An Inspiration: The Independent Scholar’s Handbook

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Some readers will recognize the symptoms: a sudden, inexplicable obsession with a topic, question, or creative work that drives a person to drop practical considerations and even essential obligations so he or she can spend time researching or writing in the library, interviewing people, tracking people down on the internet, making observations on their telescope, and so forth. Yes, there can be no doubt: you or someone in your life has been inspired to make a contribution to the advancement of knowledge or the creation of beauty. The person in question is an independent scholar.

Just what is an independent scholar? Someone who is working on an research project or work of art without support from an academic institution or other organization. In other words, this is where the rubber hits the road; people have been known to live on the street while they’re researching, writing, painting, sculpting, making a movie…

But, thanks to guides like Ronald Gross’s The Independent Scholar’s Handbook, the journey doesn’t have to be that hazardous. There are ways to organize your time and maximize your resources, grants that can defray your costs, volunteers who will support you because you’re doing important work, and support from other scholars, whether they be unknown like yourself or the most distinguished experts in your field. Patience, tact, and persistence can go a long way to easing the pain involved with any self-motivated act of learning and creation.

You might be wondering if a single book really can be the gateway to marshalling your resources and finishing your “inner assignment” (as Ansel Adams used to call his own creative work). And the Handbook does have one problem: it was last edition was published in 1993. Many of the specific suggestions it lists have disappeared or been reincarnated in internet and e-publishing guises. But then, come to think of it, cheap rent is still cheap rent.

External resources aren’t what’s at the heart of Gross’s book. What matters most is the way that he builds the independent scholar’s pride. Here is the sentence that opens Chapter 1:

This book is about taking risks of an unusual kind: risks in the realm of the mind.

His goal is to awake his readers to a sense of passion and purpose. Why? Because he realizes, that for most people, there is nothing of significance in their day-to-day existence. If we are to live fully, we must find the courage to do something really important.

So, in fact, a project that at first may seem impossible or just crazy turns out to have been the origin of many famous books: Barbara Tuckman’s A Distant Mirror, Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock, and E.F. Schumaker’s Small is Beautiful are all works of independent scholarship. And look at what people like Buckminster Fuller, Betty Friedan, and John Snyder accomplished.

And then there are the many quotes from other authors on living the life of the mind:

Many workingmen are self-taught intellectuals.

Ignace Lepp, L’Art de Vivre de l’intellectual

And finally, to round the book out, Gross provides a wonderful bibliography, full of books devoted to the theory and practice of the independent scholar.

The Independent Scholar’s Handbook has changed a lot of people’s lives. Maybe it could change yours.        RT

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Chinese Character: The Scholar. WikiCmns. CC 2.5 Generic. User: Magna. Magazine Cover: Hermes the Scholar, WikiCmns; Public Domain.

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Poetry Tips from Brian Turner

folks: great poetry advice from New Zealand….RT

 

Poetry Tips from Brian Turner.

Got Hunger? A Global Bill of Rights

As Christmas approaches, I think it’s appropriate to spend a moment thinking about the poor and destitute, who constitute the vast majority of the planet’s population. Jesus required his followers to give up all their possessions before they joined his movement. In our current situation, a global bill of rights including the following item might help matters considerably:

“The right to eat nutritious food, to be adequately clothed and sheltered, and to receive necessary medical attention from a physician shall not be denied.”

Merry Christmas!!!     RT

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Photo: WikiCmns; R. Zenz/USDA; Public Domain.

One Tough Moon

Figuring out what happened to Uranus’s moon Miranda is going to keep astrogeologists busy for some time. A close encounter with another moon? Some cataclysm early in the moon’s history? A cold and battered moon, a distant planet, something to ponder in the quiet of winter…  RT

Suprasegmentals

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The days (and leaves) are falling fast in (mostly sunny) Martinsburg, and RT has been busy arranging further linguistic and grammatical explorations for friends and followers… in particular, set aside a day on your calendar for Tea-Time with the Dragons of Grammar, which promises to be a most illuminating (and mischievous) event…but for those who can’t wait for the latest hit from the Dragons, here is something feisty and fiery.

