22 January 2007

The Nick Cohen/Azar Nafisi thing resolved

Doug Ireland's Direland carries a follow up article on the assertion that Azar Nafisi dedicated her book Reading Lolita in Tehran to Paul Wolfowitz. It is good to see that Nick Cohen has stated he will ask his publishers to correct his misrepresentation of the Nafisi dedication in his book's second printing.

9 comments:

Steve Bates said...

In addition to lamenting the offensiveness in the specific case of someone's faking Azar Nafisi's dedication, I find myself chagrined by the increasing frequency... apparently everywhere and in all circumstances... in which points are scored by certain authors using an ancient and once deprecated technique: Making Shit Up.

When I read your initial post on the subject, I found myself shaking my head and saying aloud, "Who made this shit up?" On my side of the pond, it's been going on at least since the days of the late Lee Atwater, who was one of Reagan's henchmen and also the primary teacher of Karl Rove. I can even remember some specific instances of Atwater's polluting the discussion with deliberate fabrications (which of course spread beyond anyone's ability to rebut), and his completely unapologetic demeanor when he was found out.

I am glad that at least one instance of MSU will be cleared up by at least one repeater of the MUS.

Elizabeth-W said...

I'm getting ready to read Reading Lolita.
And can I just say you need to slow down all this posting business? How can a girl keep up? I'm still back at the Obama story!! There was a piece in Slate about how his use of cigarettes is what gives him such a great voice. If he smokes he sounds good, if he quits, that's good for his image, but bad for his sound. Ahh, for the days of radio...

jams o donnell said...

To be honest I do find myself agreeing with Nick Cohen more often than I disagree with him This issue annoyed me because I coud see with my own two eyes that the dedication was not to Wolfowitz! I am glad this bit of MSU has (oor rather it will be) put right

jams o donnell said...

I do churn it out a bit don't I Elizabeth? I suppose it depends on my mood (and what time I have on my hands!). Reading Lolita is an excellent book. What a bind for Obama. smoke and look and smell bad or give up and sound bad.. Coming from a former 40 a day man I know that aint an easy choice!

elasticwaistbandlady said...

My nocturnal Exxon cashier friend, Barbara, told me that cigarettes are up to 8 bucks in her home state of New York. Texas raised taxes and they're averaging 4 something a pack now. Holy crap! If I still smoked that would be enough incentive for me to quit permanently. Money is a great corrector of bad habits. Well, for individuals, anyway. Not so much for government entities. It only encourages them.

jams o donnell said...

THat is true ewbl.. cigs are nearly $10 a pack here now.. but it was still a hard choice!!

Steve Bates said...

I'm glad I never started smoking. My late father used to talk about "taking the silver cure"; to my regret, cost never stopped him, and he smoked until he died... of lung cancer. Sigh.

Agnes said...

Steve, my grandfather smoked 80 cigarettes a day (since he was 14 or 15). He died at 87, his lung and heart were never affected by smoking. A long story, and I have my own theory. It is not only smoking perhaps, but also what makes us smoke. (says Redwine the smoker). For the rest, just watch Buena Vista Social Club.

jams o donnell said...

I think yu did the right thing Steve. My parents never smoked, my sister and I did (me a 30 a day habit, 40-60 if stressed).. Took me over 22 years to give up.


It won't kill everyone, it does increase the chance of cancer or heart disease massively. Perhaps you granddad had the "Churchill" gene!