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[dolorosa_12]

A couple of weeks ago, my sister graduated from university. She did the same undergrad course that I did, Arts at Sydney Uni, although she did a regular BA (her major ended up being Modern History), while I did Honours in English Literature. The way Sydney does graduations is that you graduate with all the people who did your major, or Honours in your subject area, so I graduated with the English Lit people, and she graduated with the History people.

I was talking to her about her ceremony (which I missed, due to being on the other side of the world), and she mentioned that the speaker (a philosopher) had done 'a great speech where he said that Arts was just as good as Science'.

I was greatly amused. At my graduation (although I have some vague memory of Malcolm Turnbull being there in some official capacity), the speaker was also a philosopher. He was, I suspect, the same one who talked at Mim's graduation, and I'm pretty sure he gave a version of the same speech. But I interpreted his speech in a very different manner.

To me, his speech was quite insulting. Patronising, almost. 'Arts is just as good as Science! Don't believe anyone who says that it has no value! Don't worry, none of you will end up working in McDonalds!'

My problem was that I didn't see the need to reference Science at all. We were Arts graduates. (Remarkably successful ones, too. Of the people who did Honours with me, I can think of six PhD students - one in Cambridge and one in Oxford - a couple of succesfful journalists, some public servants, one who ended up working in finance, one who went into advertising and a couple who ended up teaching. Not a McDonalds worker in sight!) Saying we were 'just as good as Science students' implies already that there's some need for reassurance, that we, on our graduation day, might feel unworthy. I actually found it deeply insulting. If you can't talk about the importance of the humanities without it being at the expense of science, you obviously don't think very highly of the humanities to begin with.

My reaction - and my sister's opposite one - is obviously entirely down to perception and personality. I'm a pessimist who always suspects people are secretly mocking or despising her. She's an optimist with a 'don't worry, everyone will love you' attitude. Her glass tends to be half-full, while mine is always half-empty.

But it was amusing to see our different personalities laid bare in such a direct manner.

Comments

[verschreibsel.livejournal.com]

In your place I would have seen the speech in a bad light too. I am in my first year at a new school (I don't think there's an equivalent in America, Canada, Australia, England or any English speaking country?) and before I graduated I had the choice between three schools. Two were "colleges" and focus on something specific. One was literature A-levels I guess you could call it and one economic A-levels. I ended up choosing the latter. The third option was tranfering to a school that doesn't just have the remaining three years of school but has student that have been going there for 6 years like I did at my old school. I would have been completly new to the methods and together with people who had been using those for six years already. Anyway my point is that a lot of people looked down on the colleges a bit even though I will have the exact same A-levels when I graduate just that my focus is more specific and economics focused instead of choosing from more subjects like I could have at the other school.

But people are always telling me that the other school is harder and maybe it is but does that make my A-levels worse than theirs? It's exactly the same. I can study art or medicine or law or anything I want. There's nothing set in stone.

Anyway sorry for rambling on about myself. I tend to start telling stories about myself when I want to talk to someone about something in their life. My point is that I can see why you saw it in a bad light. It should be a given that art is just as important.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

No, I don't mind you talking about your own experiences at all! It's good to know that I'm not the only person who feels this way. I think it's a bit unfair of those people sneering at your choices when they didn't even attend your school or experience whether or not it was good!

The thing with arts/humanities and science is that both of them are fantastic and amazing, but they're completely different. They both have the potential to represent the best of human knowledge, but they're different things. And at a graduation for English Literature students, comments about the importance of science are irrelevant.

[verschreibsel.livejournal.com]

:) Yeah I suppose because it isn't the same type of school or because we have different stuff they think their classes are harder.

Exactly. It should have been a speech about art.

[thelxiepia.livejournal.com]

Pessimism ftw. :P

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Surely ftw is too optimistic a sentiment to ever be attached to pessimism! :P

That being said, I prefer to think of pessimism as being realistic and optimism as being naive. Yeah.

[thelxiepia.livejournal.com]

At least if you're pessimistic about things, you're never disappointed. If you're optimistic, you're always going to be let down. :P

[tsarcasm.livejournal.com]

I would have likely not remembered it at all. The only speeches I've ever remembered from graduations have beento were out of humor (one where the speaker was mocking, one where I was mocking the speaker).

I can see why you'd take offense though. It does sound rather patronizing, especially to a group of Lit students who would be able to follow the implied logic of the statement. I realize that there were some amazing philosopher's who have greatly influenced both science and the arts but.... He needs to write a new speech.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

I have a good memory for random stuff like that. Ask me what day of the week it is, and I'll look at you blankly, but ask me what I talked about my my International Baccalaureate oral exams for World Literature and I'll be able to tell you not only the texts, but also the ones I studied for but wasn't asked about, and the substance of what I spoke about. (Please note, my IB exams were in 2002.)

To be honest, I find the whole situation pretty amusing. I didn't really care about this guy's speech, as the important part of the ceremony - being there with all my friends, wearing gowns and mortarboards, tossing said mortarboards into the air, and walking out behind all the academics from my faculty, finally feeling like I'd done something worthwhile in my life - were what really mattered.

What was funny to me was that my sister and I heard exactly the same speech and reacted in totally opposite (but characteristic) ways to it.

[tsarcasm.livejournal.com]

[nods]

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Off topic, but I absolutely adore that particular icon. I've been staring at it, mesmerised, for the past minute...

[tsarcasm.livejournal.com]

[NODS]

And it's so true.

There are a few I get hypnotized by for different reasons.

[cereswunderkind.livejournal.com]

If your glass is half empty it means there's half a pint of beer inside you, where it belongs, instead of in the glass, where it doesn't.