6.0518 Rs: More on Desiderata (3/51)

Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 16 Feb 1993 12:44:20 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 6, No. 0518. Tuesday, 16 Feb 1993.


(1) Date: Mon, 15 Feb 93 19:52:41 CST (26 lines)
From: Norman Hinton <hinton@eagle.sangamon.edu>
Subject: Re: 6.0509 Rs: Folk Wisdom or Bunk

(2) Date: 16 Feb 1993 , 11:14:20 EST (14 lines)
From: VILLERS@OUACCVMB
Subject: folk wisdom

(3) Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1993 09:37:40 (11 lines)
From: koontz@alpha.bldr.nist.gov (John E. Koontz)
Subject: Re: 6.0509 Re: Desiderata

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 93 19:52:41 CST
From: Norman Hinton <hinton@eagle.sangamon.edu>
Subject: Re: 6.0509 Rs: Folk Wisdom or Bunk

I'm sorry, but I think "Desiderata" is not bunk, but junk. Badly written,
low-level junk.

Let's just look at the notorious first phrase: "Go quietly amid the noise
and haste..." Pseudo-parallellism: what does it mean to "go quietly
amid...the haste" ? Would it make equal sense to say "Go slowly amid the
noise?" Unstyle, Beautiful Writing Department, with the resonance and lift
of a particularly pretentious corporate report.

As to the date, I don't like things that fly false colors: what, after all,
does 1696 have to do with the text ? Is it being presented to us as a
marvelous piece of preserved wisdom from the deep past ? Im not surprised
to hear that it was written by an American clergy8man: it is in the
spuriously pious tradition of Peale, Fosdick, Marshall, Shean, et al: Chamber
of Commerce of the soul.

Humanists spend their time with the likes of Chaucer, Donne, Herrick,
Bunyan, etc., and know genuine piety and affective writing when they see it.
"Desiderata" is bovinely placid anyhow: who says quiet is be4tter than
noise, and on what grounds ?

Norman Hinton hinton@eagle.sangamon.edu
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------23----
Date: 16 Feb 1993 , 11:14:20 EST
From: VILLERS@OUACCVMB
Subject: folk wisdom

I was rather disappointed at the comments of Unwin and Johnson regarding
the origins of the Desiderata. Of course it has value. The object of the
query, particularly for the scholars interested in the origin of texts
was certainly a valid one. Since everyone appears to agree that the text
is recent, could that sort of thinking have occurred in the 1600? Why?
Anne Villers
Villers@ouaccvmb.bitnet
Athens, Ohio


(3) --------------------------------------------------------------21----
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1993 09:37:40
From: koontz@alpha.bldr.nist.gov (John E. Koontz)
Subject: Re: 6.0509 Re: Desiderata

Since several subscribers have praised the Desiderata, let me counter by
saying that it has always seemed to me a load of Polonian rubbish, and I
have never been able to read more than a few lines without experiencing
nausea. It's right in there with that bit about "Everything important
in life I learned in daycare, .." (approximately) Noisily yours, ...