A wonderful sweeping history of how language and catch-phrases can be distorted and manipulated into propaganda by any Big Brother or cult leader or conman or presidential wannabe who wants to mislead the masses to gain power.
What great summation of the factions in academic curriculum choices.
Trump’s relevance is his nose for understanding when a tactic or mechanism to get responses from his audience gets old and stinky. He can tell fresh lines from stale lines, poor Ronny just isn’t that socially acute. Trump doesn’t give a shit about anything, he’s advised what positions will get him the farthest and adopts what he thinks will work on his audience. But I doubt he really cares about or understands how education is vital to advancing civilization. lol
The ideas of D’Souza-phone and Hilton Kramer came at the time I was in school at the San Francisco Art Institute and shortly after at Mills College. The conversations about curriculum were not exactly the same as those at more conventional schools, Mills and SFAI weren’t mainstream schools- both are closed now, a sad thing for me. The schools I attended and have been shaped by, for good or ill are now gone. Mills could have saved itself, but it decided to take the hemlock drink and go down without becoming a male / female integrated school at undergraduate level, that could have kept it going. SFAI hurts more because that was a special place where you met special people. There’s nothing like it and probably will never will there be anything close.
The teachers at both schools were in a position where they understood that art and music at the core are not intellectual practices, but that if an artist chooses a certain path, the curriculum being developed could work with an art or music career preparation.
They had to teach students like me who were not interested in jargony theories about art and music, but still give us enough so we wouldn’t fall behind in a changing landscape/ laboratory in academia. Looking back I feel lucky that my teachers and faculty struck a good common sense balance between the great books and the new great books. What they did was offer the idea that bell hooks and The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym were not mutually exclusive. I felt it was important to know some of the great books in order to understand post modern ideas.
It’s complicated, and boneheads like De Santis just bulldoze and flatten the territory we need for a case to be presented to the school going public ( and the parents) why refreshing ( updating ) the curriculum is important, but at the same time, not to discard the great books.
DeSantis and trump are both morons, but their moronship is different, but trump is slightly more perceptive at dropping a dying metaphor. My only hope is a very hefty metaphor will fall on him.
“DeSantis and trump are both morons, but their moronship is different, but trump is slightly more perceptive at dropping a dying metaphor. My only hope is a very hefty metaphor will fall on him.” Oh yes, like “Lady Justice”—that would be a nice, heavy rock of a metaphor to drop on Trump. By the way, I won’t go on about it here, but my own educational experience includes aggravation with the left as well as the right. When I was teaching at LeMoyne—a smaller college like those you taught at, and where I taught for 12 years—there was respect for that combo of Great Books and curricular explanation that you describe. But when I got to a major university, it was a whole different thing. Someday I’ll write about how the left purity brigade invaded and terrorized my last class. But that’s for a different article than this one!
Susan, Please remove the artwork for your Florida DeSantis piece. I understand liking it but it is art a friend gave me permission to use and I brought it to my editors at DemCast for my 2021 DeSantis commissioned article. It is not their art. The article was again put in copyright by me here on Substack 4/23. The art is closely identified with a foundational article and is not for use in the public domain. Thank you for your prompt removal. https://samray.substack.com/p/the-desantis-variant-a-psychological
Done! Just so you know: I looked for attribution to a creator when I saw it but couldn’t find it on the site. Only then did I post it. It’s removed now. (By the way, I wrote about Henry VIII as a narcissistic personality in my Anne Boleyn book. And some on Trump, but very early on. This is old (2017) but you might find it of interest, given your own interests: https://susanbordo.medium.com/the-little-king-3807849480cc)
Sorry for the delayed reply Susan. Thanks for taking care of it and the sub. Your work looks very interesting and complimentary to mine. Look forward to reading some after I finish a few more pieces this weekend. Cheers!
A wonderful sweeping history of how language and catch-phrases can be distorted and manipulated into propaganda by any Big Brother or cult leader or conman or presidential wannabe who wants to mislead the masses to gain power.
Can I quote you on my facebook page and notes? (feel free to say no)
Thank you Deborah!
Appreciated learning about Orwell's concept of "the dying metaphor which has lost its evocative power." It's applicable to so many things today..
