Only one French work in the L&L? Nothing by Voltaire?
Beaumarchais? Montesquieu?

USAD chose works inspired by the French Revolution
I suppose. But that's a lot of great writing that is
being ignored, though they will apparently be touched
upon tangently in the Music and SQ areas.

But that's not the same...

Not only that, the one French work is an excerpt from Rousseau's Social Contract, about the worst choice possible. It seems like it wouldn't be too hard to get English translations of French works...

what is wrong the social contract?

Mostly that Rousseau's writing is close to incomprehensible. I also don't agree with most of his ideas, but that doesn't mean it's not worth reading.

i think it's possible to understand. it takes three or four close readings to get his meaning, but that's the same with most philosophy.

Word. I'm pumped for my Early Modern Philosophy class next semester, since I don't have the patients to read that.

I was surprised by the lack of French writers, but now that I think about it, the Chinese writings were all writers in the English language also. So, not too surprising now that I think about eet.

you're not thinking about it hard enough. the chinese writers were all (except for ezra loomis pound, who translated a chinese poem, and st coleridge, who got high and wrote something down) writing in chinese originally.

SO COLD IT HURT HIS BONES.

Dayum. Fo 'real? Granted, I was terrible that year (62xx and 66xx ftw) and LangLit was my worst subject.

yeah...watered my horse, the one about snow...that other one. you know.

Li Po, Terrace in the Snow! That popped into my head this morning. Weird.

debator is right. now if you want to read incomprehensible philosophy, try hegel. i had a prof who took an entire semester graduate course on the introduction to his Phenomenology of Mind.

There's a bust of Voltaire as one of the art selections. So they will probably cover at least some stuff about him over there.

I'm excited for all the social contract talk.
Yay French Rev!

L&L next year looks amazing. I would read it for fun. I mean really: A Vindication of the Rights of Man, Excerpts from a crapload of Dickens stuff (Love Dickens), Social Contract, some Thomas Paine! It looks amazing.

You could never g wrong with Thomas Paine.

About Voltaire
Does not Compare
to
By Voltaire

Do you care?

- not Voltaire

The short selections they included represent one of the most significant intellectual debates in Western Civilization. Beginning with Richard Price's sermon "Discourse on the Love of Our Country" (which is not included, but it will be talk about alot), then Edmund Burke's response to that with Reflections on the Revolution in France (also not included, but will be talked about alot), which touched off a virtual printing press spree, culminating in the two great responses: Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Men and Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man. After these there are a whole host of responses, both for and against the ideas of Burke and Price. This was a profound and meaningful debate carried out in the public sphere.

Thomas Paine was the most consistent of the American founding fathers. He argued against the immorality of slavery, on behalf of women's rights, against the hypocracy of the established religious institutions, and for a progressive economic agenda. All I can say, is they better do him justice in the packets!

This will be my 5th year coaching this year - best Lang/Lit selections yet - IMHO.