Life in late capitalism can be vexing, alienating, fragmenting, and otherwise frustrating. There are many wonderful things in my life, but I'm more likely to talk about what's bad rather than what's good. I'm going to try to post one good thing here each day, and if you would join in by adding a good thing from your day in the comments, I'd love it--I'd absolutely love it. --RR
2/19: another ancient language
A few years ago I proposed that the faculty in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew do occasional presentations on campus, and happily my fellow teachers were game to give it a try; the goal is to talk about a passage from an ancient text in a way that explains how the original language is working but also in a way that is clear and interesting to someone who doesn't know that language. We call it Ancient Languages Hour. I did my presentation for this year last semester (on Sappho), and my colleague in Hebrew did his today. He talked about the Book of Lamentations. I got to learn (and think about) lots of great things, including the fact that 4 of the 5 chapters in Lamentations are composed as alphabetical poems!
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