(no subject)

[ricardienne]

So I really should start my Roland essay. I really should. That, or put a proper thesis on my Galileo essay. I've got half an hour, after all.

But… I at least have an idea for the Roland one. Ganelon's conflict between duty and personal revenge will mirror Roland's between duty and personal glory. They both choose the personal: interesting. But Roland's works, that is, he dies, but the cause isn't lost. In both cases, the personal supersedes the needs of the group. Neither one even thinks about the overall consequences of his actions, and it's up to God and Charlemagne to fix things.

I also wrote my first letter to the editor to the NY Times. So I feel fairly productive. So there.

Oh, we have to trade papers this week for peer-editing in FYSEM. One of the main points of mine is that Luther and the Protestant Reformation more or less dumbed down theology because they relied on the uneducated masses to interpret the Bible. Problem: the guy I'm trading with is Lutheran. But there isn't anything I can do, so, I guess I just have to hope that he isn't offended.

Comments

[voglia-di-notte.livejournal.com]

You wrote a letter to the editor? Cool! What did you write about?

As for the Lutheran guy, I wouldn't worry about it too much. After all, he does go to Bard. :P

[ricardienne.livejournal.com]

True, but I'm more or less insulting his religion point-blank, so…

There was an article in Sunday's Magazine about a soldier in Iraq, the young, brilliant, respected-by-all, idealistic, resolute (et cetera et cetera) young commander who more or less got his career wrecked in the various confusions about what consititutes appropriate force and what crosses the line. Actually, he mainly got in trouble because he told his subordinates to conceal something in their reports (namely, that they had forced two Iraquis to jump into the Tigris) that he knew would raise a flag for the higher-ups.

Anyway, I wrote a letter about it.

[voglia-di-notte.livejournal.com]

Well, not necessarily...maybe he could interpret what you said as Luther trying to make really abstract, obscure things more concrete and accessible and consider that a good thing. Or maybe he'll just read it, laugh, and say, "Wow, that's so true."

I'm proud of you! Do let me know if your letter gets published, okay? I want to read it! (I'm really tempted to ask you what you said, but that would kinda defeat the purpose of reading it in print, so...)

[ricardienne.livejournal.com]

It won't get published. It's just about impossible to get a letter printed in the Times.

But, see, my point is more or less: "The Lutherans just let any old idiot who didn't know anything about natural philosophy and could only make out the most literal meaning of the Bible determine their religious philosophy. This directly led ot Galileo's problems."