Some “shower thoughts” on “scholarly” reading.

As I was reading a fair amount of Herman Hesse’s brilliant writing, I happened to see a book titled “Herman Hesse, Writer and Artist” at the Greenville Public Library. I checked it out but once I started reading it at home I could tell that it was written by a scholar– for the ‘brownie points’ credentialed scholars get when they are expected to maintain their coveted status. The amount of footnotes the writer used was my first hint that this was going to be a deep read. But then, the actual text was a slog. This writer went out of his way to inject obscure references into his text which were (to me) way out of context. Hesse himself would sour with this analogy of his work. The author was simply showing off his intellectual depth to his scholar peers. THIS is the problem with education, especially at the college and university level.  This is the “educational industrial” complex at work– adding to the piles (landfills actually) of confusion– all to keep the paychecks coming… and the tenures… the bloated retirement benefits, etc. The tenured professors dream about being awarded the coveted “chair” of their respective disciplines. Guaranteed immortality for them! I don’t mean to paint with a broad brush here as I’m convinced that there are brilliant “G.K. Chesterton”-level scholars out there, but happy hunting. Most of the modern writing is not worth the time to read. And now, with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) we are in a tangle of information ROT. My recent work with The Scrimshaw Observer whose editor Stuart Frank is a PHD in “maritime forensics”, has made me keenly aware of the tedious level that ‘scholarly’ writing requires. I’m happy that most of my reading is non-fiction by long dead authors.