[lit-ideas] Re: On Names and Respect

  • From: John Wager <jwager@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:09:07 -0500

Paul Stone wrote:
All through University -- and that's a LONG through in my case -- we
referred to our profs by whatever they referred to themselves. One
prof came in the first day and said "Hi, I'm [insert last name only]',
so that's what we called him. Another referred to herself in third
person as KQ, so that's what we called her. Behind their backs, we
usually referred to them by last name only, and some times derisively
so, but almost always in those cases, it was prefaced by a 'fucking'
or 'that asshole'.

I recall one incident in graduate school where an undergraduate student addressed his professor as "Doctor [Smith]. The good doctor abruptly turned on the student and said that he was NOT a dentist, and was NOT to be called a "Doctor." He was "MR." [Smith]. I found out that this was the preferred title for most of the department members. This was at a "top-tier" graduate school where there was a kind of reverse snobbery, based on the following. At some ("lesser") schools, only SOME professors have Ph.D's. At such schools it might be a matter of pride to claim your Ph.D., but at a really "good" school, the expectation is that EVERYONE has a Ph.D., so claiming it is an unnecessary luxury. I could never say "Mr. Smith" with a straight face, although I tried.


 In the 12 years I was in school (no, I didn't waste any of them) I
only ever remember calling two profs by their first names and both of
those guys were drinking buddies when I was in Grad school. Most of
them just preferred Dr soandso or sir, even in one case, a woman. And,
in an effort towards full disclosure, we did have pet names for some
of the 'female' profs who were in the various departments I was
enrolled in. But in the interest of privacy, I shan't divulge any of
those unique and, in most cases, probably objectionable monikers.

p [who would have gone by 'p' had I gone the whole way as planned]
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