‘The coalition’s proposal to slash funding for the arts…and humanities risk not just losing a generation of artists, but also a generation of critical and creative thinkers’.
So says an indignant Guardian letter buttressed by a shopping list of academics. A familiar clarion call. But surprise, surprise what unites the subjects threatened with impoverishment?
Books. It all, in the end, comes back to books. No matter how celebrated the lecturer, no matter how state-of-the-art the facilities, no matter how revolutionary and innovative the course, arts and humanities degrees at least are all about books.
Lectures are little more than a splash and a skim through material, a verbal snifter instead of the readerly gulp. At the end of the hour, the only place to point to is the booklist. The only thing essential to pass a humanities degree, the sole thing any historian, theologian, philosopher or literary critic absolutely can’t do without, is access to a well-stocked library.
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