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In linguistics, a segment is any discrete unit that can be identified in the production or reception of human speech (for instance, a phone or phoneme). Suprasegmentals are phonemes that cannot be easily broken down into segments. For instance, the segments of sign language are visual–hands, face, eyes, and body gesture. Vowels and consonants are also segments, that is, discrete speech units.

On the other hand, some speech units do not exist independently from others; these are the suprasegmentals, and include such items as tone and secondary articulations (for instance, co-articulated consonants). Suprasegmentals are in essence additional and simultaneous speech information that augments or completes a speaker’s meaning or articulation.

Just imagine Mandarin Chinese without its tones; the language has been robbed of most of its articulation. That’s how important suprasegmentals are.

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As far as charting and scribing these erudite beasts, patience is in order. For English speakers, stress is a familiar concept (especially if you’re a poet) and helps structure the sound of our speech. On the other hand, no adult English speaker will be able to master the subtleties of the Chinese tones. The other marks fall somewhere in the middle in terms of familiarity…but more on that from RT in the next little while…

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Chart: WikiCmns; Authors: Grendelkhan, Nohat; Licence: CC 3.o Unported.

Pragmatics: the Fuzzy Dragon

Poets thrive on ambiguity; without it, there would be no simile, no metaphor, no pleasure of discovering hidden connections. But for the rest of the species, fuzziness can be a headache.

Consider a sentence as straightforward as “I love you.” Depending on the situation, tone of voice, and accompanying body gestures, it could mean everything from abiding affection and companionship to the end of a relationship!

Pragmatics is the study of holistic communication, and can help disambiguate people’s messages.

Other ways to think of pragmatics include 1) The study of the speaker’s meaning, not focusing on the phonetic or grammatical form of an utterance, but instead on what the speaker’s intentions and beliefs are; 2) The study of the meaning in context, and the influence that a given context can have on the message. It requires knowledge of the speaker’s identities, and the place and time of the utterance; and 3) The study of implicatures, i.e. the things that are communicated even though they are not explicitly expressed.

Hmmm. If you’re beginning to think that Pragmatics is a broad field (and difficult to pin down exactly), consider this–it has its own category in Wikipedia. In this category, we find such items as abstraction (the tendency of a word for an specific kind of thing to eventually represent a broader concept–i.e., “through” comes from a Gothic word meaning “gate); aizuchi (the frequent interjections during conversation that indicate the listener is following the speaker); gradience (the degree to which a speaker claims that his or her statement is true); an illucutionary act (in which a speech act of one kind–such as question–can stand for another kind of speech act–such as “Can you pass the salt?” meaning “Please pass the salt.”); and politeness maxims (which describe the ways that we make our conversation more polite or sympathetic).

WoW! I’m beginning to feel a little fuzzy. I think that what this all boils down to is that pragmatics is the subtlest of the dragons of grammar. Here we are concerned with getting behind the mask of ordinary speech to a speaker’s real meaning and attitude. Reflection and a knack for fine distinctions can be required.

The abstractions of grammar do exist in the real world.

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Image: 18th century Korean ink and color painting. WikiCmns. Public Domain.

Making a living, dead languages, and why so many pros write so badly

 

Fellow writers–watch those words!  RT

Making a living, dead languages, and why so many pros write so badly.

Eggs & Bacon

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was one of the great intellectual lights of Elizabethan and Jacobean England and the father of the essay in English. Though his essays are famous for their wisdom and elegance, he is best known for his establishment of the Baconian Method, a way of scientifically deducing the cause of a phenomenon. His Idols of the Mind listed common causes of error in human reasoning.

Bacon was born into an aristocratic family and attended Cambridge University, where he impressed Queen Elizabeth with his wit. After studying in France, he practiced law and then served in Parliament. Subsequently, he served as both Attorney General and Lord Chancellor before resigning in disgrace (merited or not) in 1621. The rest of his life was devoted to study and writing.

