Comments on: How I Harassed The Working Class: Dr. Dolan’s Skirmish With Poet Jim Daniels

By: Frank Fnark

Frank Fnark — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 18:48:37 +0000

What is rapidly decreasing in relevance, at least over here in the last remaining superpower, is the “notion of an academic or intellectual community”itself. Our culture has decided it doesn’t want people making a living off of studying it.

By: philip porter

philip porter — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 05:52:03 +0000

Why won’t those wimps engage you in debate, defend themselves or something? “no comment” from a commentator??? The abuse of PC has encouraged the notion that victimhood is heroic when in fact it’s just painful. The truth of people suffering is not being told by these clowns who see the “working class” banner as a career enabler. Enjambment and slick line breaks do not make a poem just as listing tragic events does not give us insight into those events. Much of the poetry I write deals with unravelling the relationships I had as a child with family, friends and work in the industrial suburbs of western Sydney (Australia). They deal with all the human emotions that go with that.The fact that these emotions and events took place in what is deemed a working class (a most contested term) suburb and the protagonists worked in factories is backdrop compared to the larger human issues being explored. But, according to some my work is that of a “working class poet” with all its limitations. Thanks for nothing! Keep up the attacks on the citadel John, although their rapidly decreasing relevance to any notion of an academic or intellectual community might make your battle a brief one.
philip

By: Muhammad Yasir

Muhammad Yasir — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 16:18:10 +0000

i like that

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 14:51:04 +0000

Thanks John… this is a good article

By: Frank Fnark

Frank Fnark — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:37:44 +0000

Appearance is reality these days, Prof. Not just among the publishing-or-perishing, but among the hard, simple men and soft, simple women that make up the actual workingclass, who more than likely would give you an old-school bust in the chops if you failed to respect their appearances as reality.

By: breezer1

breezer1 — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:32:59 +0000

I anit got no edumication and i aint be that fucking stupid.

By: Myles na Gofookyerownself

Myles na Gofookyerownself — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:45:42 +0000

Dear John,

I remember writing that. Maybe I should be ashamed? What if you’re not even the one reading these, but rather, some other editor is reading my comments? Do you even know I exist?

I wish you would recognize me.

By: notomatoes

notomatoes — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:19:21 +0000

I remember being handed this by a tutor at Victoria Uni.
It inspired me to dropout.

By: Myles na Gofookyerownself

Myles na Gofookyerownself — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 23:30:57 +0000

Dear Dr. Dolan,

I’ve been following you secretly for a long time. Ever seen the film “Misery”? In a way, that’s me. You’ve met me, but you probably don’t remember me. No one reads me, but we read you. And that makes me envious, I’ll admit. So I’m trying to post a comment here that will really sting, but doggone it, I can’t do it. This piece is devastating, and after reading it I think about my own life…forget it. Props to you.

A real coward

By: jindi

jindi — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:43:22 +0000

Here’s a poem for ya

Roses are red
Violets are blue
I’m just a troll
But I wish I was you

By: TT

TT — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:19:33 +0000

Doyle, you’ve done it again (or rather, before). Simply brilliant. As an academic in the humanities in Australia all I can say is that this is 100% vintage truth, and applicable not only to the States. I’ve found that the only escape from the hordes of palsied victims now drowning everything good left in having an intellectual life is to concentrate on something practical and utterly incomprehensible to them – in my case its science studies. I also concur with the advice above – avoid humanities like the plague, or if you have to – go to some place like Eastern Europe where they still have them.

Cheers
TT

By: Thuggin

Thuggin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 07:27:18 +0000

A classic. That’s true as it’ll ever be.

By: Jimbo

Jimbo — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 07:16:27 +0000

with all the lives fucked by academia scum there must be a lot of hatred out their just tap into it right and you’ll be bigger than the Ivy League

By: LIExpressway

LIExpressway — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:20:41 +0000

As one of those actual “working class” guys who dropped out(expelled from)of college due to being a non traditional student(had no ca$$ to pay tuition, so fuck that fat assed bursar bitch).
I could care less about any of the people in this article, they’ll all be hanging from lamppost or burning in pyres soon(along with me probably).

Oh and drunken at #7, you must not be American or understand America at all, because our academia are not the people fighting our wars, nor is there a chance in hell that they are sending there kids to war or supporting it. They’re too cowardly to do something like that. And as someone who went to school for liberal arts/humanities as well as tech school, they are two different beasts completely.

Kali Yuga Motherfuckers!

By: Drunken Economist

Drunken Economist — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 01:56:37 +0000

Actually this should give anyone in the US that has kids pause, because:

1/ Questionable folks like these end up ‘teaching’ your kids.

2/ Even worse, many of them end up on ‘advisory panels’ to politicians, etc.

3/ This isn’t just restricted to the Humanities or Liberal Arts.

Unfortunately, it’s not ‘halfbrained quarrel between some dumbass black-metal kids’ but US Academia, most of whom are ‘dumbass’ chickenhawk Boomers. Those who burned their draft cards now send their children to war. And do underhanded stuff like this.

Welcome to what goes on inside the gates with those ‘gatekeepers of American values’.

And you wonder why, as a country we’re so parochial, warlike, and downright mean.. but for some reason NOT jingoistic.

Sometimes I wish that the older and younger generations offset from the Boomers shared their so-called “values” ..

But then we’d have 8% of the country’s blood running in the streets for what the Boomers have done to the country, eh?

Oh dear. I went off on a rant, didn’t I?

By: yoyo

yoyo — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:54:45 +0000

Brilliant! There are strong parallels for me with the accademic feminist movement of the 80′s, everyone trying out victim the others, look at me look at me, and one word out of place to the middle class white women would get you pushed out so fast your head would spin. Yet the immigrant or working class women they were obstensively speaking for were not welcome either.

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:34:03 +0000

So I went to Amazon.ca and bought the Exile book. And John Dolan’s Pleasant Hell. And whatever Taibbi’s latest book is called. All amazing. I think we need more Dolan articles, or more from the archives. How long will exile.ru be active for? I’m still coming across decent stuff on that site.

By: Expat in BY

Expat in BY — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:09:45 +0000

Dunno, to me this wasn’t a big bag of wank, but rather a warning – it says to me: look out for the horde of self-declared “victims” making their way upward through the US judicial system.

By: Mr. Wiggles

Mr. Wiggles — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:58:23 +0000

Hail John Dolan, the Duke of Depression

By: Dirty Sloth

Dirty Sloth — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:54:57 +0000

This is pretty much like a halfbrained quarrel between some dumbass black metal kids about which one of them are more true, a pissfest of words between semi-sentinent hip fucking hoppers about who’s keeping it real, or just some cow molesting horse fetishists comparing how high up the manure are on their mustaches.

This article is just a bag of wank.