Rube awakening

Here's James Wolcott, detector of "rubes":

Now I enjoyed reading Heinlein when I was, like, thirteen, but he's something you outgrow once you acquire a dab of literary and intellectual sophistication. Even the teen me was more enamoured of Ray Bradbury, whose sci-fi cast a much more poetic mood of discovery and desolation than Heinlein's adventures. (I still think The Martian Chronicles is a wonder.) Whatever one might say about Heinlein's talent and character, worldly he was not.

Reynolds has far less excuse for being such a rube, considering the global advances in tourism and communications.

Well, at least Rube Reynolds and Rube Heinlein didn't root for Hurricanes.

Or tell Americans to go choke on their own vomit.

MORE (06/27/05): As I posted this when I was on my way out the door yesterday morning, I didn't link as thoroughly as I normally do, and I forgot to credit Glenn Reynolds for pointing me to the rube detector, James Wolcott!

Why would Glenn do such a thing as link a man who would never link him? Might he be less afraid of Wolcott's arguments than Wolcott is of his?

I don't know, but while I'm linking, I absolutely insist that anyone who got down this far go and read this very careful examination of Wolcott's claim that Heinlein is a rube:

The very social and political situation that Heinlein argues for in 1938 would not be unwelcome by today’s Gay Activists. Nor, in fact, by many social libertarians.

I could go on and on, but what Wolcott’s statement really shows is that he, himself, is the rube. A bumpkin trapped by his own parochial social situation. It is he who should get out and see the world. Wolcott denounces Heinlein as a rube because a quote from Heinlein clashes with Wolcott’s thoughts on gun ownership. Anyone who disagrees in anyway with Wolcott is denigrated as a dullard. Such is the desire for open and honest debate by Vanity Fair’s intellectual elite…little different than the debates on the third grade playground where arguments are won by who can yell “you’re stooopid” the loudest.

Justin of course has more -- which you've probably read already -- except those of you who might arrive at this post as an isolated link at some vague time in the future.

Anyway, I'm glad to see that others took the time to show how richly Wolcott deserved the title of this post.

AND MORE ME TOO ME TOO! Fit-to-eat Wolcott links here! And I want it remembered that I'm a proud wearer of one of those shirts (something this guy hates. "...not something to be taken lightly even with the intention of humor." Would the doctor have me take mine darkly?)

MORE: For some fascinating perspective, don't miss Dean Esmay's comparison of Heinlein and Ayn Rand. (I have a feeling that despite their differences, Rand and Heinlein would share a similar view of Wolcott's philosophy, if that's the right expression.)

posted by Eric on 06.26.05 at 11:28 AM





TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://classicalvalues.com/cgi-bin/pings.cgi/2496



Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Rube awakening:

» More Heinlein Discussions from Dean's World

I was screamingly amused recently to read that an overpaid, pretentious bumpkin named Wolcott who writes for Vanity Fair (whose previous claim to fame was hoping most A...

[Read More]
Tracked on July 1, 2005 04:56 AM



Comments

Sheesh, Wolcott! Between his studiously cultivated attitude of pseudo-high-brow cynicism and the faux-Hirschfeld charicature that tops his sneerblog, I always click away from his site feeling covered in a light film of oil.

And Wooly feels Heinlein is "unworldly" because, inspite of his own travels, he remained unabashedly American?

How continental!

Darleen   ·  June 26, 2005 12:20 PM

I'll say it again: If you check out the etymology of "pagan", a.k.a., "heathen", you'll find that it means exactly the same thing as "rube", or "rustic", "redneck", "Red Stater", "hayseed", etc.. Also, see Jim Goad's The Redneck Manifesto. I haven't mentioned Jim Goad nearly enough. He has style!

By the way, today is June 26. Two years ago today....

Steven, two years ago you left the following comment:

June 26, 2003:

Thank you, John Geddes Lawrence and Tyron Garner, for standing up for your freedom and thus for mine.
And: Thank you, Justice Anthony Kennedy, Justice John Paul Stevens, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice David Souter, Justice Stephen Breyer, and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, for honoring freedom and justice.

And thank you Steven!

Eric Scheie   ·  June 26, 2005 09:13 PM

And thank you, Eric Scheie, for Classical Values! My favorite blog, which, as Dean Esmay put it, is absolutely always worth reading. That is absolutely true.

Some further thoughts that come to me:

Funny, whenever I think of "rube" I think of Rubik's Cube.

Ray Bradbury? Ray Bradbury is a friend of Tammy Bruce, whose Conservative Lesbian Individualist Theology would crush Wolcott's hyper-Sophist-icated little cerebrum.

Darleen wrote (and wrote so well!, far better than Wolcott ever did):
"Sheesh, Wolcott! Between his studiously cultivated attitude of pseudo-high-brow cynicism and the faux-Hirschfeld charicature that tops his sneerblog, I always click away from his site feeling covered in a light film of oil.

And Wooly feels Heinlein is "unworldly" because, inspite of his own travels, he remained unabashedly American?

How continental!"

Had Wolcott lived on the European Continent during either of the two World Wars, I have no doubt that his disloyalty and treachery would have made the infamous spy Mata Hari look like a paragon of patriotism by comparison.

I have a picture of Mata Hari. Very sexy. Too bad Wolcott isn't.

Thank you Steven, but I must respectfully disagree with your assessment that it's "too bad" Wolcott isn't as sexy as Mata Hari.

Eric Scheie   ·  June 27, 2005 05:46 PM

Rand would utterly loathe Wolcott, would see him as another Toohey, while Heinlein would no doubt despise Wolcott in his own way.

From the Notebooks of Lazarus Long:

A "critic" is a man who creates nothing and thereby feels qualified to judge the work of creative men. There is logic in this; he is unbiased - he hates all creative people equally.

triticale   ·  July 1, 2005 11:03 AM


March 2007
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
        1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31

ANCIENT (AND MODERN)
WORLD-WIDE CALENDAR


Search the Site


E-mail




Classics To Go

Classical Values PDA Link



Archives




Recent Entries



Links



Site Credits