Short Notes

Updates from March, 2010 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Randall Short 12:00 am on March 27, 2010 Permalink  

  Seven Statements about Ignorance 

  

  A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.* ~Saul Bellow (1915–2005)

  

  Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. ~Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968)

  

  Genuine ignorance is more profitable because likely to be accompanied by humility, curiosity, and open-mindedness; while ability to repeat catch-phrases, cant terms, familiar propositions, gives the conceit of learning and coats the mind with a varnish waterproof to new ideas.* ~John Dewey (1859–1952)

  

  The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.* ~Sir William Osler (1849–1919)

  

  The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: Be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge. ~Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915)

  

  To be ignorant of one’s ignorance is the malady of ignorance. ~Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888)

  

  Nothing is worse than active ignorance. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)

   
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  Randall Short 1:00 am on March 16, 2010 Permalink  

  How to Write a Lot 

  My colleague and good friend, Joseph Poulshock, the editor of BeeOasis.com and professor of English Linguistics at Tokyo Christian University, loaned me How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing (Amazon), by Paul J. Silvia. It’s a good read so far (I’m only a couple of chapters into it).

  In chapter 2, the author debunks these “specious barriers to writing a lot”:

  • Lack of time
  • The need for more research
  • Lack of a good working environment
  • The need for inspiration

  Here are a few of the key points I took away from it.

  (1) Schedule your writing. Don’t try to find time to write, and don’t wait for the inspiration to hit. Instead, schedule time to write. Regularly. There are very, very few successful writers who don’t make and jealously keep appointments with themselves to write. Silvia humorously, but no doubt seriously, gives this advice (p. 15):

  If you don’t plan to make a schedule, gently close this book, clean it so it looks brand new, and give it as a gift to a friend who wants to be a better writer.

  (2) Schedule your “non-writing” writing. Let “writing” include every part of the writing process, from research to manuscript submissions. As long as you are doing something that you must do for your writing to be published, then you probably need not worry that this will become an excuse to put off the hard work of actually writing words, sentences, and paragraphs.

  The key point here is that you need to schedule the “non-writing” part of writing as much as the actual writing. And by scheduling it, too, you will free yourself from constantly wondering when you’ll “find” time for it (and from beating yourself up for not finding the time after all).

  

  Time Saving Truth from Falsehood and Envy (François Lemoyne, 1737)

  (3) Write first, and write free. Try morning writing appointments whether you’re a morning person or not. But whenever you schedule your writing, just do it. Don’t first check your email or your friends’ status updates. Do what you can to free yourself from online and offline distractions from start to finish. Another good line (p. 22):

  The best kind of self-control is to avoid situations that require self-control.

  Is there anything new here? If you’re any kind of a writer at all, then probably not. Then where is the value in it? Good question.

  For me, I think the benefit of reading a book like this comes primarily from acknowledging and affirming — and sometimes rejecting — certain ideas and disciplines together with Joe, who loaned me the book. Silvia’s book would still be helpful without that, but the added accountability makes it more enjoyable and effective for me.

  How about you? Any stories of writing success (or failure, for that matter) by adopting these and/or other work habits?

  Ryan is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Ryan 9:06 am on September 15, 2010 Permalink | Reply

    Great Advice, something that I have been doing recently too
    Basically what I
    1.do is do a bit of research into my topic
    2.write non stop for 10mins, without referencing anything, just write what it in my head, If I run out of things to write then I just write “I have run out of things to write….” and surprisingly you get back on topic, it is important to not stop for 10mins, dont stop to look at the clock or anything (set a timer)
    3.the following day edit what I wrote
    4.repeat, until satisfied
    never forgetting the 80/20 rule

    英会話　長野市

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  Randall Short 5:20 pm on March 13, 2010 Permalink  

  The Surprising Election and Confirmation of King David – Summary and Keywords 

  In my first post about my new book, I posted statements by a couple of well-known and a couple of anonymous biblical scholars. For my second post, I’d like to post here the summary that Harvard University Press used in their catalog (both online and in their Spring/Summer 2010 print catalog). It’s also the summary that vendors like Eisenbrauns and Amazon picked up (with lightning speed, I might add) when HUP started promoting my book online.

