College Township, PA, March [20-22], 1997. [BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: Speeches, Presentations, and Other Lectures Collection] Published as a chapter in Retracing the Platonic Text, edited by John Russon and John Sallis, 175-188. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2000. [FaFi-BrannE224] "Our Mortal Coil." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, February 27, 1991. [FaFi-BrannE226; revised version: FaFi-BrannE227] Published as an article in The Collegian 2, no. 6 (Friday, April 19, 1991): 1-4. [FaFi-BrannE226; SJC Digital Archives: The Collegian Collection] "Philosophical Paganism and Its Bearing on Ethics." Lecture delivered at Earlham College, Richmond, IN, September 1995. [FaFi-BrannE247] "Plato's Theory of Ideas." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, September 14, 1979. [print: BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series Annapolis Collection; audio: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series - Annapolis Collection] Revised for publication as an article in The St. John's Review 32, no. 1 (July 1980): 29-37. [FaFi-BrannE256; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Review Collection] "Socrates' Legacy: Plato's Phaedo." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, [200[?]]. [FaFi-BrannE316] "Socrates' Legacy." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, [January] 2009. [FaFi-BrannE452] "Talking, Reading, Writing, Listening." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, November 4, 2011. [print: BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series - Annapolis Collection; audio: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series - Annapolis Collection] "Telling Lies." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, August 27, 1993. [print: BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series - 35 �Annapolis Collection; audio: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series - Annapolis Collection] Published as an article in The St. John's Review 42, no. 3 (1994): 1-15. [FaFi-BrannE337; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Review Collection] "The Derivatives of Reason." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Santa Fe, NM, January 18, 1991. [FaFi-BrannE071; revised version: FaFi-BrannE072] "The Empires of the Sun and the West." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, October 4, 2002. [print: BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series Annapolis Collection; audio: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series - Annapolis Collection] Published as an article in The St. John's Review 47, no. 1 (2003): 83-136. [FaFi-BrannE082; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Review Collection] "The Eumenides of Aeschylus: Whole-Hearted Patriotism and Moderated Modernity." Essay dated April 2007, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE086] Significantly revised for delivery as a lecture; delivered at [s.l.], [n.d.]. [FaFi-BrannE085] "The Human Consequences of Thinking About Time." Lecture delivered at University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, March 1998. [FaFi-BrannE140] "The Mutuality of Imagining and Thinking: On Dennis Sepper's Understanding Imagination: The Reason of Images." Lecture delivered at [s.l.], [2013/14]. [FaFi-BrannE485] Published as an article entitled "The Mutuality of Imagining and Thinking [review of Understanding Imagination: The Reason of Images, by Dennis Sepper]" in The St. John's Review 55, no. 2 (Spring 2014): 1-16. [FaFi-BrannE494; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] "The Offense of Socrates: A Re-Reading of Plato's Apology." Lecture delivered at American Political Science Association, San Francisco, CA, September 1975. [BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: Speeches, Presentations, and Other Lectures Collection] Revised for publication as an article in Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy 7, no. 2 (May 1978): 1-21. [FaFi-BrannE216] "The Paradox of Obedience." Lecture delivered at United States Air Force Academy, Air Force Academy, CO, November 18, 2004. [FaFi-BrannE237] 36 �"The Past-Present." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, September 2, 1994. [print: BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series Annapolis Collection; audio: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series Annapolis Collection] "The Perfections of Jane Austen." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, January 31, 1975. [print: BRA (Lectures); audio: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series - Annapolis Collection] Revised for publication as an article in The College (1969-80) 27, no. 1 (April 1975): 1-14. [FaFi-BrannE242; SJC Digital Archives: The College (1969-80) Collection] Significantly revised for publication as a chapter in A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Authors on Why We Read Jane Austen, edited by Susannah Carson, 200-212. New York, NY: Random House, 2009. [PO4037.T78 2009; FaFi-BrannE490] "The Poet of the Odyssey." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, October 6, 1972. [print: BRA (Lectures); audio: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series - Annapolis Collection] Revised for publication as an article in The College (1969-80) 26, no. 1 (April 1974): 5-12. [FaFi-BrannE258; SJC Digital Archives: The College (1969-80) Collection] "The Relationship Between Public Ethics and Education." Lecture delivered at Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR, October 30, 1997. [FaFi-BrannE306] "The Seal with Seven Books." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, August 28, 1992. [print: BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series - Annapolis Collection] "The Unexpurgated Robinson Crusoe." Lecture delivered at Glendale Preparatory Academy and Mesa Preparatory Academy, Kansas City, MO, October 13, 2010. [FaFi-BrannE416] Essay dated October 13, 2010, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE417] Published as an article in American Dialectic 1, no. 1 (January 2011): 90-111. [FaFi-BrannE418] "The World of the Imagination." Lecture delivered at University of Dallas, Irving, TX, March [2-6], 1992. [FaFi-BrannE397] "Virtue in Two Versions." Lecture delivered at Earlham College, Richmond, IN, [September/October] 1995. [FaFi-BrannE367] 37 �"Ways of Naysaying." Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, November 2, 2001. [print: BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series Annapolis Collection; audio: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series Annapolis Collection] "What Does It Mean to Have Feelings?: Spinoza's Answer." Lecture delivered at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, October 26, 2005. [FaFi-BrannE383] "What is a Body in Kant's System?" Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, 1974. [print: BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series - Annapolis Collection] Revised for publication as an article in The Independent Journal for Philosophy 3 (1979): 91-100. [FaFi-BrannE380] "What is a Book?" Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, August 30, 1991. [print: BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series Annapolis Collection; audio: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series - Annapolis Collection] Published as an article in The St. John's Review 41, no. 1 (1991-92): 75-88. [FaFi-BrannE378; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Review Collection] "What is Philosophy?" Lecture delivered at Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, LA, September 1989. [FaFi-BrannE386] Published as an article in Energeia, Winter 1990: 32-35. [FaFi-BrannE385; SJC Digital Archives: Energeia Collection] "What, Then, Is Time?" Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, September 4, 1998. [print: BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series Annapolis Collection; audio: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series - Annapolis Collection] Revised for publication as an article in The St. John's Review 45, no. 3 (2000): 47-65. [FaFi-BrannE391; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Review Collection] "WHERE, Then, Is Time?" Lecture delivered at the U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, DC, December 11, 2015. [FaFi-BrannE569] Published as an article in The St. John's Review 57, no. 2 (Spring 2016): 12-24. [FaFi-BrannE492; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Review Collection] 38 �"Why Read Books?" Lecture delivered at St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, August 30, 1996. [print: BRA (Lectures); SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series Annapolis Collection; audio: SJC Digital Archives: St. John's College Formal Lecture Series Annapolis Collection] "World Without Time." Lecture delivered at Belmont University, Nashville, TN, September 23, 2014. [FaFi-BrannE534] Revised for publication as an article in The St. John's Review 57, no. 1 (Fall 2015): 1-14. [FaFi-BrannE496; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Review Collection] Reviews "A Portrait of a Lady: His Monkey Wife." Review of His Monkey Wife: Or, Married to a Chimp, by John Collier. New England Review 21, no. 2 (Spring): 83-89. [FaFi-BrannE263] "Aristotle and Diversity." Review of Fear of Diversity: The Birth of Political Science in Ancient Greek Thought, by Arlene W. Saxonhouse. The Review of Politics 55, no. 2 (Spring 1993): 345-347. [FaFi-BrannE017; JSTOR] "Aristotle from a Woman's Perspective." Review of The Pleasures of Virtue: Political Thought in the Novels of Jane Austen, by Anne C. Ruderman. The Review of Politics 58, no. 4 (Fall 1996): 817819. [FaFi-BrannE018; JSTOR] "Book Report." Review of Ransom, by David Malouf, The Lost Books of the Odyssey, by Zachary Maso, and Taking Her Seriously: Penelope and the Plot of Homer's Odyssey, by Richard Heitman. The Gadfly 32, no. 6 (March 2010): 4-5. [FaFi-BrannE468; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] "Book Review: Two New Books by Alumni." Review of The Harmony of the Soul: Mental Health and Moral Virtue Reconsidered, by Neal O. Weiner and Assessing Student Performance: Exploring the Purpose and Limits of Testing, by Grant P. Wiggins. The St. John's Review 42, no. 3 (1994): 67-74. [FaFi-BrannE034; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] "Commentary." Review of The World of the Imagination: Sum and Substance, by Eva Brann. The St. John's Reporter 17, no. 3 (March 1991): 8, 11. [FaFi-BrannE046; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Reporter Collection] "Euclid in a Nutshell." Review of The King of Infinite Space: Euclid and His Elements, by David Berlinski. Claremont Review of Books, Special Editions (Winter 2012/13): 1-4. [FaFi-BrannE522; Claremont Review of Books] 39 �"George Anastaplo on Abraham Lincoln." Review of Abraham Lincoln: A Constitutional Biography (Hardcover Edition), by George Anastaplo. George Anastaplo's Blog, March 16, 2010. https://anastaplo.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/george-anastaplo-on-abraham-lincoln/. [FaFi-BrannE470] "Great Books at Berkeley in the Sixties." Review of The Beleaguered College: Essays on Educational Reform, by Joseph Tussman, and Habits of Mind: The Experimental College Program at Berkeley, by Katherine B. Trow. Academic Questions 14, no. 1 (Winter 2000-01): 66-75. [FaFi-BrannE129; National Association of Scholars] "Josh and Jordan." Review of The Crossover, by Kwame Alexander. The Gadfly 36, no. 15 (April 28, 2015): 4. [FaFi-BrannE535; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] "Kant's Afterlife." Review of Opus Postumum, by Immanuel Kant and "Kant's Final Synthesis: An Essay on the Opus Postumum," by Eckart Förster. The St. John's Review 47, no. 3 (2004): 5986. [FaFi-BrannE161; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] "Liberalism and Liberal Education." Review of Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities, by Martha C. Nussbaum. Claremont Review of Books 11, no. 3 (Summer 2011): 76-77. [FaFi-BrannE423; Claremont Review of Books] "Mo and Mao." Review of Sour Sweet, by Timothy Mo and Shenfan, by William Hinton. The St. John's Review 40, no. 3 (1990-91): 81-86. [FaFi-BrannE195; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] "Novelist and Calvinist." Review of The Givenness of Things: Essays, by Marilynne Robinson. Claremont Review of Books 16, no. 3 (Summer 2016): 55-57. [FaFi-BrannE501; Claremont Review of Books] "Olivia by 'Olivia' (1949)." Review of Olivia, by Dorothy "Olivia" Bussy. The Gadfly 14, no. 20 (April 20, 1993): 5-6. [FaFi-BrannE217; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] "On Daniel James Brown's The Boys in the Boat." Review of The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, by Daniel James Brown. The Gadfly 36, no. 13 (April 7, 2015): 6. [FaFi-BrannE524; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] "Philosophy Revived." Review of Complexity and Analysis, by Stewart Umphrey. The St. John's Review 46, no. 3 (2002): 85-93. [FaFi-BrannE248; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] "Plato's Impossible Polity." Review of Plato's Republic: A Study, by Stanley Rosen. Claremont Review of Books 6, no. 3 (Summer 2006): 52-53. [FaFi-BrannE253; Claremont Review of Books] 40 �"Portraits of the Impassioned Concept." Review of The Logic of Desire: An Introduction to Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, by Peter Kalkavage. The St. John's Review 52, no. 1 (Fall 2010): 123132. [FaFi-BrannE422; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] "Recollection and Composure." Review of See Naples: A Memoir, by Douglas Allenbrook. The St. John's Review 43, no. 3 (1996): 81-88. [FaFi-BrannE028; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] Review of Abraham Lincoln: A Constitutional Biography, by George Anastaplo. South Dakota Law Review 46, no. 2 (2000): 666-669. [FaFi-BrannE439] Review of Antigones, by George Steiner. The St. John's Review 39, no. 3 (1989-90): 61-65. [FaFi-BrannE271; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] Review of Are We in Time? And Other Essays on Time and Temporality, by Charles M. Sherover. The Review of Metaphysics 59, no. 2, iss. 234 (December 2005): 450-451. [FaFi-BrannE026; JSTOR] Review of Arendt, Augustine, and the New Beginning: The Action Theory and Moral Thought of Hannah Arendt in the Light of Her Dissertation on Augustine, by Stephan Kampowski. The Review of Metaphysics 63, no. 1 (September 2009): 194-196. [FaFi-BrannE454; JSTOR] Review of As If Learning Mattered: Reforming Higher Education, by Richard E. Miller. The St. John's Reporter 25, no. 1 (Fall 1998) [corrected from "vol. 24, no. 4" marked on periodical]: 12. [FaFi-BrannE279; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Reporter Collection] Review of In the Light of What We Know, by Zia Haider Rahman. The Gadfly 36, no. 7 (November 18, 2014): 3. [FaFi-BrannE533; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] Review of Kerameikos: Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen: Band 6, Teil 1, Die Nekropole des späten 8. bis frühen 6. Jahrhunderts [Kerameikos: Results of the Excavations: Vol. 6, Pt. 1, The Necropolis of the Late 8th to Early 6th Centuries], by Karl Kübler. American Journal of Archaeology 60, no. 1 (January 1956): 73-74. [FaFi-BrannE278; Chicago Journals] Review of Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth, by Annie Di Donna, Apostolos K. Doxiadēs, Alekos Papadatos, and Christos H. Papadimitriou. The Gadfly [32] (January 19, 2010): 2. [FaFiBrannE459] Review of Metaphorically Speaking, by Patti Nogales. The St. John's Reporter 26, no. 4 (Summer 2000): 8. [FaFi-BrannE029; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Reporter Collection] Review of Self-Knowledge in the Age of Theory, by Ann Hartle. New Vico Studies 16 (1998): 101-104. [FaFi-BrannE024] 41 �Review of The Closing of the American Mind, by Allan Bloom. The St. John's Review 38, no. 1 (1988 1): 71-79. [FaFi-BrannE268; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] Review of The Human Condition, by John Kekes. The Review of Metaphysics 64, no. 4 (June 2011): 867-868. [FaFi-BrannE424; JSTOR] Review of The Kantian Subject: Eunsus Communis, Mimesis, Work of Mourning, by Tamar Japaridze. The Review of Metaphysics 56, no. 2, iss. 222 (December 2002): 431-433. [FaFi-BrannE329; JSTOR] Review of The Tenants of Time, by Thomas Flanagan. The St. John's Review 38, no. 2 (1988): 87-91. [FaFi-BrannE032; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] Review of Time, Conflict, and Human Values, by J. T. Fraser. Isis 92, no. 4 (2001): 774-775. [FaFi-BrannE033; Chicago Journals] Review of Zetetic Skepticism, by Stewart Umphrey. The St. John's Reporter 17, no. 4 (June 1991): 1213. [FaFi-BrannE031; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Reporter Collection] "Roots of Our Program." Review of The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, by Jonathan Rose. The College (2001-17) 28, no. 2 (Winter/Spring 2002): 17, 20. [FaFi-BrannE275; SJC Digital Archives: The College (2001-17) Collection] "Summer Reading." Review of The G String Murders, by Gypsy Rose Lee, The Human Comedy, by William Saroyan, Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Shop Class as Soulcraft, by Matthew B. Crawford. G: A Supplement [to The Gadfly], [September 13], 2010: 2. [FaFiBrannE407] "Tapestry with Images: Paul Scott's Raj Novels." Review of The Raj Quartet, University of Chicago Press, by Paul Scott. Philosophy and Literature 23, no. 1 (April 1999): 181-196. [FaFiBrannE289] "The Appreciative Mode." Review of The Moral Imagination: From Edmund Burke to Lionel Trilling, by Gertrude Himmelfar. Claremont Review of Books 7, no. 1 (Winter 2006/07): 4546. [FaFi-BrannE016; Claremont Review of Books] "The Barbaric Days When Thinking Was Like a Splash of Color Landing on the Page." Review of Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, by William Finnegan. The Gadfly 37, no. 14 (April 26, 2016): 4. [FaFi-BrannE511; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] "The English War and Peace: Paul Scott's Raj Quartet." Review of The Raj Quartet, by Paul Scott. The St. John's Review 38, no. 3 (1988-89): 75-87. [FaFi-BrannE083; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] 42 �"The Feasting of Socrates." Review of Plato's Timaeus, translated by Peter Kalkavage. The St. John's Review 46, no. 2 (2002): 117-121. [FaFi-BrannE098; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] "The Mutuality of Imagining and Thinking." [See Lectures] "The Wonders of the 'Odyssey.'" Review of The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Joe Sachs. The Imaginative Conservative, May 28, 2015. https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2015/05/wonder-the-odyssey-by-homer-joesachs.html. [FaFi-BrannE565] "To Save the Ideas." Review of Soul, World, and Idea: An Interpretation of Plato's Republic and Phaedo, by Daniel Sherman. The St. John's Review 55, no. 2 (Spring 2014): 89-109. [FaFi-BrannE493; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] "Too Much for Our Own Good: The Consumeritis Epidemic." Review of Too Much for Our Own Good: The Consumeritis Epidemic and Good Movies, by Alex Aris and Harrison Sheppard. The College (2001-17) 33, no. 1 (Winter 2007): 37. [FaFi-BrannE309; SJC Digital Archives: The College (2001-17) Collection] "Two Reviews." Review of Master and Commander, by Patrick O'Brian, and The Ionian Mission, by Patrick O'Brian, and The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories, by Cynthia Ozick. The St. John's Review 42, no. 1 (1993): 107-109. [FaFi-BrannE355; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John’s Review Collection] "You Are How You Eat." Review of The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of Our Nature, by Leon R. Kass. Crisis, February 1995: 51. [FaFi-BrannE400] Reviews: Drafts "A Historian's Praise of the Imagination." Review of The Moral Imagination: From Edmund Burke to Lionel Trilling, by Gertrude Himmelfarb. Draft, [2006], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE136] "Book Report on Summer Reading: August, 2010." Review of The G String Murders, by Gypsy Rose Lee, The Human Comedy, by William Saroyan, Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Shop Class as Soulcraft, by Matthew B. Crawford. Draft, August 2010, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE446] "Euclid in a Nutshell." Review of The King of Infinite Space: Euclid and His Elements, by David Berlinski. Draft, April 2013, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE440] "Fat Wednesday." Review of Fat Wednesday: Wittgenstein on Aspects, by John Verdi. Draft, 2010, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE403] 43 �"Kant's Afterlife." Review of both Opus Postumum, by Immanuel Kant and "Kant's Final Synthesis: An Essay on the Opus Postumum," by Eckart Förster. Draft, [2004], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE160] "Philosophy Revived." Review of Complexity and Analysis, by Stewart Umphrey. Draft, 2002, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE248] "Pride and Prejudice: Updated and Upended." Review of Eligible: A Novel, by Curtis Sittenfeld. Draft, 2016, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE503] Review of A Suitable Boy: A Novel, by Vikram Seth. Draft, 1993, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE328] Review of Antigones, by George Steiner. Draft, [1986-1990], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE271] Review of Are We in Time? And Other Essays on Time and Temporality, by Charles M. Sherover. Draft, 2005, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE025] Review of Arendt, Augustine, and the New Beginning: The Action Theory and Moral Thought of Hannah Arendt in the Light of Her Dissertation on Augustine, by Stephan Kampowski. Draft, [2008/09], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE454] Review of As If Learning Mattered: Reforming Higher Education, by Richard E. Miller. Draft, 1998, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE279] Review of Fear of Diversity: The Birth of Political Science in Ancient Greek Thought, by Arlene W. Saxonhouse. Draft, [before Spring 1993], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE269] Review of Fides et Ratio, On the Relationship Between Faith and Reason, by Pope John Paul II. Draft, 1998, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE218] Review of Kant's Theory of Mind: An Analysis of the Paralogisms of Pure Reason, by Karl Ameriks. Draft, [2000], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE274] Review of Master and Commander, by Patrick O'Brian, The Ionian Mission, by Patrick O'Brian, and The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories, by Cynthia Ozick. Draft, [1992/93], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE355] Review of Profound Ignorance: Plato's Charmides and the Saving of Wisdom, by David Lawrence Levine. Draft, [2016], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE529] Review of See Naples: A Memoir, by Douglas Allenbrook. Draft, [1995/96], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE028] 44 �Review of The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, by Daniel James Brown. Draft, [2013-2015], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE488] Review of The Givenness of Things: Essays, by Marilynne Robinson. Draft, [2015/16], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE504] Review of The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of Our Nature, by Leon R. Kass. Draft, 1995, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE273] Review of The Insufficiency of Virtue: Macbeth and the Natural Order, by Jan H. Blits. Draft, [1996], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE272] Review of The Kantian Subject: Eunsus Communis, Mimesis, Work of Mourning, by Tamar Japaridze. Draft, 2004, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE027] Review of The Odyssey, translated by Joe Sachs. Draft, June 15, 2015, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE536] Review of Time, Conflict, and Human Values, by J. T. Fraser. Draft, November 2000, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE277] Review of Zetetic Skepticism, by Stewart Umphrey. Draft, [1990/91], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE031] "Sophocles Plain and Simple." Review of The Theban Plays of Sophocles, translated by David Slavitt. Draft, [August 6, 2006-May 18, 2007], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE318] "Tapestry with Images: Paul Scott's Raj Novels." Review of The Raj Quartet, by Paul Scott. Draft, [1998/99], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE335] "The Barbaric Days When Thinking Was Like a Splash of Color Landing on the Page." Review of Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, by William Finnegan. Draft, 2015, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE567] "The Feasting of Socrates." Review of Plato's Timaeus, translated by Peter Kalkavage. Draft, [2001/02], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE097] "The Rehabilitation of Spiritedness." Review of Willing Dogs and Reluctant Masters: On Friendship and Dogs, by Gary Borjesson. Draft, February 2013, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE434] "To Save the Ideas." Review of Soul, World, and Idea: An Interpretation of Plato's Republic and Phaedo, by Daniel Sherman. Draft, [2013/14], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE482] "Visions of a Botanist." Review of One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest, by Wade Davis. Draft, [n.d.], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE368] 45 �Translated Works Books Heidegger, Martin. Martin Heidegger: What is That—Philosophy? Translated by Eva Brann. Annapolis, MD: St. John's College, 1991. [B53.H3513 1991] Klein, Jacob. Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra. Translated by Eva Brann. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press, 1968. [QA22.K513] Plato. Plato: Meno. Translated by Eva Brann, Peter Kalkavage, and Eric Salem. Indianapolis, IN: Focus, 2021. [B377.A5 B73 2021] Plato. Plato: Statesman: Translation, with Glossary, Essay, and Appendices. Translated by Eva Brann, Peter Kalkavage, and Eric Salem. Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing/R. Pullins, 2012. [JC71.P3132 2012] Plato. Plato's Phaedo. Translated by Eva Brann, Peter Kalkavage, and Eric Salem. Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing/R. Pullins, 1998. [B379.A5 B73 1998] Plato. Plato's Sophist: Or, The Professor of Wisdom. Translated by Eva Brann, Peter Kalkavage, and Eric Salem. Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing/R. Pullins, 1996. [B384.A5 B72 1996] Plato. Symposium, or Drinking Party. Translated by Eva Brann, Peter Kalkavage, and Eric Salem. Indianapolis, IN: Focus, 2017. [B385.A5 B73 2017] Translated Works: Articles Hesse, Herman. "An Evening at Home with Doctor Faustus." Translated by Eva Brann. Energeia, Spring 1996: 17-19. [FaFi-BrannE351; SJC Digital Archives: Energeia Collection] Klein, Jacob. "Left and Right." Translated by Eva Brann and Beate Ruhm von Oppen. The St. John's Review 35, no. 2 (Spring 1984): 60-63. [FaFi-BrannE171; SJC Digital Archives: The St. John's Review Collection] Morgenstern, Christian. "The Two Parallels." Translated by Eva Brann. The Gadfly 17, no. 1 (September 12, 1995): 11. [FaFi-BrannE350; SJC Digital Archives: The Gadfly Collection] Nietzsche, Friedrich. "On the Relation of the Speech of Alcibiades to the Other Speeches of the Platonic Symposium." Translated by Eva Brann. Energeia, Spring 1993: 61-62. [FaFi-BrannE221; SJC Digital Archives: Energeia Collection] Unknown [possibly Euclid]. "The Cutting of the Canon." Translated by Eva Brann. The Collegian, Supplement, November 1962: 1-63. [FaFi-BrannE056; SJC Digital Archives: The Collegian Collection] 46 �Translated Works: Drafts Hesse, Herman. "An Evening at Home with Doctor Faustus." Translated by Eva Brann. Draft, [1995], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE351] Morgenstern, Christian. "The Two Parallels." Translated by Eva Brann. Draft, 1995, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE350] Nietzsche, Friedrich. "On the Relation of the Speech of Alcibiades to the Other Speeches of the Platonic Symposium." Translated by Eva Brann. Draft, [1992], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE221] Plato. "[Phaedrus excerpt]." Translated by Eva Brann. Draft, February 1997, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE352] Other "A Note on Apollonius' Parameter." 1993, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE228] "A Post-Proposal for a Book Entitled: The Logos of Heraclitus: The First Philosopher of the West on Its Most Interesting Term." January 9, 2010, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE464] "A Proto-Proposal for a Book Entitled: Against My Will." February 8, 2010, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE463] "An Impressionistic Study of the Intellectual Life of Students at Hobart and William Smith Colleges [named author: Paul Mininger]." 1975, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE147] "Conversing with a National Treasure: Wisdom and Wit with Eva Brann." Conversation with Hamza Yusuf. The Renovatio Podcast. Podcast audio. April 24, 2019. https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/media/conversing-with-a-national-treasure-wisdom-and-witwith-eva-brann. "[Correspondence with Joe Sachs about translating the first line of Antigone]." November 2, 2007March 18, 2008, manuscripts. [FaFi-BrannE466] Dean's Report to the Alumni Association. Annapolis, MD: St. John's College, 1992. [FaFi-BrannE062] Dean's Report to the Alumni Association. Annapolis, MD: St. John's College, 1993. [FaFi-BrannE062] Dean's Report to the Alumni Association. Annapolis, MD: St. John's College, 1995. [FaFi-BrannE062] 47 �Dean's Report to the Alumni Association. Annapolis, MD: St. John's College, 1996. [FaFi-BrannE062] Declaration: What the Declaration of Independence Really Means. Chicago, IL: Nightingale-Conant Corporation, 1975. [FaFi-BrannE064] "Farewell from the Dean." In St. John's College Yearbook - 1996, 5. Annapolis, MD: St. John's College, 1996. [FaFi-BrannE096; SJC Digital Archives: Yearbooks Collection] "For February 27, 2010." [To the attendees of Eric Salem's book release celebration], February 27, 2010. [FaFi-BrannE465] "For the Time Capsule." September 21, 1996. [FaFi-BrannE310] "In Memoriam: Alice E. Kober: Professor of Classics, Brooklyn College 1935-1950, b. 1906, d. May 16 1950." February 2005, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE149] "Letters Between Melissa Zink and Eva Brann." Draft, 2010, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE475] Liberal Arts College, Concordia University: Report to the University Appraisal Committee. Montreal, Canada: Concordia University, 1995. [FaFi-BrannE307] Memorandum to the Long Range Planning Committee of the Board of Visitors and Governors [coauthor; John Agresto, Christopher B. Nelson, and Stephen R. "Steve" Van Luchene, coauthors]. 1993. "The Unity of St. John's College." September. [FaFi-BrannE361] "Note on the 'Report of the Task Force on Alumni Relations.'" [After 2007], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE453] "Note to My Will: December, 2008." December 2008, manuscript. [FaFi-BrannE552] "On How to Manage Economics." To the Dean and the Instruction Committee [St. John's College, Annapolis], December 11, 2017. [FaFi-BrannE558] "[Prefatory note to an essay by William Kelly]." St. John's College (website), 2004. [FaFi-BrannE155] "Preliminary Dialogue of an Internally Divided Lover of Mansfield Park and Jane Eyre: (A Jeu d'Esprit, in Which, It Being Interior and All Mine by Reason of Cooption, Nothing Has Attributing Quotation Marks Around It)." [2005?], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE264] "Review of the Program of Liberal Studies in the College of Arts and Letters of the University of Notre Dame: October 26-29, 2003." October 2003, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE276] 48 �"St. John's College Design for a Self-Study: In Preparation of the Reaccreditation Team Visit in Fall of 1993." [1993], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE320] "St. John's College: Profile Questionnaires, January 27, 2010." January 27, 2010, manuscript. [FaFi-BrannE462] Statement of Educational Policy. Annapolis, MD: St. John's College, 1991. [FaFi-BrannE323] "Testimony for the Task Force on Assessing the National Goal Relating to Postsecondary Education (Report 92-07): Chicago, May 19, 1993." Draft, April 5, 1993, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE339] "Theoretical Underpinnings of Free Will: (2011-12)." [2010/11], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE477] "['Tis Three Score Years Plus Four, No More, No Less]." Monday, March 21, 2007, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE346] To the St. John's Class of 1997 [Annapolis], April 18, 1999. [FaFi-BrannE176] Unknown "The Appearance of Athens." [Unknown publication], 1960: 12-14. [FaFi-BrannE012] Unknown: Drafts "[Richard Russo's Straight Man and] First Person Narration in With-It Fiction." Draft, March 25, 2010, manuscript. [FaFi-BrannE469] "A Slanting Light on Pride and Prejudice." Draft, August 2006, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE311] "A Way to Philosophy." Draft, May 1973, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE372] "Against the Imputation of Esotericism in Platonic Dialogues." Draft, August 2007, manuscript. [FaFi-BrannE419] "Authorial Evasions." Draft, March 2011, manuscript. [FaFi-BrannE575] 49 �"In Behalf of the Small Independent Liberal Arts Colleges." Draft, January 1995, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE148] "Mann, Joseph and His Brothers: Ironic Philosophizing." Draft, Summer 2009, manuscript. [FaFi-BrannE455] "Mathematics and Natural Science Segment." Draft, [c. 1999], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE188] "The Great Books of the West and Our Common Bonds." Draft, November 1991, typescript. [FaFi-BrannE130] "The Logos of Heraclitus." Draft, [n.d.], typescript. [FaFi-BrannE461] 50 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Eva Brann Collection Description An account of the resource Please contact the library staff for more information about the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Brann, Eva T. H. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this material. 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. 50 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 Bibliography of Eva T. H. Brann, St. John's College Tutor 1957-2023, Dean 1990-1997: Titles in the Collections at Greenfield Library Description An account of the resource Bibliography of the work of Eva T. H. Brann, including her addresses, articles, book contributions, books, book chapters, drafts, unpublished essays, lectures, reviews, translated works, and more. The bibliography was created by Luke Klassen, Student Assistant in the Greenfield Library and member of the Graduate Institute Class of 2025. It was published in 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Klassen, Luke St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.). Greenfield Library Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource Brann, Eva T. H. Language A language of the resource English Deans Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/1ebd03dc7ffa2e52436d7654e0f7c622.mp3 ee3f50efed1ba6f0a46d3973746d95d3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. 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Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data audiocassette Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:56:09 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 Caesars: From Plutarch to Shakespeare—and Beyond Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture delivered on March 22, 2002, by Christopher Pelling as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Dr. Pelling is Regius Professor of Greek emeritus at the University of Oxford. Note: the recording started slightly after Dr. Pelling began speaking. This lecture is also part of the Steiner Lecture Series. The Andrew Steiner Memorial Lecture fund was created by the family and friends of Mr. Steiner, an alumnus (class of 1963) of St. John’s College, Annapolis. It was established to attract scholars from different disciplines and worlds, recognizing Andrew’s great intellectual versatility. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Pelling, C. B. R. 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 2002-03-22 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College 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 Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Julius Caesar Plutarch. Caesar Plutarch--Influence. Caesar, Julius--In literature. Rome--In literature. Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context LEC_Pelling_Christopher_2002-03-22_ac Friday night lecture Steiner lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/b27f228af8885305d2eefc307393d4a2.pdf 2d2f9bc5c0f94061c40217f5f410e879 PDF Text Text NEH Milton Lecture 1 Argument Not Less But More Heroic: Milton's Advent'rous Song in Paradise Lost Thomas May, tutor February,11,2005 As the opening lines of this solemn invocation to Paradise Lost lay out the poem's tragic theme of"Man's First Disobedience and the Fruit ... whose mortal taste/ Brought Death into the world, and all our woe, / With loss of Eden ... " we can hear in them echoes of the beginnings of the great epic poems of the classical age that precede it: "the rage of Peleus' son Achilles ... hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls,"2in the Iliad; "the man of many devices who wandered full many ways after he had sacked the citadel ofTroy,"3 in the Odyssey; and finally, "Arms I sing and the man who first from the coasts of Troy, exiled by fate, came to Italy and Lavinian shores ... till he should build a city ... and the walls oflofty Rome,"4 in the Aeneid. This last differs from its Greek antecedents both in setting a limit to and in defining a purpose for the struggles of its hero, and Virgil's conditional tone-' till he should build a city' -has further resonances with Milton's lines, "till one greater Man/ Restore us and regain the blissful seat." Our poet then calls upon the same "Heavn'ly Muse" who inspired Moses 1 I wish to thank both.the National Endowment for the Humanities and the College for making it possible for me to explore the writings of Milton through these past two years, and for providing funding for four of my colleagues to join me in a seminar that read Lycidas and Paradise Lost last semester. 2 Iliad l. 1-3, Homer ;The Iliad, trans. Robert Fagles (Viking Penguin,1990). All further citations are from this edition. 3 Odyssey 1.1-3, Homer: The Odyssey, trans. A.T. Murray, 2 vols. (Loeb, Cambridge, Harvard Univ. Press; London: William Heineman, 1960). 4 Aeneid 1.1-2, Virgil, trans. H.R. Fairclough, 2 vols. Loeb, Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press; London: William Heineman, 1960). All further citations are from this edition. May, Thomas L0613 Argument Not Less But More Heroic 0060 PSHOP $2.99 11111111111111111111111111111111111 1 �on Mt. Sinai and then later dwelt in Solomon's Temple on Mt. Sion, where the sacred brook of Siloa flows nearby, holy places that supercede Mt. Helicon-"th' Aonian Mount"mentioned later-and the fountain of Aganippe, haunt of the muses of classical poetry. At "Siloa's Brook" the long opening sentence comes to a partial stop with a semicolon, before the poet proceeds: I thence Invoke thy aid to my advent'rous Song That with no middle flight intends to soar Above th' Aonian Mount, while it pursues Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhyme. (1. 12-16)5 This startling word 'advent'rous' alerts us to the nature of the song we are about to hear and by implication the character of its bard, suggesting an endeavor full of risk and peril, one that is daring, possibly even rash. 6 This poet, by contrast with his predecessors, intimates that it is not enough for him to present as hero an ideal man, some solitary and absolute sort of individual, capable of prodigious deeds and superhuman endurance in the midst of conflict; an 'advent'rous song' requires something else, something more. This difference even is even more explicit in the proem or prologue to Book Nine, when, as the poet leaves the long conversation between Raphael and Adam related in the previous four books, he announces that he " ... now must change / Those notes to Tragic,"(9.5-6) continuing: ... Sad task, yet argument Not less but more Heroic than the wrath Of stem Achilles on his Foe pursu'd Thrice Fugitive about Troy Wall; or rage 5 Complete Poems and Major Prose ofJohn Milton, ed. Merritt Y. Hughes (New York: Odyssey Press/ Bobbs-Merrill, 1973). All citations and quotations of Milton's poetry are taken from this edition. Hereafter cited as Hughes. 6 OED 2,3,4. 2 �Of Tumus for Lavinia disepous 'd, Or Neptune's ire or Juno's, that so long Perplex'd the Greek and Cytherea's Son ... (9.14-20) He remembers Achilles for the implacable avenging wrath that consumes him in his pursuit of Hector around the walls of Troy; Tumus is recalled as the jilted fiance of Lavinia and for his jealous rage at Aeneas, who is mentioned only obliquely as 'Cytherea's Son;' similarly, Odysseus is styled as the 'Greek perplex'd,' i.e., tormented and plagued, by Neptune's ire. How are we to take this? Is this curious summary meant to dismiss the three greatest classical epics just as we are about to be presented with the climactic temptation and fall of man? I don't think so. The more attentively I read Paradise Lost, the more echoes and reverberations I hear with the three great classical epics we read together in our first two years here; I wonder if Milton's purpose isn't rather to rehabilitate heroic antecedents such as these. Sometimes his allusions are tinged with irony, as I think is the case in the passage I just cited, but irony of this sort can prompt us to reconsider and reassess what we think and feel about characters like Achilles, Odysseus, or Aeneas, without permitting us simply to discount them. Early on in the course of our NEH study group on Milton, at a moment when we had just noticed one of these epic echoes-one like" ... say first what cause / Mov'd our Grand Parents in that Happy state ... to fall .. " (1.28-30), at the beginning of Paradise Lost Book One, with the Iliad's "What god drove them (i.e., Agamemnon and Achilles) to fight with such a fury?"- one ofmy colleagues asked with a hint of exasperation, "What is he doing?-he can't just play around with things like this!" This remark struck me as being both fair and true, a rightful 3 �insistence that poets should not be simply permitted to do whatever strikes their fancy; they ought to be held to some standard of poetic justice. If we consider for a moment the answer to each of these epic questions' Apollo,' in the case of the Iliad, and 'Th'infernal Serpent' in Paradise Lost-we might gain some sense of what Milton is doing. Later on in Book One of Paradise Lost, soon after Satan summons his defeated legions with the majestic command, "Awake, arise, or be forever fallen," (1.330), as they gather on the plain of Hell, we learn that the names of all the fallen angels were blotted from the heavenly record after their rebellion from God, and that later, after the Fall, men came to adore "Devils ... for Deities" (1.373) and gave them the names of all the "various Idols through the Heathen World."(1.375) So, this means that Apollo, the son of Zeus and Leto, whose anger at Agamemnon for failing to honor the request by the priest Chryses for the return of his daughter prompts him to smite the Achaean armies with a fatal plague at the opening of the Iliad, turns out to be merely one of that nameless horde of apostate angels who appear in Paradise Lost in the catalogue of devils, Milton's counterpart in Paradise Lost to Homer's catalogue of ships in the Iliad. And, by the way, the Greek gods come last in this catalogue, far behind Moloch and Chemos and Baal and Ashtaroth, the horrible and magnificently obscene gods of the Ammonites, Moabites, and peoples of Canaan, all enemies of the Israelites and the living, invisible God of Milton's poem. Moreover, his prolepsis in calling the fallen angels by their names as pagan deities as named and worshipped by postlapsarian humankind also contrasts dramatically with Adam's account to Raphael in Book Eight of how, at God's invitation to him to give all living things their names, he" ... nam'd them, as they pass'd, and understood/ Thir Nature ... (8.352-53); the postlapsarian naming of 4 �bad angels by the sons and daughters of Adam does not participate in the same knowledge and insight with which God endued Adam's original, innocent apprehension of the unfallen created order. I should mention here that this is only one of many such instances in Paradise Lost, where so often we are first given the fallen version or perspective on things, the one closest to us as readers, as children of our fallen "Grand Parents" Adam and Eve, before we are given the truer but to us remoter original. This amounts to nothing less than an epic deflation, a gigantic put-down of the gods of antiquity who figure so largely in the epics of Homer and Virgil. But if Apollo is nothing more than some dissembling fallen angel turned false god, what of the heroes of Homer and Virgil; what of Achilles and Odysseus and Aeneas? Are they similarly debunked in the course of Milton's poem? By associating and contrasting these classical heroes with the chief figures of Paradise Lost, with Satan, with the Son of God, with Adam and Eve, Milton raises the same questions that are with us from our first seminar on the Iliad, the Odyssey, or the Aeneid: What is a hero and what is worthy of being considered heroic? It is important to note at the outset, however, that despite the historical precedence of the ancient epics to Paradise Lost, it claims to tell the story that is really prior, of the first man and woman and their fall, the causes for this, and the remedy that will ultimately transform their (and our) tragedy into a divine comedy in which restoration is effected and redemption is possible. Thus, the ultimate terms of heroism here range from the transcendently and divinely heroic to the demonically evil and debased, with the possibility of a genuine human heroism newly realized that reflects knowledge of these ultimate terms as the fruit of the poet's great argument. 