btw— it seems to me that Taibbi and Kirn must be the most loathed people by the corporate media. You 2 routinely rub their faces in the utter bullshit they have peddled for some time.
Would be interesting to see/hear what ATW community thinks about this assessment?
Either way congratulations on—in one person’s view— holding corporate media’ feet to the fire
Imagine they said "We know who killed Kennedy. Name coming next week." Then a few days later, "Stop being conspiracy theorists. Who said we have a name?" It's not about the Epstein files. It's the gaslighting.
My favorite part of this entire episode is when Walter "debunked" the notion that Epstein was a Mossad asset/agent by the fact that an Israeli "intelligence guy" (Walter's words) denied it.
Walter Kirn believes whatever Israel "intelligence guys" tell him. Explains a lot about him, actually.
Who's hide do we want? We want the child fuckers to be prosecuted. What planet are you guys on? It's not just the MAGA morons who want the Epstein truth. Maybe not the DNC and Big D's either. But Epstein shows the rot and crime at the center of the Empire.
It's far worse than pedophilia. Pedophilia, as an evil predilection, is probably something humanity has and will always have to "deal with." What is far more existential for the United States is the fact that this network is quite obviously tied in with intelligence.
So that leads to two possible outcomes -
Option 1: Our own intelligence community allows/handles pedophile trafficking in order to secure our national interests.
Option 2: Foreign or rogue domestic intelligence agencies successfully operate sexual blackmail operations utilizing American minors in order to subvert our nation.
It is also entirely possible that it is a mix of the two.
This is an existential crisis for America and everybody is focused on the pedophilia angle because it is salacious and raises people's natural disgust emotion. The actual issue is much more cerebral and dark than even that. Instead of raping a hundred or a thousand children they are raping an entire nation.
Walter never fails to shamelessly and unflinchingly defend Trump. Walter is like his little ex-Mormon faux-Gypsy poodle. But even Walter claims to be disappointed with Trump becoming Biden on steroids regarding Ukraine.
I wonder what genius and folksy defense of Trump telling Zelensky to hit Moscow with long range weapons made & provided by the U.S. Walter will give. Perhaps this is somehow also not of concern since, like Epstein was far in the past according to Walter, Russia is also far away in distance. Makes as much sense.
Anyway, it's actually heartening to see Matt show his independence here. He clearly is genuinely interested in the schism on the right and thinks it is interesting and "cool." Walter, though trying to hide it, is in essentially a manic breakdown over the fact that anybody even recognizes a schism as real, let alone the fact that it is widening.
I don't know how much longer this duo-schtick can work if Matt keeps up his actual journalistic independence as Walter spirals deeper into Trump Devotion Syndrome.
Walter is a toady because…. Wait for it… he wants to be a librarian for Trump!!😀😀😀😀 Imagine crapping on your own reputation and matt so you could be a librarian in the age of blockbuster video, let alone now.
So never mind about Epstein but hold onto your hat concerning auto pen? Riveting. Truly. The lack of self awareness is astounding. It’s actually worth hate watching. If Walter and matt are really interested in understanding the lack of integrity in media, they only need to watch their own podcast.
I thought Matt showed some journalistic independence in this episode and even wondered to myself if he structured the first 45 minutes of the show's content to trigger a manic breakdown in Walter, which seems to have succeeded.
Matt is able to identify and acknowledge the growing schism on the right, Walter starts huffing on his nicotine pen and violently shifts in his chair while his face contorts, his brain trying to spin some way that this isn't actually true, but if it is true, it's good for Trump and for America! He is such a complete hack it is actually funny, I was legitimately laughing hard as I have in a long time at this show while watching Walter melt down in this episode.
I’ve noticed a few times (like last ep when Matt called Cory weak) and has tried to move on to the next subject (is he trying to rile Walter up?!) and Walter is wriggling in rage and can’t help but get in a passive aggressive jab in at Matt before starting the next topic. I can’t think that Matt will put up with this dynamic for much longer - glad he’s not walking on eggshells though!
