THE METAPHYSICAL CLUB:

REVIEW: of Louis Menand's American Studies (Derek Copold, Texas Mercury)

What makes Mr. Menand such a tedious writer is his utter devotion to today's political orthodoxy. American Studies? pages are encrusted with his stodgy dogmatism. He wallows in pointless, but politically correct controversies-T.S. Eliot's "anti-Semitism" figuring prominently-while lauding the fight against bigotry in a style only slightly less tiresome than that of 1937-ish Soviet propaganda. With few exceptions, every page in Menand?s book is a picture of predictability.

To be sure, at times Mr. Menand can inspire a laugh or two, but never intentionally. In a piece on Al Gore, penned in 1998 as something of an early, early pre-election suck-up, Menand quotes the then-Vice President adoringly as Mr. Gore describes how Maurice Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception helped him "cultivat[e] a capacity for a more refined introspection that gave me better questions that ultimately led to a renewed determination to become involved with the effort to make things better."

Heart aflutter, Mr. Menand comments, "It is a little hard to imagine having this conversation with George W. Bush."

More's the better for Dubya. Seriously, go back, re-read that quote that so enamors Mr. Menand. Ponder it for a while. The very gaseousness of those words astounds. It reads like the introduction to the Tax Code. Can you imagine this man making decisions: "Sir, the World Trade Center has been attacked!" "Hmmm. Better call in the cabinet so we can cultivate a capacity for a more refined introspection to give us better questions that will ultimately lead to a renewed determination to become involved with the effort to make things better."

I actually thought the review of the Cat in the Hat by Mr. Menand, that we've been making fun of, might be a joke. But no, Mr. Copold is right, the humor is unintentional. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 17, 2002 9:41 PM