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Nick Thompson

Cult-cha

Dear all,

Last fall, some of you encouraged me to try and organize a lit’ry thing (12 best books, or something of the sort) for our “seminar” series. I couldn’t pull it off ,but, for the summer, St Johns is offering seminars that might fill the bill. Please See, http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/outreach/SF/SC/seminar_schedule.shtml

Also, I will copy in the info below:

Nick

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

http://www.cusf.org

Summer Classics 2011

Seminar Schedule

Week I
July 11 - 15

Morning

Lawrence Durrell | The Alexandria Quartet
Eva Brann and Patricia Greer

Joseph Conrad | The Secret Agent
Michael Peters and Steven Isenberg

Flannery O’Connor | Wise Blood, “The Enduring Chill,” and “Parker’s Back”
Eric Salem and Cary Stickney

Sigmund Freud | Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis
Jan Arsenault and Linda Wiener

Afternoon

Nathaniel Hawthorne on Science, Technology, and Progress
Topi Heikkerö and Michael Wolfe

Søren Kierkegaard | Fear and Trembling
Keri Ames and David Starr

Week II
July 18 - 22

Morning

Thomas Mann | The Magic Mountain
Eva Brann and Janet Dougherty

The Founding Documents of the United States | The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers
Victoria Mora and Michael Peters

The Wisdom of Solomon
Patricia Greer and Michael Wolfe

William Faulkner | Go Down, Moses
Andy Kingston and Frank Pagano

Afternoon

Henry James | The Golden Bowl
Victoria Mora and Peter Pesic

Vivaldi | Griselda
and Puccini | La Bohème
William Fulton and Andy Kingston

Week III
July 25 - 29

William Shakespeare | The Merchant of Venice
Judith Adam and Warren Winiarski

Homer | The Odyssey
Michael Golluber and Susan Stickney

Herman Melville | Moby Dick
Arcelia Rodriguez and Greg Schneider

Plato | Phaedrus
John Cornell and Topi Heikkerö

Afternoon

Charles Dickens | David Copperfield
Guillermo Bleichmar and Richard McCombs

Plutarch | Lives
Susan Stickney and Margaret Kirby

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Pamela McCorduck

Re: Cult-cha

Commentary on content and instructors, fwiw:

Though I don't know all the books, or instructors, I've taken courses from both Eva Brann and Patricia Greer, and both of them are superb--Brann is legendary. I re-read the Alexandria Quartet a few years ago (it came out in the late fifties) and it seemed to me to hold up very well, even though Durrell wrote the last couple of volumes at lightning speed, desperate to get it finished and published. My guess is that this course is already closed, based on the fact that Brann is one of the instructors. Worth trying to get into if it isn't.

Brann is also co-teaching Mann's "Magic Mountain" later in the term. Another book I re-read recently, and seminal to 20th century thought. Brann would be a superb guide through it.

Some of us in this group went through "Moby Dick" together last summer with great pleasure; I know nothing about these instructors.

I've re-read "David Copperfield" in the last decade, and was agog at how very good Dickens is (I speak as writer as well as reader). Know nothing about the instructors.

Plutarch's "Lives" was not well-served by the course I took at St. John's (not these instructors). In the first place, they insisted on the Dryden translation. Dryden was a wonderful stylist and surely knew his Greek, but (a) this meant the translation's English prose was slightly archaic, and (b) since Dryden farmed out a lot of the translation to others, more than slightly uneven.

In the second place, they taught it as if they were teaching undergraduates--a moment to ask what constitutes the good life. As a 70-year-old fellow student said to me, if I don't know by now, Dryden and Plutarch ain't gonna teach me. (He happens to be an example of a very good life well-lived, so I understood his annoyance at this lost opportunity for another approach.)

On Apr 19, 2011, at 12:26 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:

Dear all,

Last fall, some of you encouraged me to try and organize a lit’ry thing (12 best books, or something of the sort) for our “seminar” series. I couldn’t pull it off ,but, for the summer, St Johns is offering seminars that might fill the bill. Please See, http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/outreach/SF/SC/seminar_schedule.shtml

Also, I will copy in the info below:

