The Trial of StuffWhitePeopleLike.com
Peter notes that SWPL has just received a not-small advance. Though I think SWPL is utterly witless, and I only regret not having pointed this out earlier, I consider the advance to be good news. Many, many people are random beneficiaries of good fortune. And I’m hard-pressed to see how their good fortune impacts others in any negative way.
Think about intellectuals who are the children of intellectuals, like David Rieff (son of Susan Sontag and Philip Rieff) or Bill Kristol (son of Irving Kristol). I happen to think both Rieff and Kristol are brilliant. Actually, I find it noteworthy that Kristol is regularly attacked on grounds of nepotism and Rieff is left unscathed, but I digress: both benefited from having smart and accomplished parents, and both used that good fortune to impressive ends. Would we be better off if Rieff or Kristol had been punished in some way or hobbled? I doubt it.
Similarly, there are lottery winners who dedicate themselves to charitable work, or who find a way to pursue a more fulfilling line of work. Most, of course, end up losing everything. But in the process they enrich other conscientious, hard-working types. Some one-hit wonders, in the arts but also in finance, politics, and other fields, parlay their success into a comfortable cocoon, in which you’re no longer subject to the market test. For example, you get one prediction right — or better yet two predictions — and no one ever questions you when you make the wrong call ever again. And yet other one-hit wonders scale down their ambitions and work to help others reach their goals. The great sound engineer Steve Albini comes to mind. He’s had considerable success as a musician, but what he’s really done is help hundreds of other musicians, and thousands of other aspiring musicians, to sound better. That’s pretty tremendous.
SWPL‘s advance is not, in the grand scheme, all that big (it is a rounding error for our quantitative overlords), but it will help the author get a start on a new and exciting career. A lot of jobs are less difficult than you might think — nepotism can get you a gig reviewing mid-list fiction for elite outlets. And reviewing mid-list fiction, well, it ain’t impossible for a literate person. Same goes for writing for a sitcom, for example. True geniuses do it, as well as … people who aren’t geniuses. Sure, there are other people who’d kill for your gig, some of whom would do a better job. Given a little effort and persistence, these true talents will make it! And if the true talents throw in the towel, you have to assume there were other, more attractive options on the table, e.g., sanity, a more remunerative or otherwise rewarding line of work, etc.
And let’s not forget that the author of SWPL will probably make the advance back, if not sell billions of copies. Why? Because it seems that literally millions of people were … ahem. Millions of people have taste sufficiently different from mine as to consider SWPL a work of genuine insight and cleverness. They have disposable income, and will likely want to demonstrate to other friends in their brain-wattage weight class that they are in on the (bad) joke. So I hope those who agree with me on the virtues of SWPL don’t begrudge this guy his good fortune — indeed, I hope they celebrate the news. I mean, yes, I’d love to hand Zach of Veiled Conceit a huge check. But you know what? I’m pretty sure Zach can command a pretty high wage if that’s what he’s looking for — moreover, I wouldn’t be shocked if Zach would rather catch some waves somewhere and hang ten in the South Pacific as a beach bum. He seems like an odd duck in the best sense.
One piece of SWPL news I find discouraging, from the_Observer_ story:
The book, sold by William Morris literary agent Erin Malone, will be edited by Random House editor Jill Schwartzman, but according to a source familiar with the situation, Kurt Andersen—who serves at Random as editor at large—has taken an active interest in it and will play a role in its development.
I haven’t agreed with a lot of Kurt Anderson’s choices since the late 1990s. I love New York and have for years. I think it’s taken a dramatic turn for the better under Adam Moss. But this … boy, Kurt Anderson created Spy, which I dearly loved.
The author of SWPL is not the bad guy. He hit a nerve, which is a very valuable skill. I sincerely hope he will become the next Judd Apatow, only … less in line with my own tastes and preferences. The bad guys are, in my view, the people who celebrated him who should have known better, an admittedly small yet very culpable group. Who could have nipped this phenomenon in the bud?
One day there will be a tribunal, and these people will be judged harshly.
I should’ve noted this earlier, but don’t we already SWPL: The Book?
