Whose Right is it Anyway?

[This post has been published to the past using blogger's scheduling feature]

I am not so sure if Patsy Rodenburg and I would get along so well in the “real” world. I wonder if either of us would be able to overcome the stereotype of the other long enough to have a good conversation. Perhaps that is thought for another time.

Nevertheless, I have been enjoying her writing thus far. I especially like the section entitled “Whose Right is it Anyway?” on pages six and seven. As one who does not have a “cultivated” voice by any stretch of the imagination, I more than like the section, it resonates deeply with me. She writes:

“To me all these 'cultivated' voices are saying one thing: 'The right to speak is mine and mine alone.' They have overstepped the right and taken it as their prerogative. They were born, educated and live with the right and will not tolerate any voice that it different from theirs. In our society they have hegemony over the sound of us all” (6).

That sounds right to me, but Patsy Rodenburg, member of the Order of the British Empire, part of the peerage system of the British Empire, in the next sentence goes on to tell a story of teaching at Eton, the school of bishops and kings. I got news for Patsy, she may be a part of that “cultivated” hegemonic voice. Ray Hicks never taught at Eton. Those ladies who wove sweet-grass baskets and told stories by my house in South Carolina never published a book. The proprietor of the Salvadorean restaurant across from my house has never given a TED talk. Yet, these are the storytellers whose stories I want to hear and they are far from the hegemonic elite. Thoughts?

-Bob