People I’m Sick Of: Part II — Camille Paglia

I could write an entire series of blog posts around the theme “People I’m Sick Of.” As a matter of fact, I think I will ….

You can read the first entry in the series here. And while I’m on the subject, there’s somebody else whose undeserved fame and political pontifications are as irritating as — well, as Arianna Huffington’s. I’m talking about Camille Paglia, author of Sexual Personae, a head-ache-producing tome of inordinate length and middlebrow airs, who, in the first installment of her revived monthly “column” for Salon.com, has this to say about the death of Anna Nicole Smith :

ABC’s “Nightline” called via my publisher for comment, but I felt far too upset to go on TV. Nevertheless, I was riveted to the tube all night and didn’t mind in the least that this tabloid drama, with its mythic themes of ambiguous paternity and contested wealth, had pushed Iraq to the back burner.

Yeah, right, Camille: it’s perfectly okay that we should look away from the horrific mess we’ve created in Iraq — a country that never threatened us, couldn’t threaten us, and posed no threat to its neighbors, and yet which we continue to violate and torture with impunity — to feast our eyes on the spectacle of our own decadence. But, of course, Camille is in favor of decadence, as she’s told us many times — her own celebrity yet another indication that our over-ripeness is practically terminal.

P.S. Oh, and don’t forget how Paglia backed away from raising her voice in protest against the war back when it really counted. In an interview with Salon.com [February 7, 2003] , she was asked why more public figures weren’t speaking out about the war, both pro and con. Her answer was that she didn’t want to be put in the same category as “the intellectuals like Susan Sontag and Noam Chomsky who’ve made a career abroad out of anti-Americanism. Sontag’s made no secret of her lifelong adulation of all things European. My take is different: My immigrant family escaped poverty in Italy, and so I look at America in a very positive, celebratory way. So I’m reluctant to become part of this easy chorus of anti-Americanism. I also don’t want to do anything to undermine national morale, if we are indeed going to war. It’s wrong to be divisive when families have parents or children in danger on the front lines. I don’t want to add to their grief.”

Ah, but she doesn’t mind being “divisive” now that’s it’s popular to be against the war — and to heck with anyone’s grief, eh Camille?

7 thoughts on “People I’m Sick Of: Part II — Camille Paglia”

  1. It breaks my heart, but your argument has proven to be correct.

    Her arguments on decadence have saved, for little while, what little is of humanist passion in the hollywood/U.S.

    But she doesn't have the guts to speak out against anything except P.C. and the conformist academy.

    The saddest part is, it bothers you not because it's her responsibility (where the hell are all the other celebrity voices speaking out? Chickens all!), but that she COULD and yet she doesn't.

    You're so sentimental.

  2. on the other hand, what is a person supposed to be if they oppose a war? 24/7 raging against it, impotently, pointlessly. You choose your battles and you plan for maximum effect. (I'm not saying paglia was doing that, maybe she was but I don't think anything has been "achieved" with the endless wars so who's to credit anyway?).

    But you liberals would shun art and fun as much as any theocrat republicans or islamic fundies. Sheesh! Can't have ONE DAY break to regenerate with fun? wtf.

  3. CV writing should be followed with the careful proofreading done by oneself and by someone else also. This will remove all the chances of having your CV free of all the errors and omissions.

Comments are closed.