Evocations

(Un)Employed Philosophers Guild

I am a fan of the Unemployed Philosophers Guild. Do you know it? 

Having a sense of humor is crucial, and the Unemployed Philosophers Guild does. So, too, does it have a way of linking their humor, their intellectual verve and financial acumen. (The latter hinted at by the fact that their url is actually www.philosophersguild.com and thus the UN is missing.)

In their case, they bring these various features together by selling such things as  Nietzsche's Will to Power Bar, Schrodinger's Cat, and a Virginia Woolf finger puppet (not to mention many more). Each one makes you smile -- if you are in the know. 

Balancing the humor, the intellectual verve and the financial acumen is part of it. But they do one more thing: they fund projects that are oriented toward social justice. (well, they do two more things. They also have this blog.) 

What does all this have to do with Shimer? Several things.

First: I am so much a fan, that I sometimes think of our Ph.D. Philosopher who is an internet marketer as the evidence that Shimer is, in fact, the employed philosophers guild. I also think the blend of intellectual, financial, humor and more is not that different from what we strive for when we are at our best. We must not take ourselves too seriously, but we are serious. We know that employment is not everything though it is definitely important to us all. We care about being financially stable and we are enchanted by similar authors and artists as the Unemployed Philosophers are. We are, in fact, a likely market for each other, I often say, only half-jokingly. 

Second: above I used the phrase "if you're in the know." One way to get "in the know" regarding the products of the Unemployed Philosophers Guild is to get a "great books" education that exposes you to a vast array of the figures that the guild references. And, of course, it does more than "expose" you -- it allows you or requires you to think -- and for that, I think you definitely need a sense of humor. So does April Fool's Day. But there is not a single statement in this blog entry that is false. Trust me. 

Check them out. How many of them do you know?  Are they acquaintances or friends? Or? 

Marge Piercy is Coming and You Should Be There

When I arrived at Shimer, a group of students were doing a tutorial on the "political novel." Among their readings: the work of Marge Piercy. I had taught (having been nudged into it by my partner) a book called Sex Wars in Introduction to Women's Studies in my prior life -- and have read some of her other novels. And, I love her poetry. So, I am thrilled to say that Marge Piercy is going to be doing an event for Shimer in April (details below). 

Why Marge Piercy for a great books college in Chicago? Well, of course, it is not all about the fact that I love her work -- and so do some other Shimerians. There are other reasons. Here are a few:

1. We read the Declaration of Sentiments in some of our courses here at Shimer. This document is a fascinating use of a founding US document to move forward the argument for women's rights. Written in 1848, a year when the Communist Manifesto and much else was penned, the document begins as follows:

"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Recognize its origins? The changes?

What does Piercy have to do with this? S0me of the characters of Sex Wars were among the key figures in the creation of this document -- and in the social movements associated with the document.  As historical fiction, the novel instances one way to take the past (including past texts) and make them alive and relevant today. 

2. Because Marge Piercy is a poet -- and she knows what phlogiston is. Try this poem, entitled "For the Young Who Want To" to see her use the term in a poem. The poem is worth a read for many other reasons, including its relevance to reflecting on the purpose and the impact of education. 

3. Because she is mathematically inclined. She knows that one plus one equals one. (Yes, she does. Try this poem.)

4. She knows the midwest, having been born in Michigan and ended her graduate work at Northwestern. Here's what she says on her website about Chicago as a part of her biography:

After that marriage, Piercy lived in Chicago, trying to learn to write the kind of poetry and fiction she imagined but could not yet produce. She supported herself at a variety of part-time jobs; she was a secretary, a switchboard operator, a clerk in a department store, an artists’ model, a poorly paid part-time faculty instructor. She was involved in the civil rights movement.

She remembers those years in Chicago as the hardest of her adult life. She felt she was invisible. As a woman, society defined her as a failure: a divorcee at twenty-three, poor, living on part-time work. As a writer, she was entirely invisible. She wrote novel after novel but could not get published. Piercy remarks that at that time she knew two things about her fiction: she wanted to write fiction with a political dimension (Simone de Beauvoir was her model) and she wanted to write about women she could recognize, working class people who were not as simple as they were supposed to be.

(Here I should note that this evidences, as do the comments further above, that she has been influenced by works read in the Shimer curriculum!)

For these and many other reasons, including my suspicion that her work itself is of enduring historical significance, she wil be joining the Shimer community -- and you, if you want -- in April. 

Marge Piercy is coming to Chicago (of course, she has been here before) and will be giving a talk for Shimer at the Standard Club on April 18. If you are interested in attending, click here to RSVP. 

A New Version of Shimertopia

In addition to having a presence on this blog and others, Shimer is now appearing on occassion in the Huffington Post. Any comments you can make there will help get us attention. Please spread the word about that, and about this blog. 


Meanwhile, there is one more place to one more place to stop when you are cruising the web -- or updating your knowledge about today's Shimer.

That is, a new blog called Chicago is Our Campus on Chicago Now, a group of Chicago area blogs created (as they say) by Chicagoans for Chicagoans. The site was created by the Chicago Tribune Media Group. 

Shimerprez is the "author" of Chicago is Our Campus -- which will look at higher education related matters in Chicago and Chicagoland. Click here if you want to check it out -- remember, it is just starting! And, it appears on ChicagoNow. 

 

Around the Web

Here are some places you might like to check out around the web, related to Shimer in one way or another (and presented in no particular order). And, thanks to this site for the non-internet web! Did you know when you google web -- images that is, you do not get spider webs? No, you get various images used to announce the inernet/web. Life has changed. What was a metaphor drawn from nature has now pushed nature to the side.) 

First: This site is about Liberal Education, across the US and beyond. It is filed with resources and should stimulate your mind. And, then, you can connect these resources to the drive to liebral education containied within great books! 

Second: this site is entitled "Why Great Books Aren't the Answer" -- and I think given our emphasis on listening both to those we agree with and those we do not agree with, it deserves a read. (You may be surprised.)  

Third: If the phrase repurposed books means anything to you, click here. If not, click anyway. And perhaps try here as well. 

Finally, here's a question for you: what is the most Shimerian website you know. Leave an answer in the comments -- and spread the word to start looking for them! Shimerian websites??!??!?!

Shimer: All about the non-traditional

Last year, at graduation, our youngest graduate was an early entrant and our oldest was 62. Not that I was paying attention. This illustrates a key point about both Shimer and higher education more broadly: the 18-25 year old "traditional" student is not the only type of student out there. Nor is the "new normal" of students over 25 the sole set of non-traditional learners who engage with college. Yes, there are early entrants. 

For a discussion of this theme, see this piece, by yours truly, in the Huffington Post. And, comment away there -- it helps boost Shimer's visiblity. Were you an early entrant? Tell the world about it on the Huffington Post. 

Check this Out (A New Category)

(Thanks to this site for the image.)

Once in a while, there is just a notion that seems like an oxymoron and yet, is really pushing us into a new future. Perhaps a dystopian one and perhaps a utopian one. Perhaps just one of those soon to be run of the mill futures (a kind of future I recognized first when I suddenly realized the amazing idea of the video phone -- from  my youthful experience of a World's Fair -- was in my hand and even smaller than they hoped). In any case, NPR did a piece recently on such a notion: A bookless library. 

Check it out here.

Then, ask yourself about the ways this is -- and is not -- related to higher education and what we do. What does it mean to be a great books college in a world where a bookless library is imagineable.

What do you make of this?