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In This Issue:
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Back in Black
- blah blah blah
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A Year to
Remember: 1859
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Quotables
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Survey Says
Back in Black
by Fannetta Jones
title
by Alex Nall
A Year to Remember: 1859
by Noelle Templeton
1859 was a significant year for the world. Billy the
Kid was born, Alexis de Tocqueville died, Londoners heard Big Ben’s
first chimes, and Oregon joined the Union. Dickens published
A Tale of Two Cities,
and as we all know, Darwin’s
Origin of the Species
was released as well, but the Darwinpalooza event held on Thursday,
February 18, concentrated on three other works that were published
that year. Students, faculty, and staff crowded into the Highlander
Room to see Professors Simon Cordery, Rob Hale, and Dick Johnston
present three different pieces of literature and their significance
in 1859.
  Associate
Professor of History Simon Cordery began the discussion by
explaining the world in 1859 was transitioning from the early to the
mid-Victorian era. He briefly addressed the political and
technological advancements taking place that year before drawing our
attention to an important literary work: Samuel Smiles’
Self-Help.
Smiles, who also worked as a doctor, newspaper editor, and secretary
for the railways, used his book to encourage individualistic
behavior and the development of character, two important features
during the rise of labor unions and the Industrial Revolution.
  Next
to address the crowd was our very own Rob Hale; he began with a
review and then plot summary of George Eliot’s
Adam Bede,
also known as the “Masterpiece of the Century.”
Bede,
a story of unrequited love, class disparity, and tragedy, represents
three dominant virtues from the highlighted year: realism,
morality, and freedom. Like Smiles, Eliot wrote of individual
freedom and secular, rather than religious, morality.
  Last
to take the podium was Dick Johnston, Associate Professor of
Political Economy and Commerce. His explication of
On Liberty
by John Stuart Mill included similar themes highlighted by the
previous two speakers, namely freedom, individuality, and morality.
Mill encouraged expressing opinions, challenging the status quo, and
learning from one’s mistakes.
Darwin and his contemporary shared values and practices, as
Professor Hale identified. All four writers were interested in
close observation, embraced secular morality, practiced
free-thinking skepticism while encouraging individualism, and
despite interacting in elite, intellectual circles, they had a
common interest in the disadvantaged. Even 151 years after the
publication of their works, the ideas of Smiles, Eliot, Mill, and
Darwin are strongly influential.
Quotables
 "Happiness
is not a potato, to be planted
in mould, and tilled with manure."
(Charlotte Bronte’s
Villette) –Rob
Hale
"This here
the colored matron Brandy and her friends call her Thudnerbuns. She
do not play. She do not smile. So we shut up and watch the simple
ass picture." - (Toni Cade Bambara's "Gorilla,
My Love") –Danny Weber
 “Experience
was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their
mistakes” (Oscar Wilde's
The Picture of Dorian Gray)
-Noelle Templeton
Survey Says!!!!
What would you title
your autobiography?
I Just Wanted a Place to Sit Down: How the English Major Led to My Career in
Writing by Danny Weber
 Going
Rogue
by Kayt Griffith
Oh wait...has
that already been taken?? Darn.
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Support your peers
in the production of The Homecoming February 25-28 in
the W.I.T. located in the basement of HT. Tickets are
only $4 for MC students, faculty, and staff.
