Yes Lewis Lapham, whose writing manages to be both deliberate and promiscuously lovely. I have an especially wonderful Lapham story if I can figure out how two make it short. The 1980's, an independent secondary school, the essay class. My scruffiest-looking student (not a future English major) falls in love with Lapham's monthly es…
Yes Lewis Lapham, whose writing manages to be both deliberate and promiscuously lovely. I have an especially wonderful Lapham story if I can figure out how two make it short. The 1980's, an independent secondary school, the essay class. My scruffiest-looking student (not a future English major) falls in love with Lapham's monthly essays, gets a subscription to Harper's and, with access to their archives hunkers down and reads just about every word Lapham has ever written. His family goes to NY for Christmas and, as disreputable-looking as ever, he walks into the office of Harpers and announces to the woman at the front desk that he needs to see Mr. Lapham. The obvious question, "Do you have an appointment?" The answer, less predictable, "No ma'am, but I need to tell Mr. Lapham that he changed my life."
Lewis Lapham spent half an hour with that young man, who graduated from high school, went away to college and grad school, and has had a remarkably successful career as a writer/essayist/reviewer in New York, where he has attended the occasional social event whose guests included Lewis Lapham
THE END
(One day TCinLA is going to kick me off his Substack for using the comments section to write essays
Thanks Dean for that story. I hope to read more of such on this Substack. The 30 (or 5) minute talk with a student which you much later find out changed a life is, finally, what teaching (and, actually, life itself) is all about. (Well, there is a lot more, but if you get down to the essence, it is about the well-lived life and how to manage that for each of us, which means in community and sharing.)
Over the past seven years, I got in touch with and became adult friends with Mr. Field, my sixth-grade teacher and the person who opened the door to the path I took that led to here and now. A couple months ago I gave him a set of all my books, which he's working his way through. He called a couple weeks ago to tell me he'd finished the first, and ended by telling me reading it had proven to him that he had been right to become a teacher. That's pretty cool that each of us thinks the other is one of the best things that ever happened to them.
I did and chose a topic designed to either offend or bore, then discovered that teaching a subject is very different than writing about it, also decided to take the learning on the job approach (that's a 'no'), started in my usual charming slapdash manner, made all kinds of errors simply because I had all sorts of assumptions about the platform based on my previous experience with writers' groups, etc. I do want a platform for writing. I seem to be unable to not write and it's much more satisfying to have a platform. I'm not sure Substack is the right one for me, have to drink chai latte and wait. I do see that, with their burst of growth, they are scrambling to attempt some changes in the very areas that I found incompatible, so who knows"
I was thinking maybe some like "Notes of a Failed Substack Writer." What sayest thou?
Or possibly One Day in the Life of a Grumpy Old English Teacher
I hope that you will continue in some way with the threads in your Uppity Bible Women blog on Substack. I can understand the format/framework/feedback problems that have led you to cancel it (at least that is what I undedrstand--will the blogs be archived anywhere; good material.) BUT the content and your perspective on the important issues there need even more exploration/communication! Do you know the work of Phyllis Tribble?
Yes. Texts of Terror, especially. The way I got started on this journey, well over 30 years ago, With no interest in the text at all, I took a course in the Hebrew Scriptures as Literature only because my thesis advisor in 18th century British lit taught it. After a semester of watching those stories unfold, layer after layer, through the lenses of early feminist theology, the history of composition, comparative mythology, Jungian archetypes, I was well and truly hooked. Meanwhile, I left California and headed back closer to my family, wondering what I could do about it. And my teacher retired and shipped to me most of her theology library, ten large cartons, and l sat down, books piled on the wide arms of my chair and on tables on both sides, and I made a beginning. It took a full year and it has taken all the decades since then to continue. It is a bottomless text. I always taught it as a senior elective, one semester, and I had to turn students away because not many, once exposed to those stories, the best in the world, can resist. I have done it with a focus on the women but usually just working through from the start, treating the characters as characters. One year I did a 4-5 week discussion in adult ed at an Episcopal church that had asked me to go through and put together something on "Fasting and Feasts in the Hebrew Bible" in preparation for Lent and Easter.
Since Trible has faded from sight, my current favorite theologian is a woman called Elaine Pagels who did a lot of work with the Gnostic Gospels and has a not new book by that name that is fascinating and readable.
no he won't. I'm the living proof. and while I'm here, I might as well use this post to praise him for exactly what you've already praised him for.
and let's also remember that he was the only one I read ( with the exception of a few outliers, like Michael Moore et al) who came close to predicting what happened.
I'm enjoying watching these Repugs suddenly discover that TFF is suddenly the shit they've stepped in with their brand new Nikes...you know...the ones with the elaborate deep patterns on the soles that require a good scrub brush and lots of time. where were these assholes three weeks ago? where were they a week after 1/6, when they could have doubled down on their repudiation? it's my impression that this MAGA base isn't as automatically in the Repugnant Party as much as people assume it is. I'm more inclined to think that they're more inclined to stay home once the cult leader is gone.
and if he wants to set up his own party (as has been rumored), that's gonna be a lot of fun to watch. god knows, it won't be OUR votes he'd be draining.
and I know Tom, that you've been saying he WON't declare this week. he wouldn't if he gave two fucks about the party, but....anyone can finish the sentence. he'll do it. the more his lawyers warn him not to, he'll still do it. right now, I'm pretty sure he'd flunk a five-minute mental status consultation. one of the questions is usually "who's the president?"
