Re: Da Bears

Scottie and John -- anyone who makes a large generalization about an
entire group of people -- especially one as inflammatory as John's --
deserves the title "bigot."

Here, let me quote it again:

<<People who fuel the literary criticism industry: Good-for-nothing,
God-forsaken, supercilious academicians; -- John>>

I want you to read it over and over again, John, until what you said
penetrates your consciousness just a little bit.

Please don't play the victim here John. It's bad enough being a bigot,
but I can chalk that up to a blindness you can't quite help. You don't
have to be a hypocrite as well.

Scottie -- I'm not sure what gives you pause about the figure "over 4000
degree granting institutions." I lifted that from a US Department of Ed
publication. I can dig up the link if you like. If you disagree that
all of them "fuel the literary criticsm industry," I would say they all
do if the instructors, at any time, require their students to read
literary criticism, or if the institution has literary journals on its
library shelves.

Perhaps John meant something else by "fuel the literary criticism
industry," -- perhaps he intended to say, "write criticism."

But even then, his generalization is still completely unjustified.

Jim

Scottie Bowman wrote:

> '... [called] a curmudgeon on this subject, and many
> on this list have privately told me so ...'
>
> ... and now, in the public prints, 'an asinine bigot'.
>
> Well, John, not by me. Your findings tally so exactly
> with those thrown up by my own sampling techniques
> that the words, 'reasonable, balanced, objective &
> restrained' are the ones that first spring to mind.
>
> Jim's '4000 degree-granting, accredited institutions' ...
> [a] large proportion of them employ[ing] people
> who "fuel the literary criticism industry" - is a figure
> to give anyone pause. One is reminded of those other
> hordes of scholars, all earnestly deconstructing holy writ
> - but kneeling in the opposite direction & wearing turbans.
>
> And they wonder why teachers have fallen so far
> in the popular estimate & why 'intellectual' has become
> one of the most derisive of names to call anyone.
>
> Scottie B.
>
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Received on Mon Oct 28 22:46:20 2002