vic wrote:
SM....did you read Philosophy at UCT...? ?
Ho ho. I did, as a matter of fact, but I never got to the end. But they were nice enough to give me the degree anyway ?. UCT humanities was a free-for-all incompetence festival in those days. You could earn a degree by showing up (or, as in the case of the philosophy component of my English/Philosophy degree, even if you didn't). They used to assign your English preferences by the first letter of your surname. Discriminatory much? I got out of there with the writing ability of a 1960s standard eight child. Had to pick it up on my own subsequently. The '90s was the heyday of mainstream acceptance of relativism and the bullsh&t project of the French post-modernist pseudo-intellectuals. This had a rather negative effect on actually teaching anyone anything - since ignorance and knowledge were argued to be indistinguishable. I pray that they've fired all the frauds who touted that nonsense.
Also I was a lazy bum that spent half its time on the roof of the Zoology building smoking weed and laughing at the people going to lectures - so I guess it wasn't all the fault of the institution. Not something to emulate kids. School is for learning. Wish I'd realised that then so I wouldn't have to do so much catching up now. When I go back for the third time next year, it'll be to a faculty with a better reputation.
Stratisfear wrote:
I don't think they teach a course on Hunter Thompson at UCT yet, Vic.
They probably do. Probably taught by people who thinly disguise their bewilderment at his life-style. They're not big on the Americans there. I was desperate to study Americans but, due to the name-placement strategy, I only ever once got into the course I wanted (Singemonkey is, of course, quite far down the alphabet). A Sylvia Plath course. Best thing I did there. Also the Women in History course (about the drop in the fertility rates in Europe and America at the end of the 19th Century, and the history of abortion and what-not). Strange thing. In both courses I was the only man-boy in the class. I remember one girl saying, "All of us here have the ability to give birth..." trailing off into awkward silence as everyone looked in any direction but mine...
