Nessie
September 21, 2008, 8:38am
1
Hi,
On looking up the word ‘mainstream’, I found this example for it from the Longman Dictionary:
Genet started as a rebel, but soon became part of the literary mainstream.
=> I just wonder if the word ‘Genet’ is a proper name and if so, is that ‘Genet’ a famous person.
Many thanks,
Nessie.
Molly
September 21, 2008, 9:19am
2
Jean Genet, the French writer and political activist, I imagine.
Jamie_K
September 23, 2008, 1:21am
3
Jean Genet was a famous French pedophile who was also a writer and was involved in politics. Sometimes intellectuals excuse artists for anything they do.
Molly
September 23, 2008, 5:16am
4
That’s a rather childish response, Jamie. As for forgiveness, I think you’ll find it a quite common human trait. Don’t you have such a trait? See, for example, how the French police are now forgiven their sins - and not only by intellectuals.
He worked with Foucault and Sartre to protest police brutality against Algerians in Paris, a problem persisting since the Algerian War of Independence, when beaten bodies were to be found floating in the Seine.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Genet
Jamie_K
September 23, 2008, 9:39am
5
I don’t think it’s childish to point out that the man was an admitted pederast.
Molly
September 23, 2008, 10:40am
6
Nice try. This was childish, a schoolyard response, IMO: “Sometimes intellectuals excuse artists for anything they do”.
Molly
September 23, 2008, 10:57am
8
As would be “Mary Davies is big, fat and ugly, na-na-na-na-na!”, but it might be better to keep that thought in the confines of the schoolyard, right?