Ain't it Cool?

[Dave Monroe]

Well, I think part of the point is, don't make it
something they HAVE to do, a chore, something's that's
"good for them," et al., but, rather, have it be
something you do because it's something TO do.  Your
point is well taken, but it's certianly NOT a matter
of faith for the vast majority of These Kids Today.  I
would point out that, as a young 'un, I was never made
to eat spinach or brussels sprouts or whatever, and
now actually love 'em (to the point, for example, of
always ordering goma ae with every Japanese meal),
whereas I had a particularly traumatic childhood
cheesecake experience that, well, I might have been
better off never getting over, but ... 

--- joeallonby <vze422fs at verizon.net> wrote:

> It should not be necessary to make great literature
> cool in order to teach it to young people.
> 
> Great literature is already cool.

But this is also true ...
 
> Sometimes young people are not ready for great
> literature and should be allowed to come to it in
> their own good time.

I only "got into" Great Lit'rachure in my (largely
wasted, both me and them) college years, but it didn't
hurt that, I don't know, "intellectual pursuits" were
hardly ever 
 
> This reminds me of some of my lesser music teachers
> who tried to force feed Baroque music to kids by
> comparing it to pop music for which they feigned
> enthusiasm though they obviously despised it....

Well, I grew up with Bach and Mozart and ..., but only
really appreciated any of it after I got into The
Beatles (think, "In My Life," "Piggies," et al.--by
the way, the Danger Mouse "Gray Album" remix of
"Piggies" brings tears of joy to my eyes) ...

> The results were often hilarious. "Does this idiot
> really think that we actually like Billy Fucking
> Joel when we listen to the Velvet Underground and
> X?"

I regularly consult with a professor who teaches
popular culture in the sense of, the culture of the
people (his specialty is flamenco), and have to set
him straight on, well, pop culture, though I ahrdly
know what These Kids Today are into, either.  I've
picked up all of a half-dozen records (and I call 'em
records) actually recorded in  the 21st century since
1/1/01, so ...
 
> Condescending to the tastes of youth in order to
> enlighten them is often embarrassing at best and
> disastrous at worst.

But, again, see above.  One of our favorite professors
was a guy who, whilst teaching everything from
Classical to comparative to Existential to
Expressionist to Scandanavian to ... lit'rachure (not
to mention theory ...), would cover everything from
Kris Kristofferson to "The" Motley Crue along the way
as well (my dream reading list, on various "Directions
in the Novel" or whatever, though the class was
offered well after my time: Mrs. Dalloway, In Evil
Hour, Pale Fire, Vineland, Pulp Fiction, among
others).  Sure, not the hippest names to drop, but the
effort was appreciated, and the points were generally
spot on and, again, well taken ...


		
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