LINES OF THE DAY
". . . But the past does not exist independently from the present. Indeed, the past is only past because there is a present, just as I can point to something over there only because I am here. But nothing is inherently over there or here. In that sense, the past has no content. The past -- or more accurately, pastness -- is a position. Thus, in no way can we identify the past as past." p. 15
". . . But we may want to keep in mind that deeds and words are not as distinguishable as often we presume. History does not belong only to its narrators, professional or amateur. While some of us debate what history is or was, others take it into their own hands." p. 153
Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995) by Michel-Rolph Trouillot
8 comments:
Walt Whitman's actual notebook! I get the chills just thinking about it.
The Epstein book mentioned in the article is a treasure -- just a beautiful book. One of the few that I slowed down reading just to savor it.
I know what you mean. Especially since I grew up in a time and place where we grade school kids still had to read, if not entirely memorize, "When Lilacs last in the Dooryard Bloom'd."
Not that it made any sense at all, in fact never, until I was deeply into adulthood. The old-fashioned, self-consciously so, on thinks now, for even that era, left a third grader in North Dakota entirely bewildered.
And a Captain was a ship's captain, and the concept of ship of state not yet acquired, and so on and so forth.
Whitman, in other words, is not a child's poet -- unless the child is far more sophisticated and learned than I was. Which is certainly possible.
One of them, the son of our best friends, just got accepted to Yale on the basis of his grades, his essay and his rec letters -- one of which came from us. He went to a very good school, a public school, but located in one of the wealthiest districts of the country, in New Rochelle, upstate NY.
Whereas the daughter of other very close friends went to one of those very wealthy private schools that are multi-generational feeders into the ivies. She had scholarships, etc., but the parents scrimped and borrowed and did everything to keep their daughhter in this school with the girls of very wealthy people. She had great grades too. But she nearly commited suicide this summer becaused she was rejected by all the schools that took her friends -- friends whose parents also paid for chemistry labs, etc.
We wonder if M got in like flynn, and she didn't -- was it because he was male? And females now vastly outnumber men in college programs everywhere, particularly in the humanities. Presumably M will be going for a music degree.
OTOH, he's a fabulous student acquistion. His father is chair of a small religious college's music dept., his mom of a visual arts dept. at another religious college and both of them are internationally known artists in their field, who still are producing world class works. Whereas K's parents aren't any of that.
Funny though. M had expected he'd go to Columbia. He loved the place, it was close to home. Then He liked Princeton a lot. Suddenly it was Yale he wanted. They are giving him a terrific benefits package.
Love, C.
Kids can put an awful lot of pressure on themselves. He may well have had an advantage being male, depending on the enrollment demographics. In some schools, the ratio has become so lopsided that they'll grab anyone with hair on his chin (or with a good chance of it).
The number of female enrollees and graduates is potentially a sea change, although it would be nice to see more in sciences and business. Those are still dominated by males.
K had been accepted though, by her fall back school, a small private long-time established Liberal Arts college in Minneapolis -- or was it St. Paul? It's a very highly ranked college, and it gave her a fabulous benefits package. It took her parents all summer to convince her to go. For her it was the Ivies and nothing else, and she could NOT believe she'd been turned down. So she was just going stay home and get a job. Get a job? These days? Her? Who has never had a job? So she finally went to Minnesota and is an English major intending to be a novelist.
M, otoh, has been gigging professionally with his trumpet for the last three years, when school isn't in session. Also, djing, and making shitloads of moola.
Love, C.
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