Subject: Re: Public Intellectuals
From: Jim Rovira (jrovira@drew.edu)
Date: Wed Nov 21 2001 - 10:03:40 GMT
Yeah, the intellectuals speak -- the Sept. 11th issue of the New Yorker
magazine had a few pages devoted to the opinions of prominent writers and
speakers about the tragedy.
But, they're in the New Yorker...and probably other magazines of a similar
nature (Atlantic Monthly). Also places like the Chronicle of Higher Ed.
They're not usually in our newspapers (I think Stanley Fish had a piece in
the New York Times, but he's the most accessible of our intellectuals) and
certainly not very much on television. There's probably good reason for
this; I doubt most of these people can present themselves on television
very well at all. It's a skill that they probably never considered
developing. But the upshot is that our intellectuals make only a slight
influx into American mass media, and when they do, they're dismissed as
being removed from reality :). Their theoretical frameworks for talking
about history and literature are very different from the average person's,
I think.
Seemed like that Umberto Eco article I read said something similar -- the
situation was very different in Europe. Heck, guys like Camus started out
writing for newspapers :).
Thanks for the kind words, tlm.
Jim
Valérie Aron wrote:
>
> This discussion about Intellectuals is very apropos,
> considering the 11th september turmoil and the war. In
> France, we can see on TV a lot of 'meetings' between
> Intellectuals, that is to say Historians, Philosophy
> experts or writers, and most of them also write daily
> or weekly articles in famous newspapers, although they
> don't major in military strategy, or arabian
> civilization . But we don't hear politicos that much,
> as if their competences were not appropriate to have
> an interesting view about the conflict.
> I'd like to know how it is in the US. A few months
> ago, I read an interview of Philip Roth, who expressed
> his regret that the US (I guess, the U.S. media...)
> don't pay attention to writers and their opinions
> about public conflicts (he was especially referring to
> the Monica Levinsky's affair). So, do your
> Intellectuals give their opinions about the 11th
> september and its meanings, or is it just a Bush-Bush
> monologue?
>
> Valérie
>
> --- Jim Rovira <jrovira@drew.edu> wrote:
> > But I'd agree with your lament about the lack of
> > public intellectuals in
> > America. Stanley Fish is one, Noam Chomsky is one.
> > Susan Sontag
> > qualifies too, but her reputation (I understand) is
> > a lot better in
> > Europe than the US. But they're pathetically
> > predictable in their
> > opinions. I think American academia takes for
> > granted that it's at odds
> > with popular culture and settles into a mindset that
> > refuses to engage
> > it self critically.
> >
> > Umberto Eco wrote a pretty good essay about the lack
> > of public
> > intellectuals in the US and the reasons for it...I'm
> > curious what he
> > said (don't quite remember) and may try to dig it up
> > :)
> >
> > Jim
> > -
>
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