Fair point. But dissecting Biden and the Auto pen after pushing Epstein off the plate hurts my brain. The idea that a president was a puppet of people behind a fog of yuck ignores Obama having his cabinet selected by citi bank, Clinton and his weaner, and both bush and Reagan being absolute spokesmen for said yuck. The bigger issue is precedent. Legislation regarding pardons could prevent such things. Instead, team yuck is signaling to everyone that if they play ball, you’ll get a pardon if things go sideways. Rehashing Biden is hack. He has always been a moron.
To be fair I tapped out when they got to the Autopen story. I just couldn't be bothered to hear it. I don't care. Nothing will ever come of it. Yes it was probably illegal as fuck. So was bombing Iran.
We live in a post-accountability nation run by blackmailed pedo elite and intelligence officers, who gives a fuck what the fake leader known as the President had people "signing off" on when we already knew Biden was a potato?
By the way, do we know who fucking makes decisions now? Are we sure it's Trump? No. But because he isn't drooling in public and shaking hands of invisible people, nobody asks.
Holy cow. Have you listened to the Tucker Walter interview? The first half is nauseating. The second half is intriguing. Walter’s on a short list of heading the library of Congress!!🤣🤣 Sycophancy explained! I’m wondering if the insane clown journalist was aware of such a conflict of interest!!! Either way, it’s quite the plot twist. Or is this some old news that I have been oblivious to?
Walter has. That’s the point. If he has been commenting on Trump while hoping to be nominated since December. I have no idea why you would defend his actions.
The joy of solving old crimes is the prevention of new crimes. Like blackmail, prostitution, pedophilia, and money laundering. What does our world look like absent 20 years of AIPAC and Israel coercion? What does our world look like if it continues because the guilty go unpunished? ATW proves once again that they hate the “great never mind “ until they don’t. You don’t need to discredit yourself any further. Your audience size suggests that you are almost two morons at the end of the bar.
Tucker sounds a lot like Matt back in 2010 with the publication of Griftopia…millions of families having generational wealth stolen from them, but no one goes to jail. That same class of people are given a huge tax cut in 2017 and again in 2025 followed by protection with the classification of the Epstein files. Not much to say guys.
Protecting victims? When has that ever been a priority domestically or internationally.
Walter Kirn, thank you for mentioning Sherlock Holmes on the Tucker Carlson interview‼️
I learn more and more, over time, about Sherlock Holmes and the thousands of pastiches and fan fiction based on the Sherlock Holmes character. The Sherlock Holmes canon got me through college, and fifty years later, is getting me through my 70s — and through this summer. My husband can be a monumental arsehole, but as long as I have an upcoming Sherlock Holmes story to lose myself in, I will be okay. Me, the desperado reading Holmes.
TRUMP FAN
This summer feels different, and I don’t know why. I am a Trump fan; he can do no wrong. Trump is far less destructive than the U.S. Congress and U.S. Senate, both of which are out to behead America’s working class (to its shame). Congress’ and Senate’s walking-corpse-elderly humiliate themselves daily by not retiring from govmint.
Loved the optimism. I also have faith in American ingenuity, and our general attitude of not taking any crap from anyone just because they think they're better than we are.
Really thought provoking interview.
Would love to see Walter running the Library of Congress.
Don’t you think there’s a conflict of interest between Walter posing as a journalistic source on the Trump admin while simultaneously gunning for a position in the admin? Shouldn’t he have declared that, and dropped the pretense of being an independent source for listeners?
Do you think Trump would allow him to take any position in his government if he dared to criticize him or even go off message?
Hm, not much. This is a library, not the State Department. All he has to do is keep the works safe, and available to scholars. It is a non-political position.
I don’t recall either Walter or Matt ever pretending to be “independent” in the sense of not having any biases. They are independent of large corporate media restrictions, but that’s it. We all knew that Matt had been a Bernie Bro, had penned a book critical of Trump, & had worked on the Twitter Files, but he was not exactly a MAGA influencer. I only knew Walter from the show, but then discovered he was a novelist, who occasionally shows up on Gutfeld, and who helped start County Highway. Neither one of them is overtly political, at least as far as I’ve seen.
I find it unbelievable to think that a position appointed by the president would be given by Trump to anybody who is anything short of a loyal devotee. Whether it is important or a political position is largely irrelevant. Trump doesn’t grade people on their fitness for a position, please. He only cares about loyalty. Not competence, not experience, just blind loyalty.
