What books are on the bestseller lists at present?
At 2:08 PM -0500 2/19/03, Chuck0 wrote:
>>Many in the humanities are liberal, but there are few left-wingers
>>of any kind in academia. In any case, few writers of any political
>>persuasion can make a living just by writing. Teaching (at any
>>level) is one of the common day jobs that writers often need.
>
>I understand that, but why aren't more left academics turning out
>books that normal people can buy at the bookstore?
Articles in non-peer-refereed journals and books published by non-university presses not only do not count as "work" but actually get chalked up as negatives that they (= administrative evildoers and colleagues who hate your guts) can potentially use against you. It may be a surprise to those who do not work at colleges and universities, but we don't get paid unless we work, and the work that counts is firstly teaching -- the most important part of which, in the minds of average students, parents, and administrators, is timely _grading_ -- and secondly publishing in peer-refereed journals and university presses (for the highest-ranking professors at the most renowned research universities, publishing comes before teaching). Only select bookstores stock a wide range of university press publications.
At 2:08 PM -0500 2/19/03, Chuck0 wrote:
>And why are so many smart left academics allowed to publish such
>unintelligible bullshit?
Most of those who publish "unintelligible bullshit" are probably not really left-wingers (in practice) but merely trendy liberals who are not really smart but who do know how to ornament their publications with references to Marx and the like. Read the works of such solid left-wingers as Grace Chang, Stephanie Coontz, H. Bruce Franklin, Linda Gordon, Christopher Hill, Robin D. G. Kelley, Manning Marable, David Montgomery, Philip Foner, etc., and you'll find nothing unintelligible, unless you are _determined_ to stay uninformed of whatever subjects they discuss (as some students are!).
At 12:23 PM -0500 2/19/03, Chuck0 wrote:
>unreadable postmodernist crap.
BTW, postmodernism doesn't have to be unreadable either -- Stanley Fish, Richard Rorty, etc. are examples of readable postmodernism. Postmodernists are, 99.99% of the time, just liberals politically, though. -- Yoshie
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