Putting Two Books Together
What is new knowledge?
Jerome Bump is a militant vegan, a Texas ranch owner, an accomplished writer, and possibly in the top one percent of the most eccentric people on Earth. He was also an English professor at the University of Texas at Austin for nearly half a century.
Known on campus as a bit of a legend, I had to win a lottery to be a part of his fifteen-student freshman year World Literature course. The class involved everything from meditating, reading medieval texts, assigning ourselves spirit animals, walking barefoot in Japanese Zen gardens, visiting local Hindu temples, and writing weekly blog posts on all sorts of literature. It was the perfect introduction to understanding what it means to be a Longhorn, getting to know the wider Austin community, and becoming a thoughtful writer. Jerome Bump was, and is, a one of a kind professor. I miss him dearly.
Of all the wonderful memories from his class, one stands out more vividly than others.
I remember as Bump got in front of the class and asked, “What is new knowledge?” He grabbed a book in each hand. “New knowledge is simply this!” He put together both books and held it up above his head.
The message was clear and empowering. All new knowledge that anyone had ever come up with has been a synthesis of disparate pieces of existing knowledge with a sprinkle of original thinking. Picking up two books and putting them together.
Conjoined Books is an attempt at putting together two (or more) metaphorical books and sprinkling in a bit of my own original thinking. Its primary intent is to sharpen my worldview, connect the dots of life, and force myself to articulate the prohibitively complex. But if you also learn a thing or two, that’d be just wonderful.
