June 30– From “On Liberty” by John Steward Mill (1859)

 A different Mill (and a solid music video)

June 30– From “On Liberty” by John Steward Mill (1859)

Summary: Tyranny of the majority bad.

Commentary: I'm so tired today (red eye flight flying against the time change), which is a shame, since I think this is a really good piece, but it's also a bit of a thinker. I'm just going to drop the pull quote and make myself a note to come back to this one.

People are accustomed to believe, and have been encouraged in the belief by some who aspire to the character of philosophers, that their feelings, on subjects of this nature, are better than reasons, and render reasons unnecessary. The practical principle which guides them to their opinions on the regulation of human conduct, is the feeling in each person’s mind that everybody should be required to act as he, and those with whom he sympathizes, would like them to act.

Reflections on Week 25 (June 17-23)

   Link to readings

Still technically on time for the week.

Quick review on this week's readings:

June 17 "Brief Narrative" by Elliot: 2/5 Interesting (probably badly whitewashed) story about establishing a church/conversion. Kind of rambly.

June 18 Cinderella by The Brother's Grimm: 4/5 It's so metal! \m/

June 19 "Of Our English Dogs" by Harrison: 3/5 Interesting to see how people looked at dogs then compared to today.

June 20 The Voyage of The Beagle by Darwin: 3/5 One of the less interesting Darwins, but still pretty good.

June 21 "Sesame" by Ruskin: 1/5 Terrible philosophy, followed by some decent poetry analysis.

June 22 "Letter LXXXIII" by Pliny: 3/5 I didn't actually like this one, but it was short, and it was interesting to see ghost stories haven't really changed in a couple thousand years.

June 23 John Stuart Mills Autobiography: 1/5 "A list of books I read because I was a smart kid."

Average: 2.43/5 A meh score for a pretty meh week overall.

Overall Thoughts on The Project:

I want to zoom in on Pliny for this week's commentary. Let's start by looking at a (trimmed) quote from Dr. Eliot that's included in the 15 Minute A Day guide and some of the advertising copy for T5FSOB:

My aim was not to select the best fifty, or best hundred, books in the world, but to give, in twenty-three thousand pages or thereabouts, a picture of the progress of the human race within historical times, so far as that progress can be depicted in books. The purpose of The Harvard Classics is, therefore, one different from that of collections in which the editor's aim has been to select a number of best books; it is nothing less than the purpose to present so ample and characteristic a record of the stream of the world's thought that the observant reader's mind shall be enriched, refined and fertilized. Within the limits of fifty volumes, containing about twenty-three thousand pages, my task was to provide the means of obtaining such knowledge of ancient and modern literature as seemed essential to the twentieth-century idea of a cultivated man. The best acquisition of a cultivated man is a liberal frame of mind or way of thinking; but there must be added to that possession acquaintance with the prodigious store of recorded discoveries, experiences, and reflections which humanity in its intermittent and irregular progress from barbarism to civilization has acquired and laid up.

T5FSOB isn't supposed to just be the best books, or to tell you what/how to think. It's supposed to show how we as (western) society have developed over the course of a couple thousand years to today (or 1910's today).

And it's really interesting how little we've developed in the realm of ghost stories in that time. Pliney's story starts with a self fulfilling prophecy (an up and coming general is told he'll get promoted. He does. He's told he'll die near his home and he goes "well, if the prophecy says so...") where none of the actions are really that unusual (and are kind of vague). Then follows up with a "I heard from my friend's brother's roommate's girlfriend's cousin..." story.

Other sections show more change. It's interesting to read Darwin supporting Lamarck's evolution though inheritance of acquired traits, when today we see his theory of evolution as directly opposed to Lamarck.

June 29– Macbeth (the second half of) Act III by Shakespeare (1623)

The header quote for today's reading. It's not actually in the reading. Wild Doc Elliot

June 29– Macbeth (the second half of) Act III by Shakespeare (1623)

Summary: Macbeth goes crazy and ruins dinner. Then Hecate shows up.