It’s pretty easy to see why people would distrust Walter over this as a journalistic source on the admin seeing as if he displays an insufficient amount of servility to Trump he will without a doubt be denied the position for somebody who can grovel harder than Walter for Trump.
You’re correct that I don’t trust Walter and the fact that he’s been hiding a conflict of interest since December vindicates me. But how I feel about Walter doesn’t impact whether or not what Walter did was journalistically unethical, which it was/is. And actually I gave Matt credit this week for his independence in several comments. When Walter acts like a hack, I call him one, and more to the point, he STILL has not disclosed this conflict of interest to the Racket audience directly.
Really enjoyed the discussion of how many foreign correspondents don't actually speak the language of the people they're covering-- it sounds like the military. Three of my brothers were/are in, and two were so frustrated (and also highly intelligent danger junkies) at their inability to communicate with locals that they made a point of learning the languages of anywhere they were stationed. So I've got a brother fluent in French and good at Pashto, and another who is good at Japanese and Spanish and passable in Arabic. It makes for far more interesting night lives. The stories I hear from them are so different from what comes through the media it could make a person crazy if they focused on it too much.
Here's where I want to tell the story of my trip last week to Barnes & Noble nearby. I specifically went there to read Thomas Pynchon's Foreword to "1984". Having heard from Walter about the 75th edition with the EXTRA foreword, with trigger warnings, I wanted to read them both.
But there was NO WAY I was giving the publisher or Orwell's estate any money. So. I walked to the information desk and told them I was going to stand in the stacks and read the two introductions but not going to buy the book. I explained the situation. I told them that my beef was not with B&N but with the publishers, and that I really appreciated the existence of this B&N store where I could browse and read the bits I wanted. In fact I appreciated this enough that I was giving them $5, essentially to "rent" the book for twenty minutes. I laid a $5 bill (admittedly somewhat crumpled) on the counter.
They were confused. The girl there seemed to get it, but the bald manager-guy in the corporate faux-casual chambray shirt and black wireless headset looked apprehensive. Like, "Oh we got us a crazy guy, remember last time where's that button under the counter....". I offered the $5 again and he said he wouldn't take it, and I said just put it in the register, dude, what kind of crappy store manager refuses money from customers? ? I left it on the counter and suggested he find a place to put it.
I went to the stacks and found 1984. It was the edition Walter had brandished on the podcast, several copies, and another version that was actually ALSO the same 75th Anniv. Edition in a slightly smaller form factor, for obscure reasons. Meaning that anybody, say a high school student, reading this book for the first time, the very first thing they will read is the trigger warnings, which I realize, is EXACTLY THE POINT.
The intro by Kenji Alt-Harvard or whomever did not interest me and anyway Walter had already beat it to death. I read Pynchon's Foreword. It was wonderful. Insightful, informative, sharp, funny, and also warm and beautiful. I had to be careful not to drip a tear on my temporary rental book. On my way out I chatted up a different manager, a pleasant middle aged woman who looked like she had kind of lived in book stores her whole life. She was perplexed, then astonished, then appalled that the new edition of 1984 required trigger warnings, and I think she actually thanked me and marched right over to the FICTION section to Check This Out. I last saw her heading kinda towards "O" but I'm not sure because she was only 5'-2" and I couldn't see her over the shelves, which would stress me out if I was her but I'm also not 5'-2", I'm sure she has cope.
PS -- After I left and was trying to get back to the commuter rail in an environment designed for cars, and I was halfway through the empty Macy's with the scary perfume ladies when I stopped, reconsidered, and walked back to B&N. You're already here, dude, might as well check....
Went back to FICTION, found "K" .... K, K, Kinsella, Kinshasa,... No Walter Kirn. Drat. Capitalist Bastards!!!! Aaargh!!!! I then noted, not for the first time, that "Celebrity/Music Biography" was a big heavily promoted section with a dozen books about Bob Dylan, his music, and of course the recent bio-pic, but there was no book *BY* Bob Dylan, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
I bought a lovely short story collection by Zadie Smith. I noted that my spurned $5 had vanished from the counter, and I tried to find any of the people I Had talked to, to maybe apply that $5 to the purchase of this charming Zadie Smith book, but even though I am broke I couldn't raise a ruckus to essentially kinda chisel ZS out of $5.
