New York, New York: The Craftsman

I was still on the first page of "The Craftsman" when my mind turned to the streets of New York and the muscular gold Prometheus on the 30 Rock Plaza. I continued to wander (my mind does that a lot) through the Manhattan of my past -- the Schaeffer Music Festival in Central Park, FAO Schwartz, the Plaza, Howard Stein's Academy of Music on 14th Street, Max's Kansas City, Studio 54, fried clams on the half-shell on 42nd Street (in health code-ravaged shops scattered between porn theatres and live sex shows -- can I say that here??), the Round Table at the Algonquin, and Plato's Retreat (the latter was NOT a gathering place for philosophers). These places will be as unfamiliar to many of you as a platform shoes-only mirrored-ball discotheque or a 90-minute drum solo during an Emerson, Lake & Palmer concert. Alas, I loved my New York, now only a distant memory. It has been years since I lived in the neighborhood and I confess I was feeling more than a bit envious of those of you who live within the World's Greatest Workshop.

I think Sennett's overarching aim in "The Craftsman" is to argue for a redefinition of materialism and material culture based upon the dignity and intrinsic value of labor. His thesis is basically an argument he never got the chance to make to his old teacher, Hannah Arendt, that "people can learn about themselves through the things they make, that material culture matters . . . [W]e can achieve a more humane material life, if only we better understand the making of things." (8) He covers a wide swath of history from the ancient and Classical through the Renaissance and Enlightenment, taking us through the evolution of definitions of and attitudes towards the "craftsman." He then discusses the nature of 'work' in contemporary society by focusing on motivation, skills, and standards. These are fairly straightforward narratives, wherein he contrasts the differences between internal and external motivations, hands-on vs. hands-off skills development, and conflicts between absolute/ quantitative standards of quality and more subjective/ qualitative standards of practice. He goes on to provide case studies of the historical development of the productive as well as the dysfunctional workshop, and ends with an attempt to differentiate 'craft' from 'art' by means of analyzing characteristics such as autonomy, originality, and distinctiveness.

New York and The New School cannot be my physical workshop, but I am fortunate to be a member of an even larger workshop known as humanity. In any event, as Sennett observes, our society has 'balkanized' most of its workshops, and we are forced to move between, through, and across a multiplicity of communities to do our work. I'm particularly grateful for this online community, from which I have already gained so many ideas, so much inspiration. Thank you!