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RUMPUS_ROSE

                                                  March 23, 2022

In my commentary on the Virgina Kidd piece about
(among other things) the Benford/Platt essay             POMPOUS_ROSE_AGAIN
"The Pompous Rose", I skipped some interesting
details, and consciously choose to overlook
her main rhetorical thrust, which is largely
based on name calling and a dismissive tone.              Of course, if you're
Can you believe these silly fellows said something        going to judge these
so obviously ridiculous?                                  pieces on tone, you
                                                          can accuse "The
She introduces them thus:                                 Pompous Rose" of
                                                          being unfortunately
   "'Eye of the Heron', along with 'The Dispossessed'     pompous itself.
   and 'The Left Hand of Darkness', angried-up noted
   cloud-shouters Charles Platt and Gregory Benford             (Though not
   sufficiently that they were inspired them to write           without
   this memorable bit of cane-waving"                           direction, I
                                                                would say.)
And concludes like so:

   "I can unreservedly admire the ability to inspire
   such impotent, misleading frothing. You can tell a
   lot about a person by their enemies. Le Guin’s
   enemies are most impressive."


I mean yeah, I know sometimes a horse-laugh is
just what's needed, but this material isn't all
that funny, and you can turn this kind of thing      It's not what I'm about
around-- obviously Benford and Platt must be         myself, but if I *were*
hitting hard to inspire this kind of heavy-handed    going to choose sides
sarcastic response.                                  based on who I'd want for
                                                     enemies or allies, I would
But Virginia Kidd does have a few more               go with Benford and Platt,
substantive points, the best of which I              who both have impressive
mentioned previously: "Hey, what about               careers as writers and
the Mennonites?"                                     have sometimes impressed me
                                                     as serious thinkers...
   She has another point that's
   weaker and less interesting, but                      They may be
   that won't stop me from going on                      "cloud shouters"
   about it at great length:                             on occasion, but
                                                         what they're
          FTL_ATTACK                                     typically noted
                                                         for are other
                                                         things.



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