cwconrad wrote:I marvel at the traction this thread has sustained.
Let me add to its protraction.
Stephen Hughes wrote:Perhaps that is something that needs to be put to the test.
Barry Hofstetter wrote:Please see Ed's reply. For those of us who do it, it does not need to be tested. We know.
That was a non-specific encouragement / invitation for you - the "we" (in the terms you have expressed) - to read a text with others on the board - the not-"we" and share your knowledge with them. And it was at the same time directed at the not-"we", to test tradegy.
The age of elitism is over - television then now the internet has put paid to the concept of experts as authority figures, and reshaped them as information handling experts, not depositories - fighting to keep the older (pre-rise of the knowledge economy) model will put the subject into obsolescence. What is lacking in the new economic model is practical skills - and ultimately they will be more knowledgable. Sharing of knowledge is easy, sharing skill is very human and requires application. As with popular sports, there needs to be a ground-swell of interest to keep them viable. National cricket teams are strong in countries were cricket is played on the street corners and in the schools, and it is a topic of everyday discussion.
If the "we" team wants to forfeit that match, I'm willing to read Aeschylus'
Prometheus Vinctus, as being the easiest tragedy - both for my sake and the readers. As with the other texts, it will do as much to expose my ignorance as it will be an opportunity for GNT readers to engage with another extra-Biblical text. As things stand now, the reading of Xenophon
Oeconomicus will stop at chapter 6, but that won't neccessarily be in the the immediate future. Reading PV would only be using a school text with a bit of help though, and only a selection. I don't see that there would be any problem with running two or more readings in parallel. I see the forum as being less synchronous than the old board / list used to be, so people interested in the topics (in this case texts) could pick them up at any time in the future, even if they are posted now.
cwconrad wrote:For what it's worth (maybe as much as SH's comment?), reading the GNT often strikes my own sensibility the same way that a Sophoclean text does -- like a shimmering surface displaying some fresh aspect every time one looks back at the same lines.
A true reflection of our human condition that has remained unchanged and ever changing throughout our history.