  By various means,  through sundry sources,  a topic for today has finally come to mind -  and that topic? nbsp;  Aesthetics.
 & nbsp;  This ought to be interesting -  my training in that field is somewhat slim ( i. e.
 with the exception of urlLink one book read on a whim,  non- existent)  and to call me " culturally- deprived"
 would be speaking too nicely. nbsp;  But,  as ignorance has ( thus far)  never stopped me before,
 here goes.  & nbsp;  First,  the link- o-
rama. nbsp;  The topic comes to mind thanks to some different articles or posts that have recently caught the attention. nbsp;  Probably the most talked about was a recent urlLink NEA report [  WARNING :
 . pdf file] nbsp; on the reading proclivities ( or lack thereof)  of the American population.
nbsp;  So,  there was some discussion over at by Kevin at urlLink Collected Miscellany (  The threat to intelligent culture is not from literati snobs who demean intelligent visual media to promote boring and out of date high brow literature.  Instead intelligent culture is threatened by the race for the bottom.  "
 Peter Wood threw in urlLink his two cents at NRO (  The main prices of being ill- read are cultural superficiality,  loss of historical context,  susceptibility to ideological provocations,  and a certain kind of spiritual aimlessness.
 Granted,  these tax some people more than others.  "  and urlLink Bookslut links to a couple other comments as well. nbsp;  Some other discussion can be found at the urlLink Greater Nomadic Council ,
 and no doubt in many other blogs,  newspapers,  and so forth ( Alas,  nothing from urlLink Terry Teachout -  thanks to his nomination to the urlLink National Council of the Arts ,
 he has to keep mum on all things NEA for the moment)  & nbsp;  Then there is art. nbsp;  Over at the urlLink National Review Online ,
 there is a urlLink question- and- answer article with Roger Kimball ( managing editor for urlLink The New Criterion )  who talks about his newest book,  urlLink The Rape of the Masters ,
 which addresses how the concern with aesthetics in art history these days tends to take a backseat to the proselytizing of one's - ism of choice.  & nbsp;  Now,  why present all of this?
nbsp;  To address what might be an underlying problem recognized in both -  a chronic lack of& nbsp; aesthetic skill/ education,
 or in other words,  taste, nbsp; in current American culture.  & nbsp;
 While I've delved into this somewhat urlLink elsewhere ,  may as well take another swing at it. nbsp;  To have a developed aesthetic sense would seem to require two things -  education,  and (
more importantly)  leisure,  in the& nbsp; way Aristotle would use the term. nbsp;
 Both will be addressed in turn.  & nbsp;  Education -  as a good deal of my readership is about the same age as myself,  I ask you to walk through memory lane,
 especially those of you who ( like myself)  are products of our public education system. nbsp;  Think back especially to your English,  Reading,
 or Literature classes. nbsp;  You probably read some canonical authors ( Homer,  Dante,  Shakespeare,
 Milton,  Austen,  Dickens,  Hawthorne,  Poe)  and some more recent (
Faulkner,  Fitzgerald,  Hemingway)  and perhaps some random ones ( Kinsella or the like) nbsp;
 Fine groovy good. nbsp;  But while you were immersed in these,  can you think,  at any time,  your teachers giving you some guidance or clarity regarding what separates a good work of literature from a bad one?
nbsp;  Do you think most of your teachers had such an understanding themselves? nbsp;  While the students are surrounded by such texts,  they have little idea what makes these particular works excellent. nbsp;
 No rubric,  no general feel. heck,  often times not even some solid language to use.  & nbsp;
 So,  we have the first step to a unliterary population ( and this may apply as well to art)  -  a high school ( or perhaps,
 sadly,  even college)  educated individual does not receive the basics in looking at a work in terms of taste,  but only as a list that was decided by God knows who. nbsp;  This leaves the door open for those who would deconstruct these texts and authors (
or paintings and artists)  as ideology sees fit. nbsp;  So,  if one doesn't know how to begin in considering aesthetically,  say,
 the Inferno ,  what prevents a dedicated zealot from simply saying it has value as some " transgressive boundary- crossing"  on,  say,
 the issues of sodomites ( I don't joke -  it's from an article from the,  admittedly questionable,  John E.  Boswell,
 in& nbsp;  Dante Studies ,  CXII in 1994) nbsp;  Or,
 perhaps one could say it has no value at all:  perhaps a menu's as good as a myth ( while I picked that up from a comic book. yeah,  high literature. from a villain deconstructionist claiming that a fish-
and- chips menu had as much literary value as Moby Dick ,  apparently it is a line in urlLink a poem . nbsp;  Who knew? nbsp;
 Where there is no education in taste,  there is a vacuum begging to be filled by indoctrination.  & nbsp;  Leisure -  for Aristotle,
 this referred to a certain free space from activities dealing with the necessities of life,  where one could develop more fully the virtues,  speculation,  etc. nbsp;  Does the modern American have something like this?
nbsp;  An excellent question. probably most don't,  if we would transport Aristotle to the present. nbsp;  But at the same time,
 certainly most of us are not working the farm from an hour before dawn to two hours after dusk. nbsp;  But there are problems.  & nbsp;  The first,
 and perhaps the most difficult,  problem is a lack of self- discipline. nbsp;  As various of the posts/ articles mentioned above point out,
 it is very hard to pull one's self away from the brain- candy that is the TV. nbsp;  But also,  you may be part of the issue now& nbsp;
 blogs themselves ( as Wood mentions)  are not exactly high literature,  and yet many of us spend waaaaaay too much time on them. nbsp;  Indeed,
 I could be adding to the problem now ( how's that for a paradox)  & nbsp;  But,  seriously -
 we are in an age where instant gratification is not quick enough. nbsp;  TV around the clock,  drivel CDs to play in the car,  quickie blogs and online articles when one is near a computer -  heck,
 theoretically,  you could be with all these things at once. nbsp;  The discipline to sit back,  to consider,  to sink into a book or painting and absorb it (
for lack of a better term)  is missing.  & nbsp;  This leads to the second problem in leisure,  touching on the lack of education.
nbsp;  Say you have managed,  in some fashion or another,  to force yourself into a discipline of using your leisure well. nbsp;  Great.
nbsp;  So,  you must find literature to read,  to absorb. nbsp;  Your background has not left you terribly prepared for the pilgrimage to Borders Bookstore.
nbsp;  And let's be honest -  in fiction and nonfiction both,  there is a great deal of garbage. nbsp;  Some of it is highly praised and popular garbage,
 but garbage all the same. nbsp;  Just finding something worthwhile to use on leisure is trick enough itself. nbsp;  About all you can do is try and start with some tried- and-
true novels or poems,  and hope that,  as time goes along,  you can pick up ( via good book reviewers or the like)  which recent works are worth one's bother.
 & nbsp;  Is there a way to stop this,  and indeed,  help make the population,  or at least some of it,
 more attuned to good taste? nbsp;  In the short- term,  I have no idea. nbsp;
 Long- term,  perhaps -  if the habits of reading and viewing paintings are encouraged by parents,  even if they themselves are only grasping to know what taste is,  a few generations down the line,
 perhaps the arts,  literature,  and culture will have a resurgence.  & nbsp;  Hope springs eternal.
