Some documentation to work with

As promised, I've posted the excerpts from the first set of "markable" comments on reading A Journal on the Web site. There are a number of pretty interesting ones; have a look.

But what I'd like to focus on today are the postings put up in response to the assignment last time, to "find and read at least one critical comment on or characterization of the Journal that you think worth thinking about -- because it's illuminating, because it's wrong, because it raises an important issue. It should have some scholarly weight -- that is, it should have been written by someone, or published in a context that, inspires trust (or at least taking seriously)." As I said in an email last night, I've found these uncommonly enlightening, and I'd like, if possible, to use them as ways to focus what we might talk about in class today. I hope everyone has had a chance to read them. I've got a couple of hard copies, and I'll give everybody a few minutes to refresh your memory, and then invite anybody who'd like to to direct our attention to one of the postings.

For next time, let's go back to the actual text

I'm assuming most people will have been able to read the rest of A Journal of the Plague Year; if not, take another run at it. As you do, watch for a passage -- a paragraph or so in length, not more than a page -- that you think we should all talk about. If you already finished reading it, go back and find a likely passage. Copy it and paste the text into a posting on the forum we've been using, along with a sentence saying why you think it would be worth talking about.

Down the line

On Wednesday we'll be deciding what to read next. My expectation is that people will read various things, but you should be thinking about what, in light of what we're learning about how he worked and what kinds of work he did, it would be most useful to know more about.