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CALLING_COLLINI

                                             August 4, 2010

   Stefan Collini
   "Absent minds:
   intellectuals in Britain" (2006)


"Reading extensively in the literature on
any topic, one will, inevitably, encounter
a degree of repetition and overlap, but
the sheer predictability of so much of the
writing in this case is truly awful to           Intellectuals writing
behold."                                         about intellectuals may
                                                 not be 'creative' enough
" ...  turning out a piece on the theme          for Collini's taste, but
of 'intellectuals' (especially on their          this is not an excuse for
decline or disappearence) might almost           dismissing them.  The oft
seem the would-be columnist's equivalent         heard opinion is an opinion
of passing the driving-test."                    one needs to engage with,
                                                 not dismiss as a cliche'.

                                                         ARGUMENT_FROM_BOREDOM

                                   And isn't there a
                                   certain predictability
                                   in intellectuals
                                   accusing other
                                   intellectuals of
                                   predictability when          (Are they less
                                   writing about                predictable when
                                   intellectuals?               writing about
                                                                anything else?)
                                          DEATH_SCENES

 Another thing that should be
 predictable is the sort of
 routine that goes something like
 "When *they* do it it stinks, but
 when a superior fellow like
 myself generates it, it's very
 earthy soil."

   Quoting Stefan Collini again,
   again from the introduction to
   "Absent minds":

        "As I have already suggested, in     "... the book makes no pretence
        addressing this topic I am           to being comprehensive, and I
        hardly treading on virgin soil;      shall be more than usually
        there are many signs that others     unmoved by readers or reviewer
        have passed this way before me."     who complain that this or that
                                             important figure is absent form
                                             its pages."

                                                   *I said if it first, so
                                                    you're not allowed to!*

                                                   *No backs!*

To my eye, Collini is coping the pose of
being a no-nonsense critic of all that
*other* nonsense, he's like a rapper
dismissing everyone else's "rhymes"                A Collini review of a
(without saying *whose* exactly) as a              Christopher Hitchens
way of pumping up his own.                         book was titled "No
                                                   bullshit, bullshit"
In intellectual combat, you don't count
coup by just by making an attack, you                   Ah, what a world.
really have to bring a scalp home.                      Irony and hypocrisy
                                                        without end...

                                                        "London Review of Books"
                                                        January 23, 2003
                                                        [ref]


          But when he stops sneering,
          Collini gets close to the
          real point:

             "And some of this writing surely signals
             that there is a genuinely important
             subject here: it is, ultimately, nothing
             less than the question of whether
             thought, enquiry, imagination, pursued to
             the highest level, issue in any wisdom
             about how we ought to live."

   What is this subject really about?

   It's about the fact that our collective
   intelligence is awful, we get taken and
   taken again with maneuvers that should be
   transparent, and *are* transparent to a
   lot of us, but we can't get the sleepers
   to wake.

   That's it, that's the "holy grail"...

          It hardly matters if our intellectual
          elite is elite enough or intellectual
          enough, or fairly choosen, or growing,
          or shrinking, the question is *are
          they doing their job*, and their job      And it matters
          isn't a mystery: are they making us       still less whether
          smarter?                                  the French team
                                                    is beating the
                                                    British.

                                                    Collini's main focus is
                                                    to refute the claim that
                                                    there are no British
                                                    intellectuals.  It could
                                                    be he's taking that a bit
                                                    personally.




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