In Shakespeare class we had to read articles by all sorts of mindnumbingly brilliant people who nonetheless managed to write 20 page articles of things of absolutely no importance: like, say, why there is a bear in one .2 second scene, or why it was imperative that Juliet kill herself with a specific dagger. It never really made sense. I suggest:
1) It is the day of the resume. It is not enough to be " a smart person." This requires evidence on hard copy. So, you must do "smart things": play chess, read the right books, sneeer at the right topics, etc. In the case of these articles, you must find points that no one else has ever discovered before, or, cite umpteen "smart books" to back up a point everyone else has noticed, just to prove that you, in fact, read "the smart books."
2) It is a pragmatic era. It is not enough to be a documented "smart person." You have to be a useful smart person. So, not only must you have a 20 page paper to document a 5 page point on a Shakespeare play. You have to justify the fact that you both read Shakespeare and wrote a paper about it. Therefore, any original comment you have managed to dredge out of Shakespeare must be pertinent to a percentage of modern society: Ethnic groups, feminists, the racism question, gays, even Christians. You have to prove to them that you are the smart person who brought them yet more fuel in their battle to prove They are top school of thought.
3) Data breeds. So, papers must prove you are smart and be pragmatic. Also, there is space, endless space. Back in the day, knowledge proliferation was limited by such simple factors as cost of paper, circulations difficulties, and lack of readership. Now, in the era of mass manufacturing and endless internet space, there is no block on the amount of verbage a single individual can produce except the strength of his fingers. So, papers that could be cut to a single page carry, rambling on, for five, ten, and twenty pages. We have no reason to believe anymore that "brevity is the soul of wit." So, pointless verbage, like this blog post, go on forever with no salvation in sight.
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On the other hand: “If only one could root one’s self in here among the grass and stones and do something worth doing, even if it was only restoring a lost breathing for the love of the job and nothing else.” - Lord Peter Wimsey, Gaudy Night
ReplyDelete(Okay, okay, so I never was in Shakespeare class, so maybe I don't have a lot of room to talk. :-) I'm glad that you are still keeping up a blog.)
This seems to be a popular starting template for Blogspot--I used it, as did Carolyn and Christy.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I only have one disagreement with your post. The people you describe are not mind-numbingly brilliant, only mind-numbingly educated.