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« Believers in the White House | Main | Prostitutes' rights? » Friday, December 29, 2006Joseph Epstein's gradesEvan, in your last post you left out the juiciest bit of that New Republic item! Richard Stern, the emeritus professor of literature at Chicago, writes that Epstein, "as Myron J. Epstein, was a mediocre student of mine more than four decades ago." After bashing Epstein's trite article (although he says he likes much of Epstein's other work), Stern says his "records show" that he gave Epstein a B-minus in the course. No specifics, but Stern implies the young man's work lacked even "a tithe of excitement." "I suspect I would grade most of his recent work much higher," he concludes, "but this piece on belief isn't even worth a C." I guess there's no reason why it should be surprising, or funny, that Epstein, who is so self-consciously tweedy and literary -- when I read him, I always feel I should be sitting in a leather chair in a mahogany-lined room at a men's club, chuckling in a self-satisfied way -- should have a B-minus in an English course lurking in his background. (Not to mention a professor who feels strongly enough to out him as mediocre a half-century after the fact.) Still, it is . I suspect Stern knows that this is precisely the kind of comment that would bug Epstein. What's next? Anne Fadiman's freshman comp professor steps forward to say he thought her work was too precious, and he failed her? Posted by Christopher Shea at 04:19 PM
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