Classics geek

In the past couple of weeks, my inner classicist has been rearing her head more often. We read Bourdieu a couple weeks ago, and none of my classmates knew the proper plural of his central concept of Habitus (it's habitus - long U, 4th declension - NOT habiti). The repeated use of habiti was making me cringe, especially since someone actually asked the correct plural.

Tonight, I met with DJ Grad to discuss Austin's How to Do Things with Words. There, I got to geek with another classicist. (Well, technically medievalist, but he took Latin too). It's an odd sense of community - the few, the proud, the extra-nerdy. And Latin attracts a certain personality. For this particular book in particular, a knowledge of Latin was super-helpful, since so much of Austin's argument and structure reflect his Latin-training. As a result, our discussion was so stimulating, because it used parts of my brain I haven't used lately. Since we didn't have to explain the Latin-ness to each other, we could really take off philosophically. 2 hours flew by, working with text, riffing on each other, making connections, extrapolating--this is what I love about grad school. (DJ Grad and I joked about co-writing a book, mostly using SuperK and the bull as primary metaphor.)

The book itself is really interesting to geeks like us, because it is so deliberate, orderly, systematic. All about the notion of a performative (a statement that is also an action ~ 'I warn'). Lots of grammar and minutia. Oddly applicable to performance. It appeals to me because of its focus on action and specificity. It makes me want to diagram sentences and re-read Alice in Wonderland. (I think JL Austin was a/the Caterpillar).