Assorted Intellectual Notes

[rfmcdonald]

• I'm really happy with how the Atwood segment of my Honours essay is proceeding. I'll post it post-Thursday discussion with Dr. MacLaine.


• Foreign Minister Bill Graham visited the UPEI campus today. All the campus is abuzz.


• I didn't see him, but I think he's quite competent. Talking to Emily and Nathan, I argued that he's a geselleschaft-era politician, trained and competent and professional, as opposed to the gemeineschaft-era politicians who are just party hacks.


• I came across an interesting article on the development of pied noir culture in colonial Algeria--David Prochaska's "History as Literature, Literature as History: Cayagous of Algiers", in the June 1996 issue of The American Historical Review. Grand stuff, not without relevance for the history of Tripartite Alliance Earth Algeria or fun in itself.


• I got back my Poland paper from Dr. Srebrnik. He was quite glowing; I'm happy. He referred me to Neal Ascherson's book Black Sea for more on Poland's eastern orientation (lent to me by Dr. Bartmann). We had a grand chat on Poland's history and Poland's future--he's a booster. (He also has Polish citizenship by birth, which will help come enlargement.)