Skip to content

still learning

2019-11-12 · story · John · 3:49 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing (also: History & curiosities) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self correction

John traces Auld Lang Syne to Robert Burns and his friendship with Frances Dunlop, then Burns's Comin' Thro' the Rye to Holden Caulfield's mishearing in The Catcher in the Rye, arguing he still likes learning because new learning reshapes old learning and reveals how connected we all are.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Why John still likes learning; the origins of Auld Lang Syne and Robert Burns

  • ★★ John read up on Auld Lang Syne: parts of the song are at least 400 years old, but today's version comes from the Scottish poet Robert Burns, who claimed he got it from an old man. — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — How the song spread; its first record in a letter to Frances Dunlop and the Burns-Dunlop friendship until Burns's death

  • ★★ John says Burns probably wrote at least three of the song's verses himself. (hedged) — 00:00:29
  • ★★ John says the lyrics were grafted onto a different Scottish folk melody, became a popular New Year's song in Scotland, and spread with Scottish emigrants to become "the world's New Year's song". — 00:00:29
  • ★★ John says the first record of the song is on the back of a letter Burns wrote in 1788 to Frances Dunlop. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ John says Burns and Dunlop had a fascinating friendship; she was almost 30 years older than him. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ John says Dunlop once wrote Burns that Voltaire read all his manuscripts to an old woman and printed only what she approved, and wished Burns would name her to that office; he didn't. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ John says Burns valued Dunlop's opinions and friendship and wrote her more letters than anyone else, though they disagreed strongly, including about the sexuality in his work. — 00:01:06
  • ★ John observes that in that divisive age, as in this one, political disagreements were often personal. — 00:01:06
  • ★★ John says their biggest disagreements were political: Dunlop was so angry at Burns's celebration of the American and French revolutions that she didn't write to him for two years. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ John says that dying at 37, Burns wrote Dunlop one last letter about what their friendship meant to him, and her kind reply was read to him days before he died. — 00:01:27

00:01:56 — Comin' Thro' the Rye and Holden Caulfield's innocent mishearing of it in The Catcher in the Rye

  • ★★ John reflects that eight years after first writing or editing Auld Lang Syne, Burns at the end of his life was still trying not to forget old acquaintances. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John says Burns's poem Comin' Thro' the Rye was originally sung to a tune very similar to the one now associated with Auld Lang Syne. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John says the song is perhaps most famous for inspiring the title of Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, whose Holden Caulfield mishears 'meet a body' as 'catch a body'. (hedged) — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ John says the real lyric is frankly sexual while Holden's reading is innocent: he imagines catching kids before they go over a cliff, the loss of innocence, protecting them as he wasn't protected. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ John says Holden doesn't get that the poem is about two adults hooking up because he isn't ready to, yet the social order, and arguably an adult in his life, treat him as if he is. (hedged) — 00:02:55 · the social order
  • ★★ Reading the actual words Holden misinterprets gave John a new way into the book and into Holden's heartbreak: a boy trying to hold in, and hold off, so much. — 00:02:55

00:03:24 — Why John still likes learning: new learning reshapes old learning and shows connection

  • ★★★ John says this is why he still likes learning, even at his jokingly "extremely advanced age": new learning can reshape old learning, and learning is a way of seeing connection. — 00:03:24 · curiosity
  • ★★★ John says the little connections across time and space remind him how deeply connected we all are, even to the fictional and the dead. — 00:03:24

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In a comment John corrects the video: Auld Lang Syne is not the world's New Year's song but popular mostly in English-speaking places and Japan. — creator comment
  • ★ In a comment John apologises that mentioning Scots emigration to Ireland without the history of colonisation (the Plantation of Ulster) was confusing and a mistake. — creator comment
  • ★ In a comment John recommends a Millions piece on Catcher and the long-debated possible sexual abuse of Holden, and notes Salinger even sued a translator who tried to change the title. — creator comment

Threads in this video

  • restate · Is learning worthwhile for its own sake? — John says this is why he still likes learning, even at his jokingly "extremely advanced age": new learning can reshape old learning, and learning is a way of seeing connection. (00:03:24)

Mentioned

Central: Auld Lang Syne · Comin' Thro' the Rye · Frances Dunlop · Holden Caulfield · Robert Burns · The Catcher in the Rye

Also: People: J. D. Salinger · Voltaire

Concepts: curiosity · Interconnectedness

Places: Americas · Ireland · Scotland

Events: American Revolutionary War · French Revolution · New Year's Day

Also centred on Auld Lang Syne: Auld Lang Syne: The Anthropocene Reviewed · We're here because were here. · John's Review of Auld Lang Syne

Also centred on Holden Caulfield: OMFG CATCHER IN THE RYE!!! · Catcher in the Rye, Part 1 · The Catcher in the Rye, Part 2

Also centred on Robert Burns: Auld Lang Syne: The Anthropocene Reviewed · We're here because were here. · John's Review of Auld Lang Syne

Also centred on The Catcher in the Rye: Don't Suck on That Bone · OMFG CATCHER IN THE RYE!!! · Catcher in the Rye, Part 1 · The Catcher in the Rye, Part 2 · RIP JD Salinger

← Previous: Trolling Through John's YouTube History...GUESS WHAT I FOUND!? · Next → Are audiobooks worse?