« For all of you who | Home | Has anyone stopped to consider »
April 11, 2003
Slate, for some reason, is
Slate, for some reason, is running this Press Box hatchet job on the NYT's R.W. Apple, saying his stories are bloated, full of cliche, and self-parodying, but despite quoting him, the piece never gets around to saying precisely what's wrong with his work.
Press Box reminds me of an English professor I had in college who thought I plagiarized an essay I wrote about family roles in Hamlet. "This is totally unoriginal," he said. "Where did you get it?" My explanation was that I wrote it myself, but, well, I was a sophomore in college and I was sorry if I didn't have anything particularly new to say about Hamlet. In other words, what does Press Box expect Apple to say? That this isn't an important victory for the US? That the perceived success of the war doesn't depend on what happens next?
I have to say, too, that I am sick of this annoying recent habit that in-the-know pundits have developed in which they insist on referring to Apple by his social nickname, "Johnny". It's purposely smug, demeaning, and beside-the-point. I don't care, people, that you are so into this crap that you know a widely-known nickname. Besides, Charlie Rose has been using it annoyingly for years.
categories:
posted by adm at 1:28 PM | #
