{"id":3104,"date":"2008-12-21T05:00:31","date_gmt":"2008-12-21T10:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=3104"},"modified":"2008-12-20T14:13:36","modified_gmt":"2008-12-20T19:13:36","slug":"great-guns-great-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/great-guns-great-books","title":{"rendered":"Great Guns, Great Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think it’s great that this article on how the discipline of literary studies has killed student interest in literature<\/a> is by a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD.<\/p>\n

Annapolis, [my students] tell me, is the place dreams come to die in the daily grind of shining shoes and passing inspections. And the verdict of society is as strong here as on poor Emma [Bovary]: There’s only one way to do things here at Annapolis \u00e2\u20ac\u201d those who think differently have to give in.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He laments:<\/p>\n

Literary studies split off from reading in the early-to-mid-20th century as the result of science envy on the part of literature professors. Talking about books somehow didn’t seem substantial enough. Instead of reading literature, now we study “texts.” We’ve developed a discipline, with its jargon and its methodology, its insiders and its body of knowledge. What we analyze nowadays is seen neither as the mirror of nature nor the lamp of authorial inspiration. It just is \u00e2\u20ac\u201d apparently produced in an airless room by machines working through permutations of keys on the computer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The thing is, there are as many Annapolises as there are, um, Annapolitans. A hundred feet away from where Prof. Fleming works is St. John’s College, where the theoretical claptrap of literary studies will get you laughed out of the room and students must read The Books Themselves, not critical theory about<\/em> the books.<\/p>\n

Or, as I quoted a few months ago from Lawrence Berns’ article on developing St. John’s graduate institute’s syllabus<\/a>:<\/p>\n

As soon as we were seated for lunch [Mr. Ossorgin, another St. John’s tutor] turned to me and said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Larry, I think all of human life can be understood in terms of the Iliad<\/em> and the Odyssey<\/em>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And then for about two hours he led me in a wonderful discussion about how the Iliad<\/em> and the Odyssey<\/em> clarified the foundations of human life, at the end of which I asked him if he would redraw the literature sequence to extend the time for the Iliad and the Odyssey.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think it’s great that this article on how the discipline of literary studies has killed student interest in literature is by a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. Annapolis, [my students] tell me, is the place dreams come to die in the daily grind of shining shoes and passing inspections. And … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Great Guns, Great Books”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-literature"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-O4","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1995,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/learning-to-learn","url_meta":{"origin":3104,"position":0},"title":"Learning to learn","author":"Gil","date":"April 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In my previous post, I decried some lame-ass attempts at infusing \"literaryness\" into an article that chronicled the decline of the New York Knicks. My complaint was that the writer's story is compelling enough that it doesn't require the trappings of middlebrowness-trying-to-prove-its-smartypantsness in order to please hip urban crowd. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=158510101X","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6191,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/who-am-i-20","url_meta":{"origin":3104,"position":1},"title":"Who Am I?","author":"Gil","date":"November 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm the guy whose idea of a good getaway vacation is spending 4 days in May\/June in Annapolis discussing the work of Flannery O'Connor. Anyone with me?","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9716,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-173-christopher-nelson","url_meta":{"origin":3104,"position":2},"title":"Episode 173 – Christopher Nelson","author":"Gil","date":"June 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show #173: Christopher Nelson \u201cIf virtue can be taught, it's only by learning to ask the types of questions that make you a thoughtful person.\" My two-year term at St. John's College's Graduate Institute was the most important part of my life. During my recent trip back to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/st-johns-college-md_416x416.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7120,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-highest-learning","url_meta":{"origin":3104,"position":3},"title":"Podcast: Highest Learning","author":"Gil","date":"June 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories - season 3 episode 12 - Highest Learning Your humble(ish) host just made his annual Piraeus pilgrimage to St. John's College in Annapolis, MD, this time to participate in a four-day seminar about Moby Dick . . . and score a great interview! I managed to get legendary\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=0967967570","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":485,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/writers-procrastinating-at-work","url_meta":{"origin":3104,"position":4},"title":"Writers (Procrastinating) at Work","author":"Gil","date":"February 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was a wee Virtual Memoirist in my grad school days in Annapolis, I used to read the Paris Review's Writers at Work interviews all the time. Borrowed a bunch of the collected volumes from the public libraries, and abused the photocopier at the MD DOT -- where I\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6408,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-here-at-the-western-world","url_meta":{"origin":3104,"position":5},"title":"Podcast: Here at the Western World","author":"Gil","date":"June 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories \u2013 season 2 episode 7 Tom May - Here at the Western World (The Piraeus Tapes II) Back-to-back episodes of The Virtual Memories Show! Who'd a' thunk it? Around Memorial Day, I took a little vacation to my alma mater, St. John's College, for a seminar on Flannery\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"St. John's College, Annapolis, MD","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/AN_Tutor_Tom_May_Leads_Freshman_Chorus-620x413.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/AN_Tutor_Tom_May_Leads_Freshman_Chorus-620x413.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/AN_Tutor_Tom_May_Leads_Freshman_Chorus-620x413.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3104"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3110,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3104\/revisions\/3110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}