"I’m not interested in teaching books by women."
"when I was given this job I said I would only teach the people that I truly, truly love. Unfortunately, none of those happen to be Chinese, or women."
"What I teach is guys. Serious heterosexual guys...Real guy-guys."
"I teach only the best."
I could have expanded on the obvious problem of his spiel, but I won't insult you, and will briefly acknowledge that this man is a sexist tit, and deserves the backlash that he's receiving from those who are not sexist tits. His brand of misogyny is sad and lonely, and about as impotent as the characters that haunt the Philip Roth back catalog that Gilmour loves so much.
The more insidious issue here is the damaging attitude that he inflicts on his students; that his personal taste, the narrow binary of like and dislike, is the criteria on which a work can be judged as worth teaching. Anyone who has been a serious student of anything, be it literature, architecture or astrophysics could see that this is a ridiculous approach. True education is doing what you can to piece together everything to attain understanding of a work or a concept.
One of my wisest lecturers at university made a point of sculpting the reading lists of his courses by unique merits or flaws in a text; a frequently introduced his classes saying: 'I hate this book. But this is why it's important...' Some of my own most rewarding reading experiences have been with books that I've thrown on the floor, or thoroughly defaced. I can hate a book, but truly love the friction or jarring it creates. Reading something that goes against what feels natural or comfortable is a contrary, but vital pleasure.
And this, surely is the ultimate point of art: to immerse yourself fully into the psyche of someone else. For me, reading is a huge ethical push - it's a sustained exercise in empathy. To alienate sections of literature, just because it's not to your taste, is a crime when you're teaching; if critics just worked on books that they liked, literary academia would cannibalize itself.
Personally, if I was Gilmour's student, I'd take a look at his reading list, roll my eyes, and undertake some serious self-persuasion to actually do the reading and go to the lectures instead of slink to the pub. But then I'd be a narrow-minded and, frankly, poor reader like him, which is more depressing than a few months reading Roth and Fitzgerald. So, Mr Gilmour, pick up a few Atwood novels, maybe some Toni Morrison, and set a better example to people who should throw their arms and minds open to things beyond their own taste.
And remember....
