( I wrote this post for Marginales , my blog Mediapart. I put it here too as it relates to public libraries )
I have a problem here thirteen years I worked in the library public, in direct service to the public, and I am unable to say what "public" means, I really do not know what the general public or which is a priori good for him, including (implicitly) "not too highbrow."
Who are Mr. and Mrs. Granpublic? I know this category, so often put forward when it comes to public libraries, has never been defined or studied by scholars of the humanities. Mr. and Mrs. GP did they vote on Sunday? On the right, left, center, to extremes? Have they abstained? Do they have taste in all things means? A school teacher does it belong to the general public? And a high school teacher? And a university professor? And a worker fired from his box? And a cheerleader? And an illiterate gypsy lover of films by Jean Renoir? And a journalist? Retirees are they more emblematic of the general public that suburban teenagers? The middle classes, is this the general public? To whom do we work? Danielle Steel is it public? And comics? And Marcel Conche? And poetry? The short novels are they wider audience that large? In addition, history of introducing a little disorder in our categories, the choice of Mr and Mrs Granpublic are sometimes unexpected, their tastes and interests do not always wear to where we expected them to go.
Another facet of the problem, a corollary of the previous one: I am almost unable to determine if a book, music, film, are "intellectuals" - I'm not at all physiognomist, it may be linked . The category of "nerd" for me is meaningless. The books of François Jullien are they nerds? Certainly, one follows the thread of his best thinking if you know a little Chinese and Greek, but conversely they can awaken the desire to learn these languages and thoughts. The small diffusion films they belong to this category "Highbrow" ill-defined, so useful to exclude funds for the general public? Poetry Is nerd? To me, it speaks to the soul far more than the intellect, it is sometimes more, too, to fight. Courses by Michel Foucault at the Collège de France, I bet it's nerd - and yet! The books of Nobel economics are they nerds? In my opinion, they can be useful to understand the world in which we live. Trying to understand is that being brainy? But in the "public" with whom I work everyday, I see a fair amount of people willing to have the tools to understand. Are they all for intellectuals? Well no, I tell you that it is the general public! Damn
then resume from scratch. I really need help!
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