Notes by to Oxford Chiel
Notes by an Oxford Chiel is a collection of several satirical texts by Lewis Carroll on university politics in Oxford . It was compiled in 1874 and republished together. Only DCL is given as the author, a change in the initials of his real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.
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The New Method of Evaluation, as Applied to π
The description of a new method of evaluation, applied to π, dates from 1865 . At first sight, it is about complicated calculations, for example using Maclaurin series . The text refers to the dispute over Benjamin Jowett's salary , which was raised from the original £ 40 to £ 500.
The Dynamics of a Parti-cle
The background to the dynamics of a particle was the election of the two members of Oxford University to the House of Commons in July 1865 . The previous MPs were William Ewart Gladstone and Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy . Gladstone was too liberal in Carroll's eyes that he preferred the challenger William Heathcote . The text takes up this situation and presents it as a geometrical problem in the style of the elements of Euclid : It begins with a series of definitions , postulates and axioms that are based on Euclid, but actually refer to political debates and elections.
Proposition follows that end with the construction task of removing a given tangent from a circle and instead bringing another straight line into contact with it. Carroll describes a complicated process with several sketches in which the tangent WEG (i.e. Gladstone) is removed from the circle UNIV with center O (i.e. the University of Oxford), while GH (i.e. Gathorne-Hardy) remains and instead WH (i.e. Heathcote) ) becomes a tangent.
Indeed, Gethorne-Hardy and Heathcote won the election.
Facts, figures, and fancies
This part consists of three separate texts from the years 1866 to 1868. The Elections to the Hebdomadal Council is a poem which refers to an open letter criticizing the Hebdomadal Council and parodies it. This poem had already been reprinted in Phantasmagoria and Other Poems . This is followed by The Offer of the Clarendon Trustees , a letter in which Carroll parodies proposals on how the money from a foundation (which ultimately became the Clarendon Laboratory ) should be spent most sensibly. For example, he demands that the university should provide a field for the mathematics department to practice rooting . The Deserted Parks is a parody of Oliver Goldsmith's poem The Deserted Village and refers to the suggestion made by Vice Chancellor FK Leighton to turn Parks into cricket pitches.
The New Belfry
The New Belfry, dating from 1872, is a critical depiction of the new belfry at Christ Church College . In 13 sections, he looks at the new belfry from different perspectives and comes to the conclusion each time that the university is distorted by its appearance. For example, he writes:
- § 4. On the chief architectural merit of the new Belfry, Ch. Ch.
- Its chief merit is its simplicity — a simplicity so pure, so profound, in a word, so simple , that no other word will fitly describe it. [...]
- § 5. On the other architectural merits of the new Belfry, Ch. Ch.
- The Belfry has no other architectural merits.
- § 4. On the main architectural merit of the new belfry, Christ Church
- Its main asset is its simplicity - a simplicity so pure, so profound, in one word, so simple that no other word can aptly describe it. [...]
- § 5. On the other architectural advantages of the new belfry, Christ Church
- The belfry has no other architectural merits.
Today the belfry can no longer be seen.
The Vision of The Three T's
The text published for the first time in the following year 1873 - which he called a lament - about the vision of the three T deals with the university's construction work. As in the parodied work The Complete Angler by Izaak Walton , a conversation between a hunter and an angler takes place in three chapters. First they meet a professor who tells them about university processes, then they meet a madman who reveals himself to be an architect. In the last chapter the two talk to a tutor who explains the verse Diruit, aedificat, mutat quadrata in rotundis by Horace .
The blank check
The last text from 1874 also criticizes the construction project at Christ Church College. In the form of a parable , Carroll tells of a family who cannot agree on where to spend the summer. So they agree to hire their maid to take over the entire organization. So that she can do this, she receives a blank check . Carroll compares this to the idea of writing a blank check for new school buildings to be built before there is even any plan to make them happen.
expenditure
- The Dynamics of a Parti-cle, with an Excursus on the New Method of Evaluation as applied to Pi. Oxford, Vincent, 1865.
- The New Belfry of Christ Church, Oxford. A monograph. By DCL Oxford, Parker, 1872.
- The Vision of The Three T's. A Threnody. By the Author of "The New Belfry". Oxford, Parker, 1873.
- The blank check. A fable. By the Author of "The New Belfry", and "The Vision of The Three T's". Oxford, Parker, 1874.
- The Dynamics of a Parti- cle: Oxford, Parker, 1874.
- The New Method of Evaluation as Applied to Pi. Oxford, Parker, 1874.
- Facts, figures, and fancies. Oxford, Parker, 1874.
- Notes by to Oxford Chiel. Oxford, Parker, 1874. ( online )
- Notes by to Oxford Chiel. Nabu Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-148-03392-1 .
- Notes by to Oxford Chiel. Hardpress Publishing, 2012. ISBN 978-1-290-58641-2 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ John Tufail, Understanding Carroll's Theological and Philosophical Views. 2010. ( online ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this note. , PDF, accessed on December 12, 2014.)
- ^ Robin Wilson : Lewis Carroll in Numberland: His Fantastical Mathematical Logical Life. Penguin UK, 2008. ISBN 978-0-14-192078-8 .
- ↑ The Bells of Christ Church ( Memento of the original from December 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 12, 2014.
