text:
Bitcoin ATM Lincolnwood - Coinhub
Coinhub Bitcoin ATM in Lincolnwood, IL
You can instantly buy bitcoin with cash at our Coinhub Bitcoin ATM Near me in Lincolnwood, Illinois. Coinhub offers $25,000 per day limits and the lowest rates for Bitcoin. Bitcoin ATMs (Automated Teller Machine) are kiosks that allow a person to purchase Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies by using cash. Bitcoin cash kiosks look like traditional ATMs, but do not connect to a bank account and instead connect the user directly to a Bitcoin wallet or exchange. Coinhub Bitcoin machines are easy to use and allow buying at our btc atm to be fast and instant. If you're using a Coinhub Bitcoin Machine near me, you can definitely get cash from it. Many Coinhub Bitcoin ATMs of digital currency machines allow you to both buy AND sell crypto for cash. You can buy Bitcoin using one our Bitcoin ATMs. First, locate the nearest Bitcoin ATM in your area by visiting our Coinhub Bitcoin ATM Locator. The daily buying limit is $25,000 per person. Please contact us if you want to buy with more money. Coinhub Bitcoin ATMs allow you to purchase bitcoin with cash and receive it instantly shortly after purchase at our Bitcoin ATM. Coinhub is the easiest way to buy Bitcoin online or locally. We have Bitcoin Machines conveniently placed throughout the country in major cities! Bitcoin is sent instantly to your wallet upon purchase. For purchases over $2,000.00, all you need is a phone and cash. You can finish a transaction in less than two minutes!
Could not get description: No results found for Lincolnwood, Il


text:
Pick up and deliver freight between Service Centers and customers and support the selling process.
1. Operate tractor-trailer combination, including doubles (and triples, where applicable) and/or straight trucks
2. Perform daily pre-trip and safety inspections on equipment
3. Hook/unhook trailers and converter dollies to/from a tractor and/or trailer
4. Perform freight handling using appropriate motorized and manual equipment, including but not limited to: forklift, pallet jack and hand truck
5. Secure freight inside trailers using appropriate tools and supplies, including but not limited to: pallets, straps and rope
6. Recoup/repair damaged freight when necessary
7. Verify and complete required documentation and reports
8. Comply with hazardous material regulations and procedures
9. Collect cash or checks for freight charges, as required, and maintain required documentation
10. Follow dispatch instructions and communicate with dispatch as required, including but not limited to: delays, arrivals and equipment problems
11. Communicate with customers to determine pick-up or delivery needs and solicit additional business
12. Demonstrate internal and external customer service
13. Ask for additional business from customers, and provide leads to sales for potential new opportunities
14. May be required to perform chaining of vehicle tires
15. May be required to perform job duties of a road driver or a dock employee where operationally necessary
16. Comply with all applicable laws/regulations, as well as company policies/procedures
17. Perform other duties as required
This job description is general in nature and is not designed to contain or to be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required of employees assigned to the job.
• Must possess a class A Commercial Driver's License (CDL) with double/triple, hazardous materials and tank endorsements
• Must possess one (1) year experience within most recent three (3) years or successful completion of FedEx Freight Driver Development Course
• Must possess acceptable Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) based on hiring standards
• Must meet all Department of Transportation (DOT) regulatory requirements under section 391 of the Federal Motor Carrier (FMC) regulations
• Long combination vehicles (LCV) (i.e. Triple Trailers, Rocky Mountain Doubles, and Turnpike Doubles) are operated in the states of AZ, CO, FL, ID, IN, KS, MT, ND, NV, OH, OK, OR, SD and UT. LCV Drivers in these states must meet the Long Combination Vehicles (LCV) Qualification and Certification Minimum Standards
• Ability to count and perform basic math, with or without a calculator
• Basic written and verbal communication skills (documentation, communication with peers, supervisors, etc.)
• Ability to lift/carry hand freight weighing up to 100 pounds several times a week.
• Ability to sit for extended periods of time, bend, twist, squat, climb in and out of truck
• Ability to follow instructions and complete required training
• Ability to work independently and/or as a team member
• Drive throughout shift on all types of roads and in all types of weather
• Exposure to noise and vibration
• Exposure to dust and diesel fumes
• Exposure to hazardous materials shipped and packaged under DOT regulations
• Hours may vary due to operational need

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Happy Independence Day! Today be sure to grill out, eat lots of food and light off incredible fireworks. Yet the Fourth of July can also be a time for self-reflection and honoring the servicemen and women who have given themselves for our country.
Independence Day celebrates the United States' sovereignty, culture and freedom. You can be a part of that by taking advantage of these 5 ideas to honor our nation's troops.
1. Help out a military family.
When it comes to freedom, our military families know the cost. They've given up their loved ones to stand on the front lines and protect us. This Fourth of July, let a military family in your community know that their sacrifice is valued and appreciated.
Find a family near you to help out and give back to through food, time or basic essentials. Let this be a chance to connect with those in your community and celebrate with the families who understand that freedom isn't free.
2. Send a soldier a care package.
Sending care packages and letters to our troops overseas is a great way to celebrate U.S. independence and give back. Our soldiers have given so much of themselves for us; now is the time to share our gratefulness with them.
Different organizations that help send troops letters and care packages include anysoldier.com, adoptaplatoon.org and thehugsproject.com. Instill in your family a sense of gratitude and patriotism, while brightening the day of those who need it most.
3. Explore United States history.
A lot has happened in the U.S. since the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. As Abraham Lincoln said, "If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it."
This Independence Day, take time to explore some of the history in the United States. Not only will you learn more about where we come from, but you'll gain a higher sense of patriotism, respect and honor for where we are and where we're going.
4. Volunteer for a local cause.
There are a variety of volunteering opportunities available during the Fourth of July season. Whether it's as simple as running a fireworks stand, or helping to host a parade in your community, getting involved locally honors those around you and those overseas.
By volunteering, not only do you give back to fellow community members, but you respect the cause and mission our troops support. If you're looking for something to get involved in, try checking out volunteermatch.org for Independence Day ideas.
5. Spend time with your family.
Finally, be sure to spend quality time with your family this Fourth of July. There are many servicemen and women who can't be with their families today, or who never made it home. You can honor them by valuing the time that you have with your loved ones.
Celebrate the holiday with those you care about by doing more than lighting off fireworks. Read a short story about the origin of Independence Day, give gratitudes for what you're most thankful for and talk about how you can continue to live a patriotic life.
The Fourth of July is a uniquely American tradition. Today, celebrate our freedom by honoring those who payed the price for us. Give back and commemorate the United States' life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.


text:
Arthritis describes a condition of inflamed and swollen joints. Advanced arthritis results in the painful breakdown of cartilage – the body's natural cushion between bones.
Arthritis symptoms range from being merely an inconvenience to completely disabling, depending on the type and the severity. It falls into two broad categories:
Osteoarthritis: Often described as the "wear and tear" type of arthritis, osteoarthritis is a problem of the cartilage, the tissue that provides cushioning and lubrication between bones. With age and use, cartilage can break down and the bones will rub against one another without protection. That causes stiffness, pain and limited mobility in the joints.
Rheumatoid arthritis: Rheumatoid arthritis is caused by long-term inflammation of the lining of the joints. The inflammation damages the joint tissue. That can cause pain and disability. The causes of rheumatoid arthritis are not well understood. However each year brings new hope for victims – as drug therapy, joint protection and exercise techniques improve.
Inpatient rehabilitation therapy can make a real difference and enhance other forms of treatment. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control recommends rigorous physical activity for arthritis. Although there isn't yet a cure, our arthritis inpatient rehabilitation program and services can enhance medical treatment, focused on:
By demonstrating compliance with The Joint Commission's national standards for healthcare quality and safety, our hospital is accredited by The Joint Commission.
Read More »
Join us for a virtual tour of our hospital where you will see our patient rooms, exercise facilities, and more. You can also set up a personal tour by calling our hospital.
Learn more »
You don't want to say you enjoy a hospital stay because certainly you don't enjoy it, but I knew he was well cared for.
Other patient testimonials »


text:
Find AA meetings in Mantua Township, New Jersey to help you on your road to recovery. Our comprehensive directory of AA meetings in New Jersey includes open, closed, speaker, and other specialized meetings, all of which are designed to help you get sober and remain sober.
Get Help With Alcohol Addiction
Talk To Someone Now
Call toll free to:
- Find meetings near you
- Discover online or in person meetings
- Get 24 hour information on addiction
All calls are 100% confidential
Calls are forwarded to these paid advertisers


text:
For Ali Qizilbash, getting back behind the wheel for work has been difficult not only depressing, but scary in the days since January 18.
That was the day he found out that his close friend and colleague, Khalil Saddiqi, had been found dead at the corner of Princess Street and Buchanan Street.
The murder occurred just after midnight, only two days before the inauguration and is even more startling because, according to Alexandria Police, the buildup to January 20 was much quieter than they had expected.
Police said they are looking at robbery as a possible motive in the case and that no witnesses have come forward yet. It is estimated that about $100 was stolen from the victim.
