Simon Humphries

[Simon Humphries @simoniensis33]

@tanjil_rashid_ Tanjil, I’d be interested to know if the great Black American writers are surviving on the shelves of public libraries, or if N word censorship has erased them. Either US or UK public libraries.

[Simon Humphries @simoniensis33]

@tanjil_rashid_ For more niche monitoring of the trashing of university libraries, follow Antigone Journal on this platform. Utterly shocking, but utterly unsurprising to those who have seen libraries from the inside.

[Simon Humphries @simoniensis33]

@tanjil_rashid_ @AaronBastani @buffsoldier_96 Another vigilante here … Sometimes when I have enriched my own library with a bought throwout from a public library I give the head librarian - or probably Chief Kulchur Manager - a friendly call to ask why they deaccessioned it.

[Simon Humphries @simoniensis33]

@turdducken @moheroy @tanjil_rashid_ I’m not here to make anything believable to you. I was a librarian in the 80s. So maybe this is one of those unfortunate little moments when you encounter someone who knows stuff you do not. Go deal with it.

[Simon Humphries @simoniensis33]

@turdducken @moheroy @tanjil_rashid_ And perhaps you underestimate the public. Faced with shelves of Loebs some will wonder: why not discover what classical literature is about? That’s doing a good deal.

[Simon Humphries @simoniensis33]

@turdducken @moheroy @tanjil_rashid_ I’ve seen a near full set of the Loebs trashed in an 80s UK public library. It was not done because no one was using them. It was done because some were using them.

[Simon Humphries @simoniensis33]

@AlexGandler The sad thing is that Dalrymple is a talented popular historian and travel writer, no mere hack. Seeing him soil himself like this should give nobody pleasure. But it should encourage scrutiny of his published work.

[Simon Humphries @simoniensis33]

@runthinkwrite @UniofOxford @WilliamJHague But it’s also time to hear heads of colleges, with the support of the fellowship, speaking in defence of academic freedom. Esp. if the disruption was by students. That’s the level closest to students.

[Simon Humphries @simoniensis33]

@JoPhoenix1 @UniofOxford It needs not only measures but university and college heads having the integrity and courage to speak in defence of academic freedom. Let’s see what comes out of Keble and out of the V-C.

[Simon Humphries @simoniensis33]

@OldRoberts953 Add to that the Oxford administration through all levels, university and college, having the integrity to speak out in defence of academic freedom.

[Simon Humphries @simoniensis33]

@StephenNolan @toadmeister I do, Stephen. As do many thousands of us who belong to an organisation that defends people who are being denied the freedom of speech which you take for granted. You got a problem with that?

[Simon Humphries @simoniensis33]

@simonmontefiore Thanks Simon. Might you offer an article on this to the Guardian?

[Simon Humphries @simoniensis33]

@MadsDavies @CptHastings1916 I see. The second most important politician in the land goes somewhere, mics and cameras around, but can’t be expected to be prepared for a passing member of the electorate who gets a word in?

[Simon Humphries @simoniensis33]

@Adrian_Hilton @TRobinsonNewEra Don’t worry Adrian … the bishops will chip in again, as before, and tell us what Jesus would have done.

[Simon Humphries @simoniensis33]

@royal_vincident @ArchbishopSarah Are you saying she could not speak out against the marches demanding globalisation of intifada: that is, terrorist attacks on Jews? Why? I want to know what she said and where. That’s all.

[Simon Humphries @simoniensis33]

@amwilson_opera The attack on the Humanities from within the Humanities, for one thing, has been extraordinary. Books get written in defence of the Humanities which fail to mention the attack from within.

[Simon Humphries @simoniensis33]

@amwilson_opera It seems extraordinary (from an outsider’s point of view). But these days even the most extraordinary things that happen in universities no longer surprise me.

[Simon Humphries @simoniensis33]

@amwilson_opera I know that happened at a certain other university in Oxford as a way of replacing a college Fellow with a more compliant one. This sounds rather familiar.