GG: Foreigners, etc.

["John P. Hill" <jphill@frank.mtsu.edu>]

On Fri, 17 Jul 1998, Bruce Cross wrote:

> Speaking of Kazdin's stupid criticisms of Gould in his vile little stinking
> book, the business of ordering coffee has to be the stupidest.  Kazdin, a
> foreigner, has never heard of a double-double (p.25).  Little does he know
> that
> any of Gould's countrymen could enter any doughnut shop in the Dominion, and
> order a double-double and be completely understood.
> 
> Bruce
> (donning flame retardant suit)

Bruce:

No need for the flame-retardant clothing, but I would just make two
points:

1.  As a Canadian living in the US, I really find the word "foreigner"
to be distateful.  And I'm not being "PC" either.  That term is loaded
with some really awful sentiment that is used everyday down here to
justify things like kicking folks who need it off welfare, attempting to
"ghettoize" illegal immigrant groups by denying them schooling and
healthcare, etc. etc. etc.  I find it sad that fellow Canadians
might adopt this term and all of the thinly-veiled hate sentiment (or at
the very least, insensitivity) that goes along with it.  Why not choose
the higher ground?

2.  I would agree with you that Andy Kazdin's book is quite mean-spirited.
I met up with him at an AES conference a few years back and it became
immediately obvious that he had *nothing* good to say about GG.  However,
his book does offer some pretty unique insights in terms of their
recording methodology and professional relationship.  I think it goes some
places that none of the other books do, by virtue of the fact that Kazdin
was an integral part of a very important body of GG recordings that spans
about 25 years.  He was in the control room (and the recording space) a
whole lot more than any of the other GG biographers and that's a
well-informed perspective to tap into, even if it is colo(u)red by the way
the relationship ended.

jh