Off the Mark

Sunday, 11 Feb

Henricus Cornelius Agrippa. Declamation on the nobility and preeminence of the female sex. Translated and edited by Albert Rabil, Jr. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe series. Read pp. 13-65.

The resemblance [of sons to mothers] is often evident in their physical appearance but it is always present in their character: if the mothers are stupid, the sons are stupid; if the mothers are wise, the sons breathe wisdom. It happens otherwise with fathers, who, even if intelligent, very often beget stupid sons or who, stupid themselves, produce wise sons, provided that their mother is wise (57).

Tuesday, 12 Feb

Finished the above book. It is actually pretty good, although I have 2 small complaints. First, is the that translator/editor claims that the book is primarily for undergraduates. Maybe. It is extemely heavily footnoted; thankfully. But if we are to believe any of the stories told about people’s reading habits that will be a definite turnoff. I am certainly not saying it is above undergraduates; that is far from the truth. I am only wondering about whether they would engage with it. It is actually a fast read, especially if you avoid the footnotes, unlike me. Second, it is heavily biased towards beautiful, upper class, European, white women, and not necessarily all women. But considering it was delivered as a speech in 1509 and first published in 1529, it is a master work and an extremely important early work on “the querelle des femmes, the “Woman Question.”" Some more quotes:

Women, to the contrary, have invented all the liberal arts, every virtue and benefit, which the very names of the arts and virtues—being feminine in gender—show better than anything. Another remarkable fact is that even the terrestrial globe itself is called by women’s names, the nymph Asia, Agenor’s daughter Europa, Epaphys’s daughter Libya, also called Africa (76).

But in order that no one doubt that women can do everything men do, let us show it by examples; we shall discover that there has never been any exceptional or virtuous deed of any kind performed by men that has not been executed by women with equal brilliance (79).

Are not philosophers, mathematicians, and astrologers quite often inferior to country women in their predictions and diagnoses? Is it not often the case that a small, aging midwife outstrips a doctor (84)?

But since the excessive tyranny of men prevails over divine right and natural laws, the freedom that was once accorded to women is in our day obstructed by unjust laws, suppressed by custom and usage, reduced to nothing by education. … And so these laws compel women to submit to men, as conquered before conquerors, and that without reason or necessity natural or divine, but under the pressure of custom, education, chance, or some occasion favorable to tyranny (94-5).

And from the conclusion:

I have shown the preeminence of the female sex according to her name, order, place, and material of her creation, and the status superior to man she has received from God. Moreover, I have demonstrated this with respect to religion, nature, and human laws, and [in each case] through diverse authorities, reasons, and examples (96).

Amen, brother. “Down with the patriarchy!”

Neelameghan, A. “Lateral relationships in multicultural, multilingual databases in the spiritual and religious domains: The OM Information Service.” In Bean & Green, Relationships in the Organization of Knowledge. 185-198.

More Foucault.

Eliot, George. Silas Marner: Weaver of Raveloe. Read all introductory matter and first two chapters.

Wed-Thursday, 14-15 Feb

Finished Foucault. The Archaeology of Knowledge. Thankfully! I’m sure there was something of value in there; but I’m damned if I know what it was.

More Eliot.

Friday, 16 Feb.

Finished Silas Marner. An excellent book. I am definitely going to have to read more Eliot having only read Middlemarch and now this. The Introduction by Q. D. Leavis was also quite good. Eliot’s psychological insights are no less insightful here than in Middlemarch.

His life had reduced itself to the functions of weaving and hoarding, without any contemplation of an end towards which the functions tended. The same sort of process has perhaps been undergone by wiser men, when they have been cut off from faith and love — only, instead of a loom and a heap of guineas, they have had some erudite reasearch, some ingenious project, or some well-knit theory (20).

Hmmm…?

A dull mind, once arriving at an inference that flatters a desire, is rarely able to retain the impression that the notion from which the inference started was purely problematic (39).

And I dare say, quite a few not-so-dull minds also.

Satija, M. P. “Relationships in Ranganathan’s Colon Classification.” In Bean & Green, Relationships in the Organization of Knowledge. 199-210.

Saturday, 17 Feb

Mitchell, Joan S. “Relationships in the Dewey Decimal Classification System.” In Bean & Green, Relationships in the Organization of Knowledge. 211-226. Which also means I have now finished reading this book. I will have more to say about it in the future, as this is the book that I am reviewing for Representation & Organization this semester.

Garsol, Lars Marius. “What are topic maps.” For Representation & Organization.

Durusau, Patrick. “Babel and topic maps.” [pdf] For Representation & Organization.

Pepper, Steve. “The TAO of topic maps: Finding the way in the age of infoglut.” For Representation & Organization.

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. Started on Read this novel, which my friend, Mo, gave me last October. Pretty good so far, but no George Eliot. Holy crap! I just read a whole book in one day, and all those other things, too.

Holy balls! I’ve read 8 books already this year. This is absolutely incredible for me. I guess it’s time to turn to the 400-600 page books at this point; those will properly slow me down, no doubt. Or I could actually start producing for my classes instead of just reading.