Medieval History
Well, they did it: the French Senate passed the pension reform bill raising the retirement age to 62 and the availability of full benefits to 65. The vote was 177-153 and there are still a couple of steps to go towards implementation, but the path is now charted out. The unions had already called for two more strike days even before the vote (October 28, November 6) - what will the response be now? Will there be a revolution on the scale of May 1968? I'm always a little amazed to remember that May 1968 only lasted for two weeks ("only" for anybody who lived through it, I'm sure) - it's the scale that was huge: 11 million workers mobilized into strikes. It truly was the world upside down. Charivari: boisterous, heretofore disallowed actions, messy propositions.
A time when the little man can be King. Or Royal Pumpkin Carver (yes, that is a knife in the pumpkin's eye). Halloween is the ultimate ritualized charivari. The low becomes high, power is powerless, the powerless are powerful, street talk is political speech - but then (and this is the trick of survival of charivari) everything goes back to the way it was: boys are no longer pharaohs, girls are no longer witches, De Gaulle's party (it turns out) came out stronger than ever in the June 1968 elections. The world "righted" itself - except in America, where, that same month, JFK was shot. Louise de Savoie (1476-1531) would have looked to the stars for explanation. There's one mystic touch in French Senate elections that I return to: each vote is cast in the form of a plastic card which is weighed not counted. The cards go into yes-no-abstain urns, and the urns are then poured out onto scales - whichever side the scales tip to is the side of right. Where did that ritual come from? Sounds Roman, doesn't it? Human will decides the precarious balance of social justice.
Will the unions lose the hard-won victories of the November-December 1995 strikes? All I remember in the haze of archival research and being completely crazy in love with Mac was walking all over Paris, eventually shoving him on the last train out of Paris (from the Gare du Nord), and then connecting the dots (walk, bus, bus, train) to Belgium so I could make my way to him in Germany. I had no political consciousness except to admire the will it took to make the government backtrack. The small held the big. But I don't know this time if power is just a matter of will. The Economy seems constructed as a bigger power, above all governments, driving all things. A real beastie, hungry and insatiable. And so it faces off with Charivari.
- The Possibility Of Other Worlds
The Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493I've been thinking through a few of the ideas of John Buridan, the 14th century philosopher of the natural world and the cosmos via Aristotle in preparation for a talk next week-end with a colleague in Biochemistry about...
- Babel
Dang! I had a great photo of Iris's response to Election Day, but it wasn't downloaded somehow. Oh well, no matter, I seem to be about 5 days behind in everything, so I'll post it when I get home from this (marvelous, terrific, mind-blowing)...
- Confer!
Wo-ha - I'm in Montréal. There's a 16th-century Conference, which is later than I'm used to, but my gal died in 1531, so fair game, yes? Everything is suspended and strange - and thus wonderful. Lots and lots of work that...
- Dh Awards 2013: Voting Open!
It is my pleasure to announce that the DH Awards 2013 is open for voting! http://dhawards.org/dhawards2013/voting/ Digital Humanities Awards are a set of entirely open annual awards given in recognition of talent and expertise in the digital...
- The Absent Minded Blogger
Apologies for the lack of posts since June 24. Something fried in the Medieval Mayhem side of my brain and I forgot my password for many days. I also temporarily misplaced the notebook where I had the password written down. I am back...
Medieval History
Carve!
- The Possibility Of Other Worlds
The Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493I've been thinking through a few of the ideas of John Buridan, the 14th century philosopher of the natural world and the cosmos via Aristotle in preparation for a talk next week-end with a colleague in Biochemistry about...
- Babel
Dang! I had a great photo of Iris's response to Election Day, but it wasn't downloaded somehow. Oh well, no matter, I seem to be about 5 days behind in everything, so I'll post it when I get home from this (marvelous, terrific, mind-blowing)...
- Confer!
Wo-ha - I'm in Montréal. There's a 16th-century Conference, which is later than I'm used to, but my gal died in 1531, so fair game, yes? Everything is suspended and strange - and thus wonderful. Lots and lots of work that...
- Dh Awards 2013: Voting Open!
It is my pleasure to announce that the DH Awards 2013 is open for voting! http://dhawards.org/dhawards2013/voting/ Digital Humanities Awards are a set of entirely open annual awards given in recognition of talent and expertise in the digital...
- The Absent Minded Blogger
Apologies for the lack of posts since June 24. Something fried in the Medieval Mayhem side of my brain and I forgot my password for many days. I also temporarily misplaced the notebook where I had the password written down. I am back...