Ten excellent blogs

I was chuffed to be nominated as an “excellent blog” by Heresy Corner (an excellent blog itself). So, according to the rules of this game, I must now nominate ten more excellent blogs.

Here goes in no particular order  (not all are on my links list yet, but they will be soon).

One: BLDG BLOG is a real queen of blogs. Hosted by Geoff Manaugh in California, it’s mostly about architecture, art and urban (and other) spaces. A book of the blog is coming next year.

Two: Clive Davis' Spectator blog. The Spectator isn’t Beard’s natural home, but when I discovered he was reading me I gave him a go (OK -- how self-regarding can you get?). He picks up lots of good things – and has a nice wry take on them.

Three: Soleil en tête is one to catch for the francophone. A French Canadian writer and history teacher blogs about writing, teaching and her brain tumour. Not the usual illness-blog-cliché and not mawkish at all. She posts, for nice classical reasons, under the name of Danaee.

Four . . .

. . . . CultureGrrl. Lee Rosenbaum gets all the news and gossip from the art world. What Greek pot is about to be sent back to its country of origin? Who struck the deal?

Five:  Books, Inq. Frank Wilson was until a few weeks ago the Book Reviews editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer. He’s a great trawler of the web for literary stuff.

Six: I have a soft spot for my colleague James Warren’s Kenodoxia. There is some hardcore ancient philosophy here, but it’s also a pretty true to life account of life as a working academic.

Seven: PhDiva has just come back after a break. I’m not always on the same side as Dorothy King (I, for example, tend to think that overall the British Museum is a force for good in the world. . .and Dorothy doesn’t seem always to share that view). But there’s usually a sparky and fearless post on classical archaeology and other things here.

Eight: University Diaries by Margaret Soltan is one of the best windows onto US university life that I know.

Nine: Liberty London Girl is a bit of a surprising favourite of mine. An anonymous blog by an English fashion editor in New York . . .another world, folks.

Ten: Not hugely sexy, but the best place for keeping up with Classics news in the UK and elsewhere is the ARLT blog, run by David Parsons.

Comments

[FG]

Jane,
as you know, I believe in only posting moderately, but I do read -and that includes checking what's been going on on previous threads of interest; hence my quietude and my being here now. But thank you for the Alan Bennett reference; I shall certainly look it up now.

[N. D. Plume]

I apologise and was merely being frivolous. I am sure we can all agree, however, that Mary Beard's blogs are excellent; I would strongly advise her book 'The Roman Triumph' also, though have not yet had a chance to read all of it. Best wishes, Naldo

[Lucy]

N.D. Plume:

I think you may be reiterating the exact stance with which I'm struggling. Why should you assume that, because Newnham is full of women, it is therefore full of feminists? It is quite clear to me that not all women are feminists - many are like my partner's mother, who believes I should be a handmaid to his career and desires - and also, clear that many men are feminists. I know plenty of men who are content to self-define as feminists, and I'd agree with those who say that feminism is to do with respecting the equality of the genders.

I also think that your equation of 'exclusively female' with 'feminist' carries a hint that what US politicians call 'women's issues' are solely the concern of women. This is a bit unfortunate, reminding me of the annoying media assumption that women are automatically interested in children, relationships, and cooking, while men are concerned with cars, sex, and money.

So ... I guess that's where my objection has its roots.

Jane: I think that, for me at least, feminism is important. Mine is based in respecting people's differences, which is never a bad practice. But also, since I live with a man whose parents expect me to cook and clean because I'm female, and since I attended a university at which comments like 'you make a good point ... for a woman' and 'yes ... women do tend to read the poem like that' were not unknown, I find feminism to be a still-useful concept. Does that make sense?
PS - I like Alan Bennett too. :-)

[Mary]

re mary beard
i'm not sure i care very much about cyrus...both sides seem a bit naff: whether the 'saw more her on the beach' line or the 'exploitation of young girl'...

