| Subject: Re: Sneak peak at my mean book? |
| From: Gabriel Snyder <gs@gabrielsnyder.com> |
| Date: 3/5/10, 15:07 |
| To: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> |
Hi, Gabriel-Sorry for the delay in getting back to you about these book excerpts.I've noticed that Alex Pareene in particular has been making fun of Martin Peretz on occasion, so perhaps one from my chapter on that fellow might interest you? I've pasted it below; let me know if you'd like to see other excerpts instead.Thanks,Barrett BrownBrooklyn, NY512-560-2302
Peretz is a smart fellow and knows quite a bit about quite a bit. The problem is that he doesn't seem to know how the things he knows should fit together. If knowledge were a jigsaw puzzle, Peretz would not begin by sorting the pieces into groups based on similar color schemes in order that he might better undertake the gradual process of fitting them all together, as is the common practice among those who make it their business to complete jigsaw puzzles. Rather, he would begin by composing a poorly-written editorial to the effect that the Arabs are a warlike and untrustworthy people. Incidentally, Peretz's more bizarre outbursts are almost inevitably prompted by scorn for Arabs and Muslims, as we'll see. Perhaps more incidentally, the jigsaw puzzle was of some ducks swimming in a river, and then there's a bunch of trees off to the background and a couple of deer.
Peretz's penchant for general ridiculousness when confronted with certain subjects is so glaring that it is accepted as simply an obvious fact of life by an unusually large percentage of those who actually agree with most of the chap's political views and who might otherwise respect him for his more positive qualities. His poor reputation in this regard even extends to his own magazine, an open secret that I have unnecessarily confirmed by way of conversations with two former TNR staffers. Here's a pertinent excerpt:
Me: Does anyone at The New Republic respect Peretz as a writer or a thinker or-
Former Staffer: No.
Worse than Peretz's various offenses against logic is the great violence that he insists on doing to the English language by way of astonishing stylistic deficits and endless grammatical errors. To his credit, those stylistic failures are so original that Noam Chomsky should probably be analysing them for clues with regards to the origins of human linguistics, and even the manner in which the editor tramples upon fundamental aspects of grammar is consistently innovative. Let's examine a few examples culled from his blog:
I count as authoritative someone who hasn't misled me too much. Well, I sat with one of these authoritatives last night and she was giving me news, future news about the news.
The New York Post and Reuters both report not exactly that Bernie Madoff has cancer. But that he's told his fellow inmates that he has cancer, pancreatic cancer, at that. Which means that, if the tale is true, he'll be a goner soon, very soon. Unless there's a medical miracle, as sometimes there is even in such terrible afflictions of the pancreas.
Even the U.N. characterizes Congo as "the rape capital of the world." Alas, there are 18,000 U.N. peacekeepers in the country ... and they only make the circumstances worse. Yes, quite literally.
This last instance merits special attention. When the term "literally" is deployed in error, it is almost always in the his-ears-were-literally-steaming sense, yet Peretz has here managed to invent an entirely new misuse of the adverb.
Peretz has elsewhere gotten after journalist Roger Cohen, not to be confused with superbly mediocre Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen. Journalist Roger Cohen, as we'll go ahead and call him, is attacked in a Peretz post that begins thusly:
Roger Cohen has the Times beat in Iran. Well, not exactly. No one has the Times beat in Iran. I don't know how many Western newspapers have their own journalists in the country. I do know that the FT does but it is an Iranian who holds it. Anyway, the datelines from Iran are commonly from Arab capitals, mostly Beirut.This is how Martin Peretz chooses to begin an essay. Do you see now that we must all arm ourselves and prepare to rip our own nation asunder if that is what it takes to stop this man?
On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 7:07 PM, Gabriel Snyder <gabriel@gawker.com> wrote:Thanks for sending these manuscript. Yes, some hand selected excerpts would be very helpful. 500 words isn't a hard limit. More important that the excerpt stand on its own as a good read (that of course leaves 'em wanting more).Thanks,GanrielHi, Gabriel-I've attached the manuscript itself here, but as you probably don't want to plow through it in search of excerpt-worthy bits, I'll send you a couple of hand-picked bits of about 500 words so that you can pick one out if any of them strike you as working for the Book Club feature.Thanks,Barrett BrownBrooklyn, NY512-560-2302On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 7:20 PM, Gabriel Snyder <gabriel@gawker.com> wrote:
Hi Barret,I'd love to see your manuscript. Not sure when you'd like to start pushing it, but it could make a good Book Club entry. Those have had varying degrees of success so far, but ai think they're working when the excerpt itself is compelling and exclusive. So if you think there's a 500ish Word Gawker post lurking inside your book, I'd love to see it.Thanks,Hi, Gabriel-This is Barrett Brown; I believe we spoke briefly a few months back. As a refresher, I write for Vanity Fair, Huffington Post, Skeptic, True/Slant, and a few other outlets here and there.My second book, Hot, Fat, and Clouded: The Amazing and Amusing Failures of America's Chattering Class, is set for release this upcoming April. The book consists largely of attacks on Thomas Friedman, Charles Krauthammer, Richard Cohen, and other such wacky columnists, detailing all of their various failed predictions, contradictory assertions, and terrible prose tics. I figured that some of the content might be of interest to Gawker; would you care to have the first look at the manuscript? Let me know when you get a moment.Thanks,Barrett BrownBrooklyn, NY512-560-2302<Actual Hot Fat Clouded Latest.doc>