As often already, in lieu of the content about my stuff I would like to have written by now…
- Richard Hodges’s The Anglo-Saxon Achievement appears to be another of those books that sank very deep and I didn’t realise.
- There seems to be much more Romano-British archaeology nowadays than anyone cared about when I first learnt this stuff.
- This may well be because I was not being taught by a specialist in the field and I am very conscious that I am now repeating some of the same ignorances, in other words, we are the problem as has been said before.
- On the other hand it’s inescapably true that it’s much easier to give a good lecture (in so far as a lecture is ever useful) when you don’t know too much.
- I met some medievalists who say that no-one round here goes to the pub; I agreed that this was a crying shame and now that I’m beginning to balance my time to make this possible, find of course that I forgot who they were…
- Perhaps because of thinking in these terms too much, I am informed that:
The Dante’s Inferno Test has banished you to the Seventh Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:Level Score Purgatory (Repenting Believers) Very Low Level 1 – Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers) Low Level 2 (Lustful) High Level 3 (Gluttonous) High Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious) Very Low Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy) Moderate Level 6 – The City of Dis (Heretics) High Level 7 (Violent) Very High Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers) High Level 9 – Cocytus (Treacherous) Very High Take the Dante Inferno Hell Test
I’m quite impressed by this. I should reassure readers that the high (or low, depending on where you wind up) ranking is mainly down to a few things that Dante thought were violent and irremediable crimes (not puns, though I had been warned about that) being considered harmless leisure activities in the twenty-first century West, at least in my state. All the same, if Pascal lost his wager, I should have some interesting company in eternal torment.
And lastly.
- I don’t really think two days, especially not two days in which I have a tutorial to give, a seminar to attend and a lecture to
writegive and you know a job, is a fair amount of time to ask me to turn round final proofs of the book in, you know. I might call it unrealistic. But since to do so would probably prejudice its chances of finally emerging with a date on its titlepage that isn’t a lie, I may not be very evident online for a few days.
A Corner of Tenth-Century Europe 
Ha ha! Beat you! Apparently I am off to level 8. :p
I’m suitably impressed! See you on the way past, perhaps :-)
Just at level six “The City of Dis”…hmm..time to learn from the professionals ;)
What you need is some usury, friend! I know some people who can sort you out…
Ehh, I’m already quite terrified about the funding options for the PhD…I gave up a fully funded PhD for a Cambridge MPhil, since I had no intention to remain in Hungary (and the idea of going to the other country where my family happen to belong, Germany, is still not tempting, although this is true to Europe as a whole), but the budgetary cuts definitely not help to achieve such things like a PhD. I hope for the best, but fear worst..
Hmm…the connection between Student Loans and Hell, is maybe too obvious. Before this, I was always reading about two aircraft carriers…
I gather that academic employment prospects in Germany makes ours look like a job party, yes. If you could obtain that funding again Hungary might at least be a place to weather the next few years.
As for the aircraft carriers, well, I could go on at length, but won’t. There are more sensible things that can be said in favour of them than of upgrading our nuclear deterrent, at least. I don’t think any of them would get any one any lower in the Inferno, though.
Well, the ultimate goal is to enter the US job market, even if I know that the British one is probably slightly less brutal – albeit this is not the primal reason. Indeed, I’m fully aware that finding a tenure track position in a decent -?- university is something pretty hard to achieve, especially when the British system do not emphasise such things like gaining serious teaching experience. Still, I have no intentions to remain is Europe, or in the UK, where my terrible American accent makes it impossible to mix ;) And my Germany is just terrible, without any notable accents. Returning for to that nice Eastern-European country, which, for obvious reasons I never felt mine, will surely be a bold move, and I do not think that will lead to anywhere.
A goal at least worth working for…we shall see. Robbing a bank, or stealing an aircraft carrier is always an options to gain some money :D
Hmm…quite offtopic..still, gaining money for a PhD, and Hell seems a nice comparision :)
I’m sure you realise this, but the US system prizes breadth of teaching much more than the UK one does and that’s the thing I found hardest to accumulate when applying for posts there. It restricts one to large institutions where one won’t be covering everything before 1800 alone. Which is good, on the whole, but there will be people competing who can, even though their research is less advanced than yours.
Yes, I’m fully aware of that. Pros and cons, it truly depends on one’s preferences, what is the more, or most important. Money is one thing, but from my point of view, when I was in the states I felt that this is the place where I want to live. I never felt anything like that in Germany, Hungary, or in the UK – and in the latter, I always will be an outsider. Despite now my eating habits are nearly completely British :D Of course, there is no such thing like “America” as a matter of where to live, since how can you compare New Jersey and Vermont with Nevada, or the middle of Alabama? But, let’s say, there are many wonderful places in the US, and some not that tempting ones as well.
I know it’s hard to gain a serious level of teaching experience, polish my terrible written English as well, but hey, people needs goals! And I hope this is not one like climbing the Mount Everest without an oxygen tank.. .
Pingback: On reading more Richard Hodges « A Corner of Tenth-Century Europe