Date: Mon, 2 Sep 1996 11:13:50 +0100 (BST)
Subject: Re: Response to Styles post Andrew's "Faulkian" quote


On Mon, 2 Sep 1996, Edward ROSSITER wrote:
> How do you think that "[I am] firmly seated in the majority and tina
> hiding somewhere  near the exit?" ??  Can you be more specific, perhaps?

	sure.  tina said something and was jumped on by a whole pile
	of people.  no-one supported her.  lots of people argued against
	her.  i'm not saying that she was correct, or that the other
	people were wrong to argue the opposite case, simply that there
	was a pretty clear (as clear as anything in a group like this,
	with it's `many levels of irony', is going to get) case of someone
	coming out of line against a general liberal `anti-colonial'
	majority.  i don't think that is news to anyone here - as i said,
	just subscribing to a group with the name `postcolonial' is going
	to get you in with a pile of people with similar beliefs.

	this majority is going to be `intellectuals' from `developed' 
	countries (also a selection by access) who earn a living 
	`interpreting' the `world' (often the media) around them.

	tina, in contrast, suggested that such interpretations were not
	useful (in a particular case).  that's something that is going to 
	strike at the heart of what many - most? - people here do for a 
	living.  she was a definite minority.  and she was jumped on by the 
	majority.

	(i'm sure you will be able to point out a whole mountain of 
	differences in the posters here.  i don't say otherwise, although
	i would note that `deconstructing' an argument seems a lot easier
	than making one.)

	finally, when i say that you are `firmly seated in the majority' i was
	referring to the language you used.  i was amazed that you could 
	refer to `a Gramscian sense' while at the same time giving a `liberal 
	studies 101' explanation of tolerance and diversity.  to expect
	that someone who would need such a lecture should also know
	who on earth Gramsci is suggests that you are right there in the
	middle of the academic, analytic, majority.

	i don't see that i am saying anything startlingly new here.  i don't
	pretened that these are great insights.  you asked.

	andrew


           work phone/fax: 0131 668 8356, office: 0131 668 8357
    institute for astronomy, royal observatory, blackford hill, edinburgh
                     http://www.roe.ac.uk/ajcwww



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