A rather rambling
post a couple of weeks ago tried to explore the insights which can come
from straddling worlds which are normally kept separate. This drew on material
from 3 years earlier about Ways of Seeing
and about Role
Conflict.
Indeed I now see there is a book whicih argues this - Rebel Ideas - the power of diverse thinking by Mathew Syad (2019)
I’m now
shifting the focus to try to identify the
qualities of a non-fiction book that make it “terrific” rather than merely “good”.
I last tried that with Yanis
Varoufakis whose books zing with zest….and only, I think, once before with detailed
comments on a great book called Defending
Politics
Perhaps this will allow me to add a further test
to those I suggested in the famous post Why
we need to ration non-fiction books.
Like the good
social scientist I am, I already have a hypothesis – namely that the feeling of being an outsider is a
catalyst to identify and challenge “groupthink” and that writing is an effective way of exploring the multiple perspectives which subsequently open up…..
Clearly one can
be a great writer without being (or feeling) an outsider - although I suspect that
people who lack empathy won’t be great writers. But the weak point in my
argument is the connection between creativity and writing. There’s no obvious
reason why those with creative insights should be able to express them clearly
in writing,,,,……
Or is there?
I have already
identified some of the people whose (non-fiction) writing I admire and the
first column of the table below simply lists them – in the order in which they
came to mind.
The second column
is my own feeble attempt to label them….
The third will try to explain their “outsider” status which can relate to country, discipline,
ethnicity or even gender…Significant that all but one are men? Adding Susan
George, Polly Toynbee, Oriana Fallaci or Simone de Beauvoir at this stage is
artificial….the point is that their names didn’t come to mind….
What do these great writers have in common?
Name
|
Status
|
Outsider in what sense?
|
Globetrotting political economist
|
Spent first 20 or so
years in Greece; European perspective
|
|
Writer, maverick Oxford
academic
|
Came to UK as a child
(Russian parents); strong French connection
|
|
Central European
journalist who made UK his home
|
Was a communist in
Germany. Jailed in Franco Spain. Strong interest in science
|
|
Prolific
Canadian/American economist and writer
|
23
when he left Canada – American civil servant handling rationing; Ambassador
to India for JFK; attracted envy from academic colleagues
|
|
US economic historian
|
author of the famous “The
Worldly Philosophers”; very much a generalist;
|
|
Irish management writer
and guru
|
changed his career every decade |
|
German
academic and politician; EC Commissioner, Director of LSE; and Lord
|
Straddled
German and British academic and political worlds - for 25 years apiece
|
|
Policy
analyst, writer
|
had
been a young journalist, Came to UK when 27
|
|
Maverick academic,
|
Often complained that his
traditional brand of conservatism marginalised him
|
|
|
Anthropologist, activist,
anarchist
|
Author of “Bullshit Jobs”
Failed to have his
academic position renewed by Harvard. Anthropology, almost by definition,
means being an outsider
|
|
Journalist
|
Change of sex certainly gives
one a new perspective!
And (s)he’s half English
and half-Welsh – with this article explicitly referring to her felt “outsider”status
|
Journalist and film maker
– culture and buildings
|
His autobiography “An
Encyclopaedia of Myself” makes it fairly clear he felt he was an outsider
|
|
|
Academic (Prof of
Journalism), writer
|
He graduated in English;
Generalist; jewish
Author of “Cooked”, “In
Defence of Food” etc
|
Pop philosopher
|
Early years in
Switzerland
|
|
British political
scientist; writer
|
Author of “How Democracy
Ends”
Son of a famous father,
his case simply doesn’t fit!
|
|
Development Economist
|
Graduated from South
Korea; came to Cambridge for further studies and remained, Author of “23
things they don’t tell uoi about capitalism”
|
|
Israeli historian
|
Graduated Israel and now
writes bestsellers like “Homo Sapiens”
|
|
Dutch
historian/journalist
|
Author of “Utopia for
Realists”
|
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ReplyDeleteSorry made this comment to h wrong post. I was intending to put it in response to you post about Dr. Wobag.
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