Now I think I would have been well-served by taking that theory class. It would have saved me many moments of thinking I was faking it in grad school, and would have been easier than doing the outside reading I subsequently did to make up for it. My rhetoric I got in philosophy classes, Latin (when we translated Cicero and others), and one absolutely spectacular seminar on Medieval Rhetoric and Poetics. I would have done well to take courses in that too. That’s another reason why I think we need an integrated curriculum. The earlier students find out that all these facets of the study of words are connected, the better.

Aristotle says that we enjoy seeing representations of things that would be unpleasant to see in actuality. This is what led to slasher movies. They were comparing the qualities of Saw I versus Saw II and III, I think. I haven’t seen any of these, nor do I want to. Most of the sweet young things in the class had seen all three, and argued that the earlier ones were better than the later, somehow. I was somewhat distressed. I think Aristotle would have been also.

And can I just observe, for someone who swore off teaching lit, you seem to be doing a first-rate job? You can keep talking about it in rhetorical terms all you want. You should have seen me rationalize my linguistics degree. But really, I think it’s all connected. And so are we: philologists, in the strictest sense of the term.