Weep Not for the Creative Mind
For years we liberal arts majors have been persecuted for our “soft” decision to enter into our humanities fields. Why do the humanities matter, in the long run? If you’re an English major, or perhaps an art or art history major, this query is nothing new to you. It often becomes wearying, having to defend your field of study. In fact, I often got to the point, as an undergraduate, where I dreaded the horrid question, “What are you studying in school?” My mind would race through my options: If I say English, I’ll inevitably be condescended to: “Oh, English. Hmm, what are you going to do with that?”; or labeled: “Oh, so do you want to teach?” because that’s all that and English degree is good for, really. Or should I say practically? And forget about saying creative writing. I usually just told a white lie and skipped over the creative part. Because, truthfully, I don’t know what I want to do with this degree, but I like thinking about the world. If I come up with a humorous avoidance technique (things such as “I’m just looking for a way to graduate” or “you mean you can’t be a professional student?” were common), I could sidestep some of the awkwardness, but there would always be that nagging sensation that I would KNOW what my accuser was going to ask. Now, don’t misunderstand me. Not all people judge or label humanities majors; my parents, in fact, were always quite supportive about all my major life decisions. It’s just that as an English major, I became jaded to the way I was viewed by the world.
Where do we liberal artists fit in the modern world? As I was reading Richard Lanham for my class, I came across something interesting:
“Economics, as we all remember from Introduction to Economics, studies the allocation of scarce resources….So, we live in an ‘information economy.’ But information is not in short supply in the new information economy. We’re drowning in it. What we lack is the human attention needed to make sense of it all….The devices that regulate attention are stylistic devices. Attracting attention is what style is all about.”
This really got me thinking. For years, I’ve been trained to know what I was doing was valuable, but to still be treated by most as peripheral. Maybe we really are living in an economy governed by attention (just think about how many things are vying for your attention these days; it seems as though our focus is becoming more and more split every day). In the old “economy of stuff” science and economics were king (and they still believe they are). Lanham is arguing, however, that we, the liberal artists, those of “arts and letters” are the mediators of attention. “The arts and letters now stand at the center. They are the disciplines that study how attention is allocated, how cultural capital is created and traded. When our children come home and tell us that they have decided to major in English or art history, no longer need we tremble for their economic future.”
My point: knowing how attention works makes you invaluable. Don’t despair or be ashamed.
Where do we liberal artists fit in the modern world? As I was reading Richard Lanham for my class, I came across something interesting:
“Economics, as we all remember from Introduction to Economics, studies the allocation of scarce resources….So, we live in an ‘information economy.’ But information is not in short supply in the new information economy. We’re drowning in it. What we lack is the human attention needed to make sense of it all….The devices that regulate attention are stylistic devices. Attracting attention is what style is all about.”
This really got me thinking. For years, I’ve been trained to know what I was doing was valuable, but to still be treated by most as peripheral. Maybe we really are living in an economy governed by attention (just think about how many things are vying for your attention these days; it seems as though our focus is becoming more and more split every day). In the old “economy of stuff” science and economics were king (and they still believe they are). Lanham is arguing, however, that we, the liberal artists, those of “arts and letters” are the mediators of attention. “The arts and letters now stand at the center. They are the disciplines that study how attention is allocated, how cultural capital is created and traded. When our children come home and tell us that they have decided to major in English or art history, no longer need we tremble for their economic future.”
My point: knowing how attention works makes you invaluable. Don’t despair or be ashamed.
