Humanities North Dakota Magazine: the GRAY MATTERS issue

HUM NITIES NORTH DAKOTA MAGAZINE

the

03.21

GRAY MATTERS issue

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CONTENTS NONFICTION

02 How the Humanities Can

Empower Communication

By Gavin F. Hurley

06 Being Human: The Value of Literature

By Brittany Hirth

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12 Mark Twain, Humanities Humorist

By George Frein 18 The Promise of the Humanities

By Robert Mejia

FICTION

22 SmartHome 2022

By Barbara J. Petoskey

06

POETRY

22 HUMANITIES NORTH DAKOTA MAGAZINE is published by Humanities North Dakota.

To subscribe, please contact us: 800.338.6543 info@humanitiesnd.org humanitiesnd.org

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this magazine do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or Humanities North Dakota.

24 If I Were Water

By Lahab Assef Al-Jundi 26 There Must Be a Good Reason

By Lahab Assef Al-Jundi

BRENNA DAUGHERTY GERHARDT

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

THE HUMANITIES HELP US KEEP OUR REPUBLIC “If there is a lesson in all of this it is that our Constitution is neither

a self-actuating nor a self-correcting document. It requires the constant attention and devotion of all citizens. There is a story, often told, that upon exiting the Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin was approached by a group of citizens asking what sort of government the delegates had created. His answer was: 'A republic, if you can keep it.’

The brevity of that response should not cause us to under-value its essential meaning: democratic republics are not merely founded upon the consent of the people, they are also absolutely dependent upon the active and informed involvement of the people for their continued good health.”

-Dr. Richard Beeman, Professor of history and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania

The events leading up to and following the 2020 election demonstrate that American democracy is both fragile and dependent upon the active engagement of thoughtful and informed citizens. We cannot take for granted our rights and responsibilities as American citizens. We must listen to and debate with each other in good faith as we seek solutions to critical issues, understand the legal framework created by the Constitution, uphold the freedoms protected in the Bill of Rights, and take action to restore American leadership and competitiveness in a global context.

To support thoughtful, informed, and engaged citizenship, Humanities North Dakota offers our members classes and events that tackle both timeless questions and contemporary issues. Whether you engage in a civics education class to understand how government functions and your rights and responsibilities as citizens, read an article in this magazine that sharpens your critical thinking skills, or attend a GameChanger event to listen to respected thinkers from across the political spectrum present solutions to critical issues facing our democracy, you are ensuring the health of our democracy.

Thank you for helping keep our republic!

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HOW THE HUMANITIES CAN EMPOWER COMMUNICATION

by Gavin F. Hurley

T

he humanities are traditionally concerned with history, literature, ethics, foreign languages, and cultural studies.

Communications, on the other hand, examines verbal

and written messaging—often as they relate to the professions.

Since the discipline of communications does not primarily investigate human society and culture, it is often separated from the humanities. This trend has generally been adopted in higher education institutions throughout the nation. And North Dakota institutions are no exception. Communications programs at University of North Dakota, Minot State University, and Bismarck State College all spotlight professional skills and applications.

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Humanities can help empower us as nimbler and more versatile communicators.

Despite departmental separation, the communication arts can come to depend on the humanities in foundational ways.

When familiar with human society and culture, communicators can elevate the social dimensions of their communication.

These social dimensions are crucial to clear speaking and writing. Ultimately, they help us communicate with one another rather than communicate past each other.

Humanities can help empower us as nimbler and more versatile communicators in ways that can sometimes be overlooked.

WHAT IS COMMUNICATION? Recent surveys have shown that—along with financial problems, infidelity, and lack of commitment—miscommunication remains a regular cause of divorce in the United States.1 Presumably, clearer channels of communication can help couples avoid such strife. Employers consistently seek clear communication skills in their prospective candidates as well. A 2017 survey from the Graduate Management Admission Council (a nonprofit organization of 220 graduate business schools from around the globe), found that oral and written communication, listening skills, and presentation skills are four of the top five skills that employers seek in new hires.2 Therefore, communication—

and specifically, effective communication— seems to be crucial when socially navigating the world, in both family life and professional life.

The sociality of communication can be revealed through the etymology of the word itself. The word “communication” evolved from the Latin word communis which means “shared.” The prefix “com” is found in various English words like “common,” “community,” and “communion.” What do all of these words share? The act of coming together and converging. Communication is a social activity, perhaps even a social duty.

Ideally, people “converge together” through shared words, ideas, and meanings. To this end, communicators invite listeners or readers into messages wherein they exchange and establish common ground. Within such space, each party can more fully understand the other’s perspectives, rather than making hasty assumptions about them. Naturally, this kind of patient understanding can be important work within a civil society. And it can help us get things done as productive citizens.

So what is effective communication?

After all, it may not be enough just to communicate; we want to communicate well. As previously mentioned, effective communication fosters mutual

understanding through shared language and ideas. For example, if an email is written in Spanish, a reader needs to know Spanish.

Spanish language becomes a shared value between parties. Furthermore, if a speaker discusses the technical minutia about aerospace engineering, a listener may need to have an introductory understanding about aerospace engineering. As such, the subject matter can become the baseline shared knowledge. And delivery can matter too. If a speaker talks too fast or a writer clutters an email with rambling run-on sentences, the listener or reader may not be able to clearly understand the message. Therefore, an appropriate delivery and style can affect the effectiveness of communication as well. In short, it becomes critical for speakers and writers to know about their audiences. In the previous examples, communicators should probably ask themselves: Does my audience know Spanish? Do they know about aerospace engineering? Are they comfortable with fast talking? The better we know our audiences then the better we can accommodate differences and use shared knowledge and values to establish common ground.

Communication depends upon people— and effective communication demands strategic cooperation with people. This 3

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Although rhetoric can be difficult to define, it has come to mean the art of effective communication. cooperation is an everyday activity. And it depends on everyday communication choices. In fact, often we do it without thinking about it—whether we are purchasing vegetables at the local grocery store or chatting to an acquaintance at the bus stop. However, when we become deliberately aware of these communication choices, then we can become better at wielding them.

As a university professor of writing, I emphasize this point throughout my first-year writing courses. In the first couple weeks of the semester, I give my students a specific communication scenario and ask them to think about how they would compose an everyday piece of communication. In the exercise, students imagine that they are seeking a significant other, and they have just met a wonderful “special someone”—Alex—on campus. After conversing with Alex on a Wednesday, they agree to grab a bite to eat off-campus on Friday night, two days later. For the in-class exercise, the student must carefully compose a text message on Friday afternoon that confirms their plans for that evening. To compose a deliberate text message—that is, one that doesn’t offend or confuse Alex—they must become sensitive about the impression that they make through their communication choices.

They must also account for the purpose of the communication—that is, to confirm the plans.

Students often find this exercise to be more difficult than they originally assume.

It requires balance. Students must speculate how their words will impact Alex— presumably in a purposeful and positive manner—while also honoring their own personalities. Ultimately, this in-class activity pushes students to ponder the mechanisms of connective communication—factors that can inform everyday interactions, whether speaking with family members or texting 4

newly met love interests. These decisions are fundamentally social: they can consider the audience as much as they consider the message itself.

THE ART OF RHETORIC Everyday audience-forward communication—such as text messaging— can be defined as “rhetoric.” Rhetorical studies is a thousand-year-old discipline that is still relevant today. Although rhetoric can be difficult to define, it has come to mean the art of effective communication.

However, “effective communication” can be understood in various ways. For example, twentieth-century American rhetorician Kenneth Burke broadly defines rhetoric as symbols used by “human agents” to construct attitudes and actions “in other human agents.”3 Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle defines rhetoric as “a capacity to observe what admits being persuasive in each case” (1355b27-28).4 And finally, Ancient Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero explains rhetoric as a purposeful endeavor which seeks to instruct, persuade, and delight audiences (1.3).5 Dozens of additional definitions of rhetoric have surfaced throughout the millennia—and virtually every definition considers audience.

