That's exactly the problem. A former student, emailing me out of the blue, in the middle of the summer? Bound to be a query along the lines of, "Dear Professor: can you tell me what Platonism is?"
Platonism per se is not the problem. It's the I'm-too-lazy-even-to-consult-Wikipedia-but-I-bet-that-prof-I-had-that-one-time-would-know-the-answer that's the problem.
Indeed. I had a student write to ask me to tell him what poets have inspired me most in my life, and to recommend to him a poetry reading program for the summer. I'm delighted he's so interested, and yet, I couldn't bear to respond. Where in the world do you even start??
7 comments:
Send them to me.
xo,
Veralinda the Platonist
P.S. I take that back. Send no students to me in the summer.
V:
That's exactly the problem. A former student, emailing me out of the blue, in the middle of the summer? Bound to be a query along the lines of, "Dear Professor: can you tell me what Platonism is?"
Platonism per se is not the problem. It's the I'm-too-lazy-even-to-consult-Wikipedia-but-I-bet-that-prof-I-had-that-one-time-would-know-the-answer that's the problem.
Indeed. I had a student write to ask me to tell him what poets have inspired me most in my life, and to recommend to him a poetry reading program for the summer. I'm delighted he's so interested, and yet, I couldn't bear to respond. Where in the world do you even start??
Perhaps ze was accused of Platonism, and wanted to make sure that it wasn't like being accused of plagiarism?
I think it takes more energy to e-mail you than to do a Google or Wikipedia search, so there's that.
In my nightmare scenario, he wants to talk about Ficino.
Check your to-do list. You forgot to cross off "buy a house."
I'd rather have a summer email from a student on "Platonism" than "Reading List for Fall."
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