>> it looks set to become much, much worse.<<
Sounds like a microcosm of UK society, Robin, he chortled in his glee (it's
the human stain...)
mj
Du siehst mein Sohn, zum Raum wird hier die Zeit. - Gurnemanz
----- Original Message -----
From: Robin Hamilton
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Friday, May 15, 2009 11:54 AM
Subject: Re: poetry professor
> I'm prepared to accept Padel's assurances that she had no knowledge of the
> unofficial anonymous campaign, but the Law of Unintended Consequences has
> kicked in.
>
> Robin
Boy, has the shit *ever hit the fan! And still less than twenty-four hours
after Walcott withdrew.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23692488-details/The+hounding+of+a+Nobel+poet+has+shamed+Oxford/article.do
Not an anonymous accusation this, but James Fenton, ex-journalist, poet, and
former Professor of Poetry at Oxford, citing sources, providing quotations,
and giving precise dating.
... only it's not the Walcott Sexual Harassment Narrative but
Padel-Knew-About-It-All-the-Time.
I'm not sure I'd agree with Fenton that Padel knew about the Anonymous
Campaign, and I'd reverse his sequencing of the link between John Walsh's
Independent article of April 28th and the physcially-posted dossier, but he
does back up his points. Helps to have been a professional journalist, I
suppose.
One of the sad things about this is that an election contested by a woman
poet, an Afro-Caribbean poet and an Indian poet has become throughly
tainted.
Who benefits from this? I've been aware for some time that race was
certainly at issue in the original treatment of the 1982 Harvard
accusation -- at the time, a Harvard student wrote to the Crimson drawing
attention to the fact that the only two cases of sexual harassment , in a
faculty of predominantly white teachers, had been leveled against black
professors. I'm not entirely sure that race isn't *still part of the issue.
Anyway, consequences intended or not -- Walcott's withdrawal has shifted the
focus. Be interesting to see how it continues to play out.
It's messy enough already, but it looks set to become much, much worse.
Robin
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