![]() ![]() The emeritus professor of English at Princeton University bravely presents herself as tuned in to today’s youth to a degree that the 73-year-old Wolfe could only envy. ![]() To make herself the butt of the joke - this is meta-humor of the highest order. I very much enjoyed Elaine Showalter’s riotously funny parody of a book review of Tom Wolfe’s I Am Charlotte Simmons. Lambert Professor of Computer Science Washington and Lee University Lexington, Va. Showalter’s insinuation or innuendo about Washington and Lee, if that’s what it is, is not worthy of a scholar. ![]() Snobs can be encountered at any institution Princeton University, Showalter’s former employer, certainly has its share. Our institution not only consistently ranks among the top small, private universities, but it also fosters an atmosphere of trust, civility, and respect for learning that is second to none. What is she trying to say? That Washington and Lee tends to produce snobbish, superficial, and insecure graduates? My colleagues, my students, and I would strongly reject that characterization. In her review of Tom Wolfe’s new novel (“Peeping Tom’s Juvenile Jaunt,” The Chronicle Review, November 12), Elaine Showalter says: “It takes a writer as snobbish, superficial, and insecure as Tom Wolfe (who got his own undergraduate degree from Washington and Lee University, where he played baseball) to write such puerile rubbish.”Īlthough one might agree with her characterization of Wolfe and his writing, Showalter’s mention of Wolfe’s alma mater seems gratuitous. ![]()
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