File spoon-archives/phillitcrit.archive/phillitcrit_1997/phillitcrit.9711, message 294


Date: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 10:49:38  +0100
From: "John McWilliams" <jhm29-AT-cam.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: PLC: Your inquiry about Stirling


Jesus, Pat, I really think you've lost the plot here. I mean for Gods sake,
Denis TRIED to answer some pretty unpleasant sounding messages from
Sterling Newberry (whoever he is) and got no response and was rightly
disturbed. Look at the end of Denis's messages (like one would look at a
frontispiece of an old book for material evedence):

>  Dr. Denis Dutton
>  Senior Lecturer in the Philosophy of Art
>  Editor, Philosophy and Literature
>  University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
>  telephone: 643-366-7001, ext. 8154
>  fax: 643-364-2858
>  email: d.dutton-AT-fina.canterbury.ac.nz,constant.force-AT-clear.net.nz
>  http://calliope.jhu.edu/journals/philosophy_and_literature/

Erm, I think we know exactly who this person is, how to get in touch with
him, even how to drop by and say hello if we wanted. If Denis gets hate
Email, then it's pretty disturbing for him, because he takes this thing
seriously and ties a lot of his professional identity to it. You can spout
conspiracy theories  (and 'IMHO', comparing the pain of getting unsubbed
from a list to the holocaust is pretty f***ing offensive anyway). But if
someone walked into the Canterbury Philosophy Department (or into HPS here
in Cambridge) and started making homophobic innuendo, I think most people
would give them the cold shoulder - he certainly wouldn't be given a job,
and, I could imagine circumstances in which he might be excluded from
seminars beacuse people were being made to feel too uncomforatble. As a
result, I'm quite sure George doesn't behave in this way in his own
department. Equally, Denis can't involve himself in ludicrous rants partly
because I doubt he has the time and also because he ties so much of himself
in with his Email persona. If one was to meet Dr Dutton I'm quite sure he
would be very much as he is on Email - kindly and courteous (see esp. his
very pleasant message to you and George under what must have been
pressurised circumstances for himself)

I agree that some of Denis's moderators have been heavy handed at times,
but as they keep saying - it must be a real problem running a good list.
I've had correspondence with Hardy Cook, who runs an entirely trouble-free
(and very good) moderated Shakespeare list and he talks of the great time
committment invloved and the increasing time pressure he is under. It's an
old one, but I really would like to see all the moaners start up a list of
their own.

And by the by, I think your rhetorical strategy - 'Denis I thought so much
of you - and now I'm sorely disappointed', was particulalry cruel. And all
this "in the good old US of A we believe in free speech and hold it dear, I
don't know about you 'Japanese' and New Zealanders" -  pull the other one,
Pat, it's got bells on.

John



              =8B=8B=8B=8B=8B John McWilliams
                    Department of History and Philosophy of Science
                    University of Cambridge
                    Free School Lane
                    Cambridge CB2 3RH =8B=8B=8B=8B=8B                      




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