JONMALEK.com

Well, just last week I handed in my final assignment for my undergraduate degree at the University of Manitoba. Granted that I don’t fail my classes, I will be walking the podium on May 26th. It hasn’t quite hit me yet that I will be done with this B.A. because I immediately start my MA this fall. We have been to Saskatoon looking for places to live and checking out the University there. Its a nice place and I think it will be a fun two years there.

I’m not sure what people mean when they say Saskatoon is flat, though, because it isn’t! It is in fact quite hilly.

After Saskatoon we headed to Calgary and we are here now; came back from Banff today. I hadn’t been there since my final year of highschool in 2003, but I remembered the town pretty much like the back of my hand. This trip ends on Friday.

Then, in the first week of May I am hoping to head to Kalamazoo, MA for a medieval conference. To do this I am relying on student grants from the UM, although I’ve only received $100 so far. UMSU (Student Union) emailed me on Wednesday saying my application was incomplete and needed to be completed by Thursday! Quite the annoyance to be given less than a days notice. Plus, I am quite sure that I handed in a full application, and that it may have been misplaced.

I may realize that my time at the UM has come to and end when I head to Saskatoon. I’m working at UM full time over the summer, so it won’t feel like I’ve left. Every stage completed is really just the beginning of a harder portion of the adventure, so vorwärts, avanti, aller - let’s go!

– JGM

Within the last year, my view on the practice of history and what it means to be an historian has changed, I would even say drastically. I went into my last (hopefully) year of my B.A. degree thinking that as an historian I was out to seek the truth, maybe even a more abstract idea of the Truth. But that has changed. It is not truth I seek, but those who made truth, who professed it, who believed it, who denied it, who fought for it, who fought against it. For historians of the modern period, especially those speaking for people who otherwise have to voice to the larger world, there has been no doubt the moral character of they work. They have a lot of responsibility to help fight repression and what is believed to be injustice. As a medievalist, I never felt this attachement before but now I do. My interest in magic has opened up a world of people who held beliefs that were deemed heretical and suppressed. The fate of these individuals more often than not ended in suspicion, persecution and prosecution, exclusion and ostricism, and death. There is a great deal of responsibility placed on medieval historians. It is so easy to misrepresent a group or an individual and their beliefs because their is no one to stand up and call foul, except for other historians. Too many times sources are forced to fit a project which is designed to further one’s career. But the past is not something to be manipulated, for we are dealing with other people’s lives, we are dealing with beliefs. Beliefs that many refused to repent because they believed in them so strongly that they would pay the ultimate price for it. You do not need to believe what they said or be threatened by it - that is not the historian’s job, in my opinion. There are so many misconceptions about the middle ages and the various beliefs that existed. Often they are presented in a sort of adversarial dichotomy of orthodoxy vs. heretical. Certainly the orthodox beliefs have survived and have affected our world today. But what of the other? Heresy is not automatically wrong; it only is if you are of the orthodoxy camp. And, it is my opinion that multiple “real” knowledges can exist at the same time. The responsibility of the historian is to represent those who have been represed - and not just religiously, but also economically, socially, politically, etc. - and whose voices have been silenced. We may never fully represent them - rather, we will never fully represent them - for only they can truly represent themselves. But in an academic atmosphere where ‘history from below’, postcolonialsim, sub-altern studies and other work on so-called marginal groups is gaining popularity in modern history, this responsibility must be taken by all historians of all periods. History is written by the victory, so to speak; but as we delve into those repressed histories we find a world that has been created and is being created by multiple histories working at once.

- - JGM

Okay, so I realize the post I am responding to is over a year old, but I think its still worth it

First, here is the link: http://anybody-want-a-peanut.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html

Because this is my personal post, not my SITE O post, I’m just going to complain about what he said rather than enter the debate that it was made in.

