DAVID LEHMAN
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"Kaddish"; he communes with his dead mother, "older -than I
knew her before/ her life disappeared," and wakens from his
reveries with the Romantic poet's affirmation, "glad oflife . " With a
guitar accompanist, Ginsberg then sang his "Do the Meditation
Rock"-"Ifyou can't think straight/
&
you don't know who to callI
it's never too late/ to do nothing at all"-which was both moving
and funny, transcending its own capacity for self-parody . (Ginsberg
jovially refers to himself in the poem as "an old fraud .") Finally ,
Ginsberg led "a community sing" of a William Blake poem .
An
overflow audience in a ballroom set for 700 people, some of whom
had brought along their microcassette recorders, gave him a stand–
ing ovation . This listener felt, not for the first time, that one reason
Ginsberg became and remains an American original is his will–
ingness to look like a fool, to trust his instincts and take them to an
extreme, without fear of ridicule or censure. His may be a calculated
vulnerability ; but it is affecting , and sometimes irresistible,
nonetheless.
As the convention drew to its close , a professor of comparative
literature confided to me that he makes the annual MLA pilgrimage
" to hear English professors massacre the language and fail to com–
municate. " The lavish book exhibits lured others . " I just spent my
last $55 on books," enthused Georgia Tech ' s Anne Marie Oliver,
whose passion is etymology . "I've been looking for ages for
The
Latin Sexual Vocabulary ."
To those members of the profession who do
its unglamorous but essential chores , the convention afforded a
chance to air grievances and exchange ideas about tactics for sur–
vival . At one dignified meeting of part-time faculty, who increas–
ingly shoulder the burden of teaching freshman composition
courses , members of this "new academic proletariat " maintained a
resolutely good-humored front amid horror stories about lack of of–
fice space, low wages , few perks , no job security , and little respect.
Nancy Comley of Queens College in New York recalled a colleague
who had to moonlight at two other colleges to make ends meet. One
evening she had all her papers in order but couldn't remember in
which borough her class was to meet.
In contrast to recent MLA conventions , where the sight of job
seekers in tears was not uncommon, the mood of this year's can–
didates was almost ebullient. "The job market has suddenly become
very active, " said the MLA's Ann Hull, who directed the conven–
tion . She gave that as one of the reasons " this has been our biggest
convention in twenty years." It's also a reason to curb, in the end ,
