I've said all I had to say about why I find Black's columns so revolting, so from now on, I'm going to let the man speak for himself. Here is the tortured Louis Black paragraph of the week, from his latest column, "Cat and Mouse."
"Last night, all through the night, I was so sweetly tormented, thinking about words, possibilities, and emotions, that I slept not at all. Tortured fever-thoughts about this column - not just the one you are now reading but the ongoing, weekly entity - kept me awake. Usually I know what I want to say but frequently don't know if I really want to say it."
2 comments:
i'm glad the weekly game is called "tortured lewis black paragraph of the week" because this one is actually tortured. not what he says (i.e., i am tortured) but how he says it, which reveals, i think, true and real torture. this one makes me feel sorry for black because its stitches and seams render obvious what he is trying to do stylistically (some sort of hybrid rockcrit meltzer beatnik conversational speak) and intellectually (some sort of meta-commentary on the writerly process that, in the process, reveals the argument itself) and that he lacks the talent--and thus the earned hubris--to do either successfully. or even proficiently.
it's ok to be just ok at things, even things you truly enjoy and that you want to share with others. but to set yourself up with this level of artistic expectations and then fail at them so remarkably--in public and at frequent intervals--is a form of cruelty. to a lesser man, or a greater one, it would truly be a form of hell, albeit a form of hell that they may still choose to willingly inflict upon themselves. that black doesn't even seem to be bothered by it, even while he is ostensibly writing about the "torture" of it, is a sadder and more hurtful testimony to his lack of ability than anything we are going to come up with.
-AM
I feel for the man. I can't sleep at night either. I know I want to say that Spykids 3D: GAME OVER, certainly dazzled. But do I really I want to say that Spykids 3D: GAMEOVER certainly dazzled?
Oy the torture! The sweet torture!
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