Cover for:
"Stephen Greenblat on the Measure of a Man"
Reading the first “Brain Picking piece by Maria Popova, I was infatuated by the ideas presented. The work detailed on of the arguments made by Alan Lightman in his book, Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine. Popova shows Lightman’s argument with an explicit style, using block quotes and brief explanations of what, precisely, Popova is attempting to display. As well, Popova expertly weaves her beliefs in alongside Lightman’s quotes while also advocating for deeper thinking on the part of the reader, a common theme throughout her posts.
In my imitation of Popova’s style, I attempted to recreate some strategies I noticed she used in many of her posts. Popova’s writing style favors brevity and elevated language which I attempted to emulate. As well, I noticed she started most of her posts with a quote to grab the reader’s attention and to introduce the topic of her post. I noticed Popova often used long quotes separated by short paragraphs explaining their corresponding quote, which I also attempted to emulate. Popova drew attention to these quotes by using large quotation marks which draws the reader’s eye. While I was unable to format this, I sought the create a similar aesthetic appearance by bolding the quotes. As well, Popova often briefly cites other authors which I tried to do, but overall Popova mainly focuses on the central author. Finally I attempted to channel Popova’s artistic choices by including images I felt helped convey the tone and message of my piece, highlighting the title in yellow, and finishing with a final reference to similar readings.
As I was (re)writing my descriptive piece in the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant I had to rethink all of my thinking once more. It helped more resolidify the way I saw the summer work. As I reworked my piece I realized that there was no “true” way to interpret the readings, only variations of what the words say. The only truth to be had in the reading is what we make of it.
In my imitation of Popova’s style, I attempted to recreate some strategies I noticed she used in many of her posts. Popova’s writing style favors brevity and elevated language which I attempted to emulate. As well, I noticed she started most of her posts with a quote to grab the reader’s attention and to introduce the topic of her post. I noticed Popova often used long quotes separated by short paragraphs explaining their corresponding quote, which I also attempted to emulate. Popova drew attention to these quotes by using large quotation marks which draws the reader’s eye. While I was unable to format this, I sought the create a similar aesthetic appearance by bolding the quotes. As well, Popova often briefly cites other authors which I tried to do, but overall Popova mainly focuses on the central author. Finally I attempted to channel Popova’s artistic choices by including images I felt helped convey the tone and message of my piece, highlighting the title in yellow, and finishing with a final reference to similar readings.
As I was (re)writing my descriptive piece in the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant I had to rethink all of my thinking once more. It helped more resolidify the way I saw the summer work. As I reworked my piece I realized that there was no “true” way to interpret the readings, only variations of what the words say. The only truth to be had in the reading is what we make of it.
Stephen Greenblat on the Measure of a Man
It is, of course, an abiding question, as old as consciousness — we are material creatures that live in a material universe, yet we are capable of experiences that transcend what we can atomize into physical facts: love, joy, the full-being gladness of a Beethoven symphony on a midsummer’s night.”
Maria Popova opens her post on the concept of “bringing meaning” to one's life by drawing attention to the duality of the human experience— the physical versus the spiritual. Spirituality has been an integral aspect of human experience for as long as we know. While the physical aspect of human experience is easily relegated to the laws of science, the spiritual aspect of our humanity is what gives us pause. Does everyone feel the way we do when they read a classic? Are we wrong for preferring Suzanne Collins to Emily Bronte? Stephen Greenblat offers a theory on our personalities and desires with his work Renaissance Self-Fashioning on the topic of development of a sense of self in the 16th century.
I perceive that fashioning oneself and being fashion by cultural institutions— family, religion, State— were inseparably intertwined. In all of my texts and documents, there were, so far as I could tell, no moments of pure, unfettered subjectivity; indeed, the human subject itself began to seem remarkably unfree, the ideological product of the relations of power in a particular society. Whenever I focus sharply upon a moment of apparently autonomous self fashioning, I found not an epiphany of identity freely chosen but a cultural artifact. If there are main traces of free choice, the choice was among possibilities whose range was strictly delineate it had social and ideological systems in force.”
Greenblat provides insight into the ways that personality was heavily influenced by others in the 1500s, but, more meaningfully, a way to view our own personalities and choices. While our modern world has changed irrevocably since the Renaissance, the cultural impact on our personalities still exerts inescapable amounts of pressure onto one’s sense of self.
