[lit-ideas] Re: The Importance of Being Dorian
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 18:16:52 -0500
JL:
>>A problem of Greek Ethics, as Symonds notes (in his famous "A problem of
>>Greek Ethics") is that girls (kurai) don't necessarily grow a beard till much
>>much later (cf. Sapho). For radicals like Plato, this meant that they could
>>never be _trained_ (rather than that they should be _trained_ for ever and a
>>day).<<
So why do they call it a "training" bra? Is it the girl being trained or the
budding breasts? I had always assumed the latter, and like Phillip Roth I've
always been jealous of women's bodies and decided at age 10 to wear a training
bra hoping I would develop melon breasts. But no, after 10 years of wearing
the damn thing I was still as flat as Kansas. It did "educate" me into the
cruelties of men, however, especially in the locker room when I'd be gearing up
for a game and would put my shoulder pads over my training bra. Oh, the
guffaws I've endured!
Welcome back, guy, hope you stay awhile,
Mike Geary
Founder and Director of the Memphis Metaphysical Ministry
"We turn doubt into redoubt without fallout. Check us out."
----- Original Message -----
From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2007 1:26 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] The Importance of Being Dorian
Geary writes:
>"I'm not sure what that means. I'm not trained in philosophy."
Who's trained? Recall that for the Greeks, who _invented_ philosophy, only
little 'kids' (kuroi, paides, they called them) could be _trained_ and that
only up to their 'coming of age' (at 16 years old). The Greeks were very strict
about that, and the coming of age had nothing to do with the current American
obsession with heterosexual rites of passage (dating and getting your driving
license card, or even getting married). It just meant that the 'kuros' or
'pais' _grew a beard_. Once the former 'kuros' needed to _shave_ to get rid of
the beard, he was _passed_ training. He was _trained_.
In America, there are such things as Horse Training Institutes, and Teacher
Training Institutes. This bad use of 'train' travelled to England. But there
(with 'teacher' if not 'horse', 'train' is a misnomer for 'educate'. Only
Teaching Teaching Institute would sound redundant.
So, my dear untrained philosopher, have a Happy Halloween,
Cheers,
J. L.
J. L. Speranza, Esq.
Town:
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Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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Fax 54 221 425 9205
Country:
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Calle 58, No. 611,
La Plata B1900 BPY
Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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http://www.stmichaels.com.ar
jls@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
http://www.netverk/~jls.htm
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