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<< Moretti Responds (II) | Front Page | Totality and the Genes of Literature >>
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Devil Finds Work For Able Hands
Posted by John Holbo on 01/15/06 at 08:10 PM
Hope no one minds a pause in the Moretti proceedings. Scott has an interesting list of ‘proverbs for English teachers’, from 1943:
• The best English teacher is the one who knows the most about everything else.
• Great English does not come from below the elbow.
• Every class is an English class.
• Meet increased teaching load with increased pupil responsibility.
• Every class is an examination, and every examination is a class.
• Man has capitalized woman’s curiosity as scientific research.
• English must first of all communicate ...
Scott wonders about ‘below the elbow’. It so happens I know of another appearance of this idiom, from 1944. From Orwell’s essay on Dali:
And suppose that you have nothing in you except your egoism and a dexterity that goes no higher than the elbow; suppose that your real gift is for a detailed, academic, representational style of drawing, your real métier to be an illustrator of scientific textbooks. How then do you become Napoleon?
There is always one escape: into wickedness.
I have one question: I understand “every examination a class,” & I try to do this, but what does “every class an examination” mean? How would you do it? Are we talking about something like the French 20 point system? Why would you do it?
I suppose the point is that everyone ought to be made to participate, Lawrence. For my part, I’m just wondering whether everyone will be able to tell which comment, by Beavis, about which Tool video, I was thinking about when I wrote this post.
Not that I remember, or will admit to, but didn’t Beavis say something like “If I could move my arms that fast, I’d never leave the house”? (Yet another comment full of substance from Y.T.)
And Scott wins the prize!
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