#283: ARE YOU EXPERIENCED? Comments from Bellegarde-Smith

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: P D Bellegarde-Smith <pbs@csd.uwm.edu>

As someone from the "south," namely Haiti, I cannot relate easily  to the
novel's premises. Haiti is still home, no matter how distant in terms of
years. No exoticism there for me! My travels take me around the world, in
places like Ghana, Brazil or Cuba, and in all these places there is a
sense of the familiar. No exoticism there. In both my research and my
teaching I try to remove exoticism from these countries. After years in
the United States, I am still struck with wastefullness in the material
culture, and -- I must be frank-- some strangeness in the behavior of the
"natives." I hasten to add, that some of my best friends are (white)
"natives" from the U.S.! I am always hoping to bring a breath of fresh air
into American universities, but notice that students are not truly
interested in the world beyond Milwaukee, Wisconsin or the United States
(which they call "America.")