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Like Sarah Churchwell (¡°Humanities: why the study of human culture still matters¡±, Opinion, 13 November), I am not immune to the appeal of a good read from within the literature¡¯s considerable variety. She may concur that we won¡¯t exhaust this variety soon; for instance, the settings, roles, action and jargon in The Hound of the Baskervilles don¡¯t reappear in places passed through by retired Major Jack Reacher. Such diversity seems a weighty problem for a practical slant on the discipline.

If the humanities are to improve communication and help to ¡°reframe our complicated world¡±, they cannot rely solely on language used within the literature, or even on precise interpretations of such language: the next problematic social setting encountered is likely to be very different from the last. Instead, Churchwell¡¯s discipline needs a formal means to construct precise language in real time ¨C practical jargon assembled on the spot by people aiming to reframe their world via serious debate.

Neil Richardson
Kirkheaton