The other day I went to a lecture by a famous English Marxist literary critic, who has engaged in contemporary religious debates and some of whose shorter pieces I've read.
His introducer (who I later heard went to school with him) was one of those awkward older (white) (female) professors in English depts., not one of those silver foxes who dress in black and discuss theory with elan.
Anyhow, in her introduction, she talked about how the visiting literary critic tried to keep the masses "from drinking the Kool Aid" of late industrial capitalism etc. etc., and you could just tell she was glad to make that reference, that she found it appropriate and cool.
So, afterwards, after I asked question of the visiting literary critic, I introduced myself to his introducer and was like, "You know, you might not be aware of this, but you should be very careful not to use the 'drink the Kool Aid' reference in public speeches," and I explained to her how at a conference this year I had met some Peoples Temples survivors, and that there's more of them than you think, and that if any are in the audience, they will not only stand up during Q&A and tell you how they lost all their family and have been in a very dark place for several decades, but will also mention your name in a List of Shame and it will be on the internet forever.
She smiled awkwardly and glanced to the side, and then she told me and the other remaining person that the literary critic was tired and couldn't answer any more questions.
Somehow, I got the impression that they were sleeping together.
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4 comments:
Was this Terry Eagleton?
And by the way: whenever I start typing http://l the first link that comes up in my comp. is 'la bloga magnifica' ...:) -L.
Yes! He was gracious to the fervent undergraduate Marxists after the lecture, but not to the religion grad students asking him about his debate with Richard Dawkins.
Very disappointing - I hope he was just tired from jetlag, and that's not how he normally is?
Interesting. I read both his earlier studies on literary theory (he has a very useful overview of cont. lit. theory) and his recent lectures on "Ditchkins" (his coinage) and the science / religion debate at Yale. In writing he comes across as funny, witty, well-read, aware that he may be infuriating yet always with a touch of amiable Irish humor (I forgot where in Ireland his family is from), so I would like to think that, indeed, it was jet-lag and not rudeness. But then again who knows. I'm not sure, at any rate, whether he realized what he got into when he entered the fray with his Dawkins' critique. Warmest greetings, my friend! L.
It was disappointing. The other religious studies grad student had asked a very good question during Q&A, and wanted to know what theological grounds that he thought Dawkins was best attacked on.
I did get in a question to him about if he ever heard from any atheists who read their exchange and still supported Dawkins. He said he has heard from more intellectual atheists who find Dawkins crude.
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