Commentary: Ok, I know I whine about the specific selections from pieces a lot, but this one is really weird.

1. "Is this a dagger..." is the headline quote in the reading guide, but comes in the beginning of the previous act, over 15 pages earlier. Macbeth is only like 80 pages, so that's pretty significant. If not that one I'm surprised we didn't get one of the (either earlier or later) famous soliloquies. Especially since, unlike Hamlet, this is the only Macbeth selection we get.

2. Scene 4 (the dinner) is pretty good. "You have displaced the mirth," is one of the underrated lines in all of Shakespeare. Still not really a key/famous scene.

3. Scene 5 is a Hecate scene. There's some pretty credible speculation that Hecate isn't even in the original play (and slightly less that she was originally larger role, since the version of Macbeth that survived is probably an abridged/working copy). A fair number of productions I've seen cut her (and this entire scene) entirely, or occasionally cut her but preserve some of the her lines and give them to the witches.

4. Scene 6 is basically just Lennox serving as a narrator to set up some future events. No reason at all to include it in a small selection like this.

If nothing else, (assuming he wanted the dinner, the only worthwhile scene here) Elliot could've done the first half of  Act III. You still wouldn't get "Is this a dagger?" but you do get the murderers, a strong Macbeth and Banquo scene, and a good Macbeth and Lady Macbeth one.

June 28– From "The Voyage of The Beagle" by Charles Darwin (1839)

 A Famous Beagle

June 28– From The Voyage of The Beagle by Charles Darwin (1839)

Summary: Darwin moves into the sociological part of his splat book.

Commentary: I really enjoy how comprehensive Darwin is. Geography, biology, botany, sociology it's all here. 

The best parts are his various hunting expeditions where "to [his] shame as a sportsman" he runs out of powder missing a deer, and accidentally bolases himself/his horse.

Also interesting to see him agreeing with Lamarck, who he is generally considered the opposite of today.

June 27– Sir Francis Bacon’s “Of Friendship” essay (1597)

 It's Bacon!

June 27– Sir Francis Bacon’s “Of Friendship” essay (1597)

Summary: Friends are important.

Commentary: Good essay on friendship. Probably doesn't deal with much that isn't familiar to most people (friends are important, good friends aren't afraid to disagree, there's a difference between a friend and an acquaintance, etc.) but good to refresh now and then (and helpful for the people who might not have read a similar one before). I kind of wish it'd been closer to the Cicero piece we read earlier in the year so they were more comparable. Maybe I'll go back and reread both together at some point. 

Today's pull quote, to which I have nothing to add:

But little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth; for a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.

June 26– From "Beowulf" translated by Francis B. Gummere

 Beowulf in Old English

June 26– From Beowulf translated by Francis B. Gummere 

Summary: Beowulf fights Grendel's mom

Commentary: I don't think I've read this translation of Beowulf before. Seems like a pretty good one. I like the "bone-ring" kenning for vertebrae, not a translation I've seen elsewhere.

Kind of surprised we got this fight instead of the Grendel fight. I think that's the more common choice for "if you only read one part of Beowulf" but not a bad choice. 

Currently trying to talk my wife into reading Beowulf with me since she likes The Lord of The Rings so much. Maybe that'll be a blog feature next year.

June 25– Poems by Robert Herrick

 Alan Rickman

June 25– Poems by Robert Herrick

Summary: Mostly fun poems

Commentary: Tonight's selection has the famous, "gather ye rosebuds while ye may." I've always been less of a "life is short, enjoy it" person, and more of a "life is too long to be miserable all the time" kind of person. Maybe that'll change once I'm older, but right now it seems awful to think about being miserable for 40+ years.

I appreciate this chunk from "Delight In Disorder"

     A careless shoe-string, in whose tie

     I see a wild civility;—

     Do more bewitch me, than when art

     Is too precise in every part.

A little wildness in life (and art) is usually a good thing.

"To Anthea..." is likewise good. It's very much a cliché love poem, but I appreciate it for being straightforward and not over written. No weird compound metaphors or whatever, just "I love you, so I'll do anything you ask."

