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Philosophy and Literature_ Epistolary Writing 2

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For hundreds of years, or at least since pens and paper became commonplace, people who wanted to get in touch with other people separated by distance had only one way to do it: they wrote letters, the only means of long-distance communication, at least until the invention of the telegraph in the 19th century. Beginning with Mr. Morse's innovation, modern communication technologies have slowly but all too surely eroded that necessity, first rendering letter writing one option among many and then merely a quaint habit. But where would Western civilization be without letters? For starters we wouldn't have most of the New Testament-whatever you may think of St. Paul, he was indisputably a tireless letter writer. By the 18th century, letter writing was so commonplace that one of the first prose narratives to be considered a novel, Samuel Richardson's "Pamela," was composed entirely of letters of a daughter to her parents, and the epistolary method lent that novel what realism it possessed. More contemporaneously, look to popular song for an index of just how commonplace letter writing was in our culture as late as a generation ago ("A Soldier's Last Letter," "Please, Mr. Postman," "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter," "P.S. I Love You").

The decline in letter writing constitutes a cultural shift so vast that in the future, historians may divide time not between B.C. and A.D. but between the eras when people wrote letters and when they did not. Historians depend on the written record. Perhaps a better way of saying that is that they are at the mercy of that record. Land transactions, birth and death records, weather reports, government documents-to the historian, nothing written is trivial, because it all contributes to the picture we have of the past. In the last century or so, as historians have turned away from their fixation on the doings of the great and included the lives of average people in their study, the letters those people left behind are invaluable evidence of how life was once lived. We know what our ancestors ate, how they dressed, what they dreamed about love and what they thought about warfare, all from their letters. Without that correspondence, the guesswork mounts.

Gaps in the historical record have always existed. American slaves were largely illiterate, often by law and sometimes by laws that threatened them with death. The epistolary record belongs to free people, and in most cases that means free white people of property. When we reflect on how dearly we would cherish letters written by people in bondage or any people who, through some circumstance of history, were voiceless, we begin to grasp the preciousness of the written record-any written record: laundry lists, ancestral records in family Bibles, love notes-and how poorly historians of the future will be served by our generation, which generates almost no mail at all.

There is e-mail, certainly, and texting, but this is communication that is for the most part here today and deleted tomorrow. And there is the enormous trove of information about daily life multiplying by the hour in the digital record-television, camera phones, spycams, YouTube and chat rooms all capture what seems like every second of every life on the planet. The problem is not that there is not enough information about what we think or how we live. The problem is sifting through that sea of data. The most common complaint of our time is that we are overwhelmed by information, unmediated and unstoppable.

Maybe we miss letters at least a little because we miss the world, the blessedly-to our eye at least-uncomplicated world where letters were commonplace by necessity. Surely, though, there is more to our fondness than mere sentimentality. When we read a letter, we develop an image of the letter writer unavailable to us in any other way. Abraham Lincoln's speeches leave us in awe of the man. His letters make us like him, because we hear a more unburnished voice and more unbuttoned personality. Lincoln the letter writer was less shackled by thoughts of how history would read his words. He loosened the reins on his humor, his anger and his melancholy. He was, in a word, human. Moreover, his correspondence proves that the more one writes-and Lincoln wrote a lot-the more relaxed the writer becomes, the more at ease he or she is in the act of writing and the more able to fully express thought and emotion. Writing a lot of letters will not turn you into Lincoln or Shakespeare, but if you do it enough, you begin to put your essential self on paper whether you mean to or not. No other form of communication yet invented seems to encourage or support that revelatory intimacy.

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The History and Lost Art of Letter Writing

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For hundreds of years, or at least since pens and paper became commonplace, people who wanted to get in touch with other people separated by distance had only one way to do it: they wrote letters, the only means of long-distance communication, at least until the invention of the telegraph in the 19th century.

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HENRY THE EIGHTH’S SCHOOL DAYS

Dear Ms. Ambrose,

I am writing because I am rather concerned about my boy Henry. He complains about school and how his classmates don’t respect his authority as a monarch. When I reminded him he was not a monarch yet, he threw a fit. How is he getting on in class? I would like to know.

Concerned

Elizabeth of York, Henry’s mum

Dear Elizabeth,

Unfortunately henry is not exactly fitting in. He throws fits and appears to have in his vocabulary, some rather violent words, most common of all, “beheaded”. In order to help him cut down I have banned the word from the classroom, to which he responded by muttering something nasty under his breath.