Here is what was said of me:

There is Jon Malek with his Site O Canada blog, which is purdy-near dedicated to Upper Fort Garry, and is firmly in support of the Friends. But then again, the guy is a 19 year-old D&D-playing student, so give him a few years as a tax-payer and he may have different views. Anyhoo, check him out.

Not too bad no, but some parts still bother me. I appreciate that he researched who I am (the link on “the guy” goes to a website that has some of my writings posted), but I don’t appreciate that, really, he didn’t actually reseach me. At the time of the posting, last year, I was not 19, I was 23 - my birthdate is on the site. I don’t think it says on that site that I play D&D (honestly, I don’t know. The site is down at the moment and I haven’t been to it in over 2 years); it may say I am interested in it, but really I’m not. Not that it matters. So what if I do or do not play D&D? Does that somehow delegitimize what I think or say? Does it a priori make me stupid or my ideas unimportant? That’s a pretty weak excuse to disregard someone’s argument.

And if we’re going to talk about reputation, if playing D&D and having extensive writings (i.e. 100s of pages) of creative fiction is valid enough to disregard my argument, than certainly drinking heavily can’t be much better for his reputation.

On top of this all, I have spent 6 years at university and I have maintained a high GPA throughout, therefore, I am pretty sure I have a strong knowledge base and that have the ability to think critically. Whether I am 19 or 24, I fully understand the fact that I pay taxes, and I know where they go. There are other uses of our tax money, besides preserving our heritage, that is a lot more wasteful, is more expensive, and does not benefit the community. Besides, how does years of paying taxes make you any smarter?

But, I’m not really that offended. More amused, really. I mean, I do understand and respect his side of the argument and he does have many good points, especially in retrospect. Although I still fully stand behind the restoration of UFG, I am extremely dissapointed that Friends seem to have disappeared: they appear to have won the site and then put their heads back done. Further, he does have good points in his blog, although he really does seem to complain a lot.

Maybe that’s what my blog needs, more complaining.

- - JGM

You know, I still have not figured out exactly what I’m supposed to put up here. I don’t have the time to post long and thought out musings, but I also feel its such a shame to let this site just sit and gather e-dust.

On the news side, I have been accepted into the University of Saskatchewan’s Master of Art’s history program, and will be starting Sept. ‘09. That means finding a place in booming Saskatoon and getting used to a whole new city. Lucky, its not much different than Winnipeg and is even smaller, so I’m hoping there’ll be no shellshock.

I’ve been playing more on my computer than I should be, dominating at Team Fortress 2, wiping out hordes of zombies in Left for Dead, and I’ve just re-installed the wonderful World of Warcraft. I also have Silent Hill 2 for my PSP, and a few new games for my DS to try yet. Yet somehow my assignments get done.

Next time I’ll try to blog when I actually have something in my head. hmm…

Winnipeg NDP MP Pat Martin said the following in regards to the Westboro Baptist Church’s plans to picket at the funeral of Tim Mclean - for reasons so reprehensible, no sane or compassionate human could tolerate them: “Your freedom to swing your arm in the air ends when it touches the end of my nose.”

And those are good words.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2008/08/08/westboro-protest.html?ref=rss

I was watching the Daily Show today, and one of John Stewart’s co-hosts (I can’t remember his name, but he’s the ex-marine) was interviewing the group known as Code Pink who were protesting a navy recruitment center in Berkely. One girl was going on saying that it was their right to protest, as per free speech. Then the interviewer (perhaps his name was Rob?) say, every so daftly, “If only there was a body to protect that right…” She thought a moment, then said “Yea! That’s what we need!”

Oh my… To quote a fat cartoon character: “goddam hippies!” Its amazing how possible it is to separate your head from reality.

- - - -

P.S. I have removed the following from my last sentence because it was a purdy unfair thing to say: “…when you’re in places like Southern California….”

There’s nothing like a good old fashioned vampire slaying - especially when the vampire is former president of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic. Eastern Europe has always been a hotbed for vampyric lore and it is still an alive tradition.

