Some inspiring and encouraging stories here--along with a caution against any complacency! I think what you describe in Miami and LA really shows that even in a digital age of Twitter and sound bites, people still respond to the power of books when they are given the opportunity.
This is what really drives me, that there must be ways to open up culture more than we do. You can really see it in what individual people can accomplish on the ground, when they are sensitive to place and to their neighbors as a real audience.
I think we are also seeing the early signs of a certain turnaround for the humanities, which have taken it on the chin for about 20 years now. As people grow fed up with the emptiness of so much of our political debates and the superficiality of social media, there is a growing hunger for real education. I'm not sure what it will look like, but I think it is coming.
You are waking us up to many things, Ann. And, while this is a story of yet-another cultural decline, there is hopefulness in the Miami example.
Some inspiring and encouraging stories here--along with a caution against any complacency! I think what you describe in Miami and LA really shows that even in a digital age of Twitter and sound bites, people still respond to the power of books when they are given the opportunity.
This is what really drives me, that there must be ways to open up culture more than we do. You can really see it in what individual people can accomplish on the ground, when they are sensitive to place and to their neighbors as a real audience.
I think we are also seeing the early signs of a certain turnaround for the humanities, which have taken it on the chin for about 20 years now. As people grow fed up with the emptiness of so much of our political debates and the superficiality of social media, there is a growing hunger for real education. I'm not sure what it will look like, but I think it is coming.
What a reassuring thought.