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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Prof. Fabricant,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The blog by Kristin was up and readable yesterday,
but it looks like she took down her posting, because it's a dead link today.
That's too bad. I wonder why she pulled it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>If you'd like to read it anyway, Google has a <A
href="http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:Ye6W6IgtkGQJ:abookend.vox.com/library/post/in-response-to-scull.html+response+to+scull&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us">cached
</A>version. That link should work. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Also, Carl Walker, formerly a graduate student in
our department, has responded to the issue in his <A
href="http://agentofstrange.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/the-end-of-uc-riverside/">blog</A>.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>My favorite line from Walker's blog: <FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3>"<FONT color=#0000ff>Right… so rather than [allow]
UCSD to end 'as we know it,' whatever that means, it’s so much better for UCM
and UCR (or UCSC) to, ya know, really end</FONT>."</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>- Gray</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=cf7516@gmail.com href="mailto:cf7516@gmail.com">Carole Fabricant</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=devlinucr@earthlink.net
href="mailto:devlinucr@earthlink.net">kimberly devlin</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Cc:</B> <A title=Deborah.Willis@ucr.edu
href="mailto:Deborah.Willis@ucr.edu">Deborah.Willis@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=John.Ganim@ucr.edu
href="mailto:John.Ganim@ucr.edu">John.Ganim@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=susan.zieger@ucr.edu
href="mailto:susan.zieger@ucr.edu">susan.zieger@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=keith.harris@ucr.edu
href="mailto:keith.harris@ucr.edu">keith.harris@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=rob.latham@ucr.edu
href="mailto:rob.latham@ucr.edu">rob.latham@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=Traise.Yamamoto@ucr.edu
href="mailto:Traise.Yamamoto@ucr.edu">Traise.Yamamoto@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=michelle.raheja@ucr.edu
href="mailto:michelle.raheja@ucr.edu">michelle.raheja@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=Andrea.Denny-Brown@ucr.edu
href="mailto:Andrea.Denny-Brown@ucr.edu">Andrea.Denny-Brown@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=Steven.Axelrod@ucr.edu
href="mailto:Steven.Axelrod@ucr.edu">Steven.Axelrod@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=joseph.childers@ucr.edu
href="mailto:joseph.childers@ucr.edu">joseph.childers@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=jamestobias@mindspring.com
href="mailto:jamestobias@mindspring.com">jamestobias@mindspring.com</A> ; <A
title=Stanley.Stewart@ucr.edu
href="mailto:Stanley.Stewart@ucr.edu">Stanley.Stewart@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=erica.edwards@ucr.edu
href="mailto:erica.edwards@ucr.edu">erica.edwards@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=rise.axelrod@ucr.edu
href="mailto:rise.axelrod@ucr.edu">rise.axelrod@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=englecturers@lists.ucr.edu
href="mailto:englecturers@lists.ucr.edu">englecturers@lists.ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=John.Briggs@ucr.edu
href="mailto:John.Briggs@ucr.edu">John.Briggs@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=adriana.craciun@ucr.edu
href="mailto:adriana.craciun@ucr.edu">adriana.craciun@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=Caroleanne.tyler@ucr.edu
href="mailto:Caroleanne.tyler@ucr.edu">Caroleanne.tyler@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=Vorris.Nunley@ucr.edu
href="mailto:Vorris.Nunley@ucr.edu">Vorris.Nunley@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=heidi.braymanhackel@ucr.edu
href="mailto:heidi.braymanhackel@ucr.edu">heidi.braymanhackel@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=carole.fabricant@ucr.edu
href="mailto:carole.fabricant@ucr.edu">carole.fabricant@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=James.Tobias@ucr.edu
