[MD] conspiracy theories

[Ham Priday]

Greetings, Gav --

> hey ham,
> don't remember saying that but hey i pretty much agree
> with it anyway.
> i will check out the essay.

If you've already checked it out, you missed the authors' conclusion.  (This
article was e-mailed to me from a friend in South Carolina in the 'pdf'
format.  Right smack in the middle of it was a bio on General Schwarzkopf.
Dr. Sommers' last paragraph wasn't the kind of conclusion I would have
expected from so competent a writer, and tonight I found out why.  I went
back to the source, found the final paragraphs of her essay, and added them
to my website column.)  Sorry folks.

> literature is one of the big MISSING pieces of the
> eduactional puzzle, for it is literature that, more
> than anything, is the link between the intellectual
> and the dynamic i believe. hey i guess bob would
> agree!
>
> so if i am close to the mark then it is key that high
> school and uni focus on great works of literature. for
> it is these, rather than essays and textbooks, that
> have most evolutionary power.

I like your selection; although, as much as I enjoyed ZMM and LILA, I
question whether they merit inclusion with the novels of Hemmingway,
Dostoevsky, Kafka, Flaubert and Henry Miller as a must-read list of "great
works of literature."  I notice you omitted Shakespeare, Byron, and Jane
Austin, among others.  I also wonder what "evolutionary power" has to do
with your appraisal of literary works.  Perhaps you're referring to one's
"evolution" to a higher intellectual level?

As one who believes that intellect is inherent in man, I never was able to
fathom the dynamics of "latching onto" it as something else.

For me the value of reading enduring literature is learning about human
nature; how people of different cultures and time periods think, feel, and
behave; how they sense evil and goodness and understand morality; how they
fight wars and make love; and what kind of philosophy they live by.  There's
also much beauty to be found in the poetry of Shakespeare's Sonnets, Byron's
Manfred, or Tennyson's Idylls.  I think we grow wiser, if not greater, in
our exposure to great works of literature and art.  Whether this is an
"evolutionary process" that makes us more intellectual, I really can't say.

Anyway, thanks for the comments and suggested reading list, Gav.  I'll let
the more avid readers in this group carry on the ball you've started
rolling.

Regards,
Ham