Wednesday, June 19, 2013
A.A. Gill's "America the Marvelous" Is Marvelous
I loved, loved, loved, this essay. Shockingly, it's in the July issue of Vanity Fair, a magazine that is often quite snippy about the U.S. in general and the flyover portion of the country in particular. Here's Gill recounting how he lost a debate on the merits (or lack thereof) of American culture when Salman Rushdie recited rockabilly:
One of the most embarrassing things I’ve ever done in public was to appear—against all judgment—in a debate at the Hay Literary Festival in the mid-90s, speaking in defense of the motion that American culture should be resisted. Along with me on this cretin’s errand was the historian Norman Stone. I can’t remember what I said—I’ve erased it. It had no weight or consequence. On the other side, the right side, were Adam Gopnik, from The New Yorker, and Salman Rushdie. After we’d proposed the damn motion, Rushdie leaned in to the microphone, paused for a moment, regarding the packed theater from those half-closed eyes, and said, soft and clear, “Be-bop-a-lula, she’s my baby, / Be-bop-a-lula, I don’t mean maybe. / Be-bop-a-lula, she’s my baby, / Be-bop-a-lula, I don’t mean maybe. / Be-bop-a-lula, she’s my baby love.”
It was the triumph of the sublime. The bookish audience burst into applause and cheered. It was all over, bar some dry coughing. America didn’t bypass or escape civilization. It did something far more profound, far cleverer: it simply changed what civilization could be. It set aside the canon of rote, the long chain letter of drawing-room, bon-mot received aesthetics. It was offered a new, neoclassical, reconditioned, reupholstered start, a second verse to an old song, and it just took a look at the view and felt the beat of this vast nation and went for the sublime.
There is in Europe another popular snobbery, about the parochialism of America, the unsophistication of its taste, the limit of its inquiry. This, we’re told, is proved by “how few Americans travel abroad.” Apparently, so we’re told, only 35 percent of Americans have passports. Whenever I hear this, I always think, My good golly gosh, really? That many? Why would you go anywhere else? There is so much of America to wonder at. So much that is the miracle of a newly minted civilization. And anyway, European kids only get passports because they all want to go to New York.Salman Rushdie channeling his inner Gene Vincent? Who knew the old goat even had it in him?
Obama Evinces a Cold War Mentality in Berlin (So He Won't Have to Mention the Threat of All Those Pesky Jihadis, No Doubt )
Ignoring the killing of four American troops by the Taliban, the massacre of 15 UN personnel in Somalia by al Shabbab and, of course, the ongoing turmoil in Syria, President Obama spoke today about how crucial it is for the U.S. and Russia to try to find a way to reduce their nuclear arsenals.
Um, he does realize it's 2013 and not 1963, doesn't he?
(An idea for a new drinking game: every time Obama says "Bin Laden is dead," take a big slug. Then again, maybe it's not such a good idea, since it would likely result in far too many people being completely blotto.)
Um, he does realize it's 2013 and not 1963, doesn't he?
(An idea for a new drinking game: every time Obama says "Bin Laden is dead," take a big slug. Then again, maybe it's not such a good idea, since it would likely result in far too many people being completely blotto.)
Taliban Kill 4 American Soldiers; State Dep't Responds By Making Concessions to Taliban
Makes perfect sense, no?
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| "Hi. My name is Ahmed. This is my brother Ahmed, and this is my other brother Ahmed." |
Jihad Interuptus in UAE as Authories Shut Down Coup Plot by Muslim Brotherhood
Can't say those Egyptian MuBros lack ambition:
A state security prosecutor in the United Arab Emirates says 30 Egyptian and UAE suspects have been charged with plotting a coup linked to a network of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, in a case likely to further strain relations with Cairo.
The move also deepens the UAE's crackdown on perceived threats since the Arab Spring, including 94 alleged backers of an Islamist group awaiting a July 2 verdict on charges of seeking to topple the Western-allied ruling system.
The official news agency WAM quotes prosecutor Rashid Ahmed al-Dhanhani as saying the suspects allegedly recruited members and raised money for the Brotherhood "seeking to seize power." Eleven of the Egyptian suspects were already in custody.
The UAE's pressure has opened serious rifts with the Muslim Brotherhood-led government of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi.Think of all the UAE oil wealth that would soon be flowing into MuBros coffers had the coup succeeded.
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