  THE SURPRISING ELECTION AND CONFIRMATION OF KING DAVID
  J. RANDALL SHORT
  Some of the best-known biblical episodes are found in the story of David’s rise to kingship in First and Second Samuel. Why was this series of stories included in the Bible?

  An answer that has become increasingly popular is that this narrative should be interpreted as the “apology of David,” that is, the personal justification of King David against charges that he illegitimately usurped Saul’s throne. Comparisons between “the History of David’s Rise” and the Hittite “Apology of Hattušili,” in particular, appear to support this view that the biblical account belongs to the genre of ancient Near Eastern royal apology.

  Having presented this approach, Randall Short argues that the biblical account has less in common with the Hittite apology than scholars have asserted, and he demonstrates how interpretive assumptions about the historical reality behind the text inform the meaning that these scholars discern in the text. His central contention is that this story should not be interpreted as the personal exoneration of David composed to win over suspicious readers. Rather, composed for faithful readers represented by David, the story depicts the dramatic confirmation of David’s surprising election through his gradual emergence as the beloved son of Jesse, Saul, all Israel, and YHWH Himself.

  

  The main purpose of a summary in a print catalog, of course, is to give readers a good idea of what the book is about. But online summaries have a purpose that is equally important. They draw people who are running searches on the key words and phrases to the website and let them know about the book in the first place.

  I would love to see what search strings bring people to my book’s site at Harvard University Press, Amazon, and the like. One problem with summaries, though, is that they don’t include — and can’t include without becoming nearly unreadable — many of the key terms and phrases that a lot of people among my intended readers are likely to be Googling and Binging.

  So, in the interests of reaching as wide an audience as possible, and hoping that you won’t be disappointed if your online search of any of the below terms brought you here, I offer a mini-index of keywords and phrases that somehow relate to my book. This, too, is rather limited, but I hope it’s skim-worthy and, more importantly, search-worthy.

  

  Interested in Any of the Following? Then please check out The Surprising Election and Confirmation of King David:
  
  Biblical figures and themes: King David, King Saul, the Prophet Samuel, Davidic Covenant, David’s Anointing, Divine Election, Divine Rejection, Davidic King and Kingdom, Kingship in Israel and Judah

  Texts and corpuses: Books of Samuel, Historical Books of the Bible, the Former Prophets, Nevi’im, Nebi’im, Historical Psalms, Tanakh, Masoretic Text (MT), Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS), Hebrew Bible, Old Testament; Samuel Commentary

  Critical sources, extra-biblical texts, etc.: History of David’s Rise (HDR), Apology of David, Ancient Israelite Royal Propaganda, Apology of Hattusili, Apology of Hattushilish, Hittite Empire, Ancient Near Eastern Apologies, ANE, Deuteronomist, Deuteronomistic, Dtr, Original Context, Final Form

  Modern Scholarly Approaches: Historical Critical Scholarship, Historical Criticism, Source Criticism, Redactional Criticism, Rhetorical Criticism, Ideological Criticism, Tradition Criticism, Canonical Criticism, Literary Criticism, Comparative Criticism, Theological Interpretation, Biblical Interpretation, Biblical Exegesis

  Scholars and works: P. Kyle McCarter, “The Apology of David” (JBL), and I Samuel (Anchor Bible); Baruch Halpern, David’s Secret Demons: Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King; Steven L. McKenzie, King David: A Biography; James W. Flanagan, David’s Social Drama: A Hologram of Israel’s Early Iron Age; Harry A. Hoffner, “Propaganda and Political Justification in Hittite Historiography.”

  AMBurgess, Randall Short, and Ed Gentry are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Ed Gentry 10:41 pm on March 13, 2010 Permalink | Reply

    Congratulations Randall. Well done. So yet another to add to my list of books to read.

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    Randall Short 11:36 am on March 14, 2010 Permalink | Reply

    Thanks, Ed! It’ll be an honor to be on an old friend’s reading list!

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    AMBurgess 4:36 am on May 1, 2010 Permalink | Reply

    I’m going to have to order this book, Randall. It looks great.