Gaudeamus, indeed!
Posted by Vicki Scholtz | 28 Aug, 2008I was rather bemused to read the consternation on Retroid's blog concerning the singing of Gaudeamus at the recent coronation.What could possibly be more fitting at such an occasion than a song praising the easy virtue of young women and acknowledging the triumvirate of capital, State and local government, whose largesse (or tolerance, at the very least) allows students their pleasant youth?
Gaudeamus has always signified to me the resilience of an institution against perverted attempts to modernise it - the University has survived in almost identical form since the Middle Ages, despite the onslaughts of war, nationalism, ideology and bureaucracy, and may yet even outlast the current onslaught of neo-liberalism / managerialism / corporatisation. Gaudeamus is the rallying cry of those who still regard Knowledge over numbers, Disciplines over brands, Learning over consuming. Gaudeamus is what distinguishes a University from a slot machine.
Aside from The Church and the Court, what other institutions allow grown-ups the opportunity to dress up as extras from the latest installment of Batman, pervaded with gravitas rather than comedy (despite the presence of significant numbers of Jokers), in the line of duty? Without the accompanying strains of Gaudeamus, the semesterly transformation of Jammie Hall into the Bat Cave would seem as silly as men in aprons twisting themselves into pretzels to enact funny handshakes, or as sinister as pointy hats and white sheets at full moon.
Vivat Gaudeamus, vivat!
I don't think you want to worry too much about Retroid, frankly. Chances are he's an Old Fart, as defined. Indeed, he is now all the more likely to be so, as I have to hand a recent memo advising that the qualifying age for Old Fartdom has again been reduced, this time from 30 to 26. Ah, me - I remember when it was 50.
Anyway, never mind all that: back, as always, to _my_ issues: I am as consterned as Retroid, but about this issue of vuvuzelas (or vuvuzelae, as I suppose we must call them in this Latinate context) at graduation. Ever since a member of the Department of Physics (at the very least an Old Fart in waiting, I sadly surmise) rose in public to advise that blowing vuvuzelae indoors is illegal, because they are loud enough to damage eardrums (these NoJS coves have their uses, I suppose), I have been expecting some non-Old Fart firebrand [therefore] to _insist_ on vuvuzelae at graduation.
Oh, wait... They did.
Well, anyway, brushing all that aside, as is our wont, I remain disappointed that no-one down the Music School has yet seen fit to compose a Vuvuzela Voluntary for use at a contemporised Africanised grad.
At minimum, one dares hope, this would call for a vuvuzela ensemble capable of playing more than one note, which alone would make South Africa a better place.
In the meantime, the least we can do is to pronounce "Gaudeamus" with a throat-clearing G, as in "Gauteng" (bless you).
Posted by Cassandra 28 Aug 2008, 15:47Gauteng outjies, waar is jy
Jy moet jou vuvuzelae kry....
And @Cassandra: Retroid's children would take issue with you. Elderly fart, possibly.
Posted by retroid 02 Sep 2008, 14:25