tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-261069252024-03-07T02:00:42.035-08:00HansonianaHansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.comBlogger172125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-66681320585876875192009-06-15T16:16:00.000-07:002009-06-22T15:05:16.405-07:00How Long Does It Take to Grade A Law School Exam?Tomorrow it will have been six weeks since I took the first of my second-semester exams. That exam, Intellectual Property, was on May 5th; the next day, May 6th, Rowena was born. My wife has rightly pointed out that Rowena has passed through several developmental stages (eye opening, head lifting, etc.) while this exam has been out for grading. Will she be capable of sitting in her Bumbo by the time I get this grade back?<br /><br />I'm posting this public complaint, then, out of a superstitious belief that if I write about it one day then the grade will come in the next. The universe has a way of making us look silly, like this morning when I was carrying an empty diaper box down to the recycling can and I stumbled over a bump in my driveway because I was staring at my neighbors.<br /><br />I'll let you know when (if?) I get this grade. Until then, think positive thoughts and watch out for those bumps.<br />–<br />Update: The day after I posted this, the missing grades was published.Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-8154574240389034722009-06-14T21:24:00.001-07:002009-06-14T22:08:23.761-07:00Corpus ChristToday was the Feast of Corpus Christ - the Feast of Christ's Body. Why celebrate or even think about Christ's body? I want to get at an answer by thinking about a current American figure of great influence: Oprah.<br /><br />Oprah has followers who read her writings, watch her show, and listen very attentively to what she has to say. She is very much a teacher and purveyor of wisdom. And it seems to me that much of her power and influence have to do with her body and with the promise others see implicit in it.<br /><br />Now it is news, isn't it, when Oprah's weight is up and when she diets? Of course, this is true of many "stars," especially when bikini season is upon us; and Kirsti Allie's career currently revolves around fluctuations in her tonnage. But no one has built an empire upon the transformation of her body and her self in the way that Oprah has. Jenny Craig? Different: she has a plan, a method, a clinical routine. Oprah, though possesses prestige or, better yet, glory. And in her glory she offers hope to millions.<br /><br />Quibble with me if you will, but the main point is this: Oprah's body has <span style="font-style: italic;">something</span> to do with the hope that she kindles in so many hearts. She shows women that if they diet and exercise they can have self-confidence, happiness, and - perhaps like Oprah - limitless success. She herself is the example.<br /><br />There is something similar in Catholicism. Jesus is more than a name, Christianity more than a message. There is in the flesh of Christ an example of the hope that many people aspire to: resurrection and everlasting life. The same body that hung from a cross and that was placed inside a grave is now alive and well and placed in a position of power. We can follow that example, Christian belief teaches, and expect something similar.<br /><br />Of course between what Oprah inspires and Christian faith there are many, many differences - the comparison is only a weak analogy. But in a culture where the body and the shape of the body are the almost exclusive subjects of much popular literature (i.e. the stuff at grocery store checkouts), none should be puzzled that Catholic religion devotes a day to Jesus' body. Americans are fascinated by the body, elevate it to a special place, and listen attentively to promises regarding it.<br /><br />Corpus Christ is nothing strange, then. It is another form of attention to the body, only it happens to be the adoration of that Body which is itself the promise of eternal life. Amen.Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-41798633478148513762009-06-12T16:46:00.000-07:002009-06-12T17:12:42.187-07:00Personal LettersWhen was the last time you mailed a personal letter? I mailed one this morning, and you should mail one tomorrow – by Monday at the latest.<br /><br />Back in March, I went to <a href="http://www.lawprose.org/">a legal-writing seminar presented by Bryan Garner</a>, legal-writing instructor extraordinaire. In addition to receiving all the free Starbucks coffee I could drink in the Biltmore's Copper Room, I received several directives aimed at forcing me to put into effect what I had learned. One of these was: "Write a letter every day for six months."<br /><br />Now of course I haven't been able to do this. I had a writing assignment to finish, exams to take, as well as a baby to deliver (well, I didn't actually deliver the baby, but you get my drift). But even if I haven't lived up to the ideal, it's better than living without it. The ideal has an attractive power. So when I do get too busy to write, the ideal pulls me back into the writing life.<br /><br />But how does daily letter writing serve the ideal? The ideal writer writes every day, practices every day, gets better every day. Writing letters to friends and acquaintances gives a writer ample material to work with. There is a natural variety of subject matter in the events of daily life and the differences between recipients gives some scope for varying tone and treatment.