The Gadfly, Vol. XXXIV, Issue 15

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The Gadfly

02 The student newspaper of St. John’s College 60 College Avenue Annapolis, Maryland 21401 sjca.gadfly@gmail.com www.issuu.com/sjcgadfly www.facebook.com/sjcagadfly Founded in 1980, the Gadfly is the student newsmagazine distributed to over 600 students, faculty, and staff of the Annapolis campus.

Opinions expressed within are the sole responsibility of the author(s). The Gadfly reserves the right to accept, reject, and edit submissions in any way necessary to publish a professional, informative, and thought-provoking newsmagazine.

The Gadfly meets every Sunday at 7 PM in the first lower level of the Barr-Buchanan Center.

Articles for the next issue should be submitted by Wednesday, February 6, at 11:59 PM to sjca.gadfly@gmail.com.

Staff Nathan Goldman • Editor-in-Chief Ian Tuttle • Editor-in-Chief Hayden Pendergrass • Layout Editor Reza Djalal • Photographer Sasha Welm • Cartoonist Jonathan Barone • Staff Andrew Kriehn • Staff Robert Malka • Staff Sarah Meggison • Staff Charles Zug • Staff Contributors Alix Boraks Daniela Lobo Dias Michael Fogleman Esteban Freeman John Ropoulos

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n our previous issue, Mr. Steve Weinstein’s (A’75) tribute to tutor David Stephenson recalled the passing of Mr. Stephenson’s wife, Helen. Alas, that mention escaped the notice of our fact-checkers: Mrs. Stephenson is, in fact, well and very much alive. We apologize to Mrs. Stephenson, to her family, and to our readers for this mortifying mistake.

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ou may have noticed that no Gadfly appeared in the Coffee Shop last Tuesday for your usual lunchtime reading pleasure. After much soul-searching, agonized reflection, and more than a few pilgrimages to various oracles, the Gadfly staff has decided to move to a biweekly printing schedule for the second semester. Because of a fluctuating volume of submissions, an increasingly heavy junior year workload, and several still-unwatched episodes of Downton Abbey queued on Netflix, our small editing and layout staff felt a change was necessary. However, we hope that a biweekly schedule will allow us to accumulate enough material to ensure that every issue is substantive, and we hope the increase in content will compensate for the longer period between issues.

To facilitate our new schedule, we ask that all submissions be sent to us (sjca.gadfly@gmail.com) by the Wednesday between issues. We will make sure to feature prominently in each printed issue the next deadline, for your assistance. Articles for our next issue should be submitted to the above address by 11:59 PM on Wednesday, February 6.

At the end of the semester, we will evaluate whether this change has been beneficial, and we hope to have your input as we make that determination. Please do not hesitate to contact us with comments, concerns, or questions.

We hope that this shift does not precipitate too much garment-rending. We ask for your patience as we make this transition, but we are confident that the Gadfly will continue to interest, illumine, and amuse—and maybe even, on occasion, manage a bit of fruitful stinging.

Best, Nathan Goldman & Ian Tuttle Gadfly Editors, 2012-2013

!"#$%#&'"$()$*&+(,$-.&+'/ Robert Malka

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A’15

n January 11, 2013, Aaron Swartz, developer of RSS 1.0 (“Really Simple Syndication”), effective co-founder of Reddit, crusader against SOPA and PIPA, hanged himself. He was twenty-six.

Within us all resides a great tension—to be comfortable, or to be in pain? To believe and seek pleasure, or to inquire and find truth? To do tremendous things and experience at times tremendous failure, or to reside in that gray twilight which knows neither victory nor defeat? This tension is never resolved. Most of the time the temptation to live a predictable and satisfying life is overwhelming. To pursue the cause about which one is most passionate is paradoxically much harder. For what if one fails? Does one even have the constitution to live a life focused on one thing at the cost of everything else?

Most of us do not have such resilience, instead opting for the safe, long life in which we become unknowns. Aaron Swartz chose the path less traveled. He was committed to the freedom of the internet and of information. He pursued

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The Gadfly

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Despite graduating only two years ago, Rich Maxham has already found a footing in an exclusive craft. He recounts his journey from the halls of St. John’s to the shop where he now builds and restores violins.

What is your current job?

I work at the Potter Violin Company in Bethesda, Maryland, where I repair and restore violins and cellos there for the rental and repair departments. We have a collection of about 2800 rental instruments in circulation.

Typically, someone interested in making violins would apply to one of the violin making schools. Prior woodworking experience is helpful but not required. The schools often receive offers from shops searching for workmen. The other option is to find a maker willing to take the time to teach the craft.

Did you attend other schools after St. John’s?

No. I had planned to go to the Chicago School of Violin Making, but during the summer before the first year would have begun, I got in touch with a violin maker, Daniel O. Smith, who lived in my home town. What started off as a couple of lessons with carving tools soon grew into an offer to make a violin under his tutelage. I ended up working a whole year with my teacher. We both felt that after spending enough time together to learn some repair and setup technique, I was ready to venture into the job market. I supplemented my apprenticeship by attending workshops with the Violin Society of America.

As it turned out, I was able to find a good job without going to a violinmaking school.

Any general advice, especially for an upperclassman who is interested in this field but is not quite sure what to do?

Violin making is a small field and requires a great amount of dedication. In order to get a sense of what it’s like to work on violins, one might try the various summer workshops available.

Did you know what you wanted to do while at St. John’s?

I always knew that I wanted to devote my life to the violin—it’s in my blood (I’m the fourth violin maker in my family). The decision I had to make was whether to be a player or a maker.

It was at St. John’s that I had the chance to make that decision.

What didn’t St. John’s prepare you for in your field?

St. John’s didn’t prepare me for the specialized field I chose, but no undergraduate programs offer that kind of instruction.

One of the main reasons I chose to apply to St. John’s was the idea that I could simply focus on education for its own sake, rather than as a means to some other end.

How did you feel you compared, in graduate school or early jobs, to people from different educational backgrounds, particularly those with field-related degrees?

Because I was able to find a job after one year, I didn’t have to bear the expense of a three to four year violin making program. I was also able to begin work at a younger age than my colleagues. They all studied at top violin making schools, so I don’t think I could say I was better prepared for the job. I was just able to start working earlier.

Can you describe a general track someone from St. John’s might take to get into a career in this field?

How did you market yourself with a St. John’s degree?

I have always tried to make the point that the St. John’s education encourages creative thinking and helps its students to approach difficult situations systematically and confidently.

How would you characterize your field as a whole? Is it accessible to newcomers or difficult to enter? Stable or fluid?

My field is somewhat difficult to enter. There is a firmly established tradition in the schools. On the other hand, because it has been around for hundreds of years, the violin business is fairly stable.

What was your senior essay topic?

I wrote on the world of chivalry in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale. I was particularly interested in the author’s choice of Theseus as the perfect knight and ruler, the relationship between the opposing knights, and the difficulty in combining the life of the warrior with the struggle to woo a lady.

What is your favorite book on the Program?

Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. It’s difficult to choose a favorite among such great authors.

Do you find that you lead a philosophical life?

Yes. Although working on violins is a craft, I’ve found that it is often quite easy to find philosophical meaning in its theory, artistry, and application. Because there’s a kind of mystery surrounding the design and tone of the bowed string family that even the most sophisticated scientific machinery and research can’t fully explain, makers are constantly compelled to seek their own personal understanding of what the violin is and what it means to other people as both a heavily-used tool and a work of art. !

The Gadfly

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Examining Freshman Lab Michael Fogleman

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A’13

n Thursday, January 25th, the SCI held a public forum to discuss freshman lab, specifically the first semester: biology. Why do we begin with biology? How does the class relate to the junior and senior Labs? Are the readings unified?

Most noted that students are in a state of wonder for the first weeks of freshman lab. As they turn to more varied readings, they are forced to reconsider opinions or facts they had learned before about a subject which is extremely familiar to us. Moreover, they are given an opportunity to become better students, and are initiated into the work we do at St. John’s College. Many students claimed that the more difficult and technical readings enabled their classes to learn to work together in conversation.

However, some wondered if a combination of small tweaks, changes to readings, and expanded practica might unify the class. It was suggested that certain technical problems might be avoided by adding a glossary of terms for more difficult readings like Driesch. When some students objected that making a glossary for oneself provided an excellent opportunity to learn to read dense, technical material, one tutor suggested that the Driesch readings were quite long, especially considering the schedule’s allotted time, and implied that a glossary would not be overly obtrusive.

Some students noted that they received a glossary from their tutors, even though one wasn’t intentionally included in the manual. On a broader level, several unofficial changes were being considered: officially expanding the time spent with biology at the end of the semester, returning to a practicum with the hand after Driesch, and supplementing Virchow with Portmann.

Students praised several readings which are often unofficially included in the biology sequence. Almost all were in favor of Jonas, despite its modernity, and suggested adding certain readings to the official sequence. The Goethe readings on plants were also quite popular, and one tutor noted that Goethe works well in combination with the Theophrastus reading at the beginning of the year. Furthermore, it might be helpful to return periodically, both inside and outside of the classroom, to observing magnolia trees or other living beings.

One student reported that their class had done a reading on the cheetah’s motion, and paired this reading with a practicum examining the students’ bodies when running. Of course, each additional reading or practicum requires the subtraction of another.

More generally, students raised the question of whether it was best to do a reading or a practicum first. Some reported that if they did a reading first, it felt as if they were merely verifying the reading’s conclusions when they turned to the practicum. Similar problems had been reported at a previous meeting on the junior year lab sequence. It was not clear, however, if something would be lost by doing the practicum first, or if there were certain readings where an inverted order would be detrimental to the students.

A tentative answer was offered to the question of unity, with respect to both freshman lab and the lab program more generally. The segment of freshman lab devoted to biology was divided into two segments: observing full living beings, and observing developing creatures. The question of quantification taken up in second semester should remind students of living beings—could living beings really be quantified? And of course, the biology segment in senior lab should serve to reawaken questions about life, parts and wholes, and complexity. Whether or not specific alterations could bring out this thematic unity so early in the Program was unclear. !

Continued From Pg. 02 this work relentlessly at the cost of his health, his friendships, and eventually his own life.

One imagines that such ambition would come at odds with suicide. Perhaps it did, but he crossed his first major enemy too early: an overzealous prosecution. Determined to keep information free, Swartz released millions of documents from an academic archive called JSTOR, book cataloguing data from the Library of Congress, and electronic federal court records from the system, PACER. How many millions of documents? About twentyfive million. Almost all of these documents were paid by taxes; in his mind, that was enough to make them free.

He downloaded them with alarming speed from a closet at MIT with a program he wrote. It was uploaded before anyone could stop him.

Naturally, the Department of Justice didn’t like his tampering with PACER. (MIT and JSTOR settled.) For his crime, Swartz was threatened with thirty-five years in prison and a one million dollar fine. Precedent is a $100 fine and thirty days in jail. (Much of the problem stems from a lack of a legal distinction between malicious and non-malicious hacking, a problem in ongoing resolution.)

This weighed on Swartz for two years, moreso recently. His depression compounded the case’s impact.

He couldn’t imagine a world in which he spent his entire life not living out his ideals, not disrupting the system in which we live. Thirty-five years is a long time. And so, on one especially heavy day, he saw the light no more.

And that is a great shame. Swartz fought for his ideals and passions with conviction and selflessness. He was righteous, skirting the life of comfort for the life he believed in, and he lived it more than many of us will ever live our long lives, short as his was.

Is he a role model for us to follow? Perhaps, and perhaps not. But we need more heroes in the world, people who value an idea more than their own lives. He will be sorely missed. !

The Gadfly

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An Account of Autumnal Athletics Jonathan Barone

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A’13

s the blistering wind sweeps over the barren quad, and conquered the round robin handily, winning all their matches we burrow in our beds beneath an abundance of blankets, with the dual strong arms of Sebastian Abella and newcomer our minds drift to the halcyon days of fall, when the athletic Nikos Frank. The Guardians, riding largely on team play and field was lit with the dying rays of an October sun. What bet- crazy overtime victories, managed to squeak by the Druids for ter way to relive the glory of those warmer days than with a second place, while the Spartans finished fourth with a great fall sports round-up? individual play from freshman Chris Zeller. The Druids, not The margin between teams coming to be outdone, cultivated some razzleinto the winter season is fairly slim. dazzle, rip-roaring, sometimes-pureThe margin between teams We’ve grasped glimpses of each team’s ly-outlandish trick plays which, comcoming into the winter season bined with some great individual runs basketball prowess through the Holiday Tournament, but the team to win the from Dylan Tyler, produced a tournais fairly slim. We’ve grasped overall championship is by no means glimpses of each team’s basket- ment victory and a sentence with many decided. The Waves have solidified ball prowess through the Holi- commas. The Reasonbowl and title their place atop the mountain after a match was a hard fought battle in inday Tournament, but the team clement weather, all coming down to strong showing in the HIT, beating the to win the overall championSpartans in a winner-take-all match, hypertime. Of course, it wouldn’t be a ship is by no means decided.

45-38. That victory gave them a sevenReasonball season without some sort point lead over the second-place Guardof controversy, and the Druids ended ians. The Druids, coming off a strong Reasonball season, hold up on the positive end of the referee’s whistle, ending a hardonto third place by a slim margin. Meanwhile, the Hustlers, fought game with the title. A shout out goes to Drew “Wild with their formidable basketball and handball teams, are eye- Card” Menzer for being probably the best individual runner ing to take third place from the Druids, while the Spartans sit and also most likely player to be on the ground at the end of in last place. a play.

But enough about the present! Let’s talk about the past.

Soccer: This year’s soccer season was marked by two of Here’s a breakdown of the fall sports seasons: the best soccer teams St. John’s has seen in quite some time Ultimate: The season was, once again, dominated by the in the Hustlers and Greenwaves. The Greenwaves, helped by Guardians. Not to be denied another championship, the alumni strikers and sweepers, rode the breakers churned up Guardians crushed the runner-up Greenwaves in all three of by freshman Noe “Papi” Jimenez, dominating the first half of their meetings, climaxing in a 15-9 shellacking that brought the season. The Tsunami eventually finished with an undetheir winning streak to 19 straight games. Led by captain Dan- feated season, but their performance slipped toward the end iel “Hellfish” Popov and Daniel “The Other Daniel” Gilles, the of the season, drawing in their last three games. The Hustlers, Guardians once again capitalized on quick turnovers, stellar captained by Captain Dhidhat, overcame their first defeat to handling, and superior receiver mismatches to claim gold once storm back and dominate their opponents, outscoring them by again. The Druids, on the other hand, adopted a different style, a ratio of at least 6:1. The championship game was a physical preferring not to rely on any handlers in particular, but rather battle, but ultimately the Men in Red emerged victorious, wintrying to open the field through strings of connected passes. ning 1-0 off a header from senior Manish Thapa. The GuardThough they started slow, they ians made their mark on the turf, emerged as a solid powerhouse with no small thanks to Santa toward the end of the season Fe transfer Charlie Martin, but with a strong final victory over barely fell short to the Hustlers the Hustlers. The Hustlers and and had to settle for third. The Spartans, though they played Spartans, though they fought valiantly, often suffered from valiantly, were no match for the lack of turnout, which ultimateBrothers Cox, who pulled the ly led to their downfall. ShoutDruids to a solid fourth. Indiouts go to Graham “Flash” Gorvidual accolades certainly go to don for his ridiculous defense, Henry Hirsch, who was finally sophomore Charles Pisaruk for able to overcome his curse and his four foot vertical and killer score some pretty spectacular pulls, and Eric Shlifer, for pullgoals, and Joe Hamd, for closing most of the weight in getting ing in on just about every long his team to second place. ball booted into his defensive third. And of course, I would be Reasonball: After the Hustlers skipped out on two of their most remiss to not mention Joe Roberts for his penalty save in games, the double round robin season was switched to a single the championship to preserve the title for his team. round robin and a single elimination tourney. The Greenwaves Well, that about wraps it all up. See you on the court! !

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The Gadfly

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In Concert: Beating the Odds with The Evens Sarah Meggison

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A’14

adies and gentlemen, I’m no Miss Manners. If you asked me which of several forks was the appropriate one to use for salad, my response would be to start hyperventilating and stab you in the neck—I simply don’t know anything about etiquette, and I’d consider a study of etiquette to be a massive waste of time that could potentially be spent picking at scabs or chewing on fingernails. However, there is one issue of etiquette that’s simple common courtesy, and since I’ve seen it a thousand times at St. John’s, I’m afraid I have no choice but to address it. The issue I’m referring to is: When you’re in a hallway, and there’s one other person in the hallway, and you are about to pass each other, for God’s sake, nod.

