Camille Paglia

Back in June, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) hosted Camille Paglia for a lecture titled "Hollywood and the Bible." I have long been a fan of Paglia, and have been reading her column on Salon.com for years. She's a noted author (Sexual Personae), teacher (professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia), social critic and independent-minded feminist. She has strong opinions about many things, and woe to he who gets in her way.

The lecture was part of a run up to the ROM's current exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and they brought in a strange trio of speakers who might be thought of as anti-religious.

Regardless, Camille was her usual sharp-witted, fast-talking, hard-working self. After being introduced, she talked a bit about herself: her upbringing in an Italian-American family in New York state. She then gave an overview of Hollywood's history of Biblical epics. These great sweeping historical epics, as well as the ceremony of the Church, were formative in her beliefs. As a teacher, she also sees the importance of great religious works, along with Art and Culture as essential learning for young people. How can people understand and appreciate (and distinguish between quality and trash) unless they know the history of Religion, Art and Culture which influences Artists?

Although ensconced in academia, I'm sure she would consider herself a blue collar worker. And indeed, Camille worked hard that night. She went overtime in her lecture (was given "the hook" she said amusingly, by ROM head William Thorsell), which began at 7pm and ended close to 9pm. Although Thorsell suggested she skip the Q&A, Paglia insisted that she would do it, allowing those people who had to leave to leave ("If you have babysitters waiting at home, please feel free to go," she told the audience), and she entertained us some more with lengthy answers to audience questions.

Then she went and did a book signing in the museum's gift shop. While going to take her picture I noticed that she was not signing books assembly-line style, but taking the time to chat with every single person who brought a book to sign. She began at 7pm, and by 9:45 pm when I left the museum she still had a long line up of people to sign books for, but was still going strong, giving time for each fan to have their own chat with the great Camille. She had not taken any break and continued to talk non-stop. What a woman! Indefatiguable. Powerful. Glorious.