Philip Roth attacks 'orgy of narcissism' post Sept 11

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 05/11/2002 | Sam Leith

[NYCVirago]

Wasn't Philip Roth the guy who wrote Portnoy's Complaint? And he's whining about narcissism?

[cricket]

"His comments risk the fierce opprobrium that has greeted other American intellectuals. . .-. . .who have dared to question the patriotism that still dominates America’s public rhetoric."

. . .good grief; I thought he was referring to 'reality TV'. . .

Liberals are sick people. . .

[quebecois]

Basically, all you have to know here is that leftists are motivated by one overriding emotion: hatred of western culture and western man. They sit around all day dreaming up twenty ways to sunday how we are responsible for everything that has ever gone wrong with the planet. They hate westerners the way nazis once hated jews.

What has really really stuck in their craw about 9/11 is not all of the dead bodies, not the victims who jumped from the top of the buildings, not the heroes who died fighting the terrorists on the airplane....but rather that their obsessive USA-hatred was no longer being tolerated in America.

Their natural impulse after 9/11 was the same as with everything else: cook up a bunch of half-brained ideas about how this was america's fault....lecture americans about how none of this would have happened if we weren't so racist....harangue the country with endless diatribes about how we've brought this on our own head because we won't pay our UN dues.....etc etc etc...blah blah blah.

But they were finding themselves being shouted down by angry americans...for the first time in many many decades. And they just couldn't take it. Now that the taboo is finally wearing down, they are blowing off a year's worth of america-hating steam and revealing themselves for who they really are.

[Gumlegs]

He had arrived in town the previous day, he said, intending to stay a few days to “recharge his batteries” after the completion of his last novel, The Dying Animal.

An autobiographical novel, one assumes.

[dennisw]

P Roth is definitely unhinged here and showing repulsive sympathies. Still, I have read a few great books by him ... Not Portnoy's complaint which was just plain idiotic.

He wrote "Goodby Columbus" which was a great movie

[ArcLight]

He said: “Language is always a lie; above all, public language."

Pretty much says it all, yes? And this guy is a writer. This is the sort of pronunciamento that passes for high intellect in Le Figaro.

[Billthedrill]

One sign I read was "We can't bomb our way to peace."

LOL! Yep, and these are the same people who regard Hiroshima and Nagasaki as senseless crimes and don't make the connection between it and the peace that followed...

[Nebullis]

It's Zuckerman speaking.

[macamadamia]

"Language is always a lie"

What a smelly load of sophistry! If true, this statement is false, which means......oh, whell. I guess that doesn't matter when your a cheese eating intellectual. Just say something deep and keep talking before someone asks questions and then..........tap dance really fast.

[DB]

"It was a strange time and the first time for years that New York interested me."

What a sick f&ck. The mass murder of thousands he finds "interesting". As if his lab rats were finally doing something worthy of his attention...

And this is what the Brits call an "intellectual"…

[AmericanVictory]

Is this a complaint from Portnoy?

[Treebeard]

So, we're supposed to take seriously a guy who wrote an entire book about pulling his pud? As I recall, some of the high points were the title character "making love" to calf liver he'd gotten at the butcher shop, and "hitting the light bulb" with his seed.

Note to author(s): If your only claim to fame is a book about performing the Heimlich maneuver on the little fireman, stay away from political commentary, or anything that requires in-depth thought processes.

[CaptainK]

Narcissist
1. self-admiration: excessive self-admiration and self-centeredness

2.personality disorder: in psychiatry, a personality disorder characterized by the patient’s overestimation of his or her own appearance and abilities and an excessive need for admiration. In psychoanalytic theory, emphasis is placed on the element of self-directed sexual desire in the condition.

Mr. Roth certainly fits the bill for a full blown narcissist. Part 1 of the definition is chronicled in Roth's book "Patrimony:A True Story". His father was dying, and what was suppose to be a tribute to his fathers fight for life is a thinly veiled self love fest by Philip about Philip. Look at me, see me take care of Daddy, Daddy's little wunderkind. He reaches so far to pat himself on the back he slaps his ankles.
A most telling part occurs when his father cannot control his bowels and soils himself and most of the bathroom. Ashamed at what occurred Roth senior begs his son not to tell anyone. Philip is so impressed with himself, because he cleans up some shit, (an non event that mothers all over the world do everyday without a thought)he honors his father's request by writing about it in a book. After all, it's all about Philip.
As for part 2: In her autobiography Claire Bloom, Roth's ex wife, devotes plenty of ink to the misery that was their marriage. A creep and an infant who made Bloom throw her teenage daughter out of their house. A normal teenager who loved her mother was deemed a burden on their marriage. And like all good liberals who dwell on themselves 24/7, there was plenty of therapy time with psychiatric stays thrown in for good measure. A paragon of mental health who should be advising no one about anything.

[jd777]

who's portnoy?

[dighton]

As for part 2: In her autobiography Claire Bloom, Roth's ex wife, devotes plenty of ink to the misery that was their marriage.

She also married badly in Richard III.

Glad she escaped this one with her life.

[mississippi red-neck]

His next book ought to be on narcissism and the title should be " Narcissism A Self-Portrait" or if he wants to be inclusive " Narcissism By Threes" and include Bill and Hillary.

If, as it seems to me to be, the primary qualication for being an intellectual is to be a complete self-worshipping a**hole, this jerk seems to have reached the pinnacle of the dung hill.

He has my whole-hearted congratulations for attaining his proper station in life. People like him make glad that I'm an under-educated retired southern mechanic that has not had to suffer the reading of literary tripe written at the hands of such as he.

[Cicero]

What could be more self-centered and narcissistic than Portnoy's Complaint?

He resents patriotism because it involves feeling for and solidarity with other people. And nobody paying much attention to him.

[mississippi red-neck]

but i can't stop reading his novels.

This is not directed at you miss contessa. If I had your dilemma, I myself would try to switch my addiction to something less distasteful and less poisonous such as alcohol or drugs. : ) I use neither except prescribed medication.

[aculeus]

Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal and Susan Sontag

The Axis of Drivel.