[lbo-talk] Cornel West at the Left Forum

Michael Smith mjs at smithbowen.net
Wed Mar 23 19:08:15 PDT 2011


On Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:29:24 -0500 "Carrol Cox" <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:


> Those who claim some sophistication in responding to a text (of any
> sort) hardly live up to their claims when they are so utterly
> innocent of genre as West's critics seem to be.

I plead guilty of genre; I commit it all the time. Wilfully, consciously, and in cold blood.

But to what genre, exactly, was West's rodomontade supposed to belong? It wasn't tragical, historical, or even pastoral -- though it was comical; not in a generic sense, however. It wasn't homiletic, exegetic, lyric; wasn't Pindaric, gnomic, Cynic, Phillipic, Jeremaiac, Socratic, rabbinic, scholastic, erotic, panegyric, or even macaronic. I really don't know what to call it except pathetic.

-- --

Michael J. Smith mjs at smithbowen.net

http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org http://www.cars-suck.org http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com



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