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From the category archives:
Big Ideas
Two very smart people open a dialogue: must right-of-center politics be grounded in religious faith? Ross Douthat, a thoughtful Catholic social conservative, is replacing Bill Kristol as a columnist at the New York Times. Heather MacDonald (though she is profoundly wrong about immigration) is one of the smartest reporters/writers in America. This diavlog highlights a topic long overdue for wider discussion…
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Looking for things to do when you are unemployed, underemployed, or just plain scared of spending money?
If you can afford to stay connected to the Internet, you now have access to a vast repository of enjoyable, intriguing, and edifying cultural content. And a lot of it is free, cheap, and/or legal.
As mentioned here recently, science fiction author John Scalzi recently put together his own comprehensive family entertainment package for less than $100 per month with things like Netflix, Rhapsody, and a public library. Scalzi’s list is a good starting point, but there are many cultural resources available for less than, say, the $20 it costs for the privilege of entering the Museum of Modern Art.
Cultural enrichment can be free or low-cost, especially if you look beyond “blockbusters.” Today, there is more enlightening material available more widely than ever in human history. From highbrow to lowbrow, and everything in between, there is an explosion of expression… more than any one person could digest in a lifetime.
Now is the time to explore that long tail of cultural production other than the biggest and latest thing.
From Project Gutenberg’s electronic editions of classic literature to historic music performances on YouTube, the most enduring works of our culture are suddenly the most accessible. The Library of Congress has been steadily digitizing its treasures of American history, music, and culture… it’s all free at the American Memory website.
For more contemporary fare, there is a flowering of creativity and energy to be found in podcasts, online video, ebooks, blogs, etc. The only problem is how to start drinking-in this ocean of expression.
A great place to look for digital gems is the outstanding website, Open Culture, which is indexing these free cultural riches.
Which brings us to another advantage of the digital age… the ease with which people can share discoveries and insights with others. Blogs, aggregators, and magazines can help us search out the best and most interesting content on the Internet. Online social media provide unprecedented opportunities to converse with others who share idiosyncratic enthusiasms. It is a wide open frontier for growing knowledge and experiencing art, and it is almost always free for the taking.
Where does this advice leave booksellers, public media, performing arts companies, arthouse movie theaters, and museums? Anyone who can afford it should patronize and support these institutions as much as possible. They are far more valuable than the nominal fees they charge. Still, many of these institutions are adapting to the current environment.
Many museums have dropped admission charges entirely. One way of engaging in cultural activities that would be otherwise out of reach is to volunteer on their behalf. Who knows, maybe helping out for free could lead to a new career?
The arts and the humanities have always been sources of consolation, rejuvenation, information, or distraction in tough times. Reading in history, matching music to mood, satisfying long-deferred curiosity… these are all important activities for mental and spiritual health and for a practical understanding of the world we inhabit.
As our Great Recession continues, these seemingly ephemeral things will only seem more important. Thank goodness they are more available now than ever before.
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You can read scientists’ favorite passages from On the Origin of Species through this feature from the New York Times. It’s an interesting format for informed commentary on a great text.
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Two distinct, but intertwined legacies, as discussed here.
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At least one scholar thinks there is new evidence that the humanities are on an irreversible glide path to oblivion. If it is true that universities are marginalizing literature, philosophy, history, etc., will anyone else take up the calling?
Guys like these?
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Last fall, I started looking at an interesting publication/website produced by The Economist. A blend of lifestyle and cultural coverage, it’s aptly titled Intelligent Life. Available as a quarterly print magazine in Europe and the UK, much of the contents end up on-line at moreIntelligentLife.com. It’s a site worth visiting.
Anyway, a short piece in the Fall ’08 issue proclaimed a new “sexiness” for history and historians. The author Andrew Marr–himself a successful hybrid of historian and public figure–wrote that the most glamorous and influential public intellectuals are not novelists or policy wonks…
“People often ask, where are the big ideas? What has happened to the
stories through which we understand ourselves? The novelists have drawn
in their horns. Big stories rarely emerge through the blandness of
politicians’ books or the think-tanks’ social engineering manuals. Even
Barack Obama’s historical sweep is pretty bland. But turn to the
history section of Waterstone’s or Borders and there’s a vivid,
bubbling conversation going on, as interesting again as intellectual
life was in the 1960s, or Edwardian times. ” [Here's the rest of the story]
I think Marr is on to something here. At least among people who write or read books, those who are dealing with the big questions–of religion, science, war, peace, economics, and such–are the historians.
More so than filmmakers, visual artists, philosophers, poets, or fiction writers, historians seem to capture public attention as they wrestle with “big ideas.” To the extent that anyone cares about such things at all. If you filter out the political screeds and celebrity dreck, a lot of the bestseller lists are histories and biographies. These are both genres that combine non-fiction and story-telling. Fact and narrative.
In an era in which time and attention for any kind of long-form reading is scarce, it makes sense that history books can be relatively successful. They can, at their best, manage to be both informative and entertaining. That blend is hardly the sole province of historians or biographers, but they seem to be the least inhibited in addressing scholarly subjects with a popular touch. It also helps that we live in interesting times, which are chock full of (real and imagined) historical parallels.
It’s hard to think of David McCullough as “sexy.” Few people, with the possible exception of Lyndon Johnson, would use such language in reference to Doris Kearns Goodwin. But, these popular historians (and a few of their academic counterparts) are proving that discussions of big ideas can still find a wide audience. And, they can also find an audience with others who have an eye on history.
Presidents and Prime Ministers could do worse than consort with historians and their wares.
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