Read on Twitter
When I was in grad school, I also would have wished that "classics isn't political." Why? For me, classics was like Star Trek's Holodeck. A meandering thread about why: #ClassicsHolodeck
My childhood was… bleak. I escaped into vast fictional universes. A 15-novel series where I could memorize the names of everyone's dragons meant I did not have to think about the painful things happening in real life.
The world of classics, which I discovered in college, was even better. Here was an endless world for me to explore on my own. I could control what I experienced. It was the closest I could get to the Holodeck: an environment with everything I wanted and nothing I didn't.
(If you aren't familiar: https://sfdictionary.com/view/464/holodeck in the @SFdictionary. Imagine the best VR experience ever, with the computer reading your thoughts about what you want.)
And although my real life was much better once I left home, I got much more from the classics Holodeck. Much more intellectual interest, much more fun, much more self-worth. My real life was under-developed because I spent so much time in the classics Holodeck.
When I was in the classics Holodeck, I spent my time thinking about the things that I enjoyed. I did not think about slavery or misogyny or any sort of pain. That would be like using the Holodeck to recreate a trip to the dentist or do data entry (unless you were into that).
For me, during grad school, classics had nothing to do with real life – and that was the whole point. It was a space where I could escape real life.
I think some of the people who say "classics isn't political" are really saying "I wish classics wasn't political. I wish it would remain my place to escape real life, to escape pain, to escape my lack of control."
I also think that Classics is also a Holodeck for white supremacists. They imagine it as a place very different from the current world, where everything is exactly how they want it to be.
I am not excusing this POV, and I don't know if I have any big insights to end with - except that life is better once you do classics in the real world instead of the Holodeck. For more of my process getting there: https://kenyonreview.org/kr-online-issue/2017-julyaug/selections/erin-l-thompson-656342/
And I now try to teach classics as a part of the real world, both in the past and in the present. Here's my main syllabus: https://www.academia.edu/40915618/Syllabus_Art_and_Myth_in_Ancient_World_with_Assignments_