There is, axiomatically, no disputing taste, and also no accounting for it. And yet the conventional wisdom applied to this fundamental human - attribute - the neurosensory switch that flips tubeless when we encounter Butte, Sublimity, or Charm, to boredom or disgust when those qualities failed to materialize - amounts to heaps of contradictions. There is no argument, but then again there is only argument. How could you not like that? Wait, you mean you actually liked that? Taste, we assume, is innate, reflexive, immediate, involuntary, but we also speak of it as something to be acquired. It is A private, subjective matter, a badge of individual sovereignty, but at the same time a collectively held property, bundling us into clubs, cults, communities, and sociological stereotypes.”
As A.O. Scott remarks, taste is, oxymoronically, entirely personal and, at the same time, entirely not. This is to say that while beauty is subjective, individual to each individual, the powers that influence our thinking is completely out of our control. We can see the impact of societal pressure once more in Warren Berger’s work on curiosity, A More Beautiful Question, wherein Berger presents the concept of self censoring.
Children may be self-censoring their questions due to cultural pressures. Joshua Aronson of New York University has studied some of the difficulties that low-income minority students face, such as the disproportionate tendency of schools to suspend African American boys. But Aaron said has also conducted interesting research on what he calls ‘the stereotype threat’. It zeros in on the psychology of stigma, in particular ‘the way human beings respond to negative stereotypes about the racial or gender group.’ Aronson studied standardized test performances among black, Latino, and female college students, and his findings suggest that when a person perceives him / herself as the target of a well-known stereotype (e.g., girls aren't good at math), it can have an adverse effect on performance in schools. Would students who are battling against stereotypes be less inclined to enter up lessons by asking questions, revealing to the rest of the class that they don't know anything? ‘Absolutely,’ Aronson said.”
As Aronson revealed, students are negatively impacted by the role culture plays in the development of a sense of self. As Berger provided through his in depth analysis of curiosity, we can see that while our world is very different from the one Greenblat describes, the pressures of self-fashioning remain.
While this writing exist on their own, they compliment each other beautifully. A.O. Scott opens his book, Better Living Through Criticism, by discussing the nature of beauty. Scott introduces the idea of subjective universality, or the belief of subjective beauty, but quickly dismisses this belief. In Warren Berger’s book, A More Beautiful Question, Berger discusses the idea that our preferences are impacted by our past experiences. This, combined with Scott’s rejection of subjective universality leads the reader to the first of three overarching themes of the combined readings: beauty is subjective.
Along with his point on preferences, Berger argues that whatever our culture places emphasis on has a major impact on our culture. As well, Berger discusses the conundrum of curiosity in the modern day, and asserts that society does not teach curiosity, but expects it. This leads the reader to the second of the themes: we must take it upon ourselves to foster curiosity.
Berger’s argument about cultural influence on personality connects seamlessly to Stephan Greenblat’s argument for self-fashioning, or the belief that personalities are influenced by those close to you and societal pressures, in his book Renaissance Self-Fashioning, in conjunction, these points lead the reader to the third and final theme: personalities are heavily impacted by both cultural pressures and those close to us.
While this writing exist on their own, they compliment each other beautifully. A.O. Scott opens his book, Better Living Through Criticism, by discussing the nature of beauty. Scott introduces the idea of subjective universality, or the belief of subjective beauty, but quickly dismisses this belief. In Warren Berger’s book, A More Beautiful Question, Berger discusses the idea that our preferences are impacted by our past experiences. This, combined with Scott’s rejection of subjective universality leads the reader to the first of three overarching themes of the combined readings: beauty is subjective.
Along with his point on preferences, Berger argues that whatever our culture places emphasis on has a major impact on our culture. As well, Berger discusses the conundrum of curiosity in the modern day, and asserts that society does not teach curiosity, but expects it. This leads the reader to the second of the themes: we must take it upon ourselves to foster curiosity.
Berger’s argument about cultural influence on personality connects seamlessly to Stephan Greenblat’s argument for self-fashioning, or the belief that personalities are influenced by those close to you and societal pressures, in his book Renaissance Self-Fashioning, in conjunction, these points lead the reader to the third and final theme: personalities are heavily impacted by both cultural pressures and those close to us.
Complement with further reading of Stephen Greenblat’s Renaissance Self-Fashioning, A.O. Scott’s Better Living Through Criticism, and Warren Berger’s A More Beautiful Question