<br /><br />Plus, letters strengthen the fine mesh of friendship. So write a letter today, tonight, or tomorrow.Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-36877222494134597372009-06-08T18:26:00.001-07:002009-06-08T18:27:00.103-07:00Double Indemnity<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6nLGSgAizlXGrlpRGaijDWcxJsiKmVUpVoTa-UbFay6nwnoeSI1AwI8k786vCwqAR0GeTVezy5EKe673s2yySZX2udOV0_WfzsQAozHpVmGTzHwyG-DxigBOmmIzvj1bKVhGG/s1600-h/200px-Double_indemnity.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 307px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6nLGSgAizlXGrlpRGaijDWcxJsiKmVUpVoTa-UbFay6nwnoeSI1AwI8k786vCwqAR0GeTVezy5EKe673s2yySZX2udOV0_WfzsQAozHpVmGTzHwyG-DxigBOmmIzvj1bKVhGG/s320/200px-Double_indemnity.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5345133135625202178" border="0" /></a>As I mentioned in a previous post, <span style="font-style: italic;">Double Indemnity</span> is the first film noir I have watched in my survey of the genre. There is much to say, but I offer you this for now:<br /><br />The story's narration takes the form of a confession, and the narrator - Fred MacMurray's character, Walter Neff - uses that term himself, calling it a "kind of confession." That qualification is significant since Neff's confession is made into a dictation machine, and not to a living person.<br /><br />This is interesting because there is a sense in which Neff is making his confession to a living person. Neff begins his tale by specifying that this is an office memorandum addressed to one Barton Keyes. Because we know nothing about Keyes, we're wondering, "Who is he? Why does he matter? Why tell Keyes the whole story?" And further, we begin the film by seeing something stand between Neff and Keyes: an apparatus for office convenience, an impersonal formality of business .<br /><br />The film ends with the idea of something between these two men. Neff, as he is dying, tells Keyes that Keyes was unable to discover his crime because Keyes was "too close to him...right across the desk." Keyes replies: "Closer than that."<br /><br />Why do I think this matters? Because it reveals the different characters of these two men. Keyes, it turns out, had thought of their relationship as some kind of friendship; Neff, on the other hand, had conceived of it merely as business - there was a desk between them. As his end approaches, Neff doesn't go to Keyes's house to make a confession face to face (as Keyes had gone to Neff's apartment in order to discuss his disquiet about discrepancies in the case that pointed to fraud); he goes bleeding into the office to explain his crimes on a recording.<br /><br />All of this takes place in the unreal world of <span style="font-style: italic;">Double Indemnity</span>, a world of business and commerce - dangerous business and unhealthy commerce. Neff is able to commit murder under the pretense of selling life insurance to an oilman, an occupation fraught with peril. He and Phyllis Dietrichson, Stanwyck's character, discuss the details and consequences of their crime at a large grocery store, confident that consumers won't be distracted from their shopping.<br /><br />I'm tempted, then, to see in Keyes a counterbalancing element of health, a sound sense of moral reality in this disorded universe. But that interpretation is complicated by the form that Keyes's conscience takes, his "little man" who alerts him when insurance fraud is afoot. His awareness of moral disorder and attempted deceipt expresses itself as indigestion - that is, as unhealthiness. When Keyes is discussing with Neff the seemingly accidental death of Mr. Dietrichson, he complains of severe stomach problems and asks for antacid. His moral insight makes him a sick man. (We also learn that Keyes almost married once, but that he investigated his future bride - just as he would investigate any other claim submitted to him - and learned that things weren't as they seemed. Again, Keyes would be an odd paragon of healthiness.)<br /><br />At one point, unaware of Neff's crime, Keyes invites Neff to leave sales and come work as his assistant and, ultimately, as his replacement. Neff points out that there would be a pay cut; Keyes counters by pointing to the solidity and satisfaction of this work as opposed to sales. He suggests that there's something stupid and immoral about sales or, at the very least, that it's unworthy of Neff's character and capabilities. But sales, Neff says, is where he wants to be.<br /><br />I see in that a kind of parable, and a way to understand Keyes. He recognizes that the way the younger men make their money is low and slightly dishonest. Yet he cannot persuade the brighest and apparently best of them to pursue something higher. In fact, his kind of work seems to Neff rather repugnant - sitting behind a desk and crunching numbers, rather than working people and making sales. Keyes asks Neff if that is all he can see in what Keyes does, and nothing Keyes says is able to make him see more.