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Here's a piece of morose rambling: I've just been entertaining myself with a letter from a group who focus on all things Anglo-Saxon, what struck me were the accounts of the development of Common Law. The key point, it seems, was not just old Alfred, or Ine before him, but the code promulgated by Aethelstan in the 10th century, for the first time burhs were recognised legally. His laws were exceptionally severe, however, they did concede that under-15's were exempt from hanging, you just have to see this stuff and pinch yourself. Thereafter, with Cnut and others, markets were legally 'seen' too as a means to stamp out cattle-rustling and increasing royal revenue, while, and this is immortal, I quote, ' Later Period laws cover residential rights and duties, posse-forming for catching law breakers and runaway slaves, including punishment that was severe but did not reduce their economic value.'. End quote. Sounds like somewhere else somehow. From such we are descended. Best From a Slave that Would Run Away David Bircumshaw Leicester, England Home Page A Chide's Alphabet Painting Without Numbers www.paintstuff.20m.com/index.htm http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/index.htm ----- Original Message ----- From: "Douglas Barbour" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2001 3:07 PM Subject: Re: Love and Theft > Okay David: > > >Eek, Doug, what I had in mind was the 'theory market' rather than poems as > >such, though no doubt I could aver that there is poetry that could fall into > >my dismissive category. I can't quote from other lists, but elsewhere > >someone put up a post which quite unconsciously illustrated the how of the > >jargon game, how departmental and intra-university politics create a > >pressure to propound models which exist really to further the careers of > >their proponents. > > Sure, theory is another area, & one which has taken a huge chunk of > academia over. The thing there is: there is a lot of really exciting > theory, just as there is a lot of really exciting poetry, & then there is > Sturgeon's 90%. > > I read a lot of Derrida as a kind of intellectual poetry, & it s(w)ings. > Jargon can be a silly bit of Berlin Wall building, but it's everywhere. > > Poetry does. It does. > > Doug > > Douglas Barbour > Department of English > University of Alberta > Edmonton Alberta Canada T6G 2E5 > (h) [780] 436 3320 (b) [780] 492 0521 > http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm > > Beauty > is to lay hold of Love > is the leave > to > Charles Olson >