A nod to what's come before

As a writer my version of utopia is simply a place where knowledge and appreciation of the written word stands for something. It would be the sort of place where knowing Chaucer and Shakespeare could actually help you nail an interview or help your job applications stand out from the rest. Thus far, it seems like Hellenistic Greece is the place most like what I envision for this utopia of mine.

Except change Chaucer and Shakespeare for Homer.

And throw in an education system involving rote learning and the repetition of phrases. And don't forget tossing the copying of fables and aphorisms until their meaning becomes a numbed mass, collapsed before any reader into the mix as well.

That's the horror that Marrou sets out in his look at Hellinistic literature instruction. It's a place where creativity is stifled, and yet there's a refreshing lack of fear around being unoriginal. If an Hellenistic poet referred to one of his or her ancient ancestors of the craft, it would be lauded. Unlike today, where there's a constant push to do things new and novel. But at least we've got our creativity.

This chapter wasn't just about building up my own expectations of there ever having been a literary utopia and then tearing them down, though. In it Marrou makes a very poignant observation: As a civilization concretizes its culture's forms and values those forms and values make their way from the halls of the civilization's highest education down into its primary schools. An example of this process in our own society is computer programming.

At one time computer programming was reserved for university and college students (in part because only institutions could afford and house the room-sized processors we had to deal with). But now, computer programming is a common course in high schools, and no doubt has some presence in elementary curricula, too.

Marrou's observation is thus a look at his thesis (that a civilization's most prized values and culture is to be found in its educational system) in living motion. Perhaps it's a bit of a self-aggrandizing move, but if it's there, it's there.