Slate, Mason Dixon and general randomness..

[MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu]

Well said, Greg.  Not only LeGuin, but hopelessly elitist sexist antisemitic (emoticon of 
man rolling his eyes) TS Eliot makes the same point about the modern *dissociation* 
between intellectual and emotional ways of being.  You're also right, IMO, about the 
reverse snobbery of US culture (remember Adlai Stevenson? that EGGHEAD!). . . a-and 
it's even worse if there's a fucking *edu* in your email address!!!
john m
************************
Greg M. writes:
>
>Well, what I think is that Kirn's review (which tells us more about Kirn and
>his pre-judgements of Pynchon than it does about M&D) is representative of
>the current American trend towards BINARY THINKING.
>
>There has always been the perception among the "Great Wad" (a term I borrow
>with thanks from Harlan Ellison) that intellect and emotion are two
>diametrically opposed qualities;  that emotion is warm, human, GOOD, and
>that intellect is cold, machinelike, EVIL.  Not only does this ignore the
>fact that intellect is just about the ONLY quality that differentiates
>"humans" from the rest of the universe (can you have a more "human" quality
>than that?), but that -- and I don't want to startle anybody here --
>intellect can be a USEFUL (even INDISPENSABLE) component of _real_ emotion.
>{I believe it was LeGuin who remarked that "Emotion is not the opposite of
>Reason;  the opposite of Reason is Unreason."}

<snip>

>No, I do NOT find the reading "difficult".  What I find difficult is
>attempting to choke down the Tom Clancys & Jackie Collins' that people keep
>trying to force on me;  and when I spit these indigestible hunks of pap back
>up, I'm confronted with another of this country's endearing characteristics:
>reverse snobbery.   
>