[lit-ideas] Re: Tittles--a change of title


On Jun 10, 2008, at 7:52 AM, John McCreery wrote:
Psychologically speaking, it is clearly part and parcel of resistance to definitions that, over the years, I have found oppressive, from my father's black-and-white morality to the other English language copywriters I met when I joined Hakuhodo, who warned me that to speak Japanese in front of clients would destroy my mystique as a "native speaker." To have anyone, however well- meaning, say to me, "This is (by definition) the way it has to be" is intolerable.
This is, however, quite different from, say, "Let y=x*2" or "Let 'bachelor'=unmarried (male or female)." It is odd how that "Let" makes all the difference. Now I am being invited to participate in construction of a system that may turn out to be elegant, useful or both. I am being asked to play the game and, thus, to agree to its rules. How I do treasure that freedom, being asked, not told.
This may be cultural inheritance or personality type; I often feel the same way and tell myself, tongue-in-cheek, that it's all my oppressed ancestors, or warriors, or some such lot, giving me a nudge.
Yesterday, however, I was calm in the face of sharp adversity, and will tell the tale to help John with his grandparenting duties (not that he sounds like someone in need of help). But first, a question: does any of the Methodists here gathered know what John Wesley got up to with his "Electrical Machine"?
On the library's sale shelf I found a guide to museums and art galleries in Britain. Though I'm in book-outgechucking mode, I made an exception for this twenty five cents-worth and was well diverted. There are museums in London even that I've not heard of.
In the write-up on John Wesley's house the book says that Wesley used an electrical machine in "shock therapy." To what end? What was he trying to accomplish? Getting rid of sin? Disease? Putting someone on the right path?
I thought that I could reach some level of answer by reading the Wikipedia article on Methodism's history, but after the umpteenth schism I found that the Great Awakening, Calvinist Methodists and Episcopalians were all giving me a bit of a stiff neck.
So now the tale. Yesterday I set out to do many things. Before going on the freeway, I glanced at the car's tires...as one does...and decided that one looked a bit low. Into the tire store for a check. Two and a bit hours later I'd achieved safety--they removed two sharp things--and a thorough understanding of why I stopped subscribing to Zyzzyva--I had been carrying a collection of unread copies of this journal and Granta in the car against just such a situation--but my list of stuff to do was not a jot or tittle shorter. 

Wikipedia is quite good on tittles.

Carry on.

David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
In the write-up on this house the books says that Wesley used an electrical machine in "shock therapy." To what end? What was he trying to accomplish? Getting rid of sin? Disease? Putting someone on the right path?
I thought that I could reach some level of answer by reading the Wikipedia article on Methodism's history, but after the umpteenth schism I found that the Great Awakening, Calvinist Methodists and Episcopalians were all coming within the purview of Vera Documentary, giving me a bit of a stiff neck.
Yesterday I set out to do many things. Before going on the freeway, I glanced at the car's tires...as one does...and decided that one looked a bit low. Into the tire store for a check. Two and a bit hours later I'd achieved safety--they removed two sharp things--and a thorough understanding of the literary journals I'd been carrying in the car against just such a situation, but my list of stuff to do was not a jot or tittle shorter. 

Wikipedia is quite good on tittles.

------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html

Other related posts: