I don’t think I’ve got much to say about patriotic festivals of anti-Catholic bigotry invovling fireworks this year, except to report that I recently flipped through Garry Wills’s Witches and Jesuits — his reading of Macbeth as a gunpowder play — and it’s splendid.
Rousseau scholar Robert Wokler died last month. Josh Cherniss obituarized him for the Guardian just a few days ago, and he also pointed me to robertwokler.com, from where you can download a copy of his splendid D.Phil thesis, “Rousseau on Society, Politics, Music and Language: An Historical Interpretation of His Early Writings”.
We enjoyed Hannibal ad portas, which we saw in Karlsruhe just before it closed in January, and we’re looking forward to the Persians at the British Museum, though we won’t catch that until the New Year.
Biggest disappointment was Turks at the Royal Academy, which had some splendid objects, but wrapped it all up in the kind of ideological nonsense which pissed you off the more you thought about it.
I’ve been to the theatre even less often than I’ve been to the cinema this year, but the two outstanding shows this year for me were both called Don Carlos. We saw Derek Jacobi in Schiller’s play in the middle of the year in London, which was splendid (costumes, acting, production, play); and we saw the Welsh National Opera’s production of Verdi’s epic opera towards its end in Oxford, which had one or two medium-sized problems (not enough subtlety on the part of the chap singing Philip in particular), but which was a thoroughly worthwhile production of a very difficult piece — and they made - in my opinion - all the right choices, with the five-act ever-so-slightly-trimmed-down French version, and the more brutal finale at the end. What did we miss (theatre and opera, please; concerts and other kinds of music will follow in a separate post)?
Yup, it was Pliny the Elder alright, Natural History 8, 47. Here’s the Latin:
Easdem partes sibi ipsi Pontici amputant fibri periculo urgente, ob hoc se peti gnari; castoreum id vocant medici. alias animal horrendi morsus arbores iuxta flumina ut ferro caedit, hominis parte conprehensa non ante quam fracta concrepuerint ossa morsus resolvit. cauda piscium his, cetera species lutrae. utrumque aquaticum, utrique mollior pluma pilus.
And here’s the splendid English translation of 1601 by Philemon Holland:
The Bievers in Pontus gueld themselves, when they see how neere they are driven, and bee in danger of the hunters: as knowing full well, that chased they bee for their genetoires: and these their stones, Physicians call Castoreum. And otherwise, this is a daungerous and terrible beast with his teeth. For verily, hee will bite downe the trees growing by the river sides, as if they were cut with an axe. Looke where he catcheth hold of a man once, he never leaveth nor letteth loose untill hee have knapped the bones in sunder, and heard it cracke againe. Tailed hee is like a fish, otherwise he resembleth the otter. Both those beasts live in the water altogether, and carrie an haire softer than any plume or downe of feathers.
That’s probably enough Beaver-Blogging for one morning. I’ll get back to Kitten-Blogging soon.
On the whole, as I think I’ve said, I quite like the new-look Guardian. I think they bollocksed up a few things — theguardian masthead, obviously, the decision not only to have five columns rather than six (Le Monde-style), but also to fill up the right-hand column on the front page with nonsense, and so on — but something I’ve noticed is that I don’t think I’ve been able to read the Giles Foden Diary column since the new paper came out, not because I have any opinion about whether he’s a good diarist or not, but because the sketch they have of him is so off-putting, and makes me want to turn the page. So if anyone could tell me whether I’m missing anything, that’d be quite useful.
Is it just me, or does this week’s Onion article, “Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New ‘Intelligent Falling’ Theory” present an argument eerily similar to everyone’s favourite Augustinian Cartesian Nicolas Malebranche’s metaphyisics of “occasionalism”?
From the splendid, every-home-should-have-one Cambridge History of C17th Philosophy [vol.1, pp.538-9]:
“The occasionalist conclusion drawn by Malebranche and Cordemoy is that an explanation of any natural effect which refers only to matter and motion - that is, which specifies only the shapes and sizes of material particles moving with given directions and velocities in accordance with certain laws - will ultimately fail to account fully for the phenomenon, since physical bodies have no causal efficacy. In fact, there is and can be only one true cause of any phenomenon, namely, the infinitely powerful will of God. God alone has a power to act, and there is a necessary connexion only between God’s will and its effects. All events in the natural world, all motions, collisions, separations, changes, and other effects in bodies have God as their direct and immediate author. Thus, any metaphysically complete explanation of a phenomenon must refer at least to the divine volition which is its efficient cause (although, as we shall see, in physics one need not take explanation to this high a level).”
