Dr. Weevil

Pedantry, Poetry, Politics, and Pie

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E-mail: (turn it backwards)
gro.liveewrd@liveewrd
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Anonymous student evaluation in Latin 102:
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The Safety Valve:
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“adamantine nuggets of erudition”

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Silflay Hraka:
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Max Sawicky:
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Protein Wisdom:
“urbane and erudite”

Noam Chomsky:
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Old MT Archives:

Monday: November 21, 2005

Good Advice?

Filed under:

General

— site admin @ 11:16 PM GMT-0500

No debemos utilizar como documento histórico las obras maestras, sino las mediocres.
Lo que diferencia a las épocas es su manera de fracasar.

For historical evidence, we should not use the masterpieces but the mediocre works.
What distinguishes epochs is their style of failure.

(Nicolás Gómez Dávila, Escolios a un Texto Implícito, 1.372)

Comments (1)

1 Comment

Maybe it’s just the vodka talking, but I find this passage intriguing. I’ll toss aside the first sentence (refuting the worst expression of a position, or even its most mediocre expression, is a useless distraction, unless the worst is also the best), but the second sentence (and the proposition it expresses) may well be entirely on the mark. Needs further (sober) thought.

Comment by Melchior Sternfels von Fuchshaim — Monday: January 9, 2006 @ 11:31 PM GMT-0500

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