But, though I am a regular reader, I haven't led a life of the mind (as has, for example, Professor Althouse) so I could be underestimating just how far I am behind my betters in America's elite leadership. While I don't see Chelsea as the dumb bunny that some do, I have seen her onstage and I haven't seen anything that would indicate that she is the Sheldon Cooper of the literary world. It put their own readings to shame and elicited a negative reaction. That is, they too were splooging out "Oh, Bullshit" and were offended by the idea that the 37 year old Chelsea, despite her relatively young age and very busy life, had read and comprehended the breathtaking range and depth of the works she (or her writers) cited in her supposedly spontaneous responses.
So, my theory is that that particular interview was a bridge too far for many of the well-read and intelligent readers of the Times and set off, in part, the pushback. Maybe not.Īnyway, I followed the Jesus quote to Chelsea's responses in "By The Book" and as I read I found myself repeatedly splooging out the expressions "Oh, Bullshit" and "what a pompous, disingenuous ass you are Chelsea." (That last one may not be an exact quote.) I assume that the questions and answers are submitted in writing and made to appear spontaneous.
It is in their "By The Book" series which asks a common set of questions to selected thought leaders. That "humor" piece is based on an interview in the NY Times book section on Feb. There has recently been a good bit of pushback against the Chelsea juggernaut from unexpected sources on the left, as exemplified by the New Yorker article quoted here. Never invite a guest who is far more interesting than you are! I predict that this dinner party would end up with Chelsea cornering Jane Jacobs and droning on about the Upper West Side, while all the writers form a fan club around Shakespeare. They didn't even write about "people and communities can evolve to be more inclusive, more kind, have a greater and broader sense of solidarity, while still respecting individual liberties what provokes or blocks those changes and what stories might resonate today to encourage us toward kindness, respect, and mutual dignity."
Leave aside how Chelsea would fit into this group, why would they spend an entire dinner talking about such an insipid subject? Except for Jane Jacobs, they're all professional writers. At least Kafka would be on hand to capture the joy of the evening."
"So you tell The New York Times that your dream dinner party would include James Baldwin, Shakespeare, Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Jane Jacobs, and Jane Austen, and discussion would be about how “people and communities can evolve to be more inclusive, more kind, have a greater and broader sense of solidarity, while still respecting individual liberties what provokes or blocks those changes and what stories might resonate today to encourage us toward kindness, respect, and mutual dignity.” You almost have to bow down before someone who could host Shakespeare for dinner and make the agenda wind up sounding like a brochure for the Altria Group. The second one is something that's always a problem with these dinner party hypotheticals that involve bringing back the dead: You're expecting them to do dinner party conversation when they will have just had the mind-blowing experience of coming back from the dead and are also aware that it's only for this one dinner and then it's back off to death for you. What do you think, Franz Kafka?ĪDDED: There are 2 completely different dimensions to the humor, and only one is about Chelsea Clinton - the ridiculousness of her topics and how out of place she'd be in the group she selected. Jane Jacobs: Please! Let me see my grandchildren!Ĭlinton: Maybe I will-after you tell me what the balance between social responsibility and individual liberty is.Ĭlinton: Fascinating. But on a more interesting subject: What provokes or blocks the evolution of a community’s solidarity?. What must the world be like outside those windows?Ĭlinton: Yes, it’s changed a lot since you were alive. Excerpt:įranz Kafka: I confess, I find this intriguing. She also imagined they'd talk about "the balance between social responsibility and individual freedom, and how people and communities can evolve to be more inclusive, more kind, have a greater and broader sense of solidarity, while still respecting individual liberties what provokes or blocks those changes and what stories might resonate today to encourage us toward kindness, respect and mutual dignity."Īt The New Yorker, Josh Lieb provides the transcript. That's what she said, when asked which writers, dead or alive, she'd like at a dinner party.