Famous Dead White Males

[Kraig:]

> Feynman stated that he thought of his own theories as not being
> true but things that were useful to others. He did not think
> truth was possible.

Excellent, Kraig. This isn't from the Feynman Lectures, is
it? I tell, you those books kept me sane. I had to trudge
through those awful green books with the yellow sine waves
on the cover for physics which were just full of the most
awful fallacies, logical errors, and misconstructed proofs
I'd ever seen. Feynman's presentation was far more clear,
deep, intuitive ... and correct.

[JdL:]
> I'm a huge fan of Richard Feynmann; he wrote two very funny
> autobiographical books which I recommend highly.

Yes the safe cracking incident is the *best*.

And his insights on Brazillian students apply to just
about all students everywhere nowadays.

And loved the part on the time he wasted trying to
help the State of California select text books. Tell
me about it!

> In typical fashion, he cut through all the BS and put his finger
> on the problem.

NO MORE BS is surely what we all could use right now.

> Wish he were still here with us!

[Kraig:]

> Kepler would be good to have around also!

I'd like to be friends with Pascal Taskin, the notorious
Belgian harpsichord maker who lived in France. I just love
this guy. I love how he finely detailed the never to be
seen again interiors of the soundbox, his gorgeous
soundboard decorations and the exotic 'additions' he made
to the instruments. His talent for ravelment on Blanchet
instruments was also a real crazy wild thing. Too bad the
French burned all their best harpsichords in that harsh
winter of 1789. Crazy anarchists!

Also, wouldn't it be fun to hang out at Monticello with
Grandpa Jefferson, inventor of the moldboard plow. It
would be so fun to talk with him about his agricultural
theories and take some seeds home from his garden.

I'd also like to meet Ezekial -- get him to draw me a
picture of that crazy chariot.

Isaiah -- one of the best writers ever.

François Couperin -- I'd have coffee with Couperin, listen
to his latest works and ask him to tell me what the
mysterious barricades _really_ were. I'm sure I'd
have to promise him not to tell anyone else, but I'm
also sure that whatever it was would be an absolute crack
up.

Herman Melville -- Bartleby, Queequeg and all the rest.
This guy is the funniest writer I have ever encountered.
I practically wet my pants reading Moby Dick which is
without a doubt the most rip roaringly hilarious novel
that has ever been written. And how much more down to
earth can you get than Melville? What a fantastic guy. I'd
love to circumambulate the town with him one afternoon and
swap sailing stories!

Ah, I could go on and on...

Thanks for bringing this up, Kraig & John.

- Jeff

Thanks, Jeff, for this vivid post! Made me feel as if I were witnessing
the lives of people even if I'd never heard of them before.

I kind of ground to a halt at the mention of Herman Melville, though.

[Jeff:]
>Herman Melville -- Bartleby, Queequeg and all the rest.
>This guy is the funniest writer I have ever encountered.
>I practically wet my pants reading Moby Dick which is
>without a doubt the most rip roaringly hilarious novel
>that has ever been written. And how much more down to
>earth can you get than Melville? What a fantastic guy. I'd
>love to circumambulate the town with him one afternoon and
>swap sailing stories!

"Moby Dick" was crammed down my throat in high school and I HATED it!
Seemed like he could never say anything straight out. But I know from
experience that my viewpoint has changed a lot since then. Guess I need
to go back and give Melville another try. I DID write a book report on
"Billy Budd" (sp?), I remember; wasn't that Melville?

JdL

--- In metatuning@y..., "John A. deLaubenfels" <jdl@a...> wrote:

> Thanks, Jeff, for this vivid post! Made me feel as if I were
witnessing the lives of people even if I'd never heard of them before.

> I kind of ground to a halt at the mention of Herman Melville,
though.

> "Moby Dick" was crammed down my throat in high school and I HATED
it!

Yes, I dropped out of high school and thus avoided it. Heard all the
stories about how terrible it was. Saw the dull and humorless movie.
Then one summer took it out of the bookcase and read it. Here's a tip:
don't drink milk while reading it or you'll have milk out your nose.
And take your time. The language Melville uses is hilarious and not
pretentious (some people miss this and think it is pretentious but
forget that Melville was basically a hillbilly. Similar to people who
miss the fact that most opera is not as pretentious as people think -
it mocks itself and the best opera people are relatively young people
who 'get' it.). He sets up the most outlandish scenes and images with
prose bordering on shaggy dog stories and then drops the punch line on
you when you least expect it. And the entire book is basically his
true life experience so that makes it extra wild.

But an interesting thing I could point out here is that based on what
I've seen, people I've known and my own experience, I'd say that, with
exceptions of course, high school is a waste of time for everyone
involved. All it does is turn kids off to the idea of education, which
of course has nothing to do with school. And don't get me started on
universities. What a scam they are!

I could draw the next line here to the value of theorizing but then I
would be off topic for a meta post.

> Seemed like he could never say anything straight out.

Reminds me of a lot of the email I've gotten recently. And posts I've
seen on certain other lists that shall remain nameless. :-)

> But I know from experience that my viewpoint has changed a lot
since then. Guess I need to go back and give Melville another try. I
DID write a book report on "Billy Budd", I remember; wasn't that
Melville?

Yes, absolutely. I did Budd in 10th grade and hated it as you hated
Moby Dick. Crammed down my throat. Didn't have time to read it
properly and think about it as much as I'd like to. I wrote a report
presenting an allegory that constructed myself out to be Billy and the
teacher to be his foolish persecutors. He was a Melville 'fan' (he
erroneously though Melville was pretentious like himself and that's
why he liked him) and took so much offense at my essay that I was
actually expelled from school for it. (And thus addly making my essay
prescient.) That was my first and last semester to go to a fancy pants
prestigious ivy league prep school full of people who were full of
themselves and living in a state of delusion. (In fact my parents
couldn't really afford it anyway so it was a good thing they kicked me
out.) I was not surprised at all years later when I read in the paper
that the guy Andy who sat next to me at lunch with another guy I knew
Robert, went on a crazed cross-country killing spree. By then I knew
from personal experience that those Ivy League types were completely
crackers.

Thanks for your response, John.

(You did like Bart

[I wrote:]
>>Thanks, Jeff, for this vivid post! Made me feel as if I were
>>witnessing the lives of people even if I'd never heard of them before.

>>I kind of ground to a halt at the mention of Herman Melville, though.

>>"Moby Dick" was crammed down my throat in high school and I HATED
>>it!

[Jeff wrote:]
>Yes, I dropped out of high school and thus avoided it. Heard all the
>stories about how terrible it was. Saw the dull and humorless movie.
>Then one summer took it out of the bookcase and read it. Here's a tip:
>don't drink milk while reading it or you'll have milk out your nose.
>And take your time. The language Melville uses is hilarious and not
>pretentious (some people miss this and think it is pretentious but
>forget that Melville was basically a hillbilly. Similar to people who
>miss the fact that most opera is not as pretentious as people think -
>it mocks itself and the best opera people are relatively young people
>who 'get' it.). He sets up the most outlandish scenes and images with
>prose bordering on shaggy dog stories and then drops the punch line on
>you when you least expect it. And the entire book is basically his
>true life experience so that makes it extra wild.

Wow, based on this, I've _gotta_ try it again!

>But an interesting thing I could point out here is that based on what
>I've seen, people I've known and my own experience, I'd say that, with
>exceptions of course, high school is a waste of time for everyone
>involved. All it does is turn kids off to the idea of education, which
>of course has nothing to do with school. And don't get me started on
>universities. What a scam they are!

>I could draw the next line here to the value of theorizing but then I
>would be off topic for a meta post.

Well, this is the _meta_ list, so I think you can let yourself go!

>>Seemed like he could never say anything straight out.

>Reminds me of a lot of the email I've gotten recently. And posts I've
>seen on certain other lists that shall remain nameless. :-)

;->

>>But I know from experience that my viewpoint has changed a lot
>>since then. Guess I need to go back and give Melville another try. I
>>DID write a book report on "Billy Budd", I remember; wasn't that
>>Melville?

>Yes, absolutely. I did Budd in 10th grade and hated it as you hated
>Moby Dick. Crammed down my throat. Didn't have time to read it
>properly and think about it as much as I'd like to. I wrote a report
>presenting an allegory that constructed myself out to be Billy and the
>teacher to be his foolish persecutors. He was a Melville 'fan' (he
>erroneously though Melville was pretentious like himself and that's
>why he liked him) and took so much offense at my essay that I was
>actually expelled from school for it. (And thus addly making my essay
>prescient.) That was my first and last semester to go to a fancy pants
>prestigious ivy league prep school full of people who were full of
>themselves and living in a state of delusion. (In fact my parents
>couldn't really afford it anyway so it was a good thing they kicked me
>out.) I was not surprised at all years later when I read in the paper
>that the guy Andy who sat next to me at lunch with another guy I knew
>Robert, went on a crazed cross-country killing spree. By then I knew
>from personal experience that those Ivy League types were completely
>crackers.

Now this is just TOO funny! That very book was the catalyst in your
getting kicked out of "fancy pants" school? Too much!! When I read it,
it was an option, so I liked it. Is there a correlation here? I
probably would've liked Shakespeare too if HE hadn't been crammed down
my throat... Or even Greek mythology.

>Thanks for your response, John.

Ditto, and my pleasure!

>(You did like Bart

?

JdL

It was from his interview on Nova's PBS

"X. J. Scott" wrote:

> [Kraig:]
>
> > Feynman stated that he thought of his own theories as not being
> > true but things that were useful to others. He did not think
> > truth was possible.
>
> Excellent, Kraig. This isn't from the Feynman Lectures, is
> it?

-- Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria island
http://www.anaphoria.com

The Wandering Medicine Show
Wed. 8-9 KXLU 88.9 fm

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