Since the middle ages and the rise of the universities as distinct institution, the academic life has been a ripe target for satire. I can’t say this video is as artful as send up of scholastic logic and disputation in The Battle of the Seven Arts by Henri d’Andeli, but has some funny moments—though I take a bit of exception to the use of Nebraska as the academic equivalent of Siberia.
Friday, October 29, 2010, 11:21 AM
October 29th, 2010 | 12:29 pm
So what’s the takeaway? If taken at face value, “No one should study humanities and attempt to make a career of scholarship and teaching. And, anyone who’s managed to do it has wasted their life anyway and ought to be bitter about it.” That’d be a dumb message.
If it’s “be aware of the realities here,” fine. But just a side note: I know a couple with PhD’s in math, both teaching at the same university campus in a small midwestern city, and raising (and homeschooling!) three kids. They are very busy, but neither would describe their lives as the kind of mindless, overtaxed, pointless drudgery portrayed in the video. Granted math is not humanities, but there’s not an issue raised in the video that isn’t the same for them. And yes, the place they live is kind of out of the way, but what does it matter where you live, if you enjoy your job and manage to make friends and build a family life there?
It’s one thing to make sure that people go into highly competitive fields with limited earning potential with their eyes wide-open and their rose-colored glasses off; it’s another to portray a valuable and rewarding field as something only an incompetent fool would choose to pursue.
October 29th, 2010 | 2:00 pm
This is why I stopped at an M.A. (in political science).
October 29th, 2010 | 2:22 pm
“Granted math is not humanities, but there’s not an issue raised in the video that isn’t the same for them.”
Not true. Mathematicians are exponentially better at integrating their lives, putting down roots, and adjusting to inequality.
October 29th, 2010 | 4:59 pm
LOL, good one Tom. But of course, all you’re saying is that they deal with the issues better, not that the issues aren’t there.
October 30th, 2010 | 8:13 am
Clearly, if one wants to get a job, one shouldn’t study the Humanities. but clearly, if one wants to get a life, one should. After all, the Humanities is all about life: the life of Art, of philosophy, of literature, of history.
No where else, will one learn about the realism of Giotto, or experience the beauty of his paintings, or get a glimpse of the middle age abstract art that was exemplified by Giotto’s mentor Cimabue. The literature of Virgil, or Dante, can only be experienced by living the life of the Humanities.
The Humanities are an inexaustibly rich, and enchanted place, where one will encounter Plato,Aristotle, Aquinas, and that often neglected treasure, his Summa Theologiae. all of one’s senses will be stimulated beyond measure, with the Impressionists, the history paintings of David, the well fed females of Rubens, the music of Bach, or the scientific adventure of Bacon’s New Organon. Not yet convinced? well, how about the rich colors of Renoir, or the dances, frozen in time, of a Degas.
The realism of a Tolstoy novel, or the ambiguity of Beckett, the frightening existentialism of a Dostoyevsky novel. You get the idea.
True, you will not get a job, as a result of the Humanities, but you will get a life: a life of the mind, with philosophy. a life of sight, with the Art of the ages. A life of sound with music. A life like no other.
October 31st, 2010 | 6:18 pm
Bret,
Yes, that is all quite likely. I might argue that there are other possibilities for developing as a person outside the humanities, and that there are certain ways of studying the humanities that are more limiting than simply living as a human interested in life and art. But I’m not sure that’s what this video and related articles are about — I suspect they’re more about the reality that the possession of an advanced degree does not exempt a person from having to think about work; even from having to engage in downright unpleasant work. Perhaps unpleasant, hard to find work. It’s helpful to know that in advance, so as not to be shocked and horrified later on.
November 2nd, 2010 | 12:31 pm
[...] week we posted the video “So You Want to Get a PhD in the Humanities?,” which humorously cautioned students about what they could expect if they pursued a [...]
November 2nd, 2010 | 4:39 pm
Bret said: (My responses inline)
“No where else, will one learn about the realism of Giotto”
No where? How about a public library?
“, or experience the beauty of his paintings”
images.google.com
“, or get a glimpse of the middle age abstract art that was exemplified by Giotto’s mentor Cimabue.”
Library. Books. The Internet.
“The literature of Virgil, or Dante, can only be experienced by living the life of the Humanities.”
Then Virgin and Dante did not experience it themselves, as they did not live the modern life of the Humanities.
“The Humanities are an inexaustibly rich, and enchanted place, where one will encounter Plato,Aristotle, Aquinas, and that often neglected treasure, his Summa Theologiae”
Or you could just read them on your own.
“. all of one’s senses will be stimulated beyond measure, with the Impressionists, the history paintings of David, the well fed females of Rubens, the music of Bach, or the scientific adventure of Bacon’s New Organon. Not yet convinced? well, how about the rich colors of Renoir, or the dances, frozen in time, of a Degas.”
You need a university to experience these…. ….why?
“The realism of a Tolstoy novel, or the ambiguity of Beckett, the frightening existentialism of a Dostoyevsky novel. You get the idea.”
You need a university to experience these…. ….why?
November 2nd, 2010 | 11:22 pm
Clearly, one should study the humanities, for their inherent traits, not for the practical aspects that one could derive from them. One should get a Ph.D in the humanities because of one’s love for the subject, not because one will get a good job.
Irene: I don’t think that anyone is really under the illusion that studying the humanities will result in a good job, or even a job at all for that matter. One should study the humanities for one’s own personal development, and have some additional training, in order to get a good job.
Xamuel: I don’t disagree with a word you’ve said. If more people did the things, on their own, that you’ve suggested, I think we would not only have a better educated world, but a more moral, tolerant world. My point was really, that we should not look at the Humanities as our tickets to high paying jobs, because they never were meant for that. But we still, if time, money and luck would permit, should study humanities in college, but if not, absolutely, we should study them on our own!
November 3rd, 2010 | 12:20 pm
[...] This depressing video, which I know is fairly accurate…and really funny. “Harold Bloom is a misogynistic [...]
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