Ultimately, the rhetorical arts provide the tools to strategically optimize our speech or writing when interacting with another person with particular purposes in mind.

And, as already alluded to, it hinges upon purposeful audience awareness. For example, if we wanted to teach a person about the flight patterns of North Dakota magpies, it would make sense to, at the very least, figure out how much our audience already knows about birds and North Dakota. And we could go from there. If they don’t know much about general birds or North Dakota, then we would need to start from an earlier point in the discussion. The same approach applies to persuasion. If we are attempting

to convince someone to vote for a particular political candidate—or at the very least get them to see them as a reasonable option— we should probably understand the general political convictions of our audience. And, if we want to entertain an audience, we should probably recognize the tastes of our audience: What do they enjoy? What do they not enjoy? Consequently, if we wanted to be rhetorically prepared for purposeful interactions, it would be advantageous to know all of this information about our audience before engaging with them.

MULTIPLE WAYS TO COMMUNICATE An effective communicator is nimble.

They can nimbly connect with a range of audiences. They are versatile because they know about diverse people—which can include cultural backgrounds, histories, ethical constitutions, political influences, religious doctrines, artistic sensibilities, and so on. As illustrated in previous examples, this knowledge can inform our communication. After all, the more we understand others’ particular beliefs and knowledge, the better we understand the reasoning that fuels their diverse perspectives—and as a result, the clearer we can connect with others.

Often, differences are easily negotiated within everyday communication situations; however, sometimes differences can quickly devolve into conflict—as seen when family members bicker on Facebook or friends quarrel on Twitter. Therefore, it can benefit our communication efforts to think audience-forward. For example, imagine if we had to effectively explain the existence of the internet to an 89-year-old, booklover who has never heard of the internet. Or imagine that we had to explain 9.8 m/s2 acceleration of gravity to our 4-year-old niece. What would we use as common ground? In both outlandish scenarios, we

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would naturally avoid overly technical language. We probably wouldn’t speak about the internet to the 89-year-old as if they are Steve Jobs—nor speak to the 4-year-old about physics as if they are Neil DeGrasse Tyson. We would use everyday comfortable language that is tailored to each of them.

And in this way, they do not get frustrated with the unfamiliar material.

Now, when thinking rhetorically, we may want to be even more strategic when building common ground. Since the 89-year-old enjoys books, we can mention books and libraries as points of reference.

Perhaps we could explain how the internet is like a digital library. Perhaps we can motivate their understanding by explaining how online booksellers help people shop and buy books from all over the world. When explaining physics to a 4-year-old, we may want to reference scenarios that she already understands—such as scenes from Disney films. Perhaps we can demonstrate gravity in action by dropping objects in front of her, rather than only using words to explain it.

In short, rhetorical communicators can strategically spotlight an audience’s own understanding to help them better understand (and want to understand) new knowledge and positions. To this end, the more that a communicator knows about the audience, the more that the communicator can purposefully—and civilly—connect with their audience. These everyday communication choices may seem obvious—but, once we really internalize these humanities-informed habits, we can really begin to empower ourselves as speakers and writers.

THE HUMANITIES CAN HELP Disciplines in humanities optimize rhetorical communication by helping us better understand human conditions—and contexts—more fully. Learning about the humanities can ensure that we consider— and embrace—the social dimensions of writing and speaking. The more we know about our audience’s experiences, cultures, beliefs, and humanity, the more adaptive power we have to communicate to audiences—and with audiences. After all, philosopher Francis Bacon famously claimed that “knowledge is power.” The more we know about a subject, the more power we have to work with that subject. Accordingly, the more we know about audience, the more power we have to work with that audience.

The implications do not end there. As French Enlightenment thinker Voltaire (and later, Peter Parker’s uncle in the Spiderman comics) reminds us: “with great power comes great responsibility.” The art of rhetoric can also have a dark side: it can weaponize us to manipulate other people.

We can exploit the knowledge of audiences to take advantage of audiences. And this offers another reason why the humanities are so important within strong communication.

By exploring disciplines in the humanities, communicators can more fully appreciate the differences and commonalities between one another. Accordingly, they can better appreciate how being ethical communicators empowers effective communication.

Ultimately, if we are fluent in the humanities, we can more easily identify as a vir bonus dicendi peritus or “good person speaking well” (12.1.1):6 the ideal rhetorical

1 Shelby B. Scott, et al., “Reasons for Divorce and Recollections of Premarital Intervention: Implications for Improving Relationship Education,” Couple and Family Psychology 2, no. 2 (2013): 131-145, doi:10.1037/a0032025 2 Graduate Management Admission Council. “Corporate Recruiters Survey Report 2017,” 2017, https://www.gmac.com/-/media/files/gmac/research/employment-outlook/2017-gmac-corporaterecruiters-web-release.pdf 3 Kenneth Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives (1950; Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1984), 41.

speaker as promoted by influential Roman rhetorician, Quintilian. A strong humanities background can help us understand that communication is not merely a means to an end. It is more complex than that.

Instead, as “good” communicators, we should look to deeply and sincerely connect with the humanity of our audiences.

Truly empowered communication resists coercion and instead celebrates interactive social dialogue between human beings—balancing individuality with ethical responsibility. Responsible social communication is not a one-way street. It takes a deep understanding of what it means to be a social creature. Disciplines like history, ethics, literature, cultural studies, and foreign language can afford us such foundational social understanding—and can help us grow as empowered communicators while helping society flourish. l

While he lives in North Dakota for a third of the year, GAVIN F. HURLEY is an Assistant Professor of Composition at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Florida, where he teaches writing and journalism. Throughout the years, he continues to publish in various academic journals and essay collections on the rhetorical arts. In 2018, he published The Playbook of Persuasive Reasoning with Vernon Press. He will be publishing his next book, The Strategic Art of Time-Minded Communication, with Intellect Books for a 2022 release.

You can find more information about Dr. Hurley—and more of his articles on communication—at gavinfhurley.com .

4 Aristotle, Aristotle’s Art of Rhetoric, trans. Robert C. Bartlett (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2019), 11.

5 Marcus Tullius Cicero, "De Optimo Genere Oratorum," trans. H. M. Hubbell. Cicero: De Inventione, De Optimo Genere Oratorum, Topica (London: William Heinemann, 1969), 349-372.

6 Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, trans. H. E. Butler (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968).

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BEING HUMAN: THE VALUE OF LITERATURE

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by Brittany Hirth

I

am writing this essay in April of 2020, and now is one of the more opportune times to think about the value of the humanities in the midst

of the COVID-19 pandemic. People are increasingly turning to movies and television shows to help them cope with social isolation. Some of these films and shows are adapted from books while others are set into motion by teams of writers. We would not have these books, films, poems, music, paintings, and photography to express ourselves, to pass the time, and to help us feel a little less alone without the humanities. Although all these cultural productions and the study of them, and more, fall under the umbrella term, humanities, I will focus my attention on fictional literature, as fewer people tend to read it in an age of plentiful possibilities for entertainment.

The rewards of reading and studying literature are numerous, but I will concentrate on a few of the major ones. For those who become habitual readers, they will gain a better understanding of history from multiple perspectives and can be enlightened about their culture and cultures they may never experience, which has been proven in psychological studies to enhance empathy. If further developing empathy and encountering other perspectives of history are not persuasive reasons to read more, then perhaps some may find value in the calming effect that reading can have on the mind and body. I will further explain these benefits of reading literature and offer some illustrative anecdotes from my teaching and research to demonstrate the continued relevance of the humanities.

