20th Century Popular Culture - A fascinating article on the subject

[LizzieMaine]

My high school guidance counselor, such as he was, tried to hard-sell me on applying to Bowling Green, but I could tell it was Mickey Mouse just from the prospectus. Not my cuppa at all -- I had no desire whatever to devote my life to the further exaltation of Boomerology. The department was founded in 1970 -- that tells you all you need to know.

For some reason the thing that sticks out most in my memory is that the brochure made a big deal about how BGSU had the world's biggest collection of baseball cards. Um, so I could write my thesis on how the epic ugliness of Andy Etchebarren, Joe Torre, and Don Mossi as shown in mass-distributed Flexichrome cardboard prints redefined the popular image of male beauty in the 1960s?

 

[Fletch]

How could you leave out Moose Skowron, who looked like the kind of guy who'd wood-chip your dog if it peed on his shrubs.

 

[Chasseur]

It's been a while since I read Ortega, but I recall it somewhat otherwise.

I agree, its pretty obvious the writer of the editorial has not really read Ortega, but it uses him as a straw man in classic editorial fashion. Not be political but I generally try not to intellectually engage with things written in Commentary....

 

[vitanola]

I agree, its pretty obvious the writer of the editorial has not really read Ortega, but it uses him as a straw man in classic editorial fashion. Not be political but I generally try not to intellectually engage with things written in Commentary....

Is it ever worthwhile, or even really possible to "intellectually engage with things written in 'Commentary'"?

I am continually amazed at the frequency with which some of the arguments made in 1930's "The Myth of the 20th Century" are unwittingly regurgitated.