On Galleycat, Ron Hogan is continuing his campaign to get the New York Times Book Review to replace Dave Itzkoff. Itzkoff recently made the following jaw-dropping statement (”Across the Universe: Elsewhere’s Children“):

I sometimes wonder how any self-respecting author of speculative fiction can find fulfillment in writing novels for young readers. I suppose J. K. Rowling could give me 1.12 billion reasons in favor of it: get your formula just right and you can enjoy worldwide sales, film and television options, vibrating-toy-broom licensing fees, Chinese-language bootlegs of your work, a kind of limited immortality (L. Frank Baum who?) and - finally - genuine grown-up readers. But where’s the artistic satisfaction? Where’s the dignity?

He also wrote (one presumes “playfully,” but still):

Like his fellow Britons Lewis Carroll and Roald Dahl, Miéville has no illusions about what utter bastards children can be….

I’m not in favor of treating childhood sentimentally–or treating kid lit like instruction manuals, for that matter–but I’m inclined to agree with Hogan that perhaps the NYTBR isn’t making the best use of Itzkoff’s talents.

A great detective story, starring journalist and author Robert Fisk. From The Independent (”The curious case of the forged biography,” by Robert Fisk):

Needless to say, I noticed one or two problems with this book. It took a very lenient view of the brutality of Saddam, it didn’t seem to care much about the gassed civilians of Halabja - and it was full of the kind of purple passages which I loathe. “After the American rejection of the Iraqi weapons report to the UN,” ‘Robert Fisk’ wrote, “the beating of war drums turned into a cacophony…”

Dare I suggest to readers that this kind of cliche doesn’t sound like Robert Fisk? The only war drums I could hear were those of my own astonishment. For I never wrote this book. It wasn’t plagiarism - a common practice in Cairo, which is why I ensure that all my real books are legally published in Arabic in Lebanon. No, this wasn’t plagiarism. This was forgery.

In the Los Angeles Times (”A classic, or a fraud?“), Philip L. Fradkin keeps alive the ghost of Wallace Stegner’s sins, reexamining the curious case of Angle of Repose. Fradkin borrows from–but doesn’t plagiarize–Jonathan Lethem. (Although he plagiarizes other writers. Read it, you’ll see what I mean. Lethem did it better.)

Criticism of Stegner’s use of Foote’s material has circulated mainly among academics and some feminists and has gone largely unnoticed by the public, even though a magazine article in this newspaper drew attention to the issue five years ago. Whether Stegner was guilty of plagiarism and slander, as his harshest critics maintain, the complexity of the act has never been completely explored.

It’s important to remember that Stegner had permission to use the material and that he acknowledged its use, sort of. There were extenuating circumstances. As is often the case in life, it is the gray areas that predominate and are most interesting.

For another Stegner-related controversy, click here.

Last week, in his first “extended comments” on the controversy, Ishmael Beah (A Long Way Gone) spoke to Associated Press writer Hillel Italie and said…well, he’s still standing by his story (”Boy soldier defends his book“):

“I have tried to think deeply about this…And my memory only gives me 1993 and nothing more. And that’s what I stand by.”

Meanwhile, the Australians are still digging, and as Beah refuses to budge, their headlines are getting testier (”Beah’s credibility a long way gone,” by Peter Wilson):

AUTHOR Ishmael Beah’s bestselling account of his time as a child soldier was proved factually flawed last night by a document found in a remote Sierra Leone schoolhouse.

The school results for March 1993 showed the popular author attended the Centennial Secondary School throughout the January-March term, a time when he claimed in his heartrending book A Long Way Gone that he was already roaming the countryside as a child refugee.

(His grades were nothing to be ashamed of, however–he was second in a class of 47.)

Peter Wilson also details his own frustrated efforts to speak with Beah (”Thanks for the memories“). But he quotes from a speech at the Oxford Union (from which Wilson was barred) in which Beah said:

“How can I remember every single detail of the horrors that happened to me but forget simple dates? That’s ridiculous, but that’s the allegations that are being made.

“When you try and stand for certain things people try to find ways to bring you down.”

One of the saddest things about this whole sad story is that, were Beah to simply say, “I remember clearly the horrors that happened to me, though I have forgotten some dates and specific details,” it would be over. The more he insists on his accuracy, the more determined the reporters become to prove their own accuracy–and the further we all get from the real tragedy of the child soldiers.

Update to the update:

Also standing by Beah: Starbucks (”Starbucks defends Beah sponsorship,” by David Nason).

Update to the update to the update:

Bryan Appleyard has some interesting links on his blog, to two versions of a piece he did for the Sunday Times (”School report shoots holes in boy soldier’s bloody memoir” and “Bryan Appleyard’s full account of his interview with Ishmael Beah“). It’s very interesting to watch people debate this story in post comments. Most of the discussion tends to focus on the conflict between strict standards for truth vs. allowable artistic license. (I think artistic license is fine as long as it’s advertised; otherwise, people have a reasonable expectation that they’re getting the truth.) But there’s another uncomfortable presence in the room, too–are Beah’s defenders cutting him too much slack because of his experiences?

One commenter at bryanappleyard.com writes:

I have to say that some of Beah’s admirers seem rather patronising in their admiration. He still looks rather childlike - I can’t help wondering if he would be received in quite the same way if he looked more like his current age. I’ve known other 27 year old former child soldiers, and I doubt they’d receive quite such a sympathetic reception, simply because they don’t look like children anymore.

It’s true that, no matter what his experiences were as a child, he is an adult now, and needs to take responsibility for his own actions as any adult does. I’ve had a similar nagging feeling–that to completely let Beah off the hook is condescending, that it suggests somehow that he’s not intelligent or sophisticated enough to grasp the issues at stake.

(Thanks, Dave Lull, for the link.)

When we read in public, we give passersby a glimpse into our souls. (Knowing that, of course, many among us choose their public reading accordingly–don’t tell me you’re enduring the wrist strain of reading Russian classics on the 144 bus because you never read anything lighter.) But for those of us who don’t always choose our own reading, the glimpse may not be an accurate one.

I’ve written about this before, of course. And, this morning, crawling down Lake Shore Drive in a packed bus in a blizzard, I was opening my book so narrowly that it was a little like trying to read the contents of an envelope, trying to ignore the frown of a gray-haired commuter to my left. ”Gimme a break, lady,” I wanted to say, ”I’m working!”

What was I reading? Snuff, by Chuck Palahniuk. It’s about an aging porn legend who, as the flap copy puts it, ”intends to cap her legendary career by breaking the world’s record for serial fornication on camera with six hundred men.” (Note how they cleverly avoided the more common word for the act.)

To quote the back-flap further (and doesn’t “back-flap” sound like a good reason to try diet and exercise?):

This wild, lethally funny, and thoroughly researched novel brings the huge yet underacknowledged presence of pornography in contemporary life into the realm of literary fiction at last. Who else but Chuck Palahniuk would dare do such a thing?

Well, Robert Coover would, for one. But I agree completely that it’s a worthy project. I’ve heard all sorts of stunning figures (financial figures; the other kind you have to see) about the size of the porn industry, about how it’s been the driving force in many technological advances, etc. etc. Vast numbers of people are buying and “consuming” porn, but its effect on society has yet to be reflected in the arts in a proportional way. I applaud Palahniuk for his bravery; clearly he has a keen sense of intellectuals’ responsibility to explore our society as a whole, no matter how uncomfortable that journey might make us.

Either that or he wanted to have fun making up fake movie titles like “On Golden Blonde” and “A Separate Piece.”