(Fwd) re: Craig Offman, "Merciless reviewer Kirn ..."

[Bill Millard]

Hi, Pynchers:

I tried to copy this to everybody yesterday when I sent it, but the 
servers ate it.  I'll try again.  Thought it might be of interest to 
anyone who got appropriately pissed off two years ago at Walter Kirn, 
"reviewer" of M&D for Slate magazine, who said then that he never 
bothered to finish the book before trashing it but now assails Tom 
Wolfe, in a not-too-private pissing contest, for not reading his.  
Salon's Books department  
(http://www.salon.com/books/log/1999/09/15/kirn/index.html) has the 
backstory on this.  (TRP Relevance Rating: 4.5 out of 10.)

Cheers,
Bill


------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
From:           	Self <millard>
To:             	letters at salon.com
Subject:        	re: Craig Offman, "Merciless reviewer Kirn slams himself -- and Tom Wolfe"
BCC to:         	TRP List
Send reply to:  	millard at cuadmin.cis.columbia.edu
Date sent:      	Thu, 16 Sep 1999 11:43:40 -0400

Dear _Salon_ Editors,

While attempting to justify to your Books columnist the limp 
publicity stunt of his autocritique of "Thumbsucker," the vastly 
overrated Walter Kirn whines:

> "It ticked me off that he'd pick this book that he reads about in a
> publishing gossip column to tee off on," Kirn told Salon Books. "I at
> least do authors the courtesy of reading their books before I hold
> forth. I just thought, what a cheesy thing to do for someone who's
> always complimenting himself on his reportorial exactitude."

Readers of _Slate_ and aficionados of Thomas Pynchon would beg to 
differ.  Attempting to review Pynchon's _Mason & Dixon_ in 1997, Kirn 
did Pynchon no such courtesy at all and in fact flaunted his own 
failure to finish the book, perversely attempting to reframe his lack 
of minimal professional competence as a reasoned response to the 
book.  Readers who had actually read _M&D_ -- many of whom found 
legitimate grounds for astonishment and admiration in its insights 
into history, science, language, friendship, family, colonialism, 
spiritual beliefs, music, politics, etc., not to mention its wit and 
characterizations and overall gravity -- were not amused.  (_Salon_, 
in this case, far outclassed its chief online competitor by offering 
an intelligent review of _M&D_.)   


Mr. Offman does _Salon_'s readers a valuable service in allowing this 
sniffily self-important criticaster the opportunity inadvertently to 
hang himself in public; Offman's understated description of Kirn's 
latest effort seems quite appropriate, and the hypocrisy of Kirn's 
attack on Wolfe requires little comment.  I would humbly suggest, 
however, that Kirn's fifteen minutes were up long ago, and that 
henceforth, publications of the caliber of _Salon_ and _Slate_ would 
lose little by ignoring him.  

Best regards,
Bill Millard


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bill Millard  *  Editor, 21stC magazine, Columbia University
millard at cuadmin.cis.columbia.edu  *  212/854-9474  *  http://www.21stC.org
Bass, vocals, and songs, Shanghai Love Motel *  http://shanghailovemotel.com
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