Scholars and Scandals
Camille Paglia’s latest book is the very definition of protean. The eight sections of this seven-hundred-page volume, fittingly titled Provocations, cover popular culture, film, sex/gender/women, literature, art, education, politics and religion. Paglia, who calls herself “pro-pop and pro-sex,” has also proven a fierce advocate of the canon, which for her encompasses the best of civilization. Those familiar with her writings will know that this breadth is not an indication of some egomaniacal attempt at a “theory of everything,” but a sensible shortcut to sorting out decades of writing on an expansive range of subjects. After all, the author’s scholarly maiden voyage—Sexual Personae (1990)—was another seven-hundred-page tome that addressed the continuity of Western culture through an analysis of sexuality and eroticism in art. Intellectual ambition is still Camille Paglia’s middle name.
