Letters to the Editor
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Faux Frankenstein
So Mary Shelley really didn't write Frankenstein after all? Her husband Percy wrote it instead? And Frankenstein doesn't really deal with yawny dull stuff like hubris or technology or the ways in which people always seem to end up getting pestered to death by their own inventions, it's actually about hott boi sex?
Too cool!! That sure would explain why the title of The Last Man is, er, The Last Man. Yet another aggravating literary mystery solved. Though at this point another puzzle arises---which is how it is Percy Shelley could have written The Last Man when he was many years dead, along with all those other Gothic novels ( Matilda, Valperga, Perkin Warbeck, Lodore, Falkner) that it seems Mary Shelley was just too much one of life's eternal blackboard monitors to write.
Oh, well. Maybe Camille can put on her diligent-puruser-of-esoteric-lore hat on and figure that one out. For which reason, will eagerly be awaiting the next Paglia data dump.
(Because I've gotta admit it definitely stumps the heck outta me.)
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Al Mascitti...?
"Like a lot of lesbians, she worships manliness?" WTF? Where are you getting this shit, Al? God in Heaven, how I despise these ridiculous generalizations!
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Yes, perception is going to play a role
...but if we don't fight it and master it with the facts and with reality then we are doomed to be manipulated by any ridiculous juvenile image that comes along. We can even be manipulated by purely accidental images.
So when someone claims that Hillary was just rapping 'black speech' at some hapless black folks it needs to be pointed out that she was actually quoting a poem written in black speech. When someone says Howard Dean was 'screaming' it needs to be pointed out that the sound tape happened to only record his microphone and not the noise of the crowd that was present--making him sound like he was just screaming into the air.
And when someone claims that Bush is a nice guy who means well, and says what he means and means what he says, then the factual reality of George Bush needs to be pointed out as well--that he's factually rude, insular and mendacious and hardly likely to go out for a beer with anyone.
Otherwise, if we won't argue against perception, then we just give up and let the teenagers run everything on the basis of who they think is cool and who's not. And looking at the Bush administration, it sure seems like that's exactly what we've done.
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Re: Cliff Notes for Paglia
Gee thanks, Yossarian, great idea!
Camille must be terrific because she obviously thinks she is and, clearly Joan thinks she is. But I also have a really difficult time getting through her stuff that Salon insists on publishing. Your Cliff Notes will be helpful in case I’m ever lucky enough to meet her.
I have an even tougher time with anything Debra Dickerson writes. I even have a rule about that:
Read something by Debra Dickerson = Waste of remaining inventory of potentially productive time.
But I also realize (since Salon also insists on publishing her screeds) that she is eventually going to be recognized as a brilliant writer. That little episode of exposure on Stephen Colbert resulting from something she wrote on Salon was just a temporary setback. She is even looking forward to having her own entourage to thank when it happens according to one of her most recent Salon pieces:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/02/19/entourage/index.html?source=rss
So, some Debra Dickerson Cliff Notes could also come in handy. The first one is easy:
1. I'm allowed to say hateful, insulting and really stupid things about blacks, and sometimes whites, because I'm black. (No, really! I am!)
Any other notes to add? Maybe we can get together and sell some of these if Camille ever regains her prominence or somebody other than Salon thinks Dickerson actually deserves prominence.
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Fuxxsnooze
Edwards shows character by shunning the fascist media toadies. Where has Chamomile been the last thirty years, as the formerly mildly liberal media has turned corporate whore? Kutsie Katie Kouric is a progressive voice? John Stossel? Brian Williams? Puh-leeze. The only neutral national media voice is the PBS news hour. But Fuxxsnooze is blatantly an orifice of the RNC, and Democratic candidates would do well to give them the group moon they so richly deserve. Let Mordor Murdock stew in his own bile.
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How to read Camille Paglia
Paglia is useful not for what she says, but what she makes you think. So you read her for the ideas she makes you have, not so much for the ideas she presents.
Example: ok, so we all know Fox News is, well, "foxed". But should Dem candidates boycott, or appear and possibly triumph in a hostile setting?
Paglia makes a good argument for the latter -- not an argument I've heard commonly made -- and makes me think that a comprehensive strategy for "dealing with Fox" is something that's very much needed by the left. That strategy should include... I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader.
Example: ok, so we all know Coulter's naff. But seeing her through the lens the "other side" uses, does that have any value?
Paglia shows us Coulter through that lens. Is there any value in that in building a strategy to deal with those elements, like her, who believe liberal=traitor? Yes, there is but... and I'll leave the rest of that thought as an exercise for the reader.
Example: ok, so we know criticising lit crit is currently hot. Should the case be made generally (two recent Salon articles spring to mind) or specifically?
Paglia makes it personal by invoking Frankenstein and its authorship, showing (cleverly) what can happen when the general argument gets teeth. So, more of this, or more of the general, high-falutin "anti-anti-post-modernism" seen everywhere at the moment? I'll leave that answer to the reader.
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Camille Paglia is sort of mainstream
Camille Paglia's piece actually reads sort of mainstream in its content and direction unlike most of her colleagues who are trying to out-shrill each other over Iraq, Anne Coulter, etc. She puts on the usual lefty academic airs but when you cut through the elitist prose, the message is simple: keep the message simple, understandable and moderate. Her admonition to the various front-runners not take themselves too seriously, at least not in March 07, is actually something worthwhile particularly with no votes being cast this year. She finds ridicule with the same group who are running away from Fox News based on some principled but misplaced position. Surprisingly, she says that capitalism has a leading role in our society and that lefties also have a role to moderate the sharp edges of capitalism. I could easily hear the same thing from the Pope or a Catholic bishop. That is, Paglia is trying to smooth the ideologic edges and find some common ground with her ideological opposites, but, at the same time, not forfeit certain core values.