Careful, it's rough out there, Bambi

Two deer locked antlers in a fight in Indiana and then drowned when they fell through the ice of a farm pond. For details and photo, read the full article.

The tension between Liberalism "Big L" and environmentalism

In the "never too early department," one nice book that covers the topic discussed this morning in class is Matthew Cahn's book, Environmental Deceptions: The Tensions Between Liberalism and Environmental Policy-Making in the United States. Here is the blurb from amazon.com:

Book Description
This book explores the tensions between American political culture, which is predicated on self-interest, and environmental regulation, which restricts individual property rights.

Environmental Deceptions brings together normative analysis and empirical data to explain the structural limitations liberal society places on environmental improvement. Whereas liberal society is predicated on individual self-interest, environmental legislation is predicated on communal regulation of individual property rights. Cahn's aim is to expose the tensions between American political culture and environmental regulation in an effort to make environmental policy discourse more effective. By analyzing such areas as air policy, water policy, waste policy, and energy policy, he exposes the subtle tensions that often lead to failure and explains why traditional models of environmental legislation are insufficient to resolve existing environmental dilemmas.

Jim again: Hopefully this will also help students in the "So What?" department, given the importance of understanding Liberalism for understanding contemporary environmental policy.

Beauty and the Beast: more than a fairy tale?

Lots of good stuff out there about Beauty and the Beast. One site gives a good historical overview of the origins and development of the tale; here's a brief excerpt:

The story of Beauty and the Beast has been around for centuries in both written and oral form, and more recently in film and video. Many experts trace similarities back to the stories of Cupid and Psyche, Oedipus and Apuleius’ The Golden Ass of the second century A.D.

The tale of Beauty and the Beast was first collected in Gianfranceso Straparola’s Le piacevolo notti (The Nights of Straparola) 1550-53. The earliest French version is an ancient Basque tale where the father was a king and the beast a serpent. Charles Perrault popularized the fairy tale with his collection Contes de ma mere l’oye (Tales of Mother Goose) in 1697. The 17th century Pentamerone is also said to include similar tales.

The first truly similar tale to the one we know today was published in 1740 by Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Gallon de Villeneuve as part of a collection of stories La jeune amériquaine, et les contes marins (told by an old woman during a long sea voyage). Mme. de Villeneuve wrote fairy tale romances drawn from earlier literature and folk tales for the entertainment of her salon friends.

Almost half of the Villeneuve story revolves around warring fairies and the lengthy history of the parentage of both Beauty and the Prince. Beauty is one of 12 children, her stepfather is a merchant, her real father being the King of the Happy Isles. The Queen of the Happy Isles is both Beauty’s mother and the Dream Fairy Sister. Villeneuve also made various digs at the many enforced marriages that women had to submit to, and her Beauty ponders that many women are made to marry men far more beastly than her Beast. The story was 362 pages long.

French aristocrat Madame Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont (1711 - 1780) emigrated to England in 1745 where she established herself as a tutor and writer of books on education and morals. She took Mme. de Villeneuve’s tale and shortened it, publishing it in 1756 as part of a collection entitled Magasin des enfants. Although taking all the key elements from the Mme. de Villeneuve story, Mme. de Beaumont omits some dream sequences and the fact that in the original the transformation to handsome prince takes place after the wedding night. Intended as a lesson for her students, some of the subversive edges were polished off the story. It is pretty well the version we consider traditional today. Mme. Le Prince de Beaumont’s story was translated into English as The Young Misses Magazine, Containing Dialogues between a Governess and Several Young Ladies of Quality, Her Scholars (1757).

The literature on the subsequent film versions of the tale is vast: there are internet sites that discuss the Cocteau film as well as the Disney version.

Gawain's World! Gawain's World!

Again, as you might imagine, there are many, many resources out there on the Gawain story. Here's just one web site that has numerous links, essays, etc. devoted to the tale. Here's the site's introduction from Mary-Jo Arn:

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Written in the late fourteenth century, Sir Gawain is made up of two stories, one (the testing at Bercilak's castle) set inside the other (the beheading of the Green Knight at the beginning and the return blow at the end). That is not to say it is a cut-and-paste job; it is thought by many to be the finest literary work of the Middle Ages. It is also the rarest of tales: a love story that isn't, really, as well as one of the funniest tales of the Middle Ages, rivalling anything written by the anonymous poet's more famous contemporary, Geoffrey Chaucer. (The author also wrote a fine religious poem in the form of a dream vision, which we call Pearl.)

