A Cause of Silence

While preparing for the Multimodal project, I came across some controversial ideas in one of my sources (Eros, Wisdom and Silence: Plato's Erotic Dialogues) about rhetoric in the classroom. The author summarizes fellow professor Allan Bloom's beliefs: "The students do not read great books anymore, thanks to relativism and the successful feminist assault on the Western canon. Instead, they are addicted to rock music. This music has 'one appeal only, a barbaric appeal, to sexual desire -- not love, not eros, but sexual desire undeveloped and untutored. . . . Young people know that rock has the beat of sexual intercourse'" (Bloom qtd. in Rhodes 6). He proceeds to compare anyone who listens to rock music to drug addicts and eventually calls American students "flat-souled".

I find all of this incredibly offensive, especially after I argued against the idea presented in Glenn about changing the standard, male language we use today in favor of a more female rhetoric. I highly, highly doubt that the "feminist assault" on Western canon has caused teachers to teach less Shakespeare and more Sylvia Plath. I also think the entire idea about rock music corrupting teenagers is laughable (sadly, this book was published in 2003). I could probably rant on this for a couple more hours, but what I'm trying to say is: professors like this are what cause silence in the classroom, not "flat-souled" teenagers.