Friday, February 20, 2009

Carnivalesque LXVII!

I'm a little sorry that I volunteered to host Carnivalesque, because it's shown me how much really interesting stuff there is out there that I haven't read. As if I weren't already feeling guilty about that with books.

In any case, I got about twice as many suggestions as I could use – an embarrassment of riches! – but I saw a theme begin to emerge, and decided to run with it. So now I present to you:

Carnivalesque LXVII:
When the Ancient/Medieval and the Modern Collide,
and How to Survive the Aftermath.

Starring Indiana Jones, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama!

  • First, the post that started it all: I innocently mentioned in the comments thread that I'd like to nominate it for the next Carnivalesque, and Another Damned Medievalist leapt in to ask, "Do you want to host?" Me and my big mouth. But read the post, and you'll see why. Matthew Gabriele's frustrating encounter with an amateur historian in the editorial pages of a local newspaper is not just a meditation on the Crusades and their meaning for the modern world. It's a post that raises questions about the place of the would-be public intellectual. Do our degrees, once a sign of expertise, now mean that we're the last people the public should trust to tell them about history?
  • More archaeology… sort of. Well, not really. But hey: Indiana Jones!
  • Jeff Sypeck at Quid Plura concocts a beverage recipe out of a rhizome that saw its peak of popularity in the West during the Middle Ages, then sadly disappeared from our culinary repertoire. Click here to see how it turns out.
  • The Dalai Lama becomes an honorary Roman, but seriously old-school. Tell me he doesn't look delighted.
And some stuff that didn't fit in, but that I just had to include:
  • And, making her second appearance on this edition of Carnivalesque, Judith Weingarten muses on the meaning of neolithic "venus figures" -- a post that I find interesting, since I had to lecture on this very topic only a couple of weeks ago.
And that's it! Make sure to check in at the Carnivalesque page to see who'll be hosting the next festivities, and don't forget to stop by here again on Monday the 2nd for the first meeting of our online roundtable on Judith Bennett's History Matters!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey--thanks so much for the link! I'll save you a bottle of my artisinal ale...