tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3576804529126714608.post6059641696211911309..comments2024-01-31T13:51:35.011-05:00Comments on ABC OF READING: DECOMPOSITION OF A Writing LifeThomas McGoniglehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05262994278231611143noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3576804529126714608.post-64130080276201183472015-09-22T23:15:04.338-04:002015-09-22T23:15:04.338-04:00Demby published one more novel in his lifetime, Lo...Demby published one more novel in his lifetime, Love Story Black - first issued by Ishmael Reed's press in '78, a few years later by Dutton. In 2007 he completed his last novel King Comus - which he apparently regarded as his masterpiece - but two years after his death, it remains unpublished.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3576804529126714608.post-87448996746342623302015-09-20T20:20:12.947-04:002015-09-20T20:20:12.947-04:00My son learned that lesson at Pomona.... he took a...My son learned that lesson at Pomona.... he took a course in Modern or contemporary English and Irish poetry... and of course the guy had to include second rate poets like Carol Ann Duffy and Eavan Boland... the latter, one of the worst poets Ireland had recently produced... I had warned him of this possibility..but it gets worse as the guy didn't include Patrick Kavanagh's great poem THE GREAT HUNGER... also the students were subjected to rock an roll lyrics by Irish singers....<br />i won't even mention the stupid Freshman seminar he signed up for by mistake and couldn't get out of... he majored in physics and astronomy minored in Latin.... while he might suspected I might be a crank he learned the hard way that when it comes to english departments the best thing is to avoid any contamination... my daughter minored in French at Vanderbilt and was not required to read Rimbaud, Baudelaire or Celine.. but she did have to take a course in feminist theory, Francophone literature from North Africa... and write a report on how the French Swiss newspapers described the English royal family...<br />Thomas McGoniglehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05262994278231611143noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3576804529126714608.post-31448700650300578162015-09-10T05:22:43.412-04:002015-09-10T05:22:43.412-04:00I know you were a professor - and you stand as the...I know you were a professor - and you stand as the lone exception I've known, who has enriched my life with a flood of outstanding recommendations of outstanding literature. I wasn't in the mood for CORRECTION's narrator when I read it, but that doesn't mean Bernhardt doesn't have the real stuff. Besides that I've never encountered anyone close to being a combination of a genuinely outstanding critic and overlapping with my artistic sensibilities. My experiences with ALL other LIT PROFS, with a few neutral exceptions, has been as you describe - far worse than simply being moronic and not capable of understanding quality literature, they tend to require conformity to an idiotic agenda, be it "multicultural relativism", feminist or leftist readings, that if a student veers from they are penalized under the guise of "subjective material" which allows any grade to be assigned without clear explanation. I know "hipsters" get a bad rap over in Brooklyn, but that's because it's become so widely acceptable that widespread misuse of a word qualifies it as a genuine definition by the ignorant masses. When Burroughs (I did have a high school teacher assign Soft Machine, Sound and Fury, O'neill, Joyce, and Cela - but college was dominated by feminazis and religious relativist dipshits) spoke of hipsters: "Those who choose to live outside the law (I'll extend this to the ivory tower, which is law), by moral imperative". That is what hipster actually means. It could not be more important to resist this thought control by simpleton careerists who insist on spreading their sick ideas to a new generation all too often willing to swallow them hook, line and sinker.Chris Coffmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3576804529126714608.post-35773949492109717902015-09-09T16:32:48.858-04:002015-09-09T16:32:48.858-04:00Lovely.Lovely.Misty Kiwak Jacobshttp://www.awordplease.orgnoreply@blogger.com