January 2004

Welcome

Welcome to Gnostical Turpitude, a new group blog (formed by several University of Chicago students) that will deal with academia, books, history, science, and anything else that amuses, intrigues, or interests us.

A few words of introduction: I'm a graduate student in Soviet history here at the University of Chicago, beginning a dissertation on the Communist party's treatment of its members' misconduct following World War II. (Many of my posts will deal with history and politics, though I also have an unfortunate tendency to link to lots of articles that interest me while providing minimal commentary on them.) Susan is a cancer biology graduate student at the U of C. She recently described the subjects of her previous blog as "mostly, though not exclusively, biomedical things, education, Catholicism, Chicago, and complaining." Matt, last but not least, is a University of Chicago fourth-year (soon to be a graduate student in physics.) Matt's posts will most likely deal with physics, science, literature, music, and academia--the last of which will probably be one of the main themes of the blog.

What's more, we're all Nabokophiles, though I agree with Susan's suggestion that there has to be a better word for fans of the author of Pale Fire. When we had trouble coming up with a good name for the blog, we decided to choose a name out of Nabokov; should you be curious what "gnostical turpitude" is, then go read Invitation to a Beheading. For that matter, reading the works of Nabokov is always a good idea, whether you're curious about them or not.