Actually, the interview is quite good and the interviewer actually read the book (rather than just the first chapter) as almost every other reviewer of FOR COMMON THINGS has. As the article notes, Jed writes more about strip-mining in West Virginia than about Seinfeld. Jed is now doing a lot of work researching the economic and social dangers of agribusiness -- word to Michael and the other anti-agribusiness folks who might want to check out an ally.
--Nathan Newman
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Doug Henwood
> Sent: Thursday, September 23, 1999 1:06 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: Suck meets the anti-ironist
>
>
> Today's Suck, an epicenter of irony, interviews anti-ironist
> Jedediah Purdy:
>
> "While professional jealousy has long been the scrip in which Suck
> pays its staff, even we were taken aback by the mother lode of
> <http://www.observer.com/cgi-win/homepage.exe?nyo1/br082399spite>,
> bile, and gall unearthed by the sudden success of
> <http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~cellar/winter97/purdy.htmlJedediah>
> Purdy, the home schooled Harvard man whose book For Common Things:
> Irony, Trust, and Commitment in America Today has cashed in so
> handsomely on the pundit-invented trend away from sarcasm and toward
> deep sincerity. Frankly, having gotten behind the
> <http://www.suck.com/daily/97/03/18/irony> backlash and dipped our
> behinds in the <http://www.suck.com/daily/98/10/26/new> earnestness
> back when it wasn't cool, we expected to get at least an appearance
> on public access out of the deal. We also recognized a rare
> opportunity to beat up on a seemingly defenseless punching bag.
> Sadly, while we can't recommend the book, the open secret is that
> there's hardly anything about irony in it. We suspect a put-up job,
> in which the young snake charmer has managed to tie himself to the
> media's hot air balloon. We were determined to get the story straight
> from the young bard himself."
>
> The rest is at <http://www.suck.com>.
>
> Doug
>
>