Or is he too old to learn?

[Paul Nightingale]

Some interesting comments on misogyny and homophobia in GR. My earlier
comment was an observation only, an acknowledgement in passing (if any were
needed) that P's writing wasn't 'perfect'. I wasn't advocating political
correctness, whatever that is (most certainly a construct the same as any
other); and it might be possible to run the argument that GR 'makes use of'
such discourses of oppression in a very knowing way (although 'it might be
possible' doesn't mean 'I am doing this'). My main point (overlooked) in
that post regarded the calculated way in which P set about writing a 'great'
novel. I suppose, rereading the post, what I might have emphasised was the
juxtaposition of one to the other: P could manufacture the novel he did,
presumably conscious and sober the while, the odd joint and tab
notwithstanding, and yet ignore (overlook) what contemporary sexual politics
would have claimed was important (if indeed that is what did happen).

So I wasn't attacking P for his 'slip' in order to wave the PC flag (I am,
after all, a paid-up, card-carrying pidolator). Just one of the
common-or-garden conflicts a discursive analysis will expose. In the same
way, Touch of Evil is flawed by its adoption of prevailing stereotypes when
depicting the teenage gang in the motel.