I think Alison Bechdel could give a wonderful seminar, and she already has an academic vibe. But this was used against her by Jonathan in the comments section:
Bechdel is already going around the country giving seminars. https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2022/11/29/graphic-memoirist-alison-bechdel-to-speak-at-yale/
So why do we want warmed-over ambiguous honesty? “Bechdel is well known for including ambivalence and ambiguity alongside brutal honesty in her works.” If you’re brutally honest, but ambiguous, it sounds like you’re just not very good at explanation.
In any case, our seminar needs to be special, not the sort of thing you can see on an average Thursday in New Haven.
Isn’t that the tradition, though? Tryout in New Haven followed by the real thing in New York.
In support of Nelson, John cites Bruce Robison’s “What Would Willie Do”?
There’s millions down that road,
And with a word he’s gonna lighten their load.
That sounds great . . . but, then again, a guy singing about another guy without reference to a woman, that’s the sort of thing that Bechdel was warning us about. As Zhou says, “We need Bechdel to have a conversation with another woman about something other than a man.” Perhaps Veronica Geng will show up?
Today’s matchup
Rigg is third-seeded in the “Cool people” category, and Taylor is an unseeded namesake. Who do you want to hear, Mrs Peel or “one of the most underrated writers of the 20th century”? It’s another battle of the Brits.
So the choice is between someone with another pretty face versus one who can really act. Diana Rigg wins this one going away. The scope of characters she played on stage and screen trumps Liz. Most of Liz’s great movie rolls were driven by the director (Nichols in ‘Virginia Wolff’) In terms of coolness, Mrs Peel wins hands down.
Alan:
No, not Liz the actress, Liz the novelist who’s the namesake of the actress!
Speaking of novelists, the John Lennon book was good. Too bad he made a podcast. Let’s hope Liz doesn’t make the same mistake.
Diana Rigg’s daughter remembered her deceased mother in The Guardian and described her as: famous, beautiful, a star, courageous, truth-teller, naughty, fun, curious, a prodigious reader, self-educated, cocktail inventor, and stoic (among other things). I was voting for her anyway, but this seems a good mix for delivering a seminar.
Rigg was an interesting person who happened to be an actress. Taylor was an uninteresting actress who happened to be a person.
I had never heard of Elizabeth Taylor (the relevant one). Reading the Wikipedia page, which is glowing but rather dull, I see “Michael Hofmann noted that the novel [Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont] was nominated for the Booker Prize, but that the novelist Saul Bellow, a ‘celebrity judge, thought he heard a lot of tinkling teacups in Mrs. Palfrey, and there went her chances'”. Since a seminar isn’t a seminar without tea (or better: coffee), this seems like a datapoint in favor. I’ve skipped out on seminars when the pre-seminar coffee failed to appear. I’ll keep my cup quiet.
I vote for Elizabeth Taylor, for justice’s sake. From her Wikipedia article:
Taylor’s work is mainly concerned with the nuances of everyday life and situations.
But then, irony of ironies:
Taylor was also a close friend of Elizabeth Jane Howard, who was asked by Taylor’s widower to write a biography following Elizabeth Taylor’s death. Howard refused due to what she felt was a lack of incident in Taylor’s life.
Her biography should have been concerned precisely with the nuances of her everyday life and situations! The lack of incident was irrelevant!
She did finally have a biography written about her, titled “The Other Elizabeth Taylor”. Another indignity. She deserves a hearing!
There is a clear confusion of Elizabeth Taylor’s, which begs the question of whether they have ever been seen together. Invite them both and we can find out if they are each others alter ego.