Book Review: Excellent Sheep by William Deresiewicz
Noble Goal, Poor Implementation.
As a proud college dropout, I was excited to read this. I also like the author, William Deresiewicz. I’ve enjoyed listening to him as a guest on podcasts and admired his analyses.
Like myself, he has a deep love of learning. Unlike myself, he puts too much faith in the institution of college and that error haunts this book. I don’t like to be condescending, but at several points I wanted to ask, “How clueless are you, bro?”
From my experience, if “The Academy” ever meant something, whatever noble values it offered are few, as those institutions were strip-mined to serve Capitalism a long time ago.
But I’m just one person with one perspective. Maybe during his day, or in his individual experience, college meant wonderful things. Good for him. I’m glad it enriched his life. But he seems to think that college as an expensive form of young adult daycare is a new observation, when that was exactly how I experienced it decades ago – and why I left and never went back.
Credit to Deresiewicz for being a rebel in his sphere, but that’s exactly the problem. Where are all the other professors expressing deep concern for university culture? They exist, but they usuallywander off into what I’ll call the “Cancel Culture Complainers Club.” You know them. They’re everywhere today. Their one and only song – that the book echoes – is a sad, ancient, familiar tune: “Kids today are lazy and don’t know anything.”
The book hits a deep low when the author laments a lack of focus on the same old sources: Jane Austen, James Joyce, etc. and all these boring, awful literature works that supposedly are the only aids to think deep thoughts. I’m going all caps to make this clear: FUCK MRS DALLOWAY. No offense to Virginia Woolf. This has happened to me before: elder folks tell me that the story of Mrs. Dalloway is going to provide me with human insight that no cultural work since can.
No. Utterly wrong. Maybe those books meant something to you but to the rest of us they suck. I know the book is done for when he proves and starts quoting the conservative out-of-touch-dork-o-sphere (a.k.a. NY Times pundits David Brooks, Ross Douthat, etc.)
Learning isn’t a one-size-fits-all thing. That may not have been clear in the past, but now, it’s obvious. I’m not saying the university is dead, but it isn’t the solitary place of learning. For folks who may be neurodivergent, or just not academically focused, there is no place for us in college-land.
For some, maybe college was a place to find your “purpose” or for extensive learning. For me, college was a place where learning — and the passion for it – nearly died. For me, the best way to learn was to quit college.
I can’t recommend this book except as an example of a well-meant critique gone wrong. There are few insights here. Just a lot of the usual older generational complaints that fail to realize the realities of others.
There’s even a movement for people with successful careers and no degree: it’s called Tear The Paper Ceiling. I don’t know much about it, but I’m curious to explore more: tearthepaperceiling.org.
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