Funny Medievalism of the Month

Amidst all the good, serious minded stuff that Matt has been posting while I've been silent, I saw this today and thought I'd share this medievalism: http://comics.com/get_fuzzy/2009-11-20/.

Blogging and Learning: Why Study the Middle Ages

In response to some of the posts that have recently been put up, I received this in an email from a former student (Garrick Bjur).  I share it, with his permission, in its entirety. 

I enjoy how your blog, as you said, continually looks at how the  Medieval period affects the present and how the people today see the  Middle Ages.  When I first asked myself how studying the Middle Ages  has been important to me personally, I came up with a different  reason that I thought worth sharing (that might also be relevant in  light of certain extended conversations with anonymous persons).

The thousand years of the Middle Ages is taught in Western  Civilization courses in such little time that even good professors have to settle for teaching general stereotypes in most lower-division courses.  Additionally, Hollywood has disconnected the  period from modernity with such fantastic romanticism that kids rename themselves and make costumes to pretend—not that they’re Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, Martin Luther, or George Washington—but medieval knights and princesses.  The study of Medieval History has been important to me, personally, because of this “alien-ness,” and disconnectedness.

I was raised in such a way that it would have been minor blasphemy to seriously question the motives of the Founding Fathers in participating in the Revolution, the “spiritual” progress of the Reformation, the state of American politics, etc.  And I knew enough about the periods to think that I knew enough about these periods to debate with someone who contradicted me.  When, however, my surface stereotypes about the Middle Ages were dispelled, I couldn’t cite Tolkien or “A Knight’s Tale” to defend my point of view.  I had, 
essentially, a “tabula rasa.”  Because I “knew” the institutions of the Middle Ages were disconnected from modern institutions, I was free to be critical and critically appreciative of the good guys and bad guys.  As importantly, I was able to appreciate the quality of 
the academic research and discourse of the Middle Ages without feeling like my personal beliefs or values were being questioned.

I was led to these necessary conclusions.  If I could, at the same time, be critical of and appreciate St. Francis of Assisi, why couldn’t I also question while appreciating the Founding Fathers or Abraham Lincoln?  If describing the Crusades as a struggle between the evil Christian invaders and the Muslims was an over-generalization, why must I accept the generalizations we make about terrorism, politicians, or religious leaders?  People are people.  Mass movements are mass movements.   Heroes and great nations make mistakes and bad guys and rogue nations aren't often as evil as we'd like them to be.  To be sure, I studied the Middle Ages at a time when I was already questioning many of my assumptions and, already, becoming the black sheep of my family, but the study of history, and specifically of this period, further freed my thoughts to allow for complexity so that I can disagree with Bush without thinking him ill-intentioned.  So that I could condemn terrorists without condemning fundamental Islam.  For me, the Middle Ages weren’t as important for how they still affect the present as they were for how they allowed me to examine the present for what it truly is—a world as complex as the Middle Ages.

Blogging, Tweeting, and Publishing

I've been asked by JJ Cohen of In the Middle to compose something on the creation of my blog and my adventures in tweeting for an article he's working on.  The article will appear in a book centered around Geoffrey Chaucer hath a Blog, in Palgrave's New Middle Ages Series.  Now posted @ In the Middle.  Here goes...

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Modern Medieval began at the end of May 2007, mostly because I had something to say and I needed at least the illusion that there was someone out there who would listen to me.  In large part, the things I had to say came from my being a medievalist and being at Virginia Tech in the aftermath of the massacre on 4/16/07.  I saw something in the coverage of that event that was being neglected, an insight into the shooter's mentality -- one dealing with Christianity -- that no one seemed to be talking about.  So, my first substantial post was an expanded version of an op-ed I'd written for the local paper.
I got into academia because I liked the research and the teaching but also because I believe that there's a place for public intellectuals in our society.  Too often, however, academics lament that no one takes them seriously.  I think part of that is our fault.  The onus, to a large degree, falls on us academics to put ourselves out there and have something to say about something.

