Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Why it is worth it to read classic literature and philosophy

This is the only difference between a human that has read classic literature and philosophy and a person that hasn't:


The person who hasn't read classic literature and philosophy just stands in Taco Bell and feels nothing but the need to get a taco.


A person that reads classic literature and philosophy can stand in a Taco Bell and feel all the beautiful irony of needing to get a taco.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

is the desire for a taco without irony more beautiful though?

Glen Binger said...

Taco Bell tacos don't taste like tacos should.

Do I think that because I've read classic literature?

brittany wallace said...

who needs philosophy when you can watch your cat play with a q-tip all day

victoria said...

noah

i'm bout to go to a college that only teaches classic literature

pretty excited you validated my decision

=)

KnitXcorE said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
KnitXcorE said...

tacos are post-ironic.
eating them is not.
i feel anxious when i order a value meal.

Richard Wehrenberg Jr said...

should write an essay on this feeling, it is interesting and important, i feel, hmmmmm

adam said...

Or teach other people how to feel that irony. That's what I'm going for.

DJ Berndt said...

brittany wallace wins.

sarah said...

smarty pants.

Anonymous said...

Even after my having digested a library's worth of Modern Classics (1820-1950), I find that whatever irony I feel while standing in line at Taco Bell is more spiritually corrosive than beautiful.

What I mostly feel, while waiting for my Chalupa or Steak Gordita Supreme, is a dehumanizing sense of being little more than a speck of flysnot on the ass of American consumerism...

Like, hey, here's my contribution to my own moral and social insignificance...$5.67

Which is ironic, as you correctly point out, but it isn't an empowering irony because it doesn't make me laugh.

Particularly because, an hour late, I'm on the toilet with my sphincter going like a firehose

sally said...

It's more to do with whether or not you have a blog. Feeling the beautiful irony, I mean.

KK said...

I don't know, I kind of like feeling all smart and knowing and self-aware, but I also like tacos. Conflict. Should my awareness of the irony of me wanting a taco stop me from enjoying it? Hm.

KK said...

Actually, on reflection, screw philosophy. I'll have my taco.

Anonymous said...

@victoria you should transfer and get a degree in engineering

Anonymous said...

there's nothing in those books that will make you happier or your life more meaningful. don't waste your money. go to the library and read them for free.

Anonymous said...

@victoria are you going to St. John's?

i feel like the Great Books Program is archaic bullshit. i feel like paying for a liberal arts degree from a "good university" is just a way to secure the credentials of being an "educated, sophisticated person." this lets you continue on to a PhD program at a "good university" after which you can teach liberal arts at some "good university."

it seems like a scam. it seems like a conspiracy. i feel like the network of liberal arts academics is a secret handshake club. i feel like it's a giant circle jerk. i dunno. i feel like a liberal arts degree is like a degree in angelology or alchemy. i feel like the liberal arts only continue to exist because of the collective investment of wealthy, educated academics and the each new class of educated, wealthy, prospective liberal arts students. i dunno. it feels like an anachronism. it feels like a pyramid scheme.

Anonymous said...

what constitutes the liberal arts? maybe i just mean literature and 95% of philosophy. i think history is important. i think political science is important. i think sociology and anthropology are important. i don't know what i'm talking about.

Sally said...

it's kind of interesting that anonymous person says that because I think that's what was subconsciously going on in my head when a few days I ago I turned down Reed and enrolled in a state university instead.

also there are more cheap taco shops on the state university campus.

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