Heute Morgen es regnet
Tuesday 13 July 2010
Monday 12 July 2010
friends reunited
Some of you already know I belong to the Oxford Union Society. I signed up for life membership when I was an undergraduate and now find it a very welcoming space in the city centre. Lots of good people there in term time and the comfortable Old Library open through most of the rest of the year. Early in 2008 there was a notice on Facebook asking for someone to fill a Senior vacancy on the Library Committee. I volunteered. At the very first committee meeting of that term I enquired about the clock in the Old Library. It sits on the rail of the gallery and is contemporary with the rest of the building. For many months it had stood at five to one. I wondered why. It took five or six weeks to find out that it needed repairing. The weeks went by. The weeks turned into months. Then one day last October a man came and took away all the clocks in the building that needed attention. At the end of the last committee meeting last term I commented that eight full terms had gone by since the matter of the clock in the Old Library had first appeared on the agenda. Today I visited the library. Lo and behold! There is the clock merrily going on its way. It feels to me like the return of an old friend. Wes thu hal! Francis Cameron, Oxford, 12 july 2010
Sunday 11 July 2010
Saturday 10 July 2010
Friday 9 July 2010
pas la meme chose
I'd restudied one of her books. Decided she'd done a good job. Couldn't really understand why so many (males) had criticised her work. Thought I'd better restudy the next one in the series. Got as far as page 17 and began to grind my teeth. She really ought to have known better. But then she was in good company. 50 years later a whole clutch of scholars who ought to have known better were still making the same mistakes. All based on wistful speculation without owning up. I started to tidy up some old files in preparation for doing something else. Windows 7 brought me to a halt. Twelve months ago I'd been through the same process. Carefully studied this second book in the series. I was much milder then. I'd drawn attention to the inaccuracies but I hadn't ground my teeth. Quite apart from that, I'd been through the whole of the book before writing my report. I've recognised some subtle changes in myself. I look back over the past year and strike a chord. I've spent most of term times chatting to friends in the Oxford Union Society rooms. Without noticing it at the time, I'd been absorbing a different sort of atmosphere. Conversations nearly always merged into academic debate. And, dammit, this is Oxford, and there's still more than a hint of the patrician in the air despite the vulgating of the idiolect. General Petraeus came and talked only a few days before he was given a new job. When his name's mentioned on the news, I feel I know the man. He demonstrated to the full that to be a successful (American) general, you need to be a diplomat as well. Double dammit! I used to say the best thing about Oxford was it was so easy to get out of it - especially when you lived near the main road to the South and the ring road was less than a car mile away. Now I'm getting quite fond of the place. Plus ca change. Pas la meme chose. Wittgenstein, thou shouldst be living at this hour! oxford, 9 july 2010
Thursday 8 July 2010
Wednesday 7 July 2010
Monday 5 July 2010
Gaskill 2010 : Witchcraft
I'd be very grateful for help in dealing with these queries arising from my study of Gaskill's 2010 book on Witchcraft. [1] On page 24, Margaret Murray is referred to as 'the mythologist Margaret Murray'. This is the only time I've come across this attribution. Does it occur anywhere else? [2] The caption to the illustration on page 114 describes Gerald Gardner as the 'self-proclaimed father of modern paganism'. I've found nothing like this is anything I've read by him or about him. Have I missed something? [3] On page 137, in the last section of the Further Reading, Ronald Hutton's Triumph of the Moon is listed among the titles 'For occultism:'. The following three titles (Luhrmann 1989, Berger 1999, Adler 1986) all relate to Wicca. Is it usual to conflate Wicca and occultism? Help that comes my way will be gratefully received and properly acknowledged. Francis Cameron, Oxford
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