A few decades ago the modernists themselves became precursors when a loose confederation of critics and philosophers decided that modernism consisted of work that was too oblique and too self-consciously "high art" while remaining at the same time innocent of its own socio-semiotic implications. But what made the postmodern charter different was its willingness to discard the very idea of standards. Starting from the premise that aesthetics were just another social construct rather than a product of universal principles, postmodernist thinkers succeeded in toppling hierarchies and nullifying the literary canon. Indeed, they were so good at unearthing the socioeconomic considerations behind canon formation that even unapologetic highbrows had to wonder if they hadn’t been bamboozled by Arnoldian acolytes and eloquent ideologues.A necessary consequence of too many ordinary intellects managing to wangle for themselves a Ph. D.
I take a very latitudinarian view of literature and culture. I think an acquaintance with Homer, Sophocles, and Plato is essential if you want your mind to be situated within a temporal context that is both broad and deep. But there are quite of few such from quite a few different eras. It is also essential to read Montaigne, Dr. Johnson, and Walter Pater. If you like crime fiction and have not read The Moonstone, you should not read another crime novel until you have. The house of literature has many mansions.
Too many politicized PhDs run the asylums . . . Intellect has nothing to do with the issue . . . It is all about self-absolution and inclusion, and nothing about aesthetics . . . Things fall apart and the center cannot hold because the beast dominates.
ReplyDeleteThe piece reminded me of Lewis Lapham in portentous mode ca. 1980. No doubt things are bad enough in the academy, but I don't know that they have been consistently sound at any point in the last century.
ReplyDeleteYour point, George, is very well-taken. The academy has forsaken the stuffiness of the strictly educated and taken up the twee thoughtlets of the faux hip. And this, as you suggest, has been going on for quite some time. And, as RT suggests, it is both self-justifying and self-congratulatory.
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