Postby Technomancer » Sun Nov 21, 2004 8:36 pm
Namu wrote:Reading Shakespeare would've made me so confused if it wasn't for the little notes on the sides....so, the point of this reply is: No, I don't like speaking Old English.
Shakespeare's great, but not really old english (early modern instead). Now Beowulf is Old English:
Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
I love how that sounds, but sadly don't know the language. Chaucer and Langland aren't easy either for that matter (well Langland is supposed to be awful in the original). I really would love to know Old English though.
The scientific method," Thomas Henry Huxley once wrote, "is nothing but the normal working of the human mind." That is to say, when the mind is working; that is to say further, when it is engaged in corrrecting its mistakes. Taking this point of view, we may conclude that science is not physics, biology, or chemistry—is not even a "subject"—but a moral imperative drawn from a larger narrative whose purpose is to give perspective, balance, and humility to learning.
Neil Postman
(The End of Education)
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge
Isaac Aasimov