Yes Lewis Lapham, whose writing manages to be both deliberate and promiscuously lovely. I have an especially wonderful Lapham story if I can figure out how two make it short. The 1980's, an independent secondary school, the essay class. My scruffiest-looking student (not a future English major) falls in love with Lapham's monthly essays, gets a subscription to Harper's and, with access to their archives hunkers down and reads just about every word Lapham has ever written. His family goes to NY for Christmas and, as disreputable-looking as ever, he walks into the office of Harpers and announces to the woman at the front desk that he needs to see Mr. Lapham. The obvious question, "Do you have an appointment?" The answer, less predictable, "No ma'am, but I need to tell Mr. Lapham that he changed my life."
Lewis Lapham spent half an hour with that young man, who graduated from high school, went away to college and grad school, and has had a remarkably successful career as a writer/essayist/reviewer in New York, where he has attended the occasional social event whose guests included Lewis Lapham
THE END
(One day TCinLA is going to kick me off his Substack for using the comments section to write essays
Thanks Dean for that story. I hope to read more of such on this Substack. The 30 (or 5) minute talk with a student which you much later find out changed a life is, finally, what teaching (and, actually, life itself) is all about. (Well, there is a lot more, but if you get down to the essence, it is about the well-lived life and how to manage that for each of us, which means in community and sharing.)
Over the past seven years, I got in touch with and became adult friends with Mr. Field, my sixth-grade teacher and the person who opened the door to the path I took that led to here and now. A couple months ago I gave him a set of all my books, which he's working his way through. He called a couple weeks ago to tell me he'd finished the first, and ended by telling me reading it had proven to him that he had been right to become a teacher. That's pretty cool that each of us thinks the other is one of the best things that ever happened to them.
in that situation, I've been on both sides. either one is wonderful.
No, Dean, I never will. Write on! Especially when it's a story like this.
Actually, I'd encourage you to get your own Substack, because I know I for one would subscribe.
I did and chose a topic designed to either offend or bore, then discovered that teaching a subject is very different than writing about it, also decided to take the learning on the job approach (that's a 'no'), started in my usual charming slapdash manner, made all kinds of errors simply because I had all sorts of assumptions about the platform based on my previous experience with writers' groups, etc. I do want a platform for writing. I seem to be unable to not write and it's much more satisfying to have a platform. I'm not sure Substack is the right one for me, have to drink chai latte and wait. I do see that, with their burst of growth, they are scrambling to attempt some changes in the very areas that I found incompatible, so who knows"
I was thinking maybe some like "Notes of a Failed Substack Writer." What sayest thou?
Or possibly One Day in the Life of a Grumpy Old English Teacher
I vote #2.
I'd subscribe to either one.
I appreciate it. I need to come up with a publication that just allows me to rant about whatever occurs to me. All suggestions welcome
You're standing on it - you can make a Substack whatever you want. Look at the topic areas I cover here.
I hope that you will continue in some way with the threads in your Uppity Bible Women blog on Substack. I can understand the format/framework/feedback problems that have led you to cancel it (at least that is what I undedrstand--will the blogs be archived anywhere; good material.) BUT the content and your perspective on the important issues there need even more exploration/communication! Do you know the work of Phyllis Tribble?
Yes. Texts of Terror, especially. The way I got started on this journey, well over 30 years ago, With no interest in the text at all, I took a course in the Hebrew Scriptures as Literature only because my thesis advisor in 18th century British lit taught it. After a semester of watching those stories unfold, layer after layer, through the lenses of early feminist theology, the history of composition, comparative mythology, Jungian archetypes, I was well and truly hooked. Meanwhile, I left California and headed back closer to my family, wondering what I could do about it. And my teacher retired and shipped to me most of her theology library, ten large cartons, and l sat down, books piled on the wide arms of my chair and on tables on both sides, and I made a beginning. It took a full year and it has taken all the decades since then to continue. It is a bottomless text. I always taught it as a senior elective, one semester, and I had to turn students away because not many, once exposed to those stories, the best in the world, can resist. I have done it with a focus on the women but usually just working through from the start, treating the characters as characters. One year I did a 4-5 week discussion in adult ed at an Episcopal church that had asked me to go through and put together something on "Fasting and Feasts in the Hebrew Bible" in preparation for Lent and Easter.
Since Trible has faded from sight, my current favorite theologian is a woman called Elaine Pagels who did a lot of work with the Gnostic Gospels and has a not new book by that name that is fascinating and readable.
Thank you
no he won't. I'm the living proof. and while I'm here, I might as well use this post to praise him for exactly what you've already praised him for.
and let's also remember that he was the only one I read ( with the exception of a few outliers, like Michael Moore et al) who came close to predicting what happened.
I'm enjoying watching these Repugs suddenly discover that TFF is suddenly the shit they've stepped in with their brand new Nikes...you know...the ones with the elaborate deep patterns on the soles that require a good scrub brush and lots of time. where were these assholes three weeks ago? where were they a week after 1/6, when they could have doubled down on their repudiation? it's my impression that this MAGA base isn't as automatically in the Repugnant Party as much as people assume it is. I'm more inclined to think that they're more inclined to stay home once the cult leader is gone.
and if he wants to set up his own party (as has been rumored), that's gonna be a lot of fun to watch. god knows, it won't be OUR votes he'd be draining.
and I know Tom, that you've been saying he WON't declare this week. he wouldn't if he gave two fucks about the party, but....anyone can finish the sentence. he'll do it. the more his lawyers warn him not to, he'll still do it. right now, I'm pretty sure he'd flunk a five-minute mental status consultation. one of the questions is usually "who's the president?"