Further proof that Treglown is an idiot (sorry, dear non-Hispanists readers, I need to get this out of my system) is that when naming “the most stylistically interesting” Spanish writers of the 1960-1980, he mentions Juan Benet and Miguel Delibes. Juan Goytisolo is mentioned ONCE in the entire book and only as somebody who praised Aub.

Of course, literary tastes are highly subjective but if you are talking of stylistically interesting writers and pretend that Goytisolo doesn’t exist, you shouldn’t be talking about literature.

Well, Treglown sees no difference between T S Eliot and Peman, a fascist Franco-lover and ass-kisser, so what can we expect?

By the way, who are these fans of Treglown who are down voting my posts about him?

The argument Treglown makes in his new book Franco’s Crypt is quite bizarre. If you agree that beautiful works of art were created during Franco’s dictatorship, he says, then you have to agree that the dictatorship wasn’t all that bad. And if you insist that the crimes of fascists should be investigated and discussed, you must surely hate Laforet, Berlanga, Saura, Cela, Marse, etc.

It logically follows from this that if you believe that the Diary of Anne Frank is an important and poignant book, you can’t afford to be critical of Hitler.

The professor who has had his tenure at our university the longest has a species of lizard named in his honor. (Because he studies them and not for any unpleasant reason.)

I just thought this was cute.

I’ve got to start cataloguing all of the inventive ways people are using the word “privilege” these days. Here is one. Author Jeremy Treglown is talking in his book Franco’s Crypt about a documentary by Patino and mentions that, in the movie, the rich and powerful

are always seen in privilegedly small numbers.

I’m guessing that Treglown is not very much into people.

If you are a fellow Hispanist and were considering reading Franco’s Crypt, I don’t recommend it. The author is an embodiment of every bad stereotype about the British people. For him, a Spanish artist, no matter how renowned and talented, needs to have been noticed by some obscure Brit to merit any attention.  He is pompous, self-aggrandizing, obnoxious, and very much enamored of Franco’s dictatorship.

I will be bashing him in my next article because just thinking of this fellow makes my blood pressure go up.

This article wasn’t written by me. But it could have been.

If a crisis occurs in my department, I know the email will fly starting at 5 am, and there will be meetings and ridiculously overwrought machinations by everyone. I skim the email, take the long way around the building to my office, sip coffee, and wait until the “decision” comes through. They’ve all wasted a day in hand wringing and I’ve appropriately just had my say when the final news came down. Some of them I can imagine scrambling to their computers to write the latest post for College Misery about the trauma!

What I’m saying is that this is an important profession and we do important work, but it’s just a job, people. I think that a lot of you would be a lot happier if you’d just relax a bit. If your student doesn’t staple his paper? Staple it. What’s the big deal. They take a phone call in class? You mean you’re that insecure that you can’t just shut them down and keep going. And seriously, what’s the deal with being upset when a student asks for next semester’s books. You don’t have a link to the bookstore you can send them?

This academic is completely right. People are too overwrought and drama-queenish. I’ve been following the College Misery website for years for the same reason many people enjoy fantasy and science fiction: it is entertaining to observe a reality that is completely different from yours while being at a safe distance from it. And finally there is a post I can relate to.

Do read the whole thing.