Flibbertigibbet

Not Art

I was reading about Greg Packer this morning and I happened across this line in this CNS article:

When told of the lengths Packer has gone to to be at major events and meet celebrities, Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University professor of pop culture, said Packer has turned a passion into an art form.

"If you're totally obsessed with Shakespeare and James Joyce and go to the ends of the earth researching them, we call you an English professor," Thompson said. "This guy has chosen his body of art to consume, it just so happens he can't make a living off of it. The only fundamental difference is he doesn't have tenure."

Greg Packer is the first guy in line to buy an iPhone this morning.

But listen to me: English Professors are not artists by virtue of their obsession with a writer. If you write fiction, then you may be an artist, but simply being a professor doesn't.

I get tired of this cliche, the one that refers to every parsimonious solution or tenacious effort as art. It's not art.

And there is a deeper fundamental difference than tenure between a professor and the guy who waits in lines for things.

I hope that guy was joking when he uttered those things.