Thursday, April 21, 2011

mind-bending

Anybody looking for a mind-bending experience should consider reading Columbus's diaries in their "original" Spanish.

["Original" because we don't have the originals; we have a compilation by Fr. Bartolome de las Casas. Also "original" because Columbus didn't have the greatest command of the Spanish language to begin with.]

I really have no idea what I will be teaching my kids for history. And the longer I'm in graduate school before I have kids, the more confusing this experience is guaranteed to be for all of us.

Right now I'm comfortable with something along the lines of "Before you were born, good and bad things happened." But I'm going to have to find a way to get more specific. The deconstructionists can't totally win this battle.

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