In the first episode at King Arthur's castle, you must bear in mind that no one knows what is going on. Like Grendel, the Green Knight is a sort of creature never seen before by men. Sir Gawain is, throughout the poem, marked by absolute courtliness, that is to say, the is always courageous, honorable (he keeps his word), devout, loyal, and gracious toward all men and (especially) women (pay special attention to the pentangle). He thinks it is his courage that is being tested (wouldn't you?). He does not realize that the incidents in his bedroom at Bercilak's castle, which parallel the hunting scenes (can you guess why?) are actually another kind of test. Thus, when he arrives to face his test at the end, he discovers that he has already been tested--that his test is, in fact, over. Wouldn't you be angry at being tricked this way?

The Green Knight is probably not to be seen as evil. He is a shape-shifter, and Bercilak seems to say that the Bercilak-persona is the "real" one. However, don't give too much credence to his "explanation" of his motivations at the end of the poem (the Morgan le Faye stuff), which is pretty preposterous and doesn't really explain anything.

Ask yourself when you finish the poem: What is really being tested? (This is not a simple question.) How does Sir Gawain do? What are we supposed to think of the Green Knight? Bercilak's wife? King Arthur? his court? Sir Gawain himself?

Jim again: a full text translation of the poem can be found online.

And if anyone can find a picture or a screen capture out there of Mike Myers doing "Gawain's World," well . . . you might not be guaranteed an "A," but you'll be earning some serious brownie points. :-)

Gladiators

Well, as you might imagine there is just a ton of stuff out there about gladiators, the Colosseum, animal fights, etc.

Here is an excerpt from one web site describing Caelius's problems in getting panthers. If I'm not mistaken, this is the same Caelius who despaired of getting any leopards from Cicero (overall he was probably having a really bad day getting animals):

Roman officials (aediles) in charge of giving spectacles relied on their contacts in the provinces to help them get animals. In the following letter, M. Caelius Rufus, a protégé of Cicero, who had been elected to the office of aedile, complains to his mentor that he has not sent him more more panthers from Cilicia (modern southwest Turkey), where Cicero was provincial governor (Patiscus was a Roman businessman working in Cilicia) (ad Fam. 8.9.3):

In almost all my letters I wrote to you about panthers. It will embarrass you that Patiscus has sent ten panthers to Curio and that you have not sent me many more than that. Curio gave me those ten panthers plus another ten African ones…if you will only remember and procure panthers from Cibyra and likewise send a letter to Pamphylia (they say that more panthers are captured there), you will accomplish your purpose…for as soon as they are captured, you have people available whom I sent to feed and ship them.

Cicero responds somewhat humorously (ad Fam. 2.11.2):

The matter of the panthers is being dealt with at my command by those who are accustomed to hunt them. The problem is that there is a remarkable shortage of the animals, and those panthers that remain complain vigorously that the only traps set in my province are for them. Therefore the rumor is that they have decided to leave my province for Caria. Nevertheless your request is being taken care of and Patiscus is giving it first priority. As many panthers as are available will be yours…

Jim again: oh that wacky Cicero! he's always cutting me up.

Great topic for further reading.

We live in the Golden Age of Technology!

The entire text of the Dictionary of the History of Ideas is online, and you have access to it!

This is great because, for example, the full text of the entry on "Primitivism" from the Dictionary is available at http://etext.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv3-72. The entry summarizes much of what I covered in yesterday's lecture and goes into far more detail than would be possible in a lecture. Isn't technology wonderful? Enjoy.

Jim

p.s. you might also enjoy (?!?) the subsequent entry, "Primitivism in the Eighteenth Century." It's never too early . . . .

If you can't get enough of Joseph Knowles . . .

Don't forget to check out the Joseph Knowles picture gallery on the course web page.

There you'll see the following such gems (and others) from Knowles's book, Alone in the Wilderness:


Click on the images to see larger versions.


And if you just can't get enough Joseph Knowles, check out the American Heritage article, "Yankee Tarzan," to get more of the story.