This is the Adamas stone image that I mentioned in the note I added at the end of my previous post . I've been thinking about it since in relationship to a discussion in my medieval art course earlier this fall. I taught that course differently this time around, structuring it around the essays in the Medieval Art History Today - Critical Terms volume that was published last spring as a special issue of Studies in Iconography . In the first half of the semester, I alternated between lectures and discussions of the essays, and in the second half, I only lectured twice and we focused on discussions. Before each discussion, the students were assigned to do a "reading report" in Blackboard, answering a set of questions about the reading and posing a question or two for our class discussion. I was able to see these before class and use them to plan the class. One of the more interesting discussions we had was about Karl Whittington's essay on "Queer.&quo