iohannesrhetor

[iohannesrhetor]

New video for university essay writers (and instructors).

Less wholesome, more snark, but all meant in love.

#youtube #academia #essay writing #english #english major #college writing

[iohannesrhetor]

Despite the linkbaity, trend-chasing title and thumb, this video essay is really about the writing process. It explores the potential for AI LLMs to serve as a "reflective other" to refine one's own ideas and organization, the potential dangers of a world where nobody reads and nobody writes, and why talking to your instructor is always best practice.

#AI writing #chatgpt #ai assistance #AI ethics #plagiarism #college life #college writing #university #academia #essay writing #LLMs #openai #Youtube

[iohannesrhetor]

fourteenth century apology video

I was explaining the premise of Chaucer's Legend of Good Women to my son (poor kid). In its prologue, Chaucer explains how women have been attacking him for slandering the honor of women and being an enemy to love on account of his depiction of Criseyde in Troilus and Criseyde(*), and Chaucer basically says he'll make up for it by writing a book about virtuous and faithful women.

My son says to me "wait, are you saying Chaucer invented the ukulele apology video in the 1300s?!"

All the way dead. Love that kid.

(*leaving a lot out here about how problematic these texts are and how Chaucer is-- my 'fave is problematic' like they used to say)

#geoffrey chaucer #medieval literature #apology video #middle ages #14th century #medieval #mythology and folklore #romance

[iohannesrhetor]

Coming soon to my YouTube Channel (Language, Culture, and Literature), a whole-ass video lecture on Michel Foucault, the problematic daddy of modern gender studies, queer theory, post-colonial studies, and new historicist criticism

#foucault #critical theory #literary theory #youtube #educational videos

[iohannesrhetor]

A very specific kind of mixed reaction

I think there must be a German word for things that give you aesthetic chills but make your cringe at the same time, like those incredibly well executed "He Gets Us" commercials that are funded upstream by forced birthers and bigots like David Green's (Hobby Lobby) Servant Foundation.

#aesthetics #christian media #he gets us #forced birth #homophobia #transphobes #patriarchy

[iohannesrhetor]

Why Are English Majors?

This twenty-five minute video offers a concise history of literary criticism and interpretation in "the West" since antiquity, from Homeric scholars of Alexandria to 21st century queer theory, new formalisms, etc.. Enjoy!

#english literature #english major #academia #literary theory #literary criticism #youtube #video #Youtube

[iohannesrhetor]

Look, there is a long tradition in western literature of men (and to a lesser extent women) expressing friendship in passionate, intimate terms, that in our own time can't help but be viewed through the lense of sexuality but which in the past were considered perfectly consistent with platonic friendship. While I appreciate the impulse to recuperate the past in a way that endorses sexual diversity and undoes the historic erasure of LGBQTIA+, we cannot always jump to the conclusion that all passionate intimate friendships in classic literature are romantic or sexual in nature. lol jk Robert Walton is gay as hell for Victor Frankenstein.

Teen Frankenstein!

Reading Frankenstein at 17: I can't believe a teenager wrote this!!

Reading Frankenstein at 47: I can totally believe a teenager (albeit an exceptionally brilliant one) wrote this.

It's all about identity, self-discovery, parent issues, and thise BIG HUGE very interesting feelings of resentment, sorrow, grief, and anger. Also, the plot coherence is entirely secondary to the VIBES. I can also believe a hetersexual teenage girl wrote this because the main guys are hot schmucks. RIP Henry.

#roommates #just friends #classic literature

[iohannesrhetor]

Teen Frankenstein!

Reading Frankenstein at 17: I can't believe a teenager wrote this!!

Reading Frankenstein at 47: I can totally believe a teenager (albeit an exceptionally brilliant one) wrote this.

It's all about identity, self-discovery, parent issues, and those BIG HUGE very interesting feelings of resentment, sorrow, grief, and anger. Also, the plot coherence is entirely secondary to the VIBES.

I can also believe a hetersexual teenage girl wrote this because the main guys are hot schmucks. RIP Henry.

#classic literature #mary shelley #gothic literature #teen angst #frankensteins monster #victor frankenstein #henry clerval

[iohannesrhetor]

soup de main: SURPRISE, BITCHES, IT'S SOUP!

soup de foudre: SURPRISE, BITCHES, IT'S YOUR FAVORITE SOUP!

soup de jour: soup of the day

soup de jure: soup the government wants you to eat

soup de facto: the soup everyone actually eats

[iohannesrhetor]

We're back! Well, the podcast is, anyway! A new episode is up, talking about the history of ecology and the terms food web and food chain. Apologies for the unscheduled hiatus, it's good to be back at it!

(The wrong audio was up briefly; delete & re-download for the right one!)

[iohannesrhetor]

"i cant watch shows about fantasy kingdoms without thinking about how they should be abolishing the monarchy" that my friend sounds like a skill issue

[iohannesrhetor]

I don't think it's right to use AI generated images. In my day we stole digital images directly from the artist.

#ai art #intellectual property

[iohannesrhetor]

I have made a 30 minute video-- it is 20 minutes of lecture and 10 minutes of essay on the semantic evolution of the word "wholesome" in the last ten years.

I had a lot of fun making it. I hope you enjoy.

Please pardon the excessively link-baity thumbnail.

#heartwarming #linguistics #language #semantics #cultural studies #gen z culture #language change #youtube #video essay #Youtube

[iohannesrhetor]

Vegan orcs

We've known for a long time that "meat's back on the menu, boys" implies the existence of Mordor restaurants, but it also implies the existence of vegetarian Orcish foodways and I'm guessing it's probably just beans.

#lotr #food #orcs

[iohannesrhetor]

POV: It's 1880 and you've just written a treatise about this observation using it as the basis for why the Maldives should belong to Denmark.

The word uber is funny because it means above in German and abundance in Latin which are both nice but also it means boob

[iohannesrhetor]

The French word trop means 'too (much)', as in trop grand (too big) or il mange trop (he eats too much). It was borrowed from Proto-West Germanic *þrop (crowd; cluster; village), a variant of *þorp, the word that became German Dorf, Dutch dorp and archaic English thorp, all 'village'.

[iohannesrhetor]

Reading Robert E. Howard's Conan for the first time

I've been a fantasy reader all my life and just read an original Robert E. Howard Conan short story for the first time, namely, "The Phoenix on the Sword." Written for the pulps in 1932 by Robert E. Howard who had otherwise made a living writing westerns, it's hilariously awesome. It's a classic example of how an early iteration of a genre can often look like parody. It's full of elements that would become tropes: the cheerful barbarian, scheming but feckless aristocrats, lost artifacts of great power and evil, shadowy demons from the outer void, prophetic dreams that both provide exposition and mark the protagonist as the chosen one. Of course these tropes are played out now but for readers in the 1930s must have been AWESOME. What cracks me up the most about this story is that the first 80% is elaborate worldbuilding and character developement, and the final 20% is a single violent hallway fight that in no way depends on the set-up for its resolution.

Spoiler: Conan wins.

Verdict: I will be reading more, especially for the overwrought Lovecraft-light prose and the absolutely insane liberty with which Howard plunders unaltered mythology ("Aesir") and history ("Aquilonia.") Less wholesome than Tolkien, but tighter.

CW: Hints of old school unconscious racism ("dark race" hm okay).

Source: https://conan.fandom.com/wiki/The_Phoenix_on_the_Sword

#conan the barbarian #robert e. howard #fantasy #dark fantasy