Skip to main content

The Platypus Posts Again


Hi all,

It's been a while since I last managed a post. This have been busy around here, but not in a bad way. The Platypus, as ever, has been speaking Truth and assisting me in my pondering.

So what's new?

Urbana went well. My wife and I had a blast with the team and recruiting (even though I never worked for the company!). I definitely like the way World Team does business, and it was a pleasure to help out. We learned all about "St. Louis Style" pizza: thin crust, large toppings, and something like a layer of cheese whiz under the normal cheese. Very interesting...

School is going well as we approach finals. The kids have gotten down to business, and the worst of the discipline problems seem to be past. We'll see what happens when Summer Vacation gets closer, but for now I'm enjoying the break from "controlled chaos."

Speaking of education, I'm still working my way through "Guns, Germs, and Steal," a masterful, yet deeply flawed work. I've also picked up Machiavelli's "The Prince." It's much better, and surprisingly less ruthless than I thought it would be. We'll see. I'm only on page 50 so far; and no, the Platypus and I are not going to endorse his politics. ;-) I think we'll have some posts on these two authors in the future.

Comments

Linds said…
Guns Germs and Steel is that book that I keep reading about 70 pages of and then get interrupted by schoolwork. Let me know how it is and maybe I'll finish it someday!

And The Prince - I felt that way too, at first. It isn't the kind of wicked that slaps you in the face, but the kind that creeps into you like a cold day when you start out all bundled up, but the cold creeps in and you just can't get warm again.
7:24 PM
James said…
I agree with both your thoughts! I bought G.G.S. in August and I can only get through so many pages at a time. It's so dense! Ginzburg's "Cheese and the Worms" went so much faster, as did Said's "Orientalism." I think, the deeper I get into "The Prince," that that's the true danger of Machiavelli -just like Bismark- that they're in such frank earnestness about they're program.
8:28 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Platypus Reads Part XXVII

Thoughts after reading the "Iliad" to prepare a Greece unit for my students: -Hector is a jerk until he's dead. He even advocates the exposure of Achaean corpses and then has the cheek to turn around and ask Achilles to spare his. He rudely ignores Polydamas' prophecies and fights outside the gate to save his pride knowing full well what it will cost his family and city. After he's dead, he becomes a martyr for the cause. -Agamemnon has several moments of true leadership to balance out his pettiness. In this way, he's a haunting foil to Achilles: the two men are more alike than they want to acknowledge. -We see that Achilles is the better man at the funeral games of Patroclos. His lordliness, tact, and generosity there give us a window into Achilles before his fight with Agamemnon and the death of Patroclos consumed him. -Nestor is a boring, rambling, old man who's better days are far behind him, and yet every Achaean treats him with the upmo...
15 comments
Read more

The Platypus and Theological Localism

My wife and I were listening the other day to Dr. Fred Sanders give a paper of California Theological Localism.  It was one of the more technical pieces we've heard from him, and it was fun to stretch our brains a little.  If I understand it right, the main idea of Theological Localism is that place matters and will shape the theology of its inhabitants in certain ways.  This could be seen as determinative, or merely as fodder for apologetic engagement, both of which Sanders rejects as insufficient or problematic.  What exactly is wanted seems to be a theological engagement with place, specifically California, in a way that Sanders and company feel has been neglected.  If that's not clear, the fault is mine as a listener or a writer. Of course, the idea of a theology of place caught my attention and my immediate response was "someone should do this for New England."  New England, after all, is its own peculiar place with, by American standards, a long, va...
6 comments
Read more

Seeing Beowulf Through Tolkien: The Platypus Reads Part CXCIX

After spending a few weeks wrestling with Tolkien's interpretation of Beowulf , I found myself sitting down and reading Seamus Heaney's translation of the text during a spare moment.  I came to the place where Beowulf presents Hrothgar with the hilt of the ancient sword that slew Grendel's mother.  Hrothgar looks down at the hilt with its ancient runes and carvings depicting the war between the giants and God and meditates on the fortunes of men.  In a flash of insight, I thought: this is the whole poem! Let me explain.  Tolkien believed that the genuine contribution of the Northern peoples to European culture was the theory of courage.  The Northern heroes, at their best, were men who fought for order against chaos -a battle they knew they were doomed to lose.  If they were true heroes, their souls would join the gods and aid them in the final battle against darkness and its monsters and again go down fighting, spitting in the face of the meaninglessness...
3 comments
Read more