Blue State Talent
Minnesota has given the country many dysfunctional artists. Bob Dylan, Jessican Lang, Winona Ryder, Al Franken, Prince - but none are more "blue state" than is Mr. Prairie Home Companion himself, Mr. Garrison Keillor. Now what I am about to admit is tatamount to sacrilege in this state.....I just don't get PHC! Never have, never will - sorry neighbors...it must be the Chicago in me. What I do get, though, is Mr. Keillor's hostility to "Redstaters". Which is why I found this article in today's NY Sun to be of interest. Actually, the headline caught my eye "Bernard-Henri Levy Offers Riposte to Garrison Keillor". For those (like me) who need a refresher - riposte is defined as "A fencers quick return thrust" or "a retaliatory verbal sally".
"I loved this country before I wrote this book - I love it even more now," Mr. Levy said. "Maybe an American couldn't write this book - it takes a foreigner. Yes, to be a foreigner does mean that something of the country's spirit escapes you. But you approach America with a fresh, candid eye that sometimes a native prefers not to possess. I am a friend of America, and like all friends I speak frankly and with an open heart. I came without a screen in front of my eyes, without prejudices, without an agenda."
That remark seemed to be a riposte to Garrison Keillor's scathing front page review Sunday in the New York Times Book Review.
The article then goes on to rebuke most of Keillor's review of his book "American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville" . I have to admit, I would have never read Mr. Bernard Henri's book if I hadn't read this article first. Now I think I will have to order it and see what it was he said that got Mr. Keillor so worked up. I think it will be enlightening reading. Read the response to the review yourself and see what I mean.
posted by The Lady Logician at 4:36 PM permalink
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