The Blonde Brunette

All my non-existent readers out there may have noticed that I haven't exactly been updating regularly lately. I've decided to start writing again, and in a fit of decisiveness I've moved to a new blog where I will hopefully have more luck posting on a daily basis. Check me out here: Peppermint Tea.

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I'd like to thank everyone who helped me win this award: my mother, my brother, my dog, the guy that makes the wonderful fried ice cream in the cafeteria, the...



You are a GRAMMAR GOD!


If your mission in life is not already to
preserve the English tongue, it should be.
Congratulations and thank you!


How grammatically sound are you?
brought to you by Quizilla


I knew all those grammar classes would pay off some day!

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You are glucose. People feed off of you. You are
sweet, caring, and a source of energy for
everyone around you. You can inspire others
with your creativity and depth, and you can
keep people alive when in times of famine.
People love you...or at least the way you
taste.


Which Biological Molecule Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla


Isn't that cute?

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Jane Tompkins discusses one of the greatest problems faced by historians today, that of biased sources, in her essay "'Indians': Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History". As she attempted to research American colonial history, she could not discover a source that did not somehow distort the facts to fit their viewpoint. Settlers that sought to discourage further settlement wrote to their relatives not to come to America, for it was full of vicious and bloodthirsty Indians; others who wanted further settlement described the Native Americans as childlike and ignorant, in need of evangelism. Every account of the events differs slightly, depending on the perspective of the author. Yet these are our only sources of what really happened!

I firmly agree with Tompkins's criticism of perspectivism in history. "The notion that all facts are only facts within a perspective has the effect of emptying statements of their content. Once I had Miller and Vaughan and Jennings, Martin and Hudson, Axtell and Heard, Rowlandson and Wood and Whitaker, and Kupperman; I had Europeans and Indians, ships and canoes, wigwams and log cabins, bows and arrows and muskets, wigs and tattoos, whiskey and corn, rivers and forts, treaties and battles, fire and blood--and then suddenly all I had was a metastatement about perspectives. The effect of bringing perspectivism to bear on history was to wipe out completely the subject matter of history." She emphasizes that, no matter how much the accounts may differ, a certain event DID happen. The facts exist somewhere; we're just going to have to find someway to divide the bias from the truth in historical accounts. She admits that she cannot think of a way to do this, that a sort of Scientific Method is needed for history but she has no idea how to go about formulating one. But she insists that just because we cannot yet separate the warp of bias from the fabric of facts, does not mean we should just throw in the towel and insist that every account is equally true and valid. This kind of postmodernist thinking, the belief that an ultimate truth does not exist, will destroy the study of history.

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I had the distinct pleasure to be introduced to Stephen Vincent's blog today. He writes wonderfully well; I particularly enjoyed his series of posts on the bubble-blowing man he made in September. This homeless man, he says, sits day by day and blows bubbles. After a few days of pondering the reasons for the incessant bubble-blowing, the author thereorizes that the homeless man is performing a sort of vigil for the dead. The land where he sits was once the site of the massacre of Native Americans, and later a group of Jews were murdered there as well. The bubbles symbolize their souls, whom he is releasing back "into the hemisphere".

Of course, no factual summary can accurately capture the impact of poetry such as his. And my summary has left out the heart and soul of Stephen Vincent's prose: his beautiful language. His compassion for the homeless also shines through loud and clear.

I think I'll come back and read more from this fascinating blog in the future.

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Thought this one was cute, too. I love Internet quizzes. They're less completely inaccurate than horoscopes, and so, so interesting.

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And, on a completely unrelated topic, Helen describes the Perfect Guy...and guys react. I love this one: "Knows that my money is, indeed, my money. And while his money is (in theory) his money, it can become my money without provocation."

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I'm thinking this sounds like a really fun project. But then again, do I really need to be writing a novel during Research Paper Month? Probably not. Maybe if a certain teacher ::coughs delicately:: would offer extra credit... :P

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