Buckley: The Right Word (Harvest Book)

Rating:
Summary: Exempted from English linguisitcs? Please.
Review: While I do not often feel the call to defend Buckley, the statement by the previous reviewer that someone must be a native speaker to speak with authority to be incredibly naïve. After all, you don't have to agree with Chomsky's politics to appreciate his take on Cartesian linguisitcs, right? Not only have some of the most accomplished writers in modernity written outside of their language (Nabokov and Conrad writing in English, and Beckett writing in French come to mind) But this position would eviscerate many branches of linguistics, such as translation studies (See "Le Ton Beau De Marot : In Praise of the Music of Language"). Even this is not to mention the effect that Levi-Strauss, Derrida, and others have had on the English-speaking world's understanding of language. Whatever else you can say about Buckley, he knows his English.