Does being an Anglo-Saxonist make you a nice person?

[highlyeccentric]

Because, based on the Anglo-Saxonists I know (all two of them), this seems to be the case. And I don't mean just the standard If-You're-Not-Nice-To-Your-Students-They'll-Bugger-Off-And-Study-Postmodernist-Literature kind of nice. By now you've all gathered that Melanie is exceedingly cool, so we won't go into that again. But this semester I've discovered that Daniel Anlezark is also a most lovely and obliging sort of person to have around (good news, as he's the only person around to supervise AS honours theses).
I'm taking Dan's class on Medieval Dreams & Visions, which is fun. I'm not taking his Anglo-Saxon class, due to being in a sort of composite class with the honours students, run by Melanie. Nevertheless, when in week four I found myself utterly incapable of locating pictures of the exeter book to practice paelography on, Dan happily found me photocopies of something to keep me occupied until I could get my hands on the real thing, or (as it actually turned out) Melanie gave up and copied it herself. Not entirely surprising, given that it's his field and all, but nevertheless very nice of him.
What's more unusual is that Dan has been very helpful when it comes to the essay I'm working on for David's Medieval Cosmology course. He was quite happy for me to steal an essay question he had set for D&V, and write it for Cosmology. And he gave me a run-down on the Anglo-Saxon Boethius and sent me off with the names for the two (both vr old) editions and a few ideas in my head. As it happens, it didn't take much reading before I decided to abandon the visionary question and go hunting something about the transmission of Boethian ideas into 9th C. England. So I have to think of another question. But Dan didn't know I'd do that, and his letting me steal the question solved what had been a great stress for me all semester.

So, that's the theory for this week: being an anglo-saxonist makes you a nice person.
And it's very nice, I think, to have very nice teachers.

Comments

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

I've never met an academic of any stripe who wasn't a nice person. (Nor one who wasn't a drunkard, but that's another matter.) I don't think it's that Anglo-Saxonists are necessarily nice, but that academics are nice.

Anglo-Saxonists (and others with increasingly empty fields, such as palaeontologists) are egocentric. They love what they do, and they love that they get to do it. And when they find others that also love what they do, they are so pleased by this that a massive upswelling of love and gratitude pours out of them. That's what you're getting with Drs Anlezark and Heyworth, I think. It's what I always get from Latin scholars, and from medievalists elsewhere.

It is less about their field being filled with nice people -which it is, to be sure- and more about being pleased that there are other people who love this stuff too! And think it's important! Watching David's face when he walked into Cosmology and saw how many students had decided to come to the seminars, or the pleasure beaming from palaeontologists Tam has met...

When one's field is shrinking and the public seems to think one's work is meaningless and useless, having students who share one's love for what you are doing is worth more than diamonds.

Or I could be full of shit, whatever. Apropos of nothing, Anlezark's name is awesome fun to type.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

nah, there *are* medievalists who aren't nice. there are a handful of them in the CMS here. i won't mention them in the public domain- since apparently JP reads this!- but ask Jenny or I about them sometime ;)

and likewise, there are unhelpful medievalists. some of the nice ones are distinctly unhelpful.

for some reason I was scared of Dan, before this semester. Unsure why.

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, departmental gossip! *bounces*

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

yes, yes, calm down.

and Baba Brinkman is sheer genius.

In return, I offer you something less funny but infinitely more cool: Anglo Saxon Aloud (http://fred.wheatonma.edu/wordpressmu/mdrout)

[goblinpaladin.livejournal.com]

That is exquisite.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

isn't it just?

[arathesockless.livejournal.com]

Just to balance things out, I'd like to let it be known that every anglo-saxonist I've ever met has been a complete BASTARD.

Not that I've met any; I just like being contrary.

So, hey, and oi, where's the next instalment about your brother and his brush with bosoms? I'm looking forward to it!

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

are you saying that i'm a complete bastard? or does bastardy status only come with being a published anglo-saxonist?

when i get time ;)