Bidinotto

Chris, what's most interesting to me is to see my growth in understanding over the years. When you're young and enamored of a new philosophy, you tend to simply throw your principles back at the news headlines, in blunt, cliched, summary formulations. You say the obvious things in response to events, statements, and ideas, often regurgitating the language of your mentor or some seminal text. As you age, you acquire a lot more background information and learn how to apply your principles contextually, with much more subtlety and nuance. And when you look back at your early writing, you wince or laugh at times, because your ideas had been germinal and your manner of expressing them primitive. It's not that you have altered or rejected your principles, becoming cynical with age. It's that you've learned that people and events are very complicated "mixtures" of premises, and that to do them justice in an analysis requires a more careful sorting out of the elements in the mixtures -- much more careful sorting than can fit on a bumper sticker. I'm sure I'd laugh at the old ERGO articles -- both from encountering the young Me, but also at some of the things I said. The old line from the sixties was "don't trust anyone over 30." From today's vantage point, I'd say: "Don't trust anything said by someone UNDER 30."

I'm entirely with Barbara on this. What "trumped-up charges"? A pack of goons waving guns invades a hotel room, and goon-in-chief is caught on audiotape as he orders everyone up against a wall. He arbitrarily CLAIMS that commercially valuable sports memorabilia there -- property that had been awarded to the family of his murder victims in a civil trial -- actually belongs to HIM. And he simply takes it all. One guy tries to call 911 for help, and the goon-in-chief snatches the cell phone from him. Now, the goon's HIRED LAWYER declares that he simply "asked" for allegedly stolen property, or else he'd "call the police"? "Trumped-up charges"? Gimme a break. That is not a scenario anyone but anarchists would blame on the government. Who the hell has the right to barge into private property with guns on mere suspicion that stolen property is there? The Evil Government Forces need a search warrant and probable cause to do such things. In this case, they arrived after the crimes were committed, and they took DAYS to finally arrest the goon-in-chief -- only after getting corroborating testimony from other participants and witnesses, including video and audio recordings, and reclaiming the memorabilia and the guns as evidence. This is about as "trumped up" as OJ's blood all over that Brentwood slaughter scene. They say the charges could merit a life sentence. The odds are vanishingly small of that happening, but this is one guy who hopes it does.

Robert, THAT was a trip down Memory Lane. I recall, vaguely, some articles I did thumping Richard Nixon and George McGovern with equal glee. Interesting times...and it got me in the habit of writing regularly. I have no idea what I'd think of my early output. But I do recall, equally vaguely, that you wrote very interesting stuff.

Greenspan clarified his comment about "war for oil" in an interview with Bob Woodward of the Washington Post. He didn't quite mean what everyone thinks he meant.

This is a more complicated topic than would appear on its face. Yes, one should write in one's own voice, especially if one is a fiction writer. That is an enterprise of pure art, pure self-expression, and one should write the kind of stories he'd like to read, in the style that best expresses his personality and values. I'm entirely in agreement with thriller writer Lee Child on this issue. However, non-fiction writing is aimed at having certain informational or persuasive effects on a certain kind of targeted reader. Here, I think the advice of Prof. Lynch has more relevance. You need to have a good sense of who your targeted reader is, and then gauge your choice of language, level of language, and style to engage and move him. Otherwise, you're just writing a diary. In either case, the rule for me is: form follows function.

Michael, I'm very, very pleased that I've added you--and apparently quite a few others--to the ranks of the "Reacher Creatures." It's an addiction that I'm sure none of the victims resents in the least.

Chris, Anyone can call TAS anytime and purchase a TNI gift subscription to anyone. We eagerly encourage this. For libraries, just contact them and find out what is involved in purchasing a gift magazine subscription; they may have their own rules. Then, call TAS with the contact information for the library and buy the subscription. Our number is 800-374-1776. We'll credit you for the purchase, and we'll send a note to the recipient indicating that you are buying a gift subscription for him, her, or it. Thanks much for asking about this. Peter Reidy: We are arranging for national distribution of the magazine during 2008. We have several infrastructure, distribution, and marketing details to attend to first. One of them is a new, way-cool, dedicated website for The New Individualist, which will go online very soon. It should boost our public profile hugely. We're as eager to roll out nationally as you are, but we want to do it right, and with a splash.

Thanks, all. Very much. --Robert

(guitar in background:) ...Where seldom is heard A discouraging word, And the skies are not cloudy all dayyyyyyy.

Thank you, Barbara, for your lovely, encouraging words. And thank you, Phil, for the kindness and generosity of your praise. You know, there are some petty people in the Objectivist movement; but they are not to be found here.