5 �In the passage we just looked at, we saw that in raising and answering the question that introduces the narrative of the poem-'what cause? ... Th' infernal serpent'-Milton introduces the character of Satan, who dominates the first books of the poem and whose implacable envy and revenge against what he calls "the Tyranny of Heav'n"(l .124) prompt him to undertake his odyssey from Hell to our newer world, either to waste it utterly with Hell fire or to possess it as an empire (2.364-66), a demonic project that mimics elements of both the Aeneid and the Odyssey. It is difficult in these early books not to find Satan at least somewhat attractive and sometimes immensely entertaining, in spite of the numerous cues that Milton gives to warn us about his true nature. Consider, for example, the names of Satan, beginning with the aforementioned "Infernal Serpent", to "th' Arch-Enemy, and thence in Heav'n call'd Satan" (1.80-81), "th' Apostate Angel" (1.125), "th' Arch-fiend" (1.156), "the lost Arch-Angel" (1.243), "their great Sultan" (1.348), and "Arch-Angel ruin'd" (1.593)-these all occur in Book One--and this is not an exhaustive list! Each tells us something of what Satan is and that he certainly is not good, but like Eve, it is hard for us not to be fascinated and taken in by him, perhaps because of Milton's calculated grandiloquence. If such is meant to deter us, we might be tempted like the poet William Blake to say: The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was A true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it. 7 More influential in our initial assessment of Satan perhaps are his own stirring words that he uses to rally the fallen angels: 7 William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. xvii. 6 �What though the field be lost? All is not lost; the unconquerable Will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield And what is else not to be overcome? That Glory never shall his wrath or might Extort from me. (1.105-111) His refusal to compromise or concede, his indomitable courage and enormous sense of honor and personal worth may remind us of Achilles at first, until we remember that Achilles' wrath against Agamemnon is neither immortal nor unlimited. At the height of his rage in Iliad 9, he tells the embassy of Odysseus, Phoenix, and Ajax that he will not think of arming for bloody war again, not till the son of wise King Priam, dazzling Hector batters all the way to the Myrmidon ships and shelters, slaughtering Argives, gutting the hulls with fire. (9. 795-798-emphasis mine) Later, the climactic scene in Iliad 24 shows an Achilles capable of marveling at the majestic nobility of Priam, who comes to ransom the body of his fallen son Hector (567), and who spares the life of the old king despite himself when Priam inadvertently enrages him with his suggestion that the Achaean prince can enjoy the ransom just paid, when he returns to his native land (652-669). By contrast to these heroes, Satan claims to possess "a mind not to be chang'd by Place or Time"(l.253), to which he adds, in two of the most famous lines of the poem, The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell ofHeav'n. (254-255) This inalterable hatred against heaven originates in the umbrage he takes at the Father's proclamation to the full company of angels that his only begotten Son, "the powerful Word" (7.208-9) through whom all things were made (6.836-38), is "Messiah King anointed" (5.664), an announcement that Satan finds unbearable, for he "thought himself 7 �impair'd" (5,665) i.e., lowered in rank and esteem among the company of heaven. The epic voice tells us in the following line (666!) that Satan, "Deep malice thence conceiving and disdain," is at that moment inspired to launch his rebellion and perpetual war against heaven. After his defeat in a three day long epic battle, related in Book Six of Paradise Lost, and his expulsion into Hell with the rebel angels, he builds his great capital Pandemonium and resolves almost immediately to 'enlarge his honor and empire' by conquering the new world that he has just heard about. Many readers have also noticed parallels between Satan's heroic journey to discover this new world, related through parts of the narrative of Books Two, Three, and Four, and the account that Virgil gives us of Aeneas' flight with his countrymen from Troy and his struggle to establish the new kingdom that will serve as the basis for Rome. By contrast it is significant that Satan undertakes this quest alone and as the ultimate in impious projects, one that is meant to thwart the divine will and to destroy the inhabitants of earth by fraud. When at the opening of Book Six he alights on Mt. Niphates, ready to initiate his destructive program, he pauses dramatically to consider his situation, only to find that Horror and doubt distract His troubl'd thoughts, and from the bottom stir The Hell within him, for within him Hell He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell One step no more than from himself can fly By change of place ... (6.18-23) In our Milton study group, one of my colleagues pointed out that Satan's inner tumult here, initially wordless, is reminiscent of Plutarch's description of Caesar's deliberations before he crosses the Rubicon: ... he wavered much in his mind when he considered 8 �the greatness of the enterprise into which he was throwing himself. He checked his course and ordered a halt, while he revolved with himself, and often changed his opinion 8 one way and the other, without speaking a word. Despite the great journey he has undertaken, Satan paradoxically finds himself trapped and confined within the limits of his fixed mind, for once at a loss for words, and as he gazes first towards Eden and then heaven, try as he might, he is unable to make a heaven out of his inner Hell. Remembering "what he was, what is, and what must be/ Worse ... " (4.25-26), he at last gives utterance to his inmost thoughts in a speech that begins with 9 lines originally intended for a tragedy Milton proposed to call "Adam Unparadiz'd." In the eighty-one lines of this soliloquy, Satan demonstrates the truth of La Rochefoucauld's maxim that "whatever discoveries one may have made in the land of self-love, there is still a lot of uncharted territory." 10 Chronologically the first lines written for Satan in Paradise Lost, these lines give us a sense of how Milton originally conceived his matchless villain. Satan recognizes the enormity of his offense against "Heav'n's matchless King,"(4.41) whom he acknowledges as his creator-contradicting his claim to the angel Abdiel later in the poem that he is "self-begot, self-rais'd-and confesses that "lifted up so high/ I s'deined subjection" (49-50). This word "disdain" returns again later in the soliloquy as he considers the possibility of repentance and pardon, in order to escape the ever lower hellish deep that threatens to devour him: 0 then at last relent: is there no place Left for repentance, none for Pardon left? 8 Plutarch, "The Life of Caesar" from The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, trans. John Dryden, rev. Arthur Hugh Clough (New York: The Modem Library) p. 874. 9 Edward Phillips, The Life ofMilton, in Hughes, op. cit., pp.1034-35. 10 Francois, due de La Rochefoucauld, Maximes et Reflexions Diverses. (Paris: GamierFlammarion, 1977), maxim 3, p. 45. (translation mine) 9 �None left but by submission; and that word Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame Among the spirits beneath, whom I seduc'd ... (4.79-83-emphasis mine) What is so terrible for Satan, so forbidding in this word disdain? Its primary meaning is to think unworthy of oneself, to despise or treat with scorn, 11 and Satan's sense of impairment, of his diminished status beneath both the Father and the Son of God, drives him not only to cut himself off from "Heav'n's free Love dealt equally to all"(4.68), but, as he confesses here, to seduce a third of his fellow angels from the allegiance and service they rightfully owe to God. In proposing to himself what it would mean to repent and obtain pardon, he can only imagine that his own "high thoughts" would soon prompt him "to unsay what feign'd submission swore" (4.95-96). Like Claudius in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Satan brings himself to the very threshold of repentance but in his great pain and anguish can sustain no firm purpose of amendment. In the painful course of this long deliberation on Niphates, Satan shows what Hume later on will assert in his Treatise, that "'Tis not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger." 12 And like Caesar, who ultimately casts aside his misgivings to cross the Rubicon and move on Rome to pursue empire and personal power, Satan rejects hope and contrition to embrace the evil that he calls his good, to win by deceit and hold by fraud "Divided Empire with Heav'n's King" over "this new World" (4.111-14). He comes to Eden as an "arch-felon" (4.179), a terrorist whose mind is set on the destruction of the blissful, sweet, newly created world that he can appreciate but not abide. "That fixt mind/ And high disdain"(l.97-98) that II 12 OED 1 David Hume, A Treatise ofHuman Nature, II,3. (Oxford, Clarendon Press,1968), p. 416. 10 �distinguish him from the outset of the poem persist through all his outward transformations: from stripling cherub to cormorant to toad and finally to "monstrous Serpent on his Belly prone/ reluctant"(l0.514-15) in Book Ten, the form he first takes on to deceive Eve but then finds himself stuck in when the explosion of hisses from his fallen angel followers, similarly and horribly and aptly transmogrified, greet him at the end of his triumphant return to Hell. In his fixity and self-professed unchangeableness, Satan distinguishes himself not only from the classical heroes of antiquity, but also from Adam and Eve, and the entire company of heaven loyal to the Father, including the Son of God. We need next to consider the last of these, for in looking at the Son of God and then comparing him with Satan, we can lay out the two extremes of transcendent heroism and unsurpassed villainy, the ultimate terms of the created order. It is important first to note that God the Father is "Omnipotent, Immutable, Immortal, Infinite, Eternal King," "Author of all being"(3.372-74), and "invisible amidst. .. glorious brightness" (3.375-376); while the Son, "the radiant image of his (the Father's) glory" (3.63) is the "Only begotten Son" (3.80), suggesting a being in essence different from the Father, 13 a unique and mutable creature, albeit the first-born of creation, in the relation to the Father of an inferior to a superior. 14 I apologize if this seems to be a needlessly abstruse digression on Milton's anti-Trinitarianism, but it helps to explain two features of Milton's presentation of the Council of Heaven in Book Three that most readers find strange, if not troubling. 13 John Milton, Christian Doctrine, trans. John Carey, vol.6, p. 210 from Complete Prose Works ofJohn Milton, ed. Don M. Wolfe et al., 8 vols. (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1953-1982). 14 Ibid., pp. 275-276. 11 �First, the Father and the Son are depicted there as having a conversation in the presence of the loyal angels, in which the Father, prompted by the sight of Satan winging his way towards Eden, tells the Son how the desperate revenge of Satan will pervert man through guile to fall, and goes on to explain how the mitigating factor of this deception warrants the mercy and justice that He will show man after the Fall. Orthodox Christian theology about the Trinity, with its formal profession of the unity of substance attributed to Father, Son, and Spirit, as formulated in the Nicene Creed, would most likely deter the poet from presenting such an exchange, but here the Son is a creature, though the first born and highest of all creation, and he learns in the presence of the angels what is hidden in the depths of his Father's foreknowledge. If the Son were to know everything by virtue of his own consubstantiality with the Father, this celestial conversation would take on the aspect of a strange court masque with the king and the crown prince as the principal players, or of a duo recital for the benefit of the angels -and us readers, something I don't think Milton means to do here, however strange we may find this scene to be. Second, as the sacred conversation continues, the Father explains that once man has fallen, with the vigor of his original goodness being "forfeit and enthrall'd"(3.176), justice demands that "He with his whole posterity must die" (3.209), adding ... unless for him Some other able, and as willing, pay The rigid satisfaction, death for death. (3.210-12) This long exposition on the need for atonement for the sin of Adam and Eve culminates with the Father's hard, direct question addressed to the entire company of heaven: Say Heav'nly Powers, where shall we find such love, Which of ye will be mortal to redeem 12 �Man's mortal crime, and just th' unjust to save, Dwells in all Heaven charity so dear? (3.213-16) The silence that follows this question -"the Heav'nly Choir stood mute"(3.216)-is the most dramatic event in this scene up to this moment, until the Son of God offers himself as the proxy for disabled humanity, with the dramatic words Behold mee then, mee for him, life for life I offer, on mee let thine anger fall; Account mee man; I for his sake will leave Thy bosom, and this glory next to thee Freely put off, and for him lastly die Well pleas'd ... (3.236-40) Notice here that Milton differentiates the "mee" of the Son's dramatic offer by adding and extra "e" to the spelling, something he does elsewhere with the pronouns he, ye, and she, as if to simulate the emphasis Greek achieves with the accented or by adding the particles 817 or over the enclitic for additional stress; or like the use of moi as a stressed pronoun in French. Yet the Son's 'mee ... mee ... mee ... mee' is not the selfaggrandizing or vain-glorious egotism that we hear later from Satan, when discovered in the garden by the angel guards Ithuriel and Zephon, who do not recognize him, he asks: Know ye not then said Satan, fill' d with scorn Know ye not mee? ... Not to know mee argues yourselves unknown ... (4. 827-30) Rather, the Son's proposal is to empty himself of all that is rightfully his for the sake of mankind, which is the sacrifice of "glory ... freely put off... "(3.239-40) in the incarnation, and which necessarily entails his own death, so that his emphatic mee is a rhetorical 13 �measure both of the desperate condition of a fallen world and the heroic love of the Son for mortal man. 15 Moreover, the Son's words here echo those found in an incident related in Book Nine of the Aeneid, during the bitter war that erupts between Aeneas and the Rutulian prince Tumus for the hand of Lavinia, after the Trojans have landed in Italy. 16 Two Trojan soldiers, Nisus and Euryalus, are a devoted pair of lovers who set out from the besieged Trojan camp through enemy lines to gain help from Aeneas, who is away. Nisus, the older, cannier veteran of the two, hears the cry of Euryalus his innocent, spirited cohort, as he is caught by a Rutulian patrol after impulsively wrecking havoc in their camp. Nisus, in trying to deflect the avenging wrath of the Rutulians from his young comrade onto himself, cries out: On me-on me-here am I who did the deed-on me tum your steel, 0 Rutulians! Mine is all the guilt; he neither dared nor could have done aught; this heaven be witness and the all-seeing stars! He but loved his hapless friend too well! (Aeneid 9. 427-430) This cry of 'on me, on me ... mine is all the guilt' sets the poetic precedent for the Son's cry during the Council of Heaven, but there is a sense in which Milton, though writing his poem seventeen hundred years later, scoops Virgil by having the Son offer himself for all of fallen humanity shortly after the creation of the world. It can be seen, too, that the Son's magnanimity combines elements of the experience, generosity, and selflessness of Nisus with the innocence and beauty ofEuryalus, providing a standard of heroism that is 15 Stanley Fish calls this "the poem's first truly heroic act." Stanley Fish, Swprised by Sin. (Cambridge; Harvard Univ. Press, 1998), p.86. 16 Alastair Fowler also points out this echo in a note to 3.236-38, The Poems ofJohn Milton, ed. John Carey and Alastair Fowler (London and New York: Longman, 1968), p. 574. Hereafter cited as Fowler. 14 �at once poignant and extraordinary, perhaps we might say transcendent. Whatever the case, the Son at this point emerges as the outstanding hero of the poem. In reading Paradise Lost for seminar in junior year, we completely skip over Book Six and nearly all of Book Seven, the very heart and center of Milton's poem, where Raphael recounts for Adam and Eve both the Son's aristeia in the Battle of Heaven against Satan, the central epic episode of the poem, and his work as the "Omnific Word"(7.217), effecting the will of the Father in Creation. We should note here that the exact center of the poem, whether we take the ten-book division of First Edition of 1671 or the twelve-book division of the Second Edition of 1674, with its additional fourteen lines, is placed at the climax of the Battle of Heaven in Book Six, when the Son appears in the "Chariot of Paternal Deity"(6.750) and single-handedly defeats the Satan and his cohort of fallen angels, who throw themselves headlong into the bottomless pit. 17 It should be needless to say that in a work of such length and complexity, it is doubtlessly significant, the result of great art and deliberateness, that the center is placed here. What then of Adam and Eve? We meet them before the Fall, in Book FourTwo of far nobler shape erect and tall, Godlike erect, with native Honor clad In naked Majesty ... Lords of all, .. .in their looks Divine The image of their glorious Maker shone (4.288-292) Despite their common heroic bearing and natural dominion over the garden, they are not equal: For contemplation hee and valor form'd, For softness shee and sweet attractive Grace, Hee for God only, shee for God in him (4.297-299) 17 The central line in Edition I occurs at 6.761; in Edition II at 6.766. Ibid., pp. 441-442; cp. Fowler,441-442 15 �'Valor' suggests the sort of strength and bravery that makes one equal to conflict and battle, while 'softness,' at least before the Fall, is simply meant to imply mildness and gentleness, 18 rather than weakness or timidity. 19 As in Heaven with the Father, the Son and the angels, so too in Paradise there is a hierarchical order, here expressed in Adam's "gentle sway"(4.309) and Eve's "coy-i.e., quiet, modest20 -submission"(4.311). In the first words we hear between the two of them, Adam marvels that they should enjoy freely such unmerited happiness, while following the "delightful task"(4.437) of tending the garden and obeying God's" easy charge"(4.421) -to refrain from eating of the Tree of Knowledge. Eve seconds this and claims herself the happier of the two in enjoying Adam's preeminence, something we tend to forget-or don't want to believe- in the course of her long account of first awakening on the day of her creation. Is it the case that such perfect harmony between the sexes, though without equality, is something that can only be imagined by a poet who claims to be the beneficiary of extraordinary inspiration? If we grant this for the sake of the poem, we might be tempted to think that the created world of Eden is simple and perfect and static, but this turns out not to be the case. The angel Raphael, sent by the Father to warn Adam of the danger that Satan presents to his happiness, first shares a meal with Adam and Eve, and in answer to Adam's question about how an angel can partake of earthly fruit, gives an account of a dynamic created order in which corporal nutriments, endowed with various forms, are· equally capable of nourishing different forms of life, which all having first proceeded 18 OED 2 OED 3 20 OED 1,2. 19 16 �from the Almighty are meant by degrees and over time to return to him. The importance of this for Adam and Eve is made explicit when Raphael continues: And from these corporal nutriments perhaps Your bodies may at last tum all to spirit, Improv' d by tract of time, and wing' d ascend Ethereal, as wee ... (5.496-499-emphasis mine)) Happiness takes time, may increase over time-indeed is meant to-yet the metaphysical and moral dynamics of the created order are such that each stage is capable of only so much and no more-Leibniz would say only so much at any given moment is compossible. This is what it means to eat right. Note, too, that the ascent is to the angelic order. Raphael then tells Adam and Eve that in time they ... may at choice Here or in Heav'nly Paradises dwell; If ye be found obedient, and retain Unalterably firm his love entire Whose progeny you are. (5.499-503) In this first of six warnings that Raphael gives Adam in the course of their long conversation, 21 he sets out clearly what is at stake in obedience and disobedience, suggesting the dynamic of growth that presupposes both a hierarchy of perfection and the continuity of unchangeable love. Later, in Book Seven, Raphael relates to Adam and Eve the conversation that the Father has with the Son just prior to creation. After characterizing Satan and the fallen angels as "Self-lost"(7.154)-a divine correction of Satan's earlier claim to be "self-begot, self-rais'd "(5.860), he proposes to create Another World, out of one man a Race Of men innumerable, there to dwell, Not here, till by degrees of merit rais'd They open to themselves at length the way Up hither, under long obedience tri'd, 21 The others are found at 6.897-912;7.542-547; 8.166-178;8.561-594;8.633-643. 17 �And Earth be chang'd to Heav'n and Heav'n to Earth, One Kingdom, Joy and Union without end. (7.155-161) In his final angelic admonition, the most succinct and the one given to Adam alone, Raphael says: Be strong, live happy, and love, but first of all Him whom to love is to obey, and keep His great command; take heed lest Passion sway Thy judgment to do aught, which else free Will Would not admit; thine and of all thy Sons The weal or woe in thee is plac't; beware. I in thy persevering shall rejoice, And all the Blest: stand fast; to stand or fall Free in thine own Arbitrement it lies. Perfet within, no outward aid require; And all temptation to transgress repel. (8. 633-643) 22 'Arbitrement' is the capacity to decide for oneself; in a word, free choice. The warning 23 ends with two imperatives: require, i.e., ask or demand as a right, no outward help; and resist any enticement to break the law set down. We can only infer from this that Adam and Eve are fully capable, self-sufficient, and perfect, so far as repelling any temptation to break the "sole command"(7.47) is concerned. We know even before we reach it that Eve and Adam will both fail the "trial. .. unsought"(9.366) that Adam realizes will come, indeed must come, and of which he warns Eve as she leaves him alone, in Book Nine. Just as Homer displays Achilles in single combat against Hector and Virgil presents Aeneas alone against Turnus, Milton, in the second great epic episode of the poem, presents Eve as protagonist alone against Satan, now incarnate in a "spirited sly snake"(9.613), endowed with speech, intent on her ruin. After Eve recovers from her amazement at hearing "Language pronounc't / By Tongue ofBrute"(9.553-4), she asks 22 23 OED 1 OED II.5 18 �the serpent how he became capable of speech, and he replies vaguely but enticingly, attributing his "strange alteration"(9.599) to eating the "fair Apples"(9.585) he found after coming by chance upon a "goodly Tree"(9.576) in the garden. She then follows him to the Tree of Knowledge, which she immediately recognizes as the one forbidden, telling the serpent that it is neither to be eaten nor touched, under pain of death. In reply Satan takes on the role of advocate for cosmic justice and human entitlement, like "some orator renowned/ In Athens or free Rome" (9 .670-71 ), and in what is to be his last speech in Paradise, he rises to an eloquence that appears to provide incontrovertible proof of the native virtue of the interdicted fruit, raising formidable arguments against its ban and for its wholesomeness. 24 The most compelling of these is based upon the simple specious proportion stating that-in eating the fruit-as change from serpent: change into serpent with logos:: change from man: change into god. 25 We know that this is specious from Raphael's discourse earlier and from our reading of Genesis-and also from our status as the hapless descendants of Eve, as 'the fruit of that forbidden tree.' The true proportion expressing the change that has taken place in Satan and is about to take place in Adam and Eve is: archangel : archangel ruin' d : : man : fallen man. Eve knows the first ratio of this second proportion from Raphael, but she believes she sees the evidence for the first ratio of the first transformation before her eyes and hears it in her ears. But she ignores the contradiction between the ultimate term of the first, satanic proportion-'god '-and Raphael's earlier discourse about the possibility of 24 Barbara Lewalski , in Paradise Lost and the Rhetoric ofLiterary Forms (Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1985) note 43, p.357, states that the false analogies that Satan leads Eve to make are "evidently original with Milton." 25 cp. Fowler, note ix.710-12, p. 898. 19 �gradual, ordered ascent to the angelic order. Besides, it is noon, she is hungry, and the savory smell of the fruit beckons, so she pauses to deliberate, her private musings ultimately giving approval to what, for her, the serpent has proved. She first plucks the fruit "through expectation high/ of knowledge"(9. 789-90), and then, serpent-like, she greedily engorges it a far remove from her earlier rural repast (9.4) with Adam and Raphael, and she forgets Raphael's discourse on the natural and gradual improvement to be gained by eating in accord with the divine command. The effects of the fruit on Eve are immediately apparent: she worships the tree, praises experience as "Best guide"(9.807), speculates about whether God has seen what she has done, and then deliberates over whether or not to "keep the odds of Knowledge"(9.820) to herself by not sharing the fruit with Adam, to draw his love the more to her, now his equal, or better yet, his superior. Experience is not such an effective teacher, or so it seems. Eve's first impulse here is not to imitate her own experience of the serpent's apparent generosity. But second thoughts cause her to worry that if God has seen her, she will die alone, and Adam might re-wed, happily, a second Eve; fearful, jealous thoughts that prompt her to decide firmly that "Adam shall share .. .in bliss or woe."(9.831) The epic battle here lost by Eve is not one of "fabl'd Knights/ In Battles feign'd"(9.30-31) but one of words and will, and natural grace disregarded and abandoned. When Adam finds her at the Tree of Knowledge, Eve recounts what has happened but adds the lie that she did it all "chiefly" for him, and now she bids him to eat "Lest ... different degree/ disjoin us"(9.883-84). Adam's inward musings, like Eve's on the cusp of her Fall, show the paradoxical character of his decision: 20 �... how hast thou yielded to transgress The strict forbiddance, how to violate The sacred Fruit forbidd'n! some cursed fraud Of Enemy hath beguil'd thee, yet unknown, (9.902-905) Unlike Eve, however, Adam is not deluded by the seemingly miraculous transformation of the serpent, but just as he earlier gave irrefragable arguments for why they should not separate before, only to let Eve go off, he now abruptly adds: And mee with thee hath ruin'd, for with thee Certain my resolution is to Die; How can I live without thee ... ? (9.907-909) Another Eve could never repair the loss of the one who stands before him-or so he imagines- and "The Link ofNature"(9.914) that draws him to her also commands his inward assent, even as he hails her as "advent'rous Eve' (9.921). Well, what else might he do? He might recollect something he heard from Raphael. Earlier, when Raphael gave Adam and Eve the account of the Fall of the rebellious angels, he told them of the "dreadless Angel" (6.1) Abdiel, who in his efforts to dissuade Satan from his disastrous course urged him to "hast'n to appease/ Th'incensed Father, and th'incensed Son,/ while pardon may be found in time besought."(5.846-48) Adam no more recalls this exemplary advice than Aeneas remembers his duty to the gods and his Trojan countrymen while trysting with Dido during the royal hunt and storm outside of Carthage, 26 or Paris his combat oath when he beds down with Helen while Menelaus ranges the battlefield before Troy. 27 As Adam eats the fruit in "This happy trial of... Love" (9.975), Eve joins him, repeating her "former trespass" (9 .1006), and the two complete together "the mortal Sin / Original" (9.1003-4) in a kind of idolatrous, sacramental meal. The force of the fruit 26 27 Aeneid 4.129-172. Iliad 3.437-454 21 �quickly inflames carnal desire in them both, and they consummate the Fall with a gross coupling that has aspects of both rape and meretricious seduction; this "glorious trial of exceeding Love"(9.961), so hailed by Eve, culminates with the transient 'link oflust,' sealing their disobedience with sex as a second pagan sacrament. They lapse into a restless sleep and awaken to guilt shame, and estrangement that leads them to mutual recrimination, "neither self-condemning"(9. l 188). Each is now isolated and alone, though together, in Paradise. Later, after the Son is dispatched from heaven by the Father to apprise Adam 28 and Eve of the judgment against them and of the mysterious promise of the seed, thus 29 tempering Justice with mercy, Adam, now alone, laments what he can only see as "the end of this new glorious World"(9.721). With its one hundred twenty-four lines it is the longest and darkest soliloquy of the entire poem, wherein Adam, at the prospect of all future generations cursing him, wishes for death and submits to the justice of his punishment. In the end he acknowledges that all his reasonings .. .lead me still first and last conviction: own But to my On mee, mee only, as the source and spring Of all corruption, all the blame lights due; So might the wrath. Fond wish! Couldst thou support That burden heavier than the Earth to bear, Than all the world much heavier, though divided With that bad Woman (9.830-837) Recall the words ofNisus and the Son that we considered earlier, words of deep love and selfless heroism; it is difficult not to hear the stressed accusatives of Adam's words, in their despair at his impotence and in his contempt for Eve, as the 28 29 Paradise Lost l 0.179-181) Ibid., 77-79. 22 �dark inverse of those antecedents. When Eve approaches him, he upbraids her for being as false and hateful as the serpent. For her part, in profoundly moving, lyrical lines, she professes her love for Adam and begs for forgiveness with words that resonate with the promise of hope and restoration offered earlier by the Son: On me exercise not Thy hatred for this misery befall 'n On me already lost, mee than thyself More miserable; both have sinn'd, but thou Against God only, I against God and thee, And to the place of judgment will return, There with my cries importune Heaven, that all The sentence from thy head remov' d may light On me, sole cause to thee of all this woe, Mee mee only just object of his ire. (10. 927-936) Eve, in acknowledging her sin and pleading for Adam's forgiveness, first reaffirms the order established from the beginning of' Adam for God and she for God in him,' the created order that has been fractured by their sin. Then, perhaps remembering Abdiel's injunction to 'hast'n to appease/ Th'incensed Father, and th'incensed Son,' she resolves to go alone to the place where they both have received the divine judgment, to implore the divine mercy that Adam cannot even imagine, overwhelmed as he is by his hellishly dark vision of divine justice. In words that most nearly echo words of the Son to his the Father, 30 she offers to take upon herself the entire burden of guilt that Adam despairs even the two of them together can sustain. Her final words 'Mee mee only just object of his ire' correspond most nearly to the Son's as he says to the Father," .. .life for life/ I offer, on mee let thine anger fall." (3.236-237) Yet, while this offer is utterly, heroically 30 cf. Joseph Summers, The Muse's Method: an Introduction to Paradise Lost (Binghamton, New York: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1981), pp. 179-80. Summers rightly contrasts the Son's and Eve's use of the stressed accusative "mee" with Satan's use of"I," though we have seen that Satan uses the "mee" -to very different purpose-as well. 23 �generous, it stems from but one impulse among a host of conflicting emotions that Eve feels. Eve's heroism here is a nascent, fallen heroism. It nevertheless has its effect: Adam is moved slowly to relent in his anger and first advises Eve to bear her own punishment first, but he then imitates her generosity in wishing that all might fall upon himself, finally suggesting that their proper task is to "strive/ In offices of Love "(9.959-60) to lighten each other's burden of woe. Eve next proposes desperate measures-an end to sexual love between them, to render them childless, and joint suicide as a form of euthanasia-but Adam, perhaps reminded by Eve's earlier selfless impulse of the Son's promise that her seed will bruise the serpent's head, now urges what she had just before, that they both return to the place of judgment humbly to confess their faults in deepest sorrow, "with tears/ Watering the ground." (10.1101-1102) Significantly, the poet does not give us their words, but as Book Eleven opens, the prayers of Adam and Eve are received in heaven, where the Son renews his pledge to serve as advocate, and the Father dispatches the angel Michael with a cohort of cherubim to "send them forth, though sorrowing, yet in peace. "(11.117) To this end, the remaining two books of the poem are devoted to Michael's education of Adam, through a series of visions and lecture/ narratives in which he is shown the nature of death and the ultimate victory of the promised seed. There is not time enough now to consider the lengthy course that Michael gives Adam before the expulsion from the Garden of Eden; let it suffice here to notice Adam's response to what he learns: ,Henceforth I learn, that to obey is best, And love with fear the only God, to walk As in his presence, ever to observe His providence, and on him sole depend, 24 �Merciful over all his works, with good Still overcoming evil, and by small Accomplishing great things, by things deem' d weak Subverting worldly strong, and worldly wise By simply meek; that suffering for Truth's sake Is fortitude to highest victory ... (12.561-570) With these final words, Adam seconds those of the poet earlier in his proem to Book Nine, where Milton holds up what he claims is "the better fortitude/ Of Patience and Heroic Martyrdom"(9.31-32) as the proper subject for heroic song. Courage, bravery, and fortitude are what epic bards traditionally sing about; in Greek poetry, tharsos ((courage, confidence, boldness) and thrasos (courage, confidence, rashness), with andreia (manliness, strength, bravery) designating the word for this virtue that Plato and Aristotle use; in Latin poetry, virtus (manliness, virtue, bravery, courage) andfortitudo (physical strength, moral bravery, courage), in all three languages one of the four cardinal virtues. We saw the paradigm instance of this in Paradise Lost before, at the Council of Heaven, in the Son's volunteering to empty himself in order to redeem man, by taking on human flesh with all of its vulnerability and mortality after the fall, becoming small in order to accomplish great things. Adam has come to understand that obedience may ultimately demand the greater fortitude, from the heroic examples of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and preeminently, Messiah, all presented by Michael in his account of the career of the seed, steadfast despite the reversals brought about by Cain, Tubal-Cain, Nimrod, Pharaoh, and Rome-and ultimately by Satan, Sin and Death. 25 �Michael, in his final reply and last words in the poem, calls this "the sum/ Of wisdom"(12.575-76), higher than all earthly knowledge of the stars and "all Nature's 31 works" (12.578), as if to say with Pascal: Knowledge of physical science will not console me for ignorance . Of morality in time of affliction, but knowledge of morality Will always console me for ignorance of physical science. (23/67) It is not enough, however, merely to have such wisdom and knowledge; Michael continues: ... only add Deeds to thy knowledge answerable, add Faith Add Virtue, Patience, Temperance, add Love, By name to come call'd Charity, the soul Of all the rest: then wilt thou not be loath To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess A paradise within thee, happier far. (12. 581-87) 'Answerable,' i.e., responsible, knowledge shows itself in action, in deeds, as the fruit of this highest wisdom that Michael recognizes in Adam. Michael's words here follow almost exactly those found in 2 Peter 1. 5-8, except for the final verse, where Peter writes: For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (KJV) Michael instead gently reminds Adam that he must leave Paradise the place, taking it with him as an inner state, as if to suggest that the fruitfulness of the Garden of Eden can be extended to wherever wisdom and the greater fortitude of acts of charity consonant with it are done. We can thus see how Michael's final words are equivalent to this verse from 2 Peter, as adapted to the circumstances of Adam, who has just been brought from 31 Pascal's Pensees, trans. Alban J. Krailsheimer (Harmondsworth, New York: Penguin Books, 1984) p. 36. 26 �despair at the loss of Paradise, a despair that prompted Eve to propose a deliberately 'unfruitful' barrenness, to the prospect of an even greater happiness that comes with possession of "a paradise within."(12.586) And what of Eve? She has slept through all of this, Michael having "drencht" her eyes with a soporific before his conversation with Adam began. At Michael's urging, Adam hastens to the bower where Eve has been sleeping, only to find her already awake, and advised by her dreams of all that he has learned, "For God is also in sleep."(12.611) Eve is given the last words quoted, as beautiful and lyrical as any in the poem: ... but now lead on; chiasmus In mee is no delay; with thee to go, go stay Is to stay here; without thee here to stay Is to go hence unwilling; thou to mee stay go Art all things under Heav'n, all places thou, Who for my willful crime art banisht hence. This further consolation yet secure I carry hence; though all by mee is lost, Such favor I unworthy am voutsaf t, By mee the Promis'd Seed shall all restore. (12. 614-623) Eve at once accepts and approves their banishment from Eden, and urges Adam to lead the way, thereby reversing their roles during the catastrophe of the Fall. The flowing iambic motion of"In mee is no delay; with thee to go," interrupted by the affectingly simple chiasmus that follows, with its stop-start alternation of"go ... stay ... stay ... go," convey both a sense of the restored order she professes in her relation to Adam and the incipient joy that she feels in the newly discovered " paradise within." Her words also both echo and anticipate the words of Ruth the Moabite woman to her Hebrew mother-inlaw Naomi as they set out from the security of Moab to return to Judah: 27 �... whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge ... Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried ... (Ruth 1.16-1 7) Eve's final lines indicate that she is at once "though sorrowing, yet in peace"(l 1.117), and her final two stressed accusative 'mees' reverberate with her earlier offer to take full responsibility for the Fall and with the Son's offer to save mankind, to the extent that the two almost seem here to merge in her final line 'By mee the Promis'd Seed shall all restore.' This is the last spoken line of the poem, but it is not the last that we hear. The final five lines, with their deeply touching image of Adam and Eve as they depart Paradise, show that they are now, again, together alone: Some natural tears they dropp'd, but wip'd them soon; The World was all before them, where to choose Thir place of rest, and Providence thir guide; They hand in hand with wand'ring steps and slow Through Eden took thir solitary way. This penultimate word 'solitary' seems to be in tension with the 'hand in hand' of the line before, just as 'wand'ring' in that line is with 'place of rest' in the line before it. These tensions may strike us as both troubling and true, the very crux of the matter in an 'argument ... more heroic.' Thank you for your fortitude and attention. 28 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. 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Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis 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. 28 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Argument Not Less But More Heroic: Milton's Advent'rous Song in <em>Paradise Lost</em> Description An account of the resource Typescript of a lecture delivered on February 11, 2005, by Thomas May as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource May, Thomas 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 2005-02-11 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College 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 Milton, John, 1608-1674. Paradise lost Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context LEC_May_Thomas_2005-02-11 Relation A related resource <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7879" title="Recording">Recording</a> Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/42b0e58b253147ab2ae973941b502cec.pdf 6d01ecdf2d4e5a7eda6d12bdbe144e39 PDF Text Text kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture Tragic Pharmacy: The ‘Noble’ Lie and the Fall of Kallipolis Kevin M. Kambo I. Introduction One of the special joys for an enthusiast of Plato is reading the receptions of and responses to the divine teacher (and his school(s)) that are strewn across the history of philosophy. One notes with fascination how Neoplatonists celebrated feast days to Socrates and Plato, while in the high Middle Ages, Platonism, in the Latin West, came to be associated, among a fair number of writers, with having some fundamental errors from which Aristotle delivers us. Somewhere in between we find figures like Augustine, who attacks the skepticism of the Platonists in Contra academicos, though he praises (up to a point) the Platonists in the Confessions and arguably baptizes Platonic recollection in De magistro. These varied appraisals continue into the 20th Century. E. O. Sisson, one time president of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association, calls the Republic, “that original charter of Fascism”;1 for Karl Popper, “Plato recognizes only one ultimate standard, the interest of the state. … The criterion of morality is the interest of the state. … This is the collectivist, the tribal, the totalitarian theory of morality”;2 though Whitehead famously reflects, “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. I do not mean the systematic scheme of thought which scholars have doubtfully extracted from his writings. I allude to the wealth of general ideas scattered through them.” For my part, I confess partiality to Charles Péguy’s judgement that “it cannot be imagined that any man ever, nor any humanity, in a certain sense–which is the right sense–can ever intelligently boast of having surpassed Plato. I will go further. I add that a cultured 1 2 E. O. Sisson, Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Society (1939), 87. Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies I, 107. 1 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture man, a really cultured man, cannot even imagine the meaning of a claim to have surpassed Plato.”3 What occasions such a range of evaluations? One reason is the distinction—or, for some, the failure to make the distinction—between prescriptive and forensic reading of Plato. Those who take Plato as merely or immediately prescriptive receive what is found in the text at face value. Socrates is taken, straightforwardly, to be Plato’s mouthpiece, with his words in any particular dialogue essentially reduced to a Platonic treatise on a theme: his conclusions present Plato’s beliefs, his arguments reflect Plato’s reasoning. On such readings, everything else in the dialogue is merely cosmetic or simply a foil. Any tensions, contradictions, or impasses in the mouth of Socrates would also get reduced to be, only, contradictions and confusions in the mind of the author; we would have to foreclose, presumptively, the possibility that Plato might be using the tensions and impasses to make a larger point. This is the kind of reading found in Sisson and Popper, of which Whitehead is critical. A forensic reading, by contrast, approaches a Platonic dialogue as a multi-layered puzzle that invites the reader not only to discuss but also to experience the question of seeming and being: what merely appears to be going on probably does not account for all that is happening. Thus, one cannot relegate the non-Socratic parts to being non-essential workers; to get at the whole one must search for easily overlooked clues, interrogate different speakers, attend to the ambient conditions, and so on. In short, reading a Platonic dialogue is not unlike crime scene investigation. And, in the Republic specifically, Plato, like many a mystery author, drops, so to speak, a body: the ‘corpse’ of Kallipolis. In attempting to solve the mystery of the fall of Kallipolis forensically, I wager, we better understand Plato’s politically philosophy than if we read the Republic merely prescriptively. 3 Charles Péguy, “The Search for Truth,” in Basic Verities. 