Dan Walden

"It is precisely the world, understood as the social and economic structures into which we are born, through which we secure the necessities of survival and which hedge the boundaries of our social worlds, that an educational community must shut out..."
damn, @dwaldenwrites.bsky.social!

For all the left’s reputation as a haven for intellectuals, it has failed to advance a vision of education that matches its egalitarian politics. Our essay of the week advances a more liberatory vision of education.

By @dwaldenwrites.bsky.social in @thepointmag.bsky.social

buff.ly/BuThbqV

The Left Case for Great Books | The Point Magazine A great-books model at the undergraduate level is, in fact, so consonant with Freire’s radical critique that it represents a far better path forward for a left-wing vision of education than virtually ...

For @thepointmag.bsky.social I wrote one of the most personally important essays I’ve ever written. Please give it a read if you’re someone who cares about education. thepointmag.com/examined-lif...

A short preview:

I was delighted to be part of this forum in The Point, writing about education and great books not only as part of the good life that those of us on the left are trying to make possible for everyone but as an invaluable way to help us become free enough to live that life.

My philological bias is showing, but absolutely the fake Hebrew one

Just so you know, this is what 13-10 felt like.

The Wolvere was a stout carl for the nones;
Ful thyc he was with adamantine bones.
“The best ther is, bubb,” he wuld oft advyse,
“Bot that I do, hit ys nout verry nyce.”

yes, and this includes realizing that we don’t need to take seriously the work of people who are mainly working out their exvangelical daddy issues in public rather than doing serious theology for the benefit of God’s people

there are people who suffered permanent brain damage from reading Wonkette in 2012

It’s because a lot of liberals are homophobic. Their “support” of gay and trans people is theoretical / transactional and subject to change at any time

this happens to all artists, but it's more intense for women. people want them to be tragic geniuses without real intellectual command of their artistic resources. calls worked like a dog and the idea that she wouldn't know at all times what her voice was capable of is absurd

incisive, funny, and much-needed. callas could not have become spectacle were she not, first and foremost, a consummate and dedicated artist. i wish directors were interested in her artistry, but unfortunately they probably don't like how she shows them up

God Talk David Bentley Hart’s exploration of our deepest and oldest questions rehabilitates a form that modern thinkers typically avoid: the philosophical dialogue.

Will be worth making some time today or this weekend to read @dwaldenwrites.bsky.social's lovely review of David Bentley Hart's big book on mind, All Things Are Full of Gods. www.thebulwark.com/p/god-talk-d...

makes perfect sense to me! jews and christians construct the problem of god very differently, so there’s no reason why this abstracted category of solutions that we call “atheism” would look remotely similar between those two frames of reference

yes, the miraculous is not part of the logic of history. by trying to make it such you foreclose the miraculous entirely and also abandon your ethical duties. god redeems and raises up failure, but failure means having actually really tried to do something

optimist: the cup is half full

pessimist: the cup is half empty

philologist: Νεστορος : ε[ιμ?]ι : ευποτ[ον] : ποτεριον :
ͱος δ'α<ν> τοδε π[ιε]σι : ποτερι[ο] : αυτικα κενον
ͱιμερ[ος ͱαιρ]εσει : καλλιστε[φα]νο : Αφροδιτες

“george mason econ gay” is a recipe for the absolute worst takes you have ever seen in your life

YouTube video by Virginia Abrahamse Jerry Hadley - Maria - West Side Story

actually a crime that jerry hadley never got to do West Side Story for real because holy shit he sings the best "Maria" i have ever heard www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_AA...

chapter 1 is just potshot after potshot at the hated swiss pervert (rousseau)

rereading mary wollstonecraft, the OG feminist killjoy, and remembering why she's so much fun. "hmm what if instead of relegating women to innocence and idiocy we allowed them to cultivate intelligence and actual virtue?"

i’m fond of it for the gay stuff and also for his perfect grasp of the geography of my prep school

marketing copy: we teach the great ideas and inculcate virtue through study of the classics

syllabus design: i am hunting for the walter benjamin essay that will have the best chance of inducing a fugue state

one of the perils of teaching in a great books program is that you start designing syllabi around the question "how can i make my students as insane as possible?" but you have to come up with a professional-sounding reason as well

ERIC GARLAND AS NATHAN DETROIT IN “GUYS & DOLLS:” time for some dame theory

in retrospect asking my (female) best friend to homecoming with a stunt involving a red rose and the Phantom soundtrack was perhaps a sign that i would very shortly no longer be asking girls on dates

it's a glimpse of the primordial early 2000s when millennials roamed the land unchallenged. a time lost to memory when we chatted with FBI agents without fear

Describe yourself using 5 things that are probably in your purse(or pockets)/backpack at any given moment:
1) novel
2) book i assigned to my students
3) airpods
4) latest book by a friend
5) writing tablet

(the reading in question was Ovid, so the student has excellent taste)