From: "Tobin Nellhaus" <nellhaus-AT-gis.net>
Subject: Re: Bourdieu: realist, materialist...?
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 22:04:04 -0400


Hi Karl--

>Just an aside Tobin - have you seen that scene in Good Will Hunting where
>the Will character reveals the parroting of a Harvard student in a bar?
>Sounds like what you were saying.

Oh yeah.  Of course the Harvard student is a bit of a caricature, designed
to show off Will.  But whatever the strengths and weaknesses of that movie,
its dramaturgical choices give a pretty good glimpse at the dynamics of
intellectual culture here.  For example, Will is a genius particularly at
*math*, well fitting U.S. technologistic priorities--but in order to have a
romantic couple, the filmmakers match him with an *English* woman.  That
gives him a mate with recognized cultural capital: perhaps casting an
American woman wouldn't give enough of a "high culture" lift.  (If I
remember right, she's studying medicine, which suitably bridges the
scientific and the humanistic).

Cheers, T.

---
Tobin Nellhaus
nellhaus-AT-gis.net
"Faith requires us to be materialists without flinching": C.S. Peirce



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