2 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture To solve a death, Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot would have us approach the cause through investigating the dead person’s character; similarly, that other efficient and competent undoer of knots, Bertie Wooster’s man Jeeves, untangles troubles by invoking what he calls the Psychology of the Individual. Taking my cue from these venerable predecessors, I suggest that the fall of Kallipolis is made intelligible through considering the psychology of the city. II. The Usual Suspects, and a Tell in the Tale One of the central issues concerning the deterioration of Kallipolis is inevitability. Socrates appears to construct the idea city, including in it multiple safeguards for stability, but the city is still doomed to fail. Standard explanations for this ineluctable fall focus on failure(s) related to application of the eugenic algorithm, the nuptial number—of geometric precision—that determines the right and just seasons for coupling in the city. First, there is the possibility that the algorithm cannot preserve the city because, Socrates notes, “Since everything that comes to be must decay, not even [a city] so constituted will last forever” (546a).4 Not even the nuptial number can hold back the entropic forces dragging the city towards political heat-death. Commenting in the Politics, Aristotle colors himself unimpressed by this reasoning, since it attributes decay to nothing inside the city but to forces external, and does not explain why this city should fail.5 Entropy ex machina makes for disappointing writing; when Socrates describes the decline of the other regimes, however, he appeals to internal reasons. Our second suspect concerns the limits of applying the nuptial number in history. Socrates says, “Even though they are wise, the people you have educated to be leaders in your city will, by using rational calculation combined with senseperception, nonetheless fail to ascertain the periods of good fertility and of infertility for your 4 5 The translation used is C. D. C. Reeve’s Hackett edition, with some minor adjustments. Politics 1316 a 17 ff. 3 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture species” (546a-b). The number is perfect and intelligible in itself, but application is reliant on sense perception, which is fallible; mistakes will be made. And then there is the argument that geometry will be unable to control or conquer eros (see 458d), meaning it will not be possible to get the timings perfectly right all the time. After all, in geometry beings keep their shapes and boundaries, neatly and tidily; but with eros, as the Symposium and Phaedrus reflect, beings change shape, shrink and expand, are shaken and stirred, are pierced, burned, and melted. Erotic dynamism is bound to frustrate geometric presumption. That said, none of these explanations pass the smell test, for the simple reason that they all assume that the marriage algorithm could ever apply. Rather than accept the standard accounts, I opt for a dramatic perspective, taking Kallipolis’ arc from founding to fall as a single, coherent action or plot. The eugenic algorithm is concerned with controlling coupling with an eye to producing the best offspring. The algorithm, therefore, assumes the presence of gold, silver, and bronze souls to sort; that is, the algorithm runs on the myth of metals, also known as the noble lie. But, as Eva Brann points out, “The myth must not only somehow be believed at the outset if the city is to be founded, but it ought in fact not to be a lie at all, if the city is to breed true. For if men are not born from a common parent and with pure souls easily assayed, the guardians cannot control the new generation and ensure the stability of the city. Its first natural birth will refute its foundations.”6 Precisely because they are trying to apply the algorithm, it would appear that the lie is believed by the rulers of the city. The price of this belief is that they therefore cannot see that the algorithm does not work; indeed, it has never worked. The nuptial algorithm that is meant to protect the city by preserving and consolidating the rule of the gold souled, generation after generation, needs to be applied to real persons. But, the 6 Eva Brann, The Music of the Republic, 126. Emphases in original. 4 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture real persons do not have souls whose character can be charted along a simple, clear, linear hierarchy that can be easily sorted into three classes. Every application of the eugenic algorithm ‘sorts’ sets of souls that do not correspond to its categories; the application of the algorithm is therefore hollow or empty. To the extent that the algorithm continues to be employed, the leaders of the city are not exercising much control over the progeny of the city. Thus, we glimpse Plato’s daimonic genius: the leaders who think themselves to be eugenic puppeteers are, in truth, themselves chasing shadows on a cave wall. Precisely because they have come to believe in Kallipolis’ founding lie, they are unable to recognize the chains by which they have bound themselves. The city’s protective device is revealed as ineffective on account of the very act that established it. In fact, I shall argue that the noble lie, from which flows the ironic situation of the nuptial algorithm, seeds instability, whose rotten fruit is the city’s decline and destruction. III. Lies, Damned Lies, and ‘Noble’ Lies The so-called noble lie is another sore spot in the Republic. For a significant number of interpreters, it is proof positive that Plato is a consequentialist, perhaps even a clumsy one. The reason for the discontent is Socrates’ apparent endorsement of the ‘right sort’ of lies. “It is appropriate, then,” he says, “for the rulers—if anyone—to lie because of enemies or citizens for the good of the city” (389b). In view of such passages, Julia Annas tells us, “We should notice Plato’s readiness to legitimize the telling of lies in the interests of some higher end. It is an early sign of … his readiness to revise the content of morality in the interests of establishing morality.”7 For Malcolm Schofield, the lie is about “how to persuade the individual to do something required 7 That said, she also attributes some question-begging to Plato, claiming that for Plato the lies are good because the people lying—the guardians—are good. She also thinks the lie is essentially harmless. Introduction to the Republic, 108, 167. 5 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture by the good of the city.”8 And C. D. C. Reeve proposes, “Those who believe [the noble lie] do not come to believe a real lie. For the belief benefits them, and leads them towards the good itself, not away from it.”9 Given that I am implicating the noble lie in the fall of the city, I am less certain that Plato is as sanguine about the deception as he is painted to be. Socrates calls the lie the gennaion pseudos (414b), which is most often translated as noble lie. How long it has been so translated I do not know, but this rendering is not the only possibility. Popper labels it the “lordly lie”;10 Nietzsche, more poetically, “the actual lie, the genuine, resolute, ‘honest’ lie”;11 and for Giovanni Ferrari, “The lie is grand or noble (gennaios) by virtue of its civic purpose, but the Greek word can also be used colloquially, giving the meaning ‘a true-blue lie,’ i.e., a massive, no-doubt-about-it lie.”12 I prefer “Grand Lie,” both to emphasize the scale of the con and to preserve moral ambiguity—grand can be applied to criminal acts (gamers, think Grand Theft Auto) as well as to beautiful activities (partisans of Jeremy Clarkson, think The Grand Tour). The grand lie is occasioned by the evolution into the feverish city. The prior, healthy city is proposed to be complete in its simplicity, as far as everyone has a role in it and it is stable. Glaucon complains, however, that it is a city of pigs, on account of the significant limitations on human desire, and advocates for expanding the scope of human ambition and pleasure. His is the Angelica Schuyler critique: we shall never be satisfied, humanly, in the healthy city, and thus need expansion. This expansion brings with it new acquisitiveness, which leads to conflict ad extra, war, and presumably ad intra, competition and strife. It is under these conditions that the grand lie is proposed to stabilize and control the energies in the city. In trying to work out what the just city 8 Malcolm Schofield, “The Noble Lie,” 158. Emphasis in original. It is, of course, unclear how lying counts as persuasion. 9 C. D. C. Reeve, Philosopher-Kings, 211. 10 Open Society, 140. 11 Genealogy of Morals, III.19. 12 Giovanni Ferrari, Plato: The Republic, trans. T. Griffith, 107 n. 63. 6 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture looks like, Socrates speculates, “The having and doing of one’s own, of what belongs to one, would be justice” (434a). The grand lie is an attempt to impose, on the citizens, the view that they are where they should be. The citizens’ hopes, ambitions, and desires are easier to manage if they believe that there is a place for everyone and that everyone is in his place; the grand lie is aimed at convincing the citizens that each ‘deserves’ his lot, his specific place in the order of things. Lies are allowed in the city as a necessary, medicinal evil. At an important moment, Socrates explains, “What about when we are dealing with enemies, or with so-called friends who, because of insanity or ignorance, are attempting to do something bad? Isn’t [a lie in words] a useful drug (pharmakon) for preventing them?” (382c). The relevant background is Cephalus’ claim that part of justice is being honest and returning what is owed, a claim that Socrates challenged with the problem of whether one would return a borrowed weapon to the insane. Faced with the potential threat of an armed madman, the suggestion or assumption seems to be that fraud is a better means than force for managing the situation; as a drug, lying appears to be less violent and more civilised than physical restraint. Later, Socrates continues, “It follows that our rulers will then have to employ a great many drugs (pharmakois). … It looks as though our rulers will have to employ a great many lies and deceptions for the benefit of those they rule. And you remember, I suppose, we said all such things were useful as a kind of drug (pharmakou)” (459c-d). This drug for managing interpersonal frictions is also useful politically. As drugs or pharmaka, lies are a human invention. They are occasioned by human weakness, the limits of our wisdom and/or virtue to deal with threats to our peace. The gods are safe and secure; according to Socrates, they are good and can suffer no harm, their friends are good, and their enemies have no power over them. As such, they have no need for lies, nor do lies have any attraction for them. We lie because we are afraid and need a protective device or drug. 7 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture The grand lie is precisely such a device. Faced with the threat of civil strife and destruction of the city, the rulers opt to protect the peace by administering a potent drug whose aim is to reduce and restrain destabilizing forces in the city. To the extent that citizens come under the power of the grand lie, the less likely they are to challenge the city’s ordained structure and procedures. One must keep in mind that Plato’s evaluation of pharmaka is often equivocal; he is sensitive to the ambiguities of the term. In the Phaedrus, for instance, the god Theuth famously invents the written word, proposing it as a pharmakon for memory, an invention that will make us better at remembering and therefore wiser. The Egyptian philosopher and king, Thamus, however, dares to demur. He judges that the written word will habituate us to having ideas on hand externally rather than internally, which will make us worse at remembering. And, because of our collecting and hoarding writings outside the soul, we would be more likely to amass things in a disordered manner, without a grasp of their relationships within an ordered whole. We might have more information at hand, but we would be likely to be more confused than to be wiser. Theuth’s drug, while useful in some ways, would nevertheless have undesired effects, unforeseen by its uncritical inventor. That pharmakon is ambiguous, bringing both advantages and disadvantages. We witness a similar duality in the Phaedo. The first line of the dialogue invokes the day when Socrates drank the pharmakon, the potion that was the instrument of his execution. Plato plays on the two meanings of pharmakon, leaving open the question of whether the potion is a medicine or a poison. In the Phaedo, this question is explored under the theme of purification. Socrates’ friends are certain that death is an evil, and have arrived to console Socrates as they lament his passing. But, they find the philosopher remarkably hopeful that his death will be a purification and transition to a better condition. The poisonous pharmakon turns out to be purifying—at least for Socrates. Also, we note, Athens is trying to purify itself by turning Socrates 8 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture into a sacrifice or scapegoat, a pharmakos, whom it is violently expelling from the city. But, given Phaedo’s observation that the public execution was delayed lest the city be polluted, we might assume that Plato is less than bullish about the purifying effects of human sacrifice, legally sanctioned or not. So, there are reasons to be sceptical that the grand lie, Kallipolis’ pharmakon, is politically purifying and stabilizing. To grasp this pharmakon better, it is worthwhile to recall its details, so that we can work out its consequences. IV. The Grand Lie In its content, the grand lie has two basic aspects, one descriptive and the other proscriptive. The citizens of the city are to come to believe that they are all the children of a single mother, and that they differ primarily according to which metal—gold, silver, iron or bronze—determines the subspecies of their souls. They are sorted into three political classes according to the value or preciousness of the metal in their souls. As we have already discussed, this lie is aimed at protecting the stability of the city, which it does in two ways: first, in view of their common mother, the citizens are connected to the same land and are bound together under a common fraternity. Second, on account of their intrinsic differences, the citizens are sorted according to a natural hierarchy derived from the maternal soil. The myth of metals thus provides ‘scientific’ reasons for both political unity and class diversity in the city, and The Science, of course, is to be believed, as it brings, from the earth, peace to men of good will. So much for a description of what is to be accepted. There is also a task: with great lie, comes great responsibility. Socrates elaborates, “The first and most important command from the god to the rulers is that there is nothing they must guard better or watch more carefully than the mixture of metals in the souls of their offspring” (415c). This first command, the prime directive 9 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture tied to the founding of the city, is that constant vigilance must be exercised over the sorting of offspring. To protect the city, the rulers must protect the continuation of the (false, merely seeming) hierarchy. It is in view of this mission that, on my reading, that the city is compelled to live out certain consequences of the grand lie, namely the three waves Socrates proposes. Keeping in mind the ambiguous character of pharmaka, I propose that each wave is double edged. The first wave is the co-education of and shared leadership by men and women. This appears to be a straightforward good: a liberating education for both sexes, and leadership based not on one’s biology but on one’s merits—advancement for ladies and gentlemen of achievement, Lost in Thought and Rescuing Socrates for everyone capable. And yet, the justification for this wave is curious. The co-education of men and women is a way of underlining that what matters most is psychic metallurgy. Education is ordered to refining the ore of one’s soul. To drill this point home, more or less every other difference between individuals gets relegated to something, let us say, immaterial. Thus, for example, Socrates insists that men and women will exercise naked together. By stripping both sexes and treating them as almost undifferentiated, the city boldly commits to ordering itself and understanding its elites, especially, according to the categories of the grand lie. In this stripping away of all other differences, there is a sense in which the city does away with the private/public distinction. One’s soul determines one’s education, and one’s education defines one’s role in the city. To get the fullest education means becoming more and more a servant of the city; one is not educated for one’s personal freedom, but for the freedom of the city. Still, Socrates immediately has to grant something to what he calls erotic necessity. Reflecting on the young guardians as they exercise naked, work on Euclidian proofs, sing in choir, make fun of midshipmen, and perform Baconian dissections together, he concedes that they might 10 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture not be sensitized simply to each other’s souls. It is likely that as a particular pair becomes aware of each other’s strength, courage, intelligence, and wit, they might start talking and not be interested in just talking. It is probable that one fateful hour, as they translate the saucier bits of Antigone together, they, like Paolo and Francesca, will read no more. In response to the erotic necessity driving this state of affairs—or rather, this taste of love affairs—Socrates authors the second wave of Kallipolis, the sharing of spouses and children. It is easy to see how this wave flows from the prime directive of the grand lie as well as the interactions brought about by the first wave. The business of this wave is, predictably, to protect the stability of the city, primarily by fostering unity among the elite class. The wave centers the metals of the soul and, by further relegating the significance of corporeal ties, entirely does away with the natural family for the sake of strengthening the political family. Unity is fostered horizontally, with each generation viewing its members as siblings, and intergenerationally, as the older generations look to the younger ones as all their children (or younger siblings) and the younger ones look to their elders as their parents (or older siblings). By making the unity and cohesion of the elites stronger, the city and its peace are further protected from faction. Civil strife, not infrequently, comes from warring families and vendettas or cycles of violence and vengeance between them. By eliminating natural families, one significant source of civil strife is neutralized. Furthermore, agents in the younger generations are less likely to rise up in revolution against their elders, since the ruling class will have many allies across generations and many among the heirs apparent will know that they are being groomed to take over rule. There is an intelligible succession plan. The costs of this wave are easy to discern. As we have seen, there is the effective obliteration of natural or blood ties for the sake of a pseudo-nature. Then there is the eugenic, false lottery that manipulates coupling according to the nuptial algorithm. The victims of this new lie 11 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture wrongly believe pairings to be ordained by providence. And, finally, there is the disappearing of the unfit children, for whom, one assumes, a powerful city like Kallipolis would be able to care. More on that later. At this point the city needs to run a significant education system that is meant both to underline the idea that one’s soul metal is the critical factor in one’s relationships with other people in the city and, I believe, to sort out souls like a centrifuge so as to make sure that the right ones inherit executive power. On top of this, there is a rather penetrating and expansive surveillance apparatus that tracks the elites, with an eye both to protecting the idea that souls have a metallic core and to manipulating the eugenic lottery for the sake of producing useful progeny for the city. These needs make for a sophisticated system, which cannot preserve itself and therefore requires custodians. Given the system’s complexity, it needs to be in the care of persons both subtle and intelligent. Given the system’s goals (i.e., the stability of the city), it needs to be operated by people who will prefer the good of the city before their individual interests or the interests of any subordinate society within the city. The city needs leaders who marry insight, practical ability, and love for the common good. Hence, Socrates’ third wave. Rule by the philosopher-kings is rule by the wise and the just, i.e., those in whom wisdom and virtue, in view of the city’s good, are well developed. The education of the guardians who will become philosopher-kings is comprehensive: physical training makes them hardy and capable of perseverance through difficulty; musical training makes them lovers of order and harmony; the quadrivium makes them intimate with the nature of number in itself (arithmetic), in space (geometry), in time (music), and in space and time (astronomy); and philosophy advances them as lovers of the true and the good. These would seem to be the ideal sorts of people to receive the reigns of the city; one can intuit that their numerical training would allegedly prepare them well to 12 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture apply the nuptial algorithm. The plan sounds reasonable. Does this wave also have a second edge? The principal problem, from my perspective, is that those who have been raised to be the most devoted truth-lovers are the ones who have to become most intimately joined to the lies of the city. This combination will have psychological costs. V. Saving the City To make the situation of the philosopher-kings more palatable, Socrates renders it in heroic terms. He says, at one moment, “In a suitable [constitution], [the philosopher’s] own growth will be fuller and he will save the commonweal (ta koina sosei), as well as himself” (497a), and at another, “We must take good care in all these matters, since, if we bring people who are sound of limb and mind to so important a subject [sc. philosophy], and train and educate them in it, justice itself will not find fault with us, and we will save both the city (ten polin sosomen) and its constitution” (536a-b). Kallipolis is, presumably, a suitable constitution and a regime in which training and education are well attended to. In this city, the philosopher-kings are portrayed as saviors of the city, the protectors of its peace, its deliverers. But, the theme of saving the city is a complicated one; indeed, it is a popular theme in Greek tragedy. Consider the Oresteia. Agamemnon slew his daughter, Iphigenia, for the sake of saving the city; Orestes kills his mother partly for the sake of the city; and Athena presides over the suit of the Eumenides again for the sake the city, powers who threaten to destroy the city unless Orestes is executed. Things are similar with the Oedipus Cycle. Oedipus promises to discover and destroy the polluting presence so as to save the city; in Oedipus at Colonus, the body of the stricken king has power to save cities; and in Antigone Creon opposes his niece for the sake of preserving and thus saving the city. Plato, we saw, composes the death of Socrates as an attempt to save the 13 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture city by eliminating a corrupting influence. And we see this trope even beyond the Greeks: in the Gospel of John, Caiaphas explains, “You do not understand that it is expedient for you, that one man should die for the people, lest the whole nation perish,”13 i.e., the death of Jesus of Nazareth is ‘necessary’ to save the city; and, similarly, the deaths of Joan of Arc and Thomas More are ‘necessary’ to preserve the peace of the city. The theme of saving the city is central to many tragic plots. And as the above examples show, saving the city is not infrequently connected to the need for a pharmakos, a saving sacrifice to be destroyed precisely to achieve the desired salvation or rescue. My interest, in bringing out the double-edged aspect of Socrates’ three waves, was to prepare the way for an articulation of the various forms of human sacrifice that are needed to preserve the grand lie, the lie that saves the city from destabilization and destruction. In the first wave, the sacrifice required is that of our individuality and corporeality. One’s place in the city is determined essentially by one’s soul-ore; there is not much room for pursuing personal ambitions and projects, especially the more precious one’s soul is. Also, the city obliterates all psychological differences between men and women and it would have its citizens believe that physiological differences are relevant merely to reproduction and nothing else, insisting on men and women exercising naked together. With this immolation of the corporeal dimension of interpersonal relationships, we anticipate the sacrifices demanded by the second wave. The natural bonds between parents and children are repudiated as dangerous, a consequence of sacrificing corporeality in the first wave. The sacrifice of personal freedom evolves into the eugenic lottery; guardians are not allowed to pair off according to their own lights, but, rather, are manipulated into thinking that couplings are following some providential order. And, there is the 13 John 11:50. 14 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture disappearance—likely exposure—of the unfit children. I suspect that these children are killed not because they are useless nor because they are a drain on resources, but because their presence proves, in a vivid and visceral manner, the falseness of the grand lie. Unfit children, who come from all classes and resemble none, demonstrate that human beings do not geometrically reproduce according to the city’s sub-kinds. Each unfit child refutes and repudiates the grand lie; as material proof of the emptiness of the grand lie, these children need to be eliminated. But perhaps what is most directly distorting is the sacrifice of reason or rationality that is required of the philosopher-kings themselves. Socrates judges that the grand lie would be most efficacious if the rulers themselves fell under its sway: “How, then, could we devise one of those useful lies we were talking about a while ago, a single grand lie that would, preferably, persuade even the rulers themselves; but, failing that, the rest of the city?” (414b-c). Glaucon is sceptical that they will be able to deceive the founders, but suggests he has a device for bringing the later rulers under the power of the lie (415c-d). But, later in the dialogue, Socrates poignantly reflects, “Won’t we say that a soul is maimed if it hates a voluntary lie, cannot endure to have one in itself, and is greatly angered when others lie; but is nonetheless content to accept an involuntary lie, does not get irritated when it is caught being ignorant, and bears its ignorance easily, wallowing in it like a pig?” (535d-e). Yet, surely the grand lie is such a necessary, involuntary lie. Socrates’ words suggest that the philosopher-kings would have to betray themselves, pervert what is most divine about them, their reason, for the sake of serving and protecting the city. They make a sacrifice of their rationality that dooms them to wallow in the squalor of falsehood. The Republic constantly reminds us that lies are hateful to the gods, utterly alien to divine nature. But, the vocation of the philosopher is to be as godlike as possible. The philosopher-kings, then, are tragically bound, on account of the grand lie, to frustrate their pursuit of their proper end as lovers of wisdom. 15 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture The grand lie and its consequences thus require human sacrifices, of different sorts, from the citizens of the city. Even those who rule the city are not spared; in a way, of all the citizens, the grand lie requires the leaders to be most unfaithful to their human nature. Those who were portrayed as controllers and custodians are in reality controlled and prisoners; the rulers of Kallipolis are enslaved by the lie, for the lie. The grand lie generates its own perverse offspring— namely, more lies, more manipulation, and even physical violence—all for the sake of preserving itself. Those who employ the useful lies and violence see these as necessary sacrifices for the city, not unlike the people of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” In the words of Wilfred Owen, the guardians of the city have internalized “the old Lie: Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori”; it is sweet and meet these sacrifices be made, in this case, for the sake of the motherland. But the grand lie is empty, we recall, and so these sacrifices cannot be efficacious; they cannot preserve and maintain an order that does not exist. As Brann notes, with every crop of natural births the hollowness of the grand lie is made more and more manifest. Indeed, the dramatic framing of the Republic offers clues that are meant to inoculate us from the grand lie. We are given, for example, the family of Cephalus. The patriarch hosting the evening’s discussion offers a summary of his family’s history in the city, noting how his grandfather was a very hard worker, how his father was prodigal, and how he himself is something of a mean between the two. From these details alone we see that fathers do not easily produce sons with souls like their own. Saliently, when Polemarchus inherits Cephalus argument about the nature of justice, the son develops the father’s definition in a more aggressive and combative direction, again showing that the souls of father and son are different. And then we have the sons of Ariston, Glaucon and Adeimantus, who are Plato’s brothers. Given that their apparent susceptibility to some aspects of 16 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture tyrannical living, Plato may be suggesting that his brothers are not like him. With Cephalus’ line we get the problem of variable descent, and the sons of Ariston give us horizontal variety between brothers, which once again stresses that a father has not produced sons who share the same basic soul-form. And towards the end of the main account of the just life, Socrates opts to characterize the declension of declining regimes along the lines of fathers who produce sons who are unlike them. This framing, at the beginning and at the end of the dialogue, reminds us that the grand lie is empty, which makes the sacrifices made for its sake only more absurd. In the mostly misleading explanation that Kallipolis fails because of the failed application of the nuptial algorithm, Socrates works out how mixture will find its way into the offspring and corrupt the generations and therefore the city: “The intermixing of iron with silver and bronze with gold will engender lack of likeness and unharmonious inequality, and these always breed war and hostility wherever they arise. We must declare faction to be ‘of this lineage,’ wherever and whenever it arises” (547a). If my reading is correct enough, there will necessarily be intermixing with every new crop of births. With every new season of offspring, more and more unlikeness and unharmonious inequality will enter into the city with a multiplier effect. Two main consequences follow from these conditions. First, those who inherit rule cannot be assumed to possess the neat and tidy stability of golden guardians. The courage, temperance, and love for truth and the common good in them will inevitably contain impurities. Not only are the leaders not perfectly golden, their offspring will not be such either. Thus, it is inevitable that eventually rulers will not be as interested either in the truth or in the common good of the city. These leaders will not be as attentive to protecting the pedagogical and eugenic priorities of the city. They will not be reliable. Second, with time more and more souls will ‘wrongly’ be assigned to classes lower than they ‘deserve’. These souls will likely notice some of the fraud and violence that maintains the stability of the city, 17 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture and take issue with being ruled by governors whose souls are not better—and are in fact even worse—than theirs. If it is explained to them that their rulers inherited gold souls from a previous generation, some will become resentful on account of being ruled by those who would be essentially Nepo babies. The more natural births occur in the city, the more the grand lie will likely be uncovered and the more keener intelligences will suspect that each one is not in his place, that each deserves his lot. If they attend to the sacrifices that the city demands, it seems inevitable that someone will question the efficacy of these sacrifices and come to resent Kallipolis for requiring them. To the extent that people become aware of the unlikeness of souls and the inharmonious inequality of the city, they are primed to revolt against the established order and to return strife and faction into the city. Natural births are threats to a city whose stability has been founded on the grand lie. Because human beings are naturally jealous of their interests, the fraud and force of Kallipolis mean that the city is ripe for rebellion. The grand lie makes Kallipolis vulnerable. VI. Tragic Fall The grand lie was introduced to stabilize the city. In the attempt to order and control the city, it introduces more disorder and servility into the city. The maintenance of the lie demands violence, in the form of more lies and killing. If these disorders are discovered, the city would be delegitimized and made unstable. And with every crop of new births, the more likely it is that the lie and the violence that sustains it will be discovered and rebelled against. On my reading, then, the lie is unsustainable. Kallipolis thus has a dramatic arc that moves from ‘noble’ founding to destined fall. This doomed arc is a tragic arc. In the Poetics, Aristotle defines tragedy, among other things, as “a representation of an action of a superior kind, great and complete in itself … effecting, through pity and fear, the 18 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture purification of such emotions.”14 And when sketching the tragic figure, he proposes, “We are left, then, with the person in between: a man not outstanding in virtue or justice, who falls into ruin not through vice or depravity but because he errs in some way.”15 The arc of Kallipolis is a superior action, the complete plot of a great city. And the city is also a tragic figure. As human—and not divine—it suffers from human weaknesses that make it vulnerable to instability and needs to employ saving devices to protect itself from dissolution. But, by grounding these saving devices in falsehood, the city’s stability is grounded on something empty and therefore ultimately inefficatious and unsustainable. In many Greek tragedies, mere suffering is not automatically tragic; the tragedy comes from an inadequate or deficient response to suffering. Sophocles’ Oedipus and Creon, for example, respond to evils in the city; Euripides’ Medea and Hecuba respond to evil suffered personally; and likewise with Aeschylus’ Orestes. The grand lie of Kallipolis is also a response to danger or suffering, viz., instability, but it is a response that brings with it its own evils and disorders. This response is hindered by the kind of tragic error or fault Aristotle describes. The treatment of tragedy in the Philebus is presented as the coupling of greatness with overestimation of self. The tragic figure has power, but overestimates his excellences, whether those are his means, his strength, or his wisdom and virtue (48b-50e). By acting without an accurate estimation of himself, he ends up being destructive both to others and to himself. This outline is an apt description of Kallipolis, which is a grand city that, nevertheless, overestimates its wisdom and virtue by thinking it can tame or control falsehood, but in the end is the one mastered and controlled. 14 15 Poetics 1449b. Poetics 1453a. 19 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture Kallipolis is revealed as what we might call an Oedipal city. It is a great city with great rulers, while at the same time blind. The grand lie, the great device that was designed as a cunning and effective way to address one of the principal sources of strife and instability in the city, viz., the desires of different and unequal people, is the same device that reduces the capacity of the city (and the rulers) to see what might be going wrong in the city, weakening the ability of the city to respond adequately. Like Oedipus, Kallipolis is doomed from its birth; the very act that establishes the city is an action that eventually undermines its founding. For Aristotle, a well-executed tragic plot will have the tragic figure’s reversal of fortune coincide with the revelation and recognition of the figure’s actual situation. Kallipolis’ arc might even produce such an effect: on my reading, the grand lie will continually introduce disorder into the city until such a time as when the violence born of the lie will be challenged, exposing the emptiness of the lie. By the time this revelation occurs, it will be too late to save the regime, as the rulers and the constitution would be discredited. Still, while the recognition arrives too late for the protagonist, it is meant to be purifying for the audience. In the terms of the Poetics, this purification is achieved through fear and pity, and in the Philebus witnessing tragic self-overestimation should occasion self-examination. Along these lines, I suggest that the trajectory of Kallipolis is meant to invite the reader to consider his own city. The story of Kallipolis’ rise and fall raises the question of what grand lies might be operative in our cities, and cautions us both against the violence that is done in the name of maintaining the city and against a naïve belief in the stability of a city that is supported and protected by violence. VII. Conclusion 20 �kkambo@udallas.edu | SJC Friday Night Lecture Here at the end, let us reconsider our beginning. Those who read Plato as a consequentialist are limited by their immediately prescriptive approach, the assumption that what is found in Socrates’ mouth corresponds to what Plato wants us to believe. I have attempted what I called a forensic approach vector, attending to details beyond Socrates’ statements, and reading the doom or fate of Kallipolis as the consequence of a coherent, compelling logic that is initiated at the city’s founding. Having done this, is there anything so say about what Plato might be telling us? In my view, the Republic articulates, quite effectively, the pressure of compelling necessities that lead us to invent or devise political lies. Furthermore, by presenting founding lies as necessary even in the best possible regime, I believe Plato is rousing us to consider the place and price of political lies in every regime. In the Apology, Socrates warns Athens by contrasting death and vice as predators. He observes that some people are so fixated on escaping death that they are caught by vice, on account of the unscrupulous means by which they avoid death. Something similar might be operative here. Plato appears to be exploring how political lies, devices by which we attempt to outpace instability and disorder, probably end up being the shackles that doom us to be overtaken by violence, to be forced into sacrificing ourselves and others. These sacrifices, allegedly necessary and apparently redemptive, are actually destructive of justice and right order. We cannot, therefore, afford to be naïve about the justice of the regimes in which we find ourselves—nor, perhaps more importantly, about ourselves as complicit in these regimes. Plato is less a consequentialist, then, but more a tragedian. 21 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>.  <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis 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. 21 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 Tragic Pharmacy: the "Noble" Lie and the Fall of Kallipolis Description An account of the resource Typescript of a lecture delivered on November 3, 2023, by Kevin Kambo as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Professor Kambo describes his lecture: "In Plato's Republic, Socrates suggests that the best regime is doomed to fail. This failure is often attributed to inevitable errors in the rulers' eugenic calculations. I propose that the city's constitution must decline not because the eugenic calculations go wrong, but because the calculations have always been wrong, and this on account of congenital errors in the city's establishment.&nbsp; In this dramatic arc, from noble founding to destined fall, the reversal perhaps reveals the city to be a tragic figure. The Republic, then, would not be, as some read it, a prescription for authoritarianism or totalitarianism, but a reflection on political lies, human sacrifice, and the tragedy of politics." Professor Kambo is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Dallas. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kambo, Kevin 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 2023-11-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating: "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: make a recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John’s College Greenfield Library; make a recording of my lecture available online; make typescript copies of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John’s College Greenfield Library; make a copy of my typescript available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource Plato. Republic Utopias Political science--Philosophy Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context LEC_Kambo_Kevin_2023-11-03 Relation A related resource <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7990" title="Lecture recording">Lecture recording</a> Friday night lecture Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>.  <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Hyperlink A link, or reference, to another resource on the Internet. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data mp4 Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:50:06 URL https://youtu.be/aar1cdBheP0?si=G0wK-yy28X_O4amZ 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 href="https://youtu.be/aar1cdBheP0?si=G0wK-yy28X_O4amZ">Tragic Pharmacy: the "Noble" Lie and the Fall of Kallipolis</a> Description An account of the resource Video recording of a lecture delivered on November 3, 2023, by Kevin Kambo as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Professor Kambo describes his lecture: "In Plato's Republic, Socrates suggests that the best regime is doomed to fail. This failure is often attributed to inevitable errors in the rulers' eugenic calculations. I propose that the city's constitution must decline not because the eugenic calculations go wrong, but because the calculations have always been wrong, and this on account of congenital errors in the city's establishment. In this dramatic arc, from noble founding to destined fall, the reversal perhaps reveals the city to be a tragic figure. The Republic, then, would not be, as some read it, a prescription for authoritarianism or totalitarianism, but a reflection on political lies, human sacrifice, and the tragedy of politics." Professor Kambo is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Dallas. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kambo, Kevin 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 2023-11-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating: "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: make a recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John’s College Greenfield Library; make a recording of my lecture available online; make typescript copies of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John’s College Greenfield Library; make a copy of my typescript available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource moving image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource YouTube video Subject The topic of the resource Plato. Republic Utopias Political science--Philosophy Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context LEC_Kambo_Kevin_2023-11-03_ac Relation A related resource <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7991" title="Typescript">Typescript</a> Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/1dab08a251433a029562e23bda745f23.mp4 400054e7d65b841388b983db9c7e6515 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>.  <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Moving Image A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data mov Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:50:14 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 Ethics and Aesthetics of Sympathy in Sophocles' Philoctetes Description An account of the resource Video recording of a lecture delivered on October 11, 2024, by Dr. Ellwood Wiggins as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Professor Wiggins (SJC Annapolis, 1998) is an associate professor in the German department at the University of Washington, Seattle, where he teaches comparative literature and philosophy. He has also taught in Kentucky, Germany, and Russia. His teaching and research explore how people come to know one another and themselves, often exploring literary figures such as Odysseus or Philoctetes. Professor Wiggins describes his lecture: "The plot of Sophocles' Philoctetes turns on the experience of sympathy, which is often given credit for the moral education of Neoptolemus, Achilles' son. Yet is this emotion a reliable force for good? Sophocles' tragedy is a perfect proving ground to explore this question, and to test Aristotle's description of compassion in the Rhetoric." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Wiggins, Ellwood H., Jr. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-10-11 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating: "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: make a recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John’s College Greenfield Library; make a recording of my lecture available online; make typescript copies of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John’s College Greenfield Library; make a copy of my typescript available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource moving image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Subject The topic of the resource Sophocles. Philoctetes Sympathy Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context LEC_Wiggins_Ellwood_2024-10-11_ac Alumni Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/f243f9b28c30786923bfbc7a91ae60f8.mp3 99ac91a484233e0d3d178808a169e75f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data m4a Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:58:19 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 Way of All Flesh: Mortality and Transfiguration in Bach's Funeral Cantata Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture given by Nathan Shields on October 11, 2024 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: "J.S. Bach's Funeral Cantata, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit—'God's time is the very best time,' also known as the Actus Tragicus—is a stunning meditation on mortality, by turns hopeful and despairing, composed by a man not yet twenty-four. In this lecture, Santa Fe tutor Nathan Shields will discuss the cantata as a cultural document, a work of art, and an existential confrontation. We will examine its relationship to the intellectual and religious life of 18th-century Germany; explore the rapture and haunting austerity of Bach's music; and consider the cantata as a vision of—and an attempt to come to terms with—the human condition." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shields, Nathan 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 2024-10-11 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 Subject The topic of the resource Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750. Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SF_ShieldsN_The_Way_of_All_Flesh_2024-10-11 Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/4e9ab8b6b07f1438fb1b76a2fa4ddbf9.pdf 2f15dfdc49d59caa954cef376a0ff654 PDF Text Text THE St. John’s College Annapolis, Maryland GADFLY Autumnal Amblings September 26, 2024 Vol. XLVI, Issue 2 �CONTENTS THE GADFLY STAFF COVER λόγος : news reports & narratives regarding immediate campus life Introduction to the DC Seohyun Lee 3 Bug Bulletin Louis Rosenberg 6 Club Spotlight: Reading Women Vivian Miyakawa 8 Croquet for Dummies Willa Rothenberg 9 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ASSISTANT EDITORS συμπόσιονÊ:ÊEssays on various topics for thought Voting Voices El’ad Nichols-Kaufman 10 Let the Discussions Begin Avery Beaudette 13 Dora Vecoli El’ad NicholsKaufman Vivian Miyakawa Louis Rosenberg Willa Rothenberg Molly Sprout Tamar Pinsky πόλιςÊ:Êvoices of the community: opinion, poetry, reviews, etc. Amha Worku TikTok Troubles Helen Felbek 14 My Government Education is Obsolete Pia Ibsen 17 Frog and Toad Tarik Mahmud 18 American Dream LCD Retrospective Isaac Strauss 20 Caiden Cawthorn AM Radio Andy Manne 21 Helen Felbek old awnings Natalie Goldman 22 Gabriella Forte Dorm Cooking Marit Hendrickson 23 Natalie Goldman Μουσειον Gabriela Forte 24 Marit Hendrickson Art Criticism Caiden Cawthorne 25 Restaurant Review Molly Sprout 27 Seohyun Lee Reluctant Optimist Tamar Pinsky 28 Horoscope Madame Quiznos 30 Crossword Molly Sprout 35 Cartoons Tamar Pinsky 36 Photos from the Achilles Rager Dora Vecoli 38 Notices and Classifieds 39 Letter from the Editor STAFF Reagan Bo omley Sadie Lewin Tarik Mahmud Lainey Rendelman CONTRIBUTORS ART AND PHOTOGRAPHS Pia Ibsen Isaac Strauss Helen Felbek Tamar Pinsky Dora Vecoli September is coming to a close, and our campus is back in full swing! I’ve seen more reading groups, more parties, more club meetings, and more studying going on in the past few weeks than ever before, and the energy from that can be felt across campus, and in this Gadfly. Within, you’ll find news about the new Delegate Council members, opinions on the College TikTok, a review of the Mitchell Gallery’s new exhibition, and more. I hope you can take a moment out of your busy days, which I am sure are busy regardless of whether you’re a student, tutor, or staff member, and enjoy the fruits of the Polity’s creativity and care for our community. Always your faithful editor, El’ad Nichols-Kaufman 2 �THE GADFLY λόγος September 26, 2024 Introduction to the Delegate Council By Seohyun Lee, Student Politics Correspondent St. John’s College held a representative election for the Delegate Council (DC) on August 27th. A total of 16 student representatives, four in each grade, were elected. We have seven of them come to introduce themselves to us. watching YouTube videos, playing video games, reading, and all things outdoors. Additionally, and perhaps more so than anything just mentioned, I very much love spending my time conversing with others, for I find most people incredibly fascinating. I always love meeting and getting to know fellow members of the St. John’s community, so, if you ever see me out in the wild, feel free to say hi! Hi!ÊCouldÊyouÊintroduceÊyourself? * * * My name is Raquel Thompson! I’m a freshman and I am from southern Virginia; I obviously enjoy reading but also anything civic engagement/politics-esque. Hi everyone! My name is Adele Francis-Jones, and I am so excited to be representing the freshman class this semester in the delegate council! I'm a very outgoing person and I love meeting and talking to new people. If you see me around on campus, please stop and say hi! I love our ceramics room on campus so much and am very excited to get better at swing dancing over the course of this year. My name's Jacob Sharpe, I'm from Mechanicsville, Maryland (about 1 hour southwest of Annapolis). I see myself as a person of many interests; my Freshman year I did KWP (the King William Players, a student run theater group) and this year I'm co-editing the Collegian (the campuses weekly newspaper), and KWP, where I'm playing Polonius in Hamlet. I love reading most of the program texts, but some of my favorite non-program ones include Catch-22 and Emma. * Hello. My name is Reagan Bottomley. I'm pretty outgoing, so you've probably met me at some event or other on campus. If not, feel free to stop me whenever you see me and introduce yourself! I'd love to meet you and learn what you want to see from the DC. You can usually find me at sailing or rowing practice down at College Creek, or caught up in conversation on the Quad. * Hello. My name is Nicholas Hoo. My primary hobbies include studying random subjects, * I'm Amado Garcia, I use they/them pronouns, and I am one of four senior representatives. When I'm not doing things directly related to the program, my free time is usually split between playing video games, doing my best to read the news, reading non-program books (currently The Left Hand of Darkness), preparing for a weekly GURPS game (It's like Dungeons and Dragons but not quite), and a bunch of other things. * My name is Colin Josler, I'm a senior and I've been Vice Archon of the Alexander Hamilton Society for a couple years now. HowÊ doÊ youÊ viewÊ representativeÊ role?Ê AndÊ canÊ youÊshareÊyourÊcommitmentÊrelatedÊtoÊthatÊrole? * Raquel Thompson: I'd love to be a class representative that can cultivate a sense of community through clear communication and mutual respect. Effort to make open space for concerns from the student body can be pivotal in the role of the student government. Examples like frequent and easy to complete evaluation for certain projects, or ones regularly sent out. * Adele Francis-Jones: I want to be representative that people feel comfortable actually talking to. I know it can be intimidating, so I'm hoping that having someone on the Delegate Council, like me, who is really open to discussing with peers, will make that easier. I want to try to be active in a wide variety of clubs and extra curriculars so I can get a comprehensive understanding of what the polity wants more or less of, funding or otherwise. 3 �λόγος THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 St. John’s College Student Council, 1916 * Jacob Sharpe: As class representative, I hope to be a voice of reason (though I hope that's everyone's goal here), I want to be open-minded regarding the clubs we choose to fund. Obviously, there are many interests here on campus; I can't relate to all of them, but I feel it's my responsibility to foster a place where they can all exist. Otherwise, I want the DC to be a good representation of popular opinion, any disconnect there is undesirable. As CSL rep this year, my opinions are pretty much the same. I hope that I can be a person my classmates will come to with issues and be heard. Problems inhibiting learning or quality of life should be viewed as things to be solved, not things to be endured. I'm committed to using all my prudence and wisdom on issues as they come, and to be as impartial as possible. * Reagan Bottomley: I'm a representative for the junior class, and this is my third year on the DC. As a more experienced delegate, I hope to help others get accustomed to the ins and outs of the DC and provide a consistent, supportive council for archons to work with. I believe the DC exists to support and serve the Polity however is needed, and I'm excited to put that into action this year. * 4 Nicholas Hoo: What such discussions with others on campus have taught me is the sheer diversity in interests, backgrounds, thoughts, and affairs held by those in our community. As a delegate, I want to serve as an aid for any and every member of the Polity who may have business with the Delegate Council. Whether it is informing someone of procedure, working to produce club charters or budgets, taking suggestions for Polity Law and Acts of Council (a severely underutilized capacity of the DC - ask me if you would like to know more), I want to be a present and open mediator for all who may desire my help. Ultimately, what student governance on this campus needs most is better attempts at outward engagement from its representatives, and that is what I will strive to institute. And for internal council affairs, I aim to hold the DC accountable to standard and orderly procedures, collaborative discussion, and fiscal responsibility. In addition, I seek to serve on (and hopefully improve) various subcommittees of the council, such as the Budget and Archives Committees. * Amado Garcia: I hope to be a representative whose comments, for those who read the DC's weekly minutes, are infrequent but helpful. In that vein, I will be committed to reading all the necessary documents closely and paying close attention to the conversation, making sure that details don't go overlooked and that issues are �THE GADFLY λόγος tackled with many perspectives in mind. * Colin Josler: In my experience in that role, going in front of the DC can be a little intimidating. Sometimes your budget may get cut or edited for reasons that seem arbitrary, or the DC itself can feel generally unfriendly to you. Recently the DC has improved greatly in this regard, and I want to help continue this improvement by being as helpful, clear, and respectful as possible to club archons. I want to help make budget edits that are reasonable and are explained well to the club archons. September 26, 2024 shoot them an email (mine is rmbottomley@sjc.edu). We're happy to answer any questions you have about the DC or listen to what you think we should do. * Nicholas Hoo: Just as our seminar and tutorial readings help cultivate an understanding of the subtle and technical, student publications grant us invaluable information regarding the present community in which we live. In many ways, this knowledge is just as crucial to leading good lives as that professed by the philosophers, for it enables us to best engage with and serve our community. Even if what you learn is not immediately relevant to your life, it may be greatly beneficial to someone you know…… (Also, check your emails; they contain more helpful information than you might expect). * IsÊthereÊanythingÊyou’dÊlikeÊtoÊsayÊtoÊstudentsÊwhoÊ readÊtheÊmagazine? * Raquel Thompson: I love talking and getting to know anyone I meet! Please reach out even if you aren't a freshman or it's not about DC :) * Adele Francis-Jones: Thank you so much for taking the time to read my introduction! I am so grateful to have been chosen for this position and am excited to serve on the DC for this semester and beyond! * Jacob Sharpe: Reading magazines is good, but writing for them is even better! Amado Garcia: I'll leave off with two requests: One, submit to Gadfly (and Collegian if that's still happening), I read every issue and really enjoy seeing a long contributors list. Two, pay attention to local and state politics, at the very least look up what your state's ballot measures are this year (similar advice applies for international students with different political subdivisions, I hope). * Reagan Bottomley: Your delegates are eager to hear your thoughts! Sit with your representative at the dining hall, catch them on the quad, or Listening to the newly selected student representatives, I look forward to this year with them. Congratulations on your election! St. John’s College Student Polity Executive Commi ee, 1956 5 �section title THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 Bug Bulletin Antheraea polyphemus: Polyphemus Moth By Louis Rosenberg, Creepy Crawly Correspondent I was walking back to my apartment from campus a couple weeks ago when I noticed a large green caterpillar making its way leisurely across the bricks in front of me. I stopped to get a better look at the little guy and move him off the sidewalk. He was one of the biggest caterpillars I’ve seen — almost as large as the short side of a brick, with a body that looked charmingly overstuffed, his little head wobbling in and out as he barreled over the fallen pine needles that stood in his way. He was bright green, with yellow stripes running vertically down many of his body segments and scoli — wartlike bumps from which hair-like bristles (setae) sprout — were orderly aligned down the length of his body, yellow near his head and a silvery red further down his abdomen. Later in the day, I decided to try to identify his species, and eventually concluded that he was an A. polyphemus caterpillar. Based on his size and coloration, he is likely in his fifth instar, which for this species means that he’s nearly ready to pupate. This species changes dramatically over the course of their instars — during their first instar, they are white with black stripes and very prominent setae.1 As larvae, they feed on a variety of broad-leafed plants, and while generally not considered agricultural pests, they often fall victim to parasitic wasps which were introduced to control the spongy moth, an invasive species in North America.2 1 Donald Hall, “Polyphemus Moth,” University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Science, July 2012, https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/Creatures/MISC/ MOTHS/polyphemus_moth.htm. Polyphemus Moth Caterpillar, Photo by the Author As adults, polyphemus moths don’t feed at all, and hence live short but majestic lives. As would be expected from their larval size, the moths are quite large, with a maximum wingspan of around 6 inches. Their wings vary in color but are usually shades of brown, pink, and tan, with large eyespots on their hindwings.3 Their common name, a reference to the legendary cyclops Polyphemus, comes from those eyespots,4 and the eyespots are also actively displayed by the moths in an attempt to scare off predators. Adults will begin mating overnight, with the females emitting a specific pheromone to attract males. Once two animals pair up, they will remain together during the subsequent day and then separate around sunset. The female will then lay eggs on leaves that the larvae will later consume.5 As for the caterpillar I found, I coaxed him onto a stick and carried him away from the sidewalk to a nearby tree. I hope that he survives the perilous transition from larva to pupa to adult — and that, unlike his namesake, his future eyespots stay undamaged. 3 “Polyphemus Moth,” Butterflies and Moths of North America, https:// www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Antheraea-polyphemus. 4 “Species Antheraea polyphemus,” September 9 2023, Bugguide, https:// “Polyphemus Moth,” Missouri Department of Conservation, https://mdc.mo.gov/ bugguide.net/node/view/427. discover-nature/field-guide/polyphemus-moth. 5 Hall, “Polyphemus Moth.” 2 6 �λόγος THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 Reading Women Club Spotlight- An Interview with Elleanna Berthel By Vivian Miyakawa, Club Correspondent If there’s one thing Johnnies seem to love, it’s a seminar. If twice a week isn’t enough, there’s a plethora of clubs out there to give you that sweet satisfaction of more reading assignments and more riveting discussion. In all honesty, I wasn’t planning on joining one of these clubs. I’ve never been a huge fan of seminars, but when Delaney Costello, archon of the Reading Women club, encouraged me to join one of her “feminars,” I decided to give it a shot. To my delight, it was a breath of fresh air to be in such a relaxed and welcoming seminar environment. Everyone was so supportive, and Ms. Costello did an amazing job at facilitating a balanced discussion space. After such a lovely experience being part of the Reading Women club, I decided to reach out to the vice-archon, Elleanna Berthel, and ask her a couple questions about the club, which she answered beautifully in writing. VivianÊ Miyakawa:Ê What goes into making a safe space for women and non-cisgender people, and what steps will this club take to achieve that? ElleannaÊBerthel:ÊI think the most important thing to keep in mind…is simply allowing anyone to talk. Making space to hear out each idea is particularly important to making a safe space for women and gender minorities because unfortunately, our voices tend to get run over more during class than others. My biggest hope for our members is that they leave each seminar feeling like they were truly able to engage with the text and conversation. Apart from our seminars, we're also hosting office hours and community events this year to offer a space for students to discuss any frustrations (or wins!) they might be experiencing during class. We want to make sure people have a space to feel heard and encouraged by their peers, and sometimes the best way to do that is to simply listen to someone rant and offer any advice and encouragement that you can. VM:Ê What are your opinions on the curriculum in general, and what do we lack when studying these “great books” that are mostly written by men? EB:Ê I think we not only lack more texts written by or about women, but we also don't address female experiences or characters in seminar unless they are the main character, such as Antigone or Medea. In texts like the Iliad, Herodotus, and Thucydides, we see women being directly oppressed by men at war, but sometimes it feels like seminars as a whole struggle to address this phenomenon apart from categorizing it as a "product of the time." The rape and kidnap of women during wartime feels like a glaring part of the text, yet it is easily overlooked. I also wonder about the rigidity of the program. On one level, I can understand what the program is trying to achieve by being very particular about which texts to layer upon each other, but how much does it mean when a large portion of your student body feels overlooked? I read texts written by men constantly, I am always looking at the world through their eyes, and I believe our student body is deprived of experiencing the opposite effect through the program. Austen, Woolf, and de Beauvoir are all incredible authors and deserve their spot on the list, but I think there should be room for more. 7 �λόγος THE GADFLY VM:ÊGiven your goal of supplementing the program with more female authors, what are some of the readings you’ve chosen, and why? EB:ÊWe picked our readings to mimic the chronological order of the Program, beginning with older works and eventually reaching both modern feminist theory and contemporary literature by women. Although not all the texts on our reading list are written by female authors, they are all centered around female stories and experiences. I'm particularly excited for our next seminar over Plutarch's writings on historical female figures--I loved reading Solon and Lycurgus in freshman September 26, 2024 seminar last year, so I'm excited to engage with more of his work. VM:ÊThoughts on the year so far? Anything you want the Polity to know? EB:ÊNo matter what time of the year it is, we're always happy to welcome new members to our seminars or have a chat during office hours. So far, we've read Sappho and Sor Juana and had fantastic seminars on both, and I think the conversations will only keep getting better from here on out. Adult Education Seminar, 1948. At the time, there were two segregated adult education seminars. The College would not admit women as students for another four years. 8 �λόγος THE GADFLY Croquet for Dummies: A Guide for New Johnnies By Willa Rothenberg When considering St. John’s College in their college search, most students take interest in the Program of Instruction, not the sports offered. The exception to this rule might be if a student wants to learn croquet. This is because St. John’s College sets such a high bar in American collegiate croquet. The College was the 2024 US Croquet Association Collegiate champions in both American Croquet and Golf croquet. St. John’s also hosts the Annapolis Cup, the annual croquet match held between the United States Naval Academy and St. John’s. In a unique way, the Polity has found a way to make sports part of its tradition. Aside from being the most public facing Johnnie sport, what is croquet and how is it played? By the most basic definition, croquet is a field game played by hitting balls through metal wickets in the ground. There are many variations of the game, though over the years the school has created its own. Johnny Croquet is similar to backyard croquet, with rules added and adapted through oral tradition at the College. The course is made up of nine wickets with two stakes— one at each end of the field. Johnny croquet is unique in that it involves more strategy than other varieties. The nature of the grounds is a large factor in this. Johnny croquet is played on an unmanicured lawn, unlike Association Croquet. This can result in uncontrollable variables like ant hills, rocks, and other impediments that can prevent a good shot from following through. For those skilled in the game, the type of lawn is simply a matter of preference. Magnus Oberg, Imperial Wicket (captain) of the SJC team prefers the difficulty that comes with an unmanicured lawn. Additionally, it is an advantage for those who learn on the St. John’s lawn as the transition to a manicured lawn is simpler than going from a manicured lawn to an unmanicured September 26, 2024 lawn. Other forms of strategy come in the actual playing of the game. The rules allow for continuations after passing a wicket, and after hitting your ball into another ball. If one plays their wickets right, they may continue their turn for what seems like forever. Watching and playing games are the best ways of gaining an understanding of the game and strategy, though as soon as I felt I understood the game it got more complicated. Something unique to the strategy of the St. John's croquet team is how fine-tuned it is, because of the long-standing tradition. The tried-and-true Johnny strategy is what makes the school so successful in the sport. Other schools, Oberg observes, are only just now implementing strategy as they start to take the game more seriously. It has been suggested that the Midshipmen’s strategy lacks complexity. This is surprising considering the focus their school has on war strategy and games. On the other hand, St. John’s has a frightfully unique fascination with a very obscure sport. To each their own, I suppose. Looking forward, team leadership wants to play matches against other clubs, not just in Nationals. This was more common prior to COVID-19, when more collegiate clubs existed. Luckily, this year we should see some more croquet action. In preparation for the Annapolis Cup, both the Naval Academy and St. John’s will play the Ginger Grove croquet team, a team from a retirement community in the greater Annapolis area. The Croquet Team is filled with history and tradition, but the future also holds so much. Aerial view of the 1985 Annapolis cup 9 �συμπόσιον THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 Voting Voices: Civic Disengagement and The Underestimated Power of the Vote By El’ad Nichols-Kaufman Tucson late afternoon in the summer is an eerie time. It is empty and quiet as the heat of a day's worth of stored sun radiating off the sidewalk gradually becomes sensible while the sun slips lower in the sky. In a few hours, after the sun sets, and the temperature descends from its 107 degree high, the streets will become alive again, but as evening slowly begins to settle, few are out except the stray mailperson, and me. A I was out knocking on doors in the blazing heat, interrupting people and their after work routines, not because of any personal desire for suffering, or a desire to irritate the general populace, but for that activity so long reviled and necessary for the function of our democracy: political canvassing. I found, as I walked, a few people with questions about the candidates I represented, a greater number of people eager to learn, and even one who wanted to talk about cologne. More than that I found closed doors or people who turned me away when I opened my mouth. In general, I found a very familiar kind of ignorance: many hadn’t even heard of a primary election, telling me they planned to vote a straight party ticket, an absurd proposition in an election where only members of one party were on the ballot, as well as apathy: declaring that no election has ever made a difference in their life. I call this ignorance and apathy familiar, because it exists, perhaps even more strongly, here at the College. When I first arrived here, I expected a community of politically engaged people. I made the, retrospectively naive, assumption that if you read Plato and Aristotle, Hobbes and Locke, not to mention the Constitution and Supreme Court Cases, you must naturally care about them in practice, and not only in abstract theory. However, I found that despite our insularity, the lack of feeling of connection with our 10 own political world that has a grip on so much of the United States impacts the College just as much as anywhere else. The most visible example of that is the number of Johnnies that do not vote. Given our contemporary national political climate, it is easy to see why so many people, including readers of this essay, may doubt the efficacy, or even the merit, of voting. However, in dismissing democratic engagement entirely, many young people miss the broader picture of the working of our political system, and the ways in which a lack of voter engagement perpetuates and worsens the very problems that cause people not to vote, making their lack of a vote a tacit endorsement of the general direction the nation is currently headed in. Most importantly, they often do not see the power of their vote, a power which cannot necessarily be seen on the federal level, but that by looking at the more human-scale world of local politics, one that has a more immediate impact on day-to-day life, is easily seen. I hope that by sharing some of my personal experiences with local politics, I can provide a reason for Johnnies to recognize the power and importance of their vote, and of civic participation in general, which goes far beyond voting. While there are occasionally noteworthy cases where a federal race is determined by a handful of votes, most Americans live in generally homogenous congressional districts, in safely red or blue states. However, when it comes to local elections, the issues at hand become much more immediate, and upset victories, won by razor thin margins. The first political �συμπόσιον THE GADFLY campaign I ever worked on was a prime example. I got involved in school board politics because of the troubles I saw in my public school district. The district, in inner-city Indianapolis, was mostly democratic, but when it came to the school board race, issues of privatization and funding did not align neatly to any party line. That race, which ended up reshaping my school, a big part of my world at the time, was won by a handful of votes in a low turnout election. Whether through having children going to the schools, working at the schools, or paying taxes to the district, hundreds of thousands of people were affected by this election, whose outcome was in no way predetermined by general trends of where people of certain political conviction live, or by partisan gerrymandering. Those few people who did vote, many of them mobilized by pro-privatization charter school groups, decided the quality of education, and the use of taxpayer funding, for the entire district. This scales up, too, even to the state level. While state politics can be dominated by parties just as much as federal politics, and can also be manipulated by gerrymandering introduced by Republicans in 2010, the issues at the heart of state government, like roads, schools, and healthcare, mean that unexpected people can win elections and address long lasting problems, but only if voters actually bother to turn out. When voters pay attention, and do turn out, state politics become surprisingly volatile, and a Democrat like Andy Bashear can be elected in Kentucky, or Larry Hogan in Maryland. In both of those cases, every vote mattered when it came to their initial election, and things in both states might be very different, for better or worse, if they had not been elected. The fact these shifts can happen at a state level even in a deeply red or blue state, means that the power of each individual vote, even in scarlet Kentucky or azure Maryland, is always that powerful: if enough individual people thought the issues a federal politician was talking about were important, they September 26, 2024 could cause the same kind of flips that happened at the state level. At this point, many disengaged citizens might complain that although their vote is powerful, they have nowhere to use it since no candidate aligns with their political views. There is a level at which this concern can be dismissed off hand, in that a democracy necessarily needs to move towards beliefs of large numbers of their citizens, and it is selfish to believe that your opinions alone deserve to have candidates that stand behind them, it would be a mistake to dismiss it entirely. It is far too frequent that reasonable voices fall outside of the American political discourse. However, this lack of candidates representing positions comes partially from a lack of voter participation. Working with politicians, particularly locally in Arizona, I’ve seen how strong of a concern there is for the views of constituents. At the end of the day, a politician is not a machine operating according to the input of lobbyists and party, they are a human being who wants (ideally) two things: to improve the community they represent, or to keep their job. Both require listening to the concerns of individuals and coming closer to their views. Politicians who are interested in bettering their communities, which I find most frequently in glory-less but powerful positions like county Boards of Supervisors, or state Corporation Commission, tend to be continually looking for what the needs of their constituents are. If you are engaged, and write letters, work on their campaigns, or even just show up at their meetings, you will at least have a voice at the table, and while you will not always get to vote for someone who believes exactly what you believe, what you believe will be fairly weighed against the beliefs and needs of all members of the community. Politicians concerned with winning reelection, which is all politicians, necessarily must listen to their constituents. Because, at the end of the day, every race might turn into an unexpected swing race, they do have some level of concern for your views. If the incumbent is dismissive of you, it is almost a guaranteed law that some challenger cares about your view. 11 �συμπόσιον THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 Maybe that challenger is not always the one that wins their party’s primary, but the only way to make sure that person who does care about your voice wins is to vote for them. By not voting, you indicate to politicians that you are merely a crank not worth listening to, since you cannot get them into office. The candidates who truly believe what you believe will never move beyond the fringes unless people like you vote, and mainstream candidates will never have any reason to listen to you unless you use your vote. It is somewhat of a truism to say that if voting did not matter, there would not be so many people trying to get your vote. Nonetheless, we, as American citizens, cannot forget that. Likewise, we cannot forget that our lack of voting is equally as significant. A refusal to vote, which so many Johnnies practice, is not a refusal to endorse the political system; by working in the US, paying taxes, and simply living, you are endorsing its government. When you don’t vote, you are instead casting away your voice. You tell politicians it does not matter and deny yourself any responsibility for governing yourself. If you prefer to be ruled over by a group of millions of strangers, you may choose to do so, but all of us young people should remember how many decisions that have changed our lives have happened in our short timespan. These range from concrete issues like suffering after the recession partially due to government decisions and people we know being affected by the loss of a woman’s right to choice to more intangible ones like rising housing prices tied to planning policy or the problems caused by climate change. None of these issues are insignificant. If you are not perfectly happy with how these things have changed your life, as I suspect many of the readers of this article are not, then you must vote. Nothing will ever get better if you don’t. If you do, things will not always be fixed, but your voice might just be the one that tips the scale, and the stakes are too high for you not to. 12 President Dwight D. Eisenhower speaking at the dedication of Mellon Hall, 1959 �συμπόσιον THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 Let the Discussions Commence By Avery Beaude e Over the past few weeks, through opening new chapters of their lives and a rush of new beginnings, the freshmen of St. John’s College have been diligently dissecting Homer’s timeless works, beginning with a classic that has stood the test of time, a story of sacrifice, perseverance, and hope; the Iliad. The newest members of our polity have officially taken on seminar and have begun their journey of discussion, learning more about themselves, their peers, and what it means to truly be a student here at St. John’s. It is through the stories of heroes that we learn the most about ourselves, and there is certainly no shortage of heroic stories in the Iliad. Just like the Greeks and Trojans, Johnnies are being put to the test with many new challenges and choices. The themes of fate and friendship bleed from the pages of this epic to the fingertips of eager Johnnies learning to find their place among the strong comradery of the campus, as well as in the classroom. Great conversations have been had over the past few weeks, and the energy of the campus after our biweekly seminars certainly reflects that. Walking around the quad as a rush of students comes filing out of the classrooms and getting to witness them carrying on the conversations and continuing to discuss the complexities of the Iliad, is truly something special. The loudest among the eager voices echoing through our campus’ academic serenity are the newest members of our community. From talking about the thrill of collaborative learning, to discussing the joy of hyper analyzing the Iliad, this year’s freshman have bravely taken on the brunt of the Great Books program. However exciting and engaging the first few seminars were for the majority, some freshmen have expressed disappointment about the lack of conversational awareness possessed by their fellow students. There is certainly a want for more passionate dialogue, and some Johnnie’s have stated that it seems the cultivation of said dialogue is being stunted by half-formulated questions and some people’s determination to be the smartest in the room. With that being said, I would like to take the opportunity to instill a lesson into this year’s freshman: Learn from those around you, some of the greatest snippets of knowledge you will come across in this life will be from the stranger sitting right next to you, but you will never know unless they are allowed a chance to share. Along that same note, to every new Johnnie finding it hard to share your thoughts, regardless of reason (maybe feeling mentally inadequate, or as if your thoughts are not substantial enough) there will always be a place for your voice in these conversations, and I wish you luck in the seminars to come. 13 �πόλις THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 TikTok Troubles By Helen Felbek For many of us at St. John’s College, being “chronically online” is something we take pride in avoiding. Disconnecting from our digital existences by locking away our phones for an afternoon, like Mr. Abbott suggested last year, is socially acceptable here. In fact, students with flip phones—or no phones at all—are often admired for their commitment to simplicity and the real world. But while many students might not see social media as essential to our daily lives, the college still has a notable online presence, both official and unofficial. Instagram, for example, is particularly popular among students. Here one can find the official St. John’s College Annapolis account (@sjcannapolis), as well as the Greenfield Library (@sjcalibrary), the career development office (@sjcareers), the Mitchell Art Museum (@sjcmitchell), and the gym (@templeiglehart). There are also plenty of student run accounts: the intramural teams like to bring their team spirit to the internet as well as motivate students to come out to play. Other student groups such as Reality (@sjcreality), the Waltz Committee (@sjc_waltz), the Delegate Council (@sjcdelegatecouncil), the Art Studio (@artstudio.sjc), the Darkroom (@sjc_darkroom), the King Williams Players (@kingwilliamplayers), and Energeia (@energeiasjc) have Instagram accounts to advertise events and share student creations. And of course, we should not make the mistake and forget about Santa Fe. Our sister campus is not immune to creating a manifold of Instagram accounts for all possible aspects of student life either. All these accounts, often quirky and humorous, do in my opinion an excellent job of reflecting the creative and lighthearted aspects of campus culture. While there is, of course, reason to question the point of having all these accounts, this is not the focus of 14 this article. If there is some sort of interest and demand, who am I to say that we should be Luddites and completely reject all social media presences? It could even be argued that there might be as subsection of students who use Instagram more regularly than their emails so perhaps just for campus internal communication, Instagram is an actual “social” medium helping to increase community and turn out to events. However, while many of these accounts are in fact publicly accessible, the main target audience is current students. This probably wouldn’t stop determined prospective students or parents from snooping around, but that is the beauty of the still somewhat transparent nature of the internet. But I would argue that curious prospective students, their parents and other people that might go through the effort to look for these unofficial pages would get a fairly authentic and innocuous impression of campus life. Of course, we should still think about how we would like to be perceived as a collective by the internet-using world who might stumble upon college associated internet presences. These general reflections lead me to the college’s TikTok account, launched in May 2022. With just 202 followers as of September 8, 2024, its reach is far more limited than the official Instagram account which currently has 5,116 followers. Most TikTok posts are similar to the content uploaded to Instagram—waltz parties, dorm tours, and interviews with students. A couple of recent posts, however, have left many scratching their heads. �πόλις THE GADFLY One video from September 3 features the message, “Finals? Exams? Textbooks? We don’t know her!!! Come to St. John’s, a reader's paradise.” The video is accompanied by a cheesy, seemingly AI-generated graphic of two dolphins jumping at sunset and Clean Bandit’s “Symphony” playing in the background. The caption reads: “Think about it Pookie We are waiting for you #stjohns #annapolis #dolphins #books #symphony #johnnie #maryland.” Perhaps I am just out of the loop – not having TikTok myself – on what is considered funny or trendy, but to me this post seemed to be fundamentally at odds with my and perhaps many of my peers’ experience of St. John’s. The claim insinuates that the program is not rigorous, which I am sure most students and tutors would disagree with. Further it purports that being a reader is sufficient to be happy at St. John’s, a claim I would argue is misleading at best, considering the importance of class participation as well as our focus on very challenging math and lab tutorials. Another post from August 21 shows members of the administration dancing (or “shimmying,” as the caption puts it) to welcome the Class of 2028. Although well-intentioned, it feels forced and awkward, lacking the irony or self-awareness that might make it funny. It’s not that these videos are inherently wrong, but they raise a more significant concern: What kind of image are we presenting to the world? When prospective students, grad school admissions committees, and potential employers stumble upon our TikTok, what will they think? I, by no means, wish to disparage the hard work and dedication of the individuals who developed and executed these specific posts. My point of contention is pertaining to the endeavor in general. It is always easier to criticize than to suggest alternatives. One student I spoke to suggested that the idea of clickable and trendy videos is by nature at odds with an official college presence, independently of what kind of college we are talking about. This student suggested that an alternative might be to split the two strategies and have one official TikTok account very similar to the September 26, 2024 The picture used on St. John’s official TikTok account @sjc.edu (https://www.tiktok.com/@sjc.edu/ video/7410425577758264618) might be inspired by the colorful work of the contemporary US-American artist Lisa Frank (Screenshot 09/08/2024) Instagram account even at the risk of not generating as much traffic as the college might want to, and have a second account run by students that would in a way “memeify” the college experience. This would, according to the student, be much more authentic. According to Sara Luell, Senior Director of Communications and Operations, the college has been experimenting with a new TikTok strategy since August 20. The goal is to appeal to prospective students, specifically 16-year-olds who may be unfamiliar with St. John’s and its Great Books curriculum. As part of a collaboration between the Admissions Office and Communications Office, young Admissions counselors and student employees have been empowered to get creative and , trust their instincts on what might attract this demographic. Luell emphasizes that this is only a trial and that they “would pull back after a couple of months and assess.” Further, the posts still require approval from the communications team. 15 �πόλις THE GADFLY Interestingly enough, this strategy shift led to the creation of a wider gap between the online representation of the two campuses: In Annapolis, the focus has been on creating trendy, light-hearted content, whereas Santa Fe’s TikToks are more subdued and thoughtful. One might argue that this experiment leads to inconsistent branding and could actually confuse prospective students. “The goal is for us all to learn from one another on how trends do and don't work for us, on when our brand needs to override trends due to potential brand damage,” summarizes Luell. She and her team have noticed that the Annapolis content is getting more likes than the Santa Fe content, but she admits: “we do not know if these likes are the ‘right likes.’ For example, are they simply getting likes because the content is very popular and accessible, but those likes are not coming from prospective Johnnies?” Luell also shares the observation that while Santa Fe posts get fewer likes, they get “a decent number of ‘Saves/Booksmarks’ which might indicate more serious engagement from better prospects.” However, Luell finds that currently “it is too early to tell what these results mean so we will continue to evaluate.” While this experiment may be innovative, it has also sparked conversations among current students. Many feel that the TikTok account’s recent content is inconsistent with the college’s identity and values. One student summed it up by saying, “Our social media reflects our values as an institution to the outside world, and based on some of our recent TikToks, those values seem inconsistent and frivolous.” This case also touches upon the bigger issue of college advertisement in general. Last year, the Committee on Student Life hosted a forum on how the college is advertising. Many participants voiced concern that the line between portraying the college in a fair but positive light and making unauthentic claims in the name of attracting as many students as possible, is blurred. This issue seems to carry over to the TikTok account as well. Perhaps the trendier posts are not actually as harmful as I think they are but I believe there should, at the very least, be a bigger con16 September 26, 2024 sideration for showing the rigor of the program. As Mr. Abbott reminds us in his recent Gadfly article: “Beautiful things are difficult.” We should embrace these challenges as they are what makes the education we receive here so rewarding and enduring. Diminishing or hiding this is unfair— both to prospective students as well as the entire polity who is committed to the program, with all its challenges, every day. Luell emphasizes that feedback from the student body is essential and that she is open to suggestions for improving the account. “The purpose of this experiment is learning, and that learning very much includes hearing feedback from current students on what does or does not appeal on the account, as well as ideas for future posts,” she says, welcoming student contributions. St. John’s College faces the same challenge as many other institutions today: how to remain relevant in a rapidly changing (digital) world without losing touch with the core values that make us unique. How can we attract prospective students to counteract the negative effects of the demographic cliff on enrollment numbers? The question we need to ask ourselves is whether TikTok—or any social media platform—is the right place to convey the depth and richness of the St. John’s experience. While I do not claim to know the telos of the program, I think it is universally agreed upon that we are a college that values deep thinking, intellectual engagement, and meaningful connections. If our social media presence doesn't reflect that, we risk alienating both current and prospective students. The goal should not be to hop on the latest trends just to attract attention but to share an authentic version of St. John’s with the world—one that reflects who we are and what we stand for. In the end, it’s not about whether we should have a TikTok account or not. It’s about how we use it. And right now, we could use it a lot better. �THE GADFLY πόλις My Government Education is Obsolete By Pia Ibsen As a high school senior in the great state of Texas, I was required to take a semester of a government course. I took the Advanced Placement (AP) government and politics class around six months ago, where we learned about how our government operates and the different political and judicial issues that the United States has right now. With recent rulings by the Supreme Court, the AP government class must rethink the content they're teaching. The major ruling, which was released on July 1st, stated that the President has near full immunity from prosecution when acting in an official capacity. This is a complete change from what's been upheld in the past, with this ruling also encompassing criminal prosecution, the precedent before only protecting the commander and Chief from civil prosecution. But with this new precedent via the Supreme Court, it now seems that our Chief Executive is now immune from any sort of prosecution when acting in an official capacity. This is an extremely dangerous precedent set by our aging Supreme Court, with the looming 2024 election in less than two months. This ruthless battle between a prosecutor and a convicted felon has broken many historical precedents for behavior in presidential campaigns. I've seen a stark contrast in debates from even four years ago. The new ruling on presidential immunity has shaken up the way that President Trump has looked at his indictments and criminal trials, in Georgia and the District of Colombia, his once flouting legal team now has a new defensive strategy in both. September 26, 2024 This new ruling has turned the presidency from an office of the people to a monarchial one. With complete immunity, which puts the president above the law, the president could do anything and claim immunity. Preventing this is exactly why our Founding Fathers included three branches of the government: the Legislative, Judicial, and Executive. Article 1, Sections 2, 8, and 9 of the Constitution lay out the different checks the Legislative branch gets on the executive, put in place to assuage the concerns of the Anti-Federalists. They were worried that the executive would get too big, becoming monarchical. Unfortunately, just shy of 250 years later, that has nearly been realized. One could pinpoint this unraveling of our democracy about 20 years ago, 45 days after the horrific events of 9/11. A bill called the "Patriot Act" was hastily passed, which allowed for the judicial and executive branches to "sneak and peak' into any American's life that they wished, without probable cause. This was said to help capture "terrorists" before they attacked, but this unconstitutional act only helped lead to one conviction after looking and bugging over 200,000 Americans. This was a fundamental intrusion of not just Americans' lives, but also violated the 4th Amendment. This unprecedented breach of American privacy has led to a steady overreach of executive power, which has amalgamated into a gross misuse of executive privilege. The United States was founded on the notion that we are a representative democracy, not letting any branch have too much power over the others. In my government class, we were taught that all three branches have equal say in how the government is not just run, but what laws are made, but now just six months later that has proven false. The executive branch is overreaching its power, which is exactly what our founders feared. The upcoming election could prove fatal not just for us, but for our American democracy. 17 �πόλις THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 Commentary on The Adventures of Frog and Toad; Bk. I Ch. II: The Story By Tarik Mahmud When I was but a wee Tarikling I was, as many who know me are aware, greatly taken by nature documentaries. The countless hours I spent as a mere sapling of consciousness watching these, or otherwise passively receiving them as my puerile mind was elsewhither distracted, were so numerous that in my brain they have mixed into a smooth drone of constant involvement. But not only to the primary content of these programs was my germinating soul attracted, but also vehemently to the “Making-Ofs”; I was greatly interested in how these shows were produced, to the point where I could remember such latter programs at least as precisely as I could the former. It is with this past experience that I approach a commentary on the second chapter of the first book of the Adventures, whereon Mr. Lobel bestowed the uniquely abstract title “The Story”. Invalid Frog requests a story from Toad whilst the former rests his weary frame. Toad, not being a spurting fount of poetry, despairs in this endeavor to invent a story for his friend. He first paces up and down the porch—as any sensible man in the midst of concentrated thought does in such a situation—then stands atop his head after returning indoors, which signals the onset of his aporetic madness. He pours water on top of his head when this works not, before finally resorting to bludgeoning his own cranium on the wall of his house. Whereupon concerned Frog forgets his sickness out of worry for his friend and tells Toad that he need not think of a story anymore, as he has recovered his health, thus affording Toad the opportunity to rest from his 18 self-inflicted wounds in Frog’s place. When Frog volunteers to tell Toad a story (which mirrors Toad’s acceptance of the same duty in relation to Frog previously in the story), he recounts Toad’s foolish methods for coming up with one. Toad is fast asleep by the time he finishes. The most eminent theme encounterable in this story is the frustration of Toad in inventing a story. This is an intimately familiar obstacle for us Johnnies, who several times a semester must confront the umbrous caverns of Writer’s Block. The belly of the earth is huge, and we have no way to speak of: yet we simply must take a path and follow it. The not-taking-a-path is here demonstrated to be an indecision of the utmost harm, rendering Toad so poorly that he must to bed, thus exchanging the ill being with the narrator. In his anti-manic ravings, Toad has himself become the passive receiver of the story, rather than the creator. Furthermore, his head hurts like hell. So let this be the first bit of wisdom to take from this: that we ought not to resort to such mad means of generating content. But although these means are wholly and incontestably evil in their outcome, we must notice also Frog’s position here. For Toad has become so uniquely and interestingly deranged that from his barren tongue sprouts a novel germ. For having changed places with Frog, to Frog is now given the poet’s space, that the misfortunes of the fallen hero be recounted to him in his slumber and such is the great paradox of this chapter: Toad’s inability to invent a story is itself the story. Thus the absence of object, that is to say the absolute negation of object, has itself become object. But it is a tragic object; as the verses of Aeschylus �πόλις THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 and the rest turn the evils of the heroes into good lessons for their audience, so Toad suffers inadvertently for our benefit, that we may reap what he has himself sown. Cohabiting in this apartment of the account (lógos) of this chapter is the “Making-Of” this chapter. We see painted in the ink of the page the inner machinations of the author, and possibly Mr. Lobel’s own grievous toil in making a story: he came to the same solution as Frog, though in this case the twain amphibia are synthesized in the author’s singular consciousness. It is this point (along with the all-too-familiar Writer’s Block) that particularly attracted me to this chapter, since in it I found echos of my previous condition, sunny memories of my fore-years watching the behind-the-scenes specials of my favorite nature documentaries. It is in this unexpected coincidence that I find my own childhood synthesized, at least in part: my favorite picture-book; and the incessant peelingback of something to uncover its hidden causes, which I believe is among the greatest virtues of childhood. Not to mention the self-referential nature of this peeling-back, so that the exposition exposes itself—a good toy for thought. I would like to close this commentary with a final exhortation that is manifest from this chapter. Seek not to please those around you in hurting yourself! See Toad’s folly: how it grieves Frog so much that it quickly outhurts his sickness. Consider whether Toad has ameliorated Frog’s illness, or has conversely made his own pains worse than the latter’s. Take care and hold fast in your minds that the health of the one is the health of the other, and that the pleasing of friends is in direct proportion to the pleasing of the self. Trees Near Pinkney Hall, ca. 1910 19 �πόλις THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 American Dream, Madison Square Garden, and the Legacy of LCD Soundsystem Seven Years Later By Isaac Strauss I’m of the humble opinion that no party is complete without some version of LCD Soundsystem's Dance Yrself Clean. Specifically, when the night is drawing to a close, the song is made not for the start of a party but for the early morning, when the crowd has thinned and sobered, leaving only the devotees who are happy to populate a gathering that should have ended hours ago. However, Dance Yrself Clean is now a fourteen year old song, an eternity in the fast paced alternative world that LCD helped build. It was released on their third and allegedly final 2010 album, This is Happening, which debuted to greater commercial success than the band had ever attained. In 2014, LCD took to Madison Square Garden for what was to be their last ever show before dispersion and retirement. In 2017, they were back with American Dream, which - Electric Lady sessions notwithstanding - appears to be the true last release of the project. The circumstances surrounding its release make American Dream worth a close read: what was so important that it needed to be said after the intense finality of 2014? In an attempt to answer this question, I want to defer to the title track. It’s undoubtedly the most symphonic song on the album, lyrically bearing its heart on its sleeve over lush, timeless synthscapes. The radical vulnerability on display is nothing new for LDC, but the song american dream is suspiciously devoid of the ironic and self-effacing twists writer and frontman James Murphy uses in spades throughout most of his discography when his writing turns inwards. Sonically, it’s the most accessible track on the album. Lyrically, it feels like reading someone's tell all memoir. However, much unlike the All My Friends and I Can Changes of albums past, american dream faces the ever present subject of youth’s fleeting nature head on and manages to find a resigned sort of com20 fort in the loss of the manic neo punk scene of 2000s NYC to time. And, also unlike previous tracks of a similar nature, it does so without a hint of insecurity. Tracks five and ten, how do you sleep? and black screen are two of the most charged on the album: both ask for emotional catharsis in vastly different ways. The first is a pointed takedown of Murphy’s estranged production partner Tim Goldsworthy: their mutual hatred of each other was as intense as it was public when Goldsworthy split from the band in 2011. Written six years later, how do you sleep? is still incredibly vitriolic, purporting closure that’s only half convincing over a bass line that’s so powerful it’s almost painful. The second is an incredibly personal reflection on the limited time Murphy was able to spend with friend and collaborator David Bowie, whose death hangs heavily over the latter half of album American Dream. Murphy lays much of the blame at his own feet for being “bad with people things” and confesses regret for the distance between the two that, again, only feels partially resolved by the end of the twelve minute track. American Dream isn’t an album interested in wasting time. It says everything it needs to in only eleven songs, one of which is an instrumental outro. And it would seem that what it needs to say is thus: the scene is dead, the band members are tired, and while not all old wounds have healed, the process is well underway. It’s for this reason that is doesn’t feel all that bad that this “comeback” flew relatively under the cultural radar. It reached number one on Billboard’s rock charts and was well received by critics, but American Dream didn’t have any hits on the level of Dance Yrself Clean or Daft Punk is Playing At My House. It was too moody, too introspective for that. There’s a touch of tragedy in the idea that a band so �πόλις THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 obsessed with parties had grown out of making music for dancing and drinking, but to return to the same persona that had governed LCD for their last three albums would make American Dream a meaningless project. If I were to be deliberately reductive, I’d call it an album about change, about closure, about acceptance. But it’s not quite so cut and dry, American Dream is just as messy, strange, and open ended as anything that came before it. What I can say for certain is that it’s the most mature album in the LCD catalog, answering the questions that bubbled to the surface when the band formally debuted in 2002. Waltz Party, 1981 THE A.M. RADIO PRESENTS: a le er from your host, brought to you by Seeing All Red by Shakey Graves By AM Stop asking me why my eyes are red. No, I’m not high. Yes, I am okay. No, it doesn’t hurt. Yes, I appreciate your concern. Yes, I understand that I look like a “freaky vampire, but not like a sexy one, like a weird one that kills people.” My eyes are red because there’s blood in them, and there's blood in them because the blood vessels in them burst. According to the wonderful people in the health center, this is nothing to worry about. I should apply a cool compress and enjoy my two to three weeks of looking like a little white crusty- eyed little white dog with reefer madness. At least it brings out the green in my eyes. And I’m also supposed to avoid touching them. After all, there’s only a thin membrane separating my pristine and sterile blood from the dirty, dirty world, and while I might look good in an eyepatch, an infection in the eyes is going to do nothing for my look. You might then ask, “Wwhy G-d? Why would you let this happen?” I asked the same questions. Apparently, when I got sick from a cute little stomach virus on Friday the 13th (a happy holiday to all who observe), I vomited hard enough for my. Eyeballs. To. EXPLODE. -10/10 do not recommend. But never let it be said that I don’t give it my all in everything that I do. Anyways, this malady and the bloody fallout left me marginally compromised over the weekend. And to that end, the article that I planned for this issue of the Gadfly will have to be aired at a later date. But rest assured, dear listeners, it will be a good one—an exclusive interview with one Mr. Nate Burke on the phenomena he dubs “Goofball Lunch.” I had the pleasure of dining in his company the evening of my illness, and while I cannot for certain say that his cooking (or the toe fungus possibly spread by his unshod roommate) did not cause my present state of optical ingloriousness, I can reliably share that it was not the “Goofball Lunch” that did me in. But to uncover what really makes a “Goofball Lunch” (and why our meal was not one) you’ll have to tune in next week at the next printing of the Gadfly! 21 �THE GADFLY πόλις old awnings Natalie Goldman Under the shade of old awnings, I used to pass many muggy evenings. I watched days drop away like flies, Though, then, they felt long. A midwest sunset always seems to stand still, Paint asleep on canvas, Until it passes away in one eye’s blink. I breathed deeply, Practically inhaled the gnats and mosquitoes, Counted days on my fingers, Tried to cheat time. I don’t need to cheat anymore. Now we are trying to get along, To be friends. Time braids my hair to keep The heat off my neck. 22 September 26, 2024 �πόλις THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 Dorm Cooking By Marit Hendrickson This month for my 2nd act, I present to you, my hungry audience, two recipes that only have two ingredients! MUG CAKE This first recipe tastes just as good as the prepackaged mug cakes but costs way less than the prepackaged ones. Prepackaged mug cakes cost $15 for three mug fulls while this recipe costs only $3 and gets you 21+ mug cakes. 2 tortillas Handful of cheese (pre-shredded Mexican works best) Sandwich the cheese between the tortillas in an even layer on a plate and microwave for 30-45 seconds, then carefully flip it to the other side and microwave for another 25-30 seconds. Flip once again when fully cooked and let cool before eating. Tip: You can add leftover chicken and beans to this recipe for some protein or dip it in ketchup or hot sauce for extra flavor. Ingredients: 3 Tablespoons cake mix 2 Tablespoons water Mix directly in mug and microwave for 1 minute and enjoy! Tip: This recipe is easy to double or triple in larger mugs. You can also add sprinkles or chocolate chips for more variety. QUESADILLA There's nothing that tastes better at 3 in the morning when you’re wrapping up a paper that was due at midnight than a microwave quesadilla. It’s quick and surprisingly filling too! Ingredients: Chef in the Dining Hall Kitchen, Date Unknown 23 �πόλις THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 ΜουσειονÊ St. John’s College is “The Decline of Western Civilization” By Gabriela Forte Personality abounds in punk rock: poets, writers, burnouts, academics, amateurs, serious musicians. Yet the unifying characteristic among them all is an unshaking independence and dedication to going against the grain. Punk has meant many things over the generations—working class solidarity, feminism, self-expression, shock value, good music—it’s all punk rock. What makes this movement so interesting is that it is perceived and experienced in a myriad of ways, yet its constituents are still very much a united front against the conformist expectations of external society. There is a potent rage to it—a rage that differs in origin, but one that seems to unify the movement. But this is exactly what catches one’s attention in Penelope Spheeris’ documentary, “The Decline of Western Civilization,” an up-close and personal view of the Los Angeles punk rock scene of the late 70’s and 80’s. She captures the singular nature of each person involved in the subculture, punk icons and audience members alike, while also highlighting the common values that unite them: revolution, hopelessness, frustration, excitement, intoxication, fear, loneliness, community. It also appears that this unity could not exist without the characteristics that distinguish each member of the movement. There will never be another Claude Bessy, or Exene Cervenka, or Keith Morris. They embody such different parts of the punk rock movement, but each one of them has been essential to the unique fingerprint it has left on music and subculture. This is not just the case for those whose names we remember today. Every single person in the punk rock sphere made the scene what it was and what it will be. The kids taping bootlegs in the alley because they couldn’t afford a ticket made just as indelible a mark on punk rock as the guitarist who left to record 24 folkstyle hurdy-gurdy music before the band made it big. The impact of the individual does not necessarily need to have been groundbreaking to be significant. What matters is that they were there. And Spheeris does a fantastic job of showing us every single cog that pushes the gears of punk rock along, no matter how big or how small, no matter how smooth or how rusty. Every rickety piece. At a place like St. John’s College, with so many subgroups within the community, it is very easy to feel certain social divisions. However, I find it incredibly important to remember that each person is just as essential to St. John’s as each person was (and is) to punk rock. We all came here for a reason, and while we may differ in our self-expression, our motivation, or our interests, we share a common love of conversation and inquiry that truly unites us. The DC members and the artists and the archons and the friend groups all make up parts of the St. John’s culture that we would be incomplete without. We are bolstered by our community members and are beautifully complicated by their most minute contributions. Without even the smallest pieces, the gears would fail to turn. I encourage you to look upon our polity with this kind of appreciation—there are no “others,” no insignificant individuals. We are not set apart by our differences. We are made more remarkable for them. �πόλις THE GADFLY Art Criticism: Mitchell Museum’s Theater of Turmoil By Caiden Cawthorne Trying to unveil an aspect of human nature is a high enough bar on its own—invoking Artaud, another. The Mitchell Art Museum put forth both as guiding goals of its new exhibition, entitled, in allusion to the 19th-century artist’s essay within The Theatre and Its Double, “The Theater of Turmoil”. Filled with photo print reproductions; from broken antiquities and Baroque masterpieces to Post-War Warhol’s and depictions of police brutality, the show invites one to take in the multifaceted manner by which turmoil can arise, all while entertaining the central question of whether or not we exist in what they term “unusual times”. Though the Museum puts forth this question in a seemingly objective manner, their answer to it is clear as they represent turmoil as being an allencompassing and inescapable part of human existence—nothing new at all. Indeed, the introductory text offered to one before entering the exhibit almost seems to conflate calamity, denoting, “accidents, race riots, and domestic violence” as simply “troubling aspects of daily life”. This cacophonous combination of elements lacks both cohesiveness and emotional gravity, creating a level of intellectual abstraction that diminishes the degree of engagement one could have with the work. Furthermore, the notion that these atrocities are somehow synonymous with one another and occur every day, that such is simply the natural way of things, lends itself to the creation of a very callous and uncomfortable environment to walk into—and for all the wrong reasons. Indeed, the print of a painting that shows police brutality which adorns the closest wall to the entrance being equated to that which depicts a fatal car accident, serves to mute the circumstantial significance that each piece has in context. Though this may have been a conscious September 26, 2024 decision, as to further focus upon the placement of these events under the wider umbrella term of “turmoil,” such could have been accomplished more readily had more of a correlation been derived between the works, as opposed to their decontextualization. Such is a pervasive problem, as the nature of what exactly “turmoil” means within the show remains elusive due to such lack of care. Taking, for instance, John Heartfield’s 5 Fingers Has The Hand, it becomes evident that the exhibition is more concerned with shock than sentiments. For, created in 1928, the piece was made more so as a statement of unity than chaos, with the five fingers of the hand being an anti-fascist symbol championing the benefit of voting. Likewise, though the exhibition features the return of the original architects of the Museum, immersion is still nowhere to be found. Perhaps what’s most striking within the show is its intentionally ambiguous installations, large and looming grey walls that jut out like rocks on a cliff side, upon which the pictures are placed. Though a worthy idea, with certain prototypes of these installations appearing more suitable, the final execution proved impractical, as it further warps the display of the various pieces and serves as a distraction from their contents as opposed to an enhancement. That is not, however, to say there isn’t anything good about the show. One can most definitely commend the intentionality in color usage, which, though it hides some of the more aesthetically appealing elements in certain works, puts on full display the 25 �πόλις THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 nature of each depictions form and balance, allowing one to be further attentive to specific subtleties. Furthermore, the jarring and deceptive background composition, created by local composer Zachary Konick, solidifies a sturdy foundation for the overall presentation of the pieces. Similarly, the inclusion of photographs that deal with the destruction of cultural and artistic artifacts are of immense intrigue, creating a narrower scope much more fascinating than the Museum currently finds itself entertaining. It is such that, as interesting as these positive attributes are, they alone cannot correct the more glaring and prominent errors of the exhibition. For, though filled with imaginative and expansive potential, the show stands as a mountain without a summit—barely an adventure—and by no means a walk through Artaud’s door. Mrs. Edward Lathrup and Robert Thompson Looking at a Book with Artwork by Michelangelo ca. 1945 Children and Teacher at the Mitchell Museum (Then Gallery) ca 1989 26 �πόλις THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 Restaurant Review: City of Pigs: Timber Pizza By Molly Sprout have a distinct memory of being an 8-year-old girl and lying in bed at my grandparents’ house, reading Peter Rabbit and thinking, “something feels wrong about this”. This was the first time I felt this uncanny feeling. It’s hard to find words for this discomfort; there is something unfamiliar and uncomfortable about the reality that you are viewing, though there is little one can point to for the source. All you know for sure is that there is something off about what you are viewing, leaving you with a sick feeling in your stomach. Freud has a name for this feeling: “unheimlich”, the unhomely. He gives a description of this as “starting from the homely and domestic, there is further development towards the notion of something removed from the eyes of strangers, hidden, secret. This notion is extended in a number of ways...” That feeling of the “unheimlich” at 8 years old was not the last time I felt that way. This feeling was evoked last Tuesday night when I walked into Timber Pizza, a poor simulacrum of a pizza restaurant. I The interior has a pizza oven, checkered floors, and wood tables. The air is that of a campsite Italian restaurant, as it is highly informal and woodsy but with high prices and bougie pizzas. The vibe is almost as confused as the staff. The restaurant serves cocktails, the presence of which is confusing, though. This place does not present itself as a bar at all, without the ability to order there. All orders are placed at the counter like a fast-food restaurant with no table service. I see the concept they are going for, but it just doesn’t work. All it seems is lazy. I know this sounds harsh about a pizza restaurant, but seriously: what the hell are they doing? The plates are plastic versions of paper plates. These plates are almost a fourth-wall break, looking at the customers saying, “we know we’re kitsch and an impression of a pizza place, too.” Onto the food, we ordered two pizzas and a salad. The salad is a greens mix with candied peanuts, corn, and a sesame scallion dressing. The dressing was pretty good, with rich umami flavors covering up the mistake that is candied peanuts on a salad. They are too sweet, too crunchy, and confuse what should be a simple salad to go with pizza. The pizzas we ordered were “the Bentley” and “the Lot”. The Bentley is a red pizza with provolone, mozzarella, cured meats, and hot honey. The pizza delivered on taste but was nothing better than Pizza Hut. Hot honey is taking the culture by storm for no good reason. Spicy and sweet, who would have thought! It is lacking in interest and taste but, on the positive side, it made me less hungry. The next pizza, “the Lot”, is a white pizza with slow cooked pork, jalapeños, and pineapple. Upon arrival, it does not look appetizing. The pork was grey, and it just looked sad. This was worse than the first, with much too strong cilantro put on top. Cilantro is a strong and powerful flavor that has been taken advantage of here. It is just not the desired forefront of a pizza. To top it all off, they had no ranch. Am I crazy, or should a pizza place have ranch? All in all, this place is no better than Fox’s Den on Main street, which is a quicker walk and the same price. For three drinks, two pizzas, and two salads we spent 90 dollars and none of us would spend it again. The flavors, the staff, the environment were almost as confused as I am as to why I thought going there was a good idea. 27 �πόλις THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 The Reluctant Optimist The D in OCD Stands for Descartes By Tamar Pinsky “Everyone at St. John’s is depressed.” – said an upperclassman, giving me my first impression of St. John’s as a very green freshman. And yet, here I remain. For I did not take these words as a threat that the coursework would consume me. I took them as an offering of comfort, saying that there is no need to worry if one is not 100% mentally stable, because St. John’s inherently attracts students with mental illness. Or is it philosophy in general that inherently attracts people with mental illnesses? As someone with mild (diagnosed) OCD, I find that many seminar texts appeal to my obsession-obsessed mind. Their arguments’ structures resemble my obsessive thinking patterns and thus I do not look at them with fresh and frustrated eyes. These texts seem familiar to me; moreover, they are exhilarating. Dopamine-esque even. One text that bears a striking resemblance to my obsessive thinking patterns is Descartes’ Meditations. It exemplifies how a worry can turn into perfectionist behavior and/or into hyper-focused thinking, both of which revolve around the need to determine what is “right” or what is “true.” Descartes starts from a place of doubt, saying that “several years have now passed since I realized how numerous were the false opinions that in my youth I had taken to be true, and thus how doubtful were all those that I had subsequently built upon them.” Descartes’ overwhelming doubt lent him the need to write his meditations perfectly. He admits to procrastinating for so long, waiting for the perfect time to focus on his project in isolation, so he could stop brooding over it. This succession mimics the steps of an obsessive thinking pattern: an event (it is unclear what Des28 cartes’ event was) leads one to worry that a previously held belief is false, and so one scrambles in panic to solve the problem of unsurety. However, because one knows this to be a difficult task, one that will require dedicated effort, one procrastinates, as a form of perfectionism. Sometimes, one is able to move past the perfectionism and get started on the task. Then, the mind becomes entranced in working out the resolution. It keeps a tight grip on what it knows to be true, and then reframes the worry so that it can align with the mind’s strongly held “right” beliefs. In Descartes’ case, his strongly held belief is that his thinking is essential to his being, and he orients his explanation of God’s existence to fit into this framework. He does this by focusing only on what logical conclusions he can make, until he reaches the need for God. Then he acknowledges the difficulty he has maintaining strict focus, saying that he is “unable to keep [his] attention constantly focused on one and the same item of knowledge.” Here he differs from the obsessive mind, which hungers for such attention. The obsessive mind poses infinite what-if questions, yearning to stay on the same subject for as long as possible, so it can always be approaching the resolution, but never reaching it in its entirety. Descartes reaches his conclusion, and stops there, though he admits , in his Letter of Dedication , that his work is not “sufficiently complete.” He knows that his own mind cannot continue any longer on the subject; or at least he knows that he must stop at some point. My mind has a hard time finding a stopping point. The type of work Descartes forced himself to put for- �πόλις THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 ward in his Meditations is the type of work that the obsessive mind is held captive to every day. Could the obsessive mind in a sense be at an advantage when it comes to studying philosophy, because it is used to this type of work – that of worry spiraling into doubt spiraling into meticulousness, for the sake of an end that may never be reached – ? It seems absurd, and politically incorrect, to deem an illness as an upper hand. But even if having OCD does put one at an advantage for studying philosophy – that still might be bad news for the OCD-ers, for we may be using the study of philosophy to redirect our obsessive thinking. While it serves as relief from harmful thinking patterns, obsessive thinking is obsessive thinking; it is rarely beneficial. One strives to eradicate obsessive thinking, not continue partaking in a disguised version of it. Can one even eradicate obsessive thinking fully? It seems an impossible task, for it involves stripping away a piece of oneself, a mode of one’s thinking. Who would I be without my obsessive thinking? How am I to define who I am if not for what the inside of my mind is like? Now I sound like Descartes! But maybe that is why he is so appealing to the mentally ill – Descartes puts so much emphasis on the importance of thought. For Descartes, “thought exists; it alone cannot be separated from me.” For everyone, especially the mentally ill, writers, philosophers, anyone who lives in their head – of course the thoughts are a source of vitality; they are essential to one’s character. I can imagine how many a person with varying mental illnesses might likewise find refuge at St. John’s, a rare place, in that one’s ability for self-introspection is celebrated. But this comes with a risk, that of praising navel-gazing. It is so tempting to define oneself by one’s thoughts, but maybe we ought to look outside ourselves a bit more. What else can we define ourselves by? Or ought we to stop defining ourselves at all? Woodward Hall, ca. 1900 29 �πόλις THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 THIS MONTH IN HOROSCOPES WEATHER REPORT (SEPTEMBER 2024) By Madame Quiznos ARIES (March 21-April 19) Aries knows best that the land is habitable for the strong. Summer ends and brings with it a second spring; the newly emerging foliage pokes out tenderly from the rocks, only to be swept away the next night in the coming monsoon. Nothing is supposed to live here, it’s punishment for man’s arrogance. There is no time to mourn, no time to reflect. The locals always parrot the same three phrases to each other; “We really needed this rain, huh” they’ll say to no one in particular. Everyone says this, no one responds. The worst is the haboob. Sweeping in from miles of nothingness, the biggest cloud of dirt you’ve ever seen consumes the city. It’s always the biggest cloud, you can’t tell if they’ve been getting bigger or if you forget the chaos as soon as it ends. You can’t see in front of you, your lungs fill with sand as cars line up along the emergency lanes on the highway, waiting for safety. Tonight, the rain will cement the dirt into mud on everything, painting the city with large clay bullet holes and endless tree limbs that tie themselves around your ankles like snakes. You’ll figure it out, after all, we really needed this rain, huh. TAURUS (April 20- May 20) The sky is a sickly green today, the radio warns of a tornado. Warnings are rare nowadays. Usually, the whole neighborhood scurries to their porches to watch the storm, arms crossed, making disapproving clicking noises as the storm wreaks havoc across 30 town. Apparently, this is the big one. The DJ advises hunkering down in the storm shelters and under no circumstances coming out till the ‘all clear’. It’s about 4 o’clock, which means, like clockwork, your no good, rat bastard husband has just gotten off work and is lying drunk on the couch. At least he’s quiet when he’s asleep. He’s been getting worse. Sure, he’s never hit you, but he loves to pick fights when he drinks. Tonight, though, he’s passed out in a pile of half empty cans. The siren sounds, blaring throughout the neighborhood. You jump at the noise; you hear the rain starting up outside. Sighing deeply, you go to shake your husband awake. He groans and swats your hand away; you think you heard him call you a bitch, but you can’t make out the words. Fine. You head to the cellar, start up the little battery powered radio, and lock the doors. He’ll sleep real good tonight. In the morning, your house is gone, foundation jutting from the ground like crooked teeth, you can’t help but laugh to yourself as you sift through the empty shell of what was your living room. The radio reports an ‘all clear’. GEMINI (May 21- June 20) The paperwork from ‘meet the teacher night’ sits in the little green folder that was so graciously gifted by the wide-eyed kindergarten teacher. The sky is empty and blue. On the calendar inside, circled furiously in yellow washable marker, is today’s date. It stands out among the quirky word art that decorates the schedule. Today, every other parent got to drop off their babies, lunch boxes stuffed with snacks and cute �πόλις THE GADFLY notes folded neatly atop sandwiches and pudding cups. The empty lunchbox that was picked with such delight sits inside its matching, empty backpack; first and last name scrawled in Sharpie along the leg of the mighty, albeit cartoonish, T-Rex. The house feels too big now. Raindrops sputter out of the clear sky, spitting wimpy little drops that color the pavement in a way that is not significant or meaningful. A bag from the dollar store is slumped on the kitchen table among cards, bouquets, bills and pamphlets. It is full of number two pencils, new washable markers, small, flimsy, red safety scissors and two glue sticks –the purple ones, not the white ones– despite the almost two dollars difference in price. It is so nice to have color in the world. The rain continues, the pavement is washed dark with water, chalk drawings slide into the road leaving a blank slate. The sun shines through the window, illuminating photos and scribbles on the walls. Toys remain strewn about the floors, as if moving them would somehow anger whatever lingered in the home. It becomes increasingly obvious that nothing is lingering. It’s a museum to someone no longer here. The rains continue their pathetic dribble, the sky is empty and blue. CANCERÊ (June 21- July 22) The sun has gone up and down around you about three times, at this point. A hedge maze was a stupid idea for a meetup, but it seemed cute in theory. You would have gotten so many cute pictures for your Instagram! You would have thought of so many cute captions, too, like “we had an aMAZE-ing time today!” Your last Hinge date would have found this hilarious. You’d lost your friends about an hour after arriving, though. The green, bushy walls of the maze snag your shirt as you continue to walk through. The pollen is thick, everything is caked in a thick layer of yellow dust. Your sneezes echo. It’s hard to stay awake, it’s hard to focus. Your nose tickles. When was the last time you’d eaten? You bleed into your shoes, heels rubbed raw from the endless search for September 26, 2024 the exit. Your socks are soaked. You lost cell service when you got here. Your stomach growls. Your hands shake. You continue walking; dead end again. Your mouth is dry and you’re freezing despite the sun shining overhead. You march bravely forward, back to the same intersection you were just in. Maybe you could use the loose thread from your shirt? It's hard to focus, and if you lose your shirt, you risk freezing at night. You’ve read about that online, and even if it's not true it beats chewing on the bitter, waxy leaves ripped from the walls of the maze. Water to drink would be even better, your lips crack and bleed as you draw your mouth tightly closed. Your tongue is too big for your mouth, everything is dry. Your head is pounding. Your stomach cramps painfully, like a pulling at your guts. You feel weighed down. Everything hurts, a dull ache pulls you towards the ground. Pollen fills your nose, snot drips down your face. You’re too tired to wipe it away. You slump down alongside the wall, snagging your shirt again. You close your eyes as you imagine how the water would feel in your mouth, cold as it slips between your teeth and down your throat. You long to feel it lap up along the walls of your stomach– it’s cold there, too. You picture it painting your insides as it sloshes around inside you, the feeling would be so cathartic. You want to cry, but nothing comes out, just loud wails as your shoulders shake. The sun is directly above you, you know you’re wasting valuable travel time, it’s too dark to see at night, but your eyelids are too heavy, you let darkness wash over you as you rest. Does it matter if you wake up again? LEO (July 23- Aug 22) On warm summer nights, the air wraps around your naked body, pajamas long ago discarded in a vain attempt to cool down. It flows through your skin and into your organs, seeping through the spaces between your guts and dancing along your bones. The thick air weighs heavy around you, the open window lets more 31 �πόλις THE GADFLY of it in, it sucks up all the breeze produced by your small, enervated fan. It sinks onto any surface it can, rolling down your pudgy, bare body where it dampens the sheets before sliding onto the floor in a thick heap. You surrender to the air’s sticky embrace. It caresses your cheeks, slides slender fingers down your jaw and along the tendons in your neck. You feel it fill up the hollows of your collarbones and the dip where your throat ends. The posters on your wall droop, as if to cover their eyes, offering privacy to you and the humidity. It holds firm on the space behind your knees, the small of your back and the weird little fleshy bits that dip where your leg meets your hip. It is gentle but commanding. It’s uncomfortably warm, but the damp is worse. Movement makes it worse. It licks inside your ears- you don’t hate it as much as you think you should. It’s nice to be held, even if the sensations aren’t what you remember. Its full weight presses onto your chest, your breathing isn’t labored but it is deep and heavy. It has wrapped itself around you like a thick film. Does it care that your skin is dry or that your legs aren’t shaved? It doesn’t even seem to notice. It’s too hot to sleep, it’s too humid to ignore. Hopefully by the time you doze off– around 6am or so– the rain will come, and your lover will leave out the window it came in from. You can wake up to this sickening moldy smell in your hair alone, sheets akimbo and thoroughly dehydrated. VIRGO (Aug 23- Sept 22) Virgos, ruled by Mercury, presiding over communication and intellect, is in an unfortunate situation. Contacts in Maine warn me of a proverbial ‘mud season’ approaching. Being from Maine, they cannot be taken too seriously, and upon further examination and intense study of the Heavens, I have discovered that there is nothing proverbial about their warnings, in fact, it may have been a curse. Your life is soon to be full of a sickening, gray sledge that coats the roads and sticks to everything. Try as you may, tire chains 32 September 26, 2024 are more expensive than anticipated. The slush is everywhere. Your house is ruined, carpets stiff with icy goop tracked in on your worn duck boots. You can’t get clean. Bootscrapers, coarse welcome mats, even changing shoes, it does not matter, you’re marked eternally. A snowy snail trail drags behind you. It only becomes a real issue when you realize that it’s not just your boots. Everywhere you go a haunting reminder of the thawing earth follows. You swear you feel it in your sinuses sometimes, it’s cold and chunky, you feel it slide down the back of your throat in big, viscous globs. It makes you gag. Sure, it melts eventually, but you can’t stop thinking about it, your face feels swollen, eyes and cheeks puffy; applying pressure causes the sledge to leak from your eyes, the cold is agonizing, drying out your eyes as the breakup dribbles down your face, again, staining the goddamn carpet. What a wretched place to live. LIBRA (Sept 23- Oct 22) Olympia Springs, Bath County, Kentucky. March 3rd, 1879, approximately 11am. A single lung drops from the sky into the dust below. More fresh meat to follow, raining down from the clear skies above. About an hour of loud wet plopping sounds followed as decently sized chunks of meat rain down upon the town. When the skies cleared, residents brave enough to eat the mystery meat reported it to be deer or lamb. This never happens again. This is all true, by the way. The most commonly believed cause of this is said to be vultures, who will projectile vomit to