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Double Indemnity</span>, then, shows me a sad degeneration. There is no place in that insurance office for truly personal conscience or a fully human confession of the truth. While Keyes with his "little man" and mastery of the actuarial tables (and the scene in which he rattles of the statistics for various kinds of suicide is my favorite) might sustain a certain level of morality and honesty, it isn't enough to keep a Walter Neff from exploiting the system and committing a murder.<br /><br />Film noir, indeed.Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-83253605351723813522009-06-07T20:39:00.000-07:002009-06-07T21:58:20.981-07:00Trinity Sunday<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho7QAmdTzg7biRBgW47Of3-TLWmorfA74K9fZtofvvYG3nyWFJYXlVXcVmx1HVjCTB8Hv7jDjC-Y5HD_CT9u7mkN5IxQxKYN3Q-L96orbVGPqXvKC5rbBDTq_eKp6kLghNE9SF/s1600-h/trinitylogo6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 80px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho7QAmdTzg7biRBgW47Of3-TLWmorfA74K9fZtofvvYG3nyWFJYXlVXcVmx1HVjCTB8Hv7jDjC-Y5HD_CT9u7mkN5IxQxKYN3Q-L96orbVGPqXvKC5rbBDTq_eKp6kLghNE9SF/s320/trinitylogo6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344811824468965746" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam</span>. This is my favorite line from the Latin text of the Gloria, which is heard each Sunday during Mass, although usually in English in this diocese. Today I heard the Latin because Stella and I attended the eleven o'clock at the cathedral, a Mass replete with smells, bells, hymns, and chant.<br /><br />The current translation of the line is "we praise you for your glory." The "praise," however, is not quite right. Literally, the line is "we thank You for Your great glory." And this observation is more than pedantry. A different conception of human and divine reality is at stake; a different feeling for God's being and our own is involved.<br /><br />Here's what I mean: I can praise a distant thing for its own proper excellence without feeling that it touches or concerns me at all. But thanks is usually the thing to do when I have received a benefit; gratitude is the feeling I ought to have when my own life is now better since someone else has done something good for me.<br /><br />So it strikes me as a rather wild idea to thank God for His glory. Yes, I suppose that left to myself I would be inclined to thank Him for what He has done, especially what He has done <span style="font-style: italic;">for me</span>: thanks for my Baptism, thanks for my faith, thanks for my computer, etc.<br /><br />To thank Him for what amounts to His own Being is something I wouldn't have thought of. And I admit: thanking God for being God isn't something I normally think of in the course of a weekday. But the Church, in this particular form of worship, does teach me to give thanks for this. It's something I haven't quite got my mind around, yet it does make sense.<br /><br />Much in the modern world makes it seem like life is meaningless. Much in current American culture gives off the impression that the sexiest and savviest know the truth of things: all is just matter in a swirl, and happiness is just grabbing something pleasant from out of the swirling mess.<br /><br />But it turns out that the ultimate ground of reality is not without meaning. In fact, it has almost too much meaning - or so it can feel to a mind not properly disposed to reverence that ultimate ground. Instead of swirling about and bumping into things nasty and nice, we are called by God to partake in the life of the Trinity - to live lives that are divine in their understanding and acceptance of what is true, good, and beautiful.<br /><br />It would, in a way, be easier just to swirl around.<br /><br />The mind, though, that has some faith, some hope, and some charity knows otherwise. Even in this modern world, sometimes pulled hither by bizarre attractions and sometimes pushed thither by current notions, the Catholic mind looks up to God and is grateful for His glory.<br /><br />I, at least, am grateful for the Glory; it casts over the whole spectacle of my own life a strange and lovely light. And so I say, yes: <span style="font-style: italic;">gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam.</span><span> Amen.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span>Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-77687752241807161012009-06-01T17:45:00.000-07:002009-06-04T15:50:32.106-07:00My Formal Foray into Film Noir<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjZP2nb0hnFtt4CHy6Ojyrr2-MVcBo1H34U6E7Ei9b06yYumGjDKNp75qRjHm98hsSjwmq87ztfNVj8gld_llRvv5c2-I5WRHL3Wa6rVjbbDno2LJC9vDx4kaBu60mYoZFRGjj/s1600-h/51SBW36822L._SL500_AA240_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjZP2nb0hnFtt4CHy6Ojyrr2-MVcBo1H34U6E7Ei9b06yYumGjDKNp75qRjHm98hsSjwmq87ztfNVj8gld_llRvv5c2-I5WRHL3Wa6rVjbbDno2LJC9vDx4kaBu60mYoZFRGjj/s400/51SBW36822L._SL500_AA240_.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343607731649812322" border="0" /></a>Because I kept hearing film noir discussed on <a href="http://www.marshillaudio.org/">Mars Hill Audio Journal</a>, I decided that I needed to watch some examples of the genre. And so far I have watched two: <span style="font-style: italic;">Double Indemnity</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">The Big Sleep</span>.<br /><br />I started with <span style="font-style: italic;">Double Indemnity</span> because Mars Hill played an excerpt that intrigued me: the narrator's speech about meeting his femme fatale with the smell of honeysuckles in the air. Murder, he tells us, can smell like honeysuckle.