Saturday Links
How the forbidden fruit became an apple, the rise and fall of Wolffianism, the end of "The Gettysburg Review," and more.
Good morning! Let’s kick things off with this piece at Aeon on the rise and fall of Wolffianism: “Writing primarily during the first half of the 18th century, Christian Wolff (1679-1754) and his philosophical system, ‘Wolffianism’, dominated the intellectual landscape to such an extent that during his own lifetime he became one of the most influential philosophers in all of Europe. He made substantial contributions to virtually every sub-field of philosophy (as well as to mathematics and natural science), shaped the way philosophy was practised in the German-speaking lands of Europe and beyond for decades if not centuries to come, and even had an influence on the German language itself. And yet, in the present day, Wolff is not a stable figure of the Western philosophical tradition. This is a tragedy, because Wolffianism had such an impact that a large and important piece of German philosophy’s history remains obscure unless we can come to better appreciate Wolff’s philosophy and the ideas to which it gave rise.”
How the forbidden fruit became an apple: “In twelfth-century France, apples began showing up in Christian depictions of ‘the Fall of Man,’ everywhere from the Cathedral of Notre Dame to illuminated Bibles and psalm books. These red and gold apples supplanted the previous identification of grapes and figs as the forbidden fruit with which the serpent tempted Eve and Eve tempted Adam. Grapes and figs are low-hanging fruit, biblically speaking. The Land of Israel, for instance, is described as ‘a land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs, and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey’ (Deut. 8:8)—but not of apples, not here or anywhere else in the Bible. Where did they come from? This is the central question of Azzan Yadin-Israel’s scrumptious scholarly morsel of a book, Temptation Transformed.”
If you missed John Wilson’s defense of the Nobel Prize yesterday, you can read it here. Also, check out Gregory Wolfe’s explanation of why the Swedish Academy was right to give the award to Fosse and where to start with his work: “Some have compared Fosse to Samuel Beckett, but the Norwegian’s prose is far more accessible than the Irishman’s. No doubt it owes much to the strain of modernism that tends toward minimalism, but the spirit and intent of this stripping down is more warmly human and approachable than that of his twentieth-century influences. Fosse might be considered an acquired taste, but the bar of entry isn’t high: Septology is the kind of novel that teaches you how to read it. The mental adjustment is entirely manageable.”
I talked to the author of ALA’s Teaching Banned Books and Books Under Fire (who was very generous with her time). Even she doesn’t think we should make Gender Queer available to elementary and middle-school students: “‘Gender Queer was written as an adult book. Do I think it should be in high schools? Absolutely,’ she told me. ‘But I would never recommend it for elementary school. I would never even recommend it for middle school.’” Does this mean she, too, is in favor of banning books since Gender Queer has been available in some elementary and middle schools? According to how the ALA uses the word “ban,” yes.
A painting stolen from a Glasgow museum 30 years ago has been found: “A painting stolen during a museum heist in Glasgow more than 30 years ago has been found after being put up for auction by an unsuspecting seller. Thieves deactivated an alarm system and climbed up a ladder and through an upstairs window to break into the Haggs Castle Museum of Childhood in 1989. They stole a cache of artefacts, some on loan from the world famous Burrell Collection. And none of them has been seen since—until now.”
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