Is this a stupid ritual? Hey, maybe. But that doesn’t change the fact that when you nod at somebody and they don’t nod back, you feel pain. There is no other action on that small a scale that can cause so much heartbreak and mortification. If somebody socks me in the jaw out of nowhere, I have to assume that there’s some reason for it, however obscure it may be in the moment. If somebody bumps me while passing me on the stairs or lets a door shut on me, any number of motives might be behind the rudeness. However, if someone catches my eye and still fails to respond to my personable nod with one of their own, it means only one thing: they are loathsome, possibly sociopathic, and certainly unworthy of others’ companionship.

What does the passing nod really mean? I’ve considered and analyzed it, and what I’ve decided on is that it implies a mutual recognition of souls. You know that quote that gets reblogged on the really spiritual section of Tumblr, “I honor the place in you in which the entire Universe dwells”? That’s what you can do for another person in a hallway, with just a simple nod! You can tell that person that while you may not know them or care about them in any way, you understand that the two of you are in this hallway together, and you don’t intend to let the moment pass without acknowledging its significance. If dogs never pass other dogs on the street without a quick tail-wag and some courtesy sniffing, why should we?

Generally, my opinion of manners is pretty low. They’re nothing but aesthetics, wrapped up in a cloak of moral selfimportance. Sure, I chew with my mouth closed and try to observe the rules of cutlery to the best of my ability (I don’t know why the only legitimate rules of etiquette I can ever remember are related to food), but I do it because it’s pretty, not because it’s civilized. Still, this is one rule that appeals to civility as much as aesthetics. It’s easy, it’s instant, and it doesn’t take up any more time than simply passing someone unacknowledged.

Go ahead. Nod at strangers in the hallway. Be a neighbor. !

A’15

ince coming to college, my poor indie soul has been starved for live music. I grew up in North Carolina, two hours away from the college towns around the prominent music scene of Chapel Hill, where during high school I got to see bands like Sebadoh, The National, She & Him, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, and Jenny Lewis. Then I thought going to college in Annapolis would be pretty sweet, as I could keep going to shows, given the proximity to D.C. and Baltimore. But alas, lack of a vehicle and incompetency in regards to public transportation has largely prevented that.

So when a friend, whose music taste I trust and enjoy, told me that a band called The Evens was going to be playing at KaChunk Records last December, I was quite excited. I hadn’t heard of the band before, and the only thing I’d learned beforehand was that the was a husband-wife team (which is cool), and that the guy, Ian MacKaye, is a veteran of the DC hardcore scene as a member of Minor Threat and Fugazi (I have minimal experience with both). So it got to be early that Saturday night, I didn’t have anything else to do, and I always enjoy finding new music, so I made the (very short) pilgrimage down Maryland Ave. to the reSo when a friend, cord store with a small group of fellow musically-inclined whose music taste Johnnies to see the show.

I trust and enjoy, The show cost me the paltold me that a try sum of $5, and the crowd band called The was small. (I mean, it’s not a Evens was going huge store or anything. But I to be playing at love love love small venues— they’re just a better experiKa-Chunk Records, ence for concerts). When 7 PM I was quite excited. hit, The Evens assembled in the back of the room, and we sat on the floor to watch. I can’t really give you a play-by-play of the show itself or the songs they performed, since I had never listened to them before and didn’t know what to expect. The songs I do remember, though, that you should really check out, are “King of Kings,” “Wanted Criminals,” and “All These Governors.” There was also this hilarious point during the first song where the band’s son, in the front row, was playing with his toy airplanes or whatever and said something about them and made his dad crack up in the middle of the song.

For a two-piece band, The Evens have a rather full sound.

MacKaye plays guitar, chord-heavy with that “wall of sound” feel I love. His wife, Amy Farina, is the drummer; I’m kind of a sucker for female drummers (probably because I have been a maniacally devoted fan of the White Stripes since age 14), and that in itself was pretty cool, but she’s also just a fantastic drummer. Their sound was incredibly solid and heavy, especially for a band only composed of guitar and drums. MacKaye sang most of the songs, but he and Farina traded singing roles every now and then.

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The Gadfly

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!"#$%&'()%*+(,-./&*"01( &1-(*2$(3&*2(*0(4%$$-05 How can learning the liberal arts be liberating? Esteban Freeman, from the Graduate Institute, tries to answer that question by looking at some of the College’s favorite teachers —Plato, Aristotle, and St. Thomas Aquinas—as well as other notable non-Program authors.

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Esteban Freeman

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t. Thomas Aquinas, in his commentary on Aristotle’s Meta- built his cities in speech, so that, in a way, we may free ourphysics, writes that “only those arts are called liberal or free selves from them. which are concerned with knowledge; those which are conAristotle constantly affirmed that we do not make ourselves cerned with utilitarian ends that are attained through activity, as human beings, but that we make ourselves good or bad huhowever, are called servile.” From the outset, an important man beings. As there is a proper pleasure attached to every distinction is made between the liberal arts, those that serve human activity, and “education is concerned with the whole the free man to discover knowledge per se, and the servile arts, man,” as John Henry Newman repeatedly said, it is clear that, those that serve man to make a living and which because we are free to become bad or evil, we have a purely practical end. Thus, a liberal arts There is a special must picture the path towards freedom as one education, as it is concerned with truth for its consisting of acquiring virtues and avoiding kind of self-masown sake, must acknowledge two important navices. This is why focusing on fulfilling one’s tery which cannot passions without a proper ordering of the soul tures of man: 1) that man, being a rational creabe imposed from sadly produces an illiberally educated human ture, seeks out knowledge, and 2) that man is a without, but must being who has divorced the liberal arts from personal being, which must be respected if he is to be brought into contact with truth, i.e., only grow from within. being concerned with knowledge, and negated a free man whose human dignity is recognized reason’s higher power and authority over man. will be capable, through a liberal arts education, of discovery.

