Fire & Bile

Dale Peck. Firebrand Literary Journalist. Publishing Badboy. Critical Hatchet-Man. I find it rather difficult to speak about the contrarians that i admire. Which is not to say that my admiration extends far beyond the words they get on a page. I suppose a nasty review or an opposing view is always more fun to read than a glowing or conciliatory one.

But the reason i keep reading these assholes is because they so often make me mad by extending their to realms for which they aren't in premium form. Hitchens gets to rail on the American South, of which he sees himself as a resident (a rather dubious claim, based upon his 15-year residency in Washington, DC). He gets away with the typical nostalgia, th effect of which is like watching an episode of the Dukes of Hazzard, narrated by Shelby Foote. Not that Hitchens commands half of the authenticity of the Mississippian. And Dale Peck gets to write a children's book, which given the language of his criticism ("literature needs an enema") might be a bad parenting choice.

But what these bastards take away from the arguments they ruin by overextending they bring back in glamour. Peck, after his review of The Black Veil (with the infamous "Rick Moody is the worst author of his generation" line) is now the "current laureate of critical evisceration", and Hitchens gets on either MSNBC, Fox, or Bill Maher every week. Peck gets all sorts of glorious press, some he creates, like when he reviewed The Revenge of the Sith, or the glamour is visited upon him by force, such as getting smacked by Stanley Crouch for writing a review of his novel Always in Pursuit (titled: "American Booty"). I mean, you can't script this kind of excitement!


Choice Items:
- autobiographical essay in The New Republic.
- a review of Hatchet Jobs in Slate, focussing on Dale's paternal abuse
- a more academic analysis on the NY Review of Books
- an gosspy interview with Dale on Gawker
- another, more studious affair on The Morning News


Choice Quotes:
"Let's face it, cancer has become, in narrative terms, less a fatal disease than a gift, a learning experience, a personal triumph."

"Ulysses is nothing more than a hoax upon literature, a joint shenanigan of the author and the critical establishment."

"I have problems with Tim O’Brien’s writing. Because he lies and he tells you that he lies. And then he tells you that it doesn’t make a difference."

"I have this sense that human beings spend most of their lives with more or less of a layer of culture between them and the life they are actually living. That there is always something getting in the way. "