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The American Scholar: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education - William Deresiewicz
I t didn’t dawn on me that there might be a few holes in my education until I was about 35. I’d just bought a house, the pipes needed fixing, and the plumber was standing in my kitchen. There he was, a short, beefy guy with a goatee and a Red Sox cap and a thick Boston accent, and I suddenly learned that I didn’t have the slightest idea what to say to someone like him.THIS DISCUSSION involves people with a large range of shared aspirations and commitments; in some cases at least, friends who have worked and struggled together for many years. I hope, then, that I can be quite frank. And personal, since to be honest, I don't see much of independent substance to discuss.
Rationality/Science, by Noam Chomsky
Samuel Johnson's "Dictionary of the English Language" was published on 15 April 1755. Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it.
Politics and the English Language | George Orwell Novels
The poverty of literary theory ALMOST 34 YEARS AGO, in May 1962, the Times Literary Supplement published a front-page article, ‘The Myth of Clarity’ which contained a savage attack on the quality of French intellectual life. The article caused a considerable stir in England, while from accross the Channel there were even murmurs that the Entente Cordiale had been infringed.
The poverty of literary theory
deconstruction and law
Deconstructive reversals show that the reasons given for privileging one side of an opposition over the other often turn out to be reasons for privileging the other side. The virtues of the first term are seen to be the virtues of the second; the vices of the second are revealed to be true of the first as well.
This text has circulated quite a number of times on Usenet, and so far as I know is authentic. This version (less, of course, the HTML airs and graces) was posted by one jenm289@aol.com to rec.arts.books, 13 Nov 1995 03:21:23 -0500, message-id 486v63$9an@newsbf02.news.aol.com. Jenm289 wrote: "The following was written several months ago by Noam Chomsky in a discussion about po-mo and its contribution to activism et al.