The blog has continued to be an extension of this idea.  But within reason.  The epigraph to the blog -- "Although long-dead, the people of the Middle Ages still have something to say." -- means something to me.  I know (a lot of) something about the Middle Ages but I'm also a well-educated US citizen, who knows what's going on in the world.  So, I try to use the Middle Ages to, as appropriate, both intellectually familiarize and destabilize the present with the past.  I try to show lines of (unexpected) continuity and problematize romanticized notions of what the Middle Ages were.  We, as both academics and medievalists, can and should contribute to the public conversation -- indeed, we must -- but the onus is mostly on us to get our voices heard. 

But this isn't just my voice.  I started the blog because I knew of other good, academic medievalist blogs.  That circle has only expanded and it welcomes newcomers with open arms.  At "Modern Medieval," I've tried to open things up too.  We did a 4-part "blog forum" with guest bloggers (parts 1, 2, 3, 4), which met its goals in that the series generated a good amount of discussion.  I've also been fortunate to have Larry Swain, also of "The Ruminate" and "The Heroic Age," as a co-blogger for some time now.  And I'm always on the lookout for other co-bloggers to help share this responsibility.  The more voices the better.

Moreover, the blog is just one way of getting our voices out there.  I see the blog as 1 part of a much larger whole.  I organize events locally, showcasing the extensive talent we have a VT and in SW Virginia more generally.  I podcast to promote events, to aid my teaching, to make the aforementioned events available to an even wider audience.  I sometimes write op-eds for the local paper.  And now, I tweet; one of a growing number who do.  I became more convinced about moving to Twitter shortly after Kalamazoo 2009.  I'm still excited about the possibilities.  I've used it for research and I've used it for more general conversation.  Now, for the first time, in Fall 2009, I've tried to integrate Twitter into my courses, telling students about my public twitter feed, using appropriate hashtags to keep material together, trying to use this form of social networking to have a public, academic conversation among professor and students beyond the classroom's walls.  It's a work in progress... 

Finally, we should be aware that there are new frontiers out there.  Facebook is the elephant in the room right now but there will be others (Google Wave?).  Blogging is just 1 thing.  Tweeting is just 1 thing.  This post, along with others, will appear in a book.  And that's another thing.  Each format reaches a substantially different audience, so it's imperative that we keep up and not be afraid to put ourselves out there.  We, as academics and medievalists, have good answers to some important questions.  Let's speak our mind.  Hopefully, some will be listening.

Fort Hood, Murder, and Islam

I don't have too much to say about this whole event, especially since nobody really knows anything about Maj. Hasan's motives at this time.  They will, however, get to talk to him eventually.  There's a lot of speculation, a lot of rumor, but little evidence to support anything.  Especially in the wake of these tragedies, even occurring as often as they unfortunately do here, rumors and speculation often turn out to be quite wrong.

This is more my point -- the speculation and rumor-mongering.  There's been a lot made of Maj. Hasan as a Muslim and some have taken this information to suggest that he may've been working for Al-Qaeda.  This seems to have a lot to do with what I recently talked about, Mr. Douthat and his blanket conceptualization of Muslims as "the enemy." 

Just stop.  Things will be figured out but "Islamic writings on his door" (by which I assume they mean "Arabic writing" since Islam isn't a language) and him saying something in Arabic don't mean anything except that he's a Muslim. 

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Oh, and 1 more thing.  After 4/16 and Northern Illinois, there's a lot of talk about letting students carry guns.  Hasan was stopped by a cop.  Others may've been firing though, trying to stop the rampage and here's what happened:

Officials were looking into whether some soldiers may have been shot accidentally by others trying to shoot the gunman. Investigators are analyzing "all the rounds, the trajectories, all the weapons, all the shots, where they came from," said Col. John Rossi, deputy commanding general at Fort Hood. "That will be determined by the investigators."

And these were soldiers, with extensive firearms training.