Gilmour – not to be confused with his namesake Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour – shared his views with Shelf Esteem, a blog by Random House Canada, which offers "a weekly measure of the books on the shelves of writers, editors and other word lovers".
Eyeing the rows of books in his office, Gilmour said: "I'm not interested in teaching books by women. Virginia Woolf is the only writer that interests me as a woman writer, so I do teach one of her short stories. But once again, when I was given this job I said I would only teach the people that I truly, truly love. Unfortunately, none of those happen to be Chinese, or women."
He went on: "What I teach is guys. Serious heterosexual guys. F Scott Fitzgerald, Chekhov, Tolstoy. Real guy-guys. Henry Miller. Philip Roth."
The comments set Twitter atwitter."A self proclaimed feminist student responds to the controversy.
I am a feminist, a writer, and, most importantly, a woman, who has voluntarily enrolled in David Gilmour’s 300-level course. I write this not as a staunch attack or defense of Professor Gilmour, but because the responses to his troubling interview have been troubling as well; this kind of dialogue, predicated on illogical, emotional responses to contentious issues, can easily snowball into a lynch-mob style reaction. And, from what I can tell, this is exactly what has happened.For more go here.
the guardian, the globe and mail
35 comments:
Controversy can help a literary career. In fact, to be more positive, controversy is necessary for a successful career. But not many have Mr. Gilmour's courage to propel himself out of obscurity, just ahead of a torch-wielding, pitchfork-and-club-brandishing mob.
Whether this is a good way to sell books remains to be seen. There is the danger he will be caught and driven, beaten and bloodied, from all civilized discourse. Of course, both of those last words have no more application today than "the Republic of Letters," a quaint abstraction from which he might have been expelled in the 18th century for entirely opposite reasons.
Risking one's literary neck, as well as bank account, by controversies such as these, points to the desperation of anyone concerned with "heterosexual guys." Because of modern education systems, people in that category commonly do not read books. Gilmour deserves credit for adding "serious" to the description of his little society, but it does not increase their numbers, nor does it make more likely the success of his quixotic enterprise.
60 years of kissing women's asses and giving them everything they want, and it's still not enough.
Reminiscent of Althouse's gay worship. That's been going on my entire life in every environment where I work or play... and that's not enough for Althouse. New preferences must always be created for gays so that they can be "equal."
For Christ's sake, it's time to tell the women that they have too much and that we've spent too much time fawning over them.
When I was a young guy, I didn't realize that this shit has been going on forever. Every generation of guys swallows the bullshit about the oppression of the women and the gays, only to grow up and discover that it's all been a scam.
Women and gays know how to manipulate straight men, and they do so ruthlessly. When men are young, they want pussy so bad that they'll fall for any kind of bullshit.
Well, okay, but just so long as they never get around to defunding Head Start.
There are plenty of great women writers: Sayers, Austen, Christie, Wharton, Eliot, Cather, to name a few.
However, the overall ratio seems to 9-1 male vs. Female; and that's looking at the 19th century onward. Before then, its pretty much 99% men.
So, its not surprising.
His viewpoint is, it's my course, I like to teach the people that I identify with,” Mr. Becker said. “Ultimately, I think people completely overreacted. It's very endemic of the very reactionary, very politically correct society that we live in, especially at universities.”
My bet...
Every university in the country is teaching courses that only examine women writers.
So, what's the bitch here?
And, don't give me the "women are deprived" BS. Women comprise 60% of undergraduates. And have for a long time.
"Equal," when it comes to women, always means "give me more preferences."
Oh, no, not another Alan Alda, male feminist, clone.
this kind of dialogue, predicated on illogical, emotional responses to contentious issues, can easily snowball into a lynch-mob style reaction.
Boy, how many times have we seen that?
Your bigotry is bad Kung Fu. My bigotry is powerful and righteous. You must stop teaching your bad Kung Fu or we will burn down your dojo. Wax on - wax off.
He went on: "What I teach is guys. Serious heterosexual guys. F Scott Fitzgerald, Chekhov, Tolstoy. Real guy-guys. Henry Miller. Philip Roth."
What a coincidence. My high school reading list. All guys!
"Real guy-guys" But he didnt list Hemingway. Nobody told me he was gay. Did I miss the news?
Bad kung fu you!
My high school reading list. All guys!
Ha! I'm going to be they didn't teach you Henry Miller in high school! That would have been a serious mindblower. I truly love Henry Miller.
"Serious heterosexual guys."
That leaves out Capote, Vidal, Proust, Gide, and probably Henry James.
BTW, the "he was really gay" game is big on College English Lit.
But realistically how many books do we need to read on pregnancy and proper care of the unshod foot?
Am I right?
Henry Miller wasn't even in our HS library. I had to make a special trip to the public library to read that "enlightening" book.
