IN MY SHOES: “Am I Really An Uncultured Oaf?”
In a New York Times op-ed Calvin Trillin, who writes political verse for The Nation and penned “Deciding the Next Decider: The 2008 Presidential Race in Rhyme,” admits that people - himself included – wonder whether he’s an uncultured oaf:
There was a discussion at my house recently about whether or not I am an uncultured oaf. This is not the first time the subject has come up. …
These discussions are not accusatory; they’re more like dispassionate inquiries. Everyone present seems genuinely curious about whether I can be accurately categorized as an uncultured oaf, and no one is more curious about it than I am. …
I was an English major. … I graduated from a distinguished American research university. [T]hat makes me wonder whether or not there are a lot of other people with ostensibly respectable academic credentials who have reason to suspect that they may be uncultured oafs. …
Not long ago, I read an article about a distinguished literary critic, long deceased, and, as an example of the critic’s remarkable writing ability, the article drew particular attention to this sentence: “This intense conviction of the existence of the self apart from culture is, as culture well knows, its noblest and most generous achievement.” I had no idea what that could mean.
I decided to consult someone I know who is an officer of the
The Stiletto doesn’t understand the original sentence or its “explanation,” thus removing any doubt that she, too, is an uncultured oaf (if the pejorative is not gender specific to men) because she believes good writing clarifies, not obfuscates.
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