Academia
The anti-wokist is a dog
Another week another tedious attack on “wokery” in the New York Times. This is by the conservative David Brooks, but I’ve seen it endorsed by “class-struggle” anti-wokists. Anyway, Brooks helpfully lists the characteristics of wokery in bullet-points, enabling some immediate commentary:
“We shouldn’t emphasize what unites all human beings; we should emphasize what divides us.”
I have no idea what this means, concretely, since it seems sensible to “emphasize” both, depending on the purpose and context. Climate change, to give an obvious example, both unites all human beings since it threatens us as a species and divides us since its immediate impact falls on the poorest and most vulnerable people, often living in poor countries, and not wealthy Americans, like Brooks.
“Human relations are power struggles between oppressors and oppressed groups.”
The history of all hitherto-existing societies and all that. Not all human relations, obviously, but it seems futile to deny the pervasiveness of this kind of conflict. Often it is class-based, but nobody sensible denies that racial, gender and other oppression mark much of human history. Some crude Marxists, of course, think that these other conflicts as just epiphenomenal and that they would go away in a classless society. Well maybe they would, I’d note only that more sophisticated Marxists have thought we need to consider other identities non-reductively alongside class.
“Human communication is limited. A person in one group can never really understand the experience of someone in another group.”
I dunno. What is it like to be a poor black woman? No doubt she can tell me of her experience and I can empathize, but I don’t think I can fully reproduce her first-person perspective. It just seems obvious that we need to hear from the oppressed themselves rather than just relying on how we represent them in our political theories.
“The goal of rising above bigotry is naïve. Bigotry and racism are permanent and indestructible components of American society.”
This just seems to be a contingent claim about American society, rather than about every human society. It might be true, and if so, so much the worse for “American society”, which would need to be replaced by something else. The evidence so far doesn’t give much hope to those who think that bigotry and racism are going to disappear from that society. Obviously that’s bad news for American liberal nationalists, but they strike me as naïve (yes that was Brooks’s word) utopians anyway.
“Seemingly neutral tenets of society — like free speech, academic freedom, academic integrity and the meritocracy — are tools the powerful use to preserve their power.”
Again, not always, not only, but surely sometimes, and particularly when those “tenets” are articulated thoughtlessly by the likes of Brooks. Perhaps he could pay some attention to who gets to speak and who doesn’t; which voices are silenced and which not. And “meritocracy”? It seems he is even unaware of the satirical origins of the word.
The basic lesson is that Brooks, like other “anti-wokists” such as Mounck, attack implausibly strong versions of “wokery” in order to avoid having to take seriously the embarassing insights that they wish to deny. The other point to make about them is that, while trumpeting the claims of “universalism” against particular divisive identities, they fail to notice that their own American nationalism is a thoroughly anti-universalist identity and ideology. So it goes.
The Last Days of Literary Friction
My favourite ever podcast, Literary Friction, is finishing after ten great years of monthly episodes interviewing authors and talking about books. I’d begun to guess something was up when, over the past few months, its hosts – Octavia Bright and Carrie Plitt – remarked several times about how long they’d been going. Still, when they announced a couple of weeks ago that they’re wrapping it up at the end of the year, I was surprised and sad, a bit like when a couple splits up and you realise them being together was a hidden foundation of your little world. But in a para-social, internet-y kind of way. Well, nothing good lasts forever! If you’re interested in literary fiction, there’s a tremendous back catalogue of episodes.
Each episode has an author interview, then some discussion about a theme the book suggested, then some cultural recommendations. My favourite episode ever was probably the one with the poet Ocean Vuong about his novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. I’d not heard of him before listening to the podcast, and hearing him read his prose so softly and beautifully made me fall in love with the book. It became one of those books that you spot people reading on the Tube and can’t help smile at them. (Weird! I know. But only this past weekend I was walking to a WH Smith till with a Deborah Levy book and a woman came up to me to say how delighted she was by it. I’m so very much here for these awkward little encounters. Reminds me how, in the risible SF section of the same airport bookshop last year, I imposed myself on two American teenaged goths who were mournfully returning to a red state, and hand-sold them A Wizard of Earthsea.)
My other favourite episode, probably because I had a huge crush on this book and read it three times, was with Harry Parker about Anatomy of a Soldier. It’s a quite literal novel about a young officer (same regiment as Ed) who’s blown up in Afghanistan, told from the point of view of the objects he comes into contact with. Carrie and Octavia’s questions were respectful but probing. It turned out Harry Parker hadn’t actually read The Things They Carried before he wrote it – just as well, as I think if he had, he’d not have done it and we’d have lost out on a good and important piece of contemporary history. Having lived through some of the same history myself, even attending a soldier’s funeral with Parker’s father, I remember feeling very glad and grateful that the book was getting out there. It was also quite bracing and strange, in a good way, to hear other people reacting to it in a way that drew out the bizarre-feeling parallel lives of people caught up in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and everyone else whose lives weren’t affected at all. That was only possible in the longer and more relaxed format of a podcast, with hosts who were as curious as they were sensitive.
