Books Update: Nicholson Baker's Wild Talk

[Otto]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Himself" <himself at richardryan.com>
To: "Otto" <ottosell at yahoo.de>; "Pynchon Liste" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 07, 2004 9:12 PM
Subject: RE: Books Update: Nicholson Baker's Wild Talk


> I for one would feel terrible if Bush were shot.  The reasons are over
> determined, but include:
>
> 1.  The sense that political violence is almost always illiberal, and
> antithetical to the variety of pragamatic liberalism that I espouse;
>
> 2.  The sense that it would represent a failure of American democracy,
which
> in its finest moments deserves being supported and embraced -- I fully
> expect Kerry-Edwards to trounce Bush-Cheney, and if Bush were murdered I
> would be deprived of an immense and very patriotic satisfaction;
>
> 3.  The simple moral (categorical) revulsion we should always feel at the
> violent death of another human being.
>
> Those things said, it sounds as though Wieseltier is reviewing the
opinions
> of characters in the book (a plebian falacy if there ever was one).  I'd
> like to look at the book itself and L.W's full review before I form a
> judgment of either.
>
>

Forgot to include the url, sorry:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/08/books/review/08WEISELT.html

Couldn't agree more to your three points, especially 1. and 3.

Otto