Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 39, No. 293.
Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
Hosted by DH-Cologne
www.dhhumanist.org
Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
Date: 2026-01-12 08:41:11+00:00
From: maurizio lana <maurizio.lana@uniupo.it>
Subject: Re: [Humanist] 39.279: In the wake of failure found & surviving the past celebrated
hi Jerry,
speaking of failure at the heart of [society, people, etc.]
i cannot avoid mentioning the christian roots of our western culture
which are focused onto a radical failure which becomes the highest glory.
nor the pseudo-meme which unfortunately came to Europe from outside, of
"looser": you looser! you are a looser! i am a looser (it did come to
Europe, because let's say that when i was young this never was said).
the looser is one who encountered a failure.
and the fact that we all are here thanks to uncountable people who are
doing nothing but their normal tasks without any claim or recognition of
excellence (our primary schools teachers) - which brings to what Robert
Merton wrote in 1942 («A note on science and democracy». Journal of
legal and political sociology 1, fasc. 1 (1942): 115–26):
"The substantive findings of science are a product of social
collaboration and are assigned to the community."
let's say that those who make the substantive findings are the winners,
while those unnamed who constitute the "social collaboration" (the
baker, the school teacher, the men who maintain the roads, or drive the
train or the bus, the peasant which grows potatoes, etc.) are the
loosers whose names never will be known. but without these loosers no
finding, discovery, success, victory, will ever be possible for the
winners: would they be winners if they had to produce themselves their
food, or if they hadn't a road to go to their research institution?
Maurizio
Il 03/01/26 09:21, Humanist ha scritto:
> Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 39, No. 279.
> Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
> Hosted by DH-Cologne
> www.dhhumanist.org
> Submit to:humanist@dhhumanist.org
>
>
>
>
> Date: 2025-12-31 12:12:53+00:00
> From: Mcgann, Jerome (jjm2f)<jjm2f@virginia.edu>
> Subject: Re: [Humanist] 39.277: In the wake of failure found &
surviving the past celebrated
>
> I should probably note that the experiences and operations of “failure” have
> been at the heart of my work from the outset, though they only became its
major
> focus when John came to direct IATH in the early 90s. The topic runs through,
> often explicitly, in much of my work from my 1988 Clark Lectures Towards a
> Literature of Knowledge forward (the lectures were published in 1989). The
> issue is the main subject of this essay, which is consciously modeled on Henry
> Adams’ majestic autobiography.
>
> “The Poverty of Theory; or, The Education of Jerome McGann,” Theory
Development
> in the Human Sciences, ed. Diane H. Sonnenwald (U. of Texas Press: Austin, TX,
> 2016): 241-263.
>
> The work of two English poets, Blake and Byron, set my basic frame of
reference
> in the 1960s. Los(s) is Blake’s key artificer, and his task is to oversee the
> building of the mythic structure/city Golgonooza where he sets about "Giving a
> body to Falshood that it may be cast off for ever”, allowing the emergence of
> the redeemed human city, Jerusalem (the story is told in his illuminated work
> Jerusalem as well as other works, especially The Four Zoas (his great , never
> illuminated or printed, “failure” that, in my judgment, is in a salient view
his
> greatest single work.
>
> The career of Byron (from spectacular success to catastrophic failure) was
> remapped in his cultural history: from his 19th c pre-eminence to his virtual
> disappearance in the 20th c until the shift began in the late 1950s because of
> Leslie Marchand’s work. For me one of his greatest watchwords is this couplet
> from Don Juan: “In play there are two pleasures for your choosing/ The one is
> winning and the other, losing”.
>
> And of course Swinburne’s work and career have fascinated me as well for a
very
> long time. One of his finest works, “A Vision of Spring in Winter”, is a
> meditation on “the importance of failure”.
>
> Jerry
>
>
>
>
>
> From: Humanist<humanist@dhhumanist.org>
> Date: Wednesday, December 31, 2025 at 3:57 AM
> To: Mcgann, Jerome (jjm2f)<jjm2f@virginia.edu>
> Subject: [Humanist] 39.277: In the wake of failure found & surviving the past
> celebrated
>
>
> Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 39, No. 277.
> Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
> Hosted by DH-Cologne
> www.dhhumanist.org<http://www.dhhumanist.org>
> Submit to:humanist@dhhumanist.org
>
>
> [1] From: Sheldon Richmond<askthephilosopher@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Humanist] 39.275: In the Wake of Failure (52)
>
> [2] From: maurizio lana<maurizio.lana@uniupo.it>
> Subject: Re: [Humanist] 39.275: In the Wake of Failure (20)
>
> [3] From: Sheldon Richmond<askthephilosopher@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Humanist] 39.275: In the Wake of Failure (3)
>
>
> --[1]------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Date: 2025-12-30 12:40:54+00:00
> From: Sheldon Richmond<askthephilosopher@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Humanist] 39.275: In the Wake of Failure
>
> Dear Willard,
> Would it be possible to obtain an electronic copy of the failure paper you
> mention?
>
> Best regards, and congratulations on keeping the “Humanist” alive and
> thriving for so many years.
>
> Respectfully,
> Sheldon
>
> Sheldon Richmond
> Independent Scholar, PhD
>
> On Tue, Dec 30, 2025 at 3:40 AM Humanist<humanist@dhhumanist.org> wrote:
>
>> Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 39, No. 275.
>> Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
>> Hosted by DH-Cologne
>> www.dhhumanist.org<http://www.dhhumanist.org>
>> Submit to:humanist@dhhumanist.org
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Date: 2025-12-28 16:52:42+00:00
>> From:scholar-at-large@bell.net <scholar-at-large@bell.net>
>> Subject: In the Wake of Failure
>>
>> Willard
>>
>> Sorting through some boxes of documents, I came across a printout of John
>> Unsworth’s 1997 paper, The Importance of Failure.
>>
>> It opens with a sharp observation: “If an electronic scholarly project
>> can’t
>> fail and doesn’t produce new ignorance, then it isn’t worth a damn.”
>>
>> The paper then methodically details a set of questions that would be
>> responsive
>> to such a situation. Its peroration calls on Karl Popper to the effect
>> “that our
>> knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be
>> infinite.”
>>
>> I wonder how in the years that have followed how diligent scholars have
>> been in
>> documenting failures…
>>
>>
>> François
> --[2]------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Date: 2025-12-30 18:11:07+00:00
> From: maurizio lana<maurizio.lana@uniupo.it>
> Subject: Re: [Humanist] 39.275: In the Wake of Failure
>
> the article is
> Unsworth, John. «Documenting the Reinvention of Text: The Importance of
> Failure». Journal of Electronic Publishing 3, fasc. 2 (1 dicembre 1997).
> https://doi.org/10.3998/3336451.0003.201.
> Maurizio
>
>
>
> -----
>
> μνάσασθαί τινά φαιμι †καὶ ἕτερον† ἀμμέων
> sono certa che qualcuno si ricorderà di noi anche quando ce ne saremo andati
> I’m sure someone will remember us even when we’re gone
> Saffo, Lobel-Page 147
>
> -----
> Maurizio Lana
> Università del Piemonte Orientale
> Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici
> Piazza Roma 36 - 13100 Vercelli
>
> --[3]------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Date: 2025-12-30 16:19:12+00:00
> From: Sheldon Richmond<askthephilosopher@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Humanist] 39.275: In the Wake of Failure
>
> Not to bother Willard. I used Google Scholar and found the e-text there.
> Thanks—Sheldon
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Unsubscribe at:http://dhhumanist.org/Restricted
> List posts to:humanist@dhhumanist.org
> List info and archives at at:http://dhhumanist.org
> Listmember interface at:http://dhhumanist.org/Restricted/
> Subscribe at:http://dhhumanist.org/membership_form.php
------------------------------------------------------------------------
the knowledge gap between rich and poor is widening
Witten & Bainbridge, How to build a digital library
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maurizio Lana
Università del Piemonte Orientale
Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici
Piazza Roma 36 - 13100 Vercelli
_______________________________________________
Unsubscribe at: http://dhhumanist.org/Restricted
List posts to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
List info and archives at at: http://dhhumanist.org
Listmember interface at: http://dhhumanist.org/Restricted/
Subscribe at: http://dhhumanist.org/membership_form.php