Books I read that I wouldn’t have otherwise include Niven Govinden’s Diary of a Film, Garth Greenwell’s Intimacy and, gloriously, Leone Ross’s This One Sky Day. I still remember where I was working in my garden when I listened to the interview with Jenny Offill about her novel, Weather, and the concluding, ‘obligatory note of hope’ audiences demand of writing about climate crisis. Musician Viv Albertine’s Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys was a revelation I’d never have picked up without Literary Friction. And when Mary Gaitskill and Deborah Levy came on the podcast, I was just as nervous and thrilled as the interviewers. Octavia and Carrie always did their homework and prepped each book and topic, but kept the fan-ish love for certain, legendary writers at the unselfconscious heart of it all.
Blind spots included speculative fiction. The podcast focused on the dominant genre of literary fiction and didn’t engage with the fantastical on its own terms or as a political and liberatory force. The interview with Carmen Maria Machado came from a high-literary gaze that just about accepts magical realism into the canon, but no more. But Literary Friction ran towards the fire when it was about gender, sex, race and class, always finding a way to converse with respect and delight with novelists writing from other identities and interests.
In the episode when they announced the podcast will soon finish, Carrie and Octavia talked about the para-social nature of their relationships to other podcasts, how you feel you know people you’ve never met. Partly that’s because – in good podcasts anyway – the length and depth of conversations is much greater than on the radio, and the format is less performative. It’s still a stylised kind of dialogue, but closer to ‘real’ conversations than radio interviews are. But I also felt sad that this one is finishing because, as well as the stimulating book talk, Literary Friction was an ongoing dialogue between two friends. Listening to it over the past decade felt like being in the ante-room to a beautiful friendship. I vividly remember savouring that friendship while walking on a wet and windy beach in Kerry, during Ireland’s long, long winter 2021 lockdown, when we couldn’t go further than five kilometres from our homes and my youngest sister and I were bubbled with our parents. The only other people we saw were the collection operators at Killarney Tesco every second Friday. Listening to Carrie and Octavia’s voices reaching out to each other from their own lockdowns, and mingling in that in-between space with such feeling and delight, was a vicarious and heady joy which I will always treasure. And yes it was para-social, but also sympathetic and fraternal, when I walked on that same beach crying for Octavia on the loss of her father during that long and lonely time. (Her memoir, This Ragged Grace, is extraordinary.)
So, if you’re interested in contemporary realist fiction and nonfiction and enjoy informed, stimulating and loving discussions about them, there are well over a hundred episodes just waiting to be heard. And, for fans, soon there will be the final episode and year-end round-up to savour. Thank you, Carrie and Octavia. It was a wild and wonderful ride.
Smart People Work Everywhere - using your research skills outside academia
A panel discuss using your research degree outside academia. Research degrees - what are they good for? Can you use the skills you have acquired during your DPhil in a career outside academia - and why would you want to? Professor Philip Bullock, Director of TORCH, chairs this panel discussion with individuals from a diverse range of employment sectors who use the skills they acquired during their research degrees in their current roles. Hear about their career paths to date, learn more about their current roles, and find out how they utilise their research skills in their professional lives. The panellists are Professor Kate Williams (author, historian, TV presenter and Professor of History at the University of Reading), Dr Mark Byford (partner at Egon Zehnder) and Dr Michael Pye (Investment Manager at Baillie Gifford).
Colour me Clever
It seems that academia is not immune from the colouring craze. Let's review a new book leading the charge: "Doodling for Academics".
The post Colour me Clever appeared first on Wonkhe.
The Lord of the Rings: Tolkien's Legacy
60 years since the publication of the series' final volume, a distinguished panel explore Tolkien's literary legacy To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the publication of the final volume of Tolkien’s fantasy epic, The Lord of the Rings, the Bodleian Libraries and TORCH hosted a panel discussion on reactions to Tolkien’s work, then and now.
The discussion was introduced by Elleke Boehmer (Acting TORCH Director and Professor of World Literature, University of Oxford), and chaired by Stuart Lee (Lecturer in English Literature, University of Oxford). In a series of three short talks, scholars considered Tolkien's legacy from a range of perspectives.
Patrick Curry (Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Wales, Lampeter) addressed the question: “Is the Lord of the Rings a good book?”, describing Tolkien as a counter-culturalist who focused on the “primacy of storytelling”.
Dimitra Fimi (Lecturer in English, Cardiff Metropolitan University) discussed the challenges and opportunities of teaching Tolkien's work, and examined why his work is rarely a compulsory part of the university curriculum in the UK.
Andy Orchard (Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, University of Oxford), who holds the same chair at the University of Oxford that Tolkien held from 1925 – 1945, explored Tolkien's contribution to academia, which he suggested rivals his contribution to fiction.
The panel also discussed a range of topics, including uptake of Old Norse, the literary canon and Tolkien's work with DPhil students, in response to audience questions.
Please visit www.torch.ox.ac.uk/tolkien for more information, or www.torch.ox.ac.uk/tolkien-review for a review of the discussion.