Wednesday, 25 February 2009

Immunity to Pretentiousness

"A Classical education helps you from being fooled by pretentiousness." (Raymond Chandler)

Thank goodness it wasn't a total waste of time.
Posted by ulaca at 10:57
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17 comments:

Winifred said...

I thought its purpose was to have interesting thoughts while digging ditches?

25 February 2009 11:27
Choppedonions said...

my teacher always told me that it would give me something to think about while I was behind bars.

25 February 2009 13:29
ulaca said...

You've outfoxed me with that allusion, I have to confess, Winifred.

25 February 2009 14:13
Private Beach said...

I studied Latin in the days when it was compulsory for bright kids on the off chance they would get into Oxford or Cambridge, which still required it then. I failed to get into Oxford, but it did help me read a Portuguese inscription in Macau once, so it wasn't entirely wasted.

25 February 2009 14:25
SMW said...

Reading Caesar's Gallic Wars stand out for two reasons. One was the inevitable bursts of giggles from the all-female class when he talked about erecting ramparts. He also constructed the longest sentences known to man.

25 February 2009 14:38
Winifred said...

It was from Tripmaster Monkey: his fake book by Maxine Hong Kongston. The hero, Wittman Ah-Sing is thinking about his job (or maybe it's when he goes for "employment counseling" when he wants to draw unemployment?).

To be honest, it was "liberal education" rather than "classical education" - though I did my Latin and like the nerd that I am - loved it.

26 February 2009 15:47
ulaca said...

I get scared when people use expressions like liberal education.

A propos Primo Levi, I enjoyed Ian Thomson's factual (verging on the prosaic) biography. He calls Levi's novel "If Not Know When?" ill-advised, but I liked it, as I tend to like those wandering-about type of books (eg Stephen King's "Stand" and "Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" - in LOTR it gets tiresome), especially where I can follow the action in my atlas when the mood takes me. Will be picking up "The Wrench" on my weekend trip to London.

26 February 2009 16:43
Choppedonions said...

my brain just self-imploaded

26 February 2009 17:57
Jim said...

If I were having a Scotch with Ray, I'd point out that it also helps you from being fooled by false simplicity.

26 February 2009 17:58
ulaca said...

It's interesting, Jim, that most of the people who advocate clear English, such a CS Lewis and Orwell, were bright fellows who understood exactly the danger you mention.

26 February 2009 22:16
Winifred said...

Hi Ulaca,

It could be that "liberal education" is one of those phrases that shows that Brits and Yanks are 2 people separated by a common tongue?

The Wrench was not one of my favorite Levi books, but I hope you like it.

I went to my shelves and found Tripmaster Monkey and saw that my memory was so-so.

It was indeed the chapter where Wittman goes for "employment counseling" - but the words were different. He is deciding not to list all his recent jobs:

"Actually, the job before this one, he worked for one day at a vet clinic, which was also a dog pound. He unloaded flat cars off this truck into an incinerator. Mounds of fur, some necks with collars....Wittman only lasted the one day... A liberal-arts education is good for knowing to look at anything from an inquisitive point of view, to have thoughts while shoveling shit."

27 February 2009 09:04
Troika said...

"It could be that "liberal education" is one of those phrases that shows that Brits and Yanks are 2 people separated by a common tongue?"

How ghastly.

27 February 2009 10:34
Winifred said...

Trioka,

I think I was bit hasty w/ the "post" button. The image is quite ghastly (or hilarious).

27 February 2009 11:00
Jim said...

I'm curious what year Chandler said that, 1940's or 50's ? It's funny how neatly that particular quote sums him up - says he's an educated guy and he wants his writing to be taken seriously even though the genre of the detective novel isn't considered high art. Well here we are 50 years on and Ray has come out on the winning side. "Low" art won. Warhol won, Madonna won, Schoenberg lost. Chandler might be horrified - pretentiousness is the least of our worries. Had he seen the Bush years he might want to amend the quote to something like, "A Classical education helps us know the difference between unpretentiousness and stupidity."

27 February 2009 11:15
Jim said...

And I just want to add that most of my friends with a liberal arts education went on to work in film and advertising, and they make more money than the schmucks who got MBAs or became attorneys. : )

27 February 2009 11:29
ulaca said...

"Liberal arts", "liberal studies" - my eyes glass over when I come across these phrases. I'm put in kind of those subjects that require no, or very little, exact knowledge, but lashings of ideologocal commitment.

2 March 2009 09:29
ulaca said...

Jim, I forgot where I read this quotation - not in a work by Chandler, at any rate, since I've never read one.

2 March 2009 09:32

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