Nick

Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
http://www.cusf.org

Summer Classics 2011
Seminar Schedule
Week I
July 11 - 15
Morning
Lawrence Durrell | The Alexandria Quartet
Eva Brann and Patricia Greer
Joseph Conrad | The Secret Agent
Michael Peters and Steven Isenberg
Flannery O’Connor | Wise Blood, “The Enduring Chill,” and “Parker’s Back”
Eric Salem and Cary Stickney
Sigmund Freud | Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis
Jan Arsenault and Linda Wiener
Afternoon
Nathaniel Hawthorne on Science, Technology, and Progress
Topi Heikkerö and Michael Wolfe
Søren Kierkegaard | Fear and Trembling
Keri Ames and David Starr
Week II
July 18 - 22
Morning
Thomas Mann | The Magic Mountain
Eva Brann and Janet Dougherty
The Founding Documents of the United States | The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers
Victoria Mora and Michael Peters
The Wisdom of Solomon
Patricia Greer and Michael Wolfe
William Faulkner | Go Down, Moses
Andy Kingston and Frank Pagano
Afternoon
Henry James | The Golden Bowl
Victoria Mora and Peter Pesic
Vivaldi | Griselda
and Puccini | La Bohème
William Fulton and Andy Kingston
Week III
July 25 - 29
William Shakespeare | The Merchant of Venice
Judith Adam and Warren Winiarski
Homer | The Odyssey
Michael Golluber and Susan Stickney
Herman Melville | Moby Dick
Arcelia Rodriguez and Greg Schneider
Plato | Phaedrus
John Cornell and Topi Heikkerö
Afternoon
Charles Dickens | David Copperfield
Guillermo Bleichmar and Richard McCombs
Plutarch | Lives
Susan Stickney and Margaret Kirby

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

"There's nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. There's nothing courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don't have any clout in Capitol Hill."

				President Barack Obama

Nick Thompson

Re: Cult-cha

Pamela,

On the other hand, who but a bunch of 70 year olds has the experience to speculate on what (is?)(might have been?!) the good life.

And then, when I had written the above, I got to wondering: I had always assumed that a large a part of the wisdom of participating in such a summer program is the wisdom gained from one’s fellow students in the context of being made to think hard about some difficult questions. Sounds like perhaps that wasn’t the case for you?

From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Pamela McCorduck
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 12:52 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Cc: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Cult-cha

Commentary on content and instructors, fwiw:

Brann is also co-teaching Mann's "Magic Mountain" later in the term. Another book I re-read recently, and seminal to 20th century thought. Brann would be a superb guide through it.

Some of us in this group went through "Moby Dick" together last summer with great pleasure; I know nothing about these instructors.

I've re-read "David Copperfield" in the last decade, and was agog at how very good Dickens is (I speak as writer as well as reader). Know nothing about the instructors.

On Apr 19, 2011, at 12:26 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:

Dear all,

Also, I will copy in the info below:

Nick

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

http://www.cusf.org

Summer Classics 2011

Seminar Schedule

Week I
July 11 - 15

Morning

Lawrence Durrell | The Alexandria Quartet
Eva Brann and Patricia Greer

Joseph Conrad | The Secret Agent
Michael Peters and Steven Isenberg

Flannery O’Connor | Wise Blood, “The Enduring Chill,” and “Parker’s Back”
Eric Salem and Cary Stickney

Sigmund Freud | Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis
Jan Arsenault and Linda Wiener

Afternoon

Nathaniel Hawthorne on Science, Technology, and Progress
Topi Heikkerö and Michael Wolfe

Søren Kierkegaard | Fear and Trembling
Keri Ames and David Starr

Week II
July 18 - 22

Morning

Thomas Mann | The Magic Mountain
Eva Brann and Janet Dougherty

The Founding Documents of the United States | The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers
Victoria Mora and Michael Peters

The Wisdom of Solomon
Patricia Greer and Michael Wolfe

William Faulkner | Go Down, Moses
Andy Kingston and Frank Pagano

Afternoon

Henry James | The Golden Bowl
Victoria Mora and Peter Pesic

Vivaldi | Griselda
and Puccini | La Bohème
William Fulton and Andy Kingston

Week III
July 25 - 29

William Shakespeare | The Merchant of Venice
Judith Adam and Warren Winiarski

Homer | The Odyssey
Michael Golluber and Susan Stickney

Herman Melville | Moby Dick
Arcelia Rodriguez and Greg Schneider

Plato | Phaedrus
John Cornell and Topi Heikkerö

Afternoon

Charles Dickens | David Copperfield
Guillermo Bleichmar and Richard McCombs

Plutarch | Lives
Susan Stickney and Margaret Kirby

"There's nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. There's nothing courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don't have any clout in Capitol Hill."

                                                             President Barack Obama

QEF@aol.com

Re: Cult-cha

Greetings, all --

At the risk of weighing in too heavily on all of this (SJC graduate), allow me to second Pamela's endorsement of Eva Brann. She's worth the price of admission, even if you were only discussing the phone book.