If the study of the liberal arts, as Josef Pieper understood it, In the pursuit of knowledge, a liberal arts education is meant is truly “necessary not only for the good of the individual who to impart the intellectual skills and habits of mind which will so devotes himself, but for the good of human society,” then aid the student in realizing that profound form of freedom what are the implications for a society whose citizens do not which occurs while on the road to grasping the totality of real- have order of principle in their souls? It is not far-fetched to ity, and not merely one’s subjective notions of reality. As free- see the ill effects an illiberal education may have in organizdom and human dignity are natural to every human being, a ing a society and the types of morals they choose to embody liberal arts education, if it is to be truly liberating, must also in their laws if their guidepost is simply fulfillment of desires. recognize in every student a realm of privacy. Modern sen- In Plato’s eighth book of the Republic, the description of the sibilities often times hawk at the notion of privacy as an old- democratic man who lacks the very order of soul and mind fashioned ideal, but it may help us to understand its need and to be called “free” is an example of what a liberally educated meaning by reflecting on the words of Richard M. Weaver: “It man is not. is a truth of the greatest importance that our original ideas and My fellow Johnnies, the liberal arts are studied for the adour intuitions of value form in certain recesses of the being vancement of truth, so that through our wrestling with the which must be preserved if these processes are to take place.” great thinkers of old, we may strengthen our intellectual skills There is a special kind of self-mastery which cannot be im- and habits of mind, and through the practice of acquiring virposed from without, but must grow from within. It is in our tue, we may truly become free to choose the lives we are meant private world, where we can reflect deeply on the liberal arts to lead. Let us draw from the well of classical liberal arts, so and develop our individual faculties, abilities, and skills. that we may be reminded of the liberating power of entering However, just as in every good home you find that central into conversation with Plato and his interlocutors. It is from meeting place, the dining room, so in the house of education our study of the liberal arts that we may find ourselves recwe must come to share a meal with our fellow man and engage ognizing reason’s higher power and authority over man and in conversation. Why did Socrates reject Crito’s offer to go illuminating our path towards self-mastery of our passions. into exile to Thessaly? For the same reason he rejected go- It is a path that takes us to our natural state, where, through ing to the civilized city of Thebes: he would have no one to our reason, we order our passions and walk upon that higher engage in dialectic. Callicles did not wish to examine his life, plane which reveals what man was intended to be. So let us for he was unvirtuous, and the barbarian king was not “free” not squander the years we have at St. John’s; let us do justice to to know what he did not know, for he lacked culture. And so, the wisest that have come before, and those that will follow, as even while living in the not-so-perfect city of Athens, Socrates we journey towards freedom through self-mastery. !

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A’13

he sculptures around campus.

You will be able to see the relationships in color and shape that Don't worry, they are not permanent.

Hayes explores, both in the positive an negative spaces.

Actually, they are a part of the newest exhibit at the Mitchell So I welcome you to take the opportunity while David Art Gallery, “David Hayes: A Sculptor of Space and Nature,” Hayes' artwork is on campus (1/11-2/17) and allow yourself which opened January 1 and runs through February 17, al- into a unusual experience from our daily Johnnie routine. ! though the outdoor sculptures will remain on campus through the end of May. Future Events at the Mitchell Gallery: At first I found it difficult to be accustomed to these ab- January 29 stract, steel strangers on my everyday paths. But taking an- Lecture. David M. Hayes, the sculptor's son, will lecture on his other look, I realized the artwork accomplished quite a feat. father's work in the “David Hayes” exhibition at 5:30 p.m.

The Connecticut artist David Hayes absorbs our overwhelmingly sensuous world—full of complex sights, smells, tastes, January 30 sounds, touch—and distills and simplifies them to shapes and Art Express. Art Educator Lucinda Edinberg will give a lunchsolid colors. time gallery talk on the “David Hayes” exhibition from 12:15 It's okay to not know what these sculptures are “supposed to 12:45 p.m. to be.” In a way, that's the point: to not know. Rather, we should simply expeFebruary 5 It’s okay to not know what rience these shapes. We should let our Seminar. St. John’s tutor David these sculptures are “supminds be unchained from our daily task Townsend and artist Ebby Malmgren posed to be.” In a way, that’s of figuring out, analyzing, understandwill lead a seminar related to the exthe point: to not know. Rather, hibition at 7 p.m. Space is limited. Call ing. Instead, we should take some time to we should simply experience 410-626-2556 to register. leisurely meditate on how our senses are not overwhelmed, due to the clear cut these shapes. We should let steel and unambiguous colors. Let our our minds be unchained from February 7 minds simply experience the pleasure, our daily task of figuring out, Book Club. Join members of the Mitchor displeasure, in the shapes, the colell Gallery Book Club for a docent tour analyzing, understanding. ors, the textures. We can enjoy our train of the “David Hayes” exhibition folof thought as we seamlessly discover a lowed by a discussion of The Architecwing at that jagged corner or a face at that smooth curve. Look ture of Happiness by Alain de Botton from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. away, and look back again to discover new figures, or maybe Registration is required. Contact Kathy Dulisse at 410-626none at all. Walking around it, the each different perspectives 2530. creates a new visual experience. Notice how the sculptures change in the context of day or night, in sunlight or rain. We February 10 don't need to wrestle the art to the ground until it gives up and Sunday Afternoon Tour. Art Educator Lucinda Edinberg will tells us its “point.” lead a tour of the “David Hayes” exhibition at 3 p.m.