escape predators, but as many townspeople mentioned, the skies were clear and the meat was fresh and solid, taking on the visual quality of a moderately priced ribeye. I have no cosmic messages for you this month, Libra, but they tell me it is of utmost importance that you have this informa on going forward. SCORPIO �πόλις THE GADFLY Ê(OctÊ23-ÊNovÊ21) September 26, 2024 (Nov 22- Dec 21) shout. The end is nigh! The illustrious House of Urchin has fallen! O! Tragedy! The great wave crashed into the South wing of the castle, crumbling it into the very sand it was made of. The soldiers clack their claws, attempting to bring silence over the frenzied crowd, but the chaos continues. Legions of sand mites burrow in and out of the castle's crumbling walls, looking for survivors. Priests open their church doors, trying to protect the survivors, their cathedrals flooding with occupying octopi and frightened fish. Diplomats hopelessly search for their traveling parties, who were washed away into the shallow waters during the backwash unbeknownst to their fellow countrymen. Villagers retreat into tidepools, not caring if they returned to their respective homes, cramming into houses of strangers in a panic. T he fear of being in the open is too much to bear. The king sits in his bedchamber, watching the madness unfold from the hole that’d now opened in his wall. He is silent and unmoving, a beacon of stoicism. Seagulls circle overhead, summoned by the chaos. They watch mothers comfort their children and they plot their next meal. Another wave slams into the castle, taking out the watchtowers and transforming the intricate courtyard into nothing more than an indiscriminate lump on the beach. The king falls from his post, sliding onto the ground below, losing a spine in the descent. Lords and Ladies of the court weep as their benevolent ruler falls. The moat floods and the citizens panic, trying to burrow into the sand or escape into the remnants of the once mighty castle. The plastic yellow shovel that once acted as a gate is claimed by the ocean as the tide ebbs. The wooden nobly held up the county’s flag topples into the debris below. All hope is lost. Too cold to keep writing. Fingers hurt. Losing feeling. Figure it out. AQUARIUS CAPRICORN (Jan 20- Feb 18) (Dec 22- Jan 19) You’re brought to a gurney in the hall, it smells like Cottonelle and floor cleaner. The restraints curl up around your gut, your legs are tied together, they pull When was the last time you were in a field, Scorpio? You need to learn to slow down. Imagine a crop, I prefer wheat, alone among the grain. Maybe there is peace. It can be anything, corn, oats, soybeans, barely; whatever it is it must be in a field. What does your wheat field look like? What season are we in? Are your crops tall? Does it brush up against your legs, trying to grab onto you for an easy escape? The corn is touching you. Maybe it cuts into your arms, littering you with little paper cuts as you walk through. Is there a crop circle? A scarecrow? A gaggle of teenagers hiding out, drunk off a bottle of Pink Whitney, expertly shoplifted from the gas station down the road? Are you alone here? Do you know it? Does it matter? You’ve never seen farmers here, it’s here one day and gone the next. Wind combs through the crop, maybe it changes color in the sun, as wheat is known to do. There is sudden change all around you, but it feels weird knowing that a lot of it is manual. Someone had to harvest it, and you were none the wiser. You’re vulnerable here, your back is exposed to the endless sea of foliage. Something is touching you. It’s probably corn. You are not afraid. Stand totally still, ignore the sounds of your body, of your breathing and your heart beating, just listen to the wind blow through the crops. Listen to the slow drip of the irrigation ditch a few feet away. Listen to cars zip past you, listen to things run around in the dirt below. Isn’t this nice? The corn is touching you again. The sky is big and endless here, the sounds are different and many. SAGITTARIUS Ten thousand soldiers run wild around the courtyard, the church bells ring frantically and the townspeople 33 �πόλις THE GADFLY your arms into a passionate embrace. You are splayed out– crucified. It’s disturbingly sterile in the fluorescent white room. You hear the shuffling of feet, witnesses you assume. The door clicks open, in comes two medical staff, blue scrubs interrupting the white walls that house them. You declined last rights, you were never a God-fearing man before, why start now? Silence is so loud in here. They wipe down your arm, little individually wrapped wipes that leave you smelling like chemicals, it’s a symbolic gesture, surely. The IV is pressed into you successfully after many failed attempts, finally settling into your vein among the 12 previous attempted entry points. You know what happens, why are you scared, Aquarius? First they flush you with saline, then a light sedative, then comes the paralyzing agent. More saline. It feels a bit cold going in, you try to shift in your restraints, but your body won’t let you. Now comes the poison. It fills you up, it’s warm in contrast. For the first time in your life, you feel your blood circulating in your body. The heat increases, your flesh feels like it’s bubbling, something under your skin is scratching its way out from the inside, attempting a violent escape. Your light cotton uniform is smothering you; you need it off, now. You try to open your mouth, to move your hand, to let out any sort of sound to signal to the medical staff that something is wrong, but you can only lay there. It becomes a fire, you feel your blood pooling in the tips of your fingers and toes, your body spasms, chest heaving, fighting against the leather straps. It burns, you can’t breathe. The witnesses watch you choke and heave; cool air feels like it turns into steam as you gasp for breath like a fish. Jesus Christ, it’s hot in here. Your veins feel like they’re expanding and contracting inside you, as if trying to milk the poison out of your body. Thrashing involuntarily against your binds, everything blisters and burns. You imagine the outer layer of your organs sliding off, melting away in the heat into the empty spaces in your body. Agony. You writhe for ten minutes. Mercifully, your heart stops; 34 September 26, 2024 justice is served. PISCES (Feb 19- March 20) The painful mundanity of a small-town tragedy means nothing to anyone but the people who suffered them. Looking around, your town is full of them, most painted over with some sort of emotionally stunted “landlord special”. The wounds are festering, albeit quietly. The woman who sells you your lottery tickets wanted to be an Olympic gymnast, a long time ago. A bike accident took that from her. She never would have made it, but she was robbed of the privilege of a direct rejection. Her knee aches when the rain comes around. On the drive home, on a stretch of backroads no one pays attention to, a matted, dirty teddy bear is delicately stacked atop a little wooden cross. It is decorated with little lawn statues that hold now deflated ‘sweet sixteen’ balloons and pink, glitter foam stickers that are peeling off, revealing the discolored white wood underneath. Faux flowers lay sun bleached under the memorial of a car crash that everyone seemed to forget about a month after it happened. Her mother will never forget, but the memorial is dry rotting on the side of the road. Her name and birthday are washed away in the oncoming storm. A man runs into his high school sweetheart in the Kroger. She waves and asks how he’s been. His answers are brief yet courteous, he’s too distracted trying to look for a wedding ring on her finger, he completely blows any chance of future interaction, she’s reminded of how boring he is. He’ll finish his shopping after they part ways again, he’ll be so distracted he’ll forget the milk and won’t realize it till he’s already halfway home. He still drives the same car they had their first kiss in. He dissociates in his driveway for a while as he watches the windshield wipers shake the raindrops out of view. The rain isn’t sad, but it is cleansing. It’s something about the devil you know, I’m told. �πόλις THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 35 �πόλις THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 Why I talk to my Uber Driver Nonchalant Ex-Nun 36 �πόλις THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 The Mysterious Doctor Sajoco No. 2 by Sean Stickle Originally published in the Gadfly January, 1995 37 �πόλις Photos from this month on campus, including the Achilles Rager and intramural games, taken by Dora Vecoli 38 THE GADFLY September 26, 2024 �THE GADFLY πόλις Your Campus This Week Friday, September 27: ¨ 3:30 pm, Edensword Hall: Ribbon Cutting Ceremony ¨ 7:30 pm, Great Hall: Friday Night Lecture, “What’s Wrong with History?” by Zena Hitz Saturday, September 28: ¨ 2 pm, Bookstore Patio: Meet Financial Expert and Author, Anne Lester. ¨ 2 pm, Back Campus: Alumni Soccer Game ¨ 4 pm, Bookstore: Reading and Book Signing with Mark Pothier September 26, 2024 Sexism Survey Sexism has long been an issue in higher education at large, and necessarily our St. John’s College is no exception. Aspects of the classroom appear to lend themselves to equable treatment (e.g. the use of honorifics) but for many students, expectations for unbiased conduct often clash harshly with reality. In the interest of creating a more truly equable experience, we as a polity must publicly examine what feels distinctly unequal. To please an observer interested in examining anecdotal data, submit a roughly paragraph-long response detailing an instance in which you feel you experienced sexism as a Johnnie, either inside or outside of the classroom. Submitted by Fe Tower Please scan this QR Code to submit your response Sunday, September 29 ¨ 10 am, Conversation Room: All-Alumni Meeting & Elections Classiflieds Seminar Readings 9/26 9/30 Freshmen Plato: Gorgias, 447A–481B Plato: Gorgias, 481B–to end Sophomores Lucretius: De Rerum Natura, IV–VI Virgil: Aeneid, I –IV Juniors Hobbes: Leviathan, Chapters 12–18 Hobbes: Leviathan, Chapters 19–21, 24– 25, 27, 28 (only last paragraph), 29 Seniors Tocqueville: Democracy in America (selections) Businesses: LawyersÊinÊHighestÊPosition Markby, Markby and Markby will represent impeccably. Write for more information at 104 Grosvenor St. FinestÊSpermÊOil Samuel Enderby and Sons, hunting Leviathan since 1775. Inquire with Capt. Boomer for prices. Miscellaneous Wanted Shoes on Feet ImportantÊQuestion Did anyone see Gary the Orca? Was he real? Please Tocqueville: De- find Herschel Reubens and tell him, he wants to know. mocracy in WantÊtoÊleaveÊaÊclassifliedÊad?ÊWriteÊusÊatÊofAmerica fice.gadfly@sjc.edu,ÊorÊdropÊoffÊyourÊsubmissionÊatÊ (selections) ourÊofficeÊinÊtheÊBBCÊbasement 39 �THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE Founded in 1980, the Gadfly is the student newsmagazine distributed to over 600 students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the Annapolis campus. Opinions expressed within are the responsibility of the author(s). The Gadfly reserves the right to accept, reject, and edit submissions in any way necessary to publish a professional, informative, and thought provoking newsmagazine. Submissions sent to the Gadfly should either be in Microsoft Word Document or JPEG format. The deadline for submissions is the Friday prior to publication. St. John’s students on State Circle the morning a er a party, date unknown. For more information, contact us via email at gadfly.office@sjc.edu. Photographs without a listed source are from the St. John's College Digital Archives. St. John's College owns the rights to these photographs. All illustrations and doodles without a listed source were drawn by Helen Felbek 60 COLLEGE AVENUE ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>The Gadfly</em> Description An account of the resource Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context thegadfly Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 40 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Gadfly, Vol. XLVI, Issue 2 Description An account of the resource Volume XLVI, Issue 2 of The Gadfly. Published September 26, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nichols-Kaufman, El'ad (Editor-in-Chief) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-09-26 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource College students' writings--Periodicals College student newspapers and periodicals St. John's College--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Gadfly Vol XLVI Issue 2 Gadfly Student publication https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/60a3e45dccbb1ea0c0d7ca42b04e2c53.pdf 78f9939023ade10f1df4d0484aafac8e PDF Text Text THE St. John’s College Annapolis, Maryland GADFLY A Polity Awakened September 5, 2024 Vol. XLVI, Issue 1 �CONTENTS THE GADFLY STAFF COVER DESIGN λόγος : news reports & narratives regarding immediate campus life Dora Vecoli El’ad NicholsKaufman BVG Summer Meeting Reagan Bottomley 3 Great Books in Berlin Helen Felbek 6 Goodbye Ms. Munsey Tamar Pinsky 10 What’s Your Major Sadie Lewin 11 Summer Art Natalie Goldman 12 Louis Rosenberg Club Fair Vivian Miyakawa 13 Willa Rothenberg Bug Bulletin Louis Rosenberg 14 Molly Sprout EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ASSISTANT EDITORS συμπόσιονÊ:Êcontrasting opinions on various topics for thought Vivian Miyakawa Tamar Pinsky Amha Worku Our Most Difficult Delight Robert Abbott 16 Sicut Cervus Tarik Mahmud 18 STAFF Reagan Bo omley Caiden Cawthorn πόλιςÊ:Êvoices of the community, including poetry, cartoons, etc. Helen Felbek A Call to Reform Prank Louis Rosenberg 22 truth-hunters Natalie Goldman 25 You’ve Got Mail Caleb Briggs 26 AM Radio AM 28 Dorm Cooking Marit Hendrickson 29 Seohyun Lee Μουσειον Gabriela Forte 30 Sadie Lewin Restaurant Review Molly Sprout 32 Madame Quiznos Horoscope Madame Quiznos 33 Tarik Mahmud Johnnies in Town Helen Wagner 37 Andy Manne Reluctant Optimist Tamar Pinsky 38 Lainey Rendelman Cartoons Polina Vatralskaia and Tamar Pinsky 40 Crossword Molly Sprout 42 Eli Zitler Letter from the Editor Gabriela Forte Natalie Goldman Marit Hendrickson CONTRIBUTORS Robert Abbo Caleb Briggs Once more, as predictably and freely as the summer jellyfish, the Helen Wagner Johnnies have come marching home. We return to a different Helen Felbek campus, with new faces, new buildings, and new thoughts, but ART AND somehow, unreasonably, we know it to be a homecoming, a return PHOTOGRAPHS Tamar Pinsky to a well known place. This Gadfly, hopefully, should be the Dora Vecoli same: a familiar return to something new. Some things have shifted; you’ll notice a much longer Logos section, with dedicated Polina Vatralskaia news staff, and the first part of many returning columns, but all with the same kind of intangible, Johnnie spirit. This, dear reader, is only possible with you. Whether you are a GI, tutor or undergrad, your work at the College creates this paper. Please read it, talk about it, pass it on, write in it: these things make the Gadfly able to continue carrying this spirit for years to come. I look forward to seeing you many more times on these pages. Your companion on our continually new familiar journey, El’ad Nichols-Kaufman 2 �λόγος THE GADFLY Board of Visitors and Governors Meeting Reagan Bo omley, Student Politics Correspondent This past June, the Board of Visitors and Governors, or the BVG, met on the Santa Fe campus to finish its work for the past academic year. It presented numerous annual reports on the state of both campuses. All-College President Mark Roosevelt’s report set the general tone of the meeting, which was his last before official retirement. As such he mainly focused on the future of St. John’s, and what the main strategies of the BVG should be over the next several years. He stressed that the board must exercise careful stewardship over the College, as challenges like the nationwide decline in college applications will require a dedicated administration to keep St. John’s successful. In line with this, the BVG must place a major emphasis on fundraising, while the College must simultaneously stay lean in its operations and keep all spending as economical as possible. A strong focus must also be kept on student retention, as the administration seeks to understand why students leave and what can be done to keep them at St. John’s. With these last reminders Roosevelt officially retired, with Walter Sterling Jr. succeeding him as the new Santa Fe President and Annapolis President Nora Demleitner assuming the role of All-College President. SanteÊFeÊDean’sÊReport The year at Santa Fe “wrapped up very nicely” according to their dean Sarah Davis, despite tensions around student employees attempting to unionize as they seek higher pay from the college. In this past year our sister campus has hosted several successful events, including Earth Day programs, Shakespeare Week, and a student lecture series with nine students presenting papers they had written to the polity. (A note from the writer: perhaps this would be an interesting event for our own SCI to coordinate?) September 5, 2024 AnnapolisÊPresident’sÊReport The administration in Annapolis has been busy preparing for a number of regulatory changes. The US Department of Education has released a host of new rules for the College to comply with, in addition to a separate 1,577 pages of new Title IX rules. This last includes making all student employees mandatory reporters, which as of this article’s writing has already gone into effect. With the help of generous grants to the College, the Annapolis campus is implementing further programs to aid its students. Most notably, Demleitner said this includes “helping our students figure out how their passions, their skills, and what they’re learning at St. John’s fit together to get them ready to kind of engage with career services and then to succeed on the outside.” This will be realized through Johnnie Career Pathways, a program opening this fall that will allow Johnnies with particular career interests to see how St. John’s can support them. AnnapolisÊDean In her report, our dean Susan Paalman was highly appreciative of the board and community, giving special thanks to now-retired Heather Latham for her tireless work on behalf of the college. Ms. Paalman praised the DC’s efforts over the academic year, stating that they “reconciled their books with virtue” and noted that in general students are incredibly active on our campus. The athletic program broke attendance records this past year, with never-beforeseen numbers of blazer points earned and blazers awarded to students. Outside of campus, St. John’s and our neighbors at the Naval Academy have continued to strengthen our ties. The Academy has extended an invitation for Johnnies to join their fellowship preparation program, “an excellent opportunity for students interested in applying for the Rhodes, Mitchell, or other highly competitive scholarships.” AdmissionsÊandÊVisiting The admissions office has found a significant decrease in international and domestic applications for the fall of 2024. The class of 2028 has reached 130 in Annapolis and the mid 90s in Santa Fe. This marks a decline for Annapolis compared to the class of 2027, and a slight increase for Santa Fe. The new 3 �THE GADFLY λόγος discussion-based application begun this year was used by about 15% of students. These lower numbers are not unusual; college applications are trending downwards across the country, and according to Johanna Wilson, chair of the Admissions Committee, “we are doing better than many of our peers” despite still falling short of our goals. Her report echoed President Roosevelt’s reminder that “if we stay flat in the next ten years in terms of average student revenue and enrollment, we’ll be doing really good work,” or in other words, St. John’s cannot expect to grow for several years. Student retention also continues to be a prominent issue, with the board’s commitment to a 92% retention rate driving questions about how to reach potential Johnnies and how to give them the assistance they need once they arrive. Summer Academy, however, continues to grow, with the largest-ever program being held this past summer. Scan this QR code to read the Charter and Polity of the College FinancesÊandÊInvestment At the February meeting of the BVG, the Finance Committee tasked the administration with cutting half a million, which they managed to do by this meeting in June. The College’s projected deficit for this year has therefore sunk to between $5 and $5.5 million, which bequests will reduce by $2.5 million. The finance committee stressed that this current fundraising trajectory is not sustainable. Planned gifts and bequests cannot be counted on, and they cannot anticipate increases in tuition revenue. The current endowment stands at about $270 million, with various gifts set to bring it just over $350 million. The Financial Committee did not sugarcoat the daunting financial prospects facing the College over the next few years, but their tone was one of cautious optimism. Finance Chair Richard Lincer has strong hopes for the future, stating “We now have a realistic idea of the go-forward challenge, but we’re going to have to work on it.” Similar to the Admissions report, the Finance Committee expects lean but manageable years ahead as the nationwide interest in college degrees begins to dwindle. 4 September 5, 2024 Group Portrait of the St. John's College Board of Visitors and Governors outside of McDowell Hall, by Pickering Studio PolityÊReview The Polity, the main governing document of the College, is due for its quinquennial review and amendment. As such, the Board will vote on Polity amendments in its October meeting. They are confident in their goal of legally sound governing documents that reflect our unique institutions and are looking forward to the amendment meeting. As the committee representative stated, “We may not agree on every matter, but, where we differ, our goal is to do so with full information, deliberate decision making, and mutual respect.” The Gadfly will publish updates on the Polity amendment as soon as the October meeting takes place. Facilities With the help of the Pritzker family donations, several improvements have begun on both campuses. The newly christened Edensword Hall is now housing students, although work is still being done on the lower level. The construction is expected to be complete by September 27th, when a ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held for both the new bookstore and the Annapolis Cup coffeeshop. In Santa Fe, much work is being done on the Pritzker Student Center along with $10 million worth of maintenance projects. IT on both campuses is busy installing new tech infrastructure, with improvements such as our new Wi-Fi network continually being added. �λόγος THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 Board of Visitors and Governors Meeting in the King William Room, Annapolis, Maryland Advancement In the words of the Advancement Committee, there is “good news and not so good news.” The good news is that in total, this year $56.8 million was raised for the College. However, the lion’s share of this was from non-recurring donations, and $15.8 million came from fundraising. One important initiative was Mark Roosevelt’s tutor salary fund, which totaled $8.34 million and still had $1.89 million to go in order to meet the necessary amount as of this meeting. This fund is dedicated to increasing tutor salaries over the next several years, although additional fundraising or some other means will be necessary to continue that increase in the more distant future. The report closed with a reminder of the College’s $5 million projected deficit, which must be carefully managed in the upcoming years. Diversity This meeting was also notably the last for the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, which disbanded this summer. Despite praising the College for its work in encouraging diversity, the committee spoke only vaguely about its success. The report stated “We should be proud, very proud” of improvements here, and seemed to think the committee was no longer needed as diversity would flourish on its own due to the unspecified increase in representation on both campuses. Conclusion All in all, the tone of June’s meeting was optimistic but cautious. Concerns over enrollment and retention are on the minds of every board member, but each report made it clear that St. John’s can expect to succeed with careful planning by the BVG. Several initiatives have already seen good results, such as Roosevelt’s fund to increase tutor pay and the successful renovations on both campuses. The next BVG meeting will bring further updates on these topics as well as amendments to the Polity, and we can expect it here on the Annapolis campus in late October. 5 �THE GADFLY λόγος Traces of the Great Books in Berlin By Helen Felbek Sometimes the best way to reflect on a familiar place is to be physically removed from it. I felt the truth of that this summer, which I spent in Berlin, interning at a German political association for energy efficiency (DENEFF e.V.)—the last place where I expected to encounter the legacy of liberal arts in Europe. Usually, I do not expect Germans to know about St. John’s or even to have heard of Great Books programs. So, you can imagine my surprise when one of the executive directors of the organization, Mr. Henning Ellermann, told me that he went to a program similar to St. John’s, called the European College of the Liberal Arts. Ellermann first came across ECLA during his civil service in 2001 or ‘02 in a Die Zeit article. “While traveling through Germany with a school friend…, I met the people who had come up with the program. They were about to start their first one-year program, the Foundation Year Program. It was only offered once… I thought, you know, that sounds fun. It was definitely appealing because it was clear they would challenge you a little,” he said in our interview. He was indeed part of the first cohort of students who completed a one-year program which would later be known as the Academy Year. September 5, 2024 ECLA, founded in 1999 by a group of scholars and philanthropists around the German Ivy-league educated Stefan Gutzeit, was largely funded by the Christian A. Johnson Endeavour Foundation in New York. Situated in Pankow, a district in former East Berlin, ECLA did not have a traditional campus. Instead, its classrooms and offices were scattered across several former embassies to the GDR. For example, the library was located in the building of the former West German embassy. Students were housed in the former Egyptian and Cuban Embassies. At least initially, classes were held in the locality Buch-Buch, in a building, finished in 1907, which served as a psychiatric clinic, among other things. But the architectural style, reminiscent of East Coast private universities, showed the founders' ambition to create an institution akin to those private universities. ECLA had a very international student body, with many students hailing from Eastern Europe. So, it is important to note that, while we typically associate the liberal arts with US-American higher education, ECLA was initially a distinctly European project. For example, Jan Werner Müller, a German professor of Political Science at Princeton University, and his wife Erika Kiss were heavily involved with the school, and German foundations like the Robert Bosch Foundation invested initially. Given the rather short history of the school, the founding ambition to create “Harvard in Germany” might have been misplaced. In 2012, ECLA was acquired by Bard College. “I liked the idea of having something like a mixture of different systems,” Ellermann said. “They tried to sell it as this old-school German Bildung idea, which then ends up meeting this American system… What was most appealing was that nobody in the world knew what it was going to be like, and that it was going to be something that hadn’t been seen before. Coming from sort of provincial western Germany… going to a place where people were saying, ‘Let's do this funky thing,’ was intriguing.” Besides the academic rigor promised by the program, Ellermann was ECLA Class of 2008 . Photo from the ECLA Website attracted by the idea of the unfinished. After ECLA, he went on to study in Leipzig (former GDR), 6 �λόγος THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 When I walked around the streets, I saw small groups of students sitting outside with laptops and books in front of them, apparently discussing their writing. Stephanie Hausotter, head of admission, told me that they are part of a three-week pre-orientation program. While I haven’t spent much time in Santa Fe, the spread-out character of student housing and the many small outdoor seating areas (instead of one central quad) reminded me of the campus structure in Santa Fe. Library (former official residence of the Head of the West German mission) (photo: Helen Felbek) because he “wanted to be in the East where things were still changing, where things are malleable, where you can leave your mark in some way, rather than remaining in the more staid western part of the country. Berlin is a sprawling city, about nine times larger than Paris, and reaching ECLA in Pankow was a trek involving three different trains, trams or buses. To some ECLA students, the location is so remote that they spoke of “The Island of ECLA” or “The City of ECLA.”1 For me, the journey also involved three different trains. Most of the historic buildings are located on Platanenstr., a street that is, as the name suggests, lined with old, gnarly plane trees. It is very calm. There are no stores; it is a very typical street in a nice residential neighborhood. Frankly, it’s one of the last places where you’d suspect a college. And most of the buildings — with the exception of the two new additions — are seamlessly integrated into the neighborhood, marked only by red banners celebrating the institution’s 25th anniversary. However, I did not find any public plaques explaining the history of the buildings — neither providing information about their first residents (ambassadors to the GDR) nor their later ones (ECLA students). I wondered whether these students were aware of the place’s history and to what extent ECLA’s aims and curriculum were still present in its teachings. Over the course of its 13-year long history, four different programs of study were developed: the international summer university, the academy year, the project year, and the BA in Value Studies. In a press release, ECLA touted their BA as an innovation, saying it would be the “first of its kind worldwide,” representing “a new European approach to liberal education.” Unlike the distribution requirement model of liberal arts education at most liberal arts colleges or the structured great books programs we are familiar with, ECLA’s approach sought to create a curriculum that would be relevant beyond academic confines. I am not entirely sure whether the approach was unique per se. But their aim of “educat[ing] students as holistic individuals and engaged citizens, not just future professionals” seems noble. ___________________________________________________ 1 Clara Sigheti, “News Archives 2007, BERLIN, The City of ECLA,” European College of Liberal Arts, June 12, 2007, http:// ecla.peterhajnal.info/news/news-archives-2007/index.html. Teaching building (former residence of the cultural a aché of the United States) (photo: Helen Felbek) 7 �λόγος THE GADFLY The method of instruction at ECLA consisted of three components: Seminars, Tutorials, and Lectures. Seminars seemingly followed the same concept as seminars at St. John’s — the joint exploration of a text. In a tutorial at ECLA, however, the student and teacher discuss, one-to-one, an essay written by the student, much like a writing conference at St. John’s. ECLA’s program was not all-required, but there also was not much choice. ECLA had a writing-heavy curriculum with students writing one essay per week. Additionally, there were lectures that were usually followed by a discussion. While ECLA emphasized its uniqueness in the educational landscape in Europe, it is important to keep in mind that it never was the only one of its kind. There was and still is some interest in the liberal arts in Europe: Ellermann remembers that many of the Polish ECLA students had previously studied at a liberal arts program at the University of Warsaw. One should also consider the University College Freiburg and other EPICUR institutions (an alliance of nine European colleges and universities who share the belief in the importance of “Liberal Arts and Sciences Education” and aim to create a four-year “European bachelor of liberal arts and sciences”) when asking about the relevance of the liberal arts in Europe. While I can perhaps speak for most current students in saying that I had never heard of ECLA before this summer, there were apparent connections between ECLA and St. John’s. At least within the academic leadership of ECLA, the intellectual kinship to St. John’s was a well-known fact. In the commencement speech of 2008, Thomas Norgaad spoke about Scott Buchanan, suggesting that Buchanan's Great Books approach had been “one of the most interesting educational experiments of the 20th century, and worthy of study.”2 In addition to the common intellectual connection, St. John’s and ECLA shared some faculty members, namely Mr. Michael Weinman (now a professor at Indiana University) and Mr. Boyle, though this is probably not an exhaustive list. ___________________________________________ Livia Marinescu, Samantha Williams, “News Archives 2008, Graduation of the class of 2008,” European College of Liberal Arts, August 7, 2008, http://ecla.peterhajnal.info/news/newsarchives-2008/index.html. 2 8 September 5, 2024 Michael Weinman remembered that “long-time Dean of ECLA/BCB, Catherine Toal, has always kept one of those ‘the following teachers will return to St. John's College next year’ posters in her office; this despite the fact that she never attended or taught there.” He considered this “as a sign of how deeply the underlying projects of the places are connected.” Weinman was a tutor at St. John’s between 2006 and 2008 and taught some GI classes in the summers of 2009 and 2010. He was at ECLA and later at Bard College Berlin from 2010 to 2020, teaching three of the six core courses. He found the biggest difference, both culturally and in terms of the program, between ECLA and St. John’s was “the extent to which at ECLA/BCB the faculty as well as the students tend to feel that they need more choice rather than less, despite the fact that (from an SJC-like perspective) so few of the courses are fully required.” Boyle, who taught at ECLA before coming to St. John’s, observed a “deep temperamental affinity” between St. John’s and ECLA in that “the faculty at ECLA took this commitment to a curriculum rooted in great books very seriously.” But he felt like that at ECLA the faculty “had a somewhat looser, somewhat more open understanding of what might ‘count’ as a great book and thereby be incorporated very easily into a ‘course.’” Both Ellermann and Boyle noticed a strong sense of disciplinary affiliation among the faculty. “Boyle felt that the faculty seemed to think of themselves as ‘historians’ or ‘literary critics’ or ‘classicists.’” “By contrast, most tutors at St John's maintain only a very attenuated connection to the disciplines in which they were trained.” Ellermann remembered that there “were some major clashes in the faculty, some of it the unusual birth pangs of a new institution, especially between the historians and others for whom context is key, and the dean, who had a comparative literature background and in their eyes sort of flitted between texts and ideas.” Ellerman remembered that some more experienced students and faculty needed to “unlearn the ways of the university,” or what they assumed education should look and be like. He felt that it was an advantage to just be curious and “unafraid to be a dilletante because I didn’t know what I didn’t know.” �λόγος THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 This willingness to incorporate current affairs, was not limited to one week of the year. It seemed to have been embraced by the faculty. For example, in 2007, following the initiative of a tutor, ECLA hosted the ECLA-Oxford Conference on Climate Change, Energy and Security. The topics of the conference corresponded with the themes covered by the elective course “Global Issues,” designed as a survey of the most pressing challenges to humanity. At St. John’s, we engage deeply with the Great Books, often shielded from the immediacy of current events to preserve the purity of academic discourse. While St. John’s has Friday Night Lectures as an opportunity to engage with outside scholars, I view our program as attempting quite deliberately to be removed from current affairs as a way to protect academic discourse in seminar from potential polarization that can come with politization. ECLA did not seem to share that fear, seemingly at ease with incorporating current affairs into their college with less of a concern for detrimental effects. Each year all students were required to partake in a special course called “State of the World Week.” During this week topics such as “What Shall We Eat?” (2011), “The Politics of Cultural Ownership” (2009), “Water” (2008) or “Social Entrepreneurship” (2007) were discussed. This award-winning pedagogic concept had at its core the assumption that “the voices of thoughtful experience will enrich theoretical discussions” so “that theory may in turn inform practice.” In a student article, Clara Sigheti remarked about the impact of the “State of the World Week” on the students’ learning. She noticed that the course gave students a chance to “reflect on the role liberal arts can play in confronting social realities.” She argued that the experience helped her and her peers to recognize the limitations of government and non-government action while realizing the power of personal involvement and generosity. She views theoretical understanding of the systems underlying a social problem as the first step to resolving it: “the next step is leaving theory and entering praxis.”3 ___________________________________________ 3 Clara Sigheti, “News Archives 2007, STATE OF THE WORLD WEEK SUMMARY,” European College of Liberal Arts, May 17, 2007, http://ecla.peterhajnal.info/news/newsarchives-2007/index.html. But whatever ECLA was like, it is no more. In 2012, ECLA was acquired by Bard College, carrying on the torch of liberal arts in Berlin in a different form. For his part, Ellerman says he sees the Program “as one of the most intense experiences” of his life. His best friend is his roommate at ECLA. “At least I, and the people I’m in touch with, still get each other, even if I haven’t seen some of them in 10 years. I feel like we all haven’t aged at all, even if outwardly we have, but I still see them as if they were 20. You get to know people really well… But we don’t necessarily have an emotional connection to the institution as it is now. I’ve driven past it and I see that my dorm is still standing, but the other dorm was torn down to build a new building. … that’s just gone. It’s obviously not what the founders envisioned it would be, but I assume it was probably a financial decision to look into how to make this viable,” he said. But even though ECLA does not exist in its original form anymore, he would encourage people to seek an education similar to the one it provided. He says, “Would I recommend anyone doing something crazy like that [weird first year] again? Yes. But also, if you took it from a more established institution, would I recommend doing this type of intellectual boot camp? Yes.” Special thanks to Mr. David Kretz, who helped provide access to the old ECLA website which is no longer searchable via common search engines. Main Building (Platanenstr. 24, former ambassadorial residence of the Kingdom of Morocco) (photo: Helen Felbek) 9 �λόγος THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 Goodbye Ms. Munsey By Tamar Pinsky If you are a freshman, then you might not know Ms. Rachelle Munsey, who has left the college after working here for eight years. As the Community Facilitator for Student Activities and Events, she worked with administrative staff and students to facilitate events big and small, such as After Dark Donuts, Friday Fare, Collegium, Writing Lounges, and many more. She also supported student organizations and ran the off-campus trips. Helping her in all her work were the group of student aides fondly known as “Munsey’s Minions.” The Minions remain at St. John’s – and technically, Munsey has not fully gone yet. Munsey has moved back to Sacramento, which according to student aide Nella Carlini, is “tragic.” Not only has she left St. John’s, but she still needs to continue working for the school remotely until her replacement is hired. “Even when she isn’t our boss,” student aide Gelila Kebede says, “Ms. Munsey is a great boss.” Munsey is grateful though that soon she will be able to “wear fewer hats.” Her many jobs have included teaching classics, wedding coordinating, and writing – in fact, the second book she coauthored has just been published; it is called The Small Group Initiative: Facilitate Productive Communication & Sustain Lasting Culture Change Across Institutions. But for now, she will focus on editing work and teaching her four-year-old, Ariadne. As a Johnny herself, she enjoyed connecting with the diverse student body at St. John’s, and aiding Johnnies through the ups and downs. As a coordinator, her favorite event was the Club Gala – which she created two years ago to address the need for appreciating archons. As part of her legacy, the Club Gala reflects the intimate way in which she knows St. John’s; its design being “intensely referential to life within the Johnnie bubble... unapologetically nerdy and glamorous.” To all Johnnies, glamorous and nerdy, Ms. Munsey extends these parting words: The individuals I most highly esteem exhibit a breath-taking sort of humility, so that will be my parting wish: "May you draw 10 steady confidence, rich wisdom, and genuine compassion from a deep wellspring of humility in your inmost being; furthermore, let that humility fuel your capacity to be captivated by wonder in the texts, the world around you, and the person across the seminar table." And to her Minions, who are “Majestic, Magical, Meticulous, Magnanimous, Masterful and Macho:” Munsey “will fight anyone who says they had finer or more hard working student aide teams than I during my years as a CF - it was such a joy to lead you and see you create and laugh and champion each other and rise to every insane challenge thrown your way with unparalleled grace and determination. May the rest of your time at the college be marked with new depths of flourishing and peace.” And for the new coordinator, whose role will change significantly, Munsey would like to say that “the polity is very lucky to have you - welcome and my best wishes for your time at the college! P.S. In case of an apocalypse, MEL 126 has everything you need to survive, just ask Mr. Kebede.” Ms. Munsey, what beautiful words. You will be sorely missed. �section title THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 What’s Your Major? By Sadie Lewin, Student Life Correspondent You just had a visceral reaction to that question, didn’t you? The academic program seems to be the most obvious connection between fellow Johnnies. Every one of us panics and stumbles when some well -meaning person outside of the Johnnie bubble asks what our major is. Because how do you even start? How does one begin to describe the nature of being a part of the community at St. John’s? The program is contrarian enough, and then you throw in the rich history, traditions, and campus culture. There truly is something unique about being able to call yourself a Johnnie. And, with a new year starting, a whole new group of students get the chance to experience this place as so few do: as a member, or an insider. Convocation was, as usual, a beautiful ceremony. It’s so interesting to watch the freshman seated at the front of the FSK auditorium, an anxious sea of black robes. They were excited and apprehensive as they walked across the stage to shake the president’s hand and receive their copy of Euclid’s Elements. Some seemed nervous (although that could have been stage fright). As President Demleitner said in her speech, this is a huge transition and the start of a new chapter of their lives. They seemed to be holding their breath, waiting for their career at St. John’s to begin. Little do they know that in a year from now, many of them will come back to campus and breathe a sigh of relief: “I’m home.” There is so much more to what makes St. John’s, St. John’s than the academic program. So, the Convocation Waltz served as a social and communal Convocation for the new freshmen. A half hour before the party began, beloved seniors Rachel Hauben and Peter Quinn gathered a huge group of freshmen in the quad and taught them basic swing dance steps and outside turns. It was fun to look out A proper Johnnie; or what recent Freshmen may hope to become. Photo by Dora Vecoli into the crowd and wonder: which of these students will fully invest in Waltz and become instructors? Who will become intramural captains in a couple years? Who will audition for KWP shows? In the waltz itself, freshmen and returning upperclassmen danced the night away. McDowell emanates joy, laughter, music and community whenever there is a waltz going on. The dance floor was packed, with people spilling out the front steps into the lawn, and the snack trays became bare within the first thirty minutes. The current freshmen are just beginning the transition from fly-on-the-wall to member of this little community we call St. John’s College. Throughout this year, they will join clubs, figure out how to have a successful seminar, sing Sicut Cervus about a million times, and learn years' worth of Johnnie lore from the history of the college and stories passed down from upperclassmen. While many Johnnies enjoy their lives outside of school, St. John’s offers a community of like-minded people who understand each other in a way that simply can’t be found in the real world. So, what’s your major? There will never be an answer sufficient to cover the experience we live as Johnnies. 