Monday, February 11, 2013
newyorker: Teju Cole on the civilizing function of literature, and the disparity between Obama’s bookshelf and his use of targeted killings: How on earth did this happen to the reader in chief? What became of literature’s vaunted power to inspire empathy? Why was the candidate Obama, in word and in deed, so radically different from the President he became? Continue reading: http://nyr.kr/WYUGMz Photograph: Pete Souza/The White House/Getty. It’s so strange to me that there is still anyone anywhere who think that there is any connection whatsoever between a given person’s reading preferences and his or her moral stature. There is no “civilizing function of literature”; people will only benefit morally from reading literature if they already have a strong moral formation. As Terry Eagleton wrote many years ago about the deeply cultured officers of the Third Reich, “When the Allied troops moved into the concentration camps … to arrest commandants who had whiled away their leisure hours with a volume of Goethe, it appeared that someone had some explaining to do.” Cole mentions this uncomfortable fact, but, reluctant to draw the obvious conclusion from it, remains puzzled that the President’s political and military decisions could somehow be at odds with what Cole imagines that a reader of Derek Walcott’s poetry would be likely to do. This is misbegotten in more ways than I can even list.

newyorker:

Teju Cole on the civilizing function of literature, and the disparity between Obama’s bookshelf and his use of targeted killings:

How on earth did this happen to the reader in chief? What became of literature’s vaunted power to inspire empathy? Why was the candidate Obama, in word and in deed, so radically different from the President he became?

Continue reading: http://nyr.kr/WYUGMz


Photograph: Pete Souza/The White House/Getty.

It’s so strange to me that there is still anyone anywhere who think that there is any connection whatsoever between a given person’s reading preferences and his or her moral stature. There is no “civilizing function of literature”; people will only benefit morally from reading literature if they already have a strong moral formation. As Terry Eagleton wrote many years ago about the deeply cultured officers of the Third Reich, “When the Allied troops moved into the concentration camps … to arrest commandants who had whiled away their leisure hours with a volume of Goethe, it appeared that someone had some explaining to do.” Cole mentions this uncomfortable fact, but, reluctant to draw the obvious conclusion from it, remains puzzled that the President’s political and military decisions could somehow be at odds with what Cole imagines that a reader of Derek Walcott’s poetry would be likely to do. This is misbegotten in more ways than I can even list.

Posted at 1:53 PM 255 notes Reblogged from newyorker

Notes

  1. vangard reblogged this from newyorker and added:
    You’ve done so much for me an an individual, but what would it say about me if I let that silence my concerns with your...
  2. gracefulappetite reblogged this from newyorker
  3. thelethalindustry reblogged this from newyorker
  4. awalt2069 reblogged this from azspot
  5. bioargent reblogged this from newyorker
  6. ringtales reblogged this from newyorker
  7. theologianforhire reblogged this from ayjay and added:
    Yes. Reading does not make one any less terrible.
  8. harveysparkes reblogged this from newyorker
  9. champagneandpoptarts reblogged this from azspot
  10. thebassoonist12 reblogged this from honor-not-honors
  11. honor-not-honors reblogged this from azspot
  12. azspot reblogged this from ayjay
  13. inkednurse reblogged this from newyorker
  14. httpmkuustylingcom reblogged this from newyorker
  15. itsherfactoryitsherduty reblogged this from witchblues and added:
    Subashini’s hashtag pretty much says it all: “literature’s civilizing function just might be the problem”…
  16. keithandre reblogged this from newyorker
  17. make-sandwiches-not-war reblogged this from newyorker
  18. othernotebooksareavailable reblogged this from witchblues
  19. lifeofthibault reblogged this from pegobry and added:
    You said it! There’s no correlation: only haters. And they gon’ hate!