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Jul. 21st, 2006 03:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
endymions_bowerLess TV and more work lately, which is a good thing. On TV, here's the roundup: Warner Brothers detective shows remain constant; the BBC productions based on Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe books are a new addition. They are inferior to the books, generally speaking, but very well cast, so that if you start by watching the movies, then pick up the books, you can see and hear the characters in the mind's eye and it works just right. I've read three of the books so far, interspersing them with the TV movies.
Also, like a good New School alum, I'm watching the new season of Project Runway. This is the only "reality" show I deign to watch at this point, because people have to demonstrate a genuine skill (i.e., not just being able to eat bugs or the social equivalent). The Parsons division at the NS pays for the Graduate Faculty, which has never been close to self-supporting, so more fashion students sitting at their sewing machines at Parsons = more philosophy students reading their Kant at the GF.
We've been really enjoying Mirage of Blaze and Gokusen, but it seems like they've run out of episodes for now. Mirage of Blaze has a storyline I am congenitally incapable of following, it seems, but I like the look of it, the completely overheated sexual tension between the two heroes, and the interesting use of Buddhism. Gokusen is just delightful. In particular, it has the best opener of any show I've seen in a long time, it's adorable. I'm sure it's on the web somewhere, I'm just too lazy to hunt down a link. With those two seemingly exhausted, however, Hikaru no Go is my only ongoing anime. Jen has been picking up Paranoia Agent lately to some degree, I'm a littler slower to get into it. That one, too, really grabs you with the opener. Jen remarked, and I agree, that there is something about Paranoia Agent that really puts one in mind of Alan Moore. Other than that, animation is going through a dry spell for us right now. Nothing on Saturday mornings at all except for Oban Star Racers and I don't know whether that's going to hold up.
Just to show that not all pop culture obsessions come via the TV or comic books for me, I have picked up the latest in C. J. Cherryh's Foreigner series, Pretender. I enjoy Cherryh's work so much, but some of what one likes best about her, if one likes her, are traits that others would, reasonably enough, consider faults. Her habits as an author are so pronounced that they invite caricature. But she creates worlds that are so detailed they become standing realities in one's mind; and she's done this successfully in two quite unrelated series of hers which I've read. In addition to the Foreigner series I've read a few books in the less tightly linked "Alliance/Union" series; I haven't picked up any of her fantasy, because when it comes to novels, for some reason I prefer SF. Maybe fantasy is too close to my work?
Speaking of my work, I sent off the article for Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft. The article has been retitled "Offering to the Gods: A Neoplatonic Perspective," to take account of the broader perspective which it now adopts. I added seven or eight pages of material giving the reader more of a sense of the lifeworld of paganism in the sixth century CE—the closure of temples, Justinian's injunction against non-baptized persons teaching, the emigration of philosophers to Persia—and a sense of the evolving conception within Neoplatonism of an "existential" organization of Gods and symbols which runs parallel to the "ontic" organization of forms. This serves to set up the main thesis of the article, namely that Simplicius understands the offering as the junction of these existential and formal registers. That's what gives the offering its "bang" so to speak.
With that off my hands, I have finally begun work on the paper for the Fordham conference on the intelligible Gods in Proclus's Platonic Theology. After a rocky start, I think this is starting to come together, which I'm psyched about, because the material in this has been some of the stuff I've had the hardest time conveying successfully to people, and if I can get it down here in a reasonably comprehensible form, it will make a beautiful companion to the piece that appeared in Dionysius, which is about the basic characteristics of the divine multiplicity, and the piece under review at Classical Bulletin, which is about the general relationship between the Gods and being.
A friend has encouraged me to give some more thought to working through the problems in the essay I had written and shelved on the subject of the divine names. Not sure when I'll get to this, exactly.
