Shopping for ideas, 'Shall we say, pistols at dawn'? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

miljohnj5 · #1 09-12-2007, 07:25 PM

There seems to be consistently a rather large assortment of intelligent individuals gathered here at any given time so I thought I'd run an idea by everyone.
First, I'm part of an English Honors program for my senior year in college and the year-long program necessitates a 40-60 page thesis based on a topic of our choice. I've chosen dueling in a comparative medium between the Pushkin and Hamilton/Burr duels. The intent is to utilize a socio-political and cultural 'lens' of both current and period literature in an attempt to explain how/why they acted out of honneur to protect their positions instead of acting solely out of self-interest. The prof. I was supposed to meet with today skipped out early for the vacation period

and of course the monkey wrench is I'm having my wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow and I plan to be useless for at least a day or two. Any ideas and/or input will be welcomed but please don't harass me just because I'm seeking advice and you happen to be bored or just plain crude.

tankdriver · #2 09-12-2007, 07:35 PM

Second?
I'm not sure what exactly the question is. I remember something on PBS about how dueling was quite the fad during the Hamilton/Burr days, and that it eventually got out of hand. I think it was a History Detectives show. I might have some resources, if there are old shows on pbs.org.
I think dueling was probably less of a way to satisfy honor as it was to fall back on baser instincts of clobbering the person in your way.

450slcguy · #3 09-12-2007, 07:40 PM

Dueling, I like that Idea. Sure would've liked to call out a few folks over the years.

miljohnj5 · #4 09-12-2007, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tankdriver

Second?
I'm not sure what exactly the question is. I remember something on PBS about how dueling was quite the fad during the Hamilton/Burr days, and that it eventually got out of hand. I think it was a History Detectives show. I might have some resources, if there are old shows on pbs.org.
I think dueling was probably less of a way to satisfy honor as it was to fall back on baser instincts of clobbering the person in your way.

There's no question, its just a request for constructive and helpful input. However, there was not a physical need for any of the parties involved to duel. That said, it was social and the implications whether it was a derivative of honneur or not is what I'm researching.

Mistress · #5 09-12-2007, 07:53 PM

When you write this i hope we can read it and thanks for the compliment. Make sure your thesis has a beginning, middle and ending. Maybe start off with the history of dueling as an art form as it relates to the cultural and social differences of a specific time period and how that has evolved into the current present day "drive by shooting." Somewhere throw in the famous duel with Burr. Hope this helps.

miljohnj5 · #6 09-12-2007, 08:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mistress

When you write this i hope we can read it and thanks for the compliment. Make sure your thesis has a beginning, middle and ending. Maybe start off with the history of dueling as an art form as it relates to the cultural and social differences of a specific time period and how that has evolved into the current present day "drive by shooting." Somewhere throw in the famous duel with Burr. Hope this helps.

Yes, I'll post it... It's supposed to be similar to a scholarly journal article in length and of publishable quality also, ahhh they have such 'great expectations'

. Last semester I wrote a 60+ page thesis (in ONE semester) in my writing intensive political theory class called "The moral obligation of experience" simply put, if people actually learned from their mistakes and grew wiser (that's what's supposed to happen) thereby avoiding similar future mistakes they become more intelligent. I based these types of intelliegence on a guy named Gardner who labeled 9 seperate types of intelligences such a inter-personal, spatial etc... which he considered both innate and developed through experience. Consequently, my thesis was about learning from experience thereby becoming more intelligent which would help further develop autonmous individuals theoritically capable of governing themselves, yes, theoritically, and no I don't actually live in an ivory tower, I'm just an e'tudient. Anyway, I've been told its actually of publishable quality, pretty cool huh? That's what started the tangent anyway, publishable quality, sorry...

Mistress · #7 09-12-2007, 08:50 PM

Good luck I know your up to the task. My final thesis for graduate school was "Choreomania, The Dancing Epidemics of Medieval Europe: An Investigation Into Spiritual Healing As A Cultural Value." I knew how to spell then.

kerry · #8 09-12-2007, 09:00 PM

I think you'd need to explore the whole area of honor/shame and its connection to the role of hierarchy and male power in culture. It might be interesting to try to find some correllary in female groups.

OldPokey · #9 09-12-2007, 09:46 PM

You may want to include how important dueling was to Prussian nobility up until the end of the First World War. They fought with sabers to first blood, so having a duel scar or two was normal, in fact it was a mark of manhood. It doesn't appear that there was too much dishonor in losing, but lots from backing away from a fight.

Hatterasguy · #10 09-12-2007, 09:50 PM

If I had to write a 60 page paper I'd put a gun in my mouth!

Since you have 60 pages, and need to say something...why not tie it in with the Japanese tradition of honor? "Dueling" isn't only a western thing. Those guys called eachother out as well and went at it. We just did it with guns. Maybe you could tie it into Seppuku.

t walgamuth · #11 09-12-2007, 11:04 PM

In Lincoln's day dueling was still common, though illegal most places, iirc.

Lincoln had a pretty sharp tongue and wit in his younger day and used to write scathing sarcastic essays about folks who he disagreed with poitically.

ONe fellow called him out for a duel. Lincoln was a little surprised that this fellow took it seriously enough to challange him, but since he was a man of integrity accepted the challenge. The person challenged had the choice of weapons. Lincoln chose Broadswords. Now Abe was a pretty long and strong fellow and they had to meet out on a sand bar or some such remote place since it was against the law (iirc). Abe employed a mutual friend to go try to disuade the challenger. While they were talking Abe took the broad sword and commenced to chopping little branches off with one hand of an overhanging branch that was about 10 feet in the air, acting nonchalant.

The challanger realized that he was in deep ***** dualing with a giant weilding a broadsword, and they found a way for him to withdraw without too much embarrassment and so they both lived to spar another day....verbally.

Abe was a very clever resourceful man.

Tom W