It is touching when someone thinks of you. Knowing how busy we get, even if "busy" means sitting in front of the television or taking a walk, I admire anyone strong enough to take a moment to share a thought with me or with another. It was in this spirit that I felt very humbled when I saw someone had decided to send me an article on why the world needs academics.

Then I read the article and realized what message the author really meant to transmit. It is no way meant to defend us as a profession, as a group of intellectuals building theories which, although not immediately impacting the greater world, would set the tone for it. Rather, it emphasized how out of touch we are, how are peer-review system makes us obtuse and useless to the majority whom we apparently exclude (on purpose) in order that we maintain our authority over knowledge. The tone was not one of flattery but of impending doom for those who do not give up on our old and obviously aloof ways, and open ourselves entirely and only to the greater public. Only then would we mean anything to anyone other than ourselves.

Thus, the world needs us to come out of our ivory holes and stop ignoring the masses. One may imagine my dismay at the suppositions the author made about peer-review, about our place in the universe, the way his words fed into a stereotype of the academician locked in his (almost never her, interestingly) office, coddling a book in a dark corner as though it were a newborn, speaking only through his graduate assistants. Such a contradictory position reminded me of so many conversations I've had with my neighbors about how yes, I do work more than 5 hours a week, and yes, academic publishing is more than incomprehensible dribble, and yes, I do enjoy speaking with "normal" people, ...

I then remembered how Juan Benet, a famous Spanish architect, writer, and occasional literary critic used to disdain the whole critical apparatus (to which I belong) as anachronistic and worthless to the literary
practitioners on whom it prayed. He tended to make these statements in his works of literary criticism. This, of course, deepens the dilemma, for even within our ranks we see such actions as within the boundaries of the normal. There seems to be, in fact, a long and glorious tradition of scholars of literature bashing the field for which, in the same article no less, the critic claims to provide a preliminary solution.

Of course, we must then reflect on the labor culture in the academic world. Outside of the primary research universities, many a department and / or college within institutions in the United States has tended both to require higher standards for research while simultaneously putting pressure on faculty to do more service and take on higher teaching loads. The usual reason is that, well, since scholarship is no more than sitting around pondering (particularly for those of us in the Humanities), we are obviously just not "busy" enough.

It is at this point in the evening that we remember the words of Mário Cesariny de Vasconcelos from his well-known poem "Os Pássaros de Londres" when reflecting upon such busy people as we are supposed to become:

...
os pássaros de Londres
falam de esplendor
com que se ergue o estio
e a lua se derrama
por praças tão sem cor
que parecem de pano
em jardins germinando
sob mantos de gelo
...

Yet, in returning to our space for contemplation and discussion, I have to wonder if taking a walk is really a good use of my thinking time, or if I should just go to Starbucks for a coffee and read a pamphlet. Perhaps our old friend Álvaro de Campos would have consoled us best, Ah não ser eu toda a gente e toda a parte ...
Please take a busy minute to ponder for yourselves, and to think of someone with whom to share your thoughts.

Buenas noches / Boa noite / Good night :)