Comments for Romantic Circles Blog http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc News, notes, & announcements from the RC community Sat, 19 Sep 2009 20:01:13 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 Comment on _Bright Star_ trailer now available by Romantic Circles Blog » Romantic Circles Audio: Bright Star Panel Discussion http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=385&cpage=1#comment-20254 Romantic Circles Blog » Romantic Circles Audio: Bright Star Panel Discussion Sat, 19 Sep 2009 20:01:13 +0000 http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=385#comment-20254 [...] a special advance screening of Jane Campion’s new film Bright Star (previously discussed here), about the love between John Keats and Fanny Brawne. Following the screening was a special panel [...] [...] a special advance screening of Jane Campion’s new film Bright Star (previously discussed here), about the love between John Keats and Fanny Brawne. Following the screening was a special panel [...]

]]> Comment on Some green thoughts in a green shade, finally by antony http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=243&cpage=1#comment-9661 antony Sat, 02 May 2009 07:44:39 +0000 http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=243#comment-9661 That's a linguistic myth about the word snow in relation to Inuits. Anyhow, I'm working on my thesis right now. I'm an English Studies student at Fayetteville State University concentrating on cultural constructions of nature that affect our relationship and perception of it. What you pose here in this post is exactly what I'm researching. I'd love to chat sometime. That’s a linguistic myth about the word snow in relation to Inuits. Anyhow, I’m working on my thesis right now. I’m an English Studies student at Fayetteville State University concentrating on cultural constructions of nature that affect our relationship and perception of it. What you pose here in this post is exactly what I’m researching. I’d love to chat sometime.

]]> Comment on Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair! by Roger Whitson http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=294&cpage=1#comment-7078 Roger Whitson Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:25:29 +0000 http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=294#comment-7078 I thought I'd take this opportunity to plug my article on William Blake, Alan Moore and Watchmen. You can find it in a special issue of ImageTexT devoted to William Blake and Visual Culture here: http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_2 I also believe that the character Rorschach in the comic embodies the dissymetry between the ferocity of the tiger in Blake's poem and the "Hobbes-like" cartoony tiger appearing in his illumination of the work. Rorschach is, likewise, ferocious and terriably violent -- yet -- once his mask, or face, is removed he looks a lot like Alfred E. Neuman from Mad Magazine. I thought I’d take this opportunity to plug my article on William Blake, Alan Moore and Watchmen.

You can find it in a special issue of ImageTexT devoted to William Blake and Visual Culture here: http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_2

I also believe that the character Rorschach in the comic embodies the dissymetry between the ferocity of the tiger in Blake’s poem and the “Hobbes-like” cartoony tiger appearing in his illumination of the work. Rorschach is, likewise, ferocious and terriably violent — yet — once his mask, or face, is removed he looks a lot like Alfred E. Neuman from Mad Magazine.

]]> Comment on William Richey: 1956-2003 by Cynthia http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=20&cpage=1#comment-6317 Cynthia Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:04:49 +0000 http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=20#comment-6317 Hi, I was looking around for some old photos of my dad and stumbled across this, it means alot. Thank You. Hi, I was looking around for some old photos of my dad and stumbled across this, it means alot. Thank You.

]]> Comment on Changing Landscapes: The Industrial Revolution and the British Banknote by Ali McGhee http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=253&cpage=1#comment-5090 Ali McGhee Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:23:30 +0000 http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=253#comment-5090 Thanks for calling my attention to this exhibit! It's exciting to see how even the smallest details, on a banknote or a piece of silverware, capture and perpetuate both the evolving technologies and the changing values of nineteenth-century British society. Thanks for calling my attention to this exhibit! It’s exciting to see how even the smallest details, on a banknote or a piece of silverware, capture and perpetuate both the evolving technologies and the changing values of nineteenth-century British society.

]]> Comment on Ecomorphism and Ecoromanticism by Organ Transport http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=229&cpage=1#comment-4349 Organ Transport Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:31:43 +0000 http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=229#comment-4349 William Blake was a vegetarian. Perhaps one should consider that when reading and analyzing this poem. I think what Blake was trying to say, as he had implied many times throughout his poetry, is that one should live in the moment if one is to be happy, in life as well as in death. ....Carpe Diem Leslie William Blake was a vegetarian. Perhaps one should consider that when reading and analyzing this poem. I think what Blake was trying to say, as he had implied many times throughout his poetry, is that one should live in the moment if one is to be happy, in life as well as in death. ….Carpe Diem

Leslie

]]> Comment on Some green thoughts in a green shade, finally by Rochester MN http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=243&cpage=1#comment-3052 Rochester MN Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:47:23 +0000 http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=243#comment-3052 I do not believe a scholar can suggest an experiment that doesn't automatically assume ideological things about reality. It's too ingrained. They do not even know it is an assumption. However, a good scientist will put forth a hypothesis and when the experiment does not support his hypothesis, will ask the follow up question of why not and what hypothesis does the data support. As for jargon, it is a necessary part of our language. While the term jargon has a negative slant, is usually more precise. You may be familiar with the fact that the Inuit peoples in Alaska have many more words for 'snow' than the English language. Each word is not just another descriptive term but each has a separate concept. This is true in any field or industry. It is rare for a person to be able to bridge the gap of the learned in the jargon to those who are not learned. Once a concept or term is used, it is difficult to express yourself without it. I do not believe a scholar can suggest an experiment that doesn’t automatically assume ideological things about reality. It’s too ingrained. They do not even know it is an assumption. However, a good scientist will put forth a hypothesis and when the experiment does not support his hypothesis, will ask the follow up question of why not and what hypothesis does the data support.

