Dueling: Let's Murder Each Other Rationally
Taught by Dan Veksler
Dan Veksler is a tour guide, translator, and historian-miscellanist. He lives in the belly of the beast known as New York City. Check out his tours at: http://otherworldtours.tumblr.com
Today, to all of us, dueling seems like a barbaric and macho exercise of brute violence.
But it wasn't always that way. In a feudal society, where class structure was an explicit cornerstone of one's entire identity, and in which the noble class was also the warrior class, dueling was a necessary measure to standardize, control, and often diffuse explosive quarrels between sword-, and later, gun-bearing men.
In this lecture, we'll discover the history of the development of the practice of dueling. By taking a look at the stringent rules it had to adhere to, as well as by examining the circumstances of a few specific duels, we will see how this highly monitored male ritual was a moving contest of grace under pressure. Finally, we will explore how the practice has transformed in our own time.
