Vive la poésie françaises lesbiennes!
James Dyson, the vacuum cleaner magnate, has recently apparently argued that we need less study of "French Lesbian Poetry" and more study of engineering. It may well be that he has been traduced and that this was not exactly what he said, it sounds a bit too journalistically juicy, nevertheless it has lodged in the public consciousness. Now, I never realised that this is where the competition might come from. I want to make it clear however, that lesbians and poets, even the French, are all very welcome to apply to study engineering. I know superb engineers from each of these groups. Frankly also, any opportunity to redress the gender balance in engineering is more than welcome. I suspect however this is not quite what James Dyson meant.
The whole controversy has unfortunately a serious side, it perpetuates the corrosive myth that engineers are soulless automatons. That our concerns and preoccupations are entirely instrumental. I angrily reject this unjust slur and I take strong exception to even the faint suggestion. I have not knowingly read any 'French Lesbian Poetry' (capitals intended) but this is purely an accident and if anybody wishes to recommend some to me, I will take it up with alacrity.
The point I wish to make is however, not that engineers can be cultured and well read, but that engineering is a fundamentally 'humanistic' pursuit. We build roads and houses, communication networks and computers, energy supplies and transportation systems, why? Because, essentially, we want to enable people to sit on their sofa and read 'French Lesbian Poetry' (capitals again) on their kindle. Engineering has human ends.
Furthermore, no engineering can be done, not bridges, not chemical plant, not complex software, certainly not vacuum cleaners, without a fundamental understanding of the people these engineering systems are designed to serve. This understanding is about more than their immediate interactions with that system but must necessarily address their values, motivations and desires. The very stuff that, I would guess, 'French Lesbian Poetry' speaks to, even if vacuum cleaners themselves do not make much of an appearance.
It is for this reason that engineering and the humanities and 'letters' are bound to each other. That civilisation, in its material and cultural manifestations, are inseparable. It is for this reason too, that engineering and the humanities are essential parts of a university. I want more engineering and more engineers but not at the cost of the arts. I would go further. It is no coincidence that London's East End innovation cluster coexists with art galleries, craft shops, dodgy night-clubs and hokey experimental theatre. I dare say that if you wanted to find a French Lesbian Poet and could not afford the Eurostar, St Pancras International to Paris, there would be few better places to look than Shoreditch.