<br /><br />I followed up with Bogart's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Big Sleep</span> because it was available on Netflix for immediate streaming; plus, the title intrigued me. Bogart is always good, and I enjoyed him in this.<br /><br />But so that I wouldn't proceed totally ignorant, I turned for guidance to a documentary, <span style="font-style: italic;">Bringing Darkness to Light</span>. It interviews writers, directors, cinematographers, etc. in order to answer the question, "What is film noir?" None had an indisputable definition; indeed, one man argued that all the supposed elements of film noir could be found in <span style="font-style: italic;">Casablanca</span>, which is not, though, within the genre. Slippery thing, film noir.<br /><br />I will watch more of these films noir and attempt to articulate what I perceive those elements to be. I will also try to say which films are good, which are bad, and my reasons for thinking so.Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-72678081309083868682009-05-30T09:27:00.000-07:002009-05-30T09:51:07.345-07:00Visiting the Acacia Branch<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0NG1d7IvFBoV7ecggx9qp9Tp2oYkDu4Sh3TsDdnt4xNwBbGd1Hz9CLtSBKeV-PeLPeW0c2CoItrpqqwiTpcbNsnjNT4c7eebGnKz8cVOZK-b2CFSnpyupDogPA7IsYkjYDsBn/s1600-h/hogarth-gin-lane.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 280px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0NG1d7IvFBoV7ecggx9qp9Tp2oYkDu4Sh3TsDdnt4xNwBbGd1Hz9CLtSBKeV-PeLPeW0c2CoItrpqqwiTpcbNsnjNT4c7eebGnKz8cVOZK-b2CFSnpyupDogPA7IsYkjYDsBn/s320/hogarth-gin-lane.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341655214828210018" border="0" /></a>My two oldest girls and I are at the library. We are at the Acacia branch, to be exact. Yesterday evening we went to the Mesquite branch. The difference between the two is striking.<br /><br />This Hogarth print captures the general impression of entering the Acacia branch, especially around 3:30 PM on a school day. It's then that the ne'er-do-wells are out of high school and the bums (or those who look like they're on the verge of becoming bums) are waiting for the Circulator. The Circulator is the local free transit system that "circulates" through Sunnyslope (though it must go farther afield since I have seen it moving about Desert Ridge).<br /><br />My wife says that she doesn't like going to the Acacia branch because of the "weirdos." She enjoyed the month-long closure of Acacia for remodelling because it was a good excuse to go to Mesquite.<br /><br />As for me, I prefer Acacia. It's closer; the children's area is smaller (so my own children's wandering range is restricted); and it has more "colorful characters." That's how I like to think of the weirdos.<br /><br />One of the colorful characters commented on the great beauty of my children. This toothless man with a tattoo on his forearm was sitting on one of the small walls outside the library. He was chatting with a bibulous woman about Heaven know's what (admitted: I don't know that she is bibulous; but it fits my sense of the scene). And he was struck by Gianna and Stella and told me, "You did <span style="font-style: italic;">right</span> there."<br /><br />True, my good man, true.Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-68499224985714283872008-06-24T08:10:00.000-07:002008-06-24T08:25:48.104-07:00Back From VacationWe arrived back in town on Sunday evening. Yesterday was a day for settling back in. Today is the first day of home-life fully resumed.<br /><br />Living in another house for nearly two weeks made me appreciate my own home all the more. I like knowing where things are, the good spots to sit in, and what won't kill my children or maim them. I like having my books about me. I like Phoenix.<br /><br />Yesterday evening I dropped some books off at the Acacia branch of the library before going on a walk along the "bridle path" on Central Avenue. Our local library doesn't measure up to the one on Coronado: theirs has a wide selection, ours a surly band of teens. But, still, it's ours. And though the temperature is far from cool, and there is no refreshing breeze from the sea, a walk along Central after 8:00 PM has its own charms (the lack of public restrooms not being one of them).<br /><br />Now, ensconced in my study, I set out in earnest on the road to law school. <span style="font-style: italic;">Ojalá que llueva café. </span>Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-69836808816163066142008-06-16T20:43:00.000-07:002008-06-16T20:49:14.908-07:00One Week of VacationWe have vacationed for one week, and we have one week to go. It has been good so far: no major fights, no broken limbs or debilitating sun burns, and lots of <span style="font-style: italic;">Monk</span> has been watched. If you've never seen <span style="font-style: italic;">Monk</span>, I recommend it. There's mystery and detection without the serial killing and sexual assault that <span style="font-style: italic;">Law and Order</span> trucks in.<br /><br />I'm in the library plugging away at Torts. I love it. I'm working on the res ipsa loquitur chapter. If I walk down a street and a barrel of flour falls out of a window and onto my head, I can sue even if I don't know exactly how it happened. Why? Barrels don't usually fall out of windows <span style="font-style: italic;">sua sponte</span>. The situation bespeaks negligence. Res ipsa loquitur.Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-25099078587531840392008-06-12T19:10:00.000-07:002008-06-12T19:22:18.827-07:00Vacation: Day ThreeToday we met Elmo. Arriving early, we ate the sausages and tasteless eggs provided by Sea World (at $19 for each adult, and gratis for the children) in eager expectation. When Bert entered followed by the star himself, Stella became a quivering chunk of clingy two-year old. I had more sausages.<br /><br />All told, Sea World was a success for the Hansons. We saw Arctic animals, as well as Antarctic. A polar bear walked right past our viewing-window, and the puffins were a particular delight. We left after four hours, so there were no emotional melt-downs in the park. The children were tired enough to nap for three hours each, which meant some major reading time for Hansonius (Finally, Lord Peter has arrived at Shrewsbury College to do some detecting himself!).<br /><br />We ate dinner at the park. I was able to dart across the street to check some books out from the library. I came away with some Barzun I never heard of and some I never had time for.Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-7639446941090229722008-06-11T19:50:00.000-07:002008-06-11T19:59:31.228-07:00Vacation: Day ThreeGianna wouldn't go to sleep easily last night. Well, she wouldn't go back to sleep easily, I should say. Stella woke her up. The adults didn't sleep well.<br /><br />We spent the morning in the park. I went and bought two Gyros and a turkey sandwich for the girls. Life is easier when you can walk everywhere you need to go and you can spend the hours between 10:00 AM and 6:00 PM out of doors.<br /><br />Instead of napping when the others did, I ate ice cream, drank coffee, and read some chapters from my last Dorothy Sayers' mystery story: <span style="font-style: italic;">Gaudy Night</span>. It's her best. (I recommend starting from the beginning, McCaleb. Read <span style="font-style: italic;">Whose Body?</span> I started with Sayers last summer based on Jacques Barzun's recommendation. I haven't been disappointed.)<br /><br />After an afternoon at the beach, we rode bikes to get some pizza by the harbor. Now Stella is watching some Backyardigans, and I'll be watching some Monk after her bedtime. Tomorrow we have Breakfast with Elmo® at Sea World, if we can get Alishia away from the Law and Order.Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-41100980631535532012008-06-10T14:34:00.000-07:002008-06-10T14:56:42.530-07:00Vacation: Day TwoWe're on Coronado Island. I'm in the public library. I had to mail some grades to Veritas, and the internet access at the rental wasn't working. So, while I'm waiting for the agent at the Bank of America to type his response (which involves a story that doesn't concern you), I thought I would take advantage of the free bandwidth to blog.<br /><br />I like Coronado Island. We're in the middle of their June gloom while we're here, but it beats the hell out of 100 degree weather back home. Mr. Sun can stay behind his clouds; I'll have a cup of coffee.<br /><br />I brought four kinds of books: 1. Hegel 2. German 3. Law 4. Miscellanea.<br /><br />1. I'm into Hegel right now. I ordered his History of Philosophy using a gift certificate. Using another certificate, I bought a new translation of the preface (yes, just the preface) to Phenomenology of the Spirit.<br /><br />2. I have an edition of Hegel's Phenomenology that has German/English text. I thought I'd try to dive into the German and see what happens.<br /><br />3. I'm going to read about Torts and, if there's time, Contracts.<br /><br />4. I'm reading a book called Holy Madness about nations and nationalism in 19th C Europe. I bought a book about the British Empire that I'll move into next. I also bought a new book about Churchill by a historian I recently discovered: John Lukacs.Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-13633950491979721472008-01-30T09:06:00.000-08:002008-01-30T10:24:22.656-08:00I am glad that I didn't publicize my New Year's resolution: to blog more frequently. This first month has seen an embarrassing scarcity of posts.<br /><br />I'll blame it on my work. I had to leave the leisure of my winter break for grueling days in parent conferences. Then I was back in the classroom, my most fruitful hours spent explaining the genitive case and the ablative of time to 7th graders. And in the evening, after work, I want to spend time with my wife and my daughters, good books and the cast of The Office on DVD. Blogging falls by the wayside when I'm working.<br /><br />I'm fortunate, though, because my work brings with it reminders of why I blog (when I do) and why I should (when I don't). My seniors and I are reading Montaigne's <span style="font-style: italic;">Essays</span>, and Montaigne, <a href="http://hansoniana.blogspot.com/2007/03/finishing-our-blogs.html">as I noted last year</a>, is an inspiration and a model for my blogs. His learning and judgment flow through his essays with ease and charming grace. They are perfect instances of culture: a human mind enriched by reading the best books and that has made those books its own.