"Grand Union" is great. B&N Needs more Walter Kirn. 3.5/5 stars, needs improvement.
BR, I took the time to travel with you in your comments here, thank you. I would totally have offered something like the $5!,...put it in their wokey collection jar for their trouble of refusing. Maybe they'll talk about it in the staff room and realize something useful to their clientele.
I learned on last episode of ATW that Orwell et al worked for British Ministry of Info during WWII. I had never felt that it made sense that 1984 was about the USSR. Having lived thru the late 1940’s and the 1950’s, I can tell you that My Weekly Reader and Highlights for Children wrote that kind of thing constantly. Why would Orwell bother? It would be beneath him to replicate the stereotypes we were being subjected to daily. It makes sense to me now that he was writing about ‘our side’ and warning us about what we are seeing now. For the record, I feel like we in the US are watching Big Brother vs Il Duce.
btw— it seems to me that Taibbi and Kirn must be the most loathed people by the corporate media. You 2 routinely rub their faces in the utter bullshit they have peddled for some time.
Would be interesting to see/hear what ATW community thinks about this assessment?
Either way congratulations on—in one person’s view— holding corporate media’ feet to the fire
Corporate media deserves everything coming its way.
It has outlived its usefulness.
As a normal thinking person, I agree. Except I don’t think those attributes are useful in this analysis.
Imagine they said "We know who killed Kennedy. Name coming next week." Then a few days later, "Stop being conspiracy theorists. Who said we have a name?" It's not about the Epstein files. It's the gaslighting.
My favorite part of this entire episode is when Walter "debunked" the notion that Epstein was a Mossad asset/agent by the fact that an Israeli "intelligence guy" (Walter's words) denied it.
Walter Kirn believes whatever Israel "intelligence guys" tell him. Explains a lot about him, actually.
Scott Adams pointed out how specific the denial was.
Epstein was never employed by Israel, so he never filed paperwork and tax documents with HR. As if that's how all intelligence assets function.
Embarrassing stuff from poor old Wally. Matt was hilarious. “…Ok whatever.”
I don't understand it.
Who's hide do we want? We want the child fuckers to be prosecuted. What planet are you guys on? It's not just the MAGA morons who want the Epstein truth. Maybe not the DNC and Big D's either. But Epstein shows the rot and crime at the center of the Empire.
It's far worse than pedophilia. Pedophilia, as an evil predilection, is probably something humanity has and will always have to "deal with." What is far more existential for the United States is the fact that this network is quite obviously tied in with intelligence.
So that leads to two possible outcomes -
Option 1: Our own intelligence community allows/handles pedophile trafficking in order to secure our national interests.
Option 2: Foreign or rogue domestic intelligence agencies successfully operate sexual blackmail operations utilizing American minors in order to subvert our nation.
It is also entirely possible that it is a mix of the two.
This is an existential crisis for America and everybody is focused on the pedophilia angle because it is salacious and raises people's natural disgust emotion. The actual issue is much more cerebral and dark than even that. Instead of raping a hundred or a thousand children they are raping an entire nation.
Yes, this is exactly right. Perfectly said. Thank you.
Walter never fails to shamelessly and unflinchingly defend Trump. Walter is like his little ex-Mormon faux-Gypsy poodle. But even Walter claims to be disappointed with Trump becoming Biden on steroids regarding Ukraine.
I wonder what genius and folksy defense of Trump telling Zelensky to hit Moscow with long range weapons made & provided by the U.S. Walter will give. Perhaps this is somehow also not of concern since, like Epstein was far in the past according to Walter, Russia is also far away in distance. Makes as much sense.
Anyway, it's actually heartening to see Matt show his independence here. He clearly is genuinely interested in the schism on the right and thinks it is interesting and "cool." Walter, though trying to hide it, is in essentially a manic breakdown over the fact that anybody even recognizes a schism as real, let alone the fact that it is widening.
I don't know how much longer this duo-schtick can work if Matt keeps up his actual journalistic independence as Walter spirals deeper into Trump Devotion Syndrome.