Like Mark Twain and Vincent Price had a kid.

June 24– “The Story Told by the Christian Broker” from The Thousand and One Nights

 Skies of Arcadia was a great game.

June 24– “The Story Told by the Christian Broker” from The Thousand and One Nights

Summary: A guy falls in love with a rich girl, gives her all his money, gets his hand cut off trying to steal more, and then she dies and leaves everything to him.

Commentary: There are a lot of merchants in these stories.

June 23– From John Stuart Mill’s Autobiography (1873)

 It kinda feels like this.

June 23– From John Stuart Mill’s Autobiography (1873)

Summary: Mostly lists of books

Commentary: I think we should've read some of Mill's philosophy before we got him rambling about his childhood for 5 pages.

June 22– "Letter LXXXIII" by Pliny the Younger translated by William Melmoth and revised by F.C.T. Bosanquet

"Marley and Marley"

June 22– "Letter LXXXIII" by Pliny the Younger translated by William Melmoth and revised by F.C.T. Bosanquet

Summary: Ancient Roman ghost stories!

Commentary: I like how ghost stories haven't changed in ~2000 years. It's still vague self fulfilling prophecies:

come to inform him of the future events of his life: that he should go back to Rome, to enjoy high honours there, and return to that province invested with the proconsular dignity, and there should die. 

[...]

though there were no symptoms in his case that led those about him to despair, he instantly gave up all hope of recovery; judging, apparently, of the truth of the future part of the prediction by what had already been fulfilled

And the stories are things he didn't see, but some guy he totally trusts did:

This story I believe upon the credit of others

Fun to see how some things are still the same. 

 

 

 

 

 

Reflections on Week 24 (June 10 to June 16)

   Link to readings

Live, from a boat!

Quick review on this week's readings:

June 10 Oedipus by Sophocles: 3/5 Not the best play opening, but I appreciate getting an opening. Good play overall

June 11 Epithalamium by Spencer: 1/5 Not a good poem even if the spelling was standardized!

June 12 The The Bhagavad-Gita by Vyasa: 3/5 Historically relevant, but not the most readable.

June 13 "Aristides by Plutarch: 3/5 I still don't love Plutarch's writing, but this was an interesting story.

June 14 Crito by Plato: 1.5/5 Being the best philosophical dialogue is like winning a least ugly garbage pile contest.

June 15 "Wat Tyler's Rebellion" by Froissart: 4/5 The nerve of commoners for revolting!

June 16 Manfred by Byron: 4/5 Bring back closet drama!

Average: 2.36/5 Pretty average week.

Overall Thoughts on The Project:

After months of complaining about not getting openings, I get two in one week. I've read all of Oedipus several times, and I think I did all of The Bhagavad-Gita in a world mythology elective. I don't feel like either of these are the stand out sections. I don't remember a ton of TBG, but (in this translation at least) this section wasn't terribly moving. For Oedipus maybe Tiresias or the sphinx?

I'll find something to complain about even if you give me what I want.

June 21– From “Sesame” by John Ruskin (1865)

 Sesame Songs

June 21– From “Sesame” by John Ruskin (1865)

Summary: Everything is hard, but all hard work is rewarded.

Commentary: This is really just him rambling versions of this with different metaphors for pages and pages. It's like the most infuriating version of the just world fallacy ever. He beings by claiming that "royalty" from the past all deserve to be there, while much of today's has just bribed their way there. It's obviously ridiculous to claim that everyone from the past who is famous, respected, etc. from the past earned it. Then we get some rambling about how all good books are hard, like mining for gold (obviously it's impossible to write an intelligent but clear book, just like how you can't pan for gold or anything). Then he goes on about how reading ten pages of a good book and memorizing it is better than perusing any number of them, learning one language perfectly is better than several imperfectly, etc.. While there is obviously value to deeply studying a good book, it's pretty impressive to just totally disregard broad learning in favor of deep with almost no reasoning (besides some weird rambling about how one sentence is enough to show whether a person is a scholar or illiterate). Then he spends some time whining about Bible translations, before contradicting himself and saying we all need to learn words in their original languages to really understand them. He tries to explain it away as not needing to really know a language, but it's a weak defense at best.

