In the last Sondheim Symposium post, I talked about Giorgio struggling with Fosca's implacable love. If his reluctance to accept her unconditional love parallels the flinch away from grace, does it follow that Fosca is a Christ-like figure? Probably not. For a while after I saw the show, I suspected her of ostentatious humility. In fact, I hoped that some of her prostrations were insincere. She was starting to remind me of the awful, self-abnegating image of love on display in … [Read more...]
“Nobody human can stand all that everlasting affection!”
August 28, 2012 By 27 Comments
The quote is from Company, the subject is Passion, as the Sondheim Symposium goes on. This installment includes spoilers for 1984. At the climax of 1984, Winston is broken by the tortures in room 101. The moment that anihilates him and represents victory for Big Brother is the moment where he cries out: Do it to her! Do it to Julia! I don’t care what you do to her, but do it to her! Tear her face off! Do it to Julia, not to me! Do it to Julia! Not me! If this is betrayal, we might … [Read more...]
Morality in Multiple Dimensions
April 12, 2012 By 23 Comments
In college, I got into a lot of debates about moral relativism, cultural imperialism, and epistemological modesty. When we were picking fights, it was useful to be able to get a quick sense of your sparring partner's positions, and my friends and I had an easy way to do triage: During the British occupation of India, were the British imperialists right to condemn sati (the practise of burning widows alive on their husbands pyres)? Were they right to want to eliminate it? Were the … [Read more...]
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