Immodest proposals

Yes, Swift's satire is disgusting. Yet I find the disgust it arouses oddly cleansing, if you know what I mean. He doesn't mince words; his satire evinces his overwhelming disgust with an unjust world. His euphemisms are so plainly euphemistic that we see right through them, in a way that is so much more difficult with a lot of contemporary political discourse (which traffics in what George Orwell would have called "doublespeak"). To be honest, I am far more disgusted every day when I read the newspapers, which overflow with the soothingly packaged but often merely empty words of our leaders and public figures.

Bloggers drive controversy

Well, we bloggers are on the cutting edge, according to this CNET news story about blogs that have entered into the presidential race's political fray. This kind of amateur sleuthing, despite its dubious methods and conclusions, is afterall just a different kind of literary analysis....

State of nature

Here's a brief article on the topic of the "State of nature" from Wikipedia, in reference to Colossal's earlier post. As always, encyclopedia articles, like many other kinds of materials on the Net, should be thought of as a starting place for inquiry, but by no means as the final or authoritative word on a given topic. In your papers, I would recommend that you avoid quoting from encyclopedia articles, but that you use them instead to help you see a subject in its broader context and to find leads to other kinds of research materials.

Against All Odds

For anyone interested in the history of the abolitionist movement in England, here's a relatively short article entitled "Against All Odds" by Adam Hochschild, whose book on the British abolitionist movement is forthcoming this fall. The article appeared in the liberal Mother Jones magazine earlier this year, and it mentions prominently Olaudah Equiano's slave narrative, which we'll soon be reading.

Don't forget to register to vote!

Hi, folks,

I want to let you know that I've added a link at the top of Overleaf.org to voter registration materials. That link brings you to the registration materials page of a site called Rock the Vote, whose aim is to provide easy access to voter registration materials for everyone. Please register to vote, if you haven't already done so, or if you've recently moved (for example, to attend college). Time is running out -- Alabamians have only until early next month (October) to register! We can hardly call ourselves a democratic nation unless we educate ourselves about the issues and exercise our constitutional rights as voters.

This message is not directly related to our course -- my apologies -- but, in a larger sense, creating informed and educated citizens (who vote!) is among highest duties of the university. Please let your friends know that they, too, can go to Overleaf.org or Rock the Vote for registration forms. Simply print out the form and send it off!

Wikipedia article...

The Wikipedia article on Aphra Behn is interesting. It mentions Oroonoko, and it mentions that her descriptions of Surinam are accurate. It also says that the tale she tells about Oroonoko does not seem to exaggerate his life.

The last point I find interesting because it seemed to me that we as a class decided that Oroonoko was probably not an account of actual occurrences.