<br /><br />How does a book become mine, though? What does that mean? Montaigne helps me here: it means that I must judge it. Is the book helpful and insightful when it comes to living life, or is it silly and pedantic? Making a cultivated judgment involves learning and studying (what people call "book smarts"), but it also requires an honest assessment of the way things - and our selves - really are.<br /><br />That encounter with reality is what distinguishes culture from effete and ineffectual erudition. The books and old ideas found in them give our gaze a depth and breadth that is often lacking in those endeavoring to simply "tell it like it is." The cultivated mind is balanced by the weight of a great, humane tradition as it engages with the contemporary scene. Because our time (like most other times in history) is shifting and unstable, culture is not just a frivolous extra for those who can afford it. Culture is an urgent need for everyone.Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-59592365918935158202008-01-02T14:37:00.000-08:002008-01-02T15:21:00.897-08:00More Thoughts on Powys' Defintion of Culture"Culture is what is left over after you have forgotten all you have definitely set out to learn."<br /><br />I was thinking of yesterday's quote and a book I know of: the <span style="font-style: italic;">Dictionary of Cultural Literacy</span>. It was written by a man named E.D. Hirsch in the early nineties. Hirsch thinks there are certain things every American needs to know in order to be considered "educated" or "cultured."<br /><br />Some thought Hirsch was too dictatorial. Deciding what counts as cultural knowledge and what doesn't struck them as arrogant. But Hirsch had a good intention. He realized that in order to participate fully in an educated society, people need to know more than their A,B,C's. They need to have at least a vagues sense of the Boston Tea Party or what the Odyssey was. Hirsch's point is valid: pretending like there isn't a general body of knowledge called "culture" doesn't make it go away.<br /><br />There's something admirable in Hirsch's attempt to help people toward attaining culture. But if Powys is right, then real culture is miles away from Hirsch's dictionary. Culture is not something you can set out to learn in a reference book. Culture is not something you can set out to learn, evidently, in any book. Culture is something that follows in the wake of learning.Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-34602864395326465662008-01-01T13:55:00.000-08:002008-01-01T19:54:51.937-08:00My New Year's Resolution"Culture is what is left over after you have forgotten all you have definitely set out to learn."<br /><br />In December 2006 I was reading through the introductory material of Jacques Barzun's <span style="font-style: italic;">From Dawn to Decadence</span>. In his discussion of the word <span style="font-style: italic;">culture</span>'s various meanings, Barzun quotes the above and attributes it to a wise man unnamed in the text. I checked the endnote and found the wise man named there (with a name I'm not sure I can pronounce correctly) as John Cowper Powys.<br /><br />A search of ASU's online catalog showed that the library at ASU West had a copy of Powys's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Meaning of Culture</span>. I got it, read it, and was impressed. It reminded me of another little book I liked: <span style="font-style: italic;">The Art of Thinking</span> by Ernest Dimnet.<br /><br />Both Powys and Dimnet wrote in the early part of the 20th century, and you can tell by the style of their prose. Their common intention is also somewhat dated: to indicate how a person can "be cultured."<br /><br />I am drawn to both books, but I'm also embarrassed by my attraction. There is something that seems pretentious and prissy about a book with chapter titles like "Culture and the Art of Reading" or "Living One's Life on a Higher Plane."<br /><br />I suspect, though, that what seems like pretentiousness to me only seems so because I'm swamped by a leveling and uninspired popular culture. What seems like prissiness is probably just refinement, and refinement seems weird in a culture that routinely celebrates the gross and even brutal pleasures human life contains.<br /><br />I resolve, then, not to be embarrassed if, during the course of this new year, my Hansoniana offer to the blogosphere something in the line of Barzun, Powys, and Dimnet.Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-74423285561716495222007-09-30T12:18:00.000-07:002007-09-30T12:24:26.925-07:00LSAT CompletedWith the completion of the LSAT yesterday, I should have more time to blog. At least that's the theory.<br /><br />There are still numerous demands on my time: teaching, family, and spiritual exercises. That last has become something I'm increasingly aware of as a necessity. Man does not live by bread alone.<br /><br />Also, I really ought to finish my MA. I have 3 more credits to complete, then I'm done. Of course, those credits are thesis credits, which means that I have a thesis to write.<br /><br />Don't be shocked then, faithful Hansoniana reader, if the lack of blogging continues.Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-11207100214883206682007-09-15T21:49:00.001-07:002007-09-15T21:58:19.702-07:00The StratosphereToday I took my 4th Kaplan LSAT practice test. I finally did it: I broke into the Stratosphere.