You can bet I’ll be watching this. Given all the commotion, I’m surprised that the Book TV summary doesn’t even mention Cuba. It will be interesting to see how much time Codrescu actually spent on other issues in his talk.
And, yes, I want to see Gumby’s face when Codrescu–who knows from authoritarian regimes–talks about free speech in Cuba.
Posted on this day, other years:
- Neologists Unite - 2012
- Blogs Worth Reading - 2005
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Looks like I’ll be having a BookTV weekend–our library’s nonfiction bookclub was filmed and will be shown Sat at 3!
Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll have to tape it, but I plan to watch every last schadenfreude-laden moment of that speech…
The blurb reads as if it came straight from the ALA Program book. I doubt that the person who posted it has seen the tape.
Test comment. My apologies, I’m having trouble with FRL’s comment feature.
That pic of Gumby on his website–it seems to have an all-over blue cast to it. Either it’s to match the teal-blue his web designer is using as a highlight colour, or he got a really bad rinse the last time he had his hair done, or he thinks that all librarians are little old blue-haired ladies and he needs to fit in, or he likes the nic “Gumby” and is trying to resemble him all the more …which do you think?
I think he honestly doesn’t care what he looks like on the Web, because the Web doesn’t exist to him as it does to us.
“Semper Gumby” is Jeb Bush’s motto.
I think Mr. Gorman has done a lot of good work over his career and belittling him with Jeb’s motto is sort of dull. Objections to Gorman’s comments can be made without Bushesque nicknames. The content is the content; the nickname is so Brownie and besides, Gumby has been chosen as the cliche du jour motto by Jeb.
I just finished watching and recording on my new DVD recorder. I thought both Gorman and Codrescu handled themselves pretty well and kept it cordial, unlike the rather ballistic responses afterwards by Gorman and some other ALA council members who felt outraged that Codrescu would criticize the ALA over Cuba, without giving advance notice no less. In fact, Cuba was a part of the presentation, but it wasn’t by any means the sole focus. Also of interest, in the question and answer session Codrescu clarified that he was referring only to the one percent of actual criminals among New Orleans evacuees when he said the criminals had left the city, not to the 99 percent of law abiding folks. Obviously Codrescu’s had relied on information provided to him by Robert Kent, some of which might be questionable (for example as to the overall number of independent libraries in Cuba and their holdings), but the basic point he made was that people should have the right to freely loan and disseminate books in Cuba, Romania and elsewhere and that the ALA should support such efforts.
C-Span made a basic error in listing Michael Gorman as “John Gorman” during the telecast.
Stephen, I watched it and took five pages of notes, and I agree with your assessment. It was interesting that well over half of the audience questions had to do with Cuba. I also thought Codrescu had some very thoughtful points to make about the role of libraries in society. I’m disappointed that afterwards Gorman had to say he was “mugged”–Kathleen, exactly the sort of comment that diminishes him–rather than simply acknowledging that invited speakers cannot be put on a leash.
More later!