You raise the most important point, Rodney: the fact that my article ends with a brazen pitch for Objectivism as an alternative to conservatism. Now, the judges in this competition are mainstream editors and writers. Think about that, and how far we have come, when somebody critiquing conservatism from an explicitly Objectivist frame of reference can win a journalism award in the nation's most prestigious magazine competition. There was a time when an entry like mine would have been immediately consigned to the circular file. Besides the personal satisfaction I take from this, I also take a great deal of encouragement that our magazine, and an article that says such unconventional things philosophically, is not just tolerated but respected by the mainstream of the journalism profession. We have come a very long way.

Chris, Robert C -- thank you both, very much. ("They LIKE me. They really LIKE me...") ;^)

Michael, your generous comment did come through and was posted on my blog. THANK YOU so much for the kindness of your remarks, here and on my blog. It means a lot. Anyone wondering what we're talking about can go here for the details.

Hey, folks, I want to put up a challenge to you. Examine MRogi's post and see if you can identify (1) a single point of factual philosophical substance, and/or (2) a single point that's not an unsupported assertion. Come on. I dare you. Five bucks says you can't do it.

At risk of hijacking, let me say a loud "Amen!" to your comments about David Brudnoy. I was on his show one night as a guest for the entire program, and it was a blast. A gentleman and a brilliant mind. Now, we'd better get back to "A Question of Sanction." It's an interesting exchange.

Judith, Glad that my roster of Reacher Creatures continues to expand. Thanks for the book report. I guess you did enjoy it. I think Child figured he could get away with having a civilian, Reacher, intruding into official investigations because Reacher was a former official investigator (Army M.P.) himself. Far-fetched, but at least plausible. My appreciation for Vince Flynn has increased over time. His stories are like seasons of "24," in novel form. Best read chronologically. I'm now reading the third thriller in an ongoing series by Brad Thor, State of the Union. He's a lot like Flynn, but not quite as good at characterization, and certainly not as polished a writer as Child or Stephen Hunter. However, his plots are good, and the plot of this one is really inventive so far, and he sets it up with some very good surprises and suspense. Thor's worth a look, and again, the series is best read in chronological sequence.

-The Heimlich Maneuver-!!!! Har har har. Thanks, Robert, for making my day. Ba'al Chatzaf Glad you laughed. Hell, I laughed myself when I thought it up. Also, I was going to call the author "Robert Pablum."

I've sometimes thought of writing a thriller parody of Ludlum. I'd title it The Heimlich Maneuver. It would be filled with italicized kung fu yells and italicized dialogue and interior monologue...variations on: "Oh my God!" said Jason, as he saw her body. "Good God!" Trevor exclaimed, almost in unison. "God, yes!" Samantha agreed, before collapsing in a dead faint. God, what's happening here? Jason wondered. Etc.

While I respect Ludlum as a pioneer in the modern thriller genre, he's not among my favorites, hence, no mention in my article. I found Ludlum's writing overwrought, especially in the early Bourne outings (lots of lines like "Oh my God!" -- much repeated, and always in italics). I also found his leftie politics too intrusive, especially in The Chancellor Manuscript. His conspiracies-within-conspiracies also got a bit tiresome. However, the guy wrote very good action scenes. Robert Crais is another matter. I think he's a very talented writer who's very strong on characterization and plotting, and he has a very appealing wit. His Elvis Cole/Joe Pike novels are great fun. More recently, he's begun to experiment with point-of-view changes -- e.g., writing part of the novel in first-person, from the hero's point of view, and other segments third-person, from the villain's point of view. It's very hard to successfully pull off something like that without it being intrusive and distracting, and I don't think Crais entirely succeeds. The best example I've run across of that writing stunt was in Nelson DeMille's great pre-9/11 terrorism thriller The Lion's Game, where he made it work wonderfully.

Incidentally, those of you who are partial to reading thrillers, but who don't (yet) subscribe (as you should!) to The New Individualist, might enjoy my many, many recommendations in "The Best Thriller Writers--EVER," which I published in the April issue of the magazine.

You're on a roll, Chris. The next stop is addiction. You'll find it has only happy side effects.

The punishment for not having read Lee Child is that you haven't read Lee Child.

I expect book reports from both Michael and Judith, forthwith!

I get a kick out of Lee Child's love of bluesy rock, too. If and when they do a movie of a Reacher novel, I would love to hear as the soundtrack over the closing credits ZZ Top's "I'm Bad, and I'm Nationwide." Those words are a perfect fit for drifter-hero Jack Reacher, and the blues style seems perfect.

I'm delighted that my interview with Lee Child in The New Individualist has prompted a number of you to sample his books -- and that you all seem to be enjoying them so much. I'm particularly pleased that each of you mentions a different novel, and nobody so far has been disappointed. One of my goals was to recruit more "Reacher Creatures" (i.e., Jack Reacher fans) for this wonderful thriller writer, and that seems to be happening.