[lbo-talk] radio Henwood & Levy

[Liza Featherstone]

This discussion seems to miss the fact that it's a weekly radio show, not an
academic journal or symposium. People often invite guests on the radio on
the basis of reading only one article of theirs, much less having perused
their whole oeuvre in their original language. What makes  a good guest is
timeliness, ability to speak well and say stuff listeners may not have
heard. I thought BHL was an absurd, arrogant pretentious prick, but he also
had all of those good guest assets. As for your claim not to be "purist" --
I'd point out that some of your "criticisms" of BHL are moralistic and have
little to do with substance: "self-promotion" (why is that bad? isn't one
major difference between obscure intellectuals and famous ones that the
latter have engaged in more self-promotion) and  being "in it for the
glamour and money" (again, meaningless -- couldn't this criticism be made of
anyone who publishes a commercial book, and in any case what is "glamour"
exactly and WHY is it a bad thing).

Liza 


> From: dave dorkin <ddorkin1 at yahoo.com>
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 08:17:59 -0700 (PDT)
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] radio Henwood & Levy
> 
> I didnt discuss your work in sum. The question
> concerns a person who has had an long career of self
> promotion, distortion and inattention to the facts,
> most of which is available only in French which I seem
> to recall you saying you don't read very well. You run
> a show and your decisions can be discussed like
> everyone else's. You decide Levy is worthy (based on
> what exactly?) and anyone who questions why is a dour
> "purist."
> 
> Is this "purism" the same sort of "purism" that the
> entire European left displays in not inviting Levy
> and "banishing" him to Paris Match and assorted TV
> programs? Are Le Monde Diplomatique, Liberation, the
> Manifesto, Politis, Regards, and every other left
> magazine, movement and forum in Europe also part of
> this "purist" American left?
> 
> So, have you followed his career, the French political
> scene, and do you know BHL or, to enage in schematic
> epithets as you seem to like, are you one of those
> provincial American leftists who thinks he doesnt need
> to read other languages and know foreign contexts well
> before rushing to judgement?
> 
>> Take a look at the guestlist and tell me if it
> displays a weakness for stars with extravagant hair.
> This is just the sort of purism that makes the
> American left (oh, right, Carrol Cox says that doesn't
> exist) so alienating and > marginal. Doug
> 
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