Tell that to the sorrowing family of a Trekkie sometime, or worse yet to the miserable family of a "Star Wars" afficionado. Or the families of the youths who affected that habits of Goethe's "Werther" character, some allegedly to the point of suicide. Thankfully, when I read Die Leiden des Jungen Werthers, I was not even tempted to put on yellow pants or a blue coat. I'm pretty sure I didn't shoot myself in the head over it, either.
Or most sadly, to the friends and relations of someone who takes "The DaVinci Code" so seriously that they go to Paris to do their own amateur archeology to decipher that code--even desecrating a cemetery doing so.
When someone tells you that fiction doesn't matter because "it's just make-believe," ask them why they bother with it. Ask them why those "make-believe" movies have strategic product placement (e.g. E.T. and Reese's Pieces) and those "make-believe" sitcoms have commercials.
Fiction matters. It speaks to our souls for good or ill. Just ask the grieving family of a 40 year old Trekkie, still living at home with 13 sets of Vulcan ears on his dresser, his closet filled with polyester and his phaser set on "stun."
The Problem with Modern Economics Education
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I’ve been recently doing a deep dive into the Austrian School with one of
my classes. We’ve talked in-depth about one of the central problems of
Keynesian ...
52 minutes ago
2 comments:
Links?!?! References!?!?
I suppose I could look up the reference to yellow pants and cemetery desecrations, but... What's all this about mourning?
On the subject of Dan Brown's scholarship, may I commend to anyone the reading of "Digital Fortress." It's an entertaining read that is ENTIRELY DEVOID of depth to its research into the spy/NSA/CIA world. E.g., a character takes keyboards from the super-secret offices to install keystroke loggers in them -- a security officer would be asking "Is that a keyboard in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"
The DaVinci Code is written in the style of a Tom Clancy novel. It demands respect of which it is not worthy - unlike Mr. Clancy's novels.
The good thing is that people who are troubled by the book will read the boatloads of research debunking the tripe that Brown peddles. Even 60 Minutes got into the debunking (surprise!).
If someone's faith is shattered by this book, it wasn't very strong. Shaken, stirred - fine. Shattered? They probably weren't in the fold to begin with. :^/
The best link I could come up with about "Leiden" was in German, figured it wouldn't be that useful.
Email me for some things on Brown if you like. I was half having fun with this, though.
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