OK, it is just me. It’s the last, parenthetical clause that gives M. the get-out.
Recent reading has included Diarmaid MacCulloch’s Reformation (splendid), Richard A. Peterson’s Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity (not bad at all), Charles Tripp’s history of Iraq (fairly solid, I thought, though he uses the word “narrative” almost as much as a bad journalist writing about David Davis), and two best-sellers that were kicking around in the flat we were staying in, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (great fun) and The Da Vinci Code (rubbish nonsense, and, oddly enough, far more childish that HP&tPoA, as well as much less well written), together with various other bits and pieces, and lots of copies of L’Equipe, of course. (Favourite headline: “Il est implacable”, with a picture of you-know-who.)
Since the launch of the new Harry Potter book was widely covered in the French media, I can report that French journalists say “‘Arry Pott-eur” when they are trying to say his name in English, and “‘Arry Pott-air” when they are trying to say his name in French.
To the splendid Pitt Rivers Museum.
Thanks to David, who’s just given me a copy of a splendid and comparatively unknown pamphlet from around 1950, which I’ll be serialising here at the Virtual Stoa over the next few days. It’s very fine, and not very long. Enjoy.
A CHALLENGE TO SCOUTING:
The menace of Communism
INTRODUCTION
The Boy Scouts Association and the Girl Guides Association realise the dangers which their members face by the menace of the present world situation to the values in which they believe. This statement has accordingly been prepared by the two Associations for the use of Scouters and Guiders, but to avoid clumsy repetitions by the use of such phrases as “Scouters and Guiders”, “Scouts and Guides”, each Association is issuing its own statement, using expressions directly applicable to its own members.
The Purpose of the Statement
It is clear that the fundamental beliefs of Scouting are often challenged in the world of today. On all sides our minds are assailed by propaganda, and much of it is specious and clever. Unless we understand what our faith is, and our reasons for holding it, we can easily be taken in by some of this plausible argument.
It is therefore vital that all of us should know what we believe should carry it into practice in our lives, and should be ready to proclaim it to others. We must also realise by whom these beliefs are challenged, and what our answer must be when challenged.
In this statement we seek to remind Scouters of the fundamental beliefs of Scouting, over which there can be no compromise, and to ask them to ensure that their Scouts are well founded in these beliefs by the time that they go out to work, for it is then that the full challenge of the world may meet them for the first time.
We can deal with these great subjects in outline only, but those who feel the need of pursuing them at greater length are recommended to turn to the short list of books in the Appendix.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
Our beliefs are summed up in the Scout Promise which we have take:
“On my honour I promise that I will do my best -
To do my duty to God, and the King,
To help other people at all times,
To obey the Scout Law.”
We believe also in the Scout method of training, which aims at the development of the character of each individual, through the Patrol System, the Badge System and Woodcraft.
Let us look at our beliefs more closely:
Duty to God
This comes first, because we believe that God is the Creator and the Preserver of all mankind, and has revealed Himself to us. The claims of God on our life and service are total, and are indeed the only total claims that can legitimately be made upon men. His love of us demands in return our love, devotion and duty.
It is not enough to say that we accept the teaching about God but that we are not prepared to take part in worship. It is the duty of every Scout to carry out the obligations of his faith.
Duty to the King
The King is the constitutional head of the State that gives us protection and safeguards our liberties. We are therefore pledged to be loyal and law-abiding citizens, to take our share in the good government of our country through our work and our votes, and to take no part in any subversive action.
Helping other people at all times
As citizens of a free country, we are free to keep ourselves to ourselves, or to be good neighbours, as may please us, but as Scouts we are pledged to be good citizens and to do good turns to our neighbours whenever we can. Our individual and corporate good turns are an expression of our religious faith, for loving our neighbours as ourselves is one of the great Commandments.
Obeying the Scout Law
The Scout Law lays down a high standard of behaviour, which we are proud to do our best to maintain. As all men are precious in God’s sight, it matters how we treat each other. So, whatever the standard in the world around us, we expect our Scouts (as we expect of ourselves) to be honourable, loyal, friendly, courteous and cheerful - in fact, to live the good life.