By which I mean this — which I consider a far more clever (though probably worn out at this point) variation on the same idea?
— Peter Suderman · Mar 21, 05:12 PM · #
What I can’t wrap my mind around is that people don’t realize that the mindset that celebrates SWPL is precisely the one which he imagines he’s critiquing.
Also let me say that this post depresses me because I am daily reminded that I have no marketable skills, am basically unemployable, and will die impoverished and alone. (Why do you think I endorse all these bleeding heart social programs? Self-interest! Ayn Rand, I take it all back!)
— Freddie · Mar 21, 05:19 PM · #
Freddie,
Beavis & Butthead comes to mind as a similar mildly funny idea that got mileage out of mocking its target audience. IMHO, the self-critique is an important part of SWPL’s appeal.
I don’t really find the stuff that doesn’t relate to me all that funny – that all is on the level of a mildly funny Onion story. The only things that really work for me are the items where I recognize myself. In particular, there’s a bit on sandwich shops that says that if you need to make friends with someone at work, tell him that you know about a great sandwich shop, at which point he will inevitably smile and may begin reminiscing about his favorite sandwich shop and signature sandwich at college. What made it work for me was that while I was reading, I had already begun smiling and reminiscing about my favorite sandwich shop.
Vanity? Sure. Mildly funny at best? Sure. Sometimes, that’s all you can ask from a blog.
As I said elsewhere, what I don’t get is the backlash. Why are Family Guy and SWPL so much more offensive than other mildly funny entertainments. I find The Daily Show vastly overrated – its fans seem to be massively amused by what is basically fairly predictable comedy, often amateurishly produced – but I don’t feel the need to rant about it. Hearing ads for The Capital Steps on NPR occasionally makes me want to gouge my eyes out. Still, I don’t blog about it. Am I to understand that Reihan finds the The Capital Steps and Wonkette FUNNIER than SWPL, or just less in need of critical commentary?— J Mann · Mar 21, 06:37 PM · #
Have you read that TNR review of SWPL that Mr. Suderman linked to? Talk about not being able to take a joke. It just shows that some poeple who write for a living react badly when they see someone else become more popular for making a fairly obvious observation in a slightly more clever way.
— MC · Mar 21, 08:04 PM · #
There is a general misconception in the public that HALAL (muslim ritual slaughter) is inhumane/ causes undue suffering to the animals. Well this is wrong… this articles tries to prove the case for Halal Slaughter referencing a recent study… check it out
http://eathalalfood.blogspot.com/2008/03/halal-is-more-humane.html
— eat halal · Mar 21, 08:26 PM · #
Well, sure, this is the “there’s nothing wrong with Kenny G” argument — he ain’t going to pick up his ax tomorrow and sound like Sonny Rollins, so, good for him for making a pile. But there’s at least one glaringly obvious flaw in your nepotism idea (whose name is Paris Hilton) and maybe even in your guy-moves-on-to-ancillary-work idea, where your example of Steve Albini seems couterbalanced by Rudy Van Gelder, who leverages his prestige as a great sound engineer of the past to remix classic works now, except as far as I can tell his new mixes basically reflect that the dude is old and deaf.
— Sanjay · Mar 21, 08:47 PM · #
What about Steve Albini qualifies him as a “one-hit wonder”? “Kerosene”? “Prayer to G-d”? The whole of Surfer Rosa, In Utero or Rid of Me? I respect Albini for working with dozens of bands I like, but as a musician, he’s a cult item. He has a clearly defined niche as an engineer, and takes the occasional “mainstream” gig (Bush, Page/Plant) to help subsidize all the unknown bands he records in Chicago. A better example of the “one-hit wonder,” particularly the kind that is “no longer subject to the market test,” is Malcolm Gladwell.
I think Reihan’s cultural references got the better of his logic there. (But I definitely agree about Zach of Veiled Conceit. Much more subtle than SWPL, and a lot funnier.)
— Gary · Mar 22, 01:28 AM · #
I think this is all that needs to be said about people who actually find this stuff funny.
— J.F. · Mar 22, 03:13 AM · #