AOL, Intellectual Rigor, and the Classics
February 2, 2011
I am an old fuddy duddy. I have goslings who call me much worse. I reshelve books out of alphabetical order at the local book store. I tell the people at the local supermarket to alphabetize the list of foods in an aisle. I expect students to read the full text of their text books. How out of touch am I? A lot.
I read “AOL and Mark Burnett Teaming to Offer Cliffs Notes Web Series” and realized that the Xoogler running AOL is not only smarter than I but he is also more in touch with the need of high school and college students. Why read a lousy novel like Barchester Towers. Archdeacon who? Skip the crap in King Lear. Why read a tragedy and discuss the possible parallels with the problems Steve Jobs may face. Get smart about the last Depression easily. Why read? Just click to AOL.com and suck down the summary. Forget reading. Waste of time, right?
Here’s a passage that annoyed me and made me happy that I am too old to care about the under 20 crowd’s understanding of a highly regarded fiction or non fiction book. Carlyle, anyone? I can hear the “Dude, you are wacky?” now. Ah, the passage:
In addition to summing up the plots, Burnett and Coalition will work with Wiley to develop videos that offer analysis, interpretation, and literary criticism.
There you go.
Video.
Is this the Wiley that publishes chemistry texts and accounting information? Nah, has to be an Angry Birds type of outfit. How does one search these new materials? Key words so one gets lots of ads. Pass the popcorn. Lots of time for some folks because I am not sure there will be jobs in the Brave New World. Read the abstract. Short enough to read as one waits for entitlement application forms.
Stephen E Arnold, February 2, 2011
Freebie
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