At 7:02 PM +1000 4/28/03, Chris Jones wrote:
>A lesbian does a doctorate on Gertrude Stein. A highly specialised
>experimental lesbian writer, she is told. she finally finds a teaching
>post in a new out of the way university and spends the rest of her
>career fearing for her job with each shake-up the Government is giving
>the universities. Far, far, far too specialised, she is told. How can
>you possibly teach modernist poetics with a background like that? I have
>Gertrude Stein's _Lectures in America_ beside me as I write this.
Aaargh! This is a horrifying story Chris. I (almost) can't believe
it's true. Is Jack Spicer a "gay writer"? Or HD? (Or Rimbaud or
Lorca, come to that?) I guess it's one way of hiving off challenges
to the armchairs of received opinion, or at least keeping the lid on
ideas in these reactionary times. Though the cult of Saatchi and
Saatchi also has something to do with that.
But this kind of stupidity, which is far too common among people
whose job descriptions claim they ought to know better, is why I tend
to secede from Australia and claim that I live in the People's
Republic of Williamstown.
Best
A
--
Alison Croggon
Editor
Masthead Online
http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/
Home page
http://www.users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
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