5-6 October 2013 | 92 comments (92 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Living on the Planet (none / 1)

As I recall there's a department in Da Vinci studies somewhere in California. He actually deserves it. I wonder if there are other university departments dedicated solely to one person.

by de Gondi (publiobestia aaaatttthotmaildaughtusual) on Sat Oct 5th, 2013 at 01:06:06 PM EST
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Re: Living on the Planet (4.00 / 4)

I wonder if they had a jump in applications thanks to Dan Brown, the way some anthropology departments had a jump thanks to Indiana Jones (I'm not making this up....)

by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Sat Oct 5th, 2013 at 05:42:58 PM EST
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Re: Living on the Planet (none / 1)

I share your curiousity.

by de Gondi (publiobestia aaaatttthotmaildaughtusual) on Sat Oct 5th, 2013 at 07:20:05 PM EST
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Re: Living on the Planet (4.00 / 6)

Or obscure medieval history as taught by Christopher Tolkien, JRR's son, in the late '60s at Oxford, when TLOR was in its first vogue (and JRR was still alive, just up the hill). I remember a huge hall in the Examination Schools packed with undergrads and grads listening to Tolkien fils (who looked pretty pissed off by the whole thing) deliver a hermetic lecture on the finer points of Theodoric's relationship with Boethius. Probably only the two note-taking nuns in the front row had any notion of what he was on about.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sun Oct 6th, 2013 at 02:38:12 AM EST
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Re: Living on the Planet (none / 1)

Boethius is really quite fascinating. He and Porphyry had an immense influence throughout the Middle Ages through their interpretation of Aristotle. The development of medieval logic and medieval dialectics owes much to Boethius. It would take humanism and the Renaissance to radically put in doubt this world vision, a sort of intellectual civil war that lasted some centuries.

by de Gondi (publiobestia aaaatttthotmaildaughtusual) on Sun Oct 6th, 2013 at 04:37:01 PM EST
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Re: Living on the Planet (none / 1)

Agreed. Boethius was the only figure I knew anything about when I went to that lecture, through his influence on the later Middle Ages. But I'm sure 99% of that audience, me included, were just there to bask in the reflected Tolkien glow. And Christopher Tolkien made his lecture really hard to follow, probably because he was well aware of what was happening and wasn't happy about it.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sun Oct 6th, 2013 at 04:53:50 PM EST
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Re: Living on the Planet (none / 0)

A great anecdote at that anyway. Do you recall his take on Teodoric's final option to do away with Boethius in such an unkind manner?

I was personally unable to appreciate Tolkein babbo at the time- nor really after. I definitely enjoy the films.

by de Gondi (publiobestia aaaatttthotmaildaughtusual) on Sun Oct 6th, 2013 at 05:47:42 PM EST
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Re: Living on the Planet (none / 0)

This was the first of eight lectures, so he didn't get to the murder. I didn't go back for the others.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Mon Oct 7th, 2013 at 01:42:55 AM EST
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Re: Living on the Planet (none / 0)

I can't pinpoint the time when I grew out of Tolkienmania, but it was not long after this lecture, which may or may not have had some influence on the process.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Mon Oct 7th, 2013 at 01:50:57 AM EST
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Re: Living on the Planet (none / 0)

At the time a person was either into Marcuse or the freak/hippie culture. Brautigan. Hesse. Kerouac. Tolkien. In Europe it was Fanon and Deleuzeguattari. other stuff like the underground press. I was hung up on classics. Flaubert. Dostoievski.

by de Gondi (publiobestia aaaatttthotmaildaughtusual) on Mon Oct 7th, 2013 at 05:55:16 AM EST
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Re: Living on the Planet (4.00 / 3)

There is a Da Vinci program at the University of Miami. I could see it might be justified were an institution to come into a sizable archive of Da Vinci material dating from the time and a large collection of secondary works on Da Vinci, but it just seems bizarre to me to have an entire department focused on one man, even if it is The Buddha, Jesus Christ or Mohammed. It too easily lends itself to hagiography.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Sat Oct 5th, 2013 at 08:19:21 PM EST
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Re: Living on the Planet (4.00 / 2)

Academics can make careers out of writing papers about anything.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sun Oct 6th, 2013 at 04:10:22 AM EST
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Re: Living on the Planet (none / 0)

Academics are required by the system to make their careers out of writing papers about anything, the more obscure and specialized the better.

--fixed.

by asdf on Sun Oct 6th, 2013 at 11:59:56 AM EST
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Re: Living on the Planet (none / 1)

Academics are required by the system to make their careers out of publishing drivel.

In the Neurozone, there can be only one.

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Oct 6th, 2013 at 02:10:24 PM EST
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Re: Living on the Planet (none / 1)