This reminds me of a story I heard once about an Econ PhD student who had written a dissertation on economic theory who was told by someone on his committee, "Your dissertation is great, but it would benefit from some graphs." To which the response of the student was: "You're off my committee." The student then went to another professor in the department and said, "Here's my dissertation. You want to be on my committee?" The professor said yes, and the dissertation was approved.
On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 1:06 PM, Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > Last Monday night I decided to drop a film documentary class I had > been taking at Columbia after getting my first assignment back > from Jane Gaines, the professor. I had completely forgotten how > bad a reaction I have to getting papers graded. Three months short > of my 66th birthday, the last thing I need is to go through the > humiliating experience of a professor giving me a C, or in this > instance reading her barbs all over my submission. I was > flabbergasted by her insistence that I use the term “motion > picture” instead of “movie”. I used that term deliberately for the > same reason that Harvey Pekar once told me he preferred the term > comic book to graphic novel. Who needs that kind of snobbery? > After, if David Bordwell, one of the top film scholars in the > world, can title a book “The way Hollywood tells it: story and > style in modern movies”, then why should Gaines object? Of course, > professors are the final arbiters in such matters just as my > project manager at work is the final arbiter of how I do my work. > At least in that case, I am getting paid for my troubles. > > It is not just classes that I have taken at Columbia that present > such a problem. A few years ago, I finally resolved not to submit > articles to leftist academic journals since I resented going > through the process of peer review. My last experience with RRPE, > the URPE journal, was particularly off-putting. I was told by one > of the peer reviewers that an article about Max Frankel’s book on > the Cuban missile crisis would be enhanced by the perspective > found in a Socialist Workers Party book on Cuba. Who needs that > shit, even if it came from a tenured professor at the U. of > California? > > full: > http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/dropping-a-film-class-at-columbia-university/ > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] Urge Congress to Support a Timetable for Military Withdrawal from Afghanistan http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/feingold-mcgovern _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