Siddiqi, 50, and Qizilbash, both emigrated from Pakistan and started working at the Alexandria Yellow Cab about five years ago.
In the time since, the two men grew close and were in nearly constant contact with one another on and off the job, making it even more trying now for Qizilbash to go about picking up fares around the region.
I could not get back to work for three days, and even after that I hardly worked the next day, Qizilbash said. Its very depressing.
Qizilbash last spoke to Saddiqi on the afternoon of January 17, and only found out about his friends death the next morning when another friend called with the news.
He was such a very, very nice man. He was always there, Qizilbash said. I feel as if my brother has gone away.
Saddiqi, the sole breadwinner of his household, lived in Fairfax County and leaves behind a wife and three children. Two of the children attend Thomas Edison High School while the youngest is in middle school, according to Kyle Summers, general manager of Alexandria Yellow Cab.
Between this case and an instance a few months before on Duke Street, in which another driver was robbed, many drivers try to avoid working at night, Qizilbash said.
Believe me, now, if I have to pick up someone, Im so careful, so careful, Qizilbash said. Im a lot more awake to what sort of people are out there and not afraid to pass someone if Im not comfortable.
Violence and threats of violence against cab drivers are rare in Alexandria, and no witnesses have stepped forward yet. But Yellow Cab is looking into having cameras installed in every vehicle, according to Summers, who began working at Yellow Cab two years ago.
In addition, Alexandria Yellow Cab is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone with information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the case and is asking anyone with information to contact Alexandria Police.
While it is clear that Saddiqis death most directly and viscerally affects his family, close friends and fellow taxi drivers, it has also struck a chord with those who may otherwise never have known his name.
Two separate fundraising efforts to benefit Saddiqis family are underway. One, through Alexandria Yellow Cab, has raised more than $2,000, according to Summers. Donations to this fund can be made via PayPal, to firstname.lastname@example.com.
The other effort, led by Patricia Figliola, a Del Ray resident, grew out of the relationship that exists between the proprietors of Old Towns restaurants and bars, their patrons and the cab drivers who help to get them home safe.
The patrons depend on the cab drivers to get them around and [the restaurant and bar owners] rely on the patrons, so its part of a symbiotic relationship, Figliola said. Old Town wouldnt be the place it is without the cabs.
Figliola said she found out about Saddiqis murder from another cab driver during a ride to Old Town on January 20 and was hit hard by the reality of the situation without knowing if Saddiqi had ever helped her get from Point A to Point B especially for the cab drivers who help Alexandrians get around.
Theyre so good to the people who ride around with them, and to have that happen it was just a big blow, Figliola said. I felt like the community should do something to help the family and to show the cab drivers solidarity, that we support them and we dont want to tolerate something like this.
The event being organized by Figliola was planned for February 2 at the Fish Market in Old Town, but will in all likelihood be postponed until Saddiqis family returns to the area after visiting family.
Figliola said that any questions about the fundraiser or donations can be sent to email@example.com.


text:
Custom Plywood Door Front
Lead time: 4-8 Weeks
Product Description
The Custom Plywood Door Front. To be combined with other products in our range or as an upgrade/replacement option to your existing kitchen carcus or storage units. Popular as an Ikea Kitchen Upgrade.
Product Details
What happens after I order?
For custom products, our design team will review your order and get everything designed for your approval. We will provide an email to confirm your design within 5 working days.
This gives you a chance to check all the dimensions, colours, and details and request revisions if necessary. Upon approval, your order will be sent to production and no further changes are possible.
For minor revisions we simply make the changes, for any major revisions, we will review the product costs and issue an additional payment request if necessary.
Returns & Refunds
As our products are individually made to measure/made to order they cannot be returned or refunded. Please read our full policy here
Turnaround times may vary during particularly busy periods, however, we generally deliver products within the timeframes stated.
Please note the turnaround time is from approval of drawings and NOT the order date.
Our delivery methods include both a standard courier services and a private courier service.
A standard courier service (DPD, TNT etc.) is usually used to deliver smaller items with a weight limit of 30kg and a maximum length of 1.5m per parcel. A delivery can comprise multiple parcels with no limit on total weight.
A private courier service is usually used to deliver larger or heavier items. This could be where one of your parcels is more than the 30kg limit, the 1.5m maximum length or for orders with a large number of items.
Both our delivery services are usually made by one person and is a front door delivery only. Therefore if you order includes a large item you may be required to provide some help to the driver.
For our private courier, we can only offer limited dates. Also, please note that delivery restrictions may apply for addresses in some locations (i.e. the far corners of UK).
All of our products have been designed to enable easy self-assembly and instructions are provided.
An assembly service may be available. If so then these will be shown as an option on the product page or you can request a quote for this service.


text:
Who are the cash house buyers in Orlando Florida?
You've seen the "we buy houses in Orlando" and "cash for houses" signs all around town when you're driving around… even in other cities across Florida… so who are these cash house buyers in Orlando Florida? Are they legit? How does it work? Who should I trust? We'll dive into these questions here in this … Continued


text:
Tickets for Houston, TX Events
Ticketability.com is a trusted online ticket exchange offering a vast selection of tickets for Houston, TX events at affordable prices. We have been able to maintain our competitive edge in the secondary market by focusing on affordability, reliability, and availability. Ticket prices for Houston, TX events can vary significantly between providers, but at Ticketability.com, we are dedicated to keeping our bottom line price among the very lowest.
Savings Code for Houston, TX Events: COUPON
Find & Buy Affordable Tickets for Houston, TX Events at Ticketability.com
Houston, TX event tickets are fun items to obtain because they allow entry to wonderful theater shows, concert performances and sports games. But the fun ceases if high prices have to be paid. It is possible to find Houston, TX event tickets at lower costs that will save money to be used on other items, such as more event tickets.
Online ticket brokers can offer certain advantages when obtaining seats for different festivities. Due to large inventories available online with a wide selection from which to choose, it is a relatively simple process to find Houston, TX event tickets that are exactly what is needed. It is also an easy process to buy tickets online and have them shipped out promptly to any specified address. Secure websites ensure that confidential information will always be protected. Many times, online customers will be able to buy event tickets that might be sold out elsewhere. Another benefit is the ability to receive tickets promptly when last minute orders are placed.
Houston, TX event tickets are selling quickly for many happenings taking place throughout the year. Regardless of what appeals, there is an event to match every taste. Ticket brokers offering a wide range of prices for seats can accommodate every wallet, even when the entertainment budget is limited. Those who want to take part in entertaining events will be able to do just that when they have a great selection of tickets priced affordably waiting for them to browse through and obtain.
When online shoppers find the tickets that suit their budgets and requirements for entertainment, they can have their tickets sent right out to them without the need to run all over town. This is especially accommodating for busy individuals who have tight schedules. Even if seats are found for an event that is right around the corner, same day delivery ensures that tickets will arrive in time.
Online brokers provide security, great selection, and ease in shopping. All Houston, TX event tickets will come with a satisfaction guarantee, and all major credit cards are usually accepted. Customer service representatives will be on hand to provide needed information and answer questions. If an event is ever cancelled for whatever reason, a refund is given. Patrons shopping online for tickets to sports games, theater productions and a variety of concerts can be assured of finding what they want easily and save money in the process.
A new year has begun, and that means a new assortment of events will be scheduled to take place. Now is the time to check inventories and buy Houston, TX event tickets online for upcoming shows and games that are of interest. Life comes with a variety of stresses and frustrations. It can be so fulfilling to have entertaining events to attend in between the responsibilities of everyday living. Even the kids can attend family-oriented events with Mom and Dad, and celebrations such as birthdays and anniversaries will be more enjoyable through the gift of event tickets. This can be the year for the best in entertainment.


text:
Lapeer Furniture & Mattress Center (We, Our, Us) is a home furnishings retailer in the Flint, Michigan area. Our website aims to create an easy, informative, and enjoyable online shopping environment that enables our customers to access a large selection of home furnishings, find any information necessary to make an educated purchase, receive premier local customer service, and satisfy all furniture needs in a one-stop shopping environment. We strive to provide the best home furnishings experience in the area and believe trust is a core piece of that experience.
The goal of this Privacy Policy is to clearly communicate how we collect, use, and protect any personal data gathered from this website. By using our website, you consent to the terms of this Privacy Policy. This policy applies to any personal information that may have been collected in the past and is already in our files. We may change or add to this policy, so you may want to review it periodically. We will provide further notice if we update the policy in a way that vastly impacts your privacy rights.
Our website may collect information such as personal data, browser and device data, 3rd party data, and data that helps us understand how you use our website. This data allows us to understand our market needs, provide a personalized shopping experience, respond to customer questions, and process online orders. List of personal information we may collect:
Collecting customer data allows us to give you the services, products, and experience you deserve with a modern business. It allows us to get the best understanding of our customer base, helping us select products and services that best suit the majority of our customers. We may use the information in multiple ways. We may also use third party services to help us collect and use your information, and we encourage you to visit their privacy policy to learn more about their privacy practices.
We use customer information to communicate with you about product inquiries, fulfill and process online orders, respond to customer service requests, schedule deliveries, schedule appointments, or respond to any other business questions, comments, or suggestions.
We use customer information to implement our marketing and advertising strategy. This can include, but isn't limited to, emails, texts, post mail, online advertisement, and other time-sensitive information regarding our sales and store events that you may be interested in. Most online marketing or advertising campaigns can either be opted out of or blocked.
We may use customer information to provide you with a catered shopping experience including highlighting products and styles on the website that you have shown interest in, or provide you with advertisements or other marketing communications such as email, that include products you have expressed interest in.
We may use customer information to fulfill the purpose of a special event, including but not limited to, surveys, contests, community events, and in-store experiences. Such events may include additional statements regarding how the event handles customer information.
We may use customer information to analyze how customers are using our website and make changes and improvements to provide a better website experience, minimize errors, discover new trends, analyze product performance, prevent fraud and harm, research our customer base, and perform other business needs.
Lapeer Furniture & Mattress Center works with a variety of companies to provide you with a well-rounded shopping experience. We may share certain personal information with marketing partners, social media companies, or third parties who provide services to you or us to carry out our business or to comply with a legal obligation.
We use third parties to provide services to you and us including, but not limited to, managing customer information, sending marketing communications, processing payments, fulfilling orders, analytics, and displaying advertisements.
We may include social media tools for websites such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. These tools may collect information about you such as what pages you have visited and your IP address. You may also log in to your customer account using your Facebook or Google account credentials, and by doing so you are authorizing the sharing of information in connection with the social media account.
We may disclose information about you, if necessary, to comply with laws or regulations, legal processes, litigation, or government requests. Additionally, in the event of a reorganization, merger, or sale we may transfer any and all personal information to the acquiring entity.
If you would like to access or update some of your contact information, you can do so in the following ways:
If you do not wish to continue to receive promotional emails from us, you may contact us using the "How to Contact Us" section below to request to be unsubscribed from our email marketing lists. At any time, you may also unsubscribe from promotional emails via the unsubscribe link provided in each promotional email you receive. Unsubscribing from email marketing does not apply to operational emails such as order confirmation emails, inquiry submission emails, etc.
Some web browsers offer Do Not Track (DNT) functionality which can signal to websites that a user does not want their online activity to be tracked. Currently there is no uniform or consistent way for a website to respond or recognize a DNT signal. Please note that at this time, our website does not respond to DNT signals.
We have implemented reasonable safeguards to help ensure that information collected on the website is secure. We have put in place a variety of technical and administrative security measures such as https to help protect you and your personal information. However, there is no guarantee that any e-commerce solution, website, or database is completely secure. You are responsible for taking precautions best suited for you to protect your personal information against unauthorized disclosure or misuse.
Third parties are vendors outside of our website that provide products or services to maintain and improve the website and customer shopping experience. We may collect information that is provided by third parties such as demographic or location data, and our website may contain links to third party websites or services. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third parties, but are governed by their own privacy policies. We encourage you to learn about the privacy practices of those third parties by visiting the privacy policy on their website.
We never knowingly collect or maintain information on our website from children that are under the age of 13, and no part of our website is directed to anyone under 13. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will take reasonable steps to delete the personal information as soon as possible.
If you are a California Resident, you have additional rights under the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) regarding collected personal information. These rights include:
To exercise your right to request disclosure of information collected or sold, to request disclosure of specific information collected about you, or to request personal information collected about you be deleted, please contact us online or call this number: 810-732-9154. We will respond within 45 days of receipt of the request, and we may need to request additional information to verify the identity of the requesting party.
Get in touch with one of our locations if you have any questions or would like additional information about this policy or anything else on our website.


text:
Thursday, July 06, 2006
for 7/7: outside King's Cross
I took this photo a year ago, shortly after the London bombings. The flag had been placed near a memorial garden that blossomed in front of the train station. Shortly afterwards I was in Leeds, arriving on the very day of the Beeston raids. An uneasiness from these events hung over the International Medieval Congress, but I can't say what effects the apprehension had on the work of scholars gathered there. [And by that I mean what historicists have staked their careers upon: the pasts we imagine cannot fail to be marked by the present, so much the more when we inhabit troubled times. Present calamity sends shock waves in every direction, a temporal backwash that can change profoundly the history we know. "The Flow of Blood in Medieval Norwich" was a 9/11 project, even though it never mentions the present world.]
Not coincidentally, I'll soon be posting a review of Peter Haidu's The Subject Medieval/Modern: Text and Governance in the Middle Ages, a book that examines violence in medieval texts and modern theory.
28 comments:
It is surely impossible to escape the present in the past. The question is what you do with it.
The idea that the 'past is a foreign country' can be immensely powerful in critically debating ideas of 'us and them' - and remoter periods of 'our' history (like the middle ages) can be especially valuable in that respect. Of course it can also be salient to discover how many assumptions of modern social norms are grounded in past historical circumstances that were anything but natural (not just in the fields of race, sexuality, gender and personal identity - but also in attitudes to labour, markets, the environment, war, the state and so much else). It is a crime to leave the past to politicians - and politicians will always exploit the past.
A recent BBC (?) poll here suggested that History is more popular than football. When it's that powerful we ignore it at our peril! (But maybe the US is different?)
It's interesting to me, this talk of the past and the present, amounting to rootedness in time and space, the temporal, the local, the seen in history, and in the physical world.
Maslow felt such talk yielded D-Cognition (Deficiency-Cognition), precisely what interferes with the creation of a fully human future. I wonder if he wasn't on to something. - 2:49 PM
I don't think that you can easily apply 'deficiency cognition' or 'being cognition' to large fields of knowledge and experience involving millions of diverse users of the past, since (so far as I can see) Maslow's approach is grounded in the 'ego' and personal perceptions.
How people use the past (and need the past) will surely be as various as how they need and use food or money.
I agree that it is an interesting idea to play with in relation to some users of the past, however.
On a lighter note 'being cognition' is surely also a matter of life-cycle. At least many cultures associate growing age with changing needs and perceptions of need.
I have merely go my Maslow up through the power of Google - please tell me I am all wrong!
Maslow himself never avoided characterizing groups, societies, or cultures as having either B- or D-cognition. Indeed, he was deeply invested in Benedict's notion of the synergistic society.
Furthermore, Maslow was rather fond of sketching the characteristics of (indeed, generalizing about) diverse professional groups: most famously, biologists, psychologists, and artists.
I don't know if D-Cognition applies here--it was something to think about. One might note the conspicuous absence of the future in most medievalism--chockfull of the past and, more recently, the present, but light on the future.
But one thing I am certain Maslow would have found consistent with D-Cognition is an approach to history that frames it in terms of "use." Usefulness is a D-Value, whereas seeing history not as something to be used (or needed) but rather as something intrinsically interesting for its own sake is consistent with B-Cognition. (See, e. g., ch. 20, "Further Notes on COgnition" in The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, as well as ch. 6 of Toward a Psychology of Being.) - 4:22 PM
Hmm - for the synergetic society to work in relation to the past I think that you would have to break your user groups down into quite small entities. So I am not sure how useful it would become in the end.
Yes - I did understand the difference between use/need and appreciation, I just expressed myself badly. I still think B-cognition may be associated with life cycle and experience (and I suppose that might be sometimes collective as well as individual).
As for thinking about the future, I don't think it is true that this is something that medievalists either do or don't do. It very much depends on what kind of medievalist you are. Marxists, of course, engage with the future (even if they don't always make it explicit, nevertheless the underlying paradigm is future-orientated). The movements away from that kind of belief in grand dialectical processes (and that kind of narration) are diverse and complex - but by no means are they particularly associated with medievalists alone.
I am trying to find a place where Maslow ties B-Cognition/Values explicitly to the life-cycle. Perhaps you can help me out? In some sense I suppose it is always implied since he's talking generally about the development of the human organism. Still I don't recall Maslow arguing that maturation was a key variable in the production of B-Cognition.
I do know that Maslow didn't buy Erikson's stages in the sense that he didn't see any reason for generativity and integrity to be reserved for the later stages. And so Maslow talks about children having B-Cognition. (See, e. g., his "Notes on Innocent Cognition," in L. Schenk-Danzinger, & H. Thomas (Eds.),
Gegenwartsprobleme der Entwicklungspsychologie: Festschrift fur Charlotte Buhler [Gottingen: Verlag fur Psychologie, 1963].)
Sure, it depends on what kind of medievalist one is, hence my statement that "most medievalism" is marked by an avoidance of the future. The Marxists afterall comprise a terrifically small constituency (at least as far as one might find evidence of Marxism in medieval scholarship). - 5:28 PM
I have to agree with Emile Blauche that medievalists, for the most part, do, indeed, ignore the future [regardless of whether or not we want to say that Marxist medievalists implicitly address it, although I wonder . . . .]. It is especially interesting to think about this viz. what goes on in history departments, since a "history of the present" is often regarded as the purview of the sociologist or political scientist [although, of course, there are people in history who study "present" events, only "just after," as it were]. But my larger point is that, among historians there is also precious little attention paid to the future, although there should be *more* attention paid, since ethics, if we care about that, always has to be future-oriented [I am assuming this is an obvious point--correct me if I am wrong--de Certeau once said that a "proper census of the population of the dead" was the proper concern of history, and I agree with this--it relates to what might be called an ethical "reckoning"--but in the end, ethics has to also be ultimately oriented to some kind of question of futurity, such as "how shall we live our lives?"--to poach from the title of a Peter Singer book]. Interestingly, "Social Text" has two special issues coming out soon devoted to the topic of "Afro Futurism," and I think these will be interesting to read. I have a colleague who will have an essay in one of those issues on Colson Whitehead's novel "The Intuitionist" [excellent book, by the way] and Condoleeza Rice. But again, as E.B. points out, we don't think about the future *enough* and we should.
- Jeffrey Cohen said...
In general, it is true: medievalists consider themselves custodians of the past, not (at least as part of their profession) of the present or future. Is that news to anyone?
Yet anyone who turns to the past is also opening up alternate presents and possible futures. Such temporal interweaving is inescapable, part of our being in and of time.
Surely, you could argue that medieval studies isn't the most effective way to study the future, or to open up some futurity. And you would be right. But a vector that starts back in time doesn't -- can't -- stay rooted in the past alone. - 8:15 PM
- Karl Steel said...
Yet anyone who turns to the past is also opening up alternate presents and possible futures.
Absolutely, simply by showing the historicity of categories and the fact that things have never always been what they were.
Looking forward to the Haidu review. I dipped into the book quickly only to see if he'd updated his 1983 article on Yvain. He hadn't. So I'd like to get a sense of his overall argument. - 8:35 PM
JJC wrote, "In general, it is true: medievalists consider themselves custodians of the past, not (at least as part of their profession) of the present or future. Is that news to anyone?"
Not, it's not news, but what if medieval studies considered its main purview to be "the past in the present," or something like that? I've never really believed I study the past so much as I study artifacts *from* the past that, somehow, have survived into my [and others'] present moment. When I study these artifacts ["Beowulf," for example], I think of them as being "striated," as it were, by all the temporal zones through which they have passed, and I do not believe it is actually possible to analyze or study them *as if* they are anything but--because they are with us *now*, in whatever form--modern. I will share here part of a book I am working on that I hope illuminates what I mean. This is from a chapter-in-progress that compares the production of the "Electronic Beowulf" with the 20-year-restoration of Leonardo's "Last Supper," and also discusses the paintings of Anselm Kiefer and the short stories and drawings of Bruno Schulz [what follows is part of the conclusion of that chapter]:
V. All Mouth and Teeth and Motion
Returning, once again, to the question of how the scholar works in time with things that have fallen out of time, I am reminded of a story I encountered recently written by Stephen King titled "The Langoliers." It is, in many respects, a rather silly story, but it constructs a theory of time which I think applies to the way in which we need to begin thinking through the process of how past things--such as the "Beowulf" manuscript, Leonardo's frescoes, and Schulz's murals--relate to the present. The title of King's story refers to a kind of "story-within-the-story" that one of the characters, about midway through the narrative, relates about his childhood. Apparently, this character's father had been a bullying and frightening tyrant, and whenever he thought his son was being lazy or procrastinating about something he would tell him about "the Langoliers," who were all mouth and teeth and motion and moved with terrifying speed, devouring anything that moved more slowly than they did. They existed in the past, but if you wasted time they would catch up to you and eat you alive. This story so terrified this character when he was a boy that, as a grown man, he is intensely neurotic about wasting time and therefore he becomes the most "unhinged" when he gets caught up in the plot of this story that is, ultimately, about getting stuck outside of time.
In the present action of King's story, ten sleeping passengers on a plane headed for Boston wake up to discover that, even though they are tens of thousands of feet up in the sky, all of the other passengers, including the pilots, have disappeared, leaving behind only their material effects--watches, jewelry, false teeth, eyeglasses, wallets, books and magazines, etc. Somehow, we discover later, they traveled through a "rip" in the fabric of time and wound up in what appears to be an abandoned universe. Luckily, one of the remaining passengers is a pilot and he manages to land the jet in Bangor, Maine, but when the ten survivors deplane they discover that no one is there in the airport or anywhere at all in the surrounding countryside. They soon deduce--never mind how--that they have traveled to the past and it's a very unsafe place to be. In fact, it is literally in the process of using itself up--matches don't work there, the beer in the airport cafe is flat, the sandwiches have no flavor that can be tasted, electricity cannot be generated, and in the distance beyond the hills, they can hear a terrifying sound--similar to gale force winds, or a tornado--which seems to be headed their way. In fact, this is the sound of time itself literally devouring the landscape and anything else in that landscape of material heft and weight.
Realizing that they cannot stay in the past which is, finally, a vacuum that devours everything in its wake, they re-board the plane and head back to Los Angeles, the assumption being that if they go back the exact same way they came (while asleep, of course), they can go back through the time rip and end up back in the present. Never mind how this all works--it's utterly ridiculous from a scientific point-of-view. Nor shall we worry about all the plot complications I haven't shared, such as the subplot about the passenger who told his childhood story about the Langoliers actually going murderously insane and then even being devoured by whirling black holes with multiple rows of gnashing metal teeth (time itself) while the plane lifts off from the Bangor airport. The important thing is, the remaining passengers make it to the Los Angeles airport (with the one exception of the pilot who, after teaching one passenger how to land the plane, stays awake in order to steer the plane through the time rip and therefore heroically sacrifices his life for the others), and guess what? No one is in Los Angeles either, no one at all. They are now in the future and they have to wait for the present to catch up with them, which it eventually does because, oddly enough, this is a horror story with a happy ending.
The moral of the story, finally, is that one cannot travel to the past nor to the future, because nothing is actually there, and the past is even violent and dangerous due to the peculiar physics of the place. In the end, the only place that is livable is the present. But the question is begged: don't the things of the past--those watches and pairs of eyeglasses, the beer bottles and sandwiches, and even the buildings--endure somehow and come into the present, and isn't the past, then, always--if even in fragments--in the present (in other words, not completely devoured by time's voracious maw)? The answer, I think, is both "yes" and also "no," for the obvious reasons--the basic principles of evolutionary biology suffice to demonstrate that the past comes into the present through a process of ferocious will and replication, random accident, and even sheer, dumb luck, and it is through this very same process that the past often stays behind as well. The more important question is: how are we to reckon the evolutionary process by which the past comes into the present, and most properly take account of both what is lost and what remains? How, in other words, do you give the dead what they might have wanted (if you think that's important), while also attending to those around you in the present who might be in need of some possible answers to the difficult question, "why does the past matter?"--and even, the more anxious question, "why does the past matter in this particular instant of time?"
Leonardo may not have cared enough about the future in his fresco preparation in the refectory at Santa Marie delle Grazie, but we know that he was anxious about how some things might get lost in time, and he tried to prepare for it. In 1508, when he was living in Florence and collecting notes for his Codex Arundel, a compendium of many subjects--including astronomy and optics, geology, hydraulics, architecture, war machines, and the flight of birds--he wrote the following note to himself regarding his work before departing for Milan: "Take care of all these matters tomorrow, copy them, and then mark the originals with a sign and leave them in Florence, so that if you lose what you take with you, the invention will not be lost" (qtd. in Alessandro Vezzosi, Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance, trans. Alexandra Bonfante-Warren [New York, 1997], 106).
Ultimately, then, the job of the contemporary scholar is to work to connect the excavated artwork--even when that artwork exists only as a fragment, or only exists in imperfect, perhaps incomplete copies--to what is essentially a re-creative and generative act in the present that will take us closer, not necessarily to how the text or painting might have looked if only it had escaped the ravages of history, but to the more mystical yet also intellectual energies of creative expression which always, in all times and places, has its limits. - 10:12 PM
It is far from axiomatic that a turn to the past opens up alternative presents and possible futures. Too many examples of becoming mired in the past vitiate such a claim. Or perhaps "opens up" is one of those impossibly vague verbs that evade contradiction or negation.
Perhaps what is meant is that turning to the past is a way of generating or calling into existence these alternate presents and possible futures. (#1)
Or perhaps what is meant is that turning to the past is a way of interpreting (as in opening up for analysis) alternate presents and possible futures. (#2)
The first does not make any sense within the terms of any conception of time with which I am familiar. But then I have always favored the Greeks with their chronos and kairos.
The second is problematic since I am not sure how we would ever know that the present we are analyzing is truly "alternative" since, by definition, it constitutes our present, or our experience of the present moment.
Here is something else to consider (something I deal with in a forthcoming essay): there is what I would call the absent past, that is, a past that, phenomenologically speaking, does not exist and never will. This is the past that is no longer an active influence on the present, and is a past only in the historical or narrative sense, when viewed from the outside.
Examples of this absent or nonexistent past that has imposed initial constraints and degrees of freedom on what might be possible experiences include neurophysiological alterations that were indelibly fixed in early development due to, e.g., trauma or conflict. The consequences, e.g., of early, massive socioaffective deprivation as seen in some orphanages (Gunnar, 2001) or the later developmental consequences of early attachment patterns (Sroufe, 1999) are examples. - 2:09 AM
If you are a guardian of the past - who/what are you guarding it for?
I don't think that it is possible to think very far with binaries (all medievalists are this, all sociologists are that). Such generalisations do not work and also ignore the interdisciplinary links between the two fields. Try some kind of grid theory instead?
Secondly what do we all mean by future here? You cannot judge medieval studies only by the books you read in dusty libraries. Many academics spend the majority of their time teaching and administering (both very future centred activities). In my fields (and perhaps also more in the old world than the new) many medievalists (among others) engage directly with the future through local and national planning, leisure, media and education industries. A popular name for this is 'heritage' which has all kinds of political and future-oriented agendas associated with it.
Finally - the socialist/marxist historians I have known personally - have generally been engaged with the future and you can read that in their work all the more when you know their lives. So I think JJC has a point about the unhappy disembodiedness that published work acquires.
Finally (and with smile) I have to say that it was me (not Maslow) who associated B-cog with the cultural sanguinity of getting older. Those two things have been quite a feature of my (and mine's) personal experience in the past 12 months.
Now I must dash - full day of teaching, admin and conservation work to come yet (and yes it is the vacation here too!)
- Jeffrey Cohen said...
Absolutely, simply by showing the historicity of categories and the fact that things have never always been what they were.
Karl: And -- I would want to stress this, as EJ does -- most medievalists don't see themselves as part of this future-generating process (by "future-generating" I mean simply unhitching the future, proximate or distant, from the imaginatively impoverished burden of being an extension of the present, or of being inevitable). With Eileen we might wonder what would happen if more scholars who study the past in all its distance could see implications for the future in at least some of what they do.
N50: the inevitability of encountering the present in the past is a historicist insight, and it ought to apply to the scholarship that historicists produce as well. Bynum is good on this ... but what could make the investigation richer (and more fraught) is to then ask: what next? what are the implications for thinking beyond the present, or thinking the present in more temporally complex terms? As for medievalists as guardians of the past ... well, I did say "custodians," and I meant that as labelling a self-perception of many medievalists. Should they perceive themselves as such is another question entirely. And as to for whom these medievalists might be guarding the past ... it seems that whenever scholars place the past under lock and key like that, they are preserving their fantasy of the past for themselves under the justification that they are willing something noble and pure to posterity. As if. - 6:53 AM
- Jeffrey Cohen said...
E: I like your parable of temporal enfolding. Is there any topic you DON'T have as a forthcoming essay?
- Jeffrey Cohen said...
The more important question is: how are we to reckon the evolutionary process by which the past comes into the present, and most properly take account of both what is lost and what remains? How, in other words, do you give the dead what they might have wanted (if you think that's important), while also attending to those around you in the present who might be in need of some possible answers to the difficult question, "why does the past matter?"--and even, the more anxious question, "why does the past matter in this particular instant of time?"
Sorry to quote back at such length, but those queries have really stuck with me. I'm wondering where the space for a future is here. "The Langoliers" is a terrifying story, mainly for its inhuman and all-consuming notion of time as utter loss, but just as frightening is its conceptualziation of the future as the same as the present, just waiting for the present's occupants to catch up with and inhabit it. So you get two temporalities, not three: time as present swallowed into oblivion; time as present emptily extended into more of the same. I like how you focus on the material remains (watches, false teeth, uneaten food) not yet swallowed by the teeth and mouth of history -- oops, I mean of the Langoliers -- but I'm wondering how futurity might reside within or alongside such objects. If they are simply inert material then they may as well have been swallowed. Does the answer to the question "why does the past matter in this particular instant of time?" necessary link to the question of the open or closed future? - 9:02 AM
The following is a useful collection of links to resources for the study of public history and heritage:
I do not know whether there are literary equivalents.
Emile B.'s comments on the possibility of an absent past and what the implications of that "absent past" might be for the present [not an "alternative present" but an actual present--important distinction] brings me back again to the question of ethics--as in: how do we conceive of [or *want* to conceive of] our ethical obligations as historians of the past? What do we think is the *utility* of our work viz. the present? "What do the dead want from us?" Etc. Again, I have been trying to parse these questions in a variety of ways in the book I am working on, and have not settled on an answer, but in response to Emile's question about the "absent past," I offer an excerpt from the "opening" to the chapter from which I earlier shared part of the conclusion:
I. History's Dark Woods
In her provocative essay, "Memory, History, Revelation: Writing the Dead Other," Edith Wyschogrod writes that "The past does not give itself all at once as spectacle . . . but is disclosed by the 'not' that is imprinted . . . sous rature in what is actually imaged and told. . . . To remember is to grasp occurrences in the manner of holding-in-front-of-oneself not only that which was but that which could have been" (in Memory and History in Christianity and Judaism, ed. Michael A. Signer [Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2001], 24). Furthermore, Wyschogrod writes that,
"Some historical narratives contain breaks in structure that I shall call their discursive space of authorization. Such spaces are often signaled by specific forumlae such as the announcement in Exodus, 'I am that I am.' The formula is a warning that there is a blank in the narrative that points to the governance of the events it recounts by that which is altogether outside the narrative. These blank spaces are the placeholders of revelation, a kind of white light that, unlike the formulae that announce them, illuminate the events recounted without ever becoming the focus of visibility." (ibid., 21)
The person wishing to render an accurate picture or account of the past must recognize that "the discursive space of memory is always already an ethical space," and the historian stands, as it were, "under [the] judgment" not only of the absent dead, but also of an "unincorporable infinite" that can only manifest itself in the blank spaces of the "predicative and iterative historical narrative" (ibid., 25, 31-32). Yet, as Wyschogrod also reminds us, if we believe that "history is judged in accordance with the claims of the dead Others," we should also remind ourselves of Nietzsche's caution in "The Uses and Abuses of History": "Who compels you to judge? If it is your wish--you must first prove that you are capable of justice. As judges you must stand higher that that which is to be judged; as it is you have only come later" (ibid., 31). But this is just a caution. Following Wyschogrod's line of thinking, the work of art rescued from the flow of history--such as the "Beowulf" manuscript or Leonardo's "Last Supper"--is both the carrier of a distinct cultural act and memory situated in a particular place and time which states, "it could not have been otherwise"--it was thus, and not thus--and also the placeholder of everything that is exterior to and in excess of that memory, what the Polish writer and artist Bruno Schulz called "the immensity of the transcendental" ("Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass," trans. Celina Wieniewski [Boston, 1978], 14). In his book "Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass," Schulz's narrator argues that there are some events that are too immense to be "contained in mere facts," and which the "ground of reality" cannot carry, and therefore,
"they quickly withdraw, fearing to lose their integrity in the frailty of realization. . . . as a result, white spots appear in our biography--scented stigmata, the faded silvery imprints of the bare feet of angels, scattered footmarks on our nights and days--while the fullness of life waxes, incessantly supplements itself, and towers over us in wonder after wonder. . . . An event may be small and insignificant in its origin, and yet, when drawn close to one's eye, it may open in its center an infinite and radiant perspective because a higher order of being is trying to express itself in it and irradiates it violently." (ibid., 13-14)
The narrator of Schulz's book, in fact, is the young artist-genius and hero of his own mytho-autobiography who continually draws the world close to his own eyes and perceives in it the violent irradiations of this higher order of being; in something as simple as a spring dusk he perceives "labyrinths of depth, warehouses and silos of things, graves that are still warm, the litter, and the rot" (ibid., 47). But perhaps we should also remember here the words of the survivor of Auschwitz, Primo Levi, who worried constantly that it might not be enough for the artist to bear witness to that which others have not seen or experienced, and further, that there are certain realms into which the writer-witness, for all his good intentions, cannot travel:
"We survivors are not only an exiguous but also an anomalous minority: we are those who by their prevarications or abilities or good luck did not touch bottom. Those who did so, those who saw the Gorgon, have not returned to tell about it or have returned mute, but they are the "Muslims," the submerged, the complete witnesses, the ones whose deposition would have a general significance. They are the rule; we are the exception." ("The Drowned and the Saved," trans. Raymond Rosenthal [New York: Vintage Books, 1989], 83-84)
[more in a bit . . . .] - 11:53 AM
Still trying to think through the tricky and ethically-fraught relationship of historians to their subject mattter [the "subjects"--human and otherwise] of the past, another bit from a different chapter in the book, which looks at "Beowulf" alongside the paintings of Stanley Spencer and Morrison's novel "Beloved":
III. Marking (Loving) the Dead
One of the most provocative and insistent questions of history is, "what do the dead want from us?" Suffice to say, there is not enough time in the world to adequately answer this question, but I want to suggest that it is that very question that resonates throughout "Beowulf," and lends to it a very modern insistency. The poem is infinitely complex with regard to the question, but one of the possible answers it provides is that the dead want to be marked–they want to be "written," as it were, into the future. They want to matter in the present that follows after them. Beowulf himself represents what Benjamin called "the secret heliotropism" by which "the past strives to turn toward the sun which is rising in the sky of history," and he calls attention to the relationship between memory and "marking" (or, writing), when he conveys to Wiglaf, just before dying, his request that "the battle-warriors will command that a bright mound be built . . . high on the whale-cliffs" (ll. 2802-05). Beowulf desires this not only as a gemyndum ("reminder") for his people, but also as a marker to future seafarers "when their ships drive from afar over the darkness of the flood" (ll. 2806-08) to keep Beowulf in mind. Beowulf's desire to be marked with a memorial built high on a hill where it will be seen by travelers passing by on their ships, which ships can only come to Beowulf's grave from a future that is now forever out of his grasp, can be seen as a desire to be kept alive as the marker of a particular historical moment, or memory. Beowulf's command is also a gesture that calls to mind Levinas's erotic caress of the future, in which the hero, just prior to death, always glimpses a last chance. And this caress is erotic, not because, following Freud, it is a "grasping" or "possessing" that seeks power over the Other through fusion, but because, in the more radical way Levinas defines it, it is a reaching out toward what is always "about to come" ("a venir") and which the ethical hero recognizes he cannot actually touch, yet reaches for anyway. It is the heroic gesture par excellence--a reaching through death toward life--that signifies the desire to be with the Other in the future in a voluptuousness of Being.
