I feel like what annoys me the most about the way critics on the center-left and center-right often talk about classics is that there's a lot of trust in things that are Old, but not a ton of enjoyment. Like, years ago when there was a great uproar over 1) removing the n-word from Huckleberry Finn and 2) perhaps not teaching/reading it at all, I saw a lot of talk about how important it was and not much about whether it was actually good. (Imo, probably because it's not? Like, it's sort of an annoying picaresque with flat characters and cringe views on racial relations.)
I get that Milton is never going to compete with Counterstrike for pure entertainment value, but if even the people who claim to support the classics are unable to muster any excitement for them, what's the point? There's no difference between pretending to like something for identity politics and pretending to like something for reactionary politics, except that people who create a critical consensus around identity politics are at least economically supporting marginalized writers who probably need it. I really do believe that a lot of the classics can be good and fun to read, but very few seem to be interested in engaging with the content that makes them enjoyable.
This is a particularly long-winded way to say: that's why I like your blog! Your discussion of the Great Books is actually entertaining. It feels like you're curious and interested in what you may or may not find in them, and it's fun to come along on that intellectual exploration.
Yeah I never understood the debate over Finn. It's not the n word that makes it racist--its the racist depiction of Jim. I mean he is literally afraid of ghosts! He is so infantilized
I agree totally. It actually perplexes me a lot, because I sometimes think, do you guys actually believe this stuff is good? Like, there is so much focus on what kids should be made to read, but no sense that kids might WANT to read something purely because of the wisdom it contains. Like do people actually think the book itself has anything to offer? It seems like they worship the abstract idea of tradition instead of anything else
Not too long ago I asked a young relative who’d been teaching 10th grade English in public schools what he had students read. It didn’t sound that much different from what we read years ago: Of Mice and Men, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery.
More importantly, perhaps, I asked about what the students’ reaction was to these texts. He thought they generally enjoyed them all, but particularly Of Mice and Men. And when he showed a clip from Joel Coen’s recent Macbeth, some students were visibly “freaked out” (even I found Denzel scary at times in that movie). It sounded to me like those texts were still doing their jobs.
“there was that Penn student who lost her Rhodes scholarship because she’d written about being in the foster system, and hadn’t mentioned that her abusive mom was a wealthy radiologist who’d sent her to private schools.”
I feel like what annoys me the most about the way critics on the center-left and center-right often talk about classics is that there's a lot of trust in things that are Old, but not a ton of enjoyment. Like, years ago when there was a great uproar over 1) removing the n-word from Huckleberry Finn and 2) perhaps not teaching/reading it at all, I saw a lot of talk about how important it was and not much about whether it was actually good. (Imo, probably because it's not? Like, it's sort of an annoying picaresque with flat characters and cringe views on racial relations.)
I get that Milton is never going to compete with Counterstrike for pure entertainment value, but if even the people who claim to support the classics are unable to muster any excitement for them, what's the point? There's no difference between pretending to like something for identity politics and pretending to like something for reactionary politics, except that people who create a critical consensus around identity politics are at least economically supporting marginalized writers who probably need it. I really do believe that a lot of the classics can be good and fun to read, but very few seem to be interested in engaging with the content that makes them enjoyable.
This is a particularly long-winded way to say: that's why I like your blog! Your discussion of the Great Books is actually entertaining. It feels like you're curious and interested in what you may or may not find in them, and it's fun to come along on that intellectual exploration.
Yeah I never understood the debate over Finn. It's not the n word that makes it racist--its the racist depiction of Jim. I mean he is literally afraid of ghosts! He is so infantilized
I agree totally. It actually perplexes me a lot, because I sometimes think, do you guys actually believe this stuff is good? Like, there is so much focus on what kids should be made to read, but no sense that kids might WANT to read something purely because of the wisdom it contains. Like do people actually think the book itself has anything to offer? It seems like they worship the abstract idea of tradition instead of anything else
Not too long ago I asked a young relative who’d been teaching 10th grade English in public schools what he had students read. It didn’t sound that much different from what we read years ago: Of Mice and Men, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery.
More importantly, perhaps, I asked about what the students’ reaction was to these texts. He thought they generally enjoyed them all, but particularly Of Mice and Men. And when he showed a clip from Joel Coen’s recent Macbeth, some students were visibly “freaked out” (even I found Denzel scary at times in that movie). It sounded to me like those texts were still doing their jobs.
“there was that Penn student who lost her Rhodes scholarship because she’d written about being in the foster system, and hadn’t mentioned that her abusive mom was a wealthy radiologist who’d sent her to private schools.”
I hadn’t heard of that, but googled it and found this: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/04/04/mackenzie-fierceton-rhodes-scholarship-university-of-pennsylvania
Looks like her mother put her in hospital, and then played a role in painting her as a liar to her school. What an awful story.