🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 16 Jan 1992 18:08:00 EST ROBERT_BROCKMAN said:
>The title of my message is the same as the title of a short article by John
>Cleese (of Monty Python fame) in the November/December 1990 issue of _The
>Family Therapy Networker_ (pages 59-61). In it he makes some interesting
>
>"I don't think people have a God-given right not to be offended, and I think
>that being offended can be enormously educative. So if any of you want to help
>me, I'll tell you how to offend me, because if you can listen to what people
>are teasing you about you learn an awful lot."
>
>"... if you're going to cease even making remarks that maybe will not be
>acceptable to everybody, what's going to happen to the culture?"

Somewhere back in the memories exists my literature classes taught by Rita
Weiss at Alton Senior High School (Alton, Ill.).  I remember her screaming
at us, while we were reviewing the content of something like: Catcher in the
Rye, Jane Ere, Catch-22, The Scarlet Letter, or maybe Grapes of Wrath.
The class would be quiet after she had asked some incredibly provocative
question.  It wouldn't give her a croak.  Right about that time, she would
burst out, "Doesn't this bother you people?!?  Common!!  What are your thoughts
on this?!  THE PURPOSE OF A GOOD NOVEL IS TO DISTURB"  (Does anyone know
where this quote comes from, re: the purpose of a good novel...?)

Sometimes digging up stories I have been told about the deep south can be
disturbing to those who hear it (read it).  Maybe that's why I always get
a kick out of telling it.  I know that I respect women (womyn?) in every
possible way.  I also know that some people do not respect women (womyn?)
as much as the current morals would have it.  Just as we look back on the
rules of yesteryear and laugh, so too will the people of tomorrow laugh at
us.

As graduate students of psychology, people who will be tomorrow's
professionals, how much are we willing to sit quiet after having been
asked an incredibly provocative question.  Are we willing to disturb?
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    \\__||_//         |Matthew Simpson                    |
     \__||_/          |Clinical Psychology; U. of Ottawa  |
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