David Gilmour on Building Strong Stomachs:
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. Except for Virginia Woolf.
The Life of Virginia Woolf, Beloved Chinese Novelist, As Told By David Gilmour:
Virginia Woolf was a Chinese novelist but she was not a wolf; nor was she from Virginia. This is a common mistake. She was eaten by wolves in 1942, shortly after finishing The Joy Luck Club, which she also wrote. Those wolves were not from Virginia either.
The second piece is intentionally funny. The first piece reads like something out of
The Onion
or something:
I say I don’t love women writers enough to teach them, if you want women writers go down the hall. What I teach is guys. Serious heterosexual guys. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Chekhov, Tolstoy. Real guy-guys. Henry Miller. Philip Roth.
Well, he sounds charming.
He is the biggest jackass. I don't think he likes any writer who isn't a White man, and he particularly likes heterosexual White men. He specifies this.
At least he is honest in his narrow guidelines for good art.
I like how he brags about reading Proust and Dostoyevsky 2-4 times. WHUT? I can't think of a singe book I love (his criterion for teaching) that I haven't read at least 10 times.
I think he's the kind of prof whose reading list would make me want to stab him in the face.
I don't know who this Peter Damien guy is, but someone in my feed retweeted this (which I then retweeted, too):
Peter Damien @peterdamien
"You wouldn't be upset about David Gilmour if you weren't on the internet."
"NOT NOW, FRANZEN."
Ok, just read Eleanor and Park. SO GOOD! But the ending made me want to cry. I mean, the whole book kind of did. But in a good way too.
I have E&P on my bookpile. So looking forward to reading it.
Not literary, but more literary-adjacent. I put up a post about author visits to schools today [link] - having been on both sides, and having sat through some doozies, I thought it would be interesting to discuss things that work best. If buffista writers and teachers and librarian warlords and former students and readers and buffistas would be interested in weighing in, I would love it.
if you want women writers go down the hall
The Woman Down the Hall Responds: [link]