Also worried,

Ms. Ambrose, homeroom teacher

Dear Elizabeth,

I am writng because your boy has shown an astonishing skill in sport! He especially likes tennis, so I signed him up for a competition.

Proudly,

Mr. Brewer, PE coach

Dear Mr. Brewer,

Thats great! I can’t wait for the big game.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth,

Henry is suspended from the school, for 3 days. He has attempted to behead Dante, using a gullotine he was making in art class. I should have taken a hint when The art teacher remarked she liked the dark twist and hopeless realism in Henry’s project. Dante received various paper cuts. As such, Henry is suspended and will not be allowed to go to his tennis game this week either.

Angry,

Ms. Ambrose

Dear Ms. Ambrose,

Surely we can work out some arrangement! Henry’s been practicing a lot and he really wants to go! Are you sure he can’t go to his tennis game?

Anxious,

Elizabeth

No. He can’t go.

Ms. Ambrose

Dear fellow students (except Dante, nobody likes Dante),

I, Henry the 8th, declare that Ms. Ambrose has too much power and we must act! I promise you all rich rewards if you help. If some of you can hold her down while me and another classmate fetch the guillotine, we can behead Ms. Ambrose and weild power over the classroom!

Henry

Dear Henry,

That sounds amazing. Never again will Ms. Ambrose throw out detentions!

The collective party of classmates

Dear Principal Kimball,

With regret, I inform you that because of events regarding my little Henry, he and his classmates rebelled in an attempt to behead Ms. Ambrose. As such, she has quit.

Stressed,

Elizabeth

Dear classmates,

We did it!

Henry

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Dear Mrs.Windsor,

I hope you are having a good day, I would like you to inform your daughter to come back to detention immediately, thank you.

Best regards Ms.YahOo

Dear Mrs.windsor

I have received your email asking what exactly is going on, I’m so sorry no to tell you sooner ,your daughter was caught sneaking out with a chicken on a leash, I had no idea what was going on until she explained that the chicken and her are best friends. Skipping class is one thing, but with a chicken is another story! So that is why she is in detention.

Best regards Ms.YahOo

Dear Mrs.Windsor

I would like to warn you that if she keeps on passing notes to several boys in my class she will be sent to detention for one week. I will not tolerate this anymore.

Best regards Ms.YahOo

Dear Mrs.windsor

I am retiring from being a principal and a teacher. I wish you and your daughter a good day. If I am completely honest, having your daughter was more than horrible, it was horrible plus horrible. I wish the next principal good luck.

Best regards Ms.YahOo

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Machiavelli's reputation, through his book "The Prince," is known universally. His name has even become an adjective for describing someone willing to do anything to maintain advantage or power.

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In Machiavelli's own lifetime, Florence was an idealistic republic on paper, but in actuality, its political system was unstable. The ruling families, most notably the Medici, essentially acted as dictators. Machiavelli saw for himself how much distance there could be between what was politically stated or aspired to, and what was actually done. He also saw the corruption in the papacy and the gulf between the morality preached and the actions taken by the church to gain or hold on to power.

When the Medici fell, Machiavelli experienced a sharp reversal of fortune, and when they were re-instated, he was unable to secure his former position and devoted his time to writing. Historians Quentin Skinner, Lisa Jardine, and Evelyn Welch discuss Machiavelli's The Prince in the context of his time in a BBC4 Radio program here.

Quentin Skinner also speaks to Nigel Warburton about The Prince regarding the historical context of the book, but looking more closely at the intellectual background to Machiavelli's writing, as well as the structure, the core concepts and the themes of the book. Skinner discusses The Prince as a response to Cicero's and Seneca's ideals for virtuous and just leaders. From the Open University course "Reading Political Philosophy from Machiavelli to Mill" here.

In a special supplement to the New York Review of Books in 1971, philosopher Isaiah Berlin wondered why people were (and continue to be) so shocked by The Prince, when other texts, written earlier, had said similar, and similarly brutal things. You can explore the full piece here.

The Prince was unique in that it was written in Italian, rather than in Latin. This may have delayed the spread of the actual text across Europe, and possibly allowed for rumors about the text to precede it. Translator Tim Parks talks about the original Italian and why he agreed to tackle a new translation of The Prince here.

Historians and scholars continue to argue whether or not Machiavelli wrote The Prince in earnest or as satire. Erica Benner, in her book, Be Like the Fox, argues that Machiavelli was astute, aware, and deliberate in his send-up of political machinations, highlighting the actions of successful and failed leaders so that the citizens of a republic could recognize how they were being ruled. She writes about this in an article for The Guardian here.