But if you prefer less abstract work, come by the Mitchell Gallery for my favorite piece by Hayes: Woman with Sheep.

This five and a half feet tall statue represents a woman walking under the weight of a sheep draped on her neck and shoul! Erik G. Neave ders. Despite being made from forged steel with straight and simple lines, the woman looks like flesh and blood. The subtle Days in liquid waves curves and shadows, the forwarding-leaning posture, and a washed up on shore gentle crease on her dress showing a leg forward, make this spread like the snowflakes unadorned statue feel alive with a full and heavy momentum forward. The delicate face and petite body has the appealing and the cracking seashells quality of an intense yet fragile endurance and power. Put simand the grains of sand; ply, it is understated and stunning. my home is here In the Mitchell Gallery you will also find Hayes' thought among the foaming surf process for his steel structures: beginning by painting in bubbling up and settling gouache the shapes and combinations that inspire him, Hayes back to the center of the earth. then translate these drafts into small steel maquettes. These are the rough drafts to larger pieces, such as the four outside.

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The Gadfly

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he most facile and vulgar manner of approaching music is to treat it as something that can be “solved” or “explained away.” Most people hear music as a display of sublimated nonsense, as an entertaining spectacle which possesses the mysterious ability of being able to evoke an “emotional response” from its listeners (“emotional” as something purportedly incomprehensible, unpredictable, and illogical). When heard like this, music is nothing more than a magic show or a riddle in tones: it has value solely because it entertains, and it ceases to entertain (and thereby loses value) when it is “solved” or “explained” through interpretation. For this reason, most people cringe at the idea of hermeneutically examining the structures of a musical composition.

To those sorts of people, music most exoterically manifests itself; the listener who approaches music as something that can be “solved” is just as hopeless as the reader who approaches poetry as something that contains a “basic message” that is hidden in stylized speech. It goes without saying that this approach is simply not in step with the composer’s or poet’s original intentions.

And yet it is on account of this approach that so called “programmatic” music lends itself quite readily to vulgar taste; because it can be viewed as an accompaniment to a program, one can (supposedly) follow the music’s development as one might follow a story. Approached in this way, programmatic music yields its “basic message” to listeners without having to be interpreted as music. It can be “understood” without losing its ability to entertain.

The real idiocy of such an approach to programmatic music is this: the music is treated as a conduit between two contrived spheres—the sphere of “comprehendible things” (the program) and the sphere of “emotional entertainment” (the music itself ). The listener imagines himself as the beholder of an allegory, inasmuch as the music exists in a symbolic relationship with a comprehendible story. He justifies his approach in this fashion: “I could never begin to interpret the music itself, and why would I want to? I am fully capable of comprehending the basic meaning of the story, and now that story exists here before me, with music in its service. I grasp its meaning, and am stirred and entertained nonetheless!”

However, when programmatic music is approached in the correct manner, these two contrived spheres disappear, because the music is no longer in the service of a listener who desires to be entertained through mystification. The music itself is no longer a mysterious means toward “emotional entertainment”; rather, it is a form of utterance which, through its form and development, raises imminently grave and unanswerable questions. And it happens that these questions, raised by music, are of the same nature as those raised by poetry and philosophy: the questions that pertain to man’s Being as a Being, to his Dasein.

A superb illustration of everything hitherto discussed is the adequately named “tone-poem” or Tondichtung of Strauss.

This truly singular part of Strauss’s oeuvre is often regarded as “programmatic” (and for that matter, I have often heard of Strauss referred to as a “programmatic” composer), to the chagrin of Strauss’s true adherents. The fact is that the accompanying stories or “programs” of these compositions do abso-

lutely nothing to aid in their interpretation.

Death and Transfiguration for large orchestra is an example of what I am referring to. Supposedly, the program of this work describes the dying minutes of a hero’s life. The composition begins with a low rumble on the timpani, and gradually becomes an entire musical development, with multiple episodes and a recapitulation. The programmatic account of this composition begins with the timpani rumble; supposedly, this is the heartbeat of the dying man, and each successive development is one of his memories. Needless to say, this account is worthless.

A correct interpretation of the work is an examination of the development of motifs. For example, this descending motif (which is first presented by the flute in the exposition) can be viewed as an essential germ for the development of the entire work:

Here, much later, it is developed on the first and second violins,

And here, in the coda, it is inverted and played tutti:

Ultimately, these developments give rise to hermeneutical questions, such as: “How are these motifs being manifested toward me, as I hear them in their separate instances? What developments have they undergone and brought about? What is the nature of the impetus that is driving this development, such that a motif can actually motivate an entire development?

Why am I perceiving this as a motivation?”

As I have stated before, this approach of motivic interpretation is akin to the approach we take with poetry: for example, Achilles’ anger, Aeneas as a man-at-arms, Socrates’s downward movement at the beginning of the Republic.

Ultimately, a listener’s ability to consider the implications of a motif within the context of the development of an entire composition speaks to that listener’s ability to behold what a composer is really up to, i.e., to contemplate one’s own contemplation by asking questions like: “How and why is it that I can hear this work and behold these developments as I do?” More importantly, it means banishing the idea that music can ever be “solved,” “explained,” or reduced to a “basic message.” !

