So, there were two interesting speakers I was able to hear this week. The first was renowned avant-garde novelist, Joseph McElroy, whose novel Plus we have been reading in class. I find it very difficult to read this book, but McElroy (at a spry 75 yrs. old) was fun to watch. I asked him a question about what determines what he says in his novels, since he seemed to imply that such a process was at work, and got a purposefully elusive answer in reply - something art being autonomous. McElroy pursed his lips alot, and in true aged-P style, mis-heard many questions and remarks. Endearing to say the least.
(As I was typing this the toilet was overflowing. This turned into quite an ordeal, cumulating in the bathroom getting thoroughly cleaned, the dishes done, and the all the floors in the house getting swept. I'm back.)
On Friday night, Katie, myself, and co. saw renowned athiest and public intellectual Daniel Dennett give a talk about his new book, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. Dennett is an incredible rhetorician - articule, witty, relevant, quick on his feet, machine-like efficiency during the Q & A, etc. His basic thesis goes something like - according to what scientists call "reverse engineering methodology - religions function in a evolutionary manner, that is, they are adaptive and competitive (think survival of the fittest). Their origin can be explained by "memes," replicable ideas which take on life-like evolutionary attributes in order to survive. So, why does Dennett care about any of this?
It shocks him that religions have never studied such a "scientific" manner before. Dennett recognizes that religions are incredibly powerful belief systems, deserving our careful attention. He closed his lecture with a policy suggestion - that every child should recieve mandatory facts-based education.
Okay. I need to get back to work - I'm working on Victorian Lit. and Avant Garde papers this weekend. The theses arrived, time to put typed-out words to them.
Annoucements:
Dana and Em ... I got a copy of Name of the Rose yesterday. Summer reading!
Brooks ... we'll be talking papers again, soon. Hope you broke through with the Whitman.
Darcy ... is Andrew graduating in a few weeks at Hillsdale?
Em ... country music star? Implies too much tragedy ...
Love to all.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment