Charles Mudede, The Stranger‘s parenting-issues editor: “Very pleased that my son is doing very well in math and biology and sucking in the arts. This is a relief.”

Christopher Frizzelle was The Stranger's print editor, and first joined the staff in 2003. He was the editor-in-chief from 2007 to 2016, and edited the story by Eli Sanders that won a 2012 Pulitzer...

15 replies on “Overheard on Twitter”

  2. I know my own father hated that I was artistic and stated such everytime I displayed any of my work. It hurt me deeply and, in the end, made me think less of him. His excuse was I wouldn’t ever make a living and I would end up making greeting cards. But I think the real reason was he thought it wasn’t masculine to be an artist. But what would life be like without art? Ask yourself that, Charles.

  3. I for one await eagerly an intellectual, surreal if not other-worldly, and largely non-responsive Mudede response to the responses to his strangely anti-artistic Tweet. It could be worse, he could be taking modern dance.

  5. I thought you enjoyed architecture, Charles. Aren’t you always posting pictures of buildings that catch your eye? They weren’t soley designed by math-genius engineers, but mainly by artistic architects.

    Why does it have to be either/or? Why do you think it’s better to be good at science and not in art? Some people are great at both. Like DaVinci, or MY kid…

  6. i did well at sucking in the arts at school too. It started with drama, sucking the actors at first (what a cliche), but I soon learned the technical crew were so much more fun. Opera singers who couldn’t help themselves running scales while moaning, painters with turpentine in the oddest places, and dancers with their oh-so-grippable rumps.

  7. As a child, it is very difficult to extricate one’s self from the feel-good, every child a precious snowflake culture, which furiously squeezes the ambition, impetus and ultimately future from developing minds. Childhood preference for mathematics and the sciences is simply symptomatic of good taste; whilst the art-world is all touchy-feely, in seeming cahoots with the otherworldly delusions of parents, the sciences provide concrete solutions to real problems. You could say the arts are more typical of people who have a problem not violating others’ personal space; that too, can be solved with a bit of technical mastery, shooting anyone in the face who can’t be bothered not to bother other people.

    I was much the same way; developed a very firm grounding in the technical side through secondary school and university. It’s ironic now that I mostly do language-side work.

  8. As an artist, I think all the critiques I received as a child helped. Everytime I was was told I wouldn’t or shouldn”t make it I sought it more — like a right of passage.

  9. @8:

    Studies have shown that engaging in holistically oriented right-brain activities actually improves the sequential analytic functioning of the left-lobe and vice-versa, and that exercising BOTH lobes is essential to healthy intellectual, psychological and motor-skill development.

  11. As an engineer: Good for your son, Charles. It’s amazing to be able to do what I love and be respected and WELL PAID for it. And this is what I love. I understand that the archetypal “starving artist” who works a shit job in order to fund his true love might be a more romantic stereotype, but if Science is what you really love doing, there’s no reason not to be well paid for it.

  14. #correction: I think you meant “The Stranger’s Medieval Lifestyle Editor bolstering his lunacy with pseudo-Marxism and pseudo-science.”

  15. Being good at science and math simply makes life easier. It’s easier to find a job when you’re a scientist or engineer. Mudede’s son will be more likely to make a livable wage. He has a better chance of stability in his future.

    I would support a child that pursues the arts, but the numbers say a child that pursues science will have more opportunities

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