Comments on: The Work of Criticism

By: K

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:48:43 +0000

This makes me think of the well-known and published biologist that I worked with in the field.

We’d been working diligently all morning in the rain forest when a group of howler monkeys came into view. So, I stopped to observe them for a moment. Similarly, I called famous scientist over when I was excited to discover a coral snake under our lunch cooler, and I paused to listen to the oropendula. None of this diminished the vast amount of data we were collecting, or how sweaty we both were, or how hard we were working. But, to “famous scientist”, my pausing to take in the natural wonders was a sign that I didn’t take this research seriously, and that I didn’t get the importance of said work. To me, failing to take in the beauty of the rain forest in the moments that you can actually be on the ground there would reflect shortcomings as a scientist and naturalist. Joy and appreciation do not negate understanding or diligence.

Perhaps the key is harnessing enthusiasm into deeper understanding, appreciation, and mentorship.

By: Carl

Carl — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:20:57 +0000

Agreed. I’m guilty of this in relation to freshmen who ‘love history’ because they were good at memorizing names and dates in high school; ‘history buffs’ who know exactly what various generals of the Civil War and WWII should have done differently and argue passionately about whether Hitler was a Jew; and reenactors who fetishize historical authenticity in the form of wool fibers and ball-tamping techniques.

So right, why would I want to mess with their fun?

By: Bill Tozier

Bill Tozier — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:00:24 +0000

You’re also reminding me that I have a similar frustration with “discussion” of the culture of engineering and related technical practices. In that, there’s also a huge and lively corpus of engineering criticism out there on the street… it just doesn’t ever get acknowledged as such, and tends to devolve into product reviews instead of filling the useful role big-C Criticism might have in that culture.

By: SN

SN — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:24:21 +0000

“Why then it should be so urgent to disrupt, prevent or spoil the experience of culture when it seems passionate, pleasurable or fun is something of a mystery.”

If it is fun, won’t people do it for free. If people do it for free, then why are they paying us?

They pay us to do it after we have made it not fun anymore: Take that, novice! See if you want to do it when I have taken all the joy out of it. I EARN this salary.

By: Western Dave

Western Dave — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:34:58 +0000

Any chance of getting a twitter link? I’m cutting and pasting the link into my twitter feed.