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KICKING_SELF_IMPROVEMENT

                                              December 11, 2005

In a Homer Evans novel ("The Black and the
Red", I believe), a character asks Evans to
borrow a book (just as an excuse for               TAKEN_LIGHTLY
knocking), and randomly names the first thing
he thinks of: "The Story of Philosophy" by
Will Durrant. Evans responds "You must be
joking", and the other character stammers in
embarassment and tries to explain why he
wanted to see something so superficial.

There was a long series of these "The
Story of ..." books, all of them surveys
of different branches of human knowledge.


Superficial they almost certainly were... but
isn't it interesting that they existed at
all?  There was a time once when an average
middle class guy might feel the need for such
works.  Acutely feeling a lack in their             HIPSTERISM
education, they went off on periodic
intellectual self-improvement kicks; they
tried to fill the gap with these sorts of
summaries, "superficial" or no.

Can you imagine anyone bothering
with books like these today?

In comparison to the present state of the States,
that sounds like a Golden Age of respect for the
intellect.

We've gotten over "self-improvement".



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