The Scout method of Training
Our method aims at producing good citizens who, through their training, think for themselves, display initiative, and are self-reliant. Each individual counts. But as none of us is good enough by our unaided efforts to live up to the highest that we know, we realise that it is only by asking God for His help and by faith in Him that we can be our best.
Next Instalment [coming soon!]: “By Whom Are We Challenged?”
The new series of Doctor Who ends tonight. I know you don’t come here for Dr Who blogging (you go here, instead, and hasn’t he been doing a good job?), but it’s all been so much fun that I wanted to enthuse in this space ahead of this evening’s finale.
I missed the first episode, watched the second out of a sense of obligatory nostalgia and sort of enjoyed it, but didn’t think it was great; more or less ditto episode three; but the aliens taking over Downing Street were great fun, the first Dalek episode was one of the great TV programmes of all time, ever, and since those shows I’ve been quite uncritical about the whole thing and enjoyed every minute of it all (though I missed episode eight, alas).
It’s been splendid, and I hope there’s a lot more of it to come.
I think (though I may be forgetting something) that it’s also the first time in almost fifteen years that I’ve followed a TV show from week to week, so becoming a regular viewer feels like a very strange thing to be doing (though I think most people find this quite normal). Usually I only watch news and sports programmes on the telly, and when I watch episodes of things, it’s tended in recent years to be from the DVDs (Inspector Morse, Father Ted, Rising Damp, that kind of thing).
I hadn’t seen the automatic Tory Policy Generator before. It’s very good, and in particular I like the pledge list that appears on the righthand side.
[via, who is a friend of Kirsty McNeill and is kind enough to put me on his blogroll, and so goes straight onto mine]
UPDATE [2 minutes later]: I’ve just had “Name and Shame Foreigners”, which is both very funny and also reminds me of Graham Chapman’s splendid suggestion from an old Monty Python episode to raise money for the government by “putting a tax on all foreigners living abroad”.
I’ve recently started reading the excellent cricket blog, the Corridor of Uncertainty, which has recently had on it a couple of splendid photos, one old, one new.
The old pic’s of Dennis Lillee bowling to nine slips:
And the new pic’s of May Day fun in Parliament Square yesterday (full story here):
I’m back.
A group of us academic types were off in Libya last week, seeing things like this, this, this, this and this, seeing all kinds of images of Colonel Gaddafi, and eating lots and lots of Libyan Soup. (Recipe by Delia here.)
It was all splendid.
And we all seemed to manage to cope for eight or nine days without booze admirably, and with no funny and/or distressing side effects.
Recent additions to the blogroll include Actually Existing, which promises intelligent general-election-related discussion, Aufheben, Bloggers4Labour, Corridor of Uncertainty (good name for a cricket blog), MediaWatchWatch (which keeps an eye on ignorant bigots [googlebombers: note new URL]), No Concept of Liberty (blogging from Singapore, which may help to explain the name), and the splendid Where There Were No Doors, from Jim Bliss.
Oh, and in case anyone hadn’t already noticed, British Spin is back, after a period of quiescence.
Mel P rises to the occasion (as ever) with praise for IDS and his insightful views about blogs [see below].
For IDS, apparently, “has understood that the web has the power finally to topple not just individual journalists caught with their hands in the ethical till, but the whole wretched hegemony of insidious and civilisation-threatening views that has driven Britsh society off the rails…”
UPDATE [3pm]: Tim Lambert has been thinking about Mel P’s thinking on science and global warming:
Next, we have Melanie Philips, who is sure that global warming is a scam because (quoting McIntyre and McKitrick):
[Mann et al�s method], when tested on persistent red noise, nearly always produces a hockey stick shaped first principal component (PC1) and overstates the first eigenvalue.
According to her biography Philips is a journalist with a degree in English. Back when I was an undergraduate learning about stuff like eigenvalues and mathematical physics, my friends studying English didn�t learn about eigenvalues. Maybe it was different for Philips, or maybe she�s done some postgrad course in advanced statistical analysis, so I emailed her, asking her if she knew what red noise, principal components, or eigenvalues were. No reply. My guess is that she doesn�t know what any of them are. (Oh, and M&M�s �always produces a hockey stick� argument is a red herring.)
More over here, at the ever-excellent Deltoid blog.
Splendid post from Andrew Bartlett on Mr Howard’s recent and rancid proposals to require migrants to the UK to undergo mandatory health checks.
