Follow up on "consumatory"

See this post by Thomas for a follow up on the discussion of scholarship, working hours, and leisure.

He suggests we don't want our creative scholars producing scholarship, teaching, and serving on committees for 60 hours a week. We need to factor in some creative leisure time for the regeneration of the soul and intellect.

What if someone was a composer of music on the university faculty. I personally wouldn't care whether the composer spent 5, 10, or 20 hours a week actually writing music. There are vastly different personal rhythms involved in work like this. As long as the composer could show that, within a two-year period, music had been written, that would be fine. Maybe the composer needs to do 10 hours a zen meditation a week, or take walks out in nature. We shouldn't really question that.

Now maybe scholars aren't "creative types." Maybe they need more regimentation. If they have teams of researchers and labs and grants, then they need to be held accountable. My own work, though, is much more like the music composer's than like the lab scientist.