I've just started (what I think will be) a fascinating book: "Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment," by former Time managing editor, James Gaines. (Here is a review -- one of the few I've been able to find -- in the Guardian; and here is a discussion on the radio program, "On Point.") I am not far enough in to provide a good review, but here is a "taste" from the publisher:
One Sunday evening in the spring of his seventh year as king, as his musicians were gathering for the evening concert, a courtier brought Frederick the Great his usual list of arrivals at the town gate. As he looked down the list of names, he gave a start.
"Gentlemen," he said, "old Bach is here." Those who heard him said there was "a kind of agitation" in his voice.
So begins James R. Gaines's Evening in the Palace of Reason, setting up what seems to be the ultimate mismatch: a young, glamorously triumphant warrior-king, heralded by Voltaire as the very It Boy of the Enlightenment, pitted against a devout, bad-tempered composer of "outdated" music, a scorned genius in his last years, symbol of a bygone world. The sparks from their brief conflict illuminate a pivotal moment in history.
Behind the pomp and flash, Prussia's Frederick the Great was a tormented man. His father, Frederick William I, was most likely mad; he had been known to chase frightened subjects down the street, brandishing a cane and roaring, "Love me, scum!" Frederick adored playing his flute as much as his father despised him for it, and he was beaten mercilessly for this and other perceived flaws. After an unsuccessful attempt to escape, Frederick was forced to watch as his best friend and coconspirator was brutally executed.
Twenty years later, Frederick's personality having congealed into a love of war and a taste for manhandling the great and near-great, he worked hard and long to draw "old Bach" into his celebrity menagerie. He was aided by the composer's own son, C. P. E. Bach, chief keyboardist in the king's private chamber music group. The king had prepared a cruel practical joke for his honored guest, asking him to improvise a six-part fugue on a theme so fiendishly difficult some believe only Bach's son could have devised it. Bach left the court fuming. In a fever of composition, he used the coded, alchemical language of counterpoint to write A Musical Offering in response. A stirring declaration of everything Bach had stood for all his life, it represented "as stark a rebuke of his beliefs and worldview as an absolute monarch has ever received." It is also one of the great works of art in the history of music.
Set at the tipping point between the ancient and the modern world, the triumphant story of Bach's victory expands to take in the tumult of the eighteenth century: the legacy of the Reformation, wars and conquest, and the birth of the Enlightenment. Most important, it tells the story of that historic moment when Belief -- the quintessentially human conviction that behind mundane appearances lies something mysterious and awesome -- came face to face with the cold certainty of Reason. Brimming with originality and wit, Evening in the Palace of Reason is history of the best kind, intimate in scale and broad in its vision.
Emory's Martha Duncan has posted her new article, "So Young and So Untender": Remorseless Children and the Expectations of Law. (HT: Solum) I'm not sure what to make of the thesis, but it sounds intriguing:
This article employs psychology, sociology, and literature to investigate the expectation of remorse in the juvenile and criminal justice systems. More specifically, it presents seven in-depth case studies of juveniles who were charged with murder or attempted murder and whose apparent lack of remorse played a salient role in the legal process. Through these case studies, the article challenges the law’s assumption that any decent, redeemable person, regardless of age, will exhibit sorrow and contrition after committing a heinous crime.
Beyond challenging the courts’ ability to interpret the emotional state of a juvenile, the article questions the validity of remorse as a predictor of future character. Drawing on Biblical and literary examples and the psychoanalytic theory of the superego, the article suggests that remorse, as the most agonizing form of guilt, may actually undermine the ability to “turn one’s life around” and begin anew.
Rob
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Every year the Law Professors' Christian Fellowship sponsors a conference during the AALS annual meeting. Last year's confab in San Francisco was on the topic of "Taking Christian Legal Thought Seriously." This year's will be held in DC on Saturday January 7 from 1130am to 600pm at the Washington Hilton at 1919 Connecticut Ave, and will be co sponsored once again by the Lumen Christi Institute. I assume you can register at the door for the $35 fee, which covers lunch. The first panel, which begins at 100pm, is entitled "The Faithful Judge: How Can a Judge Be Faithful to Both Christ and the Law?". The speakers are John Garvey (BC), Ken Starr (Pepperdine) and Steffen Johnson (US Office of Legal Counsel), and the moderator is yours truly. The second panel is at 315pm on the topic of "A Christian and Legal Response to Katrina: Race, Environment and the Role of Government." The speakers are John Nagle (ND), Vince Rougeau (ND), Rob Vischer (St.T), and the moderator is Amy Barrett (ND). I hasten to point out that three of the speakers/mods are present or past MOJ-ers. Kudos to John Breen (another MOJ vet), Bob Cochran and John Nagle for putting together this interesting program. This program is open to all (with $35!), regardless of whether you are attending the AALS.
--Mark
