User:Admin/Lectures/Introduction

These are loose notes for a potential lecture. Nothing has come of this yet.

• What's this course about?

• Concerns over "interpretation" of the text
  • Story: Childhood friend who reject the concept of interpretation with a sincerely puzzled look. "You read the words in the Bible and they mean what is written."
  • Consider a Tilden nature walk versus fact cards recited to you
  • Consider Beethoven's 5th played by high school orchestra versus Carlos Kleiber conducting.
  • Consider A Wrinkle in Time in 4th versus 11th grade
  • Or Great Expectations in 11th Grade versus one's quarter-life crisis.
  • Interpretation is alive. We are humans, and we must share interpretations.

• Concerns over secondary works (is this course a secondary work?)

• Why a "take" or frame is important
  • Sugrue and Plato's Republic
  • It's potentially a living relationship with the text.
    • It's potentially applicable, not merely quotable, epigrammable, or tut-tut-tuttable

• Metaphor: this course is a cup.
  • It's one possible cup. A frame. There are others
  • You fill it with your own pursuit.

• Goal: spark the unquenchable magnesium fire this revelaton can be for you.

• Antipattern: Dangers of tradition and authority
  • 533 Diversey is imposing and prone to awe
  • Time is limited: others' authoritative takes (i.e., doctrine) are convenient time savers
  • But also indolent and growth-stunting if you do not grasp yourself
  • Example: Moby Dick cliffs notes versus reading yourself.