My HS schoolteachers gave us Steinbeck and T. Williams. They even preferred Barney Miller to Henry Miller.
I'm hetero, and I will go in and kill a spider with virtually no fear... as long as there is good light.
Speaking of serious hetero men, and how we roll, I was surfing around this morning looking for a place to buy Eriogonum parvifolium (Coastal Buckweat) because that's the only plant the El Segundo Blue Butterfly will live on, and I figured I'd plant some around my house to help out this endanger little butterfly which now lives only in my neighborhood and only has a few hundred living individuals left.
So I'm searching far and wide across the cyber-verse for this plant for sale, and down in a hidden back alley of nurseries far off the main grid, I find a description of the plant on a blog and it has a single comment planted there trying to survive all alone, and who is it from? Freaking Chip Ahoy. I got shivers.
Bagoh, I want to see the link! I promise to to disturb the environment over there by posting another comment.
http://mother-natures-backyard.blogspot.com/2012/07/plant-of-month-july-red-buckwheat.html
He went on: "What I teach is guys. Serious heterosexual guys. F Scott Fitzgerald, Chekhov, Tolstoy. Real guy-guys. Henry Miller. Philip Roth."
I'm wondering about this. Assume that Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov could be asked for their opinions about this, and that they understood the English language and modern North American vernaculars. Would they appreciate being described as not merely guys, or guy-guys, but as real guy-guys. Personally, I'm thinking Chekhov probably reaches for that rifle hanging on the wall....
Wow, Chip's comment is from over a month ago.
That is seriously coincidental.
And thanks for posting the link, Bagoh.
What are the chances of finding a comment from someone you know on an obscure blog with only one comment when you are out researching some obscure plant with a very limited range which does not even include where he lives?
I wonder if Google is trying to keep us together. Maybe our whole online experience is not at all random or free, but entirely directed and produced by Google. Our own little Truman Show.
Re: "I wonder if Google is trying to keep us together. Maybe our whole online experience is not at all random or free, but entirely directed and produced by Google. Our own little Truman Show."
I Would Suggest Being Careful When Reading Comments at Obscure Clown Merchandise Sites.
Bagoh, probably just another instance of Littlewood's Law.
He seems determined to dig himself a very deep hole.
It doesn't seem like he's insisting that he doesn't like women or Chinese writers *because* they are women or Chinese. His favorite authors just happen to be the manly men. He'd teach Virginia Woolf but his students aren't up to it.
But the more he tries to explain the worse he sounds.
A person could, of course, make a point to teach books and authors that they don't like in order to have a representative of each group that must be represented, but what a bore that would be. It would be boring for the students, too.
Gilmour made that comment about teaching only "very serious heterosexual guys" in response to the interviewer saying it seemed he was interested mainly in books written by "guys' guys". Here's the transcript:
Gilmour: I’m not interested in teaching books by women. I’ve never found—Virginia Woolf is the only writer that interests me as a woman writer, so I do teach one short story from Virginia Woolf. But once again, when I was given this job I said I would teach only the people that I truly, truly love. And, unfortunately, none of those happen to be Chinese, or women. Um. Except for Virginia Woolf. And when I try Virginia Woolf, I find she actually doesn’t work. She’s too sophisticated. She’s too sophisticated for even a third-year class. So you’re quite right, and usually at the beginning of the semester someone asks why there aren’t any women writers in the course. I say I don’t love women writers enough to teach them, if you want women writers go down the hall. What I’m good at is guys.
Keeler: And guys’ guys, too.
Gilmour: Yeah, very serious heterosexual guys. Elmore Leonard. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Chekhov, Tolstoy. Real guy guys. That’s a very good observation. Henry Miller. Uh. Philip Roth.
Yet earlier in the interview when he's showing the interviewer the books in his office, he points out that the "three big hits" are Proust, Tolstoy, and Chekov, and he says he teaches from that collection. And about Proust he says: "...the treasured Proust, that’s one of my great joys, not only having read Proust but having read him twice, and having listened to the audio CD twice."
Proust, very gay.
So I'm thinking Gilmour was making a small joke that didn't work, and now he's screwed.
F. Scott Fitzgerald wasn't all that hairy chested. Hemingway made that observation many times. Hemingway's mother made him dress up like a girl until he was five or so. That made Hemingway very sensitive to the relative hairiness of authors' chests.
I think Virginia boring. Best 20th Century English Authors:
-Waugh
-Greene
-Orwell
-Conrad (yes, Polish too)
-D.H. Lawrence
-W. Somerset Maugham
-Nevil Shute
-J.R. Tolkien
-Dorothy Sayers
-Lawrence Durell
@rcocean: I'd put Kingsley Amis ahead of a couple of those.
Fiction writing is for girls.
Wow - there he is. Our Chip.
Amazing.
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