Pamela's point about the Seminar and life's experiences is well put. I see the Summer Classics curriculum as a chance to relive/revisit some of those questions with a different set of people at a different time in my life. I suppose it's a bit self-indulgent, in that I often have a point of comparison from my undergraduate days, but I've always gotten something out of it

- Claiborne -

On Apr 19, 2011, at 15:24, "Nicholas Thompson" <[hidden email]> wrote:

Pamela,

On the other hand, who but a bunch of 70 year olds has the experience to speculate on what (is?)(might have been?!) the good life.

And then, when I had written the above, I got to wondering: I had always assumed that a large a part of the wisdom of participating in such a summer program is the wisdom gained from one’s fellow students in the context of being made to think hard about some difficult questions. Sounds like perhaps that wasn’t the case for you?

N

From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Pamela McCorduck
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 12:52 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Cc: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Cult-cha

Commentary on content and instructors, fwiw:
Though I don't know all the books, or instructors, I've taken courses from both Eva Brann and Patricia Greer, and both of them are superb--Brann is legendary. I re-read the Alexandria Quartet a few years ago (it came out in the late fifties) and it seemed to me to hold up very well, even though Durrell wrote the last couple of volumes at lightning speed, desperate to get it finished and published. My guess is that this course is already closed, based on the fact that Brann is one of the instructors. Worth trying to get into if it isn't.

Brann is also co-teaching Mann's "Magic Mountain" later in the term. Another book I re-read recently, and seminal to 20th century thought. Brann would be a superb guide through it.

Some of us in this group went through "Moby Dick" together last summer with great pleasure; I know nothing about these instructors.

I've re-read "David Copperfield" in the last decade, and was agog at how very good Dickens is (I speak as writer as well as reader). Know nothing about the instructors.

Plutarch's "Lives" was not well-served by the course I took at St. John's (not these instructors). In the first place, they insisted on the Dryden translation. Dryden was a wonderful stylist and surely knew his Greek, but (a) this meant the translation's English prose was slightly archaic, and (b) since Dryden farmed out a lot of the translation to others, more than slightly uneven.
In the second place, they taught it as if they were teaching undergraduates--a moment to ask what constitutes the good life. As a 70-year-old fellow student said to me, if I don't know by now, Dryden and Plutarch ain't gonna teach me. (He happens to be an example of a very good life well-lived, so I understood his annoyance at this lost opportunity for another approach.)
On Apr 19, 2011, at 12:26 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:

Dear all,

Last fall, some of you encouraged me to try and organize a lit’ry thing (12 best books, or something of the sort) for our “seminar” series. I couldn’t pull it off ,but, for the summer, St Johns is offering seminars that might fill the bill. Please See, http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/outreach/SF/SC/seminar_schedule.shtml

Also, I will copy in the info below:

Nick

Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
http://www.cusf.org

Summer Classics 2011
Seminar Schedule
Week I
July 11 - 15
Morning
Lawrence Durrell | The Alexandria Quartet
Eva Brann and Patricia Greer
Joseph Conrad | The Secret Agent
Michael Peters and Steven Isenberg
Flannery O’Connor | Wise Blood, “The Enduring Chill,” and “Parker’s Back”
Eric Salem and Cary Stickney
Sigmund Freud | Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis
Jan Arsenault and Linda Wiener
Afternoon
Nathaniel Hawthorne on Science, Technology, and Progress
Topi Heikkerö and Michael Wolfe
Søren Kierkegaard | Fear and Trembling
Keri Ames and David Starr
Week II
July 18 - 22
Morning
Thomas Mann | The Magic Mountain
Eva Brann and Janet Dougherty
The Founding Documents of the United States | The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers
Victoria Mora and Michael Peters
The Wisdom of Solomon
Patricia Greer and Michael Wolfe
William Faulkner | Go Down, Moses
Andy Kingston and Frank Pagano
Afternoon
Henry James | The Golden Bowl
Victoria Mora and Peter Pesic
Vivaldi | Griselda
and Puccini | La Bohème
William Fulton and Andy Kingston
Week III
July 25 - 29
William Shakespeare | The Merchant of Venice
Judith Adam and Warren Winiarski
Homer | The Odyssey
Michael Golluber and Susan Stickney
Herman Melville | Moby Dick
Arcelia Rodriguez and Greg Schneider
Plato | Phaedrus
John Cornell and Topi Heikkerö
Afternoon
Charles Dickens | David Copperfield
Guillermo Bleichmar and Richard McCombs
Plutarch | Lives
Susan Stickney and Margaret Kirby

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
"There's nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. There's nothing courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don't have any clout in Capitol Hill."
 
                                                             President Barack Obama

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org