Zeph Stewart, 86, a classics professor and former Lowell House master at Harvard, died, according to today's online Crimson, on Saturday.
Related material: Saturday's Log24 entry "Plato's Horses" and its link to a Harvard education.
Month: December 2007
-
Final Arrangements, continued:
The New York Review of Songs
"Which one will the fountain bless?"
-- Sinatra, 1954 -
Santa's Polar Opposite?
The above logo is from
the I Ching Resources website.
Hexagram 10
Treading (Conduct)
Two Commentaries:1.
The standard
Princeton University Press
Wilhelm/Baynes text2.
An idiosyncratic interpretation
from one "Rhett Butler"
at I Ching ResourcesRhett describes his experience
with Hexagram 10 at the South Pole.
This pole, like the abode of Santa,
may serve to illustrate T. S. Eliot's
remarks on "the still point of
the turning world."Related material:
Hitler's Still Point,
The Still Point of
the Turning World:
Joan Didion and the
Opposite of Meaning
(Harper's, Nov. 2005),and
Chorus from the Rock
(Log24, Dec. 5, 2004). -
Down to Earth:
IcarusPart I: Matisse
The
Wisdom of the Ego,
by George E. Vaillant,
Harvard University Press (1993)Cover illustration:
"Icarus," from Jazz,
by Henri MatissePublisher's
description of author:George E. Vaillant is Professor of Psychiatry;
Director of the Study of Adult Development,
Harvard University Health
Services;
and Director of Research in
the Division of Psychiatry,
Brigham and
Women's Hospital."This is a remarkable synthesis of the best current thinking on ego
psychology as well as a many-faceted picture of what Robert White would
call 'lives in progress.' It makes on its own not only a highly
innovative contribution to ego psychology but an equally original and
impressive contribution to longitudinal research. A remarkable and
many-faceted work."-- The late George W. Goethals
of Harvard UniversityPart II:
The Hospital
Cached from http://bostonist.com/2007/12/01/boston_blotter_164.php
December 1, 2007
Boston Blotter: More on Harvard Student Found
Dead
--John Edwards,
the Harvard
sophomore whose body was found
yesterday at Harvard Medical School,* committed suicide. People who
knew him, such as a professor and his roommate are mystified. Eva
Wolchover
lists Edwards' many accomplishments. He was a top science student (and
that's saying something around here), a stem cell researcher, and a
guitar player.A Facebook group named "In Memory of
John Edwards" has already been established.* Other
reports say the body was found at about 11 PM on
Thursday, Nov. 29-- the presumed date of Edwards's death. Edwards
was
said to have conducted stem cell research at Brigham and Women's Hospital,
a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School.
Part III:
Down to EarthThe reviewer in Icarus, Part I, above,
Dr. Goethals, was my teacher in a
1960-61 freshman seminar at Harvard.
He admired the work of
Harry Stack Sullivan.The cover of the Sullivan book below
may serve to illustrate yesterday's
"Plato's Horses" remarks.
The ego defenses of today's
Harvard students seem to need some
strengthening. Perhaps Vaillant, Sullivan,
and the philosophies of Pirsig and of Plato
discussed in yesterday's entry
may be of use in this regard.
Related material: -
Plato's Horses:
Rhetoric, 1; Dialectic, 0.
-- Robert M. Pirsig,
Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance(Pirsig is describing the response of Phaedrus to an obnoxious member of the Academy in a discussion of Plato's figure of the horses and charioteer.)
Wallace Stevens,
opening lines of
The Necessary Angel:
"In the Phaedrus, Plato speaks of the soul in a figure. He says:
Let our figure be of a composite nature-- a pair of winged horses and a
charioteer. Now the winged horses and the charioteer of the gods are
all of them noble, and of noble breed, while ours are mixed; and we
have a charioteer who drives them in a pair, and one of them is noble
and of noble origin, and the other is ignoble and of ignoble origin;
and, as might be expected, there is a great deal of trouble in managing
them. I will endeavor to explain to you in what way the mortal differs
from the immortal creature. The soul or animate being has the care of
the inanimate, and traverses the whole heaven in divers forms
appearing;-- when perfect and fully winged she soars upward, and is the
ruler of the universe; while the imperfect soul loses her feathers, and
drooping in her flight at last settles on the solid ground.We recognize at once, in this figure, Plato's pure poetry; and at the
same time we recognize what Coleridge called Plato's dear, gorgeous
nonsense. The truth is that we have scarcely read the passage before we
have identified ourselves with the charioteer, have, in fact, taken his
place and, driving his winged horses, are traversing the whole heaven."Stevens, who was educated at Harvard, adds:
"Then suddenly we remember, it may be, that the soul no longer exists
and we droop in our flight and at last settle on the solid ground. The
figure becomes antiquated and rustic."Many who lack a Harvard education to make them droop will prefer to remember Robert Craig Knievel (Oct. 17, 1938 - Nov. 30, 2007) not as antiquated and rustic but as young and soaring.
Related material:
the previous entry
(a story for Gennie).See also the entries for
last February's
Academy Awards night:
Hollywood Sermon and
Between Two Worlds.
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