> From: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com [mailto:rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Mark D. Nevins
> The recent banter about MFA programs strikes me as this List's knee-jerk
anti-
> academic contingent rearing its head again. But don't let me stop you:
bash away,
> and please don't spare the sweeping generalizations . . . Honestly, the
> frequent spastic responses to academe or "high culture" on this List make
me
> wonder about some members' personal senses of security or self-worth
> Mark Nevins
Since I was the first member to draw your ire, Mark, about this issue, and
then have seen you since that time do so against several other postings by
other members -- most recently the one above from today -- I couldn't help
but wonder where this hyper-sensitivity regarding any hint of academia
criticism is coming from. I then remembered this little snippet from one of
your other posts:
"You know us former English professors--never let a chance for a little
pedantry pass by! I will spare you all a lengthier Derridean discourse on
'the presence of the absence.'"
I can't help but think your previous employment history may be distorting in
your mind what some one of us are stating. I would suggest that if you feel
this list is "bashing" with "frequent spastic" postings that which you find
unassailable, you may want to look at your own -- to use your words --
"personal sense of security and self-worth." If you find it too precarious,
you may then find that this list is simply not for you because this will not
be the last time academia is held up to the light of scrutiny. A discussion
of literature without the ability to examine all facets -- literary, genre,
pulp, academic, et al -- is a discussion not worth having.
Ron C.
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