The Writing Life Too

Clouds have drifted away and a pale blue sky is promising warm weather. I teach all kinds of writers and when I teach people who write personal essays I always advise them to read columnists in order to see how the pros lay out their ideas, make the abstract concrete and to pay special attention to their beginnings and endings. I don’t read newspapers like I once did and mostly read columnists on line like Joe Conasan who write for salon.com. But I do read a lot of magazines and almost always read the editor’s letter.

One editor that I especially admire is Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair. Over the years I’ve noticed that Vanity Fair, more famous for its glitzy coverage of the beautiful people also has some of the most in-depth articles on the present state of politics. They also feature quirky profiles of newsmakers including despots like Cheney. I’ve been reading Carter for the past few years and find his writing clear eyed, thoughtful and insightful. He also simply knows how to turn a phrase, has a terrific vocabulary, and is able to make complex ideas understandable.

Here is the opening to his September column called Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse which I especially liked for its effective use for repetition: “Arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence. Not a pretty cocktail of personality traits in the best of situations. No siree. Not a pretty cocktail in an office-mate and not a pretty cocktail in a head of state. In fact, in a leader, it’s a lethal cocktail. Our president and his administration were arrogant during the lead-up to the Iraq war in that they listened only to those who would tell them what they wanted to hear. They were ignorant in the lack of scholarship and due diligence they brought to the matter of how the invasion would at almost every level in the execution of the war and its aftermath. What the political commentator Bill Maher described last year as “fuck –up fatigue” in regard to this administration has moved to the next stage. Around our kitchen table—and I suspect yours—the current stage is outrage fatigue, a simmering frustration and anger over what this administration has done in our good name.”

Carter goes on to delineate how the president has dangerously isolated us in the world; how it always politics over what is best for the country; how the administration is staffed with hacks; how many government agencies are understaffed and underfunded, etc. etc.

He concludes with this paragraph: “Returning to the lethal cocktail of arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence, which knows no national boundaries: in a documentary shown on Britain’s Channel 4 recently , a former senior adviser to Tony Blair recounted the meeting Blair, our president’s ally, had with Jacques Chirac just before the invasion of Iraq. According to the adviser, the French president, who fought in Algeria in the 1950s, worried that neither Bush nor Blair fully understood the ugly nature of war, and issued the following warnings: (1) If the U.S and U.K. invaded Iraq they would not be welcomed by the Iraqi people. (2) The invasion could spark a civil war. (3) A country run by a Shiite majority should not be confused with a democracy. (4) As he left Chirac, Blair turned to an aide, rolled his eyes, and said, “Poor old Jacques, he doesn’t get it, does he?” Arrogance and ignorance. The incompetence was there, too, but it really surged later.”

Enough said.