Re: [OPE] Dating Guide for the Left-Wing Writer

Jurriaan, I'm not sure I understand your concerns. Surely if we can learn to
be better political economists, better historians, etc, we can also learn to
be better writers.
Paula

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From: "Jurriaan Bendien" <adsl675281@telfort.nl>
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 10:38 AM
To: "Outline on Political Economy mailing list" <ope@lists.csuchico.edu>
Subject: [OPE] Dating Guide for the Left-Wing Writer

> Paula,
>
> Before I forget. Your piece is no doubt welllmeant but it strikes me it
> could be interpreted as somewhat naively condescending. Many of us went
> through hell to say what we wanted to say. I never owned a Guevara T-shirt
> all my life and I cannot remember ever wearing T-shirts with slogans. The
> only one I remember was one about French nuclear detonations in the
> Pacific, saying "what if we tried that in France?" or something like that.
> I try not to appear as a stinky hippy.
>
> If you are not trying to ape people with money or popularity all the time,
> why not write your text as you think it should be written, and - assuming
> common sense - stand corrected by the response that you get?
>
> Personally, I have hundreds of different writing styles, which one comes
> out, just depends on the situation. OK, you can always learn something
> new, but what's the motive?
>
> By the time I would start buying my books as a sort of ornamentation or
> showtime, or writing purely for effect, I would be buying into all the
> phoney culture I am trying to get away from. I have a purpose for my
> books, I want to do something with them or an idea in them, and what
> anyone else spying into my private life thinks of that, is not my problem.
> And if it does become a problem, I'll deal with it in my own way. If it
> is not perceived as sexy, it's not my problem. Should I hypothetically
> never have sex again, it will not be my problem either. Anyway, most of
> what you will get here in Holland is sexual harassment. It has nothing to
> do with love, romance, care, genuine feeling etc. but with power, status,
> bluffing, competition, prejudiced appearances, and money. The best you can
> do, if you are reasonably sensitive, is immunize yourself against this
> harsh culture.
>
> When I emigrated, I left a lot of books behind, but I regret that now, I
> still had to do things with some of them, and you cannot even get some of
> those books anymore. You just don't realise all the time it takes, to get
> to the point where the books are in reach when you need to consult them,
> the value your own book collection has. You realise it, only when you no
> longer have it, and suddenly you need to look up that particular
> passage... and you hope that a library reasonably closeby will have it, or
> that you can interloan it. Even so, it can take hours, days and weeks to
> get hold of the text again. I cannot even get hold anymore of texts I
> wrote myself, so how about that!
>
> Yesterdays' radical and alternative ideas are today's overpriced
> coffeetable books. So why not aim for tomorrow's new ideas, today? If I
> cannot succeed the way I am, why should I bother?
>
> Jurriaan
>
> How kind of you to let me come!
> Now once again, where does it rain?
> On the plain! On the plain!
> And where's that blasted plain?
>
>
>
>
>
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Received on Thu May 21 18:06:50 2009