Here is one of Bacon’s most famous essays, “Of Studies”:

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OF STUDIES

 
STUDIES serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment, and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best, from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning, by study; and studies themselves, do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books, else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit: and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know, that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores (that is, Any activity practiced with diligence becomes a habit.). Nay, there is no stond or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies; like as diseases of the body, may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head; and the like. So if a man’s wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the Schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores. If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers’ cases. So every defect of the mind, may have a special receipt.

(1597, enlarged 1625)

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Photo:  Dejeuner, Boite Gourmande; WikiCmns; Author: Justin Quintal; License: CC3.0 Unported.

 

Language is the Art of Community

I’m sure most people have heard some variant of this before, but it bears repeating: language is the primary means by which we establish our identities and humanity with other people. You can show up looking like a hairy stone-age guy who badly needs a shower, but if you reel off a quote from, say, Romeo and Juliet, at least some people will be willing to forgive you your appearance.

In other words, nothing says more about you than the way you speak.

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The thought may have particular importance as the school year revs up. It has always astounded me how little attention we pay to language skills in the United States. Everyone is worried about buying new computers and building science classrooms, but no one seems to understand that unless we cultivate English and a knowledge of languages generally, our community’s cohesion is at stake. It’s not simply a matter of being understood, it’s also a matter of what you know and the impression you make.

And it’s clear that we aren’t trying hard enough: when many colleges teach their Freshmen remedial English, our High Schools are failing to teach even basic language skills. Not to mention things like Latin and Greek, which not only help students develop a better mastery of their everyday speech, but also open up the possibility of reading the gospels, Thucydides, and Cicero in their original languages.

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I know that many schools are maxed out just trying to integrate students whose families have come to America from all over the globe, but let’s not forget that it pays to get our young people past the basics and give them some mastery of the culture that they are inheriting.       RT

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Image: The Rosetta Stone; WikiCmns; Christian Theological Seminary; Public Domain.

Shorthand–Fluency and Legibility

Sample of Pitman Shorthand

Although shorthand can refer to any writing system intended to reduce the time and effort involved in writing, in modern times, the term has applied to two specific systems: Pitman Shorthand, introduced in 1837 by Sir Issac Pitman, and Gregg Shorthand, published in 1888 by John Robert Gregg. A more recent system, Teeline Shorthand, introduced in 1970, has become popular in the United Kingdom.

Readers should beware: shorthand has suffered from association with 20th-Century secretarial work. These aids to writing are neither simple nor easy to master. Some writing systems, such as the Chinese characters, practically cry out for an abbreviated and relatively straightforward version–and in fact such a shorthand has been used in China for centuries. In Europe, the first shorthand was created in the 16th Century, and both Sir Issac Newton and Samuel Pepys used shorthand when composing.

Perhaps nowhere else can we see as clearly as in shorthand the attempt to create writing that is both practical and beautiful. Specifically: twenty words per minute is the average speed for writing; when using shorthand, speeds in excess of 280 wpm have been recorded. And Gregg Shorthand, for instance, has a graceful, appealing visual quality often missing from alphabet-based writing.

How, we might wonder, does shorthand achieve such improvements in speed and visual quality? Simplified spelling, dropped vowels, distinctions between stroke-length and thickness, and phonemic orthography are some of the techniques employed. And individual stenographers (people whose use shorthand) often introduce specific improvements and accommodations into their writing method.

In other words, shorthand allows personalized writing–which can lead to problems in reading. Some shorthands address this problem by using the standard alphabet for the language they record, a solution that also makes the system easier to learn. But alphabet and abjad-based shorthands are inevitably more difficult to write, reducing compositional speed. That is the nub of the problem with shorthand (or any writing system): the trade-offs between speed, fluency, and legibility. Letterforms that are more difficult to write are usually easier to read.

The final point to make when talking about alternative or simplified writing systems: improvements in composition, whether in writing or in ease of reading, result from better instruction. Having both the traditional writing system and an alternative, phonetic shorthand or alphabet at our disposal will increase the intelligence and ease with which we transcribe information, argument, and feeling.

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Image: Pitman-2000 Example; WikiCommons; Public Domain