NP readership (was...

[owen j mcgrann]

terrance wrote:
 >Owen doesn't think it was a joke. This may be because he is not all that
 >familiar with Marxist and Feminist readings or critiques. Or, as he
 >said, the teacher was not well versed in these. A combination of
 >these...all sorts of things....anyway, I would not be surprised to hear
 >this in a University here in the States. And I have heard it here, not
 >Beowulf, but Shakespeare.

i can't claim to be anything remotely close to an expert in marxist or 
feminist literary criticism, but i have read marx, several feminist 
thinkers, and advocates of both schools of literary criticism.  i don't 
subscribe to either school, but grant that both have important insights 
into possible textual meanings.  my professor was simply an arrogant 
pseud-intellectual snob who indeed insisted that beowulf was a marxist and 
feminist text rather than presenting marxist or feminist critiques.

joe wrote:
 >Your Brit.Lit.
 >professor's small "s" sophistry is a beautiful example of the specious
 >reasoning that clogs current dialogue on just about any subject, especially
 >the political. The road to the truth is jammed with misinformation and
 >outright balderdash. When a mental Sunday driver, such as your professor, is
 >presented with a decent contrary argument, or even incontrovertible
 >evidence, they invariably start spouting off about their "right to their
 >opinion". This is the last refuge of the intellectually dishonest and the
 >bigoted.

indeed.  i wrote my final paper about how _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_ 
was not a marxist work and was given a C- in the class because i disagreed 
with him and told him so.  i showed my papers to other english professors 
who were shocked at my grade.  it's people like this professor that will 
keep me from going to the graduate schools i want to attend.

i believe his exact words were: "that's fine, owen: it's painfully clear 
now that you are locked in your dogmatic views about literature.  that's 
your right.  this is my opinion.  end of discussion."

on a completely different topic, you guys might appreciate this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37785-2002Aug19.html

(you would think that after vietnam people would learn that a politically 
run war is usually bound to fail.)



- owen

the box o' info -
x5451 box 1633
thestranger.org

"i was curious and eager to know only what
i believed to be more real than myself."
         - proust: in search of lost time