Those Wacky Spartans: The Platypus Reads Part CXIII

While my academic interests have run (since college) towards the Ancient Greeks, I have to confess to not being terribly interested in Sparta.  I'm always a sucker for literature and the Spartans didn't really produce much (Tyrtaeus and Alkman).  However, Sparta is the second most attested Greek polis in the ancient sources.  That means that if you want to study "Ancient Greece" and have it mean anything more than just "Ancient Athens," you have to deal with Sparta.  So, helping me come to grip with those laconic Lakonians are Paul Cartledge's The Spartans and Spartan Reflections.

The Spartans is an introduction for a popular audience to the world of the ancient Spartans.  It's well laid-out, covering in an efficient and pleasant manner the relevant political history, key figures, and key questions in Spartan studies.  Spartan Reflections is a collection of Cartledge's essays on Sparta running up to the early oughts.  That makes it a little dated, but a wonderful way to go deeper and get into the scholarly controversies surrounding Greece's famed warriors.  Both books have been enjoyable reads and Cartledge's interest in his subject is infectious.

So, do I plan on sticking with Spartan studies?  No.  I think it will be back to Homer after I wrap up Spartan Reflections.  Still, the time has been well spent and I feel like I've shored up a few points that were getting dangerously shaky after all those years away from college.  So how about you?  Ready to try a little "Lakonizing"?  If so, then Paul Cartledge may have just the book you're looking for.     

Reynolds and Schaeffer: Academic Platypus

I was talking with a friend today about possible career paths for an academically inclined 20-something.  Much of that period of life seems to be about coming to terms with the fact that you can't do most of the things you are interested in.  In fact, the thing you end up doing may not even be that which interests you the most but merely that which someone is willing to pay you to do.  For those of us with broad interests and a broad education, it can be a particularly painful season of life.

Some, however, do find a way to reject the enforced narrowness that seems to come with adulthood.  These people make a specialty out of generalizing.  I was trying to explain this and the two people that came to mind first were Francis Schaeffer (the Swiss-Chalet-dwelling guru-apologist) and John-Mark Reynolds (founder of the Torrey Honors Institute and Provost of Houston Baptist University).  Both of these men made careers out of generalizing.  Knowing a little about everything, they focused their considerable powers on drawing connections rather than specializing in a single field.

So much of the Modern Project has focused on the idea of breaking Knowledge into discrete fields and forcing individuals to pick a single field and spend a life time tunneling away at it.  As the "tunnels" have gotten deeper, it has become increasingly difficult to communicate between them.  Both Academia and Industry are beginning to realize the problems this lack of connection cause.  If knowledge is connective, making the unknown known by means of connecting it to the known, then specialization that inhibits connectivity threatens our ability to know.  The acknowledgement of this threat seems to be leading Academia and Industry to call for a revival of the "generalist," the one who coordinates between the "tunnels."

How does this apply to my friend's very practical question?  The call for generalists has gone out, but our society remains deeply structured in a way that caters to the specialist and penalizes the generalist.  Thus, for the trained generalist, the question comes up: will there be a job for me if I refuse to specialize?  Figures like Schaeffer and Reynolds were able to carve out places for themselves by dint of their extraordinary personalities.  It remains to be seen if their disciples can do the same.   

Amusements Old and New: Platypus Nostalgia

The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name. 

-Theseus to Hippolyta, A Midsummer Night's Dream V.i


Finding myself in need of a little enforced recreation, I picked back up one of my favorite games of the past three years, Titan Quest.  This will be my third time through the game.  Aside from the carefully calibrated work-to-reward ratio, what is it about Titan Quest that has me coming back to it for a third time?  I suppose that with all the character-class combos it's highly replay-able.  It's also easier than dealing with all the patches and streaming difficulties of Starcraft II.  Still, there are other games I might be replaying.  So, why this one?

I think the answer to my question may be ambiance.  Titan Quest has the feel of wandering through the mythic Greek past.  I've been studying the Ancient Greeks for over a decade now and I love all the ins and outs of their weird and wacky world.  It's a place that's alive to me, in a way, like Middle Earth or Narnia.  I love seeing film adaptations, sketches, musical adaptations, and paintings of Lewis and Tolkien's imaginary worlds, so why not the historical world of Ancient Greece?  Are there all kinds of innacuracies?  Sure, but since Titan Quest is a mythic/fantasy game they don't bother me very much.  What I value more than anything is simply the attempt: that someone else found the Greeks intriguing enough to try to bring a part of their world to life.  After all, isn't that what historians do on a much more serious level?  We attempt to bring the lost world of the past to life. 

We Do Antigone and the Getty Villa Does Too: Creative Platypus

A little while ago I posted about my students' successful production of Sophocles' Antigone.  It was a delight, then, to be able to catch some of them and tell them that the Getty Villa is presenting dramatic readings of several Greek tragedies this summer and has already done Antigone in a prior season.  If we all lived in SoCal, I would propose an unofficial summer field trip for anyone who was willing to go and watch the classics come to life.  Alas.  Anyhow, if you are a SoCaler, be aware that this opportunity is available.

The important point in all of this is that interest in the Greek past is alive and may become even more alive if those who know and love it are willing to step out on a limb and share that love with the public.  Shakespeare can still draw a crowd because the bard's fans are willing to dig deep and bring real ingenuity and talent to the task of bringing his works to life.  If those who love Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides are willing to do the same, there's no reason they can't earn the Greeks their own spot in the sun.

More of This Year's Doodles: Whiteboard Platypus

Picture 1 features an Autumn nymph just getting ready to dance upon the wind as the leaves begin to fall.  Picture 2 depicts the epic battle between those eternal rivals the Water Donkey and the Vampire Possum.  Picture 3 focuses on the Water Donkey in its undead form with all the relevant statistics.

Doodling the Inklings: Whiteboard Platypus

What could be cooler that J.R.R. Tolkien brandishing the Lance of Longinus along with a Grail-toting C.S. Lewis, and an apparition of Charles Williams, riding on a rocket bear with dual chain guns for arms?

Pro-mo for the school's Inklings reading club.

What My Students Did: Academic Platypus

So, I'm already proud of my little band of 9th through 12th graders that managed to put on Sophocles' Antigone at the beginning of this month.  Putting on a Greek Tragedy with a working Chorus is no small deed.  For the seniors, however, an even greater challenge was just around the corner.  This week concluded our school's annual senior thesis presentations.

All seniors at the school where I teach are required to present a senior thesis as part of their graduation requirements.  The senior thesis is composed of an 18-24 page written draft on a topic of their choosing and a 10-13 page oral draft which is memorized, presented to the community, and defended before a panel made up of a teacher, the headmaster, a member or two of the local clergy, and a board member or outside expert (the panel is civil and polite, but they ask real questions -it isn't just for show).  It's a daunting task.  Most students in the United States will not experience this sort of thing unless they go for an advanced degree.

What particularly impressed me this year was the uniform level of performance of the students.  We had highs, but we didn't have lows.  Every student rose to the occasion and strove through to end with self-possession and determination.  Students like this, whatever they choose to do, are going to find themselves becoming leaders -even when they choose to follow.

I don't know where these seniors will end up or what they will do with their lives over the next decade, but I do know that I am proud of them.