Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars.For the average reader Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s Loose Canons.' Notes on the Culture Wars is likely to prove engaging and frustrating frus·trate tr.v. frus·trat·ed, frus·trat·ing, frus·trates 1. a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: . Engaging because the 10 essays on the education and miseducation of the American mind are a short course on the evolution of AfricanAmerican literature and its role in our liberation. The frustration comes if you aren't familiar with the oodles of literary and publishing references Gates tosses around so freely. He can exasperate as he seeks to enlighten en·light·en tr.v. en·light·ened, en·light·en·ing, en·light·ens 1. To give spiritual or intellectual insight to: . Readers who believe in a multicultural approach to school and college curricula will keep reading. That is what Gates champions, and he wants us to believe that a new curriculum will redeem our nation. As the author states in his introduction, "Ours is a ... world profoundly fissured by nationality, ethnicity, race, class and gender. And the only way to transcend those divisions--to forge, for once, a civic culture that respects both difference and common-, alities--is through education that seeks to comprehend the diversity of human culture. Beyond the hype and the high-flown rhetoric is a pretty homely home·ly adj. home·li·er, home·li·est 1. Not attractive or good-looking: a homely child. 2. Lacking elegance or refinement: homely furniture. truth: There is no tolerance without respect--and no respect without knowledge." This may go over big with folks who worship the intellect, but for those who don't, Gates' "truth" is but "a tinkling tin·kle v. tin·kled, tin·kling, tin·kles v.intr. 1. To make light metallic sounds, as those of a small bell. 2. Informal To urinate. v.tr. 1. cymbal cymbal Percussion instrument consisting of a circular metal plate that is struck with a drumstick or two such plates that are struck together. They were used, often ritually, in Assyria, Israel (from c. ." For we know that people truly do the right thing by one another only when they have "studied" the tenets of a higher moral law. If Gates has any evidence to the contrary, he ain't telling--at least not in this book. --Tonya Bolden Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars by Henry Louis Gates Jr.; Oxford University Press, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , 1992, 199pp, $19.95 |
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