In a May 21, 2014, Washington Post column, Kathleen Parker alerted readers to a phenomenon in higher education termed “trigger warnings.” These are instructional caveats offered about class assignments that may contain language, situations, or expressed political, religious, or personal philosophy that might be “upsetting” to students, thereby giving them the choice to opt out...
Author: R. Clay Reynolds (R. Clay Reynolds)
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The Ice Storm
This morning, an icy December predawn, about 5:30, Oncor, our utility company, performed a miracle. I’m not sure if anyone actually said, “Let there be light!”; but for a certainty, there was light—and heat—and it was good. After more than 55 hours without electrical power, my wife and I, our three animals, and an array...
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From Castro to Cancun
I’ve long wanted to go to Cuba for the same reason that most Americans my age might. I wanted to see a place that has, for most of my life, been shrouded in mystery. It has been difficult for me to accept the idea that a country only 90 miles off our coast, home to...
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A Spectacle of Joy, With a Touch of Discomfort
Over the weekend of March 11, our daughter, Virginia, was married in the Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. She said she wanted to be married in a place surrounded by natural beauty, well away from trite tourism. After some web-surfing, she picked the Delicate Arch (one of the most photographed natural arches in the...
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Where the South Meets the West
Oh, I’m a good old Rebel, That’s just what I am. And for this damned Republic, I do not give a damn! I’m glad I fought agin it, I only wish we’d won, And I don’t want no pardon, For anything I done! —Maj. James Randolph, CSA Not long ago, Texas Gov. Rick Perry...
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U No What I Meen: Technology and Illiteracy
Most college and university professors know that even though students may successfully complete remedial courses and even a full slate of freshman and sophomore classes, many will still be unable to use proper language mechanics or to work with complex math formulas at an advanced level. It’s an observable fact that many graduate students, some...
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On the Death of Newspapers
This past week, word came to me that a close friend and book-review editor of a major daily newspaper had been laid off after 16 years of service. The book page, one of the nation’s best, would be reduced by half, and his “replacement” would be a youngster from the city desk, a competent young...
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The Death of the Western: Back-Trailing for Affirmation
Westerns have never enjoyed much of a highbrow audience or much literary distinction. Many people tend to sneer at the traditional form, because it seems to represent something obvious and a little dumb. As one of my students responded to my discussion of western historical fiction as a viable and valuable category of popular culture,...
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The Real Crisis of Higher Education
The current debate about the state and future of higher education seems to center on the question of whether a college degree is a “privilege” or a “right.” The loudest argument is that any high-school graduate who has followed a “college pathway” and has made decent grades should be admitted to a state institution of...
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Where Will You Be When the Lights Go Out?
I recently experienced the most dreadful feeling of helplessness and fear imaginable in what undergraduate essayists call “our modern world of high technology.” I suffered massive computer breakdown. The failure of a single computer is bad enough, especially at a point in the semester when book orders and course syllabi are due and students are...
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Literary Worth and Popular Taste
As an academic trained in the study and appreciation of literature, I have spent the better part of my life staunchly defending the ramparts of literary endeavor against the slings and arrows of outrageous pop-fiction lovers. I have steadily despaired of those who read Stephen King, Terry C. Johnston, Mary Higgins Clark, Danielle Steel, and...
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Maxwell Perkins Is Dead: The Decline of Commercial Publishing
In an industry that trades on rumors of disaster, the tales flying around New York (which I use here as a synecdoche for major publishing houses anywhere) for the past several years are horrendous. Though some of the horror stories may be exaggerated, at least insofar as the specific publishers involved are concerned, they are...
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Sexual Harassment and the Academy
SCENE; Administrative conference room at a major university. Five grim-faced faculty members sit around a long table and stare at THE ACCUSED, who sits at one end, apart and alone. He is well dressed, young middle-aged, nice looking but not particularly handsome. Each member of the COMMITTEE has in front of him or her a...
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The Creativity Profession
It has always been my impression that people who talk and write most about the creative process are not usually very creative. It’s sort of like a corollary to that old maxim, “Those who can’t do, teach”; those who can’t create, analyze creativity. Conversely, I must confess that as a book critic who also publishes...