Why Literature Matters

Carl Remick carlremick at hotmail.com
Thu May 10 13:50:28 PDT 2001



>In general, I find the often drawn dichtomy between arts and the sciences
>to do a disservice to both and to our general understanding of reality.
>
>Joanna

I think the arts and sciences are fundamentally at odds. To one degree or another ever since myths were first created, the arts have been concerned with creating visions that could be shared by people at large and thus help promote a common understanding of reality. Science, OTOH, is concerned with nailing down objective specifics with great precision and rapidly leaves the average person in the dust. It's a great mechanism for teaching us more and more about less and less, being driven by ever greater specialization that results in tremendous technical achievements that are incomprehensible to all but specialists, leaving most people -- in search of existential, not technical, insights into the nature of things -- alienated and lost. The arts connote; the sciences denote; never the twain shall meet.

Carl

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