The march and the books

I hear the bookfair was an interesting contrast to the peace march in DC. I need more details from the niece who works for a publisher.

But check this out--I'm being fashionable and none other than Tom Wolfe has declared this to be true. In that patronizing manner that makes any right thinking person ache to pour jello or worse over his head, he talked about EL Doctorow's decision to decline the honor of brekkies at the White House with Laura Bush, the big sponsor.

from the NYT:
Mr. Wolfe, the author of a presidential favorite, "I Am Charlotte Simmons," and a supporter of Mr. Bush, said that Mr. Doctorow, his Hamptons compatriot, was wrong. "Ed Doctorow is a great guy, a wonderful writer, great company - he's just being fashionable, that's all," Mr. Wolfe said in a brief conversation at the Library of Congress dinner on Friday night. "In this country, there's nothing daring about going against the government."

Comments

  1. FerfeLaBat5:28 PM

    Sigh.

    It is fine to decline an invitation. It is not fine to humiliate the host or the person who extended the invitation.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kate5:50 PM

    I thought ELD was polite about it. .from the article: "The way I've dealt with this is just to fly down and do the reading, and fly out," said E. L. Doctorow . . .who was heckled when he made anti-Bush remarks in a commencement address at Hofstra University last year. "I don't see any point in making a big fuss about it. I just said, 'No, thank you.'

    It's funny but the older I get--and I'm getting older faster--the more I'd rather deal with honest, heart-felt rudeness than unctuous patronizing junk. If I have to choose between those two evils, that is.

    ReplyDelete
  3. FerfeLaBat9:20 PM

    Ahh so it spin being put on it to make him look rude. I feel better now. I thought he had made some outspoken symbolic protest to gain media attention and thus boost sales of his book.

    ReplyDelete

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