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the breakfast table: An e-mail conversation about the news of the day.

Michael Chabon and Frank Rich

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from: Frank Rich

Transfer of Humor

Posted Monday, Jan. 22, 2001, at 12:22 PM ET

Dear Michael,

I know we're supposed to be talking about the morning papers, and I know that today's must be full of stories about the New Dawn in America, but I can't look at them yet because I have to get to JFK, and besides I just can't get my mind off the Clinton sunset.

Did you catch any of Saturday's festivities on TV? They looked so forlorn. I grew up in Washington, and I can't recall an inaugural, even in dreadful weather, where the stands were so empty. Maybe this is because of the divided election, I don't know--you'd think that the new administration would have at least gotten it together to book some rent-a-crowds. In any event, the desultory scene fit the mood of the day, which seemed as much, if not more, about Clinton departing than about George W. arriving. Whatever one thought of Clinton--and since we've never met before, I have no idea what your opinion is, not that you have to share it--the guy was a huge force in our culture for eight years. He was like the sun--cancerous to his adversaries, dazzling to his fans, but always in our face. No matter who was replacing him--Bush, Gore, or someone more exciting than either of them--maybe this Transfer of Power, as they call it on MSNBC, was bound to be weird. But I didn't think it would be this weird. The whole event had a Twilight Zone quality, and I wonder how many Americans really tuned in. (Perhaps the answer is in today's papers.)

Saturday night my wife Alex and I turned on Saturday Night Live, and there was more melancholy as "Bill Clinton" appeared (in the estimable form of Darrell Hammond) to say goodbye in that venue, too. Then, a few minutes later, Janet Reno--the real Janet Reno--appeared with SNL's drag Janet Reno (Will Farrell, also very funny) in the long-running spoof "Janet Reno's Dance Party," which will now also be retired as part of the Transfer of Humor to the new administration. Reno, as we all know, is ill with Parkinson's, and you could see that she was tremulous, but there she was being a good sport, boogying with a bunch of kids, and suddenly I found myself getting sentimental over Janet Reno. I'm sure I'll get over it.

Sunday morning we woke up, and there was snow in New York, and I thought of Clinton again and remembered he's a New Yorker now. He's a neighbor. He's out in Westchester with his wife, and this morning that poor son-of-a-bitch is going to have to go out and shovel his driveway. Or pay some local kid to do it, after which the kid will be interviewed on NewsCenter 4. Meanwhile, the whole culture is in the process of being transformed. We've had eight years of intense emotions, farce, melodrama, and whatever else our new president may be, it's hard to picture him stirring the national pot so fiercely.

Do you feel any of this vacuum on your coast? I've got to get there myself--albeit to L.A.--so I won't be able to pick up the thread until tonight. Though I feel I already know you through your writing, I look forward to meeting you then.

Best,
Frank

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from: Frank Rich

Transfer of Humor

Posted Monday, Jan. 22, 2001, at 12:22 PM ET

DISCUSS

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Michael Chabon's latest novel is The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Frank Rich is an op-ed columnist for the New York Times and author, most recently, of Ghost Light.

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Reader Comments From The Fray:

Thank you Mr Rich for bringing up the no tanks in the streets comment repeated by all the talking heads on TV. I too was shocked by it. We should be celebrating because there are no tanks in the streets? We settle for so little. They had an election in Canada recently, with very high turnout(by American standards) modern voting machines, and yes no tank in the streets. The winner was declared within hours. Unlike the US they can be certain that the man in charge was elected fair and square.

Why do the talking heads repeat empty pieties? Healing, closure, no tanks, peaceful transfer? Is it to create a false sense that the system works even when there are signs that the system failed?

--James Lynch

(To reply, click here.)

The news coverage of the inauguration seemed so rote. It reminded me of my local cable access channel, which replays the same prom footage over and over and at odd times. It's odd to channel surf and come across high-schoolers decked out in tuxes and gowns, standing awkwardly on lawns, getting into limos, walking into a dance hall over and again. I'm sure the kids in the video might like the event, and must love seeing it.

So too this inauguration. The hard core Bushies and the hard core Clinton-haters were likely cheered and moved by the whole coronation process. But really. It was so forlorn.

And even Bush's well-crafted--it's a pleasure to read--acceptance speech sounded tin coming from him. Every time he speaks, even when the rhetoric's lofty, I can't help but hear the C- student he usually is, the one who describes or explains things by restating the obvious (I'm a uniter, not divider, and that means I try to bring people together, not push them apart.). I'm so used to circular logic from Bush that I'm edge whenever he speaks.

And too, Clinton's 7.5 minute farewell, it seemed to me, had more oomph and staying power than W.'s 14 minute at bat. So as Rich suggests, W. pales not only because I usually find him dim, but also, in this case, by comparison to Clinton's superior oratory style.

--Nick Carbone

(To reply, click here.)

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