The final section, an analysis of a Milton poem, is fairly well done at least.

June 20– From "Voyage Of The Beagle" (1839) by Charles Darwin

 Lesser of Two Weevils

June 20– From Voyage Of The Beagle (1839) by Charles Darwin

Summary: Birds that aren't afraid of people are easy to kill.

Commentary: One of the less exciting Darwins, but he's still a good writer. The bits about the birds that're so tame that they land on people and let them kill them continues in his neat "world building detail" vein. We do get this fun little bit of Darwin checking dudes out.

The common people, when working, keep the upper part of their bodies quite naked; and it is then that the Tahitians are seen to advantage. They are very tall, broad-shouldered, athletic, and well-proportioned.

June 19– “Of Our English Dogs” by William Harrison, for "Holinshed’s Chronicle" (1587)

All Dogs Go To Heaven

June 19– “Of Our English Dogs” by William Harrison, for Holinshed’s Chronicle (1587)

Summary: Wow, much doge.

Commentary: Very small chunk tonight. Not uninteresting. I'd have liked a little more so I could better compare how people thought about their dogs 450 years ago compared to today.

June 18– “Cinderella” by The Brothers Grimm

 I just didn't want to post a Disney song.

June 18– “Cinderella” by The Brothers Grimm

Summary: If there's no blood in the shoe, you have to woo.

Commentary: I don't even know where to start on this one. It's nice and short, so you should probably just go read it. Like most people, I'm mostly familiar with the Disney version. The most interesting similarity is the birds coming to help her. The wicked stepmother makes her pick a bunch of lentils out of the ashes of the fire, so Cinderella summons some birds (as you do):

The maiden went through the back-door into the garden, and called, "You tame pigeons, you turtle-doves, and all you birds beneath the sky, come and help me to pick

the good into the pot,

the bad into the crop."

Then two white pigeons came in by the kitchen window, and afterwards the turtle-doves, and at last all the birds beneath the sky, came whirring and crowding in, and alighted amongst the ashes. And the pigeons nodded with their heads and began pick, pick, pick, pick, and the rest began also pick, pick, pick, pick, and gathered all the good grains into the dish. Hardly had one hour passed before they had finished, and all flew out again.

Is this the origin of the wild animals helping the princess trope?

Can you really plant a hazel bush just by sticking a stick in the ground?

I like the the prince is initially oblivious to the step-sisters mutilating their feet to try to fit them in the shoe. It's okay, they get their eyes pecked out, because Grimm is fucking metal. \m/ 

 

 

June 17– John Elliot’s “Brief Narrative” (1670)

 It's hard work finding stuff for these after a while.

June 17– John Elliot’s “Brief Narrative” (1670)

Summary: The Indians are Christian now.

Commentary: I feel like calling this a "historical document" is a pretty big stretch. It's an interesting enough account of conversion and establishing a church, but not super historical. All in all, worth reading, but I don't have a ton to say about it.

June 16– From "Manfred" (1817) by Lord Byron

 Tchaikovsky, yes!

June 16– From Manfred (1817) by Lord Byron

Summary: It's Faust on top of a mountain, but shorter.

Commentary: We need more closet dramas. If nothing else, they fit better for T5FSOB since you can just read them, but it's also just a neat idea. Come on over, hang out and drink at your friend's house, read a play. Good time.

Beyond that, Manfred is Faust, and I like Faust, so that's a plus. Summon some demons, try to get them to help you get a dead woman (who's probably your sister), die while demons try to drag you to hell. It's all very dramatic.

June 15– From “Wat Tyler’s Rebellion” Froissart’s "Chronicles" (1300s) translated by Lord Bernes and edited by G.C. Macaulay

 Yay rebellion music

June 15– From “Wat Tyler’s Rebellion” Froissart’s Chronicles (1300s) translated by Lord Bernes and edited by G.C. Macaulay

Summary: Commoners revolt. How rude.

