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Re: What does VN rail against? (fwd)
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From: Thomas Bolt <bolt@tbolt.com>
There are the giant book clubs
(they know who they are!),
and there are gatherings
of people who get together to
read and entertain and be
amused. These are two different
things. See Wilfred Sheed's
"There Goes the Judge" in the
current YALE REVIEW (January
1999, Vol 87, No 1, page 70,
the reverse of a sad poem)
for a hilarious exposi of the
inner workings of the Book-of-
the-Month Club, which has now
purged all of its judges and
gone from Middlebrow to Pure
Marketing.
It's a slight s-t-r-e-t-c-h, but
aren't universities book clubs
of a sort? Certainly VN found
some of the same irritants in both
places - and is clearly not
attacking the idea of reading
and learning, or the ineptitude
of beginners, but an attitude
to culture, a social phenomenon
of that time - and also certain
approaches that end in pulp
and plaster, not the kind of
deep attention reading needs.
A poem John Updike wrote in
his early 20s, and which VN
probably read, sums up one
aspect of this attitude:
HUMANITIES COURSE
Professor Varder handles Dante
With wry respect; while one can see
It's all a lie, one must admit
The "beauty" of the "imagery."
Professor Varder slyly smiles,
Describing Hegel as a "sage";
But still, the man has value - he
Reflects the "temper" of his "age."
Montaigne, Tom Paine, St. Augustine:
Although their notions came to naught,
They still are "crucial figures" in
The "pagantry" of "Western thought."
There are the giant book clubs
(they know who they are!),
and there are gatherings
of people who get together to
read and entertain and be
amused. These are two different
things. See Wilfred Sheed's
"There Goes the Judge" in the
current YALE REVIEW (January
1999, Vol 87, No 1, page 70,
the reverse of a sad poem)
for a hilarious exposi of the
inner workings of the Book-of-
the-Month Club, which has now
purged all of its judges and
gone from Middlebrow to Pure
Marketing.
It's a slight s-t-r-e-t-c-h, but
aren't universities book clubs
of a sort? Certainly VN found
some of the same irritants in both
places - and is clearly not
attacking the idea of reading
and learning, or the ineptitude
of beginners, but an attitude
to culture, a social phenomenon
of that time - and also certain
approaches that end in pulp
and plaster, not the kind of
deep attention reading needs.
A poem John Updike wrote in
his early 20s, and which VN
probably read, sums up one
aspect of this attitude:
HUMANITIES COURSE
Professor Varder handles Dante
With wry respect; while one can see
It's all a lie, one must admit
The "beauty" of the "imagery."
Professor Varder slyly smiles,
Describing Hegel as a "sage";
But still, the man has value - he
Reflects the "temper" of his "age."
Montaigne, Tom Paine, St. Augustine:
Although their notions came to naught,
They still are "crucial figures" in
The "pagantry" of "Western thought."