Ig Nobels

[alice wellintown]

As Odysseus said to the Cyclops: "My name is Nobody." In the
University of the blind, the one-eyed giant is king. I take off my
Quaker's brim to no one but you. Yet, fearing what James Joyce, a man
who knew what it was like to see the world flattened by the loss of
stereoscopic vision, a man who knew, because as a boy he would read
Shakespeare under a street lamp less his old man, a drunk dispossessed
by political wranglings, should discover his books again and sell them
to get more drink money, I have used sundry nom de plumes, a tradition
I did not start on P-L, but one I have certainly, and with good
reason, abused. Many a P-Lister knows me and many do not. That is our
gain and our loss. My employment is a humble one. I teach kids and
working class young men and women how to read and write. Sometimes I
teach how to read between the lines and under the tapestry. Sometimes
I teach them stuff I learned in the University of very hard knocks. I
teach them to respect their opponents, for minus a worth adversary,
the game is not worth playing. Sometimes, I tell them, an opponent
will step on your foot and pull your hair, but keep cool and take
care. Ever read Shantaram? Do you think it's all true? Does it matter
to you? Ever read Haroun and the Sea of Stories, "a children's book"
by Salman Rushdie. How about Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes,
"a story for children" by Gabriel García Márquez? The People's History
of American Empire by Howard Zinn? Bartleby the Scrivener, "a story of
Wall Street"  by Herman Melville? Financial bankruptcies, as Philip
Van Doren Stern's The Greatest Gift and Frank Capara's It's a
Wonderful Life (1946) reminded the world, are nothing much to fret
about when the shadows cast by far darker clouds pass over Lazerus
shivering on the curb or Bartleby sleeping under his desk or George
Bailey standing on black Friday's bridge. I know I'm a fool, but
sometimes I delude myself and believe that I am Lear's Fool or Hamlet
Clown & Grave Digger and that by teaching literature I may awaken the
spirit of philanthropy or altruism in an MIT or Harvard dropout who
makes a billion dollars a year or even inspire a working class woman,
the first in her family to go to college, to keep working at it. Maybe
I need that reality check. Yeah, but at least I can see past my ever
expanding nose.


On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 11:45 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
>  A reality check up? What university do you teach at? What is your real
> name? Perhaps you had not noticed that the  USA is utterly bankrupt and that
> the planet is in serious trouble  calling for something perhaps just a bit
> more more real than telling kids to work hard and go to college. Perhaps you
> would like to share about the wonderful results  the Nobel committee
> achieved from rewarding Henry Kissinger's stirring efforts for peace.
> The problem is not that O. is trying and failing. The problem  is he is
> preemptively failing so he won't have to stand up to those who are
> strangling democracy, he is backing down without a fight. The political
> realism you seem to extol is really just a lack of courage.  All those noble
> looks and  the  King like rhetoric have, when the rubber met the road,
> revealed in stunning and elaborate detail a man without the courage even  to
> stand up to a fascist boor like Glenn Beck. This is a  person who cannot
> consistently show courage in a single area.
>
> The only thing  I can sincerely credit Obama with is  a commanding speaking
> style.  As a political leader who could make a difference in a critical time
> he is failing on all fronts.
>
> On Oct 10, 2009, at 4:55 PM, alice wellintown wrote:
>
>> You boyz need to check in for a reality check up. Why anyone with half
>> your brains would talk such utter nonsense about American Politics can
>> only be explained by extreme delusions of grandeur, extreme naive
>> idealism turned bitter cynicism. Both need to be checked  by anyone
>> who hopes to say something intelligent about the current state of
>> America. The President was awarded a Nobel. A smart move by the Nobel
>> folks. Will certainly make a difference. That is, of course, what
>> anyone with half a brain wants to see: change. To make change the
>> President must sell his ideas. He's a good salesman. He wraps up his
>> ideas in hope and inspires people, especially the young and those of
>> any age, citizens of any nation, who have not surrendered to cynicism.
>> Not too bad. Much better than what we've suffered since JFK if not
>> since FDR. That one would expect the President to dismantle the
>> American Military Industrial Complex in his first term or in his
>> second should he be fortunate enough to win one, is rediculous.
>> Certainly, we should expect that the President answer his critics who
>> have noticed that he has failed to deliver on several key campaign
>> promises and has clearly shifted to the Right of the Right of Center
>> position he ran on. This is not a shock. Anyone who knows even a
>> little about politics in America expected this would happen. Pop the
>> tires on the Presidential band wagon and what will you get? A
>> Republican. Sure would be the best of all possible worlds if we didn't
>> have a one party system that only serves up one meal seasoned for
>> slightly different tastes, but that's what's on the table. The Nobel
>> folks are lot smarter than the P-List gives them credit for. They've
>> done something clever here.
>
>