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Fish Reels Them In
From left: Dean Gary Olson,
Stanley Fish, Provost John Presley,
and College Community Board Chair
Chuck Witte
Internationally renowned scholar Stanley Fish presented his lecture, "Three on a Match: Intelligent Design, Holocaust Denial, Postmodernism," to a packed house of over 700 people in the Bone Student Center Ballroom on Thursday, November 10. The crowd—which was so large the event had to be moved to a larger venue—was treated to an hour-long lively talk during which Fish took on intelligent designers, holocaust deniers, and postmodernists. Fish explored the rhetoric and arguments employed by each in making his claim that, oddly enough, it is now the conservative right that is using the rhetoric of postmodern liberalism to gain a hearing for arguments in favor of intelligent design and holocaust denial. The lecture was followed by a question and answer session during which Fish encouraged audience members to line up at the microphone so, as he said jokingly, he could “shoot them down, one at a time.” Clearly, both Fish and the audience enjoyed the intellectual exchange that continued well after the lecture’s end. Fish’s appearance was sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences and the Sage Fund. “I would like to thank Provost Presley for financing the event through the Sage Fund,” said Dean Olson. “Intellectual curiosity is alive and well at Illinois State and in the Bloomington-Normal community. People turned out en masse to see one of the intellectual icons of our time, and I believe they were not disappointed.”
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