This is the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen. Okay, it’s the most awesome thing I’ve seen today. The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the more famous medieval artworks, depicting the Norman Invasion of England. This video animates it and adds appropriate music.
Tag: history
I know all I’ve posted about lately is school. But it has been sort of prominent in my mind. ;) Not as prominent as it should have been. I completely gave into my procrastination tendencies this week, writing my final paper for Metaphysical Poetry last night from 7pm-midnight, then collapsing–until I woke up at 4am with inspiration for the final few paragraphs. So yeah, I got up and wrote them from 4-6am, then went back to sleep until 8. Then my plan was to edit it, but I…didn’t. I looked over it, fixed a few words here and there, then turned it in. Whatever. I don’t know if the fact that I don’t care is good because it’s keeping me from getting overly stressed about something that honestly isn’t life and death to me, or if it’s bad, and a sign that I will always be sloppy about everything (which I tend to be now). Oh well. I don’t care. See? Huh.
Hee. I just marked the Metaphysical Poetry paper completed on my Remember the Milk todo list, and it was the last thing on the list, and now it says “You have no incomplete tasks! Woohoo!” Which is exactly how I feel about it. :)
Anyway. Everything is now finished except for a final tomorrow morning, which I do need to study for, because it’s going to be half an essay requiring references to at least twelve different works that we read throughout the semester, and we have to discuss how they all related to some theme (man-woman relationship, man-God relationship, etc.). I think I’m going to do heroism, but it’s a lot easier to find in the Old English/Anglo-Saxon works than in the 16th century stuff, so I’m going to have to make up some stuff.
The GOOD NEWS. I got my Howards End paper back today, and I got a 95%! From one of the hardest graders in the department, or so I hear! And he really thinks I have a chance at publishing it. That’s exciting. Certainly nothing else I wrote this semester is close to publishable, not even the one for Bibliography and Research that’s supposed to be publishable. By the time that one was due this past Tuesday, I was already beyond caring. My goal for next semester: manage my ability to care better, so I get the really important stuff done while I still care about it.
Question for seminary-type people. Or other historically-minded people. I did the Metaphysical poetry paper on the relationship of George Herbert to his religious environment, and I found enough good stuff for a ten-page paper, but it got me interested in Calvin’s church community. Do you have any suggestions for not-too-difficult-to-read books about the Genevan church, and also the Zwinglian one? After skimming three or four books about the Reformation in general, I sensed that some of them are, uh, a little biased, so I wasn’t sure how far to trust some of them beyond the basic historical facts. A lot of the English poetry in the early seventeenth century seems to be as critical of Geneva as of Rome, though from what I can tell, Anglicans like Herbert were largely Calvinistic in theology, so I think it’s more of a critique of Geneva’s liturgical style and system of church government (which I couldn’t quite ascertain from any of the books I had…was it basically Presbyterian? Or congregational?). I guess I just need some good basic Reformation histories that aren’t too biased.
Last week Treasure Hunters (NBC Amazing Race-type reality show) had its teams running around England and France looking for clues related to a secret society to which many of our founding fathers belonged. Of course, I immediately though “Freemasonry.” Because that’s been a plot point forever, leading to tons of conspiracy theories. But no. It was the Rosicrucian Order, which I was slightly familiar with through Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum. When I went to the library to refresh my memory on the Rosicrucians, however, I can’t find any reference to it being an active society in the United States in the late 18th century, as it would’ve had to have been for people like Benjamin Franklin to be members of it. (Treasure Hunters flashed Franklin portraits every time the host mentioned the secret society.) I looked in three different books, and have since looked at numerous websites (including the Catholic Encyclopedia, which is usually pretty reliable), and it seems as though the order largely faded out by the 18th century, then was reintroduced in the 1850s in both England and the U.S. Of course, it is a secret society, so perhaps they were all secretly members. *eyeroll*
Not that I would expect Treasure Hunters to be, you know, an authoritative show or anything like that. But it seems weird that they would go after the Rosicrucian Order, when they could make a more convincing claim for Freemasonry. I suppose Freemasonry isn’t esoteric enough anymore. Nope, now we’ve gotta go for the really secret secret societies. Next thing I suppose they’ll be claiming that Lincoln was a Grand Master in the Priory of Sion.