Thursday, January 3, 2008

Highlights of 2007

Obviously copious blog posts are not among them. I have been on the computer quite a bit, but not to post! Ines and I spent six weeks of this summer in Salamanca, where I was doing research for my thesis. This involved considerable searching of internet catalogs, but also a lot of beautiful medieval manuscripts--both ends of technology. Speaking of which, you all ought to see this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRBIVRwvUeE.
I'll probably be posting a summary of my Salamanca finds soon in the first part of the thesis I'm writing, and you all get to critique it hard for me.
Another interesting find (Tata's) from earlier this year, which provided a lot of food for thought, was this video on economics and the self-destructiveness of the current monetary system. (Warning: it's long, about 45 minutes, but you could watch it in pieces, I guess). http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279&q=money+as+debt&total=1950&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
I guess I ought to post my Distributism paper, too, to tie in with that.
More recently (in fact practically all during this semester) I have been reading the works of Philosopher at Large, at oddlots.digitalspace.net. This genius, who ought in fact to have a whole post to herself, is a worthy successor to Tolkien (as much or more than Christopher in my opinion) both in continuing and enlarging his work, and interpreting some of it in new ways (e.g. her Leithian script, especially) and in defending it from bad interpretations, q.v. her critiques of the recent movies. These critiques were the first of her works that I found, by googling "steel lily" in point of fact! I can't recommend her stuff enthusiastically enough--though for most of her fiction, you ought to read The Silmarillion first.
Then, during this vacation, I read a book called "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," about proper attitudes toward technology, which fit right in with the most recent talk at the Gast House! Tata says the author is a thomist without knowing it:) It is a very good book.
Last but not least, I found my vocation, hopefully, with the Dominicans of Wanganui! They teach and sing the Office, so they are a dream come true for me. dominicansisterswanganui.blogspot.com

2 comments:

Laure said...

The Youtube video was funny. Good find. Also, you mention a Gasthaus talk. Is that the young people's group? I am glad to hear they are still going on. I hope they continue. Do you have a section on here telling about the talks? I think that would be a good idea for those of us who can't attend.
I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintainence a long time ago. I think it is interesting that you read it. What did you think of it?

Agnes Regina said...

No, we don't have a "YAG" section (we call them that, Young Adult Gatherings). We should, maybe, have one. Possibly we can record the next and post it in several short sound files, or one long one. Lu loved "Zen," I haven't read it yet...