Medieval Pornstars find More Medieval Porn

The blogs seem positively abuzz with medieval porn. No, there are no pictures in this post.

Anyway, after Modern Medieval announced that it was (and continues to be) proud to be the #1 Google hit for "Medieval Pornstars," Got Medieval -- of "monkey-butt-trumpet" fame (among other things) -- apparently was getting a lot of hits for "medieval porn" and decided to satisfy those curious seekers (there are some pictures there). Now, A Corner of Tenth-Century Europe has discovered a recent excavation of an early Christian settlement in Ireland. One of the graves has a man buried with his sheep. And there's a suggestive but not-so-flattering picture.

I wonder if it there's a paper there somewhere for In the Middle's announcement of this conference? :-)

Why I Teach Medieval Lit

Sorry for the long silence on my end, my wife and I just had a baby on Feb 4th and things have been hectic. One of the main problems is adjusting to having two boys (our oldest son is going to be 3 in April!). Anyway, I want to comment on this "why I teach medieval lit" thing, but I first wanted to point to this post by Dr. Virago. I only recently discovered her blog, and I LOVE it!! Anyway, I will post a more scholarly post soon! Until then, cheers!

Challenge

Over on The Ruminate, I've been musing for a couple weeks on Why I Teach Medieval Lit (and Medieval Schtuff generally). I finally put up some preliminary comments. While I was doing all that, one of the reasons I gave for teaching Medieval lit was a kind of "presentism", the medieval has a lot to say to the modern era. I didn't fill that out much, because I wanted to bring that part of my thinking process here. But while I still ruminate on the topic, I'd like to challenge my fellow bloggers here to join me: what does the medieval have to say to the present?

Dirty, Smelly Barbarians

So, in a recent New Yorker (yes, I am a sterotype -- an academic who reads The New Yorker) there's a review of David Levering Lewis' God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215 by Joan Acocella.

Oh, where to begin? I just don't have the energy...

Should it tip you off that Ms. Acocella is an author of books on Mark Morris and Willa Cather? Surely, there's a medievalist out there who could've written this? Should it tip you off that Prof. Lewis is a professor at NYU -- who's won 2 Pulitzers for biographies of W.E.B. DuBois (click on teaching interests)?

Anyway, I'm glad that Ms. Acocella has read Edward Said. I'm glad that she thinks that "revisionism" is a new kind of trend in historiography. Still, I don't know if you can accurately judge historiographic trends in medieval studies by the work of a non-specialist (writing -- and this isn't meant in a perjorative way -- a trade publication). Oh, and the Franks may've been concerned about incest in the 8th century. That DOES NOT mean, however, that they were sleeping with their brothers and sisters every five freakin' minutes.

Read the review and judge for yourself.

PS -- the title of the post refers to the whole "Franks are dirty, smelly, sister-lovers" thing.