From the crypt: hot new Peikoff course by telegraph


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On today's once a season drop-in at Objectivism-with-one-hand, I discovered something meaty and weighty and fabulous.

No, not an Objectivish BBQ dish, but a New Telegraph Course by Leonard Peikoff.

My exaggeration of the technology to be used for the New Course is unfair, of course, but it reflects my feeling of falling, screaming, into a time tunnel. At the end of his career as an educator, Peikoff starts a fifteen-unit course of Writing -- all to be delivered by telephone (not telegraph) in 90 minute consecutive installments.

Once every three weeks starting September 13, 2013, Dr. Leonard Peikoff will offer, by telephone, a new 15-lecture course: Writing for an Audience. [...] In each 90-minute class, one student’s paper will be analyzed in a direct discussion between the writer and Dr. Peikoff. The other students will receive a copy of each paper in advance and will thus have the opportunity to learn from Peikoff’s unique insights, even though the paper is not their own. Time permitting, questions or comments from these other students are possible.

Peikoff will analyze—praise and/or correct—each paper line by line, according to his own guiding nine criteria, ranging from Clarity and Logical Structure to Emotive Tone and Proper Emphasis. A two-hour lecture explaining these criteria, already recorded, will constitute the first lecture; the next 14, by Peikoff live, complete the course. At some subsequent point, Peikoff plans to offer a more advanced follow-up course.

Now, I might stop, remove my blinders, take a deep breath, and work carefully through my prejudices and biases in re Peikoff. That would not be fun, but hey. Still, if I find the whole notion of telephone courses to be anachronistic, if I think that the oral-culture holdovers from NBI times (courses on tape/vinyl) are weird, and if I think that this is likely to be a terrible waste of time and money for all concerned -- am I wrong? What makes me so sure?

In case I haven't mentioned it in a while, I do not consider Peikoff a good writer, let alone a teacher of same. He Doesn't Write, He Yaps, I might say.

Over to more fair and judicious opinions ...

I leave OLers the link to discover the thrilling (and awkward) public relations bumf here. The link does not go to ARI or the Ayn Rand Center, because I cannot find news of the New Course on either site given my task time-allotment. Heck of an exciting launch, guys.

Oh, and, er,

To enable us to make our selection, we ask for a brief—300–400 words—writing sample of yours. For us to start the course on time, all samples must be received by July 26; no applicants can be considered after that date. For us to abstract writing ability from subject matter, all writers are asked to address the same topic. The topic we have chosen is: “Why I like The Fountainhead.”

Edited by william.scherk
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I can read a lot faster than most people can talk. Also, I like to be able to re-read and to compare and contrast. You cannot get that with a speech. "Excuse me, could you go back..." But some people like podcasts because they jog and need something in their ears.

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I can read a lot faster than most people can talk. Also, I like to be able to re-read and to compare and contrast. You cannot get that with a speech. "Excuse me, could you go back..." But some people like podcasts because they jog and need something in their ears.

I like them because they make me feel like someone else is in the room.

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I like them because they make me feel like someone else is in the room.

Every security guard I know has ghost stories. That feeling of someone else being in the room... Like flying saucers, these apparitions are not seen by believers but rather by non-believers, by unimaginative people. Police officers who have seen alien ships stopped reporting them long ago because it would come back to haunt them (ahem) on the witness stand later in other cases. ("... and yet you claim that you saw the defendant...")

Texas state police officers know a woman in a red dress in the Capital Building. The Driskell Hotel has a little girl. Haunted Austin here.

I work in a new high-rise and we always put on all the lights before patrolling an "empty" suite. Just to say... If you want to feel like there is someone in the room with you, it is easy enough. Just go somewhere where someone died once. They don't leave right away. Maybe from their viewpoint they do, you know, eternity, and infinity, all that.... Peikoff's lectures may well come from the crypt some day.

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I like them because they make me feel like someone else is in the room.

Every security guard I know has ghost stories. That feeling of someone else being in the room... Like flying saucers, these apparitions are not seen by believers but rather by non-believers, by unimaginative people. Police officers who have seen alien ships stopped reporting them long ago because it would come back to haunt them (ahem) on the witness stand later in other cases. ("... and yet you claim that you saw the defendant...")

Texas state police officers know a woman in a red dress in the Capital Building. The Driskell Hotel has a little girl. Haunted Austin here.

I work in a new high-rise and we always put on all the lights before patrolling an "empty" suite. Just to say... If you want to feel like there is someone in the room with you, it is easy enough. Just go somewhere where someone died once. They don't leave right away. Maybe from their viewpoint they do, you know, eternity, and infinity, all that.... Peikoff's lectures may well come from the crypt some day.

The house I currently live in is over 150 years old. It may be that someone died here once. If not, maybe I'll be the first. I hope not to haunt this house. I hope, once dead, to traverse the halls of Objectivist Living (the irony is not lost on me). A ghost in the machine, of sorts.

Also, is it unheard of that dead men give podcasts?

Tupac was still putting out albums 10 years after his death.

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I think L.P. is not first rate. As second rate folks go he is third rate.

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I like them because they make me feel like someone else is in the room.

