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Friday, July 01, 2005

Wu Says Mailer's Defense Is "Poor Spin Control"

Esther Wu scoffed at Norman Mailer's latest jabs in the New York Post today. She told me in an e-mail:

The issue is plain and simple: he called Ms. Kakutani a "token" and a "two-fer" and insinuated that her race was the only reason she was hire at the New York Times. Mr. Mailer forgets that like himself, Ms. Kakutani is a Pulitzer-prize winning writer.

Mr. Mailer's attempt to put up smoke screens with his essay on political correctness is a poor attempt at spin control. This issue began when he criticized Ms. Kakutani for publishing reviews of his books before they hit the shelves -- which he says are often negative and impacts book sales.

And from there Mr. Mailer's criticism became a personal attack on Ms. Kakutani, and in turn all women and all journalists of color by inferring that the only reason Ms. Kakutani was at the New York Times was because of her gender and her race. This is insulting and demeaning to all women and all people of color.

At the least, Mailer has let his well-documented combustible temperament get the best of him again.

2 Comments:

see a good blog here with background info about the Kakutani Mailer feud:

http://kakutani101.blogspot.com

and feel free to comment

By Anonymous, at 7/03/2005
"...Japanese-American book reviewer Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for criticism at the 82nd awards. Kakutani is known for covering a broad range of literature, including both fiction and nonfiction.

Kakutani joined the Times in 1979 after writing for The Washington Post and Time magazine. She became a cultural writer specializing in book reviews in 1983. Born in the United States, Kakutani is the eldest daughter of mathematician Shizuo Kakutani, (now dead, RIP), an honorary professor in functional analysis theory at Yale University.

Ms. Kakutani graduated from Yale as an English literature major. Her mother, Keiko, is a second-generation Japanese-American.

Kakutani dislikes exposing herself to the public, the paper said, which--at her request--would not release any personal information on the reviewer. "

By Anonymous, at 7/03/2005