Althouse: Camille speaks.

March 19, 2015

Camille speaks.

ADDED: I see there's a transcript.

34 comments:

traditionalguy said...: She lets it all loose. Definitely worth the time to listen to her. The interviewer was not listening very well and cut her off just when she was at her best.; 3/19/15, 5:42 PM
Gahrie said...: Very long, but worth litening to. Camille and I are very different people, with very different views, but I would love to have long conversations such as this with her.; 3/19/15, 6:10 PM
dustbunny said...: Love Camille! When Sexual Persona came out in the late 80's, I remember thefeminist gatekeepers being livid, she was off the reservation! She was expressing a non-sanctioned POV! She makes me want to use exclamation points!!; 3/19/15, 6:15 PM
Fernandinande said...: I've always liked Paglia but won't watch anything with that PC twit Gilles-pie.; 3/19/15, 6:33 PM
David said...: It's not a dialog. Not sure why exactly but perhaps she does not respect him? How do you get her to dialog rather than proclaim? Perhaps you have to be both as smart and rapid fire as she is, but people like that are very rare/

She did see the evil and decay in Leary. Leary was one creepy man. He would have made a good Nazi.; 3/19/15, 6:35 PM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: I wish she'd speak a little more quickly, I didn't feel like she was filling the available space.; 3/19/15, 7:39 PM
Jaq said...: That was great. I never watch video, but it was great to listen to it in the background.

The interviewer could not even ruin it by indulging in some kind of display behavior, is all I can think he was doing.; 3/19/15, 7:46 PM
Jaq said...: I also think it is hysterical when Democrats like Paglia decry the growth of administrators in colleges and universities without even the slightest not toward the fact that for every new regulation imposed, people have to be hired to guarantee that they are carried out.

This burden is far greater on public education than any minor budget cuts. But these regulations create jobs and creating jobs creates constituencies, and college professors get to pretend that their overwhelming support for the primary party that promulgates these regulations has nothing to do with the obvious results of these policies.; 3/19/15, 7:50 PM
Jaq said...: Plus Republicans are to blame for tuition rises on account of the fact that Republicans are to blame for everything bad, and thinking about root causes is pointless.; 3/19/15, 7:51 PM
Levi Starks said...: I'm trying to imagine what a great world this would be if everyone had that kind of chip on their shoulder.; 3/19/15, 8:43 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I'm deleting off-topic stuff here. There's a café post up today where you are invited to talk about whatever you want. Why would you go off topic here? (No answer wanted to that question.); 3/19/15, 9:17 PM
john said...: Good interview. I thought Gillespie was quite challenging and kept the conversation moving. At the end, the several attempts to elicit an answer to what Paglia was optimistic about resulted, finally, in her talking about her current research. Nothing external to her was worth mentioning as giving her optimism.

From that I take it that (like many/most of us) she thinks she is doing fine personally, but the rest of the world is going to hell in a handbasket. That does not help, and confirms to me that she feels helpless and victimized by the big world out there. Again, like many or most of us. I was hoping for something more at the end.; 3/19/15, 9:33 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: If she's disappointed by female archetypes in the culture today, she should totally check out Lana Del Ray. I'm listening to her now. A total sultriness that hearkens intensely back to 1940s starlets, and with a classic huskiness but also an unabashed sexuality that's at least as "gender rebellious" as anything Madonna did. But with a classiness to it and twice as creative.

I think she'd approve.

I met some of her students recently. She'd be a total trip to take classes with. But I worry that sometimes her frenetic mind outdoes itself. 80% of the time she's really on to something important. But 20% of the time she's getting worked up about something to which there's a less obvious, but equally satisfying answer lurking in the shadows. I thought Gillespie's redirecting her to his challenging final question of whether she's optimist about anything was funny. But I get her mindset; not satisfied with any easy answers.; 3/19/15, 9:35 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: The best thing she ever said about HRC was a reference to her "dealing personalities like a card shark."; 3/19/15, 9:42 PM
traditionalguy said...: Italians started the don't get mad, get even motto.

Give em hell, Camille. Every time you tell the truth about the feminazizs they call it hell.

She gave the solution to anyone listening. Marxism remains a narrow analysis of rational materialism that leaves out human art, our place in eternity and the excitement of learning history.; 3/19/15, 9:49 PM
chuck said...: My memory is that Salon died on 9/12, a sad victim of instant onset leftism. And while the Green party may be a more genuine simulacrum of the 60's, that is not a positive thing. I think she underestimates the poisonous influence on culture that came out of that decade.; 3/19/15, 9:54 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: Yep. I remember it. Proof positive that Camille understands Hillary better than HIllary understands herself.; 3/19/15, 9:54 PM
Roger J. said...: Quite a show--loved her defense of history, geography, and the canon--very much a classist there. But she is very difficult to put in any intellectual box. She did use ok a lot. But that is very minor criticism.; 3/19/15, 10:02 PM
Ron said...: Nick ruined the whole thing. Too much interjecting, too much editorializing, too much talking!
Just let her talk!

