Remembering Erving Goffman

Mark Piliavin

We Are in This Ridiculously Long Line, and Erv Says,
"I Can't Believe We're Standing in Line with All These Pricks."

Mark Piliavin, son of Irving Piliavin, Erving Goffman’s colleague and friend, offered this memoir and approved its posting in the Goffman Archives. 

[Posted 01-07-10]

The only thing I remember and Neal does also, is going to the movies with Neal, Dad and Erving Goffman. We are in this ridiculously long line, and Erv says, "I can't believe we're standing in line with all these pricks." Pretty funny when you only 15 or so. The times I remember seeing him, he never smiled, and always had a scowl on his face. I remember being somewhat afraid of him. Now, I'd tell him to kiss my ***.

Sincerely,
Mark Piliavin, Purchasing Manager
Murray Company

* The Erving Goffman Archives (EGA) is the web-based, open-source project that serves as a clearing house for those interested in the dramaturgical tradition in sociology and biographical methods of research.  The EGA is located in the Intercyberlibrary of the UNLV Center of Democratic Culture, http://www.unlv.edu/centers/cdclv/archives/interactionism/index.html.  Postings on the website are divided into several overlapping sections: “Documents and Papers,” “Goffman's Publications,” “Goffman in the News,” “Biographical Materials,” “Critical Assessments,” and “Comments and Dialogues.”  For inquiries regarding the EGA projects, please contact Dr. Dmitri Shalin, shalin@unlv.nevada.edu.  When you cite the materials collected for the EGA, please use the following reference:  Bios Sociologicus: The Erving Goffman Archives, ed. by Dmitri N. Shalin (UNLV: CDC Publications, 2009).