Worst textbook chapter ever

[Valiere]

Okay, so it's not a textbook, but I had to read it for Western Music class.

Remember in high school (or college) English class, when the teacher would always try to convince you that every tiny thing that happened in a novel always had Greater Meaning, that it was an allegory for something else? Well, the guy who wrote this did the same thing with instrumental music and....dear god......

"But hidden deep within the musical structure was a new element that controlled the semiotic surface - a transcendental signifier that ousted instrumental sound from the female body, a phallus that contained the seminal fluid of the work, an invisible sign that removed itself from the semiotic play as the origin of male existence."

......What?

It's all downhill from there, too. The gist of it is WOMEN BAAAAD, MEN GOOD! only in impenetrable Academia-speak. And there's only one way to get rid of the icky girl stuff that's destroying your souls, guys: the power of rock.

He says of one of Beethoven's symphonies:

"It obliterates the entire female race from its battle-ridden surface with such force that it brushes aside the domestic affections of the slow movement for the funeral rite of some revolutionary martyr."

Beethoven has the power to destroy womankind.

[Zerlina]

Beethoven has the power to destroy womankind.

Pür Elise.

(Ba doom tsch)

Seriously, though, that textbook is horrifying. Are those quotes supposed to signify what people once believed (or what some people still believe) or are those actually the author's thoughts? You should complain to the professor about the use of that book...

[Valiere]

The book was written in 1999, so it's not old by any stretch. And the guy makes no indication that he's speaking for people of an earlier era, especially since he has several other chapters in his book exactly like this one. He quotes a philosopher as explicitly saying that women have no souls, and then goes right on as if it's the gospel truth.

I'd complain, but this is a university, and free thought blah blah blah anything goes, you know the rest.

[Archem]

The hell? Are you sure this isn't something the internet concocted?

[Zerlina]

Free thought or not, textbooks are not supposed to be explicitly prejudice. The more books your university makes students buy, the more money goes into the pockets of that chauvinist author.  If the book stated that certain races of people have no soul, it would be fair enough to complain. It should be the same if the book degrades women and passes it off as fact. Come on Val, stand up for the team

[fruckert]

uuuuh...

What?

BTW:
That second passage is one of the worst run-ons I have ever read.

[Valiere]

It's not really a textbook though, it's a music scholar's book that happens to be used in this curriculum. This is it, in case you were curious. (The chapter I read is "On Individuality" but the ones before it look pretty bad, too).

And it's not like it's even useful in spite of the gender issues. Can you imagine seriously using this guy's arguments in any situation?

[fruckert]

They're seriously asking $80 for that thing?

The guy sounds like he's trying to pretend to be smart.
And failing miserably.

[Cerebus]

Is that the Tower of Babel on the cover?
And what the heck?

[Valiere]

Now that you mention that, it looks like he deliberately tried to make it look like a textbook. Like, it even uses the same font I've seen on other textbooks. With a little luck, people won't realize they just spent $80-100 on some guy's crazed ramblings about seminal fluid until it's too late.

[Emerates]

People who talk like that deserve a punch in the jugular.  Val, if your teacher is aware of this and continues to use it in class as a required book, not just suggested materials, there might be an issue there too that needs to be addressed... does your teacher use his own book?

[Valiere]

The chapter's just one of a lot we have to read from a ton of different sources. Since it's my professor's (who's actually a woman) first year teaching, I'm guessing she didn't compile the list of material.

[Darkfox]

I hate chauvinism and I hate people who use a bunch of big words but the actual subject matter is just ignorant ramble. Not one of the things in those quotes indicates intelligence, he's just babbling like a male supremacist moron. I don't even think he knows what the hell he is talking about.

[drenrin2120]

Well, I can see how this could be useful... in... some argument... somewhere... If you were going to write a paper about... idk, feminism? You could tear this guy apart in it. Might be kind of fun.

[X_marks_the_ed]

free thought blah blah blah anything goes, you know the rest.

I love you, Val.