Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 22:43:38 -0700 From: "T. Q. Alexander" <rattler-AT-thegrid.net> Subject: PLC: The Cross Roads I wrote: > > > > Say George, I picked up my AA degree, and I'm now transferring into > >the University to continue my studies in Literature. I suppose, and you'll > >have to excuse my naivety, that I am to choose a period or genre of > >literature to base my studies upon? I suppose I'm wanting to study both > >British and American lit. The industrial age of Victorianism is rather > >interesting. Post Modernism? I think I would like to study the Twentieth > >Century lit, both British and American. I guess I'll find out better once > >I start my classes. What period do you most enjoy in lit?!? > > > >Me > >-- > >Thad Q. Alexander > >(rattler-AT-thegrid.net) > >OCC Undergraduate > >Long Beach, CA. > And then George wrote: > Nice to hear from you. Gibbon, you must consider, as all historians, finds > in his history those things about which he wants to comment vis a vis his > contemporaries, to that you find him, what, prescient is not surprising. > You will find, as well, when you consult the texts from which he draws, > that lawyers have _always_ been seen as opportunists (read Plato), that the > current age is a decline from the previous, and that we are all always > going to hell in a handbasket. > > I happily excuses your naivete (note spelling), and find the way you have > put your question provocative, and perhaps what the group could happily > respond to now. So, I will defer replying to your question, and suggest you > post this and the above to the whole list. The naivete is, of course in the > "enjoy" part of your question. I have always taken seriously the notion > that we always specialize in what we hate, or what bothers us, or what we > need to formulate a response to. I began, for instance to study (and teach) > Whitman because I hated him, but Lawrence, to whom I was devoted, was very > taken with his work. I needed to know why. And, of course, the best way to > learn something is to teach it. Another consideration is that what we > don't enjoy indicates in each of us an areas of deficiency. > > But I would like to hear some answers from our compatriots here to your > provocative question. > > Cheers, -- Thad Q. Alexander (rattler-AT-thegrid.net) OCC Undergraduate Long Beach, CA. USA --- CHAUCER-AT-listserv.uic.edu Phillitcrit-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU Phil-lit-AT-Was found ethically unfit for my presence:11\3\97 SHAKSPER-AT-ws.bowiestate.edu Great Books of Western Civilization --- The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his whole damn life and one is as good as the other. ----Ernest Hemingway --- from list phillitcrit-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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