One of the reasons that most institutions of higher education require a literature course for most degrees is for the continued practice in comprehensive reading and critical writing. But most institutions also require a literature course in order to expose students to different cultures, time periods, and religions to which one may not otherwise be exposed. Of course history, anthropology, and sociology courses can accomplish the goal

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of introducing students to diverse cultures and important periods of human civilization. However, if someone wants to understand what the country or time period felt like, literature is the best way to immerse a reader into the author’s world.

Generally, literature enables the reader to understand the culture, concerns, beliefs, and politics of a time period through the lens of the author. In my literature courses, students are taught to read a novel with the publication date in mind and to research what the author’s world was like during the period of writing. Students are also trained to focus on the world of the novel. With historical and cultural contexts in mind, students learn a great deal about the problems and concerns of people at various points in history. Reading literature about a specific historical event in American history becomes particularly beneficial for students who might not be interested in learning more if an event were not first introduced to them in a compelling piece of fiction. For example, writing about war representation often leads me into interesting everyday discussions with others about American culture, history, and politics that are first inspired by reading the work of fiction.

As an American literature scholar, I research many aspects of what defines the identity of this nation and its people, but I mainly focus on war representation.

My specific research interests emerge from my general perception that the United States is a nation that was formed by and is continuously shaped by war.

Historic wars resulted in the liberation of the early American colonies from the British Empire, eliminated the horrific practice of slavery within the U.S., and ended the Nazi regime in Europe. These wars commonly illustrate the values that most Americans embrace that form a national identity: all people are created equal and deserve justice and freedom. However, wars also teach us something about how our personal values can conflict with the politics of arguably less morally inspired wars, such as the Vietnam War and the long war in Iraq.

Fiction becomes an entry point into considering the more contentious aspects of war. For example, while reading veteran accounts for my research, I often notice a stark difference between the average citizen’s understanding of war as it has been presented to most Americans, through censored media broadcasts, sparse reporting, and persuasive speeches from politicians, and the veterans’ depiction of their wars through their writing. If you want to know when a war took place, then consult a history textbook. But if you want to know what it felt like, then read a veteran’s novel. Although there are a number of admirable films and documentaries on the Vietnam War, those media will not plunge a reader into the depths of the jungle like the fiction of war-veteran writers, such as Tim O’Brien or Philip Caputo. Not to mention these war-veteran writers will provide the missing, and arguably necessary, political anecdotes that lead readers to a more comprehensive view of each war, which films often do not address.

Some may ask, why would anyone read fiction to better understand history?

By its definition, fiction is fabricated and untrue. But while the names and incidences may have changed in the novels, from experience in speaking with bestselling author and war veteran, Tim O’Brien, I can claim with surety that much of the content in his stories are influenced by real events. The details may not always be factual, but the descriptions of the war and the emotional impact it had on those who served are authentic. Not to mention, many of O’Brien’s war stories are, indeed, rooted in truth.

Humanities scholars will generally defend literature’s value in contextualizing and illustrating history as is claimed in many articles, such as Allan H. Pasco’s 8

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Not only are those who engage with the arts more involved with their communities, but they also tend to be more empathetic.

“Literature as Historical Archive.” Pasco argues that literature can be considered a “cultural repository” and often reveals a “reliable window on the past” that can bring “fresh light to our perception of history.”1 Although, one is always cautioned to not treat literature as an exact reflection of reality, stories from the past can offer viewpoints into the beliefs and fears of the common people that may be ignored in historical documents. Aside from helping one understand various historical contexts, fiction also offers a creative way to view the world as authors dramatize the issues of the past, present, and even imagined futures. In my humble opinion, only literature can intriguingly pose the speculative “what if ” questions about the future and interrogate some of the more problematic aspects of our contemporary society, such as class inequalities or racial and gender discrimination in the social sphere.

As a means to reduce discriminatory thinking, another benefit of reading literature is enhancing civic engagement and empathy for others. A stronger connection to others and the community is an especially important benefit in a civilization with continued technological advancements that threaten to socially separate people from one another. A 2002 survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the National Endowment for the Arts revealed that individual readers demonstrate greater civic engagement, as “readers and arts participants are more than twice as likely to volunteer in their communities.”2 A 2009 updated survey for the NEA of art participants confirms that those who read literature, visit museums or art galleries, or attend arts performances, are more likely to vote in political elections and to volunteer in their communities. In particular, “Arts participants and literary readers show a greater likelihood of community involvement in a variety of other ways, including sports participation, collaborative artmaking, and taking their children to out-of-school performances.”3 So not only are those who engage with the arts more involved with their communities, but they also tend to be more empathetic.

Fiction is uniquely suited to helping one develop empathy as the brain scans of readers reveal that the act of reading increases prosocial behavior because fiction mainly focuses on eliciting emotions rather than on presenting factual information. The 2013 article, “How Does Fiction Reading Influence Empathy?

An Experimental Investigation on the Role of Emotional Transportation” specifically investigates the effect of reading on empathy. The results of fMRI scans of readers affirm that “fiction reading will be more likely [to] influence empathy than non-fiction reading”4 by eliciting emotions through a simulation of real world problems. Readers often identify themselves with the characters

in the story and this emotional involvement causes the reader to experience the events along with the characters. Therefore, people practice demonstrable empathy while reading a fictional story, as they become more and more invested in the welfare of the characters who live in a world similar to theirs. In short, because fiction presents a compelling and convincing storyline(s), readers are more likely to be emotionally affected than by reading a work of nonfiction.

A later 2016 study published in the journal of Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience further confirmed that “readers make good citizens because reading may improve one’s ability to empathize with and understand the thoughts and feelings of other people,” and that “readers of fiction score higher on measures of empathy and theory of mind (ToM)—the ability to think about others’ thoughts and feelings—than non-readers, even after controlling for age, gender, intelligence and personality factors.”5 In addition to developing empathy for others by reading about the trials and tribulations that characters endure, literature can also specifically increase empathy for others outside of one’s own ethnic identity.

A 2014 study published in the Basic and Applied Social Psychology journal revealed that participants who read an excerpt from a novel about a Muslim American woman were less likely to make broad assumptions based on race,6 which means that literature can also help readers develop empathy for those who are dissimilar to themselves. Borders and political divisions separate people from one another, but literature can help a reader understand that people are more alike than they are different in all parts of the world.

Consequently, reading about the struggles of characters who suffer and endure challenges in a fictional world that is based on the reality of our world can make us better people. Though, one will have to purposely seek out those authors from different countries, ethnicities, genders, and ages.

I teach literature courses at Dickinson State University that range from American literature surveys to literary theory and criticism.

As an educator, I have seen the value of the humanities, specifically literature, not just as a complement to students’ majors but as a means for them to develop their sense of identity and to appreciate others around them. A very rewarding moment in teaching is watching otherwise quiet and shy students suddenly come alive when a classmate makes a snap judgment about the motives of one of the characters, or finally reaching a point in a discussion in which students are so invested in the story that a lively debate begins. It is also touching to see how students can form such strong 9

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Fiction increases students' exposure to diversity and broadens their ability to empathize with others. attachments to imaginary people and to watch them grin when talking about the characters as if they have become real friends.

Aside from developing prosocial behavior, younger adults benefit reading about demographics of people that they may not encounter in their hometowns. In my experience, fiction increases students’ exposure to diversity and broadens their ability to empathize with others. Albeit, these “people” with which readers empathize are fictional characters, the authors are tangible people who present their diverse worldviews through their characters. From the transformations I have seen in the classroom, it seems logical to infer that just about everyone can receive these same benefits of reading more literature and learning how to approach the world a little more compassionately.

