November 14: Moby-Dick

Harpooning the White Whale (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1902 edition)

“Call me Ishmael.” Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick begins with a three-word imperative — one of the most famous openings ever written for a novel. That is it the product not of the late twentieth century, but of the mid-nineteenth, is especially remarkable. Whereas most novels of its day ease the reader into the unfolding story by stages, this… Continue reading November 14: Moby-Dick

Answers and questions

Questions are the raw stuff of education. It behooves us to understand them and how they work. The general assumption is that a question is subordinate to its answer. A question by nature seeks an answer, after all: that’s its point. But the relation is not so simple. The value of a question is not… Continue reading Answers and questions

Lifelong Learning

St. Jerome in his study (Jan van Eyck, 1390-1441)

“Lifelong learning” has become something of a buzz-phrase lately, and I find myself a wary adherent. Certainly I am in favor of learning throughout life — my own, especially, since it’s the only one I have any control over. My unease with the phrase is partly born of the fact that it is so ill-defined… Continue reading Lifelong Learning