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What are the Humanities For?

Martha Nussbaum, in her latest book, warns of a world in which "the humanistic aspects of science and social science -- the imaginative, creative aspects of rigorous critical thought" are being lost. Instead of surrendering to "thin market norms" and the demands of the labour market, education must rediscover its goal of creating citizens who are both compassionate and capable of critical thinking. While the impetus behind such demands is laudable, it would be irresponsible -- writes reviewer Stephen John -- to ignore the shortcomings of Nussbaum's book in the name of political expediency. Too often she succumbs to hasty overgeneralization, lumping together different trends and developments and, in the process, overlooking sources of political agreement and convergence. While the book's message is important, it fails in its ambition to map out the future shape of education.

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A New Grammar of Images

German filmmaker Werner Herzog -- this year's President of the International Jury at the Berlin International Film Festival 2010 -- has long been as famous for his statements about film and culture as he has been for his actual movies. In his book 'Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo', Herzog chronicles his experiences between 1979 to 1981 while shooting (or, more often, waiting to shoot) his acclaimed film about a bombastic anti-hero in the Brazilian jungle. The journal form, writes reviewer Laura Kolbe, may well be the genre to which his writing is best suited: it provides an inherent structure, in which seasons change, personalities clash and reconcile and clash again, and budgets dwindle.

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