Give The People What They Want

If I don't update this blog, no one will read it. And I suppose that's fine, but I'd be interested in facilitating some kind of intelligent discussion about issues that I think are important or hilarious. Unfortunately (for you, gentle reader), the vast majority of my life is dedicated to thinking about my professional interests. The only hobby I seem to have is following college football news.

So here's something I've been thinking about quite a bit:

My professional work as a literary critic has no broad social impact. Neither do your stories or your poems. In a certain way this is a necessity, because in order for something to really be considered professional literary criticism it has to contribute to a profession which by definition seeks autonomy. I personally don't know what Judith Butler thinks that she's doing, but her professional work certainly isn't helping anyone. The obvious reason: no one who disagrees with the ethical premise reads her work.

This probably goes for creative writing that's intentionally "political" in its depictions of race/gender/class disparity, because the editors and publishers know their audience, and their audience probably doesn't disagree with any of the claims made in the work. Criticism that attempts to show how Hollywood films are homophobic (in yet another way) are published in journals where this is presumably the consensus. The same can be said of poems or stories that attempt to show their audience that "this, too, is beautiful" as if within the community of artists the question was ever in doubt.

Since moving to Chicago my activism has dwindled to basically nothing. At FSU I had established myself -- I knew the faculty, I had a handle on my reading, I could anticipate and manage my teaching load, and I was familiar with the people in and near my department. Here, everything is totally different. As a result of this acclimation process, I've been doing no organizing at a time when graduate students at UIC perhaps need it the most.

Now, I'm not foolish enough to believe that my scholarship can in any way substitute for meaningful organizing work. But I am increasingly worried that if I neglect my scholarship, my organizing work will be for naught.

Of course, to believe that I should neglect activism in favor of scholarship is wrong. I think it's a mistake to conflate the two. I also think it's a mistake to conflate teaching with activism, as if "broadening young minds" could substitute for directing them toward certain tangible goals. It's one thing to teach students how to think critically (which should be value-neutral, in my opinion). It's another thing all together to ask students to attend certain rallies, to build personal relationships with them, etc.

So I suppose I'd like to get some input on what you think the role of art and scholarship is in relation to social change. I personally don't think there's much of a relationship at all. In fact, I think it's an ideological mistake to think there is. But I'm open to hearing other opinions.