11 �λόγος THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 Approaching Art Away from Annapolis By Natalie Goldman, Art Correspondent Summer can be a daunting time for any college student. How best to spend the abundance of time seemed to be the question at the forefront of everyone’s mind. This question was magnified for St. John’s artists. On the one hand, the summer months might be perfect for jumping into projects that would be too timeconsuming to execute during the school year. But, on the other, leaving campus means leaving behind a like-minded community and resources that might be hard to find elsewhere. How do Johnnies feel about creating art in a vacuum? Is solitude worth the gift of extra time? I talked to sophomores Liza Love and Kat Goodrum to get a sense of how they used their summers to the fullest. Ms. Goodrum is a film photographer and drummer, Ms. Love is an oil painter, and both create drawings and collages. When I asked whether the time they spent making art increased or decreased when the summer started, Ms. Love told me it increased. Over the summer, she spent as much time painting as possible. “If I don’t have work or anywhere else to be, I oil paint as much as I can squeeze in a day, it’s my favorite,” she said. “I’ll spend up to 14 hours in the studio at a time. Basically, til I feel like I’m rotting. Once I’m clammy and my eyes are sore I know it’s time to pack it up.” She also found her interest in collage heightened and 12 worked it into her family’s routine. “My grandma has this old coal bucket filled with magazines in our living room. Every night when I come home from work I flip through and make clippings while we watch crap TV.” She predicts, however, that she won’t be able to spend as much time with her art this year, as the artistic process can be isolating, and she wants to be as involved in the St. John’s community as possible. Alternatively, Ms. Goodrum said that the time she spent on art went down during the summer. “Because my art form is film photography, my routine changed drastically over summer break, since I didn’t have access to a darkroom. I still shot film, but significantly less. I think not being able to print my photos really affected my process, because having that control and creative expression is really something you can’t replicate.” Now that we’re all back on campus, Ms. Goodrum is looking forward to getting back in the darkroom. Last year, she spent several hours a week developing and printing photos and expects to do the same this year. In the darkroom’s absence, though, she did surprise herself with a silver lining. “I spent more time drawing than I typically would,” she said. “I think it’s such an accessible art form that it makes sense. It also feels like a summer activity, because it’s so adaptable to what’s most convenient at the moment.” Both artists agree that there are certain things you can do on campus that you just can’t do anywhere else. Having a community of artists at your disposal is invaluable, even if it means compromising your creative process slightly to take advantage of it. Because there are so many art-related clubs and activities that exist at St. John’s, it’s tempting to drop everything and try something new. This year is a chance to give in to the temptation. �λόγος THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 Going Clubbing By Vivian Miyakawa, Club Correspondent Every year, school clubs gather on the quad as freshmen wander around them, picking which groups they’ll end up procrastinating homework for. Club archons sit behind folding tables, calling any unsuspecting passerby to come over and listen to them rave about the perks of joining the BEST CLUB EVER. This year’s club fair was met with just as much enthusiasm as in past years. Between the jokes and friendly rivalries, everyone was genuinely excited about sharing their passions with a new group of Johnnies. Despite the general excitement and high spirits, the club fair seemed haphazard and disorganized. Every club had to share a table due to lack of space, but some of the larger clubs objected to sharing with the smaller ones, needing more room to set up. As an archon of Spanish Club myself, I was left floundering for space until Purls of Wisdom so kindly invited us to share a table with them. Poster making materials were few and far between, and clubs were left scrambling for markers and paper. It did work out in the end, with plenty of shenanigans, as always. The Board Game Club vice archon only found out they were in a leadership position halfway through the fair, there was a healthy amount of bribery, and Bowling Club promised that the 200th person to sign up for the club would get to throw a bowling ball at the archon’s head. The event had a great turnout, and the class of 2028 seemed genuinely interested in getting involved around campus. This year’s club fair was a win for everyone, except, of course, the people pleasers. As one myself, I’d like to offer my condolences and best wishes. Good luck with your inboxes this year! Croquet Imperial Wicket Angus Preston at the club fair. (Photo: Dora Vecoli) Sailing team members at the club fair (Photo: Dora Vecoli) 13 �λόγος THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 Bug Bulletin: Clogmia albipunctata: Drain Fly By Louis Rosenberg Author’s note: I had originally intended to write on this species last year, following an apparent sighting in one of the dorm buildings. When I reached out to one of the building’s residents for comment, they rather rudely told me to not write on the creatures at all, and thus I did not end up submitting an article at that time. However, as the self-appointed Campus Creepy-Crawly Correspondent, I felt then and feel now that the polity deserves to be aware of the small creatures that surround us in our day-to-day lives. When I saw the C. albipunctata specimens described in this article myself in the bathroom under McDowell I decided that I would finally complete and publish the article. I want to be clear that nuisance insects impact everyone at the college — as evidenced by the reappearance of the drain flies — and around the world, but this is no cause for judgement. Many entomologists actively study pest control due to the pervasiveness of infestations and the hardiness of the insect colonies. Please know that when I write about insects like these, I try to do it with utmost respect for both the people impacted and the bugs themselves. Even creatures that are bothersome to us can provide fascinating insights into the animal kingdom. In my articles I strive to raise awareness of that while still acknowledging the negative impacts the insects may have on the humans around them. I spent the weekend before school started in Annapolis trying to finish “War and Peace.” Every so often, I would move locations to help focus and eventually ended up in the McDowell Coffee Shop. I took another break to get a drink of water and go to the bathroom, and I found that the toilets had an interesting surprise, something far more exciting and less disgusting than what you normally see in them: 14 Photo taken by author an adult drain fly was lurking in the bowl, just above the water line! There was no one else in the bathroom, so I decided to peer into the other stalls. One had a drain fly on the door, and the other seemed to be insect-free. Like any good entomologist, I took some pictures to document. The insects appeared to be adult specimens of C. albipunctata, a species belonging to the subfamily Psychodinae, which are collectively known as drain flies due to their propensity for living near water sources that contain decaying organic matter. C. albipunctata itself is commonly known as the bathroom moth fly, the bathroom moth midge, or simply the drain fly. The “moth” part of the common name stems from the appearance of their wings — the wings are large, positioned like a flat triangle over the body, and fuzzy (especially around the margins). This makes the animals, while taxonomically classified as true flies, resemble small moths. C. albipunctata is also known for having white antennae and white spots around the wing margins; these spots are the namesake of its species name, which means “white-dotted.” They can fly, but do so poorly, and thus they are known for taking short, hopping flights. �λόγος THE GADFLY C. albipunctata is very common in warmer regions, and it can feed on a wide assortment of organic matter. While not cold hardy, it can be found in colder regions where larvae may find warm shelter during the winter, and thus its range has expanded from the tropics to around the world. Drain fly infestations often start when water is left to stand for more than a week, making clogged pipes or infrequently used toilets (like those in the coffee shop over the summer) a prime breeding ground. Larvae are rarely seen, as they spend most of their time deeper in the pipes, but they may surface if a drain becomes too backed up. They are worm-like in appearance, usually gray or brown in color, and they have a breathing tube at one end of their body, which enables them to submerge most of their body for long periods of time. September 5, 2024 Steve Nanz, et al. “Species Clogmia Albipunctata Bathroom Moth Fly.” In BugGuide.Net, August 24, 2022. https://bugguide.net/node/view/250015. “Moth Flies.” Missouri Department of Conservation. Accessed August 31, 2024. https://mdc.mo.gov/ discover-nature/field-guide/moth-flies. Entomological News, published by American Entomological Society. 1997, accessed 8/18/2024 through Biodiversity Library (https:// www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16343772). Townsend, Lee. “Drain Flies or Moth Flies.” Department of Entomology. Accessed August 31, 2024. https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef615. While larvae eat refuse material from the drains in which they dwell, adults simply consume flower nectar and water; drain flies are harmless to humans and are not known to be common disease vectors. Adults live for just a couple weeks, and it takes between a week and a month (depending on environmental conditions) for eggs to mature into adults. When in outdoor habitats, drain flies are usually beneficial to other species in the ecosystem — they cleanse decomposing matter from their home but are themselves edible, with the adults being widely consumed by a variety of terrestrial animals. The earlier life stages are also often consumed by aquatic creatures. Personally, while I do appreciate the cleaning capacities of these little guys, when the excitement of seeing one myself wore off, I decided that sitting on the floor of a public bathroom and stick my phone in the toilet bowl for pictures was not particularly hygienic. I went home to shower and wipe down my phone with rubbing alcohol. And eventually I went back to my book. An anti-fly club found in the 1923 yearbook, featuring officers with titles like “Most Excellent Executioner Murray, Tom, David Ferguson, Vox Sciurorum, of the Elusive insect,” “Final Finisher of the Flimsy Chuck Entz, Joshua Stuart Rose, Beatriz Moisset, Fly,” or “Persistent Persecutor of the Pesky Pest.” Sources: 15 �συμπόσιον THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 Our Most Difficult Delight Writing, AI, and the Difficulty of Beauty By Robert Abbo For the past two years, I have written an essay for the Gadfly directed primarily at the freshmen joining the polity. This year I offer a shorter reflection and perhaps there will be more as the year goes on. One of the first Greek sentences you read in the Freshman Language Tutorial is: χαλεπὰ τὰ καλά. “Beautiful things are difficult.” But why should this be so? Why are beautiful things—noble actions, great achievements, lovely works—inherently difficult? If you are reluctant to agree with this statement, remember that the word χαλεπὰ does not necessarily mean “painful, anxiety-inducing, and debilitating.” It is true, certain difficult things are painful, either in their preparation or performance e.g., running a race, dancing in the ballet, or building a house. But when a capacity is being exercised to its utmost, even when the most difficult work is being done, often a kind of delight appears alongside the effort. And it is a special feature of the intellect that when it is most at work, when it is doing what it is meant to do, it enjoys itself. Leisured intellectual activity, of the sort you are invited to undertake here at the college, is difficult, but it should not be, in itself, painful. You should learn to distinguish exhilarating exertion and worthwhile sacrifice from misapplied effort and unnecessary anxiety. If the latter impedes you, do not indulge, but remedy them by changing what you are doing or seeking assistance. For an anatomy of the inherent difficulties found in the scholarly life and the trials you are likely to face in your pursuit of it, I recommend Ms. Brann’s lecture, The Student’s Problem, available in the library. But we still have not answered the question. Why should the beautiful things also be difficult? What does it mean for something to be difficult? I am studying Japanese—by all accounts a difficult language for someone my age to learn—so I have a 16 Student writing, between 1950 and 1960 good example to hand. (You too are probably studying a difficult language.) Last week I was in a hurry to reply to a text, and to make sure I had the right words, I used an online translator. I could read the artificially generated response well enough to know it was more correct than my own attempt had been. I marveled at the ease with which my phone had produced the intended Japanese expression, and later in the day, I felt relieved I had responded as quickly as I had. But my self-congratulation was half-hearted. I was pretending I had accomplished something because I modified the translation, but really I had only been witness to its appearance. I had done no real work. I had not spoken the words. One of the things happening in the world right now is that the inventors of artificial intelligence are marveling at their own creation–a mechanism that produces, often unaccountably to them, a stream of words. I find this embarrassing, on the one hand, and appalling, on the other. Speaking is our most essential activity. Consult Genesis, Aristotle, and the �συμπόσιον THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 have made a machine to replace the very activity that makes us human. Why would anyone be happy to abandon a gift that made them what they were? We hide the fact that this is what we are doing by saying that, as with any other technology, we will use it to do only the unpleasant or difficult tasks that we cannot or do not want to do. One name for the outsourcing of one’s essence is alienation, another, bondage. And now you see why I am asking you to think about what makes something difficult, and to be ready to take on difficult tasks. To speak and to write beautifully is difficult. To be yourself is sometimes difficult; the difficulty is to do something yourself rather than to make someone else do it for you. Speaking and writing are so essential to who you are, that you should disdainfully refuse to hand over the chance to speak or to write in even the smallest task. Rejoice in your grocery list. Politely refuse the suggested expressions of the operating system trying to operate you. Appreciate the extraordinary opportunity it is to write an essay—to organize a world of words and ideas. You may thereby produce or perceive something truly difficult and beautiful yourself. St. John’s President Henry Barnard (1811-1900) Gospel of John: it is the word that makes us human. The origins of language are buried so deep within us it must be the only artifact we cannot be entirely sure is an artifact. If it is a technology, it is the most complicated one we have at our disposal, but surprisingly—and here is the source of my vicarious embarrassment—it is also the most common. Adults already teach children to speak. It has happened billions of times, all over the world. But because we have trained an artificial mechanism to produce speech like ours, we marvel at it, as at an idol. That might sound daunting, especially when you are facing a blank page. It is tempting to let someone or something else do the work, but that kind of false assistance leaves you weaker and worse off than before. There are many people here willing and able to set you going—your tutors and the writing assistants among them—but they will leave you to make your own way and to find your own words, however preliminary, tentative, or homespun. You will soon discover that the written and the spoken word are honored guests here at the college, in whatever rough and ready disguise they might first appear. We give them a place by the fire and our rapt attention, as if they were Athena herself, waiting for the right moment to take flight and reveal what they truly are. The appalling part is that some people are pleased to 17 �συμπόσιον THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 Sicut Cervus: An Analysis By Tarik Mahmud Many of us have heard Sicut Cervus so many times that we do not often think about its musical beauty. Our deep emotional attachment to it has taken hold of us so strongly that a single feeble A flat sends jolts down many of our spines, triggering some kind of instantaneous neurological reaction. And while it is clear to me that it is a very beautiful motet, when I sing it week after week, I sometimes find myself losing track of its beauty as a composition—which is inevitable for any so often repeated practice. Wherefore I would like to engage in an examination of Palestrina’s Sicut Cervus in this article, as complete as I can bear to make it. I will not be going into its sequel Sitivit anima mea, both for brevity’s sake and due to the fact that I am not as familiar with Sitivit as with Sicut. I would also like to forewarn that if I speak of specific pitches, like F or C or Bÿ, I refer to the pitches as originally written. Our Polity sings Sicut transposed up a minor third in pitch in order to accommodate contraltos; but the original key is F, so this is how I will refer to the pitches. With that being said, I will try to avoid this if I can. We begin this motet with a single sustained F (or A flat) in the tenor. The melody which the tenor, the leading voice, sings is a relatively static one to start with—one whole measure1 and a half of the tonic, a little trip on G, then back to the tonic. Only after this do we get a leap to the dominant and a little more flourishing in the melody. This is not a unique formula for the starting melody of a polyphonic motet in this style; in contrast to the more exaggerated subjects of, say, baroque fugues, the starting points of imitation in these compositions ease us gradually into the polyphonic texture. I called the tenor the ‘leading’ voice. In imitative counterpoint, this refers to the voice which begins the melody. Most often in Renaissance polyphony, this is 18 the tenor. The alto here is the first following voice (which term refers to the voices that follow the lead) and enters on the fifth (as is usual in imitation). Normally, the imitation of melodies is strict, at least for the first couple bars or so, and especially at the beginning of a motet—but Palestrina breaks that convention in having the alto leap down a third rather than a fourth (like the tenor), and from thence the alto goes off into free counterpoint2. The reason for this is to accommodate the entering soprano voice. The soprano enters half a measure earlier in relation to the alto than the alto did in relation to the tenor, ___________________________________________ 1 For the sake of convenience I will be speaking of ‘measures’ in this article. In Palestrina’s day, barlines were not used in the notation of vocal music, and any meter was not explicitly marked. This meter did in fact exist, and there are clear upbeats and downbeats—but these upbeats and downbeats were not tallied up like how we do nowadays, with our neatly divided and numbered measures. The only indication of rhythm in Sicut as originally written is the sign C, placed at the beginning. This is a mensuration sign indicating ‘tempus imperfectum cum prolatione minore’, that is to say, that the breve (double whole note) consists of two semibreves (whole notes) (tempus imperfectum), and that a semibreve consists of two minims (half notes) (prolatio minor). This is part of an ancient system for indicating the relative lengths of notes and defining meter: having once been much more complex, by the time of Sicut it was mostly used to indicate duple vs. triple meter. This C symbol appears to be the origin of the modern symbol for ‘common time’. 2 ‘Free counterpoint’ referring to any counterpoint that does not follow a strict rule or ‘canon’. �συμπόσιον THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 builds up to a large climax two measures later, and involves some quite charming parallel thirds—fail to fill sopranos and altos with delight. This climax which I mentioned occurs in the second half of measure 20, after a brilliant little diminution in the soprano; here all four voices come together for a big subdominant chord held for two beats—the only place in the motet where all four voices are static for such a long time (except, of course, the very end). This climax is followed by a sort of deceptive cadence4, though not a very strong one on account of the soprano’s suspension. __________________________________________ Douglas Allanbrook seated at the piano during music tutorial on suspension, between 1952-1959 providing an exciting little flash of light to the growing music. he bass enters in, as is most satisfying for a bass entrance, on a cadence. Specifically, we expect the tenor to drop a fifth from the dominant to the tonic in order to fill the role of the lowest voice at a cadence3, but instead, the bass enters on the tonic, allowing the tenor the opportunity to fill out the third of the chord. Because the bass enters where the tenor was expected to go, the transition is utterly seamless, and this seamlessness is why the bass does not enter on the dominant. During this expository section, we get a beautiful little flourish from the alto, followed by an actual full imitation (at the octave to the tenor’s). At this point there is a notorious voice crossing between the alto and the tenor, which, I believe, has sometimes led altos to accidentally sing the tenor melody briefly. These flourishes are particularly characteristic of this introductory section, their lengthy watery melismatic meandering around like the water-brooks themselves. 3 This ‘role of the lowest voice at a cadence’ consists in a leap from the dominant (scale degree 5) to the tonic (scale degree 1); which can be either upwards or downwards. It is usually performed by the bass, but in upper voice textures, whatever the lowest voice is will do this. 4 Which, by the way, almost includes a dominant seventh, though the tritone (between the alto and tenor) does not resolve as one would expect from a true V7 chord, both voices moving in parallel fourths, which is not too unusual for the time. There is a tritone at measure 27, however, that does resolve this way: but it is not a full cadence there. I could imagine a particularly licentious editor adding an editorial accidental to the tenor’s offending note, thus removing the tritone altogether: such accidentals were sometimes implied by the composer without being explicitly written. If, in a modern edition, you see accidentals placed above notes instead of next to them, that indicates that the accidental was added by the editor, and is not present in the original source. I have not seen any editions of Sicut with this edit, however, and this tritone is certainly brief enough that it is not necessary to remove it, and a good editor probably wants to avoid unnecessary edits. Interestingly, though, the tritone in measure 27 is a result of one of these editorial accidentals in the tenor. In measure 17, we get our first full cadence with all four voices, followed by a little series of parallel thirds in the upper two voices. I have never seen this series— which is a refreshing start after a cadence, 19 �συμπόσιον THE GADFLY The “ita” section begins with a light cadence, omitting the bass on the ultima, and a most memorable phrase from the alto (can you guess what my favorite part is?). This is followed by a new point of imitation, beginning in the bass this time. In measure 27 we get a wonderful tritone resolution, though it falls short of being a complete dominant seventh chord, instead being a simple diminished chord5. The soprano and bass sing in parallel tenths for a measure, which, I am somewhat embarrassed to say, I had not previously realized. I cannot quite discern the intention of this series of parallels; both the previous one and the next are part of a large build -up, but this one is decidedly in a very mellow section. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that it sounds somehow excellently placed—perhaps it attains this by being a playful little moment of camaraderie between the two voices. The subject of imitation becomes familiar to the listener, most notably through the bass’s repetition of September 5, 2024 it on the tonic. Amidst the interweaving polyphonic texture, this singular voice is not altogether too noticeable, but it eases its way into the listener enough for it to become surprising when it changes. In measure 37, the tenor begins its imitation on the same note on which the bass has been doing so, pretending, as it were, to be a bass—but the bass then enters a fifth lower, bringing a sudden and unexpected warmth with another subdominant chord. This is followed by the first instance of the “anima mea” melody, in the soprano, then in the alto at the lower fourth one measure later. This occurs simultaneously with a splendid upwards series of parallel thirds between the bass and tenor; all this coming together to make, in my opinion, the most sublime moment of the whole motet; and I trust that others are at least subconsciously of the same opinion, because whenever we have sung this, there is a great crescendo from every corner of every voice. __________________________________________ __________________________________________ 5 I would like to elaborate on this interesting dissonance further. It is not very thoroughly prepared or resolved, by usual sixteenth century standards. Here is how the dissonance is achieved and how it is resolved. We start with a D minor sixth chord on the third beat of measure 26: F in the bass, D in the tenor, F in the soprano. Bass and tenor move in parallel sixths so that the bass has a passing E in relation to the soprano; the tenor has a fourth with the soprano. The bass moves to a D to resolve the dissonance with the soprano, but this makes it dissonant with the C in the tenor: so the bass moves down again, to a C in octave with the tenor. But this is once again dissonant with the soprano (who holds an F this entire time), so it is treated as a neighbor tone and ascends back up to a D. But this is once again dissonant with the tenor, so the tenor’s C is treated as a suspension in relation to the bass’s D, and resolves to a B; in all editions it is a B flat rather than a B sharp (mi rather than fa), and this is what creates the tritone with the F fa in the soprano. In the editions of the Freshman and Sophomore music manuals, this is written as a normal accidental, but it is an editorial one, and not in the original score (which can be accessed here: http:// tiny.cc/GadflySicut). I suppose the reason for adding this accidental is that the editors noticed that this is a cadence on C, and figured that the tenor note needed to be raised in order to make a major sixth with the bass, something which is generally 20 required in cadences (cf. Zarlino’s Istitutioni Harmoniche, III.liii): even though it makes a dissonance with the soprano; for this reason Zarlino advises against such accidentals, as they lead “to countless errors as well as offense to the ear” (ibid. III.xlv). This dissonance could theoretically be justified as a neighbor tone, but this would be to ignore the fact that it doesn’t sound remotely like one. The bass and soprano resolve in contrary motion. The reason I’ve gone over each of the parts in detail is to show the general attitude of Renaissance voice leading. I have started and ended this analysis by naming chords (the D minor sixth and the B diminished sixth), but between these I have simply listed every note in every voice. This is because, though it is sometimes possible to analyze Renaissance polyphony with chords, in places such as this it is improper and futile. For each of the dissonances encountered here and their resolution is between two voices only: the bass’s dissonant D is dissonant only with the tenor, but is consonant with the soprano: and when it resolves to C, it resolves for the tenor but enters into a neighbor dissonance with the soprano. All this is to say that to treat these dissonances as being ‘non-chord tones’ in some otherwise uniform progression of chords is impossible, and this is the nature of Renaissance counterpoint. A four voice texture is, in reality, six simultaneous two-voice textures, each of which individually follow the rules of counterpoint without regard for the other voices. �συμπόσιον THE GADFLY What more is there to say? The “anima mea” section is the cataractic fall before the pool, as Ms. Paalman so exquisitely put it. There is a subtle difference in this section compared to the one before it, which is barely noticeable, but makes all the difference in its effect. This has less to do with the music itself: the imitation in this section is itself quite similar to that in the “ita”, and more to do with the words. The great difference lies in the word “anima”, which begins with an open vowel: this open vowel makes each repetition of the word stand out. In contrast to the close vowel of “ita”, which creeps up on the music sneakily, this open vowel allows for the first syllable of “anima” to really fill out and make its presence known in this final section; the sonorant Ns and Ms add to this. This attention to the phonetics of the text is something that Palestrina has a clear mastery over. Note, for instance, how the T of “ita” often coincides with another voice’s D in “desiderat”, and the affricative C against S between the alto and soprano in measure 4. It’s not consistent enough to be any sort of rule, but it is noticeable when it happens, and very pleasing. I can’t say that there is any “anima mea” in this section that does not fill me with profound emotion: and particularly the tenor’s entrance in measure 51; I would also like to shout out the alto’s melody in the preceding measure which culminates in a Dorian plagal cadence. We get our big cadence in measures 54-55, which is subverted as a deceptive cadence by the bass’s D, which initiates the final coda, which consists of a soaring imitation between the leading bass and following alto, with the tenor in free counterpoint, all beneath a soprano tonic pedal. It ends with a plagal cadence in the Ionian mode6. I cannot recall the first time I ever sang Sicut. I imagine it was probably towards the beginning of freshman year in St. John’s Chorus, with me stumbling around trying to discern and keep up with what the basses were singing, having really no clue what was going on. Three years later, I can probably September 5, 2024 sing the bass part in my sleep and have somewhat learned all of the other parts as well. I don’t want to think that there will be a last time I sing Sicut. There will be a last time this year, the last time as a St. John’s undergrad—but I shall consider this only a pause before the next time I sing Sicut, which, I like to think, will inevitably come. I am not sure I’ll be able to adequately sing my last Sicut as a St. John’s undergrad, for I fear a lachrymose sort of reaction will take place to hinder me. But I will greatly cherish every Sicut sing this year; I will try to soak in every note,every consonance and every dissonance. It is hard to say what in me has grown the most in my time here at St. John’s; every part of my soul, I think, has become more intricate and more florid while I’ve been here, like a fractal continually proceeding—but I do know that among the greatest of these elaborations has been my musical journey, the beginning and end of which being Sicut Cervus. A pair of glasses on the Elements of Music manual ________________________________________ 6 This is a very common formula in Renaissance polyphony—a primary cadence where the soprano reaches the tonic, holding it above the other voices as they come to a plagal cadence (i.e. a IV-I cadence) on the tonic; an authentic cadence is, of course, impossible against the soprano’s tonic. This period between the soprano’s cadence and the other voices’ plagal cadence is called the coda. This formula is mostly used in the Dorian and Aeolian modes, often accompanied by a final suspension that resolves to a Picardy third. Here, however, we see it in the Ionian mode, which is slightly less common. Because of the deceptive cadence followed by the coda, there is no authentic cadence to speak of at the end of Sicut: this is intentional, because this is not really the end of the motet. The second part, Sitivit anima mea, does indeed end on an authentic cadence, marking the true end of the motet. 21 �THE GADFLY πόλις A Call to Reform Prank By Louis Rosenberg I’m here to suggest some reforms for an enduring tradition of St. John’s: Senior Prank. I’ve had these issues on my mind throughout my time at St. John’s, and now that I am, in fact, a senior, I hope that I can finally present these concerns without being shut down by my peers. While I strongly value Prank’s role in our community, I still believe it is worth discussing ways in which certain aspects of the tradition can be harmful. I specifically wish to address the different way Prank Committee is treated during the DC budgeting process, as well as a known tradition of Prank: alcohol consumption in the classroom immediately following the adjournment of seminar. To start, anyone familiar with the Delegate Council (DC) budgeting process will note that it’s a regimented procedure. Clubs first submit spreadsheets with their planned expenditures during the budgeting season. Line items must be specific — if a club is planning a party, they are advised to have not just one line item for that event, but instead figure out the specific costs of food, decorations, and so on, and put those as line items. These budgets are then September 5, 2024 sent out for DC members to review, and a budget hearing is held with a club representative in attendance to provide more detail on specific items or answer other questions as necessary. Every club at St. John’s follows this procedure, and many archons sometimes end up not being fully reimbursed for the costs of running their club. As Insect Farming archon, for example, I have spent some of my own money in the past to cover small price changes in budgeted-for items or urgent purchases which we could not have foreseen — going to the DC to request a line item adjustment can be too time-consuming for purchases which are timesensitive (in our case, those relating to animal care). We attempt to avoid excessive overbudgeting, which may be scrutinized in subsequent budgeting seasons, so this is in some ways a balancing act. Still, I find these standards fairly reasonable to prevent abuse of the budgeting system, especially seeing as every club is subject to these same intricacies and restrictions — well, every club except Prank. Prank initially follows the same procedure as other clubs, except their line items in the initial budgets are typically satirical. During Prank’s budget hearing, a game is made of asking for absurd things and then cutting them down to a more reasonable request of funds, while also not newly specifying what items the funds will be spent on. The invocation to an opere a performed as part of prank in 1972, as well as a stage direction from a skit that followed. 22 �πόλις THE GADFLY The justification for this is that this approach preserves the secrecy of Prank. Prank’s receipts are still required at the end of the year for verification, though they are given their budget as a lump-sum, unlike any other clubs, and receipts are simply checked to ensure they list the item purchased, the vendor from which it was purchased. While other archons will have to request an additional hearing or take a hit to their personal finances by going over budget on any specific item, Prank does not have such concerns, because they do not have specific items. From my observations, however, it seems that this procedure also tacitly permits money laundering. Clubs cannot buy alcohol with funds from the DC; this has been stipulated by the administration and is included in club charters, including Prank’s. The restriction on alcohol purchases applies even to clubs who wish to use alcohol for religious reasons — such clubs are generally granted permission to have alcohol at their events, but the alcohol must be paid for by club members. It is my understanding that in past years’ Prank, tshirts were purchased using funding the club receives from the DC. These t-shirts were then sold to students in advance of the event, with the proceeds used to purchase alcohol which is then distributed in seminar classrooms for free during Prank. It is generally understood that the t-shirt sales fund alcohol purchases. In fact, during last year’s Prank, after a large quantity of alcohol intended for Prank was confiscated, some of my peers complained that they purchased a t-shirt but may not receive free alcohol as expected. To be clear, I’m not some kind of puritan when it comes to alcohol or drugs; I certainly understand wanting to be intoxicated, and I also recognize that many people drink alcohol safely and responsibly. But bringing alcohol into classrooms in this way is fundamentally problematic. Even aside from the illegality of providing alcohol to minors, offering alcohol in a classroom setting should simply not be September 5, 2024 normalized. Seminar is, like all St. John’s classes, mandatory, and alcohol consumption during Prank typically begins immediately after the tutors leave the seminar classroom (as the auditorium, where the larger kickoff event occurs, is more closely monitored by Public Safety). There is not always a subtle way to leave the classroom prior to this. A person who wishes to avoid alcohol can reasonably decide not to attend parties where alcohol will be present; they cannot reasonably avoid class, nor should they need to. For people who are recovering from substance misuse, avoiding alcohol and other intoxicants altogether may be an important part of their early recovery. But there are also other reasons someone might not want to be around alcohol, and al, because there simply is no good reason to bring alcohol into a classroom setting. I write this as a 20-year-old who has already attended St. John’s for three full years. I’m well aware that alcohol (and cigarettes and weed) are frequently made available to minors through their older peers. For those over 21, there’s a multitude of liquor stores and smoke shops (and a dispensary) within walking distance from campus. Still, the availability of alcohol to the polity is in no way a case for allowing alcohol to be purchased and distributed in the way it tacitly is now. In fact, it’s nearly the opposite. If everyone who wants to drink will already be getting drunk with their friends later in the evening, what reason is there to also bring large quantities of alcohol (purchased, again, through what is at best a loophole in school policy) in the classroom setting? Thus, I propose the polity consider the benefits of limiting Prank’s special treatment in two ways. First, Prank should be required to provide an itemized list of their intended purchases prior to making them. I understand that, due to the secretive nature of Prank, the Prank Committee may deem it important for that list to be kept private. 23 �πόλις THE GADFLY Therefore, I propose that the list be either (a) provided to the DC Treasurer, if they are a senior or approved by Prank Committee, or (b) if the DC Treasurer is an underclassman, provided to a DC Officer of the senior class or to a Senior Delegate, selected by the DC Treasurer. If the person who is provided the itemized list has specific apprehensions about it, they could then privately discuss those concerns with the Prank Committee and even bring them up during Prank’s budget hearing if the concerns are not able to be resolved in private. Prank would then be audited like any other club at the end of the semester or the year. (Because Prank’s budget is typically divided across two semesters for the DC’s benefit, even though the bulk of their purchases are made in the spring, I do think it would still be reasonable to roll any unspent funds from the fall into their available funds for the following semester, so long as any items which will be purchased are declared beforehand.) Second, those affiliated with Prank should stop bringing alcohol into classrooms. There is no good reason to bring alcohol into a class, especially when so many people will get drunk on their own later that night. There is often significant peer pressure to stay in the room following seminar’s adjournment for Prank, especially as skits and activities are often performed with the whole class. The alcohol and drug culture at St. John’s is, as at many colleges, often unhealthy. Leaving alcohol out of the classroom is one easy step towards ensuring all students feel comfortable going to classes. Author’s note: After I had written this article, I spoke with a current member of Prank Committee who assured me that no DC funding will be (even indirectly) used to supply alcohol this year. I decided to preserve my article as an expression of concern about how Prank has been run in the past, but I also want to express appreciation for the active role that this year’s Prank Committee is taking in addressing concerns such as these, and make it clear that these concerns may not (and hopefully will not) apply to this year’s Prank. 