The old battleaxe is back.

August 15, 2002 5:49 PM

The old battleaxe is back. Impressed with his performance at the New School, Camille Paglia and the Blog Queen seem to have a bit of a partnership.

I post a link about the conflict in the Levant with fear, loathing, and asbestos, but nonetheless, this mini-article is a well thought-out piece.
posted by goethean (8 comments total)

I think that if you read it and give her the benefit of the doubt, she is truly ambivalent, as we should be.
posted by goethean at 5:54 PM on August 15, 2002

"old battleaxe"? "Blog Queen"? Surely these are the epithets wielded at those who fail to wear the arguments of their assigned minority group.

I prefer Ann Coulter's assessment of Paglia in Slander.
posted by paleocon at 6:06 PM on August 15, 2002

Which is...? I sure as hell ain't going to buy that piece of crap and I hope my library doesn't have it.
posted by goethean at 6:09 PM on August 15, 2002

Interesting, in the (second) linked article there, Paglia describes a "Richard Goldstein, executive editor of the Village Voice, who has obsessively vilified Sullivan and Vincent (as well as me) for years."

Meanwhile, in Goldstein's column a few weeks ago, Richard says of Sullivan, "A certain gay conservative and former Gap model, who shall be nameless, has been blog-bashing me for weeks. I won't go into the substance of his rants."

Considering how often these folks see each other around town, and the astonishingly personal nature of their invective towards each other, along with the professed commitment they all have to their highly similar goals for protecting gay rights, is it possible they're all pulling one over on us? It seems like a not entirely unlikely reason for the lunacy and invective.

On a side note, I think it's remarkable that a relatively young (by my standards) weblog has already reached enough of a credibility level to be part of an ongoing debate across multiple media outlets.
posted by anildash at 6:27 PM on August 15, 2002

Well, it's probably just that Sully was already part of an ongoing debate across multiple media outlets, and the blog just helps him keep that debate alive. No such thing as bad publicity, y'know ....

And I find it hard to consider just what jocular non-epithetic descriptions could ever be wielded at two so legendarily uncategorizable iconoclasts. Well, CP is still squirrelling out of them, at any rate. Her response (in the first link) to a question about I/P with several paragraphs about Lewinsky and Bill's zipper, before moving on to the topic at hand, is priceless.

She makes a good point in there about moderate Muslims in America (um, see also other thread): it's been disappointing to see such a tepid, defensive tack. If there is to be a moderate Islam that isn't infected with rabid dislike for the West, surely those who are already in the West would be the ones to rise to its defense, to challenge the radicals' hijacking of orthodoxy? If this is occurring, it is at an almost imperceptible level. As with Paglia, I too have lost faith in this force within Islam, if we can't even see it within one of the most constitutionally secular nations on the planet. Where there should be angry condemnation of suicide bombers, there has only been a dull echo. This is one of the primary reasons why I fear Islam cannot save itself, even speaking sympathetically of the masses of non-violent, non-radical Muslims and knowledgeably, as Paglia most certainly is, of the rich and multivalent history of the religion and culture.
posted by dhartung at 11:48 PM on August 15, 2002

goethean--

Thanks for the post - I've been waiting for some more Paglia - always thought provoking
posted by Pressed Rat at 5:43 AM on August 16, 2002

Me too, Pressed Rat. Always admired her policy to come clean about past opinions and actions, and willingness to change her opinion based on new information and thoughtful reasoning.

Consistency is the hobgobblin of little minds. If Paglia - who romanticizes world cultures to an astonishing degree - has lost faith in a spiritual, moderate Islam, that is something to consider.
posted by junkbox at 11:46 AM on August 16, 2002

I for one love the sobriquet Blog Queen, epithet or not. It fits him so well.
posted by blucevalo at 4:19 PM on August 16, 2002