But the memorial, if built, and seen from afar, is also blank, and accretes with time, not memory, but forgetfulness. The last epithet applied to Beowulf by the poet, that he was "eager for fame" (lofgeornost), has often led critics to assume that Beowulf's greatest sin (in the eyes of the poet) was his pride, perhaps even, his too-great faith in himself at the expense of a faith in a Christian God or a hereafter, but I want to suggest that Beowulf was always focused on the "hereafter" of the always-present world, and his desire to be "marked" in that present world is also a kind of erotic longing for an embrace with that place–more specifically, with what is vital and alive in it.
I would also like to consider here a juxtaposition of images of embraces with the dead that detail that embrace's erotic nature, and also raise some disturbing questions about how we in the present can most properly remember the past and mark the dead, especially with relation to traumatic history. Stanley Spencer, one of the three most important English figurative painters of the twentieth century, along with Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, spent a good deal of his life working on massive visionary canvasses that fused the everyday life of the English village he lived in, Cookham, with the spiritual and the erotic, and he believed that "true modernity necessitated reclamation of the past." One of the recurring themes of his work was resurrection-the first of these, painted from 1924-27, was "The Resurrection: Cookham." Shortly after this, in 1932, he painted one of his most important works, "The Resurrection of the Soldiers," which was part of a monumental cycle of paintings commemorating World War I that was installed at Sandham Memorial Chapel in Burghclere.
The painting shows the soldiers climbing out of their graves bearing white crosses and reuniting with their dead comrades in all manner of embrace. The men are touching everything and also clasping each other–some men (in the background of the painting) are lying close to the mules, one man kneels at Christ's side, his head in his lap, one man caresses a turtle, while another clasps a dove to his chest. Of the painting, Spencer, who was a soldier in the war, wrote, "During the war, I felt the only way to end the ghastly experience would be if everyone suddenly decided to indulge in every degree or form of sexual love, carnal love, bestiality, anything you like to call it. These are the joyful inheritances of mankind." On a more personal level, Spencer's painting, "Welcoming Hilda," painted in 1953 after his first and estranged wife's death from cancer, represented his reunion with her after death, as husband, father, and lover.
Spencer had betrayed Hilda on more than one occasion, and not long after divorcing her in order to marry the painter Patricia Preece–a union that proved to be disastrous–he regretted his decision and spent years urging Hilda for a reconciliation. Only when she was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer did she allow him back, in order to have him with her as she was dying. In the painting, everyone has been returned to a time before the initial break with Hilda–Spencer himself is a young man, and his two daughters, who were in their twenties when Hilda died, are children again. The tone is one of tentative, yet physical joyfulness in which all arms caress and embrace Hilda's body, but tellingly, Hilda looks away as Spencer kisses her.
This image points to one of the more troubling aspects of what we might call the return of the departed, which is also the return of history, and of history's Others in the present. In Toni Morrison's novel "Beloved," the return to 124 Bluestone Road of the daughter, Beloved, who was murdered by her own mother, Sethe, in order to ensure that she would never grow up as a slave, is at first a somewhat joyous occasion for Sethe, who sees a chance to undo her earlier crime and reclaim her lost child, but Beloved's entrance into the house as a physical presence (literally, from the stream behind the house) is at first preceded by a terrible haunting of that house, in which the ghosts of the past rattle the living out of their wits. One by one, from the time of the initial haunting through the arrival and then tenancy of "the fully dressed woman [who] walked out of the water," all the members of the household, including Sethe's sons (Howard and Bulgar), her lover, Paul D., and other daughter, Denver, are forced out of the house until it is just Sethe and Beloved, who continually insists to all the other members of the household who try to help and love her, "She [Sethe] is the one. She is the one I need. . . . she is the one I have to have." And, as Morrison's narrator puts it, Sethe was "licked, tasted, eaten by Beloved's eyes."
Beloved's "wanting" of Sethe leads to a type of harrowing possession–both physical and psychic–where Sethe, finally alone in the house with Beloved, and cut off from the rest of her social community, becomes locked in what Freud would have called the repetitive, compulsive "acting out" of the past, in which "the past is performatively regenerated or relived as if it were fully present rather than represented in memory" (LaCapra). Beloved, waxing into grotesque proportions in her somewhat obscene pregnancy–for how can the dead give birth? [but this, of course, is also a metaphor: the present, or future, cannot be "born" out of the traumatic past without horror]–grows increasingly angry, accusing Sethe of having left her behind where "the dead men lay on top of her," but when Sethe begs her forgiveness, Beloved won't give it, and when Sethe herself becomes angry, Beloved turns violent, breaking plates and windowpanes, thereby keeping in motion the melancholic-manic cycle which, apparently, cannot be broken. But what does Beloved want? At one point in the novel, Beloved, wishing to be pregnant, seduces Paul D. by telling him she wants to be touched "on the inside part" and for someone to call out her name. Paul D. resists at first, but when he does finally give in, he loses himself in the calling of that name, just as Sethe eventually loses her mind. In the end, all that is left of Beloved–and the same could be said of Beowulf–is her name, which both marks and fills her absence.
[well, this is all still "in a muddle"--any comments will help me revise!]
Cheers, Eileen - 12:15 PM
- Jeffrey Cohen said...
the dead want to be marked–they want to be "written," as it were, into the future. They want to matter in the present that follows after them.
You've written powerfully about the desire of the dead for continuance, for futurity, but the examples you give are of the dead who desire to stop time. Beowulf wants through his architecural transformation of the landscape hronesnes to be henceforth known as Beowulfes burh, but no one ever calls it that; even the text refers to the place as hronesnes as the dead hero is memorialized there. Would Beowulf's mound, the repository of the dragon's treasure, be all that different from the dragon's mound, the dwelling of a doppelganger who likewise intended to rest there forever, and a structure built by a vanished race even older than the dragon? Isn't a similar demand being issued by Beloved, that the past-as-present be extended rather than transformed or opened up to some future? Isn't that the problem with the undead (aptrgangr) in Icelandic sagas, that the animated corpse will not release the present from the past's grip, that he demands a future as selfsame as those frozen temporality he inhabits in his own burial mound or dying place?
I understand very well that "what do the dead want from us?" is an ethical question, the answer to which can be "justice." Justice is as addressed to the future as it is to the past; justice is temporally catalytic. But it might also be that sometimes the demands of the dead if heeded will not admit of any future -- they foreclose it rather than allow anyone "to be written,' as it were, into the future" because "the present that follows after them" is like the empty airport of "The Langoliers," a suffocating projection of the eternal same. - 4:07 PM
JJC wrote that, even if we do "medieval studies" work that locates "the present in the past" [or, I might say, "the past in the present"], the more important work might be to ask, "what next? what are the implications for thinking beyond the present, or thinking the present in more temporally complex terms?" In order to begin contemplating possible answers to this question, we likely need to think of some concrete examples whereby we can locate the present in the past [as in the work of Bynum, say, the way in which we can see how certain questions of self/identity perdure over time, from medieval werewolf stories to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," or from medieval practices of religious fasting to contemporary anorexia, etc.] or the past in the present [i.e. Kathleen Biddick's "The Shock of Medievalism" or many of the chapters in Cohen et al.'s "The Postcolonial Middle Ages" or in Kruger and Burger's "Queering the Middle Ages/Historicizing Postmodernity"]. Likewise, if we want to further pursue JJC's questions as to "how futurity might reside within or alongside" artifacts of the past, and whether or not the answer to the question, "why does the past matter in this particular instant of time," *necessarily* "link[s] to the question of the open or closed future," we will also have to have some concrete examples [which E.B., I might often add, is often very good at providing for his own arguments]. In his Afterword to our book, recently re-titled for the umpteenth freaking time, "Cultural Studies of the Modern Middle Ages" [formerly known as "Medieval, Reality, Television"], Prof. Cohen wrote eloquently about a pig as a "temporal container" and connected that idea with both medieval religious practice and the current "crisis" in France over Muslim immigrant communities. Many of the readers of this blog may remember that JJC shared a good portion of that essay here, so I won't go over it again, except to say that it was a good example of using a concrete material object--the pig--as well as of connecting the medieval past to the present relative to a highly politically-charged question regarding the future [what is France going to do, or what *should* France do, regarding its so-called "crisis" with its Muslim immigrant communities?]. Does that make sense?
Also, before we try, again, to "think through" these questions JJC has posed, we also have to go back to what might be called the oldest question posed by historians--why does history matter at all?--and remind ourselves of all the reasons why the conventional answers have proven to be either untenable, untrue most of the time, or too difficult to prove [and note, too, that most of these answers have often been future-oriented]. Traditionally, the answers have been:
a. we study history so we won't make the same mistakes [but we *do* make the same mistakes, BUT, they're never really "the same," because no two times are ever exactly alike]
b. we study history because if we can see where we have been, we are better able to predict where we are going [I call this the evolutionary model, but time, as it turns out, does not just have one direction, no matter what some physicists or neo-Hegelians argue, although, in politics, it *can* be very useful to be able to survey the terrain already traveled--think of feminism in the U.S., for example].
c. we study history, and record it names & events, because we have an obligation to "remember," or to "honor the dead" [this is "sacred history," which is, at bottom, a religious enterprise, even, a religious imperative--but what if there is no divine authority figure--what then?--why should the dead matter so much?--is a non-foundational sacred history possible?--that question actually informs much of my own work with the medieval past]
d. we study history because, well, it's just plain interesting [the history "amusement park" model, a la Bede's World, PBS reality programs like "Manor House," etc.]
e. we study history because it helps us understand "who we are" [as if we could have only turned out "one way"--here, E.B.'s question about the "absent past" is helpful for problematizing this axiom]
And so on and so forth. - 4:16 PM
In response to JJC's recent post that, "it might also be that sometimes the demands of the dead if heeded will not admit of any future -- they foreclose it rather than allow anyone "to be written,' as it were, into the future" because "the present that follows after them" is like the empty airport of "The Langoliers," a suffocating projection of the eternal same,"--NO kidding. That was exactly the point I was trying to make, if somewhat awkwardly, through Spencer's painting "Welcoming Hilda" and Morrison's "Beloved," where the desires of those locked in the places where the "dead men" lie on top of them, can be suffocating and strangulating upon the present. There is a danger in wanting to, let's say, "resurrect the dead" [Morrison's novel seems to say, if you resurrect your dead child so you can "undo" your original crime against her, she will not thank you for it--instead, she will destroy you by eating you alive, because it isn't "honor" she wants, it's *life/living*]. So, yeah, I agree, too, that Beowulf wants a kind of historical stasis--a material place in the landscape, in this instance--that will always mark/bear the memory of him as a person, but also as a kind of mythic figure; but I would also argue that there is also the desire, however fragile and ultimately kind of hopeless, to want to be--somehow and some way--always among the living, in their midst, vibrant and alive and never dead.
Let me qualify a bit my last statement, with some repetition:
I would also argue that there is also the desire, [in Beowulf's wanting to be remembered] however fragile and ultimately kind of hopeless, to want to be--somehow and some way--always among the living, in their midst, vibrant and alive and never dead, *not* in order to arrest the flow of time or to keep it locked in place or foreclosed, but to always be in the *flow* of time as it moves, ceaselessly, through places and bodies [which are also places, and for us humans, the most important location of our fragile, tenuous selves], in order to always feel that voluptuousness of being-becoming [as opposed to nonbeing]. - 4:36 PM
And one last thing [haha]--
but it goes without saying, doesn't it, that avoiding the eventual "nonbeing of everything" is not an option, right [in other words, not only my own life, but the life of the universe, too, has a terminus--unless science changes that, somehow]? How might this change our *need* of the past viz. the present & future? - 4:50 PM
- Jeffrey Cohen said...
Eileen, I definitely get your point about "Welcoming Hilda" and Beloved -- good stuff, here, too about mourning, art, and the future. But I guess I'm wondering how beowulf is NOT like an aptrgangr or Beloved, if his desires are to be realized (he seems so out of time to me, and by that I mean a remnant of a past that doesn't know it is out of synch). Can you say some more about these eloquent lines: desire, [in Beowulf's wanting to be remembered] however fragile and ultimately kind of hopeless, to want to be--somehow and some way--always among the living, in their midst, vibrant and alive and never dead, *not* in order to arrest the flow of time or to keep it locked in place or foreclosed, but to always be in the *flow* of time as it moves, ceaselessly, through places and bodies?
To me, Beowulf is "out of time," as JJC says, not because he is a remnant of the past, but because, in his own world [i.e. 4th-5th-century "Migration Era" Europe or 10th-century Anglo-Saxon England], he is actually, I think, "from the future." Roberta Frank once described Beowulf as a "novus homo" in history; I referred to him in my dissertation as "a man in the middle" of history--he comes from the future [a place that is forward-looking--he's a kind of unusual-for-the-times diplomat as regards Danish-Geatish relations] but gets "stuck" in a present he can't escape [i.e., for all of his forward-looking leadership, he can't escape the dragon, who often "sleeps" but never "dies" and is the outsized embodiment of a certain human greed/rage]. As to saying more about my typification of Beowulf's "desire" to be remembered, and *how*, let me think about that a bit more. Where I am at present, the sun does not set until about 9:30, and it's time for a glass of white wine of the deck overlooking the Smoky mountains and my current copy of "Vogue" [thanks to Betsy M. who I know reads this blog!].
And I have to be careful, too, of how I typify what might be called Beowulf's desires, since I can only "psychologize" him as far as the text will allow. But I *do* believe that many of Beowulf's actions and speeches within the poem reveal a mind that is restless in its desire to, as I also put it in my diss., "always be *coming* rather than *going*." But then, I'd have to parse that out a bit more, wouldn't I?
Wouldn't it be great to have someone you could dictate your blog posts to as you continued to drink wine and gazed at the mountains? - 5:55 PM
- Jeffrey Cohen said...
I'll look forward to hearing more about your Beowulf from the future in the future, Eileen, since he is so very different (I suppose) from the Beowulf who has lived with me for so long. But at your leisure: the blog has a future that I hope stretches to the crack o doom. And it would be a great guest post, so that it wouldn't have to dwell an exile in the comments.
Enjoy your wine. As to the Cohens, we have gorged on summer ice cream and now must prepare baths to immerse the filthy progeny. - 8:03 PM
History Matters: Pass it On!
Launched today in the UK by a variety of academics, NGOs and GOs.
Read about it in the press.


text:
What is transposition of the great arteries?
Transposition of the great arteries (TGA) is a congenital (present at birth) heart defect. (It is also often referred to as "transposition of the great vessels.") Due to abnormal development of the fetal heart during the first 8 weeks of pregnancy, the large vessels that carry blood from the heart to the lungs, and to the body are improperly connected. Essentially, the connections in the heart are "switched."
Normally, oxygen-poor (blue) blood returns to the right atrium from the body, travels to the right ventricle, then is pumped through the pulmonary artery into the lungs where it receives oxygen. Oxygen-rich (red) blood returns to the left atrium from the lungs, passes into the left ventricle, and then is pumped through the aorta out to the body.
In transposition of the great arteries, the aorta is connected to the right ventricle, and the pulmonary artery is connected to the left ventricle — the opposite of a normal heart's anatomy.
- Oxygen-poor (blue) blood returns to the right atrium from the body, passes through the right atrium and ventricle, then goes into the misconnected aorta back to the body.
- Oxygen-rich (red) blood returns to the left atrium from the lungs, passes through the left atrium and ventricle, then goes into the pulmonary artery and back to the lungs.
Two separate circuits are formed — one that circulates oxygen-poor (blue) blood from the body back to the body, and another that recirculates oxygen-rich (red) blood from the lungs back to the lungs.
Other heart defects are often associated with TGA, and they actually may be necessary for an infant with transposition of the great arteries to survive after birth. An opening in the atrial or ventricular septum will allow blood from one side to mix with blood from another, thus making blood with an oxygen level somewhere in-between that of the oxygen-poor (blue) and the oxygen-rich (red) blood. Patent ductus arteriosus (another type of congenital heart defect) may also allow mixing of oxygen-poor (blue) and oxygen-rich (red) blood through the connection between the aorta and pulmonary artery. The "mixed" blood that results is beneficial, providing at least some oxygen to the body.
Transposition of the great arteries is the second most common congenital heart defect that causes problems in early infancy. TGA occurs in about 3% of all congenital heart defects.