Time will tell. We wish them well.
Walter is a toady because…. Wait for it… he wants to be a librarian for Trump!!😀😀😀😀 Imagine crapping on your own reputation and matt so you could be a librarian in the age of blockbuster video, let alone now.
Excellent! Thanks!!
So never mind about Epstein but hold onto your hat concerning auto pen? Riveting. Truly. The lack of self awareness is astounding. It’s actually worth hate watching. If Walter and matt are really interested in understanding the lack of integrity in media, they only need to watch their own podcast.
I thought Matt showed some journalistic independence in this episode and even wondered to myself if he structured the first 45 minutes of the show's content to trigger a manic breakdown in Walter, which seems to have succeeded.
Matt is able to identify and acknowledge the growing schism on the right, Walter starts huffing on his nicotine pen and violently shifts in his chair while his face contorts, his brain trying to spin some way that this isn't actually true, but if it is true, it's good for Trump and for America! He is such a complete hack it is actually funny, I was legitimately laughing hard as I have in a long time at this show while watching Walter melt down in this episode.
I’ve noticed a few times (like last ep when Matt called Cory weak) and has tried to move on to the next subject (is he trying to rile Walter up?!) and Walter is wriggling in rage and can’t help but get in a passive aggressive jab in at Matt before starting the next topic. I can’t think that Matt will put up with this dynamic for much longer - glad he’s not walking on eggshells though!
Fair point. But dissecting Biden and the Auto pen after pushing Epstein off the plate hurts my brain. The idea that a president was a puppet of people behind a fog of yuck ignores Obama having his cabinet selected by citi bank, Clinton and his weaner, and both bush and Reagan being absolute spokesmen for said yuck. The bigger issue is precedent. Legislation regarding pardons could prevent such things. Instead, team yuck is signaling to everyone that if they play ball, you’ll get a pardon if things go sideways. Rehashing Biden is hack. He has always been a moron.
To be fair I tapped out when they got to the Autopen story. I just couldn't be bothered to hear it. I don't care. Nothing will ever come of it. Yes it was probably illegal as fuck. So was bombing Iran.
We live in a post-accountability nation run by blackmailed pedo elite and intelligence officers, who gives a fuck what the fake leader known as the President had people "signing off" on when we already knew Biden was a potato?
By the way, do we know who fucking makes decisions now? Are we sure it's Trump? No. But because he isn't drooling in public and shaking hands of invisible people, nobody asks.
Holy cow. Have you listened to the Tucker Walter interview? The first half is nauseating. The second half is intriguing. Walter’s on a short list of heading the library of Congress!!🤣🤣 Sycophancy explained! I’m wondering if the insane clown journalist was aware of such a conflict of interest!!! Either way, it’s quite the plot twist. Or is this some old news that I have been oblivious to?
Do you know the term "conflict of interest" means? If so, you haven't demonstrated it.
Walter has. That’s the point. If he has been commenting on Trump while hoping to be nominated since December. I have no idea why you would defend his actions.
Who makes the decisions now? AIPAC apparently. Same as always
The joy of solving old crimes is the prevention of new crimes. Like blackmail, prostitution, pedophilia, and money laundering. What does our world look like absent 20 years of AIPAC and Israel coercion? What does our world look like if it continues because the guilty go unpunished? ATW proves once again that they hate the “great never mind “ until they don’t. You don’t need to discredit yourself any further. Your audience size suggests that you are almost two morons at the end of the bar.
Tucker sounds a lot like Matt back in 2010 with the publication of Griftopia…millions of families having generational wealth stolen from them, but no one goes to jail. That same class of people are given a huge tax cut in 2017 and again in 2025 followed by protection with the classification of the Epstein files. Not much to say guys.
Protecting victims? When has that ever been a priority domestically or internationally.
SHERLOCK HOLMES
Walter Kirn, thank you for mentioning Sherlock Holmes on the Tucker Carlson interview‼️
I learn more and more, over time, about Sherlock Holmes and the thousands of pastiches and fan fiction based on the Sherlock Holmes character. The Sherlock Holmes canon got me through college, and fifty years later, is getting me through my 70s — and through this summer. My husband can be a monumental arsehole, but as long as I have an upcoming Sherlock Holmes story to lose myself in, I will be okay. Me, the desperado reading Holmes.
