Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸

@dbarthe

Episcopalian, DSA-er, Nigerian exiled to central PA, ace-gay 🏳️‍🌈. Trying to get my reading list under control. Average Weil enjoyer. Sondheim-pilled. For friends hold all things in common.

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Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Jun 24

They are saying this more and more

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Jan 2

After Mass today my mother took perhaps the single best picture there's ever been of me, so here's that I suppose

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Dec 31

From the beginning (Bring Up the Bodies by Hillary Mantel), middle (Rejections by Tony Tulathimutte, America América by Greg Grandin), and end (Big Fiction by Dan Sinykin) of the year.

Book jacket for Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies

Book jacket for Tony Tulathimutte's Rejections.

Book jacket for America, América by Greg Grandin.

Book jacket for Big Fiction by Dan Sinykin.

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Oct 17

Everything is terrible but I do get to make chocolate mousse for my whole house today (chocolate and cream melting together first!)

Chocolate and heavy cream melts together in a bain marie

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Oct 16

Watching the NYC mayors debate, ang I think Cuomo should be *VERY* careful about throwing around nepo baby allegations lmao

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Oct 13

One last thing before I close this thread. This passage from Simone Weil on attention and the challenge of the classics in education is a lodestone for my pedagogy:

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Oct 13

I love how this is stated in the Statement of the Program (in case you couldn't tell, I went to St. John's College in Santa Fe!)

From the Statement of the Program of St. John's College:

"The books speak to us in more than one way. In raising the persisting human questions, they lend themselves to different interpretations that reveal a variety of independent and yet complementary meanings. And while seeking the truth, they please us as works of art with a clarity and a beauty that reflect their intrinsic intelligibility. They are, therefore, properly called great, whether they are epic poems or political treatises, and whether their subject matter is scientific, historical, or philosophical. They are also linked together, for each of them is introduced, supported, or criticized by the others. In that sense they converse with each other, and they draw the readers to take part, within the limits of their abilities, in a large and continuing conversation.

This conversation, however, is unavoidably one-sided. The books can only repeat what they have to say, without furnishing the clarifications that we desire. To overcome this limitation is the goal of the St. John’s seminar."

2/3: From the Statement of the Program at St. John's:

"This conversation, however, is unavoidably one-sided. The books can only repeat what they have to say, without furnishing the clarifications that we desire. To overcome this limitation is the goal of the St. John’s seminar. Here a number of students of varied backgrounds, faced with a text that may present unfamiliar thoughts, attempt to discuss it reasonably. It is presupposed that the students are willing to submit their opinions to one another’s questions. The demands of the individual and those of the group are in continuous interplay, setting limits within which the discussion moves with the utmost possible freedom. The discussion may concern itself primarily with trying to establish the meaning of a poem or the validity of an argument. It may concern itself with more general or with very contemporary questions that thrust themselves forward. The students bring to the seminar the assumptions they have derived from their experience in the contemporary world. Through discussion they acquire a new perspective, which enables them to recognize both the sameness of a recurrent problem and the variety of its historical manifestations."

Statement of the Program posting concludes:

"Principally, however, the aim is to ascertain not how things were, but how things are—to help students gain understanding and make reasonable decisions in whatever circumstances they face. And it is the ultimate aim of the Program that the habits of thought and discussion thus begun by the students should continue with them throughout their lives."

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Oct 13

I mean, look at the joke that is the "Classical Learning Test", which is basically the SAT but with grammar questions and "based" passages from George Herbert and Teresa of Avila. In what way is this kind of standardization a meaningful challenge to the dominant paradigms in education?

A screenshot from a practice version of the Classical Learning Test, the "classical education" movement's answer to the SAT and ACT.

Questions from the verbal reasoning section of the Classical Learning Test.

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Oct 3

Went out yesterday to Rock Creek Park, walking and praying with the house in one of DC's most spectacular natural wonders. ⚓

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Sep 10

It seems the only appropriate register!

A still from "First Reformed" (2017). Ethan Hawke skulks past a white sign in front of his church, which reads "Will God Forgive Us?"

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Sep 8

Watching Brideshead Revisited (1981) for the first time, and my accent is *very* pleasant, thank you very much

A shot from Brideshead Revisited (1981), subtitled, "And beware of Anglo-Catholics. They are all sodomites"

A shot from Brideshead Revisited (1981), subtitled, "with unpleasant accents"

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Aug 25

Amanda Seyfried in First Reformed Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday Cate Blanchett (obviously) in TÁR

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Aug 25

This will be a long one: All four Oscar nominated actresses (esp. Bette Davis and Thelma Ritter) in All About Eve Brent Carver in Lilies Charles Melton in May/December Vivian Oparah in Rye Lane

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Aug 23

Evil daughters for the win

Ann Blyth (left) as Veda Pierce in 1942 Joan Crawford star vehicle "Mildred Pierce".

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Aug 20

You had to go to the Middle East to find Bertha Russell?

Carrie Coon as the nouvelle riche socialite Bertha Russell in "The Gilded Age", a show I love to hate. Bertha Russell insists on dressing and decorating her home like a deposed minor Hapsburg.

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Aug 6

Never forget that it won Best Musical at one of the most bizarre Tony Awards in history (justice for Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812)

A poster advertising the 2017 Tonys hosted by Kevin Spacey

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· May 22

Don't forget the classic: it is literally too confusing for the laity to have the Eucharist consecrated by a woman

Excerpt from Section V of Inter Intersignores, Pope Paul VI's 1976 encyclical that argues that priestly ministry is naturally, essentially male.

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Feb 16

Quote post with the fictional character you are in your head

Bronx public school teacher extraordinaire Dorothy Zbornak, "The Golden Girls"

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Feb 11

Because Angels are without substance they are not individuals. Every Angel is a species. You know I went to Rome? Italian men don't wear beards! I won't try to *convert* you; I'm not a missionary. In fact I'm a bit of a heresy myself. (this has become a Pope Joan stan account)

Pope Joan, in the 2019 National Theatre Production of Caryl Churchill's feminist masterpiece "Top Girls"

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Jan 7

It's nearly Ordinary Time, which means I'm once again open to gentleman callers (aka it's back to the apps 🙃)

Laurey and the Gentleman Caller, a scene from the Arizona Theater Company's excellent production of "The Glass Menagerie" I got to see last year

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Nov 29

Listen to that. WILL YOU LISTEN TO THAT???? -"It's A Hit", Merrily We Roll Along

Top 0.1 percent of Sondheim listeners worldwide BAYBEEE

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Oct 30

It's giving

The ignominious cake scene from Red, White and Royal Blue (2023)

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Oct 24

The mistress of the house is unimpressed by my musings on unequal exchange theory and the political economy of climate change

My landlord's cat is rightly unimpressed by my work.

Fije D.B 🇳🇬 🇵🇸@dbarthe· Oct 13

SIR YOU ARE A DENTIST