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USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: thoughts on your esssay which is getting begtter

June 14, 2013, 3:58 pm
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Finishing the program is the only obstacle to my getting a steady job in my opinion.  To be frank, with respect to your views that it may not guarantee me a job I think some people in the dept know that is the only hindrance to my getting a stable job and are prepared to play that for all its worth.  That to me appears to be the only motive for voting down any attempt to get me a dignified way of completing the program.  'if we dont give him he cant go anywhere, and we'll only give him on our own terms.'  That doesnt seem a fair summation of my life's work.  I just received a call from my former colleague in Nigeria two and a half hours ago soliciting my credentials so that they can find a decent academic work for me over there.  With that even without a credit transfer i can complete whatever remains for me in Indiana, (even if i have to redo half of my courses again) with some dignity and be able to pay for it.  No such funds are available here in London because of the economic turmoil over Europe and i have to be honest about that.  So we are actually speaking the same language.  Me having a dignified wrap up of my program and the department not being cheated of its due monetary pound of flesh.  Im no longer a youngster of 23 or 35  but of a transposition of the latter.  I really dont want to conduct my affairs of desiring a laurel from a particular region of the world to the extent that I behave as one lacking in self esteem.

I have very high regard for your personal commitment to my success and I know we will remain friends for life.  But i also know that a tree does not make a forest and if your colleagues continue voting down your good intentions for me, we just have to abide by democratic values.  As the renowned critic Stanley Fish once put it, in an essay he wrote in 2007, democracy does not guarantee fairness or good governance; it only guarantees that which it professes; the decision of the majority!  My family has suffered greatly in view of my dogged search for doctoral success from a particular clime and my wife has well nigh given up on me, in that regard.  i remain unrepentant in my love for my dept, but pragmatic measures must be taken for my personal survival in view of the turn for the worse in the fate of minority residents and citizens of the member states of the European Community, particularly Britain.  That does not, however mean that one would be right to sell oneself cheap to institutions in the US and elsewhere ready to catch in on the fall out.  Not if one has other alternatives.

Yes I did a translation of the whole sonnets in a rough draft according to the principles of the Ifa corpus and would complete the final draft before the summer runs out.


My peer mentors who are the real underwriters of the decision to return to the UK, and to go the US, most of whom are now heads of departments, institutions and universities  deserve to be listened to once again if their original vision for me seems to pall and to be faltering; This is why I think a little fine tuning of the Indiana project (with relentless march of time) harms no one.

If Im not in IU by this fall because the prospects are not humane enough i dont think its out of order to return to Nigeria if I find an academic position that helps me to fund the final chapter in dignity.  And to be frank, before the fateful decision (for ill or for worse)to head for the West I was one of the high fliers of my generation.  Im confident that situation can be redeemed if a moderate employment can be found to reorient me in my original direction.  After 25 years (a whole generation)only a complete idiot will not indulge in a reappraisal of his goals , strategies and attainments.  I need to see my octogenarian matriarch once again before she shuts her beepers finally on this side - another sorely disappointed soul on my account.

We will joiintly do what we can and let posterity be the judge.

Regards,

Ola


From: hertzd@indiana.edu
To: yagbetuyi@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: thoughts on your esssay which is getting begtter
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:21:41 +0000

Well, let's finish up this project and then see what we can do. If you could come back here, it wouldn't be easy. There is not much money around and there is no guarantee of a job after you get a PhD. We have to be realistic. However, I would like to help you. I think you are a good guy. So let's keep thinking. Meanwhile, did you actually translate all the Shakespeare sonnets and translate them in Yoruba. If so, how can we get a copy? Perhaps I can figure out a way to get you something for that project, which is significant, in my opinion.

 

Best,

 

DMH

 

From: Olayinka Agbetuyi [mailto:yagbetuyi@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2013 3:02 AM
To: Hertz, David M
Subject: RE: thoughts on your esssay which is getting begtter

 

Ill look again at the Anderson angle, incorporate and resend soonest.  i have not got any response regarding my resolve to return to complete my program and move on since our  outside-the-department approach has, if the truth be told failed me in the original goal intended.  Im getting really worried and friends and associates who may be in a position to assist are concerned.  I do intend to leave the UK and Europe(in view of the economic impasse and dislocations generated by EU member nations squabbles) by December and Im unlikely to return in any long term scenario.  I want to be able to make plans to achieve my long term goals including retirement.  A speedy completion of my program is germane (overdue) to the realization of my life ultimate goals.  Im ready to consider any help the dept is able to render to support so I can start in earnest.  If the dept intends to block the completion of the program at IU through lack of needed support I need to explore avenues of credit transfer possibly to Africa, where I m optimistic i would be able to submit a dissertation and wrap up the program within a year so that my own personal postdoc efforts will make the difference to bridge the gap of decades.