TRUMP FAN
This summer feels different, and I don’t know why. I am a Trump fan; he can do no wrong. Trump is far less destructive than the U.S. Congress and U.S. Senate, both of which are out to behead America’s working class (to its shame). Congress’ and Senate’s walking-corpse-elderly humiliate themselves daily by not retiring from govmint.
Just watched Walter's interview with Tucker.
Awesome!
Loved the optimism. I also have faith in American ingenuity, and our general attitude of not taking any crap from anyone just because they think they're better than we are.
Really thought provoking interview.
Would love to see Walter running the Library of Congress.
Don’t you think there’s a conflict of interest between Walter posing as a journalistic source on the Trump admin while simultaneously gunning for a position in the admin? Shouldn’t he have declared that, and dropped the pretense of being an independent source for listeners?
Do you think Trump would allow him to take any position in his government if he dared to criticize him or even go off message?
Hm, not much. This is a library, not the State Department. All he has to do is keep the works safe, and available to scholars. It is a non-political position.
I don’t recall either Walter or Matt ever pretending to be “independent” in the sense of not having any biases. They are independent of large corporate media restrictions, but that’s it. We all knew that Matt had been a Bernie Bro, had penned a book critical of Trump, & had worked on the Twitter Files, but he was not exactly a MAGA influencer. I only knew Walter from the show, but then discovered he was a novelist, who occasionally shows up on Gutfeld, and who helped start County Highway. Neither one of them is overtly political, at least as far as I’ve seen.
I find it unbelievable to think that a position appointed by the president would be given by Trump to anybody who is anything short of a loyal devotee. Whether it is important or a political position is largely irrelevant. Trump doesn’t grade people on their fitness for a position, please. He only cares about loyalty. Not competence, not experience, just blind loyalty.
It’s pretty easy to see why people would distrust Walter over this as a journalistic source on the admin seeing as if he displays an insufficient amount of servility to Trump he will without a doubt be denied the position for somebody who can grovel harder than Walter for Trump.
As if you trusted Walter as a "journalistic source," anyway.
You are on here every week blasting Walter or Matt for their subservience to Trump.
Go ahead and distrust Walter.
I'm sure he'll be fine -- & the rest of us will continue to enjoy his input.
You’re correct that I don’t trust Walter and the fact that he’s been hiding a conflict of interest since December vindicates me. But how I feel about Walter doesn’t impact whether or not what Walter did was journalistically unethical, which it was/is. And actually I gave Matt credit this week for his independence in several comments. When Walter acts like a hack, I call him one, and more to the point, he STILL has not disclosed this conflict of interest to the Racket audience directly.
🤮
Really enjoyed the discussion of how many foreign correspondents don't actually speak the language of the people they're covering-- it sounds like the military. Three of my brothers were/are in, and two were so frustrated (and also highly intelligent danger junkies) at their inability to communicate with locals that they made a point of learning the languages of anywhere they were stationed. So I've got a brother fluent in French and good at Pashto, and another who is good at Japanese and Spanish and passable in Arabic. It makes for far more interesting night lives. The stories I hear from them are so different from what comes through the media it could make a person crazy if they focused on it too much.
Trump's theme for this 2nd term seems to be "Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, and Lindsay Graham were right all along." VERY disappointed.
The issue is not whether the affordability issue needs to be resolved, it is how - and all the Dems will propose will be Socialism.
Here's where I want to tell the story of my trip last week to Barnes & Noble nearby. I specifically went there to read Thomas Pynchon's Foreword to "1984". Having heard from Walter about the 75th edition with the EXTRA foreword, with trigger warnings, I wanted to read them both.
But there was NO WAY I was giving the publisher or Orwell's estate any money. So. I walked to the information desk and told them I was going to stand in the stacks and read the two introductions but not going to buy the book. I explained the situation. I told them that my beef was not with B&N but with the publishers, and that I really appreciated the existence of this B&N store where I could browse and read the bits I wanted. In fact I appreciated this enough that I was giving them $5, essentially to "rent" the book for twenty minutes. I laid a $5 bill (admittedly somewhat crumpled) on the counter.