Commentary: It's been a while since I talked about the "liberal" in liberal education. The gist being that liberal here denotes a free person, and a liberal education is the type someone deserved/would need to be free. Froissart is not a fan of freedom for the lower classes.

 all because of the ease and riches that the common people were of, which moved them to this rebellion, as sometime they did in France, the which did much hurt, for by such incidents the realm of France hath been greatly grieved.

 [...]

There was an usage in England, and yet is in divers countries, that the noblemen hath great franchise over the commons and keepeth them in servage, that is to say, their tenants ought by custom to labour the lords' lands, to gather and bring home their corns, and some to thresh and to fan, and by servage to make their hay and to hew their wood and bring it home. All these things they ought to do by servage, and there be more of these people in England than in any other realm

Another thing I haven't mentioned in a while is Elliot's explanation that you're not supposed to agree with everything in T5FSOB, but that it's supposed to demonstrate the range of human thought. I think this is a great exercise in general, but I especially appreciate Froissant "saying the quiet part out loud" as the saying goes here. There are people out there who 100% think we'd be better off going to 1-10% of the population owning the rest of us, they just aren't generally as forthright about it as Froissant is.

I guess I should note that this is an edited translation, so it's possible Froissant's original was less critical of the rebels.

 

 

 

June 14– From "Crito" by Plato translated by Benjamin Jowett

 As an audio

June 14– From Crito by Plato translated by Benjamin Jowett

Summary: Socrates is going to die, but not today.

Commentary: I've said before that I don't really care for these philosophical dialogues, since they inevitably devolve into one of the characters mindlessly agreeing that the other is such a genius while the other rambles on. This one was okay for the first half or so, but then it lapses into the usual. I thought the beginning was going to be unexpected hanging paradox, but no.

StarWarsClassics has it's own blog now!

 If you cared about them before, you can find them here now. If you didn't, there won't be any more cluttering up your regularly scheduled Harvard Classics.

June 13– "Aristides" from Plutarch’s "Lives" translated by John Dryden and “corrected” by Arthur Hugh Clough

 R.O.B.O.T. V.O.I.C.E.

June 13– Aristides from Plutarch’s Lives translated by John Dryden and “corrected” by Arthur Hugh Clough

Summary: Dude gets banished, then gets unbanished to help fight the Persians.

Commentary: The readings have been hard to follow this week. I feel like that's normal for the Plutarchs. They're just these weird, rambly biographies that jump all around.

  And, showing the sun to those who came from Mardonius, "as long as

  that retains the same course, so long," said he, "shall the citizens

  of Athens wage war with the Persians for the country which has been

  wasted, and the temples that have been profaned and burnt by them."

Frank Miller should've found a way to work that into 300. 

 

June 12– From "The Bhagavad-Gita" by Vyasa translated by Sir Edwin Arnold

 I haven't done an anthem in a while.

June 12– From The Bhagavad-Gita by Vyasa translated by Sir Edwin Arnold

Summary: I honestly don't really know.

Commentary: This is a challenging one. I remember reading part of it in undergrad, and I don't feel like I struggled this much. I also don't really remember much of what I read, so who knows. Let's go to the pull quotes:

Better to live on beggar's bread

With those we love alive,

Than taste their blood in rich feasts spread,

And guiltily survive!

We often get the opposite of this in T5FSOB (ex. St. Crispin's Day speech in Henry V) and I feel like this is closer to how most people feel in real life. We don't generally want to die dramatically, or for our family too. We'd rather they be meek, but alive.

Know naught! Life cannot slay. Life is not slain!

Never the spirit was born; the spirit shall cease to be never;

Never was time it was not; End and Beginning are dreams!

Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the spirit for ever;

Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of it seems!

I'm less enthused with this one, though I feel like I've been seeing the sentiment a lot lately.  Even if we assume the existence of an immortal soul, I'm not a fan of discarding the value of this individual life/death cycle. If this life is pointless, what's the point of all of them together?

