Paul Goodman was not ahead of his time but IN his time.
Eco sees the intellectual as an organizer of culture, someone who can run a magazine or a museum. An administrator, in fact. I think this is a melancholy situation for an intellectual.
Jimmy Baldwin was not only a writer, an international literary figure: he was a man, spirit, voice - old and black and terrible as that first ancestor.
I see myself as an arbiter of taste.
The biggest thinker that's influenced my feminism is definitely Bell Hooks, who's a feminist cultural critic, because of her accessibility but also just because she's a genius.
The intellectual is an individual with a specific public role in society that cannot be reduced simply to . . a faceless professional.
Simultaneously, my two biggest heroes are Susan Sontag and Morticia Addams from 'The Addams Family.'
I've never thought of myself as a hoity-toity cultural critic.
One is happy to report that Israel Shenker is still at the aerosol stage. His energy is still compressed. The result distinguishes him both as a Jew and as an observer of Jews.
