The Bottom Line ...

[Dave Monroe]

So are you arguing that "the humanities" SHOULD "demonstrate" they have "a positive
content," whatever that might mean, whatever a "negative content" might then be, that
said "content" (which is ...?) should "contribute to the bottom line" (whatever "the
bottom line" might be ...)?  That is, are you arguing that "the humanities" should be
held responsible to, capitulate to, whatever, a certain (and often short-sighted)
logic and practice of capital, of capitalism, which said "humanities" are often at
(implicitly or explicitly) odds with, in critique of?  Or are you "just" saying that
"the humanities"--or, at any rate, those who practice them--need as well to practice,
I don't know, some kind of economic "realism," need to adopt, adapt survival skills
for "the real world"?  But "reality" as defined by whom, by what interests, by what
institutions?  And aren't these well among the types of questions that are and should
be asked, taken up in "the humanities," which might well be our only institutions to
do so?  My guess is that just about anybody involved is involved because they feel,
believe, think that there are possibilities, priorities other than "the bottom line"
...

Terrance wrote:

> The noose of Modernism
>
> Sometime around the turn of the century revolutionary
> developments, that involved new subject matter, style, and
> technique, and ultimately a radical rethinking of the
> relationship between fiction and reality, changed what we
> call, the novel.  This change, this era in the history of
> the novel, like the corresponding periods in the history of
> poetry, drama, and other arts, is called Modernism. The
> roots of Modernism are exceptionally diverse and this is
> because Modernism sprang from cross-fertilization between
> cultures, between art forms and between disciplines.
>
> We don't need Post anything to compare and read Pynchon
> across disciplines, nationalities, or history. What you seem
> to be crediting postmodernism with is progressive
> pedagogical practices, but that's not quite a Pomo thing and
> what you are suggesting about where Pynchon will be read and
> why does not correspond with what has and is happening here
> in the US.
>
> The situation here is grim and fighting over post and modern
> Pynchon is almost beside the point. I regret to say that I
> consider English, Comparative Literature, Philosophy and
> several other fields like art history
> professional dead ends. As I wrote to Paul, if my son starts
> showing serious indication of entering the humanities, I
> will have a serious problem, for I won't want to discourage
> him, but I don't want to support him until he gets a shield
> to drive a yellow cab. Despite the MLA's habitual deception
> that the job crisis isn't really so bad, it is. It seems we
> have turned our backs on the humanities and for very good
> reasons: they aren't providing the intellectual and
> professional capital to help students in the real world.
> Here it is the money and the money and most citizens are
> doing well in the new economy and would be more than willing
> to fund English, or Comparative Literature if they felt
> their children were accumulating intellectual capital.
> Citizens aren't going to shell out their hard-earned money
> for philosophy or even philosophy of technology, of science,
> of mathematics, of computer science, and I don't think
> gender studies, identity politics, and Pomo/Film/Pynchon is
> high on their list either. Sorry, I simply do not think it
> has anything to do with cross departmental
> anthropology/myth/history/Pynchon classes. Pedagogically I'm
> all for it, but what will all the young women do with Woman
> Studies degrees if they can't pay the rent for a room of
> their own? Pynchon will survive. I'm convinced of that,  but
> I'm not so sanguine about the prospects for those that teach
> his fiction, Pomo, Mo, Larry or Curly.  Until the humanities
> can demonstrate that it has a positive content that
> contributes to the bottom line, no one is going to take it
> seriously.
>
> "The lobster buoy hitch
was particularly good to tie to
> timber,"
>
>                                 ---Proulx, The Shipping News
>
> jbor wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >> Still, why label Pynchon a Gnostic?  Defies labels pretty well, wouldn't you
> > >> say?  Although they've still got a noose or two around him like "Post-Modern
> > >> Author" or "Recluse" or whatever.
> >
> > Actually, that postmodern writer label is his stay of execution imo. It's
> > traditional philosophy which has him coded and compartmentalised on the
> > library catalogue between Barbara Pym and Ayn Rand, and the traditional
> > critics who would have him share the bookstore shelves with Mailer, Updike
> > and Wolfe.
> >
> > With postmodernism those nooses of nationality and temporality and
> > disciplinarity have begun to unravel. We can talk about Pynchon in the same
> > breath as Rabelais, Cervantes, Sterne and Joyce, or Kant, Nietzsche,
> > Wittgenstein and Jung without getting driven from the campus.
> >
> > best
> >
> > ----------
> > >From: Muchasmasgracias at cs.com
> > >To: fqmorris at hotmail.com, pynchon-l at waste.org
> > >Subject: Re: The Gnostic Pynchon
> > >Date: Fri, Jun 23, 2000, 4:11 PM
> > >