Episode 99: Respect My Authority

Synopsis

What exactly is authority? Where does it come from? How do you get it? Can you move authority from St. Paul, MN to the south side of Chicago? Join Em and Jesse for a wide-ranging chat on the subject.

Notes

1/ Of course, many people in addition to women have a hard time getting others (i.e. non-group members) to pay attention to their authority. For example, trans and nonbinary people have a hard time getting anyone to listen to them speaking about their own lived experiences.

2/ I’ve published four novels and a novella since this was recorded, and people actually do think I’m an authority on some topics for some reason.

3/ The story about Aristotle’s phony translators comes from here, I think: https://historyofphilosophy.net/translation-movement

Pseudopigrapha: from pseudo, false, and epigraphe, name or inscription. A falsely attributed text.

U of Michigan’s Galileo text: “After an internal investigation of the findings of Nick Wilding, professor of history at Georgia State University, the library has concluded that its “Galileo manuscript” is in fact a 20th-century forgery. We’re grateful to Professor Wilding for sharing his findings, and are now working to reconsider the manuscript’s role in our collection.” Also, “Wilding concluded that our Galileo manuscript is a 20th-century fake executed by the well-known forger Tobia Nicotra.” (The quotes are from the linked website.)

4/ According to the Virginia Woolf society, the actual quote is: “I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.” (From ch 3 of A Room of One’s Own.)

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (5th/6th century CE))

Pseudo-Pseduo-Dionysius is anyone once thought to be Pseudo-Dionysius but now recognized (by modern scholars) to be someone other than Pseudo-Dionysius. Confused?

5/ Pseudo-Bonaventure (14th century CE) wrote Meditations on the Life of Christ.