 

I need urgent help to convince the dept big players to give me a chance (a decent realistic chance) available to other doctoral students and no less.  My common humanity should not be unnecessarily denied or delayed.

 

This is my hour of need

 

Regards

From: hertzd@indiana.edu
To: yagbetuyi@hotmail.com
Subject: thoughts on your esssay which is getting begtter
Date: Fri, 31 May 2013 18:07:37 +0000

My dear prince,

 

I am enjoying the chance to study your essay again. It is indeed getting better. Can you run the spellcheck one more time? You at least caught most of them.

 

Also there is one fundamental issue that we have to resolve and which I mentioned some time ago. It seems that Freud himself made a mistake when he used a German translation. Some scholars have been able to save his work in recent years. One of them is this Wayne Anderson. I think you have to account for this issue. I am getting ready to give you an A for this work but let's study the essay a bit more and try to make it up to date. You can read about the kite/vulture essay here on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci,_A_Memory_of_His_Childhood

 

Wayne Anderson may be available in the local library or even sampled on Google Books. I'm going to check myself on this. It is interesting. Fascinating that Freud was most proud of this essay, of all the things he wrote, even though there may be a mistake in the heart of it.

 

Question is: how serious is this mistake? And you have to show that you are aware of recent criticism on the problem. I for one think that the mistake is unfortunate and shows that Freud was shooting from the hip but that there is still a need to consider his ideas.

 

Although we have to be careful to go beyond Wiki as scholars, I found it interesting to review this entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublimation_%28psychology%29

 

What do you think of it? I didn't know that Nietzsche used the word before Freud. Sometimes these entries, though written by anonymous, can be intriguing.

 

 

More soon,

 

D.

 

 

 

From: Olayinka Agbetuyi [mailto:yagbetuyi@hotmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, May 25, 2013 6:01 PM
To: Hertz, David M
Cc: Olayinka Agbetuyi
Subject: RE: Era of Acrostic Sonnets

 

Yes I did.  Take your time over the grading; I just wanted to confrim receipt of the paper.

 

Regards,

Ola

From: hertzd@indiana.edu
To: yagbetuyi@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Era of Acrostic Sonnets
Date: Fri, 24 May 2013 14:44:10 +0000

O. I will be getting to it soon. Meanwhile, did you translate all the Shakespeare sonnets into Yoruba? What a fascinating project. D.

Sent from my iPad


On May 24, 2013, at 8:59 AM, "Olayinka Agbetuyi" <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com> wrote:

Hi:

 

This is the last I heard of my paper to my recollection.  I have sent in the translation.  I hope all is well with the paper.

 

Regards Ola

From: hertzd@indiana.edu
To: yagbetuyi@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: Era of Acrostic Sonnets
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 01:50:40 +0000

Dear Ola,

 

Nice to know you are doing this. However, there are no English translations attached here. Are they in another file? Also, any progress on the re-write of that Freud paper. I'd love to turn in a grade of A for you when you get that done. After that, perhaps we should move on to something else. Or do you still want to work on that paper?

 

Best,

 

David

 

From: Olayinka Agbetuyi [mailto:yagbetuyi@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2013 9:13 PM
To: Hertz, David M; Olayinka Agbetuyi
Subject: Era of Acrostic Sonnets

 

Hi:

 

I recall that you asked me sometime earlier in the semester to forward works i have been working on to you for additional credit.  i believe this is an auspicious time for me to do so.  i will forward within 48 hours such works that have been published online and due for publication as from summer starting with this pieceI will within the same period submit my final essay on Da Vinci to remove my Incomplete grade.

 

 

As i have already intimated you, I start this summer a series of publication of translation of the Sonnets according to Yoruba Ifa numerology.  The verses appear in acrostic form where meaning is embedded in the shape of the verses as dictated by the forms of the 256 Ifa figures particularly the 16 principal figures.  Each volume will therefore contain 16 Sonnets publishtwice every year in translation. These will signify a decise and definitive entry into yoruba literary cannon.  These can be used to teach the Sonnets in translation in undergraduate classes and undergraduate translation courses.  The eventual ten volumes can be used to teach postgraduate courses both in Yoruba literature and translation studies. In addition.  In addition everyear starting from this summer an English poetry volume will be published.  A play in translation will be published this year, completed a few years back.

 

 

Best,

 

 

 

Ola

 

 

 

 

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