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The Great Courses: Deep Cuts
Oct. 29th, 2014 07:35 amYou know you are a fan of The Great Courses when you start listening to the deep cuts.
The Great Courses has over 500 courses now, and I own more than 20% of them. I just finished the series on the Civil War, and before I dive into the 84-part history of the United States, decided to take a break by listening to "The Soul and the City." This was one of their very first courses, when they were still "The Great Courses on Tape." It is only available digitally, has tape hiss, and was recorded long before they figured out their editorial voice.
That is to say, this course is a meandering meditation on the city through art. So far we've talked about Theseus and the labyrinth, St. Petersburg's design, Moll Flanders, William Hogarth, and a number of poems I'd never heard before.
What is amusing to me is that this was recorded in 1991, so the professor is talking from the assumption that his listeners all hate and fear cities. In his introduction, he reads a newspaper article on a spree killing in the Bronx. Cities are, he's arguing, essentially wretched hives of scum and villainy. And if you're talking about New York City in the seventies and eighties...yeah.
Listening to it almost a quarter century later, though, wow, what a change in cultural perspective on cities. He's been focusing on art that points out the destructive, degrading nature of cities (like Hogarth's "The Rake's Progress"). I wonder what art he would choose now to talk about the renaissance of the city.
The Great Courses has over 500 courses now, and I own more than 20% of them. I just finished the series on the Civil War, and before I dive into the 84-part history of the United States, decided to take a break by listening to "The Soul and the City." This was one of their very first courses, when they were still "The Great Courses on Tape." It is only available digitally, has tape hiss, and was recorded long before they figured out their editorial voice.
That is to say, this course is a meandering meditation on the city through art. So far we've talked about Theseus and the labyrinth, St. Petersburg's design, Moll Flanders, William Hogarth, and a number of poems I'd never heard before.
What is amusing to me is that this was recorded in 1991, so the professor is talking from the assumption that his listeners all hate and fear cities. In his introduction, he reads a newspaper article on a spree killing in the Bronx. Cities are, he's arguing, essentially wretched hives of scum and villainy. And if you're talking about New York City in the seventies and eighties...yeah.
Listening to it almost a quarter century later, though, wow, what a change in cultural perspective on cities. He's been focusing on art that points out the destructive, degrading nature of cities (like Hogarth's "The Rake's Progress"). I wonder what art he would choose now to talk about the renaissance of the city.