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Most of the reason I love going to shows is that connection you feel with the band. It’s one thing to listen to music and love it; it’s another to convene with a bunch of people you don’t know who love it just as much as you do as the band stands on stage and gives the music you love to you more directly. Then again, it’s slightly different when you don’t know the band at all, as was the case with me at this Evens show, but not really; I might not have been able to sing along with songs I already loved, but I’ve found new territory to explore. In this sort of case, I didn’t go to the show because I loved a specific band, but because I love music itself. And in that love, there’s always something new to discover. It’s exciting, to dive into the unknown and find something new that adds to that love. !

!"#$#%&' ! Anonymous

“Love one another as I have loved you.”

It does not matter from where or to who simply that you do you love, and be loved.

That’s all there is.

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death John Ropoulos

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he recent shooting sprees at a Century movie theater in Aurora and at Sandy Hook Elementary have frightened many Americans. The issue, as it should, has become politicized, and we have all been witness to the various rhetoric on gun control for some time now, from “we do not need assault rifles for hunting,” to “high capacity magazines are for killing a large number of people,” etc. Leaving over-zealous bear hunters and zombie apocalypse fanatics out of this, let us ask the question: What would our founding fathers say about the right to bear arms?

Some of us may remember our lessons from the American History class we took in high school, or more likely, will remember the Simpsons episode on the subject:

include their own government.

Now, we can all agree America has a problem. With a population of about 315,000,000, the U.S.A had about 8,7751 gun murders in 2010, a shocking figure. On the other hand, gun deaths do not come close to other causes of death, such as heart disease (597,6892), cancer (574,743), and diabetes (69,071). Still, shooting sprees at elementary schools and movie theaters really hit home, and the frightened American public cries out for safety. Some Americans head to their gun stores; others demand legislation to limit the availability of weapons, because they believe access to guns is the problem. Regarding the latter, the Lisa: The second amendment is just a words of Benjamin Franklin come to remnant from revolutionary periods; mind: “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary it has no real meaning today.

Homer: You couldn’t be more wrong, safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Gun activists and anti-gun activists Lisa. If I didn’t have this gun, the King can all agree that a person with a crimiof England could just come in here nal history or mental problems should and start pushing you around. Do you not be able to own a gun. They can also want that, well, do ya? agree that guns should be registered Our American forefathers decided with the various levels of government to go to war because hefty taxes (min- in order to prevent crimes. The propoiscule by today’s standards) were im- sition that teachers be armed frightens posed without proper representation some parents; the by that pushy King of idea that the person England. After the Taking away Americans’ sitting next to you in colonists defeated the a movie theater has guns means taking British and ratified a a concealed weapon away Americans’ libernew Constitution, a ty. George Mason said, frightens many. But Bill of Rights was deis a little fear better “To disarm the people is than the loss of libmanded. The second the most effectual way erty? from the top of the list of those rights was the to enslave them.” I will Taking away Amerright to be armed, not icans’ guns means take a stand and echo only to hunt, but also taking away Amerithe words of Thomas to protect the inalienJefferson: “I prefer dan- cans’ liberty. George able right to defend Mason said, “To disgerous freedom over oneself against all arm the people is the peaceful slavery.” forms of oppression. most effectual way Please do not take my to enslave them.” I word for it. George Washington said: will take a stand and echo the words of Thomas Jefferson: “I prefer dangerous A free people ought not only to be freedom over peaceful slavery.” Either armed and disciplined, but they we admit to our proud forefathers that should have sufficient arms and am- their progeny would rather live with munition to maintain a status of in- an ill sense of security, or we “gird our dependence from any who might at- loins” and actualize the tenacity that is tempt to abuse them, which would required to be a true American. !

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The Gadfly

Ian Tuttle

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ntil the improbable rise of Elizabeth Warren, he was pline, professors are expected to write their own politically America’s most famous fake Native American—and, like correct hokum—but he could not manage even that standard.

Massachusetts’ newest senator, a “diversity hire” at the UniYet it should have come as little surprise. Besides the neverversity of Colorado at Boulder. proved claims of Creek and Cherokee ancestry, in the résumé There he taught “ethnic studies” for nearly two decades, submitted to the University of Colorado in 1980 Churchill from 1990 to 2007, turning his podium into a bully pulpit for claimed that, while in Vietnam, he “wrote and edited the batan assortment of vogue leftwing causes. talion newsletter and wrote news releases.” Seven years later, But it was when he referred to the “technocratic corps at he told the Denver Post that he had attended paratrooper the very heart of America’s global financial empire”—that is, school, been part of an elite Long-Range Reconnaissance Pathe several thousand workers in the World Trade Center—as trol in Vietnam, and run “point” in a combat unit. U.S. Army “little Eichmanns” who deserved death on September 11 (for records support none of these claims. Churchill was trained their participation in “power lunches and stock transactions, as a film projectionist and light truck driver. each of which translated…into the starved and rotting of flesh But his radicalism is no yarn. In the same 1987 interview, of infants” abroad) that he called down upon himself the op- Churchill claimed he hung around the offices of Chicago’s probrium of an entire nation and demonstrated—if any doubt Students for a Democratic Society, befriended Black Panremained—that some of the stupidest people around have ad- thers, and taught members of the Weather Underground how vanced degrees. to make bombs. True or not, he was a star guest at the 2009 In a more just world, Ward Churchill would have been trial of Herman Bell and Anthony Bottom, two members of tossed from the academy for sheer silliness. In 21st-century the Black Liberation Army accused of killing San Francisco America, it took a faculty committee, the university’s Board Police Sergeant John Young in 1971 and suspected of involveof Regents, and eventually the Colorado ment in several other terror attacks on Supreme Court. In September 2012, the police in the 1970s.

