26 October 1994: update on Classical Studies/History 28

I've now written e-mail notes to every author of a paper that I have in my possession: if you've not heard from me, let me know and we'll figure out which end the problem is on. The papers were on balance not bad for first efforts. The average grade was B (extreme range from D to A). How to make them better? I'll say again what I said on the syllabus and said to numerous of you: what I look for is *your* mind at work, not just digesting and regurgitating, but seeking, probing, asking good questions, thinking hard about how to get the answer, and expressing the results clearly and interestingly. Digesting what the book you were reading says and then spitting it back up again is something cows and sheep do. A useful sort of skill at times in life, but not what you pay the real $$ to come to Penn for.

Your comments on the forms yesterday were very helpful. Two adjustments to program as a result. One, sometime this week, I will have up on the server a set of brief outlines of all the lectures so far, and I will continue to provide those. These will not be substitutes for being there, but it will help you check your sense of what I'm getting at with *my* sense of what I'm getting at. Comments welcome.

Second, if there was a theme on the reports it was that the reading assignments were heavy. Now I have to be careful how I take this. After all, no professor ever distributed these forms and got back a chorus of remarks to the effect of, "Well, *gee*, I haven't got a *thing* to read, and *you're* certainly not helping with all these powderpuff assignments!" Yep, trust me, incredible as it may seem, it never happens. There *is* a logic to the readings, that I want to emphasize:

1. Ammianus and Cassiodorus: take you back to the worlds we're talking about, let you wander around in them, see lots of different neat stuff, begin thinking about the issues they raise.
2. Roger Collins: he's the one to put order and direction and structure on the mass of other material in the course, including my lectures. Got trouble with chronology etc.? Collins is your man.
3. Lane Fox/Boethius/Augustine: this is a period for reasons I've already addressed and will be addressing again tomorrow in which religion becomes a constitutive force in society; even as "religion" has played less a part in some cultures in modern times, "ideology" remains. This is the vital transformation that happens in this period. Lane Fox gives you the framework and a lot of the atmosphere. Boethius and Aug. will show you how it felt to two sophisticated consumers.
4. Brown: The deeper thing that happened in this period is that the human body and its behaviors became a matter of high social and political interest. It still is. This is the book about how that happened. In a religious context, but in ways that go quite beyond any reasonable definition of religion. This is a book about how we got to be the way we are as people.

But ok, there's a lot of stuff, so here's the adjustments:

1. delete Plotinus from reading assignments (avail. for extra interest if you like, makes a good paper topic).
2. Augustine: read only books 1-10 (out of 13) -- reduces assignment by about 40%.
3. Collins: if I didn't already make this clear, you may stop with p. 245 -- no test questions from after that date.
4. Brown: He's harder to slice up, so the assignment of reading all of him stays, but notice that the more important stuff comes later in the book; and the earlier part of the book more nearly overlaps some of what's in the Christian parts of Lane Fox.
5. Gibbon: short assignment (like the Priscus goes to Attila) on the WWW at end of term.

FOR TOMORROW: On the WWW already on the wola page is an excerpt from Pliny and Trajan's letters -- one of the papers dealt with these short (2 printed pages) texts. I'll have paper (ecocriminal) copies to hand out tomorrow and will talk about it in detail, but if you have a look tonight it will make more sense.

EXAMS AND PAPER:
8 November: contents of Collins 1-245

6 December: second paper, same length. If *possible* the distinction of one paper about an ancient source, one based on a modern should be observed, but that's not the most important thing. Particularly if I've quarreled with your topic or approach this time, CONSULT ME. Remember as well -- a *privileged* form of paper topic, the kind I can't quarrel with, is to take somebody *else's* first paper as your point of departure. Pick up the topic, read that paper analytically, do additional reading, and carry the discussion forwards. Requires intelligence, insight, and some tact as well (since people will read what you say about them).

21 December, 8:30 a.m.: 2 hour exam on everything in the course, emphasizing the non-Collins readings. Looking for retention of information and ability to analyze. Essay questions, there will be choices.

jo'd