5.0 out of 5 stars
You Must Read This Book!, January 23, 2013
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Melville Biography: An Inside Narrative (Hardcover)
Over the past 40 years a virus has invaded the cloistered enclaves of
academia. A virus called "theory" -- literary theory, film theory, art
theory, architectural theory, Semiotics, and New Criticism to name just a
few strains. Each version boils down to the same thing: a secret
language created by inbred academics permeated with multisyllabic
nonsense words, and tortured incomprehensible syntax that does not seek
to communicate meaning, but to obscure it to all but a chosen few.
These phantasmagoric theories do not teach students how to write a
novel, a work of nonfiction, or how to paint, or sculpt, or build a
house. It is an astounding fraud perpetrated on unsuspecting university
students and the parents who have to mortgage their homes to pay for
this carnival midway malarkey.In his groundbreaking new book, Melville Biography - An Inside Narrative, Hershel Parker goes to war against the theorists with an Old Testament wrath. I say, bravo! Parker brilliantly portrays how the rise of theory has degraded academic standards and slowly strangled the art of original research. The apostles of New Criticism argue that it is not important what Herman Melville intended when he wrote his masterworks; nor is it important what impact social events and commercial pressures had on his work. All that matters is the marvelous web of theories the New Critics can spin around his work. Parker calls this out for what it is: a rationalization for laziness, and a supreme act of narcissism.
Behind Parker's rage is a passionate plea for academics not to cede the field of original research to journalists. He fervently hopes they will shake off the fever that has gripped them for almost half a century and embrace once again the fundamentals of scholarship. Anyone concerned about the state of our universities and the quality of our social discourse must read this outstanding book.
No comments:
Post a Comment