I've been wondering what to do with the essay I wrote on the function of the Gods in Plato's Phaedrus. This was rejected twice from philosophical journals, in part because the reviewers simply did not buy my thesis that the Gods are systematically important in Plato and not just literary flourishes, in part because the thesis was not sufficiently situated within the secondary literature on Plato (which is, needless to say, utterly voluminous, since all of Western philosophy has been characterized as a series of footnotes on Plato). I still have some work to do on it on the latter front, and in general in making my argument for the philosophical importance of the Gods in this dialogue sharper, but after conferring with Jen I am thinking that maybe when I am done with it I should send it to The Pomegranate instead of a philosophy journal. It has, after all, a basic pagan interest and I would love to have something else for The Pomegranate. I'm ambivalent about it, because I do think that there is a real philosophical interest to it, and not just a pagan interest. But if I'm going to spend an inordinate amount of time reading obscure articles on Plato, I'd probably rather do it for my article on Plato's Philebus, which is more closely linked to my other philosophical work. Possibly part of the reason why the recourse to secondary literature in the article on the Phaedrus might have seemed perfunctory is because I find much of what has been said about this dialogue tiresome precisely because the authors downplay the significance of the relationship of mortal souls to the Gods which Plato goes to such trouble to explain.
My final deadline for the encyclopedia entries on the Egyptian Gods is November and I need to get back to them. I'm hoping a push on the Fordham paper for several more days will enable me to switch over to Egyptology with a clear mind sometime toward the end of next week or the week after. I know I'm getting into the home stretch with the encyclopedia entries because I learned this week of a God I hadn't heard of before. That doesn't happen too often to me anymore! I guess someone didn't want the train leaving the station without Him...
Also, like a good New School alum, I'm watching the new season of Project Runway. This is the only "reality" show I deign to watch at this point, because people have to demonstrate a genuine skill (i.e., not just being able to eat bugs or the social equivalent). The Parsons division at the NS pays for the Graduate Faculty, which has never been close to self-supporting, so more fashion students sitting at their sewing machines at Parsons = more philosophy students reading their Kant at the GF.
We've been really enjoying Mirage of Blaze and Gokusen, but it seems like they've run out of episodes for now. Mirage of Blaze has a storyline I am congenitally incapable of following, it seems, but I like the look of it, the completely overheated sexual tension between the two heroes, and the interesting use of Buddhism. Gokusen is just delightful. In particular, it has the best opener of any show I've seen in a long time, it's adorable. I'm sure it's on the web somewhere, I'm just too lazy to hunt down a link. With those two seemingly exhausted, however, Hikaru no Go is my only ongoing anime. Jen has been picking up Paranoia Agent lately to some degree, I'm a littler slower to get into it. That one, too, really grabs you with the opener. Jen remarked, and I agree, that there is something about Paranoia Agent that really puts one in mind of Alan Moore. Other than that, animation is going through a dry spell for us right now. Nothing on Saturday mornings at all except for Oban Star Racers and I don't know whether that's going to hold up.
Just to show that not all pop culture obsessions come via the TV or comic books for me, I have picked up the latest in C. J. Cherryh's Foreigner series, Pretender. I enjoy Cherryh's work so much, but some of what one likes best about her, if one likes her, are traits that others would, reasonably enough, consider faults. Her habits as an author are so pronounced that they invite caricature. But she creates worlds that are so detailed they become standing realities in one's mind; and she's done this successfully in two quite unrelated series of hers which I've read. In addition to the Foreigner series I've read a few books in the less tightly linked "Alliance/Union" series; I haven't picked up any of her fantasy, because when it comes to novels, for some reason I prefer SF. Maybe fantasy is too close to my work?
Speaking of my work, I sent off the article for Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft. The article has been retitled "Offering to the Gods: A Neoplatonic Perspective," to take account of the broader perspective which it now adopts. I added seven or eight pages of material giving the reader more of a sense of the lifeworld of paganism in the sixth century CE—the closure of temples, Justinian's injunction against non-baptized persons teaching, the emigration of philosophers to Persia—and a sense of the evolving conception within Neoplatonism of an "existential" organization of Gods and symbols which runs parallel to the "ontic" organization of forms. This serves to set up the main thesis of the article, namely that Simplicius understands the offering as the junction of these existential and formal registers. That's what gives the offering its "bang" so to speak.