<br /><br />Unfortunately for me, if you know nothing of Kaplan's cutesy terminology for doing well on the LSAT, this means absolutely nothing to you. I'll say it plainly: I did well enough to begin Kaplan's advanced stage of study. I feel like a successful wizard.<br /><br />Someone asked me if I thought preparing for the LSAT as intensely as I have been feels like a waste of time. Is it frustrating to prepare for a test that you take once (in my case, thrice) and never see again?<br /><br />I say no. My mind has become sharper, perhaps too sharp. For instance, I asked a guy at today's test if the downstairs bathroom (I wanted to save myself a trip down the stairs) were the only bathroom available. He answered that it was the only available bathroom <span style="font-style:italic;">that he knew of</span>. Any serious reader of LSAT's Logical Reasoning section will do what I did: recognize the subtle shift in scope.<br /><br />Do I really need to be recognizing that? I just needed a bathroom.Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-81955310989306533282007-09-03T21:05:00.000-07:002008-12-09T11:05:21.714-08:00My New MacBook<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioYwe-QOPAGqrlnS0EzFLMy7qyiPBSLlrhC-j2nL2_ei1ba8tBmRfLvi33rndD-B_bec0rBxVFZUQju7OmWJJfvyf7wAiII8MHmly1y1voT3160ks0aM_nTkwEK1OnYXUlapJ-/s1600-h/images.jpeg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioYwe-QOPAGqrlnS0EzFLMy7qyiPBSLlrhC-j2nL2_ei1ba8tBmRfLvi33rndD-B_bec0rBxVFZUQju7OmWJJfvyf7wAiII8MHmly1y1voT3160ks0aM_nTkwEK1OnYXUlapJ-/s320/images.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5106196646405107442" /></a><br />So I'm writing this blog on my new MacBook. The iBookG4 I loved for so long pooped out on me last week. I went to do some school work at 5:30 AM and was met with a black screen. And this after I had sung the praises of the Apple to a colleague.<br /><br />It turns out that something was corrupted and the "Genius" could fix it. Well, I'm taking no chances. I bought myself a new MacBook with more space and more memory. Now I can finally get all my music onto my laptop.<br /><br />I'd like to thank my wife for being so lenient and the man who invented 90 days same as cash financing.<br /><br />The clock is ticking.Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-76087872640688255052007-08-23T20:59:00.000-07:002007-08-23T21:02:14.610-07:00ExcusesThe following are some of the reasons that I have not blogged:<br /><br />1. The birth of my second child, Gianna Maria, on July 10th.<br /><br />2. Being busy with the beginning of a new school year.<br /><br />3. Taking a Kaplan LSAT course...boring.<br /><br />4. Reading the mystery novels of Dorothy Sayers.<br /><br />5. Learning Greek.Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-7372019741566951932007-07-08T15:35:00.000-07:002007-07-08T15:40:16.209-07:00Almost a Month......without blogging - not a bad lapse when you're me. It's so hard to blog faithfully! There's too many other pressing things to do: read Dorothy Sayers mystery novels, prepare for the upcoming school year, fret about finance, and give up one's internships.<br /><br />McCaleb and Faith Salutes, the first digitally and the latter in person, have urged me to update. Here it is, then, my friends: a new post. I'll keep it short, though; I don't want to burn out.Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-36029435871202817492007-06-11T06:36:00.000-07:002007-06-11T07:04:04.446-07:00The Westin Kierland ResortThe lack of blogs over this weekend should not be interpreted as a sign of my slipping into old, negligent ways. Take it, rather, as a sign of the price that the <a href="http://www.kierlandresort.com/golf_spa/index.html">Westin Kierland Resort</a> charges for its Internet connections: exorbitant!<br /><br />Since the Hansons are expecting a child in July, they weren't expecting a fancy vacation in June. As a substitute for beautiful beaches and exotic locale, we opted for a Lazy River in north Scottsdale. Thus it was that I found myself unable to blog in the midst of so much luxury. But who could complain with a Barnes and Noble within walking distance?<br /><br />Night One was not so pleasant as we had hoped. The evening went fine: a nice dinner, bagpipe music in the courtyard, and Smores for Stella and me in Windsinger Canyon (a well landscaped area between two wings of the hotel - not an actual canyon). But back upstairs we realized that the fanciest hotel room (even with cable) quickly becomes a prison cell when a toddler is involved.<br /><br />Things would not have been so bad if we hadn't made a fatal mistake: trying to put her to bed at her regular bedtime. What at first seemed like an easy war of domination became a nightmare of insurgency. Stella, tuckered out from exploring the grounds, should have gone to sleep quickly; but her little head kept popping up over the rim of her Pack-and-Play, trying to see what was on TV. My advice: either let the child watch the Showtime movie or shut it off!<br /><br />Day Two started off well, once I had some of the hotel restaurant's strong coffee and eggs Benedict in my system. After some pool time, Stella and I spent the late morning and early afternoon engrossed in a surprisingly good USA movie about a plucky band of archaeologists who travel back in time to 1357. But anything seems good when the thermostat is set to 68 degrees Fahrenheit and your eating lime-dusted Tostitos in bed.