24 September 5, 2024 �πόλις THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 the truth-hunters By Natalie Goldman Don’t get carried away When the truth-hunters come. They want to snatch you up And stuff you in that horrible canvas bag To live alongside their little fragments and splinters Of Frankness, Verity, and Candor. When the truth-hunters come You need to hide, For you are worth more than every crumb, Combined or standing in solitude. How do I know? Your substance—the stuff that gives you Shape and structure and being, That runs in your blood And makes up your bones— Is Beauty, And nothing else. 25 �THE GADFLY πόλις September 5, 2024 You’ve Got Mail x2 By Caleb Briggs This year marked the end of private mailboxes at St. John’s and the beginning of mail folders. Students receiving letters and magazines must now go through the same process as those receiving a large package. This means that now any letter addressed to a student at the college arrives and is processed by the mailroom. The letters are then sorted into a folder with an assigned number, and an e-mail is then generated to alert a student via their St. John’s email account that they have a magazine or a letter waiting in that folder. The student must then go to the package room in the basement of Humphrey’s Hall during its business hours (Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m.noon and 1:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m.) and ask for their mail at a counter. The challenges this poses should be readily apparent: in summary, everyone will have to jump through more hoops than before. To start, the system generates more messages regarding mail than ever before. Every time mail arrives, an e-mail must be sent to its recipient informing them of its arrival. Now, in addition to the chore of sorting mail, the mailroom workers must also generate an e-mail and note down the mail’s collection upon the student picking it up, tasks previously only required for larger packages. In addition to having to go pick up their mail (a chore few people, especially receivers of junk mail, relish), students are faced with yet another e-mail. You’re telling me I now receive mail to inform me that I have mail? Absurd! The system appears to be no better than a 21st- century imitation of the post horn used to herald the arrival of the post-coaches of old. 26 Post Horn. Image Credit: Merriam-Webster Now that we have extra steps on both sides, there is also the challenge of the business hours. Coming from coastal Maine and having lived through the pandemic, I am no stranger to weird and annoying post office hours. Even in the great Capital of Annapolis, our local post office is not open on weekends. But even many rural and understaffed post offices maintain a bank of P.O. boxes for those who cannot or do not receive mail at home to come and pick up their mail at their leisure. While packages must generally be picked up during business hours, P.O. boxes are often accessible 24/7. St. John’s has a similar and wonderful system: the package pod. Upon receiving an e-mail that their package has been placed in the pod, students are free to pick it up at their leisure. Granted, they still should not leave it there for days on end, but it does allow them to swing by during lunch or after seminar, if those times are more convenient for them. Mailboxes in McDowell used to afford the same luxury of patience to letter recipients. There was no pressure and no detour necessary if one wanted to get their mail on their way through campus; a mail run could work with any schedule. Now, it is more convenient to get a package from Amazon than to receive a letter from one’s parents. Likewise, a student must hand any outgoing mail to the mailroom instead of popping it in the slot that used to be in the coffee shop’s wall. They could go down to the mailboxes throughout town, but again, that is one more step than we used to have to take. �πόλις THE GADFLY Sending and receiving intra-campus mail used to also be painless. The main thing frequently sent across campus are the scored algebra tests that must be taken before jJunior year. For those of us who perhaps had to take the test more than once to get a passing score, the anonymity of one’s mailbox was a godsend. With the old mailboxes, one didn’t have a queue of peers behind them, many of whom may be there for the same thing and thus inclined to excitedly ask “what’d you get?” when the appropriate answer is “nothing good.” People who work in the mailroom are frequently classmates and friends, and it is no fun to watch them extract a bill marked “PAST DUE” and hand it to you. September 5, 2024 replacement for a physical card from grandma or a letter from a friend miles away. We at St. John’s are a tactile bunch, and physical media is near and dear to many of our hearts. A Kindle will never be a substitute for a book, and an e-mail will never be a substitute for a letter. We live in a world that is increasingly online and isolated. All manners of things are already communicated electronically, and the fatigue of constantly being on a phone or computer is very real. A book or note can be a brief refuge from the demands of devices. St. John’s is one of the last places of learning and living where the packing list can categorize a computer as “optional.” Few things these days seem simple. Why complicate one more? So, what is a good alternative? The mailboxes aren’t coming back and having a package-pod style interface for regular mail both seems silly and wouldn’t solve the e-mail issue. A good middle ground could be reached by having an optional sign up for those of us who receive mail regularly to have access to a small bank of mailboxes on campus. Not everyone would want this and most would not need this, but for those who find a trip to the package room inconvenient or incompatible with their working hours, it seems a good compromise. I close with an appeal to the simple things, something snail mail is the poster-boy of. Inboxes at St. John’s are already inundated with exhortations, calls, Postcard showing much of St. John’s campus, ca. 1913 demands, queries, announcements, electronic Gadflies, and junk; adding yet another e-mail to come along a few times a week is not greatly appreciated. E -mail has failed to fully supplant postal mail despite the predictions of tech bros pre-Dot Com Bubble. Part of the reason for that is that there is no good 27 �πόλις THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 AM Radio: First Week Thoughts Welcome back to campus Johnnies. And welcome freshmen, you may not yet be Johnnies, but don’t fret—in a few weeks most of you will be. There is a decidedly odd air about campus this week. Perhaps it has something to do with the unseasonal cold followed by seasonal thunderstorms, or the low roar of the cicadas, or maybe it’s to do with the changes around campus. Campbe—I mean Edensword, is now finished and filled with an indeterminate number of students, half of whom can’t even enter the building. The coffee shop remains unmoved, and the bookstore exists in a strange sort of bricked up limbo, and the new faculty room remains inaccessible to students except to linger by the windows, sorrowfully looking in. Or perhaps it has to do with the new makeup of students. A hundred fresh faces, popping up around every corner—and to the freshman make that several hundred. The now-graduated class of seniors are gone, well most of them anyways, and their absence leaves a vacuum of culture. The freshmen present an intriguing unknown—what, who, how will they do? The juniors have all but completely abandoned the dorms. The sophomores partake in excess but without finesse, and the seniors have seen the light at the end of the tunnel. The vibes are strange and off-putting, but yet...there is an air of optimism. Who knows what will happen? The year is young and there is much to do, much to think about, and many, many cigarettes to smoke. Will it be the same as years past? Of course not. Will things change? They always do. So, my fair and foul weather friends, how shall we make the best of it? This piece has been brought to you by the album Narrow Stairs by Death Cab for Cutie. Coffee Shop scene, ca. 1960 28 �THE GADFLY πόλις September 5, 2024 Dorm Cooking: Mug Pizza By Marit Hendrickson Welcome to the joys of living in the dorms! While college life has a lot to offer, fantastamazing dining hall food is not one you’ll find. Unfortunately, eating out often eats into one’s budget, so what are you to do when you have a craving for more than what SJC has to offer? What happens when you’re starving but the dining hall is closed? The answer is cooking in your room! Steps Learning a few staple recipes that don’t need much more than a microwave and a mug is a great way to start feeding yourself on a dime. That’s where these quick and easy dorm cooking recipes come in. They only take a handful of ingredients, a microwave to pop it into, and are ready in a few minutes! And they taste pretty rootin’ tootin’ delicious to boot! For my first installment in providing delicious and easy recipes to the masses of starving johnnies, I present, 4. Sprinkle on the cheese, dried seasonings, and toppings of your choice. 1. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a microwavable mug. 2. Add in the milk and oil, then mix. There might be some lumps but that is okay. 3. Spoon the marinara onto the dough and spread it around the surface. 5. Microwave for 1 minute to 1 minute and 20 seconds, or until it rises and the toppings are bubbling. 6. Enjoy straight away! MUGÊPIZZA Ingredients 4 Tablespoons flour 2/8 teaspoon baking powder 1/8 teaspoon salt 3 Tablespoon milk 1 Tablespoon olive oil 1 Tablespoon marinara sauce Three Johnnies seated with bowls of food. 1+ Tablespoon shredded mozzarella cheese ½ teaspoon dried basil or oregano Either 5 mini-peperoni or 5 cashews 29 �πόλις THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 Μουσειον Poetry and Madness: “Howl” as a Lesson for the Creative By Gabriela Forte “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness…” These are the opening lines to Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl.” Yet what exactly has driven this generation mad? There seems to exist a madness wrought upon us by a society plaguing our world with war and suffering and conformity, a madness that has been so deeply engrained in us that we believe it is part of our psyche, and not a consequence of our hypnotized participation. where one loses meter and tone and simply feels pity. Every single one of these poetry “styles” seems to depend on this idea of total insanity and/or hopelessness, to the point where the question arises: are we amping up the state of our own despair for a poem? Once we have bathed in our own imaginary crazy, where is the line drawn? When does it no longer become an exaggerated act but an actual way of living? I don’t think much has changed since the 1956 publication of “Howl.” It’s why I find it so essential that we read and understand the poem properly. I think we are still going mad. I think we have made our madness more palatable, more desirable, and more mainstream, but I believe it is still a response to the concrete-hearted Moloch described in this poem nearly seventy years ago, the demon that drives these people mad with hopelessness to the point of destitution, “yacketayakking screaming vomiting whispering facts and memories and anecdotes and eyeball kicks and shocks of hospitals and jails and wars.” The place where this deception appears clearest is in the same medium that Ginsberg used to warn us of its evil: poetry. Ultimately, I believe that for many, poetry has become a collection of aesthetics and poorly ordered phrases intending to evoke the feeling that one is reading poetry rather than the feelings within the poem itself. It is perceived as a feature of the craft, not a deep infection the art has fallen victim to, born of a loss of imagination and a romanticization of our own neuroses. This is not to say that you should not write poetry. You absolutely should. But give it direction. Give it purpose. Give it voice. Your own voice. But do not let it fall victim to Moloch. Do not contribute to the wheel that keeps us crazy as long as it keeps spinning. Everyone is a poet these days. With such a heavy focus on what poetry looks like, it becomes quite hard to discern the intention behind the words. It feels as though there are different aesthetic camps that have arisen, where the illusion of voices can be distinguished. There is the camp of writers so preoccupied with images that there seems to be no message behind the endless depictions of pomegranates and cigarettes and the Catholic God. There are the Rupi Kaur types that spit out a collection of line breaks and phrases that feel more like a thought than a poem. There are the poets who detail their own psychological torment to the point 30 I believe the only way out is to read “Howl,” and to read it for what it is trying to say, not for the images. It is not a revelry in insanity. It is not a how-to guide for the beat poet. It is not a checklist to reach the purest intellectual salvation. It is a raw and disillusioning work that demonstrates the consequences of a world that is literally driving us mad. These great minds have “presented themselves on the granite steps of the madhouse with shaven heads and harlequin speech of suicide, demanding instantaneous lobotomy, /and…were given instead the concrete void of insulin Metrazol electricity hydrotherapy psychotherapy occupational therapy pingpong & amnesia.” They are not role models. They are a warning. �πόλις THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 It seems that we have internalized this hysteria, behaving as though it is a part of us, something dirty and mysterious, something to include in our selfpublished chapbooks that nobody can tell apart. I believe the more we lean into glamorizing the ways in which Moloch has captured us, the longer we will smoke our cigarettes and bemoan our lost loves and be oblivious to the gravity of the lunacy that, due to its attractiveness, we have voluntarily checked ourselves into. This confusion is not glamorous. It is not romantic. It is to be fought against. We are all creatives of some sort, and as creatives, I find it vital that we continue in our journeys of artistic exploration. Read “Howl” and read it as a cautionary. Be warned of Moloch. It is not your friend. Do not bask in your own insanity, choosing to write derivative poetry about it, a lunatic in the asylum of our own minds “where we hug and kiss the United States under our bedsheets the United States that coughs all night and won’t let us sleep.” Instead, work to discover and condemn what exactly it was that drove you mad to begin with. 31 �THE GADFLY πόλις Restaurant Review: Luna Blue By Molly Sprout I was met with deep blue walls, white brick, and the smell of garlic when I walked into Luna Blu. Luna Blu is an Italian restaurant tucked away on West Street, about a five-minute walk from campus. I’ll be honest, my expectations were not particularly high. Annapolis is not the spot to go for authentic Italian cuisine, as you might know. But it’s my birthday and my boyfriend decided to take me to Luna Blu. For $48 dollars you can get an appetizer, a salad, an entree, and a dessert. This is enticing to us as we can’t always afford to have multiple meals a day and like to go big when we can get some good food. We both decide to get the full four course meal and are ready to eat more than we should. Our server was a kind and tall man, who is courteous and understanding when we take just over 15 minutes before deciding on appetizers and drinks. For the first course we got the crab bruschetta and the calamari. He warns us about the calamari, it is not like the traditional appetizer, battered and fried. Am I slightly offended about being warned about the non-greasy calamari? A little bit. But when it comes out, it is indeed fresh squid covered in a balsamic tomato sauce. The calamari has a rich sauce, overwhelming the flavor of the actual squid. This isn’t necessarily a problem, with the actual calamari becoming a vessel to eat more of the sauce. The sauce is salty and deeply colored and really does leave you wanting more. The crab bruschetta appears to be a crab dip served baked on top of bread. While the crab tastes fresh, the bread is too crunchy and a bit much in the mouth. Both appetizers are good, but the calamari were something I would order again. The next course is the salads; both of us order Caesar. A Caesar salad is something I have high expectations for. Its simplicity begs for perfection, and for the most part, I was not disappointed. The dressing is rich and creamy, and though to some it may have 32 September 5, 2024 been overdressed, but it really was good dressing. However, the croutons were not great. They lacked seasoning and tasted like a crunchy shortbread cookie. Otherwise, a great Caesar. Now for the entrees. We decided on the salmon with spinach, along with the veal of Aosta. The salmon with spinach is one of the best things I have ever eaten. This dish is baked salmon on top of sauteed spinach topped with fresh crab and a cream sauce, and it, surprisingly, is not lacking at all in salt and flavor. The cream sauce delivers what salmon cannot and the crab adds something I never would have thought was necessary. The spinach is light to a quite heavy dish and all in all, there is nothing I would change about this entree. The other entree, the veal, was not my favorite. It is veal overtop red sauce angel hair pasta topped with fontina and prosciutto. It was good, and maybe it was the fish entree that made this dish seem lacking, but it was nothing to really celebrate. The veal was under seasoned and slightly tough, and the prosciutto did not add much but more salt. While fontina was a good choice of cheese, being rich and pungent and capable of making up for smaller flavors, it did not compensate enough. That isn’t to say that it was a bad dish, but I probably would not order it again. Finally, we had dessert. We ordered a tiramisu and the apple strudel. Tiramisu is one of my favorites, but the apple strudel with a side of vanilla ice cream absolutely blew us away. It was warm and tasted like an apple donut. I could not get enough of it. I am infrequently a pastry person, but I would happily order it again. The tiramisu was also good, with chocolate chips in the mascarpone that added something unexpected to the texture. With a bill of 150 dollars for two four-course meals and four drinks, we were full and happy. They have large portions and enough to take home if you don’t stuff your face like we did. The environment was good, filled with other couples and happy chatter. The service was professional and warm, and the food was amazing. �πόλις THE GADFLY THIS MONTH IN HOROSCOPES (THE WASH, RINSE, REPEAT ISSUE) BIRTH, DEATH, REBIRTH, ETC, ETC WITH MADAME QUIZNOS After a year away at a spiritual retreat in Sedona, your beloved campus psychic is back with a sunburn and more messages from the stars ARIESÊ(MarchÊ21–AprilÊ19)Ê As August begins, the new moon will be entering Leo just as Venus is leaving it. Since Leo is your sister sign, this means that your passion and lust for life will be reignited, and what’s more Aries than a challenge? The bloat is getting worse. You feel swollen and shaky, too hot and too cold. This overlaps with the sun entering your sixth house. By this point, it's already happened. The small, red creature has your exact face. It crawled out of you one night after a particularly grueling bout of cramping, but finally, it’s free. You look into your own eyes as you watch the creature paw at your chest, its hunger is unending. Your whole body aches, you haven’t slept in weeks. You’re so tired, Lord. You can’t let it starve, something about this thing awakens an empathy within yourself you didn’t know you could feel. It suckles your fingers;, rows of sharp and endless teeth draw blood from sensitive digits. It’s growing every day. You’re becoming anemic. Maybe things would have been different if you had someone who loved you like this. Maybe this is a form of wish fulfillment, or a sick type of selfcare, you are killing yourself to feed this new youit’s more beautiful than anyone outside of yourself will ever know. September 5, 2024 on their way to eternity. Names and death dates are the only thing that distinguish them. Two dozen matching wooden urns drift along the strait in silence. Funeral home owner Reuben Huston waits for the small boat to approach the Golden Gate Bridge, anchoring under the roar of cars above. He tosses flower petals into the water below, says a quick prayer and begins opening the urns. Hundreds of people, left behind because they don’t have anyone, or because it’s simply too expensive to claim them, are dumped into the sea, mixed together in a thick gray paste before dissolving into the depths. He can’t think about who he’s holding for too long, the mystery is too great and the answers too upsetting. His assistant’s hands shake, not from emotion or hunger, but just the sheer magnitude of it all as he cuts open the plastic bag, containing all that remains of ‘J Martinez, Sept. 8, 2023’. J Martinez is emptied on top of a ‘H Marshall’, the two become one as they splash up against the side of the small boat. Mr. Huston says it’s best to lower the ashes to the water to avoid blowback, his assistant obliges. It’s a quiet affair, sometimes they play music, sometimes they just listen to the waves. Next month, the routine repeats, business as usual. Welcome back to school, Taurus. TAURUS (AprilÊ20–MayÊ20) After a year and one month, the unclaimed dead of San Francisco are finally put to rest. People as young as 18 and as old as 99, all strangers in life, sit side by side, stacked atop each other on big wooden pallets Ptolemaic Universe. Photo: the Astrological Explorer 33 �πόλις THE GADFLY GEMINI (MayÊ21–JuneÊ20) “MERCY! FATHER!” cries Berryman, bleeding out into his own dream song. We must extend empathy to our dear old dads, which is easier said than done, yet here we are. Why do you think so many men are inclined to run, Gemini? It must be frightening, being suddenly cast into the role of father. To now be christened protector, mentor and provider. Your lover is filled by a needy tumor, you feel it contort and expand inside her. It’s grotesque. Expectations are frightening. How can a child raise a child? Do you think you ever really stop feeling like a child? Will you wake up one day, your baby at your side and finally know that you are now a man? It’s crazy to think that all the pain and poison you fill yourself with in your lifetime oozes into your babies. Maybe it’s merciful to leave them, to spare them your pain — that doesn’t feel right. We’re learning that every style of parenting produces fucked up, emotionally stunted children. Maybe arrested development is just a natural part of life. CANCERÊÊ(JuneÊ21–JulyÊ22) This Mercury retrograde combined with Venus in Virgo has not been kind to you, Crab. You need a firm reset. When was the last time you thought about the all-consuming rot? To eat and be eaten feels both grotesque and perfectly balanced. Is it selfpreservation that makes you fear the decay? It’s a popular practice in Buddhism to picture yourself dying through nine phases; I believe this could greatly benefit you, Cancer. Peel back the layers of your physical body. Can you imagine skin sliding off? Is it a slide or a melt? Maybe it’s not that graphic at all, maybe it’s just there one minute and gone the next. It’s muscle under that. Then bones and fat and organs, all sliding away till you’re left with 45 miles of nerves. That part is what you are completely, sans religious or metaphysical arguments. It’s not a clean fade; your body is gross and wet. You’ll change colors at least five times before anything starts falling off. The bloat is also vicious. All your blood pools down, your skin is one huge, angry bruise, if you’re 34 September 5, 2024 lucky enough to die on your back. You eventually soften, rigor mortis seems uncalled for, but I guess the energy needs to be burned off somehow. How much can you change before you no longer recognize yourself? Your body is so nourishing, the land thanks you in its own quiet way. A vulture is an angel in its own right. There is peace in lying on the grass, you are held in a way nothing else could ever bring itself to hold you. You physically become one with the dirt as you leak into the soil. Nasty, Cancer, nasty. LEOÊ(JulyÊ23–AugÊ22) Do you think it’s cold outside your body? There’s a long line in darkness. Bureaucracy is hell, but this doesn’t feel like it. You don’t know if you’re sure what hell would even feel like. The ticket ticker ticks. You get in line behind a deer, insides popped over the hood of a Toyota RAV4,limbs twisted into uncomfortable positions. You take a number. The sun has grown so very, very old watching over zigzagging security tape. Do you hear the lobby music, Leo? The ticket ticker ticks. The line moves slowly, the shuffling of ten thousand feet grate like sandpaper along the floor. Behind you is a swarm of wasps, smelling strongly of pesticides and struggling to see which one of them will get to hold the little paper deli ticket. There are hundreds more behind you now, you haven’t even been dead for five minutes. The ticket ticker ticks. The statistics are frightening. You don’t see many other people around you, maybe a few lines ahead? It’s hard to see, the sun gets in your eyes. You watch the inky blackness from the windows. You’re realizing you don’t really know where you are. The ticket ticker ticks. You look at your number, it’s going to be a long wait. The carpet smells heavily of dust and Ffabuloso. Lead paint flakes off into your eyes as you look up. The building swallows up the music it produces, it’s an aimless tune, maybe ‘Men at Work?’ The ticket ticker ticks. VIRGOÊ(AugÊ23–SeptÊ22) Due to a scheduling error, Virgo’s reading will be postponed till the next issue. �πόλις THE GADFLY LIBRAÊ(SeptÊ23–OctÊ22) September 5, 2024 Coming back to school we are greeted with not only a full moon, but also a blue moon AND a supermoon all on the same night. This is CRAZY! Your plans will be disrupted, and combined with the current Mercury retrograde, I suggest laying low at home for a while. This is the perfect time for some solid introspection! Do you think your parents were ever truly in love, Libra? Your father must have seemed charming at one point, and your mother pretty and captivating. They must have thought the other refreshing at some point. Something new, something different. Do you think they were afraid of the commitment that the other presented? Or were they just happy to have someone to claim as their own? Do you think people are ever really happy together? Or is it just some sort of relief at meeting an arbitrarytimeline laid out for their lives. Is it better to be punctual or completely seen? Do your parents see each other? Did they ever? And is it more upsetting to think that they never truly did, or that at one point they really were meant for each other? It’s weird to think that you can be made for someone- that you can understand and empathize with their whole being for a brief time before losing that sense of solidarity completely. Maybe they had you before they realized that they had outgrown the people they were when they fell in love. Maybe you were the catalyst. Maybe that is ok. It doesn’t feel ok, but what can you do? On second thought, maybe risk going outside, you were never meant for introspection. Maybe risking disrupted plans is ok if it means never having to think about this again. kitchen in Nevada became Mecca, hundreds made the pilgrimage across the wasteland to catch a glimpse of the last lightbulb still glowing In the Miller’s country -chic kitchen. Its sickly fluorescent glow was rumored to heal the sick, some said it was installed by angels. (Tthe family protested, claiming it was installed by Mike, their beer-bellied patriarch, who had died in the first days following the flare in a dirt bike related altercation.). The house on Bloom Street was the last Jerusalem standing. Fights broke out among pilgrims to see who could bask in the white light first, tacky porcelain chickens and novelty egg timers watched over the brawls. They worried what would happen if they were the last person to bathe in its light —- what is the punishment for he who witnesses its death? It was becoming increasingly obvious that the light bulb was dying. It was honestly impressive how long it had managed to hold on, other light bulbs would have died ten times over, yet this one held strong. Flies filled the glass covering protecting it, their little bodies piling up, casting abstract shadows over the faces of worshipers. They were worshiped as saints, their little buggy bodies made into reliquaries, sold to the highest bidders. What happens when the light finally goes out? Would the family finally shut off the generator? They stopped living in the house years ago, and the price of gas these days must be bleeding them dry, tabloids speculated. Some people became openly hostile when confronted with the reality of the lightbulb’s dying, “Heresy!” they’d cry, hands frantically waving and swatting at the people around them. Finality is hard, as is acknowledging inevitability. Invest in Phillips. SCORPIOÊ(OctÊ23–NovÊ21) SAGITTARIUSÊ(NovÊ22–DecÊ21) In one hundred years, in a valley far away, a kitchen light flickers and dims. The country is anguished. We lost the factories decades ago, when the grid went down there was really no reason to keep producing light bulbs —- we needed the water elsewhere. The Miller’s generator kept working after the second flare, their kitchen light bulb became a beacon of hope to the thousands of Americans left. A small Free spirited Sagittarius knows better than anyone that you’re born alone and you die alone. This is untrue. Checkmate, Sag. You’ve had a buddy built in since birth, literally attached at the hip. You’ve lived a long life together, you share everything. It’s been a good run. One day, you’ll wake up, but your left side won’t. Did you know that you only had a 7.5% chance of survival from birth? It’s beautiful that you’ve made it this long. But now, for the first time 35 �πόλις THE GADFLY in your life, you are alone. You lie in bed, breathing independently for the first time. Your left side feels heavy. It’s frightening, but oddly peaceful. You’re too hot and too cold. You’ll be dead soon. You can feel the sepsis eating into you. You reflect on your life as you lielay in the sun. You remember a lifetime of struggle and solidarity; , the emotions overwhelm you. You think about the caravan and the dancehall, the sketchy managers and producers and trunks full of ill- fitting, gaudy costumes. Why did you need a manager? You weren’t unruly children, you weren’t animals. Why did you need to be managed? You wonder if maybe it’s because of your natural inclination to teamwork frightens people. People in power loathe organization. You think about what you could have organized had you not been forced into dance lessons and taken up playing so many instruments. You think you could have been book smart if they’d let you. You’re tired of asking permission. Alone at last, you are finally free from asking. You can act as your own free agent — - sort of. Your eyelids feel heavy, and you feel lethargic. It’s too hot. You throw off the covers, trying to get comfortable as you go quietly into that goodnight, holding your sibling’s- — your own — - hand. At least this time it’s on your own terms. CAPRICORNÊ(DecÊ22–JanÊ19) Do you remember the first time you felt your emotions? Not as a monolith, but can you pinpoint the first time you felt specific things? Do you remember shame? How it warmed your ears and made you feel the biggest you’ve ever felt? What about guilt and the stone in your chest? Limerence? That one is a dull ache. Jealousy feels slimy, your stomach feels too tight, like you have a belly full of eels. Are you aware of when you feel these things now? There is a physicality behind emotions, it makes you feel too much like an animal. We would all love to run strictly on logic —- feelings are confusing and make one gassy. Don’t you wish you could turn it all off? Your body in stasis would be a lot more productive, you tell yourself. The first time you felt these more specific emotions, were you 36 September 5, 2024 alarmed? It feels natural, and that’s the worst part. The refined and polished metal exterior leaks oil onto the floor, a sign of function is awful —- you NEED to seem perfectly constructed and effortless. There’s doubt, it feels lumpy. Posturing seems exhausting. You’re sweating onto the paper, knock it off. AQUARIUSÊ(JanÊ20–FebÊ18) Do you fear your mother’s life, Aquarius? At what point did she decide that her fate wouldwas to be what it became? Does it frighten you to think of sacrificing your life to another being? A completely unknown one at that. Do you think while she was pregnant, she layid awake at night and thought to herself of all the things that could go wrong? Not even medically, but just in terms of bringing up a whole other person. What if the baby comes out wrong? Your father doesn’t know what she means by this, and honestly, he doesn’t care to figure it out. Is raising babies really a matter of pure nurture? What if it’s in its nature to be evil? What does that even mean? She wasn’t always this contemplative, but the thought keeps bubbling up. At best, the baby grows up to be thoroughly fine. Nothing special, but not bad. Mediocrity is all we can hope for. At what pointdid she decide that she was no longer herself and now going to be your mother? There is a sort of ego death that comes with birth. Everyone says it’s untrue, but she had dreams before she had you. The simple facts are that one day, she snubbed out her last cigarette, took one a last breath of the polluted air, and grew into who she is now. Maybe she always wanted to be a mother. Maybe this is exactly what she wanted, but there is no way you’ll know the answer to that. Part of you suspects that she doesn’t know either. We are all rather passive about bringing new children into this plane of existence, but there had to be a moment when reality hit. When you became real, when you became you. Do you think she mourns her old life? A life she never had, maybe? Is this your generational curse? The moon in Aquarius also dictates a strong wave of emotions. Consider yoga. �THE GADFLY πόλις PISCESÊ(FebÊ19––MarchÊ20) You yearn to be seen, Pisces. It’s a want so heavy you feel it slide around in the back of your throat like bile. Is it too much to ask to be completely dissected and understood yet appreciated at the same time? This feels like a simple demand, yet here we are. It must feel amazing —- like the first warm day of spring. This feeling has to exist, artists have prattled on about it for as long as humans have been making art, surely someone must have felt this at some point. The internet says you might be autistic. Bullshit. Every stupid philosopher you’ve had to read believes in speaking things into existence, even if the language is a lot more confusing. Human will is strong enough to invent the atom bomb, it’s strong enough to live through using them too, surely you can survive another Friday trapped inside. You feel trapped sometimes. Everyone does, probably, it’s just a matter of finding someone who can articulate it the same way you do. Someone someday will understand, autism be damned. You are painfully alive. Everything feels so much, and the sting reminds you that you’re not lucky enough to die. It’s a long, hard road but you’ve been told it will be worth it. No one really knows what that means, but then again, if you say something enough it will become true. September 5, 2024 Johnnies in Town By Helen Wagner Some swing-dancing Johnnies made an appearance at the city docks last Saturday night, where the Bayside Big Band was playing the last show of the Annapolis summer concert series. Rumors of swing music in town had spread to several students through word-ofmouth, and a group of 20 or so showed up to fill the dance floor. There was room for everyone, from novice freshmen to senior swing aficionados. Onlookers enjoyed the festive scene— the ten-piece jazz orchestra, the dancers showing off their moves, and the sun setting over the water behind it all. “It’s always nice to get some surprise dancing in!” says Peter Quinn (‘25), a Johnnie swing dance instructor. Quinn happened to be celebrating his 22nd birthday that night, and the band dedicated a song to him. They also thanked all of the dancers and gave a special shoutout to SJC. “If you wanna be a good dancer, I guess you should go to St. John’s,” said one of the singers before her last song. Students should be on the lookout for more events like this happening around town. “I didn’t even know about it until someone mentioned it to me,” said Peter. It will do us good to get out of our campus bubble, and Annapolis loves to see us dancing. Johnnies swing dancing on the dock. Photos by Helen Wagner 37 �πόλις THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 The Reluctant Optimist: Back to School Conversations By Tamar Pinsky There are two foolproof ways to start a conversation with someone at the beginning of the year: talk about summer happenings or about what is new on campus. The following are my reflections. trust my gut more, and not take every opportunity available just because it is there. Everyone Except You Had a Great One Not that I consider the internship a waste of time — this is the confusing bit! There were elements I loved, such as my coworkers, and the fact that I had the opportunity to expand my resume. The never-ending question of “how was your summer?!” echoes across campus, and with every additional familiar face I encounter, the happy-golucky goblin within me exclaims, “It was great!” Of course, I also learned about myself – but only as confirmation of what I already knew – that I enjoy editing others’ writing, storytelling, and the thought of being a lawyer. I can call my summer “busy,” “exciting,” “fun,” maybe even “perfect.” But that would be my inner optimist speaking, reframing every experience as good, and just because—because—because why? Though my summer was not a waste of time, did it bring me closer to finding what I want? Maybe, but maybe not. It could have even been a step backwards. But there is one piece of information from this summer that sticks with me, and I came across it because of another “good enough” experience: ConversationÊ#1:ÊSummer Why should I have to have had a good summer?! (Pop quiz real quick: tell me the tense of that question.) The agonizing, fretful side of me could very well tell you that my summer was “just awful!” and not “the right summer for me at all!” Maybe my issue lies with that word “right.” How am I, with my mere ten years of being an age with double-digits, supposed to know what is “right” for me? And yet, the next voice inside me says that I do know what is right for me. I took on a summer internship that I knew did not 100% align with my dreams. Why did I take it then? Because it seemed silly not to take an opportunity that presented itself to me, even if it was only “good enough.” I had started to go to folk dancing events on Sunday nights, for the sake of injecting myself into social environments (despite knowing this style of dance to be the bane of my feet’s existence.) My mother picked me up one night; the radio turned on to the middle of a discussion featuring Steven Pinker and David Deutsch. They spoke of a school in which students were analyzed for their natural talents, I knew from the get-go that fishery management is not my passion, and that office cubicles dishearten me. But I told myself the following, “What if it turns out that you love it?” and then purposely placed into classes that fostered the growth of everything but. Their gifts were neglected while their weaknesses were embraced. Over the course of several years, the following occurred: students excelled at what they were predisposed to struggle with, while their natural abilities failed to remain impressive. In fact, students lacking talent outranked the students with talent— because they had done the necessary work. Turns out, I did not love it; turns out, maybe I should Could this mean that an inherited disadvantage is an a 38 �πόλις THE GADFLY advantage in itself, in the sense that it might encourage one to work harder in recompense? If this is the case, then I think I have the solution to the problem of How Can Everyone’s Summer Have Been Perfect? First, there are the few people who may have had completely wonderful summers. (Congratulations, by the way.) Next, there are the people who had truly awful summers. With Pinker’s advice, these troublesome summers can be reframed as receiving the advantage of being more prepared to deal with future difficulties. Most common, however, are the summers that held some good parts and some bad. Maybe people sugarcoat these summers as they relay their summaries, because no one needs to know every harrowing detail. One can say that one’s summer was good, despite its holding bad experiences. But why not say it was good because it held bad experiences? ConversationÊ#2:ÊCampusÊRenovations How to Stop Hating on Them A surprisingly easy task is to give one’s opinion on a subject without knowing much about it. It is imperative, then, for me to divulge to you the information about the new renovations on campus, to help you avoid regarding them with the human proclivity for disliking change. Notable renovations: 1. What used to be Campbell is now Edensword (pronounced Eden’s Word, not Eden’s Sword, unfortunately.) The renovated building has a new electric system, new walls, an elevator, nice showers, etc. September 5, 2024 case, it will be closed once the new café opens, and construction work will not start at least before winter break. 4. The mail room has been moved to the package room in the basement of Humphrey’s. 5. The dock has had boards replaced. 6. The gym has improved equipment. Upon looking at this list, I wonder if my claim about people hating change is entirely accurate, as these appear to be beneficial changes. But “beneficial” is subjective, is it not? Perhaps you hate the change of the coffeeshop to a café, or the mail room having the limited hours of the package room. Or perhaps you hate that you know that these will not be the final changes to St. John’s; there will always be more to “fix,” and the school will never be a permanent representation of your college years. It could eventually change into place you cease to find beautiful. A reasonable concern. Who knows what this place will look like in twenty years? But that is exactly why it is pointless to worry! No one knows, so why waste time being concerned about a future problem that may or may not occur? Still, maybe you fear that the changes being made to campus are not “right.” Good news for you then -these changes are impermanent as well. St. John’s will be ever evolving, a combination of good choices and bad, and we can only hope that it ends up in the direction of complete goodness. 2. The basement of Edensword will (hopefully in late September) have the new bookstore and new café— lots more space! 3. It is undecided what will happen to the old coffeeshop; there are several possibilities. In any 39 �πόλις THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 Above, cartoons by Polina Vatralskaia. Le , cartoon by Tamar Pinsky 40 �πόλις THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 The Mysterious Doctor Sajoco, by Sean Stickle. First printed in the Gadfly January 24, 1995 41 �πόλις 42 THE GADFLY September 5, 2024 �πόλις THE GADFLY Your Campus this Week Friday, September 5 ¨ 7 pm, Great Hall: All College Seminar. Text TBA Saturday, September 6 ¨ 2 pm, Conversation Room: Poets in the Conversation Room: David Kiplinger September 5, 2024 Classiflieds ForÊSale: High grade, quality copper. Customer satisfaction guaranteed. 23 Alik Tilmun St. Ur, Mes. Baby shoes, lightly worn. Call 555-9320 Missing: 4 pm, Greenfield Library: Closing talk on “Two The form of the good. Please reach out to Socrates by Art Books”: Louise Bourgeois and Fischli Weiss messenger at his address: number three distances and four limits of the assimilating and the dissimilating, ¨ Time and place not announced at time of printing: whereof a basal four-thirds wedded to the pempad Reality’s Achilles Rager yields two harmonies at the third augmentation, the one the product of equal factors taken one hundred times, the other of equal length one way but oblong,Wednesday, September 11 one dimension of a hundred numbers determined by ¨ 2:30 pm, Mellon 124: Career Development Office the rational diameters of the pempad lacking one in Open House. each case, or of the irrational lacking two; the other dimension of a hundred cubes of the triad, Agora St. Athens, Greece. Seminar Readings: Great Hall Chandelier. Where did it go? Thursday, 9/5 Monday, 9/9 Several thousand pixels in the lab manual diagrams. If found, mail by carrier pigeon to St. John’s IT. Freshmen Homer: Odyssey, I Homer: Odyssey, IX –VIII –XVI ¨ Miscellaneous: Sophomores Bible Leviticus 11, Bible Samuel I, II; Wanted: whoever keeps leaving their things in the cof18-20; DeuteronoKings I, 1–4 fee shop on the floor between the sofas. Seriously, it my makes the space highly unconducive to study, and is not appreciated by those of us who actively use the Juniors Pascal: Pensées Pascal: Pensées spaces. If you have any leads to the whereabouts of (selections) (selections) said person, please contact H.P. Reubens as soon as Seniors Hegel: Phenome- Hegel: Phenomenolpossible, and I will finally do something about it. nology of Spirit, ogy of Spirit, StoiThe Truth of Self- cism and Skepti- Seeking layout editor. Must be willing to work long hours, no pay. Write gadfly.office@sjc.edu for info. Certainty (177 oncism (197-206) ly), Lordship and WantÊtoÊleaveÊaÊclassifliedÊad?ÊPleaseÊwriteÊusÊatÊ Bondage (178gadfly.office@sjc.eduÊorÊdropÊoffÊyourÊsubmissionÊ atÊourÊoffice. 196) 43 �THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE Founded in 1980, the Gadfly is the student newsmagazine distributed to many students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the Annapolis campus. Opinions expressed within are the The Gadfly and Collegian editors at the club fair. From le to right, El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Helen Wagner and Jacob Sharpe. Photo by Dora Vecoli. We have two publications on campus: the Gadfly and Collegian. The Collegian features shorter, more immediate reporting and opinion, while the Gadfly in your hands should speak for itself. Some important upcoming deadlines and dates for those interested in submitting: Monday, September 9th: Collegian 01 Deadline Thursday, September 12th: Collegian 01 Published Monday, September 16th: Collegian 02 and Gadfly 02 Deadline Thursday, September 19th: Collegian 02 Published Thursday, September 26th: Gadfly 02 Published If you have any questions, please reach out to gadfly.office@sjc.edu, or drop by the Gadfly office in the BBC basement between 4 pm and 5:30 on Wednesdays or Fridays. responsibility of the author(s). The Gadfly reserves the right to accept, reject, and edit submissions in any way necessary to publish a professional, informative, and thought provoking newsmagazine. Submissions sent to the Gadfly should either be in Microsoft Word or JPEG format. The deadline for submissions is the Monday a week prior to publication. For more information, contact us via email at gadfly.office@sjc.edu. Photographs without a listed source are from the St. John's College Digital Archives. St. John's College owns the rights to these photographs. All illustrations and doodles without a listed source were drawn by Helen Felbek. 60 COLLEGE AVENUE ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 21401 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>The Gadfly</em> Description An account of the resource Founded in 1980, <em>The </em><em>Gadfly</em> is a weekly student publication distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.<br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="The Gadfly" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=16&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the <em>The Gadfly</em> Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context thegadfly Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 44 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Gadfly, Vol. XLVI, Issue 1 Description An account of the resource Volume XLVI, Issue 1 of The Gadfly. Published September 5, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nichols-Kaufman, El'ad (Editor-in-Chief) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-09-05 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College owns the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource College students' writings--Periodicals College student newspapers and periodicals St. John's College--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Gadfly Vol XLVI Issue 1 Gadfly Student publication https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/7d455ee4c91b830bf9112df223e4e2f7.mp3 8d290a13adc37d62aadb11ea730b24b6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data m4a Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:50:25 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 Hegel's Rhythm: Speculative Thinking and the Relationship between Philosophy and Poetry Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture given by Andy Davis on September 6, 2024 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: "What can poetry teach us about the demands of writing and reading philosophy? In this talk I explore this question through the lens of a few paragraphs at the end of Hegel’s preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit, with some passing references to his account of poetry in the Aesthetics lectures. Hegel’s puzzling account of 'der spekulative Satz' [the speculative sentence/proposition] employs a comparison to poetic rhythm in paragraph sixty-one. Just as poetry plays formal meters off of natural accents, speculative expressions of philosophical content rely on a productive conflict between the form of the proposition (subject is predicate) and the unity of the Concept in which such differentiations between subjects, objects and qualities disappear. Poetry provides a model of unity in conflict that produces a 'floating center' of meaning. What might it mean for philosophical thinking to likewise embrace a 'floating center'?" Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Davis, Andrew Alexander 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 2024-09-06 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Meem Library has been given permission to make this item available online. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource sound Subject The topic of the resource Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831 Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SF_DavisA_Hegel's_Rhythm_2024-09-06 Friday night lecture