href="mailto:James.Tobias@ucr.edu">James.Tobias@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=jennifer.doyle@ucr.edu
href="mailto:jennifer.doyle@ucr.edu">jennifer.doyle@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=George.Haggerty@ucr.edu
href="mailto:George.Haggerty@ucr.edu">George.Haggerty@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=katherine.kinney@ucr.edu
href="mailto:katherine.kinney@ucr.edu">katherine.kinney@ucr.edu</A> ; <A
title=Tiffany.Lopez@ucr.edu
href="mailto:Tiffany.Lopez@ucr.edu">Tiffany.Lopez@ucr.edu</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, July 11, 2009 8:38
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> SPAM-LOW: Re: UWP Lecturers Fwd:
brilliant letter</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I agree with you, Kim. The people who chose to sign this
contemptible letter should be "outed" -- they shouldn't be allowed to hide
behind anonymity. I definitely think we should get hold of the letter
and have it printed in a California publication; the LA Times is a good
suggestion. Of course, you realize that once it gets out there will be
loads of doofuses who will actually think it's a great suggestion to
close some of the UC campuses (if not the whole university!) and will write
letters to the editor and to their congresspersons to that effect. But
that's the risk one takes in a (ahem) democracy. Everyone has her
say, even those with a minimum of brain power and capacity for critical
thinking.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Stephanie (Kay) came up with a couple of good
suggestions also: that we get this letter (along with
appropriate editorial and ironic commentary on it) into the Chronicle of
Higher Education; and that the Academic Senates of UCSC, UCR, and UC
Merced either separately or jointly censure those who wrote and signed
the letter. This might sound like overkill (and the very opposite of
the far subtler ironic tack I initially took) but I think if UC faculty
choose to circulate reprehensible ideas that (at least in theory and
potential) can be highly damaging to their colleagues on other campuses,
they should be held responsible for their actions. I say "actions"
because what they did goes beyond mere words; after all, their
letter was sent to UCOP with the specific intention of affecting
university policy). There's no question here about meddling with
freedom of speech (hey, I'm a card-carrying member of the ACLU like
[probably] most of you) but when 23 department heads send an
official signed letter to the President's Office proposing a major change
in the system (to put it mildly!), it enters the public domain and
should be treated -- and responded to -- as such.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Deborah: I don't know how you found out about those other four
department heads, but if you've discovered the entire list
of faculty who signed the letter, could you perhaps let all of us know
who they are (i.e., which departments they head). I think we're all
curious and dying to know that. And if you've somehow unearthed a
copy of the entire letter, it would be great if you could send that around
as well -- or send us the internet link where we can see
the letter for ourselves.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Speaking of which, I wasn't able to open the third link that you sent us
(the blog with, I gather, an ironic or humorous response to the letter).
It sounds like at least some of you succeeded in opening and reading it,
but I couldn't. (The site said I wasn't authorized to read anything
on it, or something to that effect.) Did anyone else have that
problem? If you know how to fix it let me know -- as you're probably
well aware by now I'm a hopeless satire buff and hate to think I'm
missing out on any examples of it. </DIV>
<DIV> <BR>Cheers,</DIV>
<DIV>Carole</DIV>
<DIV><BR> </DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 6:53 PM, kimberly devlin <SPAN
dir=ltr><<A
href="mailto:devlinucr@earthlink.net">devlinucr@earthlink.net</A>></SPAN>
wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<DIV>
<P>dear all,</P>
<P>i would be very happy to see a copy of the full letter (including the
names of everyone who signed it) reprinted in the la times, followed by
carole's response. any ideas how to do so? anybody with me on
this one? i am impressed by how many other faculty have accepted the
