Malta Impressions

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

On Wed, 16 Jun 2004, umberto rossi wrote:
> Though capturing the spirit of the event I'm sorry to say that the
> Official Pynchonite Astrologist (and also football connoisseur) was
> not accurate about this: neither me nor Luca Briasco are members of
> the academia, so there were at least four participants outside those
> walls and halls...

I found Doug Lannark a great guy too (e.g., he speaks fluent Danish...),
but indeed, when it comes to the speakers, I wouldn't regard the local
keynote speakers, Arnold Cassola and Peter Serracino-Inglott, as coming
from inside "the protected walls & halls of the 'academica'", either
- even though they both have been affiliated to the U of Malta. Cassola,
(until now) the leader of Greens in the EU Parliament, and a wizard on
matters Maltese, had to leave right after his talk on Pynchon's Malta
as he was busy electioneering for Alternattiva Demokratika, for "those
two votes still needed". (It seems, unfortunately, that he could not
find those two votes - Labour and Conservatives swept the table.)

Father Serracino-Inglott's speech I, alas, missed as my return flight
took off Thu morning already. But he seems another jack-of-all-trades
and every bit as unprotected by any walls - one could say that whereas
the green Cassola has fought the Hothouse, Serracino-Inglott has been
forced to confront the Street:

http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2001/0812/people.html



Yr non-speaker, yet another exile from academia,

Heikki