RE: The World According to Walter

--- Yocum Daniel GS 21 CES/CEOE <daniel.yocum@Peterson.af.mil> wrote:
> I single them
> out because more often then not they are after something different than
> I am, not all "proffesional" readers are this way but seems that those
> celebrated or cited as authorities by this proffesion seem to be more
> interested in criticism and not the stories.

I disagree. Certainly the "proffessional" [sic] readers may be interested
in the criticism they generate, but this interest does not preclude
interest in the stories, an artistic revelation in them, even.

It's like loving a cheeseburger so much you have to study it on an atomic
level. Examining the beauty of the atoms doesn't stop you from taking a
bite.

That the average citizen doesn't understand the atomic discussions doesn't
make them invalid; it merely makes it interesting to only a few rocket
scientists, no?

> The last thing you
> would need for actual design and construction is a boorish civil
> engineer ragging your ear on all the structural theories involved
> and discussions on the irrelevant arcane methods of construction.

This doesn't work for me, either. The average civil engineer won't bother
bending my ear with his "irrelevant arcane methods" if he (or she) doesn't
think I can fathom them.

However, if this selfsame engineer can see that my house has a staircase
that's going to make it hell on laundry day, he's going to tell me in
terms I can understand, and I'm going to listen because I know he knows
more than I.

In a similar vein, I'm not going to argue with someone with no basis in
literary criticism about the finite details discussed somewhere therein,
but I am going to tell him that he needs to think about breaking up his
thoughts into smaller paragraphs so I don't perish from cross-eyed
disease.

The problem with the humanities is that they're accessible to everyone,
and so therefore, everyone feels that they should be able to take part in
all discussions of them. Not so. Such an attitude negates any need for
expertise. It may seem useless to the average layperson to deconstruct a
text, but to the people who enjoy it, great meaning can emerge.

Or to put it into terms that an engineer can understand, a widget is just
a piece of metal until you realize the whole damn operation rests upon it.

Best,
Cecilia.

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Received on Tue Oct 29 17:56:20 2002