It has been one of my commonest experiences, and one of the
most interesting to me, to note that nearly all of my keenest experiences
intellectually, my most gorgeous rapprochements and swiftest developments
mentally, have been by, to, and through men, not women, although there have
been several exceptions to this. Nearly every turning point in my career has
been signalized by my meeting some man of great force, to whom I owe some of
the most ecstatic intellectual hours of my life, hours in which life seemed to
bloom forth into new aspects, glowed as with the radiance of a gorgeous tropic
day.
Theodore Dreiser – Twelve Men (1919)
It isn’t easy to know what to make of this. I can go along
with - my keenest experiences intellectually have been by, to, and through men,
not women, and in my case there have also been several exceptions to this. So far so good, it is merely a
statement of personal experience.
However I have certainly never had any ecstatic intellectual hours of my life, hours in which life seemed to
bloom forth into new aspects, glowed as with the radiance of a gorgeous tropic
day. In my case it was much more subdued, much more incremental.
The obvious conclusion is that this is merely Dreiser’s hype.
Obvious but not particularly interesting so maybe he was writing of a world
further removed from ours than we might suppose. Yes that’s much more interesting. Not quite radiant but more interesting.
Maybe Dreiser’s world was one where personal contact,
personal influence and inspiration were more important than they are today, a
world where it was easier to be inspired by others. A world where intellectual exploration
was reaching some kind of peak from which it has since declined under the stultifying
pressures of money, celebrity culture and political virtue signalling.
In any event, Dreiser’s must have been a world of great
contrasts but not the remote and politically contrived contrasts we see today.
In his world the contrasts were to be found only a few streets away and they
were stark indeed. Fatally sharp contrasts between competent and incompetent, lucky
and unlucky, winners and losers, skilled and unskilled, wanted and unwanted. It
must have engendered a vast and pervasive clarity we no longer have.
Maybe we have lost that level of clarity as we prospered in a
world we never planned and perhaps never would have planned had we seen and
understood what the future was likely to bring.
2 comments:
There was a time not long ago when authority was vested in the person, increasing his sense of solidity and power. You felt you learned, grew, merely by being with that person - wiki the Hindu term Darśana. One's learning was also an investment in oneself, not merely an ongoing exploration of exterior reality; or at least the important person was a sort of exclusive conduit to hidden wisdom and power. At least, that's how I think people used to feel.
Sackers - I agree, I remember noticing the change while at grammar school. Older teachers had that personal authority but younger teachers did not. Somehow we knew the younger teachers never would have it.
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