“By allowing us to survive, the
efficiency of intelligence also offers us the possibility of complexity without
foundation, thought without usefulness, and beauty without purpose.”
- Muriel Barbery, The Elegance
of the Hedgehog
Thought without usefulness is
almost an oxymoron to me. But not to everybody, apparently. I was recently startled by a question posed
to me by an Iowa native. I mentioned that I would like to learn a bit more
about regional geography, specifically where the city of Ottumwa, Iowa is in
relation to Des Moines. I said casually that I ought to know this now that I
live here.
“Why?” she asked. “Why would you
want to know that unless you needed driving directions?”
Why indeed, squander one’s finite
cerebral activity on a matter beyond the city limits? Or even beyond the
parking lot outside the window and the road leading back home. Although not
inclined to gamble, I would be willing to bet my best pair of shoes that she
couldn’t tell me where Aleppo is. Or why we should care. Such lack of curiosity
- or even interest - stuns me.
Or, perhaps this is simply what
Barbery’s protagonist meant when she said this side effect of intelligence is
some kind of flaw. After the sentence quoted above, she goes on to say “It’s
like a computer bug, a consequence without consequence of the subtlety of our
cortex, a superfluous perversion making an utterly wasteful use of the means at
its disposal.” I don’t get this any more than I get why I shouldn’t want to
know more about where I live.
To me, any thought is useful in
that it means my brain is functioning. I get Barbery’s point that searching for
truth and beauty doesn’t necessarily elevate us and make us somehow more than
thinking animals - with a brain perhaps a bit bigger than necessary to find our
way to Ottumwa if our life depends on it. We can find our way to Ottumwa just
for the hell of it. Sorry, I’m judging that as failure of imagination if not
intelligence. To me, an absence of curiosity about what’s around the corner
makes for a claustrophobically small universe. I’m curious, therefore, I am.
Then again, this woman did ask me
why. She was curious as to why I’d be curious. That’s something. She’s probably
going to the Trump thank you party tonight. Thank goodness it’s here in Des
Moines, and not wherever the hell Ottumwa is. In any event, I wasn’t invited.
