HOLY FUCKING SHIT BATMAN
So i just had one of those "holy shit this is what it means to go to the U of C" moments (which have come few and far between in comparison to what I felt during O-Week first year):
In my PhySci class, we're reading "Thin Ice" by Mark Bowen. It's a book about a dude who followed some other dudes as they dig ice cores and shit (can't get much more eloquent than that, eh?) and learn about how we're fucking it up big time in the global warming department. I have to finish the book by Tuesday. All throughout, I'm struck by how many UChicago people are in the book; it seems like a chapter isn't complete without Bowen mentioning someone or other that work(ed)/s for the U of C. As has been the case with all other books I've read that mention the U of C, though, I remark to myself "That's cool," and carry on. (side note: did anyone know that carbon-14 dating was discovered at the U of C? sweet.)
I turn to page 166 and read this sentence:
"Andean research being a very small world, [Lonnie Thompson] also knew exactly where to look: Alan Kolata, an anthropologist from the University of Chicago. Kolata is arguably the leading expert on the mysterious people known today as the Tiwanaku, who once ruled a vast empire from an ancient city at the sharp, 12,500-foot edge where the brown Altiplano meets the azure waters of the lake."
Bowen proceeds to quote Kolata for at least 20 more pages, filling up an entire chapter. Now, I have not only HEARD of Alan Kolata, but I took his "Inca and Aztec States" class spring quarter last year. AS A FIRST YEAR (and got an A, btw). One of my anthropology professors is quoted in a book about global warming that was assigned completely randomly by my PhySci professor. What's more, Alan Kolata had talked about the very same sorts of things in my class as he did in this book. I had written papers on some of them (like huacas, which are mountain shrines).
Consider my mind blown. Also consider it the first time I've seen one of my professors quoted in text that hasn't been assigned for one of his classes on purpose. What. the. fuck. Also, I took this dude's class as a first year and i had no idea that he was the leading expert on anything.
Wow, this all seems really trite and naive when committed to writing (probably because it's 2:43 AM and I've just spent an hour and a half in the laundry room trying to read this fucking book), but the thing is that this is the sort of thing that I never anticipated would happen. Of course I would expect to see someone like Alan Kolata quoted in a book about the Incas, or something in the field of anthropolgy. No, I stumble upon one of my former professors in a popular-science book about global warming as an entire chapter: "Look," Kolata basically says, "global warming fucked up the Tiwanaku and so it's probably going to fuck us up too."
I hope to god that Alan Kolata doesn't Google his name and find this. If he does, can he please take it as a compliment? I loved your class last year, Professor Kolata. I learned a lot and I really enjoyed it. And I'm grateful that people like you are willing to spend your time teaching underclass undergraduates like me. It's that kind of thing that I read in the UChicago literature before I came here without really expecting it to happen to me.
Okay I should really get to bed now.
In my PhySci class, we're reading "Thin Ice" by Mark Bowen. It's a book about a dude who followed some other dudes as they dig ice cores and shit (can't get much more eloquent than that, eh?) and learn about how we're fucking it up big time in the global warming department. I have to finish the book by Tuesday. All throughout, I'm struck by how many UChicago people are in the book; it seems like a chapter isn't complete without Bowen mentioning someone or other that work(ed)/s for the U of C. As has been the case with all other books I've read that mention the U of C, though, I remark to myself "That's cool," and carry on. (side note: did anyone know that carbon-14 dating was discovered at the U of C? sweet.)
I turn to page 166 and read this sentence:
"Andean research being a very small world, [Lonnie Thompson] also knew exactly where to look: Alan Kolata, an anthropologist from the University of Chicago. Kolata is arguably the leading expert on the mysterious people known today as the Tiwanaku, who once ruled a vast empire from an ancient city at the sharp, 12,500-foot edge where the brown Altiplano meets the azure waters of the lake."
Bowen proceeds to quote Kolata for at least 20 more pages, filling up an entire chapter. Now, I have not only HEARD of Alan Kolata, but I took his "Inca and Aztec States" class spring quarter last year. AS A FIRST YEAR (and got an A, btw). One of my anthropology professors is quoted in a book about global warming that was assigned completely randomly by my PhySci professor. What's more, Alan Kolata had talked about the very same sorts of things in my class as he did in this book. I had written papers on some of them (like huacas, which are mountain shrines).
Consider my mind blown. Also consider it the first time I've seen one of my professors quoted in text that hasn't been assigned for one of his classes on purpose. What. the. fuck. Also, I took this dude's class as a first year and i had no idea that he was the leading expert on anything.
Wow, this all seems really trite and naive when committed to writing (probably because it's 2:43 AM and I've just spent an hour and a half in the laundry room trying to read this fucking book), but the thing is that this is the sort of thing that I never anticipated would happen. Of course I would expect to see someone like Alan Kolata quoted in a book about the Incas, or something in the field of anthropolgy. No, I stumble upon one of my former professors in a popular-science book about global warming as an entire chapter: "Look," Kolata basically says, "global warming fucked up the Tiwanaku and so it's probably going to fuck us up too."
I hope to god that Alan Kolata doesn't Google his name and find this. If he does, can he please take it as a compliment? I loved your class last year, Professor Kolata. I learned a lot and I really enjoyed it. And I'm grateful that people like you are willing to spend your time teaching underclass undergraduates like me. It's that kind of thing that I read in the UChicago literature before I came here without really expecting it to happen to me.
Okay I should really get to bed now.