Deconstructing

I discover that Lane Wallace -- author of those rather sentimental and brightly-coloured columns in the back of Flying magazine that seem aimed at readers who loved the even more sentimental columns by the original Bax -- has a degree in semiotics (from Brown, I believe).

Wow. I'd never have guessed from her Flying columns. I confess to having spent a significant amount of time in a University Far Away studying semiotics, structuralism, and post-structuralism, and was once on intimate terms with the writings of people like Foucault, Deleuze, Guattari, etc. (the usual suspects, many of whom would probably eschew the "semiotics" label, but never mind). I can't imagine what deconstructionary havoc those usual suspects would make with some of her paeans to the spirit of flying, etc....

Not that it matters: that supposed havoc is always going to reflect a lot worse on the academic mileu that thinks that havoc important (or even interesting), than on its targets. Not that it matters (again): I like her normal -- non-column -- articles for Flying a lot. She's a good writer and excellent journalist (as if I'm in any sort of position to judge that...); the degree just makes her rather more interestingly multi-dimensional, I guess. I have to wonder just how many pilots Out There have degrees in semiotics...