Dirty, Sexy Politics a Dreadful, Selfish Crime
It is impossible to read Dirty, Sexy Politics and come away with the impression that you have read anything other than the completely unedited ramblings of an idiot.
“It is impossible to read Dirty, Sexy Politics and come away with the impression that you have read anything other than the completely unedited ramblings of an idiot.”
That’s the thesis statement of Leon Wolf‘s critique of Meghan McCain’s new book for The New Ledger. Some snippets:
[I]t is clear to everyone who has read Meghan McCain’s twitter feed, her “articles” on The Daily Beast, or her ill-fated campaign blog that Meghan is not a not a paragon of clear reasoning, exemplar of familiarity with facts, nor a model of English language expertise. And after subjecting myself to 194 continuous pages of her “writing,” it became clear that none of the above-described works truly plumbed the depths of mental vacuity in which Ms. McCain aimlessly and cluelessly drifts.
[…]
In the final analysis, however, I determined that most of Meghan’s flaws – such as her unbearable narcissism, delusions of persecution, anti-religious bigotry, and mendacity – couldn’t be chalked up to her manifestly below-average intelligence. These are blameworthy traits born of a malfunctioning moral compass, and they are laid bare in spades on every page of Dirty, Sexy Politics. Furthermore, it is important to address them because Meghan McCain’s book is an active attempt to split the Republican Party in two and thereby destroy its ability to win elections. And even though she is an idiot, she is a useful idiot in the hands of the media and other assorted Democrats, who also want to achieve this goal.
[…]
The most obvious problem with Dirty, Sexy Politics is that grammatically, the book appears to be the work of a high school sophomore. To be more accurate, it appears to be the first draft of an essay written for a high school English class; the one turned in before the teacher makes all the pretty red marks in the margin that helpfully keep students from turning in final papers riddled with comma abuse, sentence fragments, and incorrect punctuation. Each subsequent page of this book contains one grisly crime against the English language after another.
[…]
When I finished reading Dirty, Sexy Politics, I flipped to the acknowledgements section to find the name of the person who edited this travesty, so as to warn incompetent authors of the future away from utilizing this person’s services, but no such person was identified therein. Either this book had no editor, or the editor assigned to the original manuscript threw up his or her hands three pages in and decided to let the original stand as some sort of bizarre performance art, like Joaquin Phoenix’s appearance on Late Night with David Letterman.
[…]
Meghan’s primary goal in writing Dirty, Sexy Politics appears to have been to show off her encyclopedic knowledge of who was wearing what clothes on what occasion. From all appearances, it is physically impossible for Meghan McCain to describe a given scene or occurrence without describing in detail what everyone in the room was wearing (and how their hair was done), most especially including herself.
[…]
On the whole, I am simply not a talented enough writer to express how truly horrible this book was. The last line of the book implores readers not to let Meghan “pick up this torch alone.” I can honestly say that I was encouraged throughout to pick up a torch in order to burn my copy of Dirty, Sexy Politics, even though I was reading it on a Kindle.
There’s an excellent chance I won’t be reading this book.
Maybe this is a good answer:
http://www.amazon.com/review/RUQ904PQIFDPZ/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1401323774&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=
(I was curious to see how reviews were running at Amazon. Is 3.6 stars good? I don’t know.)
Furthermore, it is important to address them because Meghan McCain’s book is an active attempt to split the Republican Party in two and thereby destroy its ability to win elections.
Maybe so, but does anyone actually listen to this person? If I were a Republican, I would be much more concerned about another entity working to split the party in two and destroy its ability to win elections.
I hear the Palin bits are tasty.
“It is impossible to read Dirty, Sexy Politics and come away with the impression that you have read anything other than the completely unedited ramblings of an idiot.”
I have no intention of reading the book. Never did.
Besides, one Sarah Palin is more than enough.
So Leon Wolf has no examples of how wrong or untrue the book is, he just wants us to trust that it’s bad because it’s bad? Hooray for circular reasoning.
I thought his comment on the lack of an editor was interesting. My daughter was enrolled in a graduate level publishing course this summer and found out that jobs in book editing are almost impossible to get and that, if you are somehow lucky enough to obtain one, they start out paying barely above minimum wage. Someone earning a McDonald’s counter help like salary might explain the glaring lack of editorial supervision. On the other hand, I flushed eight grand down the toilet for my daughter to find out she can’t get a job in publishing, so what do I know.
Well, things haven’t changed much in the ed biz since I was in it over 35 years ago. The running joke was about the poor kid who graduated with a degree in English and was crushed to find out that he or she wasn’t going to be Maxwell Perkins right out of the chute. My “career arc” as copyeditor –> production editor –> developemental editor, with the last being what most folks understand as an editor: The managing editor would dump a “manuscript” on your desk and say something like, “We think this thing has some commercial potential (why else pay the advance?), but right now it’s a mess. Turn it into something readable, ok?”
Tell her to take the low-paying introductory job. That’s the only way she’ll ever get into the biz. (And btw, there are all kinds of publishing. I worked on law books, medical books, business books. Not as sexy as trade publishing, but…)