tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post1631836523235512302..comments2023-12-23T04:56:29.702-05:00Comments on Ferule & Fescue: Factoids ≠ devotionsFlaviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17832765671541392835noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-69715558536164638732008-03-10T01:32:00.000-04:002008-03-10T01:32:00.000-04:00One of my colleagues took me to a carpenter after ...One of my colleagues took me to a carpenter after he had asked me for a list of fifty books I'd like to own after my marriage. He insisted that he be allowed to buy me at least ten from the list. I made a list for my own pleasure and passed it on to him.<BR/>At the carpenter's he just asked the elderly man to make the spines of the books as seen in Amazon. Make only plywood spines engraved with the names of all those books and set them on high in your highest shelf,my boy, my colleague had counseled me...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-16215131007241010152008-03-06T15:30:00.000-05:002008-03-06T15:30:00.000-05:00WN: yes, and I actually had a couple of paragraphs...WN: yes, and I actually had a couple of paragraphs about how this book is neither truly educational nor (quasi-) devotional--but the post was going in too many different directions, so I deleted them.<BR/><BR/>To be either intellectual or devotional, the book would have to go deeper and imply more of a commitment to extended thought and analysis. A "devotional" isn't (or shouldn't be) a bunch of random neat ideas or even passages--it's a way of working through either a single text really closely and slowly, or a series of related texts or ideas. <BR/><BR/>This book is just a scattershot collection of cool things, and although there's nothing wrong with that--I like factoids as much as the next girl--I'm irritated by the way it markets itself. It's not intellectual. It's not devotional. And it associates itself with a (totally middlebrow) snobbery that turns me the fuck off.Flaviahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17832765671541392835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-9336562506445581822008-03-06T14:42:00.000-05:002008-03-06T14:42:00.000-05:00But doesn't "devotional" imply devotion to someone...But doesn't "devotional" imply devotion <I>to</I> someone or something? And to what exactly is this book supposed to help one express devotion?What Now?https://www.blogger.com/profile/04017629066466055668noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-4952592027006111912008-03-06T00:32:00.000-05:002008-03-06T00:32:00.000-05:00To all of this: Yes. But. I confess to having boug...To all of this: Yes. But. I confess to having bought this for the poet who lives in my house, as it's exactly the right kind of bite-size contemplation that he likes to kick-start whatever the hell happens in his head pre-poem. And it saves me from yet another History Channel or Science Channel special on, like, aqueducts or quarks or something (not that they aren't interesting, but one needs a break occasionally).<BR/><BR/>I do like the idea of a devotional dedicated to something other than scripture, though. What it winds up being is a ready-made commonplace book. Not as useful or revealing as the original model, but a start.St. Ephhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11611680292576283192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-24777146549281550232008-03-05T22:43:00.000-05:002008-03-05T22:43:00.000-05:00wow, that is weird. and seriously, "devotionals"? ...wow, that is weird. and seriously, "devotionals"? that is so wierd.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-37927869204462481722008-03-05T20:16:00.000-05:002008-03-05T20:16:00.000-05:00Rashomon? (clearly, I'm not hip)I laughed at the ...Rashomon? (clearly, I'm not hip)<BR/><BR/>I laughed at the things white people like site. So dead on about some things...Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-58166341644950730522008-03-05T19:08:00.000-05:002008-03-05T19:08:00.000-05:00check to all of this, EXCEPT. if you haven't seen...check to all of this, EXCEPT. if you haven't seen "rashomon" and/or know how to use it in a sentence (as in, "this whole situation is becoming so "rashomon"), then you are a total douchebag loser hillbilly.Elizabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09772925856937257317noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-12166358616705490442008-03-05T13:25:00.000-05:002008-03-05T13:25:00.000-05:00Somehow, this seems appropriate here.(h/t Meg and ...Somehow, <A HREF="http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/81-graduate-school/" REL="nofollow">this</A> seems appropriate here.<BR/><BR/>(h/t <A HREF="http://xom.blogs.com/xoom/" REL="nofollow">Meg</A> and the divine Miss D)Flaviahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17832765671541392835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-67270076101274263332008-03-05T13:24:00.000-05:002008-03-05T13:24:00.000-05:00Exactly right! Wouldn't you rather hear someone ta...Exactly right! Wouldn't you rather hear someone talk about what he or she is passionate about, even if it's not on some mythical List o' Culture?undinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05589384016564587214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-21151437192399244612008-03-05T13:16:00.000-05:002008-03-05T13:16:00.000-05:00Diane Keaton and Woody Allen had a remarkable conv...Diane Keaton and Woody Allen had a remarkable conversation on the same subject in "Manhattan". At a certain point she says: "Facts – I got a million facts at my fingertips." The fact that she was a lady in distress tells us the rest.Anahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16202244990116497799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-34072860722440586022008-03-05T10:23:00.000-05:002008-03-05T10:23:00.000-05:00I can name at least 5 of my senior colleagues who ...I can name at least 5 of my senior colleagues who would buy that book with a straight & serious face and offer it up to those "junior faculty youngsters" who have some "ketchin'" up to do...medieval womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00457130525946143002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-65511773034761840432008-03-05T00:27:00.000-05:002008-03-05T00:27:00.000-05:00It reminds me of that genre of handbooks, like the...It reminds me of that genre of handbooks, like the official preppy handbook, hipster handbook etc, that also play on class/cultural anxieties. Unfortunately, while Intellectual Devotional's information seems to fall short of even cocktail conversation, I can see how some of these other guides can be very successful due to the shallowness of many "class" signifiers - they'll let you hobnob about what cheese to buy along with other members of the huge crypto-guidebook reading community.Yanghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02318439424157149657noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27054305.post-38538387438335253922008-03-05T00:23:00.000-05:002008-03-05T00:23:00.000-05:00I think lists and canons are always problematic, b...I think lists and canons are always problematic, but like organized religion, a necessity for some.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com