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Created: April 25, 2003
Latest Update: April 25, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Spring, Illusion, Reality, and Pointillism: Who's Seurat?

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, April 2003.
"Fair use" encouraged.

This essay was inspired by the lead picture in the LA Times on Friday, April 25, 2003:

Que Seurat, Seurat

"A photographer tries to capture this seemingly pointillistic scene of yellow wildflowers, purple lupine and orange California poppies covering the hillsides off Gorman Post Road in the Grapevine area of Interstate 5. For updates on wildflower sites, call (818) 768-3533. (Robbin Goddard / LAT)" April 25, 2003.

So how do we conceptually link this photo to the Sociology of Reality? First of all, there's some liberal arts education that offers you a measure of your general knowledge against that of the reading public. Are you familiar with pointillism? Do you know what it is, "a pointillistic scene?" Do you know who or what Seurat is? Here's an example of a status characteristic of language that can label you as "educated," usually meaning in a liberal arts sense of general knowledge, or not belonging to the inner circle of those who gave birth to Trivial Pursuit. You could fake it. But you'd know you were faking it, and if you weren't in denial about the quality of your general education, you'd think to yourself that there's lots of stuff you missed, and that you need to catch up on. But chances are you're too busy for much catching up. So we've hit a small blow at your ego. Small blows like that hurt.

This links into our topic last week of illusion and reality. Reality today is that none of us know or can keep up with all fields. Pointillism comes out of art history. Some of you have never taken art history. Some of you have simply never run into the concept of pointillism. What the sociology of reality offers you is some opportunity for a psychological anchor in reality. That means you can build a support network in which you know that your are comfortable to ask questions. Within that group of significant others, you can safely just plain ask, "What's pointillism?" Once I've told you that it's art history, if you didn't take it, you won't feel bad about not knowing it. Now,maybe you did take art history and don't remember pointillism. Same response. If you'll realize how many courses you took, under how many complex situations, and how little discretionary time you had, then there's a logical way to find out what pointillism means without beating yourself up over what you don't know.

It takes great courage to ask. Sometimes people denigrate us for asking. They don't want to go to that deeper level where we ponder the issues we're discussing. They just want the "expert" to tell them what they need for the test and get on with it. That's not education. That's test training, one of the most destructive developments in our schools in recent decades. ( Want some references on that? Alfie Kohn, Jonathan Kozol, Ivan Illich)

If, in fact, the human mind cannot encompass all knowledge, then we have arrived at the information age, in which the understanding and ability to access information, to figure out where to find the information you need, and to know who you can reasonably trust to ask without risking being "labelled," as "not of the educated elite" becomes a crucial skill.

Dear Habermas is one safe network where you can come for information. In a democratic world with integrity and respect for education, the whole educational institution should be such a safe network. You see, there's really no practical "one trial learning." We speak of retroactive interference and forgetting. That means that as we keep on cramming things into our apperceptive masses, the new things we learn kind of interfere and make us forget some of what we had already learned. The advantage to recognizing that there are many levels of learning, from mere recognition, to recall, to analysis and a deeper understanding, we understand that thinking we "know" it all is really a dangerous illusion. The reality of information overload is that we can't know it all; and in this age of digitalized information, that's not such a drawback.

Discussion Questions

Now, how can Dear Habermas help you with this tiny bit of liberal arts learning: "pointillism"?

1. First, check the dictionary:

   Merriam-Webster Dictionary Search:

2. Next, look up "pointillism" in a search engine like Google or Yahoo.

   Here are some results:

   • A Sunday at La Grande Jatte:

     A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884, 1884-86 on the Chicago Art Institute site. This painting is one of the most famous. The Institute will not let it travel. One of the most famous of Seurat's works. There's also a brief explanation of pointillism and its place in art history at the Art Institute site.

   • Bathing at Asnieres:

     Bathing at Asnieres At the WebMuseum site. This and the Sunday on La Grande Jatte are two of Seurat's most famous paintings.

   • About Pointillism:

     Pointillism Materials By Nathan Solon, on a University of Michigan site.

   • Slipping Art history into Liberal Arts Education:

     La Recherche du Sensationnel de la Belle Époque Stephanie Lin & Jessica Hartl - French 102 - Professeur Monique Saigal.Pomona College, Claremont, California, USA - Printemps 1995.

3. What does the title that the LA Times gave mean: Que Seurat, Seurat? Search for it on Google or Yahoo:

   • Que Seurat' Seurat A portrait in pointillism. Could this help explain the title?

   • So ask Dear Habermas. Sometimes a play on words gives you the answer. Do you remember a song, Que sera, sera? sung by Doris Day? You can find it here. Could this help explain the title?

   • The photo in the LA Times was a photographer's attempt to capture the feeling of a Seurat painting. One of illusion, as well as reality. The photographer is visible in the photo. Could any of this help explain the title?

   • There are no right answers. Creative people are playing with fairly creative concepts and tools. Once the creative result is before you, you react interdependently with the creative result, and it means whatever you believe it to mean.