 

 

June 11– “The Epithalamium” by Edmund Spenser (1594)

 Here it is

June 11– “The Epithalamium” by Edmund Spenser (1594)

Summary: Mawwiage!

Commentary: This is the second or third time this year (not counting BURNSSSSSSS!)where the spelling in a selection was just so out there that I had trouble reading it. But, I'm not spending half an hour listening to a poem I don't know much about, so I made my way through. It wasn't worth it. Overwritten love poem #9001. 

Reflections on Week 23 (June 3 to June 9)

   Link to readings

Back on time!

Quick review on this week's readings:

June 3 On The Motion of  the Heart and Blood in Animal by Harvey: 2/5 This one was kind of dry compared to the other science ones we've had.

June 4 Edgemont by Goethe: 3/5 Plays with crossbows!

June 5 The Wealth of Nations by Smith: 4/5 Rent is like the bad version of the invisible hand.

June 6 Two Years Before The Mast by Dana: 3/5 Boats, boats, boats.

June 7 Hamlet by Shakespeare: 3/5 Not the best scene in Hamlet, but Hamlet none the less.

June 8 Journal of John Woolman : 3/5 Stop abusing poor people! 

June 9 Psalms: 2/5 The least bad Bible selection so far.

Average: 2.86/5 Pretty good week.

Overall Thoughts on The Project:

The combination of Smith and Woolman here is interesting. We've talked before how Adam Smith wasn't really the the borderline ancap he's often portrayed as today. While the section on rent in TWON doesn't condemn it, it doesn't make much of a positive case either. Woolman, on the other hand, is flirting with some outright socialism. No way to know if this is wholly intentional, but it's easy to make a rather radical reading of a lot of the selections in T5FSOB.

June 10- From "Oedipus The King" by Sophocles (~429) translated by E.H. Plumptre

When given the option, I always pick the play versions with crazy masks.

June 10- From Oedipus The King by Sophocles (~429) translated by E.H. Plumptre

Summary: Once again, violating hospitality ruins everything.

Commentary: 

Filling his couch, and calling his wife mine,

This is the best way to take someone's wife.

June 8– From "The Journal of John Woolman" (1774)

 He wrote this too.He wrote this too.

June 8– From The Journal of John Woolman (1774)

Summary: Slavery bad! Rich people should take better care of poor people!

Commentary: There's a page long footnote! Other than that, it's amazing how little class consciousness has changed in 250 years.

June 9– David’s Psalms, American Standard Version translation (1901)

Which paradise // do you prefer? ("Gangsta's Paradise" is on the very short list of songs where I like the original as much as I do the Weird Al)

 June 9– David’s Psalms, American Standard Version translation (1901)

Summary: Songs about God Jehova.

Commentary: I feel like the psalms are in general under appreciated, at least in modern mainline Protestant Christianity. You sing one between the readings, and... that's it? I don't think I've ever heard a sermon that focused on the psalm, maybe a little mention here and there. It's also interesting how heavily the intros and other related material in T5FSOB emphasizes the Hebrew character of The Old Testament/Psalms. I feel like that's something that gets kind of ignored in a lot of modern discourse. They're not (originally) books that Christians and Jews share, but Jewish books that Christians decided to accept.

I like that lovingkindness is all one word, since it's one word in the Hebrew I guess? Google even accepts the spelling as correct.

June 7– "Hamlet" Act IV Scene V by William Shakespeare (1600)

 The scene, with Patrick Stewart!

June 7– Hamlet Act IV Scene V by William Shakespeare (1600)

Summary: It's Hamlet, without Hamlet!

Commentary: Hamlet "pretends" to go crazy, but his girlfriend is the one that goes crazy. Sad. (It's too late, and I'm too tired, to have anything profound to say. It's been a very busy week.

June 6– From "Two Years Before The Mast" by Richard Dana (1840)

Horse

June 6– From Two Years Before The Mast by Richard Dana (1840)

Summary: Guy has a nightmare, and the weather is bad.

