Curiosity

Galileo & his telescope

Anti-modern, fundamentalists beliefs continue to play an important role in many 21st-century religious communities, of all denominations. This essay by William Eamon, "The Disease Called Curiosity," traces such thinking back to the great Christian theologian, Saint Augustine:

Early modern curiosity was insatiable, never content with a single experience or object. Whereas Augustine linked curiosity to sensual lust and human depravity, Renaissance natural philosophers saw it as being driven by wonder and the engine of discovery.

STTA. What do you make of the connection Augustine makes between curiosity and sexual lust, a subject that the young Augustine, we know from his acclaimed autobiography, knew first-hand? It is almost as if curiosity is just a side-issue, and it is lust, or sexual desire more generally, that is the real demon of Augustine here, and maybe fundamentalists generally? What do you think?

What It's Really Like To Be A Copy Editor

Here's a model of lively, self-confident writing, on (of all things) the mundane, thankless, and, for so many of us, painful job of proof-reading or, as described in Lori Fradkin's professional world, copy-editing: "What It's Really Like To Be A Copy Editor." It's a strange sort of world, in other words, not unlike some college writing classes, where commas and, more often, hyphens, make a big difference.

The job has its perks—an accumulation of random knowledge, for instance—but it also has its side effects when you unintentionally drink the copy Kool-Aid. Once you train yourself to spot errors, you can’t not spot them. You can’t simply shut off the careful reading when you leave the office. You notice typos in novels, missing words in other magazines, incorrect punctuation on billboards. You have nightmares that your oversight turned Mayor Bloomberg into a "pubic" figure.

SSTA:  What do you see as the real benefits, if any, for such a concern with the details of language? Does this concern have anything to do with the details of thought? Or put another way, what's wrong with saying, "I COULD care less," when expressing your total lack of interest, or, to be a bit more topical, confusing or blending refute and repudiate?

Spielberg, Lucas Celebrate Rockwell's Iconic America

"What do painter Norman Rockwell, and filmmakers George Lucas and Steven Spielberg all have in common?

"All are commercial artists. They share a love of heroes, valor, humor, country and — of course — images that has earned them each a place in American popular culture." From NPR (7/9/10)

STTA: One thing these three artists share is being middle-brow (see Wikipedia), an attribution of art that is both popular and morally serious. Alas, being middle-brow is often a pejorative term among serious critics. Consider both sides of this issue: What's actually good about being middle-brow; why do critics so often look down on middle-crow artists and middle-brow art?

All Joy and No Fun: Why Parents Hate Parenting

Shirley Temple

Was it the famous American comic W.C. Fields (1880-1946) who snarled that anyone who hates children and dogs can't be all bad? Fields made his reputation as a curmudgeon. Now we have a piece by Jennifer Senior, from New York magazine, "All Joy and No Fun," that raises this issue from a different perspective: Questioning why children seem to bring such unhappiness to their parents.

A key quote: "Mothers are less happy than fathers, single parents are less happy still."

STTA (Something to Think About)

• Is it really possible that our children make us miserable? If not, then what is Senior leaving out of her story?