Writing from the Past

I finally hauled myself down to Sim Lim Square today to get my ancient laptop fixed. As things turned out, I didn't actually get anything fixed: I just got the hard drive removed and made accessible via USB. The rest of the machine, which I bought in 2001, got scrapped for $70. I also laid my hands on Gothic 3 and Neverwinter Nights 2, which I must resist the temptation to play until this term is over.

I've now had the chance to peer inside that hard drive. What wonders abound! The BBC radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings! Old emails (have you ever seen a 3 MB text file?)! Tons of old DOS computer games plus And most importantly, all my college writing from the winter of 2002 (that's January) till graduation, including my thesis!

So without further ado, here's a sample of what I wrote way back in the cold winter months of 2002 for History 3: Europe in Medieval and Early Modern Times. This is the concluding paragraph from my essay on the morality of Machiavelli's Prince:

The Prince is such a complex and sometimes contradictory text that no single analysis can hope to unify all of it under any single theory. A mere sifting of the text alone is insufficient and only confuses us further. But when we turn to the incredibly rich cultural matrix that Machiavelli was born into and influenced by, certain patterns begin to emerge. Underlying Machiavelli's pragmatism, as we have seen, is an almost overwhelming desire on the author's part to see the restoration and preservation of Italian sovereignty as it was not too long ago during the quattrocento, or 15th century, before all the chaos caused by successive foreign invasions. Should there be no attempt to stem the influx of barbarians, Italy would suffer the same fate as the Roman Republic did and go the way of despotism and tyranny. Grounded in the lessons of the past and the present, The Prince was Machiavelli's desperate attempt to prevent this. In this light, his political morality is consistent: it may not be Christian, but it certainly aspires towards the greater good.

I wrote the essay referring only to Machiavelli and the course textbook. I have no idea if I'd reach the same conclusion if I wrote the essay today under similar conditions.
Posted by kungfuzi at 12:22 am |