In the Philosophy half Isle one mo' again

Yesterday I found myself in the philosophy section of the Barnes and Noble once more. Having found Rorty and his Critics last time, this time I was looking for Danto and his Critics with no hope of doing so since Danto sometimes falls into a weird category between art and philosophy; and the philosophy section of the Barnes and Noble, although rich, is not that comprehensive.

The Philosophy section of the store shares the isle with the New Age section, in which two women stood talking. And no matter how concentrated one is in their search for a book, the layout of the place does not allow for one not to hear what the people standing in a shared isle are saying. So I heard, and I listened; and I did so until what I heard made me give up on my search entirely.

The woman with the heavy southern accent was expounding on that already disproved myth that one can teach fetuses in the womb about Beethoven just by putting the womb close to a speaker from whence such music emanates. At that point I wondered if she even had a Beethoven CD in order to do that with her womb or if she was in the store to buy one. And then I fantasized about her buying a version of Beethoven's 5th with Von Karajan conducting; and wondered if that would turn her child into a Nazi? heh heh.

The woman went on to tell her friend about the tiny child she saw playing piano on Oprah's show and how his mother made him listen to Beethoven while he was in the womb. ... And I wondered what Beethoven's mother had to do for Beethoven to turn out as he did in an era without stereos. Did she travel around Austria to stick her stomach out at musicians? ...And why is poor Beethoven always the example for these crazy schemes? Why not David Bowie; he's way richer and far happier than Beethoven was. Or FDR's fireside chats, so that the fetus might one day grow to be elected president 4 times. Would a mother not rather have that for her child?...

The woman with a heavy southern accent concluded with, "That's what I want to do with my daughter, I want her to be a genius”. And here I was depressed about the state of our schools and the general lack of interest in education when the solution to the problem has been staring me in the face all these years. We just have to expose the wombs to culture!

I left thinking, “Why does the B&N philosophy section, which keeps shrinking, have to be sandwiched between the fucking New Age shit, and the seven isles of Christian crap!”. Ugh.