[Jane]

Lucy
I too am interested in what is a feminist today. Being of the 1970's era, which I and my friends regard as "third-generation feminism", (following after Wollstonecraft and Pankhurst) we do wonder what girls today think about the concept. Now that we have the equal pay act, paternity leave, etc etc. Is there any need for feminism today?
Incidentally, I dare not broach this subject with own daughters for fear of being laughed at.
FG
You've been silent for a while, was going to share with you a chapter in Alan Bennett's Untold Stories (if you haven't read it). He doesn't number his chapters, but the one called "Looking Out of the Window" discusses some of your concerns about writing. Slightly before the age of the blog, though.

[N. D. Plume]

Lucy: 'I ... find it ... irritating that you assume Newnham is ... full of feminists.'

Whence arise your objections to feminism?

[Lucy]

N.D. Plume: Yes, but it doesn't really answer the point about feminism, does it? I for one find it a bit irritating that you assume Newnham is automatically full of feminists because it's full of women, btw.

[N. D. Plume]

Lucy: 'why is feminism (or female colleges) a thing to avoid?'

Neither is a thing to avoid. Female colleges are doubtless delightful institutions. I should probably choose one myself, if only my gender did not disbar me.

[Jane]

Why do people blog? I have always assumed Mary gets paid for it by Times. Not because I'm cynical, I hasten to add, but because she is providing a service. (Entertainment for us).
I had a look at Libertyetc but found it boring.
Most blogs are boring, including the Radio 4 pm blog. This one and Alphamummies are superior in the commentaries they provoke.

[SW Foska]

none of the blogs you refer us to is especially interesting. On the other hand there is one virtue that the following all share:
tony francis
xjy
anthony alcock
jane
jackie
lucy
(why don't women have surnames)
f. gamberini
sw foska
[RIP] Dr Venables Preller
[RIP] Clayton Burns
Yes, they have the decency not to have blogs. Admit it, Lord Truth! You once succumbed!

[Tony Francis]

Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana is said to be a billion dollar franchise for the Disney Corporation, which is a Dow 30 company. It has been merchandized to adolescent girls as a wholesome cleancut enterprise. Now the 15 year old star shows up in photos looking like an Amsterdam hooker. In the US, so the official story went, Disney was "appalled" that this had happened. Miley Cyrus is the daughter of a country-western singer, Billy Ray Cyrus. She appeared on ABC television (owned by Disney) stating she was embarrassed by the photos. But Disney doesn't have a clean track record in this kind of thing. They are a major pornography distributor (through subsidiaries), and have done similar things to other child stars: Britney Spears, Hilary Duff and Chirstina Aguilera to name but a few. It is a troubling phenomenon: the sexualization of adolescent girls. Does any believe Disney had no idea this was happening?
http://fracas.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/miley-cyrus-nude-what-is-wrong-with-annie/

[FG]

Jane, if you're still on this post, thank you; it's good to be appreciated. I'm a classicist and also have an interest in Italian history and culture. These are the things I feel most confident discussing, but I really like to feel free to take an interest in whatever takes my fancy.

Britta, welcome. If you wish to ask Mary for an opinion on a particular topic not treated in the blogs, you could always email her directly. But as you had the courage to step into this forum, it would be unkind of us to leave your question unanswered.
I had seen the picture but did not know who AL and MC were; now I've just done some searching on the net and can make the connection. I must say that for me it arouses only fleeting interest at most; the young woman looks better in her other guises -it's a rather dark photograph and a touch sinister, as if made for the horror genre. Overall, it's not one of the things I mentioned above that I would want to concern myself with.

[mary beard]

i have never blogged and did not think i would until yesterday someone at lunch (at newnham college) said to me 'why don't you ask mary beard what she thinks?' so here i am (feminist) art historian (retired) wondering what you think about Annie Leibovitz's photogrpah of Miley Cyrus?
britta dwyer

[Lucy]

PS: 'if I scratched my crotch while writing this I did so without noticing'

:-)))))

I like your style, sir.

