Nicholas Lemann and Judith Shulevitz
Dear Nick,
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StumbleUponI will answer your question, although I quibble with its formulation--it's a standard move by those, like Tom Wolfe, who argue the social novel is dead to say that since the literati don't write about what I say is important in our society, they must not be writing social novels!
Of course, Wolfe's criterion is not Lemann's criterion. Wolfe is less concerned with the self-pity of the rich than with their anxieties about status. Indeed, Wolfe seems at times to share the pity that the rich feel so amply for themselves. But among the novels of self-pity I would still include Wolfe's A Man in Full, whose hero, Charlie Croker, a real-estate magnate, faces losses of unthinkable proportions and grows very sorry for himself. I would include Franzen's The Corrections, in which--but here I must stop, for fear of giving something away. I would include White Noise, in which Don Delillo shows us how we wallow happily in our overrich artificial universe, even as we complain about it. (Like Wolfe's, Delillo's satiric perspective is more fond than cruel; unlike Wolfe, Delillo has the ability to make you feel real compassion for the private terrors of his characters.) I might even include Updike's "Rabbit Remembers," in which an unpleasant technology executive whines about how Washington is out to steal the wealth created by the technology sector. (Our readers will appreciate the detail that he's pro-Microsoft, anti-Justice Department.)
Speaking of the suffering of the consuming classes, what do you make of the decline in attendance at Manhattan restaurants--a front-page story in the Times yesterday and the lead story of the "Dining" section today? As the daughter not just of Zionists but of an industrial launderer, I worry about the poor linen suppliers, as well as all those ex-hippie organic farmers in our beloved Hudson River Valley, whose vegetable stands have given us so much pleasure. But I'm not totally upset. Aside from looking forward to the appearance of $20.01 lunch specials at Ducasse, my hope as a consumer of news, rather than food, is that the enhanced competition will empower restaurant critics to become more, shall we say, critical. William "Biff" Grimes, the Times' chief restaurant critic, had a delightfully biting review in the paper today. (Even he has had it with the rich: "There's a little too much of everything here," he writes of the restaurant Annabelle in the Plaza Athénée. "As a result, ingredients often wage war on one another, or sit superfluously on a far corner of the plate, awaiting instructions.") You're a foodie--what do you make of his reviewing, and of restaurant reviewing in general? Me, I don't know the first thing about food and so cannot assess the aptness of particular judgments, but I do enjoy a mean food review. It is a rare delicacy.
Love,
Judith
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Reader Comments From The Fray
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[Notes from the Fray Editor: Don't like restaurants? Then let's discuss home cooking, and get some ideas for tonight's dinner, in this thread here. One of the cooks, Will Allen, has this to say elsewhere (context not really important, but he had been accused of pre-judging people): "I nearly always allow someone to clearly display their banal, wooden-headed, nature before denouncing it." There was an interesting thread on prison officers, the word 'perversely', and insults, starting here. Everyone was in cheerful mood in the Fray: Ex-Fed was able to start joke threads here and here (warning: this one was considered tasteless by another poster.) Ex-Fed also proposed marriage to one of the Breakfast Tablers, here: we're being a little circumspect because this involved being rude about the other BT-er. And there was a fan letter from Zeitguy to Judith Shulevitz here.]
If there's anything "unique" about American society, it's the amazing extent of our ability to think that we're somehow different from every other civilization in history. Maybe it's because our particular culture has only been around for a few hundred years, in a land where we are cut off almost completely from the ancient civilizations that have been around significantly longer. I don't know. But bored, whiny rich people? That's nothing new
--Mangar
(To reply, click here.)
It's not the self-pity that bothers me so much, though it's bad enough, but the truculence and righteous indignation and desire to grind the faces of the poor it seems to lead to.
To put it another way--what, exactly, are the rich and powerful so pissed off about? What is it that they want that they're not getting? 100% of the wealth instead of a mere 90%?
--Kassandra
(To reply, click here.)
(9/5)