deepundergroundpoetry.com
why study art
don't study the "humanities",
they're not human enough.
they won't help you to
a) love what's human on this earth
b) appreciate human nature
c) connect with human art
d) understand yourself
e) understand others
f) or even make money
the "humanities" will, at worst:
- destroy your love of human things
- destroy your love of human art
- destroy the human things in you
- and make you kill yourself
the "humanities" will, at best:
make you a teacher
of a privileged few
they're not human enough.
they won't help you to
a) love what's human on this earth
b) appreciate human nature
c) connect with human art
d) understand yourself
e) understand others
f) or even make money
the "humanities" will, at worst:
- destroy your love of human things
- destroy your love of human art
- destroy the human things in you
- and make you kill yourself
the "humanities" will, at best:
make you a teacher
of a privileged few
Published 17th Jun 2022
Author's Note
Maybe don’t take this poem TOO seriously. It is, after all, an expression of hate and resentment.
All writing remains the property of the author. Don't use it for any purpose without their permission.
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Commenting Preference:
The author encourages honest critique.
17th Jun 2022 7:19pm
Hate me, resent me, I feel it. Take out your frustrations on me. Make me beg...
Anonymous
17th Jun 2022 7:50pm
Don't you consider an interest in the arts to be simply innate? My best friend's teenage daughter has a frightening interest in literature. I've told him to tell me if any of the teachers try to steer her towards any syllabus and away from her passions. And I'll personally slap them.
I absolutely consider it innate! That’s why you don’t need the humanities, at least in its present form. There are many wonderful scholars who do the difficult job of curating great literature just as a museum curator does, and those guys are invaluable, but you don’t need to attend an academy and bankrupt yourself in the jaws of the corporate regime for that. I struggle to be balanced on this point, hence my author’s note, but I DO consider the teaching of the set of subjects that falls under “humanities” to be cruel, abusive, Philistine, and just inhuman.
I wish I had someone like you around to slap my teachers, mate! University was horrible. I had exactly one great teacher, one I wrote a poem about years ago. She was an older woman with a bowl-cut and pinstripe trousers, who read Old English poetry like it was new, and I had exactly 3 classes with her.
My only scholarly aspiration career-wise now is to one day write non-fiction studies of genre fiction, specifically “pulp” fiction throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
I wish I had someone like you around to slap my teachers, mate! University was horrible. I had exactly one great teacher, one I wrote a poem about years ago. She was an older woman with a bowl-cut and pinstripe trousers, who read Old English poetry like it was new, and I had exactly 3 classes with her.
My only scholarly aspiration career-wise now is to one day write non-fiction studies of genre fiction, specifically “pulp” fiction throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
23rd Jun 2022 10:11am
There you are....I was wondering if you were posting here with all the poems you've written lately. I'm trying to get back to it myself but between my job and taking care of mom I have little to no time for anything that requires even a modicum of concentration. Even getting through making comments is difficult.
I agree. College can't teach such things. I think all high schoolers should require a full year of either retail service or waiting tables (or something similar) to graduate. If you want to really learn about humans, then forget the psychologist and the physician, forget the cops & lawyers & judges, forget the college professor....these are people who get lied to a lot and are actually sorry readers of character. Now the cashier at the local gas station? The waiter and the bartender at your favorite pub? No one really lies to these people. They see the true face of humanity on the regular. Those with experience in these fields see humanity much more clearly than the rest.
That is, if they are willing to pay attention.
College can't teach things like this. To me, the "humanities" is exemplified best by street wisdom.
I agree. College can't teach such things. I think all high schoolers should require a full year of either retail service or waiting tables (or something similar) to graduate. If you want to really learn about humans, then forget the psychologist and the physician, forget the cops & lawyers & judges, forget the college professor....these are people who get lied to a lot and are actually sorry readers of character. Now the cashier at the local gas station? The waiter and the bartender at your favorite pub? No one really lies to these people. They see the true face of humanity on the regular. Those with experience in these fields see humanity much more clearly than the rest.
That is, if they are willing to pay attention.
College can't teach things like this. To me, the "humanities" is exemplified best by street wisdom.