[Lucy]

Richard - nice post. Nice to think my one-time teachers weren't necessarily wishing my painful death, too - I did think that was a little over the top in LT's rant. I'd hope that some people just enjoy chatting a subject round with others, even if those others are lowly undergradates. I bet our inanities on this blog are a sight lower than Mary's undergrads, too ...

Comfort yourself, Richard. Academic books with no mistakes are inevitably very dull, because they break no new ground. And there's always the pleasant urban (ivory?) myth of the prof. who published a typo and was promptly lauded by his fellows for the genesis of an exciting new theory ...

[Richard]

Did m'lud Truth mean "a number of readers between 50 and half a million" or "between 50 000 and 500 000"?

Which is closer to the truth?

For the record, I am not wearing a string vest, and if I scratched my crotch while writing this I did so without noticing. But there are some cats around.

Some teachers (including teachers of classical subjects) *like* their students. My students, at a different university, are (on the whole...) neither brain dead nor nerdy. They are smart and keen and (on the whole...) attractive in personality and beauty.
None of this means, of course, that there is never a time when I'd prefer them all to get lost. But personally I think the worst academic job one could get would be a senior fellowship at All Souls, Oxford (no undergraduates to teach at all).

That being said, I'm not sure I'd like to place much money on how many of them would find their way around a map of the ancient Mediterranean and how accurately. Oh well.

I love (hate? fear?) this idea that a single bad date or sentence in an academic book can destroy one's reputation. In fact you can find mistakes in academic books all the time (including good ones). If it says on p.213 "end of the fifth century" instead of "end of the sixth century" a reviewer might point it out, but it won't destroy you. But since I'm trying to write my own, perhaps I'm just saying this to comfort myself. Are there any significant mistakes in "The Roman Triumph"?

All best,
Richard

[Jane]

FG
Like your style. What is your subject?

[FG]

Lord T.seems to have done it on purpose, after I said "write like a writer", just to show he can do what I could merely recommend; and he certainly can write.
But I don't get the basic message this time. I admit I don't appreciate it either when the speed of Mary's blogging takes us on to a new topic before the previous, interesting one has been properly exhausted in the comments -just as I feel crushing disappointment in opening the blog only to find the most mundane matters being discussed in the latest post. But you seem to be saying, Lord T., that Mary writes disparate brain-dead posts for the sake of her students. Surely not?

[Lord Truth]

I find Prof Beards blog somewhat unnerving.Most blogs revolve around one area of life,yet take your eyes off Beard for only a week or two and one finds that the cosy interesting world you thought you and she were sharing has totally vanished and off she has galloped to be glimpsed on the distant horizon zig zagging from one new topic to another followed of course by her always faithful yelping comment writers
Its surely extraordinary that of the fifty-.five hundred thousand(?) who must read her, this commenting pack of hardly two dozen has remained virtually unchanged week after week year after year.
Why are there no more and who are they?An occasional revelation can be quite surprising I always imagined XJY to be a typical middle aged Hamstead leftie -female-until she was revealed as a he and who is SWFoska -surely an electrical specification rather than a name...Quite soon of course all this anonymity will vanish as we will all be on some kind of You Tube affair,fully visible,sitting in our braces and string vest scratching our crotch,the blousy wife still snoring in bed,the Jewish Chronicle scattered on the floor,cats everywhere...
In many ways this comment business is peculiar.Towards what fearful abyss is Beard leading us..How will it all end..?
What in fact drives Beard in these pursuits? Rupert is a generous uncle and it only takes a minute or two to bash them out yet could there be something else at work here?
Beard writes history books - an
exhausting -indeed fraught activity.One misplaced date,one off
key sentence and ones reputation is in tatters-yet the excitement of publication and the many rewards make it very worthwhile.And there are her frequent jaunts-good fun those.So her life is an enthusiastic enviable one-except -except for one thing,that hangs over her tousled locks like a stubborn black cloud,that follows her from continent to continent, dims the brilliance of the Pacific sky,the warm chatter of admiring Americans..and from which she has no escape...