fact that the state/nation/world is in a severe depression and that we, like
many others (not employed by uc), are going to be effected. duh. in
any event, thank you very much carole.</P>
<P>slainte,</P>
<P>kim<BR><BR></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid">
<DIV class=im>-----Original Message----- <BR>From: Carole Fabricant
<BR>Sent: Jul 10, 2009 3:19 AM <BR>To: <A
href="mailto:adriana.craciun@ucr.edu"
target=_blank>adriana.craciun@ucr.edu</A>, <A
href="mailto:Andrea.Denny-Brown@ucr.edu"
target=_blank>Andrea.Denny-Brown@ucr.edu</A>, <A
href="mailto:carole.fabricant@ucr.edu"
target=_blank>carole.fabricant@ucr.edu</A>, <A
href="mailto:cf7516@gmail.com" target=_blank>cf7516@gmail.com</A>, <A
href="mailto:Caroleanne.tyler@ucr.edu"
target=_blank>Caroleanne.tyler@ucr.edu</A>, <A
href="mailto:Deborah.Willis@ucr.edu"
target=_blank>Deborah.Willis@ucr.edu</A>, <A
href="mailto:erica.edwards@ucr.edu"
target=_blank>erica.edwards@ucr.edu</A>, <A
href="mailto:George.Haggerty@ucr.edu"
target=_blank>George.Haggerty@ucr.edu</A>, <A
href="mailto:heidi.braymanhackel@ucr.edu"
target=_blank>heidi.braymanhackel@ucr.edu</A>, <A
href="mailto:jamestobias@mindspring.com"
target=_blank>jamestobias@mindspring.com</A>, <A
href="mailto:James.Tobias@ucr.edu" target=_blank>James.Tobias@ucr.edu</A>,
<A href="mailto:jennifer.doyle@ucr.edu"
target=_blank>jennifer.doyle@ucr.edu</A>, <A
href="mailto:John.Briggs@ucr.edu" target=_blank>John.Briggs@ucr.edu</A>,
<A href="mailto:John.Ganim@ucr.edu" target=_blank>John.Ganim@ucr.edu</A>,
<A href="mailto:joseph.childers@ucr.edu"
target=_blank>joseph.childers@ucr.edu</A>, <A
href="mailto:katherine.kinney@ucr.edu"
target=_blank>katherine.kinney@ucr.edu</A>, <A
href="mailto:keith.harris@ucr.edu" target=_blank>keith.harris@ucr.edu</A>,
<A href="mailto:devlinucr@earthlink.net"
target=_blank>devlinucr@earthlink.net</A>, <A
href="mailto:michelle.raheja@ucr.edu"
target=_blank>michelle.raheja@ucr.edu</A>, <A
href="mailto:rise.axelrod@ucr.edu" target=_blank>rise.axelrod@ucr.edu</A>,
<A href="mailto:rob.latham@ucr.edu" target=_blank>rob.latham@ucr.edu</A>,
<A href="mailto:Stanley.Stewart@ucr.edu"
target=_blank>Stanley.Stewart@ucr.edu</A>, <A
href="mailto:Steven.Axelrod@ucr.edu"
target=_blank>Steven.Axelrod@ucr.edu</A>, <A
href="mailto:susan.zieger@ucr.edu" target=_blank>susan.zieger@ucr.edu</A>,
<A href="mailto:Tiffany.Lopez@ucr.edu"
target=_blank>Tiffany.Lopez@ucr.edu</A>, <A
href="mailto:Traise.Yamamoto@ucr.edu"
target=_blank>Traise.Yamamoto@ucr.edu</A>, <A
href="mailto:Vorris.Nunley@ucr.edu"
target=_blank>Vorris.Nunley@ucr.edu</A>, <A
href="mailto:englecturers@listserv.ucr.edu"
target=_blank>englecturers@listserv.ucr.edu</A> <BR></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=h5>Subject: Fwd: brilliant letter <BR><BR>
<DIV>Hey folks,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The depths to which some of my esteemed and, er, enlightened
colleagues will stoop never ceases to amaze me. One is never quite
prepared for the next act of outrage or idiocy. Way to go, guy;
let's hear it for colleaguiality and (more importantly)
class solidarity. In case you don't know what I'm talking
about, I'll attach a newspaper article (and a half) to this email (I
copied it into my Word documents) which will explain it all. Below
you will find my response to His Eminence the Distinguished
Professor Scull. There's no way one can deal with this except
through satire. (Well, actually there are other ways -- but
nothing that can be described in an email.) I heartily
encourage all of you to send emails to Scull congratulating him on
his brilliant satiric wit. It would be nice if his mailbox were
filled with such notes. (Actually it would be even nicer it it was
filled with something else -- but never mind that for now.)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Read and weep. Or better yet, read and laugh, and write
sarcastic fan mail.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>btw, Don't forget to address him as "Distinguished Professor" --
given his obvious adulation of status and reputation I'm sure he wouldn't
want to be addressed any other way. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Cheers,</DIV>
<DIV>Carole<BR><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>---------- Forwarded message ----------<BR>From: <B
