Re: Lu+o+ng na(ng bi`nh da^n - Alan Sokal

[tuan pham <tuan.pham@unsw.edu.au>]

>Tra^`n Ma.nh Ha?o is not at all a good literature critic,
>his writings are full of nitpicking, chu.p mu~, trashing,
>and character assasinations, and he has been getting even
>worse in recent years. He is not a professional critic. But
>why do his writings grasp attention, and why sometimes even
>seemingly highly educated people tend to agree with him?
>That's partly because he's pretty good at pointing out
>*relevant* issues, those that are of concerns to the
>readers. For example, his recent article on CHCC is
>professionally pretty bad, and there is not much that can be
>learned from there. But he managed to voice a legitimate
>concern that has worried many people familiar with the
>literature situation in Vietnam. So people reading his essay
>will node to themselves and say: "Ok, I see he's a bad boy,
>as usual, but I do agree with him on this one concern."
>
>In general, professionalism is not as important as the
>ability to point out or recognize a relevant issue. Tran
>Manh Hao's writing is not professional, but he does have his
>points, and people pay attention to him because of those
>points. I don't intend this as a defense for Tran Manh Hao,
>only as an illustration that having a point and raising a
>relevant issue is much more important than "professionally"
>addressing nonrelevant issues.
>


Hi ca'c ba'c

Ca'c SPBH a(n no'i tha^.t la` da``i do`ng :-). DDa~ dc 
Alexander vie^'t lo`ng tho`ng ve^` Sokal, gio+` dde^'n
dc Anhai. DDe^? to^i to'm ta('t cho go.n nhe'. TMH is a 
redneck. Right? I know plenty of his kind.

>Some
>people outside VN jumped all over TMH and Nhan Dan and
>started saying: "God, this is so unprofessional, this guy is
>

How do you know the people inside VN don't think so 
too? Do you know the mind of all people inside VN?
Some people inside VN praised CHCC, so therefore they
must disagree with TMH's thinking (and yours). I doubt
the truthfulness of any claim to speak for all inside 
VN! (smacks of Nha^n Da^n's motto "Tie^'ng no'i cu?a
DDa?ng, Chi'nh Phu? va` Nha^n Da^n VN!" :-)

Cheeres
Tuan Pham