Cassandra Adams
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520252493
- eISBN:
- 9780520944565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520252493.003.0031
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
In her poem entitled “Daddy Black Man,” Cassandra Adams, a prisoner, tells about her dream that her black father, whose physical features she inherited including the “caramel burnt skin, big doe ...
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In her poem entitled “Daddy Black Man,” Cassandra Adams, a prisoner, tells about her dream that her black father, whose physical features she inherited including the “caramel burnt skin, big doe eyes, and cheeks,” would one day love her.Less
In her poem entitled “Daddy Black Man,” Cassandra Adams, a prisoner, tells about her dream that her black father, whose physical features she inherited including the “caramel burnt skin, big doe eyes, and cheeks,” would one day love her.
Cassandra Adams
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520252493
- eISBN:
- 9780520944565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520252493.003.0064
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
In her poem entitled “Freedom Gon' Come,” Cassandra Adams laments that her freedom, which she got when she was released from prison on parole, means nothing because of the negative stereotypes held ...
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In her poem entitled “Freedom Gon' Come,” Cassandra Adams laments that her freedom, which she got when she was released from prison on parole, means nothing because of the negative stereotypes held by society against incarcerated people like her.Less
In her poem entitled “Freedom Gon' Come,” Cassandra Adams laments that her freedom, which she got when she was released from prison on parole, means nothing because of the negative stereotypes held by society against incarcerated people like her.
Charles McNelis and Alexander Sens
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199601899
- eISBN:
- 9780191827525
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199601899.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
The obscurity of Lycophron’s Alexandra was already notorious in antiquity and has long hampered a holistic approach to the poem. Through a series of distinct but closely integrated literary studies ...
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The obscurity of Lycophron’s Alexandra was already notorious in antiquity and has long hampered a holistic approach to the poem. Through a series of distinct but closely integrated literary studies of major aspects of the work, including its style, its engagement with the traditions of epic and tragedy, and its treatment of heroism and of the gods, the book explores the way the Alexandra reconfigures Greek mythology, particularly as presented in Homeric epic and Athenian tragedy, in order to cast the Romans and their restoration of Trojan glory as the ultimate telos of history. In this sense, the poem emerges as an important intermediary between Homeric epic and Latin poetry, particularly Vergil’s Aeneid. By rewriting specific features of the epic and tragic traditions, the Alexandra denies to Greek heroes the glory that was the traditional compensation for their suffering, while at the same time attributing to Cassandra’s Trojan family honors framed in the traditional language of Greek heroism. In this sense, the figure of Cassandra, a prophetess traditionally gifted with the power of foresight but denied credibility, self-reflexively serves as a vehicle for exploring the potentials and limitations of poetry.Less
The obscurity of Lycophron’s Alexandra was already notorious in antiquity and has long hampered a holistic approach to the poem. Through a series of distinct but closely integrated literary studies of major aspects of the work, including its style, its engagement with the traditions of epic and tragedy, and its treatment of heroism and of the gods, the book explores the way the Alexandra reconfigures Greek mythology, particularly as presented in Homeric epic and Athenian tragedy, in order to cast the Romans and their restoration of Trojan glory as the ultimate telos of history. In this sense, the poem emerges as an important intermediary between Homeric epic and Latin poetry, particularly Vergil’s Aeneid. By rewriting specific features of the epic and tragic traditions, the Alexandra denies to Greek heroes the glory that was the traditional compensation for their suffering, while at the same time attributing to Cassandra’s Trojan family honors framed in the traditional language of Greek heroism. In this sense, the figure of Cassandra, a prophetess traditionally gifted with the power of foresight but denied credibility, self-reflexively serves as a vehicle for exploring the potentials and limitations of poetry.
Kristina Mendicino
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780823274017
- eISBN:
- 9780823274062
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823274017.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
No reading of prophetic language, and no reading of Humboldt’s reflections on language, could proceed without attending closely to Cassandra’s speech in the Agamemnon, to which this chapter is ...