As for jargon, it is a necessary part of our language. While the term jargon has a negative slant, is usually more precise. You may be familiar with the fact that the Inuit peoples in Alaska have many more words for ’snow’ than the English language. Each word is not just another descriptive term but each has a separate concept. This is true in any field or industry. It is rare for a person to be able to bridge the gap of the learned in the jargon to those who are not learned. Once a concept or term is used, it is difficult to express yourself without it.

]]> Comment on Creationism in a New Key by TimothyMorton http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=237&cpage=1#comment-1635 TimothyMorton Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:20:55 +0000 http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=237#comment-1635 This needs to be taught in Western Civ. 101, no? Beautiful language, Ash, which I hope we can adapt (to coin a phrase). News you can use. This needs to be taught in Western Civ. 101, no? Beautiful language, Ash, which I hope we can adapt (to coin a phrase). News you can use.

]]> Comment on The ecological thought—ecologocentric insert by Ashton Nichols http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=233&cpage=1#comment-1395 Ashton Nichols Sat, 06 Sep 2008 18:49:14 +0000 http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=233#comment-1395 I would only add that self-consciousness is, as is so often the case, the real bugbear here. Once we see consciousness as a material process--as we finally must--then there is no secret inner/outer, or here/there, or even now/then (this last non-dichotomy is what Blake meant when he said we were already in eternity). The "over-thereness" of the objects of nature, therefore, is no more a real state of affairs than is the spooky sense of the ghost in my own machine. I only feel that there is a ghost in my machine--as people once believed they had "souls" (some still believe they do, I gather)--because of the way certain of my synaptic chemical impulses produce a sensation of selfhood, just as other synapses produce a sensation of green, or of cold, or of love. The "aura" you speak of is thus "inside" of me, just as much as the mountain range seems "over there" in the distance because of the way my eyes process rays of light. Stop all of your own material processing of sense-data, and of the contents of your consciousness, and the world will be no less the world, it will just have one less conscious-processor of the materials that make up the universe. This line of thinking is even borne out in Stephen Hawking's recent observation that the belief in any beginning at all may be the greatest of human metaphoric mistakes. There was no beginning of anything. Things have always existed as they now exist. We humans only believe in beginnings and ends because our own consciousness begins and ends. As a result, we mistakenly apply the metaphor of start and finish (begin and end) to the material reality we find around us. But the world of "matter" and "energy"--even these two will turn out to be one thing once we understand gravity--has always existed, just altering the way it is manifested. There may even have been a Big Bang, says Hawking, but it will probably turn out to be just one in an infinite series of big bangs of our universe, stretching forever back into the past and forever forward into the future. Of course, there may also be an infinite number of other universes, some of them a little--or a lot--like our universe, others so strange as to make your head spin. I need to stop now; my own head is spinning. --A.N. I would only add that self-consciousness is, as is so often the case, the real bugbear here. Once we see consciousness as a material process–as we finally must–then there is no secret inner/outer, or here/there, or even now/then (this last non-dichotomy is what Blake meant when he said we were already in eternity). The “over-thereness” of the objects of nature, therefore, is no more a real state of affairs than is the spooky sense of the ghost in my own machine. I only feel that there is a ghost in my machine–as people once believed they had “souls” (some still believe they do, I gather)–because of the way certain of my synaptic chemical impulses produce a sensation of selfhood, just as other synapses produce a sensation of green, or of cold, or of love. The “aura” you speak of is thus “inside” of me, just as much as the mountain range seems “over there” in the distance because of the way my eyes process rays of light. Stop all of your own material processing of sense-data, and of the contents of your consciousness, and the world will be no less the world, it will just have one less conscious-processor of the materials that make up the universe. This line of thinking is even borne out in Stephen Hawking’s recent observation that the belief in any beginning at all may be the greatest of human metaphoric mistakes. There was no beginning of anything. Things have always existed as they now exist. We humans only believe in beginnings and ends because our own consciousness begins and ends. As a result, we mistakenly apply the metaphor of start and finish (begin and end) to the material reality we find around us. But the world of “matter” and “energy”–even these two will turn out to be one thing once we understand gravity–has always existed, just altering the way it is manifested. There may even have been a Big Bang, says Hawking, but it will probably turn out to be just one in an infinite series of big bangs of our universe, stretching forever back into the past and forever forward into the future. Of course, there may also be an infinite number of other universes, some of them a little–or a lot–like our universe, others so strange as to make your head spin. I need to stop now; my own head is spinning.
–A.N.

]]> Comment on The ecological thought—ecologocentric insert by TimothyMorton http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=233&cpage=1#comment-1383 TimothyMorton Sat, 06 Sep 2008 03:45:17 +0000 http://www.rc.umd.edu/blog_rc/?p=233#comment-1383 This is an intriguing thought. I've thought a lot about it. Experientially it works, no, on some level? I'm not sure it takes us all the way beyond subject and object: interconnecting them could end up with the worst of both worlds...Any other thoughts out there? This is an intriguing thought. I’ve thought a lot about it. Experientially it works, no, on some level? I’m not sure it takes us all the way beyond subject and object: interconnecting them could end up with the worst of both worlds…Any other thoughts out there?

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