I don't want to hijack the Gores subject line to continue an unpleasant conversation, so I'll keep it short.
Ron, thanks for your helpful suggestion, which I will once again choose to ignore. For the record, I am not all all sensitive about my own career choices. What I am sensitive about is sweeping generalizations: I dislike them because they suggest to me positions based in received opinion, laziness, bias, or unproductive generalization.
Those of you who have been offended or annoyed by my calling out the anti-academic comments on this List can rest assured that when I am with groups of people who dismiss fans of "genre literature" as stupid, unsophisticated geeks who don't know "good" writing because they don't read "highbrow" literature, I also try to set those people straight.
Can't help it--it's a personal tic I have, set off by closed-mindedness and prejudice.
I've now said my last on this topic in this group, since I'm reminded of that wonderful Southern expression: "Never try to teach a pig to sing: it's a waste of your time, and it annoys the pig." I will continue to read, enjoy, and benefit from the excellent insights on hardboiled books and writers on RARA-AVIS, and do my best to let the rest pass without comment, as at the end of the day it's off-topic anyway.
Many thanks,
Mark Nevins
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