I just finished Barfield’s Poetic Diction. Took me like a week and I felt pretty overmatched at times. This five minute summary would have worked fine.
Taking a car (or human being) apart and then beholding the pieces intellectually only means you’ve maybe managed to figure out how a few pieces work. And, as much fun as it is to theorize about the pieces and how they work, putting them together again to make them function is the challenge. And the more complex the system the less likely you’re going to be able to integrate those pieces into a fully functioning whole. So in the process of intellectual inquiry, you have destroyed the (often very precious) thing you sought to understand. I’m not sure why we have such difficulty holding the whole or even holding the whole while we explore the parts, but it seems like managing both is pretty challenging.
My friends no longer have the attention span to watch movies, but I can tell they’re still captivated by drama.
In my opinion this does not spell Armageddon; it just means art needs to fit into the world differently than it has before.
The flow of life is different, but good artists will find a way in.
Barfield and the bell curve in one post? Too good to be true, but it is!
Deep stuff for my shallow mind.... but it's good. Always good. Thanks, Monsieur Klavan.
I just finished Barfield’s Poetic Diction. Took me like a week and I felt pretty overmatched at times. This five minute summary would have worked fine.
Taking a car (or human being) apart and then beholding the pieces intellectually only means you’ve maybe managed to figure out how a few pieces work. And, as much fun as it is to theorize about the pieces and how they work, putting them together again to make them function is the challenge. And the more complex the system the less likely you’re going to be able to integrate those pieces into a fully functioning whole. So in the process of intellectual inquiry, you have destroyed the (often very precious) thing you sought to understand. I’m not sure why we have such difficulty holding the whole or even holding the whole while we explore the parts, but it seems like managing both is pretty challenging.
“difficulty holding the whole or even holding the whole while we explore the parts, but it seems like managing both is pretty challenging.”
It will hold if the people holding or exploring the whole are virtuous. If they are pseudo-intellectuals, it will not.
Let’s have faith. The outliers (hopefully with wisdom) of the Bell Curve, will continue like a sinusoidal wave.