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Elitism in perspective

An exchange between two professors in the late Kingsley Amis novel The Russian Girl:

“You’re out of date because you know a lot. They really think you do, Richard.”

“You mean they respect me for it?”

“Of course not, but they don’t mind. Every department is likely to include someone who knows a lot, even now. You get that, as they say.”

 

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About the blogger
John McIntyre, mild-mannered copy editor for a great metropolitan newspaper, has fussed over writers’ work at The Baltimore Sun since 1986. He is the director of its copy desk, an affiliate faculty member at Loyola College of Maryland, a former president of the American Copy Editors Society, a native of Kentucky, a graduate of Michigan State and Syracuse, and a moderate prescriptivist. If you are inspired by a spirit of contradiction, comment on his posts or write to him at john.mcintyre@baltsun.com.
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