'quod si Diana se ex ponte jacat, faciasne tu quoque?'

[ricardienne]

Is what I should have quipped in Latin, today while we were doing Ovid, but I only managed it in English. Oh, well. Next time, I shall be prepared and be brave enough to attempt a joke in lingua originale.

We had our concert tonight; it wasn't too bad, although something weird happened in the Wagner and M. and I got off by a beat, but I don't think anyone (in the audience, that is) noticed. We had a big crowd this time: probably two dozen entire people.

My lesson was moderately okay-awful. But D. mentioned a possible Monteverdi opera this semester that she recommended me for. Which would be unbelievably awesome if I actually got to do. It would probably make up for the less-than-wonderful orchestra experience this year.

It's funny: the more things I tick off towards break starting, the guiltier I feel about feeling that I'm off the hook. I have to meet with two professors tomorrow, one about a paper and one "just to catch up on things" (which is possibly even scarier), to go to Latin & French tables, to practice at least my 1 reserved hour -- plus my ~45 minutes in the morning -- and go to lit class. And I should do laundry. Well, and I need to print my boarding pass and pack. But that shouldn't take long, as I'm not bringing anything except my laptop, my bow, the books that I'll need, and maybe some socks and underwear (must check with my mother concerning whether or not I have any underwear still at home).

Lit class should be fun, though. We don't have another paper for quite a while, and we're doing Inferno. This is pure pleasure, to go and talk about Dante. I am having a few issues with this distinction between "the Dante Pilgrim" and "the Dante Poet," however. Not that I can't see that there is a difference. But when I hear "Dante Poet," I think of an anonymous author. We talk about the Pearl Poet, and the Beowulf Poet, and, more frequently, in art, the Master of the St Cecilia Altarpiece. But the Dante Poet: we know who he is; in fact, he is who he is. This sounds like we only know him as the author of the poem about Dante. Although, I suppose, one could ask to what extend Dante did create himself in the Divine Comedy. There's all of that weird, cyclical allusion to his fame, which only came after the publication of the work, and his status as a great poet, as which he wasn't recognized until he wrote Divine Comedy. So maybe it is appropriate to think of the person who wrote the poem as the "creator of Dante Alighieri," and hence, the Dante Poet.

I got my mid-term crite sheet today. Among other (fairly nice) things, the professor noted that although I am "quick to notice argumentative holes," I "avoid ad hominem attacks." This is pretty ironic, considering the amount of literally ad hominem attacking I do (to (some) of these same people) when I'm talking to friends or in this journal. My second thought was that perhaps this is a hint that I am verging on this sort of thing in class. Although I really don't think I am, and I'm pretty sure this professor would not try to correct it in such a round-about way if I were. I don't think I've made an ad hominem attack on anyone in a serious argument/discussion since Professor Umbridge's class high school government. And even then, if it was ad hominemn, it was also most certainly in absentia. And, I would argue that it wasn't really ad hominem (let's see how many times I can use the phrase in this paragraph, shall we?), because, in spite of what Professor Umbridge the teacher may have said, my comment was that someone who thinks he has a direct link to the deity is mentally unstable and therefore not fit to be president, which, although it is flippant and perhaps offensive, is not irrelevant to a discussion of whether or not one should re-elect Bush. /defensiveness.

Comments

[achyvi.livejournal.com]

Ahh, audiences.... you know you're in orchestra when you're terribly shocked and proud when you audience is either over twelve or contains anyone besides family members.

Kinda sad, isn't it?

[ricardienne.livejournal.com]

it's horrible! The choir does Haydn masses and they pack the house. It must be something about orchestra people: we're really unappealing and don't have any friends, or something.

[achyvi.livejournal.com]

Goodness only knows what our problem is. We're more interesting to watch than choir, too! They just stand there; we move about and do strange things (like the people who move a lot while they play, for instance, or enthusiastic conductors). Blah. What the crap is with that?!

[silviarambles]

This is pure pleasure, to go and talk about Dante.

I love the Divine Comedy, especially the Inferno, so I know what kind of pleasure you're talking about! We don't use the same term (Beowulf poet, Dante poet) in Italian, therefore I had never thought of him from that point of view. But your theory is interesting. :)

(P.s. This was my first visit to your journal and I love your layout. :D)

[ricardienne.livejournal.com]

So out of curiosity, how do you talk about the distinction between Dante-as-author and Dante-as-character? Or do you even make a big deal about it?

[silviarambles]

We talk about "the Dante poet" and "the Dante character", but we use a different expression to say "the Beowulf poet"...it's a bit hard to explain or to translate, because basically it's a very slight difference due to the different linguistic system. It could be like "the Dante poet" and "the poet OF Beowulf". In English, if you say "the Beowulf poet", you could mean both the author of Beowulf or (just a supposition) that some Beowulf was the author of something. In Italian the linguistical ambivalence of this expression doesn't exist, thus there's no possibility of getting confused with the concept. Hmm..hope this makes sense!

[ricardienne.livejournal.com]

I think it makes sense.

I'm used to seeing the phrase "the ____ poet" which does have a specific meaning for me: the poet who wrote ____. (I suppose it could also mean "the poet who is a character in ____, but I don't think I would use it to mean the person ____ who was a poet.) This "Dante poet" business, then, is (for me) introducing ambivalence where there otherwise wasn't really.

Maybe I should learn Italian and go into the field of Dante studies, so I can push for a switch in terminology to "Dante the poet" instead of "the Dante poet! Actually, learning Italian would be a good idea, anyway. :)

[silviarambles]

Well, if you already know Latin it'd help you a lot! With words at least..not with grammar! ;)