Saturday, October 25, 2003
(11:50 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
To-do list
Following the example of the lovely Kari Thomas, I am going to make a web-based to-do list for this weekend. I will divide up my tasks according to their priority level.
High priority (actually assigned for next week)
- Read half of Bernadette Brooten's Love Between Women, a book about lesbians during the early years of Christianity. The second half apparently includes a scathing indictment of Paul. I also have to read something from Ovid and Juvenal, in order to have some primary sources under my belt.
- Read the second third of Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship; write a two-page "reflection" over said work.
- Read 1 and 2 Kings, as well as supplementary (short) sections from The Women's Bible Commentary and Old Testament Parallels.
- Read about fifty pages of The History of Christian Thought, vol. 2 by Justo Gonzalez and a few snippets of Readings in the History of Christian Thought by William C. Placher -- a very thin volume featuring about three pages from each major theologian.
"It would be nice" tasks -- optional assignment to get out of the way
- Write a 4-6 page paper for People and Faith of Israel over Introducing the Old Testament by Richard Coggins, with special reference to the importance of the historical accuracy or lack thereof of many portions of the Hebrew Bible.
- If I don't do the previous one, I'll have to write a paper over The Covenanted Self by Walter Bruggemann. This would be a lot more interesting to me and would probably allow me to write a better paper overall, since Bruggemann is Actually Good. I read a book of essays by him once during my 100-book days entitled Texts That Linger, Words That Explode that included an essay on Marx's use of the Old Testament -- a topic that is, shall we say, not often addressed.
Insanely Impossible Tasks That I Cannot Possibly Do
- Finish Homo Sacer by Giorgio Agamben (the first twenty pages have been excellent).
- Write a paper over Zizek and Bonhoeffer for this conference at Purdue, which was brought to my attention by the lovely Jared Woodward -- although I could write either a paper, fiction, or performance art on Zizek and Bonhoeffer if I were so inclined.
- Make some progress on German using my fun little German book.
Obstacles
- Hanging out with Brett and Tara tonight -- I normally limit myself to one night of fun a week, and I had that last night. This might be more than I can take.
- Going to church tomorrow -- I could go to St. Rose's 4:00 mass, which is like a half-hour, but which is also like super-depressing due to the decrepit priest who does it and who apparently cannot hear the congregation and is thus awkwardly three or four words ahead of us on the things we're all supposed to say in unison.
- The Internet
Beyond this weekend, I can also do stuff Monday night or between classes Tuesday. In a pinch, I could call off work Monday. Next semester, I might decide to just max out my loans, move to Hyde Park, and become a Super Student. That would really fit me a lot better. If I got my endurance levels up to like nine hours of reading a day, with writing at night, I could go to ten conferences a year, read 200 books each year, and learn a foreign language every three months, eventually getting to the point where, like Bill Brower, I can (pretend to) read Kierkegaard in Danish.
I won't keep you posted on what I get done, because that might be even more boring than what I just did. (Robb, feel free to scroll this post to death later today, if you still have a post in you after dropping such a major load yesterday.)