<br /><br />To Be Continued...Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-7126761985937016582007-06-07T07:40:00.001-07:002007-06-07T19:45:10.648-07:00The Familiar EssayYesterday evening, as I was driving from the oncologist's to the southwestern grill, NPR's All Things Considered had <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10785932">an interview with Anne Fadiman</a>. Fadiman has written a collection (which I have not read) of familiar essays.<br /><br />For Fadiman, the familiar essay is a species of the personal essay. The personal essay is about oneself, she says; the familiar essay is about oneself and the world, especially some aspect of the world with which one is (you probably saw it coming) <span style="font-style: italic;">familiar</span>.<br /><br />This doesn't mean that the reader needs to be familiar with the subject. The familiar essay is free to deal with any bizarre bit of esoterica as long as it's one that the writer feels at home in. So Esperanto or Yeats's use of Berkeley's philosophy would be fair game for a familiar essay.<br /><br />The familiar essay is my ideal for blogging. A little bit of me, but not autobiography; a little bit of something interesting, but no formal lecturing. The thought and the thinker should both be of interest to the reader. <span style="font-style: italic;">Who can tell the dancer from the dance</span>?Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-4445648192222849492007-06-05T19:24:00.000-07:002007-06-06T07:31:07.770-07:00Fiction-GuiltYesterday evening, after my guitar lesson and before my mission to Sprouts, I stopped by the Borders by Paradise Valley Mall. My subscription to <span style="font-style: italic;">First Things</span> is lapsed and I wanted this month's edition. <span>While I was glancing through that</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">, </span>Poets & Writers</span> caught my eye and I thought, "If I buy that then I'll feel compelled to submit something (anything) to someone soon, to justify the purchase." We'll see if this line of reasoning works.<br /><br />I then wandered up and down the fiction wall. I shouldn't have done this; looking at the rows and rows of novels induces what I call "fiction-guilt." My wife thinks I'm a book snob, that I only read high-brow books of history, philosophy, politics. The truth is that I feel compelled to push back the vast regions of murky ignorance that fill so much of my mind. <span style="font-style: italic;">Euryalus, is it the gods who put this fire in our minds, or is it that each man's relentless longing becomes a god to him?</span><br /><br />I enjoy reading novels, in fact, whether they're Oprah's Book Club selections or neglected 19th century gems (<span style="font-style: italic;">Marius the Epicurean</span> will have it's day again). But I only have so much time to spend reading and I want to learn, know, and understand things. So I spend my the majority of my time in that vast negative, non-fiction. Consequently, "fiction-guilt" is the feeling I have when I see the all novels that deserve to be read but which I haven't.<br /><br />This feeling is crippling. I'll see James Fenimore Cooper's books and feel ashamed for only having seen Daniel Day Lewis wearing moccasins and running in slow motion. Then Theodore Dreiser catches my eye - didn't I just read an essay that mentioned him? But there's Dickens: do David Copperfield and Great Expectations (and A Tale of Two Cities, if high school reading counts) satisfy my debt of honor? And with Twain so neglected, can I call myself an American? Who in the hell is John Updike? I thought James Thurber made baby food. Gore Vidal was on the Civil War documentary I watched (I think). And there, down by the cash registers, Emile Zola sits as a reproach.<br /><br />This clamor of authors, each with valid claim to my attention, confuses me, and I, indecisive, turn my back on them and leave without purchasing literature. So it continues...Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-25144854161784758112007-06-05T07:00:00.000-07:002007-06-05T07:08:05.733-07:00One More Chuck Norris FactHere's another Chuck Norris fact from C. Seamus of the <a href="http://mahwahreview.blogspot.com/">Mahwah Literary Review</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">It's a proven medical fact that Chuck Norris's tears can cure cancer. The only problem: Chuck Norris doesn't cry.</span>Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26106925.post-1008516989778576852007-06-04T20:10:00.001-07:002007-06-04T20:17:01.323-07:00Chuck Norris<a href="http://lapetitekelly.blogspot.com/2007/06/if-liking-this-is-wrong-i-dont-want-to.html">La Petite Bete's</a> recent post included a photo: Chuck Norris. So that got me thinking: Chuck Norris. I decided to do a Google search: Chuck Norris. And so I found: Chuck Norris.<br /><br />I recommend the website <a href="http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com/index.html">Chuck Norris Facts</a>. There you can learn that <span style="font-style: italic;">there is no theory of evolution, just a list of animals Chuck Norris allows to live</span> or that <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice</span>.Hansoniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11923252243145577491noreply@blogger.com0