tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-595859379914711075.post4520132845481743387..comments2024-03-19T18:51:58.496-05:00Comments on Cultural Front: Reading James Baldwin in the Digital AgeH. Rambsyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16862209871277442972noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-595859379914711075.post-71294044276740974452017-12-07T08:58:44.387-06:002017-12-07T08:58:44.387-06:00Thanks again for coming to the Dallas Institute to...Thanks again for coming to the Dallas Institute to lead us through a study of James Baldwin. Giving us the context for some of his penetrating quotes helps me understand and appreciate him all the more. <br /><br />The data-driven approach to a literary canon is new to me and seems "fraught," due to its apparent assumption that value can be reduced to numbers. (Perhaps you see this differently?) Our society is fascinated with measurement, and while numbers do tell us something, they cannot tell us the value of a work of literary art. At best, what you cited gives us the value that a narrow, tiny fraction of us who are literary critics place on these works. At the same time, the Western canon of "Classics" I have grown up with needs reviewing and expanding, given that it was limited to "dead white males." <br /><br />The quote I chose had to with "complexity," which he found fatally lacking in Stowe's book. What he fails to recognize, though, is that complexity always lives in tension with its opposite, "simplicity." Stowe's book is a simple, prophetic work, not to be confused with "great" art, profound philosophical inquiry, or rhetorical excellence. All of these are needed in the public square, and I don't think it's fair to judge Stowe's work and her motives by his "one and only one" criterion. <br /><br />Looking forward to the rest of the course,<br />Gary Looper <br /><br /><br /><br /> Gary Looperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08506299755094947255noreply@blogger.com