Themes

Teaching myself new tricks. Rewriting a theme…

Meanwhile — Michael Wolff has an interesting article in this month’s Vanity Fair: “How to Get Away with Murder”

This is a pop-culture phenomenon (the legacy of rock ‘n’ roll and cable culminating in reality television): lots of people paying you to be as distasteful as you are, with so much money involved that you’re raised from freak-show standing — so even Michael Jackson gets away with it.

Indeed, with a mass of outspoken loyalists and a substantial enough cash flow to keep happy the people who would otherwise abandon you in a second, you don’t have to pretend to be something other than what you are. You’re branded.

Wolff discusses DeLay, Lott, Trump, Welch, Giuliani… even Larry Summers. But he doesn’t delve into the feminine popstar sphere of freakdom. One can only imagine how difficult it would be to pare down the list. Hilton, Spears, Houston, Anderson. Wait — the names that roll off the top of my head (no wonder my neck hurts, these are heavy monikers) seem to all be involved in television or cinema. I certainly can’t turn my brain in that direction on a Monday morning. I’ll spew my Folgers.

And Vanity Fair’s also got an interview with Cormac McCarthy. A writer who makes millions by switching POV mid-paragraph and never using a comma or a quotation mark. Now, that’s pure genius.