Diversity Corner

[vetuste_ennemi]

I was going to use "Pseuds' Corner" as the title, then I realised that the following quote by a Peter Gordon doesn't even make it past Grade 1 Stupid.

Background to story. Novelist Lionel (it's a "her") Shriver has just been sacked as the judge of a short story competition because of an article ( I read it actually) ) in last week's Spectator in which she criticised Penguin's recently announced diversity policy. (Full article here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lionel-shriver-sacked-over-attack-on-penguin-random-house-ptlfr5pxq )

Part of Shriver's article:

“We can safely infer . . . that if an agent submits a manuscript written by a gay transgender Caribbean who dropped out of school at seven and powers around town on a mobility scooter, it will be published, whether or not said manuscript is an incoherent, tedious, meandering and insensible pile of mixed-paper recycling.”

The person who sacked Shriver, editor Debbie Taylor, came out with some middle grade pseud, saying:

“Mslexia’s raison d’être has been to provide a safe space for all women writers to develop their craft. We actively encourage entries from marginalised writers and frequently draw attention to the issues they face. Although we welcome open debate, Shriver’s comments are not consistent with Mslexia’s ethos, and alienate the very women we are trying to support”

Anyway, back to Mr Gordon, editor of the Asian Review of Books in Hong Kong, who "hits back" with:

“It is easy to deride diversity as a warm and fuzzy social objective without objective substance, but without diversity the English literary world would not have Homer, Dostoevsky or García Márquez.".

[Jackdaw33]

Well I agree with Lionel Shriver. If you hadn't provided a link I would have thought that you made the whole thing up, but nothing surprises me anymore.

[New Judge]

I didn't know Homer, Dostoevsky or Marques were English.

[Jackdaw33]

Who thought up the name 'Mslexia'?

[woofgang]

to quote Kvalidir SIATC

[Mamyalynne]

//Its name is an amalgam of Ms, meaning woman, and lexia, meaning words.

According to the official Mslexia website//

Presumably thunk up by the founder some 19 years ago.

[Jackdaw33]

You don't say, Mamya!

[vetuste_ennemi]

Yes, the absurdities of real life can outrun the poweres of the most inventive parodist. As the late "Peter Simple" (Michael Wharton of the Daily Telegraph) observed.

Anyone remember Dr. Spacely-Trellis, the go-ahead bishop of Bevindon ("We are all guilty, we are all to blame")?

And J. Bonington Jagworth, leader of the militant Motorists' Liberation Front and defender of "the basic right of every motorist to drive as fast as he pleases, how he pleases and over what or whom he pleases".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Peter_Simple_characters

[vetuste_ennemi]

Who was the football manager "I'm as sick as a parrot - it's the lads I feel sorry for"?

[vetuste_ennemi]

"I didn't know Homer, Dostoevsky or Marques were English".

Self-identified, NJ. You don't keep up, do you?

[Jackdaw33]

I remember Peter Simple with great fondness. Totally non-PC these days, but how prescient.

[Jackdaw33]

LOL @ v-e!

[Canary42]

[Pedantry warning]

For a literary editor, Mr Gordon is a little uninformed.

Homer didn't write -- his poetry was passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth and wasn't written down until years later.

Furthermore the "English" literary world only has English transaltor's versions, which are not all identical.

[naomi24]

//Who thought up the name 'Mslexia'?//

I saw this in the newspaper and, having read the article, wondered if there had been some confusion. Perhaps it was meant to read Dyslexia.

[vetuste_ennemi]

Ah, so it would have read as:

"... Shriver’s comments are not consistent with Dyslexia’s ethos"

[naomi24]

Quite possibly. :o)

[vetuste_ennemi]

This is the full article Shriver wrote for the Spectator:

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/06/when-diversity-means-uniformity/

[naomi24]

Jokes aside, in the relentless quest for enforced diversity the demise of the recognition of worthy ability (and more) encroaches ever further.

[Theland]

Surely we all know that black lesbian amputees write the best novels innit?

[Theland]

So in my latest masterpiece, a story about customers storming the shops on Black Friday, can I still say, "black," or how about, "Friday of an unusual hue?"
And how do I say, "Man the barricades?" How about, "Will somebody get behind the barricades?"
Oh this is so exhausting. I'll never finish my novel at this rate.

[Jackdaw33]

Peter Simple, referred to above, warned that it wouldn't be long before a black lesbian amputee was the Archbishop of Canterbury. We laughed then but we're not laughing now.