Heroes and Hero-worship

The BBC Proms began on Friday 17 July and the concerts run throughout the summer until 12 September. The Daily Telegraph recently said that "If 'accessibility' means anything ... then this is the most accessible music festival in the world". It is difficult to disagree with this unless, that is, you take the view that anything requiring effort, no matter how slight, and everything capable of intellectual analysis even by a few is by definition "exclusive" and consequently inaccessible. Most readers of this blog are unlikely agree with the suggestion that effort and accessibility are incompatible - why else are you reading this? The Proms began in 1895 and thankfully show no sign of losing vitality. The cost has been kept low for those willing to actually promenade and, as Simon Heffer points out, it's absolutely free of charge to anyone with a radio set.

Radio listeners are accustomed to the content being free at the point of delivery even if in the case of commercial stations they have to tolerate some advertising. One of the benefits of living in a city that has two universities in the city and another nearby is that there are many cultural and educational opportunities available that cost nothing and which can be experienced live. One of these I discovered last year is the De Montfort University programme called the Distinguished Lecture Series. A number of universities and other institutions have these programmes under which invited speakers deliver a public lecture and, according to The Guardian at least, their popularity is growing. What's the point of these? Speaking personally there are three main reasons why lectures such as these seem to me worthwhile. The first is to listen to someone well informed share their knowledge and possibly wisdom. I can quite easily read their latest book or research them online, but seeing people in the flesh is quite different. It takes conviction to stand up and make your point when faced by a lecture theatre of adults who don't have to be there. I like conviction. Secondly, and echoing the point made by Aditya Chakraborty in his article, I am one of those who has passed the point of being amused by alcohol, loud music, tribalistic dancing, watching sports and weak humour. There are very few places where you can gather with others, sit in relative quiet and have one person inform others. Thirdly it reasserts the idea of "community" which was long ago hijacked by the politicos and given a meaning that shares many attributes with "front" and "action". It restores it's original meaning which in this context broadly corresponds to the Latin universitas - university.

It seems to me that we may be rediscovering the form of the public lecture. Thomas Carlyle in giving such a public lecture in 1838 said that, "One comfort is, that Great Men, taken up in any way, are profitable company. We cannot look, however imperfectly, upon a great man, without gaining something by him". Perhaps that is the real reason we are finding these once more informative.