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No reading of prophetic language, and no reading of Humboldt’s reflections on language, could proceed without attending closely to Cassandra’s speech in the Agamemnon, to which this chapter is devoted. There, it will turn out that translation is the original problem of prophecy, as her utterances cross the registers of vision and speech; Greek and Trojan; human and divine tongues—whereby the divine source that is said to burn through her proves to be itself undecidable, at once reminiscent of the Furies and of their enemy, the oracular God Apollo. While Cassandra’s speech has repeatedly been described in the terms of the sublime, beginning with the earliest Greek hypothesis appended to the play, through Wilhelm von Humboldt’s preface to his Agamemnon, what is most striking about her language is not the past and future horrors of the House of Atreus that her words appear to summon, but, as the chorus will say, her “speaking of an other-speaking city” (1200–1), in another speech that also removes these Argive elders from their proper language.Less
No reading of prophetic language, and no reading of Humboldt’s reflections on language, could proceed without attending closely to Cassandra’s speech in the Agamemnon, to which this chapter is devoted. There, it will turn out that translation is the original problem of prophecy, as her utterances cross the registers of vision and speech; Greek and Trojan; human and divine tongues—whereby the divine source that is said to burn through her proves to be itself undecidable, at once reminiscent of the Furies and of their enemy, the oracular God Apollo. While Cassandra’s speech has repeatedly been described in the terms of the sublime, beginning with the earliest Greek hypothesis appended to the play, through Wilhelm von Humboldt’s preface to his Agamemnon, what is most striking about her language is not the past and future horrors of the House of Atreus that her words appear to summon, but, as the chorus will say, her “speaking of an other-speaking city” (1200–1), in another speech that also removes these Argive elders from their proper language.
Luciano Floridi
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199641321
- eISBN:
- 9780191760938
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199641321.003.0010
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
In this chapter, I concentrate on information as a resource and product of ethical interactions, and do so by considering its semantic value. From a semantic perspective, information has played a ...
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In this chapter, I concentrate on information as a resource and product of ethical interactions, and do so by considering its semantic value. From a semantic perspective, information has played a major role in any moral theory at least since Socrates’ time. ICTs have now revolutionized the life of information, from its production and management to its consumption, thus deeply affecting our moral lives. Amid the many issues they have raised, a very serious one, discussed in this chapter, is what I have labelled as the tragedy of the Good Will. This is represented by the increasing pressure that ICTs and their deluge of information are putting on any responsible (in the technical sense seen in Chapter 7) agent who would like to act morally, when informed about actual or potential evils, as defined in Chapter 9, but who also lacks the resources to do much about them.Less
In this chapter, I concentrate on information as a resource and product of ethical interactions, and do so by considering its semantic value. From a semantic perspective, information has played a major role in any moral theory at least since Socrates’ time. ICTs have now revolutionized the life of information, from its production and management to its consumption, thus deeply affecting our moral lives. Amid the many issues they have raised, a very serious one, discussed in this chapter, is what I have labelled as the tragedy of the Good Will. This is represented by the increasing pressure that ICTs and their deluge of information are putting on any responsible (in the technical sense seen in Chapter 7) agent who would like to act morally, when informed about actual or potential evils, as defined in Chapter 9, but who also lacks the resources to do much about them.
Milo Jones and Philippe Silberzahn
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780804785808
- eISBN:
- 9780804787154
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804785808.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Conflict Politics and Policy
The CIA was created in 1947 in large part to prevent another Pearl Harbor. On at least four dramatic occasions, the Agency failed at this task: prior to in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the ...
