Life With….

I am sure, if you watch football or other youth oriented shows, you have seen the Levi’s ads featuring Walt Whitman’s poems from Leaves of Grass (“Pioneers O Pioneers” and “America,” the latter supposedly read by Whitman himself).  If not see below  * you may also want to see this review of the commercials from Slate.*  The campaign is apparently entitled Go Forth and developed by Weiden+Kennedy.

What these commercials have to do with selling jeans is beyond me – except to link Levi’s to America and a sense of American exceptionalism, growth, change, and  both are creations of a time of dynamism and uncertain prosperity.  What is most intriguing to me about the ads is the use of Whitman.

The other weekend my brother was in town and the “Pioneers O Pioneers” ad came on.   My brother’s response to the ad was similar to mine in that the ads while pretty make no sense – but he was even more out of the loop – the evocation of the first line did not immediately turn him to Whitman.  I will admit to being shocked by this – here was someone who has been educated at some of the best institutions in the country who was so unfamiliar with the American Literature Cannon that he did not have a passing familiarity even the title of one of America’s most famous poet’s most famous poems.    While he was in engineering school, and that should and did take up much of his time, but there are foundations of culture that are lacking.  (I admit to not knowing much in he way of sciences, but I do try to read the papers in order to keep a layman’s familiarity  up with ongoing issues.)  If he is lacking in them, I cannot imagine what others without his background make of the commercials.

Yesterday, my other brother, im’ed me to ask if I had seen the spots – and to suggest that the commercials could be a good blog post.  I do not know if he knew they were Whitman or not – but I know he has not read Whitman, though he wants to.  I will admit that I have not read all of  Leaves of Grass, but I have read much of it and always enjoy it.

To me – two questions arise from these discussions 1) Why would Levi’s link itself with the most Americana of poets, whose poems have been taught as metaphors of this country, if even some of the most educated among us are unfamiliar with the work?  I would hope it would be so people would google the line and learn while admiring the artistic value of the work  and correlate Levi’s with Americana and all that is good in the country, but I doubt it.  2)  What is the state of American education if the best educated are unaware of our own cultural milestones?

My father keeps telling me that I am “well read” in that I read a lot and always have, and enjoy reading the classics along with histories and a truly great spy novel.  But I don’t feel that way – I look around me and see major sections of the cannon I am lacking in. For example, I have not read Ulysses, not completed the Bible, I have not read Dante, I have not completed Milton nor the Canterbury Tales but only read excerpts.

That being said, I have read a lot.  I can also say that I have gone out of my way to try to read summaries of other works that are important – so while I may not have read the Wife of Bath’s tale (though I really want to) throughly – I know what it is, what references to it typically refer to and some of its importance in the cannon.

Some of this I got in college, as part of my  English degree, other parts are due to my own desire to be read and understand what I am reading.  I picked my college intentionally, and part of what appealed to me was the lack of requirements.   I wanted a liberal arts education that would allow me to pursue a lot of what I was interested in, but would not force me to take a great books course (as much as I would love it) or a foreign language (if i can’t be fluent in English imagine me trying to write in Spanish).  But I also made sure to take English 101, Art History 101, Religion 101, and Philosophy 101 – I additionally made sure to take a full course on Shakespeare.  I did this to ensure that I had some covered some of the cultural touchstones that continue to impact classical and contemporary culture.

I am about to start an essay, C.P. Snow’s Two Cultures.  Snow was a Oxford Physicist, who wrote novels.  His essay was on how his friends in literature knew no science, and vice versa.  This remains true today, but in the past there were certain books that all educated professionals read in school, even scientists, it helped provided for a common cultural diaglouge.

In fact even more than that – it was necessary.   Even the uneducated knew these stories, studies have recently shown that in the American West, most homes contained the King James Bible and a Complete Shakespeare.  Even though they might not have had much education, people were more literate in these stories then many today.

This is a loss that all should work to remedy.  The classics are classic not just because they influenced others, but because the stories are great and interesting.  Just as many cultures have a flood myth (think Noah) many also have a Cinderella.  These stories can continue to inspire – and may even be updated into a modern version (how many updated Romeo and Juliet’s are out there) and in these modernizations we can reflect on aspects of today.  (See the modern version of Hamlet – Edgar Sawtelle)  We would also not be able to even guess at the clues in Lost.

This is not to say we should not go to movies, watch TV or listen to modern music. If you do that you lose touch with popular culture, and who wants to be that elite, or miss on the joys of Lost, Arrested Development, So You Think You Can Dance, or my current favorite TV show, Glee.  All of which rely to some extent on stories, and/or the music and musical conventions of earlier times. (Including SYTYCD – think the Waltz or the Broadway numbers).

But more than the loss of these cultural touchstones in educational institutions to be replaced only by specialization (even if it is cross departments), means we are all losing the ability to speak to each other.  We only know what we already do – most scientists know science, most academics know nothing of the real world or modern/pop culture, others like my brothers know much of the world – but don’t know the Exodus story.

Without that knowledge you cannot understand the story the Civil Rights movement  (and the Obama campaign) used to describe their journey to the promised land.  Just as if not importantly, storytelling itself is lost.  (Think also – where would J.K. Rowling be without a passing familiarity with Tolkien and C.S. Lewis (among others) and where would they be without the Bible, Norse Fairy tales, and Chaucer (among others)). Without a common vocabulary, lawyers, authors, journalists, cannot find the right analogies and frameworks to sell their story and convince others.  Just as we need history to explain who we are as a people and how we got there we need Twain and Whitman to explain the development of our culture – and their loss is our loss as well as future stories inspired by the past culture touchstones may become fewer and far between.

Finally, without a passing familiarity with the American Cannon you cannot understand the Levi’s ads, even if they still make no sense in relation to making me want to buy jeans.

All text and copyrights preserved by the author 02csb For more information visit http://www.peebesalgy.com Courtney Brown

Create Your Badge  All text and copyrights preserved by the author for words and original pictures and may not be used without author's permission. For more information visit http://www.peebesalgy.com Follow me on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/peebesalgy or contact me directly through http://www.peebesalgy.com/blog/contact-me/ Courtney Brown | Create Your Badge