The Strib Exudes A Literary Aura
By Mitch Berg
In my comment section, Jeff Kouba pointed me to a recent “book review” by the Strib’s Kristin Tillotson.
At least, it became a book review, of sorts. But in the first graf, it was hard to tell (emphasis added):
Wells Tower is a serious wiseacre, the kind who gets away with it not because of his cleverness, but because he cuts to hard truths.
As a clever wiseacre with a thing for hard truths, I sat up and took notice!
Written with startlingly original voice, careening imagination and an abiding fondness for what Teabaggers would call “the non-elites,” his stories are set in a surreal America we know, but aren’t sure we want to.
I’m trying to wrap my brain around a thought process that prods Ms. Tillotson to swerve that far outside any rational connection to her theme to take a passive-aggressive, blovious swipe at what may have once been half of her newspaper’s audience.
And I’m still trying.
So I sent this email to Ms. Tillotson:
Ms. Tillotson,
I’m trying to figure out the point of the “Teabagger” slur in your review of Wells Tower’s short story collection. It seems – labored?
I’d suggest a couple of possibilities, but I’d hate to get written off as one of those with “pursed lips, bloviating and passive-aggression“, so I figured I’d let you put it all in your own words.
Mitch Berg
I don’t expect anyone from the Strib to respond to mere peasants, of course. And if they do, it’ll be something…well, pursed, blovious and passive-aggressive, usually.
But I’ll keep you posted.
February 11th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
The Teabagging movement certainly merits serious journalistic inquiry. David Weigel has provided insight–and deserves a listen: http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/25884?in=13:27&out=17:12 Participants in the TBM hold many repellent views, in short.
February 11th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Gavin,
Fascinating, gratuitously insulting, and utterly off-topic.
February 11th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
I read the review. The ‘Teabagger’ slur occurs early on, before the interview proper. Mr. Wells is Canadian by birth, then, while still an infant, he moved with his parents to Chapel Hill NC.
The interview has a lot of odd bits of ‘credentialing’. Wells admits, almost with embarassment, that his parents were academics. Here’s Tower on the town where he grew up:
He doesn’t mention the most identifiable feature of Chapel Hill. It’s a college town.
Tower also mentions beginning to write seriously only in grad school (Columbia). MFA? You betcha!
And there is this bit where he describes the people he writes about:
A I have an appetite for characters who have lived out of the main fashion — people who don’t have press agents, who aren’t afraid of telling their story and ideally use language in interesting ways. You find them at truck stops and construction sites and Pentecostal prayer meetings.
Teabaggers! And when did people without press agents becoe “out of the main fashion”? These are people who would almost certainly have no idea who Mr. Towers is or care that his book has been reviewed (twice!) in the New York Times. It is without question that both the interviewer and the interviewee in this piece consider people at “truck stops and construction sites and Pentecostal prayer meetings” to be a fascinating “other”.
Some academics and would-be intellectual elites have an obsession with the lives of working people and the underclass. I wonder if it ever bothers them that the fascination is not returned? To the extent that the people of “truck stops and construction sites and Pentecostal prayer meetings” think of the lives lived by others, I imagine that what interests them are movie stars and the extravagantly wealthy.
Those of you who can read can check out some of Mr. Towers work here:
http://us.macmillan.com/everythingravagedeverythingburned
February 11th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
In other literature, Marvel’s superhero tights are going through the wringer because of a mysteriously placed “teabagger” sign in the latest Captain America release.
http://blog.newsarama.com/2010/02/10/tea-bagger-reference-to-be-taken-out-of-captain-america-book/
February 11th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Only a “salad-tosser” would use the expression “teabagger”.
February 11th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
I laughed out loud, Master of None.
February 11th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
MoN, that was uncalled for!
February 11th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
I’ve let a lot of Strib water just roll off my back over the years. The Strib is what is. We accept it and move on. There’s a lot in the Strib I do enjoy and so have never really seriously considered dropping the subscription.
But this, this was the first time that something angry arose unbidden in me, and there was a thought of dropping this paper.
I can’t even read a book review without someone taking a twittering porno swipe at political opponents? And that got past the (hushed tones) Editors and Gatekeepers?
(While we’re on the topic, I’m an avid reader, an aspiring writer, and I want to like the Strib’s book coverage, but over the years have found it, especially the Sunday book section, to reflect the values of liberal “urbane” women, and the kind of insipid literary swill they think puts them on a plane far above the sort of troglodytes they imagine inhabit the wastelands surrounding the crystal isles of inner MSP and STP. Which is pretty much who puts it together, I think.)
February 11th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
“…the values of liberal “urbane” women, and the kind of insipid literary swill they think puts them on a plane far above the sort of troglodytes they imagine inhabit…”
Reminds me of a certain commenter. Heh heh heh
February 11th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Jeff confessed “there was a thought of dropping this paper”. Come over to the Dark Side, Jeff. You’ll be in good company.
February 11th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
It’s tempting for me to dismiss such people because the insult is so petty and derisive. But I caught myself. I don’t want my interest in politics to make me into a worse person. And so I wrote a polite note to Ms. Tillotson. A couple of days later I received this response:
Ben, thanks for writing. It was a thoughtless word choice and I regret it.
February 11th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Jeff, I’m in the camp that would advise you to run, not walk away from the Strib. I did after years and years of watching it move further and further to all things liberal. I miss it not even a smidgen. The paper is biased from front to back. In short order their arrogance will put them in chapter 7. A deserved end if you were to ask me.!