For instance, I taught Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried many times but most recently in a Writing about Literature course at Dickinson State University. To teach a short story collection about the Vietnam War was no easy task: this was a group of traditionally aged students who are distanced from this war by at least one if not two generations. In my estimation, many public high schools are likely to cover the history of the Vietnam War but perhaps with little to no attention to the more politically sensitive aspects of the war. Not to mention, most students will not have much enthusiasm when learning that are tasked with reading literature that covers traumatic material. However, I will never forget a student’s immediate reaction when we first started discussing O’Brien’s short story collection. He declared, “This is the first interesting book that I’ve read in school!” Why did this English major, in his third year, suddenly have a personal interest in assigned reading? The likeliest answer is that O’Brien develops deep emotional complexity in his war literature; plainly, he is an enthralling storyteller. My students laughed, cried, and cringed while reading the collection, and everyone felt a little sad that the characters had to be left behind when we finished the novel.

O’Brien made the Vietnam War come alive for them, but my students also developed empathy along the way for the very young soldiers who were drafted into this war and for the Vietnamese civilians of whom O’Brien often writes. One story that is likely to induce empathy is “The Man I Killed” in which the narrator imagines a life for a young, Vietnamese man who was killed while he was simply walking along a trail near My Khe. The narrator throws the grenade that kills this young man out of fear that he could have been Viet Cong. The narrator then struggles with the morality of killing someone who did not pose an imminent threat.

The memory of this incident continues to plague the narrator and the description of it surfaces in other stories within the collection, The Thing They Carried.

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While reading for my research, empathy becomes my most common reaction to accounts of young soldiers’ struggle to preserve their morality and protect their fellow combatants while also witnessing civilian deaths in the warzone. In speeches, politicians often purposely minimize or obscure the civilian deaths that result from military operations, or they dehumanize the country with which the U.S. is at war. For example, President George W. Bush often spoke of the “enemy” or vaguely, “the evil” that needed to be uprooted in Afghanistan and later Iraq. But how many American citizens have considered the impact of war on the average civilian in a war-torn country whose town is turned into a battle zone, as homes, hospitals, and schools are often demolished in drone strikes? It is impossible not to deeply empathize with the civilians in the Middle East, as war-veteran writers describe scenes of destruction and death and detail how often innocent civilians are mistaken for insurgents (because insurgents often invade civilian homes in order to hide). These war-veteran writers offer some much needed realism of war’s brutalities for those who perhaps do not fully consider all consequences of military intervention.

Literature can help diminish the impact of xenophobia if people read stories from another country and realize that those people abroad have the same fears and desires as themselves. But if broadening one’s worldview and developing more empathetic faculties is not enough rationale to read more fiction, a lesser known and more self-interested benefit may be the meditative effects of the reading process. In my experience, after a particularly stressful or long day, reading can be a calming closure. If my mind enters into the world of the book, I am likely to forget about myself and the day’s issues as I become invested in the characters or the drama of the plot. Reading becomes a meditative process as one begins to focus on one thing: the good book. The therapeutic potential of reading seems prolific if the inclusion of book clubs in prisons and free literature courses in nursing homes can serve as anecdotal evidence of how reading can continue to make people feel more connected to the world.

So, after all of this explanation of the benefits of reading, what is the true value of the humanities? My start to an answer is that while I write this essay most people are self-quarantining due to COVID-19. Events, schools, practically all facets of our lives have been cancelled, interrupted, or delayed. All of my classes have been shifted online, but we have been able to virtually meet every week on Zoom. We laugh. We exhibit frustrations with the characters that we read about in novels. We predict what will happen in the text, and we challenge each other’s assumptions. We talk about American society and the world. We talk about how people have always been and who we think we are in relation to this country and this world.

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We giggle about the various pets that jump into view of the camera. Did we lose the classroom? Yes, but we didn't lose the community or the curriculum.

The STEM courses that are often pitted against the arts by administrators are probably struggling in the time of COVID-19. Certainly, there are ways to try to deliver the same curriculum, but seemingly there is not much one can do to simulate experiential learning without a laboratory or performing field research, aside from shifting to online teaching modules. But the humanities courses are most likely plugging right along in much the same design, with the exception of perhaps more online forum discussions or asynchronous learning. I would like to think that my literature courses are providing some much needed distraction in an anxiety inducing time, as we discuss the lives of the characters and hone some critical thinking skills. If my closing thoughts seem defensive, my discussion in this essay arises from the conversations I have recently had with fellow academics about an emerging nationwide trend: literature departments have and will continue to receive overhauls and upheavals at most higher education institutions. Even though literature is one of the oldest disciplines in the academy, some literature departments will face outright extinction in the coming decades, as lower numbers of English majors indicate the need to restructure departments, or eliminate the literature requirement, entirely.

My institution has not eliminated the English major, but the Language and Literature department will not exist beyond Spring 2020. A much smaller group of English faculty are preparing to merge with the fine and performing arts.

Most humanities advocates are finding it harder and harder to rationalize the study of fiction and philosophy in an educational environment that increasingly wants pragmatism and job training. And yet, here I am, operating independently from the brick-and-mortar during a time of social distancing and helping others stay connected and wade through this immensely complicated experience of being alive. When many aspects of our lives have come to a grinding halt during this ongoing pandemic, the humanities are still helping people cope with a concerning time in their lives and will continue to do so if people appreciate their value. The humanities have much to teach us about being human. l

BRITTANY HIRTH is an assistant professor of English at Dickinson State University. She specializes in twentieth century and contemporary American literature. She has published on the fiction of Jonathan Safran Foer, Philip Roth, and Anthony Swofford and conducted two interviews with bestselling author, Tim O'Brien.

1 Pasco, Allan H., “Literature as Historical Archive,” New Literary History 35, no. 3 (2004): 374, accessed April 4, 2020, https://www.jstor.org/stable/20057844.

2 United States, U.S. Census Bureau, National Endowment for the Arts. Arts and Civic Engagement: Involved in Arts, Involved in Life (2002): 5, accessed April 10, 2020, http:// www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/ CivicEngagement.pdf.

3 United States, U.S. Census Bureau, National Endowment for the Arts, Art-Goers in Their Communities: Patterns of Civic and Social Engagement (2009): 2, http://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/98.pdf.

4 Bal, P. Matthijs, and Martijn Veltkamp, “How Does Fiction Reading Influence Empathy? An Experimental Investigation on the Role of Emotional Transportation,” PloS One, 8, no. 1 (2013), accessed March 18, 2020, doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055341.

5 Tamir, Diana I., et al., “Reading Fiction and Reading Minds: the Role of Simulation in the Default Network,” Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 11, no. 2 (2016), accessed March 30, 2020, doi. org/10.1093/scan/nsv114.

6 Johnson, Dan R., et al., “Changing Race Boundary Perception by Reading Narrative Fiction,” Basic and Applied Social Psychology 36, no. 1 (2014), accessed April 2, 2020, doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2013.856791.

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MARK TWAIN, HUMANITIES HUMORIST

by George Frein

Twain's humor still survives, proving he was not a mere humorist.

M

ark Twain was a humorist, America’s foremost humorist. But, he was not merely a humorist. “Humorists of the mere sort,” he

said, “cannot survive.”

If not a mere humorist, what kind of humorist was he? I would say that Mark Twain was a humanities humorist. His humor served the humanities by getting readers of his books and audiences at his lectures to think critically about human nature, while laughing themselves silly. What’s more, Twain’s humor still survives, proving he was not a mere humorist.

What follows is the script for a Chautauqua-style performance I did for Humanities North Dakota and then for humanities audiences around the country. The script is composed chiefly of lines that Twain himself wrote on the topic of humor. I have edited his words and added a few lines here and there to turn Twain’s words into a coherent talk on the topic. Now once again, “Mark Twain” stands on stage to make audiences laugh and to think about why they are laughing. (Please note: Twain spoke in a slow Missouri drawl and that is how what follows is spoken. It would be good to read it that way too.)

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MARK TWAIN, ON HUMOR

“My topic tonight is humor. I know something about it—and you too have considerable experience with humor. Everybody knows what's funny and what's not. At least we think we do. Why don't you match my talk with your experience and then you can ask me some questions while we talk about humor, and about humans.

Humor wasn’t my first job. No. I was a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi, but when the Civil War came along it put an end to steamboating. I went home and joined the Marion Rangers, a band of Confederate irregulars; but after two weeks of retreating, I knew more about retreating than the man who invented it. So I went to the captain and told him the war had become a disappointment to me. I withdrew; crippled the Southern cause to that extent.

I went west to Nevada Territory with my brother and prospected for silver.

I was a failure as a prospector. I needed a job badly and considered becoming a preacher. Well, the ministry appealed to me in those innocent days. It never occurred to me that a preacher could be damned. It looked like a safe job. But I decided against it because I lacked one thing. I lacked the stock in trade. I lacked religion.

I became a newspaper writer instead and found that my best pieces were humorous ones. I was happy to have a calling as well as an income. I was also happy to be able to write to my hapless brother, Orion, who for once in his life had a job, and tell him the good news. I wrote: “I have a call to literature of a low order: namely humorous literature. It is nothing to be proud of but it is my strongest suit.” I should long ago have ceased to meddle with things I was unfitted for and turned my attention to seriously scribbling to excite laughter in God's creatures. It is a poor, pitiful business but it is my calling.

And my calling is a kind of preaching. The humorous writer tries to awaken your love, your pity, your kindness, your scorn for untruth, pretension, and imposture. He takes upon himself to be the week-day preacher. Of course, I wouldn’t have become a weekday preacher if the regular preachers weren’t on vacation six days a week!

I am not a weekday preacher only in my writing. I preach from the lecture platform too. I preach morals. Every preacher has a pet topic and morals is mine. And I have a theory about morals. It is this: that you should prize, as a priceless thing, every transgression, every crime you commit, the lesson of it, I mean. Make it permanent; impress it so that you never commit that same crime again as long as you live. Then you will see. The logical result will be you will get interested in committing crimes and in that way you will build up a perfect moral character for yourself. Now, there are 462 crimes possible, no more, no less. These have been all thought out and experimented with by the most capable men in the penitentiary. Now when you commit a transgression, lay it up in your memory—the lesson of it—and it will lead you to moral perfection. When at last you have committed your 462, you will stand with complete moral perfection. I am more than two-thirds the way up that ladder 14

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myself. It is an immense inspiration to find oneself climbing that way and have not much further to go.

I remember, way back in the beginning, the first time that I ever stole a watermelon.

I carried it to a secluded bower in a lumber yard and broke it open, and it was green.

Now, then, I began to reflect. When you do not reflect, the crime is wasted on you.

I began to reflect and I said to myself: I have done wrong. It was wrong to steal that watermelon—that kind of watermelon. I said: what would a right-minded boy do that had stolen a watermelon like this. He must make restitution. He must restore that property to its owner. So I resolved to do so and was immediately refreshed and spiritually strengthened. I carried the watermelon back to the farmer whose it was and told him it was green and he should be ashamed of himself going around working off green watermelons that way on people who had confidence in him. And he was ashamed and said he would never do it again. I restored the watermelon and made him give me a ripe one. So in this way I morally helped him and helped myself at the same time—for that was a lesson that remained with me for my perfection. Ever since that day to this I never stole another— like that.

Now I teach morals. I am a professional moralist. It is noble to do good. And it is nobler to teach others to do good. And a lot easier. I have always preached. If the humor came of its own accord and uninvited I have allowed it a place in my sermon, but I was not writing the sermon for the sake of the humor. I should have written the sermon just the same, whether any humor applied for admission or not. Humor must not professedly teach and it must not professedly preach but it must do both if it would live forever. Of course by “forever” I mean for 30 years. Humorists of the mere sort cannot survive.

Of course, to illustrate his topic, a

preacher must be able to tell stories. Stories bring the topic to life. I do not claim that I can tell a story as it ought to be told. I only claim to know how a story ought to be told.

You see, there are several kinds of stories.

The comic story is English. The witty story is French. Comic and witty stories depend on the matter. The humorous story is American; and it depends, not upon the matter, but upon the manner of the telling for its effect.

The humorous story is strictly a work of art and it was created in America.

The humorous story is told gravely and the teller does his very best to conceal the fact that he even dimly suspects that there is anything funny about it. Whereas the teller of the comic story tells you beforehand that it is the funniest thing he has ever heard and then is the first to laugh when he gets through. And sometimes he will repeat the nub of the story and glance around collecting applause, and repeat the nub

been blown off. The buddy carried him on his back. Bullets and cannonballs were flying in all directions and presently one of the cannonballs took the wounded man’s head off—without his buddy being aware of it.

Soon an officer shouted: ‘Soldier, Where are you going with that carcass?’ ‘To the rear, sir, he’s lost his leg!’ ‘His leg? You mean his head, you booby.’

“Whereupon the soldier put his burden down and looked upon it with great perplexity. At last he said, ‘It is true, sir, just as you say. But he TOLD ME IT WAS HIS LEG!!!!! He TOLD ME IT WAS HIS LEG!’” Well, it only takes a minute and a half to tell that story in its comic form—and it isn’t worth telling after all. But put into the humorous-story form it takes 10-12 minutes, as James Whitcomb Riley tells it. He tells it in the character of a dull-witted old farmer who gets it all mixed up and wanders helplessly round and round, putting in all

A little harmless fun is a good and wholesome thing in this world; it tones a body up and keeps him human and prevents him from souring. again! It is a pathetic thing to see. The teller of a humorous story pretends that he does not know it is a nub. Artemus Ward used that trick a good deal and when the audience caught the joke and laughed, he would look up with innocent surprise, as if wondering what they found to laugh at.

Let me give you an example of the comic method using an anecdote that’s twelve or fifteen hundred years old. The teller tells it this way: “Have you heard the one about the Wounded Soldier? It’s the funniest story I ever heard! Here it is: “In the course of a certain battle a soldier had his leg shot off and called to a buddy to carry him to the rear saying his leg had

sorts of details that don’t belong in the tale, making mistakes and stopping to correct them, telling the soldier’s name, adding that it is of no real importance anyway—though better, of course, if one knew it, but not essential after all—and so on and on— stringing absurdities innocently unaware they are absurdities. This is the basis of the American art.

Then there is one other element of the humorous story: that is the matter of the pause. The pause is an exceedingly important feature of the humorous story.

One must get the pause just right, just the right length. And for this reason one must not read his story but tell it—looking at the 15

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Genuine humor is replete with wisdom. audience to see its reaction. . . . One of the stories from my second book, Roughing It, that never worked as a reading never failed as a lecture piece. The idea of the story was to exhibit certain bad effects of a good memory—you know, the kind of memory that can’t tell the difference between an important event and an unimportant event.

We all know people who tell stories this way.

Such was the memory of Jim Blaine, the sleepy narrator of a tale called “Grandfather’s Old Ram.” [Sit.Yawn.] “Oh, you want to hear about the ram. [Stand. IN JIM BLANE’S VOICE.] Grandfather bought that old ram from a feller in Siskiyou County and turned him loose in the medder. The next morning he went out to have a look at him and accidently dropped a ten-cent piece in the grass and stooped down—so—to git it. The ram, he was standin’ up the slope taking notice of grandfather stooping down. Smith was there nearby where I was watching.

The ram—he bent his head down so. Smith was of Calaveras. No, it couldn't be that Smith. No, it was Smith of Tulare. Well that ram seen grandfather stoopin’ down that way, he took it for an invitation - and here he come! Down the slope, 30 miles an hour, his eye full of business. You see my grandfather’s back being to him; why sho! it warn't Smith of Tulare at all, it was Smith of Sacramento; and those Smiths come from the best Southern blood in the United States. There warn't any better blood line than the Sacramento Smiths. One of ‘em even married a Whitaker; that give you some idea. It was Mariar Whitaker that had the most generous heart in the world. She’d give you anything she had if you needed 16

it. She had a glass eye she used to lend to Flora Ann Baxter who hadn’t one to receive company with. Flora Ann Baxter married a Hogadorn who was of old Maryland. It was Sally Hogadorn who married a missionary and went off carrying the good news to the cannibals somewheres and they et her, et him too, though it war an accident and the cannibals said so, said they were sorry and apologized, said it wouldn’t happen again; said ’t was an accident.

Accident! Now that's foolishness; there ain’t no such thing as an accident. There ain’t nothing happens in this world but what’s ordered just so by a Wiser Power fur a good purpose. When you think you see an accident, you can make up your mind it’s a special providence. Well, you look at my Uncle Lem. He an’ his dog was downtown and he was a-leaning up against a scaffolding next to a stranger and this Irishman was there with a hod of bricks up about the third story, and his foot slipped and down came the Irishman bricks and all. Hit the stranger —knocked the everlasting aspirations out of him. He was ready for the coroner in two minutes. People said it war an accident, but it warn’t - ’twas a special providence.

The idea was to save the Irishman. If the stranger hadn’t been there, that Irishman would have been killed. People said, “special providence - sho! The dog was there—why didn’t the Irishman fall on the dog? Why warn't the dog appointed?” Well, fer a mighty good reason—the dog would a seen him a-coming. You can’t depend on no dog to carry out a special providence. That dog’s name was Jasper. Uncle Lem got him out of the Wheelers. Ain’t no better bloodline than the Wheelers.

Well, one day Wheeler was dreaming around in the carpet factory and the machinery made a snatch at him and first you know he was a-meandering all over the factory. Why you couldn't even see him; you could only hear him whiz when he went by.

Well. Wheeler got wove up into 39 yards of the best 3-ply carpet made. The widder was

sorry for she loved him and done the best she could for him under the circumstances.

She took the whole 39 yards and gave him a proper burial. She couldn’t bear to roll him up. She took and spread him out full length. Then she boxed him, put him on a pedestal and so made a monument and grave all in one. She painted on it, “To the loving memory of 39 yards best 3-ply carpet containing the mortal remains of Millington G. Wheeler go thou and do likewise.“ [SIT. YAWN. SLEEP.] [Stand. IN TWAIN’S VOICE.] At this point Jim Blaine fell asleep on his story.

To this day we don’t know whether old Grandfather ever got the ten-cent piece [STOOP OVER.] out of the grass.

That tale of “Grandfather’s Old Ram” never worked when read and never failed when told from memory. The reason is the matter of the pause. The length of the pause must be determined by the audience. The speaker must perceive by their faces when the pause has reached the proper length.

But the reader has his eyes in the book and so must guess. The lecturer has his eyes on the audience and can tell exactly how long it should be. I used to play with a pause the way other children play with a toy. In “Grandfather’s Old Ram” the question is whether the falling of the Irishman on the stranger was an accident or a special providence. If it was providence, why sacrifice the stranger? Why didn’t he fall on the dog? Becuz the dog would ‘a’ seen him a-comin’. The pause at this remark was necessary to allow the audience time to find the logic which recognizes in a dog an instrument too alert in looking out for his own personal interest to be depended on for a special providence.

Now, of course, there is more to humor than technical things like the manner in which a story is told and the matter of the pause. There are also philosophical purposes.

You may have noticed that the story of “Grandfather’s Old Ram” was an

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examination of the value of blood lines and the idea of special providence. The time was when to tell a story like that simply to amuse people would have satisfied my dearest ambition. People could get instruction elsewhere. But bye and bye I found I had two chances to help people to the teacher’s one: for amusement is a good preparation for study and a good healer of fatigue afterword.

A little harmless fun is a good and wholesome thing in this world; it tones a body up and keeps him human and prevents him from souring. A good laugh is money in one’s pocket because it cuts down on the doctor bills like everything. Humor is the great thing, the saving thing, after all. The minute it crops up all our harnesses yield, all our irritations and resentments flit away, and a sunny spirit takes their place. Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing.

But laughter without a tinge of philosophy is only a sneeze of humor. Genuine humor is replete with wisdom. Wit by itself is of little account. It becomes of moment only when grounded on wisdom.

A humorist’s worthy calling is to the deriding of shams and nobilities and privileges and all, all kindred swindles against human liberties. To all shams the humorist must show the greatest irreverence.

Fortunately, I was born irreverent. But when a thing is sacred to me, it is impossible for me to be irreverent toward it. I cannot call to mind a single instance where I have been irreverent—except toward things which are sacred to other people. Irreverence is the champion of liberty.

For example, one of the sacred things I would never show the slightest irreverence is money. Money is universally reverenced.

Some men worship rank, some worship heroes, some worship God, and over these ideals they dispute, but all men worship money.

Money, of course, is very American. God was left out of the Constitution but was furnished a front seat on the coins of the country. The motto, “ln God We Trust”

states a lie. If this nation ever trusted in God, that time has gone by. For nearly half a century almost its entire trust has been in the Republican party and the dollar— mainly the dollar. There never was a nation in this world that put all its trust in God. I think it would be better to print this on the coins: “Within certain judicious limitations, we trust in God.” And, if there isn’t room enough on the coin for all that, why, enlarge the coin.

I myself have had experience with money and have learned some valuable lessons on the subject. First of all, I believe that the lack of money is the root of all evil. People dispute about the merits of hard currency versus paper money. I have no opinion on this. My only goal is to get as much of it as I can. And, in most any way I can. Borrowing is one good way to get money. Ah, beautiful credit. It is the foundation of modern society. Just two years ago I didn't have a dime—and now I owe two million dollars!

Being thrifty, of course, is another way to have money. And then there is the virtuous habit of not living beyond one’s means. I remember a recent New Years Eve party at which the topic of resolutions came up.

Someone asked me, “Are you making any resolutions this year, Mark?” “You bet,” I said, “I'm going to live within my income this year even if I have to borrow money to do it.”

Envy is very common when it comes to money, but it is no way to make money. I was once vacationing in Bermuda with my good friend Henry Rogers, a millionaire. I met someone there who said to me one day, “Your friend Rogers is a good fellow. It's a pity his money is tainted.” “Oh!” I said, “It’s worse than that. It’s twice tainted. Taint yours, taint mine.” Wealth, you see, is a state of mind: If all men were rich, all men would be poor.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with being poor. Honest poverty is a gem that even a king might feel proud to call his own.

That is so. But I wish to sell out. I wish

to become rich, so that I can instruct the people and glorify honest poverty, like those kind-hearted, fat, benevolent people do.

When I become king then poor people shall not have bread and shelter only, but also teachings out of books, for a full belly is little worth when the mind is starved.

In conclusion, let me say only this from a book of mine: “The human race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon —laughter. Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution—these can lift at a colossal humbug—push it a little—weaken it a little, century by century; but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast.

Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.”

So for the destruction of humbugs as well as the healing of the human spirit, humor is mankind’s greatest blessing.” l

GEORGE FREIN, taught in the Philosophy and Religion Department at the University of North Dakota from 1968 to 1997.

Beginning in 1986, George spent summers traveling with the Great Plains Chautauqua Society. Rather than lecture about the humanities, Chautauqua scholars choose to perform as the people one meets with in the humanities. For George, this has meant dressing and speaking as Herman Melville, Henry Adams, Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Seuss, and Carl Jung among others. In this way, George says, "Audiences get to meet great humanities thinkers and ask them questions. It is more fun than listening to a lowly professor!" (Note: It is not true, as one of George's colleagues claims, that he chose to do Carl Jung in order to help himself deal with his multiple-personality syndrome!)

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THE PROMISE OF THE HUMANITIES

by Robert Mejia

R

eflecting on his experience as a diplomat to France, on May 12, 1780, John Adams

wrote to Abigail Adams (his wife) that he “could fill Volumes with Descriptions of Temples and Palaces, Paintings, Sculptures, Tapestry, Porcelaine, &c. &c. &c.—if I could have time.

But I could not do this without neglecting my duty.”1 Believing that it was not “the fine Arts, which our Country requires” but rather the “Usefull, the mechanic Arts,” Adams wrote in an influential and often quoted passage that his duty was to study “Politicks and War [so] that my sons may have the liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy.

My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine.”2 In this passage, as the political scientist Michael Lienesch argues, the future second President of the United States “had outlined the role of future Americans in securing national development.”3 The point I wish to make is that Adams’ vision denies the public of the promise of the humanities, and is one that continues to haunt the present.

In positioning the study of the painting, poetry, music, etc., as contingent upon the mastery of politics, warfare, mathematics, philosophy, and other natural and social sciences, Adams had framed the arts and humanities as luxuries (with political philosophy being the lone exception). The proper course of the nation, for Adams, was the establishment of a strong political foundation, “followed by socioeconomic improvement, which would be followed in turn by cultural

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and artistic advances.”4 Then and now, Adams’ words have been interpreted to mean that culture and art are an effect of political and socio-economic superiority, meaning that the value of the humanities are that of the study of what the influential nineteenth century British cultural critic Matthew Arnold termed “the pursuit of our total perfection by means of getting to know, on all the matters which most concern us, the best which has been thought and said in the world.”5 The humanities, as such, are conceived

by Adams, Arnold, and those who share these sentiments, not as sites of knowledge production but rather as a storehouse for the preservation of a nation’s culture.

Because culture and art are an effect of political and socio-economic superiority, the role of the humanities is to preserve and transmit the best that has been thought and said to future generations.

Those following this tradition find it absurd to believe that the humanities could make any meaningful contributions to politics, economics, or culture on its own terms. The eminent British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, for example, wrote that it was fine for the “best that has been thought and said” to be “questioned perhaps, improved upon if possible” but that the proper role of the humanities was to respect “the highest achievements of the human mind.”6 The reason, Thatcher argued, is that “as [John] Adams knew, civilization is a fragile thing, which, once lost, takes generations to regain. We must constantly reaffirm that our Western civilization is worthy of an unfaltering and unapologetic commitment to its perpetuation.”7 Like Adams and Arnold before, Thatcher believed that culture is an effect of a superior society and that since those studying these great works are not the producers of these great works, who are those in the humanities to believe them their equals?

Put more simply, Thatcher believed it “simply preposterous” to believe anyone—let alone students and professors of the humanities—could be equal to the minds of “Plato and Locke, Homer and Shakespeare, Burke and Bryce.”8 What makes “those great works great,” according to Thatcher, “is that they seek to penetrate the deepest mysteries of the human condition and to elevate mankind.”9 The consequence of this conception of the humanities as a storehouse for the preservation and transmission of a

Students, professors, and workers associated with the humanities deserve to have their works engaged and criticized—but so too do the works of Plato, Locke, Homer, and Shakespeare.

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nation’s culture is that it marks as illegitimate any attempt by those in the humanities—whether as professors, students, or workers—to affect any area of public life outside of replicating that which has already come before (and been granted political and socio-economic approval). As Lienesch argues, there is “a paradox [in Adams’ vision of national development], in that socio-economic development was possible only with political stability, future Americans having the responsibility to build the private realm while remaining outside the public, their role economic, not political. Even where they were allowed the chance for political action, it was limited.”10 In practice, this means that the humanities are allowed to recognize the political contributions of the philosophy of Plato and Locke but postmodern philosophy is too transgressive. The humanities can analyze how Homer and Shakespeare leveraged poetry and theater to explore the pressing political and socio-economic issues of the day—and how their words can inspire the present—but the musicians, actors, artists, and other entertainers of today are criticized for making art political. To be clear, the students, professors, and workers associated with the humanities deserve to have their works engaged and criticized—but so too do the works of Plato, Locke, Homer, and Shakespeare.

And such engagement and criticism ought to be grounded in the merit of our contributions and not whether those of us in the humanities even have the right to speak in the first place. There is more value to be found in our work than just our ability to preserve, transmit, and incrementally improve upon a small selection of historical works.

The problems of the past continue to be problems of the present, and these problems can only be resolved if we take seriously the problems we have inherited from those who have come before us. Doing this means moving beyond friendly questioning or incremental improvement of any revered text. It means engaging with these works as historical equals. This does not mean that any one of us is better (or worse) than the historical figures we are engaging but rather that we have the right to interrogate and debate the merit of these works. For instance, anti-Semitism has a long, terrible, and unfortunately enduring history, and if we are committed to ending this atrocious history, we need to recognize and challenge anti-Semitism in all its forms.

If culture is the best that has ever been said and done, then what are we to make of the Merchant of Venice? Is Shylock, a Jew who lends money to Antonio, the titular merchant, the victim or villain in Shakespeare’s work? Even if we agree with those who believe that Shakespeare was using the play to analyze anti-Semitism, moving beyond friendly questioning allows students to think through the possibilities and limitations of particular forms of confronting anti-Semitism.

11 In essence, if we are to take the problem of anti-Semitism

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and other contemporary problems seriously, we need to look at how these issues have been challenged or enabled in the past.

Similarly, if we are to challenge the problems of the present, we need to be open to the prospect that the proposed solution may exist (or at least partially exist) in the past. Just as today, there are incredible voices that have been historically silenced or granted limited audience. In 1903, W.E.B. Du Bois famously wrote, “the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line.”12 Fifty years prior, in 1852, Frederick Douglass said in a speech, “Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too [….] and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. [….] The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me.”13 Like anti-Semitism, anti-Black racism has a long, terrible, and unfortunately enduring history, and if we are committed to ending this atrocious history, we need to look to those who survived—and those who did not—for guidance. This does not mean we ought to uncritically revere these historical voices but rather if we are to take seriously that culture is the best that has ever been said and done, then we ought to learn from the successes and failures of those who sought to end the terrors of Anti-Black racism, antiSemitism, and other ongoing forms of atrocity.

There are of course those problems which are perhaps unique to our own historical moment, and so too are the humanities well equipped to address these contemporary political and socio-economic challenges. Scholars working in media studies, communication studies, and the digital humanities more broadly, for instance, are important contributors to the understanding of algorithmic bias, data ethics, media concentration, and other contemporary concerns.

Safiya Noble, Associate Professor of Information Studies and African American Studies at UCLA, published the 2018 New York Times best seller Algorithms of Oppression, for example, and was recently recognized as one of the 100 most influential people of 2020 by TIME. Similarly, scholars working in rhetoric, cultural studies, and the medical humanities more broadly are important contributors to the understanding of

epidemiology, doctor-patient relationships, and other health concerns. Mohan Dutta director of the Center for CultureCentered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE) at Massey University in New Zealand is a widely respected expert in health communication, as illustrated by his recent contributions to the World Health Organization report “Pandemic Fatigue: Reinvigorating the Public to Prevent COVID-19.” These are just two of many examples regarding how scholars, students, and practitioners within the humanities are working alongside those in the sciences and social sciences to overcome the problems of the present.

The humanities have always mattered to society. Some have sought to limit the role played by the humanities in society.

This is due to a lack of faith in the public. The belief that the public lacks the capacity to engage in matters of political concern, and thus that culture should only reflect the political and economic institutions for which they are believed to depend. This is a narrow understanding of culture, and one that forecloses the possibility of working towards the building of a better society. The objective is not to forget the past—to pretend it never existed—nor to presume that the humanities are superior (or inferior) to the sciences or social sciences but rather to understand that if the humanities are the study of the best and worst that has ever been said and done, then the humanities helps us to imagine what greatness looks like, and to see the promise that lies within us, those who have come before, and those whom will come after. The problems of the present need this promise of the humanities. l

1 Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, post 12 May 1780 [electronic edition].

Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. http:// www.masshist.org/digitaladams/

8 Ibid.

2 Ibid.

3 Michael Lienesch. "The Constitutional Tradition: History, Political Action, and Progress in American Political Thought 1787-1793." The Journal of Politics 42, no. 1 (1980): 25.

4 Lienesch, “The Constitutional,” 25.

5 Matthew Arnold. Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criticism. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1869/1924: xi.

6 Margaret Thatcher. "The Value of American Studies." Society 34, no. 6 (1997): 51.

ROBERT MEJIA is an associate professor of communication at North Dakota State University. His teaching and scholarship focus is on the intersection of politics, economics, culture, communication infrastructure, and society. He is the past recipient of the 2018 National Communication Association's Critical and Cultural Studies Division's (CCSD) New Investigator Award and the 2019 NCA CCSD Outstanding Article Award.

9 Ibid.

10 Lienesch, “The Constitutional,” 25.

11 Brandon Ambrosino. “Four Hundred Years Later, Scholars Still Debate Whether Shakespeare’s ‘Merchant of Venice’ Is Anti-Semitic.” Smithsonian Magazine, https:// www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-scholars-still-debate-whether-or-notshakespeares-merchant-venice-anti-semitic-180958867/ 12 W.E. B. Du Bois. The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1903/1907, 13.

13 Frederick Douglass. “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro.” (1852). https://www. pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2927t.html

7 Ibid.

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| GRAY MATTERS |

SMARTHOME 2022

by Barbara J. Petoskey

Killer Friday. Hope there’s beer in the fridge. At least with this upgraded security system, I don't have to hunt for keys. I stare into the unblinking red eye, and it stares back.

Welcome home. Enter password.

“Open up. It’s me.”

There is no Mi in my secure database. Please enter password.

“C’mon, open up.”

Don’t make me text the police. Enter password. ****** That password is incorrect. Enter password. ****** Wrong again. Enter password. I don’t have all day.

“What? You’re going somewhere?”

No, and neither are you. Enter password. ****** Now, was that so hard?

Click.

Welcome home.

“Thanks.”

For optimum security, try a stronger combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. Nobody likes a limp password.

Lights come on to trace my path from the foyer through the living room. Hey, I could get used to this. I toss my coat toward a chair and miss.

Do not leave garment there. Why do you think I have closets?

When I hang up my coat, the overhead light seems to wink approvingly. “Now about that beer …”

Refrigerator inventory documents no beer.

“I could swear I just bought beer.”

SmartFridge inventory guarantees 99.3% accuracy. Why would we lie to you?

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“We? Never mind. Anything to drink?”

One open bottle of fruity wine-type beverage.

CheckUrCheck balance indicates you could afford something with a cork.

“I’m starving here. What about food?”

Your crisper is functionally empty. Produce remaining more than ten days is removed from inventory.

Unidentifiable life form growing on large green tubular object.

“The neighbor had extra zucchini. She’s a nice lady, even if her dog is yappy.”

LawnAlert reports that it pees in your yard.

“It’s a small dog.”

With a large bladder. And you should hear what she says about you.

“Huh?” Her baby monitor detected negative inflection in comments about your muffler.

“I got that fixed.”

Only after CarCare XL threatened to void your extended warranty.

“Forget that. Anything at all to eat?”

Sriracha sauce. Two Greek yogurts, sixteen and twentytwo days beyond expiration, respectively. Cheese-like substance in a tube. Noodle dish in carryout container, possibly Chinese or Thai.

“Hah! It’s Korean, from that little place around the corner from my office. Shows how much you know. What else?”

Open can of Spaghettios, tilapia filet.

“Got you again! That's mahi. I thought I might cook this weekend.”

You were taken. DNA testing finds one-third of seafood samples to be mislabeled. And don’t even think about consuming that packaged sushi. Average response time for

| GRAY MATTERS |

911 to this ZIP+four is 2.3 minutes above average.

The refrigerator door seems to open grudgingly. No pleasant surprises. And suddenly that uramaki looks decidedly hostile. I grab an open bag of Fritos from the cupboard and sit down in front of the TV. Only 17% capacity remaining in your DVR queue. Do you really think you’ll ever catch up with Game of Thrones?

“I might.”

And I might be Downton Abbey. Your FitOrFat bracelet calculates that you need to reduce couch time by 22% to achieve acceptable BMI. “At this rate, I’ll starve and take care of that problem.”

I’m just the messenger. According to TreadTrakker, you passed three grocery stores on your way home.

“Forget this. I’ll eat out.”

Your car is already 852 miles overdue for its next oil change.

“Fine! I’ll walk.” The metal hangers rattle as I snatch my coat back from the closet.

Take your umbrella. WeathrWundr predicts a 77% chance of rain before 8 PM. “Like I’m so sweet I’m gonna melt?”

Probability of melting is 0%.

“Nobody likes a smart app.” l

BARBARA’S work has been collected in books including The Best Contemporary Women's Humor, The Bride of Funnyside, and This Sporting Life. She has appeared in publications such as Cat Fancy, Writer’s Digest, Bostonia, and The Bloomsbury Review; and posted on the Higgs Weldon Comedy website.

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| GRAY MATTERS |

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| GRAY MATTERS |

IF I WERE WATER

by Lahab Assef Al-Jundi I would want to be the oceans.

I use the plural, because all oceans are one body embracing our planet.

Clouds would be created from me traveling the world over taking rain to all thirsty corners.

Rivers would be born and renewed bringing beauty to the landscape.

Sustaining every living creature.

Tears would be made from me speaking the silent language of hearts when emotions overflow their cups.

I would transform myself into tiny droplets of dew on blades of grass in Spring mornings when existence sings of longing for the eternal sea.

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| GRAY MATTERS |

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| GRAY MATTERS |

THERE MUST BE A GOOD REASON

by Lahab Assef Al-Jundi

Why is it difficult for us to reach “beyond the veil”?

To communicate?

To receive unambiguous messages?

What is existence like without space-time?

Without physical senses?

Without physical bodies?

How do we get to know it?

There must be a good reason!

Our world, this universe we know, is a dimension of time and space.

“The beyond” has to be different, otherwise, it is not a “beyond” at all!

The senses we depend on here all require space and time— It takes time for light to travel in space before it reaches our eyes.

Same for sound waves stirring our ears.

Smell, taste and touch all trek through intricate pathways from physical receptors to decoding centers in our brains.

How do our questions, prayers, and attempts to simply say hello show up beyond the veil?

Perhaps stillness is the gateway?

Heart, the translator?

Love letters to and from…

LAHAB ASSEF AL-JUNDI's poetry has appeared in collections such as In These Latitudes, Ten Contemporary Poets and Inclined to Speak, An Anthology of Arab American Poetry, as well as many other anthologies and literary journals. His latest poetry collection, No Faith At All, was published by Pecan Grove Press.

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HUMANITIES NORTH DAKOTA

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