Roland Boer's Blog, page 72

Stalin and Peter the Great

I am reading a fascinating interview of Stalin, made by Emil Ludwig on 13 December, 1931. The interviewer asks some searching questions and draws out of Stalin some revealing answers and even contradictions. The interview begins with this question concerning Peter the Great:

Ludwig: Today, here in the Kremlin, I saw some relics of Peter the Great and the first question I should like to ask you is this: Do you think a parallel can be drawn between yourself and Peter the Great? Do you consider y...

Two new pieces on Political Theology Today

The first is called ‘Stalin, Affirmative Action and the Pentecost of Language‘, and the second, ‘Why a Marxist Entrepreneur is not a Contradiction in China‘.

I have moved

My blog has now moved to stalinsmoustache.wordpress.com. All future posts, as well as my old ones, may be found over there. For those of you who have Stalin's Moustache on your blogrolls, please change the link where needed.

Moving day

I'm on the move over to Word Press - stalinsmoustache.wordpress.com. All future posts, as well as my old ones, may be found over there. For those who have Stalin's Moustache on your blogrolls, please change the link where needed.

Bible and Critical Theory Call for Papers: 7-8 February, Dunedin, New Zealand

I thought I'd repost this one to keep it at the front of your minds - as it should be:

In February, when the water hasn't got too much ice on it down Dunedin way, the Bible and Critical Theory Seminar will be meeting in a pub in that southern city.
Important Information:

DATE: 7-8 FEBRUARY 2010

CONTACTS: James Harding (james.harding(at)stonebow.otago.ac.nz)

Roland Boer (roland.t.boer(at)gmail.com)

Papers are invited on all aspects of the intersections between the Bible and critical theory, which n...

Oaths for men: the yarekh handshake

As VM asked for specific biblical references for the so-called 'Yarram handshake', here they are:

Put your hand on my balls (yerekhi) and I will make you swear by Yahweh, the God of heaven and the earth (Genesis 24:2-3)

Put your hand on my balls (yerekhi) and promise to deal loyally and truly with me (Genesis 47:29)

Now yarekh is an interesting little word, which the polite lexicographers find a little embarrassing. But it also turns up in the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel in Genesis ...

Handshakes: Golden and Otherwise

Vulgar Marxism makes the brilliant suggestion of pre-emptive redundancies for current PhD students to keep them out of the British university system. From what is emerging from the disaster of that system, it's no wonder I hear so many pommie accents around Australian Universities these days - something about rodents and sinking ships.

Anyway, VM also makes a distinction between the ki$$-off or golden handshake/parachute and the 'Yarram handshake'. As VM writes,

one involves the payment of a l...

Getting up yourself: how not to write a preface

I couldn't help being struck by two different prefaces, one written by Alain Badiou for the English translation of his Being and Event:

Soon it will have been twenty years since I published this book in France. At that moment I was quite aware of having written a 'great' book of philosophy ... I thought that I had inscribed my name in the history of philosophy ...

And Ernst Bloch in his Traces, who notes in slight contrast:

Just as a detour in life so often turns out not to have been one at...

Street art, Newcastle style

Newcastle has become a mecca for artists of all types - cheap facilities, a mix of coal, surf and wine culture, you name it. Yesterday, Christina noticed one of our local artists had been at work overnight.

Regarding Biblical Studies at Sheffield

The blogosphere and social networking sites and even the SBL have been running hot with the news that the senate at the University of Sheffield has decided to close down the department of biblical studies. You'll find comments at Jim West, the SBL, and elsewhere.

Now it is a terrible thing when universities close down departments for whatever reason, but a couple of items drew my attention that make me less than sympathetic. The first is to note that 3 of the existing 6 staff took the money an...