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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank
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To: Lane3 who wrote (64954)10/30/2002 11:45:46 PM
From: The Philosopher  Read Replies (1) of 82486
 
Got Harold Bloom's new book "Genius" out of the library today, and have just started it. So far, pretty heavy going, but also very interesting. Have you read it? Wondering whether any others here have -- it would be a book that we could easily spend weeks discussing. Just a discussion of his choice of 100 Geniuses and who we would substitute would be fascinating.

One of his points -- he makes a number of sort of asides, almost throwaway points, as he goes along, some of which I pass right over and some of which I find it interesting to chew on -- was --I can't find the exact quote now (couldn't mark it as it's a library book but I paraphrase -- that if we feed our students mediocre writing we will produce mediocrity. This really hits home when I look at the "dumbing down" of educational curricula at virtually all levels. A few years ago it was noted that at one of the premier colleges in the country -- I forget which one -- one could graduate with a college degree in the liberal arts without having been required to read a single word of Shakespeare. I look at some of the courses they teach and think no wonder we produce students who can't write and can't think. When you substitute Johnny Tremain for Silas Marner, West Side Story for Romeo and Juliet, what happens to the ability of students to learn to appreciate great writing and thinking.

Ah, time to slip down off this hobby horse. But if you (or others here) have read the book, it would be interesting to share some thoughts, when I get into it.
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