Beard is in ,what in the West, is now the the most totally wretched of occupations.
She is a teacher.She has students.And in modern Britain notwithstanding her books, her professorship and Cambridge glory you may be sure they are the most brain dead nerdy creatures on planet earth
Of course she tries to avoid them yet ultimately they must be faced for seemingly endless soul destroying days.
Of course this is not exactly unknown.A university is not a Comprehensive
Many professors simply throw their bags in the cupboard order new curtains and are off to Mongolia for six months collecting lichens followed by four months in Patagonia looking at blowholes etc.Yet ultimately the teaching blade falls.
Teaching science you know that at least some of your input may be used ultimately for the students indeed the worlds practical good.But a classics enthusiast who lives and breathes her subject like Beard knows full well that the most her energies will produce is the raised eyebrow of a reality TV producer looking for a nubile assistant-'Interesting ,I'm sure we can fit you in somewhere'
When I first discovered this site over a year ago Beard was reporting on the failure of her prosperously weaned, well holidayed students to find Sparta on a map.One can imagine Beard, clutching her stomach,rushing to the bathroom ..

It is midnight.Beard looks out at the timeless dreaming spires cloaked in moonlight that for centuries have lifted the hearts of so many brilliant young men intoxicated by the ancient world,its glories,its mysteries
and thinks of her students.
The keyboard is conveniently next to the cocktail shaker.
What is it to be tonight? For a moment she deliberates..She sits heavily down..She writes..

[Newn1]

Deirdre:

Not sure that "feminism" means the same thing to everyone. Not sure that it ever has. But it's not all about noticing disadvantages and railing against them -- it can be as much about acknowledging the fact we're women and, hey, can do stuff. And that we'd like to be paid the same amount for doing the same jobs; or that we'd like to be free from any physical (or just annoying) imposition or presumption that might happen as a direct result of our gener/biology. That we'd like to be able to choose how we contribute to society, rather than being forcd into one single role. That, if we become mothers, the absolute importance (not to mention difficulties) of that role be acknowledged by society. But also, really, acknowledging the fact we're fundamentally different but that neither sex is ultimately superior.

But what do I know? I'm not here to tell anyone whether they are, or should be, 'feminist'. I just know that more people are than will admit it (to themselves or others), and that all of us benefit from those who, in the past, have acted upon such beliefs. Which rocks, really. It's just a shame that "feminism" appears to have become such a dirty word, when it's so clearly still a valid position.

Dunno, though; not going to get political and ranty about it -- not here or now, at least. ;)

[Kassandra]

Just wanted to share my favorite blog, the witty and erudite rantings of an Oxford University graduate student:

http://becs-plan-b.blogspot.com/

[FG]

Jane:
let's say I have the ambitions of a dreamer. And I've also done a bit of writing -privately, and you could certainly call it "relatively spare", for a writer. Everyting else is dream, or sloth....
But that doesn't stop me thinking that you should write like a writer, or do anything else as near as possible to professional standard, whenever you set yourself to it.

[Deirdre]

I've come here from another blog in which I was beginning to feel physically sick and trembling, so upsetting was the nature of what I was reading.
Here with the benefits of cool classical reason, I ask, what exactly is feminism in 2008?
I've never thought of myself as a feminist, merely as a person of the female gender who occasionally notices disadvantages to being a person of that gender.
These disadvantages still exist, I still notice them, does that make me a feminist?

[Newn1]

Lucy: "NEWN1 (Is NEWN for Newnham, New Hall, I wonder?) - sorry to jump in; was just curious as to Naldo's objections to all-female colleges. Didn't really experience gender discrimination where I was at (co-ed) uni, but then, my male friends must have been almost, slightly, partly, or even bellicose-ly, feminist. Were the Amazons feminists? And why are we feminism in degrees of bellicosity?"

