Watch this video of the enigmatic Canon 1 à 2 from J. S. Bachs Musical Offering (1747). The manuscript depicts a single musical sequence that is to be played front to back and back to front. A nice tie-in to our reading of Gödel, Escher, Bach. We’ll be reading about and listening to Crab Canon at the beginning of October.
HT: Patrick Wynne
Planetary nebula NGC 6302, a star in the final stages of its life, from the repaired Hubble Space Telescope. (Credit: NASA)
To read the NASA press release and see more amazing photos and videos, go here.
Is not God high in the heavens?
See the highest stars, how lofty they are!” (NRSV)
On Thursday of this week we will begin our group discussion of Hofstadter’s book, Gödel, Escher, Bach (see here for more details). I’m posting this a little early since it is the first assignment/discussion. The plan is to post on Thursdays and Mondays so that participants can start commenting (this means you will have to do the reading BEFOREHAND, so check and follow the schedule!). We’re still working out the best day/format for a live group chat. Stay tuned.
Assignment for Thursday, September 10 (Part I: GEB begins)
Read: Introduction
Listen: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 (BWV 1050)
You still have time to order the book from Amazon.com (or pick one up at a used book store, mine was 25¢). This is a no guilt discussion group. If you miss a week, try to jump back in. You can also read/listen ahead by looking at the schedule posted here.
Douglas Hofstadter wrote a very helpful preface to the 20th anniversary edition of the book. The actual content of the book remains unchanged. However, if you read the preface, you will get a good idea of what Hofstadter was hoping readers would “get” in his book. He wrote it because so many people over the years have not understood what he was really trying to say. I guess you could say there was a real chasm between reader response and authorial intention! You can read a fair bit of it by creatively using the Amazon “Look Inside” feature. Actually, you can read all of it if you try hard enough (first puzzle of the course to solve).
Feel free to start posting your thoughts and/or questions on the Introduction!
Up next (For September 14):
Read: Three-Part Invention and Chapter I: The MU-puzzle
Listen: The Three-Part Ricercar, from the Musical Offering (BWV 1079), introduces the Kings theme (which appears in nearly every piece of the Musical Offering) and the fugue style in general.
A few recent comments on blog posts have brought back to mind some thoughts on translating Genesis 1:2. Specifically, I am referring to this phrase:
Here are some translations (and commentary or notes where available).
Robert Alter: welter and waste
“welter and waste The Hebrew tohu wabohu occurs only here and in two later biblical texts that are clearly alluding to this one. The second word of the pair looks like a nonce term coined to rhyme with the first and to reinforce it, an effect I have tried to approximate in English alliteration. Tohu by itself means emptiness or futility, and in some contexts is associated with the trackless vacancy of the desert” (Genesis: Translation and Commentary, 1997, pg 3).
NRSV: formless void
NIV, NASB: formless and empty
NET: without shape and empty
“Traditional translations have followed a more literal rendering of waste and void. The words describe a condition that is without form and empty. What we now know as ‘the earth’ was actually an unfilled mass covered by water and darkness. Later [tohu] and [bohu], when used in proximity, describe a situation resulting from judgment (Isa 34:11; Jer 4:23). Both prophets may be picturing judgment as the reversal of creation in which Gods judgment causes the world to revert to its primordial condition. This later use of the terms has led some to conclude that Gen 1:2 presupposes the judgment of a prior world, but it is unsound method to read the later application of the imagery (in a context of judgment) back into Gen 1:2” (NET notes, Gen. 1:2).
ESV, KJV: without form and void
JPS: unformed and void
JPS Illustrated Children’s Bible: without rhyme or reason
Doug Green: desolate and deserted
To read what HALOT has to say, click here and download a PDF of the entries.
What are your preferences? How would you convey both the meaning and the literary artistry?
If you don’t already have these resources, you probably won’t find a better price. Hebrew & Ugaritic resources at up to 50% off.
