May 06, 2006

THE NEW YORK TIMES ANTI-AMERICAN AGENDA: BOOK REVIEW DEPARTMENT

        Sufferers from BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) will enjoy their Sunday NYTimes. Nadine Gordimer uses a review of Philip Roth's latest novel to assure us that President Bush is not quite Hitler, and America is not quite the third Reich. Readers, expecting a fairminded appraisal of Roth's newest novel, instead will read a paean to a literary God. It's almost embarrasing to read Ms. Gordimer, performing on Roth the literary equivalent of Monica's services for Bill. Suddenly we understand why. In the middle of the review, Ms. Gordimer turns away from the immediate subject to remind us that Mr. Roth has recently written a timeless masterpiece, or in her own words a "superbly matchless work":
"...His superbly matchless work, "The Plot Against America," has the power of political fantasy moving out of literature into the urgent possibilities of present-day reality. With that novel he conveyed the Then in the Now. Hero-worship of Charles Lindbergh makes it feasible that he becomes president of the United States, despite his admiring embrace of Hitler; Bush never embraced Nazis, but the enthusiasm he elicits, through instilling fear in Americans who voted him into power and whose sons have come back in body bags along with the gruesome images of Iraqi dead, is no fantasy. And Lindbergh's anti-Semitism foreshadows the fundamentalisms that beset us in 2006..." We don't recall Ms. Gordimer ever uttering a peep about Iraqi dead when Saddam was using poison gas on his subjects. Nor do we recall Ms. Gordimer rushing to the defense of fellow artists threatened with beheading--or actually beheaded-- by practitioners of the Religion of Peace. The 'fundamentalism' she is concerned with is Christian fundamentalism. Of course, it never occurs to Ms.Gordimer that she is herself a devout true believer. Her manichean faith is the utopian socialist faith whose saints are beyond reproach. Her devils are the evil Bush supporters who refuse to submit to the utopian fantasies of the left.
        It is a remarkable feat of narcissism to pursue the novelist's profession. While many may have the fantasy of writing the Great Novel that will change the world, few possess the self-flattering conviction that the world should and will stop in its tracks, fork out hard earned money and read a piece of fantastical writing. Writers, more than any group, except possibly movie stars, or advertising executives, spend almost as much time in self praise and flattery of their friends, as in actual writing. No surprise then, that they can make the most absurd assertions that would be dismissed if made by a 6 year old, and still be taken seriously. Thanks for the review, Ms. Gordimer. Horsefeathers will take a pass on this one.