Grabar

[John M. Krafft]

I happened to catch your message on the list about scoundrels. I'd say a good
half or more of Americans (voters and otherwise) probably are scoundrels, or
else are pathetically eager to be deceived, but then I'm a cynic. Jonathan
Swift (in A Tale of a Tub) divides people into fools and knaves, which is even
more cynical.

But what I really wanted to say is, can you believe that Grabar wrote a
dissertation called "Analogies between Nazi culture and American Culture"
(2003) on Pynchon, Percy and DeLillo? Only in light of this week's  propaganda
piece might a reader of her dissertation's abstract suspect some skepticism or
other reservation in her use of phrases like "Pynchon promotes the thesis" and
"Percy likewise implies." So, did she betray her life-long patriotism in
writing her dissertation just to get past a nasty committee of America-hating
bullies, or has she recently betrayed her scholarly self for reasons I won't
speculate about?

John


-- 
John M. Krafft
Miami University–Hamilton / 1601 University Blvd. / Hamilton, OH 45011-3399
Tel: 513.785.3031 or 513.868.2330
Fax: 513.785.3145
krafftjm at muohio.edu
http://www.ham.muohio.edu/~krafftjm