I've already blogged on "Flags of Our Fathers," Clint Eastwood's new movie that debunks the notion that there are genuine heroes. It was with the movie still on my mind that I opened an advance copy of a splendid new book, "The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature," which hits the stands November 15.
Written by Elizabeth Kantor, who wields a wickedly funny pen, the book shows in the chapter on Beowulf, the great Anglo-Saxon epic, why English professors no longer assign the poem, it has to do with heroes:
"The typical English professor hardly wants his students learning the kinds of things you can learn from Beowulf: for example, to admire war heroes, to prefer the tried and true to the trendy and radical, to see Christianity as a powerful civilizing force, and-possibly worst of all-to ask what's wrong with the clever man who hates the warrior (who's a better man than he is)."
I’ll let you know more about this wonderful book when it actually hits the stands.