Awful interview.; 3/19/15, 10:23 PM
Amexpat said...: Excellent interview. Her critique of the educational system in the US rings true.; 3/19/15, 11:05 PM
Birches said...: She has some great insights, but I'm sure to all the right people it just sounds like "Get off my lawn!"; 3/20/15, 12:05 AM
jr565 said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/20/15, 12:16 AM
jr565 said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/20/15, 12:26 AM
jr565 said...: She's right that Marxism as a narrow world view was treated as something that encompasses everything by marxists. And how all the identity politics are falling Intt that same mold.
But she overly adores the 60's which gave birth to all that. That's when socialism took over the left and identity politics became agitprop.
It's like yearning for the French Revolution ignoring that in the end the French Revolution ended up guillotining both the nobles and poor alike.

Aside from her fixation of the 60's I've always admired her mind, she has a liberal iconoclastic view but also a deeply conservative view that respects history and the canon.; 3/20/15, 12:28 AM
james conrad said...: I am a huge fan of Paglia's writing, very enjoyable reading her well thought out arguments.; 3/20/15, 4:18 AM
averagejoe said...: Great interview, very entertaining personality. I started watching at 2 in the morning, figuring I'd turn it off after a few minutes, and an hour later I'm moved to comment. I've been familiar with Paglia's name and reputation only for many years; this is the first time I've heard her speak and it was very enjoyable and interesting. Loved her manic energy and breadth of knowledge. First time meeting Nick Gillespie too and I was impressed. I thought Gillespie did a terrific job with the interview, and showed himself to be very knowledgeable as well, familiar and conversant with the topics and characters that she referenced. As long as I'm tossing out the compliments, I'd like to praise Althouse here for providing this video. This is a fine example of why I love this blog and visit every day. It's always interesting and entertaining and the opposite of esoteric.; 3/20/15, 5:30 AM
averagejoe said...: Have to add my astonishment that Diane Feinstein circa 1978 was an attractive woman, like Hollywood leading lady of the 1940's attractive, with beautiful blue eyes and lustrous black hair like Liz Taylor. Sad to see she's become a horrid little troll. See what long-term use of leftist politics does to you, ladies? Put down the feminism. Get off that democrat party stuff.; 3/20/15, 6:08 AM
Bob Ellison said...: She talks fast.; 3/20/15, 6:55 AM
Jaq said...: I thought Gillespie did a terrific job with the interview, and showed himself to be very knowledgeable as well, familiar and conversant with the topics and characters that she referenced.

Like I said, it was a display behavior.

Maybe he should interview himself next.; 3/20/15, 7:47 AM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Nothing new. Same old Paglia. I'm glad she keeps saying things (very fast) but once you know her spiel you got it.

Gillespie had enough sense to let her talk. Paglia is a force of nature. He gave a very loose interview and only interjected to keep the interview from going completely off the rails.; 3/20/15, 8:35 AM
Mid-Life Lawyer said...: Brilliant woman. The most interesting person in the U.S. Rare objectivity.; 3/20/15, 11:20 AM
Saint Croix said...: Paglia's done several books on art history.

Sexual Personae

The Birds

Break, Blow, Burn

Glittering Images.

These books are okay. As an art historian Paglia is not bad. What makes her fascinating, though, is when she drops her art historian role. What I love about Paglia is her take on our modern era. That's when she's at her most abrasive, and funniest, and when her sex obsessions really jump out at you. I love when she gets political. So these are my two favorite Paglia books, by far.

Sex, Art, and American Culture

Vamps and Tramps.; 3/20/15, 4:21 PM
jaed said...: Jeez, that is painful to listen to. The interviewer just WILL NOT STOP interrupting, redirecting, sticking his oar in, loudly grunting... Shut up and let her speak!; 3/20/15, 8:54 PM
Marc in Eugene said...: Forgot this was here until an hour ago. I was most impressed by CP's frank acknowledgement that while our decadent society is at the edge and falling she still wouldn't live anywhere else than the US. Appreciated her nod of approval of comments threads' reading, too: there are two or three sites where the articles or posts are usually uninteresting or at least nor worth the expenditure of my limited time but the comments threads get a daily or frequent read. And I find her fascination with religion and culture encouraging, pace Nick G., and her recollection of Oscar Wilde not insignificant. A subitanea et improvisa morte, libera nos, Domine!; 3/21/15, 11:22 AM