I think there's a lot more to say about porn, choice, sin and responsibility than was said in my post immediately below. I've got a post about male accountability floating in my head at the moment, but it is not ready to go up.
The Angry Clam is no more. He and XRLQ were the two members of the conservative Bear Flag League of rightist California bloggers to whom I linked, now the unpronounceable one stands alone. In a comment on Patterico's blog, the irate mollusk explained his reason for taking down his site, reasons that haunt me a bit: I was spending too much time blogging and not enough working.
Jeepers. I suppose the same could be said of many of us, including this blogger. Of course, there tends to be a heavy cross-over between what I blog about and what I teach, and I have found that is a useful excuse to employ to explain why one spends so much time writing, posting, and surfing.
Today, the midterms (that I graded over Spring Break) begin to be handed back. Even though I was uncharacteristically generous in my marking, I know there will be some upset students. I expect -- very shortly -- to be told that it is unfair and unreasonable for me to expect essays to be grammatically sound as well as historically accurate. One student told me last fall: "Only an English teacher should be able to grade my English". This was after she had turned in a four-page essay in a blue book that consisted of two stream-of-consciousness paragraphs and such observations as the unforgettable "The Trojans were just about the same as the Greeks, except they weren't really as Greek as the Miceandians (sic)."
Hoo boy.
Well, it is around papers/exams time for us- that had some influence.
And that passage about the Trojans. Ouch. Although, from just reading the Iliad, it's a fairly easy conclusion to draw, as they are described very similarly.
However, some things do stand out. At one point, Homer describes the speech of the Trojans (their accent) as being softer than that of the Achaians. I wish I could recall the section off the top of my head to give you a quotation.
The style of warfare can possibly be considered different as well from the beginning of Book III, although it could both be an overreading or an anachronism from the early days of phalanx organization. There, the Trojans are described as surging forward screaming, while the Achaians march silently in fixed lines.
Little things, I know, but when everything one reads has been analyzed for 2,000 years already, that becomes the classicist's stock in trade.
Posted by: The Angry Clam | April 19, 2004 at 08:52 AM
Gosh, perhaps my student wasn't as poorly prepared as I imagined.
Still, "mice-and-ians" is rather nice. One imagines some small rodents and Scotsmen.
Posted by: Hugo | April 19, 2004 at 09:14 AM
Proof that it isn't what you say, but how you say it.
I think that I actually read a paper (or a book) on this once, it might have been by Gregory Nagy. I'll see if I can find it.
Posted by: The Angry Clam | April 19, 2004 at 09:49 AM