Professor Paolo Carta notes that The Prince was a turning point in political thought in that Machiavelli aimed to provide leaders with a guideline for political action, much as a judge is able to use a set of laws. He delivered a talk on the 500 th anniversary of The Prince in 2013 at Oxford Foundation for Law, Justice, and Society.

Machiavelli, as we have seen, was concerned with power, and he might have appreciated Eric Liu's TED Talk on why people need to understand it.

Lastly, you might enjoy exploring more of the context of Florence from Etruscan times to the Medici and beyond. The city is a UN World Heritage site because of its many Renaissance masterpieces of art and architecture. Explore more of Machiavelli's home town here.

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What "Machiavellian" really means - Pazit Cahlon and Alex Gendler

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From Shakespeare's plays to modern TV dramas, the unscrupulous schemer for whom the ends always justify the means has become a familiar character type we love to hate. For centuries, we've had a single word to describe such characters: Machiavellian. But is it possible that we've been using that word wrong this whole time?

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Emily wants to be a celebrity she is far from destiny, her dream seems endlessly far,her plan seems bizarre.

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What's inside the wardrobe, nobody knows

The contents of the wardrobe, never exposed

And so an adventure I propose

Let's dive into the wardrobe,

and let its contents be disclosed

Ready? I am,

put your hazmat suit on

Hopefully we’ll be back before dawn

It looks small on the outside, inside its a maze

This place is huge, we could be here for days

Illusion delusion deception confusion

false impression an optical illusion

misimpression misbelief make believe

yet it’s not a figment of imagination

There’s so much here, I don’t know where to start

The little village, Guacamole or several go-karts

Hey there’s Jim, I wondered where he went

I see a massive Lamborghini, side with a dent

I see mysterious slimy essence, of a peculiar scent

We should stop for lunch I see lots of good food

wasabi sandwich ice cream but I’m in the mood

for some chocolate chop suey cluster

I dare you, can you muster

the courage to try, perhaps with some java

the lentil lemon liver with some lava?

Exploring the wardrobe has taken the whole day

but without a doubt we should come back more to play

Why just walking back to come out I can still see

boxing kangaroos, and magical bees

What's inside the wardrobe, only we know

The contents of the wardrobe properly exposed

Indeed we dived into the wardrobe,

and consider the contents disclosed

Happy? I am,

Take your hazmat suit off

It’s way past dawn but I don’t really care

But we should go back sometime its lot of fun there

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Poetry is about sound and rhythm. Play with the sounds in Jack Prelutsky's "Bleezer's Ice Cream."

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I am Ebenezer Bleezer,
I run BLEEZER'S ICE CREAM STORE,
there are flavors in my freezer
you have never seen before,
twenty-eight divine creations
too delicious to resist,
why not do yourself a favor,
try the flavors on my list:

COCOA MOCHA MACARONI
TAPIOCA SMOKED BALONEY
CHECKERBERRY CHEDDAR CHEW
CHICKEN CHERRY HONEYDEW
TUTTI-FRUTTI STEWED TOMATO
TUNA TACO BAKED POTATO
LOBSTER LITCHI LIMA BEAN
MOZZARELLA MANGOSTEEN
ALMOND HAM MERINGUE SALAMI
YAM ANCHOVY PRUNE PASTRAMI
SASSAFRAS SOUVLAKI HASH
SUKIYAKI SUCCOTASH
BUTTER BRICKLE PEPPER PICKLE
POMEGRANATE PUMPERNICKEL
PEACH PIMENTO PIZZA PLUM
PEANUT PUMPKIN BUBBLEGUM
BROCCOLI BANANA BLUSTER
CHOCOLATE CHOP SUEY CLUSTER
AVOCADO BRUSSELS SPROUT
PERIWINKLE SAUERKRAUT
COTTON CANDY CARROT CUSTARD
CAULIFLOWER COLA MUSTARD
ONION DUMPLING DOUBLE DIP
TURNIP TRUFFLE TRIPLE FLIP
GARLIC GUMBO GRAVY GUAVA
LENTIL LEMON LIVER LAVA
ORANGE OLIVE BAGEL BEET
WATERMELON WAFFLE WHEAT

I am Ebenezer Bleezer,
I run BLEEZER'S ICE CREAM STORE,
taste a flavor from my freezer,
you will surely ask for more.

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Bleezer's Ice Cream - I am Ebenezer Bleezer,