They were confused. The girl there seemed to get it, but the bald manager-guy in the corporate faux-casual chambray shirt and black wireless headset looked apprehensive. Like, "Oh we got us a crazy guy, remember last time where's that button under the counter....". I offered the $5 again and he said he wouldn't take it, and I said just put it in the register, dude, what kind of crappy store manager refuses money from customers? ? I left it on the counter and suggested he find a place to put it.
I went to the stacks and found 1984. It was the edition Walter had brandished on the podcast, several copies, and another version that was actually ALSO the same 75th Anniv. Edition in a slightly smaller form factor, for obscure reasons. Meaning that anybody, say a high school student, reading this book for the first time, the very first thing they will read is the trigger warnings, which I realize, is EXACTLY THE POINT.
The intro by Kenji Alt-Harvard or whomever did not interest me and anyway Walter had already beat it to death. I read Pynchon's Foreword. It was wonderful. Insightful, informative, sharp, funny, and also warm and beautiful. I had to be careful not to drip a tear on my temporary rental book. On my way out I chatted up a different manager, a pleasant middle aged woman who looked like she had kind of lived in book stores her whole life. She was perplexed, then astonished, then appalled that the new edition of 1984 required trigger warnings, and I think she actually thanked me and marched right over to the FICTION section to Check This Out. I last saw her heading kinda towards "O" but I'm not sure because she was only 5'-2" and I couldn't see her over the shelves, which would stress me out if I was her but I'm also not 5'-2", I'm sure she has cope.
I would have just sat down and read it without messing with the $5.
Corporate retail can't deal with extra cash; the cash drawer has to balance out at the end of the shift.
Enjoyable interlude to read about, though. Thank you.
PS -- After I left and was trying to get back to the commuter rail in an environment designed for cars, and I was halfway through the empty Macy's with the scary perfume ladies when I stopped, reconsidered, and walked back to B&N. You're already here, dude, might as well check....
Went back to FICTION, found "K" .... K, K, Kinsella, Kinshasa,... No Walter Kirn. Drat. Capitalist Bastards!!!! Aaargh!!!! I then noted, not for the first time, that "Celebrity/Music Biography" was a big heavily promoted section with a dozen books about Bob Dylan, his music, and of course the recent bio-pic, but there was no book *BY* Bob Dylan, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
I bought a lovely short story collection by Zadie Smith. I noted that my spurned $5 had vanished from the counter, and I tried to find any of the people I Had talked to, to maybe apply that $5 to the purchase of this charming Zadie Smith book, but even though I am broke I couldn't raise a ruckus to essentially kinda chisel ZS out of $5.
"Grand Union" is great. B&N Needs more Walter Kirn. 3.5/5 stars, needs improvement.
I had one dark moment where I wondered if "Up in the Air" might be shelved under not Kirn but Clooney.
BR, I took the time to travel with you in your comments here, thank you. I would totally have offered something like the $5!,...put it in their wokey collection jar for their trouble of refusing. Maybe they'll talk about it in the staff room and realize something useful to their clientele.
Thank you, Paige. The phrase," ... travel in your comments" is aces. My comment was long, but fundamentally Walter and Matt adjacent.
The real question: Did you read the Pynchon Foreword? It smote my heart.
LOLL I wouldn't put it past them.
I learned on last episode of ATW that Orwell et al worked for British Ministry of Info during WWII. I had never felt that it made sense that 1984 was about the USSR. Having lived thru the late 1940’s and the 1950’s, I can tell you that My Weekly Reader and Highlights for Children wrote that kind of thing constantly. Why would Orwell bother? It would be beneath him to replicate the stereotypes we were being subjected to daily. It makes sense to me now that he was writing about ‘our side’ and warning us about what we are seeing now. For the record, I feel like we in the US are watching Big Brother vs Il Duce.
This was discussed near the end of the Kirn live interview on Tucker just an hour ago.
Thanks I will listen.
Walter‘s location reminds me of that story about the recording of the legendary record from Peter Gabriel, “so “
Peter was refusing to finish lyrics on some of the songs so producer Daniel Lanois locked him in some shed and wouldn’t let him out until he finished.