I HAVE A PLAN

Next week, I am going to try something quite new -- a course taught as a series of blog posts. This will be different from the several tutorials I have written and posted. Here is how it will work.

I shall start with an introductory explanation, including a description of the "course" I shall be offering. Then, I shall launch the course, combining my exposition with extended passages [running a number of pages, in some cases] drawn from several books: Ideology and Utopia by Karl Mannheim, Land Filled With Flies by Edwin Wilmsen, Orientalism by Edward Said, and so forth. I shall not merely be referring readers to these texts. I shall actually be incorporating into my exposition the lengthy excerpts I want people to read. In this way, I hope actually to enrich and deepen my own exposition, giving those following the course a real sense of the authors about whom I am writing.

This is all going to take me a while to unfold, and I shall be interspersing segments of the blog-course with incidental commentary on the passing scene, in an effort to hold those of my readers who are not enamored of the new format. I have no idea whether this format will actually attract and hold readers who are prepared to stay with me through the entire length of the blog-course. [Since "blog" is itself a contraction of "web log," I think I ought to christen this new form of exposition a "bourse."]

I shall be very interested to hear from some of you along the way, to learn whether you are finding the bourse interesting and worthwhile.