Saturday, September 28, 2013

Don't get us started on Joan Robinson

This should go down well with the academic thought police;
Toronto literature professor and Giller prize-longlisted author David Gilmour has found himself at the eye of a literary storm after declaiming in an interview that he doesn't teach books written by women or Chinese authors, because he's only interested in "serious heterosexual guys".
....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."
Gilmour also claimed not to have encountered any Canadian writers he admired passionately enough to teach. For women, Chinese and Canadian authors he directs his students "down the hall", to other tutors.
It's foolproof;
Bestselling author Jodi Picoult wrote: "Oh, how I wish this were a joke. But by all means, keep pretending there's no discrimination against female authors."
Remind us again, Who was the female Shakespeare (or Beethoven)? And shouldn't it be part of the job description of a literature professor to be, discriminating?

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