The writer many of us nonfiction writers aspire to be — no not Joan Didion, that other one, Susan Orlean — flew in from New York and spoke at Bella Voce this week, to the obvious disappointment of one Oregonian columnist Steve Duin.
If you don’t know who Susan Orlean is, then you don’t 1. Read the New Yorker 2. Follow literary nonfction 3. Watch Charlie Kaufmann movies.
And you’ve never read the best dog story ever — “Show Dog.”
I must be getting soft as I age, or perhaps following someone on Twitter has made me increasingly sensitive to the daily musings and frustrations of fellow writers, because I am pretty disgusted myself — with the tenor of Duin’s column.
To me, it’s stinky sour grapes masquerading as criticism (dude, try the pinot instead).
The crux of the column is to expose one of my three favorite tenets of journalism: hypocrisy. Basically, Duin argues that Orlean’s claim to be disinterested in celebrity — she writes often of the quirky, the extraordinary in the ordinary — and yet her claimed interest is overbalanced by her interest in herself.
To boot, he thought she really wasn’t that interesting.
“Oddly, the only character who really came to life in Susan Orlean’s presentation the Belle Voce luncheon Thursday at the MAC Club was … Susan Orlean,” Duin writes.
I’ve written about author readings before, and have a keen awareness that people attend them for various reasons. I for one go to add to my bulging collection of signed first editions and to forge a sliver — albeit a superficial one — of connection with the minds that I admire. Some people may just want to ask what colorist she uses. And if I learn a little bit about the writer themselves? Well, I’d expect at least that much from my literary celebrities.
Orlean is nothing if not admirable — even if you can’t get past that one New York Times story about her uh-mazing summer home in the Hudson River Valley. I like her so much, and envy her approach to such a degree that I used to read the entire Susan Orlean chapter in the New New Journalism nonfiction tome every time I went out to report on a full-immersion profile. Her works are classics of the genre. If you know anything about reporting, and the time it takes to write it well, you can see that she’s a master architect of reported prose.
I didn’t get to go to the Bella Voce event, so I can’t say for sure whether Mr. Duin’s judgment is well-deserved; but I expect not. But I can say that his column was a big turn-off. It didn’t inspire thought, it didn’t make me laugh, it didn’t get me to look at Ms. Orlean’s work anew. All it left me wondering was why someone would make a column out of single question when all he needed to do was ask Ms. Orlean herself.
He states:
“Orlean failed — if she even tried — Thursday to convey how the gospel singers, the skeet shooters, the taxidermists and the trailer trash have changed her understanding of human nature, or how they should change ours.”
How about this instead:
Um, Ms. Orlean, hi, big fan! I was just wondering… how do you think the gospel singers, the skeet shooters, the taxidermists, and the trailer trash have changed your understanding of human nature… and perhaps how you think it should change ours?
I guess a real human question posed in front of an audience is a lot harder these days then sending the nasty out into the ether.
Update: OMG direct Tweet from Ms. Orlean! She says: “Thanks for a very thoughtful piece abt that #$!% column. I don’t get his point; Bella Voce ASKED me to talk about myself!”
So there you have it.
Sounds like a fanboy was snubbed, and to make sure he doesn’t come off as fanboy, he throws (writes) his tantrum.
I’ve been a devoted Duin fan for many years, but I have to admit that lately has become more cranky than insightful. I’ve admired his courage to criticize people of power in the relatively small community of Portland. He has written on very emotional, personal topics too, not just politics. But lately he is so focused on Gov Ted and the DEQ that I have lost some interest in reading his opinion.
He did seem rather cranky-pants, no? And the column doesn’t reveal where the crank actually came from…