With that off my hands, I have finally begun work on the paper for the Fordham conference on the intelligible Gods in Proclus's Platonic Theology. After a rocky start, I think this is starting to come together, which I'm psyched about, because the material in this has been some of the stuff I've had the hardest time conveying successfully to people, and if I can get it down here in a reasonably comprehensible form, it will make a beautiful companion to the piece that appeared in Dionysius, which is about the basic characteristics of the divine multiplicity, and the piece under review at Classical Bulletin, which is about the general relationship between the Gods and being.
A friend has encouraged me to give some more thought to working through the problems in the essay I had written and shelved on the subject of the divine names. Not sure when I'll get to this, exactly.
I've been wondering what to do with the essay I wrote on the function of the Gods in Plato's Phaedrus. This was rejected twice from philosophical journals, in part because the reviewers simply did not buy my thesis that the Gods are systematically important in Plato and not just literary flourishes, in part because the thesis was not sufficiently situated within the secondary literature on Plato (which is, needless to say, utterly voluminous, since all of Western philosophy has been characterized as a series of footnotes on Plato). I still have some work to do on it on the latter front, and in general in making my argument for the philosophical importance of the Gods in this dialogue sharper, but after conferring with Jen I am thinking that maybe when I am done with it I should send it to The Pomegranate instead of a philosophy journal. It has, after all, a basic pagan interest and I would love to have something else for The Pomegranate. I'm ambivalent about it, because I do think that there is a real philosophical interest to it, and not just a pagan interest. But if I'm going to spend an inordinate amount of time reading obscure articles on Plato, I'd probably rather do it for my article on Plato's Philebus, which is more closely linked to my other philosophical work. Possibly part of the reason why the recourse to secondary literature in the article on the Phaedrus might have seemed perfunctory is because I find much of what has been said about this dialogue tiresome precisely because the authors downplay the significance of the relationship of mortal souls to the Gods which Plato goes to such trouble to explain.
My final deadline for the encyclopedia entries on the Egyptian Gods is November and I need to get back to them. I'm hoping a push on the Fordham paper for several more days will enable me to switch over to Egyptology with a clear mind sometime toward the end of next week or the week after. I know I'm getting into the home stretch with the encyclopedia entries because I learned this week of a God I hadn't heard of before. That doesn't happen too often to me anymore! I guess someone didn't want the train leaving the station without Him...
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 10:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-22 05:07 am (UTC)Oh--I LOVE Can't wait to read your article--it sounds fascinating.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-22 04:14 pm (UTC)http://www.las.iastate.edu/newnews/bailey0109.shtml
As for the wandering off part... it's true, I'm a neglectful blogger...
no subject
Date: 2006-07-22 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-22 05:58 pm (UTC)i adore cj cherryh's stuff sometimes (i'm dying for her to do more of the morgaine series, and usually i'm so tired of series of any sort) but i'd had enough of the foreigner lot after the first couple. agree that she creates worlds like just about no one else can do. maybe sherri s tepper.
khairete
suz
no subject
Date: 2006-07-22 06:43 pm (UTC)As for the journals, unless you have access to a library that subscribes to them or can get them on loan, you'd have to order them directly. I can give you the articles, though; they sent me pdf's... Also, my latest review has been posted on Metapsychology Online.
I can totally relate to your frustration with Cherryh. The Foreigner series is so cozy for me I don't mind it, but sometimes it seems like the same book over and over again. I wish there were more books in the Alliance/Union series. I read Downbelow Station, Finity's End and Cyteen and really liked them, although Cyteen had some of the same flaws one finds in the Foreigner books: the bulk of the novel is taken up by characters intensely pondering what other characters are thinking or planning, and then the plot gets resolved by a burst of action right at the end.
I'll have to look into Tepper.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-25 02:29 am (UTC)oooOOOOoooOOOOoOoooooOOOOOO!!!
give!!!
the cyteen series were SO technical and densely political, i'm afraid they lost me. cuckoo's egg would be one of my desert island books. ditto exile's gate.
tepper has an annoying habit of making all of her characters murmur. sometimes they ONLY communicate in murmurs. i want to shake them and her and say 'have them fucking ROAR sometimes goddamit!'
but her worlds are just amazing. grass would be another desert island book.
i need a big desert island.
:) khairete
suz