22 November 2008

stock sbl posting

I'm here and sat through two papers today and a panel discussion. All three were terrible and leave the mind boggled why some institutions are considered elite while others are not. This clearly cannot be an accurate reflection.?!?.

Congrats to Mariam for her first publication, which is selling nicely. And to M. Daniel Carroll R. whose book was given away at IBR for lack of anyone else wanting to buy it. Seriously, go and read this one.

The most exciting part of this for me is meeting up with some really good scholars, and some great friends. Most notably, was my conversation this morning with The Bishop himself - N. T. Wright. This is a feat which I have achieved twice in my life, to Chris Tilling's none (in fact Wright was clearly startled when I mentioned Tilling, looking nervously as to find a quick way out and mumbling something about "all of those letters").

I hope to see others of you soon, but since only two or three people read this blog, and I know that you're all not in Boston right now, this sentiment makes little sense.

2 comments:

Jim said...

oh you don't ever want to say how boring and pointless most of the papers are! it's the great unspoken secret.

The only reason to go to SBL is to see friends and do a bit of sightseeing and book buying.

If you want good scholarship, it's books you want, not monotonously read papers.

Michael Thompson said...

Yes, I'm very aware of this. It's just that every now and again I am struck with the heightened drivel that it truly is sometimes.

I write this next to a growing mound of volumes on my hotel room desk, having skipped out of the last session.