I’ve been thinking of finding some folks to “take” one of MIT’s OpenCourseware classes together.
After thinking through various possibilities (face-to-face bookclub, social networks, listserv, etc), here’s my proposal:
The Penrose triangle, also known as the tribar, is an impossible object. It appears to be a solid triangle made of three straight beams of square cross-section which meet at right angles. It is featured prominently in the works of artist M.C. Escher, whose earlier depictions of impossible objects partly inspired it. (Image by MIT OCW.)
How are math, art, music, and language intertwined? How does intelligent behavior arise from its component parts? Can computers think? Can brains compute? Douglas Hofstadter probes very cleverly at these questions and more in his Pulitzer Prize winning book, “Gödel, Escher, Bach”. In this seminar, we will read and discuss the book in depth, taking the time to solve its puzzles, appreciate the Bach pieces that inspired its dialogues, and discover its hidden tricks along the way.
Who’s interested?
UPDATE: There is now a page (see tab in the blue bar above) for the “Gödel, Escher, Bach” Course Schedule. This page has the reading and listening schedule and links to MP3 files for the music referenced. The dates listed are for when the discussion on the reading/listening will commence (so be prepared ahead of time). If you cannot keep up with the full schedule, you are welcome to participate in whatever chapters you are able to prepare for.
Another resource: MIT’s Highlights for High School recorded six lectures from a summer course (2007): Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey. A good overview of the main concepts in the book. You need RealPlayer to view the one-hour lectures.
It’s obvious from the total views listed for these videos that not enough people have followed the links on Ros’ blog to see what Michael Bird is really like. Considering I just spent intolerable amounts of time traveling back from vacation in a car, I might attribute some of his insanity to travel toxicity (most of the videos were filmed on a road trip with Zondervan). But probably not. In any case, I point you to these videos because we all need a little more humor in our lives. Just doing my part.
It seems like everyone is throwing “SLA” into their conversations about learning Biblical Hebrew. But like most areas of study and research, SLA (Second Language Acquisition) is not monolithic. We cannot co-opt this research out of context. I am grateful to have a few colleagues in the field. They have been giving me some very helpful research to read and also some valuable direction for interpreting the “SLA” field and how it may contribute to understanding Biblical Hebrew language learning and as a result, what type of pedagogy should be considered. Their insights and cautions are invaluable as I begin to evaluate and critique some current trends in BH pedagogy (i.e. the COHELET Project). The more I read, the more I see that we must be much more careful about loosely claiming the SLA banner and tagging it onto our Biblical Hebrew methodologies in the hopes of finding some magic pill to solve our learning/teaching issues. While I continue to read, here’s a cautionary quote from an interview with Rod Ellis (2000):
“One of the main things that SLA has actually contributed to is the demise of the method construct, the notion that there is a method out there that will somehow enable learners to magically learn successfully in the minimal possible time. One of the major lessons in studying SLA is that learning a second language is hard work and takes a long time. There are no short cuts.” [emphasis mine]
The number of very productive and helpful blogs on the Biblioblogs list causes me to wonder: How do they do it?
First of all, it is nearly impossible for me to keep up with reading all the posts I want to (not to mention the rabbit trails they lead to). Many of them are well researched and notated, how do the authors find the time to be so productive online? What about teaching or other jobs? I look at my own set of circumstances and sometimes feel overwhelmed or frustrated at my attempts to work on various projects. I want to know how some of you manage your schedules and how you prioritize.
Here’s my situation:
I also like to bake bread, make tofu, and cook. Add to that Church, visiting friends, hiking, and things like shopping at the Durham Farmers’ Market and you start to see that my list of “priorities” greatly exceeds the amount of daily time I have.
OK, so how do you use your time? How much do you sleep? When do you read (and how much)? I want to hear from people like John Hobbins, Mike Aubrey, Jim West, Ros Clarke, and Daniel & Tonya (to name just a few). Be practical. I need to learn from you!
