Monday, July 11, 2011

It's worse, somehow, than "URGENT! PROBLEM!!"

Maybe I should be pleased to open my inbox and see an email from a former student with the subject line "Platonism." But I'm not. I'm just not.

7 comments:

Veralinda said...

Send them to me.

xo,
Veralinda the Platonist

P.S. I take that back. Send no students to me in the summer.

Flavia said...

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.

Veralinda said...

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??

Historiann said...

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.

Bardiac said...

In my nightmare scenario, he wants to talk about Ficino.

Veralinda said...

Check your to-do list. You forgot to cross off "buy a house."

Pamphilia said...

I'd rather have a summer email from a student on "Platonism" than "Reading List for Fall."