People interested in the subject should look forward to the publication of James Hampshire’s book, Citizenship and Belonging: Immigration and the Politics of Demographic Governance in Postwar Britain, out from Palgrave Macmillan in May this year, which discusses the debates inside government the last time these issues were chewed over with any seriousness. From what I remember of the argument from when I was chatting to James about what was then his D.Phil thesis, ill-health among nonwhite immigrants often tended to owe to grotty living conditions in this country, rather than to illnesses brought in from outside, and that while Irish immigrants tended to be less healthy than non-white immigrants, the proposals to introduce compulsory health checks always dealt entirely with non-whites.
(In the end, compulsory medical testing was not introduced, and the random testing that was tried resulted in very few exclusions indeed. Since what Mr Howard announces today Mr Blair will probably pick up and run with tomorrow, it’s probably best to hope for a broadly similar outcome this time around.)
Oddbins in Oxford now sell Anchor Steam and Liberty Ale (also from the Anchor Brewing Co. in San Francisco), both of which are splendid.
Over here.
UPDATE [13.8.2004]: Four arguments have been made against the Bish, one by Backword Dave, two by the Guardian editorialists and the fourth by someone in the Daily Telegraph.
Backword Dave says that he can’t see the racism to which Bishop was alluding. Note first, though, that the word “racist” is the Guardian’s, in the report linked to above, both in the headline and in the report, and that the Bish — on what’s given to us there — doesn’t link the question of race directly to the song (which would be silly) but only to “growing English nationalism, which he said was stoked by football fervour, and ‘a wish for a white-dominated simple world of Englishness’.”
The first reason presented by the Guardianistas can be dismissed. In fact, it’s precisely because the Holst tune is such a good tune that it needs to be saved from association with this wretched lyric so that people — perhaps not in our generation, but in a luckier one to come — can enjoy The Planets again, free from involuntarily making mental associations with Tories waving flags.
The Guardian’s second reason is that Spring-Rice, author of these words, was no jingo, did some good things and had some fine opinions. But this is the kind of occasion when we can go for the ball without necessarily attacking the man, and call for the song to be retired without seeking to diminish the historical reputation of the Poet Spring-Rice.
The Telegraph writes nonsense, especially when it points to the unquestioning patriotism of the first verse and remarks that “that is fine, stirring stuff in the context of the First World War, when the hymn was written”. Well, some of us might beg to differ.
Incidentally, Dave, I don’t think the “rebellious Scots to crush” verse was ever officially part of the British national anthem. It’s a fun verse, though.
So I was reading at lunchtime today about Lucy, the goat who has just won a beauty contest — for goats — in Croatia (a different version of the story is here), and there I was assuming that I’d be able to find a picture of said goat somewhere in cyberspace, so I could judge for myself.
Nothing at all.
That’s rubbish.
PRESS RELEASE: Despite disinformation / misinformation (variously rubbish or nonsense) appearing on the Virtual so-called Stoa, reliable reports were today circulating on the internet that the splendid journal Imprints has just made its millionth sale. Seasoned observers and investment analysts were predicting a bid for the niche publication from the Murdoch empire, although Thailand’s Prime Minister Thaksin Shiniwatra is believed to be preparing a $65m bid, and Redrow Homes millionaire Steve Morgan is waiting in the wings….
Perhaps this manages to defy exclusive-and-exhaustive categories, qualifying as simultaneously splendid, rubbish and nonsense (much as baking a halfway decent cake with a friend can in certain circumstances count as being triply labour, work and action according to the classical Arendtian schema from The Human Condition). Martin? Any thoughts?
In comments to this post below, there’s disagreement about whether anything can simultaneously be both rubbish and nonsense. I maintain that it can’t: that something can only be rubbish if it is coherent, and anything incoherent is nonsense. That’s how I learned this vocab from my friend Martin, and I’m sticking to my guns.
On the other hand, I see this morning that Lenin agreed with my critics, and that in Chapter Six of Trotsky’s classic work, The Stalin School of Falsification, he is quoted as saying that something was “nonsense and pathetic rubbish” and that “it is a shame and disgrace to waste time on it”. So if there are any readers of the Stoa who are happy to let some of the Great Bearded Leftists of history decide technical points like this one, they at least can be satisfied that the dispute has been settled.
While on the subject of GBLs, another letter from Fred to Karl which deploys this valuable terminology in abundance is this one, written on 23 May 1862.