Every security guard I know has ghost stories. That feeling of someone else being in the room... Like flying saucers, these apparitions are not seen by believers but rather by non-believers, by unimaginative people. Police officers who have seen alien ships stopped reporting them long ago because it would come back to haunt them (ahem) on the witness stand later in other cases. ("... and yet you claim that you saw the defendant...")

Texas state police officers know a woman in a red dress in the Capital Building. The Driskell Hotel has a little girl. Haunted Austin here.

I work in a new high-rise and we always put on all the lights before patrolling an "empty" suite. Just to say... If you want to feel like there is someone in the room with you, it is easy enough. Just go somewhere where someone died once. They don't leave right away. Maybe from their viewpoint they do, you know, eternity, and infinity, all that.... Peikoff's lectures may well come from the crypt some day.

The house I currently live in is over 150 years old. It may be that someone died here once. If not, maybe I'll be the first. I hope not to haunt this house. I hope, once dead, to traverse the halls of Objectivist Living (the irony is not lost on me). A ghost in the machine, of sorts.

Also, is it unheard of that dead men give podcasts?

Tupac was still putting out albums 10 years after his death.

You are much too young to be writing this stuff, but not too old to be scared at night running walking by the graveyard.

--Brant

boo!

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I like them because they make me feel like someone else is in the room.

.... Peikoff's lectures may well come from the crypt some day.

Umm,... how could we tell?

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On today's once a season drop-in at Objectivism-with-one-hand, I discovered something meaty and weighty and fabulous.

No, not an Objectivish BBQ dish, but a New Telegraph Course by Leonard Peikoff.

My exaggeration of the technology to be used for the New Course is unfair, of course, but it reflects my feeling of falling, screaming, into a time tunnel. At the end of his career as an educator, Peikoff starts a fifteen-unit course of Writing -- all to be delivered by telephone (not telegraph) in 90 minute consecutive installments.

Once every three weeks starting September 13, 2013, Dr. Leonard Peikoff will offer, by telephone, a new 15-lecture course: Writing for an Audience. [...] In each 90-minute class, one student’s paper will be analyzed in a direct discussion between the writer and Dr. Peikoff. The other students will receive a copy of each paper in advance and will thus have the opportunity to learn from Peikoff’s unique insights, even though the paper is not their own. Time permitting, questions or comments from these other students are possible.

Peikoff will analyze—praise and/or correct—each paper line by line, according to his own guiding nine criteria, ranging from Clarity and Logical Structure to Emotive Tone and Proper Emphasis. A two-hour lecture explaining these criteria, already recorded, will constitute the first lecture; the next 14, by Peikoff live, complete the course. At some subsequent point, Peikoff plans to offer a more advanced follow-up course.

Now, I might stop, remove my blinders, take a deep breath, and work carefully through my prejudices and biases in re Peikoff. That would not be fun, but hey. Still, if I find the whole notion of telephone courses to be anachronistic, if I think that the oral-culture holdovers from NBI times (courses on tape/vinyl) are weird, and if I think that this is likely to be a terrible waste of time and money for all concerned -- am I wrong? What makes me so sure?

In case I haven't mentioned it in a while, I do not consider Peikoff a good writer, let alone a teacher of same. He Doesn't Write, He Yaps, I might say.

Over to more fair and judicious opinions ...

I leave OLers the link to discover the thrilling (and awkward) public relations bumf here. The link does not go to ARI or the Ayn Rand Center, because I cannot find news of the New Course on either site given my task time-allotment. Heck of an exciting launch, guys.

Oh, and, er,

To enable us to make our selection, we ask for a brief—300–400 words—writing sample of yours. For us to start the course on time, all samples must be received by July 26; no applicants can be considered after that date. For us to abstract writing ability from subject matter, all writers are asked to address the same topic. The topic we have chosen is: “Why I like The Fountainhead.”

A quotation from proto-Objectivist philosopher P.T. Barnum comes to mind...

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I like them because they make me feel like someone else is in the room.

Every security guard I know has ghost stories. That feeling of someone else being in the room... Like flying saucers, these apparitions are not seen by believers but rather by non-believers, by unimaginative people. Police officers who have seen alien ships stopped reporting them long ago because it would come back to haunt them (ahem) on the witness stand later in other cases. ("... and yet you claim that you saw the defendant...")

Texas state police officers know a woman in a red dress in the Capital Building. The Driskell Hotel has a little girl. Haunted Austin here.

I work in a new high-rise and we always put on all the lights before patrolling an "empty" suite. Just to say... If you want to feel like there is someone in the room with you, it is easy enough. Just go somewhere where someone died once. They don't leave right away. Maybe from their viewpoint they do, you know, eternity, and infinity, all that.... Peikoff's lectures may well come from the crypt some day.

The house I currently live in is over 150 years old. It may be that someone died here once. If not, maybe I'll be the first. I hope not to haunt this house. I hope, once dead, to traverse the halls of Objectivist Living (the irony is not lost on me). A ghost in the machine, of sorts.

Also, is it unheard of that dead men give podcasts?

Tupac was still putting out albums 10 years after his death.

You are much too young to be writing this stuff, but not too old to be scared at night running walking by the graveyard.

--Brant

boo!

Death is always around the corner. I wave "Hi" every time I pass him.

Graveyards don't frighten me. Corpses don't frighten me. How they got there, does.

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