Of course I don't mind you jumping in! As for the first question, ooh, I think you can probably guess the answer to that. ;-)

And I *do* go to a co-ed university. Just a women's college. Definitely not missing out on the mixed experience, but seeing it from a certain vantage point (and yes, it's an advantage).

From blogs to feminism in two steps. Whoops.

[Lucy]

NEWN1 (Is NEWN for Newnham, New Hall, I wonder?) - sorry to jump in; was just curious as to Naldo's objections to all-female colleges. Didn't really experience gender discrimination where I was at (co-ed) uni, but then, my male friends must have been almost, slightly, partly, or even bellicose-ly, feminist. Were the Amazons feminists? And why are we feminism in degrees of bellicosity?

[Jane]

F. Gamberini
Your comments are interesting. Are you, in fact, a writer?

[Newn1]

N. D. Plume: "Of course there are 'degrees' to it. For instance, Mary Wollstonecraft would surely come off rather meek as against the most bellicose butch of the Amazons. Feminism is not binary.
Yours bemusedly, Naldo"

Lucy got there first. But I would argue that feminism is rather binary. So if any woman wanted to go somewhere "less feminist" than Newnham then they are, I think, doing themselves a blind disservice.

[F.Gamberini]

Jane:
thank you for picking up my comment. I can well believe that blogging can become an obsession, just as surfing the web can. At first I was quite excited at the prospect of blogging, but am rather more doubtful now. There's a mass of blogs out there and then there's the fact that you never quite know who's controlling the machinery at the other end and whether any copies are being kept, or where....
My advice:
- Don't write too much, whether as blogger or commentator (in particular, don't write without thinking). I've only ever commented (relatively sparingly) on just two websites, and already I feel as though I've been talking too much. Long pages on computer screens are in any case a strain on the eye.
- Blogger or commentator, write like a writer. Write something that's worth remembering -something "not for temporary entertainment, but as a possession for all time".
- If you are a commentator on someone else's blog, you have a responsibility to maintain the level of the web page. That has not always been the case here, on the website of "the world's main paper for literary culture".
But I'm happy here. A simple but prestigious blog where one can read and contribute to challenging and enteratining discussions. And now I've added a bit more to my relatively-spare-yet-too-much commenting. And seen my name in print.

[Lucy]

... oh, and possibly there's an argument that, if you think in terms of people being 'more' and 'less' feminist, you imply that there's a sliding scale of right and wrong? I'm assuming feminism has to do with sticking up for something perceived to be 'right'?

[Lucy]

Naldo, I think the point being made is that, if you claim to be a feminist (whatever that means to you), you claim to be one. Your feminism may be more or less militant, more or less right-wing, more or less hairy, or whatever, than mine, but it's still feminism. Rather like being pregnant - you could be 9 weeks or 9 months pregnant, but one is not 'more' pregnant than the other, just more visible/ recognised. Though I grant pregnancy is more objectively verifiable than feminism.

Incidentally, why is feminism (or female colleges) a thing to avoid? I'm not hostile to the avoiding of female colleges - I didn't want to go to one myself - just curious.

[livy]

la liberte c'est philosophe

[N. D. Plume]

NEWN1: "people stop thinking about 'degrees of feminism' . . . you are, or you aren't."

Of course there are 'degrees' to it. For instance, Mary Wollstonecraft would surely come off rather meek as against the most bellicose butch of the Amazons. Feminism is not binary.
Yours bemusedly,
Naldo

[Tony Francis]

Blogs are like high school: you find a little clique where you fit in.

[xjy]

Anthony A wonders about iconoclasts ("wickedly subversive"? ;-) ) and blogs. Well, it's like being a Fabian at Oxbridge or farting in the Common Room. Sitting in your own fire-engine-red deck chair on the Titanic.