Commentary: The incident in the reading guide snippet is about a guy screaming in the middle of the night. Everyone panics, until they realize he was just having a nightmare, not overboard. This is one of those things that's totally realistic, but hard to get away with in fiction (he'd have to wake up from his nightmare and have the giant shark leap onto the deck and eat him or something). 

Aside from that, anything with this many almost incomprehensible nautical terms is right up my alley. 

Reflections on Week 22 (May 27 to June 2)

  Link to readings

OK, I'm pretty sure I actually liked this week.

Quick review on this week's readings:

May 27 "Education of The Human Race" by Lessing: 1/5 At least it's not a poem like the similar one last week. I sometimes consider moving these up in the hopes that they're included as examples of how not to think, but that seems like cheating.

May 28 Assorted Poems by Moore: 2/5 Bring back real world Magic flavor text.

May 29 "The Barber's Fifth Brother" From 1001 Nights: 2/5 Bring back weird and/or swashbuckling 1001 Nights excerpts.

May 30 "The Building of The Ship" by Longfellow: 3/5 It's a decent poem. Weirdly rambly metaphor reminds me of the one scene in Human Revolution where the CEO tells you he's the captain of this football battleship company or whatever.

May 31 Intro to Leaves of Grass by Whitman: 4/5 I don't love this, but I think it's one of the best explanations of American Exceptionalism I've ever read.

June 1 Dr. Faustus by Marlowe: 5/5 We love the bad end!

June 2 "Profession of Faith by a Savoyard Vicar" by Rousseau: 4/5 I don't know that I entirely agree with or love Rousseau, but I think he's a very accessible philosopher that makes some good points

Average: 3/5 The first week with an average (saved by my man Kit Marlowe) at or above 3!

Overall Thoughts on The Project:

While I assume I'll find other philosophers I like more, I want to stick a big ol' flag on Rousseau as the guy who needs to be in high school/gen-ed philosophy. He's old enough to be a "safe" classical choice, but his basic points of:

1. Don't be endlessly skeptical for no reason

2. We exist and are affected by things

stand in strong opposition to the navel gazing "everything is pointless" that is so cliché for elementary philosophy. The world is unknowable and you're useless is not inspiring (almost) anyone. We can certainly teach those philosophers, but a more dynamic starting point would do both people (more meaningful life) and philosophy (people actually give a crap about that gen ed) a world of good.

June 5– “Of the Rent of Land” from "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith (1776)

 Rent!

June 5– “Of the Rent of Land” from The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (1776)

Summary: The more valuable land is, the more rent you can charge for it.

Commentary: The best part about reading historical pieces first hand is seeing all the places where the popular stereotypes about them are wrong. Adam Smith is often held up as some sort of libertarian super-capitalist. In reality, he mostly just talks about market economy in general, and often at least tangentially engages with thought that'd be more associated with socialism or communism today. In this selection, the phrase "rent of the landlord" or a variant like "to the landlord" appears about half a dozen times. In most cases it's like some sort of ghost that skims off the top for no particular reason. It sounds like friction or taxes or something. 

But land, in almost any situation, produces a greater quantity of food than what is sufficient to maintain all the labour necessary for bringing it to market, in the most liberal way in which that labour is ever maintained. The surplus too is always more than sufficient to replace the stock which employed that labour, together with its profits. Something, therefore, always remains for a rent to the landlord.

There's just some extra there for them. In theory, you could argue the landlord maintains/improves the land in order for the farmer to use it more effectively,  thus improving profits for both of them, but the only time anything like this is mentioned is in the context of canals or roads which (at least today) is mostly done by the government (who pays the landlord to use the land for it even!) From a cursory Google, it looks like they mostly paid for it back then too.

We do get this section towards the end:

In a hop garden, a fruit garden, a kitchen garden, both the rent of the landlord, and the profit of the farmer, are generally greater than in a corn or grass field. But to bring the ground into this condition requires more expence. Hence a greater rent becomes due to the landlord. It requires too a more attentive and skilful management. Hence a greater profit becomes due to the farmer.

