Dead Poets Society Is a Terrible Defense of the Humanities

The Atlantic ^ | 2/19/2014 | KEVIN J.H. DETTMAR

[CharlesWayneCT]

Well, one of the actors (Robert Sean Williams) in Dead Poet’s Society was also an actor in House (Wilson). That ties the two shows together.

I loved Dead Poet’s Society, but certainly not because I thought it was a realistic portrayal of anything. I mean, maybe there were parents who would want to beat their kid for performing in a play......

[Unknowing]

“Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson.

[WayneS]

I became a nonconformist in order to fit in.

[MrEdd]

Nonconformist?
Thats how all the conformists say it.
I’m an unconformist.

[WayneS]

;-)

[laotzu]

I’m an unconformist

That's unpossible.

[x]

So, it shouldn't have been written?

You said it, not me.

It isn't that hard to come up with a defense of scholarship and academic criticism against Robin Williams's movie. When a professor does so at great length, though, he runs the risk of becoming everything the movie attacks. I didn't like the movie, and I've always hated Robin Williams, but the article made me think a little better of the film (though not of Robin Williams).

Williams is sort of a Sixties guy. We can rage against the Sixties and the changes they brought and the leftover Sixties people, but over the years some of that spirit has become a part of us. We can cringe at literary fandom or the popular teacher who builds a cult around himself, but the dryasdust professor who's always publically taking offense at such things also wears out his welcome pretty quickly.