What causes transposition of the great arteries?
The heart forms during the first 8 weeks of fetal development. The problem occurs in the middle of this time, allowing the aorta and pulmonary artery to become attached to the incorrect chamber. Some congenital heart defects may have a genetic link causing heart problems to occur more often in certain families. Most of the time this heart defect occurs by chance, with no clear reason for its development.
Why is transposition of the great arteries a concern?
Babies with TGA have two separate blood flow circuits — one that circulates oxygen-poor (blue) blood from the body back to the body, and another that recirculates oxygen-rich (red) blood from the lungs back to the lungs. Without an additional heart defect that allows mixing of oxygen-poor (blue) and oxygen-rich (red) blood, such as an atrial or ventricular septal defect or a patent ductus arteriosus, infants with TGA will only have oxygen-poor (blue) blood circulating through the body—a situation that is fatal. Even with an additional defect present that allows mixing, babies with transposition of the great arteries will not have enough oxygen in the bloodstream to meet the body's demands for long.
What are the symptoms of transposition of the great arteries?
The most common indication of TGA in a newborn is cyanosis (blueish skin color) in the first day of life. Cyanosis is noted in the first hours of life in about half of the infants with TGA, and within the first days of life in most of them. The degree of cyanosis is related to the presence of other defects that allow blood to mix, including an atrial septal defect (a hole between the top chambers of the heart) and a patent ductus arteriosus (a fetal connection between the aorta and the pulmonary artery present in the newborn, which usually closes in the first few days after birth).
The following are the other most common symptoms of TGA. However, each child may experience symptoms differently. Symptoms may include:
- Rapid breathing
- Labored breathing
- Rapid heart rate
- Cool, clammy skin.
The symptoms of TGA may resemble other medical conditions or heart problems. Always consult your child's doctor for a diagnosis.
How is transposition of the great arteries diagnosed?
A pediatric cardiologist and/or a neonatologist will be involved in your child's care. A pediatric cardiologist specializes in the diagnosis and medical management of congenital heart defects, as well as heart problems that may develop later in childhood. A neonatologist specializes in illnesses affecting newborns, both premature and full-term. Learn more about neonatal care at CHOC.
Cyanosis is the major indication that there is a problem with your newborn. Your child's doctor may have also heard a heart murmur during a physical examination. In this case, a heart murmur is a noise caused by the turbulence of blood flowing through the openings that allow the blood to mix, such as the ventricular septal defect or patent ductus arteriosus.
Diagnostic testing for congenital heart disease varies by the child's age, clinical condition and institutional preferences. Some tests that may be recommended include the following:
- Chest X-ray. A diagnostic test that uses invisible X-ray beams to produce images of internal tissues, bones, and organs onto film. Learn more about chest X-rays.
- Electrocardiogram (ECG). A test that records the electrical activity of the heart, shows abnormal rhythms (arrhythmias), and detects heart muscle stress. Learn more about electrocardiograms.
- Echocardiogram (Echo). A procedure that evaluates the structure and function of the heart by using sound waves recorded on an electronic sensor to produce a moving picture of the heart and heart valves. Learn more about echocardiograms.
- Cardiac catheterization. A cardiac catheterization is an invasive procedure that gives very detailed information about the structures inside the heart. Under sedation, a small, thin, flexible tube (catheter) is inserted into a blood vessel in the groin, and guided to the inside of the heart. Blood pressure and oxygen measurements are taken in the four chambers of the heart, as well as the pulmonary artery and aorta. Contrast dye is also injected to more clearly visualize the structures inside the heart. Learn more about cardiac catheterization.
What is the treatment for transposition of the great arteries?
Your child will most likely be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) or cardiovascular intensive care unit (CVICU). Initially, your child may be placed on oxygen, and possibly even on a ventilator, to assist his or her breathing. Intravenous (IV) medications may be given to help the heart and lungs function more efficiently.
Other important aspects of initial treatment include the following:
- A cardiac catheterization procedure can be used as a diagnostic procedure, as well as initial treatment procedure for some heart defects. A cardiac catheterization procedure will usually be done to evaluate the defect(s) and the amount of blood that is mixing. Learn more about cardiac catheterization.
- As part of the cardiac catheterization, a procedure called a balloon atrial septostomy will likely be done to improve mixing of oxygen-rich (red) and oxygen-poor (blue) blood.
– A special catheter with a balloon in the tip is used to create an opening in the atrial septum (wall between the left and right atria).
– The catheter is guided through the foramen ovale (a small opening present in the atrial septum that closes shortly after birth) and into the left atrium.
– The balloon is inflated.
– The catheter is quickly pulled back through the hole, into the right atrium, enlarging the hole, allowing blood to mix between the atria. - An intravenous medication called prostaglandin E1 is given to keep the ductus arteriosus from closing.
Within the first 1 to 2 weeks of age, transposition of the great arteries is surgically repaired. The procedure that accomplishes this is called an "arterial switch," which roughly describes the surgical process.
The operation is done under general anesthesia, and involves the following:
- The aorta is moved from the right ventricle to its normal position over the left ventricle.
- The pulmonary artery is moved from the left ventricle to its normal position over the right ventricle.
- The coronary arteries are moved so they will originate from the aorta and take oxygen-rich (red) blood to the heart muscle.
- Other defects, such as atrial or ventricular septal defects or a patent ductus arteriosus, are closed.
Learn more about the Heart Institute's surgical services
What care is needed in the hospital after transposition of the great arteries surgical repair?
After surgery, infants will return to CVICU for a few days to be closely monitored during recovery.
While your child is in the CVICU, special equipment will be used to help him or her recover, and may include the following:
- Ventilator. A machine that helps your child breathe while he or she is under anesthesia during the operation. A small, plastic tube is guided into the windpipe and attached to the ventilator, which breathes for your child while he or she is too sleepy to breathe effectively on his or her own. After repair of transposition of the great arteries, children will usually benefit from remaining on the ventilator for several days.
- Intravenous (IV) catheters. Small, plastic tubes inserted through the skin into blood vessels to provide IV fluids and important medicines that help your child recover from the operation.
- Arterial line. A specialized IV line is placed in the wrist or other area of the body where a pulse can be felt, that measures blood pressure continuously during surgery and while your child is in the CVICU.
- Nasogastric (NG) tube. A small, flexible tube that keeps the stomach drained of acid and gas bubbles that may build up during surgery.
- Urinary catheter. A small, flexible tube that allows urine to drain out of the bladder and accurately measures how much urine the body makes, which helps determine how well the heart is functioning. After surgery, the heart will be a little weaker than it was before, and, therefore, the body may start to hold onto fluid, causing swelling and puffiness. Diuretics may be given to help the kidneys remove excess fluid from the body.
- Chest tube. A drainage tube may be inserted to keep the chest free of blood that would otherwise accumulate after the incision is closed. Bleeding may occur for several hours, or even a few days after surgery.
- Heart monitor. A machine that constantly displays a picture of your child's heart rhythm, and monitors heart rate, arterial blood pressure and other values.
Your child may need other equipment not mentioned here to provide support while in the CVICU, or afterwards. The hospital staff will explain all of the necessary equipment to you.
Your child will be kept as comfortable as possible with several different medications; some of which relieve pain, and some of which relieve anxiety. The staff will also be asking for your input as to how best to soothe and comfort your child.
Infants who spent a lot of time on a ventilator, or who were fairly ill while in the CVICU, may have trouble feeding initially. These babies may have an oral aversion; they might equate something placed in the mouth, such as a pacifier or bottle, with a less pleasant sensation such as being on the ventilator. Some infants are just tired, and need to build their strength up before they will be able to learn to bottle feed. Strategies used to help infants with nutrition include the following:
- High-calorie formula or breast milk. Special nutritional supplements may be added to formula or pumped breast milk that increase the number of calories in each ounce, thereby allowing your baby to drink less and still consume enough calories to grow properly.
- Supplemental tube feedings. Feedings given through a small, flexible tube that passes through the nose, down the esophagus, and into the stomach, that can either supplement or take the place of bottle-feedings. Infants who can drink part of their bottle, but not all, may be fed the remainder through the feeding tube. Infants who are too tired to bottle-feed at all may receive their formula or breast milk through the feeding tube alone.
How is a child cared for at home after surgery?
Pain medications, such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen, may be recommended to keep your child comfortable at home. Your child's doctor will discuss pain control before your child is discharged from the hospital.
If any special treatments are to be given at home, the nursing staff will ensure that you are able to provide them, or a home health agency may assist you.
You may receive additional instructions from your child's physicians and the hospital staff.
What is the long-term outlook after surgery?
Most infants who undergo TGA surgical repair will grow and develop normally. However, after TGA repair, children will need periodic visits to their pediatric cardiologist who will make assessments to check for any heart-related problems, which can include the following:
- Fast, slow or irregular heart rhythms
- Leaky heart valves
- Narrowing of one or both of the great arteries at the switch connection site(s)
- Narrowing of the coronary arteries at their switch connection site.
Consult your child's doctor regarding the specific outlook for your child.