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The CIA was created in 1947 in large part to prevent another Pearl Harbor. On at least four dramatic occasions, the Agency failed at this task: prior to in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the Iranian revolution of 1978, the collapse of the USSR in 1991, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. There has been no shortage of studies to understand how such failures happened. Until now, however, none of the explanations proffered has been fully satisfying, and sometimes competing explanations have been mutually incompatible. In contrast, this book proposes a unified, coherent and rigorous theory of intelligence failure built on culture and identity. Crucially, the book takes a systematic look at Cassandras - people who offered strategic warning, but were ignored, to show that surprises could be anticipated. As the first post-positivist study of intelligence failure, the book views intelligence analysis as permeated by social facts, and thus firmly in the grip of the identity and culture of the intelligence producer, the CIA. As a consequence, it can present novel model of surprise that focuses on the internal make-up the CIA, including the identities of analysts, the corporate identity of Langley as a whole, and the Agency's organizational culture. It suggests that by examining the key features of the Agency's identity and culture, we can arrive at a holistic, unified understanding of the intelligence failures that resulted in dramatic strategic surprises.Less
The CIA was created in 1947 in large part to prevent another Pearl Harbor. On at least four dramatic occasions, the Agency failed at this task: prior to in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the Iranian revolution of 1978, the collapse of the USSR in 1991, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. There has been no shortage of studies to understand how such failures happened. Until now, however, none of the explanations proffered has been fully satisfying, and sometimes competing explanations have been mutually incompatible. In contrast, this book proposes a unified, coherent and rigorous theory of intelligence failure built on culture and identity. Crucially, the book takes a systematic look at Cassandras - people who offered strategic warning, but were ignored, to show that surprises could be anticipated. As the first post-positivist study of intelligence failure, the book views intelligence analysis as permeated by social facts, and thus firmly in the grip of the identity and culture of the intelligence producer, the CIA. As a consequence, it can present novel model of surprise that focuses on the internal make-up the CIA, including the identities of analysts, the corporate identity of Langley as a whole, and the Agency's organizational culture. It suggests that by examining the key features of the Agency's identity and culture, we can arrive at a holistic, unified understanding of the intelligence failures that resulted in dramatic strategic surprises.
Milo Jones and Philippe Silberzahn
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780804785808
- eISBN:
- 9780804787154
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804785808.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Conflict Politics and Policy
This chapter presents an overview of the CIA's internal culture and collective identity, and of the social mechanisms that created and maintained them between 1947 and 2001. First, it documents four ...
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This chapter presents an overview of the CIA's internal culture and collective identity, and of the social mechanisms that created and maintained them between 1947 and 2001. First, it documents four persistent features of the CIA's identity and culture that later chapters use to understand intelligence failure: homogeneity of personnel, scientism, a preference for secret rather than openly available information, and a drive for consensus over other analytic values. In later chapters, these features are revisited during each phase of the intelligence cycle to help understand how they create the conditions for intelligence failure. Next, the chapter details the four key mechanisms that gave rise to these features of the CIA and explain their persistence: the self-selection of personnel, the active selection of personnel, the socialization of analysts, and the mirror-imaging not only of the Agency's targets, but also the CIA's intelligence community partners and intelligence consumers.Less
This chapter presents an overview of the CIA's internal culture and collective identity, and of the social mechanisms that created and maintained them between 1947 and 2001. First, it documents four persistent features of the CIA's identity and culture that later chapters use to understand intelligence failure: homogeneity of personnel, scientism, a preference for secret rather than openly available information, and a drive for consensus over other analytic values. In later chapters, these features are revisited during each phase of the intelligence cycle to help understand how they create the conditions for intelligence failure. Next, the chapter details the four key mechanisms that gave rise to these features of the CIA and explain their persistence: the self-selection of personnel, the active selection of personnel, the socialization of analysts, and the mirror-imaging not only of the Agency's targets, but also the CIA's intelligence community partners and intelligence consumers.
Peter J. Bailey
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813167190
- eISBN:
- 9780813167862
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813167190.003.0016
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The good-feelings aura of Manhattan Murder Mystery was undermined by the lack of any real creativity in that movie; the Greek chorus framing Mighty Aphrodite and thematically connected to its search ...