If you have a name, and are employed by an institution that can be axed if it refuses to toe the line or support the status quo, then you are extremely cautious that you don't get axed preemptively yourself to save the institution. Sometimes it's possible to stretch the rope a bit. It was elastic enough once for me to order the Complete Works of Marx and Engels for a department library, along with the ditto of Georg Lukacs and Kant and Hegel. (Shame on the library for being without them!). But even then, Lukacs is the only writer there even remotely current. The others, however controversial (guess what the Pope thinks of the Protestant enlightener and ruthlessly antimetaphysical Kant!), are historical enough to evade all but the most Inquisitorial authorities (like Malawi in the 60s under Banda - jail for reading the Manifesto, or Chile under Kissinger-Pinochet, our own dear Germany during the Berufsverbot).

So it's easy to get a reputation as a boat-rocker. Just look at what rightwing (I mean the acid-droolers) bloggers write about Baroque O'Bummer...

And now there's the terrorist pretext again.

Now try recommending a policy of eliminating the privileges and social-economic power of say the Kulaks or rich white Southern Rhodesians and their black-faced white-hearted (hm, "lily-livered"?) hangers-on, and watch the tanks start rolling.

No wonder Bob Dylan sang

"I'm Lib'ral but to a degree -
I wan' evybody to be free"

and Jaroslav Hasek founded the satirical Party of Moderate Progress Within the Limits of the Law - a slogan that even Dostoevsky's mind-bogglingly complacent bureaucrats in Krokodil (1865) could
at least mutter under their breath in the privacy of their curtained-off studies...

[Jane]

FG
I noticed at the back of Times 2 (hard copy) recently a note which said that too much blogging can kill you!

[Newn1]

N. D. Plume: "I only wish your university would accept me, (albeit into a less feminist/exclusively-female college than yours)".

Newnham won't be necessary when people stop thinking about 'degrees of feminism'. There's no "less feminist" about it -- you are, or you aren't. Thank goodness Newnham is (we hope).

[anthony alcock]

Why do some people who write and contribute to blogs like to think of themselves as iconoclasts ? Most of the stuff in these things couldn't be more harmless.

[Lucy]

Just checked out LibertyLondonGirl - thanks Mary (and LLG), I'm loving it! (What a trendy don you must be!)

[Heresiarch]

Interesting list. By a strange sort of circularity, something I wrote was picked up by Lee Rosenbaum's CultureGrll several months ago, thus leading to my first moderate "hit". The blogosphere is smaller than you think...

[kannan]

efewf ewfe eweww

[libertygirl]

How very unexpected! I'm enormously flattered to be have been included on your list. You've been on my blogroll almost since I started Libertylondongirl - but I never dreamt that the favour would be reciprocated or, to be frank, that you would be engaging in blogosphere memes, else I would have tagged you months ago! For me you represent the road of academia down which I decided not to travel, & always regretted: I have a degree in theology and took school prizes in classical civilisation, before turning to the world of style. I adore your witty, erudite and always, always fascinating blog.

Best wishes, LLGxx

ps I'm a freelancer for The Sunday Times in the real world too.

[FG]

Ten unheard-of blogs, each incredibly complex and leading to a mass of other blogs and links of all kinds, leading to yet more links etc., in a never-ending flight deeper into the infinity of the blogosphere.....
All excellent stuff, but it's really overwhelming (perhaps I'm jealous), and I'd like to know:
1. How did you know about these blogs?
2. How can anyone keep abreast of things without devoting oneself full-time to just this particular section of the web?
3. Is there any point in following more than two or three favourite blogs?

[Lucy]

' especially in view of the fact that I am the first such reject down the lineage for several generations'?!

You'll be one less person adding to the stereotype that Cambridge is more about who your father was than who you are.

[Richard]

For things classical, rogueclassicism is an interesting blog of a different kind: little or no discursive reflection etc., but just regular postings of news and links:
http://www.atrium-media.com/rogueclassicism/
All best,
Richard

[N. D. Plume]

Your blog is indeed excellent, and as a young classicist I have found it most compelling during the last year.

I only wish your university would accept me, (albeit into a less feminist/exclusively-female college than yours,) especially in view of the fact that I am the first such reject down the lineage for several generations.

Yours irkedly,
Naldo