It's not clear to me what the landlord is doing that the farmer wouldn't. Does the landlord prep the ground and the farmer only plant and tend the crops? It seems like it'd make more sense for the farmer to do all of it than to hope the landlord did it the way they wanted.

Beyond that, some interesting discussion on how different commodities have different prices in different places. He talks a bunch about how meat is cheaper than bread in some less developed areas, but (again through only a brief search) it seems unlikely. Maybe something like squirrel where there's a billion of them everywhere, but he's talking about beef, and they require a lot of grain to make a pound of cow.

June 4– From "Egmont" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1788) translated by Anna Swanwick

 I guess I don't have much choice here I am the Egmont

June 4– From Egmont by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1788) translated by Anna Swanwick

Summary: Reading plays is still hard.

Commentary: We need more theatre with live crossbow firing on stage. I don't think I've ever actually seen anyone shoot a real crossbow live. Maybe a dinky prop one at a Renn Faire, but they struggle to pierce styrofoam at 20 yards.

They mention the Spanish inquisition, so have this:

June 3– From "On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals" by William Harvey (1628) translated by Robert Willis and revised by Alexander Bowie

 Giant Heart!

June 3– From On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals by William Harvey (1628) translated by Robert Willis and revised by Alexander Bowie

Summary:

Commentary: That's a long title. The intro, dedication, etc. is even longer, at about 15 pages. This is followed by another 3 pages of "Author's Motives" which is the start of tonight's section.

I skimmed the intro on the way to the reading, and it seemed more interesting and easier to understand. I don't know if it's the translation, the science, the age of the text, or what, but this one was very challenging to read and understand. There's a lot of obscure scientist name dropping. 

We get this great phrase:  "It becomes erect, hard, and of diminished size during its action..."

June 2– “Profession Of Faith Of A Savoyard Vicar” by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762) translated by Robert Berman(?)

 Looks thicker, more like vicar!

June 2– “Profession Of Faith Of A Savoyard Vicar” by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762) translated by  Robert Berman(?)

Summary: I exist, and stuff exists.

Commentary: This was weirdly appropriate for the start of pride month. Discussion of nature and morality, marriage. 

Pull quote: "In the first place, I know that I exist, and have senses whereby I am affected."

I like to think of it more as, "If I don't exist, what's the point of doing philosophy?" but close enough.

Reflections on Week 21(May 20 to 26)

  Link to readings

Can we just skip to this week's reviews?

Quick review on this week's readings:

May 20 Shakespeare's Sonnets: 3/5 Not the sonnets I would've picked, but I can't complain too much.

May 21 "An Essay on Man" by Pope: 0/5 Fuck your didactic essay-poem.

May 22 I Promessi Sposi by Manzoni: 3/5 We finally get chapter 1!

May 23 Poems by Hood: 3/5 It's Rent!

May 24 Wealth of Nations by Smith: 2.5/5 As I said in my comments, this one really straddles the line between "no, duh" and informative.

May 25 "Heroism" by Emerson: 0/5 It's the opposite of Heroism. If you told me this was satire, I'd believe you.

May 26 King Lear by Shakespeare: 3/5 Two part ones and two Shakespeares! This week almost had potential. 

Weekly Average: 2.1 This was a real rollercoaster.

Overall Thoughts on The Project:

Dear Dr. Elliot, how can you put "Heroism", "An Essay on Man", and "The Poetic Principal" in the same collection?

I know we're not supposed to agree with everything in here, and part of it is supposed to show development of thought, but some of these are aggressively bad.

June 1– From "Dr. Faustus" by Christopher Marlowe (1592)

 Let's do a pure audio tonight.

June 1– From Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (1592)

Summary: I like the versions of Faust where he goes to hell best.

Commentary: I don't like the last chorus at the end of Dr. Faustus. I saw a version once that just ended with him screaming and getting dragged offstage. It was awesome.