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The good-feelings aura of Manhattan Murder Mystery was undermined by the lack of any real creativity in that movie; the Greek chorus framing Mighty Aphrodite and thematically connected to its search for origins makes it a more compelling comedy. Mighty Aphrodite dramatically opposes Allen’s pessimistic perception of human life with his desire to make movies that provide the condemned with consolatory laughter, the Greek chorus transforming itself from a prognosticator of dark fates to celebrants of “that voodoo that you do so well.” Heredity proves to be other than deterministic in Mighty Aphrodite,which offers as benignly comedic a validation as Allen could manage to create on film of his much-quoted self-justification during the tabloid wars, “the heart wants what it wants.”Less
The good-feelings aura of Manhattan Murder Mystery was undermined by the lack of any real creativity in that movie; the Greek chorus framing Mighty Aphrodite and thematically connected to its search for origins makes it a more compelling comedy. Mighty Aphrodite dramatically opposes Allen’s pessimistic perception of human life with his desire to make movies that provide the condemned with consolatory laughter, the Greek chorus transforming itself from a prognosticator of dark fates to celebrants of “that voodoo that you do so well.” Heredity proves to be other than deterministic in Mighty Aphrodite,which offers as benignly comedic a validation as Allen could manage to create on film of his much-quoted self-justification during the tabloid wars, “the heart wants what it wants.”
Charles McNelis and Alexander Sens
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199601899
- eISBN:
- 9780191827525
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199601899.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
Lycophron’s Alexandra, at its core, takes up a question that runs through Greek literature from its inception: what is the relationship between poetic artifice and the truth? By exploiting the formal ...
More
Lycophron’s Alexandra, at its core, takes up a question that runs through Greek literature from its inception: what is the relationship between poetic artifice and the truth? By exploiting the formal features of a tragic messenger speech and by having the messenger report verbatim a lengthy prophecy uttered by the traditionally unbelievable but accurate Cassandra, the poem claims over-determined authority for its reconfiguration of the history of the Trojan War. In doing so, the poem rewrites the literary tradition, particularly that of Greek epic and tragedy. Inasmuch as the poem fuses the voices of the poet, the messenger, and the prophetess whose words he repeats, its use of obscure language and mythology forms part of a broader engagement with the capacities and limitations of language.Less
Lycophron’s Alexandra, at its core, takes up a question that runs through Greek literature from its inception: what is the relationship between poetic artifice and the truth? By exploiting the formal features of a tragic messenger speech and by having the messenger report verbatim a lengthy prophecy uttered by the traditionally unbelievable but accurate Cassandra, the poem claims over-determined authority for its reconfiguration of the history of the Trojan War. In doing so, the poem rewrites the literary tradition, particularly that of Greek epic and tragedy. Inasmuch as the poem fuses the voices of the poet, the messenger, and the prophetess whose words he repeats, its use of obscure language and mythology forms part of a broader engagement with the capacities and limitations of language.
Charles McNelis and Alexander Sens
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199601899
- eISBN:
- 9780191827525
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199601899.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter offers a continuous, linear reading of Cassandra’s prophecy with the goal of illustrating the way in which individual passages are linked. In structure, the prophecy as a whole is ...
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This chapter offers a continuous, linear reading of Cassandra’s prophecy with the goal of illustrating the way in which individual passages are linked. In structure, the prophecy as a whole is divided into two major parts of unequal length: the first a sweeping account of the coming Trojan War and its aftermath (31–1282) and the second a broader treatment of the conflict between East and West of which it forms part (1283–1460). Both begin in the distant past and conclude with the ascendancy of the Romans, who thus represent the larger telos of the prophecy. Beyond this parallelism, the two halves of the prophecy not only have their own internal logic but are also linked to one another thematically and verbally.Less
This chapter offers a continuous, linear reading of Cassandra’s prophecy with the goal of illustrating the way in which individual passages are linked. In structure, the prophecy as a whole is divided into two major parts of unequal length: the first a sweeping account of the coming Trojan War and its aftermath (31–1282) and the second a broader treatment of the conflict between East and West of which it forms part (1283–1460). Both begin in the distant past and conclude with the ascendancy of the Romans, who thus represent the larger telos of the prophecy. Beyond this parallelism, the two halves of the prophecy not only have their own internal logic but are also linked to one another thematically and verbally.