Thank you! I agree. Broadcast news-speak is full of them. Once you start noticing them, you see how all over the place they are.
What great summation of the factions in academic curriculum choices.
Trump’s relevance is his nose for understanding when a tactic or mechanism to get responses from his audience gets old and stinky. He can tell fresh lines from stale lines, poor Ronny just isn’t that socially acute. Trump doesn’t give a shit about anything, he’s advised what positions will get him the farthest and adopts what he thinks will work on his audience. But I doubt he really cares about or understands how education is vital to advancing civilization. lol
The ideas of D’Souza-phone and Hilton Kramer came at the time I was in school at the San Francisco Art Institute and shortly after at Mills College. The conversations about curriculum were not exactly the same as those at more conventional schools, Mills and SFAI weren’t mainstream schools- both are closed now, a sad thing for me. The schools I attended and have been shaped by, for good or ill are now gone. Mills could have saved itself, but it decided to take the hemlock drink and go down without becoming a male / female integrated school at undergraduate level, that could have kept it going. SFAI hurts more because that was a special place where you met special people. There’s nothing like it and probably will never will there be anything close.
The teachers at both schools were in a position where they understood that art and music at the core are not intellectual practices, but that if an artist chooses a certain path, the curriculum being developed could work with an art or music career preparation.
They had to teach students like me who were not interested in jargony theories about art and music, but still give us enough so we wouldn’t fall behind in a changing landscape/ laboratory in academia. Looking back I feel lucky that my teachers and faculty struck a good common sense balance between the great books and the new great books. What they did was offer the idea that bell hooks and The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym were not mutually exclusive. I felt it was important to know some of the great books in order to understand post modern ideas.
It’s complicated, and boneheads like De Santis just bulldoze and flatten the territory we need for a case to be presented to the school going public ( and the parents) why refreshing ( updating ) the curriculum is important, but at the same time, not to discard the great books.
DeSantis and trump are both morons, but their moronship is different, but trump is slightly more perceptive at dropping a dying metaphor. My only hope is a very hefty metaphor will fall on him.
“DeSantis and trump are both morons, but their moronship is different, but trump is slightly more perceptive at dropping a dying metaphor. My only hope is a very hefty metaphor will fall on him.” Oh yes, like “Lady Justice”—that would be a nice, heavy rock of a metaphor to drop on Trump. By the way, I won’t go on about it here, but my own educational experience includes aggravation with the left as well as the right. When I was teaching at LeMoyne—a smaller college like those you taught at, and where I taught for 12 years—there was respect for that combo of Great Books and curricular explanation that you describe. But when I got to a major university, it was a whole different thing. Someday I’ll write about how the left purity brigade invaded and terrorized my last class. But that’s for a different article than this one!
I’m looking forward to the breakdown of being stuck between overzealous lefties and difficult conservatives.
I’ve begun sketching a piece on teaching in Japan, I’m working on it a few good hours a week. Just to let you know I’m thinking and working.
I think de Santis is a dumb metaphor, and Hilton a wounded metaphor. Donald a Farceaphor
Brilliant article !
Thank you so much!!
Susan, Please remove the artwork for your Florida DeSantis piece. I understand liking it but it is art a friend gave me permission to use and I brought it to my editors at DemCast for my 2021 DeSantis commissioned article. It is not their art. The article was again put in copyright by me here on Substack 4/23. The art is closely identified with a foundational article and is not for use in the public domain. Thank you for your prompt removal. https://samray.substack.com/p/the-desantis-variant-a-psychological
Done! Just so you know: I looked for attribution to a creator when I saw it but couldn’t find it on the site. Only then did I post it. It’s removed now. (By the way, I wrote about Henry VIII as a narcissistic personality in my Anne Boleyn book. And some on Trump, but very early on. This is old (2017) but you might find it of interest, given your own interests: https://susanbordo.medium.com/the-little-king-3807849480cc)
Sorry for the delayed reply Susan. Thanks for taking care of it and the sub. Your work looks very interesting and complimentary to mine. Look forward to reading some after I finish a few more pieces this weekend. Cheers!