Today was the first day since March that I have been busy all day, going straight from one thing to another. It was thrilling. I find it curious that, having spent weeks in vacation mode, and having hardly done any writing on this blog, I now arrive at a busy and exhausting day and all I want to do at the end of it is blog. Shows that having time does not make one more productive or efficient. We are productive when we have something we want to produce; when we have something to say.
Today's class shimmered with titillating morsels like this one. Every sentence had its own delights to dissect and debate, and dissect and debate we did, our class of 8. I am thrilled to have permission to audit this class.
And today gave me things to say. It was the first day of class at Bread Loaf School of English on the New Mexico campus in Santa Fe.
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| Francis Bacon |
What I want to comment on is the essay "Of Truth" by Francis Bacon, written in 1625 and the topic of today's 2.75 hour class with Professor Nunokawa. It was so exciting, mostly because Nunokawa is the most high energy, overtly passionate teacher I have had.
I want to say only a brief comment here, because I think it's so fascinating.
Bacon is writing the first essay, of the first essay collection ever published in English, and the first sentence goes like this:
"'What is truth?' said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer."
Context: Biblical. John 18:38 when Jesus says, by way of explaining what he's doing on earth, "In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
Pilate responds, "What is truth?" then goes out and joins the Jews in the crowd.
He doesn't listen to Jesus answer. Hence Bacon's "and would not stay for an answer."
Thus professor Nunokawa argued that the essay is, from it's very first existence in English, spoken to the back of an authority figure who is no longer listening. It is a piece of writing that is concerned with truth, where the stakes are actually very high, but it is written from a position of exile. Jesus spoke at that moment from a position of exile. Pilate wasn't listening to his explication on truth; he was only "jesting" when he asked what truth is. But the stakes are monumental! Jesus holds the truth! As does the writer of the essay.
Today's class shimmered with titillating morsels like this one. Every sentence had its own delights to dissect and debate, and dissect and debate we did, our class of 8. I am thrilled to have permission to audit this class.
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