Instead of me regurgitating the story, read it here.

– JGM

http://www.slide.com/r/OMci5jQFwj-gDQltmGzmKJETHkb4V5at

How long did it take you to throw a rock through your computer? After this video was over I had ruined three computer screens. I always thought it was a stereotype that some Americans were so ignorant…guess I was too distracted riding my dogsled…

– JGM

I just saw the absolute, without a doubt best commercial ever. Its so good, I think I might just buy a car so I can get Geico.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh81YFnIwq0

There was an article out today about a “new conspiracy theory” regarding Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper.  I’m not going to get into it itself - read about it here http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070801/DaVinci_supper_070801/20070801?hub=TopStories.

What I am more interested in is the reaction to it.  On the CTV address I gave there are comments from readers below, ranging from “Who cares? Maybe a dozen people over the entire planet who obviously have nothing better to do than stare at a old painting by some dead guy” to “Who cares!!!!!!!!
Last time I checked Da Vinci’s Dead. Nothing of interest can come of this. READ THE BIBLE” or “and imaginative ideas about Jesus, but they don’t take any interest in the historical account of his life recorded in the New Testament. Why is everyone so ready to believe wild and baseless speculation but so unwilling to wrestle with the well documented truth? The New Testament documents are among the most historically accurate ancient documents anywhere. Hundreds have tried to disprove them and have instead come to believe.”

As a student of history I could not help but write back to some of these baseless, ignorant, and just plain stupid responses.  The first I will deal with is the comment referring to the “dozen people over the entire planet”.  My guess is the bloke who wrote this is either not in university, or is in no way whatsoever involved in Arts or Humanities.  Art History is in fact a very active field, and has been since the 16th century; art is a physical relic of cultural history, a documentation of faith, aesthetic tastes, and ideals of an individual or society.  Art and art history is not just a field secluded to the university campus or museum, but is in fact a very public attraction.  Take for instance National Lampoon’s parody of the Mona Lisa http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.studiolo.org/Mona/images/MonaGorilla2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.studiolo.org/Mona/MONA24.htm&h=300&w=216&sz=15&hl=en&start=0&um=1&tbnid=h_kYny4tWgroQM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=84&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmona%2Bgorilla%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN

By making a parody of the Mona Lisa, or anything for that matter, we are actively engaging with painting; we don’t need to be a scholar or an academic to appreciate such parodies.

My second point of concern is the claims that “The New Testament documents are among the most historically accurate ancient documents anywhere.” Its amazing how right somebody can seem if they speak as if they know what they are talking about.  Unfortunately, the Bible is not an historical document; it is a documentation of spiritual exploits of Jesus, yes, but that does not make it historical, especially in our sense of the term.  For instance, the Gospels tell different and conflicting stories of Jesus; very very little is told of Jesus’s childhood, except as it relates to his ministry.  So we cannot go saying that the New Testament is an historical document (and there are certainly many more ancient documents more trustworthy in terms of historical accuracy).  The Gospels were written, it is generally agreed, at least a generation after the crucifixion, and the Book of John even later.  Today, we can write a biography of someone who lived a hundred years or more before us with a great deal of accuracy because of historical documents; but Jesus left behind no writings, and there was no such thing as historical documentation of the same capacity of today.  This is not to question the validity of the Bible, or to call into question to spiritual truth that is ascribed to the Bible.  But one must understand what an accurate historical document is before ascribing the term to people’s recounting of their spiritual encounter with Jesus.

But, the funny thing to me is that nobody stated that Leonardo was questioning the story or claiming it to be false; he was a trickster, and loved to prank his patrons.  Just research the two versions of the Madonna of the Rocks.  The Church that he did his commission for was so scandalized by his first version that they demanded he do another, less heretical one before receiving full payment.  In the field of history - art history included - the question of what is true is not always as important as what somebody thought was true.

- JGM