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  • The Interesting
  • Mikhail Epstein (bio)
    Translated by Igor Klyukanov

1.

The interesting is a complex trans-disciplinary label often applied not only to works of literature, art, and sciences, but also to the phenomena of real life—persons, events, actions, relationships, and so on. In its evaluative scope, the interesting is hardly less universal than the beautiful or the truthful, and it seems to have become even more popular in our day. While in the past a literary or scholarly work was generally valued for its truthfulness and beauty, usefulness and instructiveness, in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries it has been a work's primary evaluation as interesting that paves the way for any further evaluation, including critical analysis. Unless a certain work is "interesting," interpreting it is pointless. But the concept of the interesting does not only introduce the discussion; it often concludes and crowns it as well, through statements like: "In spite of a number of flaws, this article is interesting in that it . . ." or "The peculiar features of this work make it possible to explain the interest that it generated in the reading public." The interesting is simultaneously our initial, intuitive evaluation of the quality of a work and the resulting synthesis of all its analytical definitions.

In some cases a work may be devoid of internal interest but at [End Page 75] the same time possess an external interest, inasmuch as it reflects surprising tendencies in public tastes, literary markets, or publishing processes. A mediocre collection of poetry or an incompetent work of scholarship may be interesting as a symptom of certain intellectual or social trends. A dull book that has been published by a prestigious publisher, or has achieved inexplicable success with the public, creates a paradox and sometimes even a scandal; it attracts interest not to itself, but to the situation as a whole—this seems to be the case, for instance, with some "reality" TV shows. We can call "exteresting" such phenomena that appear to be interesting exactly because they are devoid of intrinsic interest. Thus, it would be useful to discriminate between a work that is interesting in itself and one that is exteresting as part of an external situation, of a larger social or intellectual context. This latter case is often described by the expression interesting as; a work may be interesting as evidence of the degradation of public taste or as indicative of a crisis in the writer's creativity. There are interesting people and books, but there are also interesting situations that involve boring people and tedious books as focal elements.

There is a clear discrepancy between the growing popularity of the interesting as an evaluative term and the lack of its theoretical exploration. Thousands of volumes are written on beauty and truth while one can hardly find a single one on the interesting. Thus the lines between the rigorous and appropriate application of this term and its colloquial use or even misuse become blurred, and this evaluative word is often applied unreflectively or euphemistically. To say that something is "interesting" is a convenient way to say something positive and pleasant about a work without giving it any substantial consideration. "That's interesting!" often functions as an empty remark, meaning everything and nothing. Such exclamations can serve as an excuse for evading further discussion or a signal to change the topic, rather than as an introduction to the issue of what makes this thing interesting.

My own interest in the interesting comes from the fact that I have found this concept relevant to practically all the disciplines with which I have been engaged in my theoretical pursuits, from literary theory to cultural studies to linguistics to philosophy. It has [End Page 76] a much broader range of applications than, for instance, the ancient and venerable category of the beautiful, the use of which is mostly restricted to aesthetics and literary and art criticism. Though my primary impulse here is to discuss interesting ideas and theories, that is, the application of this concept in intellectual endeavors, I see no reason why the universal value of the interesting shouldn't be addressed as well, including its relevance for the discussion...

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