class=gmail_sendername>Carole Fabricant</B> <SPAN dir=ltr><<A
href="mailto:cf7516@gmail.com"
target=_blank>cf7516@gmail.com</A>></SPAN><BR>Date: Fri, Jul 10, 2009
at 3:00 AM<BR>Subject: brilliant letter<BR>To: <A
href="mailto:ascull@ucsd.edu"
target=_blank>ascull@ucsd.edu</A><BR><BR><BR>
<DIV>Dear Distinguished Professor Scull,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I very much enjoyed reading portions of your brilliant satire which,
had you been a less humble and unassuming person, you might have entitled
"A Modest Proposal for preventing the Inferior Campuses of the UC System
from being a Burden to their Superiors or the University at large, and for
making them Beneficial to the Public."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>As a Jonathan Swift specialist I can say without reservation that you
have perfectly captured the tone and spirit of Swift's greatest satire,
creating a persona whom you've succeeded in making into the twin
brother of the Modest Proposer: a man, deeply concerned for the
welfare of his community, who understands that the sacrifice of some of
its members (other than himself and his fellow classmen, of course)
is necessary for the good of the whole. Your persona, like the
Modest Proposer, subscribes to the sad but inescapable truth that in every
society the weak have to be sacrificed to ensure the continued health and
prosperity of the strong, the have-nots must give way to accommodate
the desires of the haves; and while expressing regret regret at being
forced to "contemplate very, very unpleasant choices" he doesn't
allow mere sentiment to soften the stark nature of his proposal,
or to divert him from his noble purpose.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Of course, this being a satire, we eventually come to realize that
the Modest Proposer's (both yours and Swift's) presumed concern for the
welfare of his society, hence his eagerness to offer solutions to its
problems, is merely a cover to mask his own self-interest, delusions of
grandeur, and dehumanizing outlook (his substitution of abstract
quantifiable measures for human values) -- but not before we've enjoyed a
delightful romp through the realms of the satiric grotesque.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I must say that I thought it was a particularly brilliant stroke of
wit on your part to substitute the image of General Motors "lopping off"
Hummer, Buick, Opel, Saab, "and who knows what else" for Swift's central
metaphor of chopping up and eating Irish babies. The "who knows what
else" provides just the right Swiftian touch, opening out the
possibilities of the satire in the same way that Swift's Modest Proposer,
after describing the many dishes the babies can be cooked up into, adds
that "Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may
flay the carcass; the skin of which, artificially dressed, will make
admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Equally ingenious was your remark that because of the funding crisis
we now have to become "only a nine, or an eight (and a half) campus
system." A lesser satirist would have left it at 'nine, or eight,'
but your insertion of 'a half' of a campus produces an ever-so-slight
frisson, evoking the image of a half of a baby (somehow more shocking than
a whole one) being stuffed into a pot to make a stew: an image
that serves to underscore the fundamental sadism and cruel indifference
beneath the Modest Proposer's mask of benevolence.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I will be teaching Swift in the fall quarter and wonder whether you
would be willing to come and talk to my class about your perspective on
the art of satire -- perhaps even share with us some of your other
creative endeavors in this field. I always tell my students that,
given the absurdity of the times in which we live, it's no longer possible
to write satire. But I'm glad to say that you've proven me
wrong.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Yours sincerely (and admiringly),</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV><FONT color=#888888>
<DIV>Carole Fabricant</DIV>
<DIV>Professor of English</DIV>
<DIV>University of California, Riverside</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></FONT></DIV><BR></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR>
<P>
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