The Blogspot Address

I suppose this blog is an effort to revive my spring semester at the University of Utah. I took a medieval literature class from Brian Kubarycz. The structure of the class was simple. Each week we read articles from various authors. We discussed the material in class. Our weekly assignment was to post a 500 word review of something that we found interesting in the readings to an online blog site. We then had to post two short comments about the responses of our classmates. This was the first time that I had had a class of this nature. I naturally felt some discomfort with this vague assignment but I quickly made myself at home.

Rather than just see these posts as another assignment to be completed, I began to perceive that they were an opportunity to think more deeply about any given aspect of a text and then receive constructive feedback. It became a richly fulfilling experience. I hope to take other classes with Professor Kubarycz.

But, finals are over, grades are now available, and I am without a class or a professor to fulfill my need for engaging intellectual conversation. For now at least…this is where you all come in.

In order for this to work, I need four things. First, I need a professor. Second, I need a class. Third, I need a text. Forth, I need a website where we can post our comments.

A professor. It has crossed my mind to talk to Brian about continuing as the administrator for his website and continue providing texts to read. However, he told us repeatedly that he was burned out and desperately needed a break. And well, as much as I love reading things like St. Augustine’s Confessions and Machiavelli’s The Prince, I firmly believe that summer is a time for reading all those books that you wanted to read but couldn’t because you had to spend all your time reading something assigned. I’ve come to the conclusion that I could sit in for Professor Kubarycz for now. Don’t expect my comments to be nearly as impressive. Don’t expect my response time to be as quick. Don’t expect me to write you any letters of recommendation. The only difference between me and you is that it’s my name on the contact info for this website.

A class. It’s hard to teach a course without participation from the students. It’s amazing that several of my professors still seem to think that it’s possible and/or effective. I admire Professor Kubarycz for the value that he placed on the opinions of his students. He was always willing to discuss whatever it was that his student found intriguing. He did his best to cater the course texts to the interests of his students. I hope to do the same. I invite anyone to participate as long as they keep their comments clean and constructive.

A text. I believe that an attempt to have an intellectual discussion without referencing the brilliant thoughts of our predecessors is nearly impossible. There have been relatively few breakthrough discoveries. Literature, technology, medicine, music, art, etc. is one long story of small variations. Any text has holes and hooks. Holes need to be filled with additional information. Hooks allow us to connect our thoughts to those of the greats. I welcome both here. Feel free to comment on Rand or Rowling, Steinbeck or Silverstein. I welcome your book reviews and I welcome your analysis of one particular line from Paradise Lost. I hope that you will provide additional insights to the texts that we have all read several times, while also showing us valuable books that we may never have heard of. This is your sandbox. Play nice and don’t make any messes.

A meeting point. All of the posting for my medieval literature class took place on www.livejournal.com. I considered setting up residence there but they would have charged me a monthly fee to have the same level of control over the website that my professor had. My second choice was the “notes” application on Facebook. The benefit of that locale is that everyone is already there. The downside is that Facebook limits one’s ability to include digital media in posts, the inclusion of which adds significantly to the overall richness of the blog. Blogspot offers us the increased flexibility. What I’ve decided to do is to post my comments in both locations until we can attract a following on Blogspot.

Cheers.