This was a Jolabokaflod present from Fran, which I started reading straight away on Christmas Eve. It deals more with grief than The Book of Delights but is still full of delights. My favourite essay was "Dispatch from the Ruins (School: The Eleventh Incitement)", which blew my tiny mind. It's about his views on university education and teaching; capitalism; bullshit jobs; and starts with an account of a faculty meeting in which students are referred to as "units". It reminded me of some of the philosophies of Sir Ken Robinson, the creativity expert and educationalist; The Cancer Stage of Capitalism; and A People's History of the United States. Gay describes how he runs some of his classes: giving everyone an A grade at the start to get that worry off the table; joining in the creative challenges he sets his students. It's hard to describe and I don't want to. Just read it.
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