Churchill is only one exstate’s highest court finally decided that And yet, despite hugs from Lynne ample of the faux-intellec- Stewart (convicted of aiding terrorism) the Regents were within their rights to fire the professor unanimously found guilty by and face-time in the documentary When tualism that has come to a committee of colleagues of “multiple acts define the university domi- They Came for Ward Churchill—as if CU of plagiarism, fabrication, and falsificaBoulder’s then-president Hank Brown nated by niche “studies”... tion.” And to think: the faculty committee came in brown shirt and jackboots— You name it, there’s an ag- Churchill’s legal road is likely at an end, only wanted him suspended.

In December, Churchill appealed his and he is quickly fading from memory. grieved Ph.D. teaching it. case to the Supreme Court.

The essay in which his inflammatory Call him Lie-a-watha. With more than a dozen books and 9/11 remarks appeared, “‘Some People Push Back’: On the several articles to his name, not to mention a cushy tenured Justice of Roosting Chickens,” is now available at sites like job secured after just one year as an associate professor (he Kersplebedeb.com, which advertises itself as “a one-person somehow skipped the usual six-year probationary period), project devoted to producing and distributing radical books Ward Churchill managed to spend years on the dole of a ma- and pamphlets and agit prop [sic] materials”; it hosts links to jor public university, where, drawing on a background in radi- “anti-police” and “queer revolt” material. Churchill is rapidly cal politics and a knack for tall tales (mainly about himself ), becoming a footnote in monographs of September 11 analysis. he became a leading “Native American” voice in academia.

But, unfortunately, Churchill is only one example of the When, the day after his termination, Churchill filed suit in faux-intellectualism that has come to define the university state court against his former employer, he began what must dominated by niche “studies”: ethnic studies, black studbe, to-date, the century’s most specious claim of academic ies, LGBTQ studies. You name it, there’s an aggrieved Ph.D. “repression.” But with titles like Marxist and Native Ameri- teaching it—or at least pointing out the systematic persecucan to his name, he rallied a colorful—if predictable—group tion perpetrated by white/male/heterosexual/colonial/capiof supporters: Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, two other talistic norms. professors whose fame outstrips their accomplishments, Still, if it is no longer possible to boot a professor who declared their support for Churchill, as did the ACLU, unre- spends class time justifying the Oklahoma City bombing and pentant Weather Underground terrorist-cum-academic Bill whose published work likens the American treatment of Ayers, and convicted cop-killer and former Black Panther Native Americans to the crimes of the Khmer Rouge, Ward Mumia Abu-Jamal (who issued not one but two statements of Churchill’s moment in the national limelight was a muchsupport). Their testimonials are available at the website of the needed reminder that, in too many places, the professors are “Ward Churchill Solidarity Network.” off the reservation. !

But if Churchill managed to turn his case into a cri de coeur for professors’ First Amendment rights, hoisting “academic freedom” like an oriflamme, it was only a matter of time until This article originally appeared at The College Fix. It is he was forced into retreat. Even in Churchill’s pseudo-disci- available at http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/12367.

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A Look at Senior Essay Writing Michael Fogleman

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n Thursday, January 17th, the SCI convened to discuss the senior essay. The various features of the senior essay—picking an advisor, a month-long writing period, and the public nature of both the essay and the oral—make it distinct from any other annual essay. But what about the essay itself? Does the length requirement of twenty to forty pages make its structure distinct? If so, are seniors prepared to write and think through such a large and deep paper?

The participants quickly agreed that the scope and tenor of topics was generally distinct from the other annual essays. Students aim for a deep consideration of a question or topic that they are particularly interested in, one that often draws from multiple texts. This essay is often the culmination of their work at St. John’s, or a stepping stone to post-graduation interests. Thus, seniors felt that they could not merely add length to the paper to make an acceptable senior essay. On the other hand, the assignment is similar to previous annual essays, and if students treat the process too differently, they might harm their projects. Some felt that the cultural distinction given to the senior essay has made junior essays better than senior essays.

Still, no one was in favor of fundamentally altering the time-honored tradition of senior essays. Students appreciated the chance to consider a single text, topic, or question of their choosing for an extended period of time, and felt that this was the most ambitious intellectual project at the college. Students felt that this opportunity presented a unique challenge in the Program. Students are expected to spend their time wisely—although according to one tutor, it was not clear Still, no one was in favor of fundathat this is the case, and the time mentally altering the time-honored might be better spent by instituttradition of senior essays. Students ing seminars at the beginning of appreciated the chance to consider the month.

All agreed that students must a single text, topic, or question of also maturely pick a book to write their choosing for an extended peabout. Certain off-Program choicriod of time, and felt that this was es in recent years have generthe most ambitious intellectual ated much discussion about what project at the college. Students felt books are appropriate to write that this opportunity presented a about. Given that the senior essay unique challenge in the Program. is not merely for the individual, but also for the community, the participants in the conversation agreed that large, obscure books, or books that are potentially less “Great” than the official Program books are not ideal for senior essay topics. According to a tutor at the meeting, the Instruction Committee’s conventional policy is that if students truly want to write about a book, and that they can find an advisor, then their choice should generally be permitted. In Santa Fe, the Dean reviews all essays and presents potentially objectionable topic choices to the Instruction Committee.

One topic of conversation was a potential change, or even decline, over time in the senior essay’s quality and focus. Students cited how distinct early prize essays seem; there, topics seem much broader, more creative, and even more ambitious. While no one wanted to go back to a time where one could hand in a dialogue, some were concerned that there might be presently be a detrimental conformity with respect to the structure of papers and questions. It was unclear whether this phenomenon exists, what its cause is, and how the polity can re-invigorate a sense of craftsmanship.

Overall, all endorsed the Polity’s high standards for the senior essay. !

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