Wit & Whim

I have read the first assignments for my history class, and I am deeply, truly, disappointed. I love history; it is--and has been--the topic which most captures my imagination. It is a winding, delicate, and striking synthesis of politics, philosophy, and every little thing that has come to define civilization. I love history because I love its constituent parts. I love the moments when things take their place in the order of history, when the chaos fades, receding to reveal the fabric of reason which has ever lain beneath. History has always taken a somewhat considerable part of my reading time. The work of a gifted historian is art. It is a beautiful portrait that conveys thought and emotion, the burning sting of personal disappointment; the staggering enormity of grand empires which slowly grind themselves into the dust, which dust is but the remains of the mighty edifice that was their supposed immortality. No event in history is a matter of black and white. All situations have man...

I think I just met my new favourite professor. Elliot Bartky is awesome. He makes you explain your comments, extensively, makes you own your comments and never shows whether or not he approves. His expression is always one of doubt or skepticism, even when it is about an idea he is presenting. Opinion is not to be seen, and the experience is much better for it. He also has a good sense of humor and an excellent lecture voice, which is bigger for me than you might believe. My new history professor should be okay, though I don't think she would probably appreciate my thoughts on certain subjects, and certainly would not have enjoyed it if I had called her on something she said during class. Oh well, I will hope for the best. Dillman, my communication teacher is one for whom I have hope. She, unlike someone in my last semester, believes that this needs to be a creative exercise with as much freedom as possible to run with our ideas. She will have strict requirements on quality and vo...