Hacker News Reader

Comment by karaterobot | Hacker News Reader

I don't subscribe to the idea that all classics are mandatory. However, there is a certain amount of homework you would have to do if you want to understand the culture you live in. The Bible and Homer, Shakespeare, Milton, Cervantes, Goethe, etc. Stories that other stories build on and extend, down through history. Scratch any contemporary book, movie, video game, whatever, and those sources are right under the surface. They're in the language you speak, the music you listen to. You are well served by having certain classics as part of your education, but if you are not curious about that stuff I am sure you can live your life without knowing.

View on HN

I would say that reading the whole bible to "understand the culture you live in" is a massive over-investment of time, even if you're in a country where the culture is Christian or Jewish.

You don't need the whole thing, just a cliff notes so you can get through Paradise Lost, and you're generally good.

I took a course in college called "European Political Thought" and one of the texts we had to read was the bible. Reading it cover to cover revealed a number of surprises to me. I had to go to church as a kid so I knew the basics but I was never very religious. The best moments in class were the uncomfortable reactions of a few of the students who were clearly quite religious.

A "massive over-investment of time", indeed, unless you are doing it for college credit ;)

I used to read the whole Bible, annually, with a group of friends in college. It took about 60-70 hours, reading out loud in shifts. Less of a time investment than many TV series.

As for understanding the culture you live in, the historical cultures documented certainly differ from modern ones. It still provides a basis for some interesting comparisons between the Biblical books and groups that claim heritage from them.

OK, I'll bite: what did Goethe write that you consider indispensable to someone's education? I can just about stand one of his plays and a few of his poems, though I think the world would be perfectly fine without them.

His prose, though, I hate with the force of a thousand suns. I've never read a book so infused with insufferable wankery as "Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre".

Not to forget that Goethe himself considered his most important work his contributions to Physics, where he tried to argue that Isaac Newton was all wrong about Optics. Needless to say that Physics esteemed him less highly than Literature did.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com