Subject: eggheads
From: Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Date: Wed Apr 19 2000 - 16:13:29 EDT
'... but we could certainly use a dose
of his "hyperintellectualism" now that we're living
in the (so far nondescript) Naughties ....'
I wonder how these sentiments echo with other list
members?
Any suggestions why some of us regard the label
'intellectual' as a badge of shame? Maybe it's nothing
more than my conditioning as an English gentleman
always to assume 'amateur' (as opposed to 'player') status.
It's only Frogs & such who admit, or claim, to be
intellectual. To accept the title is to see oneself as
somehow professionally clever - & thereby expose
oneself to a charge of vulgarity.
I sometimes think I caught the attitude from my
early - & late - idolatry of Hemingway. But then
he too was always susceptible to certain anglophile
snobberies.
I also wonder about Salinger. I suspect that mixed
up in his shunning of the world there may have
been an aversion to the cleverness of publishers,
of critics, of New Yorker setters. He would rather
be taking tea with that little English lady, Esme -
who is far too well bred to have heard about
the latest, fashionably liberal, intellectual craze.
And even with all their reading & philosophising
I don't think you can call the Glasses intellectuals.
Their very preoccupation with God makes them
ineligible. No self-respecting intellectual would
admit anything to plebian.
Scottie B.
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