24 October 2005

Mach 3 for monday

Occam's Razor: Given two equally predictive theories, choose the simpler.

Blore's Razor: When given a choice between two theories, take the one that is funnier.

Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

4 comments:

edumangia said...

Jenna, I came across your blog and really liked it. I've started in this blogging business only some months ago and it's been a very entertaining activity. I'm a Theology Student, and have dedicated quite some time to study the bonds between literature and Theology. What author's are you studying in your master?

Best,

Eduardo

jmg said...

hi eduardo, glad you're enjoying my (sometimes nonsensical) blog.

right now i feel like my master's program has just briefly touched on a thousand different authors, but i'm particularly interested in the works of women and other marginal figures, such as Sor Juana, Catalina Clara Ramírez de Guzmán, María de Zayas, Rosario Ferré, Clarice Lispector, Severo Sarduy, Chicana and Nuyorican poets, etc...

i'm interested to know what you've read on the connections between literature and theology. i noticed on your blog that you like Thomas Merton, whom i know a little about through a project i did on Ernesto Cardenal...any recommendations?

edumangia said...

Well, Ernesto Cardenal was a close friend of Merton's (I think Merton prologued his beautiful "Vida en el Amor"... yes, I'm pretty sure he did).
If you're interested in marginal and women poetry, an interesting author from my country is Alejandra Pizarnik. She seems to me the female Latin American Version of Baudelaire. One the damned, tortured ones.

When it comes to the relationship between literature and theology... hmmm.... If I had to pick someone off the top of my head, I'd go with Hans Urs Von Balthasar. He was a theologian with a literary background. One of his major works, "Gloria" (¡Nine volumes! These Germans go all out when it comes to writing), is a study on the relationship between beauty and theology, and includes a study of different writers, some of them also theologians(like John of the Cross, or Bonaventure), or laymen (like Péguy, Hamman or Dante). And the list goes on, but it's still a relatively new area in Theology, when you consider we're dealing with a science that's 2000 years old.

jmg said...

i have read a little of Pizarnik's work. i remember off the